So I spent a good chunk of February fiddling with Reason as a slave within Ableton, which lead to countless hours of noodling and no real results. And then I spent the other chunk of February with Molar VST and the Monomulator patch that turns the APC40 into a monome-like device and had a lot of fun with that (although I have a lot to learn about interfacing with Molar VST).
My February experimentation did not lead to a complete song, but it did lead to an idea that was the birth of the March song project. So I’ll take that and keep on truckin. I’ll hopefully catch up down the road and sneak in an extra song at some point.
Take 1:
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Notes:
- Used Vintage Mastering 1 effect rack with default settings on Master track
- Used basic EQ device on most individual tracks
- Exported audio as wav file from Ableton and turned Normalize OFF, bit depth at 32, no dither
- Normalized wav file in Audacity with default settings
- Exported as MP3
- Mixed entirely in headphones, probably a bad thing
- Could probably ditch or modify the filter automation on maracas
- Arrangement not too bad
- Sounds a little too compressed or processed or something
Take 2:
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Notes:
- Replaced Vintage Mastering 1 effect rack with Simple Mastering Chain rack, left with default settings except turned up the gain to 3.85dB
- Removed the filter automation from the maracas track
- Exported audio same as before
- Did not normalize in Audacity, just exported as MP3
- Sounds more natural, but much quieter than take 1 (when playing back in iTunes; it actually sounds better in browser)
- I do seem to hear some glitchy artifacts sprinkled throughout (clipping?)
Take 3:
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Notes:
- Returned to this song to try the final mix again after the April project (5/20/10)
- Added the “_My Mastering Rack” rack to the Master track
- Normalized, then Compressed the exported wav in Audacity; used default settings