We use Ableton Live 8, an M-Audio 88 Key, Akai MPD 24 Drum Machine, some legit looking headphones, a bunch of cables, and pure creativity to make music. Listen to our music, enjoy it, and let us know what you think.
Our focus is instrumental music. Most of what you hear from us will be laid-back music with a modern twist. We sample other artists in some of our tracks, but also use Ableton's huge instrument library when looking for a unique sound.
Kings of Rhythm (Lafyatis) - This track samples the song All That We Perceive, by Thievery Corporation. After playing around with the sample, and finding a pattern that I liked, I laid it down in Ableton's loop window. I then copied the track two more times, and added effects to the new tracks. What you hear from the sample is one track played back straight, one filtered to just the bass, and one with an added reverb to it. This way, I was able to flesh out the sample, and make it sound a lot more full. After, I took several One Shots, and pieced together my own drum kit according to how the sample felt. I decided on the clap for a snare because of the old-school feel it added. Then, I simply took the A and B sections I created in Ableton's loop window, and mixed together the full track with an intro and outro.
Let It Flow - This is a completely original piece we worked on together. After happening upon some violin pads, we played around with them until we found a relatively simple but catchy pattern. We quickly created our own drum kit, and played a sequence over. After that, it was just a matter of adding the organ and bass, which both play the same groove. For a final touch, McCabe had the idea of adding an arpeggiated synth over certain sections of the track for an added boost to the tone and the mood provided by the track. This idea led to the name of the song as well; Let it Flow.
What The Song Becomes
For Sonic Voyages II:
- Add more diversity to the bass line, and find a player.
- Find guitar player: riff and solo.
- Cowbell, drums, and voice through Ableton. Needs to be prepared for live performance.
- Strings section needs sheet music and players. Also need to be expanded.
- Samples from Vietnam interviews, etc.
Feedback is vital to improvement.
McCabe Ballman and Joey Lafyatis Collaboration Page
Let it Flow: The syncopation or break in rhythmic pattern at the back half of measure two in the loop - that's where that excellent groove originates. The melodic shape needs to mature, evolve. Too much literal repetition. Remember to experiment with extending melody through other means. Try retrograde (repeating the shape backward), fragmenting and sequencing (repeating bits, and at other pitch levels in the primary or relative key/scale) You'll be glad you did.
Thanks, we were working on trying to some kind of a breakdown, but what we experimented with so far didn't seem to fit with the rest of the song. But I think that if (like you suggested) we experiment with expanding on the melody the piece wont be quite as repetitive, and we may even be able to create more of a natural transition into the breakdown we were looking for.
Exactly. It doesn't have to be a big change. Even a single note changed in the third repetition opens up possibilities...expectation, what might happen next to work our way back etc.
What you have already is very strong so it will only get better.
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Comments (3)
John DiTomaso said
at 7:35 am on Nov 18, 2010
Let it Flow: The syncopation or break in rhythmic pattern at the back half of measure two in the loop - that's where that excellent groove originates. The melodic shape needs to mature, evolve. Too much literal repetition. Remember to experiment with extending melody through other means. Try retrograde (repeating the shape backward), fragmenting and sequencing (repeating bits, and at other pitch levels in the primary or relative key/scale) You'll be glad you did.
McCabe Ballman said
at 4:45 pm on Nov 20, 2010
Thanks, we were working on trying to some kind of a breakdown, but what we experimented with so far didn't seem to fit with the rest of the song. But I think that if (like you suggested) we experiment with expanding on the melody the piece wont be quite as repetitive, and we may even be able to create more of a natural transition into the breakdown we were looking for.
John DiTomaso said
at 6:38 pm on Nov 20, 2010
Exactly. It doesn't have to be a big change. Even a single note changed in the third repetition opens up possibilities...expectation, what might happen next to work our way back etc.
What you have already is very strong so it will only get better.
You don't have permission to comment on this page.