(Live electronic, -ish) EP using only the Novation Circuit

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jayhosking
Posts: 613
Joined: 28 Nov 2016
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14 Aug 2018

Before you run me out of here for posting this on the RT site, I'll only point out that I started down this road almost solely thanks to this forum! See viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7508051

Anyway, some fruitful conversations here and an impulse purchase led to a really inspiring week of making music. It's been so long since I've made music out of the box that it really felt fresh, fun, and free of the normal impediments. I'll post the full blurb about the EP below the link.

Let me know what you think? It's live, and kind of bare bones (after all, it's all coming from the Circuit), but I'm really pleased with these live performances.



----

"Live sketches" was performed live with the Novation Circuit. Basic sequences were preprogrammed and then arranged live, with solos, mutes, tweaks, effects, and other flourish all performed in real-time. All sounds, samples, and effects were created live using the factory stock sounds from the Novation Circuit, with the final mix being simply the stereo output from this digital groovebox. The only external processing was a compressor and limiter on the mix to bring the volume up to contemporary standards.

The beautiful, messy, improvised quality of music is typically lost in modern recording, especially in electronic music, where a mouse and keyboard often replace the expressiveness of an instrument. Moreover, musicians can become crippled by the sheer volume of great choices out there, be it samples or synthesizers or effects or even performances/takes to splice together. And finally, it can be challenging to create music on the same device where you check your email, or do your work, or otherwise spend the non-music parts of your day.

So when I picked up the Novation Circuit on a whim less than a week before I recorded "Live sketches", I was enormously inspired by the device: by its limitations, by its tactile approach to making electronic music, by its all-in-one-piece-of-hardware philosophy, by its lack of screens or email-checking ability. I found myself tinkering with it in all the free spaces of my life: while cooking, or while taking a ferry, or even during playtime with my two-year-old son (who intuitively understands flashing lights and hitting drum pads in a way that a computer can't compare).

The songs on "Live sketches" truly are sketches, and all are first takes while plugged into my recording software (although I toyed with these sequences many times before recording). And being sketches, I could spend far more time with them, adding more layers using my computer and other hardware, mixing with dedicated channels, and so on, until I had a much more polished EP. But all that feels toilsome and antithetical to the joy I experienced while discovering this little groovebox. I'm sure I'll incorporate the Circuit into my standard way of making music, but for now I'm putting these live performances out as a testament. Breaking the modern laptop workflow can lead to great ideas, great flow, great songs, great productivity, and great fun. I hope you can sense that while listening to these tracks while driving, or studying, or anywhere else.

Thanks kindly for listening.

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FLVZ
Posts: 519
Joined: 17 Aug 2016
Location: ZW | GB

14 Aug 2018

jayhosking wrote:
14 Aug 2018
Before you run me out of here for posting this on the RT site, I'll only point out that I started down this road almost solely thanks to this forum! See viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7508051

Anyway, some fruitful conversations here and an impulse purchase led to a really inspiring week of making music. It's been so long since I've made music out of the box that it really felt fresh, fun, and free of the normal impediments. I'll post the full blurb about the EP below the link.

Let me know what you think? It's live, and kind of bare bones (after all, it's all coming from the Circuit), but I'm really pleased with these live performances.



----

"Live sketches" was performed live with the Novation Circuit. Basic sequences were preprogrammed and then arranged live, with solos, mutes, tweaks, effects, and other flourish all performed in real-time. All sounds, samples, and effects were created live using the factory stock sounds from the Novation Circuit, with the final mix being simply the stereo output from this digital groovebox. The only external processing was a compressor and limiter on the mix to bring the volume up to contemporary standards.

The beautiful, messy, improvised quality of music is typically lost in modern recording, especially in electronic music, where a mouse and keyboard often replace the expressiveness of an instrument. Moreover, musicians can become crippled by the sheer volume of great choices out there, be it samples or synthesizers or effects or even performances/takes to splice together. And finally, it can be challenging to create music on the same device where you check your email, or do your work, or otherwise spend the non-music parts of your day.

So when I picked up the Novation Circuit on a whim less than a week before I recorded "Live sketches", I was enormously inspired by the device: by its limitations, by its tactile approach to making electronic music, by its all-in-one-piece-of-hardware philosophy, by its lack of screens or email-checking ability. I found myself tinkering with it in all the free spaces of my life: while cooking, or while taking a ferry, or even during playtime with my two-year-old son (who intuitively understands flashing lights and hitting drum pads in a way that a computer can't compare).

The songs on "Live sketches" truly are sketches, and all are first takes while plugged into my recording software (although I toyed with these sequences many times before recording). And being sketches, I could spend far more time with them, adding more layers using my computer and other hardware, mixing with dedicated channels, and so on, until I had a much more polished EP. But all that feels toilsome and antithetical to the joy I experienced while discovering this little groovebox. I'm sure I'll incorporate the Circuit into my standard way of making music, but for now I'm putting these live performances out as a testament. Breaking the modern laptop workflow can lead to great ideas, great flow, great songs, great productivity, and great fun. I hope you can sense that while listening to these tracks while driving, or studying, or anywhere else.

Thanks kindly for listening.
Really good listening dude. I too have found through playing live that doing somethings outside the box just allows you to explore additional avenues of creativity, and that limitation is a blessing in disguise!

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jayhosking
Posts: 613
Joined: 28 Nov 2016
Contact:

15 Aug 2018

Flavolous wrote:
14 Aug 2018

Really good listening dude. I too have found through playing live that doing somethings outside the box just allows you to explore additional avenues of creativity, and that limitation is a blessing in disguise!
Hey, thanks so much! “Limitations are good for creativity” is something I know, something I recommend to other people, and yet it’s easy to forget it during the actual creation process. Let’s see if I can hold onto the lesson this time!

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