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. These thoughts are intended to come from me as a consumer of, and participant in, the entertainment business..
My Music
This project started out in Ableton Note with the two plucky synth sounds you hear at the beginning. I actually started composing this track on my iPhone late one night. I had not worked on music all day and I had the choice to either go to sleep or just put in 15 minutes. I only had my AirPods on me at the time so I even had some distracting latency to deal with, but I am really glad I started my track that way. I eventually moved to the iPad where I had more screen real estate to play out the pad parts. I also tried something interesting with the drums and percussion. I composed the beat in one drum rack in one scene and on one track, adding a percussive element to each of the sixteen pads in the App. Then I copied that beat to each scene and deleted elements so two were in each scene. I listened to each track this way and it was somewhat helpful to see how individual components of the beat worked with the overall song, but my real goal was to move into my main DAW and break out the individual elements to their own track. I like doing this because I feel like I get more control when it's time to mix and arrange them, but it is hard to do in Ableton Note where I am limited to 8 tracks total. I feel like this technique got me pretty close to my normal workflow and saved me some time.
Music + Tech + Law
I am still not certain what the future holds for this section. I have had a hard time articulating an opinion on any of the legal issues I have come across in the articles I have read about the music business. I am thinking I might just move forward with the next section, Miscellaneous on Music, in the future. I feel like leaving the scope open-ended will make it easier to compile some thoughts throughout the week.
Miscellaneous on Music
I never gave much thought to the origin of the term "Electronic Dance Music.” It is somewhat confusing to me because I like EDM, but I don't go out dancing or hang out at clubs. I also like listening to it during activities other than dancing, like working/studying, driving and exercising. Also, why does the term "electronic” persist? Isn’t all music produced on a computer "electronic"? Why isn't all music made with instruments that require electricity "electronic music"?
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