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 16 - Track Structure (part 1)

Track Structure Experiments

Finally I catch up with my self :)

This is where I am writing as I am doing the things !
I am at the moment in the music structure, I have recorded the sounds and I have listen, I took some decisions and I will need to change:
1* Start of the track
2* Use more bass
3* Make more unrecorded sound movements with the Kaossilator

4* End of the Track

The reasons are:

1* Star of the tracks are always the same way.
This is because I am working with no synchronizer.
First I play the Improvised sound made in the kaossilator, next
The Drums , next
The background, next
more sounds.
This is ok and probably will be the total structure of the track but listen 10 tracks starting the same way and finish the same way can be a bit too much !?  I think !


2* I listen the tracks and they need bass... again, my girlfriend , say no !
I will try to use some more bass in the tracks and listen how it sounds.

3* Make more unrecorded sound movements with the Kaossilator.
Some low parts in the track need to use more (spare) sound FX, this helps to create movement in the track.


4* The end of the track, like the start, its always the same way.


 End of the track is the same, always !
Always start with the drums and finish with the drums.
At the end I have to switch off
The background, next,
The FX and at the end ,
The drums.

I can find some different ways to finish the track, the structure will have to be always like this but I can use other effects to cover the basic structure at the end.

* Track Structure
I start with a Kaossilator sound and next,,come in the drums. The sound looping with the drums will sound desynchronized for a start but after some time looping together, they start to transform into a synchronized rhythm.
Next come the background sound, that works exactly at the same tempo of the drum loop.
Here, the melody is created already from nothing and I am just follow the vibe by now:)

This makes all the difference because all the music produced , is produced and recorded just one time and is never the same again, totally unpredictable, can be the same sounds but the melody and effects are always played in a different way and this create a ambient vibe very nice and mental to hear.
Yes, very nice  :)

BUT
Start the track with the drums, its too violent !
For this reason, I start the track with the FX sound of the Kaossilator.
This despy the fact, that the drums will come next and not synchronized with the sound played, but the drum loops + the FX, soon start to make sense in your head :) :) and at this moment, it is just a melody created with the FX and the drums.
After this first 2 sounds are playing together, I come in with the background sound and after the background sounds , then I apply more sounds , change the rhythm, etc...

Very fun :)

Chapter 15 - Add Instruments

New Instruments Experiments.

I ad a friend visited me during a weekend, he is a shy musician but have a lot of instruments including lots of drums (as it is a drummer:)

My friend bring me a Micro Korg

The Micro Korg
Its very good but too limited to work.
Its nice to take some sounds but just that !
Its a vocoder too and that is good for voices as some sounds. Can make a very original effect in the music.
Its a very good equipment for live performances but not in the style of the music I try to make here.
I will say, its more a (techno minded) music machine



a Mixer

The Mixer
Here we connected everything.


and a Kaoss Pad

The Kaoss pad
It can be very useful to make some final effects in the total music or can make small variations in the final sound played. He can make some extra sounds on top and other special effects.
With Kaoss pad, I think is good just to make some very small changes in the total sound but is the only one I can see included as a 1 more instrument.

For now, my friend leave me the Kaoss Pad for me to have a try but he will take it back in some months time.
I end up do not use this much.

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 7 - Display

LCD Display

This part of the machine is not very useful.
The only information display in the LCD is numbers showing the time the machine is on, and have a (kind of) spiral that show the tempo just moving over and over ,don't stop.
This is what I call a display with un-useful information !!

This other part of the machine is where is suppose to be writ the music blocks ,copy and past into the software, if I was interested to make the music and record the patterns into the program. I do not want to work that way !

This can be useful if I was doing tracks in the software program but I save myself of that nightmare.

My plane is to use the machine to play the music not the software program to make the music ;)

Basic, I can make a patter and record in blocks and then play all together.

This is the main point of this music program, wish is old and not useful at all.

Chapter 6 - Mixer

Mixer ins and outs

The 6 volume of the WAVDJ mixer are:
1- Microphone
2- fx
3- Keyboard
4 - CDroom
5 - Line in
6 - seq (drums volume)
All of this are individual volume channels and they can be switch on or off.
On the side of this, is the master volume, this one command all the sound level of the machine.

At the moment , 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 ?