Stealing the Sun - nearly finished now

My work-in-progress, "Stealing the Sun" is nearly ready. I'll add tracks to this set as they get mastered in preparation for CD production:

Stealing the Sun - preview by Carbon111

In the meantime unfinished tracks will be removed from this blog. I'll replace them later as they get polished and prepped for the CD and Digital Download release.

Goodbye my little pal.

In Memoriam Taliesin 1998 - 2010
...my constant studio companion.

Finally, A Burger Worth Dying For.

Due to the high mortality rates, the famous Kanoobang™ burger chain has decided to change their marketing slogan to "A burger worth dying for" a spokesperson said today.

This has come just three weeks after the media furor over the leaked revelation that Kanoobang™ burgers were made entirely with fossil beef, strip-mined from ancient bovine deposits in environmentally sensitive Wyoming and Oregon watersheds.

Environmentalists are still picketing Kanoobang locations in many states. The FDA and EPA have taken no stance as of yet.

Kanoobang™ sales have soared.

More on this as the story unfolds.

My new general-purpose PC

In addition to my music DAW and Softsynth PC, I have an all-purpose PC I use for Photoshop, Gaming, web browsing, DVD burning and what-have-you. The old machine I was using was getting pretty long-in-the-tooth so it was that time again...time to piece together a new computer! I love doing this!!! ^_^

This was also the perfect opportunity to finally upgrade to a 64 bit OS and now that the specter of Vista was behind us, Win7 was looking pretty good.

The sheer amount of power you can get these days for $1225.00 boggles my mind - this relatively modest machine replaced a five year old pentium D machine that cost me twice as much to build and was an absolute slug by comparison.

Here's the specs:

• Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz Quad-Core CPU (clocked cool and stable @ 3.6 GHz)
• Intel DP55WG LGA 1156 P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
• ZALMAN 120mm 2 Ball Low-noise Copper CPU Cooler
• Kingston SSDNow V Series 64GB Solid State Drive (OS/boot)
• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Hard Drive (apps, storage)
• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Hard Drive (backup)
  
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 SDRAM
• Asus DVD-RW
  
• PNY GeForce GTS 250 - 1 Gigabyte GDDR3
  
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
  

...and I already had a nice 4U rackmount case & PS from my earlier build...though, because it was an older PS, I needed to spend about three bucks on an adapter for secondary power to the video card. The D-400-6 rack cases from IStarUSA are fantastic BTW!

The DP55WG is a basic board but with some surprising extras like SPDIF audio, onboard diagnostic LED readout and external bios reset button. I've been building my own PCs for a couple of decades now and have found that pairing an Intel board with an Intel processor and decent cooling makes for a very stable system, even in this case with the quad-core CPU clocked to 3.6 GHz.

Been using this machine for about a month now and, so far, it tears through every app I've thrown at it. DVD encoding takes minutes instead of hours now. Some of the most demanding photoshop filters take only moments and I'm getting very high frame rates (at 1920 x 1080) for Fallout 3 and TES4! Haven't had a single crash, lockup or bluescreen either - this has been absolutely rock-solid! I give Intel and G.Skill high praise for this.

The only thing I'm still not happy with is my keyboard...so I've ordered something special. I'll blog about it soon. ;)

A Lot Can Happen In A Decade...

Just for fun, this is me in my studio ten years ago. Tali was one year old.



The Waldorf Micro-Q had just been released. It and the Microwave XT were the centerpiece of my studio. I was using a couple of Bose patio speakers for monitors.

Messing about with Win7's Movie app...

"Silver Thread" from my forthcoming album was used as a Guinea Pig, trying out the free video software in Win7. It's basically a slideshow of a number of my CG images.

Monitor mayhem...

To my profound disgust, one of my beloved ADAM P11a monitors died over the weekend. The internal amps were both distorting and crackling horribly, rendering it completely useless. I was so furious at first as this was the last thing I needed while in the midst of mixing the new album. In the end, I suppose I figure I did okay, getting almost seven years out of the ADAMs. I'll most probably get the faulty one repaired if I can find a decent tech in the area without a months-long waiting list but, in the meantime, I desperately needed new monitors.

