No More DAW...

I like Pure Data as well, however so far I haven't really used it in any actual project. It seems I get stuck at trying to build some working pure data widget and it ends up taking way too long and then I lose interest again. My current side-project is trying to make a MIDI looper with Pure Data to run on a headless Raspberry Pi.

I like the raw sort of feeling in PD, that you don't really have all the knobs and stuff already made and hooked up, instead you have to build your own thing. I suppose Max is more "ready-made" in the sense that it's easier and more userfriendly to get from a blank patch to something that you can actually use. I have tried Max but I like that PD is open source and free (plus the Max editor seems to make my CPU fans go wild).

  On 5/22/2017 at 4:37 AM, thawkins said:

I like Pure Data as well, however so far I haven't really used it in any actual project. It seems I get stuck at trying to build some working pure data widget and it ends up taking way too long and then I lose interest again. My current side-project is trying to make a MIDI looper with Pure Data to run on a headless Raspberry Pi.

I like the raw sort of feeling in PD, that you don't really have all the knobs and stuff already made and hooked up, instead you have to build your own thing. I suppose Max is more "ready-made" in the sense that it's easier and more userfriendly to get from a blank patch to something that you can actually use. I have tried Max but I like that PD is open source and free (plus the Max editor seems to make my CPU fans go wild).

Yeah, my take on PD and the like is that I enjoy it but the part of my brain that it uses is not the part that's good at music. If I dive back in to that world again it's going to be VVVV for generative video stuff but there are only so many hours in the day and adding another big learning project would seriously cut in to my doing useless crap on the Internet regimen.

  On 5/22/2017 at 6:54 PM, RSP said:

 

  On 5/22/2017 at 4:37 AM, thawkins said:

I like Pure Data as well, however so far I haven't really used it in any actual project. It seems I get stuck at trying to build some working pure data widget and it ends up taking way too long and then I lose interest again. My current side-project is trying to make a MIDI looper with Pure Data to run on a headless Raspberry Pi.

I like the raw sort of feeling in PD, that you don't really have all the knobs and stuff already made and hooked up, instead you have to build your own thing. I suppose Max is more "ready-made" in the sense that it's easier and more userfriendly to get from a blank patch to something that you can actually use. I have tried Max but I like that PD is open source and free (plus the Max editor seems to make my CPU fans go wild).

 

Yeah, my take on PD and the like is that I enjoy it but the part of my brain that it uses is not the part that's good at music. If I dive back in to that world again it's going to be VVVV for generative video stuff but there are only so many hours in the day and adding another big learning project would seriously cut in to my doing useless crap on the Internet regimen.

 

Yeah I wish I had time to play/compose music, program new synthesizers *and* look into Processing, vvvv, or whatever else visualisation programming languages to give a visible component to my music. I don't even have a doing useless crap on the internet regimen (unless you count slacking off on WATMM at work).

  On 5/23/2017 at 5:47 AM, thawkins said:

 

  On 5/22/2017 at 6:54 PM, RSP said:

 

  On 5/22/2017 at 4:37 AM, thawkins said:

I like Pure Data as well, however so far I haven't really used it in any actual project. It seems I get stuck at trying to build some working pure data widget and it ends up taking way too long and then I lose interest again. My current side-project is trying to make a MIDI looper with Pure Data to run on a headless Raspberry Pi.

I like the raw sort of feeling in PD, that you don't really have all the knobs and stuff already made and hooked up, instead you have to build your own thing. I suppose Max is more "ready-made" in the sense that it's easier and more userfriendly to get from a blank patch to something that you can actually use. I have tried Max but I like that PD is open source and free (plus the Max editor seems to make my CPU fans go wild).

 

Yeah, my take on PD and the like is that I enjoy it but the part of my brain that it uses is not the part that's good at music. If I dive back in to that world again it's going to be VVVV for generative video stuff but there are only so many hours in the day and adding another big learning project would seriously cut in to my doing useless crap on the Internet regimen.

 

Yeah I wish I had time to play/compose music, program new synthesizers *and* look into Processing, vvvv, or whatever else visualisation programming languages to give a visible component to my music. I don't even have a doing useless crap on the internet regimen (unless you count slacking off on WATMM at work).

