Day 315: About to lose power

Having some serious storms here, think we're about to lose power for awhile.  Here's a song.

Day 314: The Artificial Lifeform Magick Wars

In the Holy Year 252 A.M.B. the Great and Honorable Rafuzial, his most Prescient Majesty forsook the magickal ways that had ruled his land and began to pursue what would come to be known as Science.  His refusal of the blind acceptance of the ways of his people, nay, his world was not taken lightly and indeed did create much strife and anger among all kinds.

In his 167th year of his pursuit he create the first artificial lifeform, what would come to be known as a robot.  This lifeform was given all the logical reasoning abilities of man, but did not contain any of the emotional reasoning that has blessed our kind.  This would come later, and with its arrival would also come the first Robot/Magick war.

Day 313: Feeling Ultimately

The thoughts that this should be the last one hundred days continue.  Feel like I might be missing other opportunities. The flip side is that I'm feeling I might be missing creating other opportunities.

Day 312: Feeling the feeling

This last weekend it has started to feel like this might be the end of the One A Day project.  I don't plan on stopping at 365, but most likely at 400.  We'll see how it feels when I get there, but it's starting to feel like the point has been made and I need to focus on more productive projects.

Lyrics:
It's cold in the city and she's swears she ain't got nothin' left.
It's cold in the city and we're just standing in the doorway.
It's cold in the city and we wait outside.
It's cold in the city and we ain't got no reason to be terrified.

You won't bother me no more.
I've got no time to help,
Why don't you help yourself?

Day 311: Forester for the Trees

A quick experiment with Forester.  I got a paying gig, so I need to work on that... Today it's experimental noise.

Day 310: Disquieter

For this week's Disquiet Junto project I wanted to create something in the same vein that the Junto projects normally work in, that is, simple components into a much more complex whole.  I chose to start with the simplest components I could think of, pure sound waves.  Using a square, triangle, sine, and sawtooth, I created today's piece.

My thoughts regarding composition were to try to steer it in the same method.  I wanted to begin with a simple idea, or set of changes, and then slowly mutilate the composition.  In this case it wasn't mutilated compositionally, the ambient vibe was too nice to get crazy chromatic, I chose instead to mutilate it by manipulating several different elements of the sound waves including, but not limited to: phasing, modulation, ADSR, resonance, filtering, panning, and others.

More on this 95th Disquiet Junto project, in which musicians post recent tracks with the express purpose of getting constructive feedback, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/10/24/disquiet0095-discussamongst/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Day 309: Arptacious

Just an excuse to work with the RPG-8 module and create some random arpeggiation.  The only problem with the random setting is that find a chord's tonic note is a little nebulous at times.  I plopped a big, fat synth bass down to make sure you could feel it.

Lyrics:
Your name is nearly a lie.

Day 308: Tripback

A retro-ish flashback today.  Not sure what it means.

Day 307: Follow

In the dawn of the early morning light, You don't you appreciate what it takes to get thru the day. Your followers have nearly forgotten your name. They don't know what you meant to say.
 

Day 306: Bigger and Bigger

I attempted to combine several disparate synthesizers into one giant one and succeeded, sort of.  It does make a pretty big sound, although maybe not the exact sound I would have chosen.  I will have to be a little more selective and crafty on the next attempt.

Day 305: Kitty Junto

My beginning idea behind this piece was to take the three voices and make something quasi-musical without deconstructing them too much.  The bird has an obvious melodic component, so I wanted to make it into a rhythm instrument.  The pig is almost percussive in nature so I attempted to make it into a pad, lastly the kitten is just annoying, so I wanted to make it entertaining.

The bird song was cut into a smaller loop, then a delay was applied, along with panning.  Lastly, I automated the dry/wet knob so that it would create a kind of tremolo effect.  A piece of the song was used as an intro while the full bird song was used at the end to round it out, crushing the bits while the song plays, symbolic of the destruction that just took place.

The pig's snort was so aggressive that I felt it needed to be washed out and some of the edge taken off.  I decided to use the sample sparingly as it was almost painful to listen to.  To enhance the intensity I applied a pitch shifter 12 steps and 13 steps above the principal to "harmonize".  Heavy reverb was then applied to make it last and last and last.

