nervous_testpilot

_ensnare_ tracks feature in Starcraft 2 documentary!

2011-11-16T10:20:00.000Z

If you're a fan of my chiptune side-project _ensnare_ then head over to the _ensnare_ site for some cool news about a Starcraft 2 documentary focusing on the inimitable Team Liquid...

Impeccable Micro - a new album by _ensnare_

2011-08-20T09:16:00.000+01:00

That's right, my chiptune alter ego _ensnare_ has been busy producing another album! This one is a bit more dancey - it's full of chunky melodies and silly noises. Take a listen over at the _ensnare_ site.

I decided to release this as "pay what you want" with a minimum price of $3 - so far this is working out very well, with people choosing to pay quite significant amounts! Thanks everyone.

Frozen Synapse Soundtrack Released!

2011-06-29T12:54:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note to say that you can pick up my soundtrack to Frozen Synapse, an amazing indie tactical game, over here.

If you want to check out the game itself then go here - I entirely recommend doing so!

Working on a little bit of new stuff at the moment, so stay tuned for that.

No Carrier Rush by _ensnare_

2011-01-16T22:10:00.003Z

I now have an 8-bit alter ego and a new album!

You can check out both here.

Frozen Synapse Soundtrack Preview

2010-12-05T22:49:00.002Z

Yo.

Things have been quiet recently because I've been so busy with Frozen Synapse. You can take a listen to the soundtrack here!

Sorry if you posted a comment and it didn't get through - I need to sort some things out around here.

I should have some more news soon if you're a chiptune / lofi fan - stay tuned for that.

Nice track from Michael Cassette

2010-11-12T13:06:00.000Z

Really like this one - nice and chunky but with some Ken Ishii-like melodic sounds.

A quick bass production tip

2010-09-24T17:45:00.000+01:00

While I wait for the menu music for Frozen Synapse to finish rendering, I thought I'd quickly post this from Future Music...

Future Music - In The Studio With - Sean Tyas from gomez92 on Vimeo.

Quite why they're SO TERRIBLE about getting video content up on the web in a sane form I have no idea. This is a pretty interesting breakdown of a really ace trance bass sound.

I really like Sean Tyas' music - he gets bashed a lot by idiots on forums for being generic, but he's managed to successfully overcome that and do some quite innovative stuff. Big, obvious uplifting trance is occasionally required!

Positive Feedback Loop

2010-08-21T22:03:00.167+01:00

So my recent track Five Years in Singapore came out on Subtraxx recently - here it is on Beatport.

This was big track for me, as I spent a long time working on it trying to break out of some bad habits that I had as a producer, and trying to get back towards the big, uplifting sound I'd always wanted to create.

I thought I'd write a bit about what it's like to be a fairly low-ranking producer in the trance scene at the moment - it's an interesting place to be!

Goals

My goals for dance music production have always been the following:

1.) Find a consistent outlet for the music I want to write

I wanted my music to get out there and get the widest distribution possible, whether it was free or otherwise - I just simply wanted the biggest audience I could get.

Interestingly, because of the way promos work, it's actually better to get your music released by a label even if you would happily put it out for free: this is the only way of getting serious attention.

2.) Align my productions with what DJ's are willing to play

I've always come at dance music from a melodic perspective - that's why I'm a trance producer, and not an electro house producer. I loved the big, emotive melodies coupled with powerful percussion; it's why I tend to skew towards "uplifting" in the kind of music I produce.

I actually think this is a fairly disastrous direction to come from if you want to be successful! DJ's are looking for records that will motivate a dancefloor - strong melodies are an added bonus and trance records that go stratospheric within the scene tend to have them - but the bread and butter of most sets is tracks that have tightly-produced grooves; this has always been secondary for me.

I've always been praised for the melodic content of the music I make - in the past I've done abstract electronica, silly mash-up things, hardcore and various other things - but I'm only just starting to get the rest of the elements up to scratch, and I'm getting much more interested in that elusive "groove" factor.

With every track I make, things get slicker, but I know I have a long way to go. I've only been seriously producing trance without working with an engineer for two years, so I'm fairly happy with the stage I've reached so far, but my ultimate goal is to get my tracks playlisted as widely as possible.

3.) Get a track played by Gareth Emery on his podcast

This is a very obscure and specific goal but it's still something I'd like to happen. Hearing Miikka Leinonen's "Washed Away by Rain" played by Mr. Emery convinced me to learn to produce my own dance music in a serious way, so it's all bound up together.

The keen-eyed among you may have noticed that I've now had a track remixed by Miikka, which was an awesome experience! Each little milestone or experience I chalk up is the whole reason I'm doing this - getting my remix of Miika Kuisma's One Step Behind the Mankind played by Mark Pledger on Anjunabeats Worldwide; getting support from Graham Gold; meeting Miika himself in Singapore; playing a full set of trance stuff at Truck this year; these all contribute to the fun factor; scoring some 10's from DJ's in far-flung places and knowing that my records have been deployed on dancefloors in places like Finland and Japan. I'm just hungry for more things! Like everyone, I'd love to get played on some of the big podcasts, or hear one of my tracks come in at a massive event.

So, that's what I'm aiming for. Notice I don't have "make money" or "be a famous DJ" on the list! Both money and live bookings are great when they do come along, but my "day job" provides the former, and the latter is something I do as a hobby rather than a career - I don't have the time or stamina!

By the way, if you are keen on a career in this industry, I suggest reading Marcus Schossow's post over at Innotune - insightful stuff.

Labels

I've been lucky enough to get involved with Subtraxx, who are brilliant at supporting new artists, and that has enabled me to start getting tracks out there into the public domain.

Now, personally, I do recommend signing tracks to a small label to start wtih. A lot of people will tell you to send tracks to big labels first, but actually I've found the process of working with Subtraxx to be very encouraging. It's not like Subtraxx is an unknown label, but as they'd freely admit they're certainly not Anjunabeats! They do get promos out to a lot of key DJ's though, so it's certainly a valid place to build your career as a producer.

In this interview, Gareth Emery talks a bit about how new producers come across to DJ's - beware the giant quote...

As DJs we get sent a lot of records, like 400 a week, and there's a lot to go and listen through. Occasionally there are records with same name week in and week out. People that are releasing so many records and none of them are quite up to scratch. You see a lot of potential in these guys and after a while you kind of stop listening to their records and you think it didn't really excite me like the last twenty I've heard so why should this be any different.

Back when they still did vinyl, when I first started making records, I would send out about twenty-five demos and get no response. Went back and worked harder and six months later send out another twenty-five and one replied. It was probably about two or three years of sending out demos before I got a good deal. That was because releasing vinyl is expensive; to press these records would cost a lot of money. Generally you didn’t get a record deal until you were good and ready for it.

Now a day, that's not the case. Nothing to releasing a record because it's all done digitally and it's quite easy to not get a response from sending your first twenty-five demos. By then you're like I can do it by myself, promote myself. Not always the best way to do a demo. Hold back until you can get a quality label, someone who has like a pedigree of releasing good records, going "yeah we think you're good we wanna release your music". That way when you're name gets first introduced to people like me, who are going to be playing your records it's for like a really good track and people are going to be excited about you. It's longer and it's harder but it most defiantly could work.

When you look at people you came from no where like Deadmau5 or Sander van Doorn, they weren't sending out crappy demos for years. Those guys kind of came out of something massive and they became really big out of that. They've been making records for a really long time but just not putting them out there.

This is very important to bear in mind for new producers - if you're not doing something to stand out, then your tracks won't get played. If your tracks aren't produced in as slick a manner as big-name stuff, they won't get played either.

It's tough to 1.) be original 2.) be as good as something conventional 3.) compete in a market where there's hundreds of other releases each week! This is just something you'll have to deal with if you want to produce dance music - it's the nature of the beast.

Now, here's what happens when you put out your first record...

1.) It gets the living daylights torrented out of it

I was really surprised at the volume of torrents that appear for a track the second it hits promo. The internet just devours all trance music - you'll see hundreds of sites all with links to torrents of your track, but you'll receive absolutely no feedback from them.

I'm not going to get moralistic about torrents here, save to say that if you like a track from a small label then it's worth buying it to support the label and the artist.

It's not the money aspect of this that irritates me, it's the fact that a lot of people have heard your track and you have no idea what they think of it. Nobody really reviews tracks that consistently, so it's hard to get feedback.

2.) It comes out on the download stores

It's nice having things on Beatport! That was one of my old goals that I've now satisfied. Having a means where people can buy your stuff is great.

3.) You get the promo sheet back

This is, to be honest, a fairly gut-wrenching experience. Without offending anyone's status (!), it's fair to say that at the moment, more famous DJ's tend to rate my tracks lower without leaving comments. This isn't always the case, and there are some very notable exceptions.

My point here is that the people who you most need feedback from don't tend to have time to give it. This isn't a criticism of anyone, it's just simply how the world is, and I accept it, but it is frustrating.

As with all feedback, the negative stuff is the most useful. Here, I've collated all of the negative feedback that was actually left for Five Years in Singapore...

"Original its a bit average"

" Both of the version sound a bit messy"

"Orig mix has potential until it goes a little bit too fluffy...I'll listen a few more times...shame on the fluff front though"

"not my style anymore..."

" not for me guys"

If we remove the "this isn't for me" stuff, which will happen readily because of the mix of styles that DJ's in the promo pool play we're left with...

Average, messy, fluffy.

Now, I'm pleased with this, because it confirms my own suspicions. Here is my own personal negatives on the track, listening back to it...

- Hats a bit shrill and thin-sounding
- Bit-crushed "pow" and other percussion effects sound a bit messy and unnecessary
- Mid-range bass sounds need to be compressed tighter and sound fuller
- Open hat a bit shrill and and hissy
- Bass elements and kick compete a bit
- Square wave stab sounds too thin
- Mix generally needs to have less stuff in it - vox get a bit lost in the intro - square wave lead isn't powerful enough
- Not enough low-end bass in the breakdown
- Breakdown could use some percussion through it
- Lead sound not forward enough in the mix, not wide enough, not full enough
- Un-gated pads over the main riff tend to bog things down a bit

"Average" is fairly pointless feedback because it's non-descriptive, but I think that takes care of "messy" and "fluffy". Here's some of the positive feedback for the track:

"This is trance at its best."
" I like the test pilot!"
"without many words a hot one"
"The original mix is astoundingly good."
etc etc.

