Thursday, April 12, 2007

OK Fine!

It's about time I posted a few new clips to prove that I really am doing more with my time than waking up late and being hard to reach on the phone. As a compromise between (probably) paranoid secrecy and idealistic full disclosure, I've decided to post pieces of tracks, instead of the tracks in their entirety... though in a couple of cases "their entirety" isn't much more than the short clip. Still, something to whet the appetite- or destroy it!

Clip A
Clip B
Clip C
Clip E

Production wise, I feel like I'm maturing a lot- I'm generally finding it easier to actually achieve the sounds that I hear in my head. Of course, "easier" still generally means "fucking hard," but it's a step in the right direction. I'm also working more and more exclusively in Ableton Live, leaving poor Reason a little dusty. Could be I'm just in the honeymoon period of my relationship with VSTs, but Live really gives me the freedom to muck with audio in a way that Reason never did. And I'm starting to really love a few of these free instruments and effects I've downloaded. I'll write up a little summary of the ones I've found most useful in a later post if anyone's interested. Not that I'm planning on ditching Reason anytime soon- it's still an inspiring production environment for me, and has a lot to offer. Anyway, it can't be bad to have two DAWs to work with- get tired of one, switch on over to the other! Or go outside I guess. Hmm.

If anyone's interested in hearing the "full versions" of any clips I post, just let me know and I'll send them your way.

In the words of my good friend Eric, then: until soon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clip A: Wow! This is a lot more developed than your previous samples. I like the overall sound and drum pattern at the beginning. It's got a lot of nice subtler things too.

I'm not sure about the level of distortion on the sustained tones in the main melodic synth voice. I think it would sound a lot cleaner and fit the overall style better if it were just straight...

Awesome transition to the new style, and great drum track. I feel like it for the new style, those drums could be even busier/more-complex since they are a very prominent focus of this section of the track. The initial complexity is good, but I think it could support even an entire 2nd drum track overlayed which you could use to slowly raise the intensity.

I like the contrast of the bass/drums with the continuation of the higher harmonic stuff from the first section. Again, I find the distortion of the bass voice distracting. Since it's hitting the roots of your chords my ear really wanted those notes to be firm (non-distorted/bent) and a little longer. As they are I thought they got cut short a little early, and had distracting bends into and out of them. I suppose if they were straighter, it would make the whole sound a little cleaner and less complex, so you might need to add additional things to avoid making it sounds too sparse.

Overall it's very cool, though! I'll love to hear more...

Anonymous said...

Clip B: For me it all happens right at the end of this one. My first thought at the beginning was "sounds kinda like Amon Tobin" with the churning, very synthetic sounding bass and the jazz drum samples over. Not much seems to happen for awhile, but I think the vocal sample at the end is perfect. At first it sounded just like a random synth (especially with the rhythmic interruptions of the voice), but unmistakably resolved itself when the notes changed. A really really great moment. Subtle, tasteful, musical, excellent.

Anonymous said...

Clip C: This is my favorite yet. The death of a lot of electronic music for me is that there isn't enough variation to keep me listening. This clip has a perfect balance of subtle and unexpected changes to keep me actively interested. For example, the rhythmic independence of guitar and bass was good; the synth trombone voice (is that what that is?) that gets louder is excellent; the quiet blues-organ sample was perfect. The beats are a great match for the other things you set up.

My only criticism is that the guitar solo leaves its line harmonically unresolved at the ends of phrases which really makes it feel dangling and dead. The groove is very comfortable, but the solo seems to drag a little bit to me. I think it could also be a hair louder.

I'm very impressed!