Noxu Hash (analog splices)

https://soundcloud.com/evoava/noxu-hash

So this track was basically done by taking lots of little bits and bops I made from an 8 hour session I had on a modular synth, way back when ( a few months ago), and mangling them to death. It's certainly a different way of making music, though it takes twice as long to make these 'hash' tracks, than it would using subtractive synthesis or something. Maybe I should get into max/msp.

I call it Hash ( I have a few other tracks with that apart of the title ) since the track is primarily made up of very small, spliced audio samples.

The voice you hear "Noxu" is actually totally in incident of spliced samples. Heh. Thought it was interesting so it made the cut.

It's definitely interesting making things like shakers out of little audio samples manually. I am slightly insane. The pad is the only software.

This is fucking great. Really enjoyed the 3 separate parts of the track. Modular craziness, melodic goodness and then a cool hip hopish ending.

Only thing I'd change would be possibly making the melody louder or do some eqing? Around the 1:20 mark it gets crowded out by the drums/bass.

But really, fuck that. Great work.

Solid track bris! The drums coming in at 1:30 or so got me moving and the pad before it is very pleasing.

The three parts so quickly is great, the time it took was well worth it!

love the breaks and the vocal sounding synthesis, the different aggressions are interesting to hear as the track develops, the chords are really pretty too!

  On 4/28/2015 at 1:59 AM, rvll said:

This is fucking great. Really enjoyed the 3 separate parts of the track. Modular craziness, melodic goodness and then a cool hip hopish ending.

 

Only thing I'd change would be possibly making the melody louder or do some eqing? Around the 1:20 mark it gets crowded out by the drums/bass.

 

But really, fuck that. Great work.

hey rvll, It's been two months, but I think I subtly panned the 'hash' and the drums separately so you could tell the difference, you can hear it go into the right ear. But I'm sure I could eq it better as well. Thanks for the suggestion!

  On 4/28/2015 at 8:00 AM, mat said:

Solid track bris! The drums coming in at 1:30 or so got me moving and the pad before it is very pleasing.

 

The three parts so quickly is great, the time it took was well worth it!

I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

  On 4/28/2015 at 11:31 AM, FinePrimitiveSounds said:

love the breaks and the vocal sounding synthesis, the different aggressions are interesting to hear as the track develops, the chords are really pretty too!

Yeah, these kinds of tracks tend to lead themselves where they go.

Oh yeah man, that's only a small thing I could think of to 'improve' it. Overall it's a brilliant track. Also like to hear when people work on something for longer than an hour or two. I struggle with going back to tunes or working on stuff for a long time. I'd rather get something done and move on to the next one. Useful for quantity but a waste in terms of making a quality ep or album. Suppose the higher my standards will get?

I love the pad and the complex moving modular parts. I bet this took fucking ages! I'm starting to think that cutting and slicing things up to make original sounds is far more fun than just loading up a virtual instrument and mashing keys so I totally applaud this :)

And synths that end up sounding like vocals are basically the coolest things ever..so yeah. Nice one!

  On 4/29/2015 at 8:14 PM, rvll said:

Oh yeah man, that's only a small thing I could think of to 'improve' it. Overall it's a brilliant track. Also like to hear when people work on something for longer than an hour or two. I struggle with going back to tunes or working on stuff for a long time. I'd rather get something done and move on to the next one. Useful for quantity but a waste in terms of making a quality ep or album. Suppose the higher my standards will get?

Oh I'm similar. Though I have a few tracks that have taken 50+ hours to make. This one in particular:

https://soundcloud.com/evoava/last-rave-xl-024

That clocks in at 67 hours, ( before I just grew tired of opening the project) as there are TONS of layers, which I realize now is probably ovvverboard. Though I imagine there's plenty of idle time in it. I honestly expected it to be one of my most listened to tracks, but instead I have a few piano pieces which took like... 5 hours each maybe... which are several times more listened to. Generally my electronic stuff takes 20-40 hours, The Hash tracks are always at the upper end of that.. My acoustic stuff takes 10-25, and by acoustic I mean with varied samples. There isn't a single electronic track I have under 10 hours I'm willing to post on my SC. It all sounds too basic without a LOT of automation and thickening out to me. Kind of like what Afx said with his CCAI tracks, the real textures make things easier.

I would definitely try to work on getting your own standards of time up. 1-2 hours just isn't enough.

  Quote

 

I love the pad and the complex moving modular parts. I bet this took fucking ages! I'm starting to think that cutting and slicing things up to make original sounds is far more fun than just loading up a virtual instrument and mashing keys so I totally applaud this :)

And synths that end up sounding like vocals are basically the coolest things ever..so yeah. Nice one!

Hey thanks. I just wish I knew more so I could expand on the idea and get fully fledged ideas out of it regularly. No one can escape their 10000 hour sentence. Or something.

last rave V0.24 is incredible!

