Tag: music

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Lost tracks, found motivation

Hey all!

It’s been a while. Almost two years since my last post actually. I didn’t plan to disappear (again), but every time I wanted to write something, I told myself I’d do it after finishing a track. Two years and 22 unfinished tracks later, here we are.

I just went through almost all of my old project files (some are 5+ years old) and found a bunch I still like. 22 to be exact. So I’ve decided to turn this accidental archive-dig into something bigger: a full album. The plan is to actually finish it this time and release it near the end of the year (orrr maybe Q1 of 2026). That’s the goal anyway.

It’s been really fun rediscovering old stuff and realizing how much my workflow and taste has changed since then. Some tracks are full-on lsdj chaos, others never made it past the 8-bar loop stage in Ableton. But they all have something I want to expand on.

I’ve also been juggling way too many musical rabbit holes. I want to play more guitar and get better at chord progressions but then I end up watching youtube videos about weird tunings for hours. I also want to use lsdj more (also plenty of unfinished business waiting on me there) BUT I got a (VERY COOL) M8 tracker in april this year that I still need to update (and I really want to dive into the sampler). And.. my synths probably have dust on ’em older than some of my unfinished tracks.

Somewhere in all of this chaos, I also want to make videos of me making music (bought a crazy expensive webcam years ago but never used it), but then I accidentally walk into my gameroom and well, priorities. And of course there’s still family, friends, and work to balance in between everything else. WHY aren’t there 300 hours in a day?!

Anyway, I missed writing here. It’s nice to share what’s going on behind the scenes, even if it’s mostly me wondering why I named a file “idea_5_final_FINAL2.2.wav”.

So yeah, I’m back with 22 unfinished tracks, a ton of ideas, and finally ready to see them through. Time to finish what I started, make some music I’m proud of and actually get it out into the world.

~pops

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New Game Boy music: Shift and recover

Hey all!

I hope everyone has had a good first few weeks of the new year.

During the final days of 2022, I released my new EP ‘Shift and recover’. You can listen to it below (it’s on Bandcamp as well).

These past two weeks have been amazing. I decided to up my music theory game and immediately noticed a shift in my skills.
I also bought a Focusrite interface which makes recording guitar a breeze. Being able to grab your guitar and record stuff without a hassle is brilliant.

Well, this was this year’s first update. I have to go watch videos about cool alternate tunings now.

~pops

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New gear acquired: Roland Alpha Juno 2

After purchasing my Microkorg back in December, I told myself that was the only piece of hardware I needed. Then I saw the Korg Volca Drum, and two days ago I spotted the Alpha Juno 2 in the wild. The moment I laid eyes on it, I was sold. What a beautiful machine. After buying my Microkorg I immediately replaced the factory patches as they sounded awful, but I really love the JU-2 patches. They are super diverse and you can create nice soundscapes with them (turning the Alpha Dial while playing is amazing).

Now is the perfect time for me to start learning more theory to play different chord combinations, right now I only know a few and always end up playing the same kind of stuff. I am so excited to find out all about this beautiful synth, it’s in very good shape (one key doesn’t always respond – but that’s fixable) and fits perfectly on my desk, next to my Microkorg (which suddenly looks really tiny).

I used to believe software and hardware sounded the same and thought people who could hear the difference were crazy, but man does this thing sound warm and full of life. So different from all of the Juno VSTs out there, I won’t ever go back. It has unlimited possibilities to create patches (and a memory card slot!), midi in-out-thru and can be connected to my mixer, what more does a human want?