It’s been almost 10 years since I’ve used a hardware sampler to create the bulk of my songs. I’ve used them more recently to make parts and dump those into Ableton but I’m a bit rusty having relied on the DAW for so long.
How are you all building your songs? Do you make the hook & verse of the song first and then the intros/outros/breakdowns? Anyone using song mode much yet?
I’m working on getting my first songs into Ableton and the easiest way I’ve thought of is to make all the parts, string them together via song mode, and then solo’ing each pad while recording into the DAW with the DAW as the master clock. This way, I’ll get each sound tracked out for mixing later.
It’s a bit laborious but kind of standard for working with a sampler unless it’s got an export function.
@ScottBrio youve described what I do pretty much to a T. I usually end up with a project on the 2400 with half dozen or so patterns, that I can play each pattern in sequence to get an idea of the rough arrangement. After its close enough for me I fire up Ableton and record each pattern as a whole and then tracks of the segments I want to separate or add effects to. That also lets me warp and slight timing imperfections to get the loop on time with the beat. I can then arrange and start looking for more parts that may or may not be a pattern but would fill in some gaps. Since fully switching to Ableton from Logic I find working with audio much much easier and Ableton basically becomes another sampler to do fine edits.
I make all my music in MPC60 song-mode (with various synths, old fx racks, all mixed on an old Mackie). Unfortunately, never used nor know how to use a DAW.
So, I hope the S2400’s future midi-sequencer in song-mode is as capable as a simple/classic MPC sequencer (not asking for anything super fancy/modern/ultra-featured).
Very good point. I agree. I am moving to a full hardware setup with a cirklon on order (16 more months to go??). I really do not want to get into a DAW at all. I’ll always have Live to export stems into but personally I will be buying a mixing board for my mix downs. The biggest issue I have had with hardware sequencers (Octatrack, Tempest, Toraiz (bloody toy)) is wrapping my head around pattern transitions. It is my hope with the Cirklon that this will be all taken care of. I also found the hardware sequencers I have used very limited in some fashion (mono only / tpqn / # of notes per sequence / crappy MIDI implementation…). I am curious to find out what the SP2400 sequencer is capable of.
So to the original posters comments…I would love to see a walkthrough video on song creation that doesn’t sound like a bunch of loops strung together.
@StupidAmericanPig same! I realized last night that putting the patterns into Song Mode while having Ableton as the master clock doesn’t allow the S2400 to play Song Mode Maybe I’m not doing something right but this is a bit of a ‘stick in the spokes’ as I was hoping to just chain them together in no particular order, then edit/arrange better in Ableton. I’m trying to avoid recording each part in piece by piece, pattern by pattern.
I have ordered a 1/4" snake however so that I can at least have the option of recording all the parts at once through the 8 outputs, into my 18i20, but there should be an easy way to record stuff in ‘two track’ style.
Let me know if you figure a good way to do this!
@LucidSFX All hardware is a crazy way to make music, but definitely has a purity to it that hybrid setups don’t have. Once I figure out how to record stuff in properly I’ll absolutely be doing a video on how I do it
@ScottBrio
Yeah it is crazy, the hardware sequencer is key. I suspect the Cirklon will be more feature rich than the SP2400 (which is understandable). However I am positive the SP2400 has better sequencing capabilities than the Tempest.
I have found my best tracks ever released (no I am not double platinum) were all hardware based with some stem processing and mix processing OTB. I could do this and more with the right console (Avantis - insane or SQ7 (most likely my route) and never have to worry about using a mouse and keyboard every again to make music…now we are drifting into a new topic! highjack alert
Maybe I’m not doing something right but this is a bit of a ‘stick in the spokes’ as I was hoping to just chain them together in no particular order, then edit/arrange better in Ableton. I’m trying to avoid recording each part in piece by piece, pattern by pattern.