6/02/2012

Yeah, I'm still here. I haven't written much in the way of music recently, or listened to much of any for that matter. I am currently trying to find work in this unbelievably bad economy. Well, I'm not sure if it is bad, or if the employers that I interview with are just biased enough so that I don't fit their profile as a good worker. Maybe it's the fact that I have had more than 6 jobs in the last ten years. Maybe it's all the experience I have under my belt (Race car mechanics school, computers, music). I've been a part of a nationally recognized racing environment. What I took away from that is how to be highly efficient and organized. But there was no creativity about it, and it caused my brain to seize up and become very bored. Just another cog in the grand machine; same old thing, day in, day out. And that's why I turned to music. A seemingly infinite number of ways to express myself, a way to tug on mood strings with audio. I find it amazing how a really good track can turn my day around, or how a few notes can change my attitude while sitting in traffic.

I'll start producing again soon, but first I need a steady income. I need a new computer for this 7 year old clunker can hardly handle the applications of today. Finding a job will also dictate whether or not I stay here in California, or move across the country to Georgia. Oh how I really want to stay in CA..

M|D

R3hab - The Bottle Song (Darth & Vader Remix) [PREVIEW]

This track has got some serious potential!

Posted 3 days ago via Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/r3hab/r3hab-the-bottle-song-darth

Coachella 2012 - Virtual Tupac

I did not go to Coachella this last weekend. If I had the cash, I would've been there in a heartbeat. So, sitting at my PC and watching my Facebook news stream, a link popped up to watch Dre and Snoop Dog live on YouTube. I've always wanted to see Dre & Snoop live; their music was my gateway into Hip Hop, Rap, and R&B. I'm watching the video feed...then all of a sudden a Virtual Tupac shows up.

Now I'm leaning towards creepy and absurd. It might be cool as a novelty, but you're not going to get very far beating a dead horse, especially when the arts need a new influx of talent to keep relevant with the times. The thought of resurrecting dead artists irks me not only for the fact that, hey, they're dead, but that this likeness of them is flopping around on stage and it isn't actually them. And the money generated for using said likenesses seems a bit like an unhanded ploy for the record companies or artist estates to make more money. Might as well use the technology to create some badass visuals instead of trying to revive the past. And come to think of it, the artist doesn't even have to be dead. I could sit here in my bedroom and have my likeness perform in India and Brazil at the same time. 


And is there enough room for new bands to compete with the old if this does in fact become a harbinger of tours to come? Based upon popularity I would have to guess that The Beatles and Michael Jackson might be pretty big draws. And Nirvana. Jerry Garcia. You get the idea.


And I hope it's just a fad. If I had to, I'd go sit in a movie theater to watch holograms, but a 'live' performance? Please. That was really awkward to watch last night - felt like I was spying on an MMORPG from a distance, except it starred a dead rapper and I didn't have to pay $300+ to get in. But, on the other hand, it was only a small portion of the overall performance (on the last night of the third day - hundreds of other bands of which I did not watch). Dre and Snoop performances were awesome though, and Eminem definitely needs to tour again.




Virtual Tupac Might Go On Tour, Would You Pay To Go See Him?

Don't Worry

HEY

That's Right

Zedd Shouldn't Sweat It

Check out my review of "Breakin' A Sweat" - Skrillex (Zedd remix) here!

http://www.magneticmag.com/2012/02/zedd-shouldnt-sweat-it/

Good & Gone: K Theory’s Own Formula

Good & Gone: K Theory’s Own Formula

When one thinks of the blues, a guitar and a piano usually come to mind – not a synth and meaty bass line. The street corners of New Orleans would be where I would go to seek out such sounds, and a showcase of dance music would be the last place from which I’d expect to hear explicit blues licks. It now seems that I would be mistaken, and it definitely wouldn’t be the first time that I would be caught off guard.

Cue K Theory, hailing from San Francisco, who have embarked on a genre busting journey all their own. Using samples from Ben Harper’s When It’s Good, K Theory incorporates their own formulae of explosive elements of glitch hop and foot-stomping rhythms to make an electrified funky ass track: Good & Gone. I hope these guys stick around for a while, for the most bittersweet taste is when something that is so, so good is gone, gone, gone.

http://soundcloud.com/ktheory/k-theory-good-gone-1

Other notable tracks:

http://soundcloud.com/ktheory/glitch-blues

http://soundcloud.com/ktheory/18th-century-gangster

http://soundcloud.com/ktheory/modest-mouse-float-on-k

Blues Scales

I give you the Blues! This scale plays by it's own rules, and doesn't necessarily fit in with the other 7 scales. There is no particular order to the listed keys - it was easier to modify my Minor key layout for this spreadsheet due to the flat third.

