Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Chasing Beats, the show dedicated to weeklybeats.com artists, their songs and stories from the 2024 season and beyond. your host, SQF, and our guest today Yesha.
Speaker: Alright, welcome to yes Shop, which is an interesting way to pronounce this collection of letters. And thanks for being on, man. Yeah, thanks for having me. This is really interesting.
Speaker: Yeah, like our last guest, I'm unfamiliar with your music because didn't have a lot of activity in 2024. Yeah, I don't know why. I just i think this this time around I didn't feel like doing it. But I'm feeling the bug.
Speaker: think I think I'll do it this next year. Nice. Yeah, what did you end up making any music in 2024? Oh, yeah. It's always a constant thing.
Speaker: Even like every day or so, I make something or work on something. Oh, that's awesome. yeah You just didn't feel like finishing songs? There's just a lot of stuff going on in my life this year.
Speaker: Lots of changes. So I decided, okay, I'll just take a pause. I mean, why should I last year? Yeah. A lot of things changing all at once. And I took a backseat on a few other things too.
Speaker: So I thought, okay, I'm just going to make my life easier and cool and take it from there. But you made music, which is the important part. Yeah, of course. I mean, I think that that,
Speaker: is very important for me to to have a constant flow of creativity and try try things. I don't even care if they're new things, just try things. you know Yeah. what What kind of things do you reach for to try?
Speaker: um I think, you know, I kind of spoke to you about this before, but I'll just kind of jump in. is ah Basically, I only use Nano Loop on tablets. i you I have an old iPad, like an iPad 2.
Speaker: um And I only use that app to make music, and I've been doing that for years. I used to be really big into... hardware and DAWs and recording stuff. And it's just got so complicated. And I've moved around a lot. I've lived in yeah lots of different countries. So you can't take a bunch of equipment with you when you're moving around.
Speaker: So it just became something about having something portable, immediate, that I can use and just try an idea. And I just try to take it to to the limits, right?
Speaker: So the app has no effects at all. There's no... Wow. Pretty bare bones. Yeah, it's really bare bones. There's no effects at all. There's no, you can't like put reverb or echo and stuff like that.
Speaker: You have eight channels. You to have like a FM synth and a really kind of basic additive synth. It's like square wave only.
Speaker: And You have a sampler and a noise generator, and that's that's it. So I just thought, okay, I'm going to, for years, I've just been focusing on just using that because of those limitations. And I like that. I think limitations help with creativity.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, i was chatting with that Ranjit actually the other day, and we were talking about ah how the M8 has plenty of tracks.
Speaker: Like, eight tracks is enough. ah So I definitely agree with you on NanoLoop. do you tend to go more towards samples because there's not a lot of sound design on there?
Speaker: Yeah, actually, i kind of have a pretty specific workflow where most of the kind of drum sounds are probably samples.
Speaker: Yeah. Then almost everything else is not. Sometimes I'll throw in like a a sample for a little lead or to like layer it.
Speaker: but i use the in the built-in all right it's a lot i i mean for most of the bases for most of the synths and pads and leads all right that that's cool and uh we're a bit away from hearing music but i think Your music is perfect for this weekend, being Halloween.
Speaker: does a little bit of a spooky vibe. Yeah, it's like yeah groovy but spooky at the same time. yeah Because I noticed you like to do lots of like slight detunes.
Speaker: Yeah, that's the the thing is that because there's certain types of limitations, you can only do certain types of operations together. And one of them you can control, usually together with something else, is usually a detune.
Speaker: Or it's also just... Actually, sometimes you can't. depends on the way you you use the synths. But I also just like that. I don't like things that sound so straight.
Speaker: It doesn't feel... organic i wanted to feel a little bit more natural and spooky and spooky i think the spookiness also comes to the fact that you don't have a lot of polyphony and you can't you only have all a three note polyphony max yeah so a lot of the times i've like drawn out pads and drawn out notes and uh so they sound a bit I don't know, a lot of space. It takes up a lot space. And also, I like that kind of spooky, I don't know, minors.
Speaker: Not so much of a, I don't like making something so major and happy. yeah ah Yeah. Yeah. Too cheery. Yeah. not not Not into that. And it sounds like you've been making music for quite a while now.
Speaker: Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I don't know, for 20 years. so Nice. Yeah. I was looking at some pictures of when I started just the other day, and it's been like over 20 years for sure.
Speaker: but Nice. Everywhere. I've gone all over the place. Played a lot of different instruments when I was younger. school and out of school. What was your first weekly beats year?
Speaker: I think that was 2022. Okay. I'm sorry, 2020. okay i sorry twenty twenty I'm sorry. So you you did two years. I did and Yeah. Nice. And how has your music creating process, I know you're in in the Nano Loop world and have been for a little while now.
Speaker: Since that is limiting, how has your process evolved over the years? Yeah, I think like That obviously those limiting factors change the way you think about composing and making music. But obviously you still have to think about different things. So a lot of the times I think about how to make different types of sections of songs, how to potentially give some dynamic change because of some of the limitations you have to use the app in a certain way.
Speaker: And how can you kind of use that to give ah dynamic changes because otherwise the song just feels real flat? Also, just how can you make something just have, a like you said, kind of good groove and good feel and have to make it too complicated? right And that's kind of another big thing is, OK, don't make it complicated.
Speaker: Just make it sound good. Yeah. So I think that's the other big thing. ah The other thing is ah I'm probably very impatient now.
