Apple announced new new Mac Laptops today at WWDC..  My story is I have last years MacBook.. which while I love it.. it’s #1 regulated to secondary status and #2 I’ve been feeling the need for firewire for audio work.. 

 Firewire and USB for audio

I don’t think firewire is as critical for audio work as many say.. but if you want to go high end in your audio interfaces… it really is. On this front.. for me, its all about focusrite or apogee… there is a now discontinued multichannel audio interface from MOTU.. which I understand is quite good.. but doesn’t really feel like an upgrade so much… from what I currently use.. and.. if you’re on a computer with only USB.. well it makes you wonder why MOTU would have discontinued it! In any event.. the cost of the MOTU interface.. is such that I couldn’t afford to do that, and get the sorta interface that I actually want.. so that my mobile interface is really relegated to.. well Kore or Zoom if I want XLRs.. not the best pres.. and I’m limited to stereo.

The difference.. with Apogee it’s the quality of the A/D conversion.. With Focusrite we have convolution based preamp modeling.. these issues are not inherent to the technology behind USB or Firewire.. the difference between USB and Firewire comes down to data rates.. and how much it effects over all performance. 

What’s up with the Brand Story?

The biggest thing I’m not getting with the new Mac’s is now every thing is a “MacBook Pro” accept for a new ancient model MacBook..  all be it updated..

To get what used to be the MacBook Pro.. you need to spend $2000.. at that point.. you get “the two graphics processors.” The deal here is one is nice to your battery life, and the other has significant performance.. The lower end MacBook Pro’s have the nice battery life processors… If you’re someone who needs the performance.. well.. you might want to go for the $2K models… or better yet the $2.3K model which now gives you 512 MB of view RAM, instead of 256 MB.. which really makes all the difference…  both of which are 15″ models. ..but none of this should miss lead you into thinking that the sub $2K models aren’t fine for video.. its more a question of if you plan to push things..

I couldn’t tell you where the line is exactly.. in terms of how you assess your needs relative to this..  But I’d say.. if you’re doing web video.. particularly that doesn’t need to be HD.. and effects and like.. motion stuff.. isn’t playing a significant roll in how you’re working.. I don’t think you need more power.. if you do that stuff it probably depends on how important that stuff is / how often you go there.

Now you get MacBooks Pros in the 13″ range.. but I’m not sure what the significants of it is.. as aren’t they just calling MacBook’s MacBook Pros now?

Speaking of smaller MacBooks

I think there’s always this trade off you make on size.. The negative of larger is.. costs more, less portable.. the plus is better productivity.. often more powerful.. you can somewhat mitigate the productivity issues by adding a monitor when your at home.. but not really while on the go.

For me..

I haven’t gotten into doing a lot of heavy production work on my 13″ MacBook…  long story… and its a secondary computer.. So the idea is “you can work on the go” which I haven’t fully even put together yet.. The main need.. in a sorta heavy production esk sorta way.. is for live performance.. for that, so far.. I’m actually pretty fine with the 13″…

If you look at the Maschine controller

You’ll note that you can see a certain amount of what’s going on just from Maschine screens.. and the software sequencer is fine on the 13.” 

And of course Kore is similar in this regard

This would seem to a theme for many a controller of this sorta ilk.. The new controllers coming to Ableton.. the Euphonix MC controllers…  

Where things get tricky is when you have to negotiate lots of windows.. which is typical for serious music production of the “studio sort” or.. you see it for video, animation… in design you sometimes see it.. but mainly its the size of the window you’re working in.. and its more of an issue if you’re working with bit map graphics then vectors.. I think..

Conclusions in the World of Matt 

For me.. the laptop is.. if I want to get untethered from this desk.. this room.. if.. say cause its nice out.. I want to do stuff on the go.. even if it just means working on the back porch.. It can be about trying to capture the vibe of an adventure.. how being someplace where things are happening.. can alter your consciousness in certain ways.. and thus later the sort of aesthetic choices you make.. There’s also.. if I were doing work for clients.. being able to show them what I’m doing on the laptop is big.. There’s live shows of course.. There’s having a computer when you’re on a trip somewhere.. being able to stay connected… I’d like to be able to go to a friends house and be like “hey, lets make some work,” and be able to do it all there… If you’re doing video or photography there’s the ability to assess things in the field.. 

There is, of course, the question of how working on a smaller computer impacts your work.. an equation that ultimately probably needs to be felt more then conceptualized.. I mean how often would I really want to lug around the extra weight of Kore or Maschine or even an audio interface?

Other things worth mentioning

1. Apple claims there’s better battery life to be had now.. like 7 hours.. but they are notoriously untrust worthy on this front.. but it’s probably safe to assume better battery life is here. The negative side of this would be.. it looks like you can’t change your battery.. though they say the life span is greatly increased
2. Now the only MacBook with an expansion slot is the 17,” which might be important if you want to connect up a fast hard drive.. or use the UAD type stuff for audio work
3. Now having a backlit keyboard is standard on all MacBook Pros.. which I had one on my MacBook!
4. There was a price drop.. of some significance.
5. Apple’s new laptops now come with SD card readers.. which is nice accept that I tend to use CF cards more these days.

What I might do.. If I was gong 13″ the model  that makes sense runs at $1.5K.. For that you get 2.53 GHz ( 270 more MHz on your processor.. so a total of $1.3K model which is.. I don’t know, doesn’t seem all that significant to me) more hard drive space.. 4GB of RAM instead of the 2 GB.. and the RAM is the main thing.. of course Apple gouges you for RAM and Hard Disk Space.. Apple charges $1000 if you want to go from 4GB to 8GB, where as the retail cost of the RAM looks  to be around $600? Perhaps the thing is to get the cheaper computer and buy and install your own RAM and a 500GB  hard drive.. just to spite them! Really.. I think for photography.. if you use Apples Aperture.. you probably want at least 4GB.. and I’m finding with music.. that I can never quite get enough RAM.. even at 6 GB… and I simply can’t use some of my software on 2GB… like Omnisphere.. But really.. I think I’m most likely to hold off doing anything… 

Yup, that’s right, I’m thinking of moving back to Cubase.. I can still get back to it with the modest $200 upgrade cost.. it looks like.. …so I’ve been sorta evaluating the new version: Cubase 5. The last version I worked on was Cubase SX3… so its a few versions beyond…

Comparing Cubase with Digital Performer

I haven’t really been on Digital Performer, in a serious way, for all that long.. lets say a year maybe.. So I don’t really fully understand DP… and DP is.. arcane in places.. I’ll give you a for instance…

DP gripes

Workflow and the Arcane 

In Digital Performer.. you have two modes a plug in can run under.. ( I wasn’t even aware of this till the other day ).. one way is the new fangeled way… err, don’t even remember what they call it.. but essentially DP will render out what’s on a channel.. into an audio file.. and swap stuff around.. in order to save on CPU loads.. This is a groovy thing.. of course.. but seeing as my main computer has 8 processors in it.. it’s not a feature I actually need.. and the negative of this operating mode is that it can cause some plugins to go unstable.. which would explain a lot of the frustration I’ve had on recent projects.

