Water cooler recordings

It's good to hear how things sound through different microphones and I'd been meaning to try and capture the sound of the water cooler glugging. This was the last bottle of water that we're getting so I didn't give myself much opportunity to set the levels before hitting record.

The glug sounds good though.

Water cooler by bassling

Strung out

Aeolus Salute by bassling

Here's a track that will be part of my next album, STRING. I'm planning this to be a collection of manipulated recordings of 'the wires' and tracks influenced by the droning sounds of this unique instrument.

Pedal board

This series of effects produces a gated guitar rhythm triggered by a drum loop.






The guitar output is divided with two chains triggered by the kick drum, one an octave lower and one through a bright reverb. Another chain is triggered by the snare and hi-hat and runs through an Electro Harmonix Ring Thing, using a ring modulator on a delayed signal.



You can hear this set-up in the tune Blue Moon below, along with a few effects added in post-production.

Blue Moon by bassling

Bass Synthesiser pedal comparison

The postman brought a Behringer Bass Synthesiser pedal to me this week. They're about $70 new on Ebay and do a good fuzz wah if you use an expression pedal. Also has some phasing sort of modulation settings and squelchy analogue sounds.



Boss also make one but it's not as good at tracking the notes. Also the Behringer has a pitch hold function. I guess you can hold a note and then use the direct output to play over the top -- a bit like the new Electro Harmonix Freeze pedal I'd guess. (Keen to try one of those.)



The Behringer also gets closer to the sound of an Electro Harmonix Q-tron pedal for that Higher Ground sound. Unlike Boss though, the Behringer is made of plastic.



The Boss's shortcoming in tracking a bass makes an interesting effect on drums though. It creates these somewhat atonal but quite bubbly generated basslines. It's very acid sounding and fun for jamming.

Pedal board

Here's the pedal board I've been using with my guitar recently.

A few comments about the effects:

• Holy Stain is an interesting multi-effect but, as much as I like the reverbs and tremolo, it falls short in the distortions. Using an expression pedal to control the length of the reverb is a great feature though.
• Tubescreamer is great for warm tones but also for taming the Giant Cooter.
• MXR's EQ is beaut, even when it's off it seems to add something pleasant.
• LPB adds a big bluntness to the attack that's great with the Cooter but I'd like something that adds more presence without the oomph.

Quote

"Human beings have the capacity to find various viewpoints to approach a problem or to find a solution. There are an infinite number of ways to look at things"

- Herbie Hancock (one of my favourite musicians)

'80s music

Digital for the '00s

New bass amp

I bought this secondhand Peavey TNT 160 from a bloke in Coolamon. It's got a lovely deep tone.



This is my first amp with an 18-inch speaker and the sound it produces wobbles my wobbly bits.



It's also got unusual features like this built-in crossover.



I'd guess the amp is 20-30 years old. I had a Peavey TNT bass amp in 1993 that was at least thirdhand. That was my first proper amp after four years of playing through five-watt guitar amps or putting the headstock against my cupboard doors.



Do you reckon I need to replace the scorpion?

Final Cut is a bitch

Giant Cooter

This is a distortion pedal I bought on Ebay. The bloke who made it claimed it was based a Big Muff. It's got a huge, bass-y tone.



Here's what the bloke wrote on Ebay:

If you cant figure out what pedal inspired this build...its a Big Muff circuit which i have built on vero/stripboard.

its not a straight up clone of any particular era Muff but i spent a good while experimenting with different component/value changes to get to what i thought was my ideal muff.
uses 4x 2N5089 transistors and a few modifications which include:

tone: more woolly/muffy/wall of sound... whilst still retaining have clarity and on the other end of the spectrum, more crisp/tight but without the huge mid scoop on the pedals tone/eq knob (labelled "texture")
Sustain/Gain : more of...

Pedal is housed in an aluminium enclosure (BBE pedal size for reference) and uses Switchcraft input jacks with a Clear/Purple 5mm Indicator LED/Berzel.
It is wired for True Bypass and has a battery snap and Power supply jack (2.1mm centre neg. standard boss style power supply) - NOT INCLUDED
there is additional power supply filtering on the jack (for those with dodgy cheapo power supplies)
NOTE: the power supply jack depicted in the attached Photo has been replaced with one that sits more "flush" with the enclosure, so it now doesnt stick out as much)

The enclosure is enamel auto paint with water laser printed waterslide decals with a layer of micro-sol (for the painted on affect) and then further clear coated.

Back after the edit

In 1 by bassling

This track is a remix I did in 2007 for the ninja.trax series.

The original track was a performance-piece also recorded for ninja.trax. Below is a video I made of one of my rehearsals.

Been wondering about putting video in Ableton

damaged goods

damaged goods by bassling

vibrating

VIBRATING by bassling

Here's part of the three-hour ambient drone soundscape I've edited together for the 2010 RPM Challenge.

You can hear a variety of birdsong along with 'the wires' -- a large-scale aeolian harp built by Alan Lamb and Scott Baker for the Unsound Festival. See http://hghlght.blogspot.com/2009/06/wired-for-sound.html for more on this amazing instrument.

A recording from late 2007 can be heard or downloaded below.

041207PM by bassling

IK Multimedia still suck

Amplitube continues to pox my Cubase. Thankfully it'll boot up though, my RPM Challenge project is coming along. Looks like I'll have a three-hour ambient opus by the end of the month.

Of all my VSTs only one is crashing Cubase

And, fuck it, Cubase is what I'm using for my RPM project.

IK Multimedia, get your act together.

RPM Challenge

Just signed up for the RPM Challenge. I'm hoping it will motivate me to finish an album of ambient field recordings.

Funny thing is that when I signed up for the Challenge in 2008, it was to clear my head of some tunes I was playing on the guitar so I could proceed with this project. I was also procrastinating on the Boxgum EP, which has since been released commercially.

Below is a video I made at the end of February in 2008:

Drum machine on tracks

Golden age for music fans

There are a few music commentators discussing the future of music and linking it with video games. The argument that it's more fun to play games than to watch them is a compelling one.

I thought this quote paints an interesting future:

We’re entering a fourth stage in popular music, from (1) pre-rock pop’s distinction between songwriter and performer (think Elvis, the Brill Building system), to (2) rock’s emphasis on musicians writing their own material, to (3) hip-hop’s re-use of existing sonic material, to (4) the current age of audio-games, in which users experience sound by manipulating it — not just with the iPod, but also with games like Rock Band, DJ Hero, and Guitar Hero, and with the audio tools built into the Nintendo DSi, just to name a few examples. (There are similar factors at work in underground and academic music and art cultures, but the focus for me here is on mobile music-making apps, which are significant because of their popularity, because they have made populist numerous activities and approaches to creativity that were previously considered specialized, abstract, experimental, even avant-garde.)