LEARNING

Being thankful for what I have rather than constantly seeking new stuff and things.

RECORDING

Garden session with the smallest gear possible: kalimba connected to an H5 (also using the H5’s mics sometimes) with everything recorded on the iPad via H5 USB, for further FX and treatment.

Really noisy and direct, but nice material for later (the acoustic and field recordings blend together).

Did also a lot of kalimba + looper test and work. It was nice to be outside.

PLANNING

Two new albums are in the works:

• Études de boucles Volume 3, centered on kalimba and one looper.

• Another release is also in the recording phase.

More collaborations in the pipeline too.

LISTENING

Geographic Beings, Phosphorus Mountains by Landtitles

See Through by Patricia Wolf

2006 by Détente

Diary 9 by Zander Raymond

https://sonic-dialogue.com/album/diary-9

READING

Satori à Paris by Jack Kerouac

DREAMING

Building a frame house or studio. Possibly on wheels.

COOKING

Roasted eggplant with homemade yakitori sauce and rice.

Trying to bake proper focaccia.

ENJOYING

• Fresh coffee.

• The voices and laughter of my daughters.

• Walking barefoot on the sand and on pine needles.

• Foraging stuff in the forest or on the beach and turning stuff into tiny noises and instruments

• Silence.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

Thanks for reading and supporting my work. More to come…and, of course, a tiny loop to conclude this post (kalimba + looper only):

Enjoy. Peace.
Emmanuel

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Setting up gear in the studio is almost zen-like because it forces me to slow down. I’ve also decided to let ideas ferment and grow. Right now, I’m mostly recording ideas and sketches, then leaving them aside for a few months before listening again and deciding what to keep and where to take them.

I’m thinking about and working on a new solo album. For now, it’s still in the early stages—more about nurturing ideas than finishing pieces—but I’m already having a lot of fun making it.

The Workshop

I’m enjoying my Workshop System (by Music Thing Modular) setup more and more. There is a bright and talented community around this little box, and it’s quite refreshing.

The Workshop System is a two-voice modular synth in a compact case, with the real magic coming from the Computer module. You can run a lot of custom scripts that transform this tiny box into something wonderfully experimental and exploratory.

Lately, my process has been based around recording and looping with MLRws (basically a custom Workshop System Computer module adaptation of MLR for Norns), using a few acoustic instruments and everyday objects collected during my walks.

The only rule: no added effects, and everything recorded straight to my Zoom H5 (thanks to Taylor Deupree for the gift).

Below is a sketch from yesterday’s session:

Playing (or learning how to play)

I love old synths—even broken ones—and the piano.

I'm practising again. I’m back to playing keys.

I’m not particularly good, but I’m enjoying it: taking chances, experimenting with chords and patterns, making mistakes, discovering new things through trial and error.

I’m revisiting two Yamaha synths. The CP25 is like a poor man’s Rhodes, while the YPR-6 (find in the streets) is more of a digital piano.

I have also invested into a gate pedal from Addac, and it’s really opening up new possibilities. It lets me trigger recording on my studio gear without having to move things around—which is especially useful since space is limited.

The next goal is to learn the basics of the flute (need to find a cheap one locally) and get back to playing guitar too—again, at my own rhythm and by my own rules.

Experiencing things

Read

Le Secret des Anneaux de Saturne by Frédéric Teschner

Watch

Perfect Days — Wim Wenders

Cook

Crusty Scarpaccia

Listen

• La Manzana Mágica — Federico Durand

• Repetitioneer Suite I & II — Zake & Ian Hawgood

• Twinkle Echo — Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

• Apikal.Blend — Sogar

• Momoko — Momoko Gill

Design

As it’s a really quiet period for my freelance graphic design work, I’m working on a new portfolio (more on that later).

Experiment

• Building shoe boxes full of small natural and everyday elements and creating sounds from it.

• Investigation how to make ceramic instruments

That’s it for now.

And remember to go out, explore, get lost, discover new things and support musicians & artists.

Peace,

Emmanuel

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Reduction as a creative process continues

I always find that projects where you set out to do something very specific, with limited tools, often have something more special about them.

I wanted a focused, limited-instrument/gear kind of release that’s really about a time and a place.

