wiretotheear's Last.fm Journal

The Horrorist report from Defqon.1 and the Montagood Festival.

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:46:34 +0000

I’m back in New York after I ( The Horrorist ) performed at two fun European summer festivals. Defqon.1 in a giant event (40,000 people) on the beach about an hour outside of Amsterdam in The Netherlands. It was a daytime festival and it was hot & humid as expected. Since the early 90’s I’ve played in Holland often so each one of these large events it’s a bit of a reunion. I had time to speak to french DJ Manu le Malin, UK producer Surgeon (Anthony Child) and Dutch hardcore producer Gizmo. Even without a soundcheck the show went off without a glitch. My equipment, especially my cases and bags did get throuoully sandy though. The show went from 3-4 in the afternoon so by the time I got back to the hotel it was time for a quick bite and then off to Spain.

The Spanish gig at the Montagood Festival was also quite large. The stage was built high above the audience which I don’t actually like. I really need to get close to people and make some eye contact. My set time was 5-6 in the morning so keep in mind I basically played in Amsterdam and 12 hours later without a real pit stop I’m setting up near Barcelona. Everything would have been perfect with the exception that it started to rain a bit about 10 minutes before my set began. The issue was this was an outdoor event and the only thing above me was open sky! As you know from a few posts ago I just had my Macbook Pro repaired so the last thing I wanted to do was give it a shower. The promoter jumped on stage and put a few garbage bag type tarps over my equipment. The show ended up great and I did a fair amount of jumping down about 20 feet to the crowd and back up again. I know it was about 20 feet high by the 2 foot bruises all over my legs from banging into the speakers I was climbing. The black and blue’s were well worth it because Spain is a country you want to spend time in and a good show will get you invited back.

The only complaint I really have about the weekend was the trip back. In retrospect the situation is hilarious and it speaks volumes about Karma. Long story short, a Dutch group called Angerfist also performed in Spain and they were in my van to the airport. They decided to drink a bottle of vodka straight right before the trip started. Needless to say we had to make a few pit stops so they could puke. God has an ironic way of punishing me.

While I clean the sand and water damage off my stuff check out a few photos…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thingstocomerecords/sets/72157619750952060/

Honda makes a musical groove road for the Civic.

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:50:10 +0000

Here’s a way to promote a new car: Create a road that forces your the tires play the William Tell Overture when driven over it. This is exactly what Honda did to promote the new Honda Civic. They called it the Civic Musical Road and it was laid down in Lancaster, California. Apparently for the song to play properly you had to drive 55 miles per hour and the grooves in the payment were cut specifically for Honda Civic tires.

“Half-inch-deep, 1-inch-wide grooves were notched into the road at specific intervals so that a vehicle traveling over them produces tones, said Ray Hunt, Lancaster’s capital engineering manager. - www.dailybreeze.com

Unfortunately, Honda miscalculated how remote the stretch of highway they chose was because residents started complaining that hearing the Bugs Bunny theme over and over was “driving” them insane. By the time you read this the road was paved over. That’s all folks!

If you enjoyed this journal entry check out: http://www.wiretotheear.com

Event takes on Dynaudio and Genelec with Opal.

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:47:51 +0000

I always held Event monitors in high regard. My brother had a pair of nice sounding 20/20s and I’ve always lusted after the highly regarded ASP8’s. This past July in Las Vegas, Event announced their new flagship speaker the Opal. As with most active speakers with high powered amps these are not bargain priced (about $3000 for a pair). The claimed frequency response is 30 Hz to 10k Hz and they can handle 1,000 Watts. They incorporate a lot of new technology and some of it sounds like stuff you would find in a Audi R8 such as a carbon fiber speaker cone! As a 15 year+ Yamaha NS10M user I am pleased that the Opal’s entire HF unit (tweeter) can be rotated so the speaker can lay on it’s side.

“Many remarked on the clarity of the critical mid-bass regions, while the upper mids in the range of the crossover and the highs seemed nicely balanced. And there were plenty of comments on the well-defined imaging within the stereo soundstage.” - mixonline.com

Your studio is only as good as it’s weakest link. I always say spend your money on good sound treatment first and once you got that out of the way spend high on speakers. Try and find a dealer with a good return policy because speaker taste can be quite subjective.

Read the forum thread about the new Opals on Gearslutz: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/new-product-alert/273071-new-event-opal-monitors-not-your-regular-speakers.html
Ty Ford’s Opal Road Trip: http://web.mac.com/tyreeford/Site/Ty_Fords_Blog/Entries/2008/7/30_Ty_Ford’s_Opal_Road_Trip.html

If you enjoyed this journal entry you may like: http://www.wiretotheear.com

The Dubreq iStylophone.

