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Re: [microsound] Getting started

Although I do use loops at times, they tend to have lots of variations in them.

My main way of working with Live at this time is as a DAW, using the
Arrangement view more than anything and multitracking real instruments
and vocals. as well as midi computer parts mostly played with Ableton
Operator and the built in modules.

For instance, I have been spending the past six months or so working
on a compilation album titled Potluckin' which features friends of
mine who come to my apartment in Kansas City and lay down a quick
'demo' track. Basically, it's combining folk/punk music sensibilities
(Clash/Slits punk, not NOFX) with field recordings and microsound
elements. I've experimented with using click tracks and programmed
beats, as well as organic recordings that are all played live without
a grid to lock it down.

It's fun to do and very educational. If they are a good songwriter and
already play an instrument, we can get started quickly by mapping out
the first melodic and harmonic skeleton of the track, and subsequently
develop many layers to the recording, and make it subtly interesting.
If the person is a less-developed musician, say only has the idea of a
melody and lyrics of a song, I will sit down with them and either play
chords on guitar or 'piano' (my DX7 controlling a piano multisample
kit) and find out the chords that fit their singing. I also offer
suggestions to the structural components of the song such as phrasing
of lyrics, voicing of melody/harmony, rhythmic accompaniment,
macro/micro structure, frilly algorithmic microsonic garnishes, etc.

I have an example of a very simple folk song that a friend of mine
wrote and I produced using only Ableton Live and some acoustic
instruments. It's on a MySpace page (he hasn't gotten into Virb yet,
unfortunately), but this is more of an example of how I use Live as a
DAW than a plug for a MySpace page. Please take no grief at the
following link:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=182942624

Again, this is an example of using Live as a production environment
for a pop song. It's not my music, but I did slip in a bit of my own
flavor into it, however subtle!

Over and out,

~Kyle




On 5/15/07, isjtar <list@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


> Right now I use Ableton Live because it suits my needs for a DAW that
> has a highly flexible set of optimized DSP tools bundled with it, and
> that alone is enough to satisfy most of my creative energies
> musically. It will probably happen some day that I will use another
> software for everything, and hopefully it will be open sourced. As for
> right now, I am still enjoying the benefits of a bit of capitalism to
> speed up the development cycle of proprietary software.
>
> But the way that I use Live is _COMPLETELY_ informed from several
> years of strain and sweat over things like Pd and Csound, using books
> like Richard Bourlanger's edited The Csound Book, the Dodge & Jerse
> book, and also the tomes of Curtis Roads.

nice, i've been wondering about that. is your music loop based?
i only checked out ableton a very long while ago and it was too heavy
on my computer.
i was always wondering if you can use it in such a way to make not so
loopy stuff.


>
> ~Kyle
> On 5/15/07, Frank Barknecht <fbar@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Hallo,
>> isjtar hat gesagt: // isjtar wrote:
>>
>> > agreed there is stuff and you can abuse the max docs but:
>> > On May 15, 2007, at 11:13 AM, Benedikt Koehler wrote:
>> >
>> > >Hi,
>> > >
>> > >>But then for basic stuff you can also just abuse the Max docs to
>> > >>learn
>> > >>Pd. Both programs share very similar basics. At least I
>> learned a lot
>> > >>from the popular Max courses like Peter Elsea's stuff, and I
>> keep a
>> > >>Max-manual-pdf in reach.
>> > >
>> > >and then there's always Puckette's "Theory and Technique of
>> Electronic
>> > >Music" which has many examples done (of course) in Pd.
>> > that book is seriously not didactical for beginners however
>> > theretically balanced it is.
>>
>> I must say, I learned Pd also from books not about Pd at all, like
>> Dodge/Jerse's "Computer Music" etc.
>>
>> Pd itself, like Max, is dead simple to use, but like many instruments
>> difficult to master. But the basics of Pd can be learned in a couple
>> of evenings. Everony can quickly learn what [osc~] is and connect it
>> to [dac~]. The problem then is: What more to do with it? And for that
>> you need to work on your theoretical background for example using
>> books like mentioned.
>>
>> Ciao
>> --
>>  Frank Barknecht                 _ ______footils.org_ __goto10.org__
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
> http://theradioproject.com
> http://perhapsidid.blogspot.com
>
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--

http://theradioproject.com
http://perhapsidid.blogspot.com

(((())))(()()((((((((()())))()(((((((())()()())())))
(())))))(()))))))))))))(((((((((((()()))))))))((())))
))(((((((((((())))())))))))))))))))__________
_____())))))(((((((((((((()))))))))))_______
((((((())))))))))))((((((((000)))oOOOOOO

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