Update....

Disaster...

After all the work I did, I lost all my music settings and samples after a virus on my PC.

 For that reason, I didn't come back again early.

Yes, I lost all the samples I did and all the drum patterns  ... everything!

Luckily some loops I have saved in my Studio PC (where I make master and work with Ableton)

Doesn't matter cry now... is all gone.
All the backgrounds and textures plus the drum patterns and some tracks I did upload in the software were gone.

I did get disappointed but I didn't give up, I have been looking to get an old laptop (IBM) only to work with this machine and finally be mobile to make live shows but... I HAVE A STORY FOR YOU:

Because I lost all my work after the virus in the PC, I did install the software again and restarted from scratch.
I want to take thing one step forward so I decided to look for an (OLD IBM LAPTOP) because the old IBM laptops have the right connections to use with the machine (as you know from chapters before, this machine only work with tower PCS because they have a PS2 connection and a normal soundcard connection. Without these connections the machine does not work, even using adaptors)

But... after I looked around for some time I found a solution to connect the laptop I have (Dell) to the machine, so I bought this on eBay...

Brilliant is it ???

It was... if the machine worked on it :( :( :(

It does work but for some stupid reason, the drum loops don't keep the same bpm !?

The bpm moves up and down, so is not possible to get the loops playing at the same tempo !!

I don't know why... All looks fine and plays fine but the Drum loops don't stay stable in the bpms!

I know is ridiculous but I really don't know why this happens!

I installed and re-installed the program various times but always the same.

I LOST MY DREAMS OF PLAYING LIVE WITH THIS MACHINE!!! 

(Unless I can take my PC to the stage but that will look like a Jean Michel Jarre in concert)

No more live sessions !!

I did lose my expectations... I really want to make (WHATEVER)  from this machine.

I always can make home sessions ;0)  and that is what I want to show in the next chapter.

So...

In the next chapter, the truth will be revealed!!!

I will make a proper (Studio / Music) video.

This will be :

*VIDEO  0 - Sound introduction

* VIDEO 1 -  Play the track live

* VIDEO 2 -  Recording the individual sounds (drums/ percussions/ FX/ track)

* VIDEO 3 -  Add the sounds to Ableton

* VIDEO 4 -  Track construction

* MP3    - -   Track already made

Let's wait for the best.

Keep an eye on the DaDa Project Blog, I will be updating this shortly.

Project Zoom in

 Zoom into the Track Project

I gonna give a close look of what I do to construct a track.
(NOTE, This may change until I have the first track ready to show) but anyways, this is the main buttons I use to construct a track.
Composition:
1 Drum loop
3 backgrounds
3 different sound patterns on kaossilator

Drums

The first 2 line of 6 buttons are the styles. The 3 rd line of buttons is the drums of each style. If I click the first button in the first line , I will have 6 different drum loops in the 3rd line of buttons. This happen with all the style buttons.

So, I have now 6 drum loops set in the 3rd line. I click the first button of the 3rd  line and the drum loop start.

Background

Once I have the drum loop playing, I need a background. I click the first button in the first line of buttons in the wavdj FX board, were I have upload the background sounds I want. This is not synchronized. I have to click the button at the same time of the crash  in the drum loop for they play like if they are synchronized. (precession.)
The first 3 buttons are 3 different backgrounds, set to play with the first drum loop button. Now I have the drums and the first background playing at the same time (tempo - bpm).

Kaossilator

I have choose 6 or 7 sounds that go well with the drum and background. Is funny how the sounds of the kaossilator really transform all the felling of the track once I start to apply sound FX. Sure I can put more drums with the kaossilator if I want.

Mixer

The mixer is where everything come together. Its all connected on wavdj channels, I can drop the sound of any one of this loops in and out without need to turn off the sound himself. If  I stop 1 of the loops playing, he will desynchronize from the others but with the mixer, I can switch on and off the loops without need to turn off the loop totally, he will be synchronized again when I drop him in.)



After play around for some time , I change to the next background.
In this case, I stop totally the first background loop and leave the drums and the kaossilator working.together.

Now, I start the second background. Some times I need to start the background sound and stop a few times because is not always that I can get the sound to start exactly at the same tempo of the drums but usually, I get it right after 2 or 3 attempts and this makes a nice intro to the sound too.

