DT8

I finished DT8 over vacation. It was written in fits and starts over the last three/four months in quick chunks whenever I could grab some time. Mostly written in the early morning hours when I couldn’t sleep (2:30-5am mostly and a few rushed lunch hours at home).

This was the first time I spend the cash and starting adding live instruments to the recordings.

Tech Notes
Software: Logic 9, Komplete 7, Reason (only for the track Recessed), Axon, Tattoo, ValhallaShimmer
Hardware: Pod X3, Shure Beta 58, Gretsch Electromatic G5120, Taylor 114ce, Ovation Celebrity, Kamouraska Concert, Oxygen 49

January 2, 2011 | Filed Under music | Comments Off 

2010: review

Lifting
I didn’t reach my ‘Road to 400 Goals’ but I did end the year with a personal record for deadlift and weighted in 10 lbs lighter by the end of the year. Most of my lifts remained the same or went up, so I’m happy to have retained muscle mass while loosing a bit of extra weight.

Since I’ve been doing so much heavy work, I’m going to start off the year with a couple months of high-rep, low-weight work with an emphasis on getting my heart rate up.

Reading
51 books this year, not all of them winners, but as I get older I’m getting better at cutting out the garbage quicker. It’s easy to tell the time of year based on what I’m reading, more serious work during the start/end of the year and light stuff over the summer.

Top Ten Books:

  1. Everything Matters – Ron Currie, Jr.
  2. Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace – David Lipsky
  3. After the Workshop – John McNally
  4. Switch – Chip & Dan Heath
  5. Drive – Daniel Pink
  6. Listen to This – Alex Ross
  7. The Creative Writers Survival Guide – John McNally
  8. The Big Short – Michael Lewis
  9. Where Good Ideas Come From – Steven Johnson
  10. A Guide to the Good Life – William Irvin

Music: Listening

Music stuff that last.fm says that I listened to this year(mostly at work):

Artist Play Count
Autechre 657
The Beatles 547
The Rolling Stones 423
Aphex Twin 415
Peter Gabriel 376
Nine Inch Nails 313
Tom Waits 283
Amon Tobin 262
The Kleptones 256
Steely Dan 245
Neil Young 242
The Mountain Goats 218
Galactic 214
Frank Zappa 202
Andrew Bird 197
Uncle Tupelo 195
Son Volt 190
Lyle Lovett 190
Andy McKee 186
Max Richter 181

Other music stuff I remember listening to a whole bunch to in 2010:

Music: Written
I put out three EPs and one full project of music this year, (about 108 minutes of sound). I’m pretty happy with the output and I see a lot of change and progress.

Next Year:
I already have a reading list about 15 items deep. For music I want to get back into Max/MSP and build more interactive processing in Reaktor. I also have a pile of Abersold jazz books that I should spend more time with. The older I get the more I feel a need to dig deeper into harmony.

January 2, 2011 | Filed Under Books, music, personal, Uncategorized | Comments Off 

faithless

The new project is making pretty steady progress. Six tunes finished, three more in progress and probably four more to get started. This is a bit of a long and drone-y tune.

faithless

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

December 7, 2010 | Filed Under music | Comments Off 

atl

Another track. I’m tired of mixing this so I suppose it’s done for now.
atl

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

November 11, 2010 | Filed Under music | Comments Off 

Sooth

Starting to work on a new project, here’s a rough mix of one of the tracks.
Sooth

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

October 31, 2010 | Filed Under music | Comments Off 

Goodbye to Porkpies

Testing some new guitar stuff, first take of ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat’ with the Valhalla Shimmer plugin.

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

October 11, 2010 | Filed Under geek, music | Comments Off 

DT7

New EP of ambient music added. This is probably the last bit of ambient oriented stuff for awhile. I’m starting to write a bit more guitar oriented music and that should take up the majority of my time in the future while I make believe that I’m Daniel Lanois.

This batch of stuff is an assortment of pieces created in Abelton Live and Logic with an emphasis on sound design. I have been pretty lazy in the design department and wanted to make a bit more of an effort. Fairly experimental stuff.

September 26, 2010 | Filed Under music | Comments Off 

Deadlift PR: 405 lbs

Hit a personal record of 405 deadliest this morning. I wasn’t planning on maxing out, I had done a pretty heavy squat set two days earlier and my hamstrings were pretty sore. I had also only had about five hours of sleep, so conditions were less than ideal. I ended up feeling pretty strong after a few warm up sets and decided to go for it.

I still want to add about 20 lbs by the end of the year and I’m starting to feel optimistic that I may reach my goal. My grip strength has been the biggest weak point, so I’ve been working a lot on my grip and lower back strength and it’s been paying off.

I get a nice adrenaline buzz when I really push myself with heavy lifts. I had the headphones going and I was able to concentrate even with a half-dozen or so ladies gabbing away right in front of me. I’ve been pretty happy with my progress this summer. I haven’t made a lot of big leaps, but it’s been pretty steady growth with a reduced amount of pain.

“Do very hard things, just for the sake of it.” – Brian Eno

July 28, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off 

lifting update 6/18/2010

Surprised myself by having a really great workout this morning. My strength has been going up steadily and I’m just about to last years max effort. I hit a pretty easy 345 squat this morning and pulled a reasonable 365 deadlift two days before that.

I’m going to have a couple of days off next week with work travel, but I think it’s a good point to change things up and plan out the next cycle. I have a solid six weeks to push things forward a bit.

June 18, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off 

DT6

Another round of music available here. DT6 is probably the last chunk of this type of music for awhile. I want to spend the rest of the year doing more synthesis and programming, and working towards developing a more interactive workflow.

For the last couple of years I’ve had more of a compositional impulse and allowed myself to use a lot more default sounds. I want to take the time to go back to more original programming and design.

May 17, 2010 | Filed Under music | Comments Off 

← Previous Page — Next Page →