Matt Disapprov.es

Minute of Music: Pivot

Mon, 31 May 2010 12:01:37 -0400

It appears that it’s time to stop posting music for a little while. The project started to get me thinking about music and writing music regularly, and that it did. However, I want units of music more than a minute now, and the self-imposed push to have something to publish is causing me to make progressively worse tracks — and lately, to make no tracks at all. It’s also preventing me from exploring creative avenues like sound and synth design, as I wouldn’t have anything to post, and I have a strong desire to post. So, the routine I tried to use to get me to write more music now has me writing less music, and that means it’s time to push pause — or more, to invert the rule that I publish what I produce and tell myself not to publish what I produce. The interesting lesson, to me, is that a good routine can be creatively liberating for a while and then become creatively stifling, and the important thing is to know when that’s happened.

I shot some pictures of my setup for automating a mechanical...

Sat, 29 May 2010 12:07:36 -0400

I shot some pictures of my setup for automating a mechanical typewriter. The servo macro is my favorite, but they’re all pretty nice (slideshow below):

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. But apparently, after...

Fri, 28 May 2010 14:58:37 -0400

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. But apparently, after not writing any music for several weeks, my sonic self took revenge. This won’t be the last track you hear from me this weekend.

yourlifeisshowing: Of course I noticed this while worrying...

Mon, 10 May 2010 22:36:23 -0400

yourlifeisshowing:

Of course I noticed this while worrying about something ;)

I shot macros this afternoon downtown. Several came out nicely....

Sat, 01 May 2010 17:42:42 -0400

I shot macros this afternoon downtown. Several came out nicely. Check out the whole set (a whopping five).

This is very much a draft of a song — I have a bunch of clips...

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:40:20 -0400

This is very much a draft of a song — I have a bunch of clips recorded in live that I arranged pretty roughly into a typical verse/chorus combo.

On the downside, it’s not really smooth, it’s missing bridges and transitions, and the only real mixing I did was to drop a master compresser on it.

On the upside, I write it to be playable by three people, it uses drums sequenced on the kaossilator, and the guitar comes from my neat new PRS semi-hollow. I have some ideas for lyrics bouncing around, so hopefully this comes back more fully realized before too long.

Tech Tuesday: Virtual Worlds

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:10:19 -0400

Tech Tuesday: Virtual Worlds:

On of my favorite former professors, Matt Kirschenbaum, was on Kojo talking about the archival challenges of video games. It’s a fun listen.

Having fallen off the music-making wagon because life just got...

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:48:59 -0400

Having fallen off the music-making wagon because life just got too busy, I decided I needed to take this project less seriously for a minute. Thankfully, nothing kicks you back into fun mode like the kaossilator. I recorded it into Record, used some of the built in processing to make the sound a little richer, and here’s a 1 minute dance track like I used to post.

This is almost unbelievably geeky, but it’s also really...

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:01:47 -0400

This is almost unbelievably geeky, but it’s also really neat that someone built the machine and that it works so well.

A Turing Machine - Overview (via therealmdavey)

This may be the deepest bass tone I’ve gotten so far —...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:45:42 -0500

This may be the deepest bass tone I’ve gotten so far — that part I’m very happy with. The guitar parts could use some work, and the mix itself is pretty rough, but I mostly just wanted to get my ideas down; we’re planning to rework this one for vocals over the next week or two. It should be interesting to see how it comes out.

This track is more like my stuff I had been doing in reason and...

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:53:23 -0500

This track is more like my stuff I had been doing in reason and record. It was fun to put together, but I don’t feel like it really gels as a song; several of the parts make me happy, but they just don’t play together correctly. But, maybe I’ll be able to reuse some of the ideas.

Koan: The Buddha is a street trashcan. Discuss.

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:38:21 -0500

Koan: The Buddha is a street trashcan. Discuss.

I moved to Hoth

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:51:26 -0500

I moved to Hoth

It’s been a whole year! The format of my Minutes of Music...

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:17:35 -0500

It’s been a whole year! The format of my Minutes of Music has evolved quite a bit (this one is more like two minutes), but I keep loving doing it, and I’m so glad to have the opportunity. I’m hoping in the coming year that these can move from “whatever I can manage to put out in time” to “sketched for a coherent album of music.”

As for this one specifically, I’m starting to really love playing guitar, and I think this reflects that. We’ve got vocals again, only this time I didn’t write the lyrics, which feels like an improvement.

There’s not a ton to say about this one; it’s not...

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:20:49 -0500

There’s not a ton to say about this one; it’s not one of my favorites. I mostly was playing with the new synths I’ve got, trying to get a feeling for what they could sound like. I think after doing a whole song, and with a good deal going on at work, I’m running a little dry on creative juice. But, hopefully by the end of the month, I’ll be back on my game.

Hello, Mr. Zebra (via MattBowen)

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:05:57 -0500

Hello, Mr. Zebra (via MattBowen)

Photo

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:53:21 -0500

It’s a full song! Not just a minute of music, but nearly...

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:23:53 -0500

It’s a full song! Not just a minute of music, but nearly six minutes of music, with multiple verses and everything.

The lyrics veer surprisingly (if you know me well) close to praise music, but that’s not the intention; they’re inspired by a visionary art installation, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, which is a 180-piece collection of objects made for the second coming by WWII veteran James Hampton. Hampton spent 14 years making the throne room out of old furniture, cardboard, craft paper, and foil; it’s really quite moving — if you’re in DC, go to the American Art museum in Chinatown and give it a look. We wanted to be respectful, so I wrote from what I hope is an empathetic position.

The music was put together in Ableton Live, using Absynth, Battery, and Guitar Rig from Native Instruments’s Komplete 6; AAS’s String Studio; me on guitar and bass; and my regular mystery vocalist. The mix is not perfect, but it’s as close as I’m going to get it any time soon; I figure I’m going to be revisiting several of these later once I have a large collection of songs anyway. I hope people enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed writing it; it has pretty much made my last few weeks to work on it.

I saw these guys with Sharon Jones and the Dapkings at the 9:30...

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:35:37 -0500

I saw these guys with Sharon Jones and the Dapkings at the 9:30 club last night, and they were all excellent.

FITZ & The Tantrums “Breakin’ The CHains Of Love” Live Performance (via chynahblue)

via www.futureofmusicbook.com

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:19:24 -0500

via www.futureofmusicbook.com