Blues Scales

Circle of Modes (Expanded Circle of Fifths)

Circle of Modes - Expanded Circle of Fifths

7 Modes Based On A C Major Scale

Musical Scales - Major, Minor, along with Lydian, Mixolydian, Dorian, Phrygian, and Locrian

The fundamentals of any piece of music are related to the circle of fifths, namely scales and how notes interact with one another. I'll go on about consonants, dissonants, and tritones at a different point in time, but right now I just want to share with you the two commonly used scales, Major and Minor; modes of Minor: Harmonic Minor and Melodic Minor; and the remaining 5 church modes Lydian, Mixolydian, Dorian, Phrygian, and Locrian.

I have laid out the corresponding notes in a spreadsheet format. I found this easy to use when trying to stick to one scale, without having to waste time trying to remember where all the half and whole steps came into play. And even though I have organized the Major and Minor scales separately, I have gone ahead and included their church mode counter parts of Ionian and Aeolian so you can see each scale relates to one another.

So here are the Major and Minor Scales:

Major

Minor

Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales:

Harmonic Minor - note the raised Leading Tone by half step.

Melodic Minor - Ascending & Descending

And the church modes:

Lydian

Ionian

Mixolydian

Dorian

Aeolian (Minor)

Phrygian

Locrian

Mech|Dragon - Wild One

Mech|Dragon - Wild One

Mech|Dragon - Doom (Original Mix)

Mech|Dragon - Doom (Original Mix) – Outlook Festival 2012 Competition Entry

Get A Booming Kick Drum In Ableton Live 8

Ever wonder how audio producers can get a kick drum to sound so thick? Not rattle your license plate thick, not wake your neighbors up at 3 am thick - I'm talking about knock you over on the dance floor, steal your breath, and slap you in the face thick. Well, one way to do it, aside from equalizer mapping, is by embellishing your kick with a sine wave, and I'm going to show you how to do it.

Without Pics:

#1 - Open Ableton
#2 - Open 2 midi tracks. Name one 'Drum Rack' - And drop a drum rack onto this track.
#3 - Drop an Instrument Rack on the second midi track, rename Instrument Rack to 'Kick'
#4 - Drop a kick drum sample into the 'Kick' rack
#5 - Click and drag the 'Kick' instrument rack onto the 'Drum Rack' midi track, and place into the instrument rack there - so you now have an instrument rack inside of a drum rack.
#6 - Drop an Analog synth into the second midi track.
#7 - You want to set the Oscillator 1 to Sine Wave, dropped 2 octaves, and de-tuned about 6 or 7 steps. (If the kick sample you are using is already embellished with a sine wave be sure to tune correctly to avoid key clash, or use a different sample entirely.)
#8 - Select Amp 1, and here you can adjust the Decay of the sine wave.
#9 - Now that you have setup your sine wave osc, you want to put it in the 'Drum Rack'. So drag and drop it into the 'Drum Rack' like you did with the 'Kick'.
#10 - Now when you create a MIDI clip with the Drum Rack, just be sure to drop in a Analog note whenever you want the kick embellished!

With Pictures (They are large so that you can see what I'm talking about, native screen 1600x1050)

#1 - Open Ableton

#2 - Open 2 midi tracks. Name one 'Drum Rack' - And drop a drum rack onto this track.

#3 - Drop an Instrument Rack on the second midi track, rename Instrument Rack to 'Kick'

#4 - Drop a kick drum sample into the 'Kick' rack

#5 - Click and drag the 'Kick' instrument rack onto the 'Drum Rack' midi track, and place into the instrument rack there - so you now have an instrument rack inside of a drum rack.

#6 - Drop an Analog synth into the second midi track.

#7 - You want to set the Oscillator 1 to Sine Wave, dropped 2 octaves, and de-tuned about 6 or 7 steps. (If the kick sample you are using is already embellished with a sine wave be sure to tune correctly to avoid key clash, or use a different sample entirely.)

#8 - Select Amp 1, and here you can adjust the Decay of the sine wave.

#9 - Now that you have setup your sine wave osc, you want to put it in the 'Drum Rack'. So drag and drop it into the 'Drum Rack' like you did with the 'Kick'.

#10 - Now when you create a MIDI clip with the Drum Rack, just be sure to drop in a Analog note whenever you want the kick embellished!