I spent most of Saturday at my local Banjo Shack inflicting an entire CD's worth of my rough mixes on two very patient sales guys. Unfortunately, my budget was only about half of what it was when I got my ADAMs so I had to be extremely thrifty as well as critical.

I had almost settled on a pair of KRK VXT 8s but every one of the four units I tested had some weird flaw - a silent tweeter, a fluttery woofer, an intermittent high-pitched whine, etc. It has completely soured me on KRK as a brand. Shame, because the VXT 8s looked to be a perfect fit.

The M-audios I tested colored the midrange too much, the JBLs had too many "bells and whistles" adding much to the cost and little to their functionality, the Events were too colored, the Mackies weren't in stock, etc...

My final choice was a bit of a revelation for me. After hours of listening and re-listening, I finally ended up settling on a pair of Yamaha HS80M monitors. I had been prepared not to like these as Yamaha modeled their aesthetics on their famous NS10 grotboxes, white woofers and all. Sound-wise though, they were a welcome surprise with a very flat response and nicely revealing of the subtle flaws in my test mixes. At less than $400 a piece, the price was seriously too good to be true - especially considering the sound quality. Suffice to say, I left with two largish boxes on a hand truck.

So far these HS80Ms have been perfectly lovely in the studio, much better than I had hoped in fact! The HS80Ms have a slightly more "forward" or "aggressive" sound than the ADAMs but, so far, haven't been fatiguing, even during long mixing sessions. Working with them has been an absolutely painless transition so far. They're not overbright and the response seems very flat all the way down into the lower bass regions though there is a noticeable rolloff around 50hz or so. I hate to admit it but, in some ways, these are more helpful to me than the ADAMs have been. Placement of instruments in the stereo field seems more accurate and the bass extension seems more detailed, allowing me to fit "bassy" instruments together better with less overlap. The "sweet spot" is a lot wider than what I've grown used to as well. I've had a chance the last few days to remix a number of my tracks and check their translation on other systems and have been getting great results!

I should mention that despite my exuberance, the new monitors aren't perfect - nothing is. The HS80Ms' tone is a trifle agressive as I mentioned before. They're not razor-flat either...but no monitor I've ever tried has been. You just have to decide if it's good enough for you and will the mixes translate? If the answer is "no", there's plenty of other monitor choices. So far neither of these things has been an issue...but I'll be sure to say something if it becomes one. But, for now, the honeymoon ain't over yet. ;)

We'll see how these "budget" monitors hold up but, so far, I'm completely floored by the quality/price ratio on these things. I'm even starting to get used to the ugly white woofers.

Working on another song...

This one is tentatively called "In the Big Room". Vocals aren't finished yet:

In the Big Room - rough mix

Tali approves:

Halou

Another wonderful band that's been around for more than a decade...that I've never heard of.

Beautifully dark, with coarse as well as silky timbres. I find this kind of indie stuff charming as hell and impossible to resist.

Recommended if you like Bel Canto, Massive Attack or Cocteau Twins.

Relaxing

I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend. I can highly recommend the application of a cold beer and a warm cat. Cheers!

Complete album, Shadow, free to listen...

As some of you probably noticed, I got myself a Soundcloud account. It's made managing my online music much easier. One upshot is I can make entire albums of work available now.

Last year's instrumental chill album "Shadow" can now be listened to in its entirety:



If you like it, pick up the CD at CD Baby.

Enjoy!

Silver Thread

Another busy weekend in the studio...for me anyway. I can't speak for Tali:



I've been on a bit of a roll - yet another new song is completed!

Silver thread  by  Carbon111

Silver Thread was composed with Ensoniq Fizmo, Waldorf Q, Korg Oasys and Digidesign's Boom softsynth. The vocals are all me again.

