what is going on in your musical life

I'm gonna be playing in Damo Suzuki's band in a few months. I think I am gonna be on the verge of having a heart attack all the way up to the actual show.

Man that is so insanely cool. And you shared personal time (and a lol iirc?) with Jaki!! That's awesome.

ha

thats rad emily

Krautrock legends - gotta catch em all!!

Wowwww x 10

emil.y, that's awesome!

Oh, that's great, emil.y!

I got about 90% of the way through finishing a string quartet about two weeks ago, then wrote a couple of string players to get their feedback on the playability of the lines, but neither has gotten back to me.:/ Otherwise, just getting ready to play at the Toronto symposium next week and hopefully record my classical guitar piece when I get back to the US in a couple of weeks.

that is quite amazing, em.

I'm currently in the process of trying to figure out a fully electronic/midi way of creating music that I enjoy (or mostly, might do a little bit of direct electric guitar too). I've accumulated a Yamaha digital piano, Roland V-drums, a Scarlett 2i2 interface, and most recently a Novation mini controller, and I'm thinking about maybe getting Logic or Ableton. H encouraged me to do this, she was like "Look, you complain about how hard it is to make music in an apartment, how you wish you had a band right now, etc., but it's just not gonna happen, so you have to work with what you have." And she's right. I don't have time for a band, I can't play live drums in an apartment, so why sit around being a sad sack about it? She basically came to an equivalent realization with her art -- painting big/large sculpture and mixed media works are just not in the cards right now, so painting in a small format is better than not painting.

rad. i'm opening for Colin Stets0n a week from tonight, which is my big solo show this year. meanwhile rehearsing for a Prince tribute show next month is reminding me why i don't play in bands anymore (or at least bands that rehearse).

xp

Oh nice, really like Colin Stetson.

also i made a resolution to finally learn how to dj (i.e. buy a cheap laptop + controller and learn to use some software). not that i'm trying to actively get dj gigs, but it comes up every now and then, and last time i recorded the mix at home and loaded it in my SP404, lol.

Oooh, Colin Stets0n support slot is cool af!

I'm finally swapping from my old laptop to my new one and am gonna empty out the old one of everything except music software & hope it'll be strong enough to be a dedicated music computer. Then I'm going to get serious about properly learning how to turn the noises in my brain into noize-in-the-world.

Yeah, I think a new dedicated music machine is in the works for next year too. Considering a mac mini, esp since I already have a good large display. Right now just using H's MacBook.

i still use a desktop pc that never goes online. works great, but that's why i've never had a laptop for live or dj use.

every time I think of getting back into DJing practice it ends up with me looking at $$$$$ rotary mixers.

the crucial damo thread: damo suzuki's wang

i'm trying to get something small & cute that will earn the scorn of snobby dj dudes.

Heh, I'm still using a late 2011 Macbook Pro, souped up with a 1TB SSD, 10 GB of RAM, and a cooling stand when I run M4L. Spent so much time in the last couple of weeks on troubleshooting.

I kind of hate the Apple Corporation but I imagine that it would be a huge pain in the ass to switch all my stuff to PC/Windows software if I were to switch at this point? I also don't think Logic Pro, which I have to use at work, is even available on Windows, so it's a moot point.

yes, no windows version of logic since about 2003.

picking up one of those fancy tascam digital portastudios at lunch!

this one

finally I can get away from the computer!

Nice. I'm envious of the 8 simultaneous tracks. Synthy noodlers and noise doodz are fine with recording one or two tracks at a time, but for a live band or an acoustic drum set you want to be able to put down a bunch of things all at once, without losing the ability to tweak them individually.

I was looking at that portastudio to replace the one I have but it doesn't have midi, so it's a no sale :(

I'm gonna be playing in Damo Suzuki's band in a few months. I think I am gonna be on the verge of having a heart attack all the way up to the actual show.