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:44:13 +0000

Come on now tell me an iPhone/iPod Touch is not getting more and more tempting every minute?

“The Very Cool Software Company, a U.K.-based Mac OS developer, recently announced its first iPhone application: Dubreq iStylophone. Dubreq Stylophone is an electronic musical instrument, originally invented by Brian Jarvis in 1968 and manufactured in the U.K. by Dubreq. The Dubreq Stylophone, also known as “the original pocket electronic organ,” was sold by the millions in the early ’70s and used by artists including David Bowie, Brett Domino, Erasure, Hexstatic, Krafwerk, Marilyn Manson, Orbital, Pulp, The Raconteurs, and They Might Be Giants.” - news.cnet.com

http://www.verycoolsoftware.com/

If you enjoyed this journal entry you may enjoy it's source: http://www.wiretotheear.com

Bandcamp and SoundCloud screencasts.

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:41:02 +0000

Last week I mentioned to a friend that 1pixelout http://www.1pixelout.net/category/audio-player/ must have released a new audio player because I’ve been seeing huge versions of it around different sites. The 1pixelout audio player is the one you sometimes see on this site. Well it turns out these new players are coming from a new service called Bandcamp. Just watch the video below as it tells the story better than me typing it out. It’s clean, free, pretty and let’s you sell your music. I love it.

Bandcamp screencast:
http://vimeo.com/1739268?pg=embed&sec=1739268

SoundCloud the Berlin based startup has enjoyed a great beta ramp up and launch. They have attracted a nice group of industry insiders and electronic musician to their site. The SoundCloud audio player which allows your to make comments along the waveform of your song is just plain awesome. However trouble may be brewing in die Hauptstadt (capital city) because they just released their pricing plan and it’s a doozy. They continue to offer a free service but the forums, tweets and blogs seem to think they are gouging.

SoundCloud screencast:
http://vimeo.com/1857085?pg=embed&sec=1857085

You know what? I want a combination of these two services. Give me a way to sell my music in many formats. Give me a great audio player with comments along the timeline and a waveform view. I want a dropbox. I want widgets. It should be free with ads or $25 a year advert free. They can have a few percent of my music sales too. I’d like to be able embed all my music on my own site as a mini store and have complete control over the CSS.

Bandcamp: http://bandcamp.mu
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com

If you liked this journal entry you may enjoy: http://www.wiretotheear.com

Just make a few folds and create a paper CD case.

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:57:49 +0000

Video link: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/712133/paper_cd_case/

I gave up on plastic CD cases a long time ago. In the rare moment I need to give someone an actual CD I use the paper envelopes you can buy. Well low and behold I can just fold my own pretty easily!

The creators of the above video also have a bookmarklet you can use that will generate and print artwork on the paper if you so choose (I don’t). More info: liquidmongoose.com

“Liquid Mongoose is proud to announce its first project for general release: Paper Case. The Paper Case project allows you to print a fold-able piece of paper into a CD or DVD case, using the content of the internet as your album art or movie cover. Currently, it supports music album printing on music.aol.com and movie cover printing on Netflix. Support for Picasa Web Albums is coming soon for your picture CDs and DVDs.” - http://liquidmongoose.com/

via webware

If you liked this Journal entry you may enjoy: http://www.wiretotheear.com

Electronic Music Berlin - A Wire to the Ear map.

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:45:52 +0000

Berlin is the undisputed center of electronic music. A few times a month friends and blog readers come to visit. I’ve decided to make a Google Map with the locations of many of the great record stores, labels, synthesizer manufacturers, audio software companies and nightclubs you can check out upon arrival.

Ableton, Tresor, Hard Wax, Native Intruments, Schneider’s Buero, Neumann, MFB, Gigolo Records, Berghain, JoMoX, Sugar Bytes, BPitch Control, SoundCloud… what more do you want?

If you do come to visit don’t forget you will be in a gorgeous city full of historic places and green parks. Don’t spend all your time dancing. See it all!

Remember Google Maps is feature rich. You can get point to point directions, zoom way in, see satellite views and create your own map of places in Berlin you want to see (click a pin and select “save to my map”).

To view the map full screen and also see the complete list of great places: Click here

If you enjoyed this journal entry you may like: http://www.wiretotheear.com

Reporting back after my live show in Malta.

