Two free tracks
Two tracks that were only previously available on the DVD disc releases of my ‘ION’ and ‘Orcus’ albums released in 2010. I felt that they’ve been ‘exclusive’ for long enough and I’m now making them free to download. They are both 320 kbps mp3s, tagged.
Starlit
Tectonic Mass
Artwork by Kati Astraeir
Studio Dog
My dog ‘Maxa‘ is quite an old lady now (12) and wants to be around me more than when she was younger. When she comes into my studio room, I set up a duvet and pillow or just a blanket and she’s quite happy to settle down and sleep there, oblivious to the racket I’m making. It’s cool to have her here in the studio and I sometimes forget she’s there – that is, until the post man comes !
All shots taken handheld in the available light with my Sony R1 – and oldie but goodie.
Ambient music sustainability ?
In Response to the following article by Jeremy Schlosberg:
‘97,751 albums released in a year’, Jeremy Schlosberg examines the implications of music market gluttony.’
http://www.trebuchet-magazine.com/index.php/site/article/music_in_the_age_of_no-effort/
From a musician’s perspective, I think ambient is probably one of the easiest forms of music to create – particularly the beat less variety. For drone based stuff, tonality / atonality can be somewhat ambiguous, so an artist with little knowledge of rhythm, harmony (not to mention melody) can create ambient music using an array of available loop libraries, loop based DAWs and soft-synths marketed as being ‘ambient’ pretty straightforwardly and quickly. In comparison, more ‘formal’ kinds of music require considerable expertise (and time). Of course, there’s ambient that utilises more time intensive approaches and there are many ambient artists who have considerable musical and production skills, but I would say that would be in the minority of cases these days. The key point here is the artist’s degree of self evaluation – is everything they create deemed fit for release, or do they refine the work through re-iteration / self-editing etc ?
An artist can release an album a day if they choose to, upload it and away you go – another album release that took (say) a few hours in total to create, to add to the zillion other albums out there. My feeling on this is that this is not sustainable. For how long can this carry on for ? before the audience tires of the easily available huge pool of material out there and starts to search for ‘quality’ material (yes, I know it’s highly subjective term, but it still applies), to actively seek out their preferences as opposed to downloading anything and everything simply because thay can ? Equally, from the artist’s point of view, for how long do they intend to release whatever they choose to, in the future, if audience interest becomes increasingly diluted ?
Even though it’s not something that is talked about in ambient online communities, we are still driven by what we think is ‘good’ music. The ‘it’s all good’ misnomer doesn’t apply to our individual musical tastes. Like everyone else, I like certain types of music and have little interest in others (that applies to pretty much everyone I would imagine). Musical democracy is a great thing, but the work itself is the critical thing. If someone has created something, perhaps purely as a creative act, that’s great, but it doesn’t necessarily mean its something I would want to listen to.
I work toward releasing 2 or 3 albums a year and that’s working on the material pretty much every day of the year. I could release an album every month if I chose to, but I don’t feel that there would have been enough work gone into them to warrant them being released. Also, I don’t want to ‘over-release’, so that for listeners (hopefully) a release is anticipated rather than expected.
Work in Progress update (April 2012)
Since releasing my last album ‘Lyra’ in November last year, I’ve been busy creating lots of sounds – LOTS of them ! I’ve spent a lot of time with sample libraries and using two synths primarily – Native Instrument’s ‘Prism’ and ‘Razor’ to create a pool of material. I’m now starting to audition the sounds and make some rough initial mixes, things start to develop a bit better (or not!) at this stage.
I feel the need to make some ‘interesting’, different sounds for the upcoming releases I have in mind for 2012. I plan to release at least two albums this year – one solo, one collaborative. Release dates are a bit up in the air at present, as there’s still lots to do. There’s possibilities of tonal, darker, ‘hypnotic’, and ‘sacred’ (choral / church organ) works that may see the light of day, depending on how things pan out.
SoundMAGIC E30 review
I was looking for some new earphones that were pretty cheap but good, that I could use as an alternative to my Shure E500s (old version of SE535) and Etymotic er6i’s. I was originally looking for a good sounding earphone with good sound isolation. The chaps at http://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk recommended the SoundMAGIC E30s, which I purchased from themselves.