― emil.y, Tuesday, 2 August 2016 23:22 (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Amazing! We got him to play in Hitchin once ages ago with Drum Eyes and they were exceptionally good. One of the weirder moments in my life was eating breakfast the next day in a local greasy caf - Damo ordered chicken and white wine.

snarkoterrorist my thoughts exactly, all our good stuff comes from jamming together, we can record it on a zoom or whatever but then it's harder to pinpoint particular things we want to explore further... I guess this is having a bit each way, can jam it out then pull it apart in reaper later if wanted/needed. not against PCs but just find them really uninspiring when trying to be creative, I'm on one all day at work.

brownie my cunning plan for things that need sync is: 808 rim shot (from TR-8) through one of the assignable outs to a track in the porta, then route that via aux out to the clock in on my beatstep pro.

...which sends MIDI and CV everywhere else (have a MIDI thru box).

I have the bones of a song I feel pretty good about right now and am recording the parts little by little. I pretty much have a demo-worthy piano track done (it's a very rhythmic piano part so I'm kind of building around that), and some of the lead guitar parts laid down. I've learned to have a sort of zen discipline around the fact that I may only get an hour or two a night of time in between everyone going to sleep, getting the dishes done and the house in order, and one of the kids waking up and needing attention or something, and some nights there's no spare time, so I'm just trying to be ok with moving at a plodding pace. I need to decide whether to wait til I can record the V-Drums in the daytime or just risk the neighbor getting pissed at night (or play very softly, which might mess up the feel).

Once it's done, not really sure if I'm going to try to re-record it with a better performance and try to get a good sounding mix, or maybe just rent some studio time and do it on acoustic instruments -- may only be able to get a limited result with a Yamaha digital piano, v-drums, and my amateur self recording through garage band. I have contacts at a good studio where my band previously recorded (and that has done records for big name indie acts). Hard to decide whether my time and money is better invested in better home equipment/learning to do shit myself vs going somewhere where I can get a good sounding result more immediately but don't come away with anything I can reuse on other projects.

Also it's going to be hilarious when I try to record the vocals using a makeshift combo of couch/cardboard/thick comforter as my booth.

I've learned to have a sort of zen discipline around the fact that I may only get an hour or two a night of time in between everyone going to sleep, getting the dishes done and the house in order, and one of the kids waking up and needing attention or something, and some nights there's no spare time, so I'm just trying to be ok with moving at a plodding pace.

this has been my musical life for the past six years. i saw this tweet recently and was glad to see someone else dealing with it: https://twitter.com/twwalsh/status/758698734985314304

I typically do everything but the drums in those after-bedtime bits, then do the drums last, in the daytime. I'll start from a guide track (drum machine, acoustic guitar, scratch vocal), then start adding real instruments. At the last minute I delete the guide track then add vocals and drums.

Paying for studio time to do tracking as a solo act sounds like it would get pretty expensive. If you're on good terms with the studio, why not get it mostly finished (all the instrumental tracks, say) and then bring your tracks to the studio just for vocals (or just vocals and drums)?

A good engineer can take the individual tracks you've already recorded at home, make them sound better with plug-ins and such, and mix them intelligently with anything you end up playing in the studio.

still lookin for a drummer :(

Lol NA.

I guess it's been my life for a few years except what I've changed is my attitude, like I'm learning to accept that it may be six months start to finish for one song I'm happy with, but at least I'll have that song instead of a grab bag of stop and start ideas and snippets and frustration.

my wife and i have a recording project with our friend who plays drums, and the recording process isn't too hard in re: managing time with the kids and other responsibilities. but we've been talking about trying to actually play a show, but we have 4 kids between us and our friend's wife is pregnant and we all have real full-time jobs and anytime we play together either his wife has to watch all the kids while we try not to play too loud in the basement or we have to get a sitter and drive to a rehearsal space and it just doesn't seem realistic

Yeah being in a band that practices let alone performs is so incredibly time and labor intensive for such a minimal product, much moreso when you can't do it regularly. My wife basically gave me a talk about this that helped me a lot, like "look you've been banging your head against the wall about wanting to be in a band, but face if, you don't have time to be in a band. Focus on what you can actually do."

