Continuing my effort to fill out my options in outboard gear, a new compressor arrived yesterday from Golden Age Project. The Comp-2A is an Opto compressor, which are often used to smooth out transients and kind of glue the various elements of your mix together, making it sound more cohesive. I actually used it on Day 1 as part of an effort to add some nice analog warmth to a track that I’ll be releasing as part of an EP at the end of the month.
Thought I’d share a track which I did in January. It was done for the Disquiet Junto, which encourages artists to respond to a simple prompt sent once per month. January’s prompt was to record the sound of ice in a glass, and go from there. When I finished the track, I could no longer discern the sound of ice in a glass, but I liked where the track ended up. I hope you do, too.
For me, it is quiet, contemplative, textural and mysterious.
Also, an image I made which was inspired by the audio.
My new mic preamp from Golden Age Project arrived today. I say new, it’s really used via Reverb. Great price, great shape. A clone of a Neve mic pre, it should add a lot of warmth and character to whatever I put through it.
Figured since I’m paying for this blog (albeit at the paltry sum of $1 per month), I might as well use it for more than music posts. So, here’s what I’m reading this year.
In progress
Redefining Black Power, Joanne Griffith / Critique of Everyday Life, Henri Lefebvre / Looking After Your Autistic Self, Niamh Garvey
Finished
Socialism… Seriously: A Brief Guide to Human Liberation, Danny Katch / Ocean of Sound, David Toop / The Captive Mind, Czesław Miłosz
In the queue
From Marx To Gramsci, Paul Le Blanc / Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk, Kathleen Hanna / The Power of the People, Václav Havel / Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction and Feminist Struggle, Silvia Federici / Selected Poems, Federico Garcia Lorca (Tom Verlaine book) / Lives On The Left, Francis Mulhern (editor) / Hard-boiled Wonderland and The End of The World, Haruki Murakami / José Carlos Mariátegui - An Anthology, Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker, editors & translators / The Flowers of Evil, Charles Baudelaire / From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor / We Will Rise Again, Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, Malka Older, eds. / Big Sur and The Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, Henry Miller / We Created Chávez, George Ciccariello-Maher
what about you?
Today, I experimented with using earth magnets attached to kitchen pots and making them resonate using Ferrous, a handheld instrument with rotating magnets of it’s own. The results were wild and a bit loud! Somewhat hard to control, but I can see becoming better at that with practice. Low frequencies sounded like a tuba, while upper ones sounded more like a horn / trumpet.
#experimentalMusic
Highlighting a recent studio addition: ADAT lightpipe. I’m befuddled by how this technology works, but somehow eight tracks of audio can hop on a beam of light (literally), and go from my DAW (computer recording interface) to my mixing desk.
I got back into music-making eleven-plus years ago, doing everything via software. About five years ago, I began transitioning from software synths to real ones, but kept my recording / mixing tasks in the computer (referred to as in the box). Then a little over a year ago, I began transitioning from software to hardware for that.
So, this is the latest addition. Always learning.
I can’t remember what year (decade?) I last had a blog, but having a way to keep peeps up to date with all of the scintillating (boring?) stuff I do and have it be available both on my website and on Mastodon seems to be a no-brainer. Especially cuz it’s inexpensive and is put together well.
It occurs to me that no-brainer, inexpensive and put together well is a 66.6% accurate description of me.
Nevertheless, follow along if you like. I’ll try to keep things short and interesting.