Getting Close Now
M8 M8 M8
I have to say, after finally receiving my M8 Tracker, I haven’t been able to put it down. I was starting to enjoy early experiments working on the “headless” version, but things really took off once I got the hardware unit in my hands. Backtracking a little bit, the headless version of the M8 is somewhat of a “gift” from the creator of the M8. He maintains a separate version of the firmware that can run on a Teensy 4.1. There are some relatively easy instructions available on github to get up and running. Given that production of the actual hardware units is difficult (components are scarce at times), this allows more people to get a chance to try the device/software out. I got my headless M8 up and running in late January / early February. After 2 or 3 sessions totally maybe 2 hours, I knew I had to go all in for the hardware version. I put my pre-order in on February 14th and the wait officially began. Given how busy things have been, the time actually slid by rather painlessly. I got my unit in late June (right before vacation!) and have been glued ever since then. It has been so engaging, I’m considering selling some of my gear. It’s hard to describe, but the workflow and the feature set really pull me in and just plain work for me. I have had fun learning, experimenting and finishing songs on this device. I have 2 songs for the album that were made entirely on the M8.
Album Progress
I’m definitely getting close to a point where I feel ready to submit my album to Triplicate Records. It hasn’t always progressed as quickly as I originally wanted, but the progress has been there nonetheless. I have 7 songs that I consider “complete” and one more in work that shouldn’t take much longer. This last track is close, but I want to put some extra time into this last song to get it right. As I mentioned above, once I got the M8, I have been spending all my time making music with it. That has helped me ramp up the pace at which I complete songs. The workflow (yes, it’s a tracker) really funnels your efforts into creating a song, not just patterns or loops or segments. For me, it helps me focus on making decisions and moving forward. It’s like this: Hmm, is this arrangement not working? Change it up a bit, maybe try adding this, or removing that and... yeah -- now we're cooking!! The other major aspect of the M8 that helps in the music creation process is the portability. I can take it wherever I go (coughcough work coughcough) and make progress in short stings of downtime here and there. I’m not sure what my plans are after submitting the album, but one thing I do know is that I’ll continue to dive into the M8. There is still so much left to discover.
Ever Forward
I’ll wrap this blog post up now. It’s time for me to go to bed and if I keep the posts shorter, maybe that will help me post more often. Hah. Cheers.
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook