OK, so this is what happened when a friend popped over with his new Akai APC Mini.
We called it fusion because it was two minds creating music whilst eating curry and drinking beer.
The only other things used in the making were an M-Audio "Axiom 25" controller keyboard, Ableton Live Lite 9, Steinberg UR22 Audio Interface and a pair of KRK Rokit RP5 Monitors.

The piece is simple but catchy and......well it gets a little crazy in places with some whacky effects, but for some reason, we love it and we loved creating it.

Happy playing people!

Fusion

Take a relaxing dive in space and see if you can hear the alien whales singing!

Simple harmonic piece I created with chords and then made sound far more complicated using Ableton Live 9 effects and the amazing Hybrid 3 Synth by AIR

Dive In Space

This is a sample of me experimenting with the Arpeggiator function in Garageband.

I crafted a few simple midi bass lines and chord sequences then got to work with the effects, what do you think?

Personally, I think it has good EDM potential.

The Arp Experiment (Short)

This is a short clip taken from a jam session with a mate.

We recorded his acoustic guitar live as I played the synth but we had the baseline and drums laid down already and looped them to jam too.

Good fun and this track has a proper 80s synth / soft rock feel to it!

P&R 80's Acoustic Rock

I know it's a bit pants, but practice makes perfect apparently, and I wanted to practice writing midi scores without quantising everything, so I picked an old classic 'choon' and this is what my crazy brain came up with.

Everything done using Ableton Live 9 with various plug-ins, an M-Audio Axiom 25 Controller, an Akai APC Mini launchpad and my trusty Apple MacBook Pro.  

BASSLINE SETS / CLIPS:
Grid set at 1/32 and drew all the notes in, stretching some and cutting others to get the rapid short or extended notes, then created the effects using "Beat Mosaic" through a low pass filter, un-synchronising the LFO and adjusting the Waveform, Shape etc until I was happy with it.  

CHORD SETS / CLIPS: 
I used a superb plug-in called "Lokomotiv" to create the synth sound I wanted, then added a simple Delay, and just played around until I got the delay bouncing back and fourth between the left / right channels.
I then added a compressor and side-chained it to the drum channel, then adjusted the Threshold, Wet/Dry, Release, Attack etc to give it more bounce. 
Again I set the grid to 1/32 for more note flexibility, then drew in the note lengths, velocity etc.

DRUMS CLIPS:
For the drums, I simply chucked a selection of great samples from KJ Sawka Mad Beats.

ATMOSPHERICS:
I experimented with a sample of someone swimming through open water, lots of noise and splashing can be heard if you listen closely, no idea what I was thinking, but it was fun to do.

I Need Your Lovin - My Midi Mash Up

OK, when I started this project, I named the song "Numanoid", in honour of a huge inspiration and a massive part of my music growing up, but somewhere along the way the music took a turn and I realised so many other major inspirations were creeping their way into the mix.

So now it's just called "Inspirations"!

So, from Jean-Michel Jarre to Vangelis and Gary Numan to Aphex Twin, thank you for all adding something to my creativity, I just hope someone else enjoys listening to it!

Pretty much all done within Ableton Live 9, and although I created clips for a lot of the samples, I decided not to "Live" record via the Akai APC for a change, instead I got stuck in to learning and using the arrangement feature for once, mad at first, but what a powerful tool when you start learning how to use it.

Used the beautiful AirMusicTechnology hybrid 3 synth, oh and the cool robot sample was from Junie Morrison's "Robot Love" which I downloaded from "AbelTen" Samples.

Happy Playing Folks!

Inspirations

My friend came up with a lot of this and I basically spent a night at his messing with it, adding and chopping and mixing and producing until we decided it was a good basis for something to work with later on.

So, this is the unfinished version, but just for fun, sticking online anyway.

Port Grammar

A chilled, yet funky electronic vibe!

You could easily be sitting on a beach at an Ibiza lounge bar listening to this, but it would also work well as game music or music for your YouTube videos.

Feel free to use it but please link back to here and credit TumbleweedBob.

Also, happy to collaborate with anyone, just love making music so much and would love to get involved with other artists projects.

Music is life! 

As always, I put everything together using Ableton Live 10 "Suite", a variety of soft synths, such as BassStation, Nebulae & Hybrid 3, plus some excellent samples purchased from Zenhiser to compliment my own creativity.

Comments are always welcome.

Share, Listen, Learn!

Because Of You

OK, so this all began when I saw a deconstruction video of this track by Ski Oakenfull, from Point Blank Music.

I decided to do have a go myself, as it would be a great way to learn even more about my Digital Audio Workstation "Ableton Live Suite". 

I created everything from scratch, which included buying the original songs "Paradise Strut" and "Planetary Citizen" so I could sample them for the "Hey Hey" vocals and a drum loop to overlay the beat that I made on the 808 Core Drum Kit.

Sure there are a lot more parts in the original, but for now, this is as good as it's going to get for me, until I can get someone to add the vocals for me later on. (I was tempted to make Daft Punk style robot vocals as I can't sing for toffee, maybe I'll do that one day anyway).

Other than the samples and various midi and audio effects, all the sounds were created using standard Ableton Suite instruments, apart from the tiny bit of piano at the end of the song. That was made using a plug-in I bought from Addictive Keys (Studio Grand Piano - Close Mix with some reverb and delay only).

So, I hope you sing along, as I absolutely love this song, maybe not my version, but hey, I really enjoyed learning this and I can't stress enough how helpful that Ski Oakenfull tutorial was from Point Blank Music.

Happy Playing folks!

Finally Finished Sympathy - TumbleweedBob

A mellow track I threw together in one evening after work, so it's obviously unfinished, but it's got a fair bit of structure already and I genuinely loved the vibe so it's getting posted!

I used Ableton Live 10.1.6 as my DAW, then the rest as follows:

Soft Synths / VST's:

Bass & Organ sounds crafted in Krotos's slick "Simple Concept" soft synth.
Pulsating percussion came out of Air's beautiful "Xpand!2" soft synth.
Ambient melody and a few effects (clickers / Tine sound) all came out of U-HE's awesome "Poldoski" soft synth.
Main beat and claps were banged out in midi using Ableton's "64 Pads Dub Techno Kit-1".
Some effects thrown in from Roli's "Studio Player".

Hardware:

Powered on the MacBook Pro.
Beats all tapped in using the incredible Novation "Launchpad Pro".
Keys played on both an M-Audio Axiom-25 and a Yamaha DGX-305.
Fades done on the Akai APC Mini.
All sounds played annoyingly loud courtesy of my Steinberg UR-22 pumping out to a pair of phenomenal powered KRK Rocket 5's.

Mind Looper

Welcome to a little slice of me!

I love making music and I get creative as often as I can, so hopefully you will like what you hear. 

Most of my work is produced within Ableton Live 10 "Suite", my preferred Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). 

All tips, tricks, good and bad comments are welcome here, so feel free to comment.
I love all of your feedback, hence my attitude is always "Share, Listen, Learn".

Enjoy...... Music is life!


COLLABORATIONS / BUSINESS: 

Always happy to be involved in musical projects, so please feel free to contact me on: tumbleweedbob70@gmail.com



ARTISTIC LICENCING (The boring stuff):

As I create all of my pwn music and even the photography alongside each track is taken by myself, I would ask you under artistic licencing to please not use any of my work in part, or in full, without my prior written consent.

TumbleweedBob

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