JD Torian

Run the Tests or You Won’t Make It

One thing I don’t think I really covered on the Jamuary stuff is that I’m really trying to get all this done within an hour.

Yes it’s a restriction and inspiration, blah blah blah, but really I do have an hour every day.

But sometimes that’s all I have. Especially, you know, I’ve got DJ gigs, bass gigs, I have synth stuff I need to be working on—so a lot of other musical stuff—but don’t fool yourself: you can always find an hour. TV can wait. Books can wait. In January, for sure.

This morning when I was doing the test track, you don’t know until you’re kind of live, and there’s a lot of little holes—things I’ve forgotten about MPC and rendering and all that kind of stuff—so it did take about two hours.

Right in the middle of it—super panicked, I opened up my old Ableton set from two years ago and started farting around, but I basically immediately stopped and went back to the MPC, realizing this is what was gonna be the deal.

I was already inspired. Had a great idea I came up with last night on the guitar and ran with it—A and B section, all that.

The moral of the story today is: you gotta run some tests on this stuff or otherwise you’re not gonna make it, and you’re gonna end up with no song, which is the last thing I want happening. The goal is to get these songs done and out and mastered and pushed out, then get on with your day.

And then hopefully, when I’m brave enough, I can listen later that day and kind of assess the damage.

And I’ll say today with the test track: I’m really happy with it. Initially I thought it was super poppy and a little mushy, but I’m totally down. I really am happy with this first result.

#a.m. black and white #ableton #jamuary2026 #mpc #test track #timebox #workflow