[23.2.07] Realtime interview

My interview with Samara Mitchell for the Feb/March issue of Realtime/Onscreen magazine has just been published, you can read it here.

[15.2.07] Rocks audio problems fixed

The hosting problems regarding the pebble music audio has been temporarily fixed. The main problem is with Geocities in general, whom I've received free hosting from for the past five years. However, as this blog and the external pages are extending into the breach of (shock horror) 21st century media such as downloadable audio, I will have to purchase a sizable domain before too long.

Rocks, Mouth and Delay #1 > all files are roughly 1MB in size.-*

To read a brief description about the piece scroll down to the Rocks, Mouth and Delay post, or click here.

• Part one audio
  
• Part two audio
  
• Part three audio
  

Also, regarding the Milkcrate audio (see previous post), these audio files may have now been moved by the the site administrator and may be unavailable at present. When I find some time over the next couple of days I will attempt to post these on the Geocities server, though due to space constraints these audio files will have to be kept to 30 second excerpts.

[5-6.2.07] Milkcrate 13 + audio

It's 4:15am and we're not even halfway yet...

That's right, I'm doing my first 24 hour Milkcrate session in over a year at Seb and Lauren's around the corner from where I live. I won't tire you with the details of the sessions (click the above link if you're curious), but I thought I'd run over some observations that I've had so far regarding the creative process.

For the first time in a session I'm not using a computer to edit soundfiles. This is a deliberate choice as I've wanted to see how the creative process would be affected if I started taking away accurate visual representations of sound (such as wave form editors.) Because I'm only using a minidisc player and my old 4-track tape machine (as well as a digital delay stompbox), I've found that the change has been quite dramatic, resulting in a more linier process. It's my impression that the visual cues that I've removed from my usual process (though useful in many ways) are interruptions, presenting any number of options, directions and tangents to shoot off in. I'm thinking of this from the perspective of branch growth - I would much rather a simple branch structure as opposed to something sprouting out in all directions. This economical approach encourages a discipline of sorts - since this process is bound by the limited capabilities and inherent flaws of the technology, I'm required to concentrate more on how I wan't something to sound before I start work on it, rather than nitpicking it as I go (I find the latter is a destructive and petty way of going about things.)

Anyway, enough Eno-esque babble, I'm going to make another coffee and get back to before a brief nap as the sun comes up.

You can listen to three of my tracks so far from the Milkcrate ftp server (click links below.)

BTW, if the audio sounds a bit murky/crackly/poppy, that's all part of the old skool aesthetic - ya dig dawgs? ;)

Signals in a Snowstorm (2.5 MB)
Radio In Fog (With Strangers) (4.4 MB)
Swarm (4.5 MB)

[2.2.07] Rocks, Mouth and Delay #1 mp3

Here's the first of my little forays into rock music :). I have recorded myself playing rocks by cupping a flat one in my palm and striking in with another. I can control the resonance of the struck rock by putting my cupped hand up to my mouth, by opening and closing my mouth I can control the resonance and respective pitch of the sound. On this recording I have recorded two tracks of myself playing the rocks to my Tascam 424, then upon playback I routed a digital delay effect send and altered the delay time and feedback settings in realtime. It does sound a little bit clunky, but should give a fair representation of this technique, the delay is used to make the process a bit more interesting.

Rocks, Mouth, Delay #1.mp3