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

Xander Fwoof Feb 3

@BorrisInABox this stimmed me out for several seconds.

Scarlet Phoenix Collective

@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.