frosty travells

This is an “introspective” entry being posted from the back of Stuck Lucky’s van en route to the homestead after a show in GA.

In between fussing and feeling like I should have more things accomplished (”songs or it didn’t happen”), after a day outside of my normal routine doing something fun I usually tend to feel better about things in general. Not such an unusual thing when I think about it, but it often takes something like travelling out of town for a show to really get a chance to ponder shit.

I have become so obsessed with obtaining knowledge it sometimes gets in the way of having something physical to show for it. I’ve spent a good chunk of time recently working out the kinks of sending MIDI to my PC from my standard setup, and integrating it in a way that is practical. The idea is to have multiple VSTi’s on the PC being triggered via sequences done in a typical Logic session, with the audio being routed to the inputs on my interface through the console. So far so good, but right now I’m using a shitty $12 USB – MIDI cable, which has an ungodly amount of latency (about half a second) so I’m trying to figure out the best workaround for that, which is probably going to involve shifting the entire sequences earlier as necessary and just earballing it. Gross. A temporary workaround until I can get a decent midi interface for my shit PC, which will finally be serving an invaluable purpose as a VST host.

So many fucking awesome free VST instruments that exist, this had to be done. Shortly after I got this working for the most part, I went on a downloading rampage and grabbed no less than 30 instruments to mess around with (all legally free- suck oneeeeeeeeeee!!!!!11).

On a related note: without even really trying, and simply discovering the elements and techniques that are involved in the mixing process, my mixes are coming out better and better, even though I have no music yet that I have fully mixed.

I don’t and probably never will understand the satisfaction that the average-to-above-average audio engineer gets out of recording other peoples music, but I can certainly appreciate having a bad ass mix of something. I think this satisfaction goes double for someone (me) having created a piece if music from the ground up and having a bad ass mix of it; I’m excited to be using my console to try and mix some of my own stuff, and also to try and bang out some songs so I have stuff to try and mix.

As I have found myself starting several Eurobeat songs and not satisfied that they are working, I have color-coded the project folders and set them aside on my recording drive . One of my main bitchgripes is that I don’t have enough RDE material to form a set with which to play live, which I still really want to do, and every few months hear of the perfect opportunity to do so. But during this euro-writers block I am going to take the opportunity to realize 2 different projects I’ve been wanting to work on- RUTHEFORD: stereotypical-pop-punk-meets-dragonforce, and INFECTED WOUNDS: stereotypical mid-tempo deathmetal (i.e. Putrid Pile, Prostitute Disfigurement, Cannibal Corpse). Also somewhere in the midst of this, with very little effort I will release the second LUNGHAMMER album, with similar concepts and feel to the first, but actually better-written songs.

Grab the first from www.skrowmedia.com, I didn’t advertise this in any way or tell anyone about it, but now I am.

More later, I’m excited about my next entry which will be a list of things I hate.

international super hits

I feel like I start almost every entry with “been awhile/long time no update/etc” but I realize this is a poor approach to anything. So starting with the entry after this one, or even with this one if you don’t count that last sentence, I’m not doing that anymore. Take THAT.

Today marks the day of success for me as a producer and a songwriter. “Dance on Fire” and “Blue Sky” have been picked up by Akyrmusic Italy, and are released on a compilation of Eurobeat, Hypertechno, and Trance, via iTunes and Juno Download. If you are reading this and thinking “LOL WHERE DO I GET THEM????”, you can make your way to myspace.com/rainbowdragoneyes for direct links to the album. Some really awesome stuff on there too.

Not bad for a gaijin like me.

As the year draws to a close, I think about all the stuff I said I wanted to do/learn/accomplish at the beginning…. I’ve not done most of it but all in all I think I’ve done pretty well: a gameboy ep released on a decent netlabel, 2 eurobeat songs released on an Italian label, some new gear (ooh.. new paragraph go!) and some good times with the band (along with some bullshit, which needs not mentioning at this time).

Gear:
Soundcraft Spirit 16×8- my first analog console lolololol!!!11 I’ts been fun figuring out IRL signal flow, and I can’t wait to start doing some mixes with it.

I got a slammin deal on this, from some super cool dude for whom I am now doing some producer-type work. Also included was a rack with 2 patchbays, a headphone amp, and a shload of snakes and cables. Good times. Everything’s all set up for the most part, but I’m still figuring out all the kinks and how to work the whole deal together.

I’m working on a number of things at the moment, not the least of which is the Rainbowdragoneyes album “Most Extreme Ultimate Thunder,” which should be 10 or so tracks of the familiar RDE eurobeat sound.