The other mode is a “real time mode” where.. well.. plugs work in real time.. here things are stable..

But.. you know.. DP is a strange beast.. on mix down.. according to something someone said in a forum.. you have to separately mix down real time plugs.. Why? And um.. further more.. ReWire.. only works in real time.. and is a pain in the freaking ass.. at least in my experience.. to mix down via DP… which means Ableton Live and Reason.. in my case.

It may very well be that all this makes sense once one gets a little more advanced then I am.. but for me.. it’s just a pain in my butt.. 

Effects 

Why yes, it is true.. DP does come with a number of effects..  but how many of them would I use if I had a choice? Umm.. probably Master Works EQ, MW Limiter, Proverb, Delay, and the Master Works Leveler, are the effects I’m regularly given to using.. out side of that there’s a few that are ok.. but after that the rest are rather crapy.. and those that are good are.. not really all that exciting.

Instruments 

Frankly.. if you are the sorta person who uses virtual instruments.. or is interested in such things.. Digital Performer is NOT good enough unless you invest in other instruments. They are not wholly without merit… they are just.. well I turn my nose on them anyway.

[editors note: None of the DAWs out there, really, come with instruments that you’d want to be limited to using.. the point is Matt almost never uses and of the instruments in DP] 

Beyond all that

I’m not really sure what I can say about DP.. I feel as if… well I’m not as good with it, as I need to be, to really judge.. there’s a lot of things I don’t like about DP… and I think a lot of it is just where I stand on the learning curve… I’m slow with it.. not as productive as I like.. I find myself fighting the tools.. which has got to be some sort of an issue.

Onto Cubase

Effects

It’s a little hard to talk about Cubase’s effects as I haven’t really used them… but I’ll give you my presumptions anyway… and mind you I’ve been using cubase since.. I want to say version 3 or 4? That is way back in the OS 9 and earlier days! So.. I know my way around a bit…. and some of the older, more legacy effects, I do indeed know.

EQ

My impression is that DP’s Master work EQ probably beats out Cubase as far as EQing for color is concerned.. but then I don’t know really.. [Editors Note: Its pretty safe to say you want one good transparent EQ, and then as many for color as you can afford, so you probably wouldn’t rely on the EQs that come with you’re DAW, at least not entirely ] Cubase has 4 EQs.. one of which, the channel EQ, I have used before.. What I like about it is its just there.. as a part of every channel.. you don’t have to bother adding a plug in.. and I just sorta like that design better. I really like the user interface to.. good for making EQ adjustments. I also like that Cubase comes with a graphic EQ.. well actually 2 of them.. as sometimes.. don’t just want to work with a graphic EQ instead of a parametric?

There’s also a high pass low pass filter with resonance.. which to me could go under the EQ category.. this is probably where we are talking about color… but I have nothing to judge on.

Compressors and Dynamics

Cubase offers basically 3 Compressors… what looks like a standard compressor.. a multi band compressor.. and a vintage compressor. [editors note: In compressor speak, vintage usually means color.. and are often modeled off of one or another “famous compressors” again, you probably want lots of color orientated compressors]

What I will tell you is DP has a multi band compressor.. that I don’t much like using.. and there leveling amplifier.. which counts as a vintage compressor.. (though it does have “modern” modes to) I’ve generally liked the interfaces of Cubase’s compressors better..

Beyond this Cubase ships with a number of dynamics shaping effects that Digital Performer lacks.. including transient shaping, expander, and maximizer.

Distortion

DP has one distortion unit and.. well.. it leaves much to be desired.. its ok in one mode.. but try and push it hard and it turns into.. well.. bad sounding crap…

Cubase has DaTube.. which.. it’s not the best thing in the world.. but you know.. its not terrible.. for adding a certain sorta warmth… I actually kind of like it more then I would usually admit.

Since I’ve been away from Cubase, it looks like Cubase has added an amp simulator, tone boost, distortion, and soft clipper… some of which might be old stuff with redesigned interfaces but.. at the very least its more options then you ever got with Digital Performer.. and I’m guessing its better.. well.. it is a low bar to be better then but… and some of Cubase’s offerings in this department are purely for color.. and you know.. can never get enough of that sorta thing.

Reverb

Cubase offers 2 reverbs… really.. room works.. an algorithmic type reverb and a new convolution reverb. The convolution comes, by default. .with stuff that will give you the sounds of various speakers and analog gear as well as reverb sounds.. which… is more then you get with DP.. though I understand you can load, if you can find them, such things into DP’s pro reverb.. and I understand its not too difficult to find… but ether way, I think Cubase has to have the leg up.

I can’t say much about this room works.. accept that I was happier with Cubases reverbs when I left Cubase.. then I was DP’s reverbs.. when I went to Digital Performer..  so again.. points to Cubase.

Delays

It looks like Cubase has this area going on a little better then DP..

There’s lots of other stuff.. but I’ll leave it here, as this is sorta what I care about.. so.. onto instruments.

Instruments

Its hard to say much about Cubase’s Instruments without using them.. I’ve never been big on Cubase’s instrument.. but tend to like them better then Digital Performer’s.. And my impression, admittedly based of marketing materials.. is that Cubase wins this area by a land slide.. though.. it doesn’t have too much of a bar to get over.. and I’m certainly intrigued by the newer stuff.

But do I really care?

In my studio is Komplete, Kore 2, Omnisphere, Reason, Ableton Live, the Audio Ease all in Bundle.. and a bundle from VirSyn.. plus Cantor… oh yeah, and Native Instruments Machine plus Liquid Mix, never mind Melodyne…

My point is that the quality of built in effects and Instruments.. when looking at a DAW, is not really the most important thing to me…. as the level of stuff in my instruments and effects plug in library is several orders of magnitude better then what I could possibly expect to find in a DAW.

I love having lots of options, so I look forward to having a new set of options.. but it’s not as if I’d actually be relying on them or anything.. well.. unless they turned out to be surprisingly good… and I do think there’s some chance of that.

Other things

I prefer the way Cubase works with surround sound mixing.. I prefer the way it works with ReWire.. I have a lot more experience with Cubase.. so I expect to be more productive and to produce better work.. I hate the dongle key Steinberg forces on you.. and I hate there tech support.. and the way there company treats me.. It seriously feels like, from time to time, that they are penalizing you for paying money for there software instead of using pirated copies..  and not only that.. but in there videos where they explain there new features.. they have the balls to suggest offering a 9 week demo on another product of there’s constitutes “a feature.”

..Though they do, apparently, offer you the upgrade from the demo for “a special price”.. which.. I don’t know.. if the price is good enough.. the other product is actually quite good according to reviews.. it being there sampler.. I mean its no Kontakt but.. it does offer a good sample library.. and that combined with it’s Cubase integration.. probably makes it worth something to me.

Other odd thing is they only support sample rates up to 98kHz? Umm.. why? DP def wins that one out.. though I usually only work at 44 kHz because liquid mix’s instance count goes down once you go beyond 48 kHz.. so.. it’s not something that’s normally an issue for me.. but still!  

