Friday, May 25, 2012
New Project - Samsung Series 7 Slate Running Ableton Live
With a new and growing family, finding time in the studio has become a challenge, so I'm going to try to spend an hour or so a day composing on the train to and from work. We'll see how it goes.
Labels: ableton, music, samsung
Monday, April 21, 2008
Golden Goodness
Fluke - Oto - Bullet
I haven't had much time of late to blog. That's not so good from the point of view of keeping this little corner of the web all up to date, but it is good from the point of view of getting stuff done.
I spent Saturday in the studio with Jamie working on a new remix for Golden Boy. It's starting to sound amazing, and we're pretty excited about the track, and we haven't even finished adding parts or getting to the mix.
It's the first real chance I've had to try out the East/West Symphonic Choirs, and apart from a few sample clicks it's been amazing. Wordbuilder is a bit tricky to get working, especially with thick harmonies, but it's worth the effort.
The choirs definitely benefit from some effects (well for our application anyway). The track is building nicely, and we'll release when we're happy with the mix. My mate Chuck is going to record some Sax for us which I think will fit perfectly over the top of this pulsing wall of sound that we've built.
Saturday was spent pretty much with 4 hours of effects programming for the choirs followed by another 4 hours of building Kurzweil K2600 setups and Ensoniq SQ80 sounds. The SQ80 is one very underated synth. Best hard sync implementation I think I've ever heard, even better than the Kurzweil's.
Sunday saw me being computer tech. Got 2 computers out the door on Sunday (plus one on Saturday morning). I think I'm gonna have to start charging for that. Maybe a carton of Hoegarden's per computer. That will keep the studio in beer for quite some time.
Anyway the pile of work on my desk isn't getting any smaller, so I'd better get back to it.
Labels: ensoniq, kurzweil, music
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
TR 909 is back - and badder than ever
Finally got my TR 909 back from the shop, all modded and fixed. MIDI now works well (including external Sync and SYSEX) and I've updated my GTRC module to fully support the two banks. Unfortuately, Roland implemented bank changes using a system real time message, so Studio Connections can't do the bank changes automatically, but heck, being able to use a SYSEX librarian at all for 20 year old gear is a testament to the power of MIDI.
One little niggle I did have was in regards to the new button caps and switches from Chip for Brains. The switches aren't the same height as the old switches, and sit a little higher than the existing ones. Also, the button caps do not stay on the buttons very well. I'm going to have to use some blu-tac or some form of glue to stop them popping off all the time, but it sure does look mean in blue. I also had a couple of non-functioning switches which I'm going to have to return. At least we can get the parts though, so the niggle is pretty minor.
I also changed the knobs on the mods so that they are the same as the old knobs and kinda look like they are meant to be there. The Colin Fraser mods are well worth doing if you want to use the TR 909 properly.
I'm currently working on a KSP8/Rumour/Mangler GTRC module which should be ready for deployment in the next few days once I finishe figuring out exactly what it is Kurzweil did with SYSEX on the Rumour and Mangler. It's close enough to the KSP8 to be annoying.
Anyway, back to the grind. Too much work, too little time.
Labels: GTRC, music, Roland, Studio Connections, TR 909
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Pop v Art
I read an interesting article on New Music Strategies today, but the real gem that I found today wasn't the article itself, but a comment by Michael.
The difference between “art” and “pop” in two broad (but applicable) generalizations:
- When “art” fails to gain commercial success, the artist still has something to stand behind.
- When “pop” fails to gain commercial success, the artist moves on.
I think he's hit the nail on the head here, and this is probably the best comparison I've ever heard to pop v art. It's got the essential ingredient for the comparison, which is the commercial side. This is important, because it is the essence of what pop is. If "pop" does not make money, it is a failure. If "art" does not make money then it's largely irrelevant to it's value as "art" (though perhaps not to the starving artist).
In many ways it really comes down to the purpose of the work. If the purpose is to make money, then there is a case to be made that it really is "pop". If the purpose is concerned more with the process of creating, then it's probably art. If the purpose is to offend people or make a statement then you should be in politics...
