Mr eel
Music Making
Turing’s Apple
Because I never get sick of doing these kinds of things — except blogging, which I am completely slack with — I’ve kicked off another musical side-project. I’ve decided to make some house music.
Deeply indebted to Force Tracks, micro-house — stupid name for a genre — and dub-techno. Basically everything is drenched in reverb; just how I like it!
Ahhh, Nostalgia
I’ve been indulging myself again.
Music in progress - Flake
I was going to post more music as I was working on it, but I got distracted and forgot. But perhaps I’ll try again. I might remember to keep doing it this time. Here is a little something I was working on tonight.
Announcing The Modern Ghost
After a fair period of gestation my collaborator Chris Lee and I have decided to make some of our work public. We’ve been working on a Drum and Bass project called The Modern Ghost. We’ve finally grounded the project. It has a sound and approach that we’re really happy with and we are going to expand on it with more music.
In the meantime we’ve set up a page on Virb which has some biographical guff and some audio previews. We’ll be adding more music as we work on it. You can check it out here.
Missy Blood
Just lately I’ve been working on music more heavily. Typically I’ve got loads of different bits on the go at any one time. That’s good and bad. Good because I’ve always got something to work on. Bad because it can make it difficult to finish anything.
But oh well!
Here is something I was doing for kicks. After listening to loads of Acid tunes, I decided to make something kinda old school. Download Missy Blood.
Unique Virtual Analogue Synth is Usually an Oxymoron
“Origin sounds like nothing else on the planet. It not only implements True Analog Emulation, a technology which accurately models analog synthesizers…”
Ok, ok, so maybe Arturia are doing something different here, but I remain unconvinced. It’s nice to see companies continue to build hardware synths coz I really like em, but dammit! How about doing something different? There are more than enough Virtual Analogue synths about already.
There are so many different forms of synthesis to be explored, yet here we are, with plastic emulations of all the old stuff. I don’t have a problem with VA synths, just the fact that it’s all most companies seem to build.
Here’s hoping we see some more interesting stuff at this year’s NAMM.
Improving Audio Plugin Interfaces
In my previous post I had a good rant about how poorly I think of most audio plugin interfaces. Luckily I’m not the only one who feels the same. TC Electronics are having a go at tackling the problem.
Never mind the marketing guff, they’re having a go at making interfaces that actually make it easier to work with the plugins. The issue of inconsistencies between UIs from different plugin makers remains, but this is a good start.
Best of all, they aren’t trying to make ‘em look like fucking hardware. Hooray!
The Problem with Synth and EFX Plugins
Most audio plugins seem to have been made by developers with a hardware fetish. The interfaces seek to replicate the look and feel of a piece of hardware. Wood-panelling, LEDs, knobs, tiny abbreviated control labels.
Yikes. It all makes for a pretty miserable experience. For starters most of ‘em look like poo. Just kinda nasty, certainly nothing like the hardware they are meant to evoke. They make themselves more difficult to use because screen space is given to eye-candy rather than controls. Behavior between one plugin and another is inconsistent. In some the knobs work by sliding your mouse up and down, in others you have to move it about in tiny circles — this is so brain-dead words escape me.
All this effort to replicate hardware and if anything they are worse. At least with some hardware you have actual controls to touch with your hands. Using soft synths is a bit like trying to program some hardware with one finger. After all a mouse is only one point.
Perhaps even worse, they replicate the obtuse and difficult interfaces found in hardware, for no real reason! It’s software. It doesn’t have the same limitations as hardware, so why aren’t we improving on the experience?
Bluntly, there are too many unimaginative types out there making plugins. Making the same mistakes. Don’t get me started on all the fucking faux-analogue plugins! So much for the possibilities of soft-synths.
I know it’s too much to hope for, but I really wish there was a standard for plugin interfaces. It would save me a hell of a lot of mucking about and go a long way to breaking this fascination with replicating hardware.
I’m No Gear Whore, But…
When it comes to actual hardware I use while I write music, my inventory is pretty small. My Powerbook and some nice Alesis monitors. I like it that way. If I can essentially have the contents of a studio stuffed into my laptop, it means I can take it with me where ever. No hassle.
Then, I stumbled over this set of photos. Oh dear. I think I’m in some state of denial. If I could have a studio full of synths I wouldn’t hesitate!
More than anything I want a Monomachine. In my heart of hearts, I’m a knob-twiddler and the idea of having the shiny Monomachine knobs slipping between my trembling fingers is… a dream!
New tune: Spooooky
I’ve just uploaded a new tune. It’s inspired by those fantastic Goblin soundtracks for Dario Argento’s films. I can’t say that they are directly influenced by them, but I just wanted to make something that has the same vibe. Put it this way, this is a tune that I reckon would work well in a horror movie. You can check it out here.