Past the hour when little girls should dream
The road is silent, the hills are steep
Your wings are heavy with dust and sleep
You're miles afar from places you should be

Follow my voice along this silver thread
Follow my voice along this silver thread

Incense trees grow along dim lanes
A shadow city full of candle flames
Fly on and on my Abyssinian maid
Leave Kubla Khan to history"s fate

Follow my voice along this silver thread
Follow my voice along this silver thread

My house is warm and the time is late
Dip your wing and find this path safe
Little bird flies down to a sunless sea
What draws you on to set your heart free?

Follow my voice along this silver thread
Follow my voice along this silver thread

A New Song: "The Initiation"

The initiation  by  Carbon111


I think one of the most interesting Initiations is the "Walkabout" Rite Of Passage when one is forced to finally rely on no one else and accomplish a task that tests the limits of one's spirit. When the initiate gets home they are then full members of the society, having gone through the same trial as everyone else. A magical transformation through finding one's self in the wilderness.

My new song, The Initiation, is an echo of this.

Lead Drones are from the SCI Prophet 600, Piano is Nord Stage, Pads are provided by Nord Wave, and Metallic Stabs and Drums are Korg Oasys.

How can I say from where
Light just shines out of there
These eyes that wear no mask
There's nothing left to ask
And nothing left to hide
It's black up in the sky
The stars have all gone napping
Who can say just what's been happening?

I'm not your hero anymore
I'm just The Fool
You have to stand alone this time
Or be destroyed

As gentle as a dove
And with a serpent's love
You have to leave me here
There's nothing left to fear
Now find your own way home
All journeys made alone
Through darkness and cold air
You know I'll meet you there

I'm not your hero anymore
I'm just The Fool
You have to stand alone this time
Or be destroyed

Through darkness and cold air
You know I'll meet you there
Through darkness and cold air
You know I'll meet you there...

Life is good!

No, really.

I think most of us in the "developed" world forget sometimes how good we have it, focusing on what we want rather than what we are lucky to have. Shattering cataclysms like the Haitian quake can really drive this home when you see people who had very little be reduced to people who have nothing.

Recently, a friend clued me in to Shelter Box, a nonprofit org supplying shelters and supplies to people in desperate need. Every $1000 they get buys one "Shelter Box", containing the following:



• One ten-person tent, including two fabric interior privacy partitions, outer fly-sheet and repair kit. These tents are considered ‘winter suitable’ by international relief standards.

• One 49 gallon box (The ShelterBox) initially the container for delivery of the materials listed below. Once delivered, the box takes an all kinds of uses and can be used as a water tank, food store, table, even a cot.

• Vinyl insulated sleeping mats and lightweight thermal blankets. More compact than sleeping bags, these mats and blankets have multiple uses. The blanket can also be fashioned to catch water, as a tarp, while the mat also serves as a ground ‘table’ for meals, or tent rugs.

• One pack of 180 water purification tablets or a water purification kit; and one 5 gallon flat-pack water container (Each tablet will purify a full container of water providing 1,800 gallons of clean drinking water which should be sufficient for a family of ten for up to three months).

• Two 2.1 gallon, collapsible, plastic water carriers.

• One collapsible trenching shovel

• Rope, 164 foot

• Repellant-treated mosquito netting

• Ten PVC Ponchos/ ten heavy duty plastic bags

• Tool kit in canvas bag: hachet, jack-knife, screwdriver, hammer, hoe head.

• Multi-fueled cook stove

• Eating utensils: plates and cups

• Children's activity kit-simple school supplies, stickers and coloring book.

A place to live and the means to provide some self-sufficiency amid devastation is a priceless thing.



In this day and age when people are afraid to give because so many so-called charities are skimming too much off the top for "administrative" purposes, it's refreshing to find a solid organization that takes a different tack.

Any size donation is acceptable and will help: http://www.shelterbox.org

Are web series changing the mainstream?

I admit I'm a bit of a slow pony when it comes to keeping up with bleeding-edge entertainment phenomena, but a new trend of fun web-based media has piqued my interest.

