That’s a different look, isn’t it?

I’ve been sitting on Ableton Live for years without giving it much use. I think its organic workflow is brilliant, but often times, I get lost between its modes, and end up going back to FLStudio for efficiency.

Still, Adam Lastiwka once told me that switching my tools would help me look at music in new ways – and with Ableton’s one-day contest ending soon, now was the time to give Live another whirl.

To get the best feel for what Live had to offer, I limited myself to its stock instruments and plugins. Early brainstorming and automation went wonderfully, but with arrangement, things slowed considerably. I’m not sure if Live has a unified, pattern-based arrangement system, but if it does, I really need to find it.

There’s some distortion happening on the clap in the third phrase of the hook. Need to go digging.

Start Date: May 20th, 2012
Digital Audio Workstation (DAW): Ableton Live 8
Instruments: stock Ableton Live 8 instruments

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Imagine a 30-second ambient loop with dark, moody tones. That’s how “scatter” started. Then, I decided to gate the siren and it all went out the window. As soon as the triplets came in – bam! – instant dubstep transformation. Pretty much the norm for me these days.

Honestly, I was a little worried about releasing this track. It’s a lot darker than what I’d like to put out, but I loved the drop too much. That said, I had someone describe the vocal samples as cute. That evens it out, right?

Thanks to Kristie Yung for suggesting the pause before the second hook and to Aeron Matthew for scanning the track before it went out!

Start Date: May 8th, 2012
Digital Audio Workstation (DAW): FLStudio 10 by Image-Line
Instruments: Massive by Native Instruments (bass synth, blip synth), Battery 3 by Native Instruments (percussion), Kontakt 5 by Native Instruments (siren), 3xOSC by Image-Line (transitions)

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Supermoon River

Odd One Out / Sakura by Moonlight

Photography has been one of the greatest blessings in my life, not only as a creative outlet, but as a way to interact with the world. It’s amazing how many people will offer their stories – just because you’re holding a camera. Point a lens at something, and all of a sudden, you have something in common.

I met a handful people that night, but there was this one woman who described the moon in ways I’d only seen it in magazines. She reached her arms out as far as she could into an ellipse, saying how in the southern parts of Persia, the moon would resemble a glowing tire in the sky. And that’s just their regular moon.

So much for our supermoon.

Camera(s): Canon 5D Mark II
Lens(es): 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS
Lighting: Natural light
Date of Photography: May 5th, 2012

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