We’ll see what happens in the next two months or so. If you read this, rock on.

four on the floor

RDE has submitted a gameboy track (”tila_en_stereo”) for an independent film entitled “four on the floor,” a documentary of sorts about exciting Nashville music. I’m not in the movie, rather on the supplementary soundtrack. Check it out here:

www.extraordinaryfilmproject.com

The premier is being hosted at Watkins college on the 13th, and press has been on 102.9 the local buzz, to name a few. Check the link for more infoez.

upload complete

K well, to start things off, I am enjoying my new blackberry mobile communication and cellular telephone with data services device. Really helps me stay connected when I’m on the go. I’m on the go a lot, and I can relate to other people on the go, particularly when I’m on the go myself. Currently I am blogging on the go. The go is a fun place to be.

I wrote an entry a week or two ago, but I didn’t publish it because the normal wordpress site doesn’t load on my device.. But I have since discovered the mobile-friendly version of the site allowing me to update more often, especially when I should be working.

Last month I wrote a eurobeat song (”Love Is On The Way”) that has gained the interest of a most venerable producer-type. Very exciting news, and I’m anxious to see where it goes and where it takes me. I have been continuing to write several more in that never-changing-but-always-effective format, which will eventually lead to an online store of RDE jams.

I have my first gameboy release planned for next month, entitled “Super Eurobit vol. 1.” It will include 5 songs, 3 of which have been posted to the 8bc.org page for awhile and 2 of which have been featured on micromusic.net. I figured it time to re-record and master all of them to form a consistent-sounding EP. Artwork has been posted to the Rainbowdragoneyes m-space as well as 8bc.

under construction

newest updates are as follows:

Inferi album coming along very very well. The mixes are sounding better and better, but unfortunately we have run out of the time we had booked.. so we have to somehow work with the engineer’s super booked-up schedule to finish the last song and touch-ups on other songs… therefore it will not be finished in the time we were planning on, which is just as well because it can only get better. Most of my portion of the work is done, so I’m looking forward to getting my life back to work on music and website and other assorted treats. I hope to be churning out quite a bit of stuff for a good while.

To celebrate, I completed and uploaded “tila_en_stereo” today, which I started months ago and never finished do to time constraints, so I found time in the bathroom at work to get most of it done (at least an entire verse was done on the toilet???). It’s an LSDj tune with lots of stereo things happening. During the composing of this song, I discovered the copy/paste shortcut. Man I wish I knew about this earlier.

/hhhhhhhhhh

let the editings begin

Last night, I began the biggest project I’ve yet worked on, and that is being responsible for all of the edits on Inferi’s album. I bought a legit (yes, legit) copy of protools from the digi website specifically for this purpose so now I have protools as well. So far so good, I can’t seem to run more than 32 tracks with an Mbox but apart from that no major issues, my hard drive and macbook seem to be keeping up just fine.

Still no word on tours, then again we’ve had all of our heads into completing the album and pretty much avoiding all other human contact so I don’t expect we’ll know anything until all of this is over with.

Work has become all the more dreary as it continues to suck the life out of me and take up far too much more time than I would like out of my day. I’ve been diligently plugging away at designing a website for myself to hopefully have up and running at least in a beta stage by July (my deadline for completing as many projects as possible).

clarity, consistency, conciseity(?), cx5m

Tonight I realized what I bring to the table in terms of a website for myself…. I’m really no good at graphic design whatsoever, having below-average skills even on MS paint, however it is my duty to put together a nice, clean, simple yet elegant HTML page with minimal graphics.

Where others have intricate flash (or non-flash) sites, I have an OCD-level neatness with page layouts, text size and content, etc. I feel I can make an effective impact on someone with proper HTML formatting and a real well-organized site for myself. It needs to happen, and realistically it is the only way it will end up happening [with HTML].

It has been my experience that if you wish something to be done, the only real way to get it done is to do it yourself. Anytime I think of anything for people to outsource for me (graphics, web pages, etc) I lose interest because I can’t describe it well enough, nor do I even know what I really want in the first place (thusly making it even more difficult).

Also my motivation to complete various projects has skyrocketed, as Inferi have collectively signed what is known as a “recording contract” on wednesday evening – for the record: 3/12/08.

I hate to cover 2 completely different topics in a single entry, but a friend loaned me a Yamaha CX5M which I may end up buying for 20 bucks or so. I don’t know a whole lot about these computers but I found some awesome resources with an abundance of info on them…. and if it has the SPG-05 as opposed to the -01 sound bank, I will most certainly be using it as a MIDI tone module. If it turns out that it does not, I believe there is a way to upgrade it which is something I will try and look into for the future.

