NoiseTheorem

After a month of dealing work, illness and medication side effects, I am finally getting back to the music. I am also going to be getting back to the post session studio blogging I did leading up to the first release.

This weekend saw a second session with David Harks. Unfortunately, we have no finished audio to share with you yet, but we captured some good ideas and got some good things started. I am letting the audio we captured bubble in my brain for a little bit before I go in and try to structure it into something.

Also this weekend, I adjusted the studio layout a bit. Nothing too dramatic was done, but I moved the Schrittmacher and Origin in to an OnStage rack stand. For $25, I wasn’t expecting much from it, but it is actually quite classy looking and very sturdy. I also organized the makeshift desk by setting up the Ocatrack, Blofeld, Analog Four and EMX1 all together on a stand. That setup is pretty kick ass and convenient.

Working with the Schrittmacher and the Modular paid some pretty high dividends, as did the programming the Arturia Origin for a bit Sunday night. I am starting to *get* the Origin more and more and see what it can do for me. In a way, it can be a supplement to the modular. I go back and forth on how long it will stick around the studio. So long as every session produces usable patches, I can’t see that it will leave. Ill have to write up a full review of it soon.

One last studio move that needs to be made, though, is getting the PEK back on the front desk. I have the MPK49 there now, but it’s just not working out well for me. The action is a bit to hard for my liking, and I honestly just miss having the PEK knobs to twiddle right in front of me.

If I can get some momentum built up, I hope to get another 6 track EP out the door before the end of summer. I don’t think that is impossible.

And so it is done:

I’m tired.  Really tired.  It’s Monday morning and I can’t get my brain going.  Don’t expect much from this blog post.  Or any blog post I ever make ever.

Things are kind of quiet at NoiseTheorem HQ.  Angela is working on my new site to go with my debut release.  It looks great, and I really like her artistic concepts.  I am so completely inept when it comes to visuals.  The current design of this blog tells you all you need to know about my skills.  It will be nice to actually have a visual concept other than ‘make it black’.

The album is out for mastering and waiting for ‘The Master’ to have the time to work on it.  Its being done as a favor, so I can’t really complain about the time it is taking.  I am stressing over it, though, simply because your first release is always the hardest hump to get over.  I’ve never released anything solo before and that makes me nervous as hell.

On the live front, I’ve been getting in deep with the Elektron Octatrack.  I think I finally have the sampling workflow down and I understand its architecture in full.  The implications of what can be done with that knowledge are still emerging, but I have already started to see some awesome possibilities.

Record Triggers, as one example, are huge.  I can feed signals from the modular into the sample inputs and then sequence machines to grab samples of whatever is coming through.  The trigger tracks can then play back those bits of audio in any order/disorder I wish with a lot of interesting processing possible.  It’s like a highly automated looper pedal. As I make changes on the modular, the samples the Octatrack take change. I’ve only started scratching at this, but it opens the door to how I can create live performances with the modular that aren’t just noise performances, but actual compositions.  My next experiments will involve looping audio from the Octatrack to the modular and back.  That’s where I think the real weird is going to live.

I am also looking forward to receiving a Mackie 1202vlz with flight case that I scored on eBay a week ago. The mixer looked clean and comes from an office installation where it was used as a backup for presentations.  The price was really good, so I hope its all in working condition.  This will hopefully free up the Octatrack from mixing duties and allow for its sample inputs to be used more creatively as described above.

While I wait patiently for the album to come back from mastering, I’ve been putting the prototype live rig through its paces. Here is what I have learned so far:

• The octatrack and EMX make a great team.

• The octatrack is not going to cut it my main mixer.

• I need a polyphonic keyboard I can play.

• The Blofeld needs company.

• I need some drum pads.

 I keep thinking it would be great to trigger some of the big drum hits and maybe some performance loops from a drum controller.  There are tons of them on the market that would work for this, I just really need to pick one.

• I like the sound of what I’ve got going.

This is the most important.  I have decided not to attempt to recreate the album, but rather to see the live performance as a different entity where the compositions have different needs because of the different environment.  While I will use source material from many of the songs, I certainly won’t be trying to recreate them in exact detail.  In fact, I anticipate having some tracks which will only be played live and not be on any recordings.

All in all, I am liking this.  I think I am taking the right approach by starting with some gear I have and trying to play through a set to figure out what needs I have (both technologically and musically) to make this work.  With the enlisted help of a few friends, I think I can make a genuinely good NoiseTheorem live experience.   It’s just going to take a lot of time and work to get there.

For some reason, I am seriously getting the itch to own a Virus again. It would fit well with what I do now, and its new features (extra envelopes!) are items I had long wished Access would add.  Now it has them, and I’ll be damned if I don’t want to give it another go.

