House, Trip-Hop, and the Return of Spring
I managed to finally upgrade my Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 Ultimate (retail) yesterday. The install is smooth enough that I was able to get the OS configured, audio and equipment drivers installed, along with Ableton and Reason installed and ready to go. Smoooooth! I can work on music tonight, if I weren't so busy with wedding planning and chores 
I've been working pretty hard on refining my tech/house chops. Making some tight-yet-deep sounding drum patches, synths, and nailing down the mastering chains to apply to what I can best describe as tech-house and chill-house genres. The house music is fun to make, but as I was reminded the other day, I'm still being tugged on by my love of trip-hop/downtempo work.
A collection of such songs, is still on the stove. With a number of lyrics written down in my notebook, and only when I have time after taking care of some uber-important personal matters, I'm ready to knock out 3 of the vocal tracks. I've resisted EVERY urge in my body to post the instrumental mix-downs on Soundcloud, as the impact of hearing the music with the vocals will express the true emotions and depth of the work. It just wouldn't be the same without the vocals!
I'm not sure where the house and tech music is going. Some of the tracks from November of 2009 and onward I very much enjoy, and I suspect they will end up on a few different releases (some free, some not). I do hope to have some stuff be published by interested record labels in 2010, but that remains to be seen.
Spring is going to have such a dramatically positive effect on my creativity level. I can already tell that I am in a more positive mind set now that we have had some sunny days here in Seattle. The past weekend was incredible, but I wasn't able to schedule any studio time to work on music. I still gain the inspiration and positivity for use at a later date, however, so I'm not put off when I'm unable to work on music when I want to
Hmm.. let's do a "project recap". This is taken off the top of my head since I'm not in the studio right now. This doesn't include a number of tracks that are being re-visited, completed, and prepped for release (stuff from 2007-2009 that began to collect dust!).
Trip-Hop & Downtempo
- This Modern Depression - lyrics written, music 90%, needs additional guitar work.
- Torch - lyrics written, 1st cut done, music written. Needs mastering and final vocal recording.
- Grace - lyrics written, music written. Needs re-mastering from original release ("For the Cure 2008")
- Conversation with the Passing - lyrics in progress, music 80%
- Forward - lyrics needed, music is at 95%, needs EQ/mastering
- Aces High - lyrics in progress, music is at 90%, possible guitar work needed.
- Envisioning the West - lyrics in progress, music is at 90%.
House (all flavors) & Tech
- Caramel (house) - music complete
- Sunday Afternoon at the Teahouse (chill house) - complete
- Clouds at Night (chill house) - complete
- Long Drive Back (prog house) - needs EQ work
- After the Storm (prog house) - complete
- Human Afterall (prog house?) - Needs EQ work
- Sensor Blind (Original Mix) - complete
- Sensor Blind (Ambient-scape Mix) - in progress
- unamed project (chill house) - in progress
- another unamed proejct (chill house again!) - in progress
- Like a Bad Habit (tech, vocal) - music complete, needs EQ/mastering, lyrics
- Orbiting Over Seattle (tech) - Complete
- Vapors (tech) - music 70% done
- Welcome Back the Warmth (tech, vocal) - lyrics partially written, music complete.
D&B
- This World - 95%, some minor EQ/mastering adjustments. Slight FX adjustment on vocal hook.
What Once Was Lost, is Now Found
"Genre" is a word that is very frustrating to me and a lot of other musicians in the electronic world. The accessibility of software, lowering prices of hardware and controllers, and afford-ability of home computers and laptops means that we are able to obtain the tools necessary to unleash some of our wildest musical desires upon the public (and private) domain.
What frustrates me about the word, is that I am able to dabble in so many different styles and genres of music that I often find myself lost in the sea of house, trance, downtempo, hip-hop, indie, acoustic, ambient, chillout. Add the word "progressive" in front of any genre and you have a qualifier that adds another dimension of depth and connotation in the minds of electronic music fans everywhere.
Where do I fit in? What do I do best? Where should I be taking the Sliptide name? What should I aim to play to a live audience? Which music should I really focus on distribution and promotion? Should I target a niche and try to dominate it like so many articles, tips, and advice columns on the topic suggest?
Sometimes... I say.. 'Eff it.
A few key points that I have taken to heart and thought at great length about from 2009:
Jeff, my accomplice in Silver Standard, let a nugget of truth slip from his mouth that certainly applies to my habits in the studio: I produce in the styles I have been listening to most at the time. If I've been listening to a lot of house music, I end up producing house-influenced music (like the past 3 months since November). If I've been listening to a ton of downtempo and trip-hop, then I produce a number of those styled tracks (akin to the project work I'm trying to wrap up). If I've had a balanced diet of music, I tend to pull from everything and make some genre blending styles that retain some charm of the "Sliptide" sound (chilled, technological, and flowing).
