Curious Inversions

Growth

2011-10-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

My. It's been so long since I've posted here that Blogger has changed entirely since my last visit.

I've not been ignoring music... I am quietly honing skills, synths, and patch-libraries behind the scenes. In the news: I updated Largo from 1.0 to 1.5 (it's awesome), I bought Gladiator (it's quite good), and I bought Sylenth1 (also awesome). I ditched Morphine and SynthMaster. And I've spent a whole lot of time re-learning my scales (useful) and organizing/editing my patches.

For now, that's all. No music written, really, other than the equivalent of "thumbnail sketches" (of which I've done quite a bit). But it sure feels like music is coming.

Keyboard Tracking

2011-01-27T12:56:00.001-08:00

On synths where the keys light up as they're being played, you can't see the "black" keys being pressed clearly (if at all).

...Why don't synth makers lighten the dark keys the same way they darken the light keys?

[shakes head]

My Studio, January 2011

2011-01-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

...Obviously, this doesn't include Ableton Live, nor the effects that I use (mostly just Ambience, the Blue Tubes reverb, and Live's built-in effects).

And, honestly, I have not been impressed with SynthMaster. It keeps crashing on me and refuses to render its audio, sometimes. :\ I may abandon it and write it off as a loss.

Synths I'm thinking about picking up right now are ChronoX and Drumaxx. Nothing else, at the moment. I think after getting those two, I'll be heading toward the world of hardware synths.

Yeah, I was bitten by the Synth bug again.

2011-01-12T13:13:00.000-08:00

So, yeah. I made it a few years without being struck by synth-lust... but here we are again.

I realize now, though, that hardware synths aren't so much about the sounds. Between Omnisphere, Surge, Massive, Absynth, FM8, and Predator*... there really isn't much sonic territory beyond my capabilities. And I love them all dearly.

But they are not hardware synths.

After much consideration, I decided that hardware isn't about the sounds, really: the sounds might be marginally better than a soft-synth, but my level of skill with sound--though I consider it well-trained--is not to the point where I can tell if a track was made with a $2000 Access Virus or with Rob Papen's $200 Predator, barring the "signature" sounds and presets of each. It seems silly to me to spend ten times as much for perhaps a 5% improvement in sound quality. And I prefer the interface on soft synths: I can get a sound out much faster.

But softsynths, while attractive on-screen, lack something in charisma that only hardware can provide.

And though the ReMOTE 49SL has a really nice keyboard... the knobs kinda suck, and the LCD feedback isn't quite as useful or cool as I'd hoped it would be. And it's lacking a bit in... sex. I guess I'm just not fond of that grey grid look over the interface.

There's also a small but non-neglible sense of "collecting" involved with synths. A greater sense of ownership. ...of identity, even.

Plus they look awesome. And they're fun.

Fun is a key concept when looking for what synths to invest in. Perhaps better, though, is the idea of enjoyability. How much would you enjoy owning a given synth? ...Balance that against cost, and you might find that while an Roland Jupiter 8 might be a joy to own, for 1/16th the cost, a Korg Radias--perhaps less enjoyable to own--is a much bigger bang for your buck.

So that's what I'm looking for. Enjoyable synths. For reasonable prices.

Of course, as usual, this is all an exercise in futility for me, since my synth budget right now is around $50 a month, and I have a few more soft-synths to buy** before I'm satiated there.

Still, a large part of the fun here is thinking about it. And though it may be three years before I buy my first piece of gear, I'm enjoying the process of thinking about it. Quite a bit. :)

Which synths would you say brought you the most joy to own?

* For the record, I also presently own SynthMaster 2, Stylus RMX, Morphine, and MicroTonic. And I like/use them all, too. Just meant to emphasize the synths with which the sonic palate expands.

** Largo, Drumaxx, ChronoX, and an update for my aging version of Absynth. Maybe Albino, Zebra, and Gladiator. Not sure.

Vision Take Two

2010-11-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

Novation controllers, because they are the best controllers available for reasonable money.
Blue microphones, because they are elegant, functional, and unique.
M-Audio monitors and interfaces, because they're cheap and they work.
Spectrasonics synths, because they sound better than anything else, and are really flexible.
Tone2 filters, because they sound better than any others, and the software has a superb interface.
Massive, because it's got one of the best interfaces to modulation I've seen, combined with a huge, wavetabliciously digital sound.
Vember Surge, because I love it: the WT sound, the interface, the modulations, the "I'm digital, now deal with it" attitude.
Audjoo Helix, because it sounds awesome, uses WTs, and takes so little CPU.
Rapture, because of it's uniquely digital sound.
MicroTonic, because it sounds great doing the "electronic percussion" thing.
Drumaxx, because it sounds great doing the physically-modeled percussion thing.
Ableton Live, because it has a great workflow, decent mastering tools, and an elegant interface.

...This "plan" will be setting aside some truly incredible synths, some of which I already own, but... I like the message this setup sends, I love the sounds, and I think this will be enough to keep me inspired for a long time.

Messages

2010-11-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

I made a post on a Synthtopia article where I mentioned, loosely, that we don't buy synths because of the sounds they make, but because of the message they send just by using them. This is a combination of the state of mind they put us in to use, the "type" of sound they make and how that influences our music, and, of course, directly in how we "advertise" the synths we use.

I started wondering about the "message" of the synths I was touting in the last post... and even about the synths I'm presently using. And keeping that in mind, I'm (once again) not sure I like the selection of synths I've come to. :)

Synths that tell a clearer story of who I am are... mostly wavetable synths like Massive, Surge, Helix, and Rapture... but also the kind of "fringe-awesome" synths like Rhino, Zebra, and Blue. I also think there are some synths who's sound lends itself to the updated-Berlin-school sound that I'm looking for: Predator and Albino 3 leap to mind. And for drums, Microtonic and Drumaxx speak my language pretty loudly.

There are other synths that I don't "mind" the message much: Omnisphere is incredible (if a bit over-inflated), RMX similarly works because of its electronica slant. FM8, Morphine, and Absynth aren't quite my "bag" in terms of lining up perfectly, but they're not too far off-target, either.

The whole of Komplete, though, kind of rubs me the wrong way. It's massive in a bad way. Hmmmn. Perhaps I need to spend some time thinking about my message. :)

Studio Update

2010-10-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

Here's what I want my music-production studio to look like (bold means I don't own it yet):

ReMote (controller 1)
LaunchPad (controller 2)
iMac (computer)
Studiophile DX4 (monitors)
HD555 (headphones)
Blue Yeti (mic)
Ableton Live (mixer) [I am stuck at version 6, want to upgrade]
Snapper (editor)
Omnisphere (rompler 1, modular 1)
Surge (wavetable 1)
Komplete (wavetable 2, fm, effects, modular 2, rompler 2)
Rapture (digital)
Morphine (additive)
Helix (wavetable 3. Hey... I love WTs!)
Stylus RMX (drum loops)
MicroTonic (synth drums 1)
Drumaxx (synth drums 2)
FabFilter Creative Package (analog sound 1, delay/phase/flange/filter)
Predator (analog sound 2)
Albino (hybrid sound)
Zebra (modular 3)

...So the "elegant" solution here is a concept of patronage. I like and support and use hardware from Apple, Novation, M-Audio, Sennheiser, Blue; and software from Spectrasonics, Native Instruments, FabFilter, and to a lesser extent, Image Line; and three of my favorite synth developers: Claes Johanson, René Ceballos, Magnus Lindström, Urs Heckman, and Rob Papen*. ...and quite possibly Jonas Norbergs, though it's a little early to say. :)

It's also worth mentioning that I'm clearly trying to be "a software guy". I love Access, Elektron and Waldorf hardware, but I cannot justify the cost for it, since this is only a hobby for me. :)

I won't be getting all of the products from all of these sources, of course. I don't need everything. But these are the ones I watch, the ones I support, and the ones whose stuff I use most (and most proudly).

So there.

I Actually Bought Something

2009-06-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

I've been having a conversation with Sayer in email, lately. I found his site while looking for shots of stuios (gear porn, anyone?), and he had a fascinating story to go with his pictures, so I emailed him to thank him for posting it. It's definitely entertaining, I recommend it.

Anyway, we got to talking, and he mentioned that he'd found a deal at Noa Musik (gone now) where you could buy NI's "Synths" package for the price of a single synth. This includes Massive, FM8, Absynth, and Pro-53. ...Obviously, this was way too valuable to pass up, so I bought one.