Naturally, it's lovely to get bombarded with praise like this - thanks to everyone who left that stuff! I was proud of the 7/10 from the immensely experienced John 00 Fleming (who also left the "fluffy" comment), and I just sent him a message on Twitter to thank him for leaving some constructive feedback.

That all contrasts with some of the other ratings - a 5/10 from Gareth Emery and a 6/10 from Menno de Jong. I'm sure if I were able to ask those guys about it, they'd just say it wasn't a great track and they'd already moved on to listening to the next promo without really thinking about it.

It's those scores that tell me that I still have a lot of work to do, despite the fantastic support and feedback from a lot of the promo pool community. I do want to be hitting those targets and getting support from DJ's across the board.

So, here's how I'm going to do it...

The Plan

Direction

I've decided that I'm going to whole-heartedly pursue the uplifting direction: I tried experimenting with a darker, more bass-driven sound, but I realised I was just doing that to try and get attention! That's always a terrible motivator for writing a track. When I came to that realisation, I actually totally scrapped a track I was working on - that's the first time I've ever done that with a trance record.

So, it's going to be strong melodies all the way. I do have faith in the melodic content of my tracks - I think that's its some of the more technical aspects that are holding me back.

Also, I genuinely believe you can only produce top quality music if you passionately care about it. Inspiration is over-rated in music compared to hard work, but equally you can't mess with the origin of your motivations.

I sat down and worked out what I actually like in a dance record: an emotional or "driving" melody fused with a brilliant groove.

Let's look at the "emotional" melody first - here's a good example...

This track got criticised for being too "generic" (personally I love it), but you swiftly learn that this doesn't mean anything. The plucks here work brilliantly well; Miikka manages to have pads, AND supersaw stabs, AND plucks working simultaneously. No mean feat!

I don't tend to use supersaw-style sounds in my tracks - I'm not against them per se, I just find them difficult to work with!

Now, how about a "driving" melody?

This has been doing the rounds a lot recently, and I think it typifies a certain kind of melody; it's a very simple riff on a punchy sound. I love it! Also, Ben Gold's production is phenomenal - distinctive and powerful but still easy to imagine slotting easily into certain kinds of DJ set.

Obviously, I'm not going to run off and copy either record, and they're so massively different you could hardly create a hybrid of them!

What this boils down to is that I need to really focus on creating melodies that work with grooves rather than focussing overly on them in their own right.

Technical stuff

I've found that the best thing to do to come up with a strong groove is to focus extensively on each individual element in isolation. Here are some of the things I'm struggling with right now...

- Kick

A lot of producers are using two-part kicks - a high/mid "thip" kick and a low boomy kick layered together. When I've done this, I've tended to produce kicks that are a bit too short and snappy - I don't think the kicks on some of my older tracks are particularly strong. I'm now working to try and get them sounding a bit more solid and punchy.

- Open hi-hat

Two things with this - people seem to be EQing these very aggressively. To get the sharpness of the hats in most tracks, I have to use two of Live's built-in EQ's together! This tends to just result in a horrible, shreddy hi-hat, which I then have to tweak back into shape. I've started to use different EQ's, like those from my Focusrite Liquid Mix and this seems to be helping, but sample choice is difficult.

Most of the samples I have are either layered 909 open hats or horrible aerosol-sounding things! It could be that I just need to look for more samples and work on my layering a bit more.

- Loops

I've been making some progress on this by combining Leon Bolier's technique of building loops out of individual percussion hits, and Airbase's re-purposing of existing loops. Also I've been tuning things more and paying more attention to getting loops to gel.

- Bass

I've tried various bass styles in all of the tracks I've done, but I'm settling on a "rolling" bass style as my favourite. Every track I hear that has a more stereotypical "classic" style rolling bassline tends to grab me more readily - I don't care that it's cliched! There are plenty of producers bringing heavier, single-note driven basslines into trance, and of course there's the Sander van Doorn style epic rumble, so I feel that side of things is best left to those guys.

That's not to say that I'm really working on upping the game with bass. I'm currently working on a track that has three bass elements

- Low end

For this, I'm currently using either the Arturia Moog VST or V-station. I add a PSP Vintagewarmer, sidechain with the kick and use a rolling 16th note style pattern, keeping it very simple. I then trim off a tiny bit of the extra Vintagewarmer low end with an EQ, monitoring at different places in my room and A/Bing with the low end of other tracks.

I'm not desperate to go for an epically heavy low end, just something warm and powerful enough to do the business.

- Mid-range

I think I've been getting this wrong and using sounds that are too muddy - the mid-range bass in trance tends to actually have quite a lot of frequency content. Using more distortion, nice punchy compression and layering to get this nice and tight is helping.

- High-mids

In uplifting trance, there tends to be quite a fast, stabby sound on top of the mids - again, I haven't been doing this as much or giving it enough attention. On Five Years in Singapore, I just kept adding bass sounds on top of each other when I should have concentrated on just one or two. Now, if I add more than one layer to the, I tend to really thin it out and make sure it doesn't phase.

I'd say bass is working better now and it's time for me to put more emphasis on things like loops and getting all of the groove to gel together. Adding more Vintagewarmers and using limiters to control dynamics a bit better is helping.

Overall, I want the groove to excite me on its own, so that it sounds fantastic when it all locks together after the bass hits. I do have a tendency to add too much small percussion, but I'm slowly stamping that out!

Some other minor things I'm working on...

- I need more vocal samples for "ahh" and "ooh" style stabs and little vocal edits! If anyone knows a good source of these then please let me know.

- I really sorely need a good VST stereo spread plugin - I still haven't found a good PC-based one that isn't terrible, and I'm endlessly jealous of Logic's built-in one. Any tips? I still think parts of my tracks sound a bit too mono.

- Reverb has been a bit too cautious in the past - I need to not be afraid of deploying massive reverb and also using more room-type stuff. Finally, I've never really come up with a nice reverb to use on open hats, so I may need to investigate some more reverb plugins.

Finally for this section, I thought I'd list some of the tutorials I've been watching in case they help anyone out:

This is pretty interesting in parts...(not the part with the cheese sandwich)! I've just noticed he has a more recent one so will also take a look. It's interesting to see what he does with low end bass - I've always been impressed by that very Dutch "rumbly" bass that seems to be all sub!

This is quite an epically long series for CM from J00F himself. I found this more useful for "philsophy" than anything particularly practical, but the idea of tuning percussion and listening more sensitively to loops rather than just bunging them together were really helpful. Also, this made me think that I need to get a bit more heavily into my EQ plugins and figure out what's doing what.

There was a good Darren Tate tutorial that CM had as well, but I can't find it on YouTube. Hmm.

Finally, I'm sure everyone in the world has seen these, but here's Jezper...

I love how Jezper is able to come up with brilliant results in such a minimal way - there's very little complex stuff going on here, apart from the use of Izotope Trash on the mid-range bass, which I wouldn't have expected.

Also, if any other big-name producers are watching, I would pay through the nose to see similar videos - screencap with commentary going through every element of a certain track. This really is one of the best way to learn techniques from other producers.

Time

I've added this as a separate section, because no matter how much research you do and how much you think about it, the single thing that will improve your production the most is producing.

Actually spending dedicated time working on stuff is very difficult if you're not full-time. Most pro DJ's work at the weekend and then have a good three or four solid days to concentrate on production each week.

I run an indie game development business for which I often have to do audio and soundtrack work - I can't really work on more than one track simultaneously, so dance production tends to stop when I'm doing soundtrack work. Also, I often have to be away from home working with the other guys in my company, so the time I have to dedicate to music is a bit limited.

I've decided to be much more committed to production in the time I do have available, and re-arrange my schedule a bit to allow for more solid time.

I'd like to get three to four really strong original tracks out a year, as well as dealing with any remixes that come my way.

Labels

Here's another reason it's worth signing with Subtraxx - they've actualy encouraged me to go out and get tracks signed to other labels to build my profile! This is something I'm definitely planning to do, as it's a direct route to the feedback I really need to get.

The End?

Some things I think I should say to conclude - thanks so much to all of the DJ's who have supported my tracks so far. It's brilliant to know that as I'm improving, my tracks are still getting out there and working for people. If you ever get one of my tracks on promo and think, "If only this guy would do x, y and z in his productions" then just shoot me an email! It would really help me out.

With all this focus on what other trance producers are doing and the technical side of things, it's sometimes easy to forget that every producer needs to forge their own path and try things nobody has done before. I hope that as I level up technically I'll be able to introduce more experimental elements. I really look up to producers like Marcus Schossow, Mat Zo and Leon Bolier who have crafted uniquely identifiable production styles and that's what I hope to do as I figure out the elements that are most important to me.

I hope you didn't mind the overly introspective tone of this - personally, I wish more producers would blog about their thoughts and motivations - maybe I can encourage some of you reading this to do that- I'd love to read it!

Frozen Synapse: Pre-order Now!

2010-04-20T10:19:00.002+01:00

The game I've been working on for about two years (including writing the soundtrack) is now available to buy from http://www.frozensynapse.com - take a look!

30 Days of Music - Day 02 - Your Least Favourite Song

2010-03-31T23:06:00.001+01:00

Brand New Heavies - Midnight At the Oasis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmzG8XK1qkQ

MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS

Thinking about this song isn't enjoyable. I almost didn't want to class this as my Least Favourite, because that would mean that I'd have to listen to it.

I had to wait for something in a shop the other day and this came on their stereo; it wasn't even this version. It slithered its way out into the room and I remembered how badly I wanted to destroy it.

I think - and this is something that most people feel about the music they despise - that this is music for people who don't like music. This is a processed microwavable turkey nugget that delivers no nutrition and has a desultory soggy texture. It makes you ill, it makes you worse.

Hear that little guitar pitchbend (it's at 0:24 - please don't listen)? What is that? Seriously? What is that there for and what does it accomplish? It's like someone pointing and winking at you, earnestly, as a greeting. Nobody does that. This comes back, regularly, all the way through this nightmare; the leering face of an abuser.

We've already discussed my difficulty with lyrics, but jeez...

Isn't there a law against the first line of a song being THE TITLE OF THE FLIPPING SONG? It's like the singer was handed it on a piece of paper just before she did her vocal take and accidentally started too early. To be honest, I'm surprised she doesn't sing, "All rights reserved" at the end.

She doesn't do that, but she does sing, "Midnight at the Oasis" AGAIN.

