Tag: ableton live

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Brand New Music: ‘Check Your Dreams’ – Song #2 of 2025!

Check Your Dreams by Miss Rachel Rose cover art.
Check Your Dreams by Miss Rachel Rose cover art.
Check Your Dreams by Miss Rachel Rose

Check Your Dreams – Brand New Music

This trippy, labile, shimmering walkabout on the waves of synthetic sound is my latest gift to an unsuspecting world. It hatched from my brain and tickled my neurons to the extent that I just had to share it with the world. I hope that it scratches that aural itch and gives you the feels when you listen to it.

Listen to the Radio Edit here:

Check Your Dreams by Miss Rachel Rose. Released: 8 March 2025 Genre: Deep House, Minimal House, Trippy, Electronic Produced and composed by Miss Rachel Rose Distribution by Distrokid ISWC: T3311337841

Stream “Check Your Dreams” on all major streaming services

I use Distrokid, and have finally become a member of SGAE. So, if you want to stream Check Your Dreams and risk the tech platforms having to pay me out 12 cents 😉, then go ahead and listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.

About The Track

Genre

Check Your Dreams keywords: deep house, trippy electronica, minimal house. The kick cuts through quite heftily and gives the track a bit more pump. The BPM is a chirpy 124, my favorite BPM to mix, so it is a mid-energy track.

Where does it fit in the mix?

In a mix, I ease this tune in at one of two points: It would fit at the tail end of a warm up section of a longer mix – just when the fluff turns to puff. Otherwise, it could roll gently in the wee hours of a chillout afters, when things are all sparkly and you are in love with your life, and your friends. 💚💙🩵🫂

Just like Groove Machine, my first release of the year, this new track’s overall genre is deep house.

Production Babble

I composed, arranged, and produced Check Your Dreams using Ableton Live 12. I used various plugins to craft a unique sound design, but I didn’t use hardware synths. I have a few, and I really long to use them. But right now, time is very tight, and I have to streamline my production.

Voice Sample

This song came to me in the middle of the night. I recorded the voice sample, and went back to sleep.

When I went to produce a few days later, I thought about re-recording the voice. But I decided to keep it.

I like the breathiness of the voice. I also like that it is just a little bit off- kilter. I keeps it organic, as I did it without a click track. I AirDropped the sample from my phone to my iMac, imported it as a .wav into Ableton with warping OFF, checked its key with Spectrum, and EQ’d it. For some parts, I chopped the voice sample up to get interesting rhythmic elements and ear candy. I tidied it some basic reverb and de-essing, but left everything else to the mix engineer.

Mixing and Mastering

I am lucky to have a collaborator who mixes and masters my tracks for me. I trust his ear completely. Plus, he brushes up the arrangements for me. Usually it’s just the intro and outro, which are important only to DJ’s. But, for anyone who mixes, you KNOW that the intros and outros are super important. So, thanks you-know-who.

Time saving production tip: use a template

My default template when I open Live has four tracks. The template key is set to D minor.

Track 1 is MIDI and loads with Kick2 . I leave the default kick on, but have a bunch of User presets that are all tuned in the key of D. Deep house tracks usually have a warm, bouncy kick sound, so I tend to go for that vibe.

There are another two midi tracks for my hats and bongos, and an audio track. The drum racks are made of samples tuned to D and A.

I put a limiter and Spectrum on the Master track, so when I need to tune samples or instruments, I can just solo the track that I am working with, and watch Spectrum on the master.

What’s Next?

I have another tune that is nearly finished. If you sign up to my mailing list, you can get a free MP3 copy the week before it gets released. Here is the sign-up form:

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Biography: Miss Rachel Rose

Miss Rachel Rose is a DJ and producer based near Benidorm, Spain. She is a self-taught singer-songwriter with a long-standing passion for music and the music business. Rachel holds a Masters in Neuromusic, and is currently studying solfège, music theory, and composition.

Where to hear catch a live DJ set

I have a weekly gig in Benidorm, at the Caiman Beach Bar.

  • When: Every Saturday
  • Time: 4-6 PM (16.00-18:00 hrs)
  • Where: Caiman Beach Bar, Av. de Madrid no.13, Benidorm
  • What to expect: Deep, groovy, funky house music in a seafront location with cocktails, cold beer, and lovely service.
Location

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Súper Taller de Voz y Respiración – 26 Nov ’22

Respira, canta, graba

Taller de voz y respiración con improvisación y grabación. Altea, Nov 26, 2022
Cartel del taller de voz y respiración

Tabla de contenidos

¿Qué haces el sábado 26 de noviembre?

