The article I have problems with on many levels, but the question of how Twitter and Social Media are changing / might be changing.. in light of the explosive growth of Twitter, along with business swarming into social media more generally.. is something I’ve been thinking of a great deal lately.
So.. first off…
Are Celebrities Killing Twitter?
Steve Rubel asserts… well a number of things. Basically.. there’s a kind of course that online communities follow.. where you have these early adopter folks.. geekdom in technology land, if you will.. whom bring the community to its tipping point.. that, once reached.. community becomes less fashionable, at least.. and so the geek hip move on..
But I think twitter is different: It’s different because how communities on twitter work is different.. Each of us follows, and is followed by, a different group of people.. a group we define.. so that the only way my experience of twitter is really changed, by the twitter explosion, is in the character of folks whom start following me.. whom I may or may not choose to follow back..
So I guess my point is.. My experience of twitter doesn’t necessarily degrade in anyway as a result of celebrities on Twitter.. or the only way it degrades is as a result of Twitter’s technological problems keeping up with the massive growth..
So it’s really a question of substance versus fashion…
I do confess that it’s a very surreal thing to find celebrities, and “old media” folk talking about twitter so much.. not quite “getting it,” and all the rest.. ..and there is something about “old media” talking about twitter that makes twitter seem less cool..
I joked on twitter, at some point, that maybe digital natives.. or social media natives.. need better immigration policies.. sorta suggesting that.. the rate of growth is such that the culture we’ve had can’t really assimilate the influx.. that this will likely change the culture. And this is the real thing of why the early adopter / “geek folks” would want to move on.
Still.. there’s something structurally different about twitter and social media then anything we’ve seen in the past.. and I feel a little like Allan Green Span, in the heat of the tech bubble saying “no, the productivity increases we see as a result of the technological revolution is not merely bubble talk.” He was right of course, but many people blame him for not removing the cool-aid..
The structure of social media is still one where, in rather Thomas Friedman esk language, flattens the playing field.. we see huge power diffusion.. the relationship between business and consumer is shifting.. Who knows what the future of journalism and the entertainment industries might look like? Ultimately.. I think we all think that a mass behavioral shift in peoples media consumption patterns.. is a good thing.. The question is just how will all of this play out.
So will the Geeks leave Twitter?
I think.. the nature of the web 2.0 type technology is such that it’s very low hanging fruit to get started.. a do it in you’re basement while still having a day job kinda thing.. which creates a serious issue of asymmetric competition challenges for the MySpaces, FaceBooks, and Twitters of the world, whom want to maintain there dominance. And.. in a down economy.. more and more developers have more and more basement time.. All of which is good for the evolution of the space.. and difficult for the business of change management..
In marketing.. there is this sorta metaphorical relationship between.. sex and relations.. with.. trying to get that quick one off sale.. versus building long term customer relationships..
And so it is that I think Mr. Marilyn Manson might have said it best when he said “I’m not in love, but I’m going to fuck you, till someone better comes along.”
Conclusion
I don’t think Twitter is necessarily really peaking as we speak.. it’s just a new tipping point.. and the real question is how with the structure of the Twitter user experience relate to the tipping. There is a certain level where the “Web 2.0″ technologies aren’t really as Web 2.0 as is generally believed.. which creates an opening for next generation of web apps to come along.
I regard exploring new possibilities, as an artist.. stretching into new things.. as being one of the most important things you can do.. and it’s probably true in most other walks of life. Generally it’s a kind of oscillation.. between that area where you are really strong.. and the new areas you’re just starting to explore… It’s about integrating these two things.
In some of my newer directions.. I have some fear that what I’m doing might be nieve… The reason being because I am venturing into areas that are more conventional then my work normally is.. so that if you’re taking you’re first few steps on a very well trotted road, how excited can you be about what you find? I mean.. sure, you’re excited.. but maybe for everyone else its “Ho hum, I’ve seen that before.”
Still.. it is still me making the music.. still a product of my aesthetic thinking.. my aesthetic sensibilities.. still something that largely comes from within.. still my process.. etc. So whatever it is I’m doing.. it’s still inescapably me.. still has a certain.. I’m not sure what.
Ultimately.. where I see the future in the new stuff is finding ways for it to be more and more imprinted with.. whatever it is that’s unique in me.. and integrating it with the older stuff.
Into the New Music
If you’ve been listening to my stuff for any length of time.. you’ll note that this new track is basically an evolution of some of what we heard on ZarMattAThustra’s Deep Space Adventures:
What we hear here is what we were hearing in Deep Space.. but now arranged, mixed, and sorta composed around.. in a kind of new way. It’s been said that the Deep Space stuff was like exploring out into space.. and now we are listening in on Alien conversations..