I hate to admit it, but I am mostly a chameleon when it comes to music production. The only things that really force me to step outside of the flavors in my mouth are things like remix contests or collaborations with other musicians.
The other key piece of information spoken to me was that, "Music is its own reward." It is something that took me by surprise because it happened to vocalize something I've felt for a very long time. I often say, "I make music for the sake of making music." Which means that I make the music so that it exists and is available for everyone on the planet to hear if they discover it, seek it out, stumble upon it, etc. I don't make it for glory. I don't make it for money. I don't make it for fame. I make it because I enjoy making it and it is very much a part of my life. It is consistently rewarding to produce music that is pleasing to me, friends, family, and fans who have decided to continue listening to my productions in this lifetime. Such it is that, "music is its own reward".
Where does that lead us today? Why am I writing this long blog post about all of this? Frankly, I think I've come to a very beautiful realization about my production methods and my life as an artist (and future entertainer as I begin to play live shows).
The genre, or label, applied to my music is nothing more than a category that gives some loose feelings and concepts to my music before ears have truly listened to it. It's my job to let the world hear it and take my music for what it is. Whether they enjoy the genre I'm working in at the time or not, I have so much music inside of me that I appeal to so many different fans that will have to filter out the styles and sounds of mine they wish to incorporate into their listening diet.
Such it is that I will be releasing 1 album of a number of tracks that reach back into my catalog of productions from 2006 through 2009. The title is picked out, with 5 solid songs already completed and needing a round of mastering polish. The rest will be selections that round out the texture and emotion of the album. From house, to chillout, to downtempo, and veins of experimental (for me), I now feel obligated to show the world my cards. All of them.
It's also worthy to note I am back on track and actively thinking, writing, and working on music for the yester-year mentioned album containing a large number of trip-hop and downtempo works. More lyrics have been started, some completed, and a lot of the songs are coming together nicely. A teaser is in the works with 2 of the heavy-hitting tracks that will make their way in teaser form to SoundCloud.
Finally, the house music that has invaded my mind of the last part of 2009 and this first month of 2010 is going to trickle out in one way or another. I'm definitely shopping some of these songs around for any labels that are interested in releasing them as 1-offs on Beatport, Juno, or even vinyl release (which would be really flippin' cool!)
...and there you have it! That's what's up in my brain right now with music and what have you. I hope to have some time carved out this weekend to get started on some of the demos and teaser tracks I want to post online.
2010 is going to kick major ass.
Live! Set Work
I've been taking some of my personal studio time and dedicating it to working on my next big step: An Ableton Live! performance.
I don't have a lot of the new fancy equipment that is out there to help with taking Live! and mapping its controls to handy button grids, knobs, and faders. I'm doing this largely through a lot of personal configuration and applying knowledge I've learned myself and by reading or watching tutorials on the internet.
I really don't like the idea of having to swap MIDI channels on my knob/fader board because my knobs are bound to a 0-128 (I can't twist them forever). I certainly need an out-of-studio upgrade to improve the usefulness of hardware.
The padKontrol is going to be an awkward beast while I am on Windows 7. The editor librarian still doesn't let me configure the device appropriately so I must boot into XP soon and re-do my configurations so that I can use the buttons. I don't mind changing channels on that devices in the middle of a performance. I think I will use it as a sample play/stop pad along with some 1-shot sample execution.
My keyboard is going unused at this point since I am taking my house tracks that I've produced in Reason and cutting them up into a bunch of samples I can play/stop and apply effects to in real time. The first iteration of my live shows will be a lot of 'mixing' my own sounds together and knob-twisting effects into the mix. A hybrid-DJ set that is beat mixing my own music together.
I was pleased with a very early dry-run between two new house songs I recently produced. The flow of the tracks and the quality of sound was working well for me. There are a few things I need to iron out quality-wise (routing the mixes to the appropriate channels since I use a lot of ducking in these projects).
Once I get the template down, the sample packs set up per-song, and a good idea of what I'm going to do during these live shows (song progression, remixing, effects, additional samples), I am going to start doing some ustream/youtube recorded performances! I'm super excited.
December 2009 Open Projects Review
With all of the joy and craziness of the holiday season, I haven't really been doing much in the way of music production. This is a good thing, since I've needed a bit of a break and some time to 'reset' the creative process in order to get back into producing outside of tech-house.
