What Just Happened

Oh. Boy.

@superthelooperyeah booty.
— Steven Wilson III (@steve042384) March 15, 2013

2013 The New Year

It's been forever and a day since I've posted in this thing. 2012 sucked, losing a best friend and not keeping consistently motivated (but rather sporadically):

Alas, the time for mourning shall come to a close. Thomas Clough produced over 100 tracks in one year, though only a select number are currently available: theping781 - Music. I shall make a song dedicated to him, entitled "The Legendary Thomas."

Since my last post, I've cleaned out my soundcloud. Many samples from previous posts are unavailable, they're not worth listening too. However, I do have a few mash-ups available for listening:

        

Dada Life vs. Psy - Kick Out the Epic Gangnam Style (SuperLooper Extended Mash-Up) 

Jwktje - Super Mario World Levels (SuperLooper Mario Bit Mix)

A whole year of random outbursts of production, and all I have are two full mash-ups to show for it... I shall dedicate 2013 to a year of more solid production. I spent a great deal of time learning what kind of genres I like, and what BPM means for the genres. So far, I've decided that Drum and Bass/Glitch Hop/Electro/Dubstep are the genres I aspire to create the most.

I decided in 2012 that my first EP would be entitled "Legacy," but after much turmoil in creating uninspiring sounds, I'm scraping the name. To be continued...

Additionally, I changed up my image a bit and created two new mixes that have received zero criticism, good or bad:

DUCKFACE!!

9.11.12 - SuperLooper Electro House Mix

01.07.13 - SuperLooper New Years Mix

These are the kinds of songs I'd like to Dj. Those are my coolshades (pictured above)!

I've also started social media. It's not gotten very much publicity, but when i make something worth listening too, they will come to me:

Mixcloud - All my Sets and Mixes

Soundcloud - All sounds SuperLooper!

Facebook - Official SuperLooper Page

Twitter - superthelooper

Youtube - Official SuperLooper Videos 

My new years resolution last year was to learn about the electronic music producing industry, and though I didn't make an EP of my own or officially (I made an EP of my remixes of "Levels"), this is the year I make an EP, 3-6 songs to-be-distributed via beatport and/or iTunes. I've gathered all the intel needed to get the job done; creating and distributing. The hardest hurdle is the mastering process, the last hurdle needed to make a polished sound.

This blog is ugly, too. It needs the works! Until next time!

Tempest (Dreaming of Nightmares)

And so it has arisen! The hardest hitting song to-date of my new EP, Legacy, which I still plan for a release sometime in January of 2013:

Soundcloud absolutely REFUSED to upload a good version of my song, so I had to put it on youtube instead.

The track isn't completed, but you can listen to my fully amped song as it is now! I plan on making a few other mixes, renaming them the subheading "Dreaming of Nightmares" on the other tracks. I might even put up the multi-track single up on iTunes when I get it all going together. My only plans are to re-vamp the drums in it, otherwise it's pretty dead on.

As for the music progress, I've been visiting some different tutorials for dubstep sounds, so don't be alarmed if the next tracks turn out a little more... dubstep than usual.

Website address and updated design

The bad news is www.superlooper.com is taken and is up for auction. I don't have the cash nor the time to boggle with the address, so the good news is I've chosen a new one.

My "mock" production company was going to be called "Powered by SuperLooper," so I took the address www.poweredbysuperlooper.com. In addition, I'll have a quick mock-up logo for this mock production company in the next day or two. It kind of works out since I'm (obviously) unsigned, so I can work under this mock label until further notice.

Here is a screenshot of the "Store" section I've been working on for my website:

Nothing is permanent, but so far iTunes will be one of the music distribution sites I'll use. I may also consider beatport and some others down the road. Also, Zazzle is a store that can generate random products, such as shirts, jackets, mousepads and etc. products I can throw out there. Again, nothing is permanent in terms of stores, but this the basic layout I've made. When the time comes, I'll re-group the stores into smaller bars to accommodate more online stores.

