Begin transmission

Like many of the other doctors here, I’ve been a bit busy lately. Unfortunately, the things I’ve been working on are not quite ready to be unveiled. So I will give you a little taste, some more snippets.

1. Vapid

vapid_slow

The winner from last week’s poll. Still working on this one, though it has taken a new turn. Does it work better? Worse? Let me know in the comments.

2. Concepts

concepts

This is a bit of a weird tune, but kind of funny to me for some reason. Experimental, for sure.

3. Accomplish

accomplish

Written for a video game project that was never meant to be. This will turn into something eventually.

4. Machine Gallops

machine_gallops

This one is a recent favorite of mine. It is only one synth rack and drums, nothing else. This one is also being re-worked, as I’m not sure what to do with the ending yet. Featured in a mix set I did about a year ago.

5. BCRemix

bcremix1

A remix of a song I wrote for a compilation a few years ago. I wanted something a bit more ambient, and this was it. I used Ableton Live for this one.

Let me know what you think of these tracks in the comments. Thanks for checking our site!

1. DoYouMissIt

doyoumissit

This snippet was written during a heavy dose of nostalgia. One of those times where you’re exploring in your mind, spelunking so deep that you’re not really in the present any more. Of all things that were good but are gone, this is a reflection of a good time that will never exist again. Believe it or not, it’s about the LAN parties that many of the Dr.s posting here were all a part of. Pretty nerdy, I know…but those were good times.

2. Vapid

vapid

Can’t really remember what inspired this one, but it is fairly groovy. The mix is a bit rough, but it could be developed into something much better if I spent some time on it. Needs more drums maybe…

3. Pianos

pianos

This was the first direct result of my recent midi controller purchase, which I have regrettably not had much time to toy with yet. This track feels like part of Duo 505′s Facing It to me. It is no surprise that I can’t shake the Underworld/Steve Reich repetitive pattern influences on my music. Sort of a generic tune, but it was a quick and dirty one and something I actually played.

4. WhatDon’tKnow

what_dont_know

Written some time in Dec 08, another little seed from Dr. Echo Bloom’s old laptop (R.I.P. Rosemont). I like the layers working in this one. The more I worked on it, the more I kept throwing stuff at it. Now it just feels like a wall of sound once the beat kicks in, thanks to the massive pads and extra helping of reverb. The mix is pretty bad at the moment, but I think you can get a general idea as to what can be improved on the track. I actually thought this track was lost when the laptop died, but I found it.

So there you go. Hopefully one of those strikes you in some way, so leave a comment with your vote as to which song should be further developed next. If all goes well, I’ll have an altered version of the track with the highest votes by next week. Thanks!

I’ve been kicking around this tune “Volley” for over two years. I hunkered down and decided to push it through and see where it would go. Having a new sample pack to play around with, I was focusing on exploring drum and bass prior to working on this track. The thought did cross my mind, to raise the BPM up to 165 or 170…but I resisted. I wanted this track to be different.

The more I began tweaking and adding, the more this track struck me as being in the vein of I am Robot and Proud. Which is cool. Check out the result, and mind the compression/mixing as it is also a work in progress itself:

Original tune:

snippet_04

The new stuff:

volley-jungle

It will probably continue to mutate. Leave some comments and let me know what you think.

The beginning:

snippet_02

Now the new stuff:

nice_try_master_attempt

I hope to expand on this track some more eventually, but for now please leave some feedback. Thanks for listening.

5extend

This is what the song looked like when I got off the plane (it was one loop):

The song "5" in the early stages

So after my flight, I started adding elements to the track. I isolated bits that I liked, and change the bits that I didn’t like. It has been over five months since I wrote the parts above, and every once in a while I fired up the track to work on it a little bit here and there.

That’s five months of fine tuning, adding bits, taking out bits, tweaking everything. That’s the main process with Reason and I since around 2005. I’m hard pressed to finish tracks, but I will tweak them beyond limits. 

Yet after some recent work, I think I finally got the song going in a good direction. Here is the same song after all those months of work, off and on. The song has not been mastered, so please excuse the low quality.

5-smoovemix

I’d like to know what you think, so post some comments. For those curious, this is what the song looks like now:

The song now.

Bonus link: here’s some music TMFJ and I made a little while ago.

Dr. Echo Bloom asked a really good question in the comments, and as I was answering it I realized I was writing a novel. This was the question:

“How do you put a piece together? Do you start with a melody? A beat and slowly add and subtract elements over time? Do you think there’s a narrative component to your work?”

All music tells a story to me, one way or another. Normally I like to approach it like I did when I was in a band and played traditional instruments. I start with the instrument. I pick out something, like what synth I’m going to use, and then write a melody. Sometimes it is something I thought about, or I just explore and create something unexpected. A lot of unexpectedness happened with this particular track. That being said, I think this song is more about expressing emotions. As you can already tell, though…there is a story behind it as well.

It all began when you gave me the laptop, and I fired up Reason on that plane. It was crude, but it was something that was happening because I was given the tools at that particular time. The song is upbeat because it was born from a good thing. The more I worked on the song, the more I focused on the positive energy: the gift, returning to music after a hiatus, trying new things. All of that influenced the song over the months. It still isn’t done either, so it will continue to develop.

Thanks for the comments.