Mastodawn

Last February, I did a thing, which I called #Movuary, in which I sequenced a new track (almost) every day of the month of February with my then relatively new Ableton Move groove box.

Most days, I actually tracked a new thing, but a few were previous sequences that got slight touch-ups.

That was a lot of fun, and got me to think about things in ways I otherwise wouldn't, so I think I'll do it again this year.

If you're curious, here's a very boring index page with everything I did last year, including Ableton bundles for you to play with in your own Move, Ableton Note, or Ableton Live.

BTW, I have still never actually used Ableton Live. Maybe I'll get around to that one of these days.

http://www.borris.me/audio/movuary2025/

If anyone else here wants to do the same, posting a new track produced with Ableton Move every day in February using the #Movuary hashtag, let's make this a movement, or something.

Index of /audio/movuary2025

Welcome to the first day of #Movuary, in which I will post a track created with my Ableton Move every day for the month of February.

Starting off with this thing I actually made in October, and revised this morning.

It's called "Happy Saw Times", because it's ridiculously bouncy, overly excited to exist, and is based on a stupid little saw wave riff that wouldn't leave my head at the time.

This is not the sort of thing I would normally write, but I can't promise something like it won't happen again in the future. IT's just very unlikely.

HQ download:
http://www.borris.me/audio/movuary2026/01%20-%20Happy%20Saw%20Times.flac

#movuary 02: the Dead Battery Song

This is a very silly thing based around the MacinTalk 'Pipe Organ' voice, found on Mac OS and iOS, which sings to the tune of 'Funeral March of a Marionette', composed originally for piano by Charles Gounod in 1872, and orchestrated in 1879, though many will recognize it from 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' from the 50s and early 60s.

Someone here (and I can't remember who now) made a comment that they had their iPhone using that particular voice singing your battery is about to die" when the battery reached a certain level, so I kind of extended this concept a bit, even going so far as to make a custom MacinTalk voice to carry the melody further.

With apologies to Charles Gounod, 'Alfred Hitchcock, and the creator of this version of MacinTalk, who I believe is no longer with us, but can't remember his name now.

I sampled myself playing my Suzuki Melodion into Move's built-in microphone twice, then filtered the result. Some things are not quite in tune, but hey, what can I say? Things get a little bit weird when you've got low voltage, I guess.

HQ download:
http://www.borris.me/audio/movuary2026/02%20-%20The%20Dead%20Battery%20Song.flac

#Movuary 03: Icy Roads

This is a track inspired by a recent drive on streets with patches of ice. It's rough, uneven, slightly chaotic, and trying it's best to keep itself together, but can't quite manage.

Fun fact:
I composed this entire thing without using Move's screen reader, and just used the four random sounds it gave me when starting a new set.

HQ download:
http://www.borris.me/audio/movuary2026/03%20-%20Icy%20Roads.flac

Unfortunately, my instance will not let me attach the file directly. I'll edit this post if it is fixed.

#Movuary 04: Pluribus

This, compared to some other stuff I've done, is pretty simple. I sampled Dave Porter's 'Pluribus' theme from Apple TV into Move using the USB-C port of my phone, pitched it up slightly, then put drums, bass, a rohdes and some strings behind it.

Eagerly awaiting season 2, by the way.

HQ download:
http://www.borris.me/audio/movuary2026/04%20-%20Pluribus.flac

#Movuary 05: Fly on the Wall

I wrote this in August of 2025, just after the release of the autofilter effect, and some new sliced loops were added to Move.

It's in the key of F, and features a sampled e-piano, synth bass, which I think actually came from a drum kit, drums, and one of the stock sliced loops.
This song also has some built-in summer heat and humidity. No, it really does.

HQ download:
http://www.borris.me/audio/movuary2026/05%20-Fly%20On%20The%20Wall.flac

#Movuary 06: Traveling Nowhere

Originally sequenced in May of 2025, revised today, because I am not feeling all that inspired to make new stuff. This, too, shall pass.

