Project Zoom in

 Zoom into the Track Project

I'm going to take a close look at what I do to construct a track.
(NOTE: This may change until I have the first track ready to show) But anyway, these are the main buttons I use to construct a track.
Composition:
1 Drum loop
3 backgrounds
3 different sound patterns on the kaossilator

Drums

The first 2 lines of 6 buttons are the styles. The third line of buttons is the drums for each style. If I click the first button in the first line, I will have six different drum loops in the third line of buttons. This happens with all the style buttons.

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

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, where I have uploaded the background sounds I want. This is not synchronised. I have to click the button at the same time as the crash in the drum loop, because they play as if they are synchronised. (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 simultaneously (tempo - BPM).

Kaossilator

I have chosen 6 or 7 sounds that complement the drum and background. The sounds of the kaossilator really transform all the feeling of the track once I start to apply sound FX. Sure, I can put more drums with the kaossilator.

Mixer

The mixer is where everything comes together. It's all connected on wavdj channels, I can drop the sound of any one of these loops in and out without needing 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 needing to turn off the loop totally; he will be synchronised again when I drop him in.)



After playing around for some time, I changed to the next background.
In this case, I stop the first background loop completely and leave the drums and kaossilator running. together.

Now, I start the second background. Sometimes I need to start the background sound and stop a few times because I cannot always get the sound to start precisely at the same tempo as the drums. However, I usually get it right after 2 or 3 attempts, which makes for a nice intro to the sound as well.

Next, I hope I can post a track :)
I am delaying this because there are many things that can be explored and utilised in WavDJ that I want to try before presenting the final result.

Will be here at some point !

Chapter 17 - Track structure (part 2)

Track structure (part 2)

NO BASS !
After some experiments with bass in the tracks, I decided that 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 could be due to the frequency of the sound.
Another thing that put me off the bass was the minimal feeling of the tracks changing totally, and I was forced to have a melody; I wish to change all the direction I want to take on this project.

Currently, I am selecting the appropriate sounds for the Kaossilator for each background sound and drum loop. More updates soooooooon :)

Chapter 13 - Project Start

 Project Start - The Intro

After all the story and all the WaveDJ and Kaossilator presentations, I will now be more specific about 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 as the drum loops in Ableton
(No sounds synchronised here.)
6- Found the best sounds in the kaossilator to use in each track.
(I will specify all this later)

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

For a delay example:
If I press the keyboard, the sound takes about 2 seconds to be heard in the speakers. (delay)
If I press the FX buttons, the sound takes about 1 second to be heard in the speakers. (delay)
If  I press the drum loop button, the sound takes about 3 seconds to be heard in the speakers (delay)
This makes it a hard job to get the music all synchronised (drums + background sounds + keyboard)
In this case, I have to know precisely 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 will go into a mess!
Luckily, I can stop the sound if I press the button at the wrong time and restart again, which plays a sound intro while the drum loop continues to play.

Experiments to start.
My first experiment was to create Minimal Ambient music, but I soon realised that the drums of the wavetable don't allow me to make much, as the sounds are the same and only the loops can be changed (as I mentioned earlier). However, I did give it a try anyway.

My second experiment (still ongoing) 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 will be minimal Ambient, but this time without drum loops, just sounds.

I would never have got into this if I hadn't found the Kaossilator to be a good supplement for the WaveDJ.
One time, I had the WAVDJ looping the sounds and the drums at the same tempo, I would have time to go into the Kaossilator and add more sounds.
After I have enough sounds playing in both machines, I can return to the wavdj and adjust the background sounds, create short melodies, pause the drum loop, and drop in another sound or any other playing sound, because the wavdj features a 6-channel mixer where the sound can be turned on and off.

In fact, I can go mad and connect all this to my CD decks mixer, which has a surround button and will give me the possibility to equalise the sound while I am playing (low, med, high).
But I am not that mad... am I !?
If so, it's just a music issue! :)

Chapter 6 - Mixer

Mixer ins and outs

The 6 volumes of the WAVDJ mixer are:
1- Microphone
2- fx
3- Keyboard
4 - CD room
5 - Line in
6 - seq (drums volume)
All of these are individual volume channels and they can be switched on or off.
On the side of this is the master volume, which controls all the sound levels of the machine.

Currently, I am using just the FX, Key, Line In, and Seq.

I can connect something else in the MIC line in or use the CDROOM to add other sounds, but that will be too much for just 2 hands and 1 head :)

Ideas? Suggestions?