Also, since the website is centered, I'm thinking about adding a "Gig List" section to the left side, to list off any upcoming gigs I may have (if and when the time comes for that)!

After the next couple of days, I'll probably put the website on the back burner so that I can continue finishing "Tempest" and begin new tracks. None of this will matter if I don't make any music worth buying!

The Social Bar

Nothing new on the music front, but I decided to work on my website a little bit. I designed what I'm calling "the social bar:"

(Click picture to enlarge)

Basically, at the bottom of my website, you can click on the four links to go to my "social outlets." In addition, I have the two major components of my music production; more of a shout-out and... it looks cool!

As for the website itself, I've ran into two problems.

First, the website "www.superlooper.com" is already taken. this means that I'll have to either bid (which I don't have the money in the $200 range to bid on a domain) so this means I'll have to go with something like "www.officialsuperlooper.com," which is kind of lame. I've got a couple other links I'm thinking of, but we'll see.

Second, I'm designing this whole site in Photoshop then rendering it in Flash Catalyst. I've never done this before, so I'm really kind of hoping it works out (and looks good when I'm done).

I'm looking forward to completing "Tempest," which happens to be the first track I've produced that I thoroughly enjoy listening to! It's great when a plan starts to come together. If you want to listen, you can click here (or, click the song title, your call).

Web Design and Tempest Extended

I've extended my Tempest song, but I've come to the all-to-familiar music barrier, so here's what I've done and I'll continue it another day: SuperLooper - Tempest (Extended Sample) (Click Here)

Also, I've started the design of my website:

It's just a prototype, but any progress is good progress. Not much else to report.

Tempest Sample

I built a template in Ableton for my music creation. This allows me to have pre-loaded song design so I don't have to waste time re-building the same sections I always do.

Worked on a new sample:

SuperLooper - Tempest (Sample) (Click Here)

I'm loving the way it sounds, but I'm not quite sure if it's really a club song. In fact, a few of the samples I've recently made don't sound like club music. The original title was "Dreaming of Nightmares" but I thought "Tempest" was cooler. I've been naming songs with three worded titles also, which oddly bothers me. Anyways, enjoy.

New Equipment and an Actual Video

It's been a while since I've jumped into the blog. Been really busy, but now I plan on being really busy with music.

To catch up, I've made an entire new song. It's not great and it's not edited, so I'm not posting it up at the moment.

I did, however, buy some new hardware; the MPD18. It's a basic Controller that's lightweight and uses power off my laptop. My APC40 still doesn't get used, but when I get more serious about performance, it'll be the navigator controller; it will serve it's purpose!

I'd post a picture of the controller, but you can actually watch it in action on my first video!

 

(If you can't hear what I'm playing towards the beginning, it's probably because your speakers are cutting off the low frequency sounds I'm producing. I can't hear it at all on my macbook speakers, but my headset is just fine)

It's no Skrillex, but I took a simple sample I made from Massive & Ableton and I cut it up and turned my MPD18 into a note pad. I took the drum sample from my other full song that I've yet to post. I'm also getting used to hitting notes in the right time (something I'm not good at, yet).  I also made a youtube page, "officialsuperlooper" and I'm currently making a facebook page, so people can follow the page instead of my actual page.

Z.A.C (Zombie Apocalypse Crew)

New song sample:

Z.A.C (Zombie Apocalypse Crew) - Demo Sample (Click Here)

The sound was inspired my road trip to Kansas City to see Dieselboy in concert. While we drove up, we called ourselves the "Zombie Apocalypse Crew" in case we were the last ones alive.

I'm also going to an Ableton class tomorrow with Dj Aleve. I hurried this sample up as a tribute to what I've learned over the last couple weeks.

I'm also working on an actual facebook page so I can post all these articles to people who actually want to read them. More of the song to come within the next day or two.

