[editors note: this was written a few days ago] 

I’m sitting here going through old libraries of old sound projects of mine.. Projects that in someway anticipate a project I plan on venturing forth on in the not too distant future: The Fresh Meat Project. Music To Freak Out Stoners, or MTFOS, was created in what we call “The JP years.” This was back in the days when “The Doctor” and “Mr. Sketch” where living off in JP MA… lost years if you will.. lots of chemicals in there brains.. and I’d visit on weekends.. MTFS somehow had to do with the psychology of those circles.. and my reaction to them.

This had to have been in.. the very late 90s… I was still on a G3, had just gotten my MOTU 828 audio interface, and started F-Ing around on it… I’d just kinda Jam out a bit.. didn’t even bother mixing the Jam sessions.. which took place on guitar and synths.. this was total experimentation.. just to enjoy the sound quality of the 828. 

Around this time period.. my thought was.. I should like to make music that came out of extended jam sessions. The problem was that these jam sessions where.. I’m not sure how to characterize them. They had a kind of out sider art mentality to them.. there were a lot of levels on which they were probably very flawed.. whatever they were, they were so far out there.. that I wasn’t really sure how to turn them into something interesting..

Well now we enter a very different period in my musical evolution where I’m at least entertaining the notion of going off in radically new directions and I wonder if I could facilitate those older directions now.  Today I am both a lot more sophisticated musically / production wise.. and I have a lot more sophisticated tools that allow me to work in very new ways, and I wonder if these new possibilities might facilitate the older zeitgeist.

New to my studio.. in particular, is a fretless bass and ReCycle.. Ableton Live has been in my studio for sometime.. but I haven’t really used in the way I’m thinking now.. And of course there’s Melodyne…

////// 

I pick up my bass and start playing.. kinda all the time. It seems not at all infrequent that I’ll get into a mode where everything I play I think sounds good.. sounds interesting.. these little jam sessions. I think about taking them into my computer, recording them.. composing with them.. where might I be able to take them?.. what could I do musically?

While I have many ideas.. one idea I find quite appealing is the notion of repeating exactly what I did with MTFS.. accept.. when working with a synthesizer.. record only the MIDI.. when working with a guitar.. make sure there’s no transience recorded with it.. Between Melodyne and MIDI I could take the results and sculpt it into something. But what?

Part of the idea is something along the lines of capturing a raw moment.. How differently you think when you’re thinking in real time.. improvising, versus composing my usual ways..

I feel that this is a path I must go down.. a journey I must make.. even as I don’t really have a lot of confidence in it.. It seems like its important for the completion of a musical style I have yet to totally create….

Let me see if I can get serious in talking to you about this stuff.

What do we have thus far?

• Electronic Music Composed: I sit in a sequencer and program the sequences and the Mix. This method is the most sophisticated / mature.. of my processes.. I mean I’ve taken this method further then any of my other methods.. thus I tend to want to stick to it simply because its something I can rely on for good results.
• Electronic Music Improvised: We are talking about some sort of a process by which.. via tweaking various parameters of some kind of a sound generating device… music results. These results could be further processed, or edited, or whatever.. in order to be used as building blocks of a more programmed music.. we see this sorta thing Starting in Zar Matt A Thustra’s Deep Space Adventures.
• Guitar based song writing: I sit down on my guitar, or perhaps now even my bass, and I play, come up with riffs, put riffs together.. create a song idea.. produce it.. 
• I improvise out some sorta performance… on real instruments.. wether we are talking a keyboard to control synths.. or we are talking about guitars and bass.. maybe something going on with a microphone.. and we sorta do something with this.

So these are our basic processes. The question then becomes how do we integrate them.. how do we bring them to some level of maturity.. where there possibilities become great; a sum more then the parts?

The answer lys, no doubt.. in continuing to work on each of these processes, going down each path..  taking it to its logical conclusion… building a library of raw material.. and playing with making stuff out of that raw material.

As near as I can tell this is a long term project.

A couple days latter:

I think I’ll just post this as is. 

[Editors note, the following was started last saturday]  

Ok.. so so much for back in the saddle action, ha? 

