0015. 2021-12-02 Fuzzy Bitwig.mp3 After lmms forgot that I had a midi keyboard every 30 seconds I needed a break from it (this is probably some weird bug between lmms, firefox + YouTube and PIPEWIRE_LATENCY=256/48000, which I did not investigate further so far). Hence I decided to take another quick peak into Bitwig, the “alternative” to Ableton Live, which also runs on Linux. The demo version doesn’t allow saving or exporting, but it’s enough for making some tunes.

0014. 2021-12-02 Spaceship Drone (short experiment).mp3 I played around with Vital in lmms. I wanted to create a sound somewhat similar to the opening of Tyrian (though after listening to it again it sounds somewhat different from what I had in mind). In the end I didn’t manage to get the LFO of the bass/drone in sync with the lead (or overal rythm of the track). But… whatever. Made something!

0013. 2021-11-25 Party Computer.mp3 Made with lmms and the free Vital synthesizer. After quite some YouTube tutorials I figured out how to get some nice sounds out of Vital. The bass is a random “sample & hold” mapped onto the spectral morph of OSC1 with an 1/16th speed. What fun!

0012. 2021-11-20 Fountain (not an original, melodic dictation).mp3 This is a melodic dictation of the Zelda Fairy Fountain Theme, written by Koji Kondo. It was fun to write down and an interesting challenge to find instruments that somewhat match the instruments in the original. Made with lmms and its built-in OpulenZ (Harp preset) and ZynAddSubFX synthesizer. Find the original here:

0011. 2021-11-18 Something Something Orchestra.mp3 Made with lmms and the BBC Orchestra VST. Basically a string ensemble. The strings take a long time to properly “start up” on each tone for my taste (a friend of mine called it a “style some people could deliberately want”). I would have turned it off if I had found the know for it.

0010. 2021-11-14 Wanna Build a Train Track.mp3 Made with lmms and Spitfire’s free BBC Orchestra VST. I started out with the violins and somehow got - while writing it - reminded of the soundtrack of Unrailed.

0009. 2021-11-13 Another Farming Game.mp3 The riff is something I started playing on my guitar. It is in 7/8 eighth time (and that is how I have written it down), though I do not think it sounds like it. I am not 100% happy with the riff at the end, but I like it as a first try. This is one I think I will come back at some time.

0008. 2021-11-04 Mellow Guitar With Klicky Buttons.mp3 Made with sooperlooper and my guitar, then recorded with Ardour from sooperlooper. The rythm still doesn’t feel “tight” enough. Anyway, that’s what this project is for: training. Also you can hear the clicking of the buttons of my self-made midi pedal in the background. Recording stuff is hard.

0007. 2021-11-04 Crappy Small Piano Pattern.mp3 Apparently some days are more creative than other days! Made with lmms. Originally I planned to do something with the free Keyzone Classic Piano VST by Bitsonic, but the combination of it and lmms resulted in muted unmutable tracks, hanging notes and an overall bad experience with the VST. I know this worked on other days, but not on that one. I ended up playing around with some soundfonts and this… was the rather short result.

0006. 2021-11-03 Ukulele Foo.mp3 Made with sooperlooper. Ukulele and voice done by me. Bass is made with my midi keyboard plus the free Ample Bass VST. After I had all the snippets in sooperlooper I recorded everything using Ardour, basically triggering all the snippets in sooperlooper one after the other.