I was poking around the internet, reading my usual spaces of record label websites, magazine/ezines, current favorite artists, soundcloud, blogs, etc etc, when I happened to get the usual advertising email from Om Records to my personal inbox. I checked it out, as I usually do, since I’m a big Om Records fan. Groove Armada has been kicking ass lately, and I’m in love with everything Samantha James releases. Then I noticed a blurb about Mike Monday and a new project he just launched. 10 songs in 10 weeks for his new, free-to-download-from-his-website album! Sweet!

I’m a casual fan of his quirky music because of the interesting bits and pieces of production that weave together to make his music. His songs feel, to me, as if I were standing in the Seattle Art Museum looking at a mixed-media piece with vibrant colors, shapes, sizes, texture, and depth. Some of it clashes, some of it is beautiful discord, and some of it is aesthetically tantalizing. By way of link-jumping from Om Records, I went to Mike’s main website over at http://www.mikemonday.com/ to check out his project and re-familiarize myself with his catalog. I was pleasantly surprised to find more content there than I was expecting.

Ever since I started making music w/my computer, I had always been pretty adept at organizing my files. Whether it be sample libraries, projects, templates, snippets, hand-recorded media, one-off art projects; it’s all organized in a file system that makes sense to my brain. Though, it has been awhile since I have really taken a good look at how I do things to see if there are ways that I can improve my workflow. I’m not unfamiliar with the idea of the musicians sketchbook, especially when it comes to file organization on the computer. Yet, something just clicked when I read this statement taken from Mike’s post about “Using a sketcbhook…”

Often the best plan is to forget them for a while by saving them in your sketchbook folder and deleting them from your work in progress folder. This is because seeing all your unfinished DAW files every time you turn on the computer is a sure way to reinforce self-doubt and an even surer way to kill inspiration.

Then I get to thinking. Currently, the bulk of my heavy lifting comes from Reason. I know it well, I’m able to produce in it VERY quickly with excellent sounding results. The “problem” which is a byproduct of being able to work quickly is that I end up with a ton of “song starts” and “ideas”. I name everything with the date first (YYYYMMDD) followed by the project title (or song title if I’m that far along in the process). They all live in a project folder called “Sliptide” on my computer under my master “Audio” folder, in “Projects”.. more clearly: drive:\\Audio\Projects\Sliptide\20100714 – Getting Into Position , as an example.

This works fine for seeing the timeline of works in the file explorer, but good god– after four years of having this project folder in the flow of my various computers and back-up strategies.. I now realize that I think one of the speedbumps in my brain is the sheer size of unfinished or undesirable projects that sit in front of me every time I look for stuff to work on. I go “oh yea! that sounded awesome.. but I don’t know what to do with it yet..” or “Ah, yes.. that needs to be finished.. but I’ve got some other earworm in my head to get down into a track”… you see where this is going, yes?

So while I am very familiar with my catalog of song starts, snippets, and sketches, perhaps I should consider moving them to 1 more folder beyond my usual “in progress” thought flow. I know which songs I *want* to work on and *want* to finish soon.. the other stuff is mostly peripheral unless I need somewhere to start, or remember that I had something good going that I can come back to now that I’ve moved the current items off of my plate.

Food for thought. Thanks, Mike!

Check out Mike’s site and music

Posted via email from Sean Armstrong (Sliptide)

I was poking around the internet, reading my usual spaces of record label websites, magazine/ezines, current favorite artists, soundcloud, blogs, etc etc, when I happened to get the usual advertising email from Om Records to my personal inbox. I checked it out, as I usually do, since I’m a big Om Records fan. Groove Armada has been kicking ass lately, and I’m in love with everything Samantha James releases. Then I noticed a blurb about Mike Monday and a new project he just launched. 10 songs in 10 weeks for his new, free-to-download-from-his-website album! Sweet!

I’m a casual fan of his quirky music because of the interesting bits and pieces of production that weave together to make his music. His songs feel, to me, as if I were standing in the Seattle Art Museum looking at a mixed-media piece with vibrant colors, shapes, sizes, texture, and depth. Some of it clashes, some of it is beautiful discord, and some of it is aesthetically tantalizing. By way of link-jumping from Om Records, I went to Mike’s main website over at http://www.mikemonday.com/ to check out his project and re-familiarize myself with his catalog. I was pleasantly surprised to find more content there than I was expecting.

Ever since I started making music w/my computer, I had always been pretty adept at organizing my files. Whether it be sample libraries, projects, templates, snippets, hand-recorded media, one-off art projects; it’s all organized in a file system that makes sense to my brain. Though, it has been awhile since I have really taken a good look at how I do things to see if there are ways that I can improve my workflow. I’m not unfamiliar with the idea of the musicians sketchbook, especially when it comes to file organization on the computer. Yet, something just clicked when I read this statement taken from Mike’s post about “Using a sketcbhook…”

Often the best plan is to forget them for a while by saving them in your sketchbook folder and deleting them from your work in progress folder. This is because seeing all your unfinished DAW files every time you turn on the computer is a sure way to reinforce self-doubt and an even surer way to kill inspiration.

Then I get to thinking. Currently, the bulk of my heavy lifting comes from Reason. I know it well, I’m able to produce in it VERY quickly with excellent sounding results. The “problem” which is a byproduct of being able to work quickly is that I end up with a ton of “song starts” and “ideas”. I name everything with the date first (YYYYMMDD) followed by the project title (or song title if I’m that far along in the process). They all live in a project folder called “Sliptide” on my computer under my master “Audio” folder, in “Projects”.. more clearly: drive:\\Audio\Projects\Sliptide\20100714 – Getting Into Position , as an example.

