Upcoming Events and Projects for M.A.S.

Just to let people know how things are coming along in the world of M.A.S. I have decided to post some ideas that I have floating in my head, as well as the plans I hope to accomplish for this coming Fall.

Graduate school is inevitably beginning again within the next couple of weeks and I am moving to a new apartment to setup shop. Time will be incredibly short this coming autumn in regards to available free time I will have to work. I do have several ideas that I would like to either begin and get accomplished for this fall.

First; I plan to finish recording individual tracks from my Dynamic Interplay Project to release as a net CD. I originally planned to release these tracks as a "hard copy" CD only, with no net release at all. However, financial constraints, personal beliefs and a myriad of other factors have led to decide to release the tracks as a net release for free download. The tracks are all written and composed, they just simply need to be recorded and mixed for final net release.

The record will most likely be a "double disc". I will design the release as well as the accompanied artwork into seventy four minute sections to allow users to download and burn the tracks to CD and print up the artwork themselves. In essence the release will be easily made into a real CD if the user so chooses. Of course they can just burn it all to their mp3 player as well.

Second; I plan to begin publishing digital artwork again, once I have my own computer up and running. I know the artwork section has been very lacking in regards to content. This is because I had this website fully up and running last May. Unfortunately this was about the same time that I had to again move and I have not setup my computer for the past three months. At the beginning of September, my computer and internet connection will be once again up and functional, allowing me to update the media side of this site much more frequently.

If anyone remembered from last spring, I had plans to do an art show and multimedia event, combining my artwork and music. This is a project I would still like to do, but it is currently being suspended.

Third; If time allows I plan to begin a new, yet to be named, music project based around 8-bit music. This new project will be computer based and not initially intended for a Live project. It may become one depending on the hardware and software options available to me at a later date, but I already have another 8-bit livepa project I hope to pursue using Nanoloop next year sometime. This new 8-bit project will have songs that focus on vocal music rather then purely instrumental songs. The overall aesthetic has yet to be worked out, but I expect to begin work on new tracks for this project towards mid-September.

After I work out the details for this project I will post an update to this website with information regarding the project's name, its goals, the aesthetic, as well as links to music. I will of course also post all of the information regarding the tools I am using for this project as well. They are after all Freeware production tools, as is everything I use.

Depending on the time frame that I am allowed to work in you will most likely see songs from this project begin to appear in October. This is due to the fact that I want to explore some new production tools and techniques as well as dive into the vocal arena; something which I have never done before.

Until then, I will continue to record and mix down tracks from the Dynamic Interplay Project and release information regarding those tracks. Look to see information about that album release within the next couple of weeks.

I will also continue to post regular updates in the "Music Production" section of this website regarding music hardware, music software and livepa acts.

Site Update: Live Set mp3's added.

I have added links to three of my livesets as performed by Dynamic Interplay. The links can be found on the sidebar to the right under "Live Music".

Please note, that all of the live sets are 128 kbps mp3's or higher. I have set the links up for direct linking to the mp3 files. If you are on a slow connection and try to stream these files then you may run into significant buffering problems.

Please feel free to download the sets and listen as you wish.

New Production Tutorials in the Q&A Section.

I have posted two tutorials that I wrote in the Q&A section covering compression, side chain compressors, and noise gates.

Each tutorial is designed to teach individuals alternative ways in which to approach the use of compressors and noise gates in their music. For example, a compressor is commonly used to limit a threshold range within music. The goal of this is to of course create a a more uniform space for the sounds within a musical piece. There is so much more that can be done with a compressor though. It can be utilized as a distortion plugin, it can create a "ducking" effect, or it can be used to create IDM style beats.

The Noise Gate tutorial was written largely due to the fact that noise gates are commonly used in conjunction with compressors. Noise Gates are useful for limiting audio output when a certain threshold is met.

The third article covers sidechain compression. This is the most misunderstood use of a compressor, but is probably the most fun to use in electronic music.

I hope you enjoy.

Dynamic Interplay Geologic Liveset Now Online!!!!

I now have my live set recorded from Geologic online. There are two new songs featured in this set that have not been heard anywhere else before: The opening track and the second to last track. The entire set is about 70 minutes long and was recorded via minidisc on July 17th at the Geologic Festival in Murphysburo Illinois.

