Future Plans for Patreon

The Pico-8 Bach inventions are complete!

I’ll release them soon on BandCamp. Trasevol_Dog and I are also collaborating on a series of music videos dedicated to Bach and these compositions. 

Now that these arrangements are complete, I’ve started thinking about future projects and ways to enrich the content I post here on Patreon.

Future Projects

I’ve written a lot of music for Pico-8. I love it. I’ve learned so much about music, composition, workflow and game design from working in Pico-8. Not to mention meeting and collaborating with all the amazing artists and developers in the community. 

It’s time to expand my horizons though. A few things have happened in the last year that have encouraged me to dig deeper into Ableton and music production. 

For one, with a grant from the Canada Council, I was artist-in-residence at Holland Bloorview Hospital, writing music for therapeutic video games  for kids. The grant included a “professional development” component which I used to get certified in Wwise (audio integration middleware) and learn more about music production in Ableton – I watched a TON of tutorials.

I also bought some gear :)

My setup is far from ideal. I live in a small apartment and my studio’s in an awkwardly shaped room where acoustical treatment isn’t practical. After struggling with this for a few years, I did lots of research, reached a compromise, and finally bought these headphones.

So Ableton is calling!  I’ll still collaborate on Pico-8 projects, but for my personal projects, I’ll be writing more in Ableton.

Patreon Content

Patreon is still new to me, and I joined at an awkward time - right in the middle of working on the Bach inventions. I’m still trying to find the right balance between producing and publishing content.  Now that I’m in between projects, I have an opportunity to rethink how I organize my Patreon feed: 

First of all, tutorials on writing music in Pico-8 will continue, at least twice a month :)

The biggest change will be how I present my works-in-progress. Instead of publishing one for every composition, I’ll be compiling them into a weekly recap, with audio/video and a brief write-up on what you’re hearing.  Works-in-progress could include something I’m working on in Ableton, a Pico-8 collaboration or maybe even something I’m practicing on the piano.

Depending on feedback, I can prioritize finishing and releasing specific compositions (audio and project files).  I'll also need help naming them - I'm really bad at titles!  

Overall, I think this will be more interesting and less overwhelming for patrons. What do you think?