Key of F major, with drums, saw bass, fake strings, and a vibraphone. It just kind of meanders around and never really goes anywhere, especially the bass part, which is why I called it Traveling Nowhere.

HQ download:
http://www.borris.me/audio/movuary2026/06%20-%20Traveling%20Nowhere.flac

#Movuary 07: It's Nothing Special

This is a hasty thing I put together based around one of the acoustic guitar sliced loops that comes with Move. It's called It's Nothing Special because the phrase of the guitar kind of says "it's nothing special" to me, over and over again.A flat miner, with two drum kits, including a muted jazz bass, a Rhodes kind of sound, and the above sliced acoustic guitar loop thing.
It's all pretty rough and minimal.

#Movuary 08: Unusual Sunday

Today has been weird for multiple reasons, but mostly turned out alright. This little sequence reflects that.

Xantastic Feb 9

@BorrisInABox it says 1991

@cordova5029 well, sea sharp major has always been a 1991 kind of key, so there is that.

Xantastic Feb 9

@BorrisInABox oh hasn't it? sometimes it's strings and clarinets in almost d, but close enough to c sharp, oh and guitars and mandalins

@BorrisInABox This kit again?

@BorrisInABox oh, it is that sequence. OK

Andre Louis Feb 5

@BorrisInABox Resample time?

@FreakyFwoof No, not in that project.

Simon Jaeger Feb 4

@BorrisInABox We love this. Every single thing about it is wonderful.

Andre Louis Feb 4

@BorrisInABox Don't care if that's simple, it's one of my favourites. The Rhode sound is great.

Xander Fwoof Feb 3

@BorrisInABox this is exactly what it says it is. Hey, that's what you get when you're a synisthete.

Kara Goldfinch Feb 2

@BorrisInABox I love it.

@KaraLG84 @BorrisInABox wait ...I had no idea you could make that voice do a different melody, was this an AI effort or does the voice just ...let you do that now?

@zersiax @KaraLG84 I manually wrote out a new notes table for the voice.

Andy (Old Account)Feb 2

@BorrisInABox I'm gonna be singing this all day now... 🤣

@remixman Terribly sorry. I'm also a lier. Figure out which is which.

HarmonicaPlayer Feb 2

@BorrisInABox how can you set custoom battery alert sounds when battery drops below a certain level for iPhones? i use 15 pro max

@HarmonicaPlayer You can do it with shortcuts. Battery level is one of the variables. Then you can just have it play a file, or speak text with a specific voice.

Tom Grant Feb 2

@BorrisInABox correction, that's a melodica. A melodeon is something quite different.

@TomGrant91 No. It's a Melodion because they can't call it a Melodica. Probably something to do with trademarks.
It's basically a Melodica though.
https://suzukimusic-global.com/products_single.php?parent_cate_cd=2&products_cate_cd=9&products_cd=204

Suzuki products | Suzuki Musical Inst. MFG.

Suzuki have a variety of products line-up, such as Harmonica, Melodion and Educational instruments. Based on our policy of searching and developing unique musical instrument, our current products are created with certain technical capabilities in factory.

Tom Grant Feb 2

@BorrisInABox I love it though

Brandon Tyson Feb 3

@Kaliah @BorrisInABox I wonder if this is something I would hear on #FXRadio?

@BTyson @Kaliah It isn't, but it could be.

Xander Fwoof Feb 3

@BorrisInABox this stimmed me out for several seconds.

Scarlet Phoenix Collective Feb 3

@dodecahedron @BorrisInABox That's amazing. How'd you get the voice to change words, though?

@the_spc @dodecahedron I typed in more words.

Scarlet Phoenix Collective Feb 3

@BorrisInABox @dodecahedron I've never really understood how that works. LOL

@the_spc @dodecahedron Basically, that voice, and some others like it, has a table of predefined notes, which are broken up by sylable. So I literally just wrote
"your battery is about to die your battery is about to die your battery's about to die you better plug it into the charger your..."
and it sung it based on the pre-made table.
So then I just created a second one with the additional notes that the original didn't have and spliced them in Move.

