nckn.music.

Recently I read Peter Kirn’s (CreateDigitalMusic) good tutorial on User Remote Scripting in Ableton Live. It’s a tiny text-file that you put into a folder inside of Ableton’s Preferences-directory. This way you have the possibility to store Midi-Mapping Defaults and to gain some automapping-niceness.

I don’t want to go into detail, because the article is pretty much everything you should read to get started. However, if you’re like me you read some introducing paragraphs, then thinking: “Oh, I don’t need to read all of this, guess i can get started right by fiddling myself”. And then it does not work. Argh! I lost 2 hours of my life trying to get to the mistake. After finding the solution I thought I share it, for you to not get into the same trouble…

My mistake: I overlooked, that in the Config-file Midi-channels are counted from 0-15 (as in Arrays). My desired Channel was 9, so I typed 9. Program translated this to Channel 10, so in Live there was no signal on Channel 10. Rule: always type in your channel minus one.

Another possible mistake Peter hinted: Putting the files into the wrong directory.
On the mac the config-file goes into ~/Library/Preferences/Ableton/[your version]/User Remote Scripts/[your Presetname]/UserConfiguration.txt
Windows: [Windows boot drive]/Users/ [your Username]/AppData/Roaming/Ableton/[your version]/Preferences/User Remote Scripts/[your Presetname]/UserConfiguration.txt

Now, that you have everything working, enjoy your newly gained control. For example control all your Instrument- and Drum-racks with only 8 Midi-mappings. Just select the rack’s title bar and the knobs are automatically assigned, as long as you see the blue hand. Nice.

As stated earlier I also wanted to use this blog for recommending music. To give some insight into which artists inspire me. Hauschka is one of the recent ones. I heard his music the first time sitting on a church’s floor. Listening to Hauschka and two accompanying cello players was such a true and real moment. This music is so direct and pure – true essence – that it took my breath.

To get an idea of what is was like, watch this video here:

Hauschka – Morgenrot from Jeff Desom on Vimeo.

Sitting there, I thought about using computers for music. How absurd. The only thing you can accomplish using a computer for music is painting pictures. Trying to recreate something. But there is no way.

I once met a math-student, who said, that what mosts excites him with music is the fact, that it’s actually just math. Everything from matching the right frequencies to the grid of the beat. Hm…
Maybe there are some aspects, that you can represent using numbers and formulas, but math will never create music that moves. Ever heard a piece of generated music that touched you? (For a start, try generating some music on this site)

I truely believe that when there is a guy like Hauschka he just has the ability to transfer feelings right into the people’s hearts. It is this uninterrupted direct connection of his soul, his fingers and the audience receiving it through the tones he plays.  This can never ever be recreated with a piece of sequencing technology in between.

What does it mean for me? Basically (at the moment) I am a computer-musician. Hm… I will think about it…

It’s been now already two weeks living off my daily routine trying to focus on music. It feels really great to just make yourself room for what you call your passion.

Nevertheless, it was of course (again) a bit naive to think, that after these 3 weeks there will be an EP to be released. Here I can let my activity circle full-time around music and sound, but I had to reconfigure myself first. Get myself on track again, after my head was dug into some other stuff for university (programming Flex/Actionscript for example).

Still, i get something done. Have ideas to follow, loose ends to connect and instruments to play. The feeling turned out to be right, that my basic musical nature is about playing “real instruments” with direct control over all aspects of musical expression. I’m falling in love with the piano more and more. It has such a beautiful and warm sound. Just hearing the sustain of a nice chord reminds me of home.

So beside my Ableton-activities I also wrote a little piano piece, which is not yet completely finished. I recorded it, all the tiny little hick-ups included. But in the end they really don’t matter, as the message lies somewhere else…

Small Piano Piece from Nicken on Vimeo.

I assure you that all of my activities will definitely lead to an upcoming EP, but there is still a longer way to go for me. 3 weeks not enough (who would have thought). So stay tuned…

I’m happy to see my older work still appealing to people. Recently i was asked if my track “These Days” could be used for the graduation project of two german film-students: Christopher Holme and Frank Seleger.

They made a really good and professional Short Documentary on Kite-Surfing called “Synthese”. Paid a lot of attention on small little details, which I really appreciate in film. It is in German, but even just watching the footage and listening to the nice soundwork pays off. Enjoy!

Synthese – Vereinigung von mehreren Elementen… from Tranquillity on Vimeo.

(For the impatient ones: These Days starts at about 60/100)

It’s been a long time since anyone knowing me through my music got any updates about where I’m heading. This post wants to show what has happened since “Mixed Sessions” and what to expect from me in near future.

Back in the days, when I got my first own computer I started using it for making music. It was a tough learning process, digging through all the possibilities, the technological barriers and especially getting equipment together supporting me in this process. While still learning, there were (here and there) some tracks popping out. For me as a perfectionist they were not what I had in mind. When listening to them, I could hear what was wrong and why this special track did not represent what I thought I would actually be capable of doing. Nevertheless, as some kind of self-healing exercise I uploaded some of these tracks to Last.fm. Did not expect anything. Called the album “Mixed Sessions” as there was no connection whatsoever between the single tracks. I thought that this “album” could be regarded as gradually growing. When I finished a new track, that could just be added to the list. And nothing happened at first.

This changed, when CixxxJ stumbled across my music and recommended me to Pixieguts. For those who don’t know, Pixieguts is a vocalist from Australia who collaborates digitally with artists from all over the world. Doing this, she created a whole network around her art. Created a network of independent artists, who support and respect each other. I got to know her massive network, when she recommended me to all of her friends (or “followers” in today’s language).
And all of a sudden I woke up having people listening to my tunes. The tunes, that were not meant to be anything. That were just experimenting with the possibilities. Just searching for a home in this never-ending electronic landscape. Thank you really much, Pixie. I learned a lot from you.

That searching for a place is not over yet. (Probably it should never really be over) I should be delighted, that there are still people out there on Last.fm who regularly listen to my stuff. I am. But on the other hand these tracks really don’t represent “me”. There was a time I really digged Drum and Bass. You can clearly hear that when listening to These Days. But these days are over now. I guess finding a home in electronic landscape is finding what is really “you”. And when you found it: just do it. Explore your style and refine it.

What can I say – right now it is the first time, that I really have a very precise vague picture of the music I want to do. The elements. The sounds. The atmosphere. It is more acoustic and has more to do with real instruments and playing of real instruments. This is me: fell in love with the sound of electronic music, but want to make space for the real Nicken: Getting lost in playing piano / guitar / melodica / trumpet (soon?).

In a few days I will begin to take 3 weeks off my daily routine to just focus on music. The result will be some sort of EP. I am excited as ever to see that I’ll get the chance to really put all of my ideas into one baby. To really put tunes out, that yell: “Listen, this (!) is Nicken.” To stop searching and settle down in the new home that I just found.

Stay tuned!