It’s been 8 months since my last confession. Well, not really – but it has been that long since my last full production.

I’ve been learning more and more about Ableton and have been working on several projects at once.

Hopefully by the end of January 2010 (!) I’ll have a mash-up mix to upload and share. You see, someone went at got himself an APC40…

So, up until December I’ve been learning various production and mastering techniques (very tricky) but for the last month and a half I’ve been exploring new “live” DJ/performance bits and pieces.

That’s it. Peace. I’ll be back.

Oh yeah, once I have finished my Ableton APC40 template I’ll upload and share.

Ebb & Flow (Original Mix) by ShiftGorden

Style: House/electro

BPM: 132

Production Time: 2 months (on and off)

Comments:

UPDATE: 05/31/09 – I remastered again.  After a mixing session, I realized my beats were too loud and the instrumentation was too quiet.  This remix now accounts for that.  I’ve added a few bonus bits, too.  The new MP3 is available for download.

My first complete track made using Ableton 8.0 Suite – the additional effects and upgrades to soft-synths are awesome!  Aside from the instruments/FX that come with the software, I didn’t use any third party plug-ins.

The beat intro is fairly standard – I spiced things up by adding some bongos and woodsticks just to give the track a little movement.  I used the a few of Ableton’s Latin Percussion sounds here, and added a “groove template” to make it sound more natural.

Around 40s in, I add a nice floaty synth.  This was made using Operator with the Kontact effect applied (so the instrument has a membrane like quality).

1:41 sees the intro of a liquidy squelchy bassline.  This was made using Analog.  Using automation lanes, I tweak the oscilator octaves every now and again to add a little texture – and, of course, there is a filter in there somewhere.

I love distorted sounds, so I added some in the background.  The idea was to have a harmonic and rhythmic effect.  Around 2:40 is where I really start having fun with the distorted sound.  Lot’s of fun edits, cuts, and variation there.

The piano sound, at first, has some serious bit-crushing going on, and a filter behind it.  It emerges at 3:09.  I gradually reduce the bitcrushing as time goes by, so at the end of the break the piano is all natural.  Oh yeah, I used a standard piano preset from Sampler, but added a MIDI effect to vary the velocity.  I wanted the piano to have an organic and natural feel to it.

One of my “things” at the moment is to mess around with melodies and counter-melodies.  The string/synth patch (Operator) at 3:31 is an interesting touch.  I wanted the sound to be saying something different compared to the piano.  I add variation by changing chorus levels, cutting notes and messing with pitch.

Once the beat kicks back in, I lower the piano by an octave and change the arrangement timing.  I bring in my fun synth patch as well – I think it adds some beef to the track.

At 4:16 is where I start to have real fun with the track.  Again, I use a lot of cutting effects to provide some interesting sounds and rhythms.  I add another floaty synth a few bars later.  Here I use a lot of panning and cutting techniques to vary the sound without changing the melody.  It reminds me of someone going crazy on the keyboards.

5:27 sees an alternate bass groove kick in.  I like to change up my tracks to keep them interesting – I like to use DJ inspired transitions, which sit naturally in a record designed for a club.  That sound was made using Operator, aslo.

From that point on, it’s back to original bassline and outro.

I hope you enjoyed!

See, it's not a rumor - there really is a track in the works

Still here, haven’t abandoned the site.

Seriously, I’ve spent the last few months working on my new track.  It’s nearly complete – I just have a few more tweaks to make and then a “final” mix down.

The track is a 132BPM house/electro groove with some considerable experimentation into melodic crossover.  I have no idea what that last sentence really means, but you’ll see what I mean when I finally upload it.

See you soon,

Shifty

Style: House

BPM: 135

Production time: Over a month (on and off, of course)

Comments:  The only thing that remains true to the original version, which I started over a month ago, is the basic drum beat.  This thing changed over time and I called upon my friend, Deven Neil, for input from time to time (thanks, mate!)

To be honest, their will be a revision to this – there are a few levels that I’m not happy with (bass needs amping up) and I am not completely satisfied with the transition.  Ah well.  The good news is that I have an great idea for a filter-house remix.

This track I really went to town on bit-crushing effects and producing my own instruments.  Starting off, we have a standard beat intro – snappy and tight with variation now and again to keep it interesting.  I use crash cymbals to give the track a bit of energy, and to avoid them sounding samey, I vary the crashed between slightly effected (reverb) and several types of delayed echo.