I'm just rendering my last demo to audio so I can start doing automation etc. What do you get good results with when you automate stuff? I'm quite excited to start doing this part of the composition properly.

As a beginner and with a Dell Dual Core Duo everything takes ages for me. For instance when I'm EQing a track in an arrangement whilst other tracks are playing out it really starts to hang so I have to do everything in stages otherwise I lose my mojo and get pissed off. This is exactly why I'm attracted to analogue nowadays...

  On 4/30/2015 at 9:31 AM, Brisbot said:

 

That clocks in at 67 hours, ( before I just grew tired of opening the project) as there are TONS of layers, which I realize now is probably ovvverboard. Though I imagine there's plenty of idle time in it. I honestly expected it to be one of my most listened to tracks, but instead I have a few piano pieces which took like... 5 hours each maybe... which are several times more listened to. Generally my electronic stuff takes 20-40 hours, The Hash tracks are always at the upper end of that.. My acoustic stuff takes 10-25, and by acoustic I mean with varied samples. There isn't a single electronic track I have under 10 hours I'm willing to post on my SC. It all sounds too basic without a LOT of automation and thickening out to me. Kind of like what Afx said with his CCAI tracks, the real textures make things easier.

 

I would definitely try to work on getting your own standards of time up. 1-2 hours just isn't enough.

 

I take the same approach. Right now I have the luxury of time to spend on tracks so I take it. I'd say the 20-40 hour range is a good approximation for most things I've posted.

It makes the difference as most artist would probably agree seeing as how we get about 12 tracks a year out of them. Spending the time and living with the tracks is beautiful to me. Listening in the car, listening at night with headphones, etc., before finalizing anything.

  On 4/30/2015 at 4:16 PM, Polytrix said:

last rave V0.24 is incredible!

 

I'm just rendering my last demo to audio so I can start doing automation etc. What do you get good results with when you automate stuff? I'm quite excited to start doing this part of the composition properly.

 

As a beginner and with a Dell Dual Core Duo everything takes ages for me. For instance when I'm EQing a track in an arrangement whilst other tracks are playing out it really starts to hang so I have to do everything in stages otherwise I lose my mojo and get pissed off. This is exactly why I'm attracted to analogue nowadays...

You're asking about simply automating a parameter? Well in that case it's important to know what the parameter does, and gain experience with it and eventually know BEFOREHAND what you're roughly going to get when you make a change. It eventually becomes intuitive and you start making smarter decisions. That way you have more control over the process. And that's all about experimenting and paying attention to what you're doing. I learned a TON doing the last rave track.

Oh yes, and work on different kinds of music. A lot of people on watmm (naming no names) like to center themselves around a single style, which is fine, but honestly I feel in my case when I do that it stagnates progress, not to mention I get bored.

I'm assuming by doing things in stages you mean you can only work with one or two synths at a time and have to constantly bounce things out to audio?

  Quote

 

I take the same approach. Right now I have the luxury of time to spend on tracks so I take it. I'd say the 20-40 hour range is a good approximation for most things I've posted.

 

It makes the difference as most artist would probably agree seeing as how we get about 12 tracks a year out of them. Spending the time and living with the tracks is beautiful to me. Listening in the car, listening at night with headphones, etc., before finalizing anything.

I've realized recently that the artists we get 12 tracks a year out of make MANY more, but are only willing to release the very best. Kind of humbling, and a good thing to remind myself when I feel like I'm doing a crap job on a track.

I'm going to Uni either this summer or Fall, I'm going to still try and work on music 20-30 hours a week. (down from 40) Hopefully I'll still be able to put quality content without much sacrifice.

  On 5/1/2015 at 5:44 AM, Brisbot said:

 

  On 4/30/2015 at 4:16 PM, Polytrix said:

last rave V0.24 is incredible!

 

I'm just rendering my last demo to audio so I can start doing automation etc. What do you get good results with when you automate stuff? I'm quite excited to start doing this part of the composition properly.

 

As a beginner and with a Dell Dual Core Duo everything takes ages for me. For instance when I'm EQing a track in an arrangement whilst other tracks are playing out it really starts to hang so I have to do everything in stages otherwise I lose my mojo and get pissed off. This is exactly why I'm attracted to analogue nowadays...

You're asking about simply automating a parameter? Well in that case it's important to know what the parameter does, and gain experience with it and eventually know BEFOREHAND what you're roughly going to get when you make a change. It eventually becomes intuitive and you start making smarter decisions. That way you have more control over the process. And that's all about experimenting and paying attention to what you're doing. I learned a TON doing the last rave track.

 

Oh yes, and work on different kinds of music. A lot of people on watmm (naming no names) like to center themselves around a single style, which is fine, but honestly I feel in my case when I do that it stagnates progress, not to mention I get bored.

 

I'm assuming by doing things in stages you mean you can only work with one or two synths at a time and have to constantly bounce things out to audio?

