jamuary 11, 2025

Today began in Bitwig, because I had drained my iPad battery by mistakenly keeping AUM running all night. I built a few loops on top of a synth pad that I quickly made, and within 45 minutes or so I had a track. It was fine, but it was pretty simplistic, and it felt locked to the grid in a way that none of my Jamuary music has. That’s what working in a DAW has always been like for me, and it’s worked nicely, but working within AUM and away from the left-to-right arrangement workflow has been so freeing.

After my iPad had charged, I ran the mixdown through AUM with a few instances of Other Desert Cities and a Rymdigare to muck everything all up. Before that, I cut the speed of the whole thing in half, dropping it an octave:

I finished it a few hours ago, and now, listening back, I like it more than I did at first. What felt illegible now feels properly mysterious. There’s more movement to the ambience than I thought, and the plodding drums have a slightly hypnotic feel. This might be the end of the road for the track, but there was still value in making it.

Anyway, today is a Saturday and weekends make for quick work and short posts. There’s lots to do.

// tags: making music jamuary

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jamuary 10, 2025 I’m not a perfectionist, but I do like to tinker. I’ll decide a song is finished, but I’ll be editing midi notes up to the last minute. Jamuary

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jamuary 12, 2025 When I shared today’s piece on lines, I said that it’s coloring in the picture I’ve been drawing this month. There’s a comfort in knowing that I