 

My useless crap regimen is more like "I just accidentally spent two hours listening to early Miami Bass tracks on Youtube instead of working on my own music and now I've got to go to bed"

  On 5/24/2017 at 7:12 PM, RSP said:

 

My useless crap regimen is more like "I just accidentally spent two hours listening to early Miami Bass tracks on Youtube instead of working on my own music and now I've got to go to bed"

 

I like to think that the cure for accidentally spending time on not making music is to have some regular jamming/building partner. So you'd meet up and have 3-4 hours for doing stuff and you'd keep focused better, because you'd be letting the other guy down if you just spent the time on youtube. Kind of like working out in pairs works - no matter the weather or laziness, you have to go because you don't want to let your friend down. But it doesn't have to be this evil constricting pressure, like if the jams really aren't working out some day you don't need to be stressed about that. It's also cool to just youtube and chill sometimes too.

This sort of rehearsal worked well when I played drums in a band - when everyone shows up, we play some songs (usually for 30-40 minutes), then take a break and listen to some youtube or vinyls, then play again. Back then we had our own rehearsal space so we didn't really worry about paying by the hour to some studio.

But of course this solution requires other like-minded people, so it's not something you can achieve easily if you prefer working alone or just can't find the right people. 

  On 5/25/2017 at 3:42 AM, thawkins said:

 

  On 5/24/2017 at 7:12 PM, RSP said:

 

My useless crap regimen is more like "I just accidentally spent two hours listening to early Miami Bass tracks on Youtube instead of working on my own music and now I've got to go to bed"

 

I like to think that the cure for accidentally spending time on not making music is to have some regular jamming/building partner. So you'd meet up and have 3-4 hours for doing stuff and you'd keep focused better, because you'd be letting the other guy down if you just spent the time on youtube. Kind of like working out in pairs works - no matter the weather or laziness, you have to go because you don't want to let your friend down. But it doesn't have to be this evil constricting pressure, like if the jams really aren't working out some day you don't need to be stressed about that. It's also cool to just youtube and chill sometimes too.

This sort of rehearsal worked well when I played drums in a band - when everyone shows up, we play some songs (usually for 30-40 minutes), then take a break and listen to some youtube or vinyls, then play again. Back then we had our own rehearsal space so we didn't really worry about paying by the hour to some studio.

But of course this solution requires other like-minded people, so it's not something you can achieve easily if you prefer working alone or just can't find the right people. 

 

Oh for sure.  All of them moved away in 2013 and since then I haven't found anyone I really clicked with musically, but two of them are moving back next month so things should be on track again soon, and in the mean time I kind of lived like a synth monk and got WAY better at production so it wasn't a total loss.

Already have two shows lined up for June and three different likely local collaborations on the horizon. But those three years were pretty intense, first time I'd gone for more than 6 months without being in at least one regularly performing or at least recording band since I was a kid in the 90s and it was making me a bit crazy.

  On 5/26/2017 at 4:11 AM, RSP said:

 

  On 5/25/2017 at 3:42 AM, thawkins said:

 

  On 5/24/2017 at 7:12 PM, RSP said:

 

My useless crap regimen is more like "I just accidentally spent two hours listening to early Miami Bass tracks on Youtube instead of working on my own music and now I've got to go to bed"

 

I like to think that the cure for accidentally spending time on not making music is to have some regular jamming/building partner. So you'd meet up and have 3-4 hours for doing stuff and you'd keep focused better, because you'd be letting the other guy down if you just spent the time on youtube. Kind of like working out in pairs works - no matter the weather or laziness, you have to go because you don't want to let your friend down. But it doesn't have to be this evil constricting pressure, like if the jams really aren't working out some day you don't need to be stressed about that. It's also cool to just youtube and chill sometimes too.

This sort of rehearsal worked well when I played drums in a band - when everyone shows up, we play some songs (usually for 30-40 minutes), then take a break and listen to some youtube or vinyls, then play again. Back then we had our own rehearsal space so we didn't really worry about paying by the hour to some studio.

But of course this solution requires other like-minded people, so it's not something you can achieve easily if you prefer working alone or just can't find the right people. 

 

 

Oh for sure.  All of them moved away in 2013 and since then I haven't found anyone I really clicked with musically, but two of them are moving back next month so things should be on track again soon, and in the mean time I kind of lived like a synth monk and got WAY better at production so it wasn't a total loss.

 

Already have two shows lined up for June and three different likely local collaborations on the horizon. But those three years were pretty intense, first time I'd gone for more than 6 months without being in at least one regularly performing or at least recording band since I was a kid in the 90s and it was making me a bit crazy.

