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Project Studio Blogs
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11/09/11 04:21:11
the post psychedelic art of velveeta heartbreak
blog from Michael J. Bowman
Art and music by Michael J. Bowman - Velveeta Heartbreak.
11/06/11 14:25:57
Testing html5 audio
blog from Bryan Baker
11/05/11 22:50:24
Mail Art
blog from Ken Clinger
10/31/11 03:46:15
And In That Dream (Deep Sleep Remix)
blog from Zebra Mann
10/25/11 14:30:56
October Sketch #3
blog from Bryan Baker
The third sketch reveals a backing track and I'm improvising in the studio. I like the randomness of the backing, how it's not really tethered to a time which allows the guitar to wander through that space. Yet, it still feels like a song maybe. I've been exploring this kind of random thing lately.
10/18/11 19:48:29
October Sketch #1
blog from Bryan Baker
As always I'm playing around with a lot of different fragments songs and whatnot. I thought I might try something different and piece something together by posting bits to YouTube each day as I work it out. Here's a stab of something starting in Am (and ending, as it turns out).
09/29/11 20:10:27
Time for an update on my recent sound studio work and music-related stuff.
"I remember Dust That Collects. Ron sent many cassette albums to GAJOOB for review. Hope all is well with him.
Who did you use for manufacturing the vinyl? What did you get? What was the cost?
Sounds like you've had many receptive outlets for your work recently. Must be inspiring!"-- bfbaker (on 10/11/11 07:26:38)
recent stuff
blog from William A. Davison
First off, the Six Heads "Cardboard Oracle" LP was launched on Sept. 3 at the Tranzac Club here in Toronto! The launch went really well, the club was packed, the performances by Dirty Door, Fleshtone Aura, and Roman Pilates were all excellent, Six Heads also turned in a great set (if I do say so myself), and we had a really enthusiastic and supportive crowd. All in all a fantastic evening! Copies of the LP are available from Wintage Records and Tapes at wintagerecords(at)gmail(dot)com
I've been continuing to digitize my old four-track cassettes (see previous blog posts). Actually, I took a break from it but am getting back to it now. Still working on Four-Track Tape #3. One good thing related to this work is that, since I had to set up a new Mac in my studio, I took the opportunity to upgrade my Mac version of Audacity from 1.2 to 1.3. Works much better in general and handles recording of multiple inputs (i.e. 4 or more) in a much less quirky fashion than 1.2 did. It also means I have the same version running on my Mac and Linux computers. Bonus!
Other studio work. I've gotten kind of obsessed with early 80s minimal synth, cold wave, etc. lately and I have ambitions to release some material of my own along those lines. It may never happen but I have been doing some initial experiments in the studio. My starting point for these experiments has been a free software called CBasiCore64. It's a standalone MAX/MSP program that was made to replicate the early Commodore 64 sounds, mostly for use in 8-bit/chiptunes (which I also quite enjoy), and to provide rudimentary sequencing/pattern programming of those sounds. It's super easy to use and a lot of fun! I'm only using it for creating drum sounds and patterns, its bass and synth sounds are a bit too 8-bit for what I'm going for. Anyway, I'm making these drum patterns in CBasiCore64 on my Mac and then recording the individual drum sounds as wav files which I then import into LMMS on my Linux PC (LMMS, aka Linux Multimedia Studio, is a sequencer package I quite like). At that point I can replicate and elaborate on the original CBasiCore64 drum pattern, or create a new pattern using the same sounds. LMMS also includes the great softsynth ZynAddSubFX which I'm using to add noises and textures to these pieces (for the time being I'm avoiding melodic elements). Eventually, the idea is to fill out the compositions a bit and then add lyrics/vocals. We'll see if I make it to that point!
Elsewhere in the news, on Sept. 10th I did a Songs of the New Erotics performance called "Slow Bells" at a cathedral in Hamilton, Ontario. S.O.T.N.E. performances are few and far between these days so it was great to be given the opportunity to create and present something new for that project. Thanks to New Harbours Series and event organizer Rich Oddie (Orphx) for that! The trip to Hamilton also meant I could reconnect with my old friend Jim Dejong (Infant Cycle/The Ceiling label)! Was really great seeing Jim again and we did talk about the possibility of future collaborations (Wax Infant revived?).
