Just updated the music page (also in the tabs above). Fixed broken links and put some never before released stuff on there also. Check it out, especially if you are into experimental electronic, noise and IDM.

I haven’t done much music since I started working on plasq.com over 2 years ago. Back then, plasq wasn’t even doing software!

Little known fact – plasq.com was going to be a dual blog / writings site for Keith and I for our thoughts on User Interfaces in computing. That plan changed pretty quickly however.

I love this track by local (to me – Melbourne, Australia) Artist, Princess One Point Five.

Click to listen / download: bythetimeigettophoenix.mp3

With self stated influences including Massive Attack, My Bloody Valentine, Mirah and Francois Breut, how can you go wrong?

More downloadable tracks here

I bought a TR-505 last week. Not the greatest machine but I wanted a drum machine to bang on and they are pretty cheap and good for bending which I am starting to get into. The 505 also sounds pretty nifty through a heavy metal guitar distortion pedal

I shouted out for help on em411 and xik (he makes great music btw) had some great advice – even doing a pin overlay from a photo I took of the 505 circuit board showing what some of the things are and good bending areas! I love em411 (huge props to em on the recent site re-build too! very well done!)

This is the overlay:

(click for full image)

Last weekend songcarver, my girlfriend and I went to a couple of markets. We got a old nintendo (NES) and a Saturn Laser gun controller for my ever growing old computer collection. I gotta get a better digicam to take pics of this stuff. Speaking of computer stuff, the weekend prior, I got a Apple IIc with joystick and monitor stand! so cute and well designed.

Girlfriend got some vinyl stickers of Jem logos made by someone at the market with a vinyl cutter machine to use as stencils on the doll clothes she is making.

I’ll quote songcarver from his blog about what he got:

I went to an amazing couple of markets here in Melbourne the other day – People just had PILES and PILES of junk that they were selling (as well as heaps of other, nice things). But LOTS of junk. and i do mean junk. quite amazing.

I’m preparing my studio-garage to get serious – decking it out in some curtains etc. Bought the material at a ‘stall’ at said markets from a guy who had less teeth than I have ears. Great guy!

tuhtaar for now…

It takes two senses to perceive full range sound.  We hear sound, but we also feel sound, especially low frequency.  Traditionally, it takes big speakers, moving tremendous amounts of air, to feel the low frequency of sound.  People like loud concerts because they want to feel the sound pressure in their bodies.

The ButtKicker reproduces the feeling range of audio in a more direct way than through air.  The perception is actually better and sound pressure disappears.  When using headphones, for example, with a ButtKicker, the listener perceives powerful, musically accurate, concert-level audio, but no one else hears anything. The sound is completely isolated to the listener.

This becomes very interesting for music monitoring and recording studios.  We have several dozen of the top touring bands this summer using ButtKickers for stage monitoring.  The ButtKicker gives them complete control over their mix and sound level, without sacrificing any quality.  Most musicians tell us immediately that they hear better and play better with the ButtKicker.

Link

-couple months ago now, I shaped a piece of MDF and sat it on a keyboard stand to extend my desk. can be seen here:
http://fresh.atariboy.com/atariboys_studio.mp4 (right click to save it, dont just click it-its MPEG4. you will probably need quicktime)

-I’m really looking forward to this: http://www.fxteleport.com/ to come out for OS X. Get a fast PC for a cheap processing boost! That’s the plan anyway.

-wasabi rocks

-flavour enhancers make me develop ‘rattley throat and chest’, thus making me cough…. can’t be good.

-after eating noodles i made containing mainly seaweed, broccoli, tuna and 3 types of flavour enhancer, my beer tasted like creaming soda!! ..what the…!

-it’s my birthday soon

-i wonder what constitutes good lawn grass for dogs to eat? i just watched my hound for 5 minutes sniffing a lot of grass but eating very little.

-looking forward to seeing gangs of people standing around with nokia nGage’s or similar playing wireless games… lots of advertising for them here in Melbourne inthe city… a thought… they shoudl state on some of the billboards for owners to gather there and play

-art from bitshift gave my me first trackback from his blog... thanks mayt! he recently updated his terrific plugin, PhatMatic Pro to audiounit 1.2. funnily enough, as i downloaded that update, i also downloaded the older VST version so i could use it in…...(see next point)

• Plogue Bidule which i was playing with at the time. i was having a lot of fun playing Crystal and phatmatik pro at the same time in Bidule through an Arpeggiator … i even started a new song with something that developed out of this playing around. i bounced the results and am now working on developing it into a song in logic.

-had a great time at my friend dan’s house warming. had a good chat to another 2 tassie friends too who where there also.

-bought my ticket today to a dance party tomorrow (Saturday 1st of nov) headlining is the German, Thomas Schumacher but i bet some of the local djs will rip it up too for this reopening of a once weekly party in the early to mid 90’s. can’t wait!

-i am gonna do a website for a studio in Hawaii and one of the owners will master(plus other fixups?!?haha) the EP i am working on. sweet! this has freed my mind a lot knowing i have backup in the technical area of mastering.

-girlfriend and i bought tracktion last week. i am very impressed with its intuitiveness and girlfriend really likes it cause its easier to use than logic. it has made me realise how awesome logic is though and made me learn logic more deeply. also made me realise i am actually more comfortable in logic than i thought. i still want logic 6 though. tracktion is still a bit buggy but its getting better all the time.. i have sent some bug reports and logs… seems to have helped some problems we where having.