The process & tools

I decided to record in multiple places, wandering from the garden of my grandparents’ beach house to the forest and then to the beach.

I needed a portable system to record and create loops out of foraged objects from each place. So I put together a small setup (powered by a portable battery) with the following:

• Zoom H5 to capture field recordings and to record everything plugged into it.
  

• I ran the internal microphones of my Wingie into a Norns Shield using a homemade script called Headloop (I’ll share more about that in another post), along with an extra external contact mic. With this setup, I recorded a wide range of objects—pine cones, branches, stones, bark, a house wind chime, my grandmother’s music box, and more.
  

• My iPhone with an Apple USB adapter connected to the H5 was helpful to add EQ, filters, and more loops (from the H5’s USB).
  

Back home, every night, I was collecting and curating the loops into multiple folder in my Digitakt, where all tracks were finished.

Sometimes I used a PPOOLL environment to live-record some loops again to add small intricate details.

Finally, everything was recorded as a stereo stream to Ableton. This time, I did the mastering myself with a small device rack I built for the occasion.

No post without some sound snippets. These are loops before any treatment and out of mixing context:

Conclusion

As I reached the end of this album, it felt as though a seed had formed—something that may evolve into new musical directions and new ways of working.

I think that walking redefines the notions of composer, performer, and music. Collecting and journaling everyday objects is also a way to stay attentive to the world — to let places speak through the materials they offer, and to let sound become a form of memory.

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With hours in the studio sitting in front of my two sampling / looping rigs (more in this further down), I have cultivated my own technique.

Whatever I have a lot of time to spare or 15 minutes only per day, I’m doing sample junk journaling:
turn your everyday scraps—receipts, tickets, packaging, nature finds—into intricate, messy recording/loops. It's sustainable, deeply personal, and strangely addictive.

My process is often the same: I play, I record, and slowly I organize the sounds as they appear to me. I love what Éliane Radigue says about her relationship with sounds, how they present themselves to her, and how she listens.

This way of working helps me to know better my instruments/machines and to experiment.

Then comes the curation/listening phase where I can choose to maybe pair certains sounds to produce more refined tracks.

Looping rigs

I’m mainly using two looping / sampling rigs in the studio:

One is my « live » rig and the other one is more studio centric (as it is less portable).

The « live » rig:

Zoom H5 (as stereo microphone pair) + hydrophone or contact mic > Wingie Mk2 (processing also recording via internal mics) > Torso S4 > iPad for fx/additional sound sources + sometimes OG Digitakt.

S4 is controlled by a Korg nanokontrol (levels/record/overdub/panning on each track)

Using one microphone into Torso S4 for recording / mangling then the audio will be sent to the IPad for final touches then stereo out.

Note: As it is also my live performance rig I’m using both machines live depending if I’m sampling live (S4) or starting with short loops (Digitakt).

It is really a compact rig fitting in a backpack, easy to travel and passing security at airports. It is quite energy efficient and it can work for some hours on an usb power bank.

The « Studio » rig:

This setup is based around a modest 86hp/6u case with curated modules.

At the center is an Addac VC112 looping/granular. Complimenting this beast are a 4MS DLD and an Endless Processor module.

So 3 different loopers/samplers with their own sound signature and flavor.

Everything is going to a mixer/vca then to Expert Sleepers ES8 for recording/fx and so on (again via IPad). The main looper is controlled by a 3 gates beautiful handcrafted pedal (made in Portugal by Addac btw).
Sources can be synths/guitar, Wingie / H5, computer VST, ppooll all coming to a cheap passive stereo mixer plugged into the modular. Versatile and direct. No fuzz. Swell added thanks to a volume pedal.

This setup is less immediate but a lot more sophisticated in the sense of loop manipulation. One short sample can be sent to different modules via multiple routing and options.

LET’S LOOP

More than often this is what I use daily to record ideas and loops for the sample junk journaling process.

Every end of the week, I’m dropping these audio files to my computer and leaving it for a while before listening again later with proper monitoring (Genelec).

Honestly I love to work this way as I noticed that some of my most creative ideas emerged not when I forced myself to be productive, but when I allowed my mind to soften and wander.

