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I'm actually looking forward to learning as I go along.

 

The most important aspect of making tracks for me has always been a 'can I pull this off in a live situation' type of thing and as you know I record everything I do directly to the MD recorder or a tape deck,one take with no overdubs style.

 

There's a real satisfaction from doing things that way which I suppose just stems from the fact that I was a musician who played live for years with a big emphasis on improvisation and the ability to switch things up and change direction if needed because when you're playing live and especially in front of an audience where there's no hiding place if you fuck things up,even more so if it's just yourself and an acoustic guitar for example..a situation I always found quite rewarding tbh..my own personal motto being a 'Be good or go home' type of mentality.

 

I also was extremely fortunate to play music for many years with my brother,a guy who was truly talented but also a perfectionist and a bloody hard taskmaster at times but we pushed each other hard to become better musicians in every way,there was never any middle ground whenever I played with Dee..it was intense but it was the way we had to do it and I'm glad we did.

 

The drawback to all of this is that if I'm recording a take with the sampler running live and I fuck it up or mis cue a pad then I'm literally having to start the track from the beginning again because there's no way to just drop back in to rectify the mistake I've just made which can be very frustrating at times.

 

At the moment I'm working on some stuff that is pretty complex with a lot of changes of tempo and samples flying in all directions and tbh I'm getting to the stage where im gonna have to invest in another SP 404 in order to achieve what I'm setting out to do when it comes to composition.

 

In the end it just makes a lot more sense really to stop being so stubborn and have the tools to edit things and map out and lay down the drums or arrangements properly for the type of tracks I'm making so the laptop and Ableton is the correct way forward I reckon.

 

I'm not gonna be selling my soul in doing things this way which is how I was more or less looking at it and which was the wrong attitude I've come to realise now.

 

The time was inevitably going to come where I could only take things so far,so to make the switch now is definitely the right thing to do.

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I think my first two year's worth of beats were each an excuse to learn something, wether that was new tools or random self imposed limitations. Whatever is was, every one had a background task.

 

You're clearly on the same wavelength as what I was badly waffling about above. You don't have to change everything you're already doing. But as you say, the inability to edit the odd mis-step is just wasting precious time IMO.

 

Likewise, I don't get too involved in the 'correct' sonics of a track... great for dancefloor impact and all that, but that's not me. Plus I mostly listen to old music where different track fill different frequencies in different ways or even not at all. But even saying that, I still want the finished thing to have some degree of overall balance/coherence - occasionally I listen to something on some different speakers say and one sound might be annoying dull or bright or whatever. Just being able to go in after the fact and spend 5 mins balancing out a mix or fix a real clanger is so valuable to me. Applied to you, I don't think that would rob from your musician's skills and work ethic either, just present your vision in the best possible way.

 

Again, not neccesarily anything that applies to you, but I often feel production nerds and musicians could be a lot better off by learning a little of the other's skills. In fact maybe it does apply to you as you're really good example of these things succesfully colliding...

 

Buy anyway, so many times I've heard music made on a computer that's technically outstanding and yet all I can think is this person wouldn't know a good tune, or riff or even chord if it bit them on the arse. Conversely, I lost count how many times I've encountered great musicians with a wealth of musical talent, who kill live shows but then produce the most sterile, dull album possible - pretty much always because they are only interested in being a musician and think if the music and lyrics are strong enough, nothing else matters. Bullshit. Pretty much all the old good music in existence in the history of recorded music is partnership between great musicians and the skills and techniques in the studio that captured and ultimately immortalised their vision. It's why record collectors fetishize certain labels and studios, they had the artists AND the sound.


(sorry, tangent rant there... on what was already a thread tangent :$ )

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  • 5 months later...

Holy fuck, this Mixfader arrived from germany, its not just brand new but fully sealed too, and it comes with the Mixfader case brand new aswell, all for the normal price of the case, and tthat included shipping !!!!

I'm known as the ebay ninja, but even this one shocked me lol.

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Guest petesasqwax

I've been doing this wrong. This past summer I've sold: my last remaining 1210; a MicroBrute; Volca Keys; Beatstep Pro; Bastl Kastle ...and various other things.

 

Since last posting here I've also sold a Minitaur, a Little Phatty and sold (and theb bought again - not the exact same one!) a Strymon El Capistan.

 

Most of it has been financially motivated (who knew that leaving your job in favour of not getting a salary was a short-term pain scenario?) but genuinely it has been great to get rid of loads of things I just didn't need.

 

My outboard set up currently is a Werkstatt which hooks up with Ableton via a QuNexus keyboard (shouts, Paul!), the El Cap and a Minibrute with an MF101 attached to it (MiniBroog FTMFW, yo!).

 

In the past fortnight I've bought 2 dictaphones (damn you, Hainbach!) and an ancient Novation Remote 25 (because I needed a joystick for iVCS3) which thoroughly saved the day with Ableton on Sunday :)

 

On a vicarious level: Ric gets the new version of the button box on Thursday to attach his 3000 (shouts again, Paul!) - shit is going to get stupid with that thing...

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