Six Steps Cooking with T Telf 2023-09-04 | I stepped away from jamming for about 4 months. This is my first attempt at it since spring time. I used the sequencer in the Digitakt set to 6 steps, and chained 1-3 patterns at a time, switching manually. The Yamaha Reface DX Is played both by the sequence and by my fingers. Also I am messing with the settings as I go. A true jam. I hope you like it.
TT-909 Cooking with T Telf 2025-09-14 | Happy TR-909 Day with a jam cooked up by T Telf…This features “909 from Mars” samples on the Digitakt plus a sequence of notes from the Multi/Poly, bass from the OB6, and lead sound played on the Hydrasynth
Back the Truck Up Cooking with T Telf 2025-08-03 | The challenge this week is to incorporate some reverse samples. The is a simple drum and bass loop at 140 bpm first forwards then backwards, at times both, all being processed through the Boss SL-2 Slicer pedal for continuity.Enjoy!
See Title in Video Cooking with T Telf 2025-07-27 | Description removed to please an algorithm. Enjoy
Dynamite Stereo! Cooking with T Telf 2025-06-28 | Messing with stereophonics for the Hardware Jam this week.On both left and right, this features Digitakt, Digitone and MPC One+.
Launch Every Piece of Mail… Cooking with T Telf 2025-06-21 | …with space age speed and precision: The Zip Code!!!Created solely with the MPC One+ and the Roland DD8 and Ocean 12 pedals.
Atomization Cooking with T Telf 2025-05-10 | The challenge defies description this week, so just listen to my jam. Featured are the MPC One+, the OPSix and the MultiPoly.
When the Plants Bite Back Cooking with T Telf 2025-04-26 | This week’s Hardware Jams challenge is to imagine a time and place where plants attack humans.I used simply the MiniFreak and the Mellotron Female Voice on this one, plus an otherworldly reverb coming from the Oceans 12 pedal.Enjoy!
Four Ingredients Cooking with T Telf 2025-04-20 | This week on “Cooking with T-Telf”, the recipe calls for 4 ingredients:1) Staccato Arpeggios2) Legato Bass3) Fortissimo Drums4) Bellisimo LeadsI used Digitone, OPSix, Digitakt and MultiPoly.Bon Appetit!😋
Espionage Soufflé Cooking with T Telf 2025-04-13 | The Hardware Jams theme this week has to do with spies.This entry features an intro from the film “Danger! Death Ray” and the following instruments: Digitone, Digitakt, Syntakt, MultiPoly and Mellotron.
Keeping Clean and Neat Cooking with T Telf 2025-04-06 | The Hardware Jams theme this week is to make a hypnotic jam. This one features samples from a film promoting personal hygiene from 1956 along with the Digitakt, Syntakt, Digitone and MultiPoly. Enjoy!
The German Shepherd of Doom Cooking with T Telf 2025-03-22 | The Hardware Jams theme for the week is “Doom”. In the long tradition of “Sandpipers of Doom”, I give you “The German Shepherd of Doom”.Featured here are many instruments…DigitoneDigitaktSyntaktMPC One+HydraSynthMellotron Multi/PolyPeakOPSix
They Go in Threes Cooking with T Telf 2025-03-09 | The theme this week is three!This piece is as simple as 1-2-3, and uses three instruments: * Integra-7* MPC One+* MellotronEnjoy!
Peaking on Acid Cooking with T Telf 2025-03-01 | To celebrate 303 day on March 3rd, Hardware Jams asked us to create a little acid. I got rid of my 303 clone, but as it turns out, the Novation Peak makes a damn good substitute. Also featured are the MPC-One+, the OPSix, the Mellotron, the Reface CP and the HydraSynth.Enjoy the trip!
Niobium Cooking with T Telf 2025-02-23 | The Hardware Jams Weekend Challenge theme this week is to choose an element on the periodic table. I work with metals for my job, and lately there has been a big focus on Niobium alloys which are useful for sending rockets to space.So here is my jam inspired by this strong, high melting point metal.The main melody comes from the OPSix. Bass from the Peak. Drums from the MPC One+. Brass sound from HydraSynth and played live.Enjoy!
Give Yourself a Present Cooking with T Telf 2025-01-19 | The theme this week is a tribute to director David Lynch. This jam takes some dialog from the TV show “Twin Peaks” and adds Hydrasynth, OPSix, Peak and Mellotron. Some sampling and sequencing by MPC One+.So take Kyle McLachlan’s advice and give yourself a present. Hot Black Coffee!