-called a drummer friend of mine in perth, WA today on impulse. was nice to chat about recent goings on in our lives, namely Zebra and a loop cd he is recording with someone over there. i asked him to include some funk and disco loops… i’d like to use them. hope he does! (hi wade!)

-i have a huge collection of james last and various funny 70’s synthesiser compilation LP’s. Switched on Bacharach!? haha.. and my favourite… not for the music itself but the concept.. its an album called ‘sounds like james last’ but it isn’t him at all… just some guy cashing on in ‘That James Last Soung!’ hilarious

-is this blog hard to read?

Well I have finished the UI design for Zebra and graphics for the new u-he.com website which will be updated after Zebra launch which will be…. I shouldn’t say.. but ummm, lets say, before another week goes by

It’s looks great and I’m REALLY happy with it… Urs still has to put the remaining graphics into the app and once that is done, i will put a screenshot up here.

I hope it sells well! grin would also be cool to get some other jobs like this… might happen once its out there.

We signed up for ADSL on Tuesday, (Woooohooo) now its a waiting game until we are connected. Bought a ADSL modem down at my local computer store down the road ( www.msy.net.au ).

Their prices are so good, I also got a new Burner for my PC cause it was using my Mac burner. $55 for a 52x R+RW burnproof liteon… very cool indeed.

Because things have slowed down I’ve finally had time to do some music making again… although that is mostly making presets (composing sounds) for zebra but a track is starting to develop also using all Urs’ plugins + blockfish for compression.

gotta say, the more time spent with Zebra actually using it, the more it grows on me… its really awesome in many ways…. sound wise and UI wise… not being biased at all, honest!

hmm, lets talk about music…. whats on my mp3 player at the moment? oh yeah. i didn’t mention i got a portable mp3 player, its one of these. Was an early birthday gift from my Mum and Oma. I’m VERY happy with it! Even use it while at home to play back my mp3 CDR’s cause its quicker than putting it in my mac and loading them into a playlist.

yeah… so back to what’s on my player…

# the new Gerling album – Badblood… its really good. Very different from their previous album. They wanted to make an album much more stripped back and more playable in a live situation from their mega produced last effort, “When young terrorists chase the sun” or “Headzcleaner” as its called in non Australian markets. They succeeded and its awesome… i would describe it as punk-discodance Really hypes you up and motivates you this album.

# Inka Marka – Valle de la Luna – Local mebourne band whos CD i bought after seeing them play at a craft market i went to with my Mum, Sister and girlfriend of all places. It’s a really nice mix of traditional South American songs and their own creations in the same vein. heard one of their other albums on the local community TV station couple of nights ago where they play CD’s on rotation after hours; this also sounds like a good one to get.

# The Books – Thought For Food – lovely little album of guitar(even Banjo) meanderings, electronics playfulness and funny/interesting samples which can get tiresome with all that downbeat trip hop stuff that gets pumped out but this is different and fresh and witty in many ways. Reminds of Cornelius some times with the nice acoustic guitar work.

# Plaid – Spokes – Mentioning this one not cause i have listened to it heaps but because i’m really disappointed by it. I have love all their prior releases; they always changed/tweaked their sound over time, morphing into something new but i still sticking to a similar vibe but it didn’t get boring… it was always fresh and interesting…. well they have morphed but this time its more like they have deliberately tried to make songs to sound like a bunch of other artists out there, namely, aphex twin, autechre and squarepusher. WHAT HAPPENED!? sigh now its not really BAD there are some tracks that are kinda nice but really nothing special or new or simple something that just grabs you.

# Jaga Jazzist – WOW! love these guys. I read a description of this which is pretty apt, “John Coltrane, Tortoise & Aphex Twin” and they are as good as those bands also… simply awesome. I only just discovered them and i don’t know why it took this long. I like their first album best ‘A Livingroom Hush’ but their new one, The STIX is also VERY good. I don’t know if the stuff on their albums are sequenced or not, its hard to tell. Supposedly in their live shows they have a heap of people on stage playing it all so i guess its possible but WOW…. you gotta hear them. If they tour in Australia, I’m THERE!... (yes, i am excited by this band)

# quick mentions:
Various artists – Brazilica Volume 2 – some tracks on here really make me go YEAHHHH, i love music!.
GZA - “Legend of the liquid sword”
The Flaming Lips – Yoshmi Battles the Pink Robots – still getting played a lot here. Still have to hear their previous one, The Soft bulletin i think its called.

# Si Begg – Director’s Cut – PHEW! theres some absolute ripping dance floor burners on this beauty. Funky, stylish and banging but not all dance though as it crosses all sorts of genres… something his other albums didn’t do so much but that doesn’t mean his other stuff isn’t good… no way…this guy is my freaking hero! all his stuff rocks my tits, umm, or something….. anyway.

From this album, you GOTTA check out these tracks: the opener track, Body (Featuring DJ Rush), Buss (Featuring Miss MC) and the slower brit hip hop/dancehall track, Moveup (Featuring Mr Taylor, Mr Black and Mr Aleem).

Unfortunately, something that doesn’t happen very often on albums for me, i have to skip a track, River (Featuring Jinadu).. Its music is ok but once the guy starts singing(he is palatable on the other track he appears on) i can’t listen anymore This happens also when Dose one appears on one of the many albums I have… argh… really he shits me and that doesn’t happen often either… Dose one and Madonna… shudder sigh… thanks for listening, i feel better now

oh.. update, just as i was writing this, Urs messaged me; he has added all the graphics and fixed some other stuff but found some graphics i didn’t give him… gotta do that now byes!