You’ve noticed by now, I’m sure, but I updated my blog. I moved from MoveableType to WordPress and also moved my entire domain from Cedant to Dreamhost. I’d been meaning to move the site to my new host since I got an account with them about a year ago. Yes, its taken me one full year to get off my ass and do this. As you can tell, I am clearly a man of ACTION! Now someone come over here and rub my feet.

Why the move to from MoveableType to WordPress?

• its PHP, which I used to work in quite a bit so I’m more comfortable in the code
• I don’t feel like I’m struggling against the software like I did with MT (i was using 2.x - it may have improved some in 3.x)
• MT had just gotten completely out of hand with the blog spam - i’m hoping WP is better in that regard
• its free
• Dreamhost makes it super-easy to install

So there you have it - the story of my upgrade. Hope you enjoy the new layout. My favorite part? Look up, at the header. Maybe do a reload or two…

One other thing - I’m using the WordPress theme VSlider2. Click the little ovoid in the upper right corner to tuck away posts after you’ve read them. Sooo Slick!

Categories: Programming
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Part of the reason i got the H4 was because I wanted to archive a bunch of old recordings I made of performances since 2000.

The first one i grabbed was of the work-in-progress performance I did with Susan Simpson of her puppet theater piece Pseudoflora, which was based on Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz.

In the Bird Chamber (A)

Stockroom

In the Bird Chamber (B)

Phosphor Failure

This performance was at HERE Art Center in Manhattan as part of the 2000 Great Small Works Toy Theater Festival, and it preceded the premier of the show at The Museum of Jurassic Technology in LA in December of 2001. The show and the music were both completely reworked between the HERE performance and the MJT show. The piano theme in “In the Bird Chamber” was junked because it didn’t really work with the mood of the scene, but I always liked it and wanted to get it out there.

The MJT performance featured a trio playing actual songs (!!) in addition to the computer and noise bits. I’ll be posting excerpts from that show after I’ve had a chance to clean them up a touch (the theater was pretty noisy - many crying babies and confused adults who thought “puppet theater” meant “fun for the whole family”. Suckers. ).

BTW, if you’re not familiar with MJT read more about it here and here. It’s one of the hidden bits that make LA such a great place (as long as you know where to find them). Museum of Jurassic Technology is one of my favorite places on earth — go there when you’re in LA.

Categories: Composing, Music Downloads
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I’ve just bought the Zoom H4. I don’t normally get into giving gear reviews but there seems to be a shortage of online opinion about this portable recorder so I thought I’d contribute some of my impressions.

When I first picked it up, the unit felt sort of flimsy. Its very inexpensive and you can tell immediately that to keep the price down they’ve chosen cheap parts. The XLR inputs (they’re those combination 1/4″/XLR ins) didn’t feel rugged and durable like you’d hope they would for a portable recorder that’s bound to be used in less-than-ideal conditions. However, I’m willing to live with this if the sound quality makes up for it. And so far, it has.

I’ve been recording using the stereo settings at 24-bit/96k and have been very happy with the results so far. The lows are full and rich and the highs are crisp but not tinny. The unit comes with some simple compression capabilities on input which I’ve been using. It also includes mic modelers (SM57, Sennheiser MD421, Neumann U87 and AKG C414). Not sure I’ll be terribly interested in them but it might be fun to try.

The UI on the unit is pretty bad. Zoom is notorious for ridiculously bad UI on their equipment and the H4 is no exception. Changing the recording quality is pretty straightforward, but almost anything else requires using the flimsy joystick and the the jog tool to navigate a series of menus that are very hard to read. I suspect I won’t be changing settings too often, as its kind of a pain.

I bought mine from Minidisco, and along with the unit I got a power unit from The Sound Professionals which is specifically designed to plug into the H4 XLR ins. I powers my in-ear stereo mics using the H4 phantom. Haven’t tried it yet, but I’m looking forward to giving it a go.

If you get one of these inexpensive units, I’d definitely recommend springing for a 2 Gb SD Flash Memory Card. Mine cost $70 from Minidisco. You can’t really do much on the included 128 MB SD card so its worth the additional expense. Transferring recorded WAV files to my Mac was seriously easy. Drag and Drop. Nice.