Food Fight at an Italian Disco Cooking with T Telf 2025-01-12 | The challenge this week was to make an Italo Disco dance track. Imagine it is 1985, and you are dancing in a fine Italian discotheque… when you get hit in the face with linguine! Food fight!!! Enjoy.Featured here are the Digitakt, Peak and Hydrasynth.I apologize in advance for my singing voice, but somebody had to do it.
Orcs Get Down Tonight Cooking with T Telf 2025-01-03 | There is a Tolkien theme to the Hardware Jams Challenge this weekend. So, I thought I’d show that orcs can funk it up like anyone else…Featuring MPC One+, OpSix, and Peak. The Digitakt was not even turned on? Nope!
Win, Lose or Draw Cooking with T Telf 2024-12-07 | This week the challenge was to use all of your gear. I will admit right away that I failed to go “All-in”, but I like the jam that resulted anyway. Here it is…Featured are:Hydrasynth, Digitakt, Integra7, Minifreak, and Reface YC
More Hardware than Jam, innit? Cooking with T Telf 2024-11-17 | A very short jam using a neglected bit of gear that I actually love… the Yamaha Reface YC organ.Also featured are the Elektron Digitakt, Novation Peak and Roland Integra-7.
Fear of the Dark Cooking with T Telf 2024-10-26 | The weekly challenge theme at Hardware Jams is “Darkness” this week. This jam features the Hydrasynth, OpSix, SP-404, Reface CP, MiniFreak, Peak and Digitakt.
Dawn Cooking with T Telf 2024-10-05 | The assignment from Hardware Jams this week is to put music to two photos taken at Sunrise (in Greece and Finland). Here is my attempt. It is basically a free-form improvisation… kind of ambient.This features Hydrasynth, OPSix, Reface CP, Microfreak and Digitakt.
White Rabbit / Sketches of Spain Cooking with T Telf 2024-09-29 | Grace Slick wrote “White Rabbit” after listening over and over to Miles Davis’ “Sketches of Spain” album. I’ve always dug the song and Miles’ album, so I decided to do a cover as my entry into the Hardware Jams Spain Challenge this weekend.Digitakt, Peak and Hydrasynth as all featured.
Walkin’ with Walker Cooking with T Telf 2024-09-28 | I just got my studio put together after about a year off. Yay! …but I forgot how to jam! This is my very first attempt at trying to put my jam skills back together… inspired by a beat made by my 12 y o nephew, Walker. Thanks buddy!Digitakt, Integra-7, Reface CP, Peak and SP-404 Mk 2. Hydra synth used as a controller.
Halloween Jam Cooking with T Telf 2023-10-28 | Hardware Jams does Halloween this week. The spooky arp sound is coming from the ASM HydraSynth, scary drone from Novation Peak, and eery extra notes from Reface DX. I love this combination of synths so much… a real pleasure to mess around and create textures.
Natural Rhythms Cooking with T Telf 2023-10-08 | The task this week is to take naturally occurring rhythms and turn them into a jam. I recorded crickets in the backyard and my step-daughter’s pet frogs, which had a natural rhythm that seemed compatible with each other, then added some sampled percussion in the Digitakt and a chimes sound created on the Reface DX.
OffGrid Cooking with T Telf 2023-10-01 | Almost identical in approach to last week… I fired up the Hohner Pianet T and improvised the heck out of a tune. I started off with something in F Major which sounded great, but was way too off grid to be shared… I’ll save the chord sequence for another week. Eventually I shifted back to C-minor and increased the tempo. I hope you like the end result.
Up Side Cooking with T Telf 2023-09-23 | The assignment from Hardware Jams this week is to do something out of your normal or out of your comfort zone.I struggle with keeping a steady beat, so I am almost always using at least some sequenced parts. This week, no sequencers. I am only using a keyboard with no MIDI capability… the Hohner Pianet T electric piano which was built circa 1979. I love the sound of this thing… kind of a poor man’s Rhodes. It is also essential to remove the cover so you can watch the little levers lifting off of the tines to create the tones… it makes me happy just to see it… combine the sound and the sight, and my heart just sings. Can you hear that?Also featured here is a home-made fish pond fountain from my front yard… to be fully ambient.Enjoy.
Wet Enough For You? Cooking with T Telf 2023-09-17 | The assignment? Drench a jam in reverb! Always a favorite effect among jammers, this uses the mighty Oceans 12 Double Stereo Reverb pedal, the Digitakt and Reface DX.
