PXR8's blog

"Some day - we'll live as one family."

Hi folks... reading Kemmler's great post "Matching Tempo - The Hard Way" got me thinking about some of the other methods I've used over the years to get loops in time....

It's a long story and involves a bit of "audio tech history" - but hopefully by the end of it you might come away with a new perspective.... and a few more mashup tactics up your sleeve. :)

Greetings all, Alex PXR8 here.

In this ***monster*** blog post I am going to "open up the war chest" and give you a huge stack of "thinking out of the box" ideas for how you can make more money from Beathive. The ideas I am going to post in this blog are so useful and powerful that, if implemented correctly, they could dramatically increase the amount of money you earn from Beathive. We'll talk about my slice later ok.... ;)

This post is of course addressed towards people who have, or are making, their own original loop content: Those who already have their own loop shop, and those who are

Dedicated to the aficionados of the Akai S950, the EMU ESi32, K2000, MPC1000, etc.

"Sampling" may have only been around since the 1980's but the idea of creating music from other recordings has existed since the time of Musique Concrete - a form of music invented in the late 1940's by Pierre Schaeffer. French composer Schaeffer experimented with the manipulation of tape loops to create new compositions.

While Schaeffer's work arguably expanded the repertoire of music to include deconstructed recordings and "any sound", the idea of borrowing and building on existing music has probably in essence been around since the beginning of music itself...

When I'm making a new track, I often do a thing I call "loop stacking".

I have no idea how many other producers use this technique. But it works for me, and it never ceases to amaze me how well.

It works really well for making loops - but can also be used when making full songs / pieces.

I'll set Cubase to loop on a 16 or 32 bar loop... and then I'll start adding content.

Drum sounds, instrument riffs, soft synths... whatever I'm in the mood for.

The aim here is not necessarily to create one bass part, one lead part, etc... as you would do if you were making a song or track pack. The aim is to keep stacking up parts.

Important note: I mute much of the stuff as I go. I just jam on a motif or play around with sounds until I make something I am pleased with, and then I'll move on, like making pancakes, adding another layer to the stack - and then forgetting about it while I create another layer.

I can remember when the first samplers in the early '90's allowed you to "resample"... Was I ever excited!!

Resampling allows you to "record" the output of the machine and create a new sample from the output channels.

Well, at this point you might be thinking "big deal" - but hang in there.

Nowadays, its easier than pie to "resample"... you simply "export audio" from your audio workstation, and there it is.

But there's a fantastic way to use this creatively which you might not have thought of.

Many producers will not hit "export audio / bounce" until the end of the session, when they want a result they can burn to CD.

But you can use export / bounce to create all manner of unique, cool effects:

1) pick a section of your track - maybe an 8-bar phrase with some great groove or melodic / harmonic content. Maybe mute several of the instruments / audio channels. It doesn't matter, we're experimenting here.

2) Export audio, bounce, whatever you call it.

It's always the way: Someone discovers a new way to mess up a sound, and then everyone else follows suit.

In this particular case, I'm talking about sample slicing. Someone figured out that you could take a transient fragment of, say, a snare drum hit, and "roll" it at an impossibly fast speed, and it ceases to sound like a snare drum, it starts to sound like some glassy, otherworldly, razor-edged... thing.

The next thing you know.... we have a new genre...

There's a lot you can do with fragments of sound cut up really small and rearranged. One of the real masters of this is Trentemoller, and his name has become fairly synonymous with "the new sound" in many electronic dance music circles. He just seems to get it right.... and his in-depth production combined with a knowledge of melody and harmony has made his tracks popular worldwide. I think he might use cut-up vinyl crackles and pops as one of his sound sources but I'm not sure.

This one's easy too... but it's definitely a secret weapon.

Guitarists, more than other musicians, use pedals in their quest for that secret sauce, that killer sound.

I'm amazed that more people who play other instruments don't use them as much.

There's something about pedals. Partly it's the "hands on" thing with knobs and dials - tactile controls - that you can "play" with rather than just "set".

And also, there's a lineage now; and a whole evolution of certain circuits that create "tone". There's a whole new generation of "boutique" pedals out there that do some crazy stuff!

The thing is, in a lot of digital audio workstations etc, the drive has been towards sparkling cleanliness and accuracy. Most people will agree that it's harder to create "tone" using digital. And remember this: humans like analog distortion!

Ok this one's easy...

When I am making tracks I quite often create / record material that doesn't get used - basslines, synth parts, etc. There's always something that doesn't make it into the final mix of a song.

And it might be great material - it just didn't end up fitting in with the direction the piece ended up going in.

Working as I do in Cubase, this stuff usually gets picked up and dumped out in the "no man's land" after the end of the song.... doomed for eternity to sit on the shelf rusting...

Until now that is....

Greetings all!

What is "found sound?" Just what it says on the tin - sound that you found!

I love found sound. Found sound is FUN.

You'd be amazed at the kinds of sounds you can collect from our everyday environment. Especially when you take 'em home, feed them into your favorite DAW and start mashing 'em up.

One of the cool things I've found about working with found sound is that it gets me listening to what's around me in a new way. I start hearing all kinds of things I never noticed before...

You don't necessarily need a ton of gear. There are some portable or field recorders out there now that are very good value. A couple of good mics might help here too.

Found sound tips:

"The Jam"

Do you have a band? A percussion group? A horn section? A string quartet? A vocal trio?

In other words, a group of musicians you could put together for a sampling session.

The idea goes something like this: create a beathive sample shop specially for the group, then get together in a recording space. If you create a special beathive shop for the group, it's easier to share out the revenue later...

Work using a click track (I like to choose commonly used tempo such as 100, 110, 128 bpm etc) - but sometimes it's good to jam out and slot into a groove before assigning a static tempo to what you are doing.

Then the only limit is your imagination.

Hello this is Alex a.k.a. producer PXR8...

I'm going to be posting a series of "how-to" articles with all kinds of ideas for creative sampling, suggestions for new ways to create original loop content... and some business, marketing and PR ideas to help you get more customers to your Beathive loop shop!

Stay tuned!

Alex
PXR8