As I write… well it’s a “tax holiday” in Massachusetts… which means no sales tax, which means Matt’s on a shopping spree… of course today is only day one of said weekend.. so lets take a quick look at the fun new stuff.

#1 Electric Bass:

It’s a Fender.. a fretless no less. I was just playing different basses that were vaguely in my price range when this one came up and bit me.. It plays rather well, and the fretless thing didn’t seem that difficult to deal with.. so I was a happy camper.

Getting a bass is resonant with many meanings and implications for me.. but right now it seems to be like my new favorite thing to do.. just play around on it. I’m sure there will be more on this subject in not too much time.

#2 ReCycle:

I think ReCycle is a little over priced, and ought to come with Reason.. Of course I haven’t played with it yet, and playing with it could change my tune. For those not in the know.. what ReCycle is mainly about is slicing and dicing audio files.. turning them into sliced up loops.. the slicing allows the sample to be played at whatever tempo or pitch.. that these things can be handled independently… none of which is really that compelling these days.. but the REX file type.. which is what you create with ReCycle… well that’s the main thing you’re buying it for.. And REX does allow for some creative loop manipulation that’s a good deal of fun.

In practice, as I understand it, ReCycle is a great way to.. kinda mine your record collection.. for loops. I’m.. not big into working that way as.. there’s the copy right issues.. but I do have a lot of work of my own that could be sliced and diced and turned into something new.. and I like the idea of working in that sorta way.

Further.. I’ve been feeling inspired, as of late, to create synthetic drum sounds.. and perhaps make loops out of them.. and the whole notion of spending more time customizing my sounds is very appealing to me.

#3 A DAT: Ok, if you didn’t know, DAT stands for Digital Audio Tape…  So I bought a DAT recorder.. not because I plan to record anything with it.. but because I have old DATs with my music on them.. from College.. and buying a DAT is the only way to get that old work onto disk. The DAT only cost me $90 used.. and I can probably sell it for.. $50 without too much trouble.. or perhaps even a little more.. 

#4 A 24″ HD monitor: This would be my second monitor.. This particular monitor has a swivel to it so you can use it in horizontal or vertical mode.. has HDMI.. and is a bit of a USB hub.. More monitors = greater productivity. I haven’t gotten a chance to try it out yet.. for reasons we won’t go into here.. but OMG does it feel amazing having the two monitors on this desk here.

#5 Art Tablet: Lets face it, drawing with a mouse on a computer blows… When you use an art tablet you start to realize how much of how you use a mouse is a compensation for the failings of the mouse.

All this stuff has been, more or less, on the budget for the last.. 6 or more months.. stuff I’ve planned.. or whatever. To jump out and buy all this stuff all at once is quite a rush.. and I’m sorta feeling like.. well like I wish I wasn’t buying it all at once…. and yet, given that tomorrow is more tax holiday.. I’m thinking of buying more.

More?

• I’m thinking about getting an HD video camera.. 

 [Editors note: Matt didn’t really end up buying anything the next day]

Well I’m still very much under the weather.. but wanted to blog something.. mainly just for the purposes of blogging something… but its hard when I’m feeling this weak. Blogging for me is often about focusing on something so tightly that eventually you have this kind of breakthrough moment.. where something interesting pops through.. or at least that’s how I’m conceptualizing it.. in practice it might be different from that but…

My head is full of madness as I right.. so much stuff flying around that I want to share.. stuff from podcamp, pre podcamp, even post podcamp.. seems I’ve been so busy meeting people, learning things, having random adventures..  just with little to no time to out put much of anything.

Ok.. lets focus Matt.. .how about..

Matt Gets a new iPhone?

This is my first cell phone.. first one I’ve owned..  never mind a smart phone….

If you’re a social media type.. having a smart phone of some sort is a real game changer.. or that’s what I’m learning… Just being able to email from where ever.. twitter from where ever.. always being connected.. it really changes your perception. And its brought my to think about life streaming again.