Not sure if anyone is reading this [blog] yet, but then again not sure I really want to promote it yet. I still don’t know how this whole operation works, how people find out about other peoples’ things other than word of mouth. Maybe that is in fact how. Overuse of parenthesis in this entry. Drop me a line if you have something fun to say, I’ve got some interesting things going on over here.

fun with wagons

Yet another late night for me.. so far, I have:

• bounced down the song for which I will be tracking vocals over tomorrow
• started to write the lyrics for the last of the RDEEP songs but neatly set it aside after the first verse
• fixed my printer
• cracked open and dented the 6502 program manual (only 700 more pages to go!)
• set up appropriate pages for RDE over at 8bitcollective and last.fm

new things, new happenings.

my witty title didn’t show up

for the post preceding this one, it was supposed to be “<ol><li><li><li><li>” and I tried to edit/fix put was denied by WordPress. Next time I see him I’m punching him in the face

HTMeLL JOWKES LAWL

I promised myself I would update/post a new entry today, so this is the last thing I do before I turn in for the evening, and I’m covering a lot of ground here so pay attention:::::

0. Eurobeat is magical. Anyone who disagrees is wrong. There is so much to learn just by listening, and so much to listen to you can’t possibly catch it all the first time around. Luckily, there are about a thousand million billion Eurobeat songs, and still in production, albeit losing a bit of steam!!?? So unfortunate ((( I wish [more] Americans could appreciate perfection like this. Its what got me into doing dance music, and I wouldn’t have it any other way at this point.

1. Is “techno” the “give-up” genre for remixing? I listen to a lot of great remixes, video game covers mostly.. there is a whole community dedicated to this idiom of music. And though I absolutely loathe the term “techno” as it sounds so n00bish and general, it seems people who aren’t even really into it are making it. Which is cool, by all means, and this is kind of hard to word properly– but it seems like a song should at least sound like something instead of just “having a techno beat.” There are also a thousand million billion videogame remixes, and a lot of it is really really diverse and with the exception of the primary theme/melody, completely different than the original. That is the essence of a successfully well-executed remix. Don’t get me wrong, of course I love a good dance or “techno” remix, but do the song justice and give it some depth, some character. Not just four-on-the-floor and whiny, thin synth lines.

2. Programming 101 – I have decided to delve into programming first by learning the architecture and assembly code of the 6502 microprocessor. I’m well aware of the detail and length of this process, but if I can make a simple .nes rom within the coming months I will be more than happy with myself. I decided on this chip instead of a more lucrative language than, say, C or Python, for several reasons:: not the least of which is the desire to release NES cart albums in the future.. but also because it is an old chip, and I think it makes sense (at least to me) to start with something old and then work my way up from there. Once I am satisfied that I know the basics, or enough to start figuring things out rather than just guessing, I think I will move up to learning C and/or C++. Anyone wishing to compare and contrast the two, in lame-man’s terms or course, please feel free. I don’t think I quite grasp the difference yet, apart from the ++.

3. Production ‘n stuff – As I learn more and more about the wonderfully deep and complex DAW known as Logic Pro 8, I plan on starting to put a sort of “demo reel” together, showcasing my variety of musical abilities in one place. My wish is to use this alongside a simple homepage as an online business card for potential gigs, jobs, or sessions. Somewhere down the road, and when it is more necessary to do so, I will find the cheapest possible hosting service available and pay for a domain name (sugesstions????), upon which I will bestow my wonderfully simple HTML webpage, as it is the only programming language I somewhat know my way around. At any rate, it will be easy and not contain anything I don’t want it to or any more than is needed. It will also not look like all of those terribly poor-designed HTML pages that you happen across on the ‘net (myspace pages included HHHHHHDSFHDHFDFH).

4. Blast Beats 101 - Yet another item to mark up on the every-day to-do list, but hardly something I can forget about. I need to practice more. I’m happy with my skill level where I am currently, but only sometimes. I need to make sure before I’m on the road for extended periods of time that I am confident in my abilities enough to not be worried whether or not my feet are going to work with me for the evening, and not against me. Inferi has a really awesome practice space that is being taken advantage of, but not enough. It is not ridiculous to try and plan on being out there every day, for at least two hours, but with school and work and the distance and gas prices I sadly may not make it out every day…. but I am setting a 4-day-a-week-2-hour-a-day bare minimum for myself. Take that.

Ok there it is. I should also add that I will try and add at least one entry a week, and to not be too redundant or long-winded, so that if people smarter than me actually read this they can offer their insights.

/blahwg