This works fine for seeing the timeline of works in the file explorer, but good god– after four years of having this project folder in the flow of my various computers and back-up strategies.. I now realize that I think one of the speedbumps in my brain is the sheer size of unfinished or undesirable projects that sit in front of me every time I look for stuff to work on. I go “oh yea! that sounded awesome.. but I don’t know what to do with it yet..” or “Ah, yes.. that needs to be finished.. but I’ve got some other earworm in my head to get down into a track”… you see where this is going, yes?

So while I am very familiar with my catalog of song starts, snippets, and sketches, perhaps I should consider moving them to 1 more folder beyond my usual “in progress” thought flow. I know which songs I *want* to work on and *want* to finish soon.. the other stuff is mostly peripheral unless I need somewhere to start, or remember that I had something good going that I can come back to now that I’ve moved the current items off of my plate.

Food for thought. Thanks, Mike!

Check out Mike’s site and music

Posted via email from Sean Armstrong (Sliptide)

Fun!

There’s no real “news” right now. I’m working on more new music. I’ve moved on from most of my experiments in house music on to stuff that is far more representative of me. I may release some of the house-y stuff by way of EPs or digital releases from labels. Until then, sit tight!

Posted via email from Sean Armstrong (Sliptide)

via picasaweb.google.com

Amy brought in a pile of delicious sweet peas from the plants she started earlier this summer. I love this woman!

I’m continually being amazed at the amount of food we can grow on the back deck of our rental home.

Posted via email from Sean Armstrong (Sliptide)

Where to begin?  Last month one of the best days of my life took place.  I married my childhood friend, my partner in crime, my everything.  Amy and I had a wedding that, even in the face of the typical northwest rain, was absolutely gorgeous.  It seared so many images into my head that I will be able to enjoy for the rest of our lives together.  We spent the day with our family, our friends, and the wonderful event staff.  Everyone who was fortunate enough to make it to the big day was treated to all of the hard work that we put forth to share this truly epic and inspiring moment with them.  The food, the drink, the decor, the ambiance went far beyond my expectations!

The day was a crazy one, as to be expected.  I didn’t get a WHOLE lot of sleep the night before, but somehow I was able to have a clear enough mind to post a status update about my agenda for the day.

“Today’s agenda: Get married. whoa.. what?!”

Then the madness ensued.  The Maid of Honor came over early to help with things, then shortly after that Amy’s parents and our friend Will awoke and were getting ready for the day. Then my family members showed up, followed by my Best Man and his family, and one more friend who was helping us move things to the venue that morning.

While starting to take inventory (I made a handy list of everything that needed to be moved and completed before leaving for the venue), I was beginning to go out of my mind as I realized that the day was FINALLY here and I was FINALLY going to get married to Amy!!! To make matters worse though, we had a lot of trepidation about the weather.  The day we had picked had a very low historical chance for rain, but the weather has been so strange this year it wasn’t any surprise that we had seen mostly rain for the week leading up to the wedding, with 1 gorgeous day mixed in there to keep us guessing. Lo-and-behold, it was raining lightly the morning of our wedding, with some more dense rain picking up as friends and family were helping us move to the venue for setup.  I was very nervous about the prospect of rain for the wedding day, but with the support of my friends I was able to really get past that and not worry about it much at all while we soldiered on to get there and set everything up for a great time.

There are a lot of things I will leave out at this point, as I keep a separate log of my adventures elsewhere that contain much more in the way of details of experiences. I also don’t want to have this drone on for TOO long, anyway

The rest of the day was the usual batch of wedding stories you hear from everyone else. From the catering to the ceremony to the running-behind-schedule of events to the toasts… from the minute I woke up to the minute I fell asleep in our hotel for the night (in the early AM hours the next morning, *grin*)… what an incredible experience!

A good word here for our photographers.  What a unique situation we had in that three of our friends were able to lend their photographic talents to us for the wedding.  Our great, long time friend, Will Foster was our main hired gun.  His personality and attitude complimented the whole experience, and I can’t wait to see what he captured, as we LOVE his artwork and photography.  Matt Amberg was also there, with his humor and friendly nature, doing his photo-thing very well. He showed me some of the pictures already and we are very pleased with the results! Brandon Page was also there before and during the ceremony.  The photos I’ve seen from him were nothing but spectacular!

It wouldn’t have been possible without our friends and family there to support us. With all of the gracious help from them, Amy and I had a day we will remember for the rest of our lives. We can’t thank you all enough, and we look forward to spending time with each and every one of you in life.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Here are some more photos posted by Brandon Page and Matt Amberg. I will make additional posts with more photos and video and the such as my free time permits! Will Foster’s photos are still on the way. Rest assured the private collection of photos and videos that don’t make it to public journal posts will be available to the attendees of our wedding by way of a private website.

Cheers!

Posted via email from Sean Armstrong (Sliptide)

via picasaweb.google.com

Taken with my Motorola Cliq from a moving car, edited on the phone with Photoshop Mobile.

Posted via email from Sean Armstrong (Sliptide)

What an incredible week (last week) and an even more incredible weekend.  I have a lot to write about and need time to collect my thoughts, reflect on everything I experienced, and then work myself back into some grooves.

Writing, photos, music, work (day job), and getting back to some much needed time spent with folks.

Oh, and getting my new website posted.. but I guess that’s really part of the ‘music’ stuff anyway.

I can’t rest yet, there’s always so much to do! Maybe a little nap wouldn’t hurt.

Posted via web from Sean Armstrong (Sliptide)