Below are 2 short files recorded yesterday night from the live rig (in preparation of a September live show in the UK). No extra editing, no synth, only junk stuff and nature finds via microphone then S4 tweaks and cooking:

Hope you will loop too and enjoy the ride.

Peace.

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The idea is to have a one page playlist called Nocturne(s) where I can update and share my studio sonic experiments when and how I want. It is free, raw but you may like it :)

Enjoy and for sure it will grow. I will post a note every time I add a new sound.

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Anyways, after a walk yesterday, I came to the following conclusion: as a musician and freelancer, my budget is tight and limited these days so I need to choose wisely.
Is this or this needed? Is it going to benefit my workflow or is it a pure '“cool kid” kind of attitude? Did buying more gear aligned with my work in progress “eco conscious” life?

Well it is a mixed feeling…probably a more than one day thinking process…but I took this as a good exercise to shake my habits. I wanted more new stuff… Let’s build it :)

NB: this is my story and it is ok to buy whatever you want. I’m just sharing and not giving lessons.

For more than a year, I have followed the development of a free software called ppooll. Ppooll is a « modular » environment built inside max msp and you can run it without a commercial max licence.

When starting, there is only one windows called ho_st. This is the heart of the system: stereo or multi stream audio, on/off, main audio level, hard disk recording, cpu usage and minimal prefs.
From ho_st you will open a saved patch called “environment” or start from scratch adding and linking “acts”. Acts are modules with functions: audio player, granular, modulation…
Each “act” can be linked to the next one via audio and can be controlled with midi/osc or other modulation “acts”. You can open and use VST and even (Beta) max4live items.

TIP: Like a modular rig, the best is to test “acts” and plan a bit of what you want to do/achieve…otherwise it will be overwhelming. Start small with a sampler player “act” like Flop and test your audio and installation. If it is ok then you are set for exploration and hours of musical experiments.

You can check and download ppooll here.
There is also an great Discord, plenty of Youtube videos and even some recorded workshops.

Below is the live patch I’m building at the moment with input from Guitar, Wingie and Reface CP. Audio is going from instruments to an analog mixer and Ears(for guitar amp) to an ES8 interface (in my modular rack). Audio is routed to the computer via usb and recorded into different buffer lengths.

One “act” called Karma for looping/overdub, two granular “act” with different buffer recording lengths. I can add some vst to each act for various flavors and soundscapes. Also I can play live all instruments on top too thanks to the IN “act”.

Finally an old Ipad mini is running an OSC patch that is controlling most of it (levels / sends / panning and actions like record, overdub, reverse and pitch). This Ipad was a brick (due to the Apple obsolescence strategy) but it’s working well for this new purpose. I’m happy that I can give it a second life and save money.

The main out is passed through an eq VST then out to monitors. At the same time the ho_st is recording all audio of the environment as an audio file (no need for external recording device).

Environment in details:

01 ho_st / the brain.
This is where you will start to add “acts”, save/open your environment.

02 In Mult.
Audio into ppooll. You can add as much IN that your sound card can. You can also push the gain.

03 buffhub
This is where you will record some of the audio buffers that can be used by other “acts” like granular, loop players.

04 buffer_host
This is a file browser for your samples or to create empty buffers.

05 karma
Sound on sound looper (record / play / overdub / reverse / pitch) to an empty buffer of 60s (this is the limit for my buffer but you can record a lot longer).

06 & 07 kk_rainer
Basically a granular engine laying different buffers length with presets (number of grains / pitch / sample zone selection….)

08 erb
FX

09 & 10 control
This act is where you will set up your usb midi or osc mapping. This is the basic function but there are a lot more possibilities.

11 matriarch
This is a mixer and in this environment I’m using it as an audio send to different “acts”. Sometimes to buffhub sometimes to karma or to both :)

It is a limited setup for now but perfect to play and record music sketches quickly. My idea is to do some live acts across Europe this year so I need to travel light.

Rig notes: The audio interface is going to be my Digitakt or Analog Heat with a Boss overdrive SD1 pedal and a passive mixer (to add more than one sound source).
A looper (Ditto) is connected on the send/return of the analog mixing desk to record each track as a backup (even if ppooll is stable, if the computer is crashing I have some audio to play from the actual performance as backup).

