Jacob Vosmaer's blog

How I make music

2024-06-19

In this post I will share how I currently (mid 2024) make music.

The technical side

Here is a picture to help explain what tools I use. This is not the entire studio but it shows the different kinds of things in there.

1. Drum machines
2. Synthesizers and effects processors
3. Audio patchbay
4. Mixer
5. Master keyboard (also a synthesizer)
6. MIDI sequencer (Cirklon)
7. Audio recorder

Sounds are generated by drum machines (1) and synthesizers (2). The sound generators are controlled via MIDI by a sequencer (6, the Cirklon). I write my songs by playing notes on the master keyboard (5) which are recorded as MIDI into the Cirklon. The sound from the sound generators goes via the patchbay (3) into the mixer (4). I use the mixer to add sound effects (2) to the incoming sounds (reverb, compression). I hear the result on the speakers while I work. When I like the result I press the record button on my recorder (7) which then records a WAV file onto an SD card. I take the SD card to my computer and upload the WAV file to SoundCloud.

Where is the computer?

If you are familiar with music production and home studios you may notice something is missing: there is no computer screen. In a modern studio all of the sequencing and recording would happen inside a computer, and some, most or all of the instruments and effects would be implemented in software instead of hardware.

My way of working is unusual. There are practical downsides to this and I cannot explain why I do it this way other than that it makes me happy.

Some of the downsides are:

• I cannot "save" the current song, work on another one, and go back to the first. I technically could if I took photos of all the knob positions, and captured memory dumps of all the instruments I was using, but that is so much work that I never bother with it.
• I cannot create complex mixes with many tracks and lots of individual effects and automation on each audio track. I don't have a lot of tracks on my mixer and unlike virtual effects, which are effectively computer programs that you can run as many instances of as you want, each effect that I add is a physical device that costs money, uses space and adds more cables to the studio.
• It is hard for me to collaborate with other artists. I would have to make audio recordings of the individual tracks in the song. That is possible but very labour intensive so I never do it. This is made worse by the fact that I cannot "save" and "open" songs: if someone would want to have multitrack audio for a song that I already wrapped up and moved on from, I could not give it to them.

To be honest these downsides do not bother me much in my current situation. I have no use for a drawer full of unfinished songs that I tell myself I will come back to and finish one day. I never feel like I run out of tracks on my mixer and because I work with synthesizers, I can shape and embellish sounds at the source rather than after the fact with effects. When it comes to collaboration, while I like the idea, I also like being able to make my own music exactly the way I want it. It does not make sense to me to change how I work now because I might want to collaborate with someone in the future. I can adapt when that time comes.

Building and repairing stuff myself

As I built this studio over time I have also learned more and more about building and repairing things for myself. This started with the audio and MIDI cables. I soldered almost all of them myself. This allows me to have cables of the right length, with high quality plugs, and relatively thin cables to save space.

Some of my instruments I built from DIY kits because they were otherwise hard to find and/or very expensive. My favorite example is the CrowBX. Then there is some equipment in my studio that is up to 30 years old by now and that needs maintenance or repair once in a while. I do these repairs myself which saves me a lot of hassle compared to having to find a technician who knows how to fix these things and who also has time.

Finally I have recently started to learn how to program digital sound effects and synthesizers on the Daisy hardware platform. This is a lot of fun because I can use my programming skills to build electronic music gadgets I wish existed but don't know how to find.

The creative side

I find the creative side more interesting than the technical side but it's also hard to write about because I don't understand it well.

At a high level there are three phases in my creative process: gathering, writing and editing.

By gathering I mean looking for sounds on my synthesizers. That can mean browsing through presets made by others or making my own sounds. I play with the sounds to see if I like them or not. At some point while playing I stumble on a combination of sound and melody that I like so much I want to record it into the sequencer. This is the beginning of the writing phase. I have recently learned that it works best if I record whatever sounds nice during this phase, without worrying about the bigger picture or what kind of song I am making. This is the scariest part of the creative process because I don't know what I'm doing or if it's going to be any good. Whatever ideas come up I record and save as MIDI in the Cirklon.

After writing for a while I run out of steam. I gradually transition from adding new ideas to listening back to the ideas that I recorded. This is the start of the editing phase. I start moving things around, removing things, stretching and shortening sections. During this phase I often record the current state of the song on the audio recorder and listen back to it on the couch. I also listen on my computer and my phone to judge if the mix balance is OK. By listening outside of the studio, I can put myself in the position of a listener instead of a creator. At this point I don't go back to writing anymore because I tend to make things worse.

The editing phase is where I struggle the most and I have to work against the clock. I keep listening to the same song over and over and I eventually get sick of it. I work from the perspective of a listener, looking for things that stand out in a negative way. A sound that is too loud, or a phrase that repeats once too often. Once I am out of things to "fix" I stop. Now I need to come up with a name; this can take surprisingly long. Once I have a name I do some rudimentary mastering of the last WAV file in Logic Pro (I use the automatic "Mastering Assistant") and I upload the song to SoundCloud.

Publishing

This is still terra incognita for me. I have been recording music for myself for years now but I only started publishing on SoundCloud 7 months ago. I am still working up the nerve to either approach indepentent record labels with my music or to publish it on Bandcamp. I could also try Youtube but then I need to come up with visuals too.

Conclusion

So this is how I make music today. Writing this blog post has been an exercise for me to be less shy about my work. I also hope to revisit this in the future to see how things have developed. Thank you for reading!

Tags: music

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