It’s a crazy kind of dark and harsh ambient.. or that track is, isn’t it? Makes me feel like a journey into the shadow side of the soul.
About this direction
The direction opens up a whole lot in the way of possible possibilities… err, so let me describe the process of the above track.
Inside Reaktor
I started out in Reaktor.. with a sound source by which you can make music / sound / whatever.. via twiddling some knobs with your mouse.. by twiddling the parameters of sequences, synthesizers, sound generators, effects processors, and mixers.. you can only adjust one parameter at a time.. and you tend to not do it too abruptly most of the time.. you spend a lot of time navigating the interface just to get so you can get the thing you want to tweak’s parameter…
Controlling one parameter at a time.. sorta slowly.. with gaps between where you can tweak.. has the effect of making for a somewhat slowly organically evolving sound.. and because we are talking about parameter tweaking.. its as if the resultant sound is.. well it sounds like its coming from the same device who’s pattern and behavior is shifting over time.. and expressive in that way.
Parallel Compression
So you do this over and over again.. generating a few sound files.. and you take these sound files and submit them to an automated process of what is called “parallel compression.” Parallel compression means.. you have a sound source.. that gets thrown through many compressors working in parallel.. and you mix the outs of the various compressors.. indeed I mix the sends into the compressors as well as the sounds out.. The idea is that the various compressors you’re dealing with all color the sound in different ways.. in relationship to things like.. the dynamics of the audio.. and they also effect the dynamics of the audio differently..
So we are both colorizing the sounds and shaping there dynamics.. the latter of which will allow us more control once we get to the mixing and arrangement process.
The Mixing and Arranging Process
Next I take the audio files and load them into my DAW.. Digital Performer.
There’s certain interesting aesthetic issues that pop up about this point. Because each sound file was generated independently of one another.. there’s no “design” to there interrelationships accept that they were all created at the same tempo… There relationships of timber and pitch (counterpoint, harmony, orchestration).. are.. in essence indeterminate.. which kinda brings us into John Cage Country…
What is similar is that.. in many cases the effects treated to the instrument are the same.. or at least some of the effects are the same.. and they are all created via the same process.. so the way they evolve over time is very similar: Process dictates a probability distribution of attributes.. so that its as if there’s a systems level interrelationship of stuff.
The process of mixing and arranging is then our chance to insert a little design into the production.. For now I’m not doing anything much more sophisticated then deciding when an audio recording should be inserted into the arrangement, choosing additional effects for that instrument.. effects of the general mix.. and mixing the instruments.. –Although I have been creating custom stuff with say.. Native Instruments Machine.
The Mixing
In my conventionally unconventional music.. harmony is at least in part conceived of as 3 dimensional.. What I mean is.. the issue of overlapping frequency ranges is a central issue to the mix engineers stock and trade.. and some of how this is dealt with is panoramic positioning.. and just where a sound should be located in a virtual sound stage. Because in my music the mixing and the composition are integrated.. harmony is conceptualized in a context of spacial relationships.
So if you think about it.. the process of mixing.. can be like a process of contextualizing material.. which means embedding meaning into it.. and um.. that kinda thing.
What you end up doing is listening to the material of the audio.. the various audio files you have.. and asking questions.. What you do is making decisions about.. what to highlight at one moment or another.. what should be dominant in the mix.. how the sounds should interrelate.. how to make things interesting in terms of how the track evolves over time..
So in essence the mixing is the composing.. moving things around in space.. automating effects.. and all this kind of thing.
Where Maschine fits into all of this?
Maschine is in essence a pattern based percussive sequencer.. and a little bit more. You compose in it various patterns.. and then in your DAW you tell it when to play what patterns..
So, at the very least Maschine represents the possibilities of pattern based sequencing.. to my music.. something that’s very good for real time music production.. and based sequencing is a big part of what’s going on inside of Reaktor in much of this production.
Machine gets mixed in like any other element.. though its the one element where we have conscious control of.. so that it works to somehow.. fit things together.. I guess.. another layer of it..
Where to go from here
It seems to me that there’s an incredible number of possibilities moving forward from here.. I have an obvious interest in working out how to create a kind of music that is similar to this.. in a live scenario.. and then there’s all the kind of possible mutations of this…
With Kore [ and hands on controllers more genearally ]
Kore, shown here:
represents one obvious set of possibilities. You can load up various software instruments, effects, and what not.. into Kore.. and control them via its buttons and knobs.. which you map to various parameters of the instruments / effects in question.. You have various pages of mappings that you can then move between.. allowing you real time control.. without a mouse.. and in a way were you can control multiple parameters at once.