Limitless Sample Remix

For the past week I've been working on DJ effects and mapping them to my APC40 controller. My friend, Thomas Clough aka theping781, took me over to meet a couple real DJ's, Dj Aleve and Marcobiotics. Aleve showed me some stuttering effects called loop rolls. I learned how to do that and some other stuff. Here is a sample remix of what I used a couple of DJ effects on:

theping781 - Limitless (Sample Remix)

I'd post the whole song, but I didn't really do a whole lot to it. Instead, I posted the most interesting snippet with the the most effects used. Perhaps if I do more later, I'll repost the whole song. Here is what the module looks like:

To the left is the 8 custom mapped knobs, and to the right are all the effects "grouped" into the effects panel that make it work. Pretty snazzy stuff!

Also went up to Kansas City with Tom and his DJ friends and saw Dieselboy. The concert was epic, and loud!

I've been trying to learn how to put effects on what is called "dummy tracks." This allows you to map out effects onto keys and process a song through "dummy tracks" that feed into the master output. It's one way to create clean effects that are mapped to keys instead of knobs. Unfortunately, the tutorials I've seen lately are super vague on how to do this. For DJ effects, I've been laying out the same track side-by-side, and using the crossfader to quickly switch to the track that doesn't have effects on it. I've not seen anyone do this in any tutorials, so that can't be the right way to do it...

After I'm done playing around with the effects and learning more live performance tricks, I'll go back to making another song. I like to figure out how all this stuff works, that way when I go to a new track, I can apply everything I've learned. The next song will be heavy on loop rolls!

Legacy (Full Demo)

I've finally turned Legacy into a full track! I'll probably go back sometime and re-master it, but for now, here is the full song:

SuperLooper - Legacy (Click Here)

I made this song, then I went back and used a tool called "Redux." It's what is giving the sound various harsh tones:

 

Also, this is what the automation looks like for two of my synth lines:

Pretty crazy stuff! I still want to add voice sampling in this clip. I'm going to have a robotic voice repeating "Legacy" then using the vocoder tool to make it sound cool. We'll see how that goes.

I'll probably work on another track, maybe starting Saturday/Sunday. I want to have six (good) songs by January 2013. I'm still having to learn a lot just to make them sound mediocre, so we'll see how that deadline goes.

Legacy Demo used in MW3 Clip

So, while working on my latest track, I decided to take a break and play some MW3 online. Then I decided to render a clip of me playing some oldschool MW2 style gameplay from during my game time. THEN I decided "Hey, this clip is about the same length as my latest sample."

TickleMeMatt Plays Oldschool (MW2 Style)

Sounds pretty legit! Also, that is an updated sample from my previous blog. I added some detail to the synth line and cleared up some of that bass.

Legacy Demo Sample

Behold! The first song created on my new Macbook Pro:

 

Super Looper - Legacy (Demo Sample)

This is the first sample I've created on the new laptop. So far, the only frustration is that the screen is pretty small to be working in Ableton. All the other programs I use, like Photoshop, are perfect on the smaller screen. Oh well, something I'll have to get used to.

Legacy is the name of the EP and the name of the first song on it! So far I'm pretty happy with the progress. Now I need to make it quicker to the "punch," and finish the song up.

Working in 3D

Haven't playing with the music in a week. I will be changing that tomorrow night! I need to reload all my drum samples onto my new macbook pro. I feel a little disappointed I haven't created a new sample in a week.

Here's just a quick screenshot as to what I've been working on:

I already made a 3D logo before, but I've found simpler ways of designing 3D stuff. This is more of a demonstration of my current design progress than anything else. I still want to make it better than my previous design, but we'll see soon enough. Thanks to Nick Bishop for showing me some stuff about photoshop and the macbook pro!

Updated 3D Logo

I spent my time today learning 3D design basics. Here is my basic 3D design:

The colors are decent, but the extrude, or the part that goes back and is a grey color, just doesn't pop enough for me. I want it to be more of a metallic silver color. Again, here is the logo I'm trying to simulate:

It's all shiny and "metallic'y" looking! I've got a ways to go to learn that kind of 3D shading, especially since 3D rendering is pretty slow.

