I thought I'd start a thread to journal my ideas and activites in making music. This isn't an attempt at self-aggrandizement, although positive comments are appreciated. It's meant simply to put myself out there for people to suggest things I hadn't thought of and maybe to learn something themselves. So here goes:
Last night, I practiced using Ableton to beat-match a rhythm I had created about 3 nights ago with music I was hearing on XM's The System. I was getting pretty good at it within about 5-10 minutes and was able to adjust the BPM whenever the tune changed BPM, which seemed to happen pretty frequently on this tune. I don't remember the name, though.
Speaking of the rhythm I created, I put together a really simple combo of bass drum and lo-tom, along with an off-beat on cymbal and cow-bell and yet another off-beat on open hi-hat. I did it by drawing some beats using the pencil and using intuition about where they should go. I moved and deleted stuff to make it sound better as I listened. The result is actually kind of cool and sounds like it could be used in a funky house tune. If I can figure out a way to show here the picture I see in Ableton, I'll do it.
Last night, I practiced using Ableton to beat-match a rhythm I had created about 3 nights ago with music I was hearing on XM's The System. I was getting pretty good at it within about 5-10 minutes and was able to adjust the BPM whenever the tune changed BPM, which seemed to happen pretty frequently on this tune. I don't remember the name, though.
Speaking of the rhythm I created, I put together a really simple combo of bass drum and lo-tom, along with an off-beat on cymbal and cow-bell and yet another off-beat on open hi-hat. I did it by drawing some beats using the pencil and using intuition about where they should go. I moved and deleted stuff to make it sound better as I listened. The result is actually kind of cool and sounds like it could be used in a funky house tune. If I can figure out a way to show here the picture I see in Ableton, I'll do it.
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Los Angeles
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Re: my journal
Sat, March 19, 2005 - 11:10 AMVun der bar! Kudos to you for taking the initiative! Good idea! When I finally break the ice again on my music, I shall follow your lead and start a journal here myself!
(Speaking of which - I ought to, next time I have a moment - as I have been meaning to get my ass back in gear and have been mulling around ideas - I have a small note I made to myself last night which I can talk about.)
As far as your music, Ableton sounds very much like Acid (which I have) and so your work in Ableton could prove helpful to me. I will attempt to follow along as best I can and try not to "glaze over", as some folks without either program may do.
The offbeats? Bravo! I love funky rythms and offbeats (I'm a drummer first) and I would love to hear what you've been doing. Can yu send me an MP3 file? (Or maybe we can start a DIY Music Yahoo group to keep files in, for all to reference?)
As far as showing a diagram, again, unfortunately tribe doesnt offer file-saving for pics n music, so... Yahoo, maybe.
Do you have an art program? Anybody can capture an image whenever they see it on the screen by hitting th "Print Screen" button. It's in the group that has the "delete", "home", "end" etc. buttons. This places your screen image in a holding bin til u paste it somewhere. Then anytime yu wanna "paste" it somewhere, it's there to do so (until you over-write it, or shut off your computer). You can insert it in the body of some emails (like, aol) and then stretch it in an effort to make it more legible. (of course, pasting is teh shortcut "Ctrl +V" - the "V" always reminds me of an arrow pointing down to paste something down here, in a certain spot.)
What *I* do is use my art program "Corel Photopaint" to open the page I just saved and to crop to only the area of the image I want, then, often times I will resample it to make it smaller.
It's easy. I'd be happy to walk you through it over the phone or in IM if you like.
Spike
