Four and a half hours sleep. High as a kite, as they don't really say all that much. Slowly and unsteadily, the music-making has been progressing.
Maschine
The Maschine Mk1 model arrived. Without a serial number. Let's cut to the chase on Maschine. There's a good review of the first Maschine model released by Native Instruments in 2009 here. NI continue to provide a generic controller editor for use with this product. Good. This enables the unit to function as a MIDI controller. That's useful. As the article states, though, 'the real power of Maschine lies in its software interface.'
The software provides a good deal of sequencing capabilities, I think, but really what you're getting is lots and lots of lovely drum kits all pre-mapped onto that box of grey pads so you can finger-tap away across these samples with ease. That's the vision I think. I haven't really seen it happen on this unit yet. A drum machine. I think that's sort of the point. The key takeaway is that to use Maschine's software you will need an active serial number. Newcomers should take care not to purchase used hardware models on eBay lacking an active serial number. I did that. Not take care; I mean I purchased one without a working serial number. Easily done.
So I get basic MIDI controller functionality. Still good; and as regards full software activation and functionality I've found workarounds since which, to some extent, seem to work. I'll skip the specific details. Maschine is complex and will take some study hours.
DAW Charts
Had some interesting and funny chats with my friend A about DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). Music Radar has run a best DAWs chart for many years now. It never seems to change much. I suspect it’s less an accurate snapshot of music industry use and opinion and much more to do with selling to a much wider target audience (would-be audio production engineers like myself etc).
But looking at the twelve DAWs listed here, most of which I've tinkered with a little, I imagine they will all do a very extensive job at recording, mixing and arranging music in many different ways. Really I think all twelve software packages are likely to be very good.
There are other charts. Admiral Bumblebee's is extensive (and REAPER ranks high!). My friend and I were wondering about other features that might count - such as brand. Do we like the name of the product and look of the user interface? In other words what's cool to use or what speaks to you as a person? Does the said software company sell hoodies and tee-shirts?
A further point made by the same friend was that it's a little alarming just what a distraction from the business of making music such choices and possibilities of software options can become.
More File Management
Choosing a Digital Audio Workstation is not my biggest distraction. My problem is the Windows filesystem, really, or any filesystem but especially this one. It's where you're supposed to put everything. I went on at length about my obsession with getting my digital data house in order in my last article.
I suppose you have Program Files which everyone can access and then User Documents which only the user can access. Maybe that's why they are stored in different places. That makes sense, sometimes, but it gets much more confusing than that. Software has its Program Files but they also have their libraries which they seem to put wherever and their plugins (same)... so I have to learn to give up this obsession is the upshot... and let go...
Publish Music
Another friend, D, has some good advice. Make music, says this friend, in quantity and publish on the internet, stream and repost it. Get it out there. It's not greatly profound or surprising advice but my friend has a lot of success with this approach. So this is something I'm keeping in mind and hope to get on with soon.
That's probably enough for now. Something funny to end on maybe. Ah yes, what's on my table today? Wow, with my new (used) Google Pixel 2 XL camera I can take decent photos at night. Helpful tech! Oh yes, playing keyboard like a pro. That too would come in handy.
