you've found my musical notepad

A years-out-of-practice classical pianist and church organist, I bought a MPC Live II to get back into music. Here are some tracks I've made on it. Further down, you will find some of my super old recordings from a past life.

I'm not much of a producer but I love writing hooks.

vibetown 86bpm

The first time I've plugged a bass guitar into the MPC, just a 12 bar jazz progression that I noodle over with some keyboards.

Date: April 2025
Using: MPC Live II

smack041525.wav

The only house track on here right now. I plan on finishing this.

Date: April 2025
Using: MPC Live II

blast.wav

Not far from a complete arrangement. "blast.wav" is homophonous to "blastwave", after whom this track is named, since it was previously unnamed and he seemed to enjoy it.

Date: April 2025
Using: MPC Live II

j dilla, john wayne, same thang

Featuring guitar samples I recorded. It's a Yamaha electric-acoustic I got off Amazon and just ran direct into the MPC.

Date: March 2025
Using: MPC Live II

no autotune

One of the few things on here that's not a hip-hop beat, this is a song by Sunny Suljic that I covered to get better at using the MPC like an actual DAW. That is, no samples, just audio recordings. I used a Presonus Audiobox USB as the MPC's audio interface, and a 20 year old MXL pencil condenser to record.

Date: January 2025
Using: MPC Live II

tronka

This was used as the theme in a Naxeon Pro Electric Motorcycle Review on YouTube, for which I also shot the drone footage. It's name is a portmanteau of "Tonka" (the guy in the video) and "Tron" (because it's supposed to evoke that vibe).

Date: February 2025
Using: MPC Live II

phonka

Also for Tonka, this was just background music in a video somewhere.

Date: February 2025
Using: MPC Live II

for art blakey

I used my Numark PT-01 Scratch turntable to sample the beginning of a live Art Blakey Orchestra record, in which the MC introduces them with "How bout a big hand for Art Blakey, Art Blakey and his wonderful All-Stars!"

Date: March 2025
Using: MPC Live II

speedrun

I had some friends over who wanted to rap over a beat, so I did a 15-minute speedrun to see what I could make. This is what I got.

Date: December 2024
Using: MPC Live II

0125-wip.wav

This is an unfinished, unnamed idea in which I was playing around with automating sweep filters.

Date: January 2025
Using: MPC Live II

sadallegro

Unfinished, unmixed, etc...
Some random thing I don't remember making, the name is a portmanteu of Sada Baby (the rapper) and "allegro", the musical tempo.

Date: October 2024
Using: MPC Live II

si se puede

Unmixed, heavily unfinished.
I sampled a recording of protestors in Los Angeles chanting "Si, se puede" (Yes, you can). The guitar is that same Yamaha. If you'd like to know what that means...

Date: March 2025
Using: MPC Live II

pads-experiment.wav

Very much a "sketch", not a full arrangement. In which I was experimenting with the Performance Pads functionality on MPC.

Date: November 2024
Using: MPC Live II


These are songs written by a friend of mine in high school, Teddy Roberts, which I recorded and produced in a garage when I was 16 with my childhood best friend (now tour managing for 311 and I Prevail). Many of the other tracks are still lost, so the ones I have found are here for archival purposes. I still think they are quite good music.

TR-1

TR-3


Here are a few older tracks from 2008-2010, when I was a rock musician recording each instrument track-by-track in my room on Logic Pro. Everything you hear in these recordings is me.

At Least For Now

Recorded on a porch in 2010.

Date: 2010
Using: Logic Pro (7?)

See You Soon

This song was a b-side on an early Coldplay record, but was only ever acoustic. I made a full band arrangement and recorded it in my room.

Date: 2010
Using: Logic Pro (7?)