In this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMO84Twq9Ow - which I believe is the radio edit, she sings it TWICE at the start as well. Once in faux-Salt n Pepa block-chord form, and once "normally". I love how they just stuck some stupid harmonised vocals on the start to dodge the mindsucking drudge of the full intro.

In homage to this wantonly futile repetition of the title, I've put "MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS" at the start, at psuedo-random locations in the middle, and at the end of this piece. Trust me, it's irritating. Are you sick of it yet? MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS.

And that vocal entrance...someone sneaking up and going "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRHHH!" in your ear would abrade the brain less.

"Sing your camel to bed"

Pardon? Putting aside the total generalised nonsense of this, surely you sing someone to sleep rather than bed? Oh, oh, wait - there's probably a rhyme coming soon...

"Shadows painting our faces / Traces romance in our heads"

Why "painting"? Painting a face implies deception, harlotry, prostitiution. "Traces": outlines, fragments, copying. I don't think there's a profound examination of the rationalisation of romance going on here, so why is the romance happening in "heads"? Why is it tracing in our heads: is the tracing psychosomatic?

I need to stop and think about this if I'm going to get anything from a line that complex, but no, we barrel on into...

"Heaven holding a half moon / Shining just for us"

Bleurgh.

"Let's slip off to a sand dune real soon / Kick up a little dust"

Let's not, ok? So we're all romancing and something about camels and then we're kicking up dust? Why the mood swing, OH WAIT BECAUSE THERE'S DUST IN THE FLIPPING DESERT. Except it's SAND, SAND. So we've got dust and camels and later I think we get a sheik. Why don't we chuck in some pyramids and asps and quicksand. It's a bit like the Egypt level from a Megadrive-era platformer.

MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS

As I read through, my opinion cements: the person who wrote these lyrics doesn't understand words.

Words are used in subtle loops to evoke emotions, they are not there to brutalise an image into someone: "YOU WILL IMAGINE BEING IN A DESERT!"

Let's pause for a second. We're clearly in the "nonsense song" genre, so why is this woman singing it like it's some heart-wrenching ballad? Nothing riles me more than overtly meaningless lyrics delivered with faux-passion.

"Come out, Cactus is our friend."

Is that what she's saying? "Cactuses: our friend?" Ungrammatical, so probably not. Who is Cactus? What kind of name is Cactus anyway? There's no other mention of Cactus. I hate Cactus.

MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS

And it's not like she can even sing this phrase anyway: it dribbles loathsomely like she's trying to expurgate some awful excess of bad humour - "Co-hum-oww-wha-howt".

AND THEN! AND THEN! The next part of this section:

"He'll show us the way"

That's what every transcription seems to have, except she seems to sing, "He walked out, away," which makes absolutely no sense. Is she even singing the actual lyrics? Of course it's rendered as, "Heeeaah wowclow ha-waaay" so nobody has the faintest chance of ever knowing.

A little later, we get to:

"I'll be your belly dancer /
Prancer, and you can be my sheik"

I don't really feel the need to discuss that; it's what happens directly afterwards that really takes things to another level. Yes, it's a sax solo; I remember my good friend Oli telling me that he had a lecturer at university who genuinely believed that the saxophone was invented as a joke. This solo is definitely of the "random-notes-until-I'm-done" variety: it's a slightly wilted lettuce leaf.

The version I'm referring to for this then repeats the first two verses and slinks off into the miserable wasteland of "wailing + sychopated stabs". Isn't it the job of a producer to tell a band, "Hey, you know this section where literally nothing happens at all? How about we just cut that out? I mean, it's not like people have anything better to do with their time than listen to you idiots not actually playing a valid part of this song, but, I don't know, maybe things will just flow better?"

I wish, entirely, that this slippery globule of half-funk could be purged from culture.

MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS

This blog has moved

2010-03-31T22:06:00.001+01:00

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nervous_testpilot Live Rig - The Inside SCOOP!

2010-01-09T13:49:00.000Z

Just some live rig experiments...

Marko Kantola - Anywhere / Black City

2009-12-04T17:23:00.002Z

Check out this brilliant work from fellow Subtraxx artist Marko Kantola - exactly how trance should be...

Miika Kuisma - One Step Behind the Mankind - nervous_testpilot's Club Mix

2009-11-19T06:19:00.003Z

Miika Kuisma - One Step Behind the Mankind (Nervous Testpilot Remix)

2009-11-08T12:43:00.001Z

Just a quick one to say that this remix by me of top Finnish dude Mr Kuisma is out now on Beatport. I might possibly get a chance to meet the man himself while I'm on holiday in Singapore, which will be awesome! I'll keep you posted.

Here is a link to said tune at Beatport.

DMS Dimension

2009-10-12T19:48:00.002+01:00

A trance VST ROMpler by the name of DMS Dimension that I co-developed with Dancemidisamples has just been released!

Here's the blurb:

If you're a professional producer, or you've ever worked with one, you'll know that a lot of time in the studio is spent layering up synth sounds to create big, powerful tones. To save time, over the years, we've built up a library of huge layered sounds to take the hassle out of this process, and now we're going to share it with you...

DMS Dimension is a VST instrument which gives you instant access to our professional quality 1.2 GB ROM library full of soaring trance leads synths, fat trance basses, insane trance FX, bright synth pianos and lush trance pads.

Our aim is to give you a comprehensive toolkit of tones which can slot into any trance or progressive tune. That's why we've stuck to clean, powerful multi-layered sounds for every single one of the 128 presets. We'd be more than happy to use any of these sounds in a track ourselves: there's no filler whatsoever. Check out the demos above if you don't believe us: every single sound comes from Dimension (apart from the drums, of course!).

Dimension has a simple, fast architecture: amplitude and filter envelopes, a chunky lowpass filter, a delay unit and a reverb unit. Each patch uses two multisamples which are layered together: you can adjust the balance of these if you want. That's it: there's no faff; just instant, usable sounds which can be tweaked so they fit perfectly with the rest of your mix.

All of the individual tones used by Dimension are stored in the popular SF2 (SoundFont) format, which can be used with most VST sampler plug-ins. If you love the sounds, but want to do your own sound design using your own software, feel free to use the samples!

Professional sounds, perfect usability and a vast sample library for just £49.99
US $78.92: you've got to pick this plugin up today.

---

Working on this was great - I built it entirely in Synthedit and sound creation duties were handled by the mighty K Complex. Check it out!

Hiatus

2009-09-28T22:43:00.003+01:00

A couple of things I was doing (and mentioned previously) got cancelled, and now I am pretty entrenched working on the Frozen Synapse soundtrack. Hopefully I will get time to mix Wonderful Information for Subtraxx soon so that they can get that out.

The ASTONISHING Dreamtrak remix of that track should be available soon as well.

Hopefully I'll be able to get my live set completed in between Synapse work and get out and gigging again. I will let you know.

I have a Facebook fan thing now if you would like to network socially with my face. Do this.

Truck vid!

2009-07-28T10:08:00.001+01:00

Truck!

2009-07-25T22:40:00.003+01:00

I'm excited about playing my first proper live set for years tomorrow night. Should be good fun!

If you're here wondering about what I've been up to then you should check out my recent tunes on Future State and the Bonzai Label Group.

Imaginary Cities (Future State)
Ville Lope - Passive Attack - Nervous Testpilot Remix (Green Martian)
Miika Kuisma - One Step Behind the Mankind - Nervous Testpilot Remix (forthcoming on Subtraxx)

I've also got another remix for Miika Kuisma, one for Daz Bailey and one for Upbeat Music in the pipeline - that's "AWESOME PRODUCER LANGUAGE" for "I haven't finished them yet".

Two of the tracks you can hear in the player on the left, "Wonderful Information" and "Remember" are forthcoming on Subtraxx.

I don't post here often enough, but I do Twitter. This is my work Twitter as well, but that's all about video games! If you like those things, you'll probably also like my weekly podcast called Visiting the Village - check it out.

After Truck, my plans are to get that batch of tunes done, then gig a LOT more. Hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more of me towards the end of the year.

Ville Lope - Passive Attack (nervous_testpilot remix) out now!

2009-05-27T23:18:00.001+01:00

My recent remix of Ville Lope's great proggy tune is out now on the Green Martian label. Go here to listen and purchase!

Truck

2009-04-06T17:31:00.000+01:00

I will be playing at Truck this year - check the site for details.

Are you an American and do you like sports?

2009-04-01T21:53:00.003+01:00

Yep, it's another sponsored post. What jewels of commerce will the internet throw at us this time, I wonder?

If you're after Yankee Stadium Tickets, Fenway Park Tickets or Wrigley Field Tickets, then why not go and have a look at A Cheap Seat? I'm guessing they're a Ticketmaster competitor: things certainly look that way.

Beyond that link, several exciting images loop around, including one which might possibly be Shakira. This was definitely my favourite: the football players hugging really did nothing for me.

There's also a strident-looking green lady who's probably from Wicked or something like that. I've never seen Wicked and don't plan to at any time in the near future: I'm incredibly distrustful of modern musicals.

Anyway, yes, go there for your tickets and such. If you're American. Win.

That's the end once more - off we go back into the blogosphere.

ShopWiki

2009-04-01T21:35:00.004+01:00

This is a sponsored post, as if you couldn't guess.

I've not really found a good online price aggregator, so I was actually mildly intrigued to hear about ShopWiki.com, which crawls sites using a Google-esque algorithm rather than simply re-posting a load of sponsored links.

They're harping on about getting good deals on Wii's, video games in general, game bundles and Wii accessories.

It currently seems US-centric - I would like to see a UK version for obvious reasons. However the interface is pretty good and maybe they're going places. We'll see if it stands up to the likes of Froogle, which never really took off for me.

That's the end of this gubbins. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled nervoustestpilot.co.uk.

For Sale: 1 Yamaha RM1x

2009-04-01T21:25:00.005+01:00

Yep, it's on Ebay.

I'll be quite sad to see this go as I used it to do my very first gigs at The Cellar, Truck and elsewhere. It's a good bit of kit and it does have a few quite weird sounds in it I haven't heard anywhere else. Take a look at the auction if you fancy it!

Visiting the Village

2009-03-18T11:20:00.003Z

I've been working on a podcast over at Mode 7 Games entitled Visiting the Village. It's a gaming podcast primarily, and there are lots of those around, but we're going for something a bit different: more of a US-sports talk-show style punchy discussion format with informed opinions and no "LOOK AT THIS AWESOME SCREENSHOT" nonsense. Anyway, Visiting the Village, for all your gaming podcast needs - check out Episode 2 which is out now.