If I do get it, it would displace the DSI Polyevolver. I wouldn’t it, obviously, as that one is special to me. It would probably just go onto a stand with the Korg Prophecy (My other sentimental keeper).

The last time I had a virus, I was in the thick of my writers block, and I held that against it in a way. Paired up with a great sequencer like the Octatrack, I’d definitely be able to have all the synthesis I need for a live gig, and a nice keyboard for when I want to do that sort of thing.

Now to find a way to pay for it. Always the hard part.

And you know that I won’t.

Finishing your first full length solo album at age 38 and preparing to release it is an absolutely terrifying experience for anyone. Now add a good helping of social phobias, perfectionism, a debilitating hearing problem and you just about have where I am at right now.

I think the problem is that I know too many really truly gifted musicians and people with finely honed production skills. I have trouble counting myself in either group. If I am honest, I am just an asshole with a passion for music tech who spent a lot of man hours fiddling with filters and getting as far up the ass of every synthesizer I could. It’s kind of like that whole analogy of giving enough monkeys typewriters and waiting until one of them recreates Shakespeare. I only had one monkey, a few synths, and 20 years. I am pretty sure this isn’t Shakespeare (or in this case Tangerine Dream). I can’t honestly tell you *what* it is.

And that’s part of the problem, I think. I stuck with Industrial music for a long time because I could easily define what *it* was. Beat, bass, lo-fi loop, and big chorus. rinse/repeat. There was an easy formula I could use as a framework and plenty of artists I could compare and measure my work against. I even had a passion for it in the beginning.

I don’t have that with this. I can’t even really tell you with a concrete certainty what genre this falls under. I do know that it is the album I wanted to write for a long time, or at least a step in that direction. Every song on it started with that little bit of spark and that tickle I get at the base of my brain when I hit on what I want to hear in music.

I am proud of this work, don’t get me wrong about that. I am just nervous as hell about releasing it. This is a little different from posting the occasional shit noise demo on sound cloud. This album actually reflects my musical vision, or as close to that as I can get. I am a little anxious about how it will be received, which is stupid. I don’t exactly have a huge adoring fan base who will be disappointed in this. Hell…Ill be impressed if I sell enough copies to buy a nice lunch at subway.

Whatever. I do need to relax. I am just not very good at that. Venting, like this, might help. What do you do to relax?

Its done.

Saying that almost feels impossible. But its actually true.  The writing and mixing is completed.

Now it’s on to mastering, finalizing the artwork and actually releasing the damn thing.

But it’s further along than any body of solo work I have ever attempted to complete.  So it is time to celebrate!

30 minutes. That is my goal for a live set. I want to see if I can take a modular, a drum machine and a sampler sequencer on stage and pull off a solo live set. 30 minutes.

How will I get there? I need a plan. I think I have the equipment. If I keep the gear count low, I won’t even need a mixer. The Octatrack will do, or at most a basic DJ mixer. I’ll need to come up with a modular patch or two for the show…a unique patch that I can use again and again. I’ll need a way to record it.

I won’t need a laptop. Once your in that world, it’s hard to bust out again. The laptop takes over, getting its arms into everything and taking over like some over zealous octopi. I don’t want one on stage, and it will take a lot to compromise on that point.

I’ll need lights…or video. Lights are better than video by most accounts.

I’ll need a mic. That’s easy.

I’ll need to reinterpret my tracks into a fixed context. That will be interesting. I could probably turn it all into a 3 song set of 10 minutes each. No breaks.

I will need a clock so I know how much time has passed.

I will need a venue and promoter who supports this.

I will need the guts.

As I head back to work this morning, I feel refreshed. It’s amazing what a consistent 8 hour sleep schedule will do for you over 10 days. It also serves to remind you how much you need to find ways to get it more often.

The studio sessions and family time taken this week were spectacular. Monday started it off with a screwdriver session on the last two tracks, and both are now at least consistent with the other material and ready to be mastered with them. Vocal sessions with Janet were productive, resulting in a more pointed version of ‘Dead Hands’ and some possible spoken material for ‘Emergent Forces’. Sessions with Nikki won’t happen for another week, but I expect them to be similarly productive. All in all the album ToDo list is shrinking down rapidly. Exciting!

It’s strange to finally be at this stage with one of my own works. I’ve had so many false starts and lost deadlines over the years, that actually nearing the finish line is kind of frightening. Now that it’s done, I have a whole host of questions to answer and then go into the sales/promotion phase. Contrary to what some artists believe, just having an album does not guarantee revenue. I am keeping my expectations low on this front, but you never know…maybe I will break even! (HA!)

Family time was also important. This week we took Trent to the zoo, ice skating, and to the park. He doesn’t like to nap when he is home so the long weekend really messed with him by yesterday. Angela has all my sympathies dealing with him today before he goes back to daycare tomorrow. What a handful he is!

Work is work, and I need to get on with it. Back to the code mine.