• Music

  • the production thread

…multiple albums, crikey, you lot are prolific!

I can’t conceive cranking out material at that speed, the last 18 months have been the most (ahem) productive period I’ve had, I reckon I’ve around 15-17 finished tracks/remixes, and maybe 5 or 6 that are almost at the stage where I’ll push them through to completion (plus the standard 20-30 loops/ideas that may or may not ever make it past that point!).

Even then though, I’ve never really thought about them in album terms, pretty much all have been made individually, track-by-track… the idea of a series of productions that compliment each other or are created specifically to sit side-by-side is kinda intimidating to me.

    Mad_Cyril Cheers, it’s a little more eclectic than the last album and not quite as heavy.

    Henry Lol don’t over-hype it. Anything new from you soon?

          apyssjw I find the similarities and differences in creative processes really interesting. There are days you sit down and it just flows and other days it’s just not there. A few weeks off usually cures that for me.

          I can’t bounce around multiple projects like that, maybe 2 at the most, otherwise I lose focus. I do like “finishing” a track, setting it aside for a couple of months until I don’t even remember what it sounds like, then edit with fresh ears. Sounds like you’re using a more complex version of that workflow.

            Unbroken1 Sometimes it’s easier with the two of us than when I’m working solo. I can crank out a groove in an hour, send the stems off, two weeks later I get back 85% of a track, tweak it, mix it and we’re done. I don’t know how because we’ve never actually met in person or had any lengthy discussions about musical direction, but we just seem to have a shared vision. I feel like our tracks sound like both of us and at the same time, we’d never come up with the same result individually.

            Unbroken1 Even then though, I’ve never really thought about them in album terms, pretty much all have been made individually, track-by-track… the idea of a series of productions that compliment each other or are created specifically to sit side-by-side is kinda intimidating to me.

            Yeah I’m like that too, so I just try to ignore it. It’s the same thing as trying to write a perfect track, I just drive myself insane until I hate it. The last album we did together and my last solo album were both projects where I latched on to an aesthetic and that’s what glued them together. I think they’re both pretty cohesive, even though like you said, they were written track by track. The new one and my new solo albums are much more diverse (within a niche genre obviously).

            That’s the fun in it, there aren’t any rules and it’s fun to explore different approaches. Plus it’s just making music, it’s not that important, ultimately.

                303abuser It’s a free upgrade for me, and free upgrades since Pigments 3. Got to love Arturia.

                    303abuser I have about a dozen projects across the Digitakt-Syntakt-Digitone. I am in the process of transferring those to Ableton to do the arrangement and then pre-mastering as an album. Once mastered, not sure what to do with it. I might approach some labels. Or I am leaning towards just pressing a few dozen copies onto vinyl and releasing (non-digital) on my Bandcamp. Probably not soon though! I am aiming for later this year.

                        Henry Just checked and you’re right. I’m impressed they’re still giving these updates away at no cost.

                        That sounds solid, can’t wait to hear it. Curious to see how self-releasing vinyl does if you go that route. We went with Insectorama again because the exposure it decent and Markus is pretty easy to work with. Branching out seems like a headache without much additional benefit.

                          Yeah I really like Markus. It’s a great little label he’s running and he puts in a lots of effort. It’s probably not an Insectorama release though. If I go to vinyl only I will lose money for sure and I’ll probably end up with most of them sitting in a box. But just something I wanted to do for a while.

                          That’s fair. I think some of my new stuff is right on the edge of what he’ll want to put out on the label. We’ll see.

                          I get the labour of love idea, would be nice just to have the vinyl just for the collection.

                          Henry I’ll buy a copy!

                          The reality is if I put a track on bandcamp I get maybe ten listeners and I think 3 people have paid £1 for a copy of a track (across all of them).

                          I’d love to press some vinyl, but the copies would be for me. It’s absolutely bang in the midlife crisis box though - so expect it in the next few years 🙂

                              apyssjw 3 people have paid £1 for a copy of a track (across all of them).

                              Can you sign mine?

                              Might make it worth more as a Ltd edition when we re-sell it to Wally, Hursty or Funky.

                              @bosstrabs is always in the market for NonFungibleTunes as well I hear?

                              🚀

                                  Mad_Cyril Can you sign mine?

                                  Consider it done.

                                  Absolutely you are in the elite squad. 🫡

                                    apyssjw That’s very kind of you. If I do go down the vinyl route I suspect there’s be plenty of copies available. 😭

                                      Think I’ll spend some quality time this week with pigments working on sound design. The update looks interesting. I’ve been starting everything on hardware the last few months, maybe time to change it up.

                                        303abuser …its a synth I feel I’d like to get to know a lot better, mind-bending possibilities.

                                        Also, invested in the V Collection X on Black Friday, what an amazing package, have barely touched the surface and am absolutely loving it… how rock-stable is all the Arturia stuff too!?

                                            Unbroken1 It’s really deep. I’ve used it, almost more as a sample processor than anything else, but haven’t used it enough to really get to know it. I get the feeling like pigments could be all you need along with a daw for arrangement.

                                            Haven’t tried the v collection, if I can’t make whatever I want with the gear I have, there’s a problem that isn’t going to be resolved by buying more synths. That said, I use the fx collection all the time. The space echo emulation is on everything I do. I’m impressed with the value arturia provides, most companies don’t offer this many (really good) free updates.

                                              @303abuser user"#p277946 …have referenced this here before, but always tried to avoid collecting too many VST’s to avoid the risk of spending more time tinkering than actually making anything, but desperately wanted a 303 plug-in and was sold on Acid V.

                                              Basically the upgrade deal to V Collection was as much as Acid V at full price- effectively 38 synths free!

                                              Yeah that makes sense. I’ve got the abl3 vet and a tb3, plus the syntakt, analog four, and dfam are all pretty capable of reproducing a decent 303 sound. I’ve been wanting to do an acid project for a while, maybe after the current album I’m working on is done.

                                              I’ve found over time that if I take a week every once in a while and just do in the box sound design, that scratches the itch to just make noise. The patches and samples that come out of those session often end up being foundational for future tracks, so it’s a win-win.

                                                Unbroken1 Had the V Collection for some years now. Currently got V9 but didn’t go for the upgrade on account that I am rarely using VSTs these days for my main compositions. There are some lovely sounds through and I have probably used Arturia stuff more than NI or any other vendor over the years. They are pretty deep, but I found that in the end I only scratched the surface of the V Collection without really fully understanding how to properly manipulate the synths.
                                                As for reliability. The only issue I have had is on my M1 Mac where the display would sometimes have screwed dials etc. I had a couple of tickets open on it with their support. Not used it for a while do I don’t know if it’s fixed or not.
                                                Pigments is a beast though. The new version had a new engine ‘Modal’ which is pretty sweet….