20 replies to this topic

[Jester_Fu]

Quote

Oh the joys of analog gear - you can actually jam on it!

What do you mean by that? Should this be s plit thread?? YES!

[Jester_Fu]

Anyway... this is a split from a comment made by Robbie during a recent rant in the Track Reviews Section.

And it got me thinking - how d oyou jam?

Now, due to lackluster interest in some of my mates (looking at you, Jay!), my studio has been primed and ready for jamming for some number of months... but there's only one full analogue synth in it. Yep, i've got a shed load of VA's. The only thing better than a shed load of VA's is enough independant midi inputs that i can truely multi track midi straight into cubase... which is my second problem.

Too many guests in my studio seem to be fixated with driving the sequencer... or rather 'how' to drive the sequencer (damn retarded abletron users ). How does one move their attention toward the 5 different keyboard control surfaces and away from this staring at the screen nonsense? Is a stand alone drum sequencer (or kit) the answer?? Have i stumbled upon a not too well known dance music fact that no drummer/drums = no jamming?

Discuss.

[Jay Parker]

I know that for me, it has a lot to do with how i learnt to produce in the first place.

I learnt by driving the sequencer as you know, and i need to shift my focus to actually bashing away on keys and such. It hasn't suited my work flow in the past to do this.

And i will be up for jamming after this pain in the ass of a management course is finished and can get some time to come down again.

[Captain Terrific]

[Captain Terrific]

hey, thats Hendricks jam

maybe that should be Hendrix...

[bruxism]

My studio has been super awesome fun for jamming lately.  Ever since i really started drumming on the MPC, the "no sequence" dance track has become all i ever aim towards.  Usually  it's me on the MPC playing drums and triggering some random flamenco guitar/flute/didgeridoo sample (loving the didge currently) while the other dude goes nuts on the KS5/nord lead/BassStation, doing basslines and possibly lead lines at the same time.

Having no computer screen to stare at really lends itself to actual jamming.  Plus live drumming is hella fun!

[Luko]

with our new room this has been lots of fun

its either the bass guitar one of our guitars or one of our synths, but i usually drive the sequencer loading up beats until we have a rough loop down then we figure out what the chord progression will be using and try and just have fun with that, with whatever we pick up

it can get quiet stupid/fun at times with me running from one side of the room to the other trying to trigger off as many sounds as i can while my mate jams out a blues guitar riff or the like

come to think of it we havent written anything since we moved here, we just been jamming

[ijed]

love a good jam. just as long as no one gets too FIGgy (FIGJAM - F*ck I'm Good, Just Ask Me)


Jam's work best when everyone's able to listen to each other and respond to each other.
Laptoppers can sometimes be worse than guitarists - turning everything on and cranking up to drown everyone else out 

That said the Share Outpost laptop jams on the last Wednesday of each month at Horse Bazaar have been great (hey there's one tomorrow night feat Qua :plug:)
Usually it's all abletrons and msp's with midi controllers but everyone's usually listening to each other, or there will be one person who drives and everyone else follows.

There's lots of good 'jamming games' you can play like limiting each person to using 1 sound or one part.
Or a chain where everyone feeds their midi to the next person who controls the vst/hardware, a generates midi for the next person and so on...

Jester: Maybe write all your gear on bits of paper that everyone has to draw from a hat and they have to play that.

[Jester_Fu]

^I like the way you think!

[Luko]

oh there is one key ingrediant i forgot that is a pre-requisite for a good jam




& a little of my private stash

[ant]

I have had a some very successful studio jams with different people, and I can say that every group has a different dynamic, just as each person works differently.

If it's your studio, then it's your job to take the reigns and be a real producer. Your job is to make sure everybody's comfortable, and feels like they can contribute. The space itself is also super important. I always consider layout and atmosphere to be a major factor towards a productive session.

Make sure everyone can communicate visually. A mirror behind the console can help you to feel less like you have your head in the software.

I also have a policy in my studio (that everyone knows), which is that negativity is banned unless you have an alternate idea. That way things always move forward. It's easy to take a crap layer out of the mix later, but it's hard to fix the vibe after somebody's heart felt avante garde kazoo solo has just been criticised.

Record every idea, drink lots of beer - you can't go wrong!

[Luko]

anyone hear JJJ last night, they had Scrive (NZ rapper) on and he was talking about recently silverchair were down there for a gig, scive and the chair went out on the turps - got hella pissed and then at 3 in the morning descided it was time for a callaboration,

called NZ's most expensive (and probably only) recording studio and asked if they coudl stay open for a few more hours

apparently they just got mega trashed and recorded themseleves for hours, knocking over thousand dolklar mics etc..

[Captain Terrific]

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apparently they just got mega trashed and recorded themseleves for hours, knocking over thousand dolklar mics etc..

see, they're just blokes like u an me!!

[Jester_Fu]

Ant - I get what you're saying. The 'vibe' in my studio is, as the good host i am, not hostile. With me, it doesn't get better than that ;D The toys are all there... all hooked up and easy to use. The problem seems to be that everyone focuses on trying to plug a drum line into the sequencer, and they're fucked at it because almost none of my friends are Cubase users. So, instead of getting a jam going, they just focus on trying to drive the sequencer... and it drives me nuts. I'll try your 'get of my fucking sequencer' trick

I'll take all of these idea's on board - there's a good opportunity on the Apec weekend for mayhem of the studio kind as a few trashed bodies will be lobbing back to mine after a night avoiding arrest. Hopefully (*jester corsses fingers before realising he can't type like that*) the bitches will live with some basic drum loops and churn out some tweakage. In fact, Friday is a public holiday for me on the 7th, so other than fueling the BBQ, i'll fuel up some drum loops and projects ready for some jamerashone saturday/sunday.

CT- if you're sorry arse is organised, why not stay Sunday in Syd. and come try break my studio with the other munt heads... Silverfish stylee ;D

[ijed]

best fun jamming when bent as Luko said.  Just don't expect it to sound as brilliant in the morning.
Although, like sliverchair and scribe, letting instinct take over can produce some incredible results and stuff you would have never thought of sober

[Captain Terrific]

u know jester, thats awful tempting...

now, to try get virgin to swap my ticket back for one on monday...

[Luko]

hey ijed, try smoking meth mate, you stay up for alot longer, so you get more done, and the tunes sound less sh*t the next day

....probably cause your still up from the night before  ;D

[ijed]

god just thought of that nasal spray erection ad with the two guys playing piano with their boners...

I think just make sure you have everything plugged in before you get stoned.  trying to figure out inserts and routing with a mashed brain is not fun

[Luko]

tell me about it i took acid on saturday night then at 2am thought it would be fun to setup virus control for the 1st time

you can just imagine how much 'fun' i actually ended up having... it felt like my head was caving in..

[BitSmasher]

Can't talk with experience yet but the pile of gear I'm assembling has all been selected for live/hand-on/jam approach to music. No computers, just a variety of bits that all lend themselves to composing on the fly. Even have a cheap digital drum kit for the stick bashers to feel at home on.