 

If you lasted 4 years like this, good for you. I can't even make it to 6 months without getting withdrawals from not performing or playing with other people. :)

  On 5/29/2017 at 8:14 AM, thawkins said:

 

  On 5/26/2017 at 4:11 AM, RSP said:

 

  On 5/25/2017 at 3:42 AM, thawkins said:

 

  On 5/24/2017 at 7:12 PM, RSP said:

 

My useless crap regimen is more like "I just accidentally spent two hours listening to early Miami Bass tracks on Youtube instead of working on my own music and now I've got to go to bed"

 

I like to think that the cure for accidentally spending time on not making music is to have some regular jamming/building partner. So you'd meet up and have 3-4 hours for doing stuff and you'd keep focused better, because you'd be letting the other guy down if you just spent the time on youtube. Kind of like working out in pairs works - no matter the weather or laziness, you have to go because you don't want to let your friend down. But it doesn't have to be this evil constricting pressure, like if the jams really aren't working out some day you don't need to be stressed about that. It's also cool to just youtube and chill sometimes too.

This sort of rehearsal worked well when I played drums in a band - when everyone shows up, we play some songs (usually for 30-40 minutes), then take a break and listen to some youtube or vinyls, then play again. Back then we had our own rehearsal space so we didn't really worry about paying by the hour to some studio.

But of course this solution requires other like-minded people, so it's not something you can achieve easily if you prefer working alone or just can't find the right people. 

 

 

Oh for sure.  All of them moved away in 2013 and since then I haven't found anyone I really clicked with musically, but two of them are moving back next month so things should be on track again soon, and in the mean time I kind of lived like a synth monk and got WAY better at production so it wasn't a total loss.

 

Already have two shows lined up for June and three different likely local collaborations on the horizon. But those three years were pretty intense, first time I'd gone for more than 6 months without being in at least one regularly performing or at least recording band since I was a kid in the 90s and it was making me a bit crazy.

 

If you lasted 4 years like this, good for you. I can't even make it to 6 months without getting withdrawals from not performing or playing with other people. :)

 

Well, I was still playing original acoustic guitar with a friend of mine once or twice most weeks and occasionally with other people, but not playing with a band and only playing maybe one solo show a year. Not enough but it was something.

But yeah, before that I'd only gone without a band of some kind once, for 8 months, when I was just out of college and everyone moved away.

  On 5/29/2017 at 2:27 PM, RSP said:

 

  On 5/29/2017 at 8:14 AM, thawkins said:

 

  On 5/26/2017 at 4:11 AM, RSP said:

 

  On 5/25/2017 at 3:42 AM, thawkins said:

 

  On 5/24/2017 at 7:12 PM, RSP said:

 

My useless crap regimen is more like "I just accidentally spent two hours listening to early Miami Bass tracks on Youtube instead of working on my own music and now I've got to go to bed"

 

I like to think that the cure for accidentally spending time on not making music is to have some regular jamming/building partner. So you'd meet up and have 3-4 hours for doing stuff and you'd keep focused better, because you'd be letting the other guy down if you just spent the time on youtube. Kind of like working out in pairs works - no matter the weather or laziness, you have to go because you don't want to let your friend down. But it doesn't have to be this evil constricting pressure, like if the jams really aren't working out some day you don't need to be stressed about that. It's also cool to just youtube and chill sometimes too.

This sort of rehearsal worked well when I played drums in a band - when everyone shows up, we play some songs (usually for 30-40 minutes), then take a break and listen to some youtube or vinyls, then play again. Back then we had our own rehearsal space so we didn't really worry about paying by the hour to some studio.

But of course this solution requires other like-minded people, so it's not something you can achieve easily if you prefer working alone or just can't find the right people. 

 

 

Oh for sure.  All of them moved away in 2013 and since then I haven't found anyone I really clicked with musically, but two of them are moving back next month so things should be on track again soon, and in the mean time I kind of lived like a synth monk and got WAY better at production so it wasn't a total loss.

 

Already have two shows lined up for June and three different likely local collaborations on the horizon. But those three years were pretty intense, first time I'd gone for more than 6 months without being in at least one regularly performing or at least recording band since I was a kid in the 90s and it was making me a bit crazy.

 

If you lasted 4 years like this, good for you. I can't even make it to 6 months without getting withdrawals from not performing or playing with other people. :)

 

 

Well, I was still playing original acoustic guitar with a friend of mine once or twice most weeks and occasionally with other people, but not playing with a band and only playing maybe one solo show a year. Not enough but it was something.

 

But yeah, before that I'd only gone without a band of some kind once, for 8 months, when I was just out of college and everyone moved away.

 

I think it's a good thing if it's possible to talk about making music using the same words as you would use to describe a drug habit. It means that deep down inside the drive to make music is there, and that's really important.