Life Streaming

Terminology is.. fuzzy.. but basically life streaming is like.. you’re living.. and the stream just goes on.. like having a web cam attached to your forehead as you ago about your daily living..  I’m not much of a consumer of this sorta media.. I sorta wonder why the hell I’d want to follow around someone’s forehead as they live there lives.. but, that’s not to say I don’t see amazing possibilities here.

Social Media / New Media.. you must understand.. in this world there’s a whole lot of stuff that’s like.. predefined boxes… “this is a podcast,” “this is a blog,” “this is a wikki,” these are known quantities..  but what’s real is not something that’s confined to a box.. boxes are conceptual frameworks that allow us to be lazy.. or perhaps efficient.. a method of cognitive compression, if you will.. or “optimization” as we say in the biz…

But you’d do well to hold your horses… because one of the most awesome things about social media / new media is that it is anything but a known quantity. If you seek to be a practitioner of any merit.. my advice to you is to look for the potential in the landscape.. where who you is, and where it is, somehow overlaps: go there, do that thing.

I used to dream of doing life streams when I was a little kid… No, seriously, I did!

A few latter:

Life streaming presents a number interesting aesthetic issues… by aesthetic I mean “philosophy of art.” Broadly I’d say you have the line between realism and formalism.. realism being that which brings us closest to.. shall we call it “empirical reality?” Formalism is.. something that is the opposite of that.. calling our attention to the medium its self.. it is a sorta different sorta reality that it brings us to.. perhaps a surreal reality? Surreal reality might be linked to subjective reality.. the object as a pose to the subject.. “real reality” is after all both subject and object.. both subjective and objective.. Life streaming gets rid of time compression.. and thus brings us closer to objective reality.. in interesting ways.

In my own work there is always a dialog between realism and formalism.. I generally prefer formalism.. the truths I want to express are often best expressed in what one might consider surreal manners..

In any event.. while all of this sorta philosophical mumbo jumbo has its place in a critical analysis of the matter.. and while I think we ought to be thinking of such things.. it’s a long way from this to the pragmatic analysis..

The Pragmatic Analysis

What is it that you want to do? I suppose what I’m looking at is the subject of “story telling.” Story telling.. in the live stream.. how does one go about that?

A few latter

The answer that floats through my mind is a complex one.. One that’s frankly too complex for this blog entry.. particularly given how sick and weak I’m feeling… and lets just face it.. its mostly presumptive stuff given that I haven’t actually spent too much time following any live streams.. never mind making them.

A few latter still 

But.. as this line goes.. one can start one’s thinking with what’s already been done / is out there.. or by sorta thinking about the possibilities.. and the structure of the medium.

In social media we have a range of communication formats that range from.. roughly speaking.. the synchronous to the asynchronous..  What are the implications of any point in that range?

Obvious stuff

•  Synchronous / live stuff.. it is difficult to have the same sorta production values as what you would have for stuff on the opposite extreme.. time / energy / money put in, per moment, of communications.. One can develop strategies for dealing with this sorta thing…. but.. 
• The more live / synchronous you go, the less control you generally have
• The more live / synchronous you go.. probably.. the more the context of what your doing is important. 

A few latter:

Some of these points strike my as somewhat dubious… at least from a serious philosophical perspective. Another thing to think about is that we are talking about “social media” which is to say it’s social.. or at the very least interactive… So the live stream is.. not really a one way affair..  necessarily. What this means is that an understanding of pscyho-social dynamics is helpful in approaching the medium..  The approach most of the successful folks in social media.. at least the ones I know.. seem to take is something like a game theory esk solution..  What game strategy would be most successful? If you’re dealing with a “merit based social hierarchy” which.. as it turns out.. is to say a “female social hierarchy” then.. status bares a relationship to your contribution to the collective..  

So the place to start is to ask your self “what has thou to contribute?” There is a sort of “invisible market place” which.. in a rather supply and demand esk way.. influences the value of various sorts of contributions.. What drives this market place is the various challenges folks are dealing with. (Chris Brogan has a recent interesting post on “content marketing” and the future of marketing, that supports this claim.)

An anarchical institutional theory of value? 

