A collection of songs I made using one of my favorite synths of all time, Teenage Engineering OP-1.  A couple of them were augmented inside Ableton Live, but even those tracks began in the OP-1 and much of the creation process happened in the OP-1.

OP-1 Tracks

Despite the somber mood of this track, you should still be able to find a few 'touches' of blue across it … hopefully.

With a touch of blue...

With A Touch Of Blue

A track made with all Brian Funk instruments!!!

Roll North

Just a short and simple piece only using 4 adjusted presets of Brian Funks - Baby, Baby Grand Piano sample pack

Brian's Piano

To the sky and beyond. A tune inspired by and written only using the sounds from the Brian Funk SK-1 Ableton Pack.

https://brianfunk.com/blog/casio-sk1

SKybound

My son Corm made the pads, bassline, and beat around an old melody of mine! 
So sick!

Undaunted [Corm Cut]

A groovy tune with a fun switch-up. I was listening to a lot of Soichi Terada and Shinichiro Yokota while I made this track. You can probably hear the influence.

Loud Enough

Levels

This is the first "A-side" I made with my OP-1.  Features samples from Salt n Pepa and random gibberish.  The last bit  (about 4:15) was recorded sitting on a rock by a stream (the stream was sampled of course), ah the joys of portability.

One Day- OP-1 a-side

Apophenia

Ataraxis

This track was recorded on the OP-1.  I realized last  night that you can use the mic to record anything into the tape recorder, so I played guitar and sang right into it.  

Come on Home OP-1

This is a little acoustic track recorded on the OP-1 during the most brutal heatwave ever (I think).  Everything was recorded right into the built in mic on the OP-1 and you can hear the summer bugs bugging out on the vocal tracks.  Those bugs were pissed because it's so hot out. 

Always Mine/Always Yours OP-1

228 Million Dollars was recorded on the Teenage Engineering OP-1 and finished in Ableton Live.  All sounds were created using the OP-1's built-in synths and FM radio. Visit http://bit.ly/freesynth120 to download a free Ableton Live Pack featuring all the sounds in this track.  

228 Million Dollars

Hate The Crime

In a galaxy not far away, around a dying star, lies the orbit of a feline fortress- a planet just for us!
In a race against the expanding outer layers of our sun, we must open every portal until a brand new world is won. 
What evil may come?

Cloaked claws, powerful paws,
Veiled in magic mystery, our incantations rise.
Cloaked claws, this is our cause!
Be it fate or destiny, our future is in the sky.

Cloaked Claws

My mom and I loved potatoes so I was thinking about the way in Dia de Los Muertos you pay homage to those we've lost along the voyage and thought I'd find a way to get that into the song. The intent of this song was to relate to the general malaise we can experience at times after we've lost someone really important in our lives like our moms.  Sometimes the malaise has no strong emotion to it, just a sense of emptiness but you can take away your own meaning to any song....  


Haven’t slept so well since my mom died
Tried to eat french fries, my stomach just capsized

All the news just came too fast
Couldn’t make it last, we have a beautiful past

All these memories flow, like an ice floe
Like a lost boat, never coming home

Ballerina slippers stored in a basement bin
Remembering when, you had dreams

High above, the petrichor rain
Angels sang, to the moon
Blue heron swoon, searching for food
Sorting pebbles, and beads, odd trinkets to the sea

Of lives, lost in hate, a perfect escape
For insecure rage, tumbling down, a mountainous wave
Carrying all our ancestors, safely to their enclave by the sea

Milk and honey, an apple seed,
Pomegranates ripen, olives brighten
Our garden glistens, nobody knows what it’s like when no one listens
To what we’ve seen

Haven’t slept so well since my mom died,
Guess I’ll eat french fries, my stomach’s half its size

I carry the pain in my back now, under my heart now,
from my neck down to my toes

Planted roses in your name, tulips bloom, every spring
But things just aren’t the same, hold my heart, in a sling

Carry forward what you taught me,
Mensch to be, in your eyes

Haven’t slept so well since my mom died,
Guess I’ll eat french fries


haven't slept so well since my mom died

Inner Dialog

"All of My Life (I Have Been Waiting For You)" was recorded outside in a screen house around midnight 8/18/12 on Long Island, New York.  Written and recorded by AfroDJMac and SuperKid.  Recorded on the Teenage Engineering OP-1, using its internal microphone for guitars, vocals, and percussion.  Keyboard added inside Ableton Live with the AfroDJMac CP-35 Pack (free download of that instrument here: http://bit.ly/freesynth9)  

Lyrics:

It's alright Tonight
You'll be home before long
All of my life I have been waiting for you
When I'm alone I dream of you
Before you go make sure you know
All of my life I have been waiting for you

http://twitter.com/superkid_3d
http://afrodjmac.com

All of My Life (with SuperKid)

Musician, Producer, and Educator from New York. 
Host of the Music Production Podcast. 
Author of 5-Minute Music Producer. 
Berklee Online teacher. 
Ableton Certified Trainer.

Inner Dialog

Brian Funk

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