Electronic Music Producers - Post Your Songs \ Videos

Lagduf

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A cool trick with the SQ1 is to turn all active steps off (or simply don't press Play to start the sequencer) and then scroll down to STEP JUMP. Pressing any particular step now on the sequence will play that note. You essentially have another 16 key input device. I've used this trick to "play" my modular before.
 

Cylotron

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A cool trick with the SQ1 is to turn all active steps off (or simply don't press Play to start the sequencer) and then scroll down to STEP JUMP. Pressing any particular step now on the sequence will play that note. You essentially have another 16 key input device. I've used this trick to "play" my modular before.

Can't you do that with most/all sequencers? I recall being able to do that with the Electribe and the RM1X(even the lil' Monotribe can do similar).
 

Cylotron

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oh and I just posted my 1st 2016 track (I feel so old...)

 

Takumaji

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After a long hiatus I finally managed to sit down and make a new track:

Umbra

Two other tracks are in the making right now so it looks as if I've successfully fought off that dreaded musician's block... :)

I badly need a new mixer, the faders and knobs of my good old Mackie CR1604 have become very scratchy over the past 20 years. I sent a request to Thomann and asked for a repair price quote and they said that it will cost at least 400 Euros to get the thing back in shape... that's a lot of money, considering that used CR1604s usually go for around 300 but I'm very reluctant to buy a used mixer. The thing is that the CR1604 I have is a genuine US model made at the old Mackie production plant with a magnificient sound that is a staple of my music since a long time. The new Mackies are made in China and reputedly not as reliable as the old ones so maybe the 400 Euros repair money may be a good investion... ah well...
 

Lagduf

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Can't you do that with most/all sequencers? I recall being able to do that with the Electribe and the RM1X(even the lil' Monotribe can do similar).

Probably any sequencer where you can select the active step, - many of the eurorack sequencers I'd like can't do that.
 

Takumaji

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It's Sunday and I've just finished this one:

Superhealer

Bam-bam in yer face.

I'll upload all that stuff to my YT channel as well, just being a bit lazy with dat damn moviemakin'...
 

Takumaji

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Okay, last one for a few days, this time it's a dub again, check it out:

Appelsap

Wanted to make a completely different track but then ended up with this one...
 

Lagduf

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So I was noodling around on the old modular when I made this:

Synthesized Female Singer

I really think it sounds kinda like a woman's voice.

Only effects added from my "DAW" was some reverb because I don't have a proper reverb module yet.

I'm just sequencing a Sine Wave whose frequency is modulated by a Triangle Wave. In terms of designing a "sound" this might be something I'm most proud of.

I'm not up to making badass tracks yet like Tak and the rest, but I'll get there soon. Just wanted to share this cool little thing I stumbled upon.
 

Takumaji

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Sounds cool, this could be an awesome input for a formant filter, you could make a complete Mozart aria with it! :)

Hey, I got my Waldorf 2-pole analog filter today. Have been playing around with one a while ago and fell in love with it, it's one dirty little box with lots of oomph. Great as a filter for all sorts of filterless external devices but also excellent for beat slicing and turning a meager little drum into a distorted monster. It has a very effective envelope follower, a cool multimode filter (lp, bp, hp), a LFO with a very wide range and several CV control inputs for triggering the filter with external audio. Good stuff.
 

Takumaji

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Okay, it's Saturday and I've got no gig so I made this:

n00bKiller

Bit on the abstract side again, with a monster kick courtesy of my new Waldorf 2-pole.
 

oliverclaude

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I took my time and listened carefully to each of your latest tracks Takumaji. Here are some impressions, purely from the perspective of an average electronic music consumer...

Well, I first heard Umbra and was stunned about it's complex rhythms. My only small complaints would be the mixing of the lead synths, they don't quite fit as of yet, although I enjoyed their dryness (no verb). I had a feeling, their passing was too short? On the other hand, the whole track could be shorter by a whole minute. Just my guts.

Superhealer did not respond to me, tho I like dark techno tracks in British tradition (Surgeon) with (Landstrumm) or without humor (Slater). One thing was very cool though: those percussions. They told a story throughout the whole piece, changing their message with each returning loop. That was actually quite exciting.

Appelsap was excellent in all places, a slower pacing seems to suit you ;). Just two things: the hook-like melody returned one too many times during the 4th minute running. And really, you got to change the names of your compositions. They either sound too meaningful/poetic (Umbra) or too straightforward like this Applesap. I had my own little flick running through my head during my listening, but the title & the cider ad forced this flat association on and on.

The last one, n00bkiller (again, this bugging flatness within the title), was an interesting tool, nothing more. Somewhat disappointing after those refined trio before.

Well, hope you don't mind my directness, I also may change my mind with repeated listening, I often do. These are just some unattached thoughts to an overall gripping experience. BTW, it would be cool to hear some of your tracks in a mix with other artists.
 

Cylotron

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Nice to see someone giving in depth reviews.

Been busy lately myself & haven't had too much time to work on stuff. I have the problem though where I'll start working on a track, then put it off & later start over again on something new. I've got dozens of incomplete tracks saved on my pc. It's nice though when I start something and think "what the hell is this..?" or "this is crap!"... then, come back later and finish it.
I'm hoping to finish another track tonight or tomorrow.

P.S. would be cool to share project files(stem/.wav) with you guys and remix each other's tracks
 

Takumaji

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Well, hope you don't mind my directness

Not at all, I wish more people would do that.

Many thanks for your thoughts! :)

About the track titles, well... I kid you not, sometimes it takes longer for me to choose a name than making the track itself.

