This blog series takes care of a problem faced by many musicians: the jump from developing a single loop to a complete track. I compiled some best practices from my own workflow that you can use for your own process. In the first part, I'll cover a number of tips to help you gather inspiration before moving on to idea generation, arrangements and the subsequent mixing and mastering. These topics will be covered in future parts of the series and they build up the production process I usually go through. Create a template for your setup To start with, lets talk about templates. I know, this is not a super exciting area, but on the long run, you will be thankful for it because you can rapidly start music making whenever you want. Whether you work purely DAW-based or use a hardware setup, it's essential to be prepared when inspiration lurks around the corner. And templates can be a huge time saver too. When I talk about templates, i mean an empty song or project file that's pre-configured with all the settings you typically need in your productions. For example, an Ableton template could hold your favourite send effects ready to go, a mastering chain, a track with a sampler holding your most frequently used kick samples, tracks for your favourite synths, and so on. A template for a hardware rig, such as mine, could have pre-defined MIDI channels of your gear, effects could be configured and much more. The aim of a template is that you can start producing without having to make the same settings over and over again. Plus a template is also ideal for keeping a specific style consistent within a set of tracks. Search for Samples Samples are the backbone of most music productions. At the same time, a lot of inspiration can be drawn from them. Therefore, I recommend paying special attention to their selection and investing some research and time. Especially if you are planning to produce several connected tracks in the form of an EP or an album, it offers the advantage that the individual songs form a unit by using audio snippets that belong together. You should get into the habit of pre-"mixing" and paying attention to the quality already during the selection process. That means, that you should keep the Audiospectrum on your mind and choose samples wisely to fill the spectrum in the most balanced way. Gather Sounds and Ideas and create your "Moodboard" Sources of sounds are many, and one preparatory work to find inspiration is to collect and compile samples with a specific goal on your mind. This can be thematic, for example, or genre-specific sample packs, holiday field recordings, sampled synth loops or files from free sound archives. A great way of collecting sounds is a field recorder that can help you snapshot your environment. Read this article for more information about field recording. Field recordings are a fantastic way to make your music unique and develop a signature. I also believe that this brings in a lot of feeling to your work as well. Another great source of ideas is to browse your existing samples. Pretty often, I find stuff that I've almost forgotten! I'm using a software called XO for this task. It automatically sorts audio material, categorizes them, suggests similar samples and makes it easy to create kits that I then can export as single WAV files. It's also greatly integrated with DAWs. I could dive into my library for hours! When listening and selecting some of the gathered sounds - your "Moodboard" - you often get ideas and at the same time they give your music that unique flavor. Process your Samples Another interesting approach to gather inspiration is to "process" existing material in some way. For example, you could time-stretch your recordings. "PaulStretch" is an algorythm that's included in Audacity, a free audio editor for Windows, Linux and Mac. It allows lossless stretching of samples up to a factor of 1000, ideal for creating drones and textures that you can use with each DAW or hardware sampler. Another idea to breathe life back into existing material are the numerous plug-ins of modern DAWs. For example I've had great results with Ableton's "Harmonizer", which pitches the original audio material with several layers in chords. It's definitely worth playing around with the Plugins your DAW offers. Make a shopping list This is a tool I use pretty often for planning a release! Most of the time I have an idea in my head of how i want a new song should be. That could be a reference track I like, for instance. I listen to that track a couple of times and write down some notes - Speed of the track, length, elements, effects and so on. I also draw a sctructure (build up, break, drop, main part, outro). In other words, I describe the track with a couple of adjectives. Then, I make a to-do list out of my notes and start researching. Each time I found one of the items on this list during my inspiration phase, I check it as done. This really feels like "Shopping" my sample library :D This way, you can turn the track creation around and start working from a different perspective (which can be pretty refreshing). How do you get inspired? Let us know in the comments below. In the next post, we will start putting your inspiration into concrete ideas!

Happy weekend guys! I thought it's finally time to upload the pure & fun jam session I had with my Digitakt and Digitone last night. It has been a while I did this and I had a lot of joy with this pattern. Maybe it will make it into my upcoming streaming set DUST which airs Saturday November 6. Stylistically, my idea was to create a track that goes into a more reduced direction. That's why I only play it on the Elektron Digitakt and Digitone gear, no other hardware is involved. Do you like the groove? Then I gonna invite to to the premiere of the music video of my upcoming EP "Made Of Dust" - premiering October 30. Learn how to make your own house music with the Digitakt! Have a look on my Digitakt Online Class! It's a video course focussed on creating tracks with the Digitakt. It covers LFOs, Arrangement, Performing, Digitakt FX and many other interesting topics!

learning: Keep the live setup simple I often mentioned that the "logistics" factor played a big role for dawless

