Metronomica.blog
jamuary 9, 2025
I wrote this on lines today, which is where I’m sharing all my jamuary stuff:
Tried some new tools today: Velvet Machine, for cool reverb-y stuff, and Weeping Wall, for piano ambience. I think it came out OK — I like the arpeggiated drone sample in the middle — but I find myself, as I often do, stuck between wanting to take off the mask that the reverb affords me and worrying that the sounds beneath the mask might not be interesting enough on their own.
Here it is:
Of course, right after posting that I listened back and realized I actually quite like this piece. Only I really know how much I’m murdering the thing with reverb, right? The piano’s plinky-plonk, hypnotically on-time quarter notes contrast nicely with the asynchronous drone sample, which feels off-kilter and uneasy.
It’s funny — while making this, I was excited about it. Excited about using those new tools; excited about what might come of it. And then, as the loop played and played and played, and I felt like I couldn’t do anything more with it, or take it anywhere new and interesting, I lost that excitement. Maybe the whole thing is boring. There isn’t enough to it. Kind of a wasted try, today. I recorded it as best I could and that was that.
But hindsight is 20/20, and the further you travel the better you see. It only took me 20 minutes after creating the thing to start liking it again; maybe this will be one of my favorites of the month, when all is said and done.
// tags: making music jamuary