So to summarize, the sound quality is very good on these units. I’m going to make a point of being extra careful with the unit as I record with it, because it doesn’t feel very durable. If all you need is excellent quality sound, then this will probably suit your needs just fine. If you’re going to be in situations where your recorder might get banged around, I think you’ll want something sturdier.

Categories: Composing, Gear
1 Comment »

New output. I’m calling this one Path 26 (for now) after the power lines that run next to the 5 freeway in the southern central valley and used to play havoc with my radio reception as I drove between LA and the Bay Area.

Categories: Music Downloads
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New thing. I’m not sure this is done yet, but its sort of not bad. It uses a descending Shepard Tone, sort of the reverse of James Tenney’s piece “For Ann(Rising)” which is a great piece of music. Mine’s not so clinical and conceptually stringent as Tenney’s though. That ain’t me. I’m a sloppy guy. He used to walk around with a crease in his jeans - i’m lucky if i remember to comb my hair.

I think of Tenney more since he died than I did when he was alive which is pretty ridiculous and sadly predictable I guess. I studied with him at CalArts. Briefly, but he was a very insightful guy and had a pretty profound effect on my music. He drew me a diagram once that described how he thought people perceived music over time. Lots of loops and squiggles. Great stuff. I don’t think he liked anything I did. I think he was pretty sick at that point already. I’m lucky to have gotten the chance to meet him and soak up a little bit of what he had to offer.

Its called Barberpole (For Tenney Falling). Maybe its not horrible.

Categories: Music Downloads
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Over the past year i have done very little new music. With the move to Seattle, moving again after we got here, getting adjusted to the new work environment and learning my way around the music scene here, there just never seemed to be time to sit down and mess around with music.

Plus, and probably more importantly, I’ve been feeling that electronic and noise music are both in a state of remission. Electronic has just shrunken away to nothing, having collapsed under the weight of its own all-night glitch party pretensions, and noise seems to have reverted to its late-80’s “lets scare mom and dad” stunted macho ridiculousness. Seems like every new noise band i’ve heard of in the last 2 years has either “vomit” or “scrotum” in their name. Once upon a time that could’ve been cool, but now… not so much.

Anyway, i’ve been feeling like moving away from noise at least for a little while and revisiting the mid/late 60’s electronic music that I love. So much electronic music from that era has an air of jet-age optimism to it. Its irresistible to me. Its romantic, in a sort of Asberger’s way. So I thought I’d have a go at making some music that evoked that era a bit. Less dependent on noise, not so much looping, not so confrontational. More pretty, more hopeful. Is that corny? Maybe so. Call me cuckoo.

So here’s my first go at it - The Issaquah Alps. We’ll see where this leads.

Categories: Music Downloads
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I went to see Wayne Horvitz and the Gravitas Ensemble last night at the Triple Door in Seattle (part of the Earshot Jazz festival here). My friend Sara Schoenbeck is the bassoonist. Very nice. I missed the apparent highlight of the evening which was cellist Peggy Lee tearing it up in her solo ( i had to go move our car, which was about to get locked into the parking lot which closes at midnight on a friday — WTF??!!). I especially liked trumpeter Ron Miles, who i hadn’t heard before. I like how he plays with his tone — very full and round one minute and thin and reedy the next — and his swoopy glisses and multiphonics. But without being too showboaty.

The only bummer about the show was the two knuckleheads sitting behind us who wouldn’t shut up for the whole night. I wonder if that’s just a fact of life in a venue like the Triple Door that serves dinner and such.

Categories: shows
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Another nice review of the DVD. I mean, i guess “shitting out your ears” is something you want to be doing, right?

http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/review_detail.php?id=1571

Categories: Video
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Earplug, the monthly arts mailer, got ahold of the DVD and gave it a nice review. Pretty flattering stuff.

The last sentence, about a “shared brain that’s evolved over the course of a decade” - that’s a great description of the rush I get from collaborating. Anyone who’s worked at collaborating knows the feeling when it’s right - the people involved don’t have to tell each other what to do very often, everybody’s contributing their bit, hopefully not cluttering things up too much, nobody gets defensive if their idea isn’t used, and the final product isn’t anything you could’ve imagined on your own. Its a very liberating experience and its one of the things I like most about music.

Categories: Composing, Video
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Kevin Hainey reviewed Noise Driven Ambient Audio and Visuals in Exclaim! last week.

He called it “mind-blowing” and “wickedly intense”.

Categories: Video
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