Driven

Incantation

Sakkara

Your Shadow

Machinedrum MDX + MCL . Recorded from main outputs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idRs3exZhJw

Ceilometer

320kbps MP3 available below:

http://www.valerrecords.com/store/index.html?p=bestofthree.html

Wednesday

Monday

I produced this track in 2011-2012 whilst I was on the verge of getting kicked out of my studio. I didn't think it was good enough to release at the time, played it to nobody and hid it away on my hard drive.

I had completely forgotten about it until now.

The entire composition was arranged and recorded on the Elektron MD.
DSI Tetra was being sequenced by the MD and the audio routed back in to the MD. 

Performed live. Small amount of mastering for the belated 2017 release.

Live MD Set.

(Youtube video available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNQRYdT5QwA )

Gear Used:

Elektron Machinedrum SPS-1 UW MK2+
Davesmith Tetra
MFB Synth 2
RuinWesen Minicommand.

Recorded directly from the stereo outputs of the Machinedrum. All sequencing, mixing and mastering occurs in the machinedrum. No external processing or effects.

----

After performing at a small festival a few months ago as the only live act amongst a collective of djs I was struck by the realization that if I wanted to continue performing live with the MD at the center of my setup I would have to improve the quality of my production.

A lot was learnt from this small gig, particularly that my tracks were not loud enough, basslines and kicks were too low to be heard through the PA speakers, and the tracks seemed to lack the build and structure that would enable them to move the dfloor. What was rockin on my monitors at home, was having little effect on the crowd that I played for. My music was lost in amongst the loudness and flawless production of the tracks the djs before and after me played.

The festival gig was a catalyst for change. I decided to start building a new set with the motivation to create BIG sounds, on the MD, that would translate well in a live environment. In addition to the production I wanted to have better arrangement, and improved transitions.

Experimentation with lfo controlled dynamics on certain effects produced unexpectedly good results. Coupled with the new Dynamix Compression algorithm I stumbled across a sound which I never expected the MD to be able to make. The MD stopped sounding like the MD and more like the tracks that I always wanted to create.

- Justin

JValer Live (Machinedrum Liveset) - 7/07/2010

Drift is sequenced and mixed live on the Elektron Machinedrum SPS-1 UW MK2+ together with a Dave Smith TETRA.

The track uses an epic 22 machinedrum patterns for the entire arrangement (A new world record for me). Initially my focus was to escape the typical percussive sounds of the MD by exploring sample based percussion but it expanded into a much larger project.  The arrangement has taken about a month to put together and has resulted in many reworking of the original structure. Looking back I wonder if spending this much time was such a good thing. Much of the emotional energy I had surrounding the original melodic ideas has long since evaded me. In any case, Drift for the most part is done and i'm happy with the mixing and arrangement.

Almost all the percussive sounds you hear are samples of objects from around my life, where i spent an afternoon with a minidisc and cheap microphone banging, shaking and tapping any object i could find.
The bassline in the later part of the track is created using looped wavform subtractive synthesis with LFO modulating filter cutoff. This is a very very powerful tool for creating great sounding monophonic basslines in the MD that have a good amount of harmonic content.

Drift is performed live and recorded directly from the MD master outputs with no additional external processing or effects.

- J


Drift (MD + TETRA)

Live:
http://www.youtube.com/justinvaler

Load:
http://github.com/jmamma

Justin Valer

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