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023
•
Open edition
[Originally recorded 7/8/24 to 12/31/24]
[Originally released 01/28/25]
Overview
Improvised beats on my computer keyboard using 1-2 sample layers and 1 drum rack jammed into an instrument rack and played simultaneously. I’ve been making music on my computer for over 7 years now and have tried time and time again to find ways to perform my music, only to end up infuriated and saddened by the expectations forced upon musicians in the realm of performance and subsequent boxes one is told one must fill in order to be considered a worthwhile musician who performs. This is the first time I’ve felt truly engaged in performance, excited about the results, and willing to share it with others within the realm of Electronic music.
Source
The etymology of keymashing stems from button mashing, "a technique in video games where a player repeatedly presses buttons on a controller in a quick or random manner. It's often done out of frustration or impatience, especially when trying to achieve a desired outcome".
Purpose
Born as a response to music academia and an environment of devout gear heads that would continuously assert the notion that you need this, that, and the other in order to make an interesting and impactful performance.
Creative Process
In the early stages, it started with setting up a drum break to loop, finding a sample to throw into Ableton Live’s ‘Simpler’ device, setting simpler to ‘slice’ mode and setting ‘regions’ parameter to 64. From there, I would activate the computer MIDI keyboard function and improvise over the looping drum break using the simpler device.
A few weeks passed and I had moved home after graduating from college, and had a lot of spare time while looking for a job to save up to move back out to the east coast. I began digging deeper into this initial concept, soon getting my own drums loaded into a drum rack, and layering the simpler with a secondary simpler layer of silly samples or sounds that allowed me to introduce different emotions or ideas as well as rhythmic space.
At that point I had coined the term keymashing, and was devoting hours of my time everyday to creating racks of different samples, but soon after received some advice that brought the concept to an entirely different level of improvisational possibilities. A mentor/peer/friend of mine brought up the idea of using the ‘Slice to new MIDI track’ function to both streamline the process of setting up new racks, but also to give the option to play around with the sample offset and loop compression via the use of the expression control MIDI device. This allowed me to make it so that with every key being mashed, the expression control is triggered to randomize both the sample offset and loop compression, and with the added rise and fall parameters, creating smooth randomization and an opportunity to create complex melodic and timbral phrases in an entirely improvised manner, and in a way that allowed me to have a form of dialogue with my computer/instrument.
As time went on, and I had both moved back to the east coast and begun doing live keymashing performances, I realized there was still an area I had yet to cover, which was the option of introducing entirely different timbres and spaces via building effects racks that are easily controlled. I wanted a way to change the spaces in which keymashing could exist without changing my performance style, which I had grown inseparable from. Two simple effects racks with 2-4 macros each allow me to morph my keymashing performances across several different genres, including ambient, trip hop, beats, electronic, glitch, and harsh noise. Recently, I have been finding nice spots in the randomization and turning off the expression control to explore a specific idea or motif, as well as messing with the effects rack macros to morph between textures on a smaller time-scale.
What once started on my laptop keyboard is now done on a Model M IBM computer keyboard from 1986, and an early 2000’s microsoft mouse, both of which were found in a dump by a friend and generously gifted to me upon request.
The experience of building keymashing as a concept from the ground up changed my view on performance entirely, and has allowed me to view my own contributions to the world as an artist in a different light, as well as allowing me to conquer my debilitating stage fright. I feel free when I am keymashing.
some videos of this journey available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Lqup9Qvj0&list=PLbHw4GOIQFDMgqghz4ZWZpAhA-d4DQiCv
[Originally released 01/28/25]
Overview
Improvised beats on my computer keyboard using 1-2 sample layers and 1 drum rack jammed into an instrument rack and played simultaneously. I’ve been making music on my computer for over 7 years now and have tried time and time again to find ways to perform my music, only to end up infuriated and saddened by the expectations forced upon musicians in the realm of performance and subsequent boxes one is told one must fill in order to be considered a worthwhile musician who performs. This is the first time I’ve felt truly engaged in performance, excited about the results, and willing to share it with others within the realm of Electronic music.
Source
The etymology of keymashing stems from button mashing, "a technique in video games where a player repeatedly presses buttons on a controller in a quick or random manner. It's often done out of frustration or impatience, especially when trying to achieve a desired outcome".
Purpose
Born as a response to music academia and an environment of devout gear heads that would continuously assert the notion that you need this, that, and the other in order to make an interesting and impactful performance.
Creative Process
In the early stages, it started with setting up a drum break to loop, finding a sample to throw into Ableton Live’s ‘Simpler’ device, setting simpler to ‘slice’ mode and setting ‘regions’ parameter to 64. From there, I would activate the computer MIDI keyboard function and improvise over the looping drum break using the simpler device.
A few weeks passed and I had moved home after graduating from college, and had a lot of spare time while looking for a job to save up to move back out to the east coast. I began digging deeper into this initial concept, soon getting my own drums loaded into a drum rack, and layering the simpler with a secondary simpler layer of silly samples or sounds that allowed me to introduce different emotions or ideas as well as rhythmic space.
At that point I had coined the term keymashing, and was devoting hours of my time everyday to creating racks of different samples, but soon after received some advice that brought the concept to an entirely different level of improvisational possibilities. A mentor/peer/friend of mine brought up the idea of using the ‘Slice to new MIDI track’ function to both streamline the process of setting up new racks, but also to give the option to play around with the sample offset and loop compression via the use of the expression control MIDI device. This allowed me to make it so that with every key being mashed, the expression control is triggered to randomize both the sample offset and loop compression, and with the added rise and fall parameters, creating smooth randomization and an opportunity to create complex melodic and timbral phrases in an entirely improvised manner, and in a way that allowed me to have a form of dialogue with my computer/instrument.
As time went on, and I had both moved back to the east coast and begun doing live keymashing performances, I realized there was still an area I had yet to cover, which was the option of introducing entirely different timbres and spaces via building effects racks that are easily controlled. I wanted a way to change the spaces in which keymashing could exist without changing my performance style, which I had grown inseparable from. Two simple effects racks with 2-4 macros each allow me to morph my keymashing performances across several different genres, including ambient, trip hop, beats, electronic, glitch, and harsh noise. Recently, I have been finding nice spots in the randomization and turning off the expression control to explore a specific idea or motif, as well as messing with the effects rack macros to morph between textures on a smaller time-scale.
What once started on my laptop keyboard is now done on a Model M IBM computer keyboard from 1986, and an early 2000’s microsoft mouse, both of which were found in a dump by a friend and generously gifted to me upon request.
The experience of building keymashing as a concept from the ground up changed my view on performance entirely, and has allowed me to view my own contributions to the world as an artist in a different light, as well as allowing me to conquer my debilitating stage fright. I feel free when I am keymashing.
some videos of this journey available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Lqup9Qvj0&list=PLbHw4GOIQFDMgqghz4ZWZpAhA-d4DQiCv