On the improvised music front, I was very happy to see another project momentarily revived - my guitar duo with Arnd Jurgensen called Sen/Son. Arnd and I did a set at Somewhere There (here in Toronto) on Sept. 21st and I also sat in with the ensemble Built To Suit (Arnd Jurgensen, Matthew Poulakakis, James Bailey, Alan Bloor, Guy LeBlanc) on the same evening. We received standing ovations for both sets! Of course, the audience consisted of only one person. Oh well (a typical evening at Somewhere There). BTW, that one person was Ron McFarlan of Dust That Collects. Some of you home-tapers may remember him.
What else? Well, I've also been helping Kevin Crump/Wintage Records with the upcoming Nihilist Spasm Band LP. Just doing a bit of audio editing/mixing and I'll be helping with the graphics a bit this coming week. NSB are awesome! Six Heads jammed with them a month or so back and had a great time!
One last project I'm going to mention today is a mix CD I recently made for my friend Steve Venright on the occasion of his 50th birthday. The CD consists of 50 one-minute selections from my "Tape Sketchbooks" (basically, the archive of my studio work through most of the 80s and 90s) which were chosen in a strictly random process (no decision-making, editing, or censoring!). A quickie job that only took a couple of hours to put together but it turned out really well! Pretty interesting listening, actually! I've been thinking about putting out a series of mix tapes that would be (more or less) random selections from my studio archives, so this little project may be a forerunner to that.
There, that oughta hold ya! See you in the next update!
- William A. Davison
09/09/11 22:52:35
The past few years I've been going through periods of recording and periods of not recording. It seems I like to have my studio so that I can flip some switches and start recording. When I'm away from it, I have to remember where all the chords are going. Stuff gets piled on top of stuff. (see photo)
Dusty
blog from Bryan Baker
So I play around with ideas on an acoustic guitar and nothing gets done.
Well I've got some ideas. I'll let you know if I manage to get to work on them.
08/30/11 15:32:54
Haven't done too much sound studio work lately as getting the Six Heads "Cardboard Oracle" LP packages together and preparing for the launch has taken over my life. In a mostly good way!
LP Launch!
blog from William A. Davison
All of the various elements of the LP package (except for the vinyl, of course) are handmade - silk-screened art on recycled record jackets, spray-painted cardboard back covers, rubber stamping, etc. - so it's quite a bit of work putting them together. But it's going well, the packages look great, and I'm happy to say that the LP will indeed be launched this coming Sat., Sept. 3 at the Tranzac Club here in Toronto!
I have managed to do a few other little bits and bobs in the studio. Nothing major though. Right now I'm dubbing a radio interview some of the Heads were involved in last night. I'm also (as if I don't have enough to do!) having to set up a new computer in my studio since my old G4 unceremoniously kicked the bucket! (the dubbing I'm doing right now is partly a test of my soundcard and recording software) Hopefully, after the LP launch I'll be able to get back to some of my recording and editing projects. Stay tuned!
- William
08/10/11 06:08:53
Just a quick (or not so quick) note on what's been happening in my sound studio since my last blog post.
"Check yer inbox BF, I just sent you some info on the MT44. Any queries from other folks reading this, please send them my way, I'm always happy to help out when I can!"-- wadavison (on 08/10/11 16:07:59)
"Hey WA, were your original tapes recorded on the Yamaha MT44? What's the speed?"-- bfbaker (on 08/10/11 08:29:34)
studio update
blog from William A. Davison
Hmmm, let's see...still working on digitizing my old four-track cassettes. Part way through "Four-Track Tape #3" at this point. That project is progressing nicely, I think, and maybe a bit quicker than I might have thought. Although it's a long, long way from being done! Still, because I have all of the equipment set up and don't have to reconfigure things for each dub, it means I can pretty much just press play on the tape and record in Audacity and dub off a piece whenever I have a "spare moment" (or even while working on something else). If only everything were that easy!
Part of the reason I started this digitization project was to work on a possible remix of some old four-track material that originally formed the basis of the soundtrack to one of my early Super-8 films. My first Super-8 film, in fact - "Combination Head" from 1986! Inyrdisk label owner/operator Kevin Hainey has been asking me for some "archival stuff" for some time now and I think this might make a good release once it's cleaned up, remixed and remastered. Work is progressing nicely on that now (after a couple of false starts). The film soundtrack was only a short excerpt from the original recordings so most of this material has never been heard before.
Lastly, I'm happy to say the Six Heads "Cardboard Oracle" records have finally arrived from the pressing plant! So now we just have to finish putting all of the elements of the package together - silk-screens, recycled record sleeves, mimeographed inserts, rubber stamping, etc. A lot of work to do still but it's getting there and we should have no problem getting it all together for the official launch mid-September!
That's all for now. See ya in the next update!
- William A. Davison
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