My progress has also hit a speed bump because I'm still adjusting to the Macbook Pro. I am liking the photoshop work on this laptop so far though, 3D is something I couldn't do on any other PC I have. When I'm done with other work-related projects, I will make my first sample on my macbook! Until then, I'll be playing around with my logo.

Super Looper Logo & Album Name

I haven't worked on music much at all this week as I've been busy setting up my new Macbook Pro. So far, it's been a cultural shock not by the operating system, but the software I've set up on it. So far I'm loving the actual operating system.

To celebrate my new laptop, I've created a new logo for "Super Looper:"

So far I like it. I still may need to elaborate on it, as its' not designed as a "vector" logo, but more as a really large layer. I may change the sizing or try my hand in the new 3D features I have yet to explore in new Photoshops.

In addition to a new logo, I also designed a "mock" album with a working title for my EP project, entitled "Legacy:"

As you can see, I have a thing for "starry" pictures! I originally had a different design in mind, but the more I worked on it, the more it didn't fit. I then designed to try an all black background, and it looks pretty cool. Eventually I'll have a picture of myself incorporated into the picture, but for now that looks like a good start.

I will soon start making more samples, but for the weekend and the better part of next week I will have to focus on work. I would like to finalize my 6-song EP by January of 2013, and I have planned out some of the tracks. "Out of Time" will be there, though I probably won't stick with the Piano feel to it. It feels more robotic than a dynamic song. "Untitled Twelfth Song" will most likely be a song, though I plan on putting it on the back burner until I have more samples. I have a song in mind called "Dance All Night" planned for future mixing. In addition, I will start playing around with vocals, including *gasp* my own vocals. We'll see how that turns out..

Here is a 1280x800 wallpaper of my new logo/album name (specifically for macbook pro 13"):

I plan on making all size wallpapers once I get a more finalized logo/album title. How exciting!

Researching Macbook Pro

Instead of working on my music, I've taken the time and got to know Apple's operating system: Mac OSX Lion. Though my laptop will be here Tuesday, since I've never used a Mac computer I'm getting to know everything about it so that my experience will be about applying what I know, instead of learning by trial-and-error.

I don't like to post anything non-music related, but since I got this laptop specifically for music purposes, I want to elaborate on the newest piece of equipment I'll be using. This article will contain opinions and preferences to my new laptop that don't necessarily pertain to music. You've been warned.

• First, the most impressive feature I'm seeing in the operating system is the ability to create multiple desktops. What this does is I can have Ableton running in a full screen on one desktop, and switch over to another desktop that has something else on it. I plan on using this feature to swap between tutorial videos and Ableton, without doing so like on the start menu bar in Windows.

• In addition to having multiple desktops, I also use my laptop for other features. Having multiple accounts is standard, but while I'm working on projects with Creative Suite, I can again have multiple desktops running Photoshop, Premiere and other stuff, like internet and etc... The workspace flow is what is impressive to me. This is something I haven't seen specifically done in Windows.

• As far as screen size is concerned, I got the 13.3" screen. My previous laptop is a Dell with a 15.6" screen, and I think even that screen is sometimes small. However, another feature I will use is the ability to dock my macbook pro's monitor onto my 42" TV (or my current monitor) and be able to have my Akai APC40 controller side-by-side with my laptop. Due to space limitations in the computer room, my controller doesn't sit right next to me, but off to the side where it's quite inconvenient to use.

• Another key feature, is the e-mail system and how it organizes all the e-mails. I'm constantly running separate web browsers for e-mail, and it would be nice to have a streamlined program to run e-mails. Though this feature is in Windows, I never utilized it and I should've at least tried it out. Otherwise, this program looks pretty amazing.

