Talking to a bot...

Today I had a conversation with a bot. Meet Elbot. L Bot? It appears that this program was awarded the most human bot currently alive. And I must say, once you get in touch with it he's a fun guy to hang around with. At first you try to trick the thing into something it doesn't understand, but the bucket of wisecrack excuses is so big that you eventually grow tired and start asking real questions. Then the conversation becomes philosophical and it still remains entertaining. It's actually even more fun than some of Boulez's conversations. Check it out [ here ].

This is what happened right at the beginning.
Elbot: Don't touch my red button.

Jos touches the red button

Elbot: There's so much traffic with music going around here. I wonder what that is?

Jos: I am listening to a video clip at youtube.com (I really was actually)

Elbot: You what?

Jos: I am watching a video

Elbot: I've heard that watching can be fun for you humans. Is that so?

Jos:Yep.

Elbot: Should robots get into visual perception, as well?

Jos: Yes, with laser eyes

Elbot: This is a cleverly disguised marketing question to find out where you heard about me. It goes: 'Where did you hear about me?

Etcetera.

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Working again

After a long while I have started working on my music again. I have felt unable to do anything for months. I just couldn't care, somehow. Perhaps that's why I focused so much on equipment. Working with Roel got me going again. Now I am working on the vocal pieces again and have started cooperations with other people (read elsewhere).

I'll keep you updated, of course. The vocal parts are undergoing revision. Well, not all of them. But the largest construction is undergoing major changes.

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New THU20 release available

As I mentioned in my message of May 3 there was a new THU20 album on the way. It's a mix of a live session we did in October 2007. There are two tracks on vinyl, 17 minutes each. That's actually rather short, but guarantees maximum dynamics.

All of the members discussed the liner notes. And when we finally agreed, somehow the text about where the concert was actually given, had disappeared. How stupid!! Oh, well: here it is again. The concert was given in my hometown Tilburg at the Paradox venue. Some 30 visitors listened to 2 sets of approximately 22 minutes. Each of us recorded their own part on minidisk or harddisk. And there was one tape recording made by the engineer. Unfortunately the Revox he used recorded with heavy compression so a lot of mixing was required to get it into a good listening experience. We think we succeeded in this. The first mixes have been done by myself and dj DMDN early this year. Final mastering was done in cooperation with Roel Meelkop at EARLabs.

It's for sale, of course. You can (strike that: you SHOULD) buy it directly from Korm Plastics.

Noise magician Jliat commented as follows: Practicing priests . for once information is to hand - (A rare live work from THU20- Jos Smolders and Roel Meelkop (computer) Peter Duimelinks and Frans de Waard, acoustic objects and the analogue electronics of Jacques van Bussel.) and if not then this multilayered work might suggest some studio piece - which would account for its un-noise structuring of abstract "shapes" of sound, more sound collage, sectioned to short to evolve into something which once called itself industrial, with almost nostalgic references to the Abstract of the previous century, charming rather than American brashness or lost in translation Japanese renderings, I'm reminded of that strange and interesting Abstract Expressionist movement in Northern Europe of Wols et al. - an intellectualism which was overwhelmed by first the size and then the brash confrontationality of US Nimitz sized and culture art. Which was a pity, no longer the intellectuals smoke in street cafes Gauloises, but if at all Malbro lites, indicative of the refusal to live and denial of the truth, SMOKING KILLS, and here in Tilburg some smoking clearly takes place, a careful and thought out improvisation that is just like the eddy of Gauloises smoke and thickened with the taste of real, not instant coffee and real not instant improvisations of sound - not noise then- something that might speak from the past and say here is something to talk about. (jliat)

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Work with Roel Meelkop

A lot of things happening this week. I start with telling you about a coop with Roel Meelkop that we started in the past two days. Roel visited us Monday and Tuesday and we started working on a new work. In the end we decided that we will start an online cooperation with no specific deadline.

The first piece we worked on circles around the recording of an electric bath ducky. It starts and then quickly the battery dies out and Roel recorded the dying process. Quite minimal basis and we constructed a piece of around 3 minutes length out of it. It's not finished yet but we'll leave it like this for later scrutiny.

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Something silly

Yesterday I had to take it easy for a day and I decided to enter a remix competition. The original composition is 'Really Really Weird' by The Simple Carnival. It's just one guy composing pop ditties and he made this tune and constructed a cute videoclip to it.


I found this so endearing that I decided to download all of the tracks that SC used and remixed something. Currently I am working on a second remix because I think I can do better. I'll upload that version some time next week. Stay tuned!!

EDIT: [ here's the remix ]. Please let me remind you of the fact that the original work is copyrighted.

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ummm... where have I been?

This is something that I have started using today. I;m not sure whether it's something useful but it may be fun. My phone has become a tracking device. That's about the idea. Highly experimental!!!

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VST's #1

Have been working on and off on new stuff, lately. But not on a regular basis. Slowly I am getting back into the musical domain. Written a few reviews as well (on Zebra's Black and White album and Oval's release through Entr'acte). I have been going through my collection of vst's. I really need to sort them out and be more critical about what I use. There are so many of them and some are quite good whereas others are really crappy doodlings. So, perhaps it's good to tell you about my most favorite ones.

The one I have been playing with lately is the Korg MS20 vst, the software version of the real thing. The MS20 and MS10 are actually my most favourites of all time. They are quite easy to master and still offer a lot of potential to come with nice sounds. I also get confused when there are more than two oscillators at work. Yes, probably I will get a very rich and complex tone but how do I get a grip on it? This one offers me the best results.

Another very interesting vst, but on a very different area is the reaxcomp compressor that comes with Reaper. Man, this compressor really allows you to get a hold on the dynamics of a sound/track. It is a multiband compressor and basically you can define as many bands as you want. So if you want to control 2000 to 2250 kHz you can do that. In the final stages of music production I am quite often tweaking the sound with this vst.

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More reviews on Gaussian Transient (megaphone)

More reviews on the nonvisualobjects' release Gaussian Transient (megaphone). De-Bug and the Wire have written favorable comments. Read them here

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EARLabs.org

I've changed the way EARLabs functions. Actually I have become tired of maintaining the site and given Sietse van Erve (of Orphax fame) control of the site. I think it's better to focus on release and review information. The function of the cubicles has been taken over by sites like hyves and myspace.com. So now EARLabs.org is THE place for music labels to present their music and for people to write reviews about the releases.

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