Hi all,
They say restriction leads to inspiration, so in this battle I want to challenge you all with a new kind of restriction.
I think the OP-1 is more of a production tool than a live-instrument. Still for this battle we are going to use it as a live-, solo- instrument.
Everyone knows an example of a virtuoso musician who easily entertains an audience on its own. You are going to try to do exactly that.
Battle rules:
(start with a fully empty tape) Edit: You can have short music snippets on you tape that you can play live.
go to album and press record
now play the synth engine, drum engine and optionally live loop with tape
stop the album recording and upload as is
Edit: Apparently live looping doesn’t work with album because you can’t record to tape while recording to album. Instead you can record your OP-1 output to another device to do the live-looping performance. This is optional; you can still choose to live record your performance to album.
You may want to improvise it all from the start, or have it all written out or prepared beforehand (for example; programmed the sequancers and sounds, added long samples to the synth or drum engine or even constructed an mpc-style drum preset the way @liamkillenmusic described it in one of his posts)
Other rules:
no external instruments allowed
no post-processing except for trimming the beginning or end with a fade-in / fade-out or if really needed a small cut in the recording if your performance was perfect except for that very annoying small mistake you made (I don’t want to frustrate you!)
upload your recording together with a description of the process. How did you prepare? How was it for you to perform? Did you trim the recording afterwards and if so why?
Please feel free to ask questions if the battle rules are unclear.
I like it. I like it a lot. I didn’t get to participate in the last one because I was too busy but gonna make it a point to participate this time. Great idea.
Just to get it right: This is like a live jam? I can do whatever I want (use all 4 tape tracks etc.), but I have to record the whole thing in one go? No prerecordings on tape?
That’s correct! You can use all 4 tracks but you’ll have to live record on them. So you could for example do a loop jam where you add layer upon layer. But you can also choose to ignore the tape and only use the synth and/or drum engine.
Jam on!
I just tried this competition and realized when I press record on the album it’s impossible to record to the tape so I can’t make more than one track!
Good observation! I didn’t know that yet. Than you for pointing that out. Interesting how you still learn new restrictions on the OP-1 every time.
I like @LyingDalai suggestion. I will update the rules to include that you may have short audiofragments on your tape to play the tape along with whatever you have sequenced on drum or synth.
Another way of doing the live-looping would be to record to external instead of album. For example connecting with ableton and with the new firmware update you could then record your performance to a track. I will add this too.
The main goal is to have fun, so if any of the rules are in the way, ignore them and just share with us how you arrived at your result.
so for the “moon out, sunny day” track, I looped a piano sample using the sequencer.
once I had the loop where I wanted it, I paused it and went to album. I hit record, then bounced back real quick to the sequencer and turned the orange knob so the sequence started.
then just played some drums over it while it recorded to Album. and then hit Stop.
Okay so, some more of my guitar noodling. Just laid out the drums on the Tape and jammed along while recording the output. Really stripped down but, that’s how I do it.