Speaker: Because like with DAWs and if you have like a recording studio and mic, you spend a lot of time like setting things up and like, okay, it's this optimal environment. Whereas now I just, I'm like, I have, I don't care. don't have other stuff I need to do.
Speaker: i have 20 minutes right now. I'd pull out an iPad and plug headphones in. And then, and then after that point, I'm like, I'm done with this. Yeah. So little bite-sized chunks of music. make Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. That's good. I like that. I think that's the way it operates best for me. And I, I find i that's kind of how I make music too. I like to, you know, fill in some time here and there throughout the day and the evening.
Speaker: i'm not I don't sit down and do like a marathon music session. Yeah, I used to do that. used to do that where just like stay up all night and make music.
Speaker: But I don't do anymore. You to let stuff like simmer for a little bit, you know? Yeah, there's something nice about that. I'm sure this has happened to you. I'd love to hear your experience as well, which is like you see you you brought this up earlier, which is you make a song.
Speaker: And at at the time, you think, oh, that was OK. yeah But then you come back to it and you're like, wow, that was a really great idea. Yeah. Just run with it. At that point, for whatever reason, it's and it's inspirational and you just take it from there.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, that the opposite happens too, where like I'll make something right before I go to bed and And I'm like, oh, that's a fucking banger. I can't wait to listen to that in the morning. And then I listened to it in the morning, and I'm like, what was I doing? like like and was hearing things much differently.
Speaker: So it's got to have that, you know, you got to let it sit and then come back to it and still like what's happening. Yeah, that's true. It has to have the...
Speaker: yeah um yeah I guess not fail the test of time yeah and I'm also always curious what people do to kind of keep by keep moving the goalposts if you will and experimenting and not just like making the same thing over and over Yeah, there's I think a lot of those things have to do with, for me, they definitely have to do with those types of limitations because then you have to think about a creative thing. Oh, how can I how can i do this? Or or also maybe the actual composition itself. Is there a new way to think about composition?
Speaker: i think those are two areas I kind of think about often. But I also ignore them often, even though I probably shouldn't. And are you talking like sticking to standard song structures?
Speaker: Yeah, but yeah, basically.
Speaker: Yeah, I think a lot of other things too, just like how to, yeah, basic song structure itself too. I definitely kind of stick with that. I don't care about that too much anymore, even if it's just the same old thing. But the main thing is like,
Speaker: melodic differences, like thinking about how to think about, OK, are these relative majors and minors? What's a good change from here to there? And I i mean, I'm OK with that, but I don't think about that much.
Speaker: And i I could, but that's a whole new world. And that is doesn't matter what you use, right? Like that's just yeah another mode of thinking. So i should that's something I probably should try more.
Speaker: Yeah, i have a hard time mixing art and strategy. Oh. You know, like... Like, strategy for, like, x you know, showing your music to... Or, like like, you were just talking about, okay, here's the scale that I'm in if I change to these chords, like...
Speaker: i i I kind of just like try things and see what sounds good. Yeah, I definitely do that. but like the The music theory part of my brain does not activate when I'm making music. you know Yeah.
Speaker: The really difficult bit with Nano Loop is there's no keyboard interface to just kind of play a couple notes. yeah So I would have to have that readily available somewhere else.
Speaker: and then And I've tried that, like have an app open on a phone and then like play some chords because I can kind of noodle around on piano. But I found that actually almost harder unless there's something I really come up with a really good idea and I go, OK, I want to transfer that melody here.
Speaker: Yeah. But that rarely happens too. That rarely happens. Is NanoLube sort of like a tracker flow? It's got a, it's basically like a no, it's like, a it's not at all like a tracker. i it It would be cool if it was like a tracker. You'd have more, you'd have, you'd have more control.
Speaker: you It's basically just a 16-step sequencer. Okay. And it's just laid out in a square. So instead of you taking all the 16 steps, and like most of them show them in a line, that classic 808 sequencer, you just kind of say, okay, well, what if I take each one of those four, each like beat, and just put one on top of each other?
Speaker: And that's that's it. Okay. That's your that's your interface. so like So can you do any microtiming? i Let me show you. You mean like micro timing as in like and slow lower than 16?
Speaker: Like ah if you place a note on a step to be able to like nudge it off time a little bit? Yeah, let me show you just like a little thing. If I can open this up.
Speaker: So you could see it's like a square. Mm-hmm. So it's just like I said, it's like a four by four thing. You can basically, you can say like you have a shuffle. So you can say every other step, move it a certain percentage.
Speaker: Okay. But that's it. You don't actually have like a, you don't have control on on a per step level. You have like ah just a global, well, like a local pattern level thing.
Speaker: Wow. you Change that. Yeah. So I've, I've done that. You know, I make songs with swing, but then you just have to every pattern, you have to keep it, change it to the same swing.
Speaker: So a lot of your drum grooves are sampled loops of drums. No. No? Okay. No. So they will... You're doing one shots. Yeah.
Speaker: No. So it's like an NPC or it's like a tracker in the way that you have to think about it. So you have like a sample. I mean, i I do it like this. You have a sample and that sample has a bunch of, is it can be a drum loop or can be a bunch of hits.
Speaker: And then you basically have to like move the starting point offset to where you want it to hit. And then, so like, it'll be like kick, hi-hat, snare. So you have to kind of move it around to where you want it to be.
