Today

The albums I have been publishing more recently have been created using variations of this setup:

graph TB

        subgraph "My Basement"

            keyboard["Akai Pro MPK261"]
            b2600["Behringer 2600"]

            eurorack["Various\nEurorack\nModules"]

            adc["PreSonus AudioBox iTwo"]

            subgraph computer["Computer"]
                audacity["Audacity"]
                ableton["Ableton Live"]
                sonicpi["Sonic Pi"]
                plugins["VST"]
                flac[("FLAC,\nWAV,\nMP3")]
                plugins <--> audacity --> flac
                plugins <--> ableton --> flac
                sonicpi --> flac
            end

            monitor["PA / Headphones"]

        end

        subgraph cloud["Online Publishers"]
            cdbaby["cdbaby.com"]
            bandcamp["bandcamp.com"]
        end

        subgraph "Streaming Services (plus many more not shown)"
            itunes["iTunes"]
            youtube["YouTube Music"]
            spotify["Spotify"]
            amazon["Amazon Music"]
        end

        subgraph "Licensing & Royalty Collection"
            soundexchange["SoundExchange"]
        end

        keyboard -- "MIDI\n(DIN)" --> b2600
        b2600 <-- "trigger,\ngate,\ncontrol voltage,\nanalog audio" --> eurorack
        b2600 -- "analog\naudio" --> adc
        adc <-- "digital audio,\nMIDI\n(USB)" --> computer
        adc -- "monitor" --> monitor
        computer <-- "MIDI\n(USB)" --> keyboard
        computer -- "publish" --> cdbaby
        computer -- "publish" --> bandcamp
        cdbaby -- "distribute" --> itunes
        cdbaby -- "distribute" --> youtube
        cdbaby -- "distribute" --> spotify
        cdbaby -- "distribute" --> amazon
        cdbaby -- "register" --> soundexchange

Hardware

...plus various Eurorack modules that change embarassingly frequently

Software

  • Audacity Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
  • Ableton Live real-time digital synthesis and effects
  • Sonic Pi Ruby dialect and runtime platform for creating digital music and controlling MIDI instruments

...running on a creaky old MacBook Pro laptop