I will try to record some performance videos in the coming weeks but for now you can listen to the audio I have recorded today (as usual raw and unedited).
By the way, I’m not a guitar player so no crazy chords here…^^

Hope you will enjoy it. Peace.

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My process is often the same: I play, I record, and slowly I organize the sounds as they appear to me. I love this relationship with sounds, how they present themselves to me, and how I listen.

First the recording: raw, non edited, capture on the fly.

Essentially the workflow is as below:

• play around with everyday objects and small instruments (kalimba, glockenspiel, music boxes). Scratch, move things around, tap, talk… Can be also applied to synth or guitar or whatever you like.

• capture via a microphone or a recorder (in my case the internal mic of the Wingie and use the built-in resonator or not.

• loop what you like (I’m using the 4MS DLD where each channel can be recorded separately with freeze, scrub and reverse).

• record everything inside AUM (I like to use the Ipad as it is quick to set up for impromptu sessions)

  For this, I have a chain of effects to add some extra movement and control eq / stereo image. The DLD channel is sent to my Analog Heat for extra flavor then back to AUM.

• repeat as much as you want!

Hope this is helpful and now go make some sound :)

Peace.

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Here we go, introducing my tiny corner where I’m doing my graphic freelance work, cooking music and running Sonic Dialogue label. It is a short format video without too many details as I don’t want to focus on gear but more about the space.

It is a compact space and always changing a bit. Lot of natural light and considered equipment. Everything is at reach and connected in a way I can do 5 minutes or hours of work/play without being frustrated. The center key is probably the hybrid setup thanks to Expert Sleepers ES8 and my Ipad running AUM. No need for a computer, this setup is used for routing, fx, mixing, synths and recording on the fly.

Hope you will enjoy the short tour. Peace.

FR

Bienvenue. C'est le début de la semaine et aujourd'hui j'essaie quelque chose de nouveau. Depuis quelque temps, je voulais faire un autre format de contenu que du texte et des images.

C'est parti, je vous présente mon petit coin où je fais mon travail de graphiste indépendant, je cuisine de la musique et je dirige le label Sonic Dialogue. C’est une vidéo au format court sans trop de détails car je ne veux pas me concentrer sur le matériel mais plutôt sur l’espace.

Cet espace est compact et change toujours un peu. Tout est à portée de main et connecté de manière à ce que je puisse faire 5 minutes ou des heures de travail/jeu sans être frustré. La clé est probablement la configuration hybride à base de Expert Sleepers ES8 et Ipad sous AUM. Pas besoin d'ordinateur, cette configuration permet le routage, les effets, le mixage et l'enregistrement à la volée.

J'espère que vous apprécierez cette courte video. Peace.

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Back to the studio, I cleaned it and tried the sounds. It is mostly a sort of electronic piano with 5 presets. No midi and only cinch out + headphones jack.

The sound is not really astonishing but preset piano 3 was kind of interesting and after playing some basic chords, I decided to record a loop to my beloved Digitakt.

Below you can listen to the raw loop with some cooking on the DT (reverse, delay, lfo, filters…). The raw loop was recorded from the headphone jack to add some noise and warmth, then the whole thing was recorded straight to stereo into AUM (no fx).

But then the nicest part started: the raw loop was passed through different chains in the studio to add some movement and change/randomness.

Raw loop into AUM chain (mostly micro looper / Blachole reverb + Other City Desert pitch shift)

Raw loop into pedal chain (Strymon Volante + Puremagnetik Laps). Sorry long loop not edited…

So at the end, it was a nice studio session and I will move this raw loop further with probably more acoustic sounds later.

I will keep the keyboard as it is also a nice shelf for smaller equipment ^^

Thanks for listening, peace.

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I love this time of the year…more for coming together with my family though. I like all of the reflection that happens as we all start to turn the page on the year that was…well…

Embracing the idea based on the post from Andrew Tasselmyer excellent post, let’s talk about my own year in a brief and personal way:

The positive side:

• Released 3 albums and was featured on several collaborations and articles/playlists (1)
  

• Produced my first ever vinyl
  

• Did a lot of music experiments that almost lead to new directions and clearer vision of what I want my musical project to be
  

• Contained my hardware GAS and did not purchase almost anything new (except trading / selling to replace)
  

• Spend more time reading, listening to music and writing
  

• Stopped posting too much on Instagram, avoiding to read stats and not using Spotify…
  

• Realised the value of doing nothing, taking time off and saying NO to myself
  

• Started travelling again for my freelance work and it was refreshing
  

• Managed to cook more, eat more veggies, use mostly the train to travel and keep reaching 10000 steps/day for better health.
  

