10 Minutes to Make a Loop Stereo Reverie

We’re back in the recording studio for another live looping improvisation on Episode 18 of ’10 Minutes to Make a Loop’. Oliver correctly feels some familiar vibes as The Wheel of Destiny wants to hear F Minor another time. The Balls of Fate have a nice, steady tempo in mind with 96 beats per minute. Oliver starts the writing session off with a dabble around on the piano, just twinkling through a few notes to get used to the key. Once settled, he switches to a Rhodes sound on the Akai MPK 249. He plays around with a few different keyboard patterns before recording the first layer. A relaxing, gentle Rhodes part - a couple of bass chords with a simple, catchy lead melody comprised of only a few notes. Immediately Oliver switches over to the bass synth, played on the Akai MPK mini, using a new favourite synthesizer sound. It’s a huge, warm bass synth sound with a knob controlling the amount of resonance and a filter opening up to add and remove frequencies. Once the bass is looped, there’s a quick exploration on the drums before Oliver decides he’d like to start with some percussion, then add guitar before returning to drums. He uses a couple of different percussion shakers to lay down a subtle, warm percussive rhythm before grabbing his Fender Stratocaster. Coloured with reverb, tape delay, shimmer delay and a DryBell Vibe Machine, Oliver finger picks a relaxing guitar loop. The loop takes a turn into the epic, atmospheric, sound bath direction - it becomes ambient rock, progressive rock, post-rock, math rock, shoe gaze, style jam session. Warm, hypnotic guitar parts, music to relax to, calming, soothing, relaxing instrumental music to lose yourself to. It’s then time to add those drums after all, playing a rock drum kit Oliver plays a rock drum beat with ride cymbal, kick and snare. Once the drums are tracked, Oliver takes us away on a soaring, drifting, melodic guitar solo before bringing things to a close with a classic Stereo Reverie outro.

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With a storm rumbling outside of the studio, Oliver is excited to get right into making music on Episode 17 of ’10 Minutes to Make a Loop’. The Wheel of Destiny has F Minor in store for us today, and The Balls of Fate can clearly hear the rain pouring, too, as they select a cosy 66 beats per minute for the tempo. After fumbling around getting used to the key on the piano, Oliver is ready to start composing the loop. He cycles through a few synth sounds, quickly determining the tempo is far too slow for an arpeggiator before deciding a mellow, warm pad synthesizer sound would be the ideal way to start things off. A few chord progression loop explorations later and Oliver is ready to record the keys part. The live looping performance is off and running! It’s quickly over to the bass synthesizer to layer a bass line to add some warmth and a slight bit of grit to the low end of the loop. To continue filling out the rhythm section, Oliver adds a simple bass drum kick and snare rim shot pattern. He explores a few hi-hat and cymbal hits to fill in the drum beat before deciding acoustic percussion instruments are the ideal addition to the loop. He uses a couples of percussive shakers and a cabasa which adds a human touch and movement, showing that making a beat with a single microphone can provide a fun challenge with varying volumes between the instruments. Who knew a cabasa was so loud! Oliver explores a few simple Rhodes melodies before deciding that the loop needs some guitar layered on top. An ambient rock/progressive rock/post-rock/math rock/shoegaze type jam emerges once again, a calming, relaxing music moment - music to drift away to, soothing music, calming sounds that hypnotise. Some warm, hypnotic guitar parts are played with a tone coloured with reverb, tape delay and shimmer delay and a touch of distortion. Oliver adds some simple melody layers to the loop before fading things out during a melodic guitar solo outro before bringing us back safely to silence.

