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A minimalist approach
I've decided this year to take a minimalist approach to my music creation, so I'm going to try to limit the hardware and software I use for a particular project I have in mind, a four-track EP. I've got five MIDI controllers but I'm only going to use one, my Arturia minilab MK 3. I'm going to use Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones, Steinberg UR22C audio interface, Presonus Eris 3.5" monitors, and an iPad.
That's it for hardware.
For software, it'll be NS2 and one other app. That's it. That's the limit. I might even stick to just Obsidian and Slate in NS2, but if I use anything else, it'll be just a single solitary app. The intention is to squeeze every possibility out of the chosen app and work within those boundaries. I don't know about anyone else, but I've built up a fairly large app collection and hardly use any of them properly because I'm always diving in and out of them and there's usually a large learning curve to each. For me, this means more time spent learning about apps than making music.
That's my plan. NS2 and one app per project.
Comments
Nice! Good luck 👍
Following this thread. I hope you post some comments about the process, and also the results of course.
I have the best results and most enjoyment when I stick to something simple. Recently that has been an OP-1 Field and Drambo, which tbh is already a pretty deep setup.
I'm following too. I'm also taking a minimalist approach to my creation process this year, after a ten month hiatus for health reasons.
I probably won't go quite so far as @Wyvern in the minimising, but I am looking to select a simple, clean and minimal set of hardware and software tools for ambient music production in the coming days.
Interesting @mistercharlie suggests OP-1 and Drambo. I've been considering OP-Z and Drambo, MiRack and Drambo, or MiRack and OP-Z. One catch, my OP-Z isn't here yet, and I have barely a clue with Drambo, so I might use it as a learning project. Or I might choose another tool. Time will tell…
It will be great to see what is shared in this thread.
Might wanna look at Trinity to see about finalizing your tracks for your EP.
Sometimes just sitting at a piano, or playing an acoustic guitar is a great way to get back to basics - no electronics, just the acoustic instrument. The best thing about it is that you can just arrange on top of what you record if you decide it needs something else, or just leave it as a minimal recording.
Definitely good to try minimal from time to time, regardless of instruments used.
Definitely less is more. I’ve been remixing tracks from two, three, years ago. I find I’m taking out 90% of the synths and turning them into piano dominated tracks (which is how I start almost every track… a piano improvisation of 2-5 minutes).
So, a lot are piano bass and sometimes drums and one or two synths on occasion. Liking it all much better (especially the midi editing I’ve been doing to correct my initial lack of knowledge and laziness and, also, better ear for mixing),
I’m not sure how much limiting to one piece of software will make you more minimal.
A fully fledged app like NS is capable of creating a lot of sonic chaos or be as complex as several apps. Similarly with hardware, a diminutive box like electribe or circuit or elektron groove box can over kill.
I think that the real hard work and musical growth is in being in ,mental control of how busy one makes a track.
Most of us here are a one man (or woman) bands and use MIDI or audio layering as a composition tool. As most of loopers will tell you, it is harder to do less than more because of the open ended nature of looping.
I’d say, try to develop critical listening skills and determine what’s really needed in your soundscape, and what is spare, or even detrimental. What makes the sound muddy, heavy or actually physically painful to listen to. It is worth looking at frequencies used as well as subtle changes over time to create movement.
Whatever you do, good luck!
Ah, my "summer of Minimal Techno 2021". I remember that so well. 🙂 If you use one app per project mate, may as well make it a mastering app like Grand Finale 2 or Trinity. Then again the limiter in NS2 is pretty damn good, and if you already chose your one app for the project, allow yourself to use Youlean's Loudness Meter as a second app just to get the levels around -14 LuFS with NS2's limiter.
I find the opposite. Once I get started on a track I get extremely focused on what it needs, and having a wide palette from previous use of instruments and FX gives me ideas.
It’s the beginning where I lack focus, and need a minimal approach. Otherwise I just end up babysitting MIDI and iDAM connections, and never making any good hooks.
@andowrites the OP-Z is an amazing companion for anything, and is also great on its own. But the one place I probably wouldn’t use it is with Drambo, which already has an amazing sequencer.
Thanks, that's helpful to know.
I’ve been wanting to do something similar with my new 404. Use nothing but that and one single app to make a track. I always try new kinds of limitations. It keeps me feeling creative.
The problem with using one environment is that there’s not one complete one on iOS. I guess it’s analogous to a painter choosing only three colours for the whole painting which may result in something interesting.
I prefer to have the full palette available at all times. No compromise. Audio looping, granular, wavetable, resonators, physical modelling all available at moments notice when inspiration strikes.
It’s super hard to control, rain it in but when magic happens there’s as few boundaries as possible.
We’re all work differently and have different reasons of course.
Thanks, checked out a video from Jade Starr and got it to replace final touch. Whatever happened to that?
That's kind of how I'm thinking for this particular project. It might work, it might not. I'd just like to see how far I get and what I can create with the bare essentials. It reminds me of the days having not much else apart from a Tascam Porta 7 😀
You’d be surprised at how much you can do with a little! I loved my old Tascam 8 track. I generally take a minimalist approach to everything. I think it’s fun