I had been planning it for next week but with Bandcamp waiving their fees today I figured I’d drop it early.
These tracks span quite a few years. The majority involve a mix of modular and Ableton - a common approach was to record a performance of a patch and then edit and augment it in the DAW. Some tracks though are strictly Ableton, and one was just an experiment of layering a Discman’s electromagnetic signals recorded through a guitar pickup. There’s also a heavily processed autoharp on the opening track.
If anyone has any thoughts or feedback I’d love to hear it; also happy to share any more about my process if there are questions. Hope you’re all staying safe and sane out there!
Congrats! Tell us a little more about your modular/Ableton process. Is it a multi-track one take, then you go back to add layers in the DAW, or something different?
I traditionally do that - multitrack bass/drums/main melody in one take, then go back and tweak, add samples, pads, layers of some sort. Just curious of your approach on this.
Our processes sound similar! While every track had its own particular journey, generally I multitrack whatever I’ve patched and then add to it in Ableton, while also editing the recordings for structure and sometimes processing them further if it feels warranted. There were some tracks where later on I would patch something additional to layer on top for a section.
Usually the patches contain the majority of the percussion and then a general melodic/harmonic idea, but I still find I’m faster at most of the arranging/composing side of things when I’m in the DAW. Especially on tracks with distinct sections that call for dramatic transitions - lots of things happening at once that would take so much CV (or many hands) to pull off in a strictly modular performance.
I also have a growing sample library of modular-based sounds which I will pull from now and then, lots of one shot drums and effects but also some longer recordings of simple textures that can add a nice bit of ambience in places. It’s pretty neat when you find some one-off, standalone thing you recorded months ago can slot in perfectly with an unrelated new thing you’ve been developing!