Each of us is a unique individual.. with unique qualities / virtues as well as vices.. what constitutes virtue or vice has to do with this ecosystem.. how the “crowds wisdom” defines you, so to speak. So.. for this reason.. I think it helps if you get in there and play.. before you really develop a serious hard lined sorta strategy.. or to put it another way.. always experiment with an eye open for magical possibilities.

Now listen.. I know this sounds a little creepy.. this notion that the crowd shalt define you.. for the artist’s in the audience, it’s a bit like Arthur Danto’s institutional theory of art.. accept not quite so exclusive.. For you who feel uncomfortable with this notion.. I understand.. and for you I ask you to hold on till such time that I can give this notion more attention.. at which point I’d imagine it would become a good deal less creepy.. for now I ask simply that you indulge me this one.

So there’s this kind of interrelationship between who you is, what the collective is, and this sorta dialectical relationship inside of which you evolve… and its somewhere in here that you build your personal brand..  

Next day sometime:

Well, hmm.. lets see.. so I guess what I’m saying is that there’s a certain sorta strategic subtext to the life stream..  That might not be the best way of putting it but.. Well I guess I should just post this and return to the subject latter.. seems like I never really got to anything too interesting here.

Ok.. so I’m back.. back in the satle again, or perhaps that’s wishful thinking?

Well I do always ware black?

Anyway.. yeah, so I’m back.. sorta feeling refreshed.. though also very sick.. so I guess its a mixture. Still, even with all of this, I have mad inspiration.

What’s Matt madly inspired about? The project of making a new metal, of course. 

Next morning:

Well maybe I’m not really back.. I’m feeling real sick and in need of just going back to bed… lol, but I’ll be back shortly…

Topics likely to be covered in upcoming posts:

• Podcamp Boston, and my adventures there
• some social media strategy stuff
• social networking stuff
• cheap / free music creation software
• my experiences with the new iPhone
• recent adventures with the P-Corn-Queen.. 
• Super duper top secret projects
• My new metal project stfuff

There’s probably more to list.. of course, but that’s the top of mind stuff anyway.Anyway, Matt seeks rest 

I don’t have writers block, that doesn’t seem to be something I suffer from, but none the less.. It seems to be a challenge to bring blog entries to completion.. 

Latter:

Well I suppose some of my peeps seem to like my more random entries.. so maybe that is what this entry shall be.. I’m over tired as I write anyway…So.. I suppose why not return to the theme of the plot of the life of you’re truly? I mean what the hell, right?

My instinct is always to try and trust the natural processes of the psyche.. and if anything to just try and help facilitate those natural processes.. if you’re having an anxiety freak out.. well maybe that’s what you need to do, you know? That is maybe that’s one small part of a larger process.. I think a lot of times the way we look at our selves.. and our psychological realities.. we compartmentalize stuff.. put things in boxes.. we look at that box and say “this is a bad thing.” Sure.. its a bad thing.. but what is bad about it has more to do with the conceptual box we put it in then the thing its self!

So.. my advice is to try and see the larger order of things… lets not impose our will on our selves so much.. which is not quite to say I’m anti imposing will on thy self.. just that I want the wisdom to do it correctly.

My psychological reality.. subjective experience.. its as if I’m moving through a storm cloud.. and I can’t quite see properly or operate properly.. at least on some levels.

There are levels on which I seem to operate more or less perfectly no matter what. The are areas that are.. special areas.. I wont try to bother explaining why this is.. or how it all works.. cause it would take quite a long time to get through it all.. but these are areas that I’ve really dedicated myself.. sacrificed for..  gone to hell and back with.. and as we say in the cheesy hipster bizz.. these areas are “solid.”

Hmm… you know its as if there’s this huge part of myself that’s like.. damaged goods? Do you ever feel like that? Most people I know feel like that.. Is it what’s fucked up in our society.. the mistakes the generations that brought us up made? I have no idea.. all I can really tell you is that there’s a portion of my being that’s.. well, should never be put in charge of my destiny anyway, right?

When stress, pressure, and what not.. get going.. they can activate these damaged parts in ways that make them behave.. well lets say they make you behave like a none-fully integrated personality. Can you dig that?