Speaker: Got it. and you can That's where you can add some like for weird timing. Yeah, so if you use a wave, you could do some weird stuff like that where you kind of maybe go a little bit before and kind of pushes it ahead. But you have shuffle, so you don't have to do that.
Speaker: I have done that sometimes just to get interesting little sounds. yeah But I don't do that as a methodology too to create the rhythm.
Speaker: but Usually I don't do that. Sometimes I've done that, but not very much. ah Other than dancing, how do you know when the groove is grooving? Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker: Either, I think either it gets to the point where I think there's two aspects to that. One is like whether you really enjoy it. And the other one is where whether you're really sick of it.
Speaker: Right. So if you just kind of, you're really enjoying that and it's becoming inspirational and you and you just continue to listen to it, then you know it's it's going well. But if you listen to it and you're just sick of it, then it's like it's Yeah.
Speaker: So I think inspiration is the key, right? Like, is it inspiration and inspirational? Is it making you, is it keeping your interest? Yeah. I would agree with that.
Speaker: Yeah. If that works for me. And, uh, since you are on a looping machine, it is easy to get trapped in a loop. What is your process like to like experiment and come up with different ideas?
Speaker: Yeah, so the the way the, there's kind of like to two ways to use this app. The way you can use it is, you can say like use it in a looping mode where you just kind of experiment and you put things on top of each other and just they all, you can choose different channels and different patterns and just see how they sound.
Speaker: Or you can just put it straight in a sequence mode and just kind of loop some sequences. i have a tendency to do that more because I have a tendency to find that if I just kind of am doing loops, I'm not sure where I want it to go or how it's supposed to build or what it's supposed to do.
Speaker: i have a tendency to just kind of put it directly in the sequencer and just kind of mess with it there while it's playing over and over so that I can have some variation, think about the variation, and try things.
Speaker: And then sometimes I get inspiration about that. Oh, this variation can happen here and I'll just change that in the sequence. I have a tendency to do that more. Whereas I think probably 90% the people who use this app don't do that.
Speaker: most of the people don't think about it as like a longer song sequence. Think about like, let's just like, it's a lot of people that use it to techno. Right. So they're really into like the kind of like specific sounds, more repetitive and like, you know, grooving and experimenting with that live.
Speaker: Right. But I don't do that. we just sub through that Sort of like these ever running loops that you're like turning on and off. Yeah, I think that's the idea. especially i think the app was made for that. I mean, it really was. And even the way that some features are, it's made to kind of loop through things automatically with you had not ever having to touch a song type mode.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I have a tendency to do that more. I basically don't use it what it was designed for, I think. But maybe that's why I enjoy it. It's just kind of just try to do some interesting things with it.
Speaker: Yeah, i mean I really like the approachability of it because i you know since I've gotten back into music and did weekly beats, I've been reaching out to friends that I had made music with in the past. and They were kind of like me. They had sort of like fallen out of music making.
Speaker: and i really want them to make music again and have the same fun that I'm having, but I also don't want to be like, yeah, you should invest in modular. Oh my God. Just like buy fire second car. They're modular setup.
Speaker: I think that would be really cool, but that's like the perfect, that's, that would be so fun to me, but it's, it's a weird thing for me because I feel like that sounds like,
Speaker: the perfect place where I would go and never come out of. And, and for that, almost for that exact reason, because it sounds so interesting and fun, it, it sounds like hell because I, you'll just, you'll get so involved in it.
Speaker: And, and I don't, and that's like you said, yeah, maybe that's the reason why, maybe that's the reason but it's also that immediacy, right? Like, With a modular setup, you really have to... You don't have that... Certain things you have immediacy over, right?
Speaker: But maybe like composing something, is there's no real immediacy there, right? like It takes a long time and you really have to plan. Yeah. And your process, you are sort of thinking about the song from the get-go?
Speaker: Or like the arrangement from the start? Yeah. So usually it does come out ah from an idea... and So i like I played bass for years. All right. So for me, it's like the drums and the bass are yeah a big thing. And then the melody, either I'll yeah i'll usually start in the one of those two areas where it's like the drums and the bass kind of focusing on that.
Speaker: So there's a good groove. Or that there's like a specific melody idea that I want to experiment with that idea. and then try that. And then I try to maybe build something around that.
Speaker: But I do have a tendency to probably just jump into some drum or bass sound. Yeah. Like some people I've talked to, they're like, i have a vision for this song that like I'm going to, like, here's the kind of song I'm going to make. yeah And I'm the opposite. I'm like, I don't know what's going to happen. I'm just like, oh, I like that melody. Or, oh, I like this drum loop is cool.
Speaker: I think that there's so many doors that you can open and you can open that door of like a rhythm or the bass or a melody or an interesting sound. And that can be your inspiration. And and that happens.
Speaker: Either one, I can open any of those and just try it. I think a lot of people like that. I mean, maybe that's how it is for you too. I don't know. Yeah, it definitely is. it's like ah I guess to go back to your comment a little while ago, is like I'm just like following little breadcrumbs of inspiration.
Speaker: Yeah, they are. They're like passing in time. You just see them and you're like, okay, oh, that's an interesting one. I'll go that way. Yeah, and I'll... you know make kind of a collection of things that go well together and try you know muting different tracks.
Speaker: And then if I'm like, okay, I like these combinations of tracks, then I will sort of like mute some of the ones that I like and make some different ones on top of that.
