I have this fantasy where I blog more regularly about music. Like, it’s something I think about a couple times a month. “Soon,” I tell myself, “soon.” Is that now? Eh, who knows. I’m trying not to stress about it. But I do finally have an idea about the “what” of blogging about music.
I make new music sketches multiple times a week. Sometimes they are on music hardware, sometimes in the DAW, sometimes a little thing on my phone or iPad. I’ll often drop those sketches on a music Discord that I frequent (Jay Hosking’s Discord server is my favorite place on the internet). But, unless I have recorded a video to put on YouTube, I don’t share these sketches more widely.
Maybe this is a good place for that…once in a while.
So, without further rambling, here is Difficult Marble (I love the Polyend Tracker’s auto name generator).
This song (let’s just call it a song) was made with the Polyend Tracker doing all of the sequencing work, with MIDI tracks being sent to control plug-ins in AUM on the iPad. The opening drum/bass portion takes up tracks 1 and 2 and the samples are being played out of the Tracker and into the iPad via a Zoom U-24. I have some saturation on the tracks using the Moog MF-109S Saturator plug-in.
Track 3 is Bram Bos Hilda and then Hilda is running through Audio Damage Replicator 3.
Track 4 is the Moog Model D into Audio Damage Other Desert Cities, and then AudioThing Speakers
The final track is Audio Damage Quanta into AudioThing Motor, into AudioThing Lines.
Clearly I really like Audio Damage and AudioThing plug-ins.
Finally, the master out is getting a bit of extra grit on it through another instance Lines.
The song itself (and why it’s really a sketch) is structured with fading in each track (I like fades so much better than mute/unmute), doing some performance effects on the Tracker (randomizing a couple of the tracks halfway through), tweaking a couple of the effects parameters in AUM, and then fading things out.
I really like the Polyend Tracker for composition and performance. But the sample memory and lack of synth engines can be a drag (not as often as you’d think though). Thankfully the Tracker is also good at controlling other gear, and pairing it with the iPad to sequence various synths worked great here. I’ll definitely play with this setup more in the future.
