A few years ago, I would pop onto a website called turntable.fm, where you could pick a cute little avatar to represent yourself in a room and choose to either be a DJ and play music for the room or just vibe as a listener. As a DJ, you could pick from songs from an existing catalog or upload your own, which made the service popular with DJs like Diplo. With each song, every person in the room had the option to vote on whether or not they liked the song, a form of instant feedback.

This weekend, KT and I spent some time just vibing in Ableton, thanks to their extended free trial for the time of COVID-19. With the software and a MIDI keyboard borrowed from the ever-gracious AIR APPARENT (my much more musical brother), we were ready to BUILD. We focused on recreating some songs from scratch: first MGMT’s “Electric Feel” and Ivy Lab’s “Jet Lag.” Being able to learn how to use the tools without having to also generate new tunes made the big scary app seem more accessible.