I kind of have the impression.. and I couldn’t easily explain this to you.. that digital performer is a lot deeper then Cubase.. and that much of my frustration comes from not having yet mastered those depths.. That MOTU, Digital performers developers, seems to treat me better.. and are not insulting in there marketing material.. is a big deal to..

Oh yeah.. um… just the way Steinberg uses hyped up marketing language..  I mean..  

1. Stienberg has always been an innovator in a lot of ways.. but they also have a habit of putting out lemons.. throwing at you VST instruments that suck ass.. that get repealed in the next version.. or two versions into the future.. and then sometimes they repeal stuff you actually like! So when they’re hyping it.. telling you how golden it all is.. you kinda look at them like “um.. what’s that smell?”
2. A lot of the features.. they hype as if to say “look how freaking innovative we are with these wonderful new features” when the reality of the matter is that in many situations they are playing catchup with there competition.
3. They have no credibility.. just because of how much they hype.. you get the feeling they are targeting new users whom are new to music production and kinda.. don’t yet know the ropes.. and are sorta trying to take advantage of you on that front.. where as with MOTU and DP.. you feel like they sorta care about you.. there customers.. And it may be interesting to compare this with a company like Ableton where you feel like “wow, these guys are really hip.”
4. Please Steinberg.. don’t try to convince me you got the best stuff since sliced REX –I mean bread.. Anyone with a brain knows there’s pros and cons to all the DAWs out there.. all I want from you is.. well I’d like information that didn’t feel like manipulation.. tell me, “what’s the virtues of you’re product in the current technological climate?” ..and do so honestly.. you know “authenticity?”

A light speed look at other DAWs

To be honest.. if I were to buy a new DAW.. and was starting from scratch as far as investing in stuff… I’d be looking Logic, Ableton, and maybe Reason… The one really stand out feature of Cubase is that it’s cross platform. .which means.. if you’re a Mac Guy.. you can also boot into windows and use Cubase over there.. with software that doesn’t run on the Mac..

My sense of DP is that its strong suit really lys in.. well.. post production.. working with Film..

Ableton’s biggest strength is just.. creative composition process.. but it’s super weak in terms of conventional sequencing.

Reason, of course, doesn’t do anything with recorded audio.. it’s basically a virtual instrument work station.. totally modular.. or pretty close to totally.. all be it a closed modular system, right? It’s very good.. emphasis on simple.. a few weaknesses here and there.. but very good..

Logic.. I couldn’t tell you.. I think it’s biggest strength is all the content it comes with.. loops, samples.. its effects and instrument library.. I think you can’t beat it for the price.. it probably has other places its strong to.. Although I must say, fooling around with it in an Apple store not to long ago.. I wasn’t all that impressed with the effects it came with… seems like it could use some updating.

I can’t really speak to Cakewalk on the PC.. but I hear good things.

FL Studio.. if you’re on the PC.. and if you do electronic music.. I think it’s pretty much a must have.

Pro Tools.. ProTools is a standard in a lot of places.. and if thats important to you.. I’d go that route.. but.. there’s much I don’t like about it.. just that its a closed system.. and I really want to choose my own control surfaces and audio interfaces… its expensive.. and.. I have no idea why I should even consider Pro Tools.. oh.. and not only that.. but you have to be very careful about updating your OS with Pro Tools.. it has some strange conflicts with Avid of all things.. 

Some final reasons I’m considering Cubase

I have a lot of old projects produced in Cubase.. many of them being very good I think.. all be it with some flaws.. the ability to go back into them.. fix the flaws.. well.. that could really make all the difference.. and probably makes it worth a lot more then $200 to me. 

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:

Glitchy Goodness mix (As of yet untitled early mix) by Matt Searles

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

BSO Steven Cobert Lawrence Lessig ReMix by Matt Searles

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

1. 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.. 
2. 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 )
3. The Tweak-age stuff could be an element inside of the super detailed programed sequence stuff.
4. 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.. 

Many days latter:

I think I should just post this. 

Well.. what I ought to do now, perhaps, is finish up the part 2 of the remixing project posts.. and then move onto a kind of postmortem of it.. and I would do that.. accept that I’m now onto a new remix project.. and that’s kind of where my mind is at at the moment.. so… lets dig into that.

Working on Remix projects means moving out of my safety zone.. I’m fine with that.. accept.. I tend to like to “orbit” my safety zone.. another words.. go out into the difficult stuff as much as I can.. and then once I’ve had enough, go back to the safety zone.. work in such a way that you’re incorporating new stuff.. going on an explorative adventure.. but you’re also integrating it with your already built muscles.. and so far.. I feel like I’m a little further afield from my safety zone then all that…

The problem with jumping too far out is.. suddenly you start to realize how badly you suck.. or that’s the feeling you get.. It disturbs you’re feeling of comfort.. 

As we speak I’m moving into a world of “being serious about electronic music.” Was I ever not serious about electronic music? Well.. serious in a kind of more focused way.. a kind of thinking that runs something like “this is what you must do to be successful out here” and then going after it.. in a focused sorta way. All I can really say is that I have a hell of a lot of work to do before I get to where I want to get to along this front.. enough so that I’m feeling a little unsure of myself.

Some of the basics of what it probably takes.

1. Get to know electronic music: I mean this from a.. “what’s happening” kind a level.. there’s a marketing element to this.. of knowing the market and figuring out how you want to position you’re self in said market.. but it’s also a kind of.. just feeling connected to it all. Electronic music is a world of a zillion generas and sub generes.. enough so that it’s possible that no one really knows this world in and out.
2. What are the production styles of the various generas.. how do you make the stuff? I’m me.. I’ll make my music my own damn way.. but.. having the ability to work inside of generas, or at least relate to various generas, will likely have some kind of pragmatic value.. I figure at least it would have some value to add to my musical vocabulary…

Ok, fair enough.. lets look at some other stuff.

I’m looking into the subject of live performance..

So.. I’m looking at gear like Mashine:

Here’s a video I rather like on it:

This video might give you some sense of what can be done with Native Instrument’s Maschine.. though it doesn’t really go too deep into it.. Native Instruments site does a bit a more.. but it’s still a little limited in what it tells you.. I’ve had the following twitter conversations:

Tweeting with CynicOne..  

cynicone@MattSearles ps: saw you were interested in MASCHINE. you’d get better use outta ableton live + pad kontrol or a mpc1k with jjos2xl IMHO…

cynicone@MattSearles …spent 2 hrs @ guitar center with one and it’s not ready for prime time. wait for v2 of the software at least.

MattSearles@cynicone well I already bought Maschine, it was on back order, so I’m waiting for it at this point 

cynicone@MattSearles aye….the lack of vsti sequencing, groove quantization & sample layering/editing capabilities were the negative 4 me.

MattSearles@cynicone you mean Maschine? Couldn’t you use it as just a controller in a DAW to drive external vsti’s? 

cynicone@MattSearles u could use it as a midi controller but really it’s a sequencer in itself. u have 2 run drums in maschine, then synths in a daw

cynicone@MattSearles its sort of a 1/2 baked software mpc at the moment. i like the idea but it’s not developed fully. 

