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Mailbag – Part 1
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Tag Archives: music
On fretless guitars
Having messed with my fretless Intrepid for a few weeks now, I can see some of the instrument’s strengths and weaknesses. I love the feel of a neck without frets and the wiggle-room it provides if I’m not exactly playing the note that I intended. Intonation is the big tradeoff. For playing power chords and leads, this thing is awesome, but trying to get chords in tune when my fingers don’t easily fit in the same “fret” is quite the hassle.
I’m working on some new stuff with the fretless and one of the tracks is the heaviest thing I’ve ever committed to tape. Aesthetically this might be closer to Shufflebrain but the writing and production methods are pure Caustic Reverie, so I think that’s how I will release it. The working title is Interference Patterns.
Interview with James LaBrie
Here’s my interview with Dream Theater’s singer James Labrie, taken 07-24-09 in Miami Beach. This was recorded in the lobby of a hotel, so there is a fair amount of background noise.
Rock Band drums
I finally got to play the drum pads with Rock Band the other night. Aside from the often illogical beat simplification on the easy difficulty (where’s the goddamn kick drum?), I found it fun overall. Since I have a set of electric drums in my room within spitting distance of my PS3, I started looking in to ways that I could play Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour with them on the cheap. I initially thought that I could just get a MIDI-USB converter and run it straight into the Playstation but according to some forum posts, it’s not so simple. The Guitar Hero World Tour drumset has a MIDI in, but it would be very silly to purchase a toy plastic drumset so I can use the set of drums I already have. There is a device to translate midi messages into controller messages but for a pricetag over a hundred dollars, that’s out of the picture as well. I’ve been messing around with PD and I’m wondering if I might be able to bang something out in it using MIDI note ons from the pad hits.
Sunset Reposed
July Music update
I’ve spent the holiday weekend working on a new Caustic Reverie album with a fair amount of throwing candy at children yesterday morning. It’s staggering how many great presets came with the synth vsts in the Komplete 5 package, but I though it would be more fun to try and build the sounds for this album from the ground up, starting from a single oscilator whenever possible. It probably would have helped to look at a manual, as Absynth and FM8 are some of the least inuitive plugins I’ve used in a while. The new album has a working title of Rented Spouses, though I do like the ring to Rudeness Poets.
Experiments in a Holographic Universe
Released June 23rd 2009, the first Shufflebrain venture is a fusion of noise and ambient. Tortured vocals, heavily processed guitar, and chaotic synthesizers were utilized in these first five experiments. There was a disc crash during the recording of Experiment 4, and the three remixes are alternate reconstructions given the remaining files. It is also available to download from Jamendo.
1. Experiment 1: A Hologramic Theory (4:21)
2. Experiment 2: (redacted) (6:55)
3. Experiment 3: Sense Intensification (4:30)
4. Experiment 4: Memory Overflow (12:15)
5. Experiment 4.1: Memory Recall (6:38)
6. Experiment 4.2: Memory Recursion (4:27)
7. Experiment 4.3: CRC Error (2:51)
8. Experiment 5: The Hologramic Mind (6:31)
More new toys and a new album
I’ve picked up a bunch of new gear in the past few weeks including a Korg Kaossilator and the Native Instruments Kore 2 hardware/software package. I also got the Komplete 5 but I’m having issues getting it registered at the moment. I’m very impressed with the inclusion of paper manuals for all of the plugins and instruments, which also explains why the packaging weighed about ten pounds.
I’ve uploaded the first Shufflebrain album, which is entitled Experiments in a Holographic Universe. It consists of five “experiments” and three remixes. Look for a more detailed post sometime this weekend.
New gear
If it’s been quiet lately, it’s because I’ve been noodling around on my latest instrument, a six-string fretless bass. It’s taken some getting used to, as there isn’t much tactile feedback if I’m on the right note, but I find it’s a lot more musical and expressive. Plus, it has a nice ringing quality to upper register that reminds me of a sitar without the drone strings.
An experiment in noise
I’ve just started yet another project, this one devoted to noise and power electronics. I have called it Shufflebrain after the book by Indiana University PhD Paul Pietsch.
Check out the first track: Experiment 1: A Hologramic Theory.
I’ve put up a bare bones myspace site as well.