Musically Thrifty AF
I think I've said it here before, but I really despise cooking metaphors to making something. And in my case, it's obviously music or writing.
It is just the worst.
There's so much out there, like the Akai MPC cookups. Lord help me, be a nice person when I'm trying to learn something about the MPC and somebody's doing a cookup. It just goons me out.
I think it's really low effort, and generally, it's a shit beat anyway, but not for me to judge. I'm just saying.
The cooking metaphors are awful.
But what got me thinking about that was sampling, and I've been going really deep on sampling, learning the MPC deeply, trying to learn the EP series of samplers from Teenage Engineering. They're really not intuitive for me, but I'm trying to bust through it, and I am busting through it.
I've got a little summer setup that is, uh, summer setup, I mean, for the month of July. I’ve got my Tape and Microsound Music Machine from Make Noise, which is so expensive, but it's taken me years to build. I built it one piece at a time.
Then I've got my EP-133, which just added USB recording, which totally changes everything in the world, and I love it.
And then my Cyclone Analogic TT-303, which is what's going through the Microsounds machine.
Anyway. So kind of those three.
Oh, and, of course, my SP-404MKII.
So, what are each one of these good at? I'm starting to get a better picture of that. And again, something that is always the case: the key is organization.
Can you put all these in one place, and then use it, and then share it, and use it across devices? What is good at what?
So obviously, the SP-404 is good around the house. You can plug an iPad into it and do USB recording, just like the SP. Now both, you can do that with. And what's more, they'll power it, so it's just a lot of really at-hand usefulness.
The one thing that the MPC does not have.
Now, if they had an MPC One with USB and a battery, that would really be something. But they don't, but that's basically what the SP can be.
So.
My larger point today is sampling is a lot like thrifting.
Find something, bookmark it, sample it, and then use it.
If it's short enough, you can use it in just about anything or not get popped. Except for production music, which you should never do.
So, I love thrifting. I just think that buying used, doing Marketplace, thrifting, the cheaper you find it, the better. If you can find a really nice item cheaply, there's really no replacing that in life.
For instance, if you're after a really expensive instrument and you just go ahead and buy it expensively, that's always kind of hanging on you, but if you find an amazing deal, that flows through and sticks with you as well.
So, um, finding great things for free or doing all your digging is so rewarding.
For instance, I like to go to Goodwill and get J.Crew Oxfords. My theory, which I think I've mentioned here before, is that people have no taste, and so the good stuff goes to the thrift store relatively quickly.
I found that to be true time and time again.
It's absolutely the truth.
And the same with YouTubing. You find little snippets, you bookmark them, and then you sample it, and you have all these little devices that can do it for you.
I need to, now, I feel like, carry an EP device in my work satchel. They're skinny enough. I tried to make a cardboard overlay for those. I think I'm going to have to eventually just buy a Decksaver and keep it with me that way.
The top of the Lego buttons fell off, but anyway, being able just to do that anywhere, anytime, in any light. It's just such a thing.
And then it's down to me to organization, which there's a great web tool for that, and I am now putting everything like that into one folder, and I just need to come up with a system of backup. And like a day of the week where I'm getting it done.
This is all to say that if you're making music this way in the thrift shop, dusty, trashy way, you are going to be un-AI-able.
There's so much here locally, in Austin, about Austin musicians against AI, and not singling them out in particular, but I'd say 90% of musicians, it's like, hey, put your energy into making better music. And maybe you wouldn't have to worry about it so much.
I understand when I saw Nick Hexum from 311 is on a board, like, he's somebody who's actually being copied.
Nobody's copying me.
Let's get serious.
I need to concentrate on making better music, as does any other local musician.
Let 311 fight the good fight, because people are going to actually try to make AI versions of their song. But there's no JD Torian AI model out there.
So be a thrift merchant, make ridiculous music.
Make it every day.
And make it as trashy as possible, because I think in the end, you win that way.