Real time control of software, in this fashion.. radically changes the way you think, and how you work with.. the software.. it’s really awesome.
A day or so latter:
Implications
The full implications of real time hands on control of software in this fashion, and relative to this sorta production style are really.. well more then I can really lay out in full for you here today… but I can throw a bit at yea
Manipulating multiple parameters at once
As mentioned earlier… mousing around single parameters at a time produces a certain kind of organic evolution of the sounds.. hands on control is a very different beast.. we are not talking about… well there’s a certain artistry of performance.. kind of more power.. and with that power comes the need to know how to temper it.. and anyway.. there’s a good deal to explore here.
Beyond this.. things can get a little complex.. especially is we are using multiple controllers.. and the idea that we can now play with interrelationships on the performance level.
Recording Automation rather then Audio
A significant difference between the way I was tweaking away in Reaktor.. and tweaking away with controllers in a DAW is that we are now recording automation data of a performance.. and not simply the resultant audio.
This means we can go back in and edit the performance.. we can perform on one set of parameters on one take, and another on another take.. so that the results can become a good deal deal more complex in how they evolve over time..
There is a kind of negative.. which is.. well has to do with most modern music.. that you don’t really have to make choices.. when you can alway edit / adjust things latter… this is a kind of long conversation.. but basically it has to do with.. the creative process.. and being pushed into situations where you have to work your way out of the hard way.. and in so doing.. often that’s how brilliant things happen.. But without going to far into this topic.. I will say that ultimately its up to the artist, in how to relate to the technology on this level.
Taking it to Ableton Live, and the joys of patterns.
I imagine the next phase of things is to take the whole production, and bring it into Ableton Live.. creating patterns.. using MIDI effects to tweak the patterns.. and make it so the whole production is produced this way…
Here we really get to thinking deeply about how to take this into the live arena.. also… we are getting out of Reaktor.. and using the rest of my instrument library.
This is sorta like.. “lets go do stuff in the usual studio” stuff. It’s hard to say too much about a path you’ve yet to walk but.. An Ableton Live based… pattern based.. compositional process.. can actually lead you into a world of more control.. more.. lets say design developed.. stuff.. then traditional linear sequencing…
Basically.. you have a bunch of patterns.. and you play with how the different patterns play together.. this can be how you think of production and composition in the real design sense.. or it can be like the design of a framework for improvisation.
There’s perhaps more to say here.. but I’m tired..
Integration
The final subject is really integration.. to integrate this stuff with the stuff that I’m actually good at… or maybe the better way of putting it is where I’m already strong..
I see this kinds of hands on.. tweak it.. kind of organic evolution of sound.. as having certain elements that my more programmed.. crazy attention to detail music lacks.. In case you haven’t heard this stuff.. a reasonable example might be this remix of the Cobert Report Interview with Lawrence Lessig.. I did recently
This track took me about a month to do.. there’s a hell of a lot more attention to detail then you might notice at first.. ( including a fair amount that doesn’t really come out when listened to streamed).. the problem with this track is perhaps mostly how short it is.. as so much of this sorta thing for me tends to be about taking a little trip.. and its hard to go that far in a couple of minutes.. In some ways you can listen to it as a prototype for the new direction of what we are calling my conventional work.. Even with whatever it’s flaws might be.. it does represent a step forward on that trajectory…
I love the idea of taking a whole month to do a single track.. I mean just the level of detail you can achieve that way… that much love and attention to every moment.. of course it’s a little on the unrealistic side.. but still!
The integration can probably happen along multiple axises
If you create a music form where it literally takes a month to finish a couple minutes of music.. to have this along side music where in a day’s work can give you twenty plus minutes worth of music.. well.. now the month for a couple minutes is realistic..
I have this notion of a whole album that is of the tweak kind.. where via creative mixing.. the super programmed detail stuff.. sorta comes out of that world.. where in you’re really considering the album as a whole. ( which may not make a lot of sense for custom play lists )
The Tweak-age stuff could be an element inside of the super detailed programed sequence stuff.
There’s a lot of stuff I’m thinking about where.. you have.. say.. a kind of tweakage space reverb and delay inside of a deeply programmed mix..
A Concluding Statement
Stretching is important.. and that’s really what this is about.. What’s slightly strange about this post is that it seems to almost emphasize the.. let call it objective facts.. over the sorta internal organizing principles that would be.. what is actually known.. the facts.. we must.. as Hunter Thompson would say.. buy the ticket, take the ride.. to really get at.. so it is a strange synthesis.. and we’ll have to see what happens.
