Weeklybeats 2016

This week I had another hardware project planned, but due to work schedule I ended unable to have those machines at my disposal, so I migrated to a different idea, using the great and still mostly unknown Ardour Linux DAW... However, last friday I got sick and wasn't able to do much music (or anything else for that matter) in a couple of days.

Finally I dug in my 2009 vaults and found an Ableton sketch full of all the wrong things from a producer standpoint BUT, lets not forget I was under some medication and a soft fever. Long story short, I made this weird piece which for some really strange reason sounded "folky" to me.

Not happy with it, I decided to dump the whole mix (really close to the deadline) and use it as a background for some creepy old tape effect. Little I knew then that my old cassette deck's motor wasn't playing at the proper speed, so when bounced back to Ableton everything was out of sync, and I had to warp the living s**t out of it (remaining just 25 minutes to the deadline).

So... warped up weird glitch song plus real wabbly tape bounces. Fever and a weird text from an ex girlfriend I have not seen in 3 years... Makes any sense? I guess not, but I should be sleeping and sweating anyway.

The Celine Dion tape you could see in the picture is actually the one I use to make this weird tape bounces. It has unknown origin and probably was kept under direct sunlight, because it's wabbly as hell !!!

Feverish

A huge hello to all weeklybeaters out there!!! Glad to see both regulars and new faces around!!!

This is my first submissision, including some original CGI artwork (just started with Blender...)

The whole melody is quite simple, so I ask all of you real piano players out there not to laugh at my really lousy playing. I Kept the uneven timing to give some human feel to the whole thing (I guess) smile

I've been working lately on what I call the "fake modular" technique, which really is just sampling semi-random audio snippets from modular synth videos from Youtube into my brand-new second-hand '94 Akai s3000xl sampler. Then I try to mess with the audio until I have some usable patch (no UNDO and not too much thinking). All samples should be small and fit into one floppy disk if possible. Later I create a simple sequence, bounce it to the DAW, leave it to rest, so next day I could chop it or maybe even dump it back to the hardware sampler and repeat the process.

Audio quality should be OK, but I'm more concern about having fun than "not leaving the digital domain".

The track started with that bass drone you could hear in the backgroud, then I added another fake 606/808 beat made with a Yamaha RM1x (get one, guys, is one of the most underrated cheap boxes out there) and chopped up with the Akai sampler into simple drum breaks. Finally the piano, which with my limited harmonic knowledge was difficult to fit along with the bass. I did some trial and error until it was "kinda listeneable".

All sequencing, FX and mastering was done in Ableton Live 9.5. Four tracks and 3 FX sends with various cross-sends inbetween so feedback was always around the corner, much inspired by fellow WB synthetist OneZero.

Hope you enjoy it. Looking forward to hear your new stuff!!!

Polygonal bloodstream

I cooked this one from an almost finished track that never came to life back in WB'12. Tried to apply everything I've learned in terms of production, but I still fill the song is half baked. Anyway, Weeklybeats is just about that, so we have to throw our "still missing something" creatures out to the world and see what happens.

Not exactly deep bass, but I expect this one has enough low end. The mix could be greatly improved but I just worked on this one a few hours after watching the new "Doctor Strange" Marvel movie (one of my favourite characters) smile

How many songs do you guys have in storage that "are missing that extra instrument" or "the last verse" or "a cleaner mix"... Do you know what I mean, right?

Less work this week. Maybe I'll start to get my life back wink

Have a great one, people. Lots of love from Spain

Prelude to the unexpected

This one started as a last minute jam went bad, but I reworked it and tried to make it funkier and more interesting. Hope you like it!

Hive boogie

Long time ago I started tweaking sounds with my computer and became addicted to the art of sampling. I try to tell small stories with my music, so if images appear in your head when my sound comes out of the speakers, my job is accomplished. 
Thanks for listening. Please let me hear your stories too! 
And, by the way, I believe in sharing, so all my songs are under the Creative Commons licence. Collaborations and remixing are encouraged. 


Feverish

laguna