 

 

  Quote

 

I take the same approach. Right now I have the luxury of time to spend on tracks so I take it. I'd say the 20-40 hour range is a good approximation for most things I've posted.

 

It makes the difference as most artist would probably agree seeing as how we get about 12 tracks a year out of them. Spending the time and living with the tracks is beautiful to me. Listening in the car, listening at night with headphones, etc., before finalizing anything.

I've realized recently that the artists we get 12 tracks a year out of make MANY more, but are only willing to release the very best. Kind of humbling, and a good thing to remind myself when I feel like I'm doing a crap job on a track.

 

I'm going to Uni either this summer or Fall, I'm going to still try and work on music 20-30 hours a week. (down from 40) Hopefully I'll still be able to put quality content without much sacrifice.

 

I find it very hard to decide when to leave a track be since it's not getting better and working more on it even though it is boring. I have several tracks that I'm not satisfied with but sometimes it's best to leave them be and view them as part of your learning process.

By the way your work is really nice Brisbot! Do you master the tracks yourself?

I've never officially "mastered" any of my tracks. At this stage I just wing everything, I consider myself in the learning process, so why waste time with that step yet? I mean, in TERMS of mastering I add compression and stuff as I see I need it.

You're right about leaving 'behind' some tracks. Sometimes you're just worn out or out of ideas for that track. For every track I've ever done MOST of the track is done within the first few days. After a while it's always tune ups, and if I'm lucky more sections. I think it's important to get the melody and basic structure of a track down before you look at the details. I have a hard time following that myself though.

  On 5/3/2015 at 7:48 AM, Brisbot said:

I've never officially "mastered" any of my tracks. At this stage I just wing everything, I consider myself in the learning process, so why waste time with that step yet? I mean, in TERMS of mastering I add compression and stuff as I see I need it.

 

You're right about leaving 'behind' some tracks. Sometimes you're just worn out or out of ideas for that track. For every track I've ever done MOST of the track is done within the first few days. After a while it's always tune ups, and if I'm lucky more sections. I think it's important to get the melody and basic structure of a track down before you look at the details. I have a hard time following that myself though.

So you add e.g. compression and EQ on the Master track or just mix the song and then leave it as it is? Right now I just mix my tracks down and prepare them for mastering by having -5dB headroom.

Yeah I really agree that a track is basically done within the first few days. Often the first 4-5 hours in my case. Then it's just obsessing over the arrangement and tiny details which is a bit draining and maybe not so productive. One thing I've learned recently is to think about frequency space when I feel that there is something missing in a track. Before I was thinking in terms of instruments to add but now I listen and look for frequency gaps which none of the current tracks of a tune are filling.

  On 4/30/2015 at 9:31 AM, Brisbot said:

 

  On 4/29/2015 at 8:14 PM, rvll said:

Oh yeah man, that's only a small thing I could think of to 'improve' it. Overall it's a brilliant track. Also like to hear when people work on something for longer than an hour or two. I struggle with going back to tunes or working on stuff for a long time. I'd rather get something done and move on to the next one. Useful for quantity but a waste in terms of making a quality ep or album. Suppose the higher my standards will get?

Oh I'm similar. Though I have a few tracks that have taken 50+ hours to make. This one in particular:

 

https://soundcloud.com/evoava/last-rave-xl-024

 

That clocks in at 67 hours, ( before I just grew tired of opening the project) as there are TONS of layers, which I realize now is probably ovvverboard. Though I imagine there's plenty of idle time in it. I honestly expected it to be one of my most listened to tracks, but instead I have a few piano pieces which took like... 5 hours each maybe... which are several times more listened to. Generally my electronic stuff takes 20-40 hours, The Hash tracks are always at the upper end of that.. My acoustic stuff takes 10-25, and by acoustic I mean with varied samples. There isn't a single electronic track I have under 10 hours I'm willing to post on my SC. It all sounds too basic without a LOT of automation and thickening out to me. Kind of like what Afx said with his CCAI tracks, the real textures make things easier.

 

I would definitely try to work on getting your own standards of time up. 1-2 hours just isn't enough.

I can see why the last rave track took so long (and it's a great tune). A complex piece that has really good sound design. Although I agree that 1-2 hours isn't enough, this has only been a recent thing where I've been making basic, live tunes. The digital tracks I've made previously have taken between 5-20 hrs. Obviously my stuff isn't as complex and I would say that I'm probably trying to make different music to you.

I think my main concern is layering too much which then ruins what I've made. I suppose the only way around this is experimenting and getting rid of what I don't like! I enjoy simplicity, the idea of static and slight variety within sound/music is something I like. Anyway as I look to develop tracks beyond loops and into a songwriting layout I will have to take more time to write alternative lines of music. This will obviously take longer to do and make the tunes better.

AHHH good stuff. crazy from the getgo.