thawkins
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Posts posted by thawkins
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I got a good feeling that with being able to run iOS apps on the new M1 Macbook Pro laptops this will finally move apps like this from "toy" category to "I can use this". It's definitely a personal holdup for me though.
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7 hours ago, modey said:
I'm slowly working on some stuff too. Just web things for now, but eventually I'd like to have a small "suite" of generative MIDI VSTs.. or at least, M4L patches.
Bounce - A "sequencer" inspired by the best Electroplankton level where you bounce balls off lines to make a melody
Window - Basic generative pattern sequencer where the note and timing data are decoupled
Getting some insane The Incredible Machine flashbacks from Bounce. I wish the balls would not disappear when they hit the bottom edge, all the other "borders" seem solid and bouncy. Also in some cases I have seen the ball go through the lines without bouncing!
Because I am a quantization type of person, I would actually implement a grid version of this, so that you could still aim the balls wherever you want and mess with the speed, but the sounds would be quantized in time (you could optionally change the grid size too of course to make it more or less granular). Then you could build up your bouncy sound castle and add more ball guns etc etc.
Window's concept is pretty much exactly what I whipped up in Pure Data 2019 early 2020, to have notes and timings cycling separately. I kind of want to start to incorporate this kind of thing again but it is a bit difficult to integrate well with Live (no I don't want to build a M4L device). Anyway I think this approach is really good for being able to play and transition from one rhythm or melody to another - you just keep the timing part the same and switch out the melody or vice versa.
By the way, what did you use to make these?
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47 minutes ago, bupkis said:
good god
Heh, $2800, guess I will just sample this video then.
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Thanks, I hope I find time to check out SuperCollider as well. The only problem is that looks like the same code I stare at all day and this instantly makes it feel like work.
By the way, I wanted to clarify that so far I have got no profit out of the generative things, only loads of fun!
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During the past year I have found it really useful to have a bunch of tricks to generate a melody out of some random numbers generated by my friendly computer. It's nice for kickstarting inspiration and also for just discovering new melodies and rhythms that you otherwise would not have figured out.
Here's a plugin I made this week out of Live built in MIDI stuff.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a7329u4qhugs7et/Mondo Generator.adg?dl=0
And here's the track I made with it:
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New year, new naming scheme!
As a bonus, get the Live rack (no M4L!) I used to generate all the melodies here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a7329u4qhugs7et/Mondo Generator.adg?dl=0
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2 hours ago, TubularCorporation said:
A big part of the problem is I'll come up with a general theme for an album, spend a month or two recording and rough mixing stuff, and then when I'm around 3/4 done I'll realize that it has drifted off course and the dark, atonal drone album I was working on is full of mutated afropop and lounge jazz sounding tracks.
Same.
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Yeah these are really good points @sweepstakes. I think there is definitely a bad influence coming in from all the platforms that require you to post post post post something all the time. If you don't keep churning content, you will be replaced with someone else.
Myself, I thought I would be able to build a regular following by posting things regularly (weekly) and now after having done the weekly streaming for half a year, I think it kind of works out. I would definitely not say everything I post is worth it's weight in gold, and going forward it might not be a good idea to just post tracks that I do not feel like posting.
Maybe it is worth to reorient the post-something-every-week routine to be as an outlet for sketches and experiments with different techniques. This way I will learn something new every week but there is no obligation to make it into a fully produced track.
Certainly I'd say I feel a bit worn out as well, but I think this could be related to last year being a rough one in general too.
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You can just take some time, figure out a generative patch in Live, record 52 minutes worth of that, and then just post the whole thing over the course of a year in 1 minute segments. It's not against the rules if you render the segment during the correct week.
At that point, why not just pipe pink noise into a vocoder saying today's date and call it a day.
I get the same feeling that all my weekly stuff ends up being mediocre. I am not sure if this is necessarily bad though, because occasionally I end up with a really good track that I like. And working on it every week means that I get better technically, which in theory is a good thing because it allows me to execute my vision better.
And another thing that I keep thinking about is that maybe I think my weekly beats results are crap because by the time I listen to them again - weeks later - I have already gotten so much better than when I was back when I made the tracks. Makes sense, right?
So just wait, I will be churning out killer tracks any time now.
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Yeah the routine can be quite a mind killer, but for me I keep doing it because I am pretty sure that once I stop, I will not follow through with any promise I make to myself regarding "make an album" or "finish some of those tracks".
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2020 Weeklybeats is over, congrats to everyone who took part and super congrats to those who lasted till the bitter end!
Resurrecting this thread to point out that even though 2021 is not an "official" weekly beats year, there is a small spin off here https://streak.club/s/1444/weekly-music-2021 that will start accepting submissions from next week.