Next, I hope I can post a track :)
I am delay this because is many things that can be explore and used in wavdj that I want to try everything before give the final result.

Will be here at some point !

Chapter 18 - Resume

 Track Structure Resume

Expanding the things this way I believe is hard for some people to understand what I am really talking about.
Thats why I like resumes !
Its where you read the important things at once and dont need to go into the all story.

This is the resume of the Track Structure.

1- Drums
2- Background
3- Kaossilator

Drums

1 drum loop (64 or 128 bars)
This drum loops all include percussions and they are all made in the program software.
* Read more about the drums here
http://wavdj.blogspot.com/2009/12/chapter-4-drum-loops.html

Background

This consist of  a sound or noise looping at the same tempo of the drums.
This background are totally independent of the drums and can be use with other drums (how far the drums are at the same bpm)
Because this part of the WAVDJ machine do not loop, I have to import the sounds to Ableton and in there put the sounds at the same bpm, include more sounds,include voices, and loop the sound for around 10 minutes to give enough space for improvisations.
* Read more about the FX part of the WAVDJ here the background loops are stored
http://wavdj.blogspot.com/2009/12/chapter-8-sound-fx.html

* Read about the backgrounds here
http://wavdj.blogspot.com/2010/01/chapter-14-background-sounds.html

Kaossilator

I pre-choose a group of 6 / 7 sounds similar with the background that is playing.
Now I just start creating :)

Having the 2 parts of the wavdj (drums & FX - background sounds) and the kaossilator working at the same time, I  can take sounds off and put on again, true the mixer of the wavdj

Lots of things have change and new ideas come in since I start write in this blog.
I create 2 tracks in ableton with no drums and I imported to wavdj, then I create 2 drum loops to go with the tracks but this time I create the drums in the software of the wavdj.

Questions ??

Next I will post a detailed  Zoom of  this 3 elements and explain exactly how I am working and what I am doing with the wavdj and the kaossilator.

Chapter 17 - Track structure (part 2)

Track structure (part 2)

NO BASS !
After some experiments with bass in the tracks I decided, bass is not very good to be included in this type of track.
The track's structure is minimal, when I drop the bass in the track, most part of the other small sounds are inaudible. I don't know why but this can be because of the frequency of the sound.
Another thing that put me off of the bass... the minimal feeling of the tracks changing totally and I am forced to have a melody, wish to change all the direction I want to take on this project.

At the moment, I am choosing the right sounds of the kaossilator for each background sound and drum loops More updates soooooooon :)

Hello Friends

 Hi Friends

Hello my friends and welcome to my privet blog.
Here is the reason ,I have been ask you your email addresses :)

If you didn't read this blog from star, I will advise you to do.
But what is this ? you wonder...
Well , this is the part where I start to show to my close friends what I been doing and I have a plane...

I like to invite all of you for a music session at my place. Dont ask me when !
Things still have to be well set up and I want to show you the final product, but will not be to long from now.

The reason I start now to contact you , because I have some tracks nearly ready and I will like to show you and to listen your opinions.
Who's best to do that ?? YOU !

I know it can be painful but I can handle some hear plugs just in case :)

Mean time, this was just to push your attention and to keep you involved in the progress of this project.
Till then.. please keep reading as I am close to the end of the first round of tracks.

Speak soon and thank you for pay some attention to the weird shit I do :)

Chapter 14 - Loops VS Kaossilator

Him and Her !!

Kaossilator and WAVDJ .
Now I have the background sounds in the buttons (by now I have 18 backgrounds)
and I have 6 different drum loops in the 6 drum buttons this make:
18 background sounds
6 drum loops
= 3 background sounds for each drum loop, like that I can change the background sound 3 times in 1 track.
They are all at the same 110BPM.

Putting all together and start to play....

After I have both playing at the same time, I start the kaossilator at the same BPM and I make some sound effects; by now, the drums and the background are looping at the same time and the kaossilator sounds are giving a color to the music as I ad many other effects.

As I go along with the sounds and loops , I can play with the mixer of the machine (wavdj) and have the drum loop ,on and off or the background sound or the kaossilator on and off  too.
This is a good help to dont have the same sounds looping for to long.

