Snd 131 - [10.05.2012]

On Reflection

Today I went through some of the previous uploads listening to them on my home stereo speakers. I used to do this at the beginning when starting this blog, but haven’t done this for a while. I must admit it was quite a quick listen through, and mainly listening to these previous uploads to understand the language of my own sound that perhaps I am a little numbed to.

Well I can say for sure it was a really worthwhile experience and one that has certainly assisted in what sort of sound the first release of Sm-ll might be. The first release being what will also make up the first in the ‘Series’, the more conceptual continuum of releases.

Snd 130 - [09.05.2012]

Pattern And Texture Tests

Today is an early morning upload that has delivered something that really hoped to use the late hours to create something simplistic, exploring the edges of sound creation that are always hard to find for me. What has come out is something of a rough, sketchy hybrid of previous uploads, taking a simple form of pattern and texture.

At this early hour where I even struggle to find the right words, I am intrigued by what possible feel this upload will have on future listens with fresher ears.

I certainly feel I am ever so slightly closer to something I have in mind, but still many steps away from completely getting it where I want, and generally believe where it eventually ends up, to be somewhere that perhaps a very different sound on the surface…I guess once again only time will tell.

After a long day of many discussions with many people, creating drafts of future plans of Sm-ll, I am feeling as you can imagine pretty exhausted, and so bid you good night for those who share the same time as mine, and hopefully an enjoyable listen for all.

Snd 129 - [08.05.2012]

4 R+r

…

Snd 128 - [07.05.2012]

Img_0102

A holiday or break away is often a time where we can relax, perhaps paint the fence, tidy the shelves etc, but it is also a time for me where I like to take a deep breath and find a new bout of enthusiasm that I can hopefully maintain a little longer.

Today had me waking up much earlier than I have been of late, and eager to get stuck into some work, but more importantly than just working, I wanted to find a calm inside me that allowed me to work in a freer way.

Snd 127 - [06.05.2012]

R.I.P MCA

Todays upload has a slight somber tone to it, that could be a result of the bad news we have all heard of MCA of the Beastie Boys passing away.

Often in these circumstances we tend to look at ourselves, although we might not admit this, and we will look at such things as what we hoped to have done by now, what we regret not doing when we had the chance, and hopefully make an adjustment to ourselves in order to take control of our life that little bit more, as it is truly a very short and fragile one, and there is really only one that we have.

Snd 126 - [05.05.2012]

Lost In Texture

A difficult time this evening with experimentation and it not giving back what I wanted a bit disappointing but still, this is how it goes sometimes.

What I have ended up with is a kind of quiet but noisy texture that was created by balancing 2 sines tones on the cusp of high resonance filters, with additional filters to balance things out. I made some live adjusts, but nothing major.

It does create further difficulty when aiming for something, not getting it, and being instead presented with something entirely different, and then having to be positive about it, hearing it for what it is.

Still, I think it is an interesting process, even if a little frustrating on my part, but something that I imagine many of you have experienced at some point or another.

What does occur is the similarity to perhaps some of the earlier uploads I made that emulated the noises around our studio or outside, and yet 126 uploads on and my desire has perhaps changed more than I have realised.

Perhaps tomorrow things will sound different, they generally do.

I hope you can hear something interesting in tonights upload, even if I am struggling :)

Snd 125 - [04.05.2012]

Sm-ll Sketches #4

While during the creation of todays upload, many of them actually, I often find they take on a much more agressive quality than they do when listening back to them. I partly feel this comes from where my mind is at the time, from thoughts of inspiration, familiarity and musical context, to listening volume, and even complexity of the patch has an affect.

A loyal listener of this blog remarked that yesterdays upload reminded them of a particular Jan Jelinek work, and upon listening to it again I would have to agree it does share some similarity, although perhaps not in mood, but in the sounds texture. This for me reasserted again how much we relate to a track is governed from our perspective and how that first engagement occurs.

Snd 124 - [03.05.2012]

Feeding of the Emotion

Todays upload is arguably my most ferocious so far, so for those of you who like your sounds delicate, beware.

I am feeling this one as somewhere between the more abstract tracks on Surgeon’s Basic Tonal Vocabulary and perhaps some moments in the recent and incredible Sendai album Geotope, both of which I highly recommend, the later having some beautifully emotional moments.

Snd 123 - [02.05.2012]

Squeezed

Compressed rhythmical textures for tonights upload. This was something of a surprise actually, working with heavy compression I found that in a certain patching combination some rich textures can be achieved through overloading the compression.

Generally I have something of an uncertainty with the ‘correct’ usage of compression, having experienced in the past a general dislike for that typical dipping that is heard with heavy compression. For me I am not so convinced it is a bad thing, so in light of this have decided to go with it, keeping it in tonights upload.

Again, sounds are created using pulse modules running through filters and envelopes… I really can’t get enough of the pulse module :)

I hope enjoy tonights little experiment.

Snd 122 - [01.05.2012]

Shuffle Patterns

A simple and nice rolling pattern to todays upload, having something of a shuffle to it. Again, as some previous and recent uploads, it is using a combination of pulses running through filters and envelopes, nothing fancy but I just say something I haven’t done at all in the Nord Modular until these recent days.

I find this way of creating patterns sometime rewarding and sometimes not, although largely an interesting and worthy way of creating for me. There tends to be a balancing of the sounds through high resonances, and small adjustments give quite dramatic changes to the feel of the patterns.