by thermite zapruder » Mon Nov 30, 2015 6:35 pm
I have a too-long backlog of songs that...
-Are unfinished
-Are finished but need mixing
-Are finished but, I can see now with the perspective of years/accumulated skills, really want to be re-recorded (in many cases, the original recording was intended to be a demo but I ended up spending too much time on said demo)
-Are finished but, I can see now...etc...need re-mixing.
Anyway, my MPC is busted. About a month ago, I wanted to do some recording but wanted to start out with some percussion. I figured I'd construct a drum kit from my 2600. But instead of doing the rational thing and sampling the kit sounds with my EMU 6400, and then either triggering them by hand or wrapping my mind around that machine's sequencer (I am a sequencing idiot--for rhythm purposes, I've only ever used the incredibly easy and intuitive sequencer on my MPC)...I thought I'd try to use the 2600's internal clock, overdubbing, and selective track muting to construct a rhythm track.
There's a way I could have synced up the start times for the kick sound I devised, and the hi-hat I came up with next. I opted to say Screw it, and do it by hand/ear. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. I made three attempts, on three separate tracks. By the time I was done with that, I had gotten pretty far away from my original intent...but I had a f*cked up heartbeat sound, and then three tracks of clicky, metallic, fast-running rhythm that didn't quite sync up with the heartbeat or one another. I brought all faders up. It sounded not at all like any kind of drum kit. It sounded like some kind of nightmare machine. I dug it, and thought...huh, I'll have to come back to this and see what I can do with it--maybe add this or that.
A few weeks later, I listened back and tried some melodic overdubs. Can't say I added anything of value. So I listened to the original four tracks again and realized it was what it was: cool in its own right, on its own terms. All five minutes of it was too much...but a minute or two was evocative and took at least me on a bit of a journey. Screw it: with no specific destination in mind anyway, I can call this done, for better or for worse. It felt liberating. I'm in a place now where I'm rediscovering some synths that have lain fallow for a while after a transitional period, so there's a lot of pure sound creation. I decided to carry this non-obsessive, minimally judgmental, first-though-best-thought, for-the-sake-of-the-journey, approach forward for a little while. I now have five little compositions, no more than three-to-five tracks each, all short, that I am happy to call DONE, and I am thoroughly enjoying this process.
I started by matching sonic ideas with one another in a minimalist way. And, importantly, by giving myself the permission to do only that. I am now finding the compositional juices flowing again.
I still, however, need to get that damn MPC fixed.