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It’s episode 16 and it’s time for night mode! Recording far later than usual, Oliver is ready to break some creative blockers and prove that it’s not all about the view out the studio window. He’s put some coloured lights out for ambiance and is ready to make some music. The Wheel of Destiny stirs up a memory of jams gone by with the selection of C# minor. Was it a friend or foe? Only time will tell, 10 minutes to be specific. The Balls of Fate have seemingly had a long day and ask for a leisurely 86 beats per minute tempo for this live looping creation. Oliver starts things off with a percussion shaker before quickly finding a synth sound. Synthesiser selected, it’s then onto finding the right chord progression loop. He finds a relaxing, calming, soothing chord progression, some gentle, emotional ambient music. Two chords alternating back and forth but containing a lot of complexity, it starts with a contemplative moment, music to relax to, music to study to, music to meditate to - healing music. Once the keyboard layer is recorded, Oliver hops over to the bass synth to add some hypnotising low end. He lands swiftly onto a bass line that really transforms the synth pad, adding depth and a feeling of epic energy. Just to emphasise the grandeur of the moment, he double tracks a second bass synth when the melody lands back onto the root note. He lifts the resonance as the note sustains to add some grit and tension. With only a few minutes left, it’s over to drums to build on the rhythm. Oliver starts with an energetic, full rock kit sound - transforming an ambient moment into an almost post-rock/progressive rock genre. Seemingly heading into soundtrack/film score territory. The drum beat seems to fit, although trying to get a clean loop proves a challenge and eats away at the remaining time. With just a minute left, Oliver pulls out an epic - perhaps out of place, though - flute sound drenched in reverb. He lays down this melody before letting us know he’ll be saving that for later - planning for the future, how responsible! But will it be worth it, it did seem a bit loud? As the timer runs out, Oliver declares his awareness of the time but asks for more time to fix the drums. Since the referees all had the day shift, nobody seems to be there to stop him. The drum loop is still a little chopped harshly, though, so he makes a mental note to redo them after a bit of a jam. It’s time for some epic, atmospheric, soaring guitar drenched in reverb, tape delay and shimmer delay. Almost an ambient rock/progressive rock/math rock/shoegaze type jam emerges. He pulls the flutes back in and do they fit? Nobody is really sure but it’s okay, they’re taken out before the drums are actually fixed! A pounding, almost primal heartbeat like rhythmic tom beat eventually gets looped before a few more hypnotising guitar layers with warm guitar tones; a journey through a soundscape. Melodic guitar looping ideas, relaxing, soaring soothing sounds and notes carry us to the end before Oliver gives his closing thoughts on this jam session.

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The Wheel of Destiny is in tune with the cloudy weather outside the studio window today by selecting D Minor, but what are The Balls of Fate up to asking for 121 beats per minute? To find out, Oliver starts twinkling around using a piano sound before beginning the search for a nice synthesizer sound which emerges not too soon after. He starts things off in a simple way, mentioning that sometimes all you need is two chords to get things started. He alternates the lengths of bars between the chords, though, to give an interesting feel to the timing. Oliver then tries unsuccessfully to add some bass before switching to drums. A slightly jazzy, progressive rock drum beat is added that gives some character to the loop but will it be enough to inspire a bass layer on second chance? Apparently not! Zapped of confidence, Oliver resorts to adding a relaxing prog rock/math rock guitar part comprising of two individual melodies to get creative momentum back. The guitar parts sound slightly inspired by the calmer sections of songs by bands such as Circa Survive or The Sounds of Animals Fighting. Finally with the loop mostly built and the timer almost out, Oliver figures out where he was going wrong with the bass parts and more importantly where to fix it. He gets the loop finally added a little after 10 minutes are complete before soaring off into a guitar based jam. Melodic electric guitar singing over gentle, relaxing, calming, epic music. Oliver solos on the guitar, wailing out some soulful emotion before cutting out the drums and transforming the loop into a mellow, atmospheric piece; it suddenly becomes music to get lost in, music to sleep to even, meditation music, warm guitar tones, soothing notes and sounds. Things take a psychedelic turn when he lets a few notes ring out and get caught in his tape delay pedal. Using an Empress Tape Delay pedal and an Earthquaker Devices Afterneath reverb pedal, Oliver creates a feedback loop that he then shifts the pitch, shift and tone of to add a synth-like, theremin-esque soundscape, a rush of noise and explosion of frequencies endlessly hypnotising us before pulling us out and into reverse while fading out. A sound bath of sorts that once again leaves Oliver asking “what just happened?!”

