koansound

Tutorial: Q&A (Part 1)

We recently asked you to submit your questions! We received so many great questions that we decided to split the video into two parts.

Next month's video will focus on answering your production questions with mini tutorials!

00:46 - What tips would you give Musicians / Producers who have extremely varied musical interests and are struggling to find their "own sound"?

05:10 - What kind of computer rigs are you both using to run such massive projects?

08:38 - How do you ...

Project File: Lost In Gli ii itch

To follow on from our making-of video for 'Lost In Gli ii itch' we thought it would be useful for you to get your hands on the project file. Download here (runs with Ableton Live 11).

Project file with frozen 3rd party software tracks: 2022-04-29 15:27:58 +0000 UTC View Post

An important update

Greetings wonderful patrons – we hope this message finds you well!

Since we launched this page in July 2020 we have been posting new or exclusive music every month. We're proud of all the music published here, and we've really enjoyed the challenge of pushing ourselves to create something new within a shorter time frame. At the same time, we also feel that the time constraint and obligation to post music on a monthly basis detracts from the quality of what we're writing and sharing. W...

Sample Giveaway: Foley Pack 02

Here are some foley recordings for you to use as you please. All recorded by ourselves, at various times in various parts of the world. 

Enjoy!

Post your questions!

Next month we will be making a Q&A video answering questions from you lovely folks. So post any questions you have in the comments below, production-related or otherwise, and we will answer as many as we can next month!

Exclusive Music: Early Days

Step into our time machine... we're heading back to the earliest days of our musical creations!

These tunes were made almost 20 years ago when we were barely teenagers. We used to wait until Will's older brother was out of the house so we could use the computer in his bedroom which had a copy of Reason 3.0 on it. 

It's funny listening back to these tunes and comparing them to our music today. Obviously there are lots of differences but it's also interesting hearing some of th...

Discord Producer Challenge #004

We have a new production challenge happening over on our Discord server!

For this challenge, we’ve attached a MIDI file of the famous and beloved classic Nokia ringtone. We want you to use this melody to create a piece of music. There are no rules to the challenge except to be as creative as possible in your use of the MIDI file! The deadline is April 30th. 

You could make a really stretch...

Production Tutorial: Making a glitchy D&B song from scratch (Part 2)

Part 2 of our full making of 'Lost In Gli ii itch'

00:00:00  Starting new intro
00:03:00  Drop variations with gating
00:12:20  Creating heavy glitch sound
00:31:00  New melody and Diva track
00:49:17  Creating melodic glitch section
01:03:43  Start to build final arrangement
01:17:06  Building section after drop
01:23:52  Making hea...

Production Tutorial: Making a glitchy D&B song from scratch (Part 1)

In this video we show our entire process of creating a track from beginning to end. Part 1 focuses on generating random sounds, and Part 2 (which will be released next week) looks at arranging those sounds into a finished song.

00:00:00 - Starting ideas with simple drums, bass and melody
00:14:27 - Glitching melody and processing with Rift
00:35:00 - Processing drums
00:43:42 - Creating pads
00:50:15 - Intro idea
00:57:00 - Amen breaks and arp drums
01:03:45 - Lost In ...

Exclusive Music: Lost In Gli ii itch

This track is from upcoming video tutorial where we create a track from start to finish. We asked Discord users to suggest a genre to make, and we decided to mash up D&B and Hyperglitch! Full making of video coming this week...

The track name was chosen by Martin Volder Poulsen as part of last month's merch giveaway.

Artwork by Alastair Brookes

Discord Hangout – February w/ Koury Vindaloo

This month we were joined by our art director and photographer Sarah aka @kouryvindaloo.

Follow her work here.

Join our Discord server for info about future hangouts.

Tutorial: Polychrome Live Performance Setup

This month's video is intended as part breakdown, part tutorial. We had lots of requests to deconstruct our Polychrome Live A/V show, so we thought we'd use this opportunity to showcase the inner workings of the set, as well as offering tips and info on ways to build your own live performance.

00:00 - Compiling and mixing music
08:52 - Mixing with stems and choosing parts to play live
12:55 - Ableton Live project file walk-through
20:36 - Side-chaining and backup parts
22:22...

Exclusive Music: From The Vaults

Digging into the depths of our hard-drives... 