Lets see if I can’t translate this into English…

Maschine has a built in sequencer.. kind of the old analog style pattern thing.. which is really how I think you want to work with it.. in large measure.. and for God knows what reason.. Cynic One is telling us that this Sequencer can’t be used to control external virtual instruments.. which does sound rather insane.. you can, as near as I can  tell, export MIDI from what you’ve sequencing in Maschine, and bring it into you’re DAW to then use with you’re more robust instrument library.. assuming you have such a library.. but you would think you’d be able to use some kind of inter application midi communication.. or something.. 

Sample layers is important to.. how hard you hit something.. say a piano or a drum.. effects the sound in more ways then just volume.. with sample layers you use different samples for different… well levels of how hard you’re hitting the thing.. basically.

Groove quantizing is.. if you have notes on grid.. as you would with a step sequencer.. things can get a little robotic… which depending on you’re aesthetic inclinations and the project at hand, can be a good or bad thing.  Groove quantization is a means for turning a robot into… well, a groovy robot… err.. gives it a more human-esk feel.

In terms of how this effects my analysis of “if it’s worth it.” 

Prior to the announcement of Maschine at NAMM, I was thinking I wanted to get into “this type” of technology. Everything I do, pretty much, takes place in the computer with software.. so I was figuring I might just get one of these types of controllers… and then when I saw Maschine I was like “oh, yeah, I probably want that.”

I’m very much attracted to the idea of this kind of production… and this falls into a number of categories.

1. I want more of my music production to involve controllers and human performances, even if quantized
2. I want some kinda controller set up for doing sorta “groove box” style production.. including for generative sorts of stuff.
3. I’m interested in playing with step sequencers that are connected to actual controllers. I think the reason I usually don’t like working with step sequencers is that I’m normally using them with mouse input.. which is not terrible exciting, and can often be a bit on the tedious side.
4. Maschine will operate as a controller for Ableton Live.. which at least has some value to me prior to investing in the new Ableton controller.. 

If I could kind of summaries it all.. Maschine is a pretty expensive piece of gear.. if it’s worth the asking price.. that’s probably a matter of how you plan to use it.. and I think Native Instruments making it with these limitations.. really works against it being worth the asking price. Still.. It’s a “we’ll have to use it our selves to really know” kind of thing.

Of course the thing is that I’ve already bought Maschine..  I’m just waiting for it to arrive.. so.. I’m sorta in the position of having to wait and hope for the best.

Tweeting with Veerrgg 

I had a somewhat related conversation with “Vergel E,” whom makes electronic music up in Canada.. and has a blog and podcast on electronic music that can be found here, where we got a little into Kore 2 and speculation on subjects related to Maschine Integration stuff…

MattSearles Wow.. some of the compression in Kore 2 sounds better then you’d expect

vveerrgg@MattSearles #kore2 is actually a pretty sweet DAW alternative. I’ve fallen in love with it as a “simple” environment to create/record in 

MattSearles@vveerrgg yeah I don’t think I’d normally take a compressor from guitar rig.. in a certain process sense. 

vveerrgg@MattSearles thats part of why i like it so much. it reminds me of the old days when I would just plug stuff together and see what happens

MattSearles@vveerrgg makes me wonder if I should work out how to program more of my Instruments/effects into its data base. Maybe program some patches 

vveerrgg@MattSearles that might be taking it to the extreme… but i agree there is alot of value in that database and “scene”interface

MattSearles@vveerrgg yeah.. I’ve heard that some of that might be painful.. 

vveerrgg@MattSearles I experimented with building scene changes in #kore2 it didn’t go over well. I’m still trying to learn an effective solution

MattSearles@vveerrgg Perhaps we must wait for #kore3 ? 

vveerrgg@MattSearles I’m curious to see how #kore might integrate with #MASCHINE . Ideally I would like to see it all combined into a DAW

MattSearles@vveerrgg me to, and wondering how #maschine might integrate into my process, since I usually program sequences more then play them 

vveerrgg@MattSearles if #NI built or integrated a visualization app into #maschine similar to #Resolume I would be very curious to try 

MattSearles@vveerrgg I’m getting super interested in visualization to, enjoyed your post on it ( http://tinyurl.com/blg4fp ) didnt know about #Resolume

vveerrgg@MattSearles I downloaded the demo of #Resolume and enjoyed playing with it. felt like a video version of #ableton based around video clips

vveerrgg@MattSearles made a #Resolume video based on some screen caps & video feedback. was REALLY easy once i had the material http://tr.im/gFqj 

MattSearles@vveerrgg I’m thinking I’m going to have to do that.. was thinking of doing pseudo similar stuff with Ableton/Max/Jitter

Ok, some context on this conversation 

On Resolume, Abilton and Max/Jitter 

Vergel and I share some interest in sound visualization.. and with this VJ-ing. Ableton have announced “MAX for LIVE” which you can use “Jitter” with.. This is a long conversation that I don’t really know too much about.. but basically MAX is a somewhat visual programing environment for all things electronic music.. and Jitter is something you can add to MAX that allows you to process video.. and is perhaps one tool that could be used for audio visualization.

I think the big thing is.. it will turn Ableton into a VJ tool.. and potentially a rather amazing video tool at that… Which along with the new Ableton Controller.. could be quite amazing.

On the subject of Kore..

I pretty much always use Kore as plug in in my DAWs… Kore is a combination of hardware and software.. it can load instruments and effects in it.. and stuff can be routed around, and controlled via its hardware controls.. which is pretty damn cool.. On the software side it comes with a number of effects, plus utilized a number of native instruments effects / instrument library engines.. and provides a way of managing them.. and you get this “super instrument” sorta thing where you have multiple instruments and effects programmed together into a single patch..

What I take to be how Vergel is using Kore 

But then there’s the stuff I find a little more mysterious.. which I guess is where Vergel is having his fun. For starters there’s a way of using it for live performance out of the DAW environment..

As a part of that is a system for live performance.. where you essentially create something like a “live set” where you can move between Kore patches.. where Kore essentially turns off the unused patches.. and you can move between these sets for different parts of a song or set list.. This is one of the areas where Vergel has been running into problems.

Another thing worth mentioning.. which I guess Vergel is also using? Is a built in.. gosh, I’ve never even used it.. what is it? Is it a step sequencer of some sort? It is.. well pretty rudimentary.. and I suppose this is a larger part of what Vergel was getting to with the question of Maschine and Kore integration.. 

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of an ability to modify the sequence as its playing.. not from the Kore controller anyway… and not only that but you don’t get banks of sequences…. and you can’t sequence modulation.. or I say all this without really knowing what I’m talking about.. but that’s my impression.

What would be kind of amazing is if Native Instruments really thought this out.. to the point that you had something like a step sequencing environment that integrated all these technologies..