Speaker: Yeah, so i that's what you just said is what I definitely don't do. Oh, interesting. So like I definitely, once I have something created, like one thing, like it's a drum loop or bass pattern. Drum loop with like a melody. Or a melody thing. No, it's i won't I won't ever do that.
Speaker: Oh, okay. just said I won't ever do that. So this is interesting. I'm glad we're talking about this. I will never make a drum loop and ah and a melody together. It will be one of those things on its own.
Speaker: No way. And then i almost like try to fit this ideas that I have with one of those things that's already been created.
Speaker: So like if I start with the drums, I go, okay, this is an interesting groove. Oh, and then try to fit something into that and then fit another thing on that. And then eventually, okay, now I have like some portion of the song is done, right?
Speaker: um So it could start in any one of these areas, but I won't ever do them together. It's like, it's definitely one. And then the next thing goes on top. And it's almost like, you know, that's like cooking, you know, right? You put yeah ingredients and you put them all together. And then eventually it's like, you have the, you have it ready to cook.
Speaker: And then. So are you saying that you'll do like a drum loop separate from a melody and then try to like mash them up together later? No, I'm saying I'll make a drum loop and there won't be a melody.
Speaker: Right, yeah. And then like think about, is there a melody that would work with this? Or is there something that I already want to do that could work with that? And then try it.
Speaker: And then put that layer in until it kind of sounds good. Yeah, that and I think my process is not so far off from yours. I probably explained it poorly.
Speaker: ah i like I'll start with like a drum loop, and then I'll start just experimenting with like a melody over the top of it. And then maybe I'll add a bass line to go with it, but then I'll mute the melody and like try like a different instrument or a different sound on top of the bass line.
Speaker: And then maybe I'll drop the bass line and try some something else. And then I end up with like all these different combinations of tracks that like some of them kind of go together still.
Speaker: Yeah. Something about that where... So I have tried doing this where I say, like okay, I'm going to intentionally leave like the drum part out and make this other section, which is like a melody and a bass section.
Speaker: And then just add this loop, quote unquote, that already exists on top of it. And almost like 99% of the time, I get angry at myself at the end. I was like, that sounds horrible. Why did I do that? And then I just stopped.
Speaker: So I did that even, i was listening to a track on the way home. And I was listening to that. And I was thinking, there was an end section that I did that. Exactly what we just talked about. I made the melody in the bass line.
Speaker: And then I just kind of left the drums that already existed. And I just was thinking at the end, like that, I said to myself out loud, that was interesting. Like, like basically saying to myself, like, why did you do that?
Speaker: Yeah. Because they don't work together. It's a different feeling.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I'm just trying to come up with all of these different combinations of things that kind of work together. And then, And then I'm like, OK, tracks 1, 4, and 5 are like one section. And then these this other combination of tracks is like the B section.
Speaker: That's interesting. And then you start to be able to like take all these ideas and match them up into a song. ah kind of you know It's cool that you're talking about this. it's It's a way that I don't think about making music.
Speaker: But I think it's a good way to to try something new. This is why I like the kind of weekly beats in this kind of community is somebody will say something go, I just never thought about doing that. Yeah, like you said, there's so many doors to go into and experiment and try things. And, ah you know, I'm always looking for how other people are doing things so that I can, ah you know, change something about how I'm making music to like not make the same stuff all over again.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, I think that think that's what's nice about it. It's funny, we were talking earlier about maybe on weekly beats where maybe a week goes by and you want to listen to a lot of the music, but there's just so much.
Speaker: Yeah. And there's even a couple weeks where like this week I'm literally going to listen to every song. And I've done that. And it's ah it's it's so time consuming. It's really hard. yeah And like this week, I'm to listen to every single song and I'm gonna write a comment on every song.
Speaker: And I've maybe done that twice. yeah Because it just is so time consuming. And it's it's tough because you can't really do that. But sometimes you just find something really interesting. Like, oh, wow, I did not expect that.
Speaker: And I mean, I'm still finding interesting things yeah running this podcast because, and this was the reason why i wanted to do this is because there is so much music. Yeah.
Speaker: And just like your stuff, it's from a year that I didn't participate in So yeah your music was like unknown to me until this week.
Speaker: Yeah. And there's just so much goodness out there. yeah And, wo you know, shout out to the community that makes it so welcoming.
Speaker: Yeah. I think that's the other thing too. It's nice. We're all kind of in this together. Just, we've all gone through that struggle. Like you're talking about of trying to make music every week and, Going through all the things you're talking about, the ups and downs, being annoyed at yourself, maybe, or not feeling as up to par.
Speaker: whatever it is. And then, you know, just coming through. What, what have you taken away from your two years of weekly beats that maybe not necessarily directly related to music, but like, like I've mentioned before, I feel like my one year of weekly beats experience has translated to other areas in my life.
Speaker: Oh, i think, I think it hasn't transferred to other areas of my life, which I wish it has. Interesting. Being completely honest. But I think for music making, definitely try to be more patient.
Speaker: It's funny because I do think patience is a really important virtue and I try that to be patient, but I'm Not very patient sometimes. I'm not very patient. Yeah, but I think for the music stuff also, I think i think it's not patient isn't the right word. It's like forgiving.
Speaker: Like, okay, yeah this is not that good. Or I know there's problems. That's okay. It's good enough. It's good enough for an attempt for this idea and to just get it out.
