We moved rooms because Milan needs a bed soon. That meant unplugging the whole studio and putting it back together, and every time that happens you get a small new era. This time I used it to get out of a box I built for myself.
The box
Somewhere along the way I decided I am a techno artist. Nobody told me to. I had a techno EP ready, kept telling myself the mixes needed another pass, and never put it out. Meanwhile, without trying, five long ambient tracks piled up in a folder and the concept was already there. That is what comes out of me naturally right now, and I was fighting it because it did not fit the label.
We all do this. We try to break out of boxes as artists and then put ourselves straight back into one.
One clear decision
What helped was not a new plan, it was one decision: make more ambient, because that is what is happening anyway. And then set up the room so the decision executes itself.
For me that meant putting the Torso S-4 directly in front of me. I usually avoid screens in the hardware corner, my modular has none on purpose, but the S-4 is visual enough that I allow it. It is not a sequencer in this setup. It is an input. Modular goes into the SOMA Cosmos, the Cosmos calms everything down, the S-4 takes that as live audio on two tracks and runs granular, filter and reverb over it. Four channels total. For ambient that is enough, and having only four is part of the point.
The little altar
The modular and the Cosmos sit on a small desk facing away from the computer. I patch without listening first, then see what the system gives me and go by ear. I keep pictures there that remind me to stay minimal. A small, beautiful place for one job. It is underrated how much this decides whether you actually sit down.
The other rule: everything stays connected, all the time. Gear on a shelf with the cable rolled up is gear you will not use. The cable can go under the carpet, but it stays in.
Just press record
In Ableton the S-4 comes in as four audio channels plus the main as a group. Sometimes a layer gets Tape Fiasco 2 on it, mostly a preset, and that is it. I walk around the room, listen to the patch running on its own, maybe add a layer on channel three, then wait for the moment and press record on the main. No export, no arrangement. Yesterday the patch ran the whole day in the house while I did family things, and in the evening I recorded the last track of the next EP.
If you look around your studio right now and half of your equipment is not connected to anything, that is the box. Rewire it so the music you naturally make is the easiest music to make.
Gear in this video
- Torso Electronics S-4
- SOMA Laboratory Cosmos
- Chase Bliss Blooper
- Tape Fiasco 2 by Jonas Eriksson, my video on it
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If you enjoyed this, check out Your Environment Is Your Art, Why I Let My Sequencer Make the Decisions and Exploring the Torso S-4.