"Carbon Credits" [mp3 moved to Bandcamp]
A little music-box tune using Reaktor's Carbon 2 synth. The fuller-sounding part at :31 is a chord made with the Vermona Perfourmer (recently back from the shop) and some virtual FX-chain processing.
Originally the Carbon Credits theme was at the end of "Bass Transitions (Krypt)" -- now in an extended version minus that theme: [6.3 MB .mp3]
Update: Added a bassline and some beats and re-uploaded.
"Bass Transitions (Krypt)" [mp3 removed]
A portmanteau, as we say, of recent riffage: the synth bass line from "Bass Transitions" with some spooky pad and percussion sounds added, then the quasi-barrelhouse piano ending of "Jazz Funk Reduction" with added bass line, and then a new "alto" synth part to end the piece with a duet. A minute and a half of wanton eclecticism.
Update: Redone and re-uploaded. Decided the little tune at the end was stomping too much on the climax so it's now just a coda.
Update 2: Redone and re-uploaded again. It's now 2 min 39 seconds, the "coda" is gone (see "Carbon Credits"), and a new "alto" part was written for near the end.
"Jazz Funk Reduction" [mp3 removed]
This is built up mostly from one- and two-note samples played on top of heavily processed drum loops. An experiment in playing a semi-convincing guitar lead using step keys.
The first section took a lot of labor, the second section with piano went fairly quickly, and then it seemed finished. The original title was "Jazz-Nihilism" but that suggested disorder and this is very ordered.
I made the "technodiary" blog in the early '00s hoping to have a place for music reviews. I didn't have time to develop it and mostly just cross-posted music-related material from my Digital Media Tree blog, which ran from 2001-2007.
"technodiary" is still up on Digital Media Tree but I put up an archive (mirror) page without comments (which were sparse) or permalinks for posts. No guarantees on which of the other links still work, but a surprising amount of them still do.
It's on a single long HTML page, that looks much the same as it did (does).
The writing preserves a catch-as-catch-can record of (i) some things going on then in New York such as the "electro revival," "circuit bending," the early 8-bit scene, and NY appearances of the BEIGE programming ensemble, (ii) the end of the vinyl, record store era, (iii) my first stabs at putting a music studio together and publishing songs outside of the iTunes/social media continuum (a hermetic practice that continues against all odds).
"Bass Transitions" [mp3 removed]
Used a couple of Reaktor instruments (Krypt and Monark) to make riffs for importing and assembling in the Octatrack.
The initial tune is bouncy and vaguely Latin; then it gets discordant and martial; then the "march" gradually and somewhat awkwardly finds its way back to the opening notes.
Awkwardly because the initial melody has been transformed by the surrounding notes in the middle section (without any use of offset) and has to slot back into its original groove (like gears being slightly out of sync).
My usual strategy in these instances is to stretch out the transition time. I might play around with other possibilities.
I've been volume-maximizing all my recent efforts after completion (as in, goosing them up to standard CD levels). Please drop me a line if it sounds too compressed to you.
The "loudness wars" are crazy but it's conform or be the runt of people's iTunes.
I've been making some CDs of songs and end up reducing the overall volume of the disc.
Mostly I listen at low volume levels so I miss whatever artifacts the maximization is causing.