Speaker: and And I think that kind of being more forgiving of it doesn't have to be perfect. Like perfection is right an unattainable goal because it's like an ever-moving goalpost.
Speaker: And I think that's probably the big biggest thing. Yeah, i I always like to remember that we're only making music. yeah Yeah, right. like where We're making sounds that we listen to. And I was talking to someone recently, and I was like, you know, it's kind of like the the only area that as adults, we can just do crazy stuff.
Speaker: Even though making it like a lot of times making music, we're like, oh, I can't make anything crazy because it's it's got to be good. But it's like the only area in life where we can experiment, do something completely insane, and all it is is sounds at the end of the day. like no one like Nothing bad can happen.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, i like the worst thing that can happen is you listen and you go, I don't really like that. That's that's not a very bad like output, right? like Right. Of all the things in adult life to avoid, like not liking a song that you made is probably like the the least to worry about.
Speaker: Yeah. There's something about that childlike curiosity we think we've lost. And that comes back in the creation of music and sounds. Because there's no limitations.
Speaker: ah You just allow yourself to be free. Well, there are limitations, but they're all in our heads. Yeah. I mean, they're like self-imposed, guess. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Self-imposed. Yeah, and so i it's like my reminder to be like, OK, when I'm making music, like I'm on the playgrounds, but I can never get hurt. yeah that's a cool That's a cool metaphor.
Speaker: Like, I'm just playing around the sound. Yeah, and if it's bad, then we'll we'll make something better tomorrow. Yeah, you're never going to break your arm. just You just make something and you enjoy it.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, maybe you hope other people break their arms when they listen to it because it's just so good. Is breaking the arm at like the metaphor for enjoying it? I don't know where we're going with it. You know, mosh pit or I don't know. Yeah, yeah, it could be, right? Like get that energy out. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Why not?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, I think this is the thing too is right, like you enjoying it is that maybe that childlike reflection and then being able to share that with someone they enjoyed as well as like being able to play in the playground with them right like you all yeah enjoy together and and that's great if you can i think that's like the any any art i don't know anybody who does some kind of artistic or creative endeavor they it's like a sense of it's some weird sense of social community that you who you're longing for to enjoy the creativeness uh
Speaker: and creative inspiration that you can have and show you want to make it for your own enjoyment at least i do but it's also nice when other people look at the things that you make right you know you're like oh you have this longing for that even if you don't say it like oh you enjoy that too that that's great what i did yeah yeah it's like it's definitely like that like look at the picture i drew yeah and i think that's what's so powerful about this community is that we are all willing to output music but also intake music listening to what everyone else is doing yeah i think so too i think you're probably right i i i like that i think that was that's part of the fun is
Speaker: Finding a little gem and going, oh, wow, that was cool. And then I can like talk to that person. Yeah, just directly. It's not like ah some random artist who you're like, oh they're amazing. I've got to join the fan club. and then yeah you know I've done things like that. We're like oh, this person's interesting. I wonder if there's some way I could speak to them.
Speaker: No. No, no. I'm not going to. and I'm done with that. But there's tons of Weekly Beats people making amazing stuff. And you can you know share files with people. yeah yeah So amazing community.
Speaker: um but There's a bingo card somewhere where people are checking off that I say this every time. like Community. Community. community Community. So center synergy. Like just for random words.
Speaker: As a funny like side note. You know, at jobs now, everything is like AI, oh yeah transcriptions, right? And so I had this whole joke of like, oh, let's see what keywords you have to say for it to come in the transcription at the end. Well, not the transcription, but like a synopsis, right?
Speaker: Yeah. And so a friend of mine and I were like just trying to say things. And then I kept saying like synergy.
Speaker: was like talking about stupid stuff, like the synergy of dog toys. like And then it would come up. like um So it's like you have to talk about it enough. You have to talk about certain types of things. Yeah, it's like bingo. you know I'm sure there are some people who are like this with music, but I don't think weekly beats people are like that.
Speaker: They're just kind of like, we're all just trying this stuff out. Yeah, and you you listen to someone's track and you can reach out to them and be like, how did you make that?
Speaker: yeah i want to get that sound. I want to try that on my playground. Yeah. so And then everyone is making music on different devices unless it's one of my inmate homies. Shout out.
Speaker: but Shout out to inmate crew. That's right. Yeah, yeah. And again, super cool that you make all this on the Nano Loop Yeah, the other funny thing is like, just as a backstory, I made i made like chiptune for it ah decade. All right, all right.
Speaker: But I think that was the segue. It was like, oh, there's Nano Loop. I'll try that. Oh, they have it on ah on an iPad. And somebody gave me an iPad they didn't want. And I was commuting to work on a train. And I was like, I got two hours to kill every day. I'm just going use this thing.
Speaker: Yeah. and And then, you know, a lot of people at the time were using like LSDJ. And another friend of mine was really into it. Also GoatTracker, other trackers, Sid Music. And I was just like, those people are so good at that.
Speaker: I want to just be good at something else. like yeah I can't compete. like I'm not going to ever be good at that. like I mean, I i could try, but ah I mean, maybe I will be, but i don't I'll just be good at something else.
Speaker: yeah And then I think that was the other motivation was like, they' they're all so good at that. I'll let them be good at that. And I'll just try this thing for a while. and And then, you know, when Mates started coming out and everybody kind of shifting, all the LSDJ folks were shifting there, i was like kind of the same feeling. Like that thing is so powerful and amazing.
