Each week, I first summarize my adventures in making music. Lately, I have been composing tracks for the Disquiet Junto, the Naviar Records Haiku Music Challenge and, this year for the first time, Weekly Beats. I also have other projects and collaborations I will share occasionally.
I also bring together the perspective I shared in posts on social media (currently Mastodon) about the music industry in the section: Music + Tech + Law. These thoughts are intended to come from me as a consumer of, and participant in, the entertainment business. However, I cannot completely separate the thoughts I generate from the part of my brain I use for my day job as a lawyer experienced in technology contracts and intellectual property.*
My Music
I asked my wife if we could get a bottle of Cava last Friday night. She asked what made me think of that and I explained that I wanted to record the sound of the cork popping and use it to make a track. She agreed to help me with popping the cork (and drinking the bottle), so I set up to record with an SM58 I pulled off of the rack tom on my drum kit. I only had one take and I think it turned out okay. You can hear the original sample below.
I thought it was going to be easier to make a kick sound from that sample, but I had a really hard time. I tried using two presets called “Kick Boom” and “Sub Kick Maker” along with EQ and compression, but I could not get the sound exactly the way I wanted it to be. I made two different kick sounds because the prompt called for “kicks,” plural. From there, because the prompt specifically mentioned techno, I simply chose other sample sounds that I happened to have in my library categorized under that genre. I also kept it at just a “rhythmic track” in line with the prompt by only having percussion, a simple bass line and one stab. Part of me hoped there were plans to combine this project with a “kickless” project in the following week, like the “kickless techno” that sparked the discussion that inspired the project in the first place, but that did not end up happening. Still, I am happy to have experimented with some sound design in making my own kick sound and also learning about music that purposely omits that type of sound. The latter inspired my Weekly Beats submission that I write more about below.
This week also marked the return of my Push 2 my setup. Back in February, it started sending random MIDI signals to my computer and I had to stop using it. Thankfully, Ableton has a paid replacement program and I was able to get a refurbished model by sending mine in and paying about $100. I have had my Push since 2017, so I found that to be a really good deal even though the whole process took awhile. As for inspiration for my track, the theme for the Disquiet Junto project above revolved around the concept of "kickless techno" and one of the examples I listened to was a track by Barker. I had never heard of the concept of "kickless" electronic music or of artists like Barker, but I was very much fascinated by all of it.
My track started out with just the pads and arpeggiated bass synth sounds and I was thinking of trying to finish the track with no kick, but I got stuck at one point and wanted to hear one. When I first brought it in, I tried it on the off beat. I am not sure what the proper way to describe it is, but I put the kick on the "and" instead of the one. I really liked that, but when I tried to layer other percussion over it, the whole beat became hard to understand. I reverted back to a four-on-the-floor dance beat and was able to finish the track, but toward the end of the week, I started to feel a little bored with it and lacked motivation to add some finishing touches that I normally would. The whole song comes together for me in the second B part around 3:33, but I am going to wonder what I might have felt like had I kept going with something more conceptual and out of the norm for me. But that is a good lesson to take away - that it can be worth it to pursue something I don't understand at first so that I remain interested through the process.
Music + Tech + Law
I am skeptical when anyone declares a “digital revolution” and even more doubtful of the claim in this article applied to a new music contract platform called Flou. If “Flou is to the music industry what platforms like Contractbook and LinkSquares are to other sectors” how is that “bad news for anyone in the business of racking up billable hours” if those other platforms are not? The business of racking up billable hours seems to be doing just fine. The smarter play here would have been to start a consulting firm that could go into any existing contract management system on the market and customize it for the entertainment business.
I grew up playing competitive team sports and regularly watched film of games and practice in order to improve. Later in life, I took up cycling and did a bike fit which included a video analysis. Surprisingly, I have never done something similar for my main instrument, the drums, but I could see the benefits of this type of technology in helping with my form - not just getting a subjective critique from a viewer, but measuring against objective data from better players.
*My opinions are not my employer’s and this material does not create an attorney-client relationship, is not intended to convey legal or ethics advice, and does not guarantee the same or similar results in all cases.