Reserva la fecha, porque te va a encantar! ¿Quieres cantar? ¿Quieres gozar de la música? ¿Quieres liberar la voz y sentirte artista? ¿Quieres explorar tu creatividad y sanar tu sistema respiratorio a la vez? Tengo el taller para ti!

El próximo sábado 26 noviembre vamos a juntarnos en un entorno natural a pocos minutos del precioso pueblo de Altea. Ahí, bajos los pinos, con el sol suave del otoño, vamos a respira el aire puro de la costa alicantina. Con ejercicios de la respiración del yoga y del canto, iremos liberando la voz y preparándonos para montar una pequeña improvisación vocal. Después de una pausa y una meditación en silencio, iremos al estudio de grabación para grabar nuestra canción. ¡Suena guay, no?!

Respiración consciente : Pranayama

En qué consiste la respiración consciente?

La respiración consciente es simplemente una forma de prestar atención a nuestra respiración. Se considera que la respiración forma un puente entre el cuerpo y la mente. El pranayama tiene como propósito cruzar este puente con intención para llegar a unir nuestro cuerpo con nuestra mente.

Todo eso suena muy esotérico, lo sé. Hay que tener en cuenta que los fines de la práctica del yoga son muy elevados. Tienen que ver con la liberación del espíritu y cosas así. Es todo muy noble, pero a veces no queremos llegar tan lejos. Es este taller, ponemos el listón más accesible. Aquí, tan solo pretendemos observar nuestra respiración, utilizar técnicas de ritmos respiratorios y retenciones (apneas) para modificarla y probar un poco de resistencia al dióxido de carbono (CO2). Todo eso nos preparará para los ejercicios vocales.

Calentar la voz

Cómo me puedo preparar para cantar mejor?

La voz es un instrumento que necesita sus cuidados y sus calentamientos. Es fácil concluir que “no podemos cantar” si carecemos de las herramientas necesarias para preparar los tejidos de la garganta y la boca para cantar. En realidad, si puedes hablar, puedes cantar. Es cierto que no todos somos Whitney Houston, pero cada persona tiene su rango (dónde estás más cómodo en la escala musical) y su timbre (las matices de la voz, lo que la hace única). A través de ejercicios sencillos, iremos calentando nuestras voces.

Improvisación

Cantar sin partitura? Qué hago…?

taller voz y respiración - la improvisación!

¡Dejemos surgir lo que surja! Dependiendo de quienes sean los integrantes del taller, qué rangos tienen, y qué onda hay, iremos improvisando un pequeño tema. No tiene que ser muy largo, pero buscaremos la musicalidad dentro de la improvisación. Dejaremos fluir la onda creativa, quizás creando un coro, quizás dividiéndonos en diferentes sub-grupos, quizás permitiendo un canto y una respuesta, quizás utilizando la voz como instrumento en forma “scat”…quién sabe? Escucharemos y dejaremos que nos escuchen. Co-crearemos un pequeño obra que, a continuación, iremos grabando en el estudio.

Meditación en silencio

El silencio y el sonido son opuestos y complementarios

Mientras se prepara el estudio, el grupo tomara un descanso. Se puede sentarse en postura de meditación, se puede usar el aseo, se puede tomar en té, pero todo en silencio. El trabajo del silencio es imprescindible para quien quiere cantar desde su interior. Tan solo a través del silencio y la escucha logramos percibir todas las matices de nuestra voz.

Grabación en estudio

Iremos al estudio de grabación para hacer unas tomas de voz con el micrófono y el programa de edición musical, Ableton Live. No te asustes, la parte técnica estará preparada para ti. Tan solo tendrás de acercarte al micrófono y cantar tu parte.

¡Ojo! Si quieres estar en el estudio mientras graban los demás, se puede, pero siempre en silencio. Si sientas la necesidad de hablar, habrá sitio afuera. Evitaremos entrar y salir mientras estamos grabando, para no perder tiempo y para no distraer a los demás. Al cabo unos 90 minutos, lo que hay, hay. Posteriormente, haré un poco de edición y cada integrante quedará con una copia de la canción.

Como me apunto??

Suena genial! Como me apunto?

Para guardar tu plaza, hay que hacer un Bizum de 20€ al teléfono 667997532 (Rachel Rose) indicando tu nombre y teléfono. El resto puedes pagar en el mismo día. Si decides por cualquier motivo no acudir al taller, guardaré tu aportación para las próximas fechas. Si lo tienes claro que vendrás, puedes ingresar el importe total (35€), claro.