Sound and Isolation
I have to say that I was initially disappointed with the sound isolation of the E30s – in comparison to the ‘uber-isolation’ of the Etymotics and the very good isolation of the Shures (both using the Shure Olive tips). Even with comply T-400 tips, the isolation was significantly inferior(* 29/5/12 -see ‘Postscript‘ comment), but (and it’s a big but !), the sound was really very good. A really detailed and neutral / non-fatiguing sound. The bass is very present but not bloated and the mids are very smooth, very balanced all round I would say.
Soundwise, in comparison to the other headphones / earphones I have:
Bass much better than the Etymotics, but perhaps not as detailed generally.
The E30s make my Sennheiser HD280s sound ‘odd’ – not as neutral and they are supposed to have a very ‘flat’ frequency response.
Not as detailed as the E500s, but without the low-mid peak and better low bass extension (surprisingly).
Comfort
I initially found them tricky to insert, but over time I’ve found a method that works for me (put in ‘lightly’, wait for the foam to expand, then push in deeper) and once they’re in, they stay put and are comfortable. I can’t comment on the included sleeves as I used the comply ones (large) instead.
Looks and Build quality
Their looks are a tad unusual, but they have a certain charm. I went for the pale blue version – see pics, rather fetching looking with the blue Comply tips ! They’re solidly put together and the metal mini-jack plug is a nice touch. I like the cable, it feels to be of a good quality.
Verdict
I’m a musician and I think I will be using them when working on mixes / mastering. I like to audition my material on a number of different phones and I think these will be a pretty good reference. So, for £40, they’re certainly recommended. If you require very good sound isolation whilst out and about, perhaps they’re not your best bet (Etymotics are great for that), but for sheer sound quality, they’re exceedingly good.
Firstly, I should point out I’m not in anyway denigrating net-labels and artists who choose to give their work away, I’m just stating why I choose not too. I know this is a somewhat emotive subject and that some people will disagree with some of the things that I say here, but here’s my thoughts nonetheless…
I choose to place a value on my work. Here’s some reasons behind this decision:
Time – In terms of time, it takes a lot of time for me to create each album I release. I don’t have any kind of exact figure, but it’s months of work (six at a guess) for each album. So I don’t see something that took so long as ‘valueless’ and in a sense, nothing is ‘free’. Any artist will spend time and money creating their work.
I’m working on my music full-time, it’s what I’m doing on a daily basis and have been doing so for the last six years (and part-time for years before that) and it means a lot to me.
Music as disposable commodity – I feel quite strongly about this. Music shouldn’t be seen as disposable, something that is listened to two or three times and is then ‘discarded’ – the listener having extracted the ‘interest’ from it and then moves on. I feel the music should be of sufficient interest to warrant many repeated listenings over time. I think a listener may be more likely to simply delete a free release that they have tired of as opposed to an album they have bought.
I’ve noticed almost an element of pique in some quarters – “how dare you charge for your music !” kind of thing – a slight exaggeration, but that’s the sentiment, as if the artist is predominantly interested in money (although of course in some cases, that can well be true). In my case, I should point out that my sales and royalties are actually very small amounts of money in the scheme of things – I certainly couldn’t live off my musical earnings. However, I’m very thankful to the listeners who buy my work and any money I get goes back into buying new software, equipment etc. to hopefully improve my work. For me, the fact that a person is prepared to buy something I’ve created, (partially) encourages me to carry on creating new work – though I should say that I would carry on doing it anyway, the real drive is to create.
Regarding piracy, if someone wants to pirate my work, naturally there’s nothing I can do about that (that’s their karma) and I can see some positives in that from the point of exposure. If music-making is ‘just for fun’ and / or for one’s own enjoyment, I can understand the ‘free option’ and that getting feedback from listeners is its own reward. I can see many positives, but for the reasons I stated earlier, it’s not my approach. Saying that, I’ve contributed free tracks to compilations and have some free material on my site, but not whole albums.
I apply the same criteria to my ‘unwanted Jazz’ side-project ‘Formbank‘ and that one hardly sells at all, but the ‘value’ issue still applies.
Lastly, I should say that I’ve noticed that there is a certain ‘moral high ground’ attached to making ones work free – that’s cool, but it shouldn’t make every artist have to feel it’s the only way to go.
