15.8.11. New Synthesizer Purchase, and near-future music ideas

I bought another synth and am just waiting for it to arrive. I bought the Akai MiniAK after seeing a friend, himself quite an accomplished ‘experimental music’ composer, get quite delighted after purchasing one. I’m also exploring a new collaborative electronic music project, possibly quite club oriented, that may also do some live shows in the future. For myself, I’m interested in doing this without a computer. My laptop is getting quite aged and I don’t have the desire (or funds), yet, to replace the studio iMac with a Macbook Pro that could venture out on occasion while retaining the master keys for my suite of software. Granted, with my software suite, I could do pretty amazing things, but I’m more of a tweaker here than a performer.

I’ve been interested in getting a keyboard synth for a while now. I have a keyboard USB MIDI controller and in theory I could just attach it to my Korg MS2000BR rack mountable module. I have no power adapter for this controller (it prefers USB power and I haven’t bothered looking for an AC adapter for it), and the MS2000BR is cool, but the two pieces of gear together are a bit beefy.

I’ve considered the microKORG, partially for its kitsch value, partially because it is an interesting synth. But it’s essentially the MS2000BR in a toy-ish package, and I already have that engine in a more complete synth. Since I haven’t done much programming with the MS2000BR, I sometimes wish I had bought the microKORG instead. Then again, the programming that I have done with the MS2000BR has produced some nice results.

Recently, after revisiting some half-finished electronic experiments from the past few years, I started reconsidering getting the Alesis Micron. I like the Micron’s visual design and found its sounds interesting, although a bit too clean. The sounds can be easily dirtied up with the plethora of noise gear and MoogerFoogers and Metasonix modules I already have. Then I noticed that the Micron was disappearing from various online resellers, and appeared to have been discontinued. Still, after my friend’s MiniAK purchase and in light of my other desires, I came very close to buying a Micron…

Until I found out that the MiniAK is essentially a re-packaged Micron, with a sturdier Akai Pro body and a (silly) emphasis on the vocoder. I like my MPC500 and plan to have it at the center of whatever the hell I’m building out here.

I guess I finally have to learn (and learn to like) MIDI. I’ve got plenty of disparate pieces, just need to put them together. MS2000BR, MPC500, Electribe EMX-1, and now MiniAK. Plus all my pedals and little analog bits.

And I have my eye on getting a Dave Smith module or two. I’ve been fascinated with the Evolver for a while, and the Mo’Pho and Tetra are pretty damn cool. My big analog modular plan can wait a little while longer.

15.2.11. Dead SCSI Bits

Some time ago, there was a cool audio project hosted by Radiantslab called DeadSCSI. And there was also DeadSCSI 2. It all appears to be gone now, but there is at least some information available in the wayback machine. I contributed in both rounds as Eucci.

When Ergo Phizmiz recently tweeted a link to this page of failing hard drive sounds, it got me thinking about my bits of the DeadSCSI project that I had laying around on my studio drobo. I spent some of saturday doing some lightweight remastering. Early Eucci, where I abused the computer like I used to abuse tape, is pretty rough in its output quality. Levels are just all over the place. DC Offset lingers here and there. It's a mess. But there are some pretty spectrum graphs.

Last night I uploaded the tracks to my Rive collection on archive.org and cut a release as rive 058.

What is mildly interesting about this is that although all of the tracks were re-finalized on Saturday, I didn't upload them until last night. It was a process I was starting to put off, remembering that I needed to name the files properly, upload them, enter metadata, and make a web page on euc.cx. Not that big of a deal, really, but big enough to put off until tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

Last night, when I got home from work and after I had walked the dog (enjoying some unseasonal warmth before winter makes its fierce return later this week), I was thinking about what to do from that moment until dinner. I was starting to get ready to play the excellent Red Dead Redemption, but I knew I had to cut this release. Then I remembered something Merlin Mann said in the first or second episode of the Back To Work podcast. He basically said that it's easy to complain about needing time or certain circumstances in order to work on something, but that we don't complain about needing that time or certain circumstances to play video games, and we sure as hell can sit there and play a video game for an hour. It feels like a shame to have to be reminded of this ridiculousness, but it's something I apparently need to remember constantly. So instead of playing Red Dead for an hour, I spent the time preparing the release. It took a little bit longer than expected and the dog was getting impatient towards the end. But overall it was a nice use of that time.

There are many more releases to come, including some new material.

 

27.1.11. Sunhil Intentions for 2011

As announcing one's intentions is the simplest way of hearing God laugh, I'm planning on doing the following for Eucci and AODL this year: it's time to finish cleaning out the back catalog. Whether this is a coda at the end or the beginning of the next phase for both projects is uncertain. I just know that it's time to stop letting these unreleased pieces hold me back. Yes, I'd like for some of them to be released in beautiful physical form, and some might still be so. But chances are that most of them will be released online, for free. The candidates are:

Eucci

• Pachyderm (1994) - Tape collage, and really the first proper 'Eucci' recording where the early style really came together. Meant to be on tape, but it's long (45 minutes) and I could never find a satisfactory b-side.
• Star City (1996-1999) - mid-era electroacoustics and musique concrete, some for radio programs.
• Apt (2004) - unreleased sounds for an empty apartment in the world's last perfect spring.
• Like The City, We're Bound To Last (2000-2009) - Spans some of the earliest Eucci (2000), mid-era (2004) and some late-era work (2007-2009).

AODL

• Fans of Flesh and Textured Wrecks (2004-2007) - the most likely to get a proper vinyl release. Long form dark AODL, most of it in special live broadcast performances.

Maybe

• Eucci, "Because 1999 Needs an Enemy" - very limited edition tape from a bad start to the year. Of interest, mostly, as it is the direct ancestor of AODL. It was the first experiments in doing feedback loops of effect pedals, and using those as the only sound source.