Archive for April, 2009

The Writing Process Has Begun

I’ve officially started the writing process for Public Album this week and it’s going extremely well.

My approach for this project in regards to writing the actual music, is something that I’ve never quite done before.  The way I used to write was to spend a lot of time tinkering around on the bass and/or my computer in order to come up with a part that really spoke to me.  Once I came up with that part, I’d either bring it to a band, or I would work it in my tracking or other music program and try to take that into an existing song or create a new track altogether.

I’ll be honest: that old process was always stressful and difficult for me and led to a lot of “dry periods” in my musical life.

This new approach is a complete 180 for me.

What is that approach?

Simple:  I’m writing songs instead of parts. It’s extremely refreshing and has taken the pressure off of me to create.

It sounds like a simple change, but it’s a completely new way of writing for me.  Let me explain how this works…

Now when I’m writing, I’ll either do one of two things:  I will still tinker around or I’ll make a song or part in my head come alive.  It doesn’t take me long to find something that something “hooks”.  Once I get there, I’ll record it and work it into its own song starting with just that part.

That’s it, really.

I’m not concerned at this point in the writing stage about whether or not the song is “good”.  I’m just creating tracks/songs.  That’s it.  I can feel free later to dump the track, take it apart, or further refine it into a complete song.

I’m sure a lot of other musicians write this way, but for me, it’s been a complete revelation and 180 from my previous creation style.  I can’t say for sure if it’s going to hold up for the entire duration of this project or in the future, but for now, it’s one of the best changes I’ve ever made to my writing.

I’ve always wondered how some musicians would book time in a studio for weeks to “go write a record.”  That always boggled my mind because I never approached songwriting with just “writing songs” and then dumping the 20-50 that aren’t as good as the 10-12 that get released.  Maybe those  musicians were on to something…

The other benefit of this style of creation, is that I get to learn Renoise by doing.  Instead of pouring through documentation and testing each and every effect and feature of the program (like I used to do), I’m now writing as I figure out all the ins-and-outs of Renoise.  One of the side benefits is that my learning curve is much smaller and my retention of how the program works is much higher.

Actual Audio Up Next Week!

Yes, that’s right.  All this Public Album stuff isn’t just talk.

As I mentioned in my last post, Tools and Equipment Part 2, Renoise needs to be registered in order for me export my work into a WAV file for posting on this site.  I’ll be registering Renoise this week and I’ll put up my first audio track shortly thereafter.

So far, I’m only working on one song but I may have more to post by then.  As with the nature of this project, you’ll get to see some of these tracks grow larger, and others will get dumped and probably never worked on again.

This project should prove to be very interesting for me and for you, my readers, to see how a song is created from scratch…or at least how it’s created by me.

What’s Next for Public Album?

Besides the continual writing process using Renoise and my bass, my theme for this project is Exploration.  Even though I know that Renoise will be my main tool, I want to experiment with as many different music programs that I’ve never bothered to try as possible.  Who knows…one of these programs may really work for me.

In addition, I’m going to explore as many other musical and related, but non-musical avenues as I can.  I want variety.  I want as much stimulation going into, through, and out of this project as humanly possible…in every regard.  I may work with different people, different ways of doing things, new programs (like I mentioned), new dietary and health habits, different equipment…virtually a cornucopia of input and experimentation.

~ JS

Renoise 2.0 - My new music creation toolkit.

In my last post I talked about the different equipment I am using to create Public Album with.  Specifically, I referred to my history with (and affinity for) tracking software.

Between the time I discovered and used ScreamTracker for DOS and now, I migrated to a Windows based tracker called MadTracker.  MadTracker is an incredibly rich and amazing tracker that I had much success with over the years.  However, in the last couple years, I’ve noticed a considerable drop off in updates and news for this tracker.

I was planning on using my registered version of MadTracker, despite the lack of updates, for Public Album until I recently discovered another tracking program that has come to prominence in the modern tracking scene:  Renoise.

I had not heard about this tracker until just about a month ago.  Within 15 minutes of first discovering it, reading about it, and seeing videos of it in action I completely fell in love with it.

While I was never a tracker “expert” during my ScreamTracker and MadTracker years, I developed quite a proficiency with the basic ins and outs of creating music in a tracking environment.

Modern trackers (like Renoise) have become so incredibly feature rich, that I could see myself using this tracker almost entirely for my project and beyond.  So many of the little quirks and problems of trackers from the past have been solved through the years of tracker development.  The environment inside of a tracker is approaching a complete audio solution.

I am so excited about the prospect of utilizing Renoise, it’s very difficult to to put this into words.  I haven’t been this amazed and inspired by a piece of software in a long, long time.

The full demo can be downloaded for free, with the only major feature missing being that of exporting the sound files to WAV.  I will need this feature when I start posting my music snippets on JSOhlander.com, so I have decided to register the program.  I am completely confident that not only will this be my main tool for music creation and production, but the authors and programmers of this software are dedicated to continued updates and support.

I’m going to jumpstart this project by using my current sample bank on my system to learn Renoise.  Learning by doing is my motto for this project.  I’m going to learn the ins and outs of Renoise while creating.  I’ve already gone through the basic Renoise tutorials and my old tracking skills are easily coming back.

When I do register the program, I will be posting my snippets right here in my blog posts using a flash-based player.  I’ll be recording separate bass parts and using the player to post those as well.

Because this album is “public”, I won’t be posting every little snippet I work on.  I’m planning on posting audio only when something a little more significant is put together.

I’ll be as suprised at how this project unfolds as you will.