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
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
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
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
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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
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
Sunday, January 27, 2008
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)