Thanks to the magic of Archive.org there are several file versions available.
you can stream it via: 64Kbps or Vbr

you can also download the track in:

64Kbps MP3
VBR MP3
192Kbps MP3
Ogg Vorbis
and Zip

the original file was uploaded at 192kbps.

.:Download the set:.

Liveset from Geologic coming soon.

I have ran into some technical difficulties transferring my recorded live set from Geologic to the computer. It appears that my Mini-disc does not transfer via USB. I will have to manually record through the audio out onto my computer a 70 minute live set. To make matters worse I do not have my computer up and running. I will have to record it onto another computer, with recording software I am not familiar with and then try to transfer it over.

This is going to be a headache, I can feel it already.

Back From Geologic.

Well I'm back from Geologic. Wow, well where to begin.

First off it was a good event, but the conditions were really rough.

90+ degrees, on and off rain, super muggy, muddy, no running water, 6 hour drive. I was wet for 3 days straight due to heat, humidity, and pouring water on myself. I planned for this and went through 9 pairs of socks and shirts in 3 days.

The event was a lot of fun and the artists were really great. We got there around 4:00 on Friday, pitched our tent in Camp Pink Flamingo where many of the other artists were pitched as well. The camp was at the top of the hill. The whole stage/area was basically a 800 foot drop spiraling down into a cave area.

Our camp was right next to the chillout stage, which was good meaning I could actually get some sleep.

The Goa stage was in the cave and the IDM stage was at another encampment near an abandoned bus and shed. It was cool because they had the line scribbled on a torn up cardboard box saying; "Ghetto ass IDM lineup"

they then ran out of room on the page going downwards and wrote the last 5 artists (including myself) sideways in the margin. Hilarious, but I didn't get a picture of it unfortunately.

On Sat, people partied so hard Friday night that they were collapsed in the heat on Saturday. Looked like homeless people. The heat was so bad that everyone gathered in the cave to stay cool, but were all sleeping with 12,000 watts of Psytrance and Goa blaring.

Saturday night was good, not as many people dancing however because everyone over partied the night before. The IDM had a good showing this night because everyone wanted to just chillout in their chairs with tiki lamps, getting high and so forth.

Monday was again hot, humid and overcast. I got up early, packed up my stuff and then headed down to play my set. Ironically when I got there no one was playing. The artist supposed to be in the IDM stage was bumped to the main stage, so I started early. I got about 1hr30mins to play which was nice.

It started to rain right when I finished up so I packed up quickly and then go out of there for the nice long 6 hour drive back to Chicago.

I will post again with pictures later tonight and with a recording of my set later this week hopefully after I transfer it off of MD.

Post any Q's u got.

Geologic July 15th-17th. Only 7 days away.

Just a reminder that Geologic is coming up 7 days. I will be performing on the Chillout/IDM stage from 9am-10am Sunday July 17th.

It is located at
Shawnee Saltpetre Cave Natural Amphitheater
3747 Highway 127Murphysboro, IL 62966
GPS coordinates: Latitude 37.652625 degrees N Longitude -89.321541 degrees W

Details can be found at .:http://chilluminati.org:.

Tickets are only $30 up until July 13th, and then are $55 at the gate.
Pictures of the venue can be found here: http://touchsamadhi.com/gallery/Shawnee-cave

Hope to see you there.

Everything Back to Normal

Well thank goodness everything is back to normal. Blogger has been on their toes and actually fixed a problem in a timely fashion!!! Who would have known that was possible?

In case anyone is curious what the problem was in regards to how many blogs were being messed up, or if you need to fix your own blog, the Blogger staff has posted information at the following links:

http://status.blogger.com/

http://buzz.blogger.com/2005/06/layout-solutions.html

Formatting Problems

As you can see there are some formatting issues with my blog. Blogger has suddenly changed its API coding, and this has messed things up significantly for my blog.

I have thrown in a temporary fix, which now centers the posts, they were about 4 feet down the page before, so at least everything is readable.

I will try to find out what the problem is as soon as I can.

UPDATE: Blogger has stated that they recognize the problem and they are working on it. Status.Blogger.com I am going to temporarily refrain from making any adjustments or postings until the problem is resolved by blogger. I dont want to screw up my templete anymore then it is, and I have to wait to see how blogger responds.

Thanks for being patient.