Matthew Supert

I have become increasingly frustrated with my musical endeavors as of late. I just cannot seem to come up with any ideas creatively. I sit in front of my gear staring at it as if it was brand new and I never have used it before. I cant seem to kick myself in the butt to really get something going musically.

This problem could be for the fact that I am at a pinnacle point of change. I am going to graduate college in about a month, and I'm changing schools across the state to go to graduate college. I'm fairly stressed about this I must admit, and worried about my work load for the next year or so.

I've decided musically I want to pursue some albums and have those pressed and released independently. This I believe is what I want to focus on for the next year or so musically. I'm thinking of limiting my net releases of songs because of this fact and maybe try to recoup some of the vast expenses I have undertaken for this joyous hobby of mine.

I suppose we will see where the dice fall. It is best not to force creativity when it isn't needed. It will come back in due time. Lets just hope sooner rather then later.

Well our cable Tv went out at my house this evening. You should hear how quiet it is here. It is quite amazing how dependant people seem to be on TV. Most of my family is roaming around the house trying to figure something to do with themselves.
I suggested a board game and no one seemed to be to keen on that idea. Quite amazing at how empty our lives seem if we aren't focused around the TV. The family gathering of the evening is actually a gathering around the glowing tube of doom.

I suppose I'm being slightly hypocritical though, I mean after all Im sitting infront of a computer typing this because the TV is out. If the internet was down to I would probably be just as lost as the rest of my family seems to be at the moment.

I have come to realize over the past few months that my current musical prospects with M.A.S. Productions, and my current music methods of working have come to a stalemate. I think I am currently sapped dry of creative ideas with my current musical project as M.A.S. Productions.

I have decided to wrap up a few pieces with the M.A.S. Productions moniker, namely the Classica series and one more track tentatively named AWE.

I am going to change directions musically over the next few months to year and concentrate more on my live project Dynamic Interplay, and also delve into 8 bit music.

I may leave M.A.S. Productions on hold for the next year or so, or I may retire the moniker under that name indefinitely and continue with new projects under new names. The M.A.S. Productions website will remain the base for all of project outlets, but I will not produce specifically as M.A.S. any longer. Project names will take on their own identities and movements.

I just watched a fascinating documentary on TLC about tattoos and the art and expression of tattooing. My whole life I have been really intrigued by tattoos, and always have been curious as to getting one myself. Fanciful wishing or maybe a dream to think about. We'll have to see.

"Our bodies are the stories of our lives. Every wrinkle, every crease tells a story. Body art is merely a chapter in that story."

University of Illinois, panorama of the Quad. 

This past Saturday I attended my last football game at my University. I will be graduating this December, and moving onto graduate school at a different college.

In all honesty I really can't stand University of Illinois much longer. I hate most of the people here and the attitudes almost everyone has. The emphasis on drinking and getting drunk, the role or importance which is played upon the frat and sorority scene (the Greek system was invented at U of I).

This campus exudes the principle elements which I hate of modern culture. Not only is the drinking and constant desire to inhibit oneself and ever drawing factor on me, but the materialistic nature of most of the students on this campus. I would bet that probably 60% of the 32,000 students here are well off white kids from the Chicago suburbs. Granted I am one of those well off, but they manner in which they present themselves is appalling. The need to wear this trendy clothes and gadgets, the constant shopping, sun-less tanner,streaked hair,mid-riff clothes drives me nuts. I mean what's the point of doing all this when all of the girls on campus look exactly alike?

I love the quotes I get from these people of "I'm being an individual." and individual like everyone else. Its kind of ironic how alternative rock music as now become mainstream.

Another prime example of this shear materialistic imagery is those damned Armstrong bracelets. If your wearing one right now take the damn thing off. There is nothing to be proud of when you donate $1 to cancer research. Do you really think that gives you to the right to walk around and brag?

No. I'm sure most people don't look at it that way either, but these bracelets are being bought not because anyone actually cares about cancer research, but because these bracelets are the latest fashion statement. It gives the illusion of you being a socially active and caring person. I don't see the man or woman who donated $10,000 walking around with a billboard saying they donated 10k to cancer do you?

Anyways, I digress. I suppose after all the things which I hate about this campus, and ultimately this nation I still feel sad for leaving. Singing the alma mater at this past Saturday's football game nearly broke me into tears. This campus is all I have known, and tradition despite what this University has become still plays an important role. U of I was founded in 1867, and the memories, the nostalgia, and the pride which has been created over the years on this campus still remains in the students.

I will greatly miss being a student here, but I know that I will always be an Illini.

I have finally broken my 2 months of writers block. A new song is in the works, I'm probably about 20% complete on it. I'm very excited as it is turning out very well so far.

I have come to realize that in music production, and perhaps in life as well there seems to be two basic camps of people.

Those who think limitations lead to creativity, and those who feel limitless resources lead to creativity. I feel that I fall into the former camp. I find that I work better working within the confines of the resources that I have. A music McGuyver if you will.

It forces me to really learn my tools inside and out and makes me learn the true nature of how they work rather then simply the sound that comes out of the tool. With my view I feel that somehow, the instruments are less disposable then if I were unbound by limitations.

Take for instance the software boom in music production. There are now thousands of software tools available, and hundreds which are completely free. Although this leads to a great diversity of tools to work with, the tools have now become disposable. they are shreds of paper.