It would make sense for them to do this as.. besides making the kinds of studio tools I use, they also have a rather substantial suite of DJ-ing tools.. which Maschine fits into rather nicely.. and you could see how the integration of all this stuff could really be cool… and make business sense for them

A few latter 

To somewhat complicate matters I’m looking at the Jazz Mutant Dexter and Lemur

Here’s a couple of videos:

First the Dexter

Dexter gives  you a multi touch graphic interface.. think iPhone, for controlling you’re DAWs 

The problem with Dexter.. besides being pricey, is that it doesn’t actually work with the DAW that is now my main DAW.. Digital Performer… So I’d ether have to revert back to Cubase or… go to Logic.. the latter of which being pretty expensive ($500).. as a pose to just an upgrade ( probably about $200)… 

And now for the Lemur

Lemur is like Dexter only.. you can make you’re own interfaces.. and I guess would generally use it for controlling like.. Ableton Live, MAX, Reaktor.. VJing stuff.. etc. What follows is one fellows swing at making such an interface.. to go along with.. I believe it’s a MAX patch.. working with Live?

DyNAmic sequencer from Lo-Fi Massahkah on Vimeo.

Very very cool..

So some more about this

The biggest problem with Dexter and Lemur is that its super expensive.. though for a few days past my writing of this.. it’s half off.. which actually makes it something worth considering for my self.. and yet……

You know there’s rumors that Apple will come out with a tablet Mac.. sorta iPhone on steroids.. that would be all touch screened out.. one assumes that such a device would be a much better device for doing what Lemur and Dexter do.. and its not at all unlikely that it could actually be cheaper..

If this were not enough, Microsoft has been working on multi touch technology to.. which it is likely to use as a means of differentiating it’s mobile OS from Google’s OS.. But even outside of all this, I’m sorta assuming that given the economy.. it’s not unlikely that the costs of the Dexter and Lemur will drop..

The list price of a Dexter is in the ball park of a Mac Pro.. at that price.. the potential market place is rather small.. I’m guessing.. It seems to be very much in the DIY MAX planet.. that’s the target audience.. which is often a little on the avant guard side of things.. not a group known for an excess of wealth… if the price were to drop.. and you were to focus on economies of scale.. you’d have a much huger potential market.. and you gotta be thinking with the possibility of Apple and Microsoft coming into that market place that.. well.. you really need to do something.

There are other issues I could drag up but.. but.. lets move back to the more or less original subject of all this stuff for live performance.

So electronic live performance

I’m gathering various tools along these lines.. There’s a really big challenge to working this stuff out.. if I can make my production style live.. The only way I can imagine it being possible is via MAX.. which is a very complex kettle of fish with which to attempt to tango.. 

But we won’t get into all that here.. we’ll end here.. with just saying.. well I don’t know.. that there’s an interesting set of challenges around this stuff.. and I’m sure I’ll be blogging about it more soon 

If you’re into digital instruments, you’ve probably heard of Omnisphere… It’s a new software synthesizer put out by Spectralsonics… It came out this past September.. and it’s something a lot of people have been very excited about.. Because the music I make often has a very ambient quality to it.. and because Omnisphere is sorta like.. there older Atmosphere.. all be it on steroids.. and this being a truly wonderful instrument.. if you’re into making ambient music.. well, you can see why I’d be interested..

 Here’s a video to give you a better idea of what it’s like.

So far I’ve really only played with it for a couple of hours.. and I’ve watched all there instructional videos.. So.. I figure I have a pretty good overview of it.. enough to write a post on..  One that really won’t go beyond first impressions.

My current digital instrument library consists chiefly of Native Instruments Komplete… with Kore.. and then there’s Reason.. I say this because I think this is somehow coloring my perception. So far I’m sorta wandering around the application wondering what all the hype is about…. 

Basically.. out side of say Reaktor, I’d say this is probably the most powerful synth in my library now.. The modulation routing reminds me a bit of Massive, or even Reason’s Thor.. The envelopes are basically a take on Absynth.. taken some place else.. The patch browsing is like quite a bit like Kore.. I think I like Kore’s browsing better, but then I haven’t really adapted to Omniphere too much yet.. so maybe my feelings on that will change.

Programing sounds is a very modular sort of affair..  It sorta reminds you Kore in the sense that it’s as if you’re building a synth sound where in you could have multiple component synth sounds.. which is to say it’s sort of “super instrument esk”

 Omnisphere features a number of different synthesis types.. or should we say oscillator types..  which.. well they go deeper then an instrument like Thor.. there are places where I could see them going deeper.. 

I would say my over all feeling is that there’s a hell of a lot of marketing hype around Omnisphere.. and it’s not totally clear to me how it relates to it’s hype.. I think I’m going to have to take some time to really program sounds before I really get a feel for it… but… as critical as I sorta am of it, at this point, I could very easily see this becoming my favorite synth.. so..  We’ll just have to see… 

What I do really appreciate about it is some of the wild experimental approaches they’ve taken to develop of some there “psycho acoustic samples.”

Ok, well check out this video, right.. it’s like.. super “infomercial style” accept.. it’s like the coolest informercial I’ve ever seen.. I mean.. I mean it’s as if John Cage were a part of the informercial..

So.. I guess its sorta almost like.. on a philosophical level, that Omnisphere is so cool.. like a philosophy of sound design.. 

Ok, allow me to give you the quick-e of the story on this one.

I did this as a part of the NaSoAlMo challenge.. which is a challenge to see if you can create a solo album in a single month. You can check out what other folk’s NaSoAlMo projects here. Interesting stuff.

Now creating a solo album in a month is no easy feat.. the amount of work that can go into one of these things can be crazy.. it often forces you to work in different ways then you might other wise work.. and here in lys much of the value to participating.. In my own case.. I spent a little more then a week of this month in bed, sick.. doing about as much work on my laptop as I could.. 

So, at the end of it.. I feel like it was real accomplishment.. The results I’ve ended up with.. are what I now consider a rough draft. My feeling about it changes daily from “wow this really sucks” to “wow this is really amazing,” and so… well I really want to ask for you’re feed back on what you think of this work.. My plan is to go in and fix the problems I have it with it.. finished what is not really finished, and and add in a few other tracks.. and kinda go from there..

Ok.. enough talk, here’s the the album!:

 [editor’s note.. it looks like imeem won’t let me let you have the music for free… so.. here it is for free on last.fm.] 

So I’m giving the whole thing away for free.. I hope you can dig it… and if you’d like to help support what I’m doing.. turns out you can embed this play on your facebook, myspace.. your blog.. and just about anywhere else… and nothing would be more helpful then you’re sharing.. well.. lol, your feed back comes close!

Ok, so I’ll end this post with a rundown own of what needs to be changed / plan of attack / my personal reactions to it.. track by track.