• It will also be able to dual-boot into Windows. I don't really want the Macbook for leisure, and when I want to browse via Microsoft I can still do so (like the company standard Microsoft Word, Excel and etc...). I run quite a bit of strenuous applications that my laptop is starting to struggle with, so it'll be nice to have the power of the mac.

Finally, many people wonder why I'm switching to a Macbook, even I've said distasteful things about Apple in general.

• My first response in favor of a Macbook Pro is: I've never used one before. I'm really interested to see if it lives up to the hype, and I'm ready for a change. Apple is a company that does the majority of their computer designing in-house, whereas Windows will work on any computer built, ranging from (my personal favorite) Dell, to HP and eMachines (my least favorite).

• Second, for the last ten years I've used Windows XP. Every update to the Windows operating system, and respective programs, has felt like an upgrade to look and feel like an Apple OS. If I wanted it to look like Apple, I'd get one. I dislike Vista, I'm not a fan of 7 and I don't know why they can't focus on upgrading XP, instead of looking like an Apple OS as stated earlier.

• The program I use specifically for Ableton is better executed through an Apple OS. Many people will argue for and against this statement, but it's almost unanimous that Apple is the easier of the two. In Windows, you have to update sound drivers and install sound devices to keep from having latency issues, whereas a Mac it already works perfectly. Plug-and-play equipment works seamlessly better, as you don't have to restart the program to identify the device.

I've been met with much opposition on the change to Apple. I suppose this should come as no surprise, as I used to be one of those guys who opposed all things Apple; call it Karma. I'm not switching over to look cool in a coffeeshop, I'm switching because I want to perform music I create.

Twelfth Song v2 Sample

I elaborated more on my new sample, it's starting to come along nicely: Twelfth Song Sample v2

I only have 1:10 of this song, and I'm already up to 13 tracks and 3 returns. I wonder how many layers I'll end up with in the end! It's kind of funny I've actually shaved off 7 seconds from the sample. After I've got about 20-25 tracks down, I can probably make a pretty beast 3-4 minute song. We shall see.

I also ordered my Macbook Pro 13. We'll see if Macbooks really are more powerful.I'm actually really excited to use the screen capture program, so I can show off my Ableton timelines as they play!

Arpeggiator and New Sample

One of the many things I learned from here was the arpeggiator tool. Basically, you take as many notes as you want, stack them and with this effect you can make it toggle through each note:

This effect is featured in my new sample: Untitled Twelfth Song (Sample)

I like the song. I will attempt to make it a full-fledged song later. Unfortunately, it is 6:00AM as I work on it; I spent a few hours playing around with the sounds. I've added more bass to the song than I normally do. I'm always worried I'm going to overpower the song with bass, but I turned it up and it sounds pretty good. I haven't thought of a cool name yet, but I'm sure I will the next day.

I haven't been doing much with Ableton recently because I've been researching new laptops. I'd eventually like to perform live, but I really shouldn't be jumping the gun for a new laptop. I know this goes against everything I've said about Apple, but I'm considering a Macbook Pro. Some of my friends own them and say they are a power house for programs like Adobe Creative Suite. Other people use Macbook Pro's as performance tools because they eliminate issues with low-latency. However, my brother says that Macbooks are completely overrated and supply hardware that isn't even up-to-date with the newest laptops.In addition, Macbook Pro's are dual-bootable and support Windows 7. Having Mac & Windows on one computer!? Sounds pretty awesome. I don't know, I've been using Windows XP for the last ten years and I don't understand why Microsoft strayed away from such a great interface. I think it might be time for a change-up?

As for music producing, I'm not sure if it's my desktop or if it's my lack of professional producing skills, but some of my songs end up with artifacts, or multiple crackling sounds, in the middle of the song (including my newest sample). At the moment, I'd rather focus on producing the music than polishing it, I can learn that once I've gotten a firm grasp on music creation.

Applied What I've Learned

Didn't learn much over the weekend, instead applied what I've learned. Here is a sample:

Random Song Sample

Meh, getting better.