Ambient Acid Techno: Raging Bull

Ok, here it is. The first of one of the two new tracks. This one isn't entirely new, because it is actually the last track that I posted a few weeks ago as a work in progress.

I changed so much of this track however, that it really is a new piece. This one is much more technoy and features a nice little bubbly acidline, with counter point digital synths. I added a new more rolling bassline and developed the middle section of the piece into a more relaxing break from the begining half of the track.

Raging Bull
.:Lofi:.

.:Hifi:.

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Despite a Bad Start the Day Was Successful

Well, despite a rather frustrating morning (read below) the day actually ended up being extremely productive (musically that is). I spent about four hours this afternoon writing and re-writing some material and then about two hours this evening recording the two new tracks. I'm actually surprised at how quickly I got the tracks recorded. It only took about three takes for each track. For those who don't know about audio recording three takes is a surprisingly short time.

I have the tracks recorded to minidisc, so hopefully they should be up sometime Monday after I get back to my apartment and put them onto the computer.

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Ahh!!! I Just Ruined It!!!!!!!!

Well......After working on a song for about three hours and finally coming up with something that I found useful I accidentally just ruined the song. I am sure everyone has done this with some project at least once in their life.

You have something that looks our sounds pretty good, but you can't leave it alone. You just have to poke and prod at it trying to extract a little something more. Then BOOM!!!! Everything blows up in your face.

In my case I accidentally hit song mode or something on my EMU Command Station changing all of the synth and percussion sounds I had so carefully programmed in into something else. Thankfully all of the patterns I wrote are still there, but now I have to re-program the sounds from scratch.

Here is some good advice for life. Always hit the save button.

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Selling my Roland SP-808

Ok, I am planning on selling my SP-808. The thing is just frustrating me beyond belief. While I love the effects on the thing, the sequencer is just a nightmare.

So I am in the market for a new sampler. I sort of wanna keep the price in the $500 or less range. Anyone have any tips?

I know a lot of people really like the the Korg ESX-1 for live. Another option I am considering is the Roland SP-404. Now, while the demos look great online I am weary of purchasing another SP coming fresh off of my nightmare experience with the SP-808. It does look to have some great features though and with the small size and ability to have upto a 1Gb smartcard it is very appealing. It even allows me to still be able to do the drone loops.

I have never been a hardcore sampler so options of spending a little less for an old SU700, ES-1 or something are certainly open. I suppose I should go for the more sampling memory to grow into though.

I know someone will probably ask what will I be using the sampler for. To be honest, I am not really sure. Probably a little bit of everything. My 808 was so frustrating that I manily used to for drone loops and ambient noise and just could not wrap my head around the sequencer on the thing.

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Samplecity.net Is Closed. An Era Ends.

Today is a slightly sad day. Samplecity.net has offically announced that it is closing its doors for good. Samplecity was one of the first music production communities that I was a part of and really became involved with. I have learned more from that site and made more friends online then through any other source. It really has made me the producer and artist that I am today. It will sorely be missed.

Quote from the site:
Bow your heads folks. After years and years of good times on samplecity.net we had a catastrophic HD failure and lost everything. Since I do not really have much time for SC these days there were no backups (there was one 1 year old

So, say goodbye gents (and females) and give each other a pat on the back for all the good times, music shared, and production skills learned.

There are several former members of Samplecity and .:Serious-Sounds:. who are trying to round up the people we knew as well as some of the more active members of Samplecity. Many of the users at .:Serious-Sounds:. were also members of Samplecity and most of the staff considered Samplecity to be our sister site. This is a sad day because a great music community is closing. If you happen to know members from Samplecity please pass the word on. Lets try to keep those contacts that we have made over the years intact. If you or anyone is intrested in re-creating the community direct them to .:Serious-Sounds:.

Maybe Serious-Sounds can help re-build the community that was lost and help take what was once two worlds and make it one.

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So why did I quit making music with software?

I have a lot of people ask me these days "Why did you quit making music with software?"

Well, a lot of my points can be extracted from my previous post .:Are We Utilizing Our Gear to its Fullest?:.