Honestly, I bought this for Massive. Since the reviews I wrote (back a few posts), I've done many, many hours of research on probably a hundred different synths, and Massive keeps coming up in the top three. A few days before, I had decided that Massive and Surge overlapped too much to bother with both, so I was going to get Surge, since I liked the interface a little better, and it seemed to nail the classic synth sounds a little better.

...But getting FM8 for free was a deal-breaker. FM8 just has some really amazingly-clear bell sounds, nice synth stabs, and smooth pads. ...Plus some great effects.

Having Absynth added also made me re-evaluate it. I maintain that it sounds a little thin and plasticy. But it is incredibly flexible, and there's an insane depth to it. ...Part of the reason I'd avoided it: either you jump in head-first, or you pass on it. Now I have an excuse to jump. :) I'm happy to have this, despite my reservations.

Pro-53? Meh. It can't compete with Predator, period. I haven't even bothered installing it, truth be told. Maybe someday when I'm bored, I'll cycle through the presets, port them to Predator, and get rid of it. :) Something tells me I won't be able to resell it, which is a shame, 'cause I really don't need it. Maybe I'll give it away to someone. [shrug]

Anyway, this is my first purchase in a really long time, and it was an excellent one. I regret not buying Surge yet... now I might not have to, and that makes me a little sad, 'cause it was a great match for my style and I'd love to support Vember: they're a great little company. And I'm frustrated that I can't upgrade Atmosphere to Omnisphere yet, either... but I think of the three options, this was the best choice.

...I'm also a little sad that this delays the purchase of Maschine. ...But that's a story for another post. :)

Keyboard Quality

2009-06-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

My son was at a game last night, so I had a couple of hours to kill. I ended up popping into the Albuquerque Guitar Center for some of that time, just to see what they had in stock.

It was all the "mass market" stuff, mostly workstation synths. I was hoping they would have a Radias, but no dice.

What I have to post about, though, is just how awful the keyboard quality was. Lately, I've been getting more and more disappointed in my KeyStation Pro 88's feel... it just isn't nearly as satisfying as my old Yamaha EX5.

Only the Motif keyboards were acceptable to me, and even the synth-action model was pretty crappy. Of course, the Motif I liked was $3500, which is a bit more than I'm willing to pay for a nice keyboard and AWM synthesis.

Worst offender of the bunch were the Rolands, particularly the Juno, which reminded me of Will Smith in MIB: "I feel like I'm gunna break this damn thing!" (For the record, it sounded okay.)

Okay, actually, the Korg MicroX was pretty barftastic, too, but you kinda expect that from a mini-keyboard. ...It was a big step down from the MicroKorg, though.

There was one weighted keyboard (I forget which, I think it was a Korg M-series, maybe it was the Fantom) that had a particularly loud, deep "THOK!" everytime you hit a key. Annoying. (Even thought it was a reasonable feel, you could never use one in a studio.)

So I went over to the digital pianos. ...They were better. But still not good! I didn't see how anyone accustomed to a half-decent piano could stand playing any of these. Light, plasticy, and a little too fast. ...Fortunately for me, I'm not used to a nice piano, so to my touch, they were a step up from the KeyStation. Still, that's $600 I don't have, and I sure as hell don't need the piano sounds they come with. : )

Very very disappointing. I can't imagine why keyboard quality is so hard to get right, especially with such nice keyboards just ten years ago from all the major players. Perhaps they are trying to make a feel that's (barely) playable, but feels cheap, so the user will think "at least they didn't waste any more money on the keys, I wouldn't want to pay for that!" Is this market research speaking? Are most buyers ignoring the feel of the keys on synths these days?

I maintain that a person is far better off buying a vintage synth, if only to use it as a controller for software synths, than buying any of the shitty, over-priced marketing ploys the major synth-makers are shipping these days. For example, you can buy a clean DX7 for $300 and Omnisphere for another $475, and still have $1200 to spend on a kick-ass computer to host it, and you've spent less than you would have on a mid-line Motif, and you've got just about as good a set of sound (better in some cases, but with a little less diversity, maybe). ...And now you've got a classy computer, too. ; )

/me doesn't get it.

Great Price-Per-Controller Shootout

2009-06-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

Last night I had the totally crazy idea to ask the question: what's the cheapest way to get some synthy knob action going on? Put another way, how do synths rank on a price-per-knob basis?

Perhaps this has been done before, and if so, it's certainly been done better, 'cause I only spent a few hours last night digging up pictures of the synths, manually counting the controllers, and using my on-going list of E-Bay prices (from early June 2009), which are totally subject to change. ...But here are the results (take them with a huge grain of salt):

AN200: 18/0+ controllers @ $250 = $13.51/controller
APC40: 27/0+ controllers @ $400 = $14.55/controller
Andromeda: 73/3+ controllers @ $2300 = $30.07/controller
DX200: 18/0+ controllers @ $250 = $13.51/controller
DarkStar XP2: 15/3 controllers @ $180 = $10.00/controller
EMX-1: 22/0+ controllers @ $350 = $15.56/controller
Electribe ES: 10/0 controllers @ $190 = $19.00/controller
Indigo: 31/2+ controllers @ $750 = $22.39/controller
Ion: 31/3+ controllers @ $500 = $14.49/controller
JD-800: 60/2+ controllers @ $550 = $8.80/controller
JP-8080: 28/14 controllers @ $500 = $11.00/controller
KS-5: 33/2+ controllers @ $450 = $12.68/controller
KS-Rack: 33/0 controllers @ $400 = $12.00/controller
Karma: 15/2+ controllers @ $500 = $28.57/controller
KeyStation Pro 88: 33/2+ controllers @ $260 = $7.32/controller
MS2000R: 34/0 controllers @ $340 = $10.00/controller
Microwave XT: 46/2 controllers @ $600 = $12.00/controller
Mono/Poly: 41/2+ controllers @ $820 = $18.85/controller
Nova II XL: 21/2+ controllers @ $850 = $36.17/controller
Ohm 64: 29/0+ controllers @ $600 = $20.34/controller
PolyEvolver: 67/2+ controllers @ $1600 = $23.02/controller
Q-Phoenix: 58/2+ controllers @ $2300 = $38.02/controller
Q-Rack: 30/0 controllers @ $800 = $26.00/controller
RM1x: 13/0+ controllers @ $200 = $14.81/controller
Radias: 40/0 controllers @ $900 = $22.00/controller
ReMote Zero: 24/0 controllers @ $230 = $9.00/controller
SH-32: 26/0+ controllers @ $225 = $8.49/controller
SuperNova (rack): 20/0 controllers @ $560 = $28.00/controller
SuperNova II (rack): 28/0 controllers @ $675 = $24.00/controller
Supernova (kb): 43/2+ controllers @ $1000 = $21.98/controller
Virus A: 32/0 controllers @ $425 = $13.00/controller
X-Station: 40/0+ controllers @ $350 = $8.64/controller
XL-7: 18/1+ controllers @ $350 = $17.95/controller
Z1: 24/4+ controllers @ $480 = $16.84/controller

NOTES:

The "+" indicates that the box has either a keyboard or pads... kinda-sorta counting this as an extra "controller". I counted it for half a knob. ...Guess I'm biased towards my weighted controller's keyboard! :D
I counted wheels and ribbons as controllers. X-Y pads and joysticks counted for two (since, really, that's what they are).
I was really subjective about which boards to include. ...I generally went for the cheapest version that had some non-trivial number of controllers (for example, skipping the Micro-Q, but not going with the "full" Q). There were some exceptions in the cases that I really liked the keyboard version. ; )
Prices are also somewhat subjective. I really tried to put a value in that represented what I would be willing to pay, given the E-Bay market: I skip the cheapest (don't trust them), and wouldn't bid on the most expensive. ...When there were only a few data-points, though, I took a rough average.
This may have simply been an exercise to justify the purchase of a JD-800, which I've wanted since it was first released when I was a young lad, and they ran those "what does this button do?" adverts that showed a submarine launching a SAM.

...If you have better information on controllers, please comment. If you have better information on prices, please comment. If you have ideas for other synths that should be weighed, measured, and likely found wanting, please comment. True to my geekery, I wrote a program to calculate this, so I can fix things quickly and update this post. :)

Google Squared

2009-06-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

Neat little tool for research. What you do is type attributes at the top, then the names of things you want to look at on the left. It's like a spreadsheet.

...But it automatically populates the data!

...You can fill in the cell that are missing, yourself, but for the most part, it's automatic and very cool. Here's an example of some synths I'm looking at:

Predator Waveforms

2009-06-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

Predator's got a bunch of waveforms available for OSC sources. Some of them have reasonable labels, but others are misleading... and other names are just useless. ...I mean, I understand the need to keep things brief to save space, but it's not very helpful for the sound programmer.