• Played two live sets

  
  

The negative side:

• Experienced exhaustion and lack of sleep
  

• Felt uncomfortable financial stress for most of the year, especially because of the nature of freelance financial uncertainty
  

• Stressed too much about comparing to others
  

• Stressed too much about the world news and conflicts
  

• Felt lonely as a creative in my city
  

• Experienced the difficulty to promote my music and to reach more people with it
  

And now?

Well, the year will end but ultimately I have some positive and exciting projects for 2025:

• Another album is in the process
  

• I will continue my Soundcloud playlist called Nocturne(s) essentially as a shared musical sketchbook

• I will start taking lessons on Max Msp
  

• I will continue reusing old stuff with a more DIY approach and building more sonic stuff (need to acquire soldering skills)
  

• I have some music collaborations planned already
  

• I’m working on partially self funding a European tour to play live and share my music. Green (train / bus) and hardware minimal centric.

I Hope you will also share your list, for me it was nice to reflect on all these topics one more time before transitioning to 2025.

Below, I wanted to share a snippet of « studio left over » from my last album Etudes de boucles vol. 2.

Take care. Peace.

(1) If you are interested, below are the 3 Bandcamp links for my 2024 releases

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As per the first volume, it is entirely recorded live with a minimal setup.

Volume 1 was heavily made with my beloved Yamaha CP25 and the Strymon Volante pedal.

This time, I wanted the sound sources to be even more ephemeral and from daily objects or finds during my walks.
It was a different approach to my music because there was no hardware sound source or pre-made samples involved. Challenging but rewarding.

I was really interested in the sonic approach of Musique concrete but also artists like Federico Duran or Steve Roden to name a few. Limited gear, maxi sonic palette out of it… Fascinating.

So to embrace the less is more approach, I picked one sampler (in this case a 4MS DLD) paired with a Wingie MK2 and an Ipad (used for mixing / eq / direct recording).

I don’t have a proper mic in the studio (believe it or not) so the internal mic of the Wingie was my friend…well kind of… The Wingie is a beast you need to tame, love, hate but in the end, we were good friends.

I did a lot of takes, trials and learned to embrace errors… The essence of "Etudes de Boucles Volume 2" lies in its dedication to live looping and intricate layering. There’s a sort of purity in its approach — each piece is built in real-time, with no chance to undo or correct, capturing the imperfections and raw emotions of the moment.

The result is an intimate, almost meditative experience that I hope the listener will lose themselves in the textures of each evolving loop.

This project is for me not just a collection of tracks; It's an ode to live performance, where each sound is a breath, and every loop is a heartbeat.

On top of the digital & tape media, I had the opportunity to produce a 45RPM vinyl (lathe cut) in super limited quantity.

Sharing below one of the 2 exclusive track of the vinyl.

Hope you will like Etudes de boucles vol.2 as much as I have enjoyed recording it. Maybe I will have the opportunity to play this concept live in 2025.

Take care.

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Sounds On Grief is a multidisciplinary project that offers a fresh lens on the processes and reflections of grief.

This project was really special for me and was kind of hard to achieve as it was really emotional: “After the loss of my father during summer some years ago, I travelled to the family beach house and went for a walk. I clearly remembered this moment... I was on top of the dunes, contemplating the ocean and crying. I wanted to shoot but suddenly the calmness came and a lot of pictures went into my head... like bad Vhs images but still... good memories, smell, noises. After some time there, I was still feeling sad and melancholic but in a way this was the day where I started my real grief and decided to cherish every small memory of my father.

Watching the sea...crying...remembering...missing you. Tiny tears.”

PROCESS NOTES

The sound design process was very organic and clear for me. 