I've been surprised by what I've heard by going through my project files, exporting things to Mp3, and listening to them on the go on my phone (I don't have an iPod or easy-to-manage mp3 player, but my Android phone rocks my socks for a music player!)
First up is a set of songs that I've had on my plate for entirely too long. They pre-date some of the work I've been doing for my next trip-hop and downtempo adventure.
"Breaking Horizons"
"Space & Time"
"Project 2"
"The Deep Trips"
All of those have appeared in some way, shape, or form in the project clips I had posted awhile back. There's even a YouTube video of me making the first bits of "Breaking Horizons".
These tracks are great and about 90% complete! I would *like* to see if anyone out there is interested in releasing them on a label, but if nothing comes of that after I shop around an EP, I will put them up on Sliptide.com and Soundcloud for listening enjoyment.
Then we come to the collection of tracks making their way on to "This Modern Depression", an album I've been working on for awhile. I still have a lot of writing and vocal work to do for this project, but I've found new inspiration and am very excited to continue working on these songs.
So far we have:
"Torch" - An anthem piece that carries a bit of emotion through it much like a Massive Attack track would.
"Grace" - originally appeared on my For the Cure 2008 breast cancer benefit album. The song will be deliciously re-mastered.
"Aces High" - Trip hop goodness with some organic instrumentation.
"Envisioning the West" - A shorter song with some dark overtones.. it's almost interlude-like, but stands on its own quite well.
" Conversation with the Passing" - A breakbeat styled track that has a lot of trip-hop influence a'la Sneaker Pimps, with a crazy glitch synth that I put together with manual warping on the x-y of the padKontrol.
"This Modern Depression" - Lyrics almost complete, and I'm very excited to knock this one out. It's dark, it's drippy, and it kicks major ass.
"You're Surrounded" - Thick beat and synth, has a bit of a hip-hop flair.
"Forward" - A direct cue from Massive Attack. I made this track awhile ago and have been fiddling with the EQ and mix-down to make it sound right. Some great trip-hop percussion and bass.
"Great Start 1" - Unnamed yet and still needs a lot of work, but more of an indie-styled track that I love in its awkwardness. It sounds kinda funky but has a charm to it that I want to share with everyone.
"1" - Then there's another project also needs a name, but the sounds are great! More downtempo and trip-hop goodness here to round out a great song list so far.
That makes 10 tracks. I don't know if there will be more than 10 songs on the album, but that's what I have going so far. There's a lot of work to be done, but I'm gaining ground and will post more tidbits and updates here on the website.
Lastly.. Here's the official count and word on the house music I've been making. I've sent 2 tracks via Soundcloud to a local label to see if they might be interested in working with me or having my music published through them-- I will probably solicit some additional labels once I get a proper press kit put together for this project.
"Mit Freunden"
"Tunnels"
"While My Lover Sleeps"
"Cold Hands, Warm Body"
"Ninety West"
"Bank Shot"
"Twelve Twelve"
"Moon Drop"
"Dig Out Your Heart"
"Constrictor"
Roland TD-12s V-Stage Drums
Congratulations to my friend, Cameron, who is the proud owner of a Roland TD-12s V-Stage drum set!! He picked it up from a fellow drummer on Craigslist for significantly cheaper-than-new/used value. Supposedly the guy didn't use it any more, but it was in awesome condition!
Cameron was over on the weekend and set up the drum set in the studio. We routed it through my interface (Alesis iO-26) without a hitch, and played the audio through Ableton Live!. The sounds on the TD-12s brain were very nice, though we are looking forward to using the MIDI capabilities of that unit to leverage some more versatile sounds we craft in Reason and Live!.
The potential is now there for Cameron to provide awesome, live drumming for any of the projects I am involved with, as well as establish a new sound and direction for a new yet-to-be-officially-named-project with the likes of Cameron and Jeff. The utility of having alive drummer will make our performances that much more interactive for the crowd, and I am very much looking forward to it!
Windows 7 in my Home Studio Update
A comment on the previous Windows 7 post made me realize I should probably post a quick blurb about the progress of producing music/audio projects within Windows 7.
I have moved 90% of my work into the Windows 7 environment and have been enjoying it qutie a bit. The memory management is top notch thus far, which is important since Ableton 8.0.3 still has some bugs for me and does not like handling my low-fi audio samples (crash, crash, crash s'more). The only time I need to boot into XP is when I need to adjust the programming of my Korg padKontrol.