1.  Yet Another Another Ambient Attempt: Kore was making everything crash.. so I had to go Kore-less.. There’s 3 things to be changed here.. #1 Is to fix drums.. there going through a guitar rig.. and there’s some issues I have with how this works.. and it really changes the ecology of the track when it works right.. #2 There’s some clipping going on.. which sucks.. and #3.. this is universally true of nearly all the tracks.. but what I want to do is put, as much as is possible.. the tracks through my Liquid Mix 16.. which uses dynamic convolution technology to essentially sample various class EQs and Compressors.. which are really great for a certain kind of subtle coloration of the tracks.
2. More Aggressive, Sorta: I’m just not really sure about this track.. 
3. Lets Do Something good, or try to anyway: It’s an experiment.. the field recording stuff was taken the same night as the pictures of the album cover.. One way or another I might like to give this one a little more attention
4. IdkbutIveBeenTold mix: This is maybe my favorite track on the album.. though I’m not sure about the Timpani at the beginning.. it features something like 30 instruments? One of the instruments is a stand in for the vocals.. which will be performed via Cantor.. a vocal synthesizer.. so I have to program the performance for that.. as well as adjust the mix for that.. and it’s not quite finished length wise.. there’s more lyrics that need adding
5. Context: This is a funny one which I meant to make a good deal longer but am sorta fond of as it stands.
6. Seeifwecanworkfaster: Mainly I plan to rip apart the mix on this.. 
7. canwedometal_ mix final: Well.. I need to basically rip out the bass.. or play with that.. the guitars need to be better realized.. I want to put some sorta vocals in there.. the drums ought to be developed more.
8. Super ambient: I don’t know.. it is what it is.
9. experiment: I see this as a first step in a certain direction.. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.. but I like how it functions as a part of the larger album
10. MTFS thing mix Final: Here we have another experiment.. again I’m not sure about it.. not at all.. I think it’s a path I need to go down further before I start getting results I really like.

So yeah.. that’s the album.. I kinda like how it works at the moment.. as a whole.. though I’m not supper in love with any of the individual parts.. but it is sorta cool to have created this inside of a month.. to all of a sudden have all this new work to share.. so I hope you can dig it.. and again, comments would be great.

So I want to talk about my progress on this here project to try and make an album in a month… as a part of the NaSoAlMo thing..

In terms of my vision for my work, in terms of where I want to take my work.. The work I’m producing is not on the level I want.. You simply can’t give stuff the love and attention needed to bring this vision to full fruition.. not in a month.. not a whole albums worth of stuff.. 

All that said.. Some of the new work is reaching, at least in certain senses, levels that I don’t believe my work has reached before.. Getting some distance from some of this stuff provides me with a new insight.. on the quality of some of this stuff..  It’s really quite good I think.

I’m at a place where I’m generating about a minutes worth of audio a day.. The goal, the rules of the challenge.. is that you need to make a bit more then 29 minutes worth of stuff.. On my current trajectory I don’t think I’ll make it.. So I’m going to have to try some somewhat radical experiments to get there..  

It certainly hasn’t been helping that I’ve been really sick..  

Waking up sometime the next night: 

What seems to be happening is.. you have this question of “how long does it take to do X.” X generally represents a fairly simple idea.. Lets say we’re part way through making this musical piece and we say “I’d like to have some kind of a shimmering pad come in here like this.”

“Like this” might mean… well.. we’re going to automate pan, 4 reverb sends, volume.. we’ve got to give it some notes to play… there could be some pitch bending going on.. modulation… synth patch parameter tweaking… 

In practice..  The music I’m making does have a very high detail level.. and it is amazingly complex.. There’s lots of places where I was struggling up against one or another thing.. sections I thought were quite problematic at the time.. but then, once I have some distance from it.. wow, it’s actually quite good. 

But.. the detail level I’d like to get to.. for certain things, isn’t totally there.

Let me see if I can begin to explain.. I know this is probably rambling a little bit.. When you have one of those “basic ideas” for how something is to work.. nested in it are.. the considerations.. almost like “best practices” for achieving a given result. We are always trying to push on it.. to make the results better.. but we find that in the interest of time.. we are instead asking “what is good enough?”

So, in your mind.. you have this notion of “a simple idea” and then you have “what needs to be done to achieve this simple idea.” What happens as we get more and more into a project where time is the most important thing.. and now how much work it’s going to take to do a thing.. is going to effect both the choices you make, and how you implement those choices.

In the end, of course, the music is nothing but an end product of a lot of choices.

The tension is.. you want to make it as good as is possible.. what seems to be happening is.. we become less detail orientated..  and we look for “can we repeat that riff over here.” 

Trying to get concrete

Issues of a hacked together a mix 

Right now I’m working on a project that is sorta Jazz esk.. It features a Jazz organ, upright base, violin, drum kit, and trumpet. The organ is via Native Instruments B4, and everything else comes from the Kontakt sample library.

The first issue we run into is.. Well.. this is the one project in our over all project where instruments aren’t moving around.. things stay static.. because they’re real world instruments. The time it takes to set Kontakt up so that all of it’s instruments come out into DP on different channels.. and we automate stuff via those channels.. is more then I feel willing to deal with… thus we have some potentially serious issues.

Kontakt has a built in mixing environment.. so you can mix whatever is made via Kontakt.. into a stereo out and leave it at that.. but we do end up with a couple serious issues.

#1 We’d really like each instrument to be in it’s own place in space.. and we’d like all our instruments to be in roughly the same space.. We’d like to have it sound coherent.. This is easy enough inside of Kontakt.. Kontakt even has convolution reverb.. so it sounds like we’re really in a a convert hall, but what of our organ? We can’t put the organ in the same space as the other instruments!

What I end up doing is creating an aux channel in Digital Performer, with a convolution reverb in it.. and put a little of the Kontakt out into it, and put a bit of the organ into it.. and.. the results are “good enough for government work in the Bush administration.” 

#2 In Digital Performer, though this is a feature I almost never use, when you send an channels audio to an aux send.. you can also set it’s pan position in that send. For most of how I work this is both unnecessary and would create a tun of extra work… But.. if you’re creating a static mix..  and you have an instrument on the left side of that mix.. having its effect go to the opposite side.. helps with symmetry, helps with making the mix sound coherent.. helps in a lot of ways.

Well ether I don’t know how to do this yet, or Kontakt doesn’t have this feature..

So I really have a kind of difficult mix situation..

Sample Instrument Performance Programming 

To further complicate matters.. we’re talking about some fairly sophisticated sample based instruments.. some of which are from the esteemed Vienna Symphonic Orchestra Library..  These are really amazingly expressive sample instruments.. where via the magic of MIDI programming.. you can make sound quite real. But it does mean that you have to spend a lot of time programming key velocities, sample switching, modulation and pitch wheel bends, and sometimes midi volume moves… so that we can control the violin’s bowing, or the trumpets blowing.. in somewhat fine detail…

Conclusions 

So suddenly we end up in a situation where we need to try and be subtle! Where the time it takes to program things is.. a good deal.. even though, by making the mix static, we’ve removed the need to worry about mix automation programming.

As I write this, I question myself as to if I’ll keep working on this the way I’ve described here so far, or if I’ll finally go “yeah, we need to bring all the Kontakt Instruments out onto individual stereo channels so we can mix it properly…  which is probably more crucial for a static mix!

In any event.. this is some of where I’m at.

But anyway.. how it’s feeling:

What is kind of amazing is.. I do have all this new work now.. it is starting to look likely that I’ll have a whole album by the end of this process.. And I do think the album is of a very high quality..  And having that is a kind of amazing feeling. 

Now if I can just finish the damn thing! 