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The Wheel of Destiny is putting random to the test by serving up C# Minor on Episode 14 of ’10 Minutes to Make a Loop.’ After a quick monologue about his desire to put his most authentic self and music out there and about choosing fun over perfection in the studio, Oliver is ready for a tempo consultation. The Balls of Fate select 111 beats per minute for this episode, and immediately begs the question “is three ones a good sign?” Eager to find the answer, Oliver dives straight into the jam session. He starts by exploring around on the piano, using an Akai MPK249 controller. After a minute of fumbling around, nothing quite inspires anything to start the loop so Oliver decides to lay down the tempo first. He uses a couple of percussion shakers to establish 111 BPM. Hearing the percussive layer starts the creative juices flowing, so Oliver cycles through some synthesizer and pad sounds to see if anything sparks an idea. A Mellotron strings sound triggers some interest, but because of the uncertainty of the random key, he keeps moving to find a different synth sound until a soothing, calming ambient pad synth sound emerges. Once a simple chord progression comes together using that sound, the live loop is alive and off. Immediately Oliver hops over to the bass synth to add a driving, energetic bassline using an Akai MPK mini. This driving bass part inspires a simple kick and snare/clap pattern on the electronic drum kit using a Korg nanoPAD2. Unsure of the tightness of the rhythm section with the drum pattern added, Oliver adds emphasis to the snare by adding another percussion instrument; a collection of shells tied as a shaker. He then grabs the guitar before realising   the drums could in fact be tighter; a quick redo of tracking them and he proves that to be true. It’s then over to the guitar for an atmospheric, hypnotic guitar solo that intertwines simple lead melody lines and loose solo sections. A few guitar loops are pieced together, taking us on an epic journey through different dynamics coloured in reverb, tape delay, shimmer delay and a touch of distortion and gain. Oliver envelops us in meditative, soothing, mellow, sound bath type atmospheric music to get lost in, music to sleep to, music to meditate to. Warm guitar tones and stream of consciousness, improvised playing.

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Fate has a slow, ambient loop in store on Episode 13 of ‘10 Minutes to Make a Loop’ as The Balls of Fate choose 69 beats per minute. There’s a slight race against time and catching the sunset so Oliver jumps right in following The Wheel of Destiny’s request of D# Major. He starts with a piano sound using the Akai MPK249 and eventually figures out roughly where the notes in the key all are. After cycling through a few different keyboard sounds, from synthesizers and pads to atmospheric sounds, Oliver lands on a warm, ambient synth. A nice bit of ambiance, one might say! When laying down the loop, a happy little accident happens where the wrong - but oh so right - chord is played, and we’re just going to roll with it! It’s then over to the bass synth where there’s some resistance. With nothing solid emerging, an ‘abort layer’ is called - will Oliver regret not working on the bass a little more towards the end of time? We’ll have to find out… *foreshadowing* Success returns in the stacking of a few separate drum loops and addition of a soft, calming, ambient guitar loop with reverb, tape delay and shimmer before the bass rears its head again as the time runs out. To close the looping performance out, Oliver plays a series of guitar parts at times seemingly channeling a version of early Modest Mouse energy. The loop resonates a meditative, soothing, sound bath atmosphere; music to get lost in, music to sleep to, music to meditate to.

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ABOUT 10 MINUTES TO MAKE A LOOP:
10 Minutes to Make a Loop is a music making podcast.  Join Stereo Reverie as he makes an original, improvised loop in 10 minutes using a random key and tempo without samples or prerecorded material. Then hang out while he jams with it.  By going with the flow and trusting intuition, the magic of the creative process unfolds for a completely unique result each episode.

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