Comments

Sorry for the lack of new music lately. I have two or three songs written which are all good candidates for the next podcast, just have to get the recording done. Thanks for your patience.

For now I'm just posting to let you know that the site has been inundated with comment spam recently, so I added a captcha/word verification step to the comment pages. It's an extra step, but hopefully will reduce the spamflow.

Donations are still accepted!

Solace

The binaural beat in this one is 16Hz - I don't think I've done any beta wave episodes in a while. Of course, I haven't done any episodes at all since last fall, but the majority of the tunes tend to have more relaxing alpha beats or the 30Hz "marijuana" frequency. That's how it seems to me, in any case. So I figured it was time for something a little more invigorating.

Additionally, while I previously encoded the mp3's using LAME via command line, I've now opted to use Audacity encode the mp3 in stereo, rather than "joint stereo." Perhaps there will be an improvement in the entrainment experience.

Enjoy!

Solace

Donations Now Accepted

Spring of this year will mark four years of Binaural Banjo podcasts - not bad. In all this time it has been my pleasure to be involved in the Creative Commons movement, and I'm pleased with the feedback I've received. The number of subscribers continues to grow - I think the direction the music has taken for the past year or two is a good one, and I hope to continue creating similar episodes.

Now, as something of an experiment, I've added a donation button. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please feel free to donate. For all who may choose to make a donation, thank you very much.

BUT - please feel free not to donate, as well. I have often toyed with the idea of accepting donations, but always rejected the idea as being contrary to the spirit of the Creative Commons music. Curiosity about e-commerce has finally won out, and donations can be made from either of my Blogspot pages, as well from my main website. However, regardless of whether anyone donates or not, I will continue to work on the Binaural Banjo and to release free music through this and other venues. Above all else I thank you for listening.

Lament

I should say right away that this is a dark one, and includes some features that I typically try to avoid or minimalize in Binaural Banjo episodes. But for what it is, I think this week's tune is powerful and I'm glad to be sharing it here. It is a very good representation of what I'm working on in general these days, which is a continuation and refinement of the ideas behind my last full length release, The Last Season.

Without going into what would probably be too much detail, there's not much else to say. The tune is a very simple melody that fades into a drone and then fades back in. The binaural beat is 10Hz, and I've gone back to using SBaGen to generate the beat. I thought a moderate beta frequency would go well with the tune, and possibly make the listening experience a mellow one. There is also a synth drone, which I rarely use but in this case helps add some bottom to the more ambient section of the piece. Like I said, I think the whole thing works well - I hope you will, too.

Lament

Prussian Blue

When I originally started this podcast, part of the experiment at the time was to see what could be accomplished using banjo only. For the first year or so, I would have an occasional guest instrument, but by and large every note, drone, sample, etc. was banjo derived. I don't know if anyone listening now has been with me since then, but it's enough to say the results were very hit-or-miss (with probably more misses than hits...).

Recently, someone somewhere has been avidly downloading one of those early episodes - Pthalo - and it got me wanting to try another all-banjo production. So the new episode here is once again almost all-banjo, including the binaural beat. The beat is 4Hz, and was generated using an ebow and a de-tuned banjo. Basically, I recorded two tracks with the ebow droning on the 4th string - between takes I recalibrated the tuner by 4Hz and used that to retune the banjo.

Unfortunately, I was not happy with the outcome using just banjo because there was quite a bit of pick noise. Equalization took care of a lot of that, but in the end I added a track of white noise to try and "absorb" some of the pick noise. The result works pretty well - you won't hear noticeable static - and though some pick noise still comes through, it's a big improvement. I do hope you enjoy it.

Prussian Blue

Full Length Ambient Release

I mentioned in the notes for Magog that I was working at that time on some ambient material for an acoustic-drone release. That project is now finished and is available for download from the wonderful Earth Mantra netlabel. I really encourage everyone to check out some of the other releases - everything is free to download, and the music is exceptional.

The release is titled The Last Season, and can be downloaded here. There's links to the release site and a few comments at my webpage, as well.

Rose

Another 30Hz episode for you this time - a return to the marijuana frequency, and musically a return to a motif based piece. I had actually hoped to do more with the spacey, droning bit at the end; bring it out sooner and keep it going longer, but after repeated listens this way worked better even though it's more repetitive. I believe it's also more relaxing.

The binaural beat is very subdued in this piece, also. I'm still using SBaGen to create the binaural beat drones, and the frequency analyzer that I use did pick up the beat in this tune but it's very faint. This is somewhat at the request of a handful of listeners who have contacted me about bringing the music out more over the drones, which I agree is a good idea and have tried to do with the last several pieces. If it's too faint, however, please feel free to email a comment. Otherwise, enjoy!

Rose

Magog

This episode is not aptly named - "Magog" is a place or a demon or some such associated with the apocalypse, and this tune is about as far from apocalyptic as it could be. But the actual title was kind of long and cumbersome to attach to an mp3, so I left the working title intact.