Yeah!!! Finally, I'm back on the YT stage with a brandnew Jam and I'm super excited to present you this sweet track! It's titled "Out There" - a pretty spacy and slow journey; it will be a part of my upcoming autumn live event. For the very first time ever, I'm using Elektron Digitakt for drums, ambiences and vocals, Digitone for bass, FX and arps and Octatrack for sequencing the Novation Peak and syncing the other 2 boxes. You know how I struggled with the Octatrack, but I slowly get int the hang with it and I use it more and more to spice up my jams. If you want to know how I made this pattern, I suggest to watch the studio session where I broke down the arrangement! Learn how to make your own house tracks with the Elektron Digitakt! Have a look on my Digitakt Online Class! It's a video course focussed on creating tracks with the Digitakt. It covers LFOs, Arrangement, Performing, Digitakt FX and many other interesting topics, plus it's upgraded with new lectures frequently.

Here’s another dawless Polyend Tracker song.

This week's jam is titled "We Need A Decision" and it has become a super chilled and fluffy track, performed with the Digitakt. I really want to listen to it after work with a cool beer in my favorite bar. You can download and stream it here. A slightly modulated pad plays the main role and builds the foundation of the vibe, a voice sample provides the title and some low stabs bring groove into the pattern. I had played around with this track during my live session last Wednesday (check it out for a track breakdown!) and I must confess that I exceptionally added a reverb in my DAW after the recording. Only through this the pad got an extremely light way, which I simply couldn't leave out, as it gives the whole track an extreme lightness. The video is the first one I made with Final Cut X (previously I used a Adobe Premiere Pro). I really like the default effect (which is actually super simple to make but looks awesome). What you think? Does it work? Learn how to make your own house music with the Digitakt! Have a look on my Digitakt Online Class! It's a video course focussed on creating tracks with the Digitakt. It covers LFOs, Arrangement, Performing, Digitakt FX and many other interesting topics!

"Glacier" is a Digitakt performed Chillout track that's dedicated to the Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland and the Swiss Alps in general - places where I feel home and where I spent most of the holidays when I was little. I went up this spectacular place some time ago - the scenes where so breathtaking that you can see them now in the background of this video and on some pictures below. I also created a litte landing page where you can download the track as well. The track happened during my Digitakt Live Sessions I started working on the pattern itself during my last Studio session and it is supposed to be a kind of "intro" track for another live set, which is why I wanted to do something slow. Nevertheless, the speed should of course fit to the following tracks of the set, which is why I simply chose half of my regular speed (112bpm). Most of the audio tracks you hear make massive use of LFO modulations to create that typical 59 Perlen texture, which slowly but steadily provide a continuous evolving of each sound. Even the clap delay is modulated, among effect parameters, hold times and bit reductions. If you want to get some insights, I suggest you go and watch the session on my YouTube. The fantastic arp was added at the very end of the production on the last free audiotrack. I made it with ANA2 and loaded the sample into Digitakt. Do you like the atmosphere? Leave your thoughts in the comments! Learn how to make your own house music with the Digitakt! Have a look on my Digitakt Online Class! It's a video course focussed on creating tracks with the Digitakt. It covers LFOs, Arrangement, Performing, Digitakt FX and many other interesting topics!

Hi everyone, this week's Jam was about exercising with the setup I'm going to take with me for my upcoming performance "Shopping Bag". The event takes place Friday August 11 and Saturday August 12 in Stralsund, Germany, and the gear you see in this Jam is what I gonna take with me. I wrote a blogpost about the preparation, you can read it here. Gear in this Jam Vermona Perfourmer (Synths) Notation Peak (Bass) Squarp Pyramid (Sequencing ) Strymon Big Sky (Reverb) Empress Compressor Electro Harmonix Gran Canyon (Delay)

