Yay, it’s the “got an hour back” day. Autumn’s Daylight Savings used to mean “yay! I get an extra hour of sleep!” but in the past decade or so it’s morphed into “yay! I get to stay awake an extra hour!” Think I went to bed around 5am (new time) yesterday.
To be honest, nothing really new to report since August. Work has been busy (which is good). And a few more skills are coming forward in music. It’s all a bunch of little things that are coming together—when to EQ, when not to EQ, when to compress, how to approach a blank template, how to start arrangements, advanced synthesis techniques, envelope modulators, LFO shapes, etc. A lot of practical workflow stuff. I made a good default template, with decent starter sounds and drums, which has helped speed up my initial inspiration.
This is all quite vague, I know, but the whole process isn’t really clear in my mind (yet). All I know is the little daily exercise/song bits I write are sounding more unique and better.
I’ve dabbled in a few different genres—hip-hop, trance, house, and techno. Techno was probably the most difficult out of the 4, next to House and Hip-Hop, but after a few epiphanies it’s come together. It’s pretty weird coming from a classical music background and trying to use a computer creatively. After putting together a solid base of synthesis and mixing techniques, I’ve begun to just let my creative juices “flow”, and not worry about what tones are going on.
It’s a kind of odd process… you have to have listened to a bunch of good music, to know what works and what doesn’t… and then develop your skill to emulate that… but the last step is a quantum leap of honing down and trusting your instinct.
Anyway, after reading Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” (great book), I’ve re-dedicated myself to start taking my studies seriously. Which also means I’ve been a shut-in for the past few months. I’ve been spending about 8-10 hours a week at the HB Library, another 8-10 hours/week at Kean’s Coffee, about 10 hours/week in front of my desktop (see picture), and another 5ish hours just reading manuals and guides in my spare time at work or elsewhere. I’ve been downloading new music like crazy, too, and probably go through about 10-12 hours of new stuff a week (on top of the 10ish hours of old stuff I still listen to). It’s a bit taxing, but in a way pretty rewarding.
And with that, I’m off to Kean’s and Barnes & Noble. Gonna try my hand at some more Berghain-style techno, and read up on arranging.