your weekly thawkins

[thawkins]

4 hours ago, acid1 said:

Nice and chill udon noodling over ice water with ice chords. Enjoyed my morning coffee to this one.

Glad you like it! Not sure about udon noodling as it always makes a mess on my shirt (tastes good tho).

[thawkins]

Early this week because I will be away on the weekend so I decided to get it done. It's basically part two of the previous thing - they were part of the same jam (slow part in the beginning and the driving part in the 2nd half). I think it can be a nice piece except for the bass. I probably tried to re-do it 10 different ways but I still am not happy with it.

https://streak.club/p/36197/wed-30-oct-by-thawkins

[thawkins]

Because my hard drive is almost full, I am making an effort to try and "finish" some projects I have lying around, here's an ambient piece:

https://streak.club/p/36256/thu-7-nov-by-thawkins

[ImperfectStranger]

I think your music is excellent. Very honest/not contrived, and a great energy to it. Well done.

[thawkins]

On 11/13/2019 at 8:43 PM, ImperfectStranger said:

I think your music is excellent. Very honest/not contrived, and a great energy to it. Well done.

Cheers, thanks a lot! Glad you like it.

Here's a new old one I just uploaded. Kind of rushed but also quite happy with the sound. Maybe something for BoC fans (I have no idea).

https://streak.club/p/36306/sun-17-nov-by-thawkins

 

[Smokin Speaks]

tue-13-aug-by-thawkins: Fire  - The patience of development and the size of that sound envelope though.  whooo!

Thundercat kraut Level 3 - those sounds that you choose, such a clean palette.  and you are a man of a grove.  I need get on that train.  Still messing with trying to ragdoll a listener. so youthful, so dumb.  This is much fire. 

listening to a few more, but while that goes on why no soundcloud?

fwiw, I am going to be jocking your style.

[thawkins]

17 hours ago, Smokin Speaks said:

tue-13-aug-by-thawkins: Fire  - The patience of development and the size of that sound envelope though.  whooo!

Thundercat kraut Level 3 - those sounds that you choose, such a clean palette.  and you are a man of a grove.  I need get on that train.  Still messing with trying to ragdoll a listener. so youthful, so dumb.  This is much fire. 

listening to a few more, but while that goes on why no soundcloud?

fwiw, I am going to be jocking your style.

Hey thanks a lot! My soundcloud is full and I am currently working on finishing a couple more polished things. Eventually I plan on paying for the full pro subscription so I can just upload all of them on there.

The weekly things are kind of not so finished sometimes, so I keep on trying to find time to properly finish before "releasing" on soundcloud. 

Again thanks a lot for the insightful review.  You made my day.

[Smokin Speaks]

15 hours ago, thawkins said:

Hey thanks a lot! My soundcloud is full and I am currently working on finishing a couple more polished things. Eventually I plan on paying for the full pro subscription so I can just upload all of them on there.

The weekly things are kind of not so finished sometimes, so I keep on trying to find time to properly finish before "releasing" on soundcloud. 

Again thanks a lot for the insightful review.  You made my day.

Prepare your day to be made again!  Tried to steal your style, I am simply not that groovy.

But I was able to take your clean style and completely ruin it. Obviously your technical chops on the back side is something to be reckoned.  I went as minimal as possible.

Enjoy, start low volume. I was thinking of just crescendoing this from start to final organ. Also warning, I did pop my left monitor with this at 100. Probably resonance.  Still works at 65% for now, so... maybe a good thing?

HEADPHONE WARNING: Start Soft - Had to erase, someone was going to hurt themselves with headphones

 

This midi jam template, the phaser/flange work, the pad work. the command, of voicing. 
 

Edited November 23, 2019 by Smokin Speaks

[thawkins]

This week's instalment:

https://streak.club/p/36339/sat-23-nov-by-thawkins

On 11/23/2019 at 5:34 AM, Smokin Speaks said:

Prepare your day to be made again!  Tried to steal your style, I am simply not that groovy.

But I was able to take your clean style and completely ruin it. Obviously your technical chops on the back side is something to be reckoned.  I went as minimal as possible.

Enjoy, start low volume. I was thinking of just crescendoing this from start to final organ. Also warning, I did pop my left monitor with this at 100. Probably resonance.  Still works at 65% for now, so... maybe a good thing?

HEADPHONE WARNING: Start Soft - Had to erase, someone was going to hurt themselves with headphones

 

This midi jam template, the phaser/flange work, the pad work. the command, of voicing. 
 