Some Awesome Public Domain Audio Resources

2009-03-16T10:14:00.004Z

So, as per my previous post, I was on the hunt for some genuinely copyright-free sampling material.

Through Electronic Musician, I came across the Prelinger Archive, a brilliant trove of old adverts, public service announcements and so on, all properly Creative Commons and guilt-free.

Also LibriVox, which is essentially CC amateur readings of books and poems.

A massive collection of foley / instrument samples / speech /everything you can imagine can be found here at the One Laptop Per Child project.

These should keep me going for a while!

"What software do you use?"

2009-03-14T11:31:00.002Z

It's the ultimate noob question.

I've seen two cultures where newbies come onto forums and ask questions: programming and music production. In both, it appears, if you want a question answered, you have to do the following:

1. Demonstrate that you've already learned how to do obvious things

If what you want to do is something other people will think is trivial, like "how do I make a sound with this VST" or "how to I load this VST in Sequencer X" (people still ask stuff like this), then you won't get an answer.

2. Demonstrate that you've put significant effort into solving the problem

If you haven't tried on your own then why should anyone else try for you? Some people don't know what VST to use. If they said, "I tried V-station and I didn't like the editing, or I tried Sylenth but it's a bit too complicated for me because I'm a beginner", then they probably deserve consideration.

3. Demonstrate that you're not a prick

If someone is a nice person, and asks politely, they should get a polite answer. There's obvious ways to do this on forums.

Now, back to "what software do you use?" I read an interview with Tiesto in CM recently: it was probably the worst music tech interview I've ever read. That's absolutely no disrespect to the guy who wrote it - we all know how these things work. He was obviously struggling to get anything.

Everyone's keen on bashing Tiesto: I've never had a reason to until now. He was such a complete dick in that interview: he absolutely refused to discuss any techincal details of anything. When asked about synths he gave the usual, "Oh it doesn't matter what synth you use..." stock answer.

Rick Smith from Underworld did this in an interview I read years ago - it really frustrated me at the time because I love Underworld! Now, I know it doesn't matter what synth you use...ooops.

Anyway, there will be a load of idiots in the world who "want to sound like Tiesto" and want to know what synths he has. The "it doesn't matter what synth you use" answer is there to deflect the low level idiots who have never even used a synth: it's an encouragement to make some damn music first and then worry about all that stuff afterwards.

But, what happens when you have made some music? Recommendations are useful.

I'll tell you something: I, and a lot of other producers, quite like knowing what synths people are favouring. It's just information to build in when we consider a new purchase. For example, I was looking into Sylenth quite heavily, then I happened across an Airbase tutorial where he mentioned that he's really into it. Sylenth really suits his sound: it's good for sounds in that direction as well as lots of other things.

Similarly, I bought Quantum Leap RA after I interviewed Inon Zur and he mentioned it; ditto Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra with Richard Jacques. Other things, I've researched and bought on my own.

So, if you're a producer and you get interviewed, what should you do?

As Airbase continually shows, there's absolutely no need to hide all your "secrets" - all of the popular things are already caned to death by everyone under the sun; you're not protecting anything. However, while it's your right to keep some things private, that doesn't give you any justification to deflect all your readers as idiots. Not everyone who reads music tech magazines is a noob: especially CM, which has improved wholesale over the last few years to the point where a lot of the content is extremely valid for professionals.

The next time someone polite, who is making an honest effort to learn, asks you what synths you use, why don't you tell them?

The Orb

2009-03-08T23:41:00.002Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTy4-OjscAQ

I can't embed this video because, while Universal want to make some content free, they don't want it to be free free. It's Toxygene by the Orb: the Jean-Michelle Jarre-sampling techno-dub masterpiece.

I was reminded of this earlier when talking about 90's dance stuff and remembered their ridiculous Top of the Pops performance. The only reference I can find to that is here - YouTube doesn't seem to have it (someone correct this!)

My nostalgia is generally confined to hyper-specific personal incidents, but I do have some 90's nostalgia - ridiculous dance music could cross over into the mainstream and cause a huge stir. Deadmau5 is probably the only good example of this in recent years: basically hardcore dance that has "it" in a pop way. The Orb were different because they were riding a huge cultural wave: they tripped off the edge of rave culture and landed in art-dance. I love the sounds in that track, the "offensive" Jarre-sampling, the faux-disturbing video, the "trippy" freeform nature of it and the driving, driving dubby bassline. It really caught my ear when I first heard it, and I continue to respect The Orb and all their excesses.

Module

2009-03-07T11:42:00.003Z

I've had a few people ask me about my debut album Module recently.

It came about from sitting down with all the kit I'd managed to muster as a 18-year-old and going, "What can I make with this that won't be terrible?"

Full-on dance music was out, really - I didn't have access to anything vaguely analogue sounding, so I decided to go down the electronica route.

The first track I recorded was "Yes to All" and that formed the basis for the sound of the album. It had very short samples in it as I only had very restricted sample time before I upgraded the RAM in the sampler: a lot of the percussion came from me doing weird things with the pitch controls on my RM1x.

Here's the full kit list I used for it:

Yamaha A4000 sampler
Yamaha DX100 synth
Yamaha (detecting a theme?) CS1X synth
Yamaha RM1x "groovebox"
Cool Edit Pro (some effects and sound editing)
Spirit Folio Notepad Mixer
PC running Cubase Score (MIDI only)

The bit-reduction on the A4000 is basically "the sound" of that album - I used it on pretty much every single channel in every single track! Everything is mixed super warm to the point of being seriously muddy, but hey that's what you get with lo-fi! Oh yeah and the entire album was actually mixed IN the sampler, as you'll note that I don't have enough channels or anything approaching a DAW to mix anywhere else - crazy behaviour I know, but I got pretty good at it! Determinance was mixed on that sampler as well.

The Yamaha A4000 is one of the best bits of kit I've ever owned, hands down, possibly THE best. Its sound and architecture were spot on and it was super powerful - such a shame it's obsolete now.

I still have all the stuff listed above! There's almost no point selling the sampler, the mixer is busted, the CS1X is still my MIDI keyboard (I wrote every single thing that's been released on it). I'd love to get the RM1X and DX100 out again and mess around with them, but I just don't seem to have time to start setting up hardware. My setup is as lean and mean as possible because of my situation right now, but that's good as it keeps me pumping out tracks on a regular basis.

You can buy Module from the Mode 7 Games store if you're interested in getting hold of it.

As I've said, I'd love the opportunity to do more electronica but it's just a time thing. I've really concentrated on the dance side of my output for the last year or so, and things are starting to take off there. As I gain confidence as a producer I'm starting to reintroduce a lot more experimental techniques and take things in a bit of an unusual direction. I'm hoping that the remix I'm doing right now will be a breakthrough track for me: I'm definitely aiming for something original.

One of my ambitions is to release a double artist album - one disc of listening electronica and one disc of mixed trancey stuff - that would rock. If I ever get the chance to do that, then I will.

Some inspirational words from DJ ReOrder

2009-03-03T16:45:00.000Z

"[16:44] Tibor Tomecko (ReOrder): if somebody tells you to do track that or thos (sic) way f*** him"

EXACTLY.

Although he did add the usual caveat about mix critique, which is always useful.

The Stupidest Sound I Made Today

2009-02-20T20:01:00.000Z

Yep, that's it basically.

Crazy old acid house

2009-02-19T22:38:00.001Z

Humanoid (via the great blog Digital Tools)

Really need to listen to more crazy old acid house...I have definitely been considering how much more interesting dance music was when there were less rules.

Monitoring Low

2009-02-19T19:07:00.005Z

For various reasons I've been trying to bring my monitoring volume down recently. I've actually really started enjoying it - but it takes a lot of getting used to. As always, A/Bing helps: I'm planning on sticking with it for a while.

I know that this is better for me which is the most important thing, but I'm wondering if it has affected my mixing in the past. Highs always seem accentuated at higher volume, so it may have led to the slight dullness my older mixes possessed. Everything on Module, for example, does sound a bit flat to me now, but high frequency content is so divisive.

Take trance for example - there is such a huge divide in the masters of someone like Orjan Nilson and the more recent Ferry stuff in terms of highs. Orjan's Last Pluck remix is full of screaming hi-hats, whereas something like Radio Crash sounds completely dull in comparison.

Compare:

Ferry Corsten - Radio Crash

Marcus Schossow - The Last Pluck (Orjan Nilsen Remix)

I'm still not entirely sure which side of this debate I'm on. Obviously there's the old "hard limiting" debate going on here, but I'm wary of too many highs in my stuff at the moment. I think I will be working on warming things up, but I do think it's telling that so many of the top labels are blasting their stuff so hard. Maybe harsher sounding stuff will always be more popular, and it'll only be the musos who are continually advocating trimming 8.5k?

Anyway, to return to the point, quieter monitoring will hopefully lead to a bit more refinement in my mixes. Anyone out there got an opinion on monitoring volume?

Player down

2009-02-16T15:02:00.001Z

The website player is down currently - it's out of my control as it's hosted by Soundcloud, but it should return shortly.

Hello World

2009-02-16T14:52:00.002Z

I just received a complaint that comments are off by default on most of my posts. Comments are now on so you can, er, interact with me.

So yes, comment away...

Lo to the hi

2009-02-15T21:46:00.006Z

Currently, I'm working on Big Unannounced Remix #1 and I've got a good start. I'm trying a lot of new stuff with it - some of it will probably creep into a Computer Music article out in a couple of months. At the moment, I'm experimenting with using more distortion, bit-crushing and lo-fi effects within trance: it's hard to balance out this more gritty sound with the smoothness that uplifting stuff requires.

Bit Crushing

I've always used a lot of bit crushing stuff: way back when I was doing Module I used the Yamaha A4000's bit reduction effect on almost everything. Now I use Live's Redux plugin, which I can definitely recommend, but I'd consider looking further afield.

I'd like to get some samples out of my Gameboy and put them into a useable form, but I might just wait for Plogue Chip Sounds: pretty excited about that. I did think about buying a HardSID earlier this week but I've gotta save some cash at the moment.

Distortion

I had a conversation with Ville about Live's Saturator earlier this week - I've never really been a big fan. My current distortion plugin of choice is Ohmforce Predatohm - it's a real beast with a lot of exciting sound design potential.