In any event.. in the end.. this is just like a confession of one tiny piece in a much larger puzzle
[Editors note: Matt wrote the following sometime ago… while suffering from a dark mood.. it is the voice of the struggle with the darkness within… he’s feeling better now.. or at least in a different mental space.. but seeing as he still considers himself a blogger.. it was thought something ought to be posted.. so here’s this.]Some how I’m not posting too much these days.. so.. today’s goal is to write something and post it… doesn’t matter if it’s sucky.. just post it.. just get into that swing of things.. just push forward.This was my attitude as an art student.. or someone just at the early part of learning… just push forward, doesn’t matter if it’s any good or not.. what matters is that we are getting better..I’m trying to take that attitude towards my music now to.. See… hmm… the thing is I feel this need… this want.. or, it’s in me that.. there’s a bar I have to live up to. It may very well be that it’s an unrealistic bar.. it might be impossible.. but that doesn’t matter.. gotta just go for it.I had this thought earlier today.. about how unrealistic I might be about my expectations for myself. Is it that if I’m not unrealistically good I’m not good enough? At the time I thought this might be the case, it really felt that way to me.. sitting here now.. I don’t feel it so strongly.. but what I do feel strongly is.. well, that I have my challenges.I’ve been pushing forward on my music a hell of a lot lately. I regard that as a really good thing.. it’s good to be focused.. and there’s no way to get better then by doing.. still, when it comes to my work.. I feel somehow trapped in the wilderness.. somehow lost. I’m working hard but I don’t necessarily feel like I’m getting better.. which is odd considering it wasn’t that long ago when it seemed like every time I took a swing at making new work.. it would be a giant step forward for me. Of course I very much am moving forward.. I’m indeed learning lots of new stuff on every project.. and the truth is that I’m just way the hell out of my safety zone.. I’m taking these leaps into the unknown… so the going isn’t quite as easy as it is when I’m in said safe zone..Well.. the trouble is that I have so much growing to do really.. It’s as if all the projects of my past have happened inside of a limited world of… Well inside of a limited world… I’ve grown into that world nicely, and now its time to take things to the next place…
Latter that night:
Just finished watching the Deer Hunter.. good movie.. a revelation came to me while watching.. Basically what I want to do is create “A real album.”
A real album
I suppose I’ve been dreaming about this my whole life.. or at least since about the 8th grade or so.. to actually make one of those albums.. and not just to make an album.. but to make a great album. All those day dreams set the bar.. and..It’s hard to explain actually.. this notion of a real album.. or a real artist.. what those words mean to me and there implications. Practically speaking its… Do you ever notice the unconscious motivating forces in your life? Like you feel a certain way, behave a certain way.. but wish you didn’t? It’s as if you could look under the surface and see the reason.. and the reason represents.. I don’t know the right word for it.. but I guess I’d say its as if life has a certain organization.. the psyche does.. our humanity does.. and some how its like.. the reason is like the expression of soooo much.. and so much more then whatever it is that lys behind you’re conscious will.Or that’s what I’m kinda feeling here.In someways I’d say its like I have a vision of who I want to be.. and I’m abandoning the moment for the future. I’m saying.. reaching this higher goal is more important then.. It reminds me of the days I worked as an interactive designer. I’d been using Photoshop, and whatever else, for years.. but I had never spent 40 hours a week in Photoshop… and as I spent all that time.. in Photoshop and Flash mostly.. It was amazing how fast you’d grow.. how it seemed to dwarf you’re past experiences that brought you to that point, at that job.So it’s a little like I’m embarking on that kind of journey.. what happens when you work 4o hours a week on this stuff?
Speaking of Challenges
The funny truth of the matter is that it’s a hell of a lot more complicated then the interactive design stuff. If you’re a designer.. what do you gotta know? Principles of design.. plus lets say.. xhtml, css, dom, maybe actionscript.. photoshop, flash, illustrator probably…With this music stuff…. I’m using Digital Performer, Ableton Live, Reason, Melodyne Studio, Kore, Komplete ( including Reaktor which is a bit like learning a programing language.. not to mention Kontakt’s programing language ) Omnisphere, Maschine, Liquid Mix, stuff from VirSyn, and stuff from Audio Ease.. I anticipate I’ll be adding Max to the list in not too long… Not only do I deal with composing.. but I deal with mixing.. recording.. lyrics.. performance… lets say producing?So I guess the point I’m trying to drive at is..