Speaker: Yeah. And I knew Tim for years from that community, you know. I was like, I'm still just let them let them have that. Let them have that. I'm not going to do that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: yeah yeah So yeah, something about that. It's really cool. It's amazing. Oh, it's great. I mean, it's just insane what Tim has been able to squeak out of that tiny little processor. If you've if you if you get if you get to know him, it's not it's not insane.
Speaker: He's like that. he he's He's just done stuff for years. My whole setup, i use one of the things on my setup used are Arduino Boy, which used MGB, so like he made software to run on.
Speaker: Game Boy that take MIDI in. So I used to do a lot of stuff where I'd use a bunch of devices together. Like I had a MIDI NES MGB and a MIDI box SID.
Speaker: So I had, you know, a Commodore 64 NES and ss in a Game Boy all together. Wow. And it was kind of like the weird thing. But he wrote all that stuff. And so as soon as he started saying like, oh, I'm i'm interested in making this handheld, was like,
Speaker: Yeah, he's going to do that. Yeah. And I mean, just the most amazing software support of like any product that you could ever own.
Speaker: It's a real community there for sure. Yeah. Like no no one else does updates like that. No, that's how it is. Anywho, that's, I guess, enough M8 swooning and Tim swooning.
Speaker: Should we start listening to some music? Yeah. All right. Let's start with 2022 Week Snoer. Snoer. It's new. It's sneer it's still here we go
Speaker: That Snewer. Tell us about that one. Yeah, so I think one of the things about that was just a lot of buildup of kind of keeping a groove going and adding little things. I'm not trying to make it too complicated, but I really like that one.
Speaker: That was actually supposed to be released on MindColor Music, but something happened with the compilation there. seemed like it didn't it fell through.
Speaker: But yeah, for that one, like I was saying, I was using Android. So and in Weekly Beats 2022, about halfway through the year, I switched from using an older iPad to a little bit of a newer Android tablet.
Speaker: Not that much newer. But the Android tablet, the Android version has a little bit differences. And one of the big things with Android You have thing called Meta Step where it basically lets you kind of, so one of the steps on a sequence can be skipped to every other pattern.
Speaker: And that basically means sometimes if you do it right, you can get almost like twice as many patterns. And that's, it was a good way to kind of get little variations and in a groove.
Speaker: Kind of like a polyrhythm. Yeah, it's almost it's not really like a polyrhythm. It's like, just think about if you had a step that you could say, OK, well, every second time this is played, don't play this note.
Speaker: Oh, OK. um And that's basically what it is. So like every every even number in a sequence would play the note. Every odd number in the sequence would not play the note. It just't doesn't change the length of the sequence.
Speaker: No, the sequence is always the same. It just kind of skips a note, basically. It just will say, skip a note. And in a way, you could use it to make your drum patterns or other patterns a little bit more. Yeah. Like a little bit more variation.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, it's a great groove. And the drums on this, you said, are a breakbeat? Yeah, so part of it, well, actually, no, all the drums were just sequenced. But like that night basic rhythm you hear in the background, I think it's just like ah is an 808 kit with some hits, right? So you just sequence the drums there.
Speaker: It's not actually a loop. You made that sequence in that in the and the app. But then... The background, there's a part where you kind of hear this shaker come in. And that's that, like, yeah, Lynn Collins, like, think, break, one of them.
Speaker: And just kind of jumping around to different parts in the break to kind of get shaker in the background to give it, like, another layer. It gives it, like, a nice groove. That melody just basically goes through the whole song.
Speaker: Well, then you switch to that, like, it's even more detuned, like, faster melody. Yeah. it's That's really That's There's, like, a kind of a B section. There is another thing that's interesting that you can do on the app is you can make patterns.
Speaker: You can change the length of patterns by a step, any step. So you can have a pattern of one step all the way up to 16. So in the beginning of the song, I play with that. So have two layers of a pad playing. And then the second layer has a shorter sequence.
Speaker: So when they roll on top of each other after playing for a while, they it almost sounds like I'm changing it, but it's not. It's just that it's repeating on itself in a strange way. So like the 16 step will start back. Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker: And it gives it a nice like variation. It feels more natural or something. Yeah. I mean, killer song. That was the next next to the last song from 2022. Yeah. 39, 2022, Yeah. love this Here go. to week thirty nine twenty twenty two f t yeah love this one ah here we are
Speaker: right, that was FTS, and i would just was looking at the comments, and shout out to Aipaghost and the most amazing ghost giftf that like Halloween ghost gif that goes perfect with the song.
Speaker: Yeah. And this is ah favorite of mine. ah i think there's a lot of just really cool elements in this, like We were talking during the break of like the, this middle section that comes back in with this like creepy sounding detuned synth ah that turns out to be your voice.
Speaker: Yeah, there's a this kind of, yeah, it plays a similar kind of melody as before, but it's ah it's a voice of, it's just this me singing. i I basically took the same app and I just recorded my voice singing a middle C multiple times in different octaves.
Speaker: And I exported that whole thing so I had a note, kind of interesting sounding note, that I could throw in song sometimes. And I threw it in there and and let it play similar melody and just did some changes to it. And and it really it gives it a real interesting element when it comes to it. It's unexpected, but I think it works really well.
