Music/Studio

Three New Tunes

mike — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:56:07 GMT

I've posted three new tunes for your scrutiny, enjoyment, annoyance, rapture, etc:

Ely [5 MB - 5:28]
Pure sliced-beat joy on a backdrop of some soft textures.

Raising the Roof of the Lab [3.52 MB - 3:50]
The scientist lives [link]. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about this tune, but I decided to post it as a set up to the remix...

Raising the Roof of the Lab - Chemist Mix [3.71 MB - 4:03]
The scientist dances.

Songza

mike — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:53:17 GMT

Songza is a music search engine. Stream the results through your browser. Send songs to Twitter, email them to a friend, or embed results on your web site. The range of what Songza finds is just average - not a lot of rare stuff, but I love being able to click around and find other tunes/artists by accident while searching for something else. Who knew there was a 50 Cent vs. Helmet track? I didn't.

Sound illegal? You can't download the songs, and Songza pays ASCAP for the rights to stream the music. It's completely legit and free for you and me.

Here are some nice finds:

Have fun.

New Tune: Scientific Method

mike — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:34:48 GMT

Look and listen to Scientific Method.

If this tune doesn't give you a headache, then you a) aren't listening closely enough, or b) aren't listening to it loud enough. It's a beast. Drums and more drums. And then more drums.

In case you want to dig a little deeper and hear some extra stuff, here are the drum breaks used in the tune, including slowed-down versions of a couple of them for your dissecting pleasure:

Enjoy.

Music Library Hiatus

mike — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:33:43 GMT

My music library (www.kindohm.com/musiclibrary) is back online after a multi-week period of downtime. The downtime was caused by my last Subtext upgrade and I just chose to ignore the problem until today.

That being said, there are a few nuggets of musical goodness I stumbled across recently on my old music computer. I hope to upload them soon.

Sidetracked Project - Installment I

mike — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 16:50:50 GMT

Installment I of the Sidetracked Project is complete. This is the result of a two-year effort by me and Jason. Available for download are all of the mp3s, a liner notes PDF, and m3u playlists for both my and Jason's preferred listening order.

Our music leans toward the heavier end of the musical spectrum, in case you don't know what to expect. My favorite three tunes we worked on are Revenge of the Pinatas, The Missionary Song, and Empyrion. However there is plenty of other great music, including some very, very serious (</sarcasm>) stuff.

Technorati Tags: music sidetracked project mp3 rock

I got a Swish

mike — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:58:24 GMT

That's right. I finally found one of these:

I've been looking for one of these for a long, long time. Zildjian doesn't make them any more, and they've been hard to come by on eBay. I ended up winning one in an eBay auction yesterday. It's used and according to the picture it looks like it was taped up at one time, but it was also half the price of a new one. I just hope it sounds close to my old/current/cracked one.

Technorati Tags: cymbal swish zildjian crack ebay auction

Threat Precedence All Shiny and New

mike — Tue, 15 May 2007 13:01:19 GMT

If you downloaded Threat Precedence earlier this week, please download it again :) I discovered some very bad problems with the mix yesterday and just finished correcting them. If you have an old copy, I encourage you to compare the old with the new and let me know what you think. Specifically, the snare in the main break in the beginning of the tune had a lot of low-end attack, and under compression it made a very annoying low-end pop on its attack. It bugged the hell out of me. I also tweaked a few other issues to help make the arrangement a little less spazzy - without taking away from the overall aggressive tone, of course :)

tags: music electronica audio

Threat Precedence

mike — Sun, 13 May 2007 20:46:22 GMT

I've whipped out yet another new tune. I was thinking of how to describe this one, and all I could think of was this: imagine graphing a quadratic function on a TI-95 calculator, throwing the calculator into a garbage disposal and obliterating it while fending off someone attacking you with a knife.

Or something.

Threat Precedence 5:37 5.14 MB [direct download]

tags: music electronica audio flstudio aggression

Spring Drum

mike — Wed, 02 May 2007 18:34:32 GMT

Neil and I took a brief diversion after lunch and went over to Groth Music today. Groth is a great because they carry a lot of other stuff than just mainstream gear (ala Guitar Center). Anyway, I picked up a couple of egg shakers, and also one of these:

Spring Drum

It's a "spring drum", a.k.a "thunder drum". I'd never seen these before. The funny part was that I tried to flex my musicologist musicles and tried to convince Neil that it was a "cuica". The next thing I knew, Neil figured out what it really was and started making some cool sounds with it. Next time someone asks me about drum lessons, I'm sending them to Neil

To play it, you just hold the drum (which could also just be called a tube) so that the spring hangs down, and quickly shake the drum. It sounds like friggin thunder, or a gong roll, or something. You can also move your hand over the top to vary the sound.

Very cool stuff. The spring drum is exactly the bizarre type of thing I was looking for. Thanks for driving, Neil!

A "cuica". Not to be confused with a "spring drum".

tags: music drum weird spring

Seven Simultaneous Tracks

mike — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:51:00 GMT

Check this out:

A simultaneous mix of the seven tracks from the Basic album.

Enjoy. Or run away. You have been warned.

tags: music weird noise basic