Category: Other music

Posts relating to all music other than ES Waves.

The Mutronics Mutator

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The Mutronics Mutator, partly because of its name (well probably mostly because of its name), partly because of what it is and partly because it came out when I was making my first music production steps is a bit of a mystical beast for me. It’s described as a (mutating) filter unit with ‘creamy’ analogue filters.

That said I’ve never seen one outside of the pages of late nineties future music.  Reading future music  was how I initially got to grips with the concepts of music production, of midi, of sequencing.  There’s a desk draw in my studio which is full of each magazine I bought.  I justify keeping them around on the basis that one day I’ll maybe dip in and work through the tutorials I never got around to doing (to be fair that’s probably most of them).

I can clearly remember the example samples of the mutator at work and just not understanding how the sound was manipulated, but being fascinated by it, the name just reinforcing the alien concepts.

I’ve always wanted one.  At the moment they sell for around a grand.   Maybe when that lottery win comes in…

Michael Jackson – Bad 25

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…was on TV yesterday.  I find insights into how people work creatively like this to be truly fascinating.  Michael effectively had a studio machine at his home with a team of workers to create ‘demos’ which would then be passed to Quincy Jones’ team to create the final tracks.

One phrase idea that stood out for me was the notion of creating a ‘sonic fantasy’.  Definitely a goal.

 

 

Start the week – creativity

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I caught the start of radio 4’s start the week on Monday before work in which Andrew Marr discussed the role of creativity with several ‘creatives’.  The podcast is available now.

Start the week – creativity

This discussion rang true for a lot of my creative life and I think anyone who is remotely creative in any part of their lives could find something they could relate to from one or several of the professional ‘creatives’ who formed the discussion panel.  For some time I’ve tried to introduce a discipline to my work and happily there’s some discussion of the importance of persistence in any artistic endeavour but also of the less definite aspects of ‘creating’.

Marillion and The Positive Light – Face 1004 (ES Waves Mix)

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I’ve posted yet another old remix I put together up on my soundcloud page.  This is a mix of the brilliant ‘Positive Light’ (basically Marc Mitchell) mix of Marillion’s ‘Face 1004’ which is taken from the ‘Tales from the Engine Room’ album.  I fell in love with this track, and several others, when I first heard it on Paul Oakenfold’s first ‘world tour’ essential mix from Home in Sydney in 1999.  I put this remix together again in 2003 (can you spot a pattern), September 2003 this time.

I’m not 100% on this mix but it’s not all bad.  Just really playing around with short snippets of the track with some pretty natty keys I’ve put in which seemed to be a feature of the tracks I was making at this point.  Around this time I got chatting with Marc via the chat program ‘ICQ’ (is that still going? we were all over it at university, alot of the time because you could send free text messages from it to mobiles (my first one as well, which obviously dates me!).  I never actually sent him this track, as like now I think I wasn’t 100% on it but I can confirm that he came across as a really nice bloke.  It goes without saying that he is just an amazing talent.  Perhaps one of my favourite tracks of his being Human Movement’s ‘Love has come again’.  Just beautifully produced and what an amazing voice.

 

Freak Chakra – ‘Blacklight Fantasy’

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At the moment I’m putting together another podcast.  It’s going to have several old classics on there and I’ve got the tracks all planned out etc.  At one point I had the idea of putting a track or so from another amazing album on it Freaky Chakra’s ‘Blacklight Fantasy’.  The second half of this album especially is totally awesome.  I love a lot of the tricks and ideas that run through the production.  A lot of the tracks rely on relatively few elements with a lot of mix variations and effects keeping the ear interested.  ‘Dreams’ ‘Year 2000’, ‘Hyperspace’ all brilliant.  However…I couldn’t find my CD of it, doh, so none of these tracks are now on this mix.  This post is to give them a little love!

Actually this track would go perfectly into the mix.  Time to get searching!

A good read – niche markets and psyhcological shelf space

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I stumbled across this article from the little white earbuds website which attempts to explain why figureheads are created and sustained for popular music trends.  It’s an interesting read and there’s certainly a great deal of truth to the limited mental shelf space that he discusses in part one.

http://www.littlewhiteearbuds.com/feature/quality-is-overrated-the-mechanics-of-excellence-in-music-pt-1/

http://www.littlewhiteearbuds.com/feature/quality-is-overrated-the-mechanics-of-excellence-in-music-pt-2/

In other news I’ve nearly finished up the next ES Waves release which I hope will surface after Xmas.  Very happy with the progression in my music at the moment.

Hello website

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Believe it, I’m working on quite a lot of new material and am really liking the sound of a great deal of it.  Really taking some steps forward in sound design and mixing.  I’m working on getting the sounds to breathe a bit more in my mixes, getting a bit more space in there.

Some aimless googling brought me to this advert for this 80s tv advert for ‘Tango in the Night’ which is perhaps my favourite album.  It’s pretty nostaligic for a child of the 80s like me.  Look the cassette it comes on is…clear!  It’s an amazingly produced album.

Sasha – Cut Me Down (ES Waves Mix Parts) to download

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Whilst there’s a little bit of a lull in getting some ES Waves material finished up and out I thought I’d put up some of the parts I created and used within my entry for the Sasha remix comp (which I didn’t ‘win’) as I’ve got some free space on my soundcloud.  Putting up parts to some of my tracks has been something I’ve previously thought about, especially as the sound design aspect of my recent music is something I’ve really spent a lot of time over.  Sound design has become a rewarding process for me, and I’m slowly picking up the tools to allow me to shape my music to my ear.  As with most aspects of music production the path is long and open ended (as is the case with most things worth pursuing).

The parts I’ve uploaded are primarily those made using the parts provided at the outset of the comp.  As such there are variations here of some of those parts run through various effects etc.  I’d just got hold of Native Instrument’s ‘The Finger’ as part of the Komplete 7 upgrade pack so there’s several fun variations created using the various eq filters etc.  There are some really cool effects you can get out of that plugin which I’ve no doubt I’ll explore in the near future.  I also used this as an exercise in getting to know some of the compression emulations on the Focusrite Liquid Mix which I’d previously neglected.

I’ve no ownership of these parts and don’t know how interesting they’ll be for anyone out there (not particularly interesting I would imagine for the casual listener).  Maybe they’ll give a little insight into the work that went into making the final track which can be heard / downloaded here

I’m also recording and storing some ‘found sounds’ using the soundcloud app as I’ve now got a smart phone.  When these reach a critical mass I’ve create a public set for people to access.  Again making use of any unused space here.

 

Charlie May / Pedigree Cuts

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I thought I’d put together a little appreciation of Charlie May’s South American promo which was put out last year I assume to promote Charlie May’s then forthcoming tour of South America (?).  As I’m sure most readers will know Charlie has some serious production chops and this is basically an hour plus of what was then upfront original material in various guises (remixes etc).  It’s a testament to those chops that the whole hour plus works as one cohesive unit.  It’s a great listen.

He’s also got a downtempo track ‘Night Light’ featured on the following pedigree cuts synch compilation which is satisfyingly emotive.  He talks about it here.  Check it.