weekly report (august 28, 2009)

[ Madmad liblib (in 7/8) ]

Take a listen. It's a bit primitive but it wojks, dunnit? All rhythm is brain candy and candy is addictive. I will work out this composition and it will definitely be more sophisticated.

That's about all for this week, kids. I've been experimenting with my studio gear and nothing really important was produced. See ya next week.

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weekly report

No real progress this week but a lot of tiny developments. I will share them here.

1. I have had five test runs with the final master before it was good enough for me to ship to the label. Main problem was volume levels. First I tried all kind of tiny corrections but couldn't get it done the way I wanted. After 3 test runs I decided to try with a limiter, but wasn't satisfied with the ones I used so far. There are millions of plugins (VST/RTAS) around for digital workstations but most of them use sloppy algorhythms that not only correct the problem that is bothering you but also affect other parts of the sound.

I decided to try the Event Horizon limiter that is developed by Stillwell Audio. After some experimenting that resolved the problem sufficiently. It not only works the sound like it should but it's also reacting lightning fast when you want a sudden change of threshold. It's definitely a keeper. Reaper has really dozens of small vst's under the hood and most of them are good (especially for a rock band) but in my case I need precision.

Oh, and by the way: I used Schwa's Schope as a master monitor for amplitude, frequency spectrum and phase linearity. It's brilliant in its accuracy.

Anyway, after test run 4 I decided to make a few changes in track 11. Can you believe it? You just keep hearing tiny things that weren't there before and require immediate fixing... I just stop listening now. It's all up to you, people.

2. I have invited Wouter Jaspers (Franz Fjödor) and Steffan De Turck (Staplerfahrer) for a chat. Perhaps we can start a project together. We will meet September 1. Strangely, after years of working online I'd like to work together with people in a room, again.

3. I have collected a lot of samples for the 'dub radio soundtrack' project. Nothing much of building, just collecting material. And thinking about the collage technique.

4. I am in the process of transfering a very old project from Audition to Reaper. You can hear the clips in [ these posts ]. I intend to rework them, do a complete sound overhaul and a add new material. Let's baptize this project 'mundohr' for all the obvious reasons. At the moment this is a tedious job. At the Reaper forum someone published a script for translating Cool Edit Pro sessions to Reaper projects. But unfortunately this only works for very simple and straightforward sessions. Which mine are not.... But the material is definitely worth reworking. Interestingly, the material is from 2002-2004 and I had not listened to it since 2006. There is also a video version of the music, but I haven't watched for so long that I am now able to judge the music completely anew.

5. Listened to my earlier tape experiments. They will get a place in both the 'dub radio soundtrack' project and the 'Mundohr' project.

6. Back to plugins, finally. Yesterday I saw that Jeroen Breebaart is working on a new plugin which looks quite interesting. It's a plugin which allows you to work with headphones on. Normally that is ill advised, because with headphones on you don't hear the indirect reflections of the room acoustics. On the other hand all studios have problems with these room acoustics, creating the ideal space for monitoring the sound. Breebaart is working on a plugin which emulates this ideal listening space. Quite a challenge. But Breebaart is not just your average joe the nerd. He works at the Philips labs as a researcher and product developer and has many patents to his name. He has also produced other plugins and sells them at ridiculously low prices from his site.

7. finally finally, I have been thinking about my activities for other musicians and composers. It is slowly taking shape. I intend to set up a 'business' where I mix and remix, master and remaster works for others and I will coach and consult in the creative process. If you like me to mix/master, remix/remaster your works, just contact me. If you wish my services to be done discretely (that is: without anyone in the world besides you and me knowing about it), this is of course possible.

Links

[ Stillwell Audio ]

[ Jeroen Breebaart ]

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Drumming the beat #2

Okay, I promised a few samples of what has come of my wanderings into the repetition galaxy. So I give you 3 things. They're all quite different and just sketches but I feel that I am getting into a part of the universe that I want to explore more deeply. It feels like anarchy now and again and that kind of freedom is what I am looking for.

[ sample 1 ]
[ sample 2 ]
[ sample 3 ]

RADIO DUB SOUNDTRACK
SOUNDTRACK DUB RADIO
DUB RADIO SOUNDTRACK
RADIO SOUNDTRACK DUB
SOUNDTRACK RADIO DUB

Well, that's about the words that flutter around when I am working on these pieces. And aside from the quotations from our recent musical history I like to concentrate on applying pop production techniques. Herrlich!!