I have posted about my experience in several threads now, but personally starting with Weeklybeats 2018 and adopting a weekly music routine has helped me a lot in getting to a way better place in terms of my music than I was before. I still can't stand most of the tracks I make, but at least this year I have had a couple I still like, so that is progress of a kind.
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This is the reworked intro part from our last week's jam session with Tubular Corporation. I was in a rush arranging, mixing and finishing this so I am not super happy with some elements in it.
This basically wraps it up for "tracks from 2020". Since Weeklybeats is taking the year off, I think I will be posting things on here, still continuing my weekly routine https://streak.club/s/1444/weekly-music-2021
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On 1/1/2021 at 10:23 PM, sine nomine said:
I know it does my head in too ...but have limited room as you can see ...I make sure when mixing I sit dead in the middle though ...chair is not bolted to the floor
Yeah I mean I have a huge amount of respect for people who can work like that. So godspeed to you and please don't take the snark too much into heart.
Depending on my moods I can spend hours setting up my gear, only to tear it all down the moment I sit down because something will not fit or there is 5cm too little space on my desk or something even more ridiculous than that.
My current setup has lasted amazingly long anyway, and the reason I am getting pissy with it is that I have too many cables, too many connections and the routing in my computer is growing too complicated. Which also means that my projects are complicated and are a bigger headache to work with.
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Monitor is not exactly in the middle between the speakers, OCD super triggered, I could never work like this. 1/5
Wish I had a 27" Imac screen though...
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14 minutes ago, dingformung said:
I used to get a lot more comments and likes on soundcloud when I was worse at making tracks and uploaded very simple tracks.
That's because everyone who likes and comments on soundcloud now are weird spam accounts for either services for buying likes/shares/fans or trying to sell you a hookup service.
Each week I upload a track, it gets 1 like and when I go to the profile it's some complete rando, sometimes with "cLiCk HeRe FoR tHe NudEs" in the bio, sometimes "boost your music" in the banner image and sometimes nothing at all. I leave the latter ones, but I am pretty sure they are bots/zombie accounts for the aforementioned "boost your likes" services.
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45 minutes ago, yekker said:
or
I don't know but these posts are giving off a kind of anti-trans vibe.
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Yeah IMO the way to make it is 99% hard work 1% luck, just do the hard work and don't waste energy on complaining, encourage others even if you think their stuff sucks* and be ready to grab onto that 1% of luck when it winks at you.
And even in the end if you did not get lucky, you can always say you did your best and worked for it.
* - people whose stuff sucks will end up being good at another genre that you dislike which means you won't be competing for fans or attention anyway.
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5 minutes ago, TheBro said:
Look man her tune was good but it wasn't great. It was decent but all that attention by mostly guys just undermines the art imo. I've seen it time and time again. I will totally respect a women's art if its good. Not only that I'll accept if she's more talented than you or I and I can think of lots of female producers out there who are better than me of course. My point is the bias you have to be blind not to see it now these days.
Well, be the change that you want to see in the world and stop complaining about a girl getting more likes than you. In time we can only hope all 27 of those other guys also stop being creeps on the interwebs.
Also wtf are expecting, posting your stuff on Facebook of all things? All that is left there is senile old people and right wing idiots. Neither have a good appreciation for music.
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7 minutes ago, TheBro said:
Well I think my original point was a fair point. 228 plays on this girl's tune and over 28 comments in just a day!!! My tune by comparison has a mere 18 plays and has been up for 8 days and received no comments on Facebook. It may sound like I'm jealous but my only point was how unfair the bias is. I'm just asking for equal treatment - what's wrong with that?
I think you are being an ass if your first thought is "hey they are listening and commenting on her tune ONLY BECAUSE IT'S A GIRL". Her track might just be better too and more to people's taste.
That said I am sure girls (especially good looking IDM girls) will get more attention than doughy dads or pasty nerds, but is this attention because their tracks are good or is it because there are 1000 million horny men on the internet trying to creep and hit on them every time they post something. Like, they are not commenting because they like the track really.
Regarding appearances though - you are damn right this matters. No matter how good your tune is, you got to create the visuals or something else that will lure people to hit that play button. And not just lure people, lure the RIGHT people. Yeah maybe hot girls have it easy (or make it look like this), but nobody is entitled to people listening to their stuff just so.
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42 minutes ago, Squee said:
This is really nice.
