Two similar views of the studio

Mini-disc redux

The other weekend I realised that my neglected mini-disc player still works perfectly fine. I've been making some quiet filed recordings since then with the intention of doing something with them eventually. But in the meantime it's nice to be out and about listening closely to windmills, rain and a multitude of drones.

Vinyl redux

It was in part the presence of Jeck that made me buy a new turntable, but frankly I think I'm making a reversion to recordings of dusty ether and grizzled analog. It's a Sound Research DJ1600m, about 5 years old, a good needle and belt drive. I found it in a pawn store down the road for $170, and the nice folks threw in a couple of vinyls of my choice - Bowie's Let's Dance and Emmy Lou Harris' Luxury Liner. Score!

This week is vinyl only, I don't know how I lived without it for the past three years.

A fine booty

Thanks to Michael Yuen for giving me a horde of equipment (matched speakers, cables, knick knacks) for free! Of course I felt obliged to give him $40 for the cables.

[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)