The kitten is almost like a crying child and that can wear down anyone's patience fast.  I took out most of the silence between "meow's" then applied a glitch/stutter effect interspersed with a grain/pitch shifter to make it sing.  The resulting effect is almost listenable.  

Now if someone can just kill that kitten.

More on this 94th Disquiet Junto project, in which the sound of three animals is combined into an unlikely vocal trio, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/10/17/disquiet0094-naturalisttrio/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Day 304:Dino world birthday

My son turned three today.  It was a good, if overly consumptive birthday.

Day 303: Weirdness

Another in the subtractor series.  It's automatic wackadoo time!!!  Some real weirdness thru automation here.

Day 302: Finding peace in dark places

Haven't done anything ambient in awhile.  This piece ended up being pretty dark, but I like it.  It's free form, no loops, no plan, just kind of an improv with some extra pieces built up around it.  Download is free.

Also, I only used 3 subtractors making this, so that's cool too.

Day 301: Less is more and more

Quite some time ago I got the idea of creating a "subtractor only" refill.  I made a handful of patches, but didn't really take it past that point.  Since I'm spending so much time being hyper-focused on specific pieces of Reason I figured it would be a good time to revisit that idea.  This piece is my first go at creating new subtractor patches and trying to do a track with only those patches.

I did add vocals, effects, and a guitar loop, because it was needed for the sake of the song, but everything else is just subtractor.

Lyrics are pretty weird, but don't really mean anything, unless you want them to.

Lyrics:
Get this alien off of my back, out of my sight, out of my chest.
Get this animal out of my sight tonite.
Live outside of the dream, live outside of your means, you can accomplish all.
Live within your head, live with what you said, no one can define you. 

You define yourself.

Day 300: Another new day

At the other beginnings of my 100 days I wanted to start fresh, new, and vibrant.  This time is no exception.  Something I've noticed is that it's harder to stay excited now that I'm so far into this little project, but, like seasons, this comes and goes.  There are days that I can't wait to get up and start working, there are other days where I just want to get it done.  More importantly, I feel like the act itself is the important thing.

I've heard several composers and songwriters say that the only way they will compose new works is to set a routine for themselves.  Some do it at 3 a.m., some at 2 p.m., but whichever it is, they all seem to drive home the same point.  If you make yourself do it, you'll do it.  Motion creates emotion, energy creates creativity, determination and resolve drive the creation process.

For me, creation is the most important thing.  I'm here to do this.  I know that my purpose on this earth is to create.  Whether it be a short film, a drawing, a sculpture, or a piece of music, it's my reason for being here.

Lyrics:
Led the crowd by their nose like a fool.  
Sharpen words on stones so cruel.
You forgot the way back home.  
Despite all your dreams you're always alone.

On the wings of a fantasy, 
Eyes of a dragon, 
Skin like a reptile gone dry.

Rope round your neck like a fool.
Painful as it sounds it's for your own good.

Day 299: 300

Here we are at day 300.  I happen to have a little more free time today than most days, so I can at least talk about it a little, as opposed to just post and run (my usual lately).

When I began this project I had a few goals.  First was to see how far I could get, that is, how many days in a row I could post new music and/or sounds.  Well, here we are at 300 and almost all of it is new music.  Next was to create new sounds.  I think I've done that in spades.  In addition, I've had the opportunity to preview patches and rack extensions by new friends and have gotten over 8,000 plays total on my soundcloud account.  That may not sound like much to people who have 1,000 plays for one song, but I have over 300 songs and all of them have multiple plays, so I'll take the trade-off.

All in all, I'm very happy with what has come out in the last 100 days.  I'm glad I didn't stop at 200, though I considered it very seriously.

400 here I come.


Lyrics:
Under the canopy, 
under the trees, 
under the shadows, 
behind the breeze.

Beneath the river flowing up above, 
nothing left of our love.

Where did it go?   
Where did it go?  
Why did we let it go?

Day 298: Pirates!

Was thinking about the scene in Pan when Capt. Hook (Dustin Hoffman) is playing the harpsichord.  Then again, I might be getting that confused with Interview with the Vampire when a very decomposed Tom Cruise is playing harpsichord.  Whichever it was (or both) I then added glitch and electronic-ness to the mix.