So when I say I’m going through a storm.. in part what I’m saying.. the flight path of my life.. if I’m going to make it off that island I was talking about a blog entry or so back..  the part of this that has me worried is that.. in order for the things to work out.. I must depend on parts of me that are not totally 100% well integrated personality parts…. or it looks that way to me.. and that is really the basis of my fear… 

Now as I was saying before, there are parts of me that are “solid.” These solid parts of my being.. I’ve tried to cultivate to super hero status.. in part just to compensate for the other parts.. The dream I had, while cultivating them, was that they would help to carry me through the parts of my life when.. I would need those other parts in order to function..  let me give you an illustration of the theory.

The theory that goes into digression rathole

Say one day, you became a rock star. If you’re a rock star.. a lot of things are going to come easily for you.. that would not come easily for you if you were not a rock star. I mean.. you’re going to get laid.. by the pretty girls.. I mean if you’re into that sorta thing.. you don’t actually have to have a lot of social graces cause everyone wants to be your friend.. it’s ok if you’re no good at doing laundry…  umm… and blah blah blah..

Ok, so you think.. “yeah, ok.. but you know, being a rock star isn’t exactly a reasonable expectation for one to have about there life.” To this I would say “do you mean to say that that business about wishing upon stars is just a lot of hours shit?” Now listen, stop here for a second and contemplate what I’m trying to say to you.

1. If you wish upon a star, it apparently makes no difference where you are… blah blah blah.. you wish it, you dream it.. you put in the dedication, you can do anything.
2. Being a rock star isn’t not a realistic thing to wish on stars?

Do you get what I’m driving at? Is it wrong to dream too big? Is that a mistake? I mean to go and put everything you got into that one dream, and just go for it? I mean.. lets face it.. having a “back up” plan is not exactly how you climb the highest mountains! The highest mountains are climbed with “do or die.” 

Well maybe not, I don’t know.. haven’t actually seen any studies on the subject.. but it sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? 

Ok.. so I don’t mean to suggest that I’m trying to be a rock star and if this doesn’t work out I’m going to go blow my head open.. I mean I’m not exactly shooting for rock star-hood.. .or, I don’t know.. maybe I am.. but the point is more like.. say you cultivate within your self… stuff that’s really aiming that high.. or maybe even higher then that.. 

I mean lets get serious here.. Matt has issues. Matt would not be happy being a rock star unless… he cast a shadow bigger then Beethoven..  another words.. my ultimate sin is probably dreaming to big… Hmm.. I smell a music cue in here.

Ok, that was pretty unnecessary, ha? 

So this big dreaming started at an early early age..  From what my mom told me before she passed away, I more or less came out of the womb this way. So you know, what are you going to do?

A few latter:

I’m too freaking tired to finish this line of thought..  So let me summaries where I was going with all this: 

The summary 

So we all have our strong sides and week sides.. and it makes sense to live in a way where you maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses..  There is a question of.. what is critical.. and if the strong sides are strong enough.. can they make your weaknesses less critical?

Sure.. that’s all groovy and all.. but what I wanted to get to was this sense of an transformation going on inside me.. which is a very crazy thing indeed…  Transformations have to do with.. shifts in energy flow.. shifts in psychology.. shift in.. what’s getting cultivated.. and as near as I can tell.. somethings going on in me that just might help me cope.

Any who..  I think I’ll post it at right here… I’m just too tired to finish this sucker up as I’d like.. and given that I probably wont be blogging as much as I’d like coming up.. well.. we should get down to business, right?

So I’m looking at reverb plug-in that I haven’t spoken of before in these virtual pages, and haven’t known about before for that matter…What I’m looking at is the Wizoo Wizooverb W5 5.1. This is a combination of Convolution Reverb with Algorithmic Reverb… The W5 is selling for, what looking like an amazing price… $250 at Musiciansfriend.com.It’s been hard as hell finding reviews of the W5, but I have found this review of the W2 ( little brother to the W5 ) on Sound On Sounds website. As near as I can tell.. the main differences between the W2, as seen in the SOS review, and the W5 are as follows:

1. The W5 is a 5.1 Surround sound reverb, where as the W2 is stereo
2. The W2 came with only 15 Impulse responses as of the review, where as the W5 has 25. Impulse responses are the actual sampling of acoustic spaces, I’ll talk about this a lil more latter.

