Sampling Memories: a preview
As a prelude to CreativePact, which starts this coming September 1st, I'm posting a quick note to lay down the area I intend to explore this year.
I've titled my project Sampling Memories, and in it I will focus on making a short record release (10-15 mins) using mainly old-school hardware samplers. Primarily, I will be making use of an Akai S1100 that I bought just last week for £50 at Electrofix in Bristol. Despite a fading LCD screen, it works perfectly, although is a little lacking in memory, being unexpanded at 2MB.
The reason I've decided on this direction is largely down to my experience in the first year of my undergraduate music technology degree. Our big assessment that year was to write an 8-minute piece using a rudimentary setup of a Yamaha SY99 synthesizer and an Akai S2000 sampler, linked via the woeful Master Tracks Pro MIDI sequencer. The limitations inherent in this setup were significant: we were forced to think around the limitations of the technology, and gain a new creative perspective.
This time around my plan is to generate as much material as I can using the S1100 (I might also use an Akai Z8 sampler I have access to), and then put it together in a DAW (possibly Logic, though I might try the demo of Presonus Studio One 2 Pro). I might even try and get a bit of Max 6 coding in too. I will document my progress here and will aim to release the results on Bandcamp, under my old experimental electronic moniker Hydletts Zoo.