The post Hello Blog My Old Friend first appeared on Where Is KO?.

It’ll definitely be my house clothes: a pair of athletic shorts and a jersey or sports tee. Simple.

If I were going out, it’ll be a pair of comfy jeans and a tee with a pair of comfy sports shoes like Nike Air Prestos.

If I were going out, it’ll be a comfy pair of trousers that are loose fitting with a loose fitting shirt.

To be honest I wear the same outfits and style of outfits all the time so I’m already doing the question.

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It’s definitely a mix of train and bus. Train will take the long haul parts of the trip and maybe bus will be for short trips however it all depends on how safe the surroundings are. If the surroundings don’t feel safe, Uber or local government state authorised taxi is the way forward.

A lot of variables but then again, if it’s a city trip then train and bus. Did that in plenty of cities across Europe, España to be specific. Grab a ticket that covers the length of your stay and metro everywhere with sprinkles of bus.

A place like Netherlands, it’s a train ticket from from airport to city centre and explore. I say Netherlands but more like Amsterdam. In a city like that it’s a walking thing. That and maybe Venice which in some respects are the same type of place but in Venice you’re likely to get the river bus. Gondolers are hella pricey and also I weren’t tryna hop on them as they seemed rather unstable.

TLDR: I’d get plane, then train, then a mixture of bus, car and walking. Depending on how friendly the city is to cycling, might do that for novelty.

The post Random Prompt #1: Plane, Train or Automobile? first appeared on Where Is KO?.

So granted it’s been a very long time since I last checked in to post an update and I’m neither ashamed at it nor filled with regret at not posting because I’ve been living it up. I’ve been doing video mainly, not so much podcasting nor even beat making but heavily creating video. I often forget to post it to the blog and I’m not even mad that I keep forgetting to do so. I don’t even forget, I just can’t be bothered a lot of the time. Not even neglectful in the slightest, I’ve just changed.

I find myself writing these updates again in solitude so you know that means that I’m on the cusp of change once again. A lot has changed and perhaps whilst I’m in that state between process, metamorphosis and destination, I’m ere trying to slow down to make sense of how I’m about to scale the obstacle of the process. Something that I did not respect nor pa much attention to but I realise that getting past a process is probably the most important fight.

Deep down we know we can do something but often the process barrier between you and the thing which you desire and are incredibly great at is the difference between doing and being a bystander. I agonised over getting something done whereby my life was on pause for weeks whilst I fought to be untouchable. The process showed me that when you ask for help people are always willing to lend their perspective, also when you take the time to understand and implement the changes to do things properly things change for the better and you become the benchmark of success.

Remember what I said earlier, I didn’t respect the process. I never placed much emphasis, energy nor importance on it. I became somewhat my own barrier to being successful by doing it all wrong. In his short space of time I’ve not only learnt a bunch about myself but developed the mindset that anything is possible when you push yourself harder that you ever have. I’ve actioned a process where I don’t rest on my skills but actively develop my talents by pushing myself further.

Who knew that an opportunity would force me into action the way it did but I did make a pact to myself at the start of 2023 that I would go harder than I ever have and take advantage of every opportunity I get. No more laid back, too cool for school but strive for the best and hold myself accountable by challenging myself to always do better and not get complement.

Right… Now the awkward address for my lack of activity is out the way I guess I can continue with creating some content or to be honest, just update regularly with a mixture of what I’m doing.

Peace.

The post 7 Months Yea? first appeared on Where Is KO?.

It’s finally here after 10yrs of catching dust in my archives. The notebooks can breathe again. No more feelings of what if or I wish I would’ve dropped. I can release the works I’m most proud of and get to crafting some more masterpieces. Happiness is an understatement.

The weirdest thing about all of this is that I felt burnt out and in somewhat of a rut in the lead up to deciding that I was going to drop this collection of works. I somehow found myself infant of Logic on a day off of work and just made a few tweaks. The defining factor was placing a template setting to the master channel and it brought the track alive. At that point I was like I gotta make some artwork and pretty much uploaded it to DistroKid. For the remainder of the week I felt different, I felt more alive, I felt like my life had purpose again. I know it sounds dramatic but when you assume and pursue your virtue, life feels much more fulfilling and pure.

