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Feeling better about this one overall, still hard to complete a track every week but I'm enjoying the challenge!

So far mixing is being the hardest task on the device, I have a lot to learn. I'm thinking of using the m8 speakers to understand if its clean from time to time, maybe is a stupid idea...

I'm also starting to use the rnd/chn/nth to get more variations and have an easier life programming, hope you'll like it!!

Thanks for listening

Produced on the M8

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I designed 6 separate intricate patches on my minifreak to make some ambient music this week and used none of them. Nothing really spoke to me or did what I was wanting them to do I decided to make some big shiny metal.

It turned out alright. Supermassive is doing a lot of heavy lifting in what is basically a one take nonsense in B Phrygian. It's a transistor fuzz into a Bassman then into Ableton with a healthy dollop of supermassive then a bubbling bass patch from my minifreak to fill it out. I feel like it'd sound interesting with some drums, but that's for another time I suppose.

Happy week 4 pals!

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using my guitar again! This time I recorded one track for each side of the pan (left and right) and I think it sounds way better.

this is a song for a small village at night :)

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Snuggling in the pile of plushies, holding on to our fleeting childhoods, never quite long enough, as life pulls us, spiraling again.

Started the week with a completely different idea, but that’s what came out.

Tried to put a little bit of cello in this one, but the noisy neighbors meant I couldn’t do as many takes as I wanted.

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Another humbling week of getting back to the basics. This week I followed Floyd Steinberg's tutorial (maybe a little too close) on m8 FM synthesis. I'm learning a lot and so grateful for this community and support.

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This was a weird week. On Monday morning I joined a tutoring session with a UK friend who uses Ableton. I only have Live Lite so leading into and coming out of that session I decided to see if I could get something credible going within my Live Lite 8-track limit.

I threw a 'Jungle Warfare' Apache sample into Amigo on channel 1 and got a little custom chop rolling. Then I got a synth lead flowing in Analog Lab on a second channel (2). Channel 3 was a bassline in Zenology. Here I ran into a trap my tutor warned me about which is that writing in certain keys doesn’t leave you with the bass sitting in the right frequency band to maximize the impact of the bass for D&B. Next time, senpai.

Forging ahead, I tried to replicate one of the things I saw him do which was to use sampled FX audio dropped straight in on the channel (4). Within the Ableton timeline I didn’t realize how easy it was to pitch and manipulate each individual sample. The vocoded vocal, the phone dial, and the swelling bass accent all went on this channel. This ended up being a blessing and a curse. While I could tweak each sample’s pitch and level, VST effects would obviously be uniform on the channel. That limited some of the EQ sorcery possible here. I ended up having to do the same thing with two separate sampled hat loops on another channel (5). Channel 6 was dedicated to a pad from Analog Lab. Sonically, it was tough to find a decent patch that functioned within the space. I’m still not sure if it does. The original MIDI take seemed to have some modulation on it I wasn’t experienced enough to remove. So I cycled through a lot of pad options to find something that wasn’t as affected by the modulation artifacts. For channel 7 I wanted some drum variation. I dropped in some sample pack drum fills to punctuate the phrases. This needed a dedicated channel as there would have been some overlap within channel 4 between this and the swelling bass sample. The final channel (8) was Zenology for the guitar.

Other than the technical challenges of working within 8 channels I spent a lot of time flipping through different patches for the bass and the pads. The bass is still bothering me. It's functional but it lacks weight. I also encountered a latency issue with Ableton on my PC that frustrated me to the point of loading Live on my Mac and just finishing up over there.

On the plus side I learned a lot of fun things this week in Ableton. I did some automation on the beats in Amigo which I have been meaning to learn better (and employ more often). I used some reverses throughout the tune to segue into the fills, and then a pitch shift effect to end the track. I also went WAY outside of my comfort zone by sourcing the VST guitar. I ended up having a really good time writing with it. I think hearing some of the other tracks on weeklybeats put me in that headspace, so thank you all.

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Constructive Criticism always appreciated!

After last week, I felt pretty defeated, but determined to create through the feeling, rather than wallow in it. Throat is still a little dry/scratchy from being sick so vocals had to be done in short windows of time, rather than just sitting down for a couple of hours.

I really went in on the production of this track, playing with mixing, automation, and buildups more than I really have in the past.

Originally, this song was very different, I was maybe 80% done a track, and then when I woke up on wednesday I HATED it and restarted. And then on Friday I hated my lyrics/melody/chord progression so I deleted THAT. So this was put together just on Friday/Saturday - and I like it!

As always, Lyrics below (But now I learned how to hide them behind spoiler tags so they don't take up a bunch of screenspace ha ha)

› Lyrics‹ Lyrics

I am ambivilant

try as you might

the forces win

the one who gives

the one who takes

the one who chooses

who lives and who breaks

Try to stop

the oncoming tide

never stop the push

I've broken walls

I've broken continents

and I will break

you

you think you can take me

you're not the first to try

armies explorers

the rich and the poor

all have failed to my grandeur

Try to stop

the oncoming tide

never stop the push

I've broken walls

I've broken continents

and I will break

you

was here  before

be here after too

eternity's just a blip

I gave you life

and you chose to fight

you humans aren't so bright

Try to stop

the oncoming tide

never stop the push

I've broken walls

I've broken continents

and I will break

you

All I need

is a little respect

and I can bring you joy

what you need

is to respect me

no room to debate

Try to stop

the oncoming tide

never stop the push

I've broken walls

I've broken continents

and I will break

you

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I welcome all critical feedback. Can relicense if you're interested, just ask.

a nocturne in C-major

···

I've never seen the northern lights before, and it wasn't due to lack of trying. It seemed like even in places where they're a common occurrence, and even at times of reported high activity I was never able to catch them. Until now. On Monday solar activity was so intense that northern lights reached where I live, and were so bright I could literally walk to a nearby open spot and take pictures.

This wasn't planned and wasn't forced. And so neither was this little meditation. Recorded in one take. The sound is Pianoteq played with the Osmose 61. No AI used in any part of the process. For this year every cover art is a photo I took.

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I recall telling ilzxc around 2021/22 that I can't help myself adding a beat to an ambient track. So here it is, hell froze over, no beat! Thanks for pulling me back to music production mate, it's helping me with the overall burnout.

The track was built around playing LFOs and exploring FM synth after I finally managed to sell my Digitone. I feel like the M8 can do just as much, but from the comfort of my bed :) Headphones strongly suggested.

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