Combining Music Production and Live Synths on the MPC is an absolute vibe and one that has completely revolutionised how I understood music production.

Following hanging up my Headphones after spending 6 Months as a DJ in Sharm El Sheikh in 2012 I fell out of love with Music a little for a while and it wasn't hitting the same way it used to.

Fast forward 6 Years to 2018 and I seamlessly replaced the Creative Outlet by taking up Photography. You can find plenty of this over at @vagrantmediauk. Here you'll find my Landscape Photography and the backdrops for what will soon become Live outdoor streams I have seen Twitch later uploaded to YouTube as I seek to merge the trinity of DSLR Photography and Editing, Video and Content Creation and Music Production into a beautiful melting pot of Art and Education as I'll be possibly doing Tutorials across all 3 on how I get my results and how my brain works which isn't normal. 

Up until around 2 Months ago I hadn't even looked at a Cubase DAW, a pair of Pioneers or a Synthesiser and then a few simple twists of fate and secret laws of attraction along with finally meeting Dimitri have reinvigorated my love for Music. Starting with @synths_and_wood. The very reason I am able to Produce Music. My mentor my friend and my musical Yin to the Musical Yang I bring to the table.

After a visit to his a few weeks back I left feeling full of love for Music again inspired to create and he decided to tell me about the @mpclive and well it's fucking blown me away. After watching about 1200000 hours of YouTube Videos I committed to buying it 12 days ago and I haven't even pressed record yet.

I'm so used to using a DAW such as Cubase all this freedom and accessibility to resample and manipulate in a standalone unit has left me desperate to understand the Technical elements of maniupulating it to its potential so as not to disturb my creative flow. Nothing worse than hitting a flow state then not knowing how to make a Bassline Sidechain so have to scour YouTube to learn and by the time you do you forget where you were going on that journey. (Based Entirely On True Events. 

At 9 years old the first cassette I bought was TechnoHead - I Wanna Be A Hippy. You can listen here if you don't know it as it's not your typical 9 year olds taste. 99p Our Price. Sadly no longer.

From here on in Dance Music was running through my blood. Avidly collecting Subliminal Sessions Compilations whos founder is my favourite DJ, Showman and Entertainer Erick Morillo.

At 15 I bought a mates Numark Belt Drive Vinyl Turntables and set upon the art of beatmatching with no focus on tune selection at all. Just get one track together with the other. After 6 monthsd the needle snapped I'd learnt the fundamental skill of beatmatching (Now slowly becoming redundant due to ridiculously fast moving technology)

Through college my only focus for music was travelling around the Country with an amazing circle of friends sampling the finest (and not so finest) venues and nights in the UK. From WareHouse project to a Creamfields Hat trick to Nation in Liverpool for Boxing Day shenanigans MUSIC was everything.

I invested in FruityLoops and some Vengeance Packs and Basic VSTs and set upon creating my own GooseBump moments.

As thought the story had been written for me I then befriended who I now consider my main influence in production whom without his guidance I would still be the guy playing melodies on a PianoApp on my iPhone.

Mike Smith AKA MassForce Records www.massforcerecords.com is a producer, remixer, sound engineer and all round legend who mentored me through the  art of Production from import to export.

A true friend who I will never forget and have also created a couple of tracks with that you can hear on my SoundCloud Page.

From FruityLoops I moved to Cubase and have now set up shop with the AKAI MPC Live 2, AKAI Midi Mix and Novation Launchkey MK2 with the Apple iPad Pro as an Input.

www.thevagrant.co.uk

The Vagrant - Waves.mp3

A haunting chord driven Dub with Progressive Bassline and a haunting choir style building synth riff. 

The VagrANT - Mind Over Matter.wav

Airklipz x The VagrANT - Mind Over Matter.wav

Mixing Linkin Park In The End with Ini Kamoze Here Comes The Hotstepper and Shakedown At Night for a BigRoom Melodic House Anthem 

The Vagrant - Here Comes The End

ONDA x Green Velvet - Flash 2024 MPC Rework

ONDA - Progress

My first finished track in over 2 years.
Still needs some final tweaks but I was itching to get some feedback.
Have a listen and share, comment, like.


The Vagrant - VagrantMediaUK

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