Jamuary 2024 - one track daily using only our plugins

Magnus Lidström832 views51 posts
  • Magnus Lidström

    I've been having fun this year, making short one-minute tracks to post as stories on Instagram. One every day. Different styles. Everything Sonic Charge only. Let's see how long I will be able to keep it up.

    Day 1

    Improv with arpeggiators.

    jamuary1.mp4

    Day 2

    Dub techno?

    Jamuary2.mp4

    Day 3

    Tried to make a Bicep-style track, but it turned into something different.

    jamuary3trim.mp4

    Day 4

    Psy/goa-trance with Vortex.

    jamuary4.mp4

    Day 5

    Synthwave / 80's experiment.

    jamuary5c.mp4

    Day 6

    Dubstep, using two Synplants only (one for drums, one for the "bass"). I used Genopatch to create the noises, and an upcoming "mod" for Synplant that lets you copy and combine branches from different plants into one.

    jamuary6.mp4

    Day 7

    Aiming for a more 70's JMJ sound here, using mainly patches that I Genopatched from my Synthi.

    jamuary7.mp4

    Day 8

    Did some work on slicing an Amen break and importing into Cyclone for making a jungle track, but ended up ripping off Aphex Twin instead.

    jamuary8.mp4

    Day 9

    Some soothing ambient tones with Genopatched birds from an old field recording of mine.

    jamuary9b.mp4

    Day 10

    Neuro!

    jamuary10.mp4

    Day 11

    Not sure what this is? 😱

    Jamuary11.mp4

    Day 12

    Today I felt like making something "lighter".

    jamuary12.mp4

    Day 13

    A slice of old-school atmospheric drum'n'bass / jungle.

    jamuary13.mp4

    Day 14

    Wonky slow track in the vein of Flume's experimental stuff, perhaps.

    jamuary14b.mp4

    Day 15

    Techno day.

    Jamuary15.mp4

    Day 16

    I made a rack to "spray" semi-random notes into Synplant and composed this Asian-flavoured track by turning knobs instead of playing keys.

    jamuary16.mp4

    Day 17

    Made a hip-hop drum kit with the upcoming "grafting mod" and jammed with that. No quantization! 😱

    jamuary17e.mp4

    Day 18

    Music non-stop techno pop.

    Jamuary18.mp4

    Day 19

    Cheerful mood today. I felt like acid-house.

    Jamuary19c.mp4

    Day 20

    Something darker and heavier. Inspired by Lorn and Ben Lukas Boysen.

    jamuary20d.mp4

    Day 21

    Why settle for one genre per song? Why not transition from synthwave to techno?

    jamuary21c_trim.mp4

    Day 22

    Time for a strange beat.

    Jamuary22c.mp4

    Day 23

    Bubbly and in a lighter mood today.

    Jamuary23.mp4

    Day 24

    Wub wub wub.

    jamuary24.mp4

    Day 25

    A 7/8 sequence going through some different moods.

    Jamuary25b.mp4

    Day 26

    Today was an industrial jam day.

    jamuary26b.mp4

    Day 27

    Slower tempo today. I had forgotten how fun the Pong firmware is.

    jamuary27b.mp4

    Day 28

    Some bouncy tech-house for you all.

    jamuary28.mp4

    Day 29

    Experimented with automating Pong (it used to be my least favorite, but now it is my most). Built a cinematic soundtrack around it.

    jamuary29NormVol.mp4

    Day 30

    After yesterday's "heavy" track, I felt it was time for something more upbeat.

    jamuary30newMix.mp4

    Day 31

    The same tune played using computer sounds from across three different eras.

    jamuary31newMixC.mp4
  • AAV

    Absolutely outstanding Magnus. Really excellent both sonically and visually. So much to dissect and unpack in each one just to see what you've got happening. These are excellent samples of what is possible using just Sonic Charge plugs. Thanks for sharing and reminding us you're (excellent) musicians too!

  • Magnus Lidström

    - AAV wrote:
    Absolutely outstanding Magnus. Really excellent both sonically and visually. So much to dissect and unpack in each one just to see what you've got happening. These are excellent samples of what is possible using just Sonic Charge plugs. Thanks for sharing and reminding us you're (excellent) musicians too!