Zoom

2009-02-15T21:38:00.002Z

I really feel like things are taking off for me at the moment. I've got another track out on Future State in a few months, a remix for Ville Lope that I put a lot of work into out soon, two remixes I can't talk about yet, and one for a cool upcoming UK artist. Once all of those are done, I'll have enough for a decent promo mix and I should be able to get out and gigging again.

This year is when I try to take things to the next level and it's started with a bang.

Leon Bolier - Master of Twiddling

2009-02-09T17:02:00.003Z

I know it's really old hat now, but I can't get Ye out of my head. That's not a medieval Kylie song, it's a reference to this:

An astonishing record with a nice crispy tone to it. Mr Bolier has his very own style which is always admirable in this day and age.

Are you a citizen of the world (America) and do you like television?

2009-02-06T19:13:00.005Z

[This post is completely endorsed by http://www.directsattv.com and by the letter "mu".]

If this happens to be the case then the powers that be of this universe are literally compelling
you to visit DirectSatTV. I'm utterly unsure as to what DirecTV is, but it is apparently some kind of terrifying service for transmitting images into your home.

Just what these images might be is obviously up to you. Well, I suppose it could be up to you if, after you take up one of their DirecTV offers, you still consider that jabbing at a remote control with your stubby finger is some kind of self-expression.

Personally, my television watching is currently largely confined to ludicrous pap like Gordon Ramsay, so I have no need for anything other than terrestrial. There's generally always something completely pointless on, and that's me sorted. Oh, and Krypton Factor, but that's awesome.

There is definitely a culture of having billions of channels in the US - it migrated here slightly with Sky. I've exploited someone else's Sky service quite recently, and believe me when I tell you that I ended up watching Derek Acorah's Ghost Towns, which can't be a good thing.

Anyway, let's have one final look at the DirectSatTV site...

I would say with reasonable certainty that, if you don't apply for discount DirecTV with DirectSatTV immediately, ten thousand tons of misfortune will undoubtedly land on your doorstep like a cartoon anvil. Not only that, but this smiling lady will stop grinning and turn into some kind of fearsome blob creature, flailing her appendages, leering and making this noise: "BAAAARRRRR".

[We now return to your regularly scheduled nervoustestpilot.co.uk]

Imaginary Cities: Support from Adymus on the Enhanced Recordings Radio Show

2009-02-03T15:51:00.002Z

US DJ and producer Adymus dropped Imaginary Cities right between one of his own tracks, and Nitrous Oxide's "Show Me" on Will Holland's show yesterday. Flattered!

Imaginary Cities

2009-02-02T17:22:00.003Z

My track Imaginary Cities has been released by Future State Records.

Remixes are by:

Suncatcher
DJ ReOrder
Paul Allen

So far, it's had support from the following extremely talented and famous DJ's:

Pedro Del Mar
Andy Moor
Che Armstrong
ReOrder
John Wright
Faruk Sabanci

You can pick it up at these fantastic musical outlets for an extremely reasonable sum of money:

Audiojelly
DJTunes
Trackitdown
Juno Download

Thanks to Andy Tau for getting this out there - I'm hoping it'll be the first of many releases from me this year.

LennarDigital Sylenth 1 Noodling

2008-12-27T12:50:00.005Z

I'm in that traditional post-Christmas vacuum so I decided to do a bit of shopping. Last night, while demonstrating that I'm the worst Counter Strike player on this vast tumbling sphere, I was also building The Shopping Basket over at DV247.

The Shopping Basket consisted of basically everything I've wanted to buy in music tech from the last 8 months and came to a cerebellum-busting total which would have made Christmas robins drop like feathered stones from their snowy perches in dismay.

After recovering from the sight of something which would require the IMF to bail me out if I hit the Check Out button, I decided to plump for something cheaper, so I jumped into the LennarDigital Sylenth 1 Group Buy like someone who knows they like to jump, but you never thought they'd jump into somebody's pants [Editor's Note: Binster reference. Find which Binster track that sample is in, mail me the answer and you win...Binster. Note, this competition is not open to employees of Binster or Binster].

Anyway, it's CHEAP and I have it now. I have to say that a quick flick through the presets made me smile - there's a lot of "modern classics" in there, but they all sound warm and shiny and slightly hard, which is a good contrast to all the sludgy, bloopy virtual analogue stuff out there. The reverb seems fairly nice as well, unusually.

Every single producer in the world is going to have this, because of LennarDigital's (daft name, guys, just like your synth - it's ok, I forgive you) sneaky Group Buy tactics. It's very clever: I may steal it.

Oh, and I have called dibs on a preset called HydroSphere because it is awesome.

Lisa Miskovsky's verdict on my Still Alive remix

2008-12-17T23:50:00.002Z

Always nice to get feedback on a remix from the original artist, especially when it's an unofficial remix for a big promotional compo...

"I think it's super cool!!!!

Finally it worked and Im playing it loud here!!!

Im getting more and more into the remix world, thank you for letting me hear this! I will tell you if need another remix of a song, amazing to listen to a song with a totally new vibe. Love it!!

Lisa."

That's an awesome response to get - I do hope she slings me a remix of something else she's done, as her voice is really suited to my style of music.

Lisa Miskovsky has a fantastic rapport with her fans - she's very willing to respond personally to almost every forum post, which is not something I've seen before. Potential rock / pop superstars take note!

Potential Massive YouTube Irony Alert

2008-12-16T00:40:00.003Z

EDIT: Ha ha, false alarm!

It looks like the YouTube video I made to promote my remix of Still Alive could have been taken down by the powers that be.

If this is for a copyright violation, I will be delighted and forwarding this to every anti-copyright blog in the world, because, as I mentioned on YouTube, the track is under Creative Commons and the footage used in the video directly promotes the game itself. Cue ultra-traffic for me...I will wait and see if this is some stupid YouTube technical error, but if not....bring the noise.

Imaginary Cities Out on Promo Now!

2008-12-14T23:57:00.002Z

Future State has just released the promo of my forthcoming trance track Imaginary Cities.

Release date is set for 24/01/2009.

Lemon and Einar K - Anticipation

2008-12-03T00:21:00.004Z

Just before I get too cool with my track recommendations, I thought I'd point out that I'm also absolutely in love with Lemon and Einar K - Anticipation. It's full-steam-ahead big room epicness, with some pretty obvious sound selection and a fairly uninspired intro, but that riff is just magical.

Fukumuro Tatsuya

2008-12-02T15:58:00.004Z

I'm really enjoying the work of this Japanese house producer a lot - combines silliness with groove and great production tweaks with bass-driven solidity in a way I appreciate. Heard Regulus on Gareth Emery the other day and went, "Huh?" but then got really into it after a couple of listens.

Can't find out too much about him at the moment and Myspace is causing me more than the usual headache, so here's two tracks by him on Marcel Woods' Musical Madness label that I found on Trackitdown.

Still Alive by Lisa Miskovsky - Mirror's Edge Contest Entry

2008-11-28T20:17:00.008Z

I don't normally enter remix contests but I was really taken with Lisa Miskovsky's "Still Alive" from Mirror's Edge, so I decided to give this one a shot.

The track is free to download. It's available under a Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution license.

I really want to get my music some wider attention - the top 25 mixes get in this contest get in front of a panel of EA audio people, and I would love to be in that group.

Because my aim is to get my music out there, rather than win the contest for the sake of it, I've decided that, if I win the prize, I'll donate it to Child's Play.

I would love it if you could vote for me. You have to go through a slightly annoying process to do so, but it won't take very long:

1. Sign up for a Jamglue account here.

2. Verify your account and log into it. Blame Jamglue.

3. Go to my mix and make it a Favourite. The Favourite button is just above the player. Then you'll have voted for me.

4. Tell all your friends to do the same.

I would really appreciate five minutes of your time to help me get into that group of 25, and promote my music to the games industry.

Leon Bolier and Sied van Riel's Youtube Contributions

2008-11-21T00:00:00.003Z

These two miscreants are trance producers of the highest calibre, but apparently when they get together they seem unable to take anything even remotely seriously, resorting to heavy breathing and childish humour. Anyway, this serves as a great antidote to all the rather repetitive production tutorials out there. There's a touch of Borat at times ("You make track, and then you can release") but that just adds to...or subtracts from...whatever this is supposed to be.

5 Most Hilarious Obscure Music Genres

2008-11-19T16:59:00.004Z

A great name for a post, so I've stolen it from Audiotuts.

My favourite genre has to be Lowercase, which I'd never heard of before. Apparently, it's "Silence occasionally interrupted by brief moments of barely audible noise." Genius.

Read the full article now.

Also YES!

New Ladytron video

2008-11-19T16:15:00.002Z

I've not alway been a massive Ladytron fan, although they are extremely good value live. This song, however, has a chord progression which is always going to make me wither...big chunky 7ths abound.

I found this via Bruce Sterling, which is an odd place to find something like this.

East West Sounds Online Fail

2008-11-12T22:56:00.002Z

So today I get a mail from East West support staff telling me that the delivery note I sent in with my rebate form is not acceptable as a proof of purchase, and that I have to send them an actual invoice. Let's be clear, this means posting something ELSE to the Netherlands...not Germany as previously stated, but you get the idea.

For those of you who don't know what I'm on about, I'm talking about this 2-for-1 promotion from East West, which as far as I can tell is pretty much globally popular. Some of their products are basically essential purchases if you're in the business of making music, so saving about £350 on a 2-for-1 is great value.

Digital Village only send out delivery notes, not invoices, and (I believe) there's no easy way of printing one off. What this bright spark from East West failed to notice is that a printed delivery note with an order number on it, is precisely as difficult to forge as an invoice. It shows all the same details - name, address and order...Also, the TnC's on DV247 state that you should include "your original Digital Village / DV247 purchase receipt" but, again, the only "original" thing you receive is the delivery note.

If you're offering your customers something for free, don't be a dick about it. I'm not certain this system of needing to post stuff has been set up to discourage a percentage of people from taking the offer, but that certainly would seem to be the effect. But stupidly blocking people when they do take it up? That's just ridiculous.

It seems that East West have customer loyalty way down the list - I replied telling them that I'd bought several large-scale products from them in the past and that they should deal with DV247 direct about my order because I don't want to do any more work to get my freebie. We will see if they can overcome their idiocy.