Ok.. so lets get into this all a little bit..

For starts, the difference between convolution and algorithmic reverbs

Convolution reverb use “impulse responses” to “sample” acoustic spaces. Convolution reverbs provide the most realistic reverb sounds you can get.. there draw backs are limited abilities to actually edit the sounds.. so you don’t really have a tun of flexibility… or whatever flexibility you have probably comes down to your ability to choose from toue impulse response library. Algorithmic reverbs, on the other hand, are.. well.. algorithmic.. and very flexible.. though not always very realistic..  Still, for various reasons.. you often don’t want super realism.. or there are advantages to algorithmic reverbs.. mind you you can use convolution technology to sample algorithmic reverbs.. so this stuff can get interesting but…  So the promise of the w5 is very nice indeed… and the SOS review seems to suggest that it really is all that.. so it’s certainly something to look at… Off in draft form is an entry on audioease software, including altiverb.. which is something I’m also looking at. Altiverb is the best of breed for convolution reverb.. has a mega huge library that the w5 can’t even think about competing on.. and blah blah blah.. still, one could get a W5.. for $250.. and to get the version of the altiverb that supports surround sound.. you’re looking at around $1000. The notion of getting a great sounding reverb.. that supports surround sound.. for $250.. is an amazing thing. 

This brings me to a couple of question marks..

I was looking at the all in bundle from Audioease.. that runs at a little over a grand.. includes speaker phone, altiverb, and a few other plugs that would help round out my studio.. I could.. instead of getting altiverb.. just get speakerphone and the W5.. Speaker Phone, after all, does come with some convolution reverb of its own.. and between that, what comes with DP, and W5, that might very well cover my basic bases.. with $250 to spare.. Though as I think about this now, this isn’t as good a deal, i don’t think…. as the extra plugs that are a part of the all in bundle.. are worth more then $250, and you are getting.. in the all in bundle.. the best of breed reverb.. I guess where the w5 looks interesting to me.. is as something that would compliment my current studio.. It’s probably not necessary, but its interesting to look at and think about.

A few latter:

The big question is one of the quality of the integration of the algorithmic and the convolution…   how well its able to draw from the strengths of both technologies while minimize there respective weaknesses. Does it really cover a whole other set of bases then the other convolution reverbs?  I’ll talk about more related issues latter, for now.. lets just post this sucker! 

I have a few post on the drawing board, of course last weekend was Boston Podcamp 3 and much of the week since has been recovery mode.. as I only had about 5 hours or so sleep as a result.. it was an amazing time.. I should add, but more on that latter. In any event, that’s reason why I haven’t been posting as frequently.

In other news.. stress and anxieties are up.. but I’m dealing..

This weekend I’ll be going to a cookout at my sister’s school in.. well more western-ish Mass then here. Have I spoken much of her? My sister has saver mental retardation and autism.. her and I are both adopted… from different parents. She’s older.. When my my parents adopted her they were not informed of her handy caps.. and um.. well not an easy scene.. anyway.. I’m not sure how long it’s been since I’ve seen her.. my father and I haven’t visited since mom passed away.. so it’s really important that we do.

The week coming up is looking to be.. well another one where I’m likely to slump off on the blog.. have a friend flying in.. one who’s helping me with my promotional efforts.. and we’ll perhaps do a bit of that while she’s here.. and maybe have her help me straighten out my life a bit.. which leads back to the stress and anxiety issues…

The long and the short of the anxiety issues.. well its broader then anxiety.. but basically I haven’t been coping well since my mom passed away..  Most of which has to do with new responsibilities that I wasn’t really prepared for.. I must say it’s an interesting plot. Ever hear the voice of God? Something about a merger between the unconscious and the unfolding of life.. or something.. who knows what it really is.. but the feeling like something is speaking to you from “the other side” so to speak. It seems to speak to me about the unfolding plot of my life. If I were to listen / trust in it.. I’d tell you everything is groovy.. which is a part of why I never quite know how I’m doing.