909 Monkeys Cooking with T Telf 2023-09-11 | In honor of September 9th (909 Day), here is a jam using samples from the classic Roland TR-909 drum machine played on the Digitakt. Bass and cowbell sounds coming via Roland Gaia.Please do me a favor in the comments and tell me if this fits in any kind of musical genre.
The Falcon Cooking with T Telf 2023-05-07 | I’m not normally a 150 bpm kind of jammer, but what the heck. I was messing around with a cheap tape recorder with variable speed, and I kind of liked the lofi sound. So, combining that with the Digitakt and Peak, I came up with this track. Add in some Han Solo lines from the original movie, and here we go. No 303, but I tried to make a very simple patch on the Peak that was close.
Mayday Mayday Mayday Cooking with T Telf 2023-04-30 | Long ago in a land far away, they celebrated May the 1st, 1973 with much pomp and circumstance.Featured here are the Digitakt, Minifreak, Hydrasynth, Peak and Cobalt 8M. I love them all so much.
MicroPianist Cooking with T Telf 2023-04-23 | The HWJ theme this week asks us to incorporate microscopic elements into a jam.For this, I sampled from the beginning of a lecture about Nano-technology which explains the relative sizes of humans, ants, human hair, bacteria, viruses and DNA.For drums, I only used the Syntakt. For bass and synth sounds, I used the Peak and Hydrasynth. Samples are courtesy of the SP-404. The Digitakt provides no sounds, but is used for MIDI sequencing of the Peak and Hydrasynth.Oh, and I used the Korg MICROStation as a keyboard controller for the Peak! 🤪
Therapy in C-minor Cooking with T Telf 2023-04-15 | The HWJ Weekend Challenge for this week involves jamming to a visual which includes ink in water.Rather than download a video, I made one myself by dropping food coloring in a large jar of water.The audio was made live without sequencing using the HydraSynth with its beautiful polyphonic aftertouch accentuating the sub-oscillator bass sounds. Occasionally I added an eerie whistling noise that is made more eerie with delay and chorus effects.Also included are some ambient yard noises recorded while brewing up the colorful stew.I call this “Therapy” because it is exactly what I do to wind down… pick out a lush preset, and go to town improvising in C-minor. Ahhhh! Better than a day at the spa.
It’s a Lover!!! Cooking with T Telf 2023-04-09 | Here is my California remix of “Here It’s All Over” by Rome in Reverse, submitted as an entry into the Hardware Jams Weekend Challenge which this week is partnering with the Petite Victory Collective. I call it “It’s a Lover”. I used only the original samples, mangled and rearranged on the Elektron Digitakt. I hope you enjoy!
Will it hurt when I break? Cooking with T Telf 2023-04-03 | HWJ’s theme this week is “breaks”.We all break eventually. Will it be painful? Or will we even notice it happening?New setup… using Digitakt and Hydrasynth here. I hope you enjoy.
The Bad Breakfast Blues Cooking with T Telf 2023-03-11 | The theme this week was the blues. I chose it myself, so I can’t complain… except about breakfast!Featured here is the Korg MicroStation playing Wurlitzer E-piano and Hammond Organ with drums courtesy of the mighty Digitakt. Apologies to Jenny McCarthy.
Bonzo’s End Cooking with T Telf 2023-03-07 | Last week’s HWJ’s theme involved putting an alien creature into a trance. The poor guy was minding his own business trying to load up on a few essentials before the long trek home, but whatever. I missed the challenge, but here is a jam based on the idea that I had for it over the weekend…This uses the new Werp and Slice functions of the Digitakt to mince up the Doors’ “The End” and Led Zeppelin’s “Bonzo’s Montreux” into a kind of trancey mashup which also features the ASM Hydrasynth. I hope you enjoy.
Majestic Martian Cooking with T Telf 2023-02-26 | Okay so Hardware Jams wants us to talk to aliens this week using music.This is my attempt at it. This features the Digitakt on drums, Novation Peak on bass and Hydrasynth. The alien talks to us through the SP-404. The Hydra is brand new to me, so I am still learning its depths, but I am blown away by how it sounds and plays… just gorgeous and totally fun to play.
Face the Bass Cooking with T Telf 2023-02-12 | The theme at HWJ this week is Face-Melting Bass. If I’m honest, I’m just a rock and roller, pretending to be into electronic music. Still, i can make some bass. I designed a crunchy distorted bass sound on the Novation Peak to go with a clavinet intro. Then I added some lead sounds with the Cobalt 8M. Drums are courtesy of the Digitakt with sampled drum sounds from a Bernie Leadon album. My bassline probably sounds like a second lead, but I don’t care. I’m just rockin’ out over here.