The kaossilator is a very nice complement for the wavdj.
I have been construct this track with a vision of a Industrial Ambient, so I haver been looking for Industrial sound loops for background and I make the Drum Loops to sound Industrial too but the sounds of the kaossilator make the track much more soft and Ambient.

I recognized that my Drum loops are a bit too (breaks) even be at 110BPM.
(Later I will writ about the Track structure)

This explanation of the track construction, is just the result of my first experience, I probably will be changing things and the structure of the tracks , tempo or other.

3- Backg. VS Drum Loops

Project Start - Backgrounds VS Drum Loops

I did talk about this in the chapter before but I still looking the best way for start the tracks.
The Kaossillator is good to start with sounds but the drums never start on time because wavdj have a big delay, this make the first sounds of the track to be off tempo.
On other hand ,this make a very interesting sound pattern in the melody and is always an improvised sound that will be arranged during the track

After I did some backgrounds and try, I realize that the backgrounds with rhythmic (nuances) sounds are more hard to get at the same drum tempo when I try to mix (background + drum loop) in the machine.

This difficulty didn't happen before with the first background sounds I did ,because they are not so much Industrial .
The first lot of backgrounds I did was more melodic , with long pads and they always go fine with the drum loops at first.
Basically, backgrounds have to be stable sounds and long, not short and rhythmic but I have choose some very rhythmic backgrounds for this Industrial tracks :(

2- Drum Loops

Project Start - Drum Loops

Drum Loops
Part of the wavdj used to change the drums in the program.

I can change all the patterns in the drums , include percussions.
This feature is very limited (as all) the only thing that can be change is the BPMs and the loop patterns, but the instrument sounds will remain the same.

This is the loop part of the wavdj machine.
(here is the drum loops buttons on the machine. 6 different drum loops for each style)


Here is where the things get complicated as this loop machine is not synchronized with nothing.
For this reason ,the background sounds and drum loops have to be exactly at the same BPM.

Next mission is to get this two parts playing at the same time (drums & Background sound) , this require a lots of preciseness to click the button of the effects at the same time the first kick of the drum... Lets see !!

Go well :)
Where how I start the tracks before:

1- I have to start always with the drums
2- Then, I can start the background sound at the same tempo of the beat.
(This is because is no synchronization in the machine.)

But now I do like this: 
1- I will use the KAOSSILATOR to make some noises at the start.
2- I start the drums,
3- I start the background sound.
4- I take off the KAOSSILATOR sounds and delete the first sounds to start new ones wile the first drum loop and background sound is playing...
YES !!

Track is on ;)

Chapter 13 - Project Start

 Project Start - The Intro

After all the story and all the wavdj and Kaossilator presentations, I will start now to be more specific with the project and what I am doing.

First, I need to make:
1 - Background sounds
2- Drum loops
3- Ad 3 background sounds for each drum loop
4- Make short keyboard melodies
5- Make the background sounds at the same tempo of the drum loops in Ableton
(no sounds synchronized here)
6- Found the best sounds in the kaossilator to use in each track.
(I will specify all this later)

This sounds easy, but is not !
The wavdj software have too many bugs and dont work as a professional music program.
The wavdj (machine = console) make delay in the sounds.
(NOTE)  Delay is the time it takes for the sound can actually be heard on the speakers after I press the buttons of the wavdj (machine)

For delay example:
If  I press the keyboard, the sound take about 2 seconds to be hear in the speakers. (delay)
If  I press the FX buttons, the sound take about 1 second to be hear in the speakers. (delay)
If  I press the drum loop button, the sound take about 3 seconds to be hear in the speakers (delay)
This makes a hard job to get the music all synchronized (drums + background sounds + keyboard)
in this case, I have to know exactly the tricks of this machine, but the most important thing is to have the sounds and drum loops at the same tempo.
IF I press the FX button (background sound) just 1 second before or after the beat of the drum loop, the sound will start out of tempo... I really need to be precise here or all the music go in a mess !
Luckily, I am able to stop the sound if I press the button at the wrong time and I can restart again, wish makes kind of a sound intro, wile the drum loop still playing.

Experiments for start.
My first experiment was to make Minimal Ambient music but soon I realize that the drums of the wavdj dont let me make much, as the sounds are the same and just the loops can be changed (as I writ here before) but I did have a go anyway.

