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• new album

  2009-03-24 7:56PM / 標準BLOG

  

  firstly - this will be the last time I post a picture of my desk when blogging about studio work! that 6 foot piece of wood happens to the centre of my life these last few years.

  blog title says it all: new album underway. unlike the way I’ve written music in the past, I’ve been trying to avoid the computer and actually write songs & melodies out on the piano before diving into Logic or programming synths.

  it’s bloody hard work! I suck as a piano player, I’m clueless on guitar and can barely hold time on a bass; so working through an idea is a really clunky disjointed and often frustrating process.

  ‘get the song down first before pressing record’ might be utterly obvious to songwriters or anyone in a band - but for producers such as myself (and I’m also guessing many electronic orientated musicians, as well), there is a tendency to diddle about in software and splice ideas together; building up an arrangement as you go. no right or wrong to either method - hack & slash served me well enough in the past - but I am very excited about improving & evolving the music I do, so changing M.O. is a necessary approach.

  over the years I have been very careful never to refer to myself as a ‘musician’ and tried to avoid calling my music ’songs’ … but with this change in working pattern, hopefully the score can be rectified a little.

  lastly - I have been debating whether or not to post up demos of work as the album progresses. work in progress could spoil the enjoyment of hearing the final music, so that’s why I’m cautious about releasing too much unfinished crap into the wild. but at the same time it might be of interest to people. I am going to take more photos this time though… will figure the rest out. video might be good. something coming eventually.

  
  

  4個評論–  我來說兩句

• back again only different

  2009-03-20 6:51PM / 標準BLOG

  

  2009. just over a decade since I programmed my first beat on a second hand MC303. time for me to gather everything up, discard the pointless bits and focus on what’s meaningful.

  disuye has always been a catch-all for my music: part label, part alias, part business face (for the commercial studio) and partly me as an artist. the split between all these has been getting in the way of the just making music. the commercial studio is my livelihood so that keeps going.

  operating as a label and as an artist. necessary evils: no-one would release my music way back when I started out, so I did it myself. music created with no audience might as well stay inside my head… so the single purpose of releasing music is to stop myself from going completely insane.

  the entire world of image, promotion, PR, mobile ring-tones, new industry models, myspace & co., publishing, licensing, sync, mcps, prs, bookings, touring, merchandise, ego, fame and mailing lists… none of that shit is remotely interesting to me. but unfortunately seems to constitute the bulk of how ‘a successful artist’ is perceived. bullshit, really.

  I like making noise at my studio.
  I like talking about making noise with other people who like making noise.
  I like designing album covers.
  I like putting my music into other people’s projects.
  I like making music videos and short films.
  I like using technology new & old.
  I like listening to honest music.

  So with all that in mind, stay tuned.

  
  

  3個評論–  我來說兩句

• We-Enhance blogs

  2009-03-09 7:21PM / 標準BLOG

  Anyone else receiving these local music industry related e-mail blogs?! Not sure how I got on the mailing list, thankfully I am. 

  
  

  Brutally honest, (I assume) well informed, highlighting the farce for what it is, hilarious reading if not totally agreeable but what the hell --- fun stuff.

  
  

  Seek and ye shall find.
  
  

  2個評論–  我來說兩句

• do not feed after midnight

  2009-03-08 3:24PM / 標準BLOG

  OK these damn things are addictive. Woke up this morning and the studio was full of tiny chirping little critters. From Japan.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Slight exaggeration. There were two more than before. And no, I didn't buy the SH09 and System 100... yet ... Although my eBay account is twitching like an excited puppy choking on snails at the prospect of owning a near mint and fairly rare Roland SH5. More on that later.

  
  

  The SH09 and System 100 are on loan from good friend & fellow producer & analogue synth modding maniac CY Kong. I wanted an opportunity to hear the sound of the small Roland's before buying into the dynasty, and he very generously gave me these fine examples for a while. So far I've had them for 48 hours and am starting to consolidate my thoughts. 

  
  

  Having only used an old Juno and SH101 in the past (different Roland fish) I have to say that the comparison between the Roland's and my Korg MS20 is quite clear:

  
  

  The Roland VCO are much brighter in tone than the Korg. The SH09 being brightest of the three. In particular, the square waves really have some bite, that makes the Korg sound ever-so slightly muffled. I was struggling to make some really harsh top-end lead sounds on my MS20 (could possibly be my incompetence) so it's nice to be vindicated, and to know the frequencies are just not there. 

  
  

  But like everything in life there is a trade-off. The Roland low pass VCF seems to thin out considerably at higher resonance levels and - while both 09 and 100 filters are still damn fine - just they lack the low end grunty balls so obviously present when you push the Korg. No bad thing - the sonic overlap between the two brands is slight and that means buying one of these is not a waste of resources. I need justification when it comes to shopping! Aside, patching one synth through another yielded some great results.
  

  
  

  
  

  perverse multi-orifice synth orgy action... Nord is embarrassed

  
  

  I did not compare envelope generators. People often cite the speed and snappiness of attacks when describing the quality of a synth, but this fine surgical work is all stuff I will do in my DAW. All I'm interested in is modulation options and tone.

  
  

  I found the single VCO architecture of these Roland's a bit too limiting for my style of sound design, hence the pending purchase of the quasi-mammoth SH5. I was looking at an SH02 but frankly the usual online auction prices for those are farcical. The SH5 is also higher money than I'd like to pay, but they do not appear very often so I can almost live with that. If I transfer the cash really quickly it won't matter so much.
  

  
  

  Really enjoying my new journey into vintage analogue land. I'm already producing more music - which is the main reason for all this junk - and the sounds coming out of these things are way closer to what I hear in my head. Not to totally dismiss VA hardware and plug-ins though - they have huge amounts of power and can match any hardware one-for-one given a skilled programmer - but therein was the problem, I spend far too long programming the dirt, drift, clunk & wobble which just naturally appears with the old gear. Like it or not! 

  
  

  
  

  Am glad I made the decision to stop throwing money at Steve Jobs for a few years and spend my budget on skunky old out-of-tune toys that don't behave themselves.

  
  

  
  

  ok... now I remember why we stopped buying hardware 6 years ago
  
  

  3個評論–  我來說兩句

• Depeche Mode "Wrong" video

  2009-03-05 2:32PM / 標準BLOG

  Watch and learn music video makers.
  Strong concept? Check.
  Match the song? Check.
  Well shot? Check.
  Expensive? Well, probably yes, but the first three points are enough for a great music video!
  
  No booty shaking grill flashing slow mo rim-shot bouncy car bullshit here. In fact those types of video should be banned on the grounds of making humanity more retarded.
  
  Thanks to Calvin Wong for highlighting the song to me in the first place.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bsXOcK9_Cw
  

  
  
  
  

  5個評論–  我來說兩句

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