For some time I have wondered why I got emotional or got chills / goosebumps when listening to exceptional pieces of music. So a little bit of research tells me that this reaction is called ‘frisson’ (pronounced free-sawn) and is a French term meaning “aesthetic chills”. It is only experienced by approximately 50% of people and is generally in response to music, art or listening to a great speaker but emotional music is the biggest trigger. Results from personality tests on a number of people showed that the listeners who experienced frisson also scored high for a personality trait called “openness to experience.”Studies have shown that people who possess this trait have unusually active imaginations, appreciate beauty and nature, seek out new experiences, often reflect deeply on their feelings, and love variety in life. Some aspects of this trait are inherently emotional (loving variety, appreciating beauty), while others are cognitive (imagination, intellectual curiosity).I am so glad that I am in the 50% that have this experience because I can say that when it happens it is wonderful.
Well I just found out that one of my tracks has been used in a U.S. Travel Vlog and I’m so thrilled and excited about it !!!!! They asked about a year ago if they would be able to use it and I said yes but it’s only just come out. The link is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81tGpKfU4SA
Makes it all worthwhile.
Ableton Live, Part 2
My Amazing Loop Station
My Guitar Synthesizer
Ableton Live, Part 1
I first started using Ableton Live Lite when I purchased my Novation Launchkey 61 a few of years ago in 2017 when it came packaged with the keyboard. I was hooked straight away. I already had a copy of FL Studio 12 (Fruity Loops) at the time which I had been dabbling with for a while. I found it quite good and enjoyed creating with it but I have to say when I started using Ableton Live it was a game changer for me. From that moment when I first started using it I knew that I would have to get the Standard edition which I did at a cost of £207 on 22 Dec 2017 !! It immediately opened up so many more options to me. For example I now had 5 instruments instead of 4, 1800+ (10GB) Sounds instead of 1500+(5GB), 34 Audio Effects instead of 21 but most importantly I went from 16 Audio and Midi tracks to UNLIMITED !!!!!! I mean you have no idea the elation I had when I loaded Standard on my computer for the first time and suddenly I could create as many tracks as I wanted. There were other differences too such as 256 audio inputs and outputs instead of 8 etc etc. 2018 was a very creative year for me and I had countless hours of fun with my DAW. Of course that wasn’t enough because by now I had heard of things live Wavetable, Sampler, Convolution Reverb, Echo and a whole host of other audio effects, software instruments and packs that Standard didn’t have. You guessed it, I had to have Ableton Live 10 Suite, it was the only way to go. Finally in January 2019 I bought Suite for £269, which is a lot of money to me, and finally I was in heaven! More in my next post when I talk about my year of discovery with Ableton Live Suite.