So I spent some quality time with one of my favourite synths, and checked out all of the raw sources, dry, sometimes using a steep filter to check cutoff points and the like, as well as checking out the spectrum using an analyzer... I wish I had an oscilloscope, but don't. Anyway, I doubt any of you care much, but thought I might as well write down my thoughts about the available waveforms in Predator. So, here they are. It's a bit raw, sorry (and not always in order)... there was a whole lot to type. I've bolded the waveforms I think are actually worth using.

The disclaimers: 1) These are personal thoughts, your mileage (and opinion) may vary. 2) Yes, I know "any sound can be used to good purpose". Such comments will be summarily dismissed. 3) I tend to favor the bright sounds over the LP'ed sounds, simply because they work better with a fast filter, which I tend to use. Of course the LP'ed versions are nice for when you want to use, say, a comb filter or something. See disclaimer (2).

triangle is actually quite nice.
rez1 and rez3 (both fine) are same: a saw w/ extra high organ tones.
rez2 is LP'ed, a bit organish.
halfsine is like a soft saw; great... akin to a triangle on other synths.
saw is actually kind of thin, compared to saw2.
square is very soft, almost bell-like. Nice.
sinesaw is a saw w/ more power in the fundamental. Quite usable.
sinesqr is a more typical square (since Predator's square is kind of soft)
sinerez is almost harpsichordy, a hollow ü sound.
sawsqr is quite analog. Use it.
sawrez is what I expected from rez... lots of highs. A little annoying, but cuts.
sqrrez is the same, but "fuller" ... I like it, use for leads.
wnoise is slightly pink: missing lows.
pnoise isn't very pink. It's LP'ed white, at 5Khz.
harmc1 is a sine!
harmc2 is great... a low, siney organ, c/ replace sine patches nicely. Pure.
harmc3 and 4 are similar, adding new harmonics, of course.
saw2 is beefier than saw. Preferred.
saw3 is kinda hollow... w/ go well w/ a square.
saw4 is LP'ed at 4KHz.
saw5 is slightly LP'ed. Kinda digital.
sqr2 is slightyl LP'ed.
sqr3 is LP'ed and rez'd a bit... very digital, C-64 style.
sqr4 is extremely LowPassed, like 200Hz?
sqr5 has some extra harmonics, so... a little beefier. Usable.
triang2 is LP'ed.
triang3 is a frakkin' glockenspiel sample. :)
glass is very thin. Don't like it.
hollow is what I expected glass to sound like. Does emphasize some hollow harmonics, though. Buzzy in Bass.
octave is church organ material, but see organ3
overton is... well... buzzy harmonics w/ no Fundamental. I don't like it, but guess it c/b good in chord hits.
rez4 is a nasal buzz.
rez5 is a full set of harmonics. c/b combined w/ other organ sounds for more tone.
digix is a nice LP'ed digital bell sound.
organ1 is pipeorgany. LP'ed version of octave with more beef. The two combine well, minus the phasing that occurs.'
organ2 is more... mid. Like a cheesy icerink organ.
organ3 is bright.
chorga is a LP'ed version of 3. Not really great, though. :\
whistle is a very high 4th. Not recommended, sounds like a phone tone.
vocal* aren't great, either. Dull PPG sounds. 'o' is recognizable, but not good.
vox01 is nasal, but potentially usable. An ESQ sound.
vox02 is a better "ahh", some digital PPG plink to it. Pluckable.
vox03 even more nasal. Brighter.
vox04 thicker, bass-heavy. Usable.
vox05 missing bass, but a nice, thin "aah", prolly good for pads.
vox06 PPG Bell like.
vox07 Very thin, high, harpsichordy sound. Not great.
vox08 Like 01, w/ more in the mids
vox09 Nice, velvety nylon sound.
spec01 LP'ed pianoish sound.
spec02 dull digital harpsichord sound (mix with vox07 up an 8ve to prove it)
spec03 is PPG territory, vaguely organish, but more complex.
[from here on out, assume every name starts with "spec". I'll add the prefix to the good ones, to make them stand out more, though.]
04 Is a digital nylon sound, slightly nasal. See 26.
05 HP'ed, higher 04. Skip.
06 Seriously LP'ed 04. Maybe for digital basses, but not recommended otherwise.
07 a dull 8ve up square. Skip.
08 LP pluck; skip.
09 Bright digital sound. Usable, but 10 is better.
spec10 Better! Bigger bass w/o being just LP'ed. Use this.
spec11 Upright bass sound. A thick sine. Quite usable. Note it creates a strong click when triggered.
spec12 Another harpsichord sound, usable. Also see 22 if you need bass.
13 HP harpsi... a very old, very small harpsi. :)
spec14 digital bass pluck. Okay, usable.
15 whistle, but lower.
16 Bass harpsi, kind of an "eee" sound.
17 A clockwork plcuk/bell sound, thin, small. Skip.
18 Loud, bass, hollow sound. Kinda phone-like, too.
spec19 Very nice bell/grandfather clock tone. not as bright as 31, but more natural.
20 Inharmonic bell tone. Skip.
21 4th. Skip.
22 Bass version of 12.
spec23 EP/Bell sound.
24 LP'ed bellish. Skip.
25 Thin brass.
spec26 Nylonish. Like an 8ve down 04 w/ more highs.
27 Sinai-like, but buzzy and insect-like.
spec28 Fuzzy, saw-like bass. Recommended, esp. for big saw sounds. :)
29 Nasal pluck.
30 FM bell, nasal and skippable.
spec31 a nice bell tone, brighter than 19 (but more digital because of it)
32 HP'ed skipper.
33 LP'ed bell/sqr. Skip.
34 LP hollow buzzy crap.
spec35 Lo-fi C-64 saw. Usable in some cases...
36 Seriously LP'ed 35.
spec37 Really high saw, also a lo-fi feel. Usable.
38 Slight LP 37.
39 Even higher tones on 37.
40 Very LP 37.
41 Very LP bass saw.
42 Even more LP, even more bass.
43 Even more! Sheesh.
44 LP square.
[I got bored here and skipped the notes on ones I didn't like]
spec52 Really bright digital plucked sound
spec55 Another harpsichord sound.
spec64 Digibell-ish.
spec65 PPGish

...Well, I hope someone gets some use out of that! ; )

Releases

2009-06-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

I'm looking for a venue where I can release my music... quickly. Like, on a scale of a few days/weeks, rather than a few months. I'd like to have more of a flow.

For the moment, I am trying out SoundCloud. I've also tried using Twitter, actually... there's a new bit.ly-style site that handles sound, so I can post tracks as I work on them... and I've gotten to like the silly little TonePad iPhone app, so I can post uploaded codes there, too. :)

Anyway, if interested, please check 'em out.

Synth Reviews

2009-04-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

I went on another synth binge recently and decided to check out some of the more prominent synths available for OS X, whether I had triend them before or not.

I don't think it's worthwhile to go into long, detailed, fluffy tirades like you'll find on most review sites; this aims to be more pragmatic, if self-serving.

Albino 3 [***+]

(Note, I used Albino 2 quite a bit, before my whole studio was stolen.) I still really like this synth; I can move around in it very quickly, I like the sound, it's got some good filter flexibility, and the "digital" oscs make some beautiful wavetabley sounds that you can "tone down" ("warm up"?) by setting one side to digital and the other to a typical VA waeform and going 80% toward the VA side: this is the "zone" I really like sounds to be in, and I don't have other synths that can get to that place this easily.

That said, I own Predator and, despite the less flexible OSCs / Filters there, the overall sound of Predator serves me well enough, and I don't think shelling out $250 for something that ultimately sounds so similar is worthwhile.

It's a great synth, and one of the first that I would recommend to others. But for my situation, I'll pass. Again. ...but I admit, some part of me really misses this and wants it back.

Alchemy [**]

I must admit, I was really hot to trot in trying out this synth. I really loved White Noise's Additive Synth, back in the day, for the ability to 'draw' sounds, and Alchemy (properly) mixes in VA to make things cleaner. It sounded good in the video demos. And it has the coolest name for a VST I've seen yet. ...but I grabbed the demo, I gave it its due, and I deleted it. It was too complex. It lacks that magic ingredient of "character"... or, if it had it, I didn't like it. Pass.