I think it may have started with web-based comix like Jon Rosenberg's wonderful "Goats" which burgeoned until collected volumes were showing up in bookstores everywhere. Then the phenomena moved on to animated shorts like "Happy Tree Friends" or Dave Lovelace's unabashed "Retarded Animal Babies" both now available on DVD. Things that once only had life on the web, now are beginning to have a commercial life in the "real" world.

With recent Web-to-TV transitions like the SF extravaganza "Sanctuary" or Joss Whedon's Web-to-DVD comedy "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog", things seem to be in full bloom.

The most recent manifestation to hit my radar is "Riese, The Series".

Riese is an exciting and engaging action-driven story about a mysterious femme fatale wanderer and her faithful wolf companion. The Riese phenomenon was helped along with a fierce viral web campaign featuring a virtual scavenger hunt of sorts across the internet. The better-than-average production values are evident though it's still obviously a lower budget affair. Relatively inexpensive HD video cameras like the breakthrough "Red One" and cheaper computer-based visual effects are beginning to blur the line between "budget" and "quality". This can only be a healthy thing, putting the means of professional production in new, adventersome hands.

The thing I'm finding most interesting with this new web-spawned media is that a small creative team, usually only two or three people, have complete control over story and character - a far cry from the watered-down-by-committee/dumbed-down-to-the-lowest-common-denominator dross that comprises the majority of the network shows these days. When the creative control is in fewer hands, I think the end product really shines as a unique beacon with tons of character.

Riese is a good example of this. While still falling easily into the dystopian fantasy/action mold, there are creative touches that make this quirky enough to stay engaging and give it a touch of class that is usually "polished away" in the mainstream media. If the lack of budget shows through occasionally, well that just adds to the charm I say.

The media "Goliaths" would do well to take note of the doings of these independent "Davids" now practicing their craft on the World Wide Web.

Music In Our Homes

Active on a lot of online forums, I come across a wide variety of music. Occasionally a real gem will reveal itself. Music In Our Homes by Scenic Square is one such "diamond in the rough".

Both lush and minimal, this album hosts an eclectic mix of electoacoustic and electronic instruments, fronted by a unique voice. Woven from intricate melodies, broad drones and percussive bits the fabric of this music is both rough and velvet-soft. I'm really loving this.

On the exceptional strength of these songs, I'm looking forward to more excellent music in the future from these folks.

Check the album out: Music In Our Homes

Dreams, Microphones and Financial Reality

The Dream: the Telefunken ELA M 250. $14,495.00 list and a mere $11,500.00 street!



...At the asking price, I'll never be able to own one.

Fortunately for me, the B.L.U.E. Blueberry has a rather similar signature sound:



...and is less than a tenth of the cost! It's currently my favorite mic. My voice, while passable, needs all the help it can get. ;)

---

My second favorite high-value/low-budget mic is an oddball combo that sounds surprisingly like a Neumann U87. Namely, the RTT M1 (LOMO) head paired with an Oktava MK012 body.

Purchased through a place like The Sound Room, the total cost is around $500 for the pair. Considering the sound and the quality you get for the price, it's a no-brainer in my opinion:



+



---

It's amazing what you can do on a budget these days. Low-cost Chinese manufacturing paired with American assembly and quality control has even paved the way for a really good-quality ribbon mic for around $250 courtesy of Shinybox Ribbon Microphones:



If you don't mind shelling out $150 more, you can have the same mic but with your choice of Cinemag or Lundahl output transformer.

---

There are some similar low-cost "deals" from some mainstream manufacturers that show up in the big-store catalogs, but the quality just isn't there in my opinion.

As the above examples show, there are some amazing deals are out there if you dig around a little...and if you're willing to shell out a little extra than the bare minimum.

Next up, I show the viewers at home how to buy caviar and champagne for pennies on the dollar... ^_^

Goodbye Edward...

