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diff --git a/gemini/gemlog/2021-03-18-everything-needs-autosave.gmi b/gemini/gemlog/2021-03-18-everything-needs-autosave.gmi new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5478419 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemini/gemlog/2021-03-18-everything-needs-autosave.gmi @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +# Everything needs autosave + +I watched a live stream lastnight of a musician I like, Jay Hosking, who makes interesting electronic music. I had some ideas afterwards and decided after work today would setup my drum machine and mess around. + +## The Elektron DigiTakt + +I use the Elektron DigiTakt as my groovebox and brain of my hardware jamming. It is a sampler drum machine and midi controller rolled into one. + +## The Jam + +I setup the digi on my desk, plugged it into my interface and got to writing. The plan was to use it's per-sample LFOs to mess with certain parameters of each sound. I used a CR-78 drumkit with a few samples for ambiance. I had the LFOs of each track modulate parameters like play direction, the low pass filter, and bit reduction. This caused this pulsating groove. + +I built a very basic 4 bar phrase as a sketch and opened up Ardour6 to record it all. I typically record my jams so if I accidentally stumple into something cool I can export it and send it over to my cousin to discuss (he makes actual songs rather than what I do just recording my noodling and practice). + +I was able to get a decent 2 minute playthrough of the 2 bar phrase manually triggering certain samples, muting and unmuting samples to build a sense of progression and movement. But in my excitement of finding something actually musical I hit <shift + stop>... + +## Shift + Stop + +DigiTakt has, at a very narrow control, the ability to erase a pattern. The entire pattern... every step for every sample... gone... in a single shift click. + +## Autosave is a crutch + +These days you're so use to everything having some form of recovery built into it. Undo, autosave, some semblence of state management and temporal progression. Not the digiTakt, it has a scratch space you can temporarily save a pattern to without saving over the core file (vim's .swp). But this is something you have to press. It's also a simple shift click <shift + yes>. + +### Save Early Save Often + +I posted on the discord of the musician what I was able to make of the ideas that were discussed in the livestream and a PSA to remember to save your work. It's extra embarassing as a professional software engineer who should know better about the value of saving your work. My default typing position is left hand on WAD and a trigger finger on ctrl+s. I am always saving and yet on the machine that I now I should be saving frequently on I didn't. + +# The recovered track + +Thankfully I had a single take that was usable on my DAW that I could salvage and make _something_ from. I plugged in my guitar and got to work creating some ambiance to the track, which with its cookie-cutter drum beat needed something spicy. + +=> /blobs/senders-lfo-autosave.flac [flac] Lfo Autosave Jam (11MB) (02:01) + +# Links + +=> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMMleFcC6zs [youtube] Jay Hosking's Youtube - One of my favorite tracks +=> https://ardour.org/ [https] Ardour DAW +=> /gemlog/ Gemlog +=> / Home |