Battery [**+]

Kinda hard to argue why I need this, given that I have Stylus RMX, but I find that RMX lacks some... oh... I dunno, maybe it's just the workflow--I'd like to be able to apply effects to individual drum parts instead of having to process entire sets... I find it more restrictive; just not what I was used to with tracking drums (which is what I am most comfortable with). I'm also just getting more interested in percussion, and Battery brings some of that back, rather than having to rely on loops. ...There's nothing about Battery that I particularly liked, though... it's just a different tool for drums, and one I don't have. I may pass on it and just stick with RMX and add a simpler drum synth like MicroTonic. I haven't made up my mind. That said, it's currently half-off the price. THAT said, it might be half-off because they are about to come out with a better alternative, or discontinue it. Soooooo...

Blue [***+]

I've tried Blue a few times in the past, and have always come away with the same impression: it's nice, but not something I need. It's mostly about the FM synthesis, which I tend not to like (but read the FM8 review, below), which may be part of the problem. But I also own Predator, so I have a lot of those "Rob Papen" sounds already, and don't feel I need more. It's also a little greedy in terms of CPU.

Fab Filter Twin [****]

What a fantastic synth! A tiny little interface (probably a bit too small for my tastes) which just feels nice to work in (nice animations, good colors, clear workflow): all to the good. But the filters! They are the second best filter I've heard in software (the best being impOscar's dirty little bastard), and as a result, this synth strikes me as a "must have", and very much worth the $170 price tag. I've heard others compare its sound to a Virus, which I don't think is fair (having owned a Virus): the filter is nice, but not that nice. This strikes me as a bit more like a Nord: cleaner, with some oompf. It's now on my shopping list. Did I say "fantastic" yet? It's fantastic!

FM8 [****]

Okay, if you've talked to me about synths, then you know I have a deep-set hatred for FM synthesis, in general. But I looked at this again with a completely open mind, and found that... yeah, I hate most FM sounds. But others--pads and bells and some "fake" analog styles--can sound wonderful, and have a level of expression that isn't easy in the world of VA. Again, it's that balance of VA warmth and power with digital details. In the end, I found myself really liking FM8, if only for the presets (I couldn't program FM to save my life).

Massive [*****]

I passed on Massive the last time I used it. It is billed as this great big, fat, tower-of-sound with no equal, and I was completely underwhelmed with it, excepting a few kick-ass bass sounds that my music is too wimpy to handle anyway. I didn't bother digging into the interface much, because it's unclear and makes very poor use of space. I totally misunderstood Massive. I approached it this week with an open mind, however, and found it is not some VA-killer... it's a wavetable synth with an amazing ability to scan its tables and come up with some digital brilliance. Who knew? To my mind, this is absolutely the best wavetable synth one can afford, Microwaves notwithstanding. Absolutely a must-own synth, especially for me. It's capable of exactly the kinds of sounds I want in my music: digital details with analog power. I can't believe I've overlooked this for so long.

Must. Have. ...It's just a question of which to get first, this or Surge. ...And, yeah, they are similar in capabilities, but I think both are worth owning. ...particularly for the style of music I am attempting to capture.

MicroTonic [***+]

A drum synth. I miss my drum synths! I did Gewesen with drum synths (free ones, at that!), and I loved the sound of the percussion on that album. I want it back. Microtonic seems to deliver, and in a slick package with low CPU use. I need a little more time with it to see if it could work within my workflow... that damn nag message keeps me from using it any more than for a few minutes of checking out the sounds (which are very nice).

Minimonsta [****]

I really like this synth. It's smooth, it's powerful, it's versitile, and unless you go nuts, it's reasonable on CPU-usage. But as I continued to play with it, I couldn't help but think that this is the perfect synth for Boards of Canada, and less the kind of synth that I personally want to use. It's a great VSTi, sounds great, and if money weren't so tight, this would be a quick purchase for me. But it's got to be lower-priority, at least for now.

Moog Modular V [***]

I really thought I was going to fall in love with this synth. ...But after using it for a few hours, I realized that A) I just wouldn't use it that often, for the style I write, and B) it really didn't sound as big and warm as I thought, especially compared to Minimonsta. ...or really, anything, run through a good compressor with a little saturation. Plus, I'm just not a hardware modular guy, so I find the interface tedious and the CPU overhead obnoxious.

Omnisphere [****]

Okay, so there is no demo of this that one can download and try... I only mention it because I watched a few more videos (aside from the official ones), and it does seem like it's worth the price to upgrade Atmosphere (which I own) to this guy. ...When I have the money. : ) It intimidates me, though. Atmosphere is already big... this is ginormous.

Surge [*****]

Yeah, this synth has been on my shopping list for over a year now (hey, I'm poor), but I gave it another spin, and feel just as psyched about it now as I did then. See the review of Massive, above, for exactly why: it's a wavetable/VA hybrid, with some real punch and nice details. I like the interface of Surge, too... it's very different, but the way they handle the mod matrix works really well for me (though I do wish a few more were hardwired). I find I can tweak patches with almost the same ease as Albino and Predator. A great synth... a real classic, and it appears to have been overlooked by the masses... which is just another reason I must own it in my book (I love those synths on the fringe).

...And Others...

I considered some other synths, but didn't grab the demos for various reasons. Arturia's stuff, for example: I'd just rather have tomorrow's classics than yesterday's. Xphrase came to mind, but it's really all about the arp, and I don't use arps. Ever. I thought about Kontakt and Reaktor, but those just seem to be deeper than I want to go.

Coolest Controller... EVER!

2009-01-23T13:47:00.000-08:00

By the time I have money to spend on music again, perhaps this will actually have been released:

Synths

2009-01-19T20:33:00.001-08:00

Okay, I promised I wasn't interested in new synths... but I admit, my curiosity is piqued many times over by the NAMM announcements.

I've long, long wanted a good Waldorf softsynth (and came -> this <- close to purchasing Komplexer because of it*), so the coolest release for me is Waldorf's largo. I will be watching this closely... but I must admit, my lust for Waldorf has tapered off in recent years (because of Access).

The new Minimoog V2 looks wicked... and is another synth that was on my very-very short list when I was in the market.

The D.CAM trio sounds like it may be worth looking into... if it really sounds as good as they claim it will. But I'm not sure that will be worth looking into if...

ImpOSCar 2 pans out. I actually sold my copy of impOSCar 1, but if they put more features into it with the same great filter, I might want it back. Maybe.

I could end up with one or two of those in my studio... in a few years (got some big-ticket items to buy, first).

* Quite glad I didn't; support for it has completely disappeared.

Repeat-1

2009-01-07T07:07:00.001-08:00

I think many artists share my mania of having to rate everything in one's music collection.

Just wanted to say, the "repeat 1" option in most players (iTunes is what I use) serves a wonderful purpose here. Just turn it on and play the first un-rated track in your collection. It forces you to manually queue the next track, and while you're at it, you have ever reason to rate the damn song.

At the moment, I'm going through some Selffish* tracks from the Thinner label. Yeah, I know: old school. I'd had these before, but I wasn't into minimal techno back then. Lately, I can't seem to get enough of the stuff. And this release is one of the best.

Also, I grabbed a boatload of Goa (yes, Goa) from Psypix, a site I heartily recommend. Some of these sets are truly awesome.

* Be warned: this link resizes your browswer. I hate that. Shame on Selffish. Also, that's really how he spells the name, with two 'f's.

Gear

2008-12-22T09:49:00.001-08:00

You know, I just posted about how I don't have gear-lust anymore.

That's true. But it doesn't mean I don't have gear goals. : )

I have a massive (!) amount of debt. I am making good progress removing it, but it will be a good three to five years before I am actually earning what I'm earning, rather than dumping 60% of it into fixing past mistakes.

When I get there, though, I may "upgrade" my studio. The plan, at present, is to buy a Virus TI, and a Machinedrum. I'll continue to use Ableton Live. I'll hang on to Stylus RMX for the drum-sample-ish loops, but I'll stop using most other soft-synths. And that's it. ...I mean, if I find the TI isn't giving me adequate voices, I'll get a second one. ...But the point is those are the the best tools I've experienced for music-making, and I would love to dig my heals in and master them.

...Not to say that will be the end. I'm sure Access and Elektron and Abelton will continue to make new products in the same vein, and I'll happily upgrade if they are true improvements. The point is more that I'd really like to have a minimal studio, but an excellent one.

Best Demo I've Seen

2008-12-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

Best demo I've ever seen:

...You are, of course, watching a movie, but it was rendered in realtime, folks.

Awe-inspiring.

Pre-release

2008-12-17T19:57:00.001-08:00

...Shhh... this is a secret, just for readers of this blog. (...and, I guess, anyone who stumbles on it...)

I've posted a "pre-release" of my upcoming EP on the Archive. It's called "...Of Control", a play on my artist name ("inversion of control" is a term used in software design. One of the tracks includes a sample of me reading the definition of the term, though it's pretty muffled and difficult to pick out.)