Because I'm working entirely in iOS with a variety of virtual synth and sampler/rompler apps, and without vocals, i get a couple of thirty minute sessions in during work while hiding in a stall in the men's room (everyone here knows I have Crohn's disease so it is not remarked upon, lol) and another 15 to 20 minutes on the train home with my headphones way too loud. And I try to arrange it so I have 30 minutes in the morning before I leave. And if my wife goes out with friends I jump on that time.

I played guitar for a good thirty years before injuring my elbow and definitely had a 'style' despite largely failing to form bands or finish concrete projects; this is my third year of working via touch screen and I feel like I've gotten to the point where it sounds like it's coming from the same place my guitar playing did but with the chance to sidestep a lot of the limiting tics I developed on guitar.

It delights me and makes me feel alive in that old way but of course I am also in touch with the fact that there could hardly be a more banal and unexceptional story than middle aged amateur musician makes electronic music.

that's why you pretend to be younger and invent an interesting backstory

YMP: the main problem is I'm recording a digital piano and digital drums direct to approximate acoustic sounds. They're decent, midrange instruments (Yamaha piano and Roland drums) and I'm pretty good at EQing them to a sound I like, but I still doubt that I'll ever get them to a sound I'm happy with, so at some point I may just want to record live piano and live drums. Although, tbf, the V-drums have the advantage of sounding very "pro" and sort of masking imperfections.

I gotcha, man. I've used an electronic kit for rehearsal and apartment jamming. Occasionally for e-drum sounds and eclectic percussion.

Somewhat perversely, I find that Roland drums sound too good - too "pro" (as you say), too clean, and thus fake. They don't sound like me, they sound more or less like what they are: extremely good recordings of drums, not a creaky actual kit being played by an amateur in a room with a couple of microphones.

Yeah, p much. Actually I find they almost sound like *real* pro studio drums (I have a TD-15, which is the midline engine), but there are just certain elements/moments that sound off in an uncanny valley sort of way. Playing to avoid those is kind of its own skill to learn. I also mess with the settings on the sounds a lot. It actually sort of works for what I'm recording right now, which is 70s AOR-ish and needs to sound very clean, but there are a lot of dynamic and color limitations. So I'm thinking this is probably not going to get better than demo quality no matter how much I perfect it. Nonetheless, it's a very easy way to get like 90% of the way to the sound I want, whereas doing it in the studio would probably be time/labor/skill intensive.

lol last night it hit me that I had very slightly ripped off a moment from "Goodbye Stranger" by SuperTramp. It's weird too because I don't even like them, and I never owned any of their records.

I don't much like them either but that song does have some magical sonic moments in it. Whatever you think you ripped off is probably fair game - it's not like Supertramp invented pauses, counterpoint, flanging, or electric piano or whatever.

Yeah, it's def fair game. I came up with a chord progression that turns out to be very close to the opening chords, but it comes late my song, and they certainly did not invent that harmonic device (p sure it comes either from jazz or romantic era classical).

If you want to talk embarrassment, I once improvised a whole verse of nonsense that my band mates later told me was the melody of "like a Virgin"

But that verse and pre-Chrorus melody does work in a punk context. The chorus not so much.

6 songs fully tracked, 3 songs left to finish overdubs and one left to cut, then I am going to take a week off work and mix it all.

Missed this but holy shit Emily, that rocks!

what is a good analog synth? anyone have any experience with the Sub Phatty?

we used electric sound of jim's on a throbbing gristle cover once, sounded good. if you want that moog sound - the filter, primarily - it's a winner. sub 37 has bigger keyboard and lots of the parameters that are hidden as 'shift' controls on the sub phatty directly on the front panel... but it's double the price.

what sounds are you looking to get?

I have no idea. I just have a friend who's looking to borrow one and was considering picking one up.

Anyone in NY have one I could borrow ? I can provide collateral

Voice lessons rule