your weekly thawkins

[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

Here's the thing.

Basically the ableton link on top right triggers the "clock", and everything else does something every X subdivisions. You can replace this with a PD metro object if you dont use Live.

It is kind of a mess and the 2019.12.25 patch probably will not work without tweaks (but the 2020.01.01 one will). They are both works in progress because I wanted to clean them up a bit and make it easier to sort of shape the generativeness of one channel stack.

Sieve is basically a way to turn steps on or off. If the toggle is set, you it will pass the step number to the simplestep sequencer which will output a note pitch value. Banging the other input will randomize the toggles.

Maybe I should take some time to make all of this more clearer... let me know if you have questions getting it to work.

Oh and currently the random sequences will just be anything in -12 to +12 st range so if you want to kick out bad notes which do not match the harmony, you need to figure something out. I used the Live Scale effect to force everthing to a nice harmony.

2019.12.25 generative.zip

[thawkins]

Two things (kind of) this week:

1. I finally started paying for the unlimited plan on soundcloud, so now I can upload all the stuff without worrying about file sizes and time limits (not sure if that is a good thing)

Here's another generative krautrock jam - this time less generative, but more mellow as I used the sounds off the Roland XV-5080 instead of VSTs like last week.

https://weeklybeats.com/thawkins/music/sat-11-jan

2. The longer, less cut version of last week's generative jam.

 

[thawkins]

Crossposting here with a link to my latest release that I published yesterday 

 

[thawkins]

Finished another experimental krautrock thing. Not super happy at the moment with it, probably this needs more work in the future to make it into two different ones.

 

[thawkins]

Continuing experimentations with generative stuff, but this time it's only bits and pieces of randomness that grew into the full track so most of it is not really generative.

[thawkins]

I really should figure out how to keep tracks shorter. I can't just cut out all that good jam stuff though...

[thawkins]

Went digging in an old project, look what came out.

[thawkins]

Back on my generative bullshit again. It's great for kickstarting some ideas and melodies.

 

[dingformung]

On 1/6/2020 at 6:37 PM, thawkins said:

Here's the thing.

Basically the ableton link on top right triggers the "clock", and everything else does something every X subdivisions. You can replace this with a PD metro object if you dont use Live.

It is kind of a mess and the 2019.12.25 patch probably will not work without tweaks (but the 2020.01.01 one will). They are both works in progress because I wanted to clean them up a bit and make it easier to sort of shape the generativeness of one channel stack.

Sieve is basically a way to turn steps on or off. If the toggle is set, you it will pass the step number to the simplestep sequencer which will output a note pitch value. Banging the other input will randomize the toggles.

Maybe I should take some time to make all of this more clearer... let me know if you have questions getting it to work.

Oh and currently the random sequences will just be anything in -12 to +12 st range so if you want to kick out bad notes which do not match the harmony, you need to figure something out. I used the Live Scale effect to force everthing to a nice harmony.

2019.12.25 generative.zip 19.66 kB · 0 downloads

Hadn't checked your threat since you posted this. Thanks a lot. I will examine it more closely at a later moment. Listening to tum tum right now, very enoesque track 

 

[thawkins]

15 hours ago, darreichungsform said:

Hadn't checked your threat since you posted this. Thanks a lot. I will examine it more closely at a later moment. Listening to tum tum right now, very enoesque track 

 

I have upgraded the generative patch a lot since that post though. I am thinking about sharing it even though it's not really 100% usable out of the box.

I basically stopped using it as a never-ending-changing-midi-stream and more like generating-changing interesting patterns and seeing where it takes me.

[thawkins]

This started out as a calm meditative thing and then I had maybe too much fun with arpeggiators and it all went to hell from there. The mix might be a mess too.

[thawkins]

I started messing with an old project to clean and shape it up and whoops literally the first 1 bar loop sucked me so in that I ended up spending all the time tinkering with the sounds.

I regret nothing though.

Edited March 3, 2020 by thawkins

[chim]

Wow your music kicks ass! PD represent (used to dabble) 

Cool harmonies and nice stereo separation. I considered a more in depth analysis but it mostly boils down to taste. A lot of it gives me that indie Little Big Planet kind of vibe which is usually a bit thin and FM-y sounding. It has its places but I tend to like fatter and dirtier patches. You use a lot of shoegazey elements but your patches are relatively dry and up front, you could try to hide some of them behind wet reverbs to create more depth to accompany the width. Most of the composition elements tend to be quite sustained and you could probably do something interesting with more staccato settings. Your drums don't seem to get a lot of space, typical challenge with this type of soundscape. 

[thawkins]

15 hours ago, chim said:

Wow your music kicks ass! PD represent (used to dabble) 

Cool harmonies and nice stereo separation. I considered a more in depth analysis but it mostly boils down to taste. A lot of it gives me that indie Little Big Planet kind of vibe which is usually a bit thin and FM-y sounding. It has its places but I tend to like fatter and dirtier patches. You use a lot of shoegazey elements but your patches are relatively dry and up front, you could try to hide some of them behind wet reverbs to create more depth to accompany the width. Most of the composition elements tend to be quite sustained and you could probably do something interesting with more staccato settings. Your drums don't seem to get a lot of space, typical challenge with this type of soundscape. 

Wow thanks a lot for this post.

