Finding my sound with some new (old) gear… 🎸

I had a bit of an “aha” moment this week. I’ve had my Komplete Audio 2 interface for ages, but I’ve basically just been using it for Guitar Rig 5. I finally realized I had a whole mountain of free plugins and MIDI instruments I’d never even touched—so I decided to dive in.

This track started with a basic drum loop, but it felt a bit “robot-y” and stiff. To fix that, I started recording my own samples to loop instead, which gave it a much better energy. The guitar lead over the top is a total one-take jam; I think keeping it unedited helps keep things human when you’re working with so many loops.

I’m still playing around and trying to find my “vibe” in the middle of all this digital chaos. Tune in next Friday to see what else I dig up!

Check out the rest of the jams here: 👉 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIJ_VDuDIOslisbPHwFjSx6AQ0ZecW6rY&si=4vogFTt7kwsasq5W

What I used this week:

• Komplete Audio 2
• Native Instruments (Midi & Samples)
• One-take Guitar Improv

Sunday afternoons are made for exploring new sounds. I recently stumbled upon the Cloudrum plugin by Ample Sound—it’s a free steel tongue drum VST that has a really haunting, lovely resonance.

What started as a simple groove on the drum quickly evolved into this week’s full arrangement. I layered in some deep synth bass and orchestral swells using TAL Noise-Maker, then topped it off with some floaty, dreamy guitar lines on my Squier Strat.

In this video: You’ll see the full multi-layer overdub performance as I build the track piece by piece.

Gear used this week:

• Percussion: Ample Sound Cloudrum
• Synths: TAL Noise-Maker (Bass & Swells)
• Guitar: Squier Stratocaster
• DAW: Reaper

If you enjoyed this jam, consider subscribing! I drop a new multi-instrumental overdub every Friday. See you in the next one!

They say constraints breed creativity, but this week was a genuine struggle. I’m trying to move past just “ticking the box” and actually find a spark each week. That spark finally came from a spring on my desk lamp.

I’ve been messing around with the Koala Sampler app (mostly making fart noises with my son), but for this track, I used it to sample the resonant “boing” of my desk lamp. With some heavy processing, it turned into a moody, radar-like signal that set the tone for the whole piece.

Gear used this week:

• Percussion/Atmosphere: Koala Sampler (Desktop mount spring sample)
• Synth Bass: TAL Noise-Maker (Played via PC keyboard!)
• Guitar: Squire Stratocaster
• Video: Multi-layer overdub performance

I’m currently at a crossroads—do I buy the Arturia Minilab 3, the Roland S1, or just give in and get both? If you have thoughts on which I should grab first, let me know in the comments!

Next week might be more Koala exploration, or I might go full “unplugged” with an acoustic guitar. We’ll see where the mood takes me.

See you next Friday!