Umbra was chosen because of its German/English meaning (shadow), it's the old black, dark, nasty shadow that lies under even the sweetest moment.

Appelsap I chose because it's a Dub/Reggae-style track. I've been to Amsterdam in 2004 and the whole city was plastered with posters of a Ragga act called, wait for it, Appelsap... my wife and I laughed our asses off because the poster was so silly and had a shining yellow background... hence the name and the track pic with those Dutch words. The whole track is kinda tongue-in-cheek anyway (including some Marley references in the lead tune - you'll get a cent and a half if you recognize the song it is from...).

Superhealer: I've felt very bad during the past few months, then I started making music again and it helped me a lot to get back on track. As the wise one once said, music is the healer... and since my track of course is super-duper-cool and all, it became "Superhealer". :)

n00bKiller was a title suggested by Rot, I thought that some snazzy low-fi stuff with a bassy bassdrum would fit to it. Actually it's my fave of the new tracks so far because of it's tool-y layout, perfect for mixing within a hard, dark set. It's also the first track where I used my new Waldorf 2-pole filter to spice up the kick. You should really hear this track over a 20k watts club PA, the buzzy kick will knock your socks off... :D

Here's another new track I made yesterday: All Those Lasers. Kinda relaxed electronica with a double-length lead and some questionable mixdown/mastering decisions, courtesy of that damn 606 kick with its unpredictable low-end boom. That's the drawback of single-track recording, but hey... live for the moment, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

Cylo,

I could send you my tracks in WAV format but I only do single-track recording, no stems or anything. :)
 

Cylotron

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Made another track myself. Decided to put it under my 'Altern8 Frequen-C' alias as it didn't seem as suited for 'Cylotron'. :spock:


EDITED: minor adjustments :spock:
 
Last edited:

Takumaji

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Good track, very nice sound. The loop points of some sample loops are quite noticeable, I usually use a lowpass filter or a well-timed perc hit to hide them. The loops themselves are okay (not laggy or anything) but there's a slight atmo-change when some of them restart.

Here's another one: Lichtmess

Hand-made arpeggios meet the grinding TE PO-12.
 

Cylotron

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Apparently my headphones suck. The song sounded fine with them... but once I played it in my car afterwards... it sounded like it needed some more fine tuning. I'll have to invest in a decent pair soon :(

Will listen to your new track on my drive home tonight.
 

Cylotron

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I re-edited "The Spice" (same link above). this time labelled "Original Mix". sounds a tad better I hope!

As for Lightmess, well produced track w/ nice fluidity throughout. cool! :cool:
 

Takumaji

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Sounds much better now. You added/changed quite some stuff, did you. :)

I also have a prob with my headphones. I usually make a first raw mix with them and then play the track over various amps/speakers I have in the house. Last time I did that with All Those Lasers, it sounded decent over headphones but was just a rumbling bassy mess over the speakers so I started EQing it like hell, now the rumbling is gone but the rest for the track except for the kick got thinned out... as I said, that's the main disadvantage of making one-track recordings.

Btw., "Lichtmess" is German for Candlemass which will be celebrated on February 2nd, I thought this would be a fitting name, given that there's a bit of light shining through the track... but only a little, thanks to the PO-12 :D
 

Takumaji

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Another new track:

Anderland

Tec boogie or something like that. Used the Waldorf 2-pole analog filter on the FB-01 for the main theme and it sounds bloody awesome IMO. Great piece of kit.
 

Cylotron

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nice track!.. that waldorf 2-pole looks cool(was just watching a video demonstration for it).

i also just finished a new track last night. we ended up getting some heavy winds + rain + thunder so i decided to just shut off everything in case the power went out(uploaded the track about 20 minutes ago).

https://soundcloud.com/cylotron/rave-control-original-mix
 

Takumaji

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Good track. Up to 2 mins it almost feels like Belgian techno/EBM, then the gated chords set in, aaand breakbeats, cool. :)

Rave on! :D

EDIT:

Yeah, the Waldorf 2-pole is excellent, very well thought-out controls and calibration and most importantly a killer sound. It's also very versatile, you can do anything from beat slicing, simple filtering, sweeps, deconstruction, to analog triggering to turn the 2-pole into a kickdrum, etc. Paid 194 Euros for it (about $211) and it's worth every penny IMO.
 

Takumaji

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Two new tracks:

Falterchen

Loonway KK2

Scored a Yamaha QX5 sequencer for cheap (30 Euros, it cost almost $600 back in the 80s) and used it to make Falterchen, great piece of kit, very easy to use. It has its shortcomings but in the end, nothing beats hardware sequencing, it gives you that kinda liquid workflow that I find very inspiring. Build quality is amazing, solid metal housing, good-quality buttons, backlit display. Ah yeah.
 

Takumaji

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And another new track:

Ye Go

Brought my TR-626 and Monotribe back into action, so nice. The Monotribe is my fave of all the small boxes (*tron, Volcas) Korg have released so far, it has just the wicked dirt I love. :)
 

Cylotron

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That new track is pretty cool. Sort of has a Japanese techno style to it.

I tried finishing up a track I was working on, but it ended up changing into something completely different.
 

Takumaji

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Great sounds and arrangement, I lke the dial and phone noises. Very nice, man. Good oldschool feeling with a bit of modern flavour, I'd use it in a mix.

Teenage Engineering have just released three new Pocket Operators, among them the PO-20 (with arcade-style sounds) and the PO-24 "Office" with sounds of old modems, matrix printers, etc., the latter would fit perfectly to this track. I have the two on preorder, let's see how long it takes this time to ship them. Last time I waited almost two months for my PO-12.
 
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