Rhythm & Prose features demos of tracks that I’ve teased across my blogs in the past but never had the courage or vision to release until now. In the coming post I’ll break down each song with some context.

Listen to Rhythm & Prose: 1012BC here

The post Rhythm & Prose: 1012BC first appeared on Where Is KO?.

In my week since meeting a Hip Hop producer hero, Saint Alan The Alchemist, I wanted to test whether there was some kinda of energy transfer in the embrace. I headed home, dug out my DJ mixer from 2006, grabbed a vinyl from the shelf and tried to make a sampling vinyl banger using my AKAI Professional MPC Live 2 Retro.

As much as my Sunday sess didn’t produce anything worthy of sharing, aside from this cool picture, I did realise how powerful the sequencer on the MPC is for generating ideas. I tend lose interest once I get a loop as my other production weapons of choice feel restrictive. The MPC workflow is flexible enough to support mute, solo and editing once a sequence is duplicated. Going from a loop to a song feels so much more intuitive than others.

The following 5 days were spent exploring this box of delights pre and post shift, watching AKAI’s playlist on YouTube using the #mpc Live 2 on my lunch break and commutes to and from work. My eureka moment came on Day 4 when I finally figured out how to record vocals into the MPC Beats software, when using the Live 2 in controller mode.

On Thursday, having finished early, I raced home with the intent to record a piece of poetry I wrote, about a gloomy April morning, called Modest in Monochrome. I was going to stay in my comfort zone, which was to open a VST of the drum machine DAW in Logic Pro X, but I decided to break the pattern and stretch myself to learn something different. I’m glad to I took the 5mins to learn how because it means I can decrease my dependence on rerouting across software.

TLDR: How one chance encounter with someone can serve as a reminder to make time to explore your hobbies and interests.

The post MPC Live 2 Retro Diary – 6 Days since meeting Saint Alan The Alchemist first appeared on Where Is KO?.

The post I met Saint Alan The Alchemist first appeared on Where Is KO?.

In my culture #GoodFriday is the day we have fried fish with Hard Dough Bread and/or Bammy. It took me years to realise that it’s a Christian tradition to commemorate the day he fed the thousand on the hilltop with two fish and bread (correct me if wrong).

As a lover of escovitch, as you can imagine Easter is one of my favourite holidays for the fish and also bun and cheese with the lamb on Easter Sunday.

Whether you’re fasting for Ramadan, doing a Passover feast or celebrating Easter, have a great weekend and hopefully we can get to making some beats.

Peace and Love

Khalid

The post Good (Fish) Friday 🐟 first appeared on Where Is KO?.

I wanted to try a new way of working so I opted to go down the super duper vortex of DAW-lessness. This machine is synonymous with a close knit community of Hip Hop producers and live performers, most iconic being Dilla (rip) himself who used a similar iteration on his album Doughnuts. I wasn’t exactly sure how I’d best utilise this machine but I wanted to try it as an alternative to always using my MacBook and Machine or carrying around the heavy MPC Live 2. The SP-404 MK2 would be my mobile way of working for the commute to work or to jam out whilst on my lunch break.

Although receiving mine, there are so many others who have yet to get theirs as supplies at the time of recording were super limited. I’m glad in hindsight that I ordered when I did because at the time of updating this blog, many people in different regions who ordered a few weeks after me still haven’t received theirs yet.

If you’re a supporter of what I do, please help me grow through liking, commenting and subscribing to my channel:

YouTube.com/c/KhalidOmari

The post Unboxing Roland’s SP-404 MKII first appeared on Where Is KO?.