It's only three of the four tracks, and I reserve the right to make more changes before the actual release date. They are also relatively low-quality files, and there is no album-art associated with them.

...But it will give you an idea of what the final product will be like.

I'm proud of these tracks. I put a lot of work into them (a lot of work!), and just felt like I really had to "get them out there", sooner than later. In fact, I've completed entire albums faster than I've written any one of these tracks. ...Well, early albums, anyway. : ) While you may not like the style of this music, I hope you will at least find these tracks reasonably well-mastered, deeply textured, and filled with interesting details.

Enjoy.

Music Piracy

2008-12-16T14:09:00.001-08:00

Downloading copyrighted music is like shoplifting. (This message is cross-posted on my personal and music blog.)

...That's what most people will tell you (example), and I disagree.

Personally, I think selling MP3s is like selling water. Misguided and ultimately abusive.

I understand artists need to make a living doing what they do. I understand that thousands of jobs revolve around the existing music industry, and I understand that stealing music is stealing money from those people. I'm sorry about that.

But...

...The industry was built on a house of straw. Sad though it may be, those people's lives will have to change when it tumbles. ...just as it is with any industry that isn't sound. And, frankly, I don't think any of them will be out of a job when the dust settles: it will just look different. Well, except maybe the executives. They might suffer most. But industry executives are, in no uncertain terms, taking more money from the pockets of artists than we are. My heart will not bleed for them.

And...

No product is being stolen. There's no box, no wrapping, no store. No effective way to prevent it. It's not shoplifting, and the ananlogy is a harmful one.

What's being stolen are services, and in such minute quantities (after it reaches an adequate number of ears) that the "debt" any individual incurs from their transgression is negligible.

Pay-per-download is not an efficient economic model. MP3s could be subsidized externalities. There's an opportunity here. Music is an enormous part of our culture. Enormous! In my humble, the industry needs to stop crying foul (they can't stop it) and do something productive. There are at least a half-dozen superb ideas to accomplish this already: I won't bother repeating them*.

I have no qualms with people freely downloading music, as long as they ultimately support the artists they appreciate.

And remember: I release my music for free**.

* Not often suggested, but: what if you put MP3s in the public domain? This could be the greatest thing since the Public Library System!

** Actually, I once made a few hundred bucks, at MP3.com, which was subsidized, freely-downloadable music. That model failed: it was too early and their math was way off, but that's a story for another day.

Notes While Making the Next EP

2008-12-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

I have spent quite a bit of time in Ableton Live this past week, trying to craft a four-track EP for release early next year. Some observations/notes:

I love Vember Surge. ...Not as much as Predator. But close. It's brilliant. Very digital, very bright, very electronic. Predator has become my go-to synth because of it's ease and flexibility, but Surge is the synth that I use when something needs to stand out in the mix. ...And that it does!
I've tried my hand at playing some live percussion (in the form of loops). In so-doing, I realized that I have a complete lack of rhythm. And so I've been working on it: really pushing myself to get the timing right and not just rely on quantization and hand-tweaking recordings. I'm getting better. But not good. : )
I sold my Virus. This is huge news, since it was definitely the best instrument in my rig. But I switched machines (from a PowerMac to a MacBook), and didn't have the slot for it. And I needed the money. : | To be honest, I'm not really missing it yet. Weird. I suppose part of the reason for that is:
I have become less focused on synthesizers. They've shifted from being "what makes music fun" to... just an instrument for creating fun music. I don't spend any time looking at other synths. None. I don't stop in to Guitar Center to check out the synths. It doesn't even cross my mind. I unsubscribed from most of my "gear lust" news feeds. It's just not as important to me any more. Predator does the trick, Surge adds some interest. Which reminds me:
I am not really using Atmosphere any more. I wish I could... but it just doesn't work on a MacBook, period. I mean... it works, but it's annoying and prohibitively slow. I still usually find cause to put one track of it into any given mix, but I have to immediately freeze it and move on: it's really just THAT slow.
I decided to go through my (small) music collection and pull out the tracks that were most inspirational: the kinds of tracks (at least, elements of which) I would like to emulate when writing my own music. I ended up with 46 exemplar tracks. 15 of them are mine... so that says something. The other recurring artists were Nine Inch Nails (yes, really), Tangerine Dream, and Esem.
I am enjoying these four new tracks. I hope you will, too. ; )

Finally...

2008-11-17T06:48:00.001-08:00

This past weekend, I made several attempts at writing music. Though I felt a pretty strong urge, it wasn't coming easily, and all I was coming up with was crap. Frustrated, I would quit before too long.

But last night I tried again, and--despite (perhaps because of) being in a pissy mood, I actually got some quality stuff written. Only three minutes of it... but it was a worthwhile start, and I'm positive it will resolve itself as a decent track.

There's an odd little euphoria that comes with writing decent music, even if it's unfinished, unrefined material. ...Hopefully this will lead to an easier time of completing it in the weeks ahead.

I would like my next release to be shy of a "full album". I envision four really strong tracks, a'la the "Pasta EP" on Kahvi: one of my favorites.

Finally: the release of "Whom" on Kahvi

2008-09-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

My latest album, "Whom" was just released on Kahvi.

I'm just downloading it now, so I'll post more comments after I have a chance to check everything. But in the meantime, feel free to go grab it. ...Or if you got here from Kahvi, greetings. I hope it doesn't suck. ; )

Additional Thoughts on Dual-Pricing

2008-05-22T05:29:00.001-07:00

Go ahead and reduce polyphony on the non-commercial version. 6 voices is enough.
Don't remove any features like OSCs or filters or mod-routings... that'd be lame and people would continue to steal.
Limit the number of concurrent instances. Two is enough, but four would be better.
Here's the really neat idea: enforce a cc-by like license. So that songs/albums that use the software must (legally) list the software being used. Free marketing for you!
Of course, no technical support. (Support is where a whole lot of cost goes for software.)

I also want to point out that it is very important to release a high-price version of the software as well as the low-price. First, those are the people who will require support, and you (as the developing company) pay through the teeth for that. Second, and more importantly, it will ameliorate the perception of the software being "cheap". PoiZone, for example, sells for $80 or so (last I checked). It's a nice synth! I'm not sure why it's that low. ...But for reasons that may be lame but are entirely human, I kinda passed on the synth because it was in the bargain bin. There's just something about a low price that suggests cheapness. But if you sell a non-commercial version on the cheap when the "real" version costs $500, far more people will say "Aww, man, I need this synth".

Yes, you will get fewer sales of the commercial version. But I imagine the non-commercial version will sell profoundly well. I think in the end, you'll end up with more overall income.

My two cents.

Passive Mode

2008-05-22T05:15:00.001-07:00

I've spent the last two weeks reliving my old gear lust days. As a result, I've spent a lot of time (a lot of time) watching video demos and listening to audio examples and reading reviews on the web. In the past few days, my internet travels have landed me on copyright issues.

Specifically, I watched a talk by Larry Lessig on copyright... and this reminded me of a post where I made an ass of myself a few weeks ago. I also read another article (very long) at CDM about copy-protection on virtual instruments. I found myself getting sucked into reading the comments on these two CDM posts... something I very, very rarely do. (My experience with comments has been one of flamewars (resulting from appropriate bait), back-patting, and generally lame opinions from extremists).

I thoguht I would make my stance clear in a post, here, in two quick points and a pre-emptive defense:

I think copyright laws stiffle creativity, and that copyright lawsuits are harmful in all but the most extreme cases.
I think copy-protection on software is profoundly lame. I believe the solution is dual-pricing, where a nominal fee ($20-$50) is charged for (download-only) non-commercial users and a higher fee ($200 and up) is charged for commercial use.

When I say things like this, people inevitably ask me (lame, IMO) questions, so I'll pre-emptively respond:

Yes, I own the software that I use. (Despite the fact that I release my music for free and have never earned a penny for it.)
Yes, I have stolen software. ...It so happens that I'm not using any now, but I will admit that I have in the past, and may do it in the future.
Yes, I will buy the software once I deem it's a tool I will consistently use. Like I said, I own everything I use now.
I am a software developer. Yes, I know what goes into development.
No, I am not a commercial software developer, my I suppose my paycheck doesn't come directly from software sales, so I can't speak to that.
No, if someone used my music in a commercial way (even a complete rip-off), I would not sue them. Unless they attempt to tell me that I cannot freely release the originals anymore, because that's ridiculous. I release my music cc-by, only because they removed the non-by option from cc. I don't care if I'm credited, as long as I am allowed to (truthfully) say I wrote it. I don't release it non-derivs, I don't release it non-commercial. In fact, I think both options are lame lame lame lame lame. They violate the whole spirit of cc, and I cannot respect that. cc-by I kinda get, just because some people really need acknowlegement. So be it.
Yes, that is a promise, and yes, you can call me on it if I ever violate that.
Yes, I would buy tons more software if they would follow the dual-pricing scheme. Zebra and Z3ta+ and Albino3 and MMV and Jupiter 8V and Morphine and Toxic3 and...