Of course I could just be outta mind.

Alright we all know and have heard about compressing your tracks. Compressors generally create a smoother balence between levels in your track and create headroom. Compressors though can be used more then just on mastering channels. If used creatively as effects you can achieve fantastic textures to your sounds. This is a basic tutorial regarding hard compression on percusion tracks. Hard compression is used mainly in two genres respectively.

1. IDM music. classic examples are most of bjork's tracks.

2. techno, and bouncy hard house.

Ill try to explain some of the settings and some tips on how to arrange sample for either of these types of styles. First lets define a compressor.
Compressor is a dynamic processing effect used to reduce dynamics range.
Basically it is an automatic gain control device that will reduce the signallevel when it passes a specific threshold level , and leaving it unchanged if the signal is below the threshold level.

Compressors are one of the most important consideration within a mixand have the same level of approach as an EQ might have since a properuse of a Compressor can make the small/big difference between an amateur unpolished production, to a finished & professional sounding mix !This definition wastaken from the help file of the BGtech compressor, my favorite and the one used in these tutorials.

Lets first begin with the dance hard compression. hard compression with dance is great because you can create a very dead type of sound with the patterns.
with the dance hard compression you want to start out first with a pattern.when creating patterns with hard compression you cant sequence 2 wave files that have high thresholds to be triggered at the same time in a pattern. If this occurs then the compressor will compress them both and neither will be able to stand out in the mix.
ideally what you want to do is sequence your samples in such a way that every 8th note (or 16th note if you want) will have a sample in it being triggered. this creates 2 things from this. 1. You wont have gaps of sound in your pattern, if you do the compressor will emphasize them making them sound all the more "open" 2. the continuous sound with the compressor will create greater contrast as a new sound is triggered. The compressor makes makes the last sound still going seem to "disappear" or cut in a sense (due to it compressing the new threshold) creating a crisper tighter feel. If you need to fill in sapces create ghost hits. These are sanre hi-hat hits that have a very hi-attack rate, and low volume. They are commly used in Dnb and are there not to be heard, but rather to simply fill in dead sapce, create some sound for it.
here's an example of a dance pattern i sequenced out for one of my tracks. Hopefully u can make it out with tracker style sequencing.

if you look yo will see that on track "0" i have kicktrack "5" contains snare hits. both kicks snares and hi-hats tend to have very high threshold levels. so I sequenced all of the snares to not hit at the same time on the kick.
the other samples I nthe other tracks are shakers and some low toned beats. These have lower threshold levels and therfor I could put them on with the other stuff. Naturally with the compression on they are pushed into the background of the pattern.
attached is the audio sample of this pattern un compressed. as you can see right now it doesn't sound all that spectacular

Now it is time to add the compression to the track. The parts. for the real hard compressed sound you want to set your ratio high and the knee to hard. the parts you should play around wit hare the threshold, attack and release times.the threshold will determine at what threshold the compressor will kick in. And the attack relase determine the times for how long it takes for the compression to start and stop once the threshold has been passed.
here is the settings I used for this percusion line.

on this particular pattern I decided to go with a slightly higher attack for the compression b/c I wanted to retain the thud that the kick gives off, but in turn set the release hi so when the sounds go below the threshold the y are still slitghly compressed still. This creates for a dead, but bouncy sorta fee as the compression "waves" between on and off with the kicks of the pattern
attached is what the pattern soudns like compressed.

next we move on to the IDM feel for the hard compression. Much of the same rule apply here as in the dance one.
one important thing though regarding the samples must be done though. To achieve the idm feel you should take your samples into a wav editor and make all the ends of them fade out very quickly. you don't want to cut the decays off, but you want them to stop very suddenly. this crates thud, and clicky type sounds suitable for IDM percusion.
Again for the IDM pattern sequence things out so as high threshold sounds don't trigger at the same time.

here is a very simple pattern.

the main goal for the IDM patterns however is not to focus on the bass sounds, but to instead focus on the higher sounds, the snares, claps hi-hats.
attached is the uncompressed sounds. as you can hear the deepness of the bass completely overshadows the higher sounds.

the goal of the compression for IDM drums is to have very tight quick sounds hits. they also should sound very dry.

with this sample you want to set your attack settings to be very fast, since what we want is not to emphasize the bass but rather the other sounds. So the kicks are heavily compressed and quickly. the release should be fairly high since you don't want the compression to turn off as other sounds are brought in and the thrshold triggering sounds is no longer playing.
the ratio for this compression should be very high!!! As yo you see I practically maxed out my compressor. The part the only allows your real freedom to play and tweak alot is the threshold level for these sounds. The threshold level if you play with it will determine how sounds are compressed. in the case of this sample I set it so most of the kicks are compressed out leaving only a sharp thud type sound.
attached is the result of the very very yhard compression set for the pattern

Well its election day, did you all vote? I did via absentee ballot for John Kerry. Not my ideal choice but he ain't Bush so I suppose I fall into that camp.

In other crazy thoughts some bastard pulled the fire alarm in my building last night at 4:30 am. We all had to evacuate and stand in the rain for an hour. I'd love to deck the guy/girl who did that.

I did have some profound thought which I was planning on posting here, but to be quite honest I totally forgot what it is. I really should write these things down. I suppose ill just post another audio tutorial or something.

yeah.....Ill do that.

sp-808