East West Symphonic Orchestra Gold Edition

2008-11-06T22:42:00.002Z

So, I bought this because I'm a sucker for those 2-for-1 Play engine deals from Digital Village. Ok, you can get them elsewhere, but I am a massive Digital Village fan and all music tech should be purchased from them.

Getting Voices of Passion in the mail from Germany sometime soon, hopefully. What a sentence.

Anyway, let me tell you about this software. It arrived in a GIGANTIC box, big enough to fit an American Football helmet and around twelve novels. This was nothing compared to the copy protection...

To register this software, you have to get an iLok key (not included - £30) and stick it in your computer. Except, you've already messed up, because you should install the drivers before you do this - there's a tiny warning somewhere in a readme about that, but that's it.

The drivers on the DVD didn't work, so I had to download some drivers. They worked. Then I installed the software which took around two hours - seriously. THEN I had to authorise the software. Except I couldn't, because there's no way to set up the auth program with a proxy server. I asked support about this - no answer.

I took my iLok key to work, registered for an iLok.com account, installed the auth program, got the licenses. Then I came home with the iLok and it authorised the software successfully.

Then I couldn't find the DLL for the VST plugin, as it had been installed into Program Files / Common Files (OF COURSE! WHAT BETTER DEFAULT DIRECTORY COULD WE COME UP WITH). After getting it to work in Live, I loaded up a big patch and it crashed.

Next time, I tried to use it, everything worked fine except there was a load of note-stealing happening in streaming-from-disc mode. Dumping samples into RAM fixed it - therefore, buffer problem.

I set the buffer to the maximum size. Now everything works cleanly and properly.

The sounds it makes are gorgeous - you should buy it.

I am so close to never buying another Play engine product because the installation and copy protection are so utterly utterly terrible. East West, what is your problem? Anyone with an internet connection can still get a pirated version of this - just stop being so stupid.

Oh, and I can't update the software because of my proxy. Good one.

DMS Chilled Out Chords

2008-10-22T18:13:00.001+01:00

I've done a new MIDI pack for DMS - it's available here.

Imaginary Cities

2008-10-21T15:04:00.002+01:00

Future State are gearing up for the release of Imaginary Cities and I just got an advance listen to one of the remixes.

Absolutely fantastic and a big difference from the original - I'll give you more details when I can.

Gareth Emery "Let it Flow" Remix

2008-10-15T17:16:00.000+01:00

This just absolutely great - I hadn't picked this up before, but it is simply a fantastic piece of work in the Emery style.

Cooking up some things

2008-10-15T17:07:00.002+01:00

I have a new tune which is basically done - it's called Wonderful Information and you can hear a clip of it in my lovely Soundcloud player over on the left hand side there.

This track is going to be debuted soon by Mr Ville Lope who along with Andy Tau from Future State has given me a load of help getting the mix sorted out - cheers to both of them. It's looking for a release and I will of course let you know when I know on that front!

There may also be some other stuff in the works which will make next year a pretty exciting time - I will talk more as and when.

More MIDI

2008-10-08T00:27:00.001+01:00

Currently working on a new MIDI pack for DMS - something slightly different this time - I'll keep you posted.

Epic Chords Vol 2 Out Now!

2008-10-06T15:37:00.002+01:00

Epic Chords Vol 2 is available to buy from DMS for £30.00 - there's now 40 midi files in there, so you'll never been short of a chord sequence again! Have a listen to Pete's amazingly epic demo for a taste of the...epicness.

Thoughts of an 8-bit wannabe

2008-10-01T00:09:00.002+01:00

I have been seriously considering the purchase of a MIDINES, but as I'm about to move house I don't really want to accumulate more nonsense that has to travel around with me.

I do have a Gameboy with a copy of LSDJ and - although it's capable of some truly astonishing noises that emulators still can't touch - I hanker after proper, simple MIDI control so I can actually use it. Like most people, the time I get to spend producing music is pretty limited: I have to be on-target and not messing around for most of it, so a lot of the more wacky sound-design things I'd love to do get sidelined.

Here is what I would actually like, and I'm serious about this: an accurate NES or Gameboy-emulating VST. Sure, there's Magical 8-bit Plug and Pooboy, but they don't allow things like running tables, messing around with waveforms, arp-based sounds or indeed any of the stuff that makes programming a vintage chip-based system so awesome.

Gwem, Jellica, Dubmood and I can argue about this forever, but I think that 90% of what goes into chip music is the sound that the chip is making, and 10% is the use of the retro hardware itself. Of course, there's the wonder and romance of someone bashing out a fantastic track on a Texas Instruments Calculator or whatever, but for the rest of us who care about sound, there's only vague approximations of those wonderful tones.

Fact: none of the existing emulators out there can do half the stuff that LSDJ or Nanoloop can. By far the best chiptune VST is gwem's YMVST, but since he lost the second version (gwem, you're a great dude, but seriously...losing an entire version of one of the greatest VST's ever?) there's not much hope for progress from that direction.

So come on VST-hackers - get busy on a 100% perfect Gameboy emulator - I demand wavetable editing and arps!

Epic Fail - I am now on Facebook

2008-09-25T12:20:00.004+01:00

Yes, if you are a person that knows me you can now "Write On My Wall", send me pictures of cats as "gifts" and other horrors.

I have a belief and it is this - people have one, single card that they can play in terms of massive social dysfunction. And I mean by this, things that it is possible for the person to change - I'm not, of course, talking about anything involuntary or immutable - your friends must deal with those things.

You can refuse have a phone, you can only wear green clothes, you can only eat rice, you can refuse to go to the cinema. But you only have one card. Playing more makes you directly annoying; and you must have extremely positive qualities in other areas which balance this out.

My card is, and has been for a long time, not being able to drive. Most people who know me put up with it, some people who know me well very graciously and kindly help me out with it on a regular basis, for which I am currently and always shall be grateful.

Not being on Facebook was turning into a social disability, because people started REFUSING to try contacting me by other means.

I have been told about people becoming UPSET because they have been refused "friendship". If I refuse you friendship, do not become upset - I may be operating an obscure procedure of internal reasoning which is nothing to do with you. I will assume the same in return.

I await incoming inanity. I punctuated this post weirdly and I apologise.

Free Soundcloud invites from Future Music

2008-09-25T02:32:00.002+01:00

Go and get them!

Epic Chords 2 is Done!

2008-09-16T17:47:00.001+01:00

Just had a session polishing off Epic Chords Vol 2 for DMS - I will let you know when you can pick it up.

In other news, there has been a bit of interest in my Binster remix - hoping to hear back about that one soon.

Binster - Steve's Lament (nervous_testpilot remix)

2008-09-11T00:11:00.002+01:00

So, it's finally done! Check it out at Tha Binst's site.

Imaginary Cities (Out Soon)

2008-09-10T20:25:00.009+01:00

I'm really happy to announce that Imaginary Cities has been signed by Future State Records and will most likely be released in November.

This will be the first trance track I've produced and engineered myself to be released as a single - I'm excited about it and I hope my experience with the label will continue to be as great as it's been to date. They're extremely good with feedback and communication, and it's cool to having something coming out with them.

Final Stages Part 3

2008-09-10T20:25:00.006+01:00

Open hi-hats - too dull

How?? I was just chopping out a bit of 8-9k to get rid of some of that abrasiveness, then I A/B'd with a bunch of other stuff and found that I'd sucked the life out of them. I have this problem a lot.

Pads too loud - lead too quiet

This was just idiocy on my part. Fixed.

Fills really terrible

Simplified some fills in the busier part of the track to make them sound less...flailing.

Onto mixdown number 3. The reason I keep mixing down like this is so that I lock the track and stop tweaking for a bit, then I run it through L3 in a "mastering" set I can use it to compare with other things.

I always have to go through this process at the moment - hopefully I'll eventually internalise some of this stuff and tracks will start coming out better first time around.

Final Stages Part 2

2008-09-10T20:25:00.003+01:00

Of course, Ableton's obviously not above things like bringing back The World's Most Annoying Auto-filter Bug (suddenly causing a sample to distort at the start of any track with auto-filter on it - happens to me quite a lot but I've never found anything on the forums about it) and also playing a really really really loud ride cymbal I forgot I had in the track thoroughout. It appears there's some bug with Simpler that causes sounds with a long release time to cut off almost as soon as they were triggered - this meant that I'd completely stopped noticing the ride.

I laughed at my terrible choice of ride sample then deleted it - no ride in this track.

Another mild point of interest - this is the first track I've ever done in this genre without snare-roll builds. They're out of fashion anyway, but I thought I'd try messing around with white-noise swooshes and highpass filters instead - that's what all the kids are doing these days. Ah, the next track I do will probably have those in, in any case.

I don't really enjoy this final stage of mixing that much - it's mostly a big pain in the bum. When I've worked with Pete, he tends to save this tweaking for the next day. It's good to rest your ears, but I haven't done all that much else today and I really need to get this track in the can so I can do more Mode 7 work in the evenings.

I tried installing Ableton on this laptop earlier and it sucks hard - I think it's probably down to the audio driver though. If I buy a cheapo portable audio interface which is ASIO compatible, I'll be able to make a judgement then. Could try ASIO4ALL I suppose, but I really can't be bothered right now.

Final Stages

2008-09-10T20:05:00.002+01:00

I'm just making my first test mixdown of my remix of Binster's Steve's Lament.

Thanks to the wonders of my new laptop I can actually blog while my behemoth computer renders 70-odd tracks of jiggery-pokery into a single, solid slab of WAV.

I usually make a few different mixes and A/B them against other things I like. Today, I'm going to be testing with Washed Away by Rain by Miikka Leinonen, This is That by Gareth Emery and Angel Falls by Lange.

I picked these three because they're all different, although I dearly wish I could get hold of unmastered copies - trying to factor out the effect that limiters have is a bit difficult sometimes. A lot of digital limiters, like Waves L2, really seem to accentuate high-end brightness, so I tend to assume that the mixes of these tracks will be slightly duller.

Emery's mixes are always very harsh-sounding to me, but then so is a lot of trance, and it's a bit hard to get away from that if you're pushing everything hard. I do object to some of the crazy screeching in Martin Roth's really hard-limited material though, for example.

Lange tracks are a bit softer - Angel Falls is an odd one because it sounds like there's some side-chaining going on with the main chord / riff sound. Every time that "dung-dung-dung" sound comes in, the level of everything else drops - could just be a limiting artefact but I doubt it.