A “trancey” sounding arpeggiated synth is introduced – a simple Operator produced patch.  A low pass filter provides the “emerging” sound.  Also I use an “whooshing” effect in the background which builds over time.  Again, this is an Operator produced patch – just some layers of white noise with a hint of sine to give it a little hum.

The first breakdown consists of a heavily effected Operator preset (tsk, tsk).  I zapped a ton of effects on this – including some serious bit crushing (or Redux as it’s known to Ableton).  I had an absolute blast varying the amount of crushing and I spent a lot of time varying the on/off values of the effect (so the effect alternates rhythmically).  Oh yes, I use a volume on/off command to produce a psuedo gating effect – makes the synth stutter along nicely.

The bassline is another Operator production – some sines and squares where used here.  The bassline actually was something else entirely until Deven Neil focused me back on task, forcing me to actually tie it in with the melody.  The bassline will be getting louder on the second revision.  At this point I introduce a sidechained variation of the synth line (complete with bit crushers and a delayed synth stab – which also has a lot of effect variation built in).

The second transition is one that I am not entirely happy with.  It sounds a little awkward, and it took me a few weeks to get it to the point that it’s at now.  It’s a little stark and the lead-in is rather abrupt.

Despite that, I do like the build of it.  Nicely effected synth stabs with some subtle crunching.  Again, there’s a white noise swoosh in the background.  I also conjured up some lasers and “bass booms” (sine waves which pitch-bend down an octave over the course of a second or so.)

The next portion of the track is more of a “happy” sounding bounce-along.  The synth was built using Analog and I provided a lot of variation by varying the octave of one of the oscillators and applying some well timed filter effects.  I made a cool sounding voice-box type instrument and apply this in the background – it keeps the groove snapping along nicely.

By reducing the instrumentation used in the beats I streamline them which provides a nice transitional framework – back into the original track melody for the finish.

While this is my most technically accomplished track yet (it really took a lot of tweaking ) I really want to go back and smooth over the main transition – it still bothers me, and I think you will all agree.

An old track of mine and a buddy’s is being played on http://www.smoothtraxx.gr tomorrow night.

Tune in at 6:00pm Central Time (12:00am GMT) on Saturday 28 February to listen to fellow Englishman and long time friend, Deven Neil, play one of our last collaborations together.

The track is almost 10 years old and was our first venture into the mysterious world of underground white label vinyl. There’s a story to this one – and I will elaborate once I upload it to this website.

So, tune in to Deven Neil tomorrow (don’t get confused, I don’t think they have updated the roster to display his show) and enjoy the old rave/house crossover, Terrorgroove.

Style: House

BPM: 130

Production time: 5 days

Comments: This track went off in several different directions before slowly gelling together – the number of mental blocks on this one was almost unbelievable.

I kept the beats nice and simple, and opted for closed hi-hats on the off-beats to keep the track less muddy. The snare sound is actually layered – two electronic snares and a clap.  That seemed to keep the beat nice and punchy.  The kick is another layered and slightly tuned drum – a bass hum, some mid range knock and a hi frequency click – makes it stand out even on a system which lacks bass.

The cutting vocal sound at the beginning was simply created by taking a vocal snippet and using Ableton to trigger the sample at different start points.  Incidentally, I was going to use the whole vocal, but it just didn’t fit with the track so I axed it.

The bassline really is a simple affair.  It’s bouncy enough, but certainly nothing special.  However, it does hold the beats and the arrangements together fairly nicely.  Made using Operator.

The vocal really came together during the last day and a half of production.  I was going to use a lot more of The Streets vocal talent, but it proved very hard to work with.  Mike Skinner tends to alternate between narrating rhythmically and simply talking.  So, I took a nice snippet, warped it to get it in time and I was happy with the results.

From the vocal came the vocoded synth – and I feel this works pretty well, too.  The vocoder is actually a free VST plug-in programmed by TAL.

I nearly went out of my mind drying to look for a kick drop (you know, a kick that alters pitch, like a booOOOm sound).  In the end, I simply programmed the bass boom in Operator – amazing what a couple of sine waves, a saw wave and some tweaking of the pitch envelope can do.

