To the anonymous commenter: Don't fret, I'll get to the ITB vs physical mixing experiment. And thanks for the interest in the EPs...I suppose I'll discuss them a tad.

The first is "Rich and Strange (Acid)", due out on Complex Sound Sagacity next week, I believe. In this EP I made a conscious effort not to sound like just another guy with the Roland suite making more of a tired genre. I came into posession of some very powerful software and my sound immediately went in another direction.

You'll notice the use of strings and acoustic drums. I was raised listening to classical music, playing the viola and bassoon in orchestras and so on...and something must have stuck. Another thing that will stand out is the use of acoustic drums sets, a first for me in my production. I feel like I can really "cut loose" with those kits and get some funky stuff going on. From a production standpoint, I LOVE compressing the bejesus out of the acoustic kits and bringing up the lush room reverb.

The next EP due out is "4x4 Acid Stompers" on upitup. This one is all about being aciiiiiiiied! I feel like my Detroit ravey side comes out in these babies.

I've passed around the first track, "Tastes Like Hairspray" to a couple of friends, acid lovers with good production chops and I was thrilled to receive the same question: how did you get the 303 to sound that way? The answer is unfortunate: $7500 worth of tube gear.

I'm currently babysitting a Manley Vari Mu and Massive Passive for a friend and I've become a convert. I'm too old and busy to get involved in the ongoing analog vs digital debate, but I'll gladly share my thoughts.

My studio philosophy is this: I have yet to find software that captures the sex magic that, let's say, my Roland sh-2 puts out. I will therefore continue to collect mono synths. My leads and pads, however, have been exclusively digital and mostly from my Virus TI and I see no reason to own an analog poly synth. I hate to say this as it will damage any acid credibility I may have ever had, but the 808 sample libraries I have sound better than my 808. And finally, it is my opinion that high-end tube compression/EQ add something that software is still missing.

Of course, of course, you are thinking "the tube effect is all in your head, Chris." I thought it might be, too, until some very discerning listeners asked about it. So, thanks guys...you've just given me a VERY expensive addiction.

Oh, hey there.

I've crawled back out of my cave to discuss something I'm going to try with my modular. I've ordered an envelope follower. For those of you that don't know what this is, picture the amplitude and shape of a noise wave. For example, if you opened a sample of an 808 kick drum in Soundforge, for instance, you'd see what looks like a comet of sorts...a bulge of volume on the left side trailing to a pointed tail at the right.

An envelope follower converts the amplitude of incoming sound into a control voltage for use elsewhere, such as the cutoff of a filter.

I'm going to try and make my acid 'talk'. I know it sounds silly, but I'm going to route my 303 through a band-pass filter (a filter that rejects high and low frequencies) and control the cutoff frequency with output from the envelope follower. I'll send spoken voice audio into the envelope follower.

This is either going to be wildly awesome or expensively stupid.

So, I've been absentee. I've had to own up to the reality: I'm currently burnt out. Over November and most of December I wrote three EPs. My creativity has dipped a tad...

So what do you all do when you hit a writer's block? I have one rule for these periods of time: stay the f*%k out of the studio. I don't ever want to associate that sacred ground with frustration.

Hello!

Last night I rewired my studio a bit in order to answer a question I've long held: would sending digital 8-track (software synths, baby!) out of my sound card, into outboard tube gear and wonky-ass 1980's mixers, then back into the interface add any sort of magic?

Check back later tonight to find out! I'll post up pictures of the signal path, and I'll be uploading two waves to my soundcloud: one of the sound sample mixed in the box, the other of the same sound sample 'farmed out' to outboard equipment.

I'll share this idea with anyone listening and perhaps you'll beat me to it. The challenge: program and utilize only one pattern on the tb-303 and construct an entire EP with it.

The unimaginative might write a four-bar pattern and make four songs, each with a different one-bar pattern inside. I feel it would be masterful, however, to take the same pattern and slow it, speed it, tweak it, effect it, reverse it and chop it to make it have various feels.

I'm going to go try right now.

I don't know if you are reading, and if you are an acid head like myself. On the limited chance that you are, chew on this.

It's run by DyLab who is my mentor in the Tao of Devilfish. If I'm lucky he might feature one of my patterns!