Both Korg and M-Audio have not release appropriate drivers and software for Windows 7 support of the products I own. The midisport 2x2 is absolutely useelss at this point, and I have re-routed my keyboard through my padKontrol. The padKontrol works with the Vista 32-bit driver no sweat, but as mentioned before the Librarian software doesn't work so you can't program the unit from software. It's a pain in the ass, but I don't often change my layout of the padKontrol so it doesn't affect me too much at the moment.
I am most interested in the viability of a Windows 7 laptop as a performance machine. I don't have the money to pick up a laptop to play with yet, but thankfully my fiancee has an old laptop she has let me install Windows 7 on! I configured the system and installed Reason 4. It chugs along like a champ even with multiple songs open and playing at the same time (using the demo songs that came in the library as my test subjects). I'm going to hook up the padKontrol and work on some tunes soon to really give it a shot.
As a side note: The resolution of this laptop is 1280x768 or something but since Windows 7 won't recognize the GPU or monitor and I can't get the XP GeForce4 440 GO drivers to work, the max resolution is 1024x768 right now. I've been greatly concerned about the usability of lower resolutions so this should answer my questions and dispel or reenforce any of my concerns for future laptop purchaes.
Windows 7 has proven to be more reliable, faster, and all around a positive experience for my audio production needs. I will be sure to post more updates as I continue producing under this OS.
Silver Standard (The LP) & Late Summer into Fall Plans
Jeff and I have been doing some great work with the additional songs we are getting together to make "The Silver Standard EP" into a full 40+ minute self-titled LP.
The additional songs resonate with a lot of the feeling and production styles that the EP songs have. They are a welcomed addition to the collection of tracks that show some of the best (and most fun) work we've done in the past 2 years since forming the duo. Keep an eye on the Silver Standard website for updates as we get closer to finalizing the album!
Sliptide-wise, I've been mastering tracks on all fronts and reeling in project scopes to get some stuff out the door. There are some excellent plans coming together for music releases directly from Sliptide.com (taking full advantage of the awesomeness that is the WPAudio plugin, as seen on my remixes and project clips pages). Tech-house, trip-hop, and some trance tunes are all on the table.
I recently discovered the joy that is the Freemont Market. The wealth of 'stuff' to just see and take pictuers of is pretty sweet, along with a decent look-through of vinyl records. I scored some very good condition records of poetry well spoken by some great poets and speakers of previous generations (which I won't directly say who so I don't spoil any fun coming out of sample-smithing those records).
Windows 7 64 bit Enters My Studio
When Ableton 8 dropped I instantly had issues cropping up on my old XP computer in the studio. The computer is great on specs, however I've been running 32 bit Windows XP Professional since the get go and have broken one of my old school rules of formatting and installing the OS freshly every 2 years or so. The computer doubles as my main PC, so naturally I have everything under the sun installed to this box that I need to accomplish a multitude of tasks (web dev, coding, photography, movie ripping, games, and more) on top of my audio producing environment. It's no wonder that Ableton Live!, Reason, and my audio hardware sometimes has issues with my system.
I decided that I was going to try Windows 7 64 bit and see if I could configure it to be a dedicated music production environment. Sure enough after an effortless registration, download, burn, and install of the OS, I had Windows 7 up and running. I was already impressed by the breath of life it gave to my computer. Fast, seemily less bloated than both Vista and XP, and thus far pretty stable, I have hope that Windows 7 will be a viable alternative for music production.
Installation and operation of Ableton Live! 8.0.3 and Reason 4 has been smooth sailing. I still encounter the ocassional problem with Ableton Live!, but the memory management and process management in Windows 7 is far superrior to that of XP so I don't lose much time if Live! crashes on me (which has only happened once so far). It seems that Live! still has trouble with my Alesis iO 26 when initializing, but a reset of the iO 26 takes care of that.
It wasn't all peaches and cream when it came to getting my music hardware to work, however. First off, not all of the music hardware vendors have Windows 7 64 bit drivers available. To my absolute dismay, Alesis was the only brand I have in my set up that had a beta Windows 7 driver available. Sure enough, the driver worked along with the software and I haven't had much issue with the unit at all. It works better in Windows 7 than it does in Windows XP (a lot less fussy).
My Korg padKontrol, sadly, it not 100% operational. While I was able to have the driver working in no time at all such that I can use the unit with Live! or Reason, the padKontrol's librarian (which is used for programming the device) does not work. I continually get device communication errors even though the unit responds appropriately in music software.
