Resolutions or Goals

So here they are in no particular order.  The musical things I plan on accomplishing in 2010.

1. Continue learning to use what I have better.
2. Continue working on my not-so-fabulous guitar chops.
3. Do another RPM Challenge album and make it better than last year's effort.
4. Play a proper live gig.
5. Find a (semi)local collaborator.

On that last one...  it's like looking for a lover in a way.  You have ideas about what you're looking for and those ideas may have little relationship with what would be good or would work.  So here's what could be my craigslist ad:

Me:  Hobbyist computer music geek interested in all kinds of electronic music but particularly interested in mellower hybrid forms combining electronic and traditional instruments.  I play bass, guitar, keyboards and flute with nothing that could be confused with expert ability.  I'm reasonably handy with music theory and recording tech.  I'm a Mac guy and use Ableton Live and Logic Studio.  I have no aspirations to fame, fortune, record deals, etc.  I do this because I like it.

You:  Live in the greater Toronto area (biased to the west).  Are interested in experimenting and not that interested in sounding like anyone else (or doing covers, etc).

So if you're tired of the sight of your own navel, drop me a line at mmi@alonetone.com

This public stating of goals is weird.  I have had a lifelong superstition about doing it (the thinking being that if I talk about something, I'll jinx it and it won't happen).  But we all know that's bullshit, right?

So here's hoping that your 2010 will be as wonderful as mine.

Happy New Year.

Year in Review

It's that time of year when those inclined to make resolutions start to think about what they might be.  Since I actually made resolutions last year, I think it might be better to first have a look at how I did...

• learn an instrument

In January 2009, I started taking guitar lessons for the first time in my life and I'm happy to report I am still at it.  I bought the first guitar (after borrowing my son's for the first few lessons) and was told it would not be my last.  I didn't know it then but they were right.

I am a bit of a weird student.  Most kids come in wanting to learn to play insert favourite song here.  As somebody already making and recording music, I wanted more theory.  And my instructors have been happy to oblige.  So my playing is still on the crap side (though, that's probably true of anybody with only 1 year under belt).

Recording the guitar has posed new challenges.  I wrestle with latency in my recording setup.  Composition takes longer while I fart around developing guitar parts and practicing them to the point where I can get a passable take.  And it's exposed me to the bugaboo of computer recording which is latency.  Something about my setup is crap.  When I figure it out, I'll be a happy man.

Another challenge is remembering things outside the computer.  "In the box" artists tweak their virtual knobs and the computer remembers all.  As soon as you leave the box, you have real knobs and you need to note all the settings if you ever need to recreate sounds.  And without MIDI, you need to remember chords, voicings, etc and write them down somewhere.  Pickup switch, tone settings, etc.  There is a lot you get to take for granted when everything is a virtual parameter.  Of course, being extremely fastidious can interfere with creativity so some sensible balance is something that I'm in constant search of.

Finally, a guitar is just the beginning.  And I ended up buying some toys.  Some affordable (e-bow) and some less so (GT-10).  And then, about a week ago, I bought my second guitar.  I'm in love all over again.  More and different sounds.  Bigsby.  Now learning new playing tricks.  And I'm tempted to start recording the acoustic sounds alongside the electric sounds...

• learn to better use the things I have

To some extent I did that.  I did take an Ableton course and I bought the fabulous sound design videos from Nick's Tutorials.  The primary intent behind this resolution was to not buy/covet new gear before more fully figuring out how to use the stuff I already had.  I failed.  Flashy software upgrades happened. New plugins happened.  Max 4 Live happened.  My cup floweth over.

Resolutions and goals for next year?  Stay tuned.

I Never Win Anything

We've all said it.  We all have friends that have said it.  And for me, just days after my birthday it became a lie.  w00t!  Over at the Mac OS X Audio forums there was a giveaway of String Studio VS-1 from Applied Acoustics and I was one of the lucky winners.
Now as an owner of Ableton Live Suite I already have Tension instrument (which is a joint development between Ableton and Applied Acoustics) so I sort of knew what I was in for.  But there are some extras.

If you like presets, this thing came with many hundreds of presets (way more than in my Live library).  Say what you want about presets, I find them useful tools in learning what is possible with a software instrument.

Additionally, it has built in effects.  Live instruments are typically very dry because the intent is that you feed into audio processing modules that you've set up (which is very cool).  However, as a beginner in the world of sound design, it's often easier for me to alter a fully fleshed out sound than it is to build one up.

There is also a built in arpeggiator that is different from the Live arp which is good (I'm not a huge fan of the Live arp [perhaps I'm just not smart enough]).  I don't fully understand it yet but it seems to be a combination of an arp with step sequencer which makes for some coolness.

Finally, as a friend pointed out, I'll be able to use this in Logic which is a criminally underused tool in my box.  (That is if I ever get to the point where it works properly for me -- the Logic 9 + Snow Leopard combination is having "issues" but that's a separate rant).

So thank you to Eric Thibeault who held the giveaway and to sandbags who poked me to enter.

Geo-blocking Bullshit

I am a fan of the band Animal Collective.  Today, (for the nth time) I looked up their latest album on emusic.com and got this:

We're sorry. This album is unavailable for download in your country (Canada) at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

I've complained directly about this before.  Once to an artist.  They didn't respond.  Another  sent to emusic who were kind enough to send this corporate bullshit speak:

eMusic shares in your frustration with the inability of international customers to access all of the content offered on our site.   Many labels sign geographic-based distribution deals that limit worldwide distribution of a particular album.  That is the reason that some albums are available worldwide while others are limited to certain geographic regions.