The song is actually called "We Never Spoke of the Plans We Never Made." That's not really cheerful either, I suppose, but it's part of a new ambient project I'm working on which aims to combine songwriting with soundscaping in ways that I haven't done before (or even really heard from others). The aim is to create a lot of contrast and try to have the overall project be coherent.

But that's a work in progress, so doesn't bear much description. What does deserve mention right now is that I got a new mixer, which has been a benefit in many ways. Helps me work faster, get some high quality reverb for a decent room feel, and most importantly really reduces the noise I was getting from using a mic without a decent preamp. So the sound will hopefully be noticeably better than most of the other recordings I've put up.

The binaural beat is really subdued here - the volume is way down, and the frequency is 4Hz. But it is there - you'll be able to pick it out during pauses - and it works pretty well. I was giving it my final listen before posting last night, and it put me to sleep.

We Never Spoke of the Plans We Never Made ("Magog")

Free Full Length Ambient Releases

For those who don't follow my other podcast, I wanted to post here about a new page dedicated to my dark ambient music. Under the name petal, I've put out three full length releases through a couple of netlabels.

Grad school has kept me from doing too much in terms of content, but there are links from the main page to free music, and some tidbits elsewhere for anyone interested in scoping out more information about netlabels and online music resources. For those who like the alpha and beta beat series, as well as tunes like Intermezzo and Tristeza, you might also like the dark and drone oriented stuff available here:

petal website

Victory

I've listened to Snowlight a couple of times since publishing it, and I'm sorry now to say I just don't think it's that good. Nothing is really wrong with it as a song, but I just tried to do too much and the finished product seems confused and muddled. By itself that's okay - several of the songs I've posted here suffer similar faults. It's all kind of experimental. But my final semester of grad school begins this week and I'd hate to think of going four or five more months without putting up anything new, and having Snowlight be the tune that new subscribers are going to hear, or having anyone who happens on the site download or play what is probably the weakest tune in a long time.

So while hopefully it won't be four or five months before anything new is posted, I'm much more satisfied with this week's song, Victory. It's simple, the drones and reverb are way in the background, and overall it's just a more pleasant listening experience. I will say there was a high end hiss in the acoustic guitar track that I could only get rid of by means of some heavy filtering. I've listened a few times to the mp3 and I think it's okay, but if anyone out there thinks there's too much low end in the final mix or if there's any noticeable static please leave a comment and I will post a remastered version.

Thanks again to everyone who has stuck with it. This one makes for a decent payoff:

Victory

Snowlight

What can I say? Six months between episodes is a lot longer than I would have liked, but while grad school was not all that difficult this past semester, the work was piled high. The tune for this episode was actually started back in September - I got the basic guitar and banjo tracks down, along with a little bit of drone treatment, and that was it until last week. It's weird to go back to a song after so much time, but all in all I think this one is a nice followup to Nodaliste.

In any case, I hope everyone likes it. I'm not sure it justifies a six month hiatus, but with a 2Hz beat underneath it should make a nice addition to the set of holiday episodes I've done in the past. That is, when things start to pile up and you've got five minutes to yourself, a good listen may help to de-stress.

Snowlight

Nodaliste

First thing, I should come clean about an error in my binaural beat synthesis: I was researching the effects of some higher frequencies and I saw that, in fact, 30Hz produces alleged marijuana effects. Unfortunately, I've been publishing episodes with 20Hz beats and mistakenly claiming that 20Hz is the herbal frequency...

I realize that this all may not be exact science to begin with, but I have had listeners who hit this podcast after searching for digital drugs and I'm sorry if they were misled. Hopefully for those folks the music was worth something in itself.

So, this week's tune does indeed come with a 30Hz beat. Please enjoy, and if anyone notices a difference feel free to comment or fire off an email to let me know.

The tune itself is one that took on a life of its own. I like it, but I had something definite in mind for how I wanted it to sound and the final result is nowhere near my original plan. Somewhere along the way, this 70's style, instrumental-light-rock anthem vibe kicked in and I just ran with it. So it's kind of a fun tune, maybe not something anybody will want to calm themselves down with but hopefully entertaining and a little cheeky.

Nodaliste

Lightening

I like the tune for this week's episode a lot, though I'm not very objective about it and I don't know how well it's going to come across in general.

The fast section, which is about the second half of the tune, was not something I planned for and just launched into while recording the guitar part. The reason I like this episode so much is because whatever impulse made me change the feeling of the song at that point has been preserved through the overdubbing, mixing, etc. But there's also kind of a lo-fi aspect to it all which may not work, and which may interfere with someone else's enjoyment of the music. The uptempo portion of the song also makes an odd contrast to the sweeping drones, and balancing it all was an interesting exercise in audio production. There again, though, it may not be as interesting to hear as it was to create...

But overall it's upbeat, and the drones are about the fullest I've ever done, with a lot of texture and motion. There's a 20Hz binaural beat underneath it all - I'm still using SBaGen for that - and all in all I think the piece is a nice refresher. I do hope you like it.