Leinonen is a contrast again - Washed Away by Rain is a track that made me start wanting to write trance again seriously. I first listened to it on the Gareth Emery podcast walking up a hill in Cambridge (fittingly, in the rain) and it managed that great-song trick of seeming to capture my mood. I was suprised when I bought it recently that it sounds quite a lot quieter than a lot of other tracks, even Leinonen's own Shadow Hearts, so maybe it's a conscious attempt to buck the over-limiting trend.

Anyway, the machine is ready for me now, so I will be back later.

Binster Remix and Computers

2008-09-09T20:45:00.002+01:00

Well, the percentage chance of finishing that remix tonight just went way downhill because of how long it took to get a bus out of Oxford. Never mind.

I just got an Advent 4211 and it's performing admirably so far. I'm hoping that it'll allow me to keep up with my blogging a bit more.

PC World's Collect In Store option (reserve online, go to your local store to pick it up) is something which, on the face of it, seems to be a stress-saving exercise. But take that simple activity and then multiply the stress factor by the behaviour of a few PC World Oxford staff members and you'll wish you'd just had the stupid thing sent to your house, forcing you to contend with that other bastion of personal inconvenience: delivery men. Anyway, we got there in the end.

Koblo - make and share the fun!

2008-09-07T15:46:00.003+01:00

Michael Logue just dropped me a line to tell me about Koblo- it's a music-sharing community based around the Koblo Studio open source DAW.

Personally, I'm not ready to jump into a whole new world of sharing as I'm still exploring SoundCloud, but do check it out if you're interested

Yeahhh! Get up! Don't be VIBIN' YEAHHH....

2008-09-06T16:08:00.005+01:00

So, I'm trying to buy a sample CD or download pack comprised entirely of high quality vocal samples.

You might think that would be a relatively simple procedure; welcome to Wrong Town.

I'm really after stuff that would be useful for modern trance and progressive, so I'm well aware that the classic old Zero G output ("Ooh baby, yeah! In my car! Yeah! Bouncin'!") simply won't cut it.

My first instinct was to go for an ethnic or Celtic vocal collection: I'm getting a massive load of pleasure out of Quantum Leap RA at the moment, so I thought about plumping for Voices of Passion.

My problem here, is that this product has probably got the most negative reviews of any recent East West library. The crux seems to be the lack of interactivity - it's just a glorified sample CD with a big hefty front-end. This is not too much an issue for me, though - I just want some nicely recorded phrases and "ahhss" to lob in as FX or colour. It's £280 from DV247 which is just on the cusp of what I'd consider to be a sensible amount (especially taking into consideration that one might purchase an Asus EEE for a very similar number of coins.)

This dilemma got me thinking - I could really just use a straight-up-and-down sample CD without any ROMpler pretensions for this task. Off I toddle to Time and Space where I'm suddenly presented with an array of options.

And that's when lighting strikes really close to my house and I decide to turn off my computer and hide in the cupboard.

Back now. So here we have the following things:

Vengeance Vocal Essentials
Over 1500 awesome club vocals from the Underground

[Now, I'd trust Mr Manuel Schleis when it came to a nice whumpy kick drum with a little clicky top end on it, but expressive vocal performances? Hmm. But let's check out the demo:

"Chicka-chicka {whump} {munchy-munchy} Keep-eep movin' {really terrifying fake-electro advert-music} {nice proggy bit with some inaudible vocals} {"Vengeance," says the lightly-retarded child} {sort of appalling Girls Aloud bit} {that endlessly-overused "what you think that we think is cool" sample} {some sort of stupid booty house bit} {really great bassline bit - should nick that} {Public Enemy "BASS" sample - I can't bring myself to buy anything that has that sample on it} {stupid minimal bit - minimal, please leave me alone} BAM bee bey bo bop {some really obviously copyright movie sample} Entoobe stump man entoobe stum man, entoobe stump man; any-ha ha- hum hump hump; erk erk erk..." (There's more, believe me.)

I must admit that I'm tempted, but it's totally swayed me from my original course. I want ethereal floaty tones not someone ordering me to "jack" or a mumbling German robot fumbling its way through a restaurant menu.

Next.

Soundscan Vol 18 - Funky Vocals (V2)
Melodies, phrases and soulful wails

[Dear god, no.]

Soundscan Vol 28 - Acoustic & Synth Choirs
Childrens, male, female and synth choir patches

[Meh, bought Symphonic Choirs about a month ago. Damn you, Word Builder, and all your progeny.]

Ultimate Vocals Vol 1
More than 350 vocal fragments and 20 entire composed songs

[Hmm, could be a possibility.]

"aaahhhh-Connected prezents...one hour offf ther best vwocals (OOOHOHHOHOWOHOO) bites (I'VE GOT THAT FEELING) and songs to use."

[Songs to use? Huh? The only time I can remember using a song is when I used Hi Aaron by Venetian Snares and Speedranch as a tool for playing at high volume in order to disrupt the perpetual flow of Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie which seemed to emanate unendingly from the room adjacent to mine in the second year of university.

Anyway, the rest of this is horrifying Deutshestechnohousebeatsja. Despite the fact that my occasional employers at Computer Music called this a "brilliantly convenient disc", I'm not sure I need a European lady informing me that the "world is longer than before". I thought flat-earth-theory had departed from the continent along with local currencies, but that's clearly not the case. Also, seventy quid is too much just for brilliant convenience: ASDA has brilliant convenience, but it's still packed full of grey-tracksuit-bottom-wearing, lurching human failure.

Dance Ultra Voice
500MB of various vocals & vocal FX-samples

[I'm starting to wane now, but let's give this a go.]

More Euro-stompen from Das Haus von Mutekki. It's a bit....rubbish really. I mean, I suppose you could make pretty decent hardcore out of this, which is the only attraction.

Oh, if you're bored, listen to this demo for the man I like to call "sexy Danish Bono" who appears around 1:36.

So I leave Time and Space (or should that be Time + Space? The "and" is so much less 1994, so I can totally see why they eschew it) for the time being, because I get distracted by the bright shininess of this "MASSIVE FOUR CD-ROM SET" which also seems to be from 1994.

Spectrasonics Symphony of Voices looks totally awesome, but (you're not going to believe this) it's only in Akai or Roland format. Yes, that's right, Akai or Roland format. Suddenly we all go spiralling back to the land of SCSI cables, single-digit RAM and waiting for things to load. Oh, oh pass me that PATCH CABLE MOTHER IT'S TIME TO USE ANOTHER SYNTHESIZER FROM THE SYNTH ROOM. Honestly - you'd think someone could take the five hours it would need to convert this into WAV just to make a new product...but no. You really can't buy this CD as audio or WAV. The mind boggles.

If anyone out there knows where I might come by a vocal sample CD which...

1.) Isn't complete tut.
2.) Could not possibly be described as "funky".
3.) Isn't a giant bloated ROMpler.
4.) Has good Celtic and or Eastern vocals on it.

...do give me a shout.

As a side note, I'm currently checking out DMS's strikingly-named "Wolsfraektroes Music World Loops" as it promises vocals. I'm always scared of the term "World Music"; it just makes me think of Damon Albarn side-projects and Peter Gabriel resting his hand on the head of an African child. Don't get me wrong, there's some great things which have been lobbed into the patronising maw of World in the past (see Baaba Maal), but in general...wow. Drumming ensembles, just hush now.

SoundCloud 2

2008-09-06T15:03:00.003+01:00

Yep, I'm definitely loving SoundCloud - it's been really good checking out new tracks from people and also "following" other artists as they drop their new releases. I will definitely be using it to add clips of tracks in the future, but for now you can check out the whole of my as-yet-unsigned prog trance track Remember if you find me on there.

Soundcloud

2008-09-02T23:32:00.003+01:00

I just got a Soundcloud beta invite from Rich and I've been playing around with uploading tracks from Isometric Dancefloor, my free net release of video game-inspired lo-fi trance. The whole thing will be on there eventually for you to download.

Soundcloud is a service which makes sharing and commenting on music very easy - it does this by having a very simple interface which facilitates fast uploading and sending of tracks. One feature I really like is the ability to tag different sections of tracks with comments: the track is displayed as a waveform - simply click the part of the tune you want to tag and add an inane comment.

I'd recommend checking it out if you're musically inclined and you can snag an invite from someone.

Audiotuts Lead Tutorial

2008-08-17T00:14:00.002+01:00

I recently wrote a tutorial about creating "pluck" type trance lead sounds for Audiotuts - it includes some info about how I did Imaginary Cities. You can go and read it here.

Great Ableton Live White Noise Behaviour

2008-07-20T00:44:00.002+01:00

This is a cool Ableton tutorial - I like the weird scratching effect at the end a lot.

Ezekiel Honig

2008-07-13T20:01:00.002+01:00

Just listening to some of the clicks and blooooooo sounds produced by Mr Honig.

His work is definitely in the "art electronica" bracket, but there's some interesting stuff going on there. I like how he divides his time between techno-influenced and abstract electronica.

Bi-monthly Binster Bonanza Banana

2008-07-11T17:47:00.003+01:00

I've always felt it was sort of my job to report on Binster's activities! He's got a choon out on Beatport now with a remix by top bald bloke Rennie Pilgrem. Look with your ocular organs of choice at this thing.

Production Tutorials at Audiotuts.com

2008-07-10T21:35:00.004+01:00

My first production tutorial on how to create a "running"-style trance bassline (in fact, the one from my track Geometric Requiem) is up over at the rather good Audiotuts.

It's a good place to start for some production advice - my dealings with them so far have been extremely pleasant. The idea of building up a community around general production tutorials has been tried before, but I think they've got the experience and straightforward commitment to quality to pull it off.

I will be doing more of these tutorials in the near future - I'm currently planning one on lead sounds.

New trance clip - Remember

2008-06-25T23:17:00.003+01:00

Another new track from my current run of trance - Remember

When I have enough of these to play live again, it's definitely something I'll consider...we'll see about the annual Truck dilemma this year!

Module Sells A Unit!

2008-06-12T22:23:00.004+01:00

Thanks to Mr Alexander Phillips (named and shamed!) for being the first person to buy my ancient album Module direct from the Mode 7 Store! This officially means that people have been buying Module for six years. Rock and roll!

New track clip up

2008-05-25T20:09:00.002+01:00

I've posted a clip from my latest trance effort, Geometric Requiem, over on that left-hand-side column...yup...over there...ok fine, here's a link.

