Published on 12, July, 2020
I am learning both the Guitar and Violin. I started with the Guitar first and play the chords with a pick. More recently I started to read music and learn the guitar fingerstyle.
In the past two weeks I have started to learn the Violin. However, I have to wear ear plugs because of it is so loud and starts sensory problems.
Does anyone else do something similar?
I make electronic music. Moved over from hardware to software about 12 years ago. I still own a few synths, and an Akai MPC 3000. I'll probably never get rid of the Akai. It's sexy. I love the simplicity of how you can sample. The gritty sound quality isn't there in the software, well it takes more work.
Lately I've had a rest though because I'd become a bit too focused, I'd stay awake for far too long, a few times I've been awake more than 48 hours, even though I can save what I'm working on much more easier on software! Hyperfocus is great but yeah, it can take over. Sometimes it can lead to overload too especially when programming drums. The patterns overlap in my head. I still enjoy it though. Progamming synths, samplers, and drums is my favourite part. The mixing is the part I find a chore, well not a chore, but not as fun.
I can't understand music by reading it, but I can program something that is all in key and in time by ear. I have done a few things with vocalists too. I usually ask them for the vocal at a certain bpm, send them a simple loop at the speed, then work on the vocal they give, or record it again when the beat is done.
Cloudy Mountains said:Progamming synths, samplers, and drums is my favourite part. The mixing is the part I find a chore, well not a chore, but not as fun.
That's always been my Achilles' heel with synthesised music (and recorded "live" instruments to an extent.) My hard drives are littered with half-finished music projects that I ended up getting frustrated with when I got to that point where I had no idea whether my mixing was making them better or worse. If I don't finish them in a single session, they'll just get left when some other new bonkers idea occurs to me the next day.
The "tinkering" I absolutely love though. I went over to all-software about as soon as it was possible on a home PC (a 200MHz MMX CPU - wow, the power!) The sheer variety of soft-synths and effects makes me feel so spoiled when I think back to what I had to work with back in the 80's and 90's, even if they are a bit less visceral than the best hardware. I love just experimenting with what sounds I can patch together, and learned SynthMaker (now FlowStone), so that I could create my own VST plugins, which became the focus of my hobbyist coding. I can lose myself for hours just playing with the modulation options between two oscillators, or slicing and dicing a snippet of me talking gibberish into a mic (my usual test signal when building a new effect plugin.)
It could never replace playing my live instruments, as that's a completely different kind of hyper-focus for me, but even then, I can spend several hours programming a patch on the multi-FX pedal-board that I usually run my bass through. Even just inventing ridiculous, punning patch names for my new sounds can keep me entertained longer than it really ought to!
The Sledge looks interesting - like an old Prophet 5 - although with 3 osc per voice and only 24 osc, you run out of polyphony quickly. (The JD had 4 per voice and 24 osc so only 6-voice poly - like an old Juno)
Yeah - I've not got the mind for creation at the moment. I'll keep the Atari but some of the synths will move on.
I had a go on one of these not long ago. It was pretty nice. It has a classic oscillator in essence, like a Mini Moog, but you can go bonkers if you want. It's not vintage but I liked what I saw. My friend had it doing all sorts.
https://www.thomann.de/gb/studiologic_sledge_b_stock.htm?offid=1&affid=195&utm_source=musicradar&utm_medium=psm
It does come in black too!
Plastic said:I recently boiught an old Atari and some old kit to try to rejuvinate my creativity but it's not happening. Maybe I've outgrown it.
I remember you saying before about the Atari. I think I commented on my love of Cubase on the ST. It was pretty much perfect for midi sequencing. Quirky at times, but great. You might just be having a dry period, I haven't touched anything musically for a while. I just haven't got the mind for it at the moment. I'll get back to it soon though.
I'm torn - JD800s are now 20 years older than when I had one and, looking at the adverts, they haven't aged well - lots of wear & tear and they suffer from dodgy keyboards. also, I found that you could spend forever tweeking each sound so you never got anything done. I produced more with simpler kit.
I recently boiught an old Atari and some old kit to try to rejuvinate my creativity but it's not happening. Maybe I've outgrown it.
The best thing about software is that you aren't running 5 or 6 machines at once, and that you can completely save your work with a click. When I had hardware I'd stay awake for very, very, long periods, just on account of everything being on. If I'd switch it off things might fail on one machine, or lots of other variables.
Yeah, the JD800 does have that sort of analogue thing about it. Lots and lots of sliders! A far cry from the DX7! The A Station was a nice digital synth with an analogue feel. I liked the way that it could do the stuff the Bass Station could do, but it could go into digital stuff. The Bass Station is one I'd like again. Analogue but it had all the sounds I needed bass wise. I've got an emulator of the A Station, it's very good. I loved the feel of the Bass Station though.
If you've got that itch for the JD800, and the cash to spare, it might be good to scratch that itch!
Accessing patches is the thing that drives me most mad - in the old days where you might have 32 to juggle in your head, I could manage - just one of my current ones has over 1300 so I cannot find the ones I want and I'll probably never hear some of them.
Synth Bass #1 to Synth Bass #436 Yeah, I'm lost - can't remember what I want.
The Roland JD800 was good because you could use all the sliders to create what you want like and old analogue synth and then swap channel and use the sliders on the next sound so it was like having six analogues in one keyboard - very accessible. I should have kept that one.
Plastic said:Yeah - the infinite world of half-finished work. And when you go back to try to finish them you just can't get into the old groove. They stay unfinished for ever.
I WILL finish them all.......well maybe, it's a depressing thought!
Trogluddite said:If I don't finish them in a single session, they'll just get left when some other new bonkers idea occurs to me the next day.
Hahaha, it's terrible! I will have everything half done, then think that I hear something in that track, that I can apply to something I abandoned weeks ago. I'll spend a few hours over on another track, then go over to the first one, and because I've got the vibe from the other track in my head totally rearrange that! The beauty of software is that you can at least have multiple save points! Still, you don't get the time back!
Trogluddite said:Even just inventing ridiculous, punning patch names for my new sounds can keep me entertained longer than it really ought to!
I've got loads of odd patch names! I usually give them a name for the colour or image in my mind. Screechy rust claw, fat linctus, blind heroin jazz, bogus offical, dulux, chest punch, modern sleaze bass, I could go on, but I think you get it! I know what the sounds are straight away though! Even some preset patches on synths are hilarious.
Trogluddite said:My hard drives are littered with half-finished music projects that I ended up getting frustrated with when I got to that point where I had no idea whether my mixing was making them better or worse. If I don't finish them in a single session, they'll just get left when some other new bonkers idea occurs to me the next day.
Yeah - the infinite world of half-finished work. And when you go back to try to finish them you just can't get into the old groove. They stay unfinished for ever.