Lightening

Paraclete

I'm thinking of this episode as the last in a series. A lot is not likely to change in terms of the overall sound, because I've been very happy with the final products over the past few months, but I do feel a need to focus on melody some more than I have been doing.

Generally, the way a tune comes together is I play around on the guitar until the background idea comes together, then I start recording and build the rest of the parts through improvisation. Because I'm intent on keeping a certain vibe going and not distracting too much from the spaciousness, I tend to end up with these very pretty but very repetitive pieces. Many of the episodes have benefitted from that approach, and this one may be the best of them - I like it a lot, but beginning with the next episode (whenever that happens!), I'm going to reverse the process and try starting with melody and building from there.

Another thing I like about this episode is the bowed banjo. I've been hearing a lot of bowed guitar lately and I decided to give it a try. So the last few minutes here are given to my first attempt at a bowed banjo loop, and it's definitely something I want to develop further. In any case, thanks again to everyone who listens for hanging in with the reduced output - subscribers and download counts are both up, so it looks like a good idea to keep going with a quality-over-quantity approach.

The beat is still courtesy of SBaGen, coming in at 6Hz this week for a relaxation trip.

Paraclete

Remembrance

This is the tune that got started way back in October - hopefully, it was worth the wait. Once again there's a drone treatment, but this time I decided not to separate the drone moment from the musical moment. It was more a matter of mixing - the drone is way in front and the melody and so forth went to the background. Overall, I'm pleased.

The binaural beat this time around is 18Hz, a nice mental refresher. As usual for the past several months, the beat is SBaGen derived. I pushed it back in the mix, so it wouldn't interfere with the music. But it's there, and with headphones it should produce a nice effect.

Remembrance

Advent

I was just giving this week's episode my final quality control listening, and I'm glad to say it's just what I needed. Hopefully it will have a similar effect for you - relaxation, peace, a good mental nap in a hectic time.

I do have another tune on deck - it's been there since October! I realized yesterday the chances of me finishing it before mid-December were slim, so I went ahead and put Advent together. It's a drone, and I changed the approach to how I incorporate the SBaGen sequence this time. The result is that there's a lot more volume to the binaural sequence - a lot of pulsing, with the musical elements pushed back a little. For this particular piece, I think it works well.

The binaural beat begins a 8Hz and slips down to 4Hz in the middle. Like I said, it's a nap. Enjoy.

Advent

Evergreen

I was listening to Tristreza recently and decided I wanted to give another shot at something like that - a combination drone/melody piece. The result took some time to get together, but I think the result was worth the wait. I'm pleased with it, anyway.

The drone is a little more subdued this time around - behind the guitar motif at the beginning and finally getting a solo reprise near the end. In between is one of the nicer melodies I've done in a while, something almost like an actual song.

I'd like to say more, but my brain is semi-fried and the tune pretty well speaks for itself. The beat is 8Hz, and with headphones this one makes a nice relaxation piece. Enjoy, and thanks again to everyone for hanging in with my slower production schedule. So far I don't think I've lost any subscribers, and hopefully things will pick up speed come spring.

Evergreen

Impulse

Better late than never...

I don't know how eagerly anyone follows the new episodes here, but the schedule may be running behind for a while. With graduate school moving ahead full steam, my goal was to keep putting episodes up every two weeks. But though Infinite Return was nice, I felt after the fact that a lot more could have been done with it if I hadn't rushed to meet my self imposed deadline. So I'm going to take a different tack and see how it works, with the focus being on pieces that are "finished" rather than simply being "on time." Hopefully that will boil down to only three or four weeks, tops, in between episodes.

And I think this week's piece is indeed an improvement over Infinite Return. It's still entirely a motif piece, but I gave a little more time to each motif as a melody before moving into the overlapping of the motifs that I enjoy so much. This comes with a 20Hz binaural beat to accentuate the buzz of the cheerful music. I hope you like it - if anyone out there has a serious Binaural Banjo itch that the new episode schedule just won't scratch, email me and we'll get a personal favorites compilation together for you. As I've said before, though I will occasionally do a full bore CD promotion, I am happy to honor CD requests at any time. So let me hear from you!

Impulse

Infinite Return

I really enjoyed putting this week's tune together - it was nice to get a little more speed going and play something almost like bluegrass. I am kind of embarrassed, though, by the obvious bleed through of the click track - it's the musical equivalent of walking around with your zipper open, I guess. And it doesn't help when your rhythm is as far from perfect as mine is!

But even so, it's kind of a melancholy-conquered-by-joy thing. Starts out sad, ends up happy. And except for some equalizing and filtering out the high end hiss, there are no effects. Here I have these beautiful instruments, and I'm always trying to "layer" them with effects. Not this week. What you hear is what I hear (click track included...). Including a 6Hz SBaGen-derived binaural beat for some relaxation.

Infinite Return

The End of Time

Another motif piece, but one which spreads out nicely with another 30Hz beat. Like some of its better predecessors, such as Rejoice and Alpha Three, this week's episode fills out with some decent ambience that entertains without distracting. You can latch on or just drift. Drift away.

The End of Time