My label mate Gabriel de la Mora released his debut EP "Collection of Choices" this week and he was so kind to send me a copy for reviewing. Since the album was mainly created using the Elektron Digitone, I thought you guys might be interested to get some insights and details about the release. "Reviews" are something new to my blog, and I will publish them frequently from now on. I think it's very inspiring to listen to other artists' work and share my thoughts with you! If you have proposals for future reviews (even your own!), drop me a message. Gabriel de la Mora about his EP Let me start with a little text that Gabriel send me together with the music files. "Using mainly a 4-Track cassette multi-tracker (Fostex XR-5), a Panasonic Cassette Walkman and a few effects pedals: It was only natural for me to approach these recordings in a very minimalistic maner. I did mostly one takes and recorded directly to cassette tape. I also wanted to embrace the "live" aspect of playing music on this record. This album is the result of me learning how to use a cassette multi-tracker for the first time. I had just purchased my first cassette multi-tracker off of my friend and as I was getting familiar with this machine and format I recorded "Collection of choices" My "mistakes" will be noticeable in these recordings, I embrace them. (no computers were used in composing or recording, only in the mixing and mastering I relied in digital processing) The instruments used on this album are the Elektron Digitone for 3 songs, and the Roland JU-06a for 1 song. (4 songs total) The "samples" of the album were reproduced with a standard Walkman and they are cassette tapes that i've been gathering during my many scavenger hunts through flea markets (swap meets), garage sales and thrift stores in my city, so i always find some very unique and random cassettes tapes that date back all the way to the 80's." My impressions of "Collection of Choices" Now let's get to my impressions and I can tell you right up front, I am extremely in love with this release! "Collection of Choices" is an ambient album consisting of 4 tracks with a total running time of over 40 minutes. The music feels extremely atmospheric and create a dense atmosphere, from the first minute to the last. This is not least due to the way the tracks were produced (or rather, it's the main reason!). I love the lofi feeling, which on this EP is really lofi and not a DAW plugin. You can just feel that. One can definitely listen to the EP "on the side", as is the case with many ambient productions. I wouldn't recommend it, though, because the music tracks are packed with so much detail that you wouldn't catch half of it. My track by track thoughts What Kind Of Distraction? (00:00) The track offers great ambient atmosphere and sounds and immediately draws me under its spell. Gabriel plays super nice harmonies, and I keep hearing the little "mistakes" that were created during the production and deliberately not edited. That's so cool, I'm into that kind of thing :D The song has a very sweet buildup that keeps adding new elements over time and bringing variety to it. The soundscape is directly "dreamlike" and floating. We shared The Sky (14:28) Suddenly I am pulled out of this dream world - the track stops abruptly and the next track starts with a surprising sample of a radio announcement, which develops into an interesting soundscape. Well done. The song starts rather gloomy, but after a short time super nice pads and pads let me dive back into the sonic world of Gabriel. What strikes me here for the first time are the fluid transitions between the tracks. Drugs (22:24) Also this track inspires me with beautiful sound carpets and great interwoven textures (just my thing!). Although I have never taken hard drugs in my life, I still imagine the state when you take some after listening to this track (and I didn't know the track is titled "Drugs" until I wrote this review). The Space Behind Your Eyes (29:06) The last track brings some percussive sounds into play. I hear clear FM synthesis from the Digitone, which fades into one of Gabriel's great sonic tapestries towards the end. Conclusion You can tell I'm a real fan of this creative production! This is of course due to the minimalist production approach itself, the appreciation of the small glitches and mistakes, the organic sound and the equipment used but also not least the whole concept - Gabriel de la Mora posts on his Instagram page also visually matching content and lots of background stories. I think, especially in the field of ambient music, there is unfortunately far too much average music without soul. "Collection of Choices" is not one of them - if you are looking for an inspiring album, you are in good hands here! Where to get this release Grab a copy of "Collection of Choices" by Gabriel de la Mora on the Bandcamp page of Petit Victory Collective!

Last night it finally happened! 15 guests came to my performance "Moods" and with their cool mood they turned our apartment into a little private club. I really loved the intimate atmosphere we've created and it will definitely not my last event like this. The tracks of the performance will be released as an album in early May: 1) Entrance Pattern 2) Desire 3) Jérome 4) Apollo 13 5) Awakening 6) Minds Eye 7) Beach The set went over 40 minutes. Major roles have been taken by Elektron Digitakt, Digitone and Squarp Pyramid as the main brain behind the gear. I also used the Dreadbox Typhon for arps and the Access virus for leads and chords. You can watch the entire video now on my Youtube channel or directly above.

The release of my album "When Left Alone" was just 3 weeks ago, and already I have something new in the bag! "Memory" is a minimal house track, once again performed on Elektron Digitakt. The special thing about this release is that it is exclusively available on my website. And it's for free. If it's well received by you, I plan regular website releases in the future. The premiere on YouTube happened on Saturday, March 6th. You can watch it in the embedded video.

This week, I am late with everything! The update of my Digitakt course messed up my schedule a bit, so there was no Saturday night premiere this week coz the video is just finished :D It is once again something completely different than intended - I wanted to make a generative Digitakt track, the result is something very Chill-housy (which I also like very much). I used the awesome samples from @BlankFor_ms "IV" in this track, a very cool sample pack, you should really check it out if you like noises and lofi stuff. The pattern uses several LFOs via midi loopback to keep the audio tracks moving. I titled the pattern "Home", mainly because the the progression reminded me of some kind of home coming feeling. What do you think of it? Learn how to make your own house music with the Digitakt! Have a look on my Digitakt Online Class! It's a video course focussed on creating tracks with the Digitakt. It covers LFOs, Arrangement, Performing, Digitakt FX and many other interesting topics!