I have found that for me personally the unlimited choices and opportunities afforded by software has actually stunted my creative abilities. Instead of learning the tools that I had, I continually fell back on presets instead of trying to create new sounds. When I looked back at the tools I used I might have had 100 synths, but in actuality I had probably thousands of pre-sets.

The simple process of just sorting through prests is an extremely time consuming process. As you can imagine, this did not lend itself to very a efficient production schedule.

Not only did the sheer amount of tool options become distracting but the computer itself becam distracting. Internet, email, blogs, Stumbleupon. I just could not operate in that atmosphere. While the 2" LCD screen of my Command Station is not the most intresting thing in the world, it is more intresting then my wall and it forces me to concentrate on the audio and not the visual aspect of the process.

I have found that my hardware setup, while "limited" in sound possibilities has actually made me more efficent. I have learned that I work better with a tactile control interface, being able to play the instruments, rather then simply program them. Electronic musicians have often recieved a lot of criticism because most of the songs these days are simply created on the computer and then exported from the project file. Many people feel the musciality is lost.

While I personally don't neccisarily share these thoughts, there is a certain amount of satisfaction that comes from having to actually sit down and record the tracks that I make, while playing the instruments instead of simply hitting "render".

While I find more creativity and personal appeal in using hardware over software, I understand that each person works differently. I do dabble on occasion with some software for 8-bit music creation, namely the .:Raster Tracker:. Raster Tracker stays consistant with my personal philosophy of simplicity and minimalism in music creation.

I encourage all of the producers out there however to try not to be one minded in your production tools. Remember, there is no "one best way" to the creation of music. Look at music creation with an open mind and an open heart. Find your own path and find what works for you.

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911 Loose Change: Dylan Avery

This is a must watch video for every American out there. An in depth exploration demonstrating the conspiracy, flaws and coincidences behind the 911 tragedy. The video is about 120 minutes long, but I ask that you please sit through this or download the video for your own viewing. I think you might learn something.

Pandora: The Music Genome Project

.:Pandora.com:.

It is hard to descibe what exactly this site is, because it really is something so new. Basically a bunch of artists got together and broke down thousands of songs and artists to determine their genome.

From this they have setup a website that allows you to input a song or artist you like, and based on the genome characteristics it will reccomend to you other songs and artists that you will like. You then can create playlists based on the song or musical characteristics that you find appealing. As you can see from the above picture, I entered a search for Orbital, and it is now guiding me through perspective artists that share similar qualities. The listener can then vote on whether or not they like the song that is being heard.

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On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.

Over the past 5 years, we've carefully listened to the songs of over 10,000 different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.

It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy - but now that we've created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe
.:Music Genome Project:.

Oblique Strategizing: Insight into Breaking the Creative Roadblock

A Primer On Oblique Strategizing:

I am sure as artists we have all come across those points in time where we creatively, physically or spiritually are exhausted. You find yourself sitting in front of your music gear, easel, or whatever looking at it as if you have never seen it before.

I have recently discovered a fascinating little deck of cards developed by Brian Eno and his friend Peter Schmidt. This deck of cards is a collection of sayings, thoughts and ponderings to help break the creative roadblock and get one thinking again.

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"The deck itself had its origins in the discovery by Brian Eno that both he and his friend Peter Schmidt (a British painter whose works grace the cover of 'Evening Star' and whose watercolours decorated the back LP cover of Eno's 'Before and After Science' and also appeared as full-size prints in a small number of the original releases) tended to keep a set of basic working principles which guided them through the kinds of moments of pressure - either working through a heavy painting session or watching the clock tick while you're running up a big buck studio bill. Both Schmidt and Eno realized that the pressures of time tended to steer them away from the ways of thinking they found most productive when the pressure was off. The Strategies were, then, a way to remind themselves of those habits of thinking - to jog the mind."
Source .:Strategic Aquisitions:.

There were three original versions of the deck, all released in a limited number to Eno's and Schmidt's friends. You can .:purchase:. a new edition from Brian Eno's website.

Alternatively you can find online versions of the deck at .:Hyperreal.org:.
or as a Mac OSX widget .:Here:.