Speaker: it's It's great. Yeah. what What other tidbits from the song? yeah I think, yeah, I don't know what was going on in my head, but it was definitely kind of a like just maybe annoyed ah FTS kind of week probably. And then I was like, yeah, I'm just kind of sick of stuff. And then I just made that.
Speaker: But there's definitely definitely that idea where it's a little bit, Yeah, creepy, kind of weird sounding. I like that that feeling. I don't know why. That uneasiness feeling. I feel like if a song is too happy, I don't like listening to it or something.
Speaker: and And then at the end, it just kind of breaks down on itself, which I feel like is the perfect idea for that. It's like, all right, I'm done. yeah Yeah, it's it's great.
Speaker: All right, we're going keep it going 2022 Week
Speaker: dementia new.
Speaker: right, here we go. Everything is old.
Speaker: Everything is new.
Speaker: Everything is old. All right. That was dementia new, as NF said in the comments, uh, great song, disturbing premise.
Speaker: And it is. Yeah, i think I think I don't know why i was thinking about that that concept of losing oneself and not being able to remember things. And then it made me think about dementia and how you start losing this knowledge of yourself and what's happening to you and what you knew and what you didn't know. And yeah, like I was saying, the the the song actually was kind of called Dementia New as in any W And then it became a kind of on ongoing thought of ah something new that's happening to you that you believe is new, but has is something that has happened to you so many times. It's something that you did know that that you knew in the past.
Speaker: So some kind of homophone. Yeah, K-N-E-W versus N-E-W. N-E-W, yeah. K-N-E-W versus N-E-W. But yeah, the other thing with
Speaker: Oh, I was asking if yeah that's your voice. No, it's not. I have done that in a few songs. There's another song I released called Fools, and my voice is there. But I've done this tactic a few times where you record your voice or you take a sample of just some sound, somebody saying something.
Speaker: And then instead of what you do is you just kind of, to fit it to the song, You say the words in the right location where you want them to be.
Speaker: But if you want them to be pronounced longer, ah do a weird thing where I'll let it play. And then on the next step loop a part of the vowel plays longer and then kind of finish the word off.
Speaker: So kind of using the limitations in the app to say loop a section. And that's why it kind of sounds a little bit robotic because I'm doing that in the song, like looping sections to make it fit to the rhythm because the the sample doesn't fit the rhythm at all. yeah It's much faster.
Speaker: Yeah, we we actually forgot to talk about one other trick from the last song, which was I made a comment about, oh I love the delay on the drums.
Speaker: And you pointed out that, again, there's no effects in Nano Loop. So you're just hitting that same drum hit twice, but ah lower volume the second time.
Speaker: Yeah. And maybe i'll two to do reverb, you are hitting a note multiple times and just decreasing the volume. i mean, if it's a reverb sound, like you want to get a fat reverb sound, sometimes I'll do a layer where I'll actually hit a sound and then put a really low noise generation and really low volumes below it.
Speaker: So it almost sounds like it's playing out like a, you know, Or pitch something down and play it longer and put that in the background. And then it fills it out. It sounds almost like reverb. Nice. But it's not.
Speaker: me So lots of tricks like that. You are really having to do some trickery to get around the limitations. Yeah, I like that, though. It's something fun about that.
Speaker: Yeah, and I mean, like you were saying oh when you were pointing these tricks out to me, like that's pretty much what all these effects are doing behind the scenes. It's just we have a button to do it.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, and I just think about that. I think that's the big thing is like, oh, if I if i have an idea, oh I really would love this to be delayed. Oh, I can just delay that. I can play multiple times and turn it down. Or, oh, I would love to have a chorus. Oh, if I just play two channels, I play the same thing, but I detune one of them.
Speaker: it's kind of like a chorus. yeah and Or a flanger. Oh, OK, well, I play two of the same loops, and I detune that a little bit and play it for a long period of time. You have a flanger. Like, OK, just things like that.
Speaker: Very cool. Yeah. It's like a almost like you know early recording studio tricks. Yeah, it it really is. i mean, you do have to think of it like that. Oh, I have this wave playing. What can I do with it? Or I have this sound playing. What parameters can I change?
Speaker: And can I layer it? A big thing for me is layering. I layer a lot of stuff. Layer basses, layer synths, layer drums. And if you flat. You only have tracks.
Speaker: Yeah. I usually have a very specific way i I set up my files, too, is like the first three tracks are almost always drums. The next two are almost always bass.
Speaker: And then the last two are always like a pad and ah maybe like a lead or something. And then you have one where I'll kind of switch between sounds, maybe like another pad or another bass, depending on how many layers I want or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah. i it's sparse, but you still managed to make it sound big. Yeah. yeah Is that just from the layering?
Speaker: Yeah, it's all layering. It's all a big thing about layering and just using as much of the, yeah, layering really, using as much space as you have there and and just trying to fill that space out. The big thing too is like thinking about frequency spaces too.
Speaker: For me, kind don't talk about that much at all, is I really don't, I, you can't EQ, right? So i was just about to ask. Yeah, you can't EQ. So you have to think about frequency spaces a lot and think, okay, this drums, what kind of spaces are there? And really just listen.
Speaker: You're not, yeah just listen. Okay. Where is this at? What space can i And if it's a sample, for example, they say, want this sample to be more of a lower frequency. Okay. Well, just,
Speaker: turn the note down. that yeah And now it's a lower frequency. Oh, and this thing is, I don't want it to bleed together. Okay, well, turn the sample, play it higher.
