Creating a New Song – Ableton Push Improvisation Jam – Won’t Quit It

Ableton Push Jam

This is one of the most common ways I start creating songs: improvising on the Ableton Push. If Mr. Faulks is around, he’ll add in guitar and more keys. In this case it was just me. After the Push jam, I added vocals using the Kaoss Pad 3, and TC Helicon Talkbox Synth pedal controlled by the Novation Circuit.

This video shows a 9-minute edit of the 1 hour session I recorded.

This is the song I ended up creating from the sounds I recorded:

Creatures Once & miraclemiles · We Won’t Quit It

Here’s what I wrote about creating this song over on Weekly Beats:

Some instruments or tools are just easier to get into that flow state with. Ideas easily translate from the ether to the digits or the limbs, and you don’t have to stop and think too much. You just … flow. For me, that instrument is the Push. I haven’t flowed with it for a few weeks. So I sat down for an hour or two and had some fun. Maybe a vague idea in the heads of mambo this or garage that, or make me dance now … but open-minded, just waiting to see what’s up there in the place songs come from. Then there’s editing. It’s so easy in Ableton live to turn all your raw flow material into something else entirely and to get into a flow state while editing too. So the final edit uses a lot of the material I recorded but came out different than what I originally thought. When editing I’m trying to have little moments where a few things come through, and not just having everything in at once. Shout out to Ty Dolla Sign on his episode of Song Exploder on Netflix talking about his classic “LA”: he said how he wants just “little explosions” of ideas in the song, and it’s fine if things only appear in one little explosion. Made up these words, haven’t discovered what they mean yet. Vocals through Kaoss pad, and the talkbox synth pedal with Circuit as carrier. I recorded video of the Push and vocals sessions, going to chop that down a bit and will link here and put on the Creatures Once YouTube channel as well.

Also, most importantly: I caught up on a lot of WB music this week … and got totally inspired by all of you. As hard has it can be to do WB, I’m going to miss it next year!

 

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