Album names

2008-05-15T11:26:00.001-07:00

I'm fascinated by names... I find it one of the more pleasant aspects of writing music, that we have to name songs and albums. It's just fun, for me.

My next album will be named "synanthropic", which I heard on a TED talk today.

MMV

2008-05-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

A rather beautiful demonstration of MMV... makes me want it:

The Next Album: Whom

2008-05-07T20:57:00.001-07:00

I just sent my new album to the folks at Kahvi for release. The administrator's comment was "very nice release indeed".

The covert art (to the left) was drawn by me--charcoal and conté, 18x24 (originally).

I'm not sure when it will be released... within the next six months, certainly; hopefully sooner. Definitely not in the next few weeks, though.

This was an album I really needed to get out of my system. As I've said in other posts, this is a "finding myself" album.

Now that it's done with, I'm looking toward my next project (I already have an idea for a "concept album"). In preparation, I've spent a few hours this week "porting" some of my favorite patches from a synth I used to use (Albino) to my new synths (Virus, Predator, Atmosphere, impOSCar). Far and away, the Virus sounds the best (not to mention, it's the only synth that can match Albino's complexity). Of course, each synth has its own character, so more often than not I would tweak the patches a bit to take advantage of those traits. As a result, I ended up with much larger patch-banks in all m'synths. : )

But, like the album, now I know I can put Albino to bed. Rest in peace, my old friend.

Saturated

2008-05-02T16:49:00.001-07:00

I kinda miss Trash.

"Clean" sound isn't always "better" sound... sometimes an over-saturated signal sounds better than the real thing. Like impOSCar's filter does *horrible* things to the signal itself... it doesn't behave! But despite that, it seems to sound better than most filters. The Virus's filter is similar.

It's kind of like the tendency for music these days to be over-compressed / limited. When you look at the signal in an editor, it looks horrible! There's very little information there, the signal is so hot. ...And yet somehow it still sounds better than the music from 15 years ago, when post-production thought "clean" was still in.

Weird.

I sometimes wonder what it would sound like if someone would build a synth with this in mind. ...Not that they should let quality slide--no... just that they need to realize that a distorted signal sometimes sounds better. What if you put distortion/saturation/ringmod on the OSCs, before the filter? Or what if you had a multi-pole filter that distorted or saturated the sound between each stage?

KVR and Reviews

2008-05-02T15:50:00.001-07:00

...I've been playing around with Predator a lot lately. But I'll talk about that later.

I decided that it was high time I left a review of the synth on KvR. But when I went to do just that, I was stopped. Apparently, you must have written 10 posts on their forums before you may have the honor of contributing to their database of reviews.

This made me see red.

I sent this email to them:

I love KVR.

I love it for the news and the reviews.

I HATE the forums. Like any other on-line forum, it's just a bunch of people whining their opinions that I don't care to hear.

Why, then, should I be restricted from using the features that I *love* about KvR, if I refuse to contribute to that which I loathe?

Please re-think this policy. It's lame.

Please join me in telling them that this policy is inane.

Pseudo-review: Esem's Scateren

2008-05-02T11:52:00.001-07:00

Recently, I downloaded Scateren for a fourth time.

I like some parts of it... but very few.

I can't get behind this album, despite the fact that I've kept trying, over the period of several years. I know esem; I have since the very beginning... even before he was known as esem (I can tell you where the name esem came from). I've had many conversations with him (albeit online). I love-love-love his music. But not this album.

When I try to put my finger on why, I can only come up with vague impressions... it's too light, for one. It's too chaotic, there aren't the same kind of themes that I got out of his earlier stuff. It's too polite. I can get past--nay, I enjoy--the redundancy in some of esem's music, but on this album, it just comes across as tedious and lacking inspiration. I can still understand why someone might find it soulful and expressive... but it just doesn't click with me, personally.

That said, I really can't wait until esem releases another album. (It's been far too long already!). I still have full faith in him. He has a magic touch, a unique style, and a talent for expression.

Lyrics

2008-05-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

Songs with lyrics are very different from instrumental pieces. It's an entirely different kind of experience. Apples and oranges. Ostensibly, they seem closely related, but no. They're different beasts.

Singers form a relationship with listener. ...This is, of course, why the singers in bands always get the most attention: it's the singer to whom we are relating, not the band.

Once that relationship is there, by the way, the music becomes secondary. The first time I listened to NIN's With Teeth (the album, I mean), I thought it was boring and cheesy rock music. ...But I have a long-standing relationship with Reznor, ever since Closer tempted me into buying an album that was way beyond my comfort zone, back in '94.
As a result, I gave the album a few chances, and soon it was like I was listening to an old friend. The music didn't matter as much. Of course, after a few more listens, it became an album that I couldn't stop listening to. ...I went through a month of having that album on loop.

His new single (Discipline) appears to be doing the same thing for me, too.

Kraftwerk

2008-05-02T07:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, truth be told: I am not a fan of Kraftwerk. They're before my time, and I prefer the derivative works.

That said, I saw this post on how Kraftwerk concerts suck, and I couldn't disagree more (caveat: I've never been to one, 'cause I don't like the music). Quote:

this is part of Kraftwerk's schtick - but people still want to see a show that kicks ass, and it just doesn't kick ass when it looks like the performers are checking their email!

That's like going to a pop art show at some museum and expecting to see beautiful paintings. Yes, it's true that people want to see beautiful art... but

that's not the point.

Kraftwerk is making a statement, and from the sound of it, they do it perfectly.

Jeez.

[NP: 4 Ghosts 1, by Nine Inch Nails. ...And, no, I don't really like this track. The album is hit-or-miss, but I'm giving it a few chances before I cull the bits that don't work for me yet. I don't think I'm supposed to like this track. It's making a statement.]

Pad-n-pluck

2008-04-30T10:56:00.001-07:00

"Pad-n-pluck" could almost pass for a genre name, kind of like "glitchcore" or "illbient".

A friend of mine and I used to threaten to buy Korg ROMplers and come up with a new genre of music called "dark age"... like new age, without the fluff.

One or the other of us would then make the obligatory joke about "bambient".

Struggles, the Teddy Bear

2008-04-30T07:42:00.001-07:00

(So, yeah, this blog could be as much about my own personal neuroses as about the music that I write.)

I was watching some videos recently (via Synthtopia, I think) about electronic bagpipes. And I'm thinking to myself, damn, these people have really focused on something that means a lot to them. And I was jealous. Yes, I was jealous of people playing bagpipes via midi. Sheesh.

The thing about being an "electronic musician" is that we're not really obsessed about one thing that means a lot to us. We're terribly open-minded. If some new tool comes along that makes a sweet sound, we want one. If it's got cool-looking blinky lights, so much the better.

Yes, yes, I'm fully aware that we lust about 30-year old synths as much as new-fangled beasts... but it's really a "rediscovery" of these things. That had to go out of style before we could obsess about them again, since it was "new and cool" to own one.

This frustrates me. I'd rather have some finely-crafted instrument that I truly cared about and could focus on. Sure, sure, some ancillary stuff is all well and good: any true instrumentalist will have some means of fleshing out his music, be it a band or gear.

So I started wondering what it was that I really cared about. Of course, the first thing I considered was trackers: it's what I sharpened my teeth on, and--yeah--to some extent, I still love the idea of just using a simple, free program to write music. It's awesome. But that's not what got me into music, and that's not what I really love.

My second thought was the Access Virus line of synths. Their sound is, well, music to my ears. I didn't grow up knowing about them... it's not what got me into music... so there's not a lot of history there, but it's all about the sound, which is what's most important to me. So I'm considering it.

My third thought was less about a specific tool and more about a specific sound. For better or worse, I really like electronic plucky sounds (the stuff you typically hear arped) and thick, evolving pads. They remind me of Tangerine Dream's early stuff, which is exactly why I got into electronic music.

(Coincidentally, Tangerine Dream just came up on my playlist. Ricochet Part 2, in fact... a good example!)

