Minnesota madness

I'm beginning to think that all the LCD Soundsystem I've been listening to lately is seeping into my thinking when it comes to this project.  I started this one off with a basic kick drum and then added a hi-hat and a few other percussive elements.  I kind of had a central theme down, but then kept tacking on intro ideas and things quickly got convoluted.  Why not share?

Cyber Monday

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  So as much as I make fun of all the Black Friday madness, I splurged today.  It was half off most everything on the Native Instruments site today.  I picked up this package of compressors.  Please drop me a comment if you have experience with any of these, in hardware or software form.  It appeared to be too good of a deal to pass up.

Groove composition in Maschine

So as I mentioned, in addition to Pro Tools, there is some other composition software at work here.  The role of Native Instruments' Maschine is a little harder to define than a common digital audio workstation.  It's a loop-based composition and arrangement tool which can be integrated into my workflow in a couple different ways.  Up until recently, I'd been using Maschine on a standalone basis to try out ideas, and put together grooves.  I would then click and drag the resulting audio file over to Pro Tools for deeper editing.  For the Bon Iver Project, I've started using Maschine as a vst, or plugin, in Pro Tools 9.  This means that Maschine's timeline syncs with Pro Tools, and they operate in parallel.  Tempo is also consistent.  Maschine simply becomes one track within the project.  This offers the best of both worlds, in a sense.  I'm able to use Maschine where it really shines (as a loop-based composition tool) while it sits in Pro Tools, where things are more easily edited and fine-tuned.  Ta daa....

Maschine 1.8 in Pro Tools 9.

So, in order to know where each Maschine "scene" (or part) starts and ends, I've added markers in the Pro Tools edit view.  I'm not saying this is the best way to incorporate this into your workflow, but it worked on Perth, and I'm trying it on Minnesota  So far, so good.

Back at it

So after a musical month that obviously didn't include a bunch of work on this project, I'm back in the Bon Iver groove.  I saw a lot of good music live and did my best to perform some as well, so it was time well spent, and I'm ready for a renewed remix effort.  It's amazing how the musical thing sort of feeds on itself.  Now where did we leave off?  I'll be tearing into Minnesota, and working on broad arrangements.  This should allow me a couple posts, with at least one being on the technical side of things.  This remix effort has already helped me integrate a certain piece of software that I've been using in addition to Pro Tools 9.  Up until now, I hadn't realized it's full potential.  More on that later.  I leave you with this (best viewed in hd)...

Minnesota inspiration

I think Minnesota, WI is going to be fun.  At first glance, this track appears to be pretty calm with a lot of banjo and brass.  Things don't really pick up until around two thirds of the way through.  What is kind of interesting though, is the underlying rhythm patterns in these louder parts.  A couple of these stuck out to me and most likely will become the basis of my remix.  My initial thinking is to switch things up so that the result is more of a storm with a touch of calm.  Here's an example, with no doctoring whatsoever.




With some work, I could probably chop, warp and arrange that clip alone and create a whole chorus or bridge/breakdown.  When the source material is so musical, it really helps when coming up with ideas.  I'm going to put some time in this weekend and get this second track off the ground sooner rather than later.