Upon the Composition of an Eight-Bar Loop

A good friend of mine invited me over to try out his music recording software etc. that he got a while back.  If I were a better blogger, I would remember what the software was called, but I don't.  So I will leave you to wonder...

Anyway, apparently the setup was a monster that drained much of my buddy's psychic fortitude.  He got so far along the process, getting all the components to agree that they all basically exist, learning how to set up inputs and record, but then just folded up and gave up.  I was there to break the ice with the difficult bitch of a recording setup and get some recording done.

Trust me, my buddy didn't recruit me because of any expertise in any of the relevant skills required.  I haven't played an instrument in years, I've never recorded, I'm not too up on the whole software / hardware aspect of things, and I haven't written a song in, well, ever.  I honestly can't say why he invited me.  In fact, thinking about it more, he didn't invite me.  I invited myself.  Hm.

Oo!  One skill I do have, I can pick a tune out on a keyboard.  I also have limited music theory knowledge.  It helped a little bit at least.  So I invited myself over and crashed his studio and after four hours of us basically futzing around, we had an eight-bar loop, made entirely on a midi keyboard.  It only has, uh, four tracks.  The first is overpopulated with bass drum, hand claps and synth horn section.  The second is a barren wasteland with six, only six! shaker shakes, though my buddy and me agree, they are pretty spectacular shaker shakes...  Then we have a left-hand piano track and a right-hand piano track.  That's it!  And really, our eight-bar loop could be condensed to four bars...

Sure doesn't sound like four hours of work.  This was a learning session though.  We didn't even know how to make a loop when we started.  Effects were not staying in line.  Inputs were being squirrelly.  I think we worked through all that crap though.

The more I talk about it, the more I wanna go back and work on more stuff.  Oh, and if my buddy could send me an mp3 of that loop, that'd be awesome.  And yes, I'd publish it.  I'm not proud.