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Drumming the beat

As I wrote a few weeks ago I have been working on stuff with beats and melodies. My first attempts were a bit lame, of course, due to inexperience on the subject. Recently things are working in a more acceptable fashion. Slow, minimal beats with sparse bass tunes. It sort of reminds me of Rhythm and Sound but then even more abstract.

I now have some 12 basics, which I want to expand. Expand meaning working out variation on the theme, both in rhythm and sound (:) ). A lot comes down to nifty mixing and fat (phat) production skills. It's quite rewarding work, since rhythm is brain candy and my brain immediately sucks up what comes out of the speakers. Juicing the sound up (phat!!) further enhances the experience.

I work with Reaper and Reaper's Reasamplomatic vst (a very nifty and lightweight sampler), with Reaper's Reasynth (yes, a very nifty and lightweight synth) and especially with e-phonic's Drumatic. The latter VST works a bit like the TR606 and has 6 channels out so that I can send each instrument to a different track for further production. I worked out a track template so that I can easily include this Drumatic setup into my Reaper session.

If you want to have the Reaper tracktemplate, [ here] is the link. (right-mouseclick)

Drumatic can be downloaded [ here ].

Soundsamples will included in my message next week.

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Sounds from the past RETURN

Blogger "The Thing On The Doorstep" re-releases ancient history. Almost every day there is another gem from the 70's and 80's available for download. Recently there was one on which I collaborated as well.

I remember very well, working on this stuff. It was quite exciting, especially receiving material from the other contributors and getting to work with that. Everything done by hand, no digitals. Quite nice to see it available again!

Read about it [ here ]

Get the files [ here ]

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Gaussian Transient, 12th review

A belated review of Gaussian Transient (Megaphone) which I found belatedly :) Squidsear reviewer Darren Bergstein wrote the following: "Some beautifully abstract pieces of sound art/processed field recordings from the always-reliable Jos Smolders, founding member of Dutch post-dadaist electroacoustic ensemble THU20. The fragmentary yet vibrant clutch of sounds embroidered on his small catalog of recordings are no less richer despite their minimalist bent; his works feel carefully chosen and smartly demarcated, musique actuelle that nevertheless derives a good deal of its staying power from the use of the most nourishing sample food. Smolders' own ruminations on how he arrived at the tableaux spread out over Gaussian Transient provides some welcome context. Self-imposing compositional limitations became his m.o. after his first (latter 80s) vinyl recording — because, as he states, "sometimes I needed to contain myself within certain boundaries, mostly because I had a subject of research in mind" — boundaries that make the listener sharpen their aural focus to glean the tiny non-events and small gestures Smolders buries deep within the mix. Paradoxically, Gaussian feels like the "busiest" of NVO's releases, its quiet passages suddenly upset by bursts of activity (a raging subway, a flurry of conversing passers-by) that would be jarring if they didn't adequately flesh out the dense physiognomy of Smolders' constructions. The sounds have their literary analog in Smolders' choice of track titles, penned by British artist Tom Phillips. Smolders notes that "I have always been intrigued by language, words and meaning... in the 70s, Phillips reworked existing pages of books...painting or drawing over the text he erased most of it but left certain word combinations intact." Smolders' own use of juxtaposition combined with abject Burroughs-ian cut-up/edit techniques yields just as fascinating sonic results. So much happens (even for such obviously well-considered sonic paucity) throughout the twelve works here — erected out of everything from vials of hiss, aberrant digital processing, strange quarks in the night, massed voices, the rhythmic banter of footsteps — that any literal dissection is a fool's gesture at best. Suffice to say that the closing eleven minutes of "The First Scenes and Feelings" illustrates fully Smolders' cinema pour l'oreille. Warbling skeins of moist static unfold in various layers, so that what is glimpsed in between are variable bits of microscopic activity — plastic balls impacting concrete, the distant hum of generators, flaccid raindrops — that colorfully sketch untold visual phantasms in the mind's eye. Author, author!"

Thanks. Buy the album (NVO 015) [ here ] at Nonvisualobjects

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