I just heard about Edward Woodward's passing. A fantastic actor with a long and varied career. Sad that, more and more, all my "old friends and heroes" seem to be leaving. :(

When I think of Edward Woodward, the first thing that comes to my mind is his role as the naive yet well-meaning police officer Neil Howie from the movie "The Wicker Man". A stunning piece of acting there Ed! You'll be sorely missed.

No Time

No time  by  Carbon111

As mentioned before, "Stealing The Sun" is coming along nicely - I just finished remixing a short song called "No Time", featuring my voice and a number of synths from the Korg Oasys.

Craft a song of Death and Sunshine
Tell a story: Love and Moonshine

Time So Long
There's No Time

Admiration for all my foes
Abject love for your crooked smile

Time So Long
There's No Time

Every breath is Hello/Goodbye
Every word just blurs Day to Night

Time So Long
There's No Time

Secret Weapon

The Allen & Heath VF-1 1U rackmount filter has turned out to be an indispensable studio tool for me. In many ways its the best "vintage warmer" I've ever used. However, it's quite capable of a wide variety of tasks and shouldn't be pigeonholed as "just a processor for cold digital sources" - though it does that in spades!

The VF-1 can be an extremely subtle effect, maybe used just to add some phase movement, or it can be totally in-your-face with squelchy lowpass sweeps and scorching tube distortion. That said, I still wouldn't generally classify it as an "extreme" processor like say a Sherman filterbank, but more as a surgical sound-sculpting tool that is also capable of imparting a lot of warmth.

Multiple resonant filter responses are available simultaneously, including lowpass, highpass, bandpass and a really lovely all-pass for the aforementioned phase effects. Simultaneous combinations of multiple filter types are available via lighted enables on the front panel. Besides the filters, the VF-1 sports an LFO, a tube-based drive section and an Envelope Follower with flexible routing. This allows for a huge variety of sound-manipulation just using the VF-1 by itself!

Though it is very warm-sounding, it's not what I would call a "fat" or "beefy" filter, more like an extremely resonant multiband EQ with a really low-noise tube circuit built in - there is somehow a very pristine quality to the second-order tube harmonics and not a lot of "fuzz" if you get my drift - more like a high-end mic pre or DI box rather than a distortion pedal. You can get some very bold distortion if you push it but it's more often useful as a less blatent effect.

In many configurations the VF-1 can be almost "transparent" though it's hugely obvious by its absence if you go into bypass mode.

All-in-all an extremely useful tool and a very handy "secret weapon" for any electronic musician's arsenal! ;)

More info at Allen & Heath.com

Breathing Machinery

Here's my newest song, called "Breathing Machinery":

Breathing machinery  by  Carbon111

Korg Oasys does Piano and Wave Sequencing, Weird Pads are NI's Absynth and, except for some clickety bits from Digidesign's "Boom", all the Drum Sounds and Rhythm Beds were done in NI's Absynth as well. Vox is me thru a BLUE Blueberry.

Looking at you
She's not seeing anyone
Moving so strangely from the plastic and glass and rum
Sugar and spice and everything nice
- is not what you came here for
Sugar and spice and everything nice
- is that what she came here for?

She's Breathing Machinery
Feeling Machinery
She's Making Memories
Feeding Machinery

Nothing's been said
But she's the one for you
Her serial number is an impossible dream-come-true
With parts off the shelf you could have built her yourself
But where is the fun in that?
Selling bits of yourself, she'd be rolling in wealth
- and there is the fun in that

She's Breathing Machinery
Feeling Machinery
She's Making Memories
Feeding Machinery...

Spark a Reaktion...

I'm generally not a huge fan of softsynths, probably because I think most of them come across as "strident", "brittle" or "glassy-sounding" in terms of their overall timbre. Fortunately there are a few exceptions, one of which is Native Instrument's Reaktor which, depending on the instrument loaded, can sound absolutely lovely!

NI recently released a new Reaktor instrument, or "ensemble" in NI-speak, called Spark. This little gem passed completely under my radar as they marketed it more as a "sound library" for their Kore product line rather than on its own merits. Let me just say at the outset that, if you own Reaktor 5, Spark is well worth the fifty nine dollars they charge for a download.



