The Vinyl Distortion effect - underappreciated and full of awesome

By itself, this noise isn’t necessarily very interesting. But I like to use it to seed other downstream devices. By combining effects that process this noise, I can create endless combinations of material without every having to write a note of music.

(Here’s a secret: I’m really, really lazy. I like having music get made, but I don’t always feel like making it. If I can design tools to make music for me, I get happy.)

I’ve created a Set that uses this type of working process. Download it, open it, and listen. It begins making noodly abstract machine sounds immediately and requires no user interaction.

If you’re part of the Ableton Share beta test, you can grab the Set here:
http://www.ableton.com/documents/10288ec1d39f

If you’re not using Share (but you still have a copy of Ableton Live/Suite 8), you can grab it here:
http://www.dennisdesantis.com/freebies/Automatic.als

Here are some ideas to make this Set your own:

• Turn off the Vinyl Distortion effect and use an open hardware input on your audio interface as the seed. If the input is being fed by nothing, you might need to boost the gain (often by a lot) to get any sound at all.
• Instead of an empty line input, try using a mic. This works particularly well on a laptop, for example.
• Instead of empty or noise sources, try using actual musical material as the seed. Feed clips into the device chain and see what you get.
• Tweak everything. There are lots of parameters to play with and even tiny adjustments can yield a completely different result.

The short answer is that I’m a technical writer.

(Tip: if someone asks you what you do, don’t tell them that you’re a technical writer unless you want them to go away. It’s like telling them that you’re a mortician or a Republican. You can see the interest drain from their face, and their expectation of now-it’s-gonna-get-lame is palpable.)

The longer answer (and this is where, usually, some interest comes back) is that I work for a company called Ableton. We make software for recording, live performance, composition, music production, etc. Part of my gig involves writing all of the documentation. But I’m also pretty heavily involved in things like sound design, making tutorial movies, concepts for the future of the products, etc.

I also do clinics, user workshops and sometimes one-on-one trainings or demonstrations for VIP artists in New York.

This is an immensely fun job. I get to think about ways to make better tools for musicians and to make music using those tools. I also get to hang out with and teach other passionate musicians and gearheads, as well as hang out with some of my musical heroes.

The job also takes me to Berlin several times a year, a city where I lived from 2003-2005 and which I love coming back to.

Here’s a movie I made for Ableton:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Geeking out with electronic music is basically what I’ve been doing for fun since I was about 12. Now I get paid for it.