Tonight is special. Tonight I put together my first EP and I am beyond thrilled about it.
One of my goals for 2021 was to spend time in my musical practice–writing, recording, and studying. People here have been super friendly, encouraging, and inspiring and I have found myself getting more comfortable in my approach to making music and also with the results. These five songs were recorded this evening using a single modular case I put together, and each track was recorded in a single take:
I did not use the TSNM at all, but all of the other modules came into play. Drezno/Jena provided the movement in track 1 and also the filter pings in track 3. Using Compare 2 and Select 2 for processing CV has been soooo much fun–I had never really processed CV before and mostly stuck to VCA/envelope for any CV in a patch, but this brought out new ideas for me. I used Filter 8 exclusively for LFOs–no filtering. Morph 4 I used for audio processing. Shifty was cool to hit the freq and res skews on Parallax.
I can share that every single patch I recorded ended with Mix 3 > Parallax > Vertex, and every track had some Waves Cassette and Valhalla Shimmer on it. My goal was a consistent vibe throughout so plenty of things stayed the same. There’s no overdrive/distortion anywhere other than what Vertex is delivering with the gain cranked. On the last track it really shines through and it is super warm and crunchy and I love it.
I’m happy to answer any questions you have. I didn’t document the patches but have a good idea of what I put together. I found myself in flow and just went with it. After recording one track, I felt confident about unplugging everything and doing something else. It sounded good and had a vibe like the first one, so I kept going, and after the next track (#3), I knew I was going to make an EP tonight. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that this has been a goal of mine for 20 years and I’ve just never been in the place where it came together. I either wasn’t making the music, or I was making music and I didn’t like it/lacked the confidence to pursue an idea further… It also feels good to just have something I like, put it out and get this out of the way. Now making an EP doesn’t feel daunting and I definitely know I can do it.
EDITED TO ADD:
It was late last night when I finally got this completed, posted it to Bandcamp and wrote this post (plus I was on Cloud 9), so I neglected to mention a few things. First, this release marks the achievement of an up-until-now lifetime goal, and a specific goal I set for myself for 2021, of releasing an EP. Second, that stereo processing was a key consideration for the production, so it is best experienced with headphones or monitors. Third, I would love to hear feedback, and I can definitely handle critiques. Your notes will help me continue to grow as a musician.