 

Oh no! Sorry to hear about your monitors. Let me know when you fix it and upload again, would really be interested in listening.

By the way I usually have a limiter-compressor on the master bus when rendering to do a poor man's mastering so that the result sounds kind of like it actually should. If you are using Ableton Live, check this out http://legowelt.org/software/

[thawkins]

Feeling cute, might delete later:

https://streak.club/p/36364/wed-27-nov-by-thawkins

This week it's a sort of rough 20 minute mixtape that I started working on last week based on an old jam project.

[Smokin Speaks]

On 11/25/2019 at 3:32 AM, thawkins said:

This week's instalment:

https://streak.club/p/36339/sat-23-nov-by-thawkins

 

Oh no! Sorry to hear about your monitors. Let me know when you fix it and upload again, would really be interested in listening.

By the way I usually have a limiter-compressor on the master bus when rendering to do a poor man's mastering so that the result sounds kind of like it actually should. If you are using Ableton Live, check this out http://legowelt.org/software/

Should have about three tunes out this week.

I am using FL studio atm.

Will give theyour last two tunes a listen when I get back home.  In-Law Thanksgiving today.

I got a pair of Tannoy Reveal 802s coming from Guitar center when they are instock.  Probably 40 days before they ship.  Is okay, monitor is still working up to 65%.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2019 by Smokin Speaks

[thawkins]

This week I made a techno track.

https://streak.club/p/36414/thu-5-dec-by-thawkins

[Smokin Speaks]

yeah yeah yeah yeah.  That organ/synth/instrument is vibey.  Can't really tell if you if you are playing an interval back and forth or if that is just the resonance.  Dig i regardless. Obviously the drump patterns are super groovy and you have placed accents to make it nice and alive, generally something I avoid, unfortunately.

Also 90 bpm, I need to slow my stuff down, I usually default to 130 bpm as that is what the track open as.  Have written in 130 so long, it just feels like home. New to break off of it for some upcoming tunes.  Though the last two I wrote i think are 124 and 128, so working that way

That outra bass is fire.

 

Nov: 5 a little harsh on the open for my ear. Also a little slow to develop  for me as I have a petulant child like discipline. Sounds great and obviously a lot of fun when in there, jamming. 

 

Also One thing I wanted to say was that one of your pieces that you have listed at #ambient is more #amorphous than ambient. to me

 

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by Smokin Speaks

[thawkins]

On 12/7/2019 at 12:34 AM, Smokin Speaks said:

yeah yeah yeah yeah.  That organ/synth/instrument is vibey.  Can't really tell if you if you are playing an interval back and forth or if that is just the resonance.  Dig i regardless. Obviously the drump patterns are super groovy and you have placed accents to make it nice and alive, generally something I avoid, unfortunately.

Also 90 bpm, I need to slow my stuff down, I usually default to 130 bpm as that is what the track open as.  Have written in 130 so long, it just feels like home. New to break off of it for some upcoming tunes.  Though the last two I wrote i think are 124 and 128, so working that way

That outra bass is fire.

 

Nov: 5 a little harsh on the open for my ear. Also a little slow to develop  for me as I have a petulant child like discipline. Sounds great and obviously a lot of fun when in there, jamming. 

 

Also One thing I wanted to say was that one of your pieces that you have listed at #ambient is more #amorphous than ambient. to me

The main instruments are a organ and a rhodes (or wurlitzer piano) preset, both are sent through my effects busses which do a lot of delay and long tail reverb stuff, so it's probably actually a mix of resonance and intervals. There are actually 4 different bass drum layer, and one of them is going through a delay so I did not actually manually mess with any accents, everything is just due to syncopation and interacting patterns.

90bpm is actually same as 180bpm essentially. I should try out some other tempos too.

Not sure what you mean by #amorphous? I know there is a FSOL project called Amorphous Androgynous, but that's too narrow for tagging I feel.

 

Anyways thanks for the feedback and glad you liked it!

[Limo]

Yo, this is pretty lush.

[Smokin Speaks]

On 12/9/2019 at 8:51 AM, thawkins said:

The main instruments are a organ and a rhodes (or wurlitzer piano) preset, both are sent through my effects busses which do a lot of delay and long tail reverb stuff, so it's probably actually a mix of resonance and intervals. There are actually 4 different bass drum layer, and one of them is going through a delay so I did not actually manually mess with any accents, everything is just due to syncopation and interacting patterns.

90bpm is actually same as 180bpm essentially. I should try out some other tempos too.

Not sure what you mean by #amorphous? I know there is a FSOL project called Amorphous Androgynous, but that's too narrow for tagging I feel.

