I’ll be honest with you, I went into the studio with a melody in my head and instead of making a dance track I basically started wondering what the capabilities of my new computer were, so I loaded up a bunch of ridiculously large samples and went to town.  The system did not even blink.  Give me a break on some of the rhythms, this is about 90 minutes of work, so it’s not perfect, but I guess if you’re looking for a guy to pay a lot of money to write a score, I could do that too.  I have to admit, doing this was fun, it’s always a fun new challenge to dabble in genres. 

Consider this the song that’s announcing that another release is imminent–this is a pronouncement!

The EP is Coming

This became most poignant for me when I tried to run Logic 7 as the front end of my PT HD using the ESB in Logic. I think I am one of the 19 people in the world who actually got this to work to immediately discover that it was impossible to work in the two environments because Logic and PT sounded so different. To even slightly mix any of the TDM or RTAS instruments in PT required that you EQ’d the crap out of the whole sound to make it mesh with all the muddy sounding stuff coming from the Logic side. I learned PT, and while its MIDI is still wonky, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. I have come to the conclusion that many PT haters are simply that, haters.

I have no idea what spawned that rant. However, I am avoiding erasing it because it proves my point.

That said, I have a Mac Pro coming. My studio has been back in Power PC land for some time now, mostly because with HD I never needed the extra power of the Intel Mac towers. Combine that with the fact that the Mac Pro is quite possibly the most overpriced piece of computer equipment in history, there’s a reason why my studio computing has been stuck in 2004. For a new Mac Pro, you are buying a computer that’s about a year behind it’s PC counterpart and paying a few thousand dollars extra for the privilege.

But then Apple dropped support for Power PC, and all the other software vendors followed suit to ruin my little world. I want ProTools 8, and since most of my friends have upgraded as well as most studios, I need to follow suit to maintain compatibility. Don’t get me wrong, PT8 sessions will work in PT7, but going back and forth is not wise. I needed to upgrade my computer. I was honestly looking at PC’s, but then the reality that half of my plugins don’t work very well on Windows and that Windows 7 isn’t fully supported yet by Avid, and I reluctantly ordered a Mac Pro.

I want to be able to stop buying Apple computers. They’re great products which is why I buy them, but I don’t like Apple’s business practices and don’t like closed systems. Bill Gates is dedicating the rest of his life to helping people while Steve Jobs terrorizes those who work for him. What’s more frustrating is Windows 7 is actually a really nice OS–just nothing I need is supported on it yet. I now own four Macintosh’s. A G4, a G5, a Mac Book Pro, and now a Mac Pro. I am a whore.

Then again, much like those who hate ProTools for being ProTools, maybe I have just turned into an Apple hater.

Not likely.

First an anecdotal history. Why are albums the way they are? Well, it’s pretty simple, the media always defined it. The LP was introduced in 1948 and due to mastering issues are usually limited to 45 minutes (The format can actually hold more music, but fidelity suffers.). Since most pop and rock songs average at 3-5 minutes, that pretty much means you are limited to 10-12 tracks an album. There are of course exceptions (double disk albums etc.) but for the most part the 10-12 track rule holds true. When Philips developed the CD, they were operating in this paradigm, so the red book standard somewhat mimicked this rule.

Now you may have also assumed that pressing and distributing vinyl and later CD’s isn’t cheap, so it’s in the artist’s and label’s best interest to utilize as much of the medium as possible, therefore, if you are an artist, you don’t release any music until you have enough to fill an album.

There we have it, a primer history of the album. However, as you also may have noticed, fewer and fewer people are actually buying media instead of downloading it. All of the limitations of media and distribution are now gone, so why wait for 10 tracks before releasing your music?

Now some claim the album was done long before digital downloading took over the world, and I somewhat agree–bad albums killed the album. People simply got sick of paying for ten songs when in reality there were maybe two songs worth a listen. Also, singles were often hard to find, and not much cheaper, so people just grudgingly bought the album. Napster changed all that. No longer did people have to blow money on an album for a song, they could just download it. iTunes and similar services just legalized that practice.

I don’t necessarily consider the single centric music world a good thing. The 45-60 minute music experience still is worthwhile, but why does it have to be in the same release? Writing an album is time consuming and that time can destroy any momentum from previous releases, especially for artists that don’t have the machine or super tour supporting their releases. Also, there’s no real reason to wait anymore because indie artists aren’t having to cough up a bunch of money to press vinyl or CD’s, therefore, here comes the staggered release.

Think of it like a miniseries. Instead of releasing a full album at once, release bunches of songs that will make up the full album once the releases are finished. Other times it may be like releasing a short story EP.

Following this paradigm, I am working with some talented people on an album that will be released in two parts. There is currently no name for the project but it is a poppy dance album. None of the deep themes in the previous SDO albums. So far there are about two songs in the can. This should be fun. The goal is to have the first release in April. I will let you know.

Regarding Apparent Horizons, I am starting pre-production on a music video for False Prophet. This is going to be a full fledged exercise in creativity due to the spectacular budget and crew. All that to say, I have a film degree, perhaps it’s time again to use it.

This is the first of the remix projects posted to this page.  There are many more to come, and they will be more current.  I promise.  Maybe.  I do love the 80′s after all.

On a macro level, 2009 was a terrible year.  We had the worst recession in a generation, unemployment in California is still above 10%, those still employed live with the Sword of Damocles over their heads, the US is still at war in two theaters and I could go on and on.  All of these things can negatively affect a life and it is naive to believe that simple attitude can make up for the uncertainty when dealing with the lowest level of Maslow’s needs not being met or at risk.  Not everyone has an art or a muse to fall back on, for some people, providing for their family is their muse, take that away, and you have a depressed human being without a purpose.

All that to say, it is times like this when I am so thankful that I do find fulfillment with my God given abilities to create music and I am very thankful that I have friends, family and the resources to enjoy life with those people.  If anything, this economy is forcing people who have the courage to continue to enjoy life without the gratuitous crap to continue to enjoy life without the gratuitous crap.  Because of this, on the micro level, I think this was a very good year.  People need to learn to find the joy in the pain, it’s an attitude thing.  Looking back, some of my fondest and funniest memories were in situations that at the time were quite unpleasant.  If it wasn’t for this economy and a lack of cashflow, I probably would not have been able to, nor would I have chosen to ride my motorcycle up the west coast to Canada staying with friends along the way.  From a practical standpoint, it was the cheapest way to get to see people, but it turned out to be probably the best vacation I have ever had.  If you don’t believe me, read this.

I also finished an album and started showing the courage it takes to succeed.  I am also making great headway on another project that I am excited about.  This is because I lost the comfort of security.  This comfort often leads to apathy, or a willingness to not rock the boat.  Success is scary, but not as scary as absolute failure, and this year took away the security to just avoid failure by floating along while creating the noise like you’re actually doing something.

So what’s ahead?  Well, I will be letting you know in the next few days.  Goal setting is big deal to me, and I don’t take it lightly.  Those who are close to me are aware of year end documents that I call post mortems.  I will be working on it, and I may post some of the less intimate details of one.  Regardless, here is to 2010, may we execute on lessons we learned from a very difficult 2009.

Really, this entire blog is a digression.  I am both at peace with turning 30 and annoyed, frankly I am a bit stoked about it as I think big things are going to happen this decade, but the fact that I am at the age where if I was an NFL running back I would be considered a relic is fairly depressing.  More on hitting the age later…