I sat at my Yamaha CP25 for a while and decided to record a live take of what I was doodling.
I wanted to add some field recording of walking sand and ocean waves but it was too first degree to me. So I tried to record some noises from objects I had in the studio and mix these with the synth sounds. Everything was recorded through the mic of a Wingie and looped via a 4MS DLD module then recorded directly on my Ipad with AUM and a bunch of FX & EQ. Less is more.

I can remember this particular night when the recording happened. It was a relieving moment not only because the track was coming together but also because I found a nice way to produce something fresh sound wise (at least for me). This limited setup was creative enough and it was later the rig used for my upcoming album Etudes de Boucles vol2 (due mid November) and hopefully live shows to come.

So I hope you will enjoy the compilation and will find some peace in your own depths of grief if needed.

Special thanks to the Objects and Sounds team
Mastering by Mathieu Savenay
Cover image by Zoé Komkommer

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During my holidays, I use this setup extensively to record a lot of loops and sketches that eventually will be mixed and will be part of an album (or not).

The nice thing about the setup is the instant access to everything, being able to record (even multi track) and the possibility to get sounds from the Digitakt. Of course, you can also send sounds to DT to record / rearrange and mangle audio then send back to iPad for further processing and final recording.

Below you can listen to a few loops created with one or two samples from DT + same sample with different pitch inside Samplr. All was looped with Weeping Wall and Ridgewalk and the out was mixed and recorded inside Aum with eq and light reverb.

These loops are the proof that with a minimal setup and some routing / fx changes you can get a lot of different audio material. Iterate / save / repeat.

I really like this hybrid compact system and I will share more in the coming article especially my use of it in the studio.

Side note:

As I love piano, I tend to use a lot Pure Piano for IOS which is great but I have better alternative on my computer. So after some researches, I discover an app called AudioLayer which can be use to convert and play multi samples librairies exported from Pianobook or the excellent Felt Instrument Lekko.

So far it is working well and I can have now all my favorite instruments inside my Ipad. How cool is that?

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In June, I was asked to play a live set at a nice venue in my hometown. It was the right timing to use a restricted set of tools to play live. On top of this, it is Summer meaning more traveling so even better to have a lightweight setup.

As I previously did with my album “Etudes de boucles”, the setup is different but minimal and consisted of 3 devices:
- Elektron Digitakt
- Ipad Air M1
- Chase bliss Mood MK2 (mainly for transitions)

The Ipad was connected to the DT and the Mood MK2 as a send on the mixer of the venue. Everything was set up to be controlled by a tiny Korg Nanokontrol.

The Digitakt was the main audio source (loops or one shot) except for 2 tracks where I used Tines, Speldosa and Pure Piano directly from Ios. Everything was sent via usb to the Ipad and treated inside AUM. One usb cable handled both audio and midi in both ways. The Out of DT was sent to the mixer.

Setup notes: connect usb cable from Ipad (or usb hub) to Digitakt. Inside the Digitakt choose usb audio/midi. In settings go to Audio Routing and set Int to Main option to Off. We need to do this to avoid an audio feedback loop. All set!

In AUM I had the following channels:

Channel 1 / Samplr granular app

Resampling snippet of the Digitakt / 3 samples slots used normal pitch / 1 octave up and 2 octaves up

I will “scan” through the waveform with longer loop lengths and decays to generate a continuous pad and will record my finger movements to add motion and dynamics, as well.

The output of Samplr is fed back into its own channel in AUM, where 3 FX are setup:

1. EQ from FabFilter Pro-Q3 to notch out some frequencies.

2. AUM Stereo Width Fx to avoid any phasing later.

3. Pre-fader send of the Samplr audio to a separate mix bus (Bus A) loaded with additional effects and plugins to create a secondary version of the sound to blend in.

MIX Bus A

On Bus A, several effects are running to radically alter the sound of the Samplr output and blend with the original sound:

1. Magic Blur

2. AUM LP/HP filter

3. AudioThing Lines

4. Audiomodern Gatelab

5. AudioThing Things Texture

6. EQ from FabFilter Pro-Q3

Channel 2 / Patterning

This is by far my preferred drums application. Especially the fact it is now in AUv3 format.
This channel is processed by the following FX:

1. Audiomodern Gatelab

2. Fabfilter Volcano

3. Audiodamage Replicant

4. Audiodamage Rough Rider

Channel 3 / Moog Model D

Mostly used as a bass layer underneath all the other chaos happening, and this is almost always my most common use case.
Fx chain is only Unfiltered Audio’s Bass-Mint app + AUM LP/HP filter.