Scarlet Phoenix Collective Feb 3

@BorrisInABox @dodecahedron Oh welll. Someone did half the work. That's pretty damn neat. :)

John Dowling, Jr.Feb 3

@BorrisInABox @the_spc @dodecahedron I thought about getting one of those ableton move's. Is it pretty easy to use?

@Jmd2000 @the_spc @dodecahedron It's very intuitive. The sucky part is getting it on your wireless network. That part isn't accessible. There is a very geeky hackey way to get around it if you can't see the display, requires some knowledge of Linux+SSH. I hope that improves at some point. But actually using it, yeah, it's pretty easy.

Scarlet Phoenix Collective Feb 3

@BorrisInABox @Jmd2000 @dodecahedron Looks like I'd have to use Aira because I have no knowledge of linux LOL

Scarlet Phoenix Collective Feb 3

@Jmd2000 @BorrisInABox @dodecahedron I want to figure out reaper first. I think, although I could be wrong, ghat Ableton itself is a DAW. I'm interested to put my hands on a groove box though. They sound kind of cool.

John Dowling, Jr.Feb 3

@the_spc @BorrisInABox @dodecahedron it is, but this is a stand alone thing. Or something.

@Jmd2000 @the_spc @dodecahedron Yep. Move is a groove box based on some of the core stuff from Ableton Live, which has more sounds, tracks and capability. Move is meant to be a portable idea scratch pad that you can take anywhere, and then complete your idea with more stuff using Ableton Live. In this instance, though, I'm using it like it's my only production tool.

Scarlet Phoenix Collective Feb 3

@BorrisInABox @Jmd2000 @dodecahedron Oh, gotcha. :)

John Dowling, Jr.Feb 3

@BorrisInABox @the_spc @dodecahedron Ah. So, is it required to connect to the internet? Is that how you get more sounds?

@Jmd2000 @the_spc @dodecahedron You only need an actual internet connection for software updates, and if you want to use Ableton Cloud for storing sets.

John Dowling, Jr.Feb 3

@BorrisInABox Ah ok.

@dodecahedron Oh good. It was supposed to, if you are of a certain subtype.

Raywonder Feb 1

@BorrisInABox yall making me want one of these things. nice nice. wow.

Raywonder Feb 1

@BorrisInABox oh my, very happy, ind eed. hahahaha

Raywonder Feb 1

@BorrisInABox nice half time thing

@raywonder basically everything I am not.

Raywonder Feb 1

@BorrisInABox o shtop sir. lol

Xander Fwoof Feb 1

@BorrisInABox hey, dude... are you autistic? I couldn't help noticing the patterns. THey came up and najed me on the ning nong! lol.

Kara Goldfinch Feb 1

@dodecahedron @BorrisInABox "On the Ning Nang Nong where the cows go bong and the monkeys all say booh..."
Which is where my mind went.
It's a Spike Milligan poem in case you don't know what I'm blabbering on about.

Xander Fwoof Feb 1

@KaraLG84 @BorrisInABox I'm there :)

@dodecahedron Sorry, no. Haven't got a clue what you're talking about.

Xander Fwoof Feb 1

@BorrisInABox well huh. Could've fooled me. I'll look elsewhere for autistic music then. *sound of old hanah barbarra feet running and an equally HB door closing*

@dodecahedron Oh well, at least you didn't Fred Flintstone car it. That would've been potentially disastrous.

Patrick Van Oosterwijck Feb 1

@BorrisInABox Perfect for some 8-bit platform game!

Rebecca Legowski Feb 1

@BorrisInABox absolutely love this! Sounds like one of those tracks you'd use to introduce a game, childhood story or putting your audio memories to! Great track!

ground024 Feb 2

@BorrisInABox Didn't expect the slow part and it was great. All bluesy and stuff.