Wire Me Up and Turn Me On! Cooking with T Telf 2023-02-04 | The theme at Hardware Jams this week is disco… specifically something that might have been played at Studio 54 on its closing night in February 1980.Rather than a dance track, I have made a Barry White style love song to you… from your favorite hardware.Used here are the equipment I love… Digitakt, MicroStation, Cobalt8M, SP-404 and JD-08.Dig it!
Aw man, there’s a glitch! Cooking with T Telf 2023-01-29 | It is glitch week on Hardware Jams…I started with an odd time signature 14/4 (3 measures of 4/4 and then a half measure.I did some mangling of drums on the Digitakt, a high-resonance filtered noise patch on Peak, some messing around with the mix and glide, and a change of key on the Cobalt, and some reasonably normal bass on the JD-08. When it was all done it didn’t sound glitchy enough, so I went to town with the scatter and DJFX on the SP404, and added some vocal nonsense. So, I was jamming with… myself.
Ti-6V-4Al Cooking with T Telf 2023-01-22 | The Hardware Jams Weekend Challenge for the week asks us to choose an element from the periodic table. The element I am familiar with more than any other is Titanium. For 27 years I’ve worked on and around furnaces that melt titanium into ingots. It is strong and lightweight, used for many aerospace applications. Also it is bio-compatible, so it goes inside our bodies. It doesn’t corrode in sea-water, so it is used for making desalination plants and submarines. Pretty cool stuff.This track makes use of the Syntakt for percussion and bass, the Cobalt 8M for pads, and the Novation Peak for a lead sound.
Jamuary 13 Cooking with T Telf 2023-01-14 | The prompt for both the weekend challenge and the Jamuary 13th challenge is a jam with big and epic reverbs. Here is my response.Inspired partly by the theme from Monday Night Football, this bombastic piece features the Roland JD-08 with a synth brass patch, the Novation Peak with a strings patch, drums by Elektron Digitakt and bass by Korg MicroStation. Reverb provided by the Electro-Harmonix Oceans 12 pedal. Delay by Boss DD-8 pedal.
Warmth Cooking with T Telf 2023-01-08 | I’ve paused my Jamuary, but not my jamming.The Hardware Jams theme this week is “Warmth”. For it, I sampled a 10 hour video fireplace, and used the crackles and roar of it to make some percussion sounds and added a newly minted slow-envelope patch from the Novation Peak. For a change-up, I used the key of F… which always feels “warmer” to me than my usual C-minor.
Jamuary 4 Cooking with T Telf 2023-01-05 | A Fanfare For The UnwashedFollowing the prompts suggested by Hardware Jams and the Petite Victory Collective for January 4th, here is a jam played at 55 bpm.It is a little busy, but it was fun to make.Sounds are courtesy of the Digitakt and the Novation Peak.
Jamuary 3 Cooking with T Telf 2023-01-04 | Following the prompts suggested by Hardware Jams and the Petite Victory Collective for January 3rd, here is a jam dedicated to my father. In the tradition of breakfast meat jams, the sausages I cooked up this morning somehow turned themselves without outside force or influence other than the heat applied to the pan. My Dad would have been excited by the phenomenon, and he always called them bangers.
Jamuary 2 Cooking with T Telf 2023-01-03 | Following the prompts suggested by Hardware Jams and the Petite Victory Collective for January 2nd, here is a jam using only the notes from a single chord Cm7.Enjoy!
Merry Christmas, Ben Wellby! Cooking with T Telf 2022-12-31 | I must admit that when I was given Ben Wellby’s name for a Secret Santa Jam by the Hardware Jams team, I had to do a little research into his music. Who is Ben Wellby?Thus began my journey to answer that question. Lucky for me, it turns out that he is a very talented jammer indeed. I particularly liked and now remember his Mallet Challenge Entry from July 2022 called “IDM 19 / Desert Cities Paint Brush Mallet”Please check it out and all of Ben’s work on his YouTube page…youtube.com/@BenWellbyMy studio has been dismantled for Christmas to make room for family members returning from college. So, I used only my trusty Digitakt for this, and recorded it with the Garage Band app on my phone.
Route 22 Cooking with T Telf 2022-12-17 | The HWJ Challenge for this week asks us to do some “creative routing”. Aside from my normal MIDI and mixer connections, I took the audio output of my Waldorf Streichfett and put it into the input of the Korg Radias. I like the results and could probably go further down this road in future.Also featured are the Roland JD-08, Elektron Digitakt, and Novation Peak. Enjoy!
