Not dead project

Hello, 2012 !!

I know... it's now the end of the year and I haven't written anything since 2011.
Not because I didn't work on this project, but because I have maturing ideas and making different plans.
So.. I decided to make many changes and move forward to bring this project out of the studio. How?

Since I bought the Docking station for the laptop, I believed the machine would work with it, but unfortunately, there was too much delay between the sound backgrounds and the drums, and the beat was running out on the 8th bar.
If you lost this chapter, read here:
http://wavdj.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/update.html

What to do !? If I can not use the Drums of the machine, I will not use but I will not drop this project and abandon everything only because the drums are going out of synch, so I decided to not use the drums of the machine and this will let me with only the background sounds wish now... are complete tracks made on Ableton projected to be overdub with the sounds of the kaossilator into a mixer ;)

I have many ideas, but I am writing this now to let you know that this project has only just begun.

Next, I have 108 new tracks (backgrounds) to work on in Ableton and set up to upload into the machine. From there, I will return to leave more information. Until then,
Keep it experimental and ... mental ;)

Chapter 16 - Track Structure (part 1)

Track Structure Experiments

Finally, I catch up with myself :)

This is where I am writing as I do the things!
I am at the moment in the music structure, I have recorded the sounds, I have listened, I have made 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* The stars of the tracks are always the same way.
This is because I am working with no synchroniser.
First, I play the Improvised sound made in the Kaossilator, next
The Drums, next
The background, next
more sounds.
This is okay and probably will be the total structure of the track, but listening to 10 tracks that start and finish the same way can be too much. I think!


2* I listen to the tracks and they need bass... again, my girlfriend says no !
I will add more bass to the tracks and listen to 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, which helps to create movement in the track.


4* The end of the track, like the start, it's always the same way.


  The 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 different ways to finish the track; the structure will always have to be this way, 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 the drums. The sound looping with the drums will sound desynchronised at first, but after some time, looping together, they start to transform into a synchronised rhythm.
Next comes the background sound, which works exactly at the same tempo as the drum loop.
Here, the melody is created already from nothing, and I am just following the vibe by now:)

This makes all the difference because all the music produced is recorded just once and is never the same again, totally unpredictable. Although the sounds may be the same, the melody and effects are always played differently, creating a charming and mental ambient vibe to hear.
Yes, very nice  :)

BUT
Start the track with the drums, it's too violent!
For this reason, I start the track with the FX sound of the Kaossilator.
This even though the drums will come next and not synchronised 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 the first two sounds play together, I come in with the background sound. Then, after the background sound, I apply more sounds, change the rhythm, and so on.

Very fun :)

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)
I have six different drum loops assigned to the six drum buttons. This makes:
18 background sounds
6 drum loops
= 3 background sounds for each drum loop, so 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 exact 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 colour to the music as I add many other effects.

As I go along with the sounds and loops, I can adjust the mixer on the machine (WavDJ) and toggle the drum loop, background sound, or Kaossilator on and off.
This helps prevent the same sounds from looping for too long.

The kaossilator is a very nice complement for the wavdj.
I have been constructing this track with a vision of an Industrial Ambient style, so I have been looking for Industrial sound loops for the background. I made the Drum Loops sound Industrial, too, but the sounds of the Kaossilator make the track much softer and more Ambient.

My Drum loops are a bit too (breaks) even at 110BPM.
(Later I will write about the Track structure)

This explanation of the track construction is the result of my first experience; I will likely modify aspects such as the structure of the tracks, tempo, or other elements.

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 5 - Keyboard instruments

Keyboard Instruments

The keyboard instruments have 18 buttons, each of which represents a channel on the keyboard.

This is the MIDI part of the software program that works in conjunction with the Korg!
In the software, I have 16 channels, each representing a sound in the channel buttons of the keyboard.
For example, I can choose one instrument for the first channel, but I can select from 127 different instruments for each subsequent channel.

That means I can have the sound I want in the keyboard if I select the instrument in the channel button.
Again, these 127 instruments are fixed sounds, but this time, because they are to be played with the keyboard, I can change the octaves of the keyboard and get different sounds.

This is not my favourite part of the machine.

1-I am not brilliant with keyboards.

2 -The keyboard has an off tempo. He just does the sound after I have pressed the keyboard tab.

There are 18 buttons and 16 channels for instruments; the 2 extra buttons are:
(see image 1)
1 - Enter silence (wish stops the FX sound from the WAV Effects panel) 
2- The FX button, this one triggers the sound of the WAV effect playing and passes it to the keyboard, which I wish aloud to me to play the FX sounds in the Korg.
3- Channel 10 is always Drums. I can also trigger the drums on the keyboard, but in this case, the octaves do not change the drum sounds.

This part includes the FX channels and the wheel to create pitch bend and scratch effects.

As you can see, the extra "Silence" and "FX" buttons allow me to do what I have explained before!

 

I do not plan to make much use of the wheel scratch feature of the machine, unless I need to add some extra sounds while changing the background sound or other elements.

Chapter 4 - The Drum Loops

 The Drum Loops

  While I was waiting to get my hands on the kaossilator, I started reconstructing some drum loops using the machine's software.

WAVDJ has 12 different drum loop button styles:
Funk, techno, rap/hip hop, dance, jazz/blues, rock, country, alternative, pop, reggae, ragtime, world / new age, and March/polka.
Each of these styles has six different drum loop patterns, making a total of 36 configurable drum loop patterns.
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.
That means I can create a drum with percussion as long as I want and will continuously loop it at the bpm I want.
 Fine :)

The sound of the Drum loop is limited to 47 Percussion sounds, and there is no way to change these sounds. The only thing I can do with the sounds in the drums is adjust the volume up or down or change the patterns.
I can reconstruct all the drum loops in the machine, or I can delete them all and start from scratch, but that is a very time-consuming process.
The drums sounds are very basic, they have the basic kick, hit-hats,c rash, 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 drum 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 it will play the drum loop I set up in the software ;)

In the case of the drum loops , there is no other way than to reconstruct the drums, beat by beat!
I can not add drum loops from other sources.

  This Drum loop part is versatile, but there is no way to change the sound of each instrument.
The sound of drums and percussion will always remain the same; 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
These files are pre-made with all the sounds and instruments.
I need these files with many more instruments and sounds.
This is the significant limitation of the program (machine)

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

(Link outdated)

Chapter 3

THE RETURN OF THE BEAST

Meanwhile, I was waiting for my Birthday present :) I put my hands back on the machine and start to reconnect everything to the PC. This time, I didn't connect with my music PC; I connected to my personal PC, an old IBM.

This time, there were no problems at all!
I performed the exact same installation of the program and the drive for XP, and the program and machine started to work perfectly.
So, what was the reason I had so much trouble getting this machine to work on my music PC and on this one was working fine?
The problem was because the mouse socket was connected with a USB adapter and the pins of the plug from the machine didn't get precisely the same effect and provoke impaired function...

Luckily, I found 1 of these Machines for sale on eBay and I got all the images to post here.

Again, the sale of this WAVDJ (machine) was without the software !!

Here are the plugs I mentioned. Many of the PCs these days do not have this connection, now it's all in USB.

All its plug and working fine for now :)