My Midisport 2x2 by M-Audio does not work at all. I tried to use the Vista or XP compatability modes, as well as manually plucking the driver from the temporary folder during install, but it was all in vein. The device isn't supported in Windows 7 and M-Audio does not appear to be turning out the drivers quickly. It's a shame. Right now I have my old school MIDI keyboard plugged into my padKontrol's MIDI-IN, and the WaveIdea Bitstream PRO is going to have to be plugged into the iO 26's MIDI-IN. Thankfully I don't intend on buying any new controllers or synths soon.
Playing around with some Silver Standard music in Live! has shown me that Windows 7 really does perform very well for my music production so far. It feels smoother, faster, and more stable. Jeff and I will give it a good test tomorrow night in our recording session and I'm crossing my fingers it shines.
I'm trying to leave this installation of Windows 7 alone and separate from a personal OS. XP will reside on the main partition for quite awhile since it has all of my personal stuff (or "clutter") which probably gets in the way of my music production.
I'm not going to lie: I hope that Windows 7 is a viable, stable, stage performance alternative to Apple. As much as I pine for a Macbook PRO like every other 'professional' out there.. I firmly believe there should be alternatives. Besides.. not all of the VSTs I use are available for Mac. ;P
Project Plans
After talking with Ian today I realized I should maybe make a post about the project plans I have for Sliptide music.
There is a substantial amount of AWESOME material I need to knock out and publish this summer. Let's start with the Trip-Hop and Downtempo flavors first that are most likely appearing on the same album:
-Torch (recording vocals)
-Grace (re-mastering)
-Aces High (recording guitar parts, lyrics/vox?)
-Envisioning the West (vocals, arrangement)
-You're Surrounded (lyrics)
-This Modern Depression (lyrics, guitar)
-"Trip Hop Project" (lyrics, composition)
- "Thick Break Start" (lyrics, composition, instrumentation)
Next up is the tech-house/dance/trance stuff:
-Turn Around (vox)
-"Project 1" (lyrics, vox, project with Jacqui Johnson)
-We Move Together (remixes, possible vocal version)
-We've Been On Our Way (lyrics, vox)
-This Desert Soul (vox)
-The Deep Trips (remixes)
-Horizons
-Arrest (tentative name, lyrics, vox)
Lastly, the songs that aren't slated for an album/collection or various EPs. Some might make the cut, some might end up B-Sides on EPs.
-Four Days In (lyrics, vox, arrangement)
-"Project 16" (lyrics, vox, arragnement)
-Just (lyrics, vox, arrangement)
-Blow Smoke (lyrics, vox, arrangement)
-A Cold Outing (lyrics, vox, arrangement)
-Down With Me (lyrics, vox)
-Forward (lyrics, vox)
-Space and Time (lyrics, vox)
-Equinox
-"House Start" (lyrics, name, vox, arrangement, composition)
-French Style (vox, remixes)
-Planet of the Squares (remixes)
I'm pretty much gearing towards 2 more albums I'm working on with my best works yet in Trip-Hop, Downtempo and Tech-House. I fully expect some one-off EPs with remixes and versions to be released as well, even with some of the funkier songs I'm working on (french tech-house anyone?). "The Deep Trips EP" is on my radar.
Ableton Live! Set Plans
One of my goals is not only to be a producer-- not only to be a dj-- but to be a music performer. I want to perform my electronic music live to audiences. One of the aspects of DJing I want to bring into a live performance is the continual movement, morphing, and transition of music.
Instead of DJing a bunch of records together I would like to mash up my own sounds in Ableton Live! and apply real-time tweaking of FX, mixing, live instrumentation and synthesis to produce the most live performance I can to an audience. In order to achieve this I have to re-think how I am producing music on a day to day level.
While I will continue to produce albums that contain separate songs in the tracklist, I am moving towards another artform that allows me to produce samples that I can then use in an Ableton Live! template to freestyle a production set.
Using the equipment I have now (which is one of the requirements for this exercise, since I don't have much of a budget to work with at the moment), I am coming up with the plans to employ Ableton Live! as the center piece of my operations.
Here's a rough Google Presentation translated from some sketches I made in my notebook over coffee this morning.
I am thinking about using my Korg padKontrol's channels as triggers for samples in Ableton Live!. This will allow me to have start/stop abilities over numerous scenes. Add in my Bitstream PRO's 8 sliders for volume on each lane, and knobs for sends to A/B/C and PAN effects and we have a lovely little set up here. I just realized, though, that I really would like to have my EQ kills available for use... hmmm.
That's all for now.
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