    Thanks a lot! It makes me happy to hear that you appreciate my music. 💚 I haven't had much time for music-making in the past few years, so I am feeling good about forcing myself to get back to it like this. After all, making music is the reason that I started developing music software.

    I just added day 10 to the collection above.

  • AAV

    Hi Magnus - also excellent! i know you're inundated with requests for features, etc, but here's hoping you continue to find time to make music. Really enjoy it. Thanks so much for your plugins of course, but a special thank you for sharing these - I look forward to the rest of them (hope you make it through the remainder of the month!).

  • Jeff Fressco

    I've been seeing these! very cool :D Next purchase will be the Permut8!

  • Joey Luck

    Awesome!! Just saw the latest one 🤘

  • larserik

    Great music and lovely sounds.

    The "Day 2 - Dub techno?" bass synth (royksopp "vision one"-ish) from 20 seconds and forward is just perfect.

    "Day 7" gives me instant Secret Service-vibes. Really sweet ambiance to this track.

    Question about the "Day 9" virtual piano keyboards showing the notes being played, what's that? A plug-in or ?

  • AAV

    Had the same question about the virtual keyboard visualizer. Magnus has put a lot into each 60 second clip. 👍😉

  • Magnus Lidström

    Thanks for the feedback! I thought maybe I would quit after 10, but the positive response made me do another one yesterday (added to the original post).

    I use this Max for Live device for the keyboard visualizer: https://maxforlive.com/library/device/6539/virtual-piano

  • AAV

    Nice - so many subgenres - I'd call it Cinematic Industrial Nice job Magnus, as for all of the clips! I own all your plugs and use them quite a lot but your efforts show me they're really underutilized (by me) currently.
    Thanks for the link. I don't have Ableton or Max for Live (Strictly Studio One these days)
    All the vst versions tend to be fugly and pretty unusable for this purpose. Likely not needed so badly that I purchase Live Suite to get Max. Thank you though!
    Great job again!

  • Fredrik Lidström

    Day 13! It's still going strong. 🐳🐬🌊

  • AAV

    Great stuff! These are all wonderful! Honestly for folks who haven't checked them out, they should. Excellent samples of what can be done with Sonic Charge Plugins. Fun!

  • larserik

    Loving "Day 14". 👍

  • AAV

    Ya that's quite lovely. I tend to use Echobode way more conservatively (chorus/delay) . This really shows it off as a time mangler. Very nice. I'm also a big Techno lover. Day 15 is excellent also. Nice job Magnus!

  • Magnus Lidström

    Thanks again for the positive response! 💚

    Seems I can't stop jamming. Already kept this going longer than I thought I would.

    Here is a little behind-the-scenes when I was making number 16:

    acf04ed52cb84b90bebca472e174d731.MOV
  • toitoy

    very nice jam series
    Day 16 is impressive but my fav is day 13, it sounds so time authentic
    You need to use that Cyclone sound engine in some commercial project is makes magiik to samples, I would definitely buy one

  • AAV

    First stop in the morning is to check out what Magnus has created. This is lovely. Thanks for including the live video glimpse into the creation process. Very cool. Love it!

  • AAV

    Lovely again Magnus. Looking forward to the "Grafting mod" feature in Synplant 2
    Nice beat, the piano is very effective with Bru's squelchy Folding bass preset. Nice!.

  • AAV

    Still growing strong at day 18 Magnus! Excellent.!

  • AAV

    Day 19 - wonderful! Synplant does such a nice job with the filter squelch of the TB303 bass sound. Excellent!

  • AAV

    ...and why not be cheerful - TGIF!

  • AAV

    Day 20 - I really like this. Dark and moody. Nice! One of my favourites.

  • Magnus Lidström

    - AAV wrote:
    Day 20 - I really like this. Dark and moody. Nice! One of my favourites.

    This is my personal favorite actually. I also have a soft spot for day 13, the old-school drum'n'bass track.

  • AAV

    We have similar tastes. Those are both two of my favourites but I would add the ambient track for its use of the genopatched bird calls. It really shows off how powerful Synplant can be even for something completely "acoustic"/ambient sounding like this.
    Day 21 is no slouch either. Lol. Thanks for keeping these going Magnus. So great!

