tick tock tock tock

June 21, 2017 2:53 AM

Against The Clock is a YouTube series from British music portal FACT where electronic musicians of various predispositions lay down a track in their studios. Some use just Ableton or Logic on a laptop and a MIDI controller, others go full hardware and Eurorack, while some explain their process and others are silent throughout the video, but all of them have just 10 minutes to build that track from scratch.

Some recent highlights:
Sowall
Lady Starlight
Sons of Sonix
Sebastian Voigt
Karma Kid

posted by lmfsilva (15 comments total)

(also, for those that are more interested in the artists talking about their process while doing the same, they also have the "How to make a..." series, although they don't put as much content there)
posted by lmfsilva at 2:59 AM on June 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

As someone who really wants to fuck around with making music on my computer but is oddly paralyzed by fear about how to start, this is relevant to my interests. Thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 3:12 AM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also, HOLY SHIT THERE ARE 45000 OF THEM! [poetic license] This is not casual viewing.
posted by hippybear at 3:13 AM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also, can I just say fuck the FACT stopwatch logo that is blocking part of the screen on the first video, because fuck that shit.
posted by hippybear at 3:16 AM on June 21, 2017

I love how much fun Marc Romboy is having in his.
posted by mittens at 6:24 AM on June 21, 2017

It takes me two hours to pick a bass patch.
posted by empath at 7:06 AM on June 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

This is awesome... for similar check out Future Musics' In The Studio / The Track series
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:20 AM on June 21, 2017

These are fantastic, but holy cats the YouTube comments on these videos are flaming garbage.
posted by nerdfish at 8:29 AM on June 21, 2017

The one by Bwana is my favorite.
posted by neroli at 8:36 AM on June 21, 2017

Also for similar: Mass Appeal's "Rhythm Roulette", where hip-hop producers go into record stores, blindfold themselves, pick three records at random and try to make beats with them.
posted by softlord at 8:38 AM on June 21, 2017 [8 favorites]

I picked the Lady Starlight one at random and was impressed. There are so many!
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:20 PM on June 21, 2017

The one by Bwana is my favorite.

I'm getting hives watching him do all that on the tiny trackpad.

Also I really dig all the little vocalizations the Sons of Sonix use to communicate their ideas. The whole thing comes together so smoothly.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:58 AM on June 22, 2017

These are really damn cool. I could learn a LOT about workflow. And Ableton. Despite years of using Ableton I'm still somehow just barely functional on it.
posted by naju at 6:15 AM on June 22, 2017

Some additional context: a couple of weeks ago, Dutch DJ-twink Conforce posted a dismissive, genderiffic comment on the Lady Starlight video (something about "stick to nail art" i.e., painting yer nails, rather than making music). There followed about 24-48 hours of the dance music Twitterverse dragging him, his stans defending him, and agencies/promoters dropping him like a rock.

Upshot: comments are garbage and lots of dance music bros are clueless about misogyny in this industry.
posted by LMGM at 9:28 PM on June 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

Honestly, anyone participating in YouTube comments (or possibly even reading them) deserve anything negative that comes their way. #justmyopinion
posted by hippybear at 2:03 AM on June 23, 2017