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 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 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.

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 11 - The software

The Software

This is Horrendous...
This is where the beauty turns into a monster !!

The software is separated into 4 parts
1- Edit Window.
This come as default with 16 channel Instruments. I never used this but here is where all the music can be composed.
Its here where I can create the blocks and create the tracks... iffff (urggg)
* I do not use this

2- Mixer window.
Here is the mixer display, any time I move a button from the machine will show in the screen.
This have a cd room control and I can record outcome sounds into the (Edit Window) plus the machine just work, when I have this mixer window on, If I switch off the software windows, the sound in the machine stop!
* This is the only window open wile I play. (Machine do not work without the software).

3- Style Window.
Here is the Drums and the Korg settings. I can choose the instrument sounds for each button in the korg and I can set up the drum loops as long as I want or change the loop patterns, include more sounds in the drums etc...
* I use this one to make the drum patterns that I will use in the machine and setting up the sounds for the korg.

4- Sound Effect window.
900 sounds can be replaced in this board :) unless !
* This is where all the background sounds are uploaded.

And here is the machine connected...

As you can see, the display and the program are not helpful !

Anyway, if this was a very professional sound Equipment, I probably was not making this blog and I was not much interested to make something different with this machine.

This is the only thing I touch wile I play. I do not need the software after everything is set up in place.

Cool, for less than 20 pounds I get an original toy and I can mess about !!

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.