With all the things going on in the world today, I did not have the energy to plan more than one piece of gear’s worth of music, or mess around with samples. So, I went with one of my favorite grooveboxes in my arsenal, the Elektron Model:Cycles.
I started off with my MIDI keyboard plugged in (Arturia Keystep) and played around in Bb Mixolydian. I don’t know why, but that has been one of my favorite keys forever. I laid out simple note progressions on each track, but added a little complexity in varied time signatures.
The kick drum on Track 1 is just one bar of 4/4. Track 2 is the snare and percussion in 7/8. Track 3 is in 15/8. Track 4 is two bars of 4/4. Track 5 is 3 bars of 4/4. Track 6 is also two bars of 4/4.
The pattern feels pretty “normal” still (not jarringly cycling), but there is enough variation of the notes going around each other to hopefully be a little interesting. I wrapped it up by doing a control all to lower the decay on all the tracks, and then adding delay and reverb until everything was pretty washed out. And then let the long tail end it.
Song Imagery from Miss Bossy Cheeks
A room full of people gathered for a healing retreat. Surrounding them in the perimeter of the room are various bells of different sizes and shapes and also a yogi dj/orchestrator. Bodies are rhythmically swaying. Each time you hear the loudest bell pitch, you see some dark clouds expel from the people.