Channel 4 / Fugue Machine

A very basic sequence in the fantastic Fugue Machine with just 2 notes, with 4 playheads running across them. This MIDI information can be sent back to AUM to play instruments or to my laptop running Ableton Live 12 Suite over USB (then back via audio using the audio output. Audio comes back to the DT and I can mix this with the rest of the audio tracks. And yes I have an old macbook pro ^^)

Channel 5 / General audio out

This is basically all channels going out back to the DT. Nothing crazy here, just doing some EQ, limiting and compression (if needed).

NB: All tracks are recorded individually and as a master stereo file (for mxing purposes).

ADDITIONAL CHANNELS

Channel 6 / Pure Piano

A favourite of mine on Ios. Really nice “ambient” piano with a lot of options. You can sustain notes to infinity which is pretty nice.

Channel 7 / Weeping Wall

Although I really like my hardware loopers or Loopy Pro, Weeping Wall is a strong contender for micro looping and recording loops.
There is also 3 extra FX on this channel:

1. Audiodamage Other Desert Cities

2. AudioThing Things Texture

3. Eventide Reverb

Channel 8 / Speldosa

When I don’t have an audio interface and no room for an extra device, this music box on steroids is ideal. Integrated FX and a lot of notes to trigger manually.

Below is an example of the extra setup and audio snippet

The live set went well and it was a good night. No stress to setup a lot of hardware and cables and balance audio from each device. No hum, no noise.

Everything fitted in my backpack. Lovely.

I will share some videos and sounds in another post later this summer.

Life can be simple and there is so much to discover in simplicity, pushing myself to do more with less.

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You can listen to volume 1 on my bandcamp. Tapes available.

Loop a / cp 25 → wingie → strymon volante

Loop b / cp reface → wingie → strymon volante + mood mk2 (second chain)

Loop c / cp reface Rhodes → wingie → strymon volante + mood mk2 + DLD

For the sound design of this album, Instead of collecting musical references, I have decided to craft a scene/storyboard for each track. I came up with a description for each place / moment and put together some images, fragments of text & keywords to help this story. All these mood boards were on my studio wall, ready for curation, development or cancellation.

Adding imagery to my research process has been a technique I have used since my early days as a designer. Every week like with my audio snippets, I maintained and curated some folders full of images and text references / notes from myself or other individuals.

Thinking of a specific image or story , or imagining a cinematic scene will often bring a stronger direction or at least a path for audio / design exploration.

When the “visual scenes” are completed, the sonic process can start. Looking at the references I’m trying to gather the general atmosphere of the track, keeping it as open as possible. I’m using a lot of different tools, both hardware and software, keeping my brain open to changes and explorations… trials and errors too.

When I’m done with this phase and I have a good balance of audio material, I will extract the finalised samples and build the track progression (most of the time live). Always recording everything then making final decisions and mixing in the box.

Of course this is my own process and this is working for me but I’m always happy to share a glimpse of my practice with you all.

NB: all images are copyright to their respective owners.

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After some planning, putting non needed stuff away in cupboards, I was satisfied.

My old Yamaha CP25 is now the tray (although not portable at all) and
all my needed hardware sits on it or behind on a shelf.

Some people will find it too clumsy but I’m in reach of mostly everything I need and cherish in my process…for now. I’m still using my computer for sound design, cutting samples, experimenting and of course as a final recorder. Anyways having everything in one place like you have your tools on a workbench or a kitchen is satisfying.

No matter what tools you use to create, the true instrument is and will always be YOU (thanks to Rick Rubin for the reminder).

Talking about Less is more, I’m sharing an audio fragment of something I’m working on with this new setup. Full explanation will come in another post.

I want this place to be an ongoing studio diary.

I will try to document the beauty of the process, the sonic adventures behind albums and any other inspiration along the way.

We’ll see where this goes, but it does give me a nice place where I can resume my music efforts and be less populated by all the 2.0 social media madness.

I’m looking forward to presenting my ideas and work in a more personal way from now on.

Welcome to Sonic Reminiscence.