I figure.. even if I’m totally consumed by other things.. I ought to try and at least get up a post a week or so.. so here goes

These posts might be getting repetitive on this point.. but allow me to describe for you the first track.. as it stands

Lyrics

It’s based on some lyrics I tweeted.. I don’t have them handy.. but I’ll probably post them in good time.. kind of surreal / dada-distic, so to speak.. a strange style of writing.. pretty out there.. extraordinarally deep.. though there depth lys in a place that makes them difficult to understand.. seems almost like gibberish in places.. 

If I were to try and put it in a sound bit.. its as if it’s blaming our current economic problem as an effect of extroversion in the modern situation..  but I’m not sure if that’s what it’s really doing.

Vocal Performance

The performance is to be realized via VirSyn’s Cantor.. which is a vocal synthesizer.  I’ve really only fiddled with Cantor thus far.. so I’m not entirely sure about.. well if I’m going to be able to get an acceptable performance out of it.. not sure how it’ll end up working.. not sure if the work flow I’m attempting is realistic.. so this remains the big question mark.

The way I’m working it is to write out a synth line.. that’s the vocal line.. a kind of stand in.. and to take that performance data.. and put it into Cantor.. and basically fine tune it from there.

The frequency space of Cantor, versus the synth that’s doing the mock up.. will be different.. so.. a part of the process will be trying to make Cantor intelligible with all the other stuff going on in the mix..  well its actually slightly more complex then even this.. Basically.. we have a tun of instruments.. that I’ve brought down into a few groups.. the plan is the put EQ and Compression on the different groups individually.. via Liquid Mix 16.. also put something on the master buss.. and kinda automate the EQs as needed.. 

I also expect that.. once the performance data gets brought into Cantor.. I might start messing around with it.. and possibly there’ll be stuff like backing vocals.. and who knows what.

The Music

The music is pretty insane actually.. I’d say it’s sorta Indra’s Net-esk.. only more so.. taken to a whole new level. 

What goes into it

So far the production features about 30 instruments.. and about 8 auxiliary effects.. We’re talking 2 instances of Digital Performer’s convolution reverb.. 2 delay orientated Guitar Rig Patches, one EVerb from Digital Performer.. 2 reverbs from Kore 2… and I’m not sure what else.. 

To appreciate the insanity of this.. For each instrument.. besides simply telling it what notes to play when, and how hard to play those notes.. you have the automation of Pan position, volume, 8 auxiliary sends.. very often pitch bend and modulation.. and some of the instruments have other performance parameters that I might play with over the course of a track. So.. that’s what..  12 times 30? So that’s 360 parameters you’re programing.. never mind the notes.. So the production is very time consuming.. And though I’ve put in a lot of labor.. it’s currently only about two thirds of the way through… and only a little more then 3 minutes long.

Results thus far

As I was saying before.. It reminds me quite a bit of my Indra’s Net stuff.. only more so. The things I felt critical of in Indra’s Net.. well.. it overcomes those problems and limitations.. There’s more instruments, more effects.. more advanced software, way more powerful computer.. What all this means to the music is… well I’m not really sure.. but I think it’s something kind of big.

While we’re at it, I might as well share with you one of the question marks it presents me with…  Because the amount of instruments, and what not, are so much higher.. things are way more complex. Structurally, my music is not big on repetition…  at least not in a conventional sense..  One of the reasons repetition is important to.. say pop music, is it assists the digestion of the music… it is, after all, “the hook.” When my music was a few order of magnitude less complex then the current project.. I think the simplicity made it easier to digest.. So one of the things I worry about is.. well.. how difficult it might be to appreciate / digest / whatever… So… that’s like a design consideration question.

If we just listen to the music and try and appreciate what it is..  

Well its like a first step into a new world. I think it might be some of the best stuff I’ve ever done. It is full of amazing moments.. flying between a kind of symphonic like aggression kind of LSD trip.. to adventures in ambient space.. where we feel the contraction of space its self.. beneath our feet.. Along the way we travel through so many different sonic spaces and environments.. experience so many different sonic phenomenon.. From classical to all out electronica..  I just think its amazing.

On Lyrics and Music

Now.. beyond all that.. the music is actually a kind of score to the lyrics.. so the music moves through space in such a way that.. it in some way comments on the lyrics.. There’s a line “to creep the reaper out” and we feel the darkening of the space around us…. 

It seems, in a certain way, that both my lyrics and my music are like “adventures in run on sentences.”  It’s all stream of consciousness stuff..  we can go anywhere at anytime.. for any reason.. but..

The spirit of the lyrics is playfully subversive.. seeking to express truths that.. are somehow how in our collective shadow.. My lyrics are very often dark.. living in the abyss.. some of there darkness has to do with there.. transcendence of conventional.. limitations.. which is it’s self an expression of freedom.. all be it free to give satan a bare hug, or something.. freedom  to be monstrous… 

The music is another matter.. A music that is programmed.. note by note… where we’re probably programing something like.. well how many parameters per note? A lot…  That’s a slow a methodical process… It’s not really free as the breeze in quite the same way the lyrics are.. It’s more “free to exert influence over the momentum of the flux in question.” 

So the free as a bird lyrics becomes the central axis point of the whole production.. It’s like a stream of consciousness construction that’s.. somehow taken to this very extreme point of being realized.. via a slow and methodical process? The slow and methodical process is stream of consciousness to.. just that it’s a stream that takes place for days.. as a pose to a couple of tweets on twitter.. 

Going Deeper Into It.

It may sound like I’m just throwing a lot of random inane facts at you… that’s because I’m fumbling in the dark to try and express something I’ve yet to articulate… ok.. read onward for the break through.. or stop here.

We have streams of consciousness that happen at different time scales, what does that mean? Look at your self..  at some point.. and try to become mindful of all the thoughts as they stream past your consciousness.. We could be talking about.. “lets smell this flower” to “I think I shall now turn my head to find out what that dog is barking about.” 

You can look at it in such a way so as to see many thoughts as being made up of smaller thoughts.. and.. if you could imagine your thoughts as grains.. that made this kind of gass.. that filled a space.. you could say “show me all the grains that correspond to this theme” and you would start to see patterns in how various smaller thoughts where components of multiple larger thoughts.. 

I have a kind of pscyho-philosophy that has explored the dynamics underlying how all this works.. Why we think of what when.. what drives our attention.. and how this related to our concepts of reality and life, and what not.. And as it turns out.. this psycho-philosophical blah blah blah.. underlies my thoughts on aesthetics.. and is a major part of my the conceptual framework I use in making my art and music.. 

The idea that we’d be, essentially.. scoring streams of consciousness.. with streams of consciousness.. in a rather operatic way.. The idea that its sorta all on a lark.. that we then become committed to.. if for no other reason then to.. see what might happen.. that in a sense the whole production is nothing but a little experiment to see where all these thoughts lead…

Well that’s my problem with trying to articulate something.. how do you articulate an intuition? 

Well I guess that’s all I’ll write about on that track for now…  lol, but wait.. there’s more.. there’s also a Reason project in the works

The Reason Project

I was starting to feel a little burned out on the huge sound project.. so I thought I’d go take a stroll through Reason..  This project had me starting out via programming a couple Thor patches.. 

