How to Start?

Every now and again someone will write to me asking a simple question: How do I start making (electronic) music? And I am oft dumbfounded to respond. A better questions is Where and When - and the answer is Here and Immediately.

Honestly... Any synth or sound-altering device will do - hardware or software. Generally I would recommend something hardware-based inexpensive(!) simple to program, and FUN to play with. Check this out, for example. So fun and cheap... I'm gonna get one!



For me, half the fun of music is exploration. We must all find our own path(s) and musical language with these machines. It wasn't until I bought my first synth and actually played with it that I began to develop a real vocabulary. I learned most every basic thing I needed to from that relatively basic machine. Also... listen to bands you like that make sounds you like - then learn to mimic those sounds somehow on whatever gear you have. I guarantee you will learn a LOT in the process.

I would also recommend checking out Oliver Chesler's great blog: WireToTheEar - lots of fun and informative stuff there. Enjoy - and START NOW!

Things NOT to do at 1am.

Sometimes I gotta laugh at myself - and this time I've elected to write about it as well. It's now 1:33am... and when I should have been heading to sleep, I decided to review a track I was close to finishing. The first "real" track I'd done entirely on the iPad using a great app called NanoStudio.

The reason I'm still up is not because I'm so thrilled at my creation as I'm astonished at mine own idiocy. As I was looking through the various project files in the app's directory, instead of just listening to the intended track, I decided to do some 'housecleaning'. You see, I start lots of little 'tracklets' - and sometimes you gotta clean house.


Normally I'd open the track, then decide on deletion. This time I just frackin' deleted it. DON'T DO THAT.

Yup - I deleted the one track that was close to completion. And apparently, my pad had not done an iCloud backup in several days(?!). Fortunately, I'd already exported a rough mix of that version the other day... AND I have the sequence it was based on. I just have to alter some parts and improvise a few things. Not terrible - but this will take time I'd rather spend on better things.

Controller data, improvised solo, etc... all to be re-done. D'oh!


In summation: if one is at all tired, it's NOT the best time to start 'blindly' deleting things. Save that option for mid-afternoonish or so.

Embracing Pandora

When Pandora first hit the net-waves I was skeptical. It lacked the breadth I was looking for. Honestly, aside from my pre-to-early High School days and then a college-radio stint post-facto, I had fallen mostly out of love with radio. Too many commercials, too little music of interest... and I was going out to clubs, parties, and friend's places - while also keeping quite busy working on my own material.

These days things are different. Working a full time job, and not socializing as I used to has somewhat limited my new music experiences. Most bars I find myself at play crap - with a capital "C" - and making music is something I'm reaching for in moments between exhaustion and being bombarded with pop music at work all day.

Somewhere in all this I have revisited Pandora - and found that their palette has expanded into bands and territories I enjoy more. It's... not so bad*.

As I don't really make time to watch TV these days - this seems like a nice alternative. I'm finally diggin' it. Good work, Pandora. Here's my ever-expanding stations/channel: http://www.pandora.com/profile/antfactor

*one caveat: if I can just train Pandora from sneaking in so much "new age" pap I'd be ever so much happier with it!

antfactor video by Blair Neal.

Cool video done a few years back. Thanks Blair.


Test output from my sound to video max/msp patch for antfactor's song "first of one"..source footage from archive.org

Ode to A Dream

On a beautiful autumn day somewhere around '82, I took a walk with friends to the park close to our high school. Upon arrival I met Christopher, who had a boom box that was playing some of the most hauntingly beautiful textures and rhythms I'd heard in a while. He told me that it was "Ricochet" - a live album by a band called Tangerine Dream. Christopher and I went on to become very close friends, a connection of which was key around music... and what he turned me on to literally changed my life and musical perspective forever.

Tangerine Dream's music spoke to me in a unique way. I was already into electronic music... but their organic synth textures and woven sequences took hold of me like nothing before. There was also a particularly haunting quality that drew me toward them.

Many electronic musicians and an incredible number of dance music producers have sighted them as a major influence - for good reason. The textures they used - and perhaps even more-so - their sequenced rhythms pre-dated their dance music equivalents by decades.

Much of the next few years were spent scouring record-stores sniffing out their albums in the "import" bins. First was Tangram... but soon after I acquired "70-80" - a seminal collection of great tracks, some previously unreleased gems, and a picture book that I got lost in over and over again... filled with loads of concert pics and gear. Their music brought me to beautiful and alien places. I wanted to learn about all the gear - how to make such wondrous textures. Many nights were filled with dreams about gear - and ultimately learning to mimic those textures on my own primitive studio setup.

Music has an incredible ability to do that - a stronger force than anything I've experienced otherwise. To instantly inspire and tap into a part of the soul nothing else seemed to relate to. They will always be a major influence on me - because, "The dream is still the same..."

If you think and of this sounds or looks interesting - wait 'til you hear the actual recordings. Sublimely rich oceans of organic synth textures.

TIME.

is a Notion. is an oCean. a long time.

we can't catch it - hold it - see it - feel it - taste it - contain it - escape it - or stop it. yet we all experience the Effects of it. nearly 365 earth-days ago I recorded a simple track about IT.

New Compact Synth from Arturia

Every now and again I have my synth-gear-slut moments, and this may be one of them. Gotta say: The Arturia MiniBrute looks intriguing. It's great to see manufacturers coming out with new instruments that push the boundaries of architecture in a compact space. Their website had this to offer on the subject of presets:

"MiniBrute comes with no electronic presets. You build yourself every sound you hear. Believe us, this is fun, this is creative and this helps make better music (and honestly, this is not harder than browsing sub-menus)."

I love this statement - as I have always been a firm believer that if one if forced to program new sounds from scratch whenever using a device, it pushes one's brain to (a) learn the machine that much better, and (b) always come up with novel ways of using it, and (c) adapt its sound/function to what you are making at that moment. My first synthesizer was a Roland Juno 6, and it had no presets - and I am so grateful for that fact! It taught me to program my new toy very quickly, and really get the most out of it - an experience I wouldn't trade for all the presets in the world.

The specs on this little gem are truly impressive - if your'e into that kinda stuff. Extensive mod section, great LFO options, and arpeggiator (thank goodness!!!)... and Aftertouch Modulation? Thank you!

Here's a cool video which highlights it's features.



More info here: Arturia MiniBrute