And, yeah, that's really it. That's what I love. Sure, that doesn't translate well into a single tool to focus on, which is a shame... and the crux of my problem. If it makes really nice bleepy sounds or long lush pads, I want it. So does this actually help me in any way? ...I dunno.

Anyway: food for thought.

Inspiration

2008-04-27T21:09:00.001-07:00

Blogger has been pissing me off lately, being frequently inaccessible. I mean, it's fine that I can post via email without trouble... but that means I can't include images, which makes this blog look pretty boring. So I apologize for the drab string of text-only posts.

This weekend, decided to identify some very specific influences for the music I'm about to write. I listened to my entire collection, evaluating each track for whether it was something that wanted my own music to emulate. (This was faster than it sounds.) It yielded 140 tracks.

I wanted to hone the list a bit more. So I made a second list, and pulled from the first one only those tracks that deeply moved me, and from which I must pull as much influence as possible. The result was 44 tracks:

1 Afro Celt Sound System
1 Astral Projection
1 Bad Loop and Recue (uhhh... it's a 1-hour track, though)
7 of my own tracks, from various "eras"
1 track from a Waldorf demo site. Yes, really.
2 Depeche Mode
1 esem... this was a little surprising. I thought there would be a lot more.
1 Giles Reaves
1 Ian Boddy and Robert Rich
8 Nine Inch Nails. (Look out.)
1 from t.wilton (of NOISE)
1 Pink Floyd
1 Puff Dragon
1 Seal
2 Shpongle
1 Talamasca
1 Tangerine Dream (also a bit of a surprise)
2 Toad the Wet Sprocket
5 Hol Baumann (Wow!)
1 Aes Dana
1 Scann Tec
3 Vibrasphere

New Controller

2008-04-26T19:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, you have to see through the dippy "I play at hockey games" style of the musican and the AWFUL "I'm running a Casio keyboard" sound, here... but it's kind of like house-hunting: you have to recognize the potential of the structure and ignore the details of the current owner.

I want one:

Update: it's $1,700. Maybe not. : )

To Build a Patch

2008-04-25T13:23:00.001-07:00

Early on, I discovered that there are two ways to develop a patch that fits into your track.

The first is to take something simple and process it until it fills the void. The alternative is to take something huge and cut it down until it settles into the gap.

I sit squarely in the second camp. I like taking huge synths--Virus and Moog type sounds--and plopping them into my song. Then I'll tweak the detunes and the filter cutoffs and the overdrives and the envelopes until they no longer overwhelm the song.

I suspect, however, that truly great sound designers go the other way: they take tiny sounds--Prophets and CS-80s--and compress and process and detune and layer them until the sound is as bold as they need.

The advantage of this latter approach is that it's easier to mix. You end up with, as a friend of mine once called it, a storm of secondary things. Nothing needs to dominate. ...I also suspect this is how most of the music I love most is produced. For example, I'm listening to Nine Inch Nails right now (Ruiner from Further Down the Spiral). I'll bet he starts with tiny sounds and builds them into monsters (to be fair, it's probably "they start", assuming he works with talented crews of engineers).

I wonder if I should attempt to switch my modus operandi.

The more I think of it, the more I think I should.

Unfortunately, my entire studio is currently based on the big-to-small workflow. And I am decidedly poor at the mastering skills required by the small-to-big concept. It would be a difficult transition.

Satisfied with Atmosphere

2008-04-25T13:13:00.001-07:00

I have continued to dive into Atmosphere. And I must say, there's a surprisingly powerful synth under there. The filter is actually quite usable (I once thought it was crap), and while there are limits to the available modulation, there's enough to inject a little expression into your patch. It's the underlying samples, of course, that make it shine. There are some absolute gems in there. I actually went through and auditioned every single one, and discovered over 200 singles that moved me. That's 200 quality patches in a synth, without counting the layers. I didn't even have close to that on my EX5. Atmosphere is a spectacular synth.

As I suggested earlier, even though many (almost exactly half) patches aren't clearly labeled, there seem to be a few trends in the names of synths that come up most in the patches I like.

First, it's not a JP-8000 I meant in the last post, it was a JP-8. Oops! That's a pseudonym of the powerful (and hard-to-find) Jupiter-8. I shan't be buying one of those any time soon! I did download Arturia's Jupiter 8 V, and I'm sorry to say I was unimpressed. It's probably not fair to compare Arturia's soft-synth to Spectrasonic's samples. The samples are probably piped through some of the best compressors/reverbs/EQs on the planet, so they come out all punchy and full. And "fat" isn't always good is it? Is it? I dunno. At the moment, I'm jonesin' for the punch, so I passed the JP8V by. I don't need it.

The Moog came up a lot, once I got out of the pads and into the synth patches. But I knew I liked Moogs. I also know I can't afford them. Atmosphere covers the few bases I would want from a Moog, anyway.

The Virus came up more than any other identifiable synth. This doesn't surprise me on two levels: one, Eric Persing clearly makes very (!) heavy use of them, so there were more Virus patches to pick from. And second, I know that the Virus is my favourite line of synths. Period.

Most surprising was the number of CS-80 patches I had on my short list. Almost as much as the Moog! I remember trying Arturia's CS80 V way back when it first came out, and I was at once over- and under-whelmed. The sound seemed thin and old-school to me, and the interface was HUGE and intimidating. I considered grabbing the demo, but I was reminded by the JP8V that there's no need: I have what I need in Atmosphere.

So, in short, I fell back in love with Atmosphere. It's expensive, sure, but I think it's the biggest bang for the buck in my arsenal.

Dream Studio

2008-04-22T16:00:00.001-07:00

Watching the movie about Omnisphere triggered my long-dormant gear lust. Seeing Persing move from Moog Modular to Juno to Prophet to Jupiter to Virus (or whatever the order was) left a sizable drool stain on my shirt.

As a result, I decided to spend some quality time with Atmosphere this weekend. This was interesting for two reasons.

First, as I suspected, it suggested that there are several synths that have a sound I am drawn to. Of course the Virus comes up a lot. But, to my surprise, a lot of the pad and synth patches I liked are Roland synths. ...Like, a whole lot. As a result, I am vaguely considering a Roland JP-8080 and a SuperJX Rack. (In addition to that new Virus TI, cough cough.) On the other hand: I really like the Atmosphere patches that use them, so why would I need the actual synth?

Second, it surprised me how much more I liked the single patches, rather than the stacks. Less clutter, more clarity, purer sounds. ...I suspect I will be turning off Dual Mode with Atmosphere most of the time, in the future.

...Tangential to all of this Atmosphere-inspired gear-thought, I have also been reviewing 808/909 emulators. Sure, sure, go ahead and laugh. ...But I have noticed that, in using Stylus RMX, I am missing some of the "straight up" analog drum sounds that I have come to rely on in the past. ...I don't shove them in the listener's face (yet, bwa-hahaha), but they are an integral parts of my music! I miss them. So I'm in the market for a VA drum machine plugin. I'm looking at Waldorf Attack, d16 Group stuff, and one other package that had a name stupid enough that I've forgotten it.

All of this gear-lust has me worried about cluttering my studio. I like the idea of being elegant an minimal in my setup. Thus, I've reconsidered both Albino and Surge. Great synths, sure, but I have Predator, I love it, and it can cover most of that ground: I will make better use of it.

I'm also just not using impOSCar anymore, and have decided to sell it, when I have a chance to get around to it. Moving on, as it were.

Next Instrument

2008-04-19T22:47:00.001-07:00

W-hell...

After doing some searching on the 'net, I stumbled across the next version of Spectrasonic's Atmosphere (which I own), called Omnisphere.

I will be buying this.

Virus Quips

2008-04-16T09:17:00.001-07:00

I love my Virus. So much, in fact, that I am contemplating buying a Snow. (Perhaps even the real deal, heavens portend!) I do have a few gripes with the PowerCore implementation, but they probably have as much to do with my host (Ableton Live) as with the synth itself.

One such gripe is the lack of being able to use it to route effects. ...This is a huge bummer, since the effects on the Virus are awesome. It's supposed to route effects, but for whatever reason, when I do what the manual says, I end up getting nasty crackling, as if latency is all screwed up and bouncing around.

Another gripe is the lack of patch-switching. I'm probably being stupid about this, but there doesn't seem to be any external control of patch selection, and thus, when I'm working on a track, I get four uses of the Virus (one per DSP), and that's it for the whole song. I would love to be able to switch patches mid-song, so that the limit becomes four uses at a time, rather than per song.

Lastly, the PowerCore itself seems to screw up my Mac (Dual G5), forcing me to disable sleep mode. If my Mac ever sleeps, it will ALWAYS crash (100% of the time, no exceptions) on recovery. ...and this only started happening once I put the PowerCore in.