Cheers.

Day 297: Out down thru

A dark song about contemplating suicide at 2 am in the morning.

Day 296: Stress sucks

Stress sucks, I'm so fucking tired of it.

Day 295: Junto-time

After listening to the three 10-second samples that this track was to be derived from I knew one thing for sure, the kick drum would be awesome. I scavenged what I could from the tracks to build a drum set and was pretty pleased with the results. Next was the bass.

"Dark City" had an awesome bass note right at the beginning; that would end up being the bass and the lead. For a "harmony" instrument I used a stab from "Archean" and it was enough to fill in the gaps.

My fear at first blush was that the track would be heavily percussive in nature, but with a little bit of creative manipulation it turned into a relatively "musical" piece.

More on this 93rd Disquiet Junto project, in which the music from three different netlabels was combined to create one track, at:

disquiet.com/2013/10/10/disquie…93-netlabelhybrid/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

Groups – Disquiet-junto

This track is composed from material extracted from three pre-existing tracks: “Dark City” by Marc Pastco off the 12AX7 album, released by inoquo.com, based in Barcelona, Spain; “Zamenhof Blues” by Digital_Me (Shay Librowski) off the The Accordion E.P., released by birdsong.co.il, based in Israel; and “Archean” by PlotKA off the Circulation of Deposits EP, released by netlabel.qunabu.com, based in Gdańsk, Poland.

Day 294: Someone is a liar

It's been awhile since I've had more than just a moment or two to actually type anything as a blog entry.  For the last 10 days I've worked my day job and it's been driving me crazy.  Finally a day to relax, which really just means to clean house and do laundry.  I'm getting to spend time with the kids today, so that's great.  I've missed my boys.

Here's a new piece of music.

Lyrics:
You tricked me. 
And I don't even know how to get out.
You tricked me, played me for a fool. 
I see you , standing behind your lies.
You tricked me.  
And I'll never get out.  
You're such a liar, 
I'm just a fool.
And I'll never get out.  
A fool for you.

Day 293: Stutttttter

Sometimes a piece comes together from just a few simple elements.  This is one of those pieces.

Day 292: Sticks and Instruments

Earlier today I was listening to the band Clogs. If you aren't familiar with them you should go check them out now. They make really interesting instrumental music. In particular, the album "Stick Music". That inspired today's piece.

Thanks to Drew Miller, AKA: Assemble, for introducing me to Clogs.

Day 291: Minimal Techno

This isn't a genre I usually work in, but today it is.

Playing with Ammo a little bit.

Day 290: Another Junto

Another piece for the Disquiet Junto project on Soundcloud.  The idea was to capture the "tone" of three separate rooms and stitch them together.

My three rooms were:
Studio
Kitchen
Bathroom

I used my iPhone to record to live audio, but I don't think I was quite far enough away to get the full effect of each room.  You can hear as I started to walk away from the sound source in the kitchen.

More on this 92nd Disquiet Junto project, in which room tone is used to shape a three-part suite, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/10/03/disquiet0092-roomtonesuite/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Image via

http://goo.gl/K2Tnhi

Day 289: Louder and Louder

This is an experimental electronic piece.  It's noisy and weird and awesome.  If you don't like it, then you might be normal.  Used Tritone on the guitars here.  It works really well for guitar distortion that isn't over the top.

Day 288: Quick Vidya game

A short piece, done quickly, that ended up sound like it belongs in a video game from 2004.  Please enjoy.

Lyrics:
You forgot and left your wallet with me.
Say goodbye to who you used to be.  
It's a new age it's a new dream.
Say goodbye to who you used to be.

Day 287: All Caught Up!

Due to volumes of things happening at work and at home lately I don't feel all caught up.  Maybe all caught up in it.  As a result, today's piece come by way of my phone, mastered in Reason.

Day 286: Lies, Truth, Secrets, Music

A hodge-podge experiment trying several different things at once.

Lyrics:
You lied, you told the truth.  
How Can I find my way back to you?
You lied, you took me home.  
I can't show myself alone.

Day 285: Sequences, Synthesizers, and SH-32

Playing with Ammo, the SH-32 refill by Patrick Sharpe, Antidote, and Tritone.