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Last month I ran a Process Lab workshop at Arts Centre Melbourne as part of Melbourne Music Week focusing on Mobile Music Making. I am pretty obsessed with mobile music-making devices and enjoy the unique workflows that these sort of devices provide you.

There were a number of focuses on this workshop including Sampling in iOS using Koala Sampler, the teenage engineering PO30-KO! and OP-Z, and I went through workflows and techniques on how to integrate these portable devices into your Ableton Live studio setup.

I also showed some of my favourite iOS apps for iPad including AUM, Fugue Machine, Spacecraft, Patterning 2, Eos 2, Enso and Samplr, how you can create a digital connection to route audio directly into Live without the need for an audio interface, and how you can sync it all up using Ableton Link.

Big thanks to The Channel at Arts Centre Melbourne and MMW.

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Some of the workshops I’ve been doing lately have been focused on the unique workflows of Teenage Engineering’s awesome portable devices, the OP-1, OP-Z and Pocket Operator series.

I’ve been a huge fan of Teenage Engineering products for a long time since I first bought my OP-1 seven or so years ago.

So, I’m really excited to now be featured on the Teenage Engineering website as one of their mentors of #ems.

Expect some more Ableton Live x Teenage Engineering things from me soon, including the next Process Lab – Mobile Music Making event on November 15.

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Changes Festival has been a fantastic addition to Melbourne’s musical landscape over the last two years. The focus is on getting a snapshot at what the music industry currently looks like, and is all about having a conversation about where to next… In terms of technology, inclusivity, the environment and basically a big ‘where to?’ for the music industry.

I was lucky enough to be able to check out a bunch of talks, as well as run two Ableton Live workshops with Memphis LK and The Push.

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I am always keen to share my knowledge and passion for creative workflows and music making, so I was super stoked to be able to put on an event the amazing Bargoonga Nganjin community space to run a workshop focusing on Teenage Engineering x Ableton Live workflows called Electronic Music Processes.

This event was supported by Teenage Engineering’s #EMS program and had some serious giveaway courtesy of Ableton and Innovative Music.

It was great to be able to talk in about the workflows of Teenage Engineering’s Pocket Operators, OP-Z and OP-1, and how you can integrate them into Ableton Live.

Photos via @callummis

Bargoonga Nganjin
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Hi all, Recently I was asked to contribute some Chord Sets to the wonderful Scaler Plugin. It’s a remarkable plugin, which allows you to create harmonic material easily.

I sat down at the piano and played a bunch of chord progressions that I regularly gravitate towards, and then provided them to Davide Carbone who is one of the brains behind it.

A week or so later with Scaler’s release, there I am, listed next to a bunch of amazing artists.

The idea of a plugin that provides you with chord progressions of various artists may seem a bit like *borrowing* someone else’s ideas. But once you get the hang of what it can offer, it’s actually not like that at all.

I’m finding that using my own presets as a starting point, and then using the variations feature allows me to discover chords that I may not have normally gone for, but adds those occasional harmonic variations that keep things interesting.

You should check it out!

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I have recently been working some material up for the Melodics App, which is an app that aims to make learning how to play finger drum pads and piano fun and engaging.

The aim of my course was to get users to understand some of the techniques used in creating cinematic-styled music.

There are six compositions you can play along with; Space Between that helps you explore the idea of less is often more, and to listen to the space between notes. Character & Theme works on the idea that a simple musical theme can be synonymous with a character in a film. Drama & Rhythm builds tension through the use of dramatic deep strings and tense percussive elements. Tension & Dissonance works with closely clustered notes to create something melancholic and tense. Deep Melody puts everything together to create a deep cinematic world, and Chords Uplifting resolves the whole course as an epic uplifting grand finale!

 

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To celebrate the release of my new EP Streamers, I’m giving away a set of Instrument Racks that are compatible with Ableton Live 10. These instruments use many of the new features and FX available in Live 10, including Echo, Drum Bus and Pedal.

Each instrument uses original audio files from each track on the EP, but they are more of a ‘re-imagining’ of the sonic landscape of each track, and are designed to be immensely playable using the pre-mapped 8 Macros, and hopefully creatively inspiring to you.

I used similar techniques for many of the instruments that I utilised in the commercial Analogue Sequences Pack that I created for School of Synthesis, which is available at Loopmasters. This technique involves using the Slice feature in Simpler in conjunction with carefully mapped Arpeggiator settings to create ‘playable’ sequences. It is particularly fun to play with using an Ableton Push controller in it’s 64 Pad drum rack mode, though can be played with any midi controller.

These are freely available to you to use as you wish, but if you find them racks inspiring consider donating a dollar. or downloading the Streamers EP via Bandcamp for a couple of dollars!

Download the instrument racks in .alp format here.

Have a listen to Streamers on Spotify  or via Bandcamp below

Streamers (2018) -Winterpark - Cover Art- LoRes