If you know anything about these issues, please reply. I'd appreciate it. : )

Persistence of Memory

2008-04-15T19:58:00.001-07:00

My son needed a pencil for his homework. This was a little ridiculous, since only a few months ago, we bought one of those 5-gazillion pencil packs. ...I know they all end up hiding under his bed or behind his bureau. Maybe he's collecting them to build a makeshift catapult. Or even a trebuchet... (He's a bright one.)

Anyway, I was looking around for said pack of pencils, and found an old box full of odds and ends. Clearly one of those boxes into which one crams nick-knacks when cleaning the house for an impending visit from in-laws. Tucked in the bottom of this notably dust-bunny-laden box was a pale tan CD. For whatever reason, I was compelled to glance at the minimalist cover.

Freefloater. By Higher Intelligence Agency.

Whoa! This wasn't a CD I had seen in nearly a decade! I had it buried along with Kitaro, Banco de Gaia and other embarrassing mistakes of my early electronic music-listening career.

But as I pointed out in an earlier post: my tastes have changed.

I vaguely recall some kernel of brilliance in HIA music. Curious, I pop it into the drive and rip it into iTunes, giggling at the notion that WinAmp was the height of computer-music-collecting back in those days. The evening passes. I listen to a few tracks here, a few in the car picking up pizza. I continue to listen now as I sit down to answer email.

[Now Playing: Skank]

While I find a couple of these tracks are silly and obnoxious... this track is brilliant, as are a few others. Minimal but engaging. Unapologetically electronic: just the way I like music, these days. Lots of squelchy 303. Personality. Lacking, perhaps, in a more overt "message", it is nevertheless quite enjoyable.

I wonder, briefly, what other abandoned music I may be missing out on now. You see, I go through regular binges and purges of music. (More purges than binges.) ...My collection is dizzyingly small, for an musician: I tote one of the earliest-generation iPods, of which I use perhaps 30 Gig... and over half of that is foreign language training (trivia: I was a linguist in college: a good one). My music library is a greyhound: thin, sleek, and built for a single purpose. It runs fast and then sleeps for the rest of the day. It farts a lot if you don't feed it yogurt.

Okay, so the greyhound analogy isn't perfect.

Counter-intuitively, experiences like this--where I "rediscover" good music that I long ago deleted--evoke a sense not of regret but of appreciation. If these tracks had stayed in my library, I would take them for granted. Only because I have some much distance from them now, I can appreciate them anew. It's like a little gift I'd hidden for myself. You don't know what you're missing until it's gone. That kind of thing.

I highly recommend deleting the music that's gotten a little tired for you. In a decade, give or take, you may stumble over it and fall back in love. Fleeting or not, it's still a worthwhile experience.

"In Transition Once Again"

2008-04-15T13:46:00.001-07:00

(Title is a Peter Gabriel lyric from Growing Up maybe? Digging in the Dirt? I can't recall...)

I have begun to obsess about my upcoming album.

So, there I was listening to it, thinking, "yeah, this isn't really where I want my music to be. This is a transitional album."

Barely had the thought drifted off the lips of my inner monologeur (in this case, I think he was wearing a trench-coat and a derby and speaking with a Londoner accent) when I thought "Crap. All of my albums have been transitional."

Then: isn't all art transitional? ...Does an artist ever really "settle" into what she's doing? I'm not sure.

I was in Hawai'i recently, and had the chance to visit quite a number of reasonably good art galleries. One of them had some fucking incredible Wolton oils hanging, so I ended up talking to the curators. ...Turns out they (two, middle-aged women, well-dressed and very nice but air-headed) really knew nothing about the process of art. Neither of them had any aspirations to learn, either. Neither knew what impasto meant, as I was trying to tell them that most of their gallery used the technique. But the disappointing sentinels aren't relevant to the point, which will come up on the gui'tar any moment, now...

[strum, strum]

The point was that Wolton claims--and the simple-minded ladies agreed--to have found his paces. At this late stage of his life, he just paints to express himself, and learns nothing in the process. In fact, he says himself:

If our art can be repeated using only skilled craftsmanship [that] ultimately
reaches its level of maturity, all that "knowing how to paint" becomes a
subconscious mechanism. The creative energy, unhampered by concern
or lack of confidence, then spills itself onto the canvas."

This implies that there is an end point. That we can "find ourselves" in art. Sure seems an appealing idea. I would like to be able to claim mastery of my craft.

...The thing is, I'm not sure I buy it. It certainly ain't true for me. ...At least, it shows no sign of slowing.

And I'm not sure I really mind. Part of the appeal of art (and music) for me is the aspect of personal growth.

So here's to always being in transition!

[NP: Evening Star by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno. Hey, sometimes I like to chill to old-school ambient.]

Taste Over Time

2008-04-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

It's fascinating how people's tastes change over time.

Particularly in music.

Five years ago, I was 80% ambient music. I listened to it, I wrote it. While some techno was "cool", I thought it was more often redundant and obnoxious.

Today, I'm 80% techno. Some ambient is fascinating, but it's more often redundant and obnoxious.

Lately, I have been listening to Astral Projection. ...I feel a little guilty admitting that.

What are you listening to now that your younger self would have slapped you for?

[NP: Time Wolers by Astral Projection. And it's kicking ass.]

Obligatory Gear Post

2008-04-14T06:41:00.001-07:00

I use Ableton Live. It's the most immediate studio. It gets me writing music right away. I find that the best songs I've written are tracks I wrote in one sitting, so speed is important. That said, I'm running v6... they update yearly, and I don't have the money to keep up with them.

My favorite synth at the moment is actually Rob Papen's Predator. It's not the best-sounding, and it's not the most capable, but--again--it's something that I can quickly get excellent results from. You'll hear a lot of his instrument in my new music (perhaps 1/3 of it). Very tweakable.

My best synth (notice there's a difference) is the Virus Powercore.

It's a Virus. Do I really have to say anything else?

I also make ubiquitous use of Spectrasonics' Stylus RMX and Atmosphere. Both are excellent samplers... but that's really all they are: there's not much I can tweak. ...but they both sound incredible, so I use them a lot.

Lastly, I have GForce impOscar. ...A little synth with a lot of personality. I don't use it as much as I would like: he doesn't seem to play nice with the other boys. There's a lot of him in Black Mesa Winds, but not much in the upcoming album.

On the shopping list? PoiZone, Albino, and Surge. I like having as minimal a studio as possible, so I really don't want to over-do it... so I will probably sell impOscar and pick up PoiZone. The latter also has a lot of personality, though it's something of a one-trick pony (well, two-waveform, anyway), but I love the sound. Albino is something I used before my stuff was stolen, and--dammit--I want it back. Great, versatile synth with a smooth sound. Surge is more versitile, and I'm missing a nice digital edge in my music. I love the wave-shaping abilities of it. (Rather, I miss the wave-shaping abilities of Z3ta+, and Surge comes closest to it.)

I write my music on a simple, old Dual-G5 PPC Mac, running OS X Tiger. Yes, I kind of miss the PC for writing music (more plugins available)... but it wasn't worth dealing with Vista. I also wish my machine had a little more beef. But I'm a po' boy, and can't afford big steel.

For effects, I only use freebies, and I use them sparringly. Favourites include Ambience, Analog Delay, Blockfish, CamelCrusher, MDSP Compressor, MonstaChorus, SupaPhasor, and Multi Delay. If I can get away with using built-in effects (delay and what-not), I will.

Greetings.

2008-04-14T06:03:00.000-07:00

My name is Jeremy Rice. Once upon a time, I made music under the name "Introspective".

My gear was stolen in 2007. While that sucked, insurance allowed me to redesign my studio. The resulting music was different enough that I felt like it was wrong to continue releasing under the same name.

I'm currently working on a new album. It goes alternately by "Whom" or "Abandonment"... I'm not sure what the final title will be.

I've also decided to start releasing the music under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States scheme (though all the stuff on Kahvi is covered under that license, if I'm not mistaken)... and I will be putting the tracks, as I finish them, on The Internet Archive.

In fact, my debut track is there now.

I will continue to release full albums with Kahvi... which will put them on archive.org with the cover art and all the extras.

I will also be looking for net labels on which to do "guest releases" of short EPs, so if you're interested, email me with a username of jrice_blue at the typical Yahoo! domain. (Be warned: I'm slow about reading email there, so be patient.)

I will also be considering CD releases. ...Not sure yet. And I might just do those with Kahvi Commercial. Maybe.

[Now Playing: Cocaine Ways. Nice album!]