The Stupidest Sound I Made Today

Yep, that's it basically.

Crazy old acid house

Humanoid (via the great blog Digital Tools)

Really need to listen to more crazy old acid house...I have definitely been considering how much more interesting dance music was when there were less rules.

Monitoring Low

For various reasons I've been trying to bring my monitoring volume down recently. I've actually really started enjoying it - but it takes a lot of getting used to. As always, A/Bing helps: I'm planning on sticking with it for a while.

I know that this is better for me which is the most important thing, but I'm wondering if it has affected my mixing in the past. Highs always seem accentuated at higher volume, so it may have led to the slight dullness my older mixes possessed. Everything on Module, for example, does sound a bit flat to me now, but high frequency content is so divisive.

Take trance for example - there is such a huge divide in the masters of someone like Orjan Nilson and the more recent Ferry stuff in terms of highs. Orjan's Last Pluck remix is full of screaming hi-hats, whereas something like Radio Crash sounds completely dull in comparison.

Compare:


Ferry Corsten - Radio Crash


Marcus Schossow - The Last Pluck (Orjan Nilsen Remix)

I'm still not entirely sure which side of this debate I'm on. Obviously there's the old "hard limiting" debate going on here, but I'm wary of too many highs in my stuff at the moment. I think I will be working on warming things up, but I do think it's telling that so many of the top labels are blasting their stuff so hard. Maybe harsher sounding stuff will always be more popular, and it'll only be the musos who are continually advocating trimming 8.5k?

Anyway, to return to the point, quieter monitoring will hopefully lead to a bit more refinement in my mixes. Anyone out there got an opinion on monitoring volume?

Player down

The website player is down currently - it's out of my control as it's hosted by Soundcloud, but it should return shortly.

Hello World

I just received a complaint that comments are off by default on most of my posts. Comments are now on so you can, er, interact with me.

So yes, comment away...

Lo to the hi

Currently, I'm working on Big Unannounced Remix #1 and I've got a good start. I'm trying a lot of new stuff with it - some of it will probably creep into a Computer Music article out in a couple of months. At the moment, I'm experimenting with using more distortion, bit-crushing and lo-fi effects within trance: it's hard to balance out this more gritty sound with the smoothness that uplifting stuff requires.

Bit Crushing

I've always used a lot of bit crushing stuff: way back when I was doing Module I used the Yamaha A4000's bit reduction effect on almost everything. Now I use Live's Redux plugin, which I can definitely recommend, but I'd consider looking further afield.

I'd like to get some samples out of my Gameboy and put them into a useable form, but I might just wait for Plogue Chip Sounds: pretty excited about that. I did think about buying a HardSID earlier this week but I've gotta save some cash at the moment.

Distortion

I had a conversation with Ville about Live's Saturator earlier this week - I've never really been a big fan. My current distortion plugin of choice is Ohmforce Predatohm - it's a real beast with a lot of exciting sound design potential.

Zoom

I really feel like things are taking off for me at the moment. I've got another track out on Future State in a few months, a remix for Ville Lope that I put a lot of work into out soon, two remixes I can't talk about yet, and one for a cool upcoming UK artist. Once all of those are done, I'll have enough for a decent promo mix and I should be able to get out and gigging again.

This year is when I try to take things to the next level and it's started with a bang.

Leon Bolier - Master of Twiddling

I know it's really old hat now, but I can't get Ye out of my head. That's not a medieval Kylie song, it's a reference to this:



An astonishing record with a nice crispy tone to it. Mr Bolier has his very own style which is always admirable in this day and age.

Are you a citizen of the world (America) and do you like television?

[This post is completely endorsed by http://www.directsattv.com and by the letter "mu".]

If this happens to be the case then the powers that be of this universe are literally compelling
you to visit DirectSatTV. I'm utterly unsure as to what DirecTV is, but it is apparently some kind of terrifying service for transmitting images into your home.

Just what these images might be is obviously up to you. Well, I suppose it could be up to you if, after you take up one of their DirecTV offers, you still consider that jabbing at a remote control with your stubby finger is some kind of self-expression.

Personally, my television watching is currently largely confined to ludicrous pap like Gordon Ramsay, so I have no need for anything other than terrestrial. There's generally always something completely pointless on, and that's me sorted. Oh, and Krypton Factor, but that's awesome.

There is definitely a culture of having billions of channels in the US - it migrated here slightly with Sky. I've exploited someone else's Sky service quite recently, and believe me when I tell you that I ended up watching Derek Acorah's Ghost Towns, which can't be a good thing.

Anyway, let's have one final look at the DirectSatTV site...


I would say with reasonable certainty that, if you don't apply for discount DirecTV with DirectSatTV immediately, ten thousand tons of misfortune will undoubtedly land on your doorstep like a cartoon anvil. Not only that, but this smiling lady will stop grinning and turn into some kind of fearsome blob creature, flailing her appendages, leering and making this noise: "BAAAARRRRR".



[We now return to your regularly scheduled nervoustestpilot.co.uk]

Imaginary Cities: Support from Adymus on the Enhanced Recordings Radio Show

US DJ and producer Adymus dropped Imaginary Cities right between one of his own tracks, and Nitrous Oxide's "Show Me" on Will Holland's show yesterday. Flattered!

Imaginary Cities

My track Imaginary Cities has been released by Future State Records.

Remixes are by:

Suncatcher
DJ ReOrder
Paul Allen

So far, it's had support from the following extremely talented and famous DJ's:

Pedro Del Mar
Andy Moor
Che Armstrong
ReOrder
John Wright
Faruk Sabanci

You can pick it up at these fantastic musical outlets for an extremely reasonable sum of money:

Audiojelly
DJTunes
Trackitdown
Juno Download

Thanks to Andy Tau for getting this out there - I'm hoping it'll be the first of many releases from me this year.