First day playing around with Abelton Live

First day

Original composition from Summer 2006 at Dorian Music Camp in Decorah Iowa.

As a follow-up, this recording was performed as the intro piece in the "Music in the Shape of a Pear II" composition studio concert on March 6, 2007: https://www.luther.edu/composition/mitsoap/iii/

I began by creating a one-measure rhythm. Then I shifted all the beats to the left one-sixteenth note and added a sixteenth note at the end. I repeated this shifting until it was all sixteenth notes. After that, I found a chord pattern that I liked. Next, I selected notes from each chord and put them to the rhythm. Finally, I added accompaniment and put it together.

Survival of the Fly

Day 3 playing with Ableton.
This time, all the tracks are audio tracks. Instead of recording MIDI information, this records raw audio output from my MOX8 keyboard. I was able to warp some of the time slightly, but couldn't go in to fix any wrong notes.

I started with a Session of six bass+beat arpeggio patterns from the keyboard and a couple varieties of background chord pads. Using the session view to picking between these samples, recorded straight through an improvised 5-minute "Lead" melody voice in the arrangement as a single recording. 

Afterwards, I added interjections of a secondary accompaniment and sometimes re-recorded pieces of these. Adjusted a few of the levels and tweaked some of when the transitions were between the drums/chords. Enjoy!

Video of playback: https://youtu.be/Jc9bOmQh3Rg

Day three - Piano

Day 4, now with the Ableton Push controller! Had a bit of a better set of beats to start with, enjoyed the flexibility of recording new variations of different tracks, still generally using my actual keyboard for MIDI input but the Push as the session controller.

Future: better dynamics/contrasts in sounds, this sounds a bit loud and constantly full at times. Explore other instruments/effects, and more of what Push can do.

Video link: https://youtu.be/R-MnnJVk4DE

Day four - Push

Got the last of my toys for now, a Seaboard RISE. Experimenting with string sounds and expression using it vs. the best string sound I could find on my more standard keyboard. Its touch/pressure/strike/slide/glide sensitivity allows for a lot more expression :)

See video for more about what's going on: https://youtu.be/Gf88xSIKGUI

Day 5 - Seaboard Strings

Combining several pieces together: including drums and clip launching on the Push, basic midi input for loops from my keyboard, and a expressive, ethereal overtones from the Seaboard. Ended up recording the seaboard strings as an audio file, so wasn't able to go back and correct some minor pitch weirdness, still need to figure out the best workflow for recording clips with it since it takes up so many tracks for the different expressions. 

Probably a bit long, but live captured what I was playing around with; Tweaked things a bit but didn't really adjust overall structure.

Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiEWxXpY_T6lTPz4Oa0w2Sg

Day 6 - Combined

Experimenting with the Seaboard and decided to record some of what I was playing :) The Equator instrument panel does a good job showing the various dimensions of touch it records that it was worth including in a video recording.

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/jBKNUOBcg3g

Day 7 - Seaboard Solo

Tried creating a song "entirely" on the Push 2. All of the drums and melodies / pads were inputted on the controller, then performed using the session mode. Tried showing how to record some new stuff on the fly but ended up messing up the underlying Ableton arrangement recording at that point

Thus, this is audio capture from a live video: watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrRQPlVWIu4

Day 8 - Push Production: Beats + Melodies [Live recording]

Playing around starting with a (6+6+4) 2-bar pattern. Feels a little flat but didn't spend much time playing with the instruments beyond pretty pure synths.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/C_uxe7ZhpsI

#9: 6+6+4

Single playthrough recording, playing around improvising on the keyboard

larsj