The actually breakdown is a little contentious.  Origianally, I wanted a hands-in-the-air piano or string arrangement, but I didn’t have access to my keyboard which really reduced my ability to come up with any semi-complex arrangements.  Instead I settled for a trancey breakdown (which I am a little concerened doesn’t really fit in with the house vibe) using a nice beefed up synth sound from the Synth 2 NX VST plug-in.

The swirly “wind” sound used in the build-up was generated using Operator and a bunch of white noise (with a little sine for harmonic flava).  Sync the LFO with the bear and add some pan effects and you got a fun swirly wind.  Of course, I gradually opened the low-pass filter to add to the tension.

There’s a great percussive sound in the build (also used throughout the track) which progressively gets higher in pitch.  This was originally a synth riff, but it was pretty boring.  I added a bit-crusher effect to the synth and the end-result was this cool rhythmic noise.  By alterating the sample rate the sound becomes quite lively.

Not really too much else to add.  There will be another mix down the line – possibly more electro or handbag house – depends whether I can get to my keyboard.

Enjoy

Tomorrow, Thursday January 15th, could be a good day.  According to Terekith, a moderator of the awesome forum www.abletonlivedj.com, details of Ableton Live 8 should be released at the NAMM conference.

I’m still in awe of what Ableton 7 is capable of, so I really have no idea or expectation of what Ableton 8 will do.

I guess I won’t hassle Ableton for my copy of 7 just yet…

Style: House

BPM: 132

Production time: 1 day

Comments: This is my second Ableton Live “experiment.”  This time I tried to do everything using Ableton’s soft-synth collection.

The bass drum and snares where programmed using the Operator synth, and passed through a compressor and some EQ to add a little more tone and punch.  The hats and percussion section was put together using some presets (boo!) from Impulse, Ableton’s drum machine.

All the synth sounds, from the arppegiated swirly synth to the bass sounds and gritty synths were also programmed using Operator.  Various high and low pass filters were used to make the sounds a little more dynamic.

The bouncy synth that runs throughout the track was also programmed Operator, but I added a bit-crusher to it to make it sound more rusty.  I also messed around with sidechaining a compressor (right, I’m about 7 years behind everyone else) to make the synth duck in and out in tangent with the kick drum.

I think that’s about it.  The track does suffer from a lack of crescendo (snare roles, crash cymbals and general hype synths) – but blame that on my excitement about wanting to move on to the next track…

Style: Electro House

BPM: 132

Production time: 3 days

Comments: My first track for 2.5 years, and my first using Ableton 7.0. Think of this more of an “experiment” – I was learning to use a new piece of software and the various plug-ins and soft-synths that are contained within the Ableton Live suite.

The entire track was produced within Ableton.  Since my wife made me pack all my gadgets away (moving) I coudn’t use a MIDI keyboard, so I had to make do with my PC keyboard – which is tricky.

The beats where the only samples used.  As with all samples I borrow, I cut them up and add a bunch of effects so they bear little or no resemblance to the original.

Near the beginning of the track (and the end), you should easily be able to hear a stacato rythm section.  This is pretty much an “accident” – it was the very first arrangement I put together in Ableton and I simply added a bunch of reverb, delay, autopan and autofilter effects to it.  It kind of gives the track a little push.

I really enjoyed messing around with the bit crusher effects, and I used that on the melodic synth line.  I like to add a bit of dirt to my synths.

The fast lead synth that appears about a 1/3 of the way through the track was built using Ableton’s Analog soft synth.  I basically messed around until I got something that I thought would sound pretty darn decent in the club (whether it does or not is another thing entirely!)

The overall mastering on this track is way off.  I hadn’t quite got to grips with the mastering effects (still haven’t) so it does sound pretty raw.

After a hiatus of nearly 3 years from producing music, I decided to download a demo of Ableton Live 7.0.

I must say, I was darn impressed – impressed enough to convince my wife that I needed the $800 software (well, $400 since my wife is a student – whoop!)

During the trial period, I managed to bust out 3 tracks.  These all were pretty much experimental, me getting used to the software and some of the things it can do.  These I will upload and provide a little info about what’s going on.

In the mean time, I sit here, impatiently waiting for my Ableton serial key to arrive.  This truly is a painful process.