I told you the other day that some changes are going to happen in my life. I received a lot of feedback from the community on this blogpost and decided to write a weekly diary about the whole process that I will go through on the blog. On the one hand, I can reflect for myself, but on the other hand I want to share my problems and successes that are waiting for me during the transition to a DAW and hardware mixed producer with you. I will share thoughts about the past week, what was good and not so good, and what will happen next. Let's go!
What happened last week?
I was a bit sick last week but still many things happened. I finally finished my diploma at the SAE school and got the certificate "Electronic Music Producer" last saturday. We didn't have to take an exam for it and there is no "real" degree. But since I knew almost everything that was taught in this course, I can still proudly say that I earned the certificate :)
I must admit, I'm a bit glad that the course is coming to an end. Going to school each Saturday blocked a lot of time that I normally spend on music and tutorial making.
What am I working on right now?
We have a Whats App group from the school class, just like you have. I uploaded a couple of little videos of my jams every now and then.
Based on that, I've now been asked to do a little live jam in class on the last day of school. This fits me well, because I am once again forced to finish tracks (the jams I had posted are just, well, jams). It kinda made me happy to get this request.
It will also be the first time I take my new hybrid setup and try it out live outside my studio. Which brings us to the next topic.
First rehearsal for my live set in Denmark
I'm working on a lot of new tracks right now. They are completely created on my new setup (you can read about that here) and its organization requires a lot of learning from me right now.
The event is coming up on 11/26 and I will be playing there for 30-35 minutes, the set will be 6 tracks. To have enough time to rehearse, I had already invited a handful of people to my house on 10/16 to play them a first version of the set. This version will not be final and will not contain all tracks. The goal is rather to have an anchor point to work on the arrangements in a focused way and finally have a complete live set as a basis.
This sounds easier than it is, because I first have to think of a kind of template to squeeze all the tracks into. At the moment I just produce on the fly, there is a template so I don't have to set up the hardware synth again for every new track, but otherwise the tracks are still very differently shaped each time.
My first goal for this week is to prepare 2 tracks in such a way that they form the basis for the complete set. These 2 tracks I can then perform on Saturday at school.
Luckily I have Friday off and the complete day is reserved for it, I think that I still have to fight with some challenges when consolidating the tracks.
Especially the live tracks, the ones I want to modulate during the shows, will be a big challenge because each of them uses different software instruments but they have to play on the same track so they stay accessible with the controller. If you know Ableton you will also know about the issues I'm talking about :D
Digitakt OS 1.4 and a nice Coaching
Elektron released a new Update for their Digi range, including the brandnew song mode. It's time for an Update of my video class, I started working on some new footage.
I also had a very nice private coaching with a Swiss customer. We talked about Ambient music creation - it was very inspiring to hear his point of views about ambient and he demoed a sweet track he was working on.
So that was the good part of this week. Actually, a lot of things went well.
And what went badly in the last week?
I have to admit that the release of my single "Swim To You" on 30.9. went less well. I had hoped for more streams and popularity, maybe that will come in the aftermath. Maybe I'm just not patient enough?
But, I have to say, I am currently in a transition phase, which will continue for a while, and the release reflects exactly this. The single has been finished for almost 3 months, that's a long time, and in that period I've made some fundamental decisions regarding my long-term work and musical direction. Also, as said above, school took most of the time I usually spend on music making and I expect to go back to my normal mode soon.
Tell me about your week! Any achievements? Let us know below in the comments!
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