My second experiment (still on going) is to make Minimal industrial. A'm a bit more satisfy with the results but still a long way to go as I have to search a lot in the web to find some good free sound loops and after that, I have to put the loops on Ableton to make some arrangements and get the background sounds at the same tempo (bpm) of the drum loops of the wavdj.

My last experiment (I think) will be minimal Ambient but this time with no drum loops , just sounds !

I would never get into this, if I didn't find the kaossilator to be a good supplement for the wavdj.
The fact is, one time I have the wavdj looping the sounds and the drums at the same tempo, I will have time to go into the kaossilator and ad more sounds.
After I have enough sounds playing in both machines, I can go back to the wavdj and change the background sounds, make short melody's, stop the drum loop and drop in again or any other sound playing, because the wavdj have a 6 channel mixer where the sound can be on and off.

In fact, I can go more mad and connect all this to my cd decks mixer, wish have a surround button and will give me the possibility to equalize the sound wile I am play (low, med, high).
But I am not that mad... am I !?
If so, is just a music issue ! :)

Chapter 9 - Drums pad

Drums Pad

A Part from the drum loops in wavdj, the drum pads are other of the cool features of the machine.

They are 6 (pad) buttons
1- Tom 1
2- Tom 2
3- Crash
4- Hi Hats
5- Snare
6- Bass Drum

Very nice and can be useful if the buttons are working fine... but not !
When press, the pads give the sound late (as happen with the korg too)
I click the button and 1 second later, the sound is listen.
No way to make something with this...

If this was working as it should be, it would be great fun.
Again, after I know the machine very well, it is possible to play around with this faulty buttons too, is just a matter of time ;)

I can understand why this WAVDJ was discontinued !

Chapter 4 - The Drum Loops

 The Drum Loops

 By now and wile I was waiting to have my hands on the kaossilator, I start to re-construct some drum loops from the machine software.

WAVDJ have12 different drum loop button styles:
funk, techno, rap / hip hop, dance, jazz / blus, rock, country, alternative, pop, reggae, ragtime, world / new age, and March / polka.
Each one of this styles have 6 different drum loop patterns, this make 36 configurable drum loop patterns in total.
This drum loops are made in 64 bars but can be stretch to 128 bars or how long I want hem to go, as I can change the tempo (bpm) wile I do the beats or in real time wile I play.
Means , I can make a drum with percussions long as I want and will always loop in the bpm I want !
 Fine :)

The sound of the Drum loop is limited to 47 Percussion sounds and is no way to change this sounds, the only thing I can do with the sounds in the drums is change the volume up or down or change the patterns.
I can re-construct all the drum loops in the machine or I can delete all and start from scratch but that is a very long time consuming work !
The drums sounds are very basic, they have the basic kick , hit-hats,crash, tom, etc... and the percussions are basic like : ride bell, cowbell, vibraslap, stick, bongo, triangle, etc... but they are all inside of the same drum board and I just can use this instruments... or not, depending of the patterns I create !

You can see the drums part of the software :

And here you have the drums part in the machine, this, as you may have guest, its all working with the software but the main point is to trigger the sounds in the buttons, the software just carry the sound files to the machine, the trick is to put the sounds inside of the software program to be activated any time I click one of this buttons :)
Basic, I click the button and will play the drum loop I set up in the software ;)

In the case of the drum loops , is no other way than re-construct the drums, beat by beat !
I can not add drum loops from other sources.

 This Drum loops part is versatile but is no way to change the sound of each instrument.
The sound of drums and percussion will have to be always the same sound, I mean... the beats are different but the drum sounds are always the same .(
The only way to change this is to have drum style files in  (.sty files) or .osm files, this (.sty files are used by Yamaha korgs) but I have been looking in the web for some time and I dont see a way to get this files with drum loops other than salsa, pop, rock and other styles not applying to me.

ABOUT THE .STY FILES
This files are pre made with all the sounds and instruments.
I need this files with much more instruments and sounds.
This is the big limitation of the program (machine)

I upload 1 of the .sty files (rock) for reference in case some one can help me out.
If you have any knowledge of this type of files just let me know:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/f9aqkq