A new film from Bobcat. I think he’s awesome, and getting better (via Dutchman, without his endorsement):

Republican presidential heaving always gives me a similar sense of epic bleakness.

Here is a test of a bunch of different new techniques, particularly band-filtering instrument tracks. The bass is sharply attenuated above 1khz, while the piano lead has the same done, below 1khz. This carves out a sense of space in the mix and helps it gel — neither sound interferes with the other. The structure is the simplest, most straightforward I could think of at the time that would get me to 64 bars. A maj / F# min, 140 bpm.

Here is the same with heavy sim-vinyl distortion:

Thanks to Dutchman.

My book club is reading How to Wreck a Nice Beach, on the history of the vocoder. One of my compatriots DJs for CBC Radio 3, and put together this YouTube playlist of vocoder tunes:

New drum kit, new processing techniques. Still much room for improved sythesis. Thinking about just lifting samples, but there’re a million things to try first. This section would be the build-up to the first drop, and would have a 16 bar drum lead-in before it. Might have to get bigger tho, depends on the song.

The bass should be warmer, I guess. It just keeps coming out cold and evil >:)

[Update:] Here is the same arrangement, but I designed a new algorithm for generating snare timings which should be more believably human (ie, funkier):

Here’s a friend of a friend bending some circuit. This contraption won a couple grand in free equipment from Moog:

Copyright Criminals is an hour-long doc about sampling and the art thereof. Here it is in its entirety:

Some points: one) Gilbert O’Sullivan didn’t sue Biz Markie, the company to which he assigned his copyright did, two) the film should have been CC licensed — it’s something of an artfail that it’s not, three) the bit where Saul Williams talks about sampling in trip hop has been continually blowing my mind — Bjork becomes even more of a weird Icelandic half-elf, four) sampling is clearly art and making it illegal is clearly wrong-headed, if not outright racist.

Today I (largely) finished The Dance Music Manual, a big textbook on how electronic dance music is produced, from math and physics through machinery and software to psychoacoustics, aesthetics, and culture:

Although both these genres are still produced and played in clubs to this day, the increased popularity of 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA or “E”) amongst clubbers inevitably resulted in new forms of trance being developed. Since this pharmaceutical stimulates serotonin levels in the brain, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to place clubbers into states of trance with tribal rhythms, and instead the melodies became more and more exotic, slowly taking precedence over every other element in the mix.

The book is hilariously written in parts — the author makes no distinction between the words “subsequently” and “consequently”, for example — and so it requires some interpretation to really understand. The included CD, while not required, is interesting listening if you want to hear tracks being built and instruments being synthesized.

It’s rare that I run into a book which is perfectly suited to my competence in a subject. Most are too simple, some are too complex. This book provided me with exactly what I needed, including the first-ever cogent argument I’ve heard against weed: since weed makes music better, don’t smoke it while learning to compose — it’ll impair your critical faculties.

I need to start working on song structure, so here’s another test track. Publish or perish.

It also includes my attempt at a simple (1st inversion) C-maj bass line with an equally-simple A-min lead chord progression. The lead is gated, Trance-style, and everything is gain pumped to hell and back. I need to work on the mix and stereo image.

[I think my music theory needs work too -- shit sounds flat.]

“Sampling Soul” is a Duke University lecture discussing Illmatic and its effects on hip hop culture.

I’ve been listening to Sublime quite a bit — Everything Under the Sun — and in, I think, the Westwood One Interview Bradley talks a bit about their influences: “anything from the Ariwa Sounds label”. So I started listening to that — I think the label is trying to position itself as the roots of dubstep or something. Anyway.

Here’s a good mix of early 90s digidub, and here is a 100 song YouTube playlist of Macka B tunes, which are pretty great. I think I just heard a sample Tupac used! Here’s his song about being Vegan:

As a practising Rastafarian, Macka B’s music is based around the political and spiritual message of the religion, with an often light and humorous touch. Working with the Mad Professor, he combined dancehall and dub styles of reggae, although has avoided a more commercial crossover approach. He takes his name from the Judean rebels against the Romans, the Maccabees.