 

Anyways thanks for the feedback and glad you liked it!

No no no, you are preaching to the choir re: bpm. See the only thing is the use of the word busses, which i would translate as effect "channels". Obv, the same. Yes, obv you do reverb, who would not?

Yes, bass drum, taking it easy on one to do the work for you, perfect. 

Amphorous, that was the sound, not ambient, or whatever they call it.  It did not have a shape, but it was not without shape, as background ambience. 

 

Soon, I will drop 7 tunes written in the last 3 weeks at most, along with a select maybe 8 songs from the past to compliment.

 

Tbh honest, there are three actual people I talk to that have influenced the sound.  You are the 2nd of three. The 3rd I dont even speak to because he is so strong. Not that his music is better, because your shit is tight as hell, but his is so out the fuck out there I am trying to bridge it and would feel foolish to speak to him.   That would likely continue for such a long period of time. He is out there, and I doubt I could get to his level.  That being said, each one has probably influenced equally.  The guy is well beyond our time. His time very well never come.  We all, otherwise, have a shot at greatness.   He will, perhaps, in some ambiguous time.  

Hidden down here: I was thinking of posting a tune here for you to listen to/critique.  Don't want to hijack or step on your toes. Just wanted to ask if you be pissed, as you have been here and built this thread.  

 

Two tunes really. the important ones. Yeh or nah

 

[Smokin Speaks]

Yeah man, listening to 5 dec, it takes me almost as long to sit down as it takes for the bass drum to come in, it is also as rewarding. But I have lost interest.  These comment are in time obvious.  About 3:45 for me, phenomenon really.

 

Dec. 11 Do you have this peace, how do you obtain it? Bugh, I do not care for it.  Where is the drama? The violence? CAn the peace wash over me, or will i continue to fight? Getting angrier. Hi hat has come in.  could be better.   Too low, bring it up, and maybe cut it. is that a snare? irt may be the snare is the problem, not the hi hat. up or down in tune and cut it. for my tastes. 

Nov. 27. this is why I dot Like ambient music. It/ the artist has no conviction.  Convict.

Nov 23, same key.  Is this not the same song reprised?

Nov. 17 - I am in that groove. so sue me. so much better than the last two, you love that minor hit though.  What does it mean for you?  You nee to cut your snares?  That long snare sound sucks, to my tastes. 

I skipped ahead and the sound is the same, but bigger. 

Oct. 30  Thank god, i hear why I fell in love with your aesthetic? Thank god, what a stud.   This is why these 52 week challenges suck, but that is how you get here perhaps.  Wow oh wow. I want to wrote this style tune.  So good.  You were in the zomne as they say. I call it the flow. The ebb and flow of life. Ups and downs, sine curves basically. This was you high, perhaps you went into you low too quickly given the above, but absolutely forgivable, given the amount of time.   I would never go it, at my age. Kudos to you.  

- A fan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[thawkins]

This week a kind of slow dream pop vibe. I guess I felt the need for something relaxing. Also been listening to a lot of dream pop-ish stuff recently. It is a bit rushed because I wanted to get it done before the weekend.

https://streak.club/p/36461/wed-11-dec-by-thawkins

8 hours ago, Smokin Speaks said:

Yeah man, listening to 5 dec, it takes me almost as long to sit down as it takes for the bass drum to come in, it is also as rewarding. But I have lost interest.  These comment are in time obvious.  About 3:45 for me, phenomenon really.

 

Dec. 11 Do you have this peace, how do you obtain it? Bugh, I do not care for it.  Where is the drama? The violence? CAn the peace wash over me, or will i continue to fight? Getting angrier. Hi hat has come in.  could be better.   Too low, bring it up, and maybe cut it. is that a snare? irt may be the snare is the problem, not the hi hat. up or down in tune and cut it. for my tastes. 

Nov. 27. this is why I dot Like ambient music. It/ the artist has no conviction.  Convict.

Nov 23, same key.  Is this not the same song reprised?

Nov. 17 - I am in that groove. so sue me. so much better than the last two, you love that minor hit though.  What does it mean for you?  You nee to cut your snares?  That long snare sound sucks, to my tastes. 

I skipped ahead and the sound is the same, but bigger. 

Oct. 30  Thank god, i hear why I fell in love with your aesthetic? Thank god, what a stud.   This is why these 52 week challenges suck, but that is how you get here perhaps.  Wow oh wow. I want to wrote this style tune.  So good.  You were in the zomne as they say. I call it the flow. The ebb and flow of life. Ups and downs, sine curves basically. This was you high, perhaps you went into you low too quickly given the above, but absolutely forgivable, given the amount of time.   I would never go it, at my age. Kudos to you.  