These tunes were made 2010-11 around the time of our 'experimental' 140 phase. There's scant evidence of them online and they were never released, so we're pleased to finally share them publicly.

Artwork by Alastair Brookes

Merch Competition: Funk Blaster TP

We have a test pressing of our remastered 'Funk Blaster' EP to give away!

To win, comment below with a suggestion for next month's exclusive track name, and we'll choose our favourite.

Discord Hangout – January w/ Frequent & Hudson Lee

This month we were joined by the Upscale Recordings head honchos. We really enjoyed the conversation with them and look forward to hosting more guests soon!

Join our Discord server for info about future hangouts.

Download

Production Tutorial: Tools & Techniques we're using right now

This month we thought it would be fun to record a 'live' tutorial where we show each other various tools and techniques that we've been using recently.

We cover a bunch of different devices and plugins, and some cool tricks that we've found recently.

Project File: Taken Under

This month we thought we'd try something new!

Here's the final project file for our track 'Taken Under', giving you insight into how the track was mixed and mastered, as well as all of the devices and automation that we used.

Runs with Ableton 10 and 11.

Exclusive Music: Cranium Bop

Artwork by Mushpongo

Tutorial: Creating the 'Polychrome Live' visuals

Something extra special for December! We've had many many requests from fans to offer insight into how the visuals for our Polychrome AV show were created. 

We asked Leigh – the mastermind behind kaPOW Visuals – to give us a snapshot of her artistic process. In this video she shows how she used macro photography, combined with an array of different materials and processes, to create her stunning visuals for 'Viridian Dream'. 

Huge thanks to the entire visual team for...

Merch Competition: Polychrome – Signed Print

We're giving away a limited edition signed print of 'Polychrome'.

To win, comment below with a Christmas present that you would give to us. Our favourite gift idea wins the print!

Sample Giveaway: Sequential Prophet-6 Improvisations

As you may have noticed from our production videos, we love to use improvisations on real instruments as a starting point for writing tunes.

I sat down with my old friend for an hour and hit record. Hopefully the results can be useful to you in some way too.

Download the recordings here

- Jim

Exclusive Music: Cage

Artwork by Ben Leonard

"Funk Blaster" EP – vinyl available to pre-order 🎂

To celebrate a decade of Funk Blaster we're releasing the original EP on vinyl.

The package also includes a 24" coloring book style poster of the original artwork. We cannot wait to see your re-coloring of the mythical Funk Blaster :D

Available to pre-order now

Audio Stems: Vibrant

By popular demand!

Link

Poll: November Stems Giveaway

For this month, we are releasing stems from our 'Intervals Above' EP.

Which track is up to you to decide!

Production Tutorial: Arrangement & Idea Development

For this video we wanted to break down our process and philosophy behind creative decision-making, and try to analyze WHY we choose certain decisions over others when we're writing a track.

00:00 - Starting the track + initial focus and ideas
05:17 - Adding rhythmic elements
11:17 - Developing the focus of the track
20:09 - Arrangement attempt #1
23:01 - Adding more elements/variation
27:23 - Arrangement attempt #2
29:11 - Handing over the project to Will
30:15 - Fu...

Exclusive Music: Shock Wave

We originally made this tune back in 2015 as the intro to our set at Shambhala Festival. 

Since then it's been a staple of our live sets, and now we are releasing it to the world :)

Artwork by Mushpongo

Discord Hangout – October

00.00 - Future track feedback hangouts

03.20 - Our early tracks and production techniques

16.24 - Audience questions and discussion

33.25 - Cooking conversation and curious culinary combinations

Join our Discord server for info about future hangouts.

Making a song from scratch using only a recording of a microwave.

This month is a demonstration of how we normally work on a song from start to finish, although we'd usually spend more time on it.

We've attached the microwave sample so you can have a go if you want. This will also be an upcoming discord challenge. 

We've also attached the final piece if you want to listen to it. 

https://woulg.gumroad.com/l/tSleZ - Here's where we got onenotepony

Exclusive Music: Happy EP

This one is deep from the vaults...

These tracks were all made around 10-12 years ago (maybe more!) but were never released in full (in fact the lossless file and Reason project for Happy People is lost in the ether). 

We'd always intended to release them together as a collection but never got around to it... until now!

ENJOY :)

Artwork by KōLAB Studios