  • toitoy

    Day 22 reminds me some track from Plaid - Not For Threes album

  • AAV

    7/8 time Magnus! I like "odd" time signatures. My roots are in Prog and early Industrial. Lots of 7/8 time tunes in those genres - March of the Pigs (NIN, 7/8, 8/8), Money (PF).
    Love it! Thanks for posting

  • AAV

    BTW I agree with toitoy on the reference to the similarity to Plaid. Nice!

  • Magnus Lidström

    - toitoy wrote:
    Day 22 reminds me some track from Plaid - Not For Threes album

    I love Plaid! I was actually going for a Boards of Canada sound for Day 22, but now I realize it's more Plaid with the jazzier harmonies.

  • RootNotez

    These are fantastic and I am watching them (and liking them!) on Instagram and Youtube. I am enjoying them on so many levels. It's great music! I like that you are clearly having a good time, and getting to make some tunez! I'm enjoying watching as you play with new video editing techniques. And finally, I think it's a helpful tutorial on what these tools can do and how to use them.

    For example, Day 18, using (I'm assuming) Midi Program Change to quickly switch Synplant presets was eye-opening to me because it showed me a new technique; but also gave me some insight into the music making paradigm that the plugins derive from. I think a lot of people learn music making nowadays by arranging samples on a composition window; and don't know the history of midi-programming (me! 🙋‍♂️).

    Thanks for everything, looking forward to everything that comes next; as well as diving into what we already have. 🙏 (Oh, as a request can your work your javascript thing in there somehwere? 😅 Maybe it's an Easter Egg?) 🖖

  • Bru Franco

    Magnus you are the best! =)

  • AAV

    Day 23- very nice. I like the combination of the sweepy "electric cello" preset that adds a layer of mystery over the MT rhythm, the bubbly plucks and the soft pads. Nice sense of movement. Well done and thanks for sharing Magnus!

  • Jeffrey Harrington

    Day 22 is my jam! Damn... Love that space before the return, massive space.

  • AAV

    Day 24- wub wub wub indeed! Very nice. Looks like no Microtonic(?) - were all drums Synplant? Very nice "acoustic sounding" drums. I saw one little appearance by Permut8, an Echobode, a Synplant fx, and several Synplant instruments including the wubly wub bass. Synplant (and you) does such a nice job of getting the filter just right. Very nice. Thanks for sharing Magnus!

  • Magnus Lidström

    - RootNotez wrote:
    These are fantastic and I am watching them (and liking them!) on Instagram and Youtube. I am enjoying them on so many levels. It's great music!

    Thanks a lot! Appreciate it.

    For example, Day 18, using (I'm assuming) Midi Program Change to quickly switch Synplant presets was eye-opening to me because it showed me a new technique; but also gave me some insight into the music making paradigm that the plugins derive from. I think a lot of people learn music making nowadays by arranging samples on a composition window; and don't know the history of midi-programming (me! 🙋‍♂️).

    Yeah, that was MIDI Program Changes, which are a bit PITA in Live, to be honest. Only works with VST2, to begin with. Sometimes, I wish I had some way to snapshot the state of all my devices and place it on the timeline.

    I think you are on to something that I've been reflecting on, too. Especially after seeing people on YouTube using Genopatch and "printing" sounds to audio tracks instead of playing them with MIDI.

    I do, as you point out, come from a "MIDI background" and I tend to go back and forth a lot, tweaking sounds and notes simultaneously while I am composing. The different approaches are similar to how working with vector graphics is different from working with pixels.

    Obviously, I sometimes render to audio, if I want to do reverse some sound for example, but it's very rare. I wish there was a DAW where all your MIDI was automatically rendered to audio and displayed as a wave (so you can see what's going on with the audio), and then on top of that you could make "non-destructive" edits, e.g. reversing a slice of audio, while still having full control over the source material. Is there such a feature in some DAW already?