- A fan

Thanks a lot for the feedback! I think one thing I definitely want to explain is that nearly all of the weekly things are at best unfinished chunks of work that I try and get done during a week - sometimes I focus on mixing, sometimes sounds, sometimes composition, sometimes I want to work on an old project and clean it up. As a result some things end up being always not so perfect once I upload them and listen the next day - that's fine, I will be better next time. Sometimes I come around to fix things a while later, but sometimes I find that after months/years of not listening to something, when I randomly hear it from my phone (god bless DJ shuffle), then I find that I really really like the track as it is (even though I hated it).

 

Dec 11 - life's quite busy at the moment, I guess I find my peace when I mess around with music. Roland XV-5080. Hihat & snare is fine. I feel I ended up rushing finishing this track though.

Nov 27 - that's fine. For these kinds of tracks sometimes it only hits you when you accidentally listen to it in a half-sleep half-awake state where your head works in a different way.

Nov 23 - yep it's just the intro part for Nov 27.

Nov 17 - not really happy with that, the original from 2011 was really crude but it had some elements that I destroyed in this remake.

Oct 30 - I will definitely re-visit these fast-paced things soon.  Things are more slow paced in music now because I am working on finishing a bunch of slower songs into an album.

All the best!

[thawkins]

After having thought about it a little, yeah you are right my drums and snares are not that good. My excuse is that I am much much more comfortable at an acoustic drum kit than working with samples - unfortunately I don't have a way to record a real kit as it is now. It's a slow progress to improve.

[Smokin Speaks]

On 12/12/2019 at 5:05 PM, thawkins said:

 

Nah man, I was saying to cut them so the pop more and don't have a tail. Generally makes the mix cleaner. May not even be what you wanted or what the piece demanded.  I was a bit drunk when I was listening that night.  If I listened again, would probably not even notice. 

I just posted 7 new tunes from 11/22/2019 until a few days ago... went  too hard and exhausted all my juice.  I don't want to hijack your thread so I will post on my thread if you care to give a listen, I would appreciate.

[thawkins]

Started playing around with my Yamaha DTX 12M and ended up with a dub techno song.

https://streak.club/p/36510/sat-21-dec-by-thawkins

 

@Smokin Speaks I haven't had a chance to listen to your stuff yet as it's been a busy week wrapping up things before the olidays but looking forward to listening soon.

Edited December 21, 2019 by thawkins

[thawkins]

I decided to start cheating by setting up a Pure Data patch to generate random MIDI so here is a 40 minute uncut meandering "jam" that I did not have time to edit into a better shape due to holidays:

https://streak.club/p/36558/sat-28-dec-by-thawkins

[dingformung]

Can you upload the PD patch? PD is a total enigma to me, I want to see what exactly you did. The notes your patch generates sound proper. Probably rarely would listen to the full 40 minutes but thats because ambient usually isn't intense enough for me, also I don't really like these piano like synth sounds. The drones that occasionally form high pitched overtones when they overlap are nice, though. I also like the panning

[thawkins]

On 1/1/2020 at 11:03 PM, darreichungsform said:

Can you upload the PD patch? PD is a total enigma to me, I want to see what exactly you did. The notes your patch generates sound proper. Probably rarely would listen to the full 40 minutes but thats because ambient usually isn't intense enough for me, also I don't really like these piano like synth sounds. The drones that occasionally form high pitched overtones when they overlap are nice, though. I also like the panning

Sure, I hope I remember to do it tonight when I get home.

It's basically 5 16-step sequences, that fade in-out by MIDI velocities and after each fade out the sequence is randomly re-generated. I basically picked 6-7 notes in more or less the same scale so they do not conflict harmonically.

I don't really like the piano sounds either, especially the parts where it really sounds like someone is banging the keys. Played softly it sounds much better, maybe because it does not sound like a piano. I spent a lot more time building the patch than mixing and choosing the sounds, so all of it is mostly the default patch on the Roland XV-5080.

Anyways, glad you like it.

[thawkins]

Here is this week's music. I was away on holiday for the most part of the week so while I had my laptop, I did not have a lot of time or a good mixing environment. This is basically the first third of a longer "jam" session with a lot of generative components again (because it sucks playing a proper solo with only a laptop keyboard).

https://weeklybeats.com/thawkins/music/sun-5-jan