So to whoever is responsible for this sorry state of affairs.  You are retarded.

I suppose I could get off my ass and buy the CD in a store.  Not likely.  Turns out there aren't that many stores that have interesting CDs in them anymore.  The cool ones that do are in the city getting to them is a full-on event.  I could buy from iTunes.  Not.  Won't on principle.  Between DRM and their pricing I'm just not interested.  I could torrent/steal it.  Not.  I'm an adult now and I think it's ok to pay for music.

I get 100 tracks per month (subscription) from emusic.  Honestly, I have trouble absorbing them all.  Between working for a living, working on my own stuff, listening to the music of my friends, and commercial music I am practically drowning.

So if you're unwilling to sell me your album, that's just fucking fine.  You will not be missed.

It's Neu To Me

A couple of years ago I walked into my favourite indie hipster CD shop and as was often the case, something cool was playing. Of course, I had to ask and pretty soon I was the proud owner of a Manual by Appliance. The track that grabbed my ear was Food Music. Didn't think too much about it, just liked it.

Fast forward to earlier this month, when I recently watched a documentary called Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany. I hear this band from the early 70s called Neu! and I'm hooked. One of the tracks the documentarians used was Hallogallo. There's that sound again. And it hits me. This was one of the roots of much of the music I've been listening to since I was a teen! David Bowie (from his Low period), Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop, Pere Ubu, Joy Division (the list goes on) have all drunk from this well.

You've probably heard somewhere that rock music has its roots in the blues. But a lot of modern music has no blues. How did that happen? We've been fed this stuff about young punks rejecting the big established acts. As is often true, it's probably not quite that simple. In their attempt to sound neither American nor British, the young German bands of the 70s forged a new sound. And in hindsight, that influence on the rest of "modern rock" seems profound.

So now I'm busily filling this massive gap in my music "education" and wonder about the numerous forces that have kept me ignorant all these years. Probably was just the force between my ears.

Warning: Extreme Introspection

A lifetime ago, my friends and I would spend time talking heavy. One of the topics, since we were listening to what others might have described as depressing music (Cure, Bauhaus, Smiths), was did you need to be unhappy to create good music.

Well, I can't speak to good music but last week my dog, Bear, died. I was completely unprepared for the intensity of the shock and grief I felt. I and my family were (are still) devastated. For three days, I could not bring myself to touch my guitar.

For me, I now know that unhappiness, in the extreme, kills creativity (apparently not for my daughter who took a number of wonderful photographs).

This weekend, exactly one week almost to the hour when it happened I recorded Grief. I'm not sure it qualifies as good or how it comes across. But I can tell you that I was weeping as I played the last note.

It was cathartic but I remain sad. I also have no desire to play that anymore. Right now I cannot imagine how Clapton could sing about his son night after night.

For the rest of the weekend, I spent as much time as I could wangle hiding out in the Lab making music. Which leads to the conclusion that mid-grade unhappiness seems to be good for creativity.

What about other parts of the emotional landscape?

SPDIF, Not Completely Useless

Figured out a new trick this weekend. I have a Focusrite Saffire audio interface connected to my computer. (Seems to have been discontinued :-( When I got it I learned that all that 4in/10out stuff around audio interface marketing is a bit misleading. As far as I was concerned I only had 2 ins. I can use XLR or 1/4", I have a line/inst switch, a gain knob and some level LEDs for each of these ins. The third and fourth inputs are SPDIF which is a single RCA style connector and thus completely useless.

Or so I thought.

Later on, I got a Boss GT-10 for mo' better guitar wankery. It has a lot of stuff on it including its own USB audio interface. I tried this out and quickly determined that to my untrained ears it sucked. I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about why, I just plugged the analog outs to my Saffire and moved on. Of course I have guesses. One guess is that the GT-10's USB interface presents 16bit/44kHz audio whereas the Saffire is capable of delivering 24bit/96kHz... Another guess is that I just like something that the Saffire preamps are doing. Another guess is that I didn't spend enough time figureing out how to setup the USB stuff to sound good. The final nail in the coffin comes from the way Logic will only deal with a single CoreAudio entity. What that means is if you have an input only device, like a GT-10 and you want outbound sound to go to a Saffire, you need to create an aggregate device (which is a totally cool feature but not without its little problems).

I lived happily in this way for a while until somebody asked me if the GT-10 had a digital out. Dunno, but I looked and surprise it had one... Quick check of the manual, I learn that digital out is actually SPDIF. Hmmm. I wonder if I can free up my analog inputs (so I could hook up a mic or something) by using this SPDIF thing?

Long story short, it works. And it sounds great.

Some minor details did need to be worked out. The Saffire comes with a program called Saffire Control and I needed to enable the SPDIF input. Additionally, the incoming level was a little low. Turns out the GT-10's digital out level is controlled by a configuration in one of the System menus. The main output level knob on the unit only controls the analog output level. This is actually kind of cool since you could, in theory, record the digital signal in addition to mic'ing an amp.

Interesting hobby we have. Lots of shiny toys but like Lego it's up to us to figure out what to do with them.