Born from the Mind of NI's founder Stephan Schmitt, Spark is a fantastic-sounding synthesizer with a ton of character! The signal chain is eclectic even for a softsynth as the oscillator section is relatively simple in structure with much of the timbre shaping being done downstream. The tools available include a gutsy filter, a frequency shifter, an eight pole filter and multiple modulation and feedback paths.

The sounds I've gotten with this beast are both subtle and evocative. It's easy to create anything from an evolving/etheric pad to a gritty broken-guitar lead or a rubbery bass. Many of the timbres have an unusual organic feel, very unlike many other Reaktor Ensembles or stand-alone softsynths I've played.

Spark is well worth a look if you have Reaktor, maybe less so if you only have Kore or the free Kore Player as there's no direct access to the GUI, but it still may be attractive for some due to its great overall sound character.

Spark is a very welcome and unique tool amongst a vast ocean of mediocre, mostly-VA softsynths.

Clifford D. Simak's "CITY"

Back in 1981, when I was 18, I got to meet Clifford D. Simak in Denver, Colorado at the 39th Annual World Science Fiction Convention. He was an effervescent old man with an absolutely infectious smile. I didn't really know who he was or what he had written as my tastes were narrower and a little less refined in those days.

It's a shame, because at this point it's a little late in the day to thank him.

One of the first books of his I read, a few years after meeting him, was City - a novel composed of linked short stories written between 1944 and 1951. It had a very profound effect on me with its folksy robots tending the gardens of an Earth wholly deserted by Mankind, left to the by-then-sentient Dogs and of course the industrious Ants.

The richness of his characters and depth of his stories has stayed with me through the years and the palpable warmth and humanity of his words still speak to me across time and space.

Thanks Clifford, wherever you are, I drew this for you:

The New Album...

Here is the preliminary artwork for my forthcoming album of songs:



For a while the new CD was going to be called "Screaming At The Sun" but it has since evolved into "Stealing The Sun"...twisting the Northwest Indian story of Raven stealing the Moon slightly askew. ;)

I'm about three quarters of the way through production and hope to have all the music completed amd edited by the new year. Luna and Subterranean Bathers will both be present in all their uncompressed CD-quality glory as well as a Serge Modular version of "Wichita Lineman", an a-capella version of "Mother Nature's Son" and some other secret-for-now goodies.

In addition to various and sundry synthesizers, voice will feature prominantly on this release.

Further updates will be forthcoming...

Supernatural?

Natural manifestations of things like electricity and magnetism must have seemed pretty supernatural to ancient peoples.

"Supernatural" is a word with a lot of baggage. So much depends on how we define these "loaded" concepts. Take "God" for example. That could mean anything dependant on how you define it. Maybe the universe itself is in some way sentient - does that qualify as "God"? Could it affect our lives in any direct way? And if it couldn't, would it still be God? Would it matter?

Or how about "Magic"? If you define it as "causing change to occur in the physical world by the power of one's will", then the creation of a webpage could be seen as magic...I use my wand (keyboard) to create incantations (blogs) and I conjure arcane spirits (HTML) to spread them, etc.

Though I am for the most part a confirmed sceptic, I have seen and experienced some pretty weird things. I think it's healthy to reserve a shadow of a doubt for phenomena that are recurring but not currently explicable with known science. However, all observations of these phenomena should be conducted using the scientific method to keep ones "wishes and daydreams" well out of it.

Ritual, Epiphany and Mythos are extremely healthy things that, if properly directed, can help us be more completely human. Being a realist doesn't automatically mean you can't partake in the Transcendent. I know I certainly do.

For me, "supernatural phenomena" is just natural phenomena that we don't understand yet.

That doesn't mean, however, that I'll ignore scientifically demonstrable proof in lieu of "faith" - that can lead down the path of zealotry or, even worse, you could find yourself amongst a bunch of people standing in long robes in the Arizona desert...waiting for the Mothership to land. But, hey, you never know. ;)