I haven't gone through the entire thread so I don't know how "produced" this is, but the rhodes or whatever it is seems to resonate quite a lot. There's also a really nice sub bass hiding under all of it. You should bring that out
Thanks, really glad you like it. I liked it way better when I was playing it than when I was "finishing" it up for posting. The level of production is basically "all done in a rush Sunday evening" and of that I spent the most time messing up the arrangement.
I am working on the sub bass thing actually - this is from the 8th so by now I have separated the sub bass and higher bass sounds in my template project, I hope it brings out the sub a bit more. Should be more audible in the more recent tracks but not as good as the tracks in your signature of course!
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4 hours ago, bupkis said:
thanks for your reply. The weekly beats thing sounds cool and I definitely want to try it. All of the things you say you learned are things I want to work on and that bit about posting 52 1 minute sketches sounds motivating. Listening to your last track of the year now, sounds good!
Thanks.
One thing to note is that Weeklybeats only takes place once every two years, so the next year will be kind of a gap year. I and some other crazies ignore that though. Myself, I am just afraid that if I stop, I won't start again.
Here are some other folks' reflections on the weekly beats https://weeklybeats.com/forums/topic/6107/2020-reflections/
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On 12/22/2020 at 10:33 AM, bupkis said:
Hello, these songs are awesome. I was going through the thread and saw your album. The music for programming song is so cool. I like the pads and atmosphere in the beginning, but it sounds great all the way through when melodies get going and drums come in. I used to listen to a lot of krautrock, and the music reminds me some of one of my favorites, the album Zuckerzeit by the German band Cluster.
I wanted to ask about the weekly beats thing. I was thinking about giving it a try this year, and I am curious about how it was for you and if it helped you learn new things. I like to noodle around with synths while recording and then spend a lot of time editing later. I feel like the weekly beats thing can force me to make more music and not get lost so much in details or worry if everything is perfect. Wanted to ask how the experience was.
Thanks, glad you like it. I am also into krautrock a lot even though I don't really know all the albums.
As for the weekly beats, personally I find it super motivating and has helped for me to learn a lot of things. Off the top of my head:
- scheduling time every week to do this is great for ensuring that you regularly do music stuff that has a tangible result
- you learn to be creative and you can try out different things every week
- you will get better and more efficient working with your tools
- nice to be able to post new stuff regularly on your soundcloud or somewhere else
- not every track you make is going to be good, but over the course of time you will end up with a couple really good ones that you can make an album out of
There are downsides too of course. I notice that this weekly rush to finish something means that I have a hard time finishing any more long term stuff, like putting together an album or something more polished and 'ready'. Sometimes I end up rushing the weekly track and feel like I just wasted a bunch of time, but usually when I listen to it months later I don't hate it so much anymore.
But generally I think the weekly routine is really nice and in the end it is what you make of it - you could just post a raw jam session or spend some time making a short track that is fully mixed. You can just do a thing where you post 52 1-minute tracks for the whole year. In the end the important thing is that you regularly do your music stuff and aim to get better at whatever you are doing, this will definitely pay off in the end: even if you do not like any of your weekly tracks, you will now have muscle memory and technique to be able to execute your dreams much better.
Anyway I'll stop typing now and post the final weekly for this year.
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I go to soundcloud for DJ mixes and weird stuff I have followed in the past.
Bandcamp recently thanks to BC fridays so I can support artists and buy vinyl.
Youtube sometimes for discovering stuff through recommendations.
I usually listen to all the links people send me and I find in chats or something like that.
There's also web radio like Soma.FM, FIP (France), ERT Kosmos (Greece) that is nice to put on to have some random stuff.
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In ancient history I used to have some hum issues, but even though my setup now is messed up and some of it runs on a step down transformer to get voltages at 110V, somehow it all works without much issues.
I consider myself lucky.
So just wait, I will be churning out killer tracks any time now.
generative MIDI for fun and profit
in EKT General Discussion
Posted
I am thinking that it would be more interesting/useful if the apps came with:
At this point I and anyone else can just plug it into their DAW as a source of MIDI notes, and already they would be pretty well usable for performances and many other cool things. Putting it in a VST is great too of course, but I feel it's orders of magnitude more work and since you are only passing on MIDI information, it's quite lightweight and JavaScript can handle that OK.
As for the collision stuff, yeah it's a fuck to implement properly because even AAA games get clipping problems. Once again using a grid (even if only in the backend) you can cheat and solve this simply - you check if the center of the ball is in a grid square that is noted for containing a line and then you play the ding dong sound. Of course it all depends how you have done it so far, but really it's not a big deal even if you get it 95% working because who the hell cares really it is an inspirational art tool.
AFAIK there is a browser MIDI support that has existed in Chrome (at least) for some time, I know because the Livid Instruments configuration app for my Code v2 came with a browser app.