  • Magnus Lidström

    - AAV wrote:
    Day 24- wub wub wub indeed! Very nice. Looks like no Microtonic(?) - were all drums Synplant? Very nice "acoustic sounding" drums. I saw one little appearance by Permut8, an Echobode, a Synplant fx, and several Synplant instruments including the wubly wub bass. Synplant (and you) does such a nice job of getting the filter just right. Very nice. Thanks for sharing Magnus!

    Main drums were all Synplant this time, but I did layer with some Microtonic Vintage Tonic snares (they are my favorite starting points for drum sounds in Microtonic in general).

    I used Permut8 and Echobode mainly to turn the "wub wubs" bigger and more "metallic sounding". The sounds in Synplant were originally "lifted" from dubstep sample packs with Genopatch, but then I searched for cooler versions using the branches and did some final editing with the DNA editor too.

    I will release all the Live documents and Synplant patches when I am finished with this endeavor.

  • AAV

    Awesome Magnus - looking forward to it. Really enjoying and appreciating the insight into all the possibilities. Also looking for the imminent release of your "talent" plugin. 😉 Hopefully right after the "anti-procrastination" fx plugin.

  • Manuel Senfft

    - Magnus Lidström wrote:
    I used Permut8 and Echobode mainly to turn the "wub wubs" bigger and more "metallic sounding". The sounds in Synplant were originally "lifted" from dubstep sample packs with Genopatch, but then I searched for cooler versions using the branches and did some final editing with the DNA editor too.

    Quite inspiring. Thanks for sharing! Also thanks for sharing the tunes themself. Outstanding! (=

    - Magnus Lidström wrote:
    I will release all the Live documents and Synplant patches when I am finished with this endeavor.

    Wow! Looking forward to this. There will be quite something to learn, I guess. Nice!

  • AAV

    Day 25! Really nice. Definitely one of my faves. And did I spot a new firmware for Permut8 by any chance? (On Edit I'm ashamed to say I have never seen or used the "Specular" firmware before, but there it is in my installed folder with a 2020 date. Sorry for the confusion). Love the ambience of this Magnus, and all the jungle sounds. So great! Thanks for sharing!

  • Lennart Verhoeff

    These are all so awesome Magnus! They all (to me) have this demoscene/videogame vibe that makes me feel very nostalgic :D

  • AAV

    Day 26 does a nice tribute to NIN from the mid '00's (With Teeth era). Awesome. Right out of a sci-fi movie. Well done Magnus!

  • Jeffrey Harrington

    Yeah, more like Day 26 please.

    Bwaahaahaa...

  • AAV

    Day 27 - very Cinematic and moody. I like it!

  • AAV

    Love Day 28! Infectious!

  • AAV

    Day 29 is wonderful! I've been playing with Pong (and Specular!) after one of your posts - literally like getting a whole new effect from Permut8 with every firmware change. Love this one. So "organic" sounding. Another favourite.

  • Manuel Senfft

    Day 29 is totally my style. Really great!!

  • AAV

    Day 30 - funky! Nice key progression. So appreciate the virtual keyboard!. Your visuals in general are so well done. End in sight Magnus - unless you can be persuaded to keep this going through February (29 days this year!)
    Would appreciate it greatly if you could set up a "repository" (link) to all of these after you're done your magic so we can refer back to them - they're really inspiring .

  • Magnus Lidström

    And I am done! It's been an amazing journey. Thanks everyone for listening! 💚

  • AAV

    Day 31 is a fitting way to wrap it up. Great use of visuals to match the bit depth and sonic differences between the 3 eras. Outstanding Magnus, and thanks again for sharing these. (Are you sure you're not going to continue into February?. 😉JK)

  • toitoy

    thank you Magnus, it was an entertaining journey to the electronic world of SonicCharge plugins

  • Manuel Senfft

    - Magnus Lidström wrote:
    And I am done! It's been an amazing journey. Thanks everyone for listening! 💚

    Thank you for sharing. It was great! (=

  • Jeffrey Harrington

    That progression after the up-scaling from :21-:24 made my day.

    Can we keep 'em coming w/o the pretentions of a 'daily' work? I'm learning a LOT about how to creatively use these fantaastic new tools and I've been making electronic music since a kid. I miss the sites like ElectronicScene and DatMusik... when sharing was exploratory. lol...

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