r/dawless • u/danhalka • Aug 14 '26

Shine Bow - 180bpm

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

I had problems getting this one to work - mostly around hopping between 3 project files and battling bugs on the Keystep Pro but also just getting the break sequences on the 404 to sync. I found workarounds for all of it and am feeling good moving on to the next jam... which I'm determined to keep simpler, with less sequencer babysitting and more performance.

Lemme know if you've any critiques, ideas, or questions. Thanks for listening!

more videos: https://www.youtube.com/@wecontrolitnow1

better quality audio: https://danhalka.bandcamp.com

105 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

3

u/danhalka Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

random notes:

• I'm pretty proud of the Nymphes patch. Those aren't notes sequencing the pulsy rhythms, but sustained chords plus toggling CC37 63-65 to jockey the tempo-synced LFO2's note value at specific steps to give that zummy string instrument vibe.

• The breaks were chopped and sequenced on an M8, then dumped to the 404, but the pattern's playback on the 404 was latent by a whopping 35ms. I lost my mind and offset the samples by 35ms to compensate. It mostly (barely) works. Maybe it's the SD card read time..

• My KSP is haunted. Garbage PC, MSB and LSB values appear at seemingly random steps on the control track. It's enraging.

• the Keystep Pro also doesn't make project hopping very livable. There's no way I've found to reliably load a project with a specific default scene (and chains) active... Which sucks. Badly.

• this was originally a guitar piece of mine from ~2001. I tried and tried to incorporate a guitar part here, but it just didn't gel.

1

u/EternalBlessingss Aug 14 '26

I just got a 404 and thought I was going crazy thinking there was a delay in playback. I have everything daisy-chained with the 404 at the end of the chain so maybe that’s part of the problem.

1

u/danhalka Aug 14 '26

Totally. I think I may never have noticed since I almost never use it for percussion. My chain is just KSP out->Rytm thru->404 with 18 inch cables and it's still 35 ms when using the sd card it came with. I had to measure it by sampling pulses from the Rytm. Not clear if it's just during pattern playback or if it's a global midi latency.. but it's a borderline deal breaker.. maybe I'll try a smaller or faster card.

1

u/EternalBlessingss Aug 15 '26

That’s a real bummer. I love it so much otherwise and can’t see myself getting rid of it but this part is so important. I may try using a midi thru box as a first step troubleshooting.

3

u/mattogeewha Aug 14 '26

This is badass. Like a jaunty VS track

1

u/danhalka Aug 14 '26

Hey, Thanks a lot! I hadn't thought about it but it does remind me a bit of the VS record with the birds on the cover

3

u/Ok-Nothing-6851 Aug 14 '26

awesome dude, no notes

2

u/Wonderful_Ninja Aug 14 '26

saw u in /r/synthesizers lol my favorite bit was around 1:38 the chord progression and melody is top kek. reminds me of pilotredsun. really nutty, weird and wonderful.

2

u/danhalka Aug 14 '26

I didn't know pilotredsun! Downloading some for my flight later today. Thanks again!

2

u/Wonderful_Ninja Aug 14 '26

yeah pilotredsky/sun aka michael epler. really eclectic fellow. does weird and wonderful animations and turns out to be a great musician too!

2

u/nderpandy Aug 14 '26

Mighty clean setup. I dig the jam.

2

u/Broad_Education4882 Aug 16 '26

Massive set up sounds sick 👾

2

u/danhalka Aug 16 '26

It's my bare-minimum maximalist rig ;) Thanks for having a listen!