I don’t think of myself as terribly talented in the field of sound synthesis.. but.. sound synthesis is.. well I’ll end up with something.. and that something will probably give me something unique to try and go explore as a part of the larger production.

This project also had me loading up REX files..  Ages ago I blogged about how I had invested in ReCycle.. and used cheese open source voice synths to realize some lyrics.. and how I’d processed the hell out of those lyrics.. and then chopped them up into REX files.  Well.. I decided to take one line from that project.

This gets into another whole set of ideas I was playing with.. at the current stage… The idea is that we could eventually put together a track that would be.. that whole song.. with all the lyrics to it.. but for now we have one sentence.. going into this new project.. or one sentence.. cut up.. distorted.. processed.. rendered FUBAR.. played for it’s textures.. not even meant to be recognized as the sentence it is..

Here the vocals become.. a strange texture explored.. we emphasize a few words.. out of context.. as it turns out.. the word we are emphasizing in this project is the word “context.”

In any event.. there will be more to be talked about latter.. I’m over tired here.. what I will say is there’s some very interesting things coming into play with how I’m starting to play with lyrics and how they relate to the structure of the music I’m making….  leave it at that…

NaSoAlMo: What it is and why we like it

This month, or November actually, I plan on participating in NaSoAlMo, other wise known as National Solo Album Month.. This is a thing where various musician / sound artistic types.. decided to participate in a challenge to create a solo album in a months time..  Basically.. it’s an excuse to get serious.. for a month.

Last year, as long times followers would know, I created ZarMattAThustra’s Deep Space Adventures.. for NaSoAlMo….  This, I must tell you, was one hell of an adventure. There’s nothing like working your ass off on something, if you want to grow by leaps and bounds… and at the end of last years National Solo Album Month’s thing..  I felt like I had made a giant jump in my music production / etc skills..  And so now, we embark on the next adventure…

On the Stategery and tactics of taking on such a challenge

Generally speaking.. if I’m working in my conventional ways.. and didn’t have a lot of other stuff to contend myself with.. was very focused.. I could maybe spit out about a track a week.. which might be around.. oh lets say an average of about 6 minutes a pop…. which comes out to what, like 24 minutes of music? Well.. the challenge is to make an album of at least 29:09 minutes.. so that’s not quite going to cut it.. and seeing as I have other things to deal with in life.. and seeing as last year I only found out about this about half way through the month… one must develop alternative strategies and tactics.. which is perhaps another interesting thing to deal with… 

So, lets take a look at last years strategies.. and this years strategies.

ZarMattAThustra’s Deep Space Adventures Production Strategy 

I found out, as I said before, about this challenge, about half way through the month.. but had already begun work on a few tracks.. so figured I could still make a go of it.. If I tried something radicle.

My radical process started with.. working with different types of sound generating type programs.. where you improvise via tweaking various parameters and record the results. This instantly creates a whole lot of music.. but then you have the question of “is this interesting music?” So the next challenge is “how do we make this interesting music?” This became the jumping off point for an experimental sonic adventure. For the most part, this involved the following approaches:

1. Lets Process the crap out of these audio files.
2. Lets mix stuff together different versions of processed audio into a kind of composite audio file.
3. Lets slice up the audio file into discreet loops n stuff
4. Lets sequence the loops
5. Lets integrate this with our usual way of working 

 Well, that’s the broad outline anyway.. 

Tools Used

1. Ableton Live
2. Arturia Storm
3. Native Instruments Komplete (mostly Reaktor)
4. A Wimpy G4 Mac
5. Reason
6. A guitar
7. A Zoom H4 field recorder 

Ok, so that’s the basic broad brush stroke outline of it.. You can read more of my writings related to this project here…  That would be the full list.. The writings where I wrote during the production are as follows: Off In Reaktor Land, Red Rum Re Drumed, and finally Gonzo adventures in music production.

Should you like to hear the album in it’s entirety, you can find it on over here at mattsearles.com/music. 

At the time I created it.. I wasn’t real sure of it.. but since then I’ve gotten a lot of good reviews from people.. and now figure.. well, it’s probably a pretty good album.

The New Production Adventure

Tools likely to be used:

1. The Bad Ass 8 Core Mac Pro
2. This here new MacBook (2GHz Due)
3. Komplete 5
4. Kore
5. Ableton Live
6. Reason
7. ReCycle
8. A Tascam 16 channel Mixer as a MIDI controller
9. An M-Audio DJ like MIDI controller
10. A Guitar
11. A Slide Bass
12. Digital Performer
13. Liquid Mix 16
14. Couple of budget Condenser Microphones
15. Zoom H4

In addition to all that madness..  I’m looking to add VirSyns Cantor Vocal Synth and… VirSyns “Take Five FX bundle” which includes Bark, Matrix, Reflect, TDesign, and VTape. Indulge me as I talk about these a little, won’t you?

1. Bark is a pretty interesting looking  27 band filter / EQ and compressor
2. VTape is a set of analog tape emulation plugs that emulate tape based saturation, delay, and flange. I’m very much in need of a tape delay type effect.. and very much wanting some sort of analog tape emulation warmth.. 
3. Reflect is an Algorithmic Convolution Reverb. Even in the current version of Digital Performer, I’m not feeling like my reverb bases are covered quite enough.. and I expect Reflect to really help out along these lines.. and the integration of Algorithmic and Convolution technologies into a single reverb unit is a quite attractive thing.
4. TDesign is a Transient former.. I don’t know too much about this sorta effect.. but it does give you control over your dynamics / transience.. and there are quite a few production folks out there whom are very into such things
5. Matrix is a Vocoder, and according to a recent issue of Sound On Sound, a very impressive Vocoder.

 So… as you can no doubt see.. We’re talking about a massive upgrade from last year’s project.. studio wise anyway, so, what of the plan off attack?

Plan of Attack

I have lots of music ideas, and I’m pretty sure this project isn’t going to be able to explore them all.. but, we’ll certainly see how far we can make it.

• The first thing I want to do is.. See if I can’t jam out some stuff using Kore to control various Reaktor beatboxes, sequenced instruments, and sound generators..  This will effectively create one box full of building blocks.
• Next I want to experiment with a somewhat traditional-ish approach to sequencing.. where you play around on a keyboard, quantize stuff, and put together stuff that way..
• I want to use ReCycle to create REX files out of some of the results.. to use as building blocks that way.
• A rather central thing I want to explore is.. vocals. These vocals will probably be ether.. me speaking into microphones and vocoding the hell out of it.. / Melodying the hell of it.. or Cantor stuff.. somehow creatively mixed into the music.
• I’m actually thinking of the possibility that this album project could feature some sort of a narrative / lyrical whatever.. that might sit at the center of the album.. which would be a really huge jump for me to take.
• I see a part in the process where I jam away on guitar and bass to construct.. well… something or other.
• I imagine a part of the process where I have all kinds of content loaded up into Ableton Live.. and use the MIDI controllers / Mixers to kinda improvise out something…

 Of course, in the end, all this stuff must me integrated into one giant process… so, wish me luck…