If you’ve never read about Hajj, you will no doubt find it interesting and worth your respect, regardless on your feelings of religion in general. Here’s a cue to go with the trek that people make at least once in their lives — often at the expense of their own life.
There were many questions about the original piece “Keeping the Peace”, specifically about the strings and Duduk. I had more than a few people casually wonder or ask what they sounded like in more isolation. That is, to say, a bit more prominent.
With that in mind, I began to just…”tinker” is the technical term, I think…and began to do a “backdoor” remix. You might say I arranged the ending slightly for a reprise, bringing out the strings and the solos (both vocal and woodwind).
So, without further ado, here’s a shorter reprise of the main piece. Enjoy!
Everyone has been getting onto me, with good reason, for not posting any new music or production. Alas, it has been almost three weeks since I moved to Houston. I can’t exactly argue that I’m not settled in. Plus, I’ve been working on music, believe it or not.
I now work second shift, which means I drive home around two in the morning. I actually love it, since I’m a night owl, but the empty highways and mercury vapor lights have started to influence my mood when I do composition. Here is one that is directly inspired from that tone. Enjoy!
How good is your sound system? I mean your best one. How much do you think it can handle, especially on the low end?
How confident are you that it can maintain sonic integrity when there are infrasonic standing waves under massive subwoofer-only bass drones stacked on top of low-midrange textures? Do you think it will sound good or just distort like crap?
Let’s find out!
Mackie MR-8
Here is some random sound design I have done today out of boredom. It’s about four minutes worth, and it’s designed to push sound systems to their limits. I designed these sounds in Absynth 4 and Omnisphere to calibrate my studio reference monitors and their bass response, but I’ve re-purposed it as a challenge.
If you’re a real audiophile, grab the FLAC version, burn it to a CD or whatever, and play it on your best sound system as loud as you can without breaking it. Tell me if your subwoofer could take the punishment and if your other speakers put out anything but distortion during more than half of the demonstration.
My sound system (Mackie MR-8 studio reference monitors) can handle it. The ice in my drink next to the speaker vibrated and made an interesting noise, but they correctly reproduced it (i.e., no distortion). I’m interested to “hear” your results. There’s the 320Kbps MP3 below, but grab the FLAC file as mentioned earlier for true sonic integrity.
At the very least, you’re about to find out what your subwoofer can do (and quite possible the resonant frequency of the room you listen in).
Notes: I don’t recommend playing this if you live in an apartment or have close neighbors, as the infrasonic bass YOU can’t hear they most likely WILL. Also, do NOT listen to this with headphones. It will only give you tired ears and probably a headache.
Fresh off the…assembly line (?).
This one is hard to describe. It incorporates a lot of sound design done in Absynth 4 and Guitar Rig. I have also dipped into my arsenal of crazy, raging, angry guitars.
The production phase was a procedural experiment for me, cutting music specifically to picture. I can’t post the images, but I can definitely post the music. It starts off slow with some of the sound design, but quickly evolves into an angry, thunderous beat-down.
The pace is picking up on the Ambient Project 2009. This marks the second track to be marked as mastered and “final”, and there are four more songs that are currently sitting at the “headphone master” or “intermediate master” stage.
That is, to say, they’re a fraction of a percent from being finished.
This track will be an interlude between two longer tracks. A way to change the mood and flow of the progression of the album. You can listen to and download the 320Kbps MP3 below, or feel free to grab the FLAC version (about 8 megs). I encourage you to download it, scrobble it, share it, and help get the word out. It’s being released under Creative Commons one way or another!
This track actually dates back to the summer of 2006. It was created entirely in Absynth 3 on a crappy laptop with a Celeron processor while I sat on my ex’s porch in Rock Hill, South Carolina. I was dabbling with creating space-ish sounds in Absynth, and came across this lush sonic landscape. I played a few notes, and it just seemed to work, so I kept it (shaking off the filth that comes with making good music on bad equipment). Believe it or not, this was one take…the only take that was ever done. The only modifications to the track since 2006 has been to master it and add the sub-bass accents near the middle. Otherwise, it’s completely untouched.
Relax, and have a listen.
I’ve just started the mastering stage for the ambient and space music tracks I’m preparing for an ad-hoc album. I will make it available online, and I’ve considered perhaps a Magnatune route. Time will tell.
The album is tentatively titled “Tears For Andromeda”. I don’t know where this track will fall in the overall order of things.
The first track to be actually marked as “complete” is this one…”Goodbye From Colombo”. It features the final words of Arthur C. Clarke from late last year, along with the result of hours of sound design and sequencing. As usual, I’ve mastered with Adobe Audition 3.0.1 using the Waves plug-ins. The soft-synths used in the track include Omnisphere, Colossus, and Atmosphere.
You can listen to or download the 320Kbps MP3 below. You’re also welcome to download the FLAC version (~25 megabytes). It’s Creative Commons, so see the footer of this page for details on how you can use the audio, but you’re free to download a copy and share it with your friends, obviously.
There’s more to come. Enjoy!
Huzzah! In the world of radio, this is what we call a “voiceover demo”. It’s a showcase reel of work you’ve done, as you try to pimp yourself out to more and more stations who will make more and more impossible demands of your vocal cords.
For $100 a month. Usually more, but I’m not very good, obviously.
Yes, each of the voices you hear in this demonstration (except for the one appearance of a female) is me. I do very little processing to my voice beyond basic compression…the styles and moods are all in how you speak and how you position your face. No, I’m not kidding. I have to hold my face a certain way to do the evil voice. This is why you haven’t seen a YouTube video of a voiceover session.
You’ll probably pick up on the fact that I work with a lot of Internet-only stations. I love those guys! They usually give me much more interesting things to say than terrestrial radio stations.
A quick peek into what I’m working on…which just happens to be a remix for NIN’s “Discipline”.
I’m to the stage where I’m finalizing the vocals and chord progressions, and I thought I would pull back the curtain and explain the process start to finish. Enjoy the attached MP3 for an unusual take on re-tuning Trent’s vocals.