I can feel it and taste it.. opportunities… the chance to take flight.. for the time being my existence feels a little as if it were taking place on an island that was slowly falling into the sea.. one that if I don’t find my way off.. disaster strikes.. at least with respect to my dependancies..  which makes it quite a transition.. But the way the plot seems to be unfolding.. it looks as if disaster will be diverted..  and really, this feeling of impending doom.. it’s not likely doom at all..  or the sense of doom is just a construct of where my head is at at the moment.. It’s as if we took the whole of reality and magnified a portion of it.. and other parts sorta reseed.. and this image we have.. we took as the actual thing.. which it is.. but, its actuality is other then it’s image..  

None of that should be to diminish the reality of imposing doom.. It is “a psychological reality” which makes it, at least in my book, no less real then material reality.. It speaks to the psychological transformations needed to make it all happen.. and if this transformation doesn’t happen.. well.. then you have disaster.

Anxiety, as near as I can tell, is the voice of those parts of me that.. are dragging there feet.. and the question, the fear, it’s what roll do they play in the unfolding of the whole. Could the derail it all? I wouldn’t put it past them..   

I don’t mean to paint such a bleak painting of things.. but its not a good strategy to avoid these things ether.. so what the hell.. and with that I post. 

So, Boston Podcamp 3 is just about here… and in anticipation of that.. I figured I’d at least have to post new episode… So it here it is.

In this podcast we can hear 3 bits of work.

1.  Toshiro Mifune VS John Wayne.. in progress (the last version I made available for a limited time)
2. Peter’s Hill: This is an old “Fresh Meat” project between the Ev-on, and myself.. It’s sorta representative of a spirit / energy I’m interested in bringing to my work today.. Hopefully Ev-on will play a roll in this..
3. The New Metal Track… This is very early.. and there’s even a lot of work I’ve done for this that is yet to be a part of the track.. but I wanted to have something to share with you anyway.

So that’s about it really…

So I hope you can dig it. 

Oh, one last note… you can subscribe to this podcast via iTunes via clicking here.

 

 New Music Directions: Pre Boston Podcamp 3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

As we speak I’m getting ready to rush out of the house for a Jeff Pulver type meet up thang…  So not too much time to talk about too much..

I’m working on the guitar solo section, for the track I’ve been talking about in recent postings.. I haven’t figured out the proper work flow with the liquid mix.. even when I turn all the plugins off.. I get high latency… so I decided to just create a new project, where I’d do the the guitar parts, and then import then into the main project.. hoping i can import the midi tracks whole sale..  just another thing to have to work out.

I’m engaging in a process I’ve done before.. You sit at your guitar and try and work out the parts, while programing them into the computer.. for synths to play / stand in for the guitars… so you can work out exactly how things fit together.. This process has its pros and cons.. not the least of which is it’s hard to make things swing.. and the midi parts are more approximations of what it’ll sound like, and the performances.. then they are actually what you plan on playing.. which creates the problem of hearing things kinda wrong during this stage of things. Further.. or even as a result.. this process can change what you’re writing.. so you write it in such a way to make it easier to program or perform.. which is less then ideal.

The advantage of this sorta thing.. well what I’m trying to do is create a solo section which is somewhat of a “jam out” section. You have two guitars doing there thing.. they, to one degree or another.. exchange between playing rhythm and lead…  and will eventually work out to doing harmonized leads.. 