Drums are my weak spot so to speak, but that's kind of intentional too because I try to focus on my keyboard skills and play drums - real actual kit - in real life band projects. I used to play in a shoegaze project up to july last year which influenced me a lot too in terms of sound - in fact one of the send effects I use a lot is modeled after the guitarist's pedal setup. Digital drums are a learning process for me because I definitely don't want to take the easy path and slap a 4/4 kick to everything and turn it into "regular dance music" and on the other hand I am not a big fan of glitch stuff, instead I am trying to find my own way in this world.

Good point on having sounds dry/up front. I will keep this tip in mind definitely.

By the way, Little Big Planet - that's a video game and you're referring to the soundtrack, right?

 

 

And since I actually came here to post my this week's experiment... I started reading Push docs and then I wanted to try some stuff out and got badly sidetracked. There's a drum track too but I was not happy with it so I left it out of the "final" version.

 

[thawkins]

 

[thawkins]

Found an old project from 2018 with only a couple MIDI loops in it.

 

[Mozex]

The music sounds good but do you use EQ? Do you try to master it a bit? I am new to that kind of thing but it seems to me my noob ears think that you could do some of that on the tracks?

I listened to your last post, both tracks, a bit Sat 21 Mar and Sun 15 Mar and it seems they could be a bit clearer? Maybe I am completely wrong in that and this is normal for the genre you are going with.

My apologies in that case for my stupid, noobly, advice then.

But for the composition part: It is very good! Nice job!!!

[thawkins]

58 minutes ago, Mozex said:

The music sounds good but do you use EQ? Do you try to master it a bit? I am new to that kind of thing but it seems to me my noob ears think that you could do some of that on the tracks?

I listened to your last post, both tracks, a bit Sat 21 Mar and Sun 15 Mar and it seems they could be a bit clearer? Maybe I am completely wrong in that and this is normal for the genre you are going with.

My apologies in that case for my stupid, noobly, advice then.

But for the composition part: It is very good! Nice job!!!

Thanks Mozex! Even though I think we make different kind of music, you are still correct about me and EQ. I think your sound is very clean and nice by the way.

Right now I am trying to learn how to listen to these things better and improve my mixing too. 

I think the reason why the mix does not sound "clean" is that I use a lot of delay/reverb effects for ambience, and unfortunately these end up also creating some noise layers. I am not sure how to fix that and keep using the effects.

Thanks a lot for your comments @Mozex.  

[Mozex]

20 minutes ago, thawkins said:

Thanks Mozex! Even though I think we make different kind of music, you are still correct about me and EQ. I think your sound is very clean and nice by the way.

Right now I am trying to learn how to listen to these things better and improve my mixing too. 

I think the reason why the mix does not sound "clean" is that I use a lot of delay/reverb effects for ambience, and unfortunately these end up also creating some noise layers. I am not sure how to fix that and keep using the effects.

Thanks a lot for your comments @Mozex.  

I have no knowledge at all and its just a noob guess but maybe you could try it. It worked for me on some reverbs to get the mud away. Do you put your reverb on a return track and then send them to different instruments at once so they sound like the they are all in the same room? I did that and then on the return track of said reverb I placed a filter with a high pass cut around 300Hz. It cleaned the reverb up for me. I put the filter after the reverb in the buss.

I do not know that I explained that right, I am still a noob when it comes to these things and technical terms. But what I understand is that the reverb creates a low undertone I think. With the filter with high pass cut you remove those. It will make reverb sound "cleaner I think.

Delay I have no experience with, I did use a little bit of delay on some instruments I think but it was in the preset. About the reverb another thing that might help: if you use presets be sure to put the reverb OFF on the sound. Then use another plugin to put a reverb on it. I forgot first to put it of on the sound itself and it was messy. You probably are smarter and more experienced then me but I am just saying everything I think could help.

Another thing you can do, and which was suggested also to me be someone is to send the leads and pads to a hall reverb and the snare and percussion's to a room reverb.

 

Thats all I can think off to be honest. An EQ can also be handy to reduce the low frequencies. When using an EQ you can high pass (I think, as I said I am not good with the technical terms) every track that does not need the low frequencies, to 50-100Hz (I think I am really stupid so please forgive me if I explain it COMPLETELY wrong) It cleans up the track A LOT by just doing that. It makes sure all low frequencies get filtered out and it is there that all the muddiness is I think.

 

In the end I still need to learn A LOT myself about EQ and mastering. Like A LOT. So please forgive me if this post does not make any sense. I just wanted to try to help a bit...

 

Another thing that seemed to help a lot was this, but you probably already know this: make sure that every track AND the master fader does not exceed -6db. I do not know this might help but someone told me and I did it. It was a horrible work to make sure every track was beneath it and the master fader also. Mix with those "settings" and then you are ready to master it and turn the volume up with the mastering process.

 

Most of these things you probably already know, I am sorry then for the stupid advice in that case, just wanted to try to help with what I think I know...

Edited March 25, 2020 by Mozex

[thawkins]

Thanks for the tips. I have read some of these things before but I have not yet tried very hard.

I do high pass on most things that are not bass or drums, I think it works well.

However it is a bit more difficult for my two delays and reverb. I think this is because the effects are all a lot of self-feedback and compression. It is like heavy dub delays and reverbs, so the effects are really obvious but I want it this way. I think I should do more EQ on those parts, which I have not done yet.

Thanks again for your detailed feedback @Mozex 

[Mozex]

You are welcome!

[thawkins]

This is a part of a krautrock-kosmische jam I did today.

Edited March 28, 2020 by thawkins

[thawkins]

 

[thawkins]

 

[thawkins]

I got Live Suite and immediately put all the effects on all the tracks. Click if you like fuzz rock. Click even if you don't..