I cannot lie to y’all! The past few days have been maaaad for me. I felt like my day job stuff has been the catalyst of my next set of moves. There’s been a lot of podcast episodes alluding to my internal conflicts but after a conference call on Friday, I checked my email to see an offer from Restream for 30% off the first month subscription. At first I didn’t know it was only for the first payment, figured it was for the whole year but still…

Friday was spent creating accounts for all the services that you I can now stream to and go busy. Some of which were a complete failure like a few of the South Korean ones which are owned by the same parent company but all of the other ones I’m pretty straight on. VK I had to delete after signing up and can’t go again until sometime in 2022 as you’ve gotta use something a lot of don’t have multiple of, and there’s also some which I couldn’t understand the language or effectively translate via Google. All in all I paid my first discounted payment at like 2pm-ish but probably didn’t start my first stream until about 8pm and it was probably a disaster out start.

I tried to broadcast a podcast episode recorded of 0800YOFAM – WHTVRINNIT and it weren’t playing the live audio of the podcast during the recording for all who tuned in to hear. It was real amateur night to be honest until I started a stream from the MPC Live 2. For some reason I can’t use my Rode mic to narrate what I’m doing whilst the MPC app is open but now I feel like its kinda minor as I’ve perfected the layout -since changed since these episodes were recorded.

Started out with the drumbeat and followed the line of enquiry to record some vocals a lil hook but rather than do it the lazy way, I broke it down into different tones as if I were recording myself whilst creating the first iteration of the Up In The Ear album. I even started as I meant to go on mixing wise by splitting tones and effects into buses. I know I’m a reformed geezer.

By the second day I was gassed. I think I was amazed at what had happened the night before and spent the whole of my Saturday thinking about what I had achieved whilst enjoying the replay. I was obsessed in fact. I was riding the train to Tottenham Hale for the Sistine Chapel exhibition and started mumbling the bars whilst riding the Victoria line from my interchange to the destination. I said to myself that I should write it down but then apart of me had confidence in my ability, albeit rather my enthusiasm to train my mind to recall and remember the flow. I spent that day doing a lot of other things that I now can’t recall but it’s always fun to spend time with my girlfriend on a Saturday.

When we got home I was ready to get down to business. In recent weeks a lot was on my mind, especially after an interview that felt incredibly frosty and some other work related things so I got busy in OBS with the new layout. I didn’t plan to write bars live and it was the first time doing so using a word processor on the mac rather than phone or paper but it felt incredibly fluid. It made me question why I hadn’t tried it previously. The split screen on the apps too. Man that was dope when I think back to how it went down. I think I just love how the stream captured all of the ideation in real time especially around the hook and the arrangement of it regarding how it evolved.

On a very old hard drive I found a video of me attempting to film myself making beats for YouTube back in 2011. I think my Mac had like 4GB of RAM back then and was hella slow so even if I knew about software to record the screen and edit in the bootleg copy of Final Cut Pro X at the time, I’d be waiting a helluva long time for the renders. I recall waiting about 24hrs one time hence why I didn’t pursue the direction of video when it came to Up In The Ear and the Canon 550D.

Going through my archive in general really reminded me of how far I’ve ventured on my journey and how powerful self belief in your vision is. I literally got up out the mud and worked my ass off, investing in self with no help or handout and practicing on honing my craft for hours on end to get to where I’m at today. I’m still learning all these years later. The secret code is consistency and dispelling any self doubt that one may have. You have believe in yourself and share your passion enough to inspire you to keep going because ultimately that’s how you get better.

This session was the catalyst for putting everything in perspective in regards to my day job and my moonlighting because when my energy had been going in the direction of the day job, I’d lost sight of my passion and hadn’t allocated enough time for it but that stopped when I was reminded of the fact of what my priority has always been. Never lose sight of your path. Keep striving despite the distractions to settle into the mundane, especially if you were never built for that or cut from that particular cloth.

I think the next part of this session will reflect my perspective and reflections expressed in here but until next time, subscribe to me across the socials…

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The post Khalism Live – Ep.008: Noway (AKAI MPC Live 2 x Logic Pro X) first appeared on Where Is KO?.