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 18:08:14 +0000

I (The Horrorist) performed live Saturday night in Malta (photo above). It’s a great island below Italy and above Lybia. It’s in the EU, has ancient Roman ruins and amazing blue water. I’ve been performing there about once a year for the past five years and it’s a real treat. These are the kind of gigs everyone dreams about. Our hotel had a large terrace overlooking the Mediterranean. The hotel also had four swimming pools! Ok back to the music…

The most interesting aspect of the trip music tech wise was at sound check. Scottish techno producer Neil Landstrumm (photo below) was also performing and he brought some nice toys. Besides his Mac laptop with Ableton he had an Elektron Machinedrum and Korg ESX1 Electribe SX. My interest really peaked when he pulled out a FMR Audio Really Nice Compressor and Boss RE 20 Space Echo. Needless to say Neil’s sound was very punchy and he had the crowd going. We are old pals (he used to live in NYC) and he went on about how much he liked both the RNC and RE 20.

I ran into some problems at sound check. After making the club check all their equipment for about an hour Neil pointed out the issue was my fault. It turns out my mic was on and even though none of the Ableton channels had the input on the mic was so loud distorting it was bleeding through causing some nasty zapping sounds. I graciously apologized to everyone and luckily redeemed myself later in the night by managing to crowd surf without looking like an idiot.

What? Crowd surf? Unfortunately yes. I like to be really connected to the audience so usually I jump down off the stage however remaining on my feet and walk through people singing. This time it was so packed when I hit the floor without me being able to stop them the kids picked me up! By some magic grace of god I didn’t look too stupid and they floated me back to the stage in one piece. In fact no one even messed up my hair… whew!

I played two songs which are totally new; stuff for my next album. Both worked however I need to make “Lightning Strikes” less synth full for a club setting. “I Stand with You” made me very happy. Only by playing your songs in a live situation can you be ever sure if they are great or not. That’s the tip of the day.

The next show is Stuttgart. To see the flyer: http://www.thingstocome.com/images/flyers/2008/Club_Prag.html

The Horrorist

Ableton Live stars in the new movie Berlin Calling.

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 20:43:57 +0000

Ableton just posted this interview with Paul Kalkbrenner the DJ and main actor in the soon to be released movie Berlin Calling: http://www.berlin-calling.de/en

“How many music software products can claim to be filmstars? As far as we know, only one: Ableton Live. A new film, “Berlin Calling”, not only features some outrageously prominent onscreen footage but also stars renowned DJ and long-time Live user Paul Kalkbrenner in the leading role. A big thank you to Paul and the film’s director, Hannes Stöhr, for giving us such wonderful publicity.

The plot goes something like this: Berlin electronic music composer Martin (Paul Kalkbrenner), known as DJ Ickarus, is touring with his manager and girlfriend Mathilde (Rita Lengyel) from club to club around the globe and is about to release his biggest album to date. All of his plans are thrown out of kilter, however, after Ickarus is submitted to a psychiatric clinic high on drugs after a gig.

Go and see the film to discover what happens next (hint: witness the therapeutic powers of Ableton Live!) “Berlin Calling” opens in Germany on October 2 and is expected to be released internationally soon afterwards.” - Ableton Inc.

This is pretty stange and makes me a nervous for some reason. Maybe it just hits too close to home! I am happy to see Ableton get as much press as possible because every musician should be using their software. Let’s hope this movie doesn’t get the same reviews as every other electronic music film has.

http://www.wiretotheear.com

Put your music video everywhere with Tubemogul.

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 20:39:40 +0000

We all know that having a few music videos per album is great promotion. With inexpensive tools like iMovie and a Flip video camera there is no excuse for not producing them. Once your video is all finished you uploaded it to YouTube and MySpace and your done. But wait what about that gorgeous video site Vimeo? Or that site let lets viewers comment along the playback timeline… Viddler? You know having your video in Blip.tv is also cool because they offer an embeddable show player. Hmm it’s going to be a long day uploading the same video to all these sites. But alas there is a better way: Tubemogul.

Tubemogul (http://www.tubemogul.com/) is an incredible free service to which you upload your video to one time and they distribute it to over 20 sites. That distribution service alone is truly a gift from the time saving gods however they give you more goodies. Once your video or videos are uploaded and delivered around the web universe and a few days go by log back into your Tubemogul account and viola you can see Analytics. Analytics is the fancy word for “Who is watching, how many are watching and where are they watching.”. The data is presented to you with nice interactive charts and graphs.

You may end up surprised that YouTube is not getting you the most views. Remember your video on YouTube is lost in a huge ocean of content. Earlier this year I discovered videos from a music blogger named Vergel Evans in his studio via Viddler. I got to his video because I searched “drum machine” and because Viddler is low on content like music tech his LX7.ca videos show popped up.

Don’t worry if you already have your videos on a few sites already because you can still upload them to Tubemogul and deselect “distribute” to those you already have covered.

Be sure to check out Tubemogul’s video channel on YouTube which is full of usefull tutorial videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/tubemogul