Reaper 1

For years I have been recording and producing music. My compositional process is quite standard: first I collect material, then I start experimenting with it, combine several results of experiments, rework and let it rest for a couple of months. Then I start working on the provisional result, cutting away stuff, adding new material, reworking other parts. Then another period of rest and then, after another month or so, the final countdown.

That moment, when you consider whether or not the work is done, is crucial. You make that decision based on experience, feeling, compositorial principles. Actually you just decide that you have no more to add to it. You're done.

About a small year ago I encountered software called Reaper. Reaper is developed by Justin Frankel (with the aid of a few others) and released as share ware, but a license costs only 50 dollars or so. Which is really cheap when you consider its potential.
Reaper is actually designed to service (big) commercial studio's. There are tons of shortcuts to make work streamlined.
Say, you need to record a drummer and you have a set up with 8 mics, each with its own sort of mic and each drum requires a tweak with several fx to make it sound better, etc. If you have to set up the tracks to record the drum kit anew with each session that would take half a day. With Reaper you can design a preset for such tracks and add them to the mixer with one move. And there are many other examples to make life easy for a studio engineer. Next to that the quality of the plugins that come with the software are really outstanding. The only setback that I have encountered is that there is no wave editor included. But that's not a real problem as Reaper has its own internal routing system (somewhat like Rewire) with which you can connect your wave editor or any other sound software (like Ableton or Audiomulch) to Reaper. Remember, we're still talking about 50 bucks for a license here. Only when you start making money out of it, you are politely asked to donate 225 dollars for a commercial license.

So, why is this so important to me? First of all: the software taught me a lot about professional audio engineering. It taught me that there's very little rock'n'roll coming with that profession and a lot of open ears, creativity, and hard science. And that triggered me to dive into the world of post production. It also triggered to go one or two steps further with my composition when I am at the point in the process when I say that I'm done with it. Because it cán become better still when you have reached the point where you are done with structure and working on your sound material.

I will talk more about my experiences with postproduction from now on. If you are interested, you can follow along.

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three teasers of Helix

Below are three links to teasers that give an impression of what Helix will sound like. This morning I thought that a suitable subtitle would be: "A crafty mixture of granulations". Perhaps that gives you an idea as well of what is coming.

sjs (1'00")
cj1a (1'05")
cj2 (1'00")

They're all three the first one minute or so of the piece which last approximately 8 or 9 minutes each. The letters refer to the contributors, of course. So sjs is the collaboration between Sascha and Jos, where Sascha delivered the first basic tracks. Cj2 is the second composition made by Chris and Jos.

I tried to do the sound samples with a flashplayer but blogger seems to be unable to accept that code... sorry.

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rework on master Entr'acte

In 2007 I finished a project that had been going on with Christopher McFall and Sascha Neudeck. After a few trials it appeared that the fabulous London-based label Entr'acte was prepared to release the material. But, as with so many projects, it took quite some time before it was 'our' turn to take a place in the catalogue and hit the streets. Well, people, it's about to happen.

BUT.....

I finished the postproduction some time in the first quarter of 2007 (I believe) and since then I have learned quite a lot about postproduction. Thanks to my getting acquainted with that fantastic piece of software Reaper, which I can recommend to any one working seriously on sound production. Get Reaper here. Listening back to the end product of 2007 I was a bit worried. Hmmm, is this really the best I can do? No. So, after some pondering I have decided to polish the stuff once more before sending the definite master to Entr'actes office.

And that's what I have been doing the past few days. Listening again and again, compressing some parts and looking after a few phase issues. Thanks to the multiband compressor of Reaper the sound sparkles more than ever. And Flux's 'stereotool' helped a lot with addressing the phase problems that I found.

I yet have to listen to the end result. I have to dither the mix back from 32bits to 16bits files and that somehow changes the sound a little. I don't really know how and why but it 'feels' different.
Master will ship to England this weekend. Fo sho.

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First view at the new NVO release

Three days ago Raphael Moser, cover designer of Nonvisualobjects, sent me his first sketches of the cover for "Gaussian Transient (Megaphone)" that is due later this year. As always that's an exciting moment. I had a few comments on the lettering and the positioning of the titles but overall I am quite satisfied. The hard yellowish background will draw immediate attention to whoever gets it in the corner of his/her eye.

Hmm, that's a BIG picture, isn't it? Anyhoo, it's the music that counts. I'll keep you posted on further progress.

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New THU20 album mastered

April 30 Roel Meelkop and I have mastered the new THU20 release that is due later this year by Korm Plastics. It will be 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 should garantee maximum dynamics. The concert was given in my hometown Tilburg at the Paradox. 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.

Snapshot 1
Snapshot 2

It's all quite noisy, which is not very surprisingly considering the fact that five musicians were on stage. THU20 were, that night: Peter Duimelinks, Roel Meelkop, Frans de Waard, Sjak van Bussel, Jos Smolders. Our fee: 80 euro's each. We had a good time (as usual).

EDIT: RELEASE WAS October 23. SEE POST THERE

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damn!

Sorry people! It's been too long since I posted anything. I have been recording in South Morocco for 10 days. Flew away right after my lecture of the 10th of April. The lecture was okay. I forgot time, as usual. But the audience was patient and (I think) interested in hearing about my music. I told them about my drives for composing and about the way I compose my works. Showed them the tools that I used and led them through the process.

Morocco was much better than I had expected. I have recorded 4 gigabyte of 24bit stereo files. Still have to sort them. One recording I listened back was the one that I made in the Sahara desert. It is absolute silent!! Very strange!! I have recorded 'silence' in several places, but here it was total. I guess that's because of the total absence of reflection (no trees, no walls, nothing). I don't know when the recordings will start perspiring in my works. I guess that will take another year or so. I'm determined to finish my poetry project first.

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Image from the past

I found this image at Roel Meelkop's site. It was taken at the time when we did a quadrophonic installation for the EARational festival. Left is me, Roel in the orange blouse, then Jac (dj dmdn) at the top right and Peter Duimelinks below.

THU20 only very very rarely operates as a collective these days. We have done a performance last October (2007) and are in the process of editing the recordings into something that is suitable for home listening.
Next to that we will be part of the series of cd's that GX Juppiter Larsen (the infamous Hater) is releasing at the moment. Each of us has his own job, plus their own musical adventures, so getting together is always troublesome.

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