The plan is to actually attempt to perform the thing.. probably at about half speed.. and then edit / speed up to real speed.. in post, so to speak. This will result in a lot of work…. but I’m hoping it’ll be worth it. Just the fact that it is a lot of work.. may make it so this section will be rather short, tight, and concise.

lyrics 

Another issue I’m having is in the lyrics: There is no verse chorus thing going on.. right now we just have 3 riffs that play into each other.. I’m writing out vocal lines without knowing what they should say. I have this feeling that there ought to some sorta chorus-ish part.. where we here the same lines repeated at different parts of the song…. but for now it seems like the first few words of the first riff.. will repeat.. and then it’ll all go in a different direction after the repeat.

guitar 

Another idea that’s evolving is we might have 2 solo areas in the song.. The one I’m working on now.. and another that’ll be… fairly insane…

insanity

One thought is to just improvise out some guitar playing.. and then edit the solo’s in melodyne… make them all work together.. The challenge I foresee with this approach is.. that I play too damn fast.. The song is already a very fast song.. and even relative to that fast tempo.. the notes will no doubt go faster then any grid will work..  and I’m not sure how well Melodyne will cope with all that. 

The real advantage of working this way is.. its a lot more human.. a lot more “the real me,” in a certain sense.. The performance will be more organic.. and the actual playing will be.. more and unpredictable. 

Later, back from Pulver:

Had a really great time, I LOVE these things. There was a kind of after twitter-ish party that lead out to karaoke.. It was a rather intimate crowd at this point…  Apparently there was a party from Google there as well.. which made it sorta surreal.. being with social media folks and the fellow who started VON….

I’d say more about.. the project or the night.. but I’m feeling like my blogging has had better moments, so I’ll just leave this as it is. 

I figure I gotta post something.. I have a draft almost ready to go.. but It’s another one of those music gear things.. and my feeling is… I don’t want to have so many of those in a row.. and given that it’s a late hour, I’m not really sure what subject I can properly deal with.. in the amount of time I’ll have to give this, so….

Well, how about a little news in what’s up with me these days?

There’s a lot of tension beneath the surface.. but for the moment I’m putting that aside.. while I try and focus on some other things.. hopefully this won’t spell disaster.. how cryptic is that?

I want to do some more posts on the anxiety subject.. I’ve been thinking pretty deeply about this.. think I have some interesting things to say.. including some interesting things I would have liked to have put at the end of a recent entry.

I’m working on new podcasts episodes.. so expect that soon.

A couple latter:

I’m having this very difficult to fight urge to say something really smart. You ever get those? It’s like a knock it out of the park thing.

I want to.. .hmmm

Ok, some thoughts that have been germinating…

I’ve been thinking about making my blog a kind of work of art… a work of art in the sense that.. Ok, dig this.. usually I’m like “Mr. Smarty Pants,” right? Like.. if you’re a “real” expert in something I’m talking about.. you know how naked the emperor really is.. but barring that.. I’m just a real great con, ha? Ok, maybe that’s over stating it but.. .  well but that’s besides the point.. 

What I’m thinking of is like.. making my writing a kind of art.. which means.. What if my words transmuted into a painting? I mean.. Here we are wondering around these like.. hyper intellectual.. rational.. kinda deep.. thought path.. but what if that path suddenly vaporized.. and the going was like.. juxtapositions of paintings.. that the path had something to do with a poetic juxtaposition of…. well whatever it was?

There’s certain reasons this appeals to me.. For one.. In intellectual mode.. I’m often motivated by this need to express something.. to communicate a vision.. but I often have to go so far to get you there… has to be this long winding path.. … and even then.. the words are at best pointers to something.. and its very easy to get lost in the words, as a pose to the thing.

Another issue is that the intellectual shtick..  On some level I feel unaware of the implications of it.. but I think there might be this… If I’m hyper intellectual… you might look at me in a way that’s.. . well “thats not me” you say to your self.. “I can’t do that” and this somehow separates us…. it can get in the way of a sense of a shared humanity.. a sense that we share a commonality.. .  

A few latter:

I have this gear I go into.. It feels like some kind of hyper warp mode.. like some kind of mind meld with god… It’s as if… well, let me ask you this, where do your thoughts come from? It’s as if you followed the trail.. to the source.. and the closer you got the source, the more kinda powerful the thoughts were… something like that..

Latter:

God, I’m over tired.. I’d like to really go deep into this.. but basically.. every thought / psychological phenomenon.. everything.. comes from this source.. anxiety, as a for instance.. the thing is to learn how to relate to these things so they help, as a pose to hinder, you.. I’ll leave it at that for today.. 

or how about a video to leave on?