audiot

wooooooo, check out this guy

ok, i gotta run – so here’s just a quick update on how the work on the new album is coming along. there are no lyrics whatsoever yet. but the intro is finished – i’m thinking about turning the intro into a whole song, though…

the music for one song is finished, except for the solo which i will track after i’ve done the vocals. and the music for 4 more songs is written. this takes that much longer than expected, but this whole internet stuff is stealing away lots of time (not talking about writing entries for this place…).

on the other hand, i’ve got one song almost finished (again except vocals) but it won’t be on “traitor” because it’s a completely different style, more bankjob-like. i tried to combine it with already existing traitor-stuff but it sounded…..cough, cough…..not that great. we’ll see where that goes…

babysteps once again – but at least steps. and they’re in the right direction…

please forgive me for posting a video – again, but this is an important message to all you musicians out there (especially the drummers). the video is a kind of a preview/making of clip from Benny Greb’s new dvd. although i don’t have it yet, i’m virtually certain that this is one awesome movie! so go ahead, just buy it – he’s a really nice guy who deserves to be supported! and the message is: you are not alone !!!

well, i wanted to spare you the boring technical stuff, but some of you asked about it – so there you go. it won’t be a long list :-)

what i used to create the album “corner”:

• one of those rather new aluminium Macbooks
• an E-MU Tracker Pre usb 2.0 audio interface
• Cubase LE 4
• Reason 4
• Reason Drumkits 2.0 Refill
• Peff‘s Vintage RDK Combis v1.1 Refill
• a T-Bone SCT800 large diaphragm tube mic
• a CME M-Key usb keyboard
• some cables
• some old headphones & the pa in our rehearsal room for monitoring (yeah, i know…)
• lots and lots of buttercookies, fruitjuice, gummibears
• a really cool looking baseball cap

that’s it.

although the last two points were the top priorities in this – their direct influence on the project can hardly be measured or described. i’ll go with the word: vibes!

the audio interface, the microphone, Cubase and the cables were used to record the vocals only. and the rest did the rest. so apart from tracking the vocals, everything was done with Reason 4 exclusively. in my opinion one hell of a programm and without any doubt one of the best inventions since frozen pizza! here’s to the folks at Propellerhead.

i will upgrade some of my gear in the near future – there will be some nearfield monitors and better midi controllers to streamline the workflow. but for this head-over-heels-project the above mentioned gearlist was absolutely sufficient. and even if there will be some changes, the list won’t get much longer. it’s a lot more fun to make do with what you have (and especially learn to really use the things already there) – MacGyver rocks!!!

yay, here are a few links to where you can find the new album online. just for the heck of it:

• corner on bandcamp
• corner on reverbnation
• corner on soundcloud

i just uploaded the album to the rpm jukebox as well, but they haven’t lanched it yet – the link will follow.

you can listen to the full album in 128 bit mp3 quality at bandcamp and reverbnation. you can listen to five of the eight songs in original cd quality at soundcloud. you can download the full album in 128 bit mp3 quality at bandcamp for free or you can download it in a variety of better qualities for whatever YOU want to pay (min. 90 cents per song or $5 for the whole album – hey, even i need to pay for hookers and booze!) also at bandcamp.

i disabled the cd-quality-download at soundcloud after it was available for over a week, because i think the people who read this blog and are interested in what i do should have the advantage of getting those files for free. if you haven’t downloaded them yet but would like to, drop me a line. you’ll get the chance to download the 3 other songs and complete the album in cd quality for free as soon as soundcloud lets me upload them, might take a few weeks though…

tomorrow i’ll continue unveiling the mysteries surrounding this creation, so stay tuned…

yeah, and i’m sticking to it. i know, i know, these times recommend speed – maybe above all. but learning doesn’t. so the next tip would be: do it sloooooooooowly!

i’d like to mention a picture i got from Vera F. Birkenbihl (yep, her again). imagine you trying to learn a task, like playing guitar for example. learning means new nerve tracts are being built in your brain. so you have a piece of music you want to learn. and now let’s take a look at your brain. there are the guys up there that build new nerve tracts and then there are the puppeteers, those who move your muscles. on the other hand you have only a limited amount of processing power (guys). what does that mean? right, the more puppeteers you need, the less guys are left to build those nerve tracts needed and vice versa. so the slower you play it, the less puppeteers you need, the more guys are available to build the new datahighways. makes sense? cool. this is of course in no way simplified or otherwise manipulated, it’s exactly what happens in your brain…

lots of people try to learn new things by doing it way too fast and repeating it over and over and over again. but this is not efficient at all. almost all the guys are busy playing the puppet (you) and that leaves almost nobody left to build the nerve tract, which is just another term for learning. learning = building new nerve tracts. maybe you know the feeling of practicing hours and hours and still don’t get the results you want. chances are, you made exactly that mistake. the next time, try doing it slooooooooowly – as slow as it gets. overdo this.

there’s one more advantage to this: if you play every single note slowly and well aware, you will play a lot more precise or cleaner, without unnecessary movements etc. and because you’re doing this while the builders are already at work, they include this too. you’re learning better technique as a bonus without any additional effort – how cool is that?

hey, it’s time again for some youtubism…

here’s a video of Shakerleg, the groovy guy from new york’s metro-underground-subway-tunnel-system-whatever-thing:

check out his website as well.

i’m up to 14 now :-) the new ones sound a bit more real with kind of a garage feel – seems to be hip at the moment…

anyway, check them out here, you need to click on ‘music’ (below the picture) and then on ‘audiot’s uploads’. i’m afraid there is no direct link….

have fun

just a quick note to let you know there’s some more loops of mine at mixmatchmusic.com

check them out at my profile page right here