Si te has quedado con alguna duda, mándame un Whatsapp al mismo teléfono y programaremos una llamada. Soy terapeuta y no atiendo al teléfono cuando estoy trabajando, por lo cual es posible que llamadas sin programar no estarán atendidas en el momento.

Una vez que te das de alta, te daré las indicaciones para llegar y la ubicación.

Que tengo que traer?

Una manta, un cojín, agua, un cuaderno y un boli. Y, claro, ganas de pasarlo bien con gente molona! 🤩🥳

Horario del Taller:

  • 10:00 – 10:30 Llegada
  • 10:30 – 10:45 Introducción y presentación de los integrantes
  • 10:45 – 11:30 Pranayama y ejercicios vocales
  • 11:15 – 11:45 Improvisación
  • 11:45 – 12:00 Meditación en silencio
  • 12:00 – 13:30 Grabación en estudio con Ableton Live (mientras que unos están grabando, los demás pueden seguir ensayando sus partes)

Próximas fechas

El taller se impartirá en inglés el sábado 28 de enero y en español el sábado 25 de febrero. The workshop will be presented in English on 28th January and again in Spanish on 25th February.

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Home Studio Diagram for 2022

My home studio

I love making electronic music! But, man does it get complex very quickly.

I could not for the life of me get the bass sounds that I wanted. I found this crazy little hardware synthesizer, the Waldorf Rocket, that is particularly good for bass sounds.

As the Rocket does not have a keyboard, you have to hook it up to something else in order to play it. It only generates the sounds. I called my AKAI MiniAK into action as a MIDI controller and presto!…sounds!

Here is my studio setup as of right now. Well, no, over there on the bottom right, I diagrammed the Traktor cabled to the Yamaha MG06 mixer. In the end, I am not using the Yamaha. Everything for production goes via the Audiofuse. When I dj, I monitor on my little old Yamaha Stagepas 300. The Stagepas has passive speakers, so I have to use the built-in mixing desk and not the MG06. Guess I should update the home studio diagram…

home studio set up
Home Studio Diagram for 2022 8

Home

In case you arrived straight onto this page, please check out my home page and check out some of the other cool stuff I get up to.

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My home music studio.

My home music studio is where I make music, mix music, study UX, write, create and surf. I use Ableton for production and Traktor for mixing. I was dj-ing last week, with the black lights on, and thought it worthy of a photo.

an image of a home recording studio.
My home music studio. 10

A clever Facebook friend pointed on that dodgy D key on the synth. Actually, the keyboard is fine, there was just a power cable hanging down. The synth in my home music studio, btw, is an AKAI MINIAK Virtual Analog Synth. I bought it second-hand this summer. I don’t adore the presets, but I like to play with a hardware synth when I get tired of looking at the screen.

The MIDI controller (below the iMac) is an Arturia MINILAB. I really love Arturia products for the home recording studio! So much so that my soundcard is also Arturia (the AudioFuse) and I have their software synths Pigments and Analog Lab.

A long trip through home recording

I have been playing around with production for a long time now. My first foray into Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) was on a course at Morley College in London. That was back in 1998! We used Cubase on Atari, in a dusty basement. Both the course and the concept were cool enough to invest in a big tower computer with a built-in sound card that occupied two slots of the motherboard BUS. I bought Cubase and tried to produce, but alas, I was always more drawn to composition on a guitar. My musicality and my songwriting developed nicely by learning guitar and training my voice. I never fully stopped playing with production, but nor did I ever fully embrace it.

Apple products called me back in 2001, and I invested in Logic on a PowerBook. Again, I tried, and made some productions, but was never fully invested. I still loved playing the guitar, doing gigs and open mics, meeting musicians. Truly, the solitude of the production studio goes against my grain. I am a very sociable person and my dearest wish is to find a production partner! Alas, so far this escapes me.

Ableton Live

I started using Ableton Live in 2009. The prevalent advice is “don’t change DAW”, so I stick with Ableton even though I hate most of the presets! I did a mixing course with Miguel Alsem at the Universidad de Alicante. This helped me a little, and having a producer boyfriend for a few months did too. So, I have lots of little things recorded (and taking up disc space!), but tend to “release” very little.

But, I keep on playing! My early Christmas gift to myself was an upgrade to Ableton 11 and the aforementioned Pigments software synth. Maybe I will finally pull all of this together and make those guitar tracks translate into the DAW and come alive!