Sonic Hoard Tuesday

2008-05-21T10:32:00.003+01:00

Thanks to K-Complex for the latest contribution to the Sonic Hoard! Behold..."The Ketamine Sound"...

K-Complex - The Ketamine Sound

Sonic Hoard Monday Part 2

2008-05-06T00:08:00.002+01:00

Simone "Atti" Attivissimo from Drop Alive has kindly sent me two files - particularly liking this thunderous guitar slide which sounds like an angry cloud descending the stairs.

Drop Alive - Never Happy Drums
Drop Alive - Guitar Slide

Sonic Hoard Monday

2008-05-05T17:41:00.004+01:00

Thanks to Alex "Malakian" Hayes for being the official first contributor to the Sonic Hoard. He has donated this disturbing (and actually fairly useful) sonic composition entitled, rather demurely, "Computer Urine". It sounds like Autechre crying at their 3rd birthday party because Luke Vibert put their teddy in the toilet. I'm infused with a profound certainty that this will be indicative of a theme which emerges throughout the project.

Download Malakian - Computer Urine here

Sonic Hoard Project Update!

2008-05-04T19:34:00.004+01:00

Computer Music have featured the Sonic Hoard Project on their blog

Simone "Atti" Attivissimo from Creative Commons rockers Drop Alive has got in touch with me to contribute some of their music to the Sonic Hoard - I will be assimilating it shortly!

I've also been pledged something called "The Ketamine Sound" by Mr K-Complex - he refuses to go into detail so I can only live in fear.

If you'd like to donate any sounds, noises or music fragments to the Frozen Synapse soundtrack, take a look here.

The Sonic Hoard

2008-04-23T18:02:00.004+01:00

I'm a musician working on the soundtrack for a PC game called Frozen Synapse. This game is a pretty unusual tactical sci-fi game - if you're interested then go to http://www.mode7games.com and check it out. There's not much up there about it yet, but there should be soon-ish.

Here's what's different about this project - I'm planning to use some sound-design oriented techniques on the soundtrack, and for that I require a lot of raw, interesting samples. I thought it would be fun to extend an open invitation to anyone reading this to send me some sound.

I'd love anything weird or interesting you have lying around, like recordings of you talking with your friends, or people singing strange songs, or the sound of your vacuum cleaner: absolutely anything you like whatsoever, of any quality at all.

There will obviously have to be a few rules so this doesn't get out of hand, so here they are:

1. You must own the copyright to the sound

Please don't send me anything that could cause any legal problems - that includes music that has been released, film and TV samples etc.

It would be nice if you could include your name and state your ownership of the sound in the email just briefly, but if you don't I will be assuming that it originates from you.

2. I don't want anything recorded illegally, thanks

If you've broken the law by creating the sample you're sending me, er...don't send it

3. By sending me the sound, you are making it Public Domain under this Creative Commons license

I will be using the sound in a commercial work (most probably it will be heavily processed and you may not recognize it, but that's by the by) and so I would like you to give up ownership of it so that I can do what I need to with it!

If anyone sends me anything particularly interesting/amusing, I may post it on this site for others to hear. Don't send me anything that's going to embarrass yourself!

4. I don't guarantee to use every sound I get sent

But I will try!

5. Nothing bigger than 5 meg, please

That should be a sensible limit. You can use any format you like - I can most probably deal with it. Obviously common ones like MP3 and WAV will be better, though.

If you're interested, then please send your sound to The Sonic Hoard:

sonichoard@googlemail.com

You can send me a link or use YouSendIt.com if you prefer

I look forward to hearing from you!

Cheers,

nervous_testpilot

Frozen Synapse

2008-04-23T17:57:00.001+01:00

I just started work in earnest on the soundtrack for the next Mode 7 opus, Frozen Synapse today. It's going very well - I'm starting to get some really interesting sounds going.

I wanted to do something special and different for this project, and I will post about that in one sec...

Acceleration

2008-03-16T02:34:00.002Z

Just got back from playing Accelerate - very amusing evening - bigup the 7 insane people who raved away during the whole thing! It was small and fun, like a hamster in a hat.

Trying to slot into a night full of DJ's with a laptop-based thing is pretty irritating - I really believe that laptops are just in the same situation as CD's were in about 1999. Soon, computer-based mixing will take over and portable media oriented stuff will be redundant.

For that to happen, there needs to be a significant technology shift along the lines of Pioneer's slow evolution from just-about-acceptable to vinyl-beating DJ CD-players. A couple of other DJ's came and stared at me when I was mixing - people were complementary about what I was doing, so that was cool.

Anyway, enough musing, top night and I am considering posting a big MP3 of my set, as I recorded all the automation in Live (take that normal DJ's).

nervous_testpilot live at Accelerate Oxford

2008-03-11T10:45:00.003Z

Should have announced this earlier, but I'll be playing at Accelerate this Saturday night - my first ever all hardcore/freeform gig and I'm looking forward to it immensely.

I'll be doing a laptop-based DJ set, and playing a load of my favourite current harder tracks - expect some K-Complex tunes, a bit of Gammer and then a whole raft of the recent awesome stuff people have been doing. Will be entertaining!

Here's the details:

Accelerate Room:

Nervous_Testpilot (NU ENERGY)
DJ Doolittle (Flabbergast,X-Treme-Energy,Happynation)
DJ Cypher
Jodha
Gurninator

DATsound Room:

Wayne
Exley
Danny P
Danny V
The Sorcerers Apprentice

3k Turbosound main rig - bring ear defenders!
Phat DMX lighting with strobes and 1kw green laser - bring sunglasses!
Deco throughout - for your visual entertainment
Friendly security and staff!
Cheap beer :)

9PM - 2AM
Door damage: £3/4 EOCSC members and guests only!
Venue: East Oxford Community Centre - 44b Princes Street corner of Cowley Road, Oxford

Nervous_Testpilot Epic Chords Pack on Dance Midi Samples!

2008-03-03T18:13:00.003Z

If you are a producer of some kind, and you're looking for inspiration, I present the fantastic Dance MIDI Samples, a site which will vend you MIDI in specific genres. The great thing about MIDI is that it's completely malleable, so you don't have to use the sequences as they come, you can tweak and warp to your heart's desire.

I have contributed the Epic Chords pack, which I put a lot of effort into and I think will be applicable across a pretty wide range of music. Go and check out the awesome preview produced by K-Complex - it's trance-alicious. I want to hear someone have a hit with the second chord sequence on there - go and do it.

Free nervous_testpilot EP - Isometric Dancefloor!

2008-02-18T22:12:00.003Z

Download Isometric Dancefloor

Prior to, during, and after the Data Airlines Festival in Marseilles, I was considering releasing some music for free. It's something I've done before, but I think it'd be great to contribute something to a scene that was so welcoming to me, so specifically, this is for the chip musicians and lofi electronica people everywhere.

The whole thing was recorded in my tiny room on a horrible old laptop that turns itself off approximately once every hour, and was mixed on my awful headphones. How's that for upsell? Therefore I'm classing it as "lofi microtrance".

I think that there aren't enough tunes in dance music, and there's too little space for interesting, weird stuff that doesn't have a professional sheen to the mix. Engineering is always the barrier to the mainstream of dance music in any genre - I think that it often prevents people from getting interesting music out there (it certainly has for me).

At the moment, I'm really concentrating my musical efforts on improving my mixing abilities so that I can create stuff which really stands up in a club of its own accord. Working with K-Complex and listening to a load of other music, buying proper monitors and putting a huge amount of effort in to raise the bar has been paying off. I'm now making demos I'm proud of, and hoping to get a release I've mixed myself out on a decent label at some point this year.

Now, that shouldn't be a barrier to me releasing other interesting stuff that I happen to create, so I hope you can enjoy this mix in the spirit it was intended! Do drop me an email if you like it, or if you'd like to feature it on your netlabel.

Oh, and I think it should have some artwork! If you're a pixel artist or similar, and you're interested in contributing, then let me know.

Exeter Hall Tonight - 4/1/08!

2008-01-04T09:58:00.000Z

Sorry for late notice, but I am in fact, playing at the Exeter Hall again in Oxford tonight at 8.30pm. Please come and say hi!

New music

2007-12-05T16:35:00.000Z

Just to let you know, I'm currently working on concept music for the next Mode 7 Games game, as well as being 3 tracks into a new album of dancey stuff which I hope to have finished at some point in the new year. I'll keep you posted.

Main #2 Demo Party

2007-11-01T19:39:00.000Z

I'm here at Main #2 in Marseille working on a new track while all around me are busy coding demos! The gig tomorrow should be great so come down if you're anywhere in the vicinity of Espace Julien.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvkZ7GfT2ZA

2007-10-18T01:12:00.001+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvkZ7GfT2ZA

End of line.

Microdisko Oslo!

2007-10-08T21:58:00.001+01:00

Thanks to all in Oslo for looking after me while I was there - much appreciated and hope to be back sometime soon.

Er...running

2007-09-14T14:36:00.001+01:00

I am running in the "Blenheim 10k Bolt" on Sunday. Yes, there is a reason. No, it's not an especially good one. Wish me luck.

Truck 2, Oslo and Marseille

2007-09-14T08:17:00.000+01:00

I will definitely be playing at Truck 2 a week on...the weekend. I forget which day now, but I will see you there.

I'll also be taking my unique brand of lo-fi micromusic to Oslo in October alongside the inimitable Mr Dubmood, Confipop and MC Boltes. It's a Euro invasion! On a similar theme, I'll be down with the posse in Marseille in November - more details to come.

Best Song Ever

2007-07-25T11:16:00.000+01:00

Alek Szahala - "Alanamra" (Arkitech Remix). Everything about this piece of music is great...the amazingly excessive piano breakdown, the way the freeformy bit winds up from a just a kick drum, and of course, the rapping Appletalk on the intro and outro.

Freeformation: Wise Up Get Stupid

2007-07-24T03:35:00.000+01:00

Ok, seriously. If you're here because you like dance music of ANY KIND then you need to go and listen to this. My two Nu Energy tracks are on there, but there's some seriously devastating hardcore around them: I recommend Flame's "Numb Hardcore" and...well...basically everything else on there. Terrifying. Great.

Also, Sharkey and Kevin Energy "Wise Up Get Stupid".....VERY SPECIAL. Very special indeed.