Speaker: Like it's going to be at a higher frequency now yeah because it can't be in that spectrum. And then the same thing with basses and synths, you know, where are they? Where do they exist? change filters, change octaves to kind of fill in some spaces. So that way when the song is, while it's something I do just naturally now, I think about that while I'm doing it. And when I'm making a sound, I say, okay, well, I can't have that sound here because you can't distinguish it from this bass.
Speaker: Right. So I'm going to change the octave or I'll change the the the frequency filter, just change a little bit or change, whatever I can so that it's distinguishable.
Speaker: And i kind of just do that naturally now. Yeah. And that's kind of how I got into more sound design stuff on the M8 is because I was adding all these layers and then I was like, I added something and now I can't really hear this other part that I want to hear.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, exactly. Which I think is like how everyone should explain mixing. That's actually probably a good way of explaining mixing is you can't hear the stuff you want to.
Speaker: Because like people go immediately to, right, check out this graph with these frequencies. And it's like, I want to hear this thing that now I added this other instrument and now I can't hear it.
Speaker: Yeah. So, hey, I'm just letting you know, and maybe about like 10 minutes or so, I think I'm to have go. oh you're going to have to run? Yeah. Sorry about that. Okay. Well, we can, let's see We're going to listen to week 20, or excuse week 36, 2022, Here we go. Here we
Speaker: All right, that was Dar. Tell me about that one. Yeah, so I can just jump in the name. There's a few songs like this too, like you chose another one, Digo Digo and Dar.
Speaker: um So a lot of them are kind of inspired of like romance languages. I mean, I i speak Italian and Spanish. I basically use Italian language. at home with my family.
Speaker: um is what happens when you marry an Italian, I guess. Yeah, I used to live there. and How nice. So a lot of these things are usually i some play on some of the the words that are basically the same or there's some similarity between them. So like dar, dare means like to give.
Speaker: So something about giving and I think probably we had to do 10K, like giving that sample out and saying, hey, these are some sample kits. Nice, nice. And so I probably thought, like oh, that's a cool thing to try. and And I found one of the samples through one of the you know kits that were on there, these sample kits.
Speaker: yeah And I think i probably that's probably why i chose the word dar, now that I'm thinking about it. yeah Like, oh, he gave that to me. I'm giving something back.
Speaker: And then, yeah, it's really basic. Like the weird kind of percussive sound is the main driving rhythm in the background there. And 808, and then a little noise generator to give a rounded out.
Speaker: And yeah, it's, it's real simple. Not too creepy this time. Sorry, but more relaxing. No, no. Not c creepy, just relaxing. But the, the drums set a great vibe to it. And, uh,
Speaker: ah to quote Kedbrake on this, the beat is sick.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like the bass and the drums. I think it was like we're talking about the drums and the bass work really well together. Like the octave playing. to Yeah. did did do um um Yeah, so I think i think that was that just worked well. And then the basic kind of pad and and lead in the back was all there. just kind of worked all well together, I think. the formula.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, I think it worked well. Well, you've got to run, and we're going to have to cut the interview a little short. I'm going to, in post-processing, do some radio mode and play out the the rest of the songs that i wanted everyone else to hear.
Speaker: And I want to thank you again for being able to join. Yeah, my apologies. It just didn't work out to to stick around. No worries at all. i'm I'm glad I got you for at least this long.
Speaker: Yeah, and it was really nice to to meet you and talk about this stuff. And I think it's fun to just talk about music and um you know also just talk about all those fun little things that we we find in our journey making music. And we don't get to talk about it too much. So it's also nice to be able to talk about those things.
Speaker: Yeah, there's there's only so much conversation that can be had on the comment section or even or even Discord for that matter. One day I want to try to find a way to like round up everyone in the same place on the globe. and Yeah, that would be cool. well That would be really cool.
Speaker: That would be really cool. But thanks again. I'm really really glad to have been exposed to your music, and I want to check out more of your catalog. And I want to see you in 2026. Yeah, I'm going to try my best, and you know maybe we'll catch each other on the yeah message boards.
Speaker: Yeah, hit me on Discord. And yeah, looking forward to hearing what you make in 2026. I'm also preaching healthy beats, which means that you don't have to do a perfect streak to prove it to yourself.
Speaker: If you need to take a break, it's better to have some of your music throughout the year than none of it. So... mental mental break weekly beats that's right that's right yeah yeah the streak is not everything I've proven myself on the streak you have too so yeah I think that there's there's that feeling you got to do it. But yeah, it's true.
Speaker: to be You have to accept and be, you know, forgiving yourself like we're talking about. Forgiving. Yes. Yeah. Well, cool. I'll catch you later. And thanks everyone for continuing, continuing to listen.
Speaker: And we're going to take it to radio mode from here on out. So don't, don't close your podcast app yet. All right. Have a good one. All right. Thank you. See ya.
Speaker: And like magic, we're in post-production land. And up next is 2022, week 43, Digo Digo. digo dico
Speaker: That was Digo Digo. ah really love that B section that comes in like a minute in. So good. All right. Up next, 2020, week 42, meditation. week forty two meditation
Speaker: Great descending bass lines and sweet sweet dissonant tones. Playing the last song now. This is going to be week 15, 2020. Kick me while I'm down.
Speaker: opened the episode up with this one. Thanks again, everyone, for taking a listen, and I'll catch you next week.
