I’m still slightly embarrassed by making TikToks (and contributing to everyone’s endless scrolling), but teaching (and meeting you all virtually) is what makes this weird online thing I do feel actually real and worthwhile. In August, I’m hosting another version of my Ableton course where each week we listen to, discuss, and break down an iconic track (see the list of tracks below). Each class is super hands-on: not only will I give you a project file full of samples and racks, but you’ll get time in our session to mess around with them, ask questions, and start building a track.

The hope for this class is to cater to people who have a little bit more time on their hands during the summer. So, we’re going to pack my 8 week course into 4 sessions by meeting twice a week. We’ll meet on Sundays and Wednesday, but there’s currently two different timing slots (2-4pm EST and 7-9pm EST).

You can find all the specific details on timing, payment, software requirements etc in the link below. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions.

SIGN UP HERE: https://forms.gle/LGij87cZeGhoVnMr9

Registration closes Sun July 27th.

Course Schedule:

• August 3: SOPHIE - Faceshopping

• August 6: Arca - Soichiro 

• August 10: Four Tet - Love Cry 

• August 13: Oneohtrix Point Never - Zebra

• August 17: Bjork - An Echo a Stain

• August 20: Aphex Twin - Bucephalus Bouncing Ball

• August 24: Poetmistry Track Breakdown + Q&A 

• August 27: Workshop - share your track and receive feedback

(Subject to change, but this is probably what we’ll do)

Other fun goodies:

I know this isn’t my usual musical territory, but a friend was raving about the new Justin Bieber album and asking me about some of the sounds that were used on it. We were both particularly struck by the use of a super famous preset: the Yamaha DX7 “e piano 1” sound. This sent me down a rabbit hole revisiting some classic tracks that also use that particular preset. This video has a great list of some of them and you’ll get to see someone playing an actual DX7 if you’re not familiar with what it looks like. Now, if you’re like me, you might briefly check if there’s a DX7 available on your local FB marketplace. And then you’ll remember that you A. don’t play piano B. don’t have any money and C. don’t have any space. But, of course, there’s some amazing person out there who has spent a bunch of time and effort making a free vst that very closely models the DX7 and its presets. You know I’m not a big plugin guy, but I’m very very grateful to people who are making some of those 80s digital keyboards available in plugin form (here’s another one of the Kawai K1).

And if you’ve made it this far, then I’ll sheepishly mention that I do make my own music! Here’s something from my last album: a music video which I filmed in a snowy forest and spliced with old home videos of my family!