I suppose I'm an antique by holding the opinion that everyone making electronic music (that has the means to) should try going 'gear only' at least once. When I sat down to record Live Takes, I had a simple rule: no computer until conversion to mp3. I relied on onboard sequencers, crafty MIDI daisy chaining, loads of mixers and a dusty Tascam cassette four-track.

Note that 'gear only' didn't mean 'analog only' in this case. The EP isn't entirely analog. The pads, stabs and a few basslines were provided by the Virus TI running in multi-mode, a heaven send to anyone trying to maximize voices while minimizing gear in a live PA environment. I needed something powerful to drive the TI and almost broke my rule by using a netbook running seq24, but ultimately I found the MIDI machines on the machinedrum up to the task.

The rest of the lineup included two x0xb0xes, one heavily modified with Brian Castro's take on the Devilfish, an mc-202, tr-707, tr-808 clone, tr-909 and some eurorack modules. The one I can't live without is my Metasonix r51 vca/distortion...if you listen carefully throughout the EP you'll notice some subtle 'blow out' of the acid here and there. That would be the handy work of the r51.

The volume sliders on the tr-707 are a novelty that I wish would be taken more seriously by gear designers. Cutting and slamming parts in and out of the mix is so immediate with them, but doing the same with the knobs on the 808 and 909 proved to be too difficult. Cuts were never fast enough. Levels were never quite right. Instead, with the 808 I was able to use sequencer muting of parts, and I relied on a line mixer for the 909 with kill switches for quick transitions.

Things I loved about this experience: the immediacy of editing and playing parts is unparalelled. The brain gets a huge workout: instead of seeing your beats and melodies up on a screen, you must maintain an in-memory index of which button combinations will lead to what you wish to hear. Your creativity gets challenged as you struggle to programs little fills and make the right tweaks to keep everything interesting.

Things I didn't love about this experience: running out of room for gear on my coffee table. It was sad coming away from the EP without MIDI clips and .wav stubs to be used by others for remixes.


I still ponder over one thing: I swear this EP is the cleanest sounding mixing I've ever done, but this was without the use of any compression or EQ outside of the bass and treble knobs on the Tascam. I have an experiment cooked up to test whether music coming entirely from my computer can sound as crisp and real....stay tuned as I'll detail it all right here.

Hey all,

Thanks for tuning in. For my inaugural post I figured I'd share the latest news from my world (i.e. my studio): I've received my Devilfish back from Robin Whittle! It was a bit scary at first because I couldn't get it to sound like the original tb-303 I'd sent, but that's changing as I practice more with it. I've only logged about 60 minutes to date...

So far, my favorite addition to the tb-303 (aside from the extensive repairs carried out) is the accent decay pot. Tuned way up, you can get the 303 to really speak every time an accent hits in your pattern.

That is all for now...

-CW

Hello all and welcome to the Rotation(s) project blog!

We're excited to introduce you to the artist that will be helming our inaugural Rotation - The Carrier Wave!

The roots of electronic music run deep in Chicago, Illinois - the birthplace of House and, of course, Acid House. Artists like Frankie Knuckles, Phuture and Mr. Fingers picked up where disco left off and laid the groundwork for pretty much everything that followed. Using neglected synthesizers, drum machines, samplers and a whole host of cheap recording equipment they pioneered not only the sound of electronic music from that point on, but also a methodology of independent productions that changed the face of music. Instead of relying on recording studios, engineers and big record labels, they created mini-studios of their own in their bedrooms, basements and closets, cut their own dub-plates and spun them for crowds in the local clubs. It was that pioneering mindset that paved the way for independent artists all over the world to start up their own bedroom projects and experiment with electronic music.

Coming out of this environment, it's easy to see where Christopher Westphal gets his inspiration. His tunes are heavily reminiscent of that classic Chicago sound - 303s, 808s, 909s, 101s, tape smudges and tube amps. His debut EP "Live Takes Vol. 1" pulses with a whole slew of classic electronics that he's collected over the years. With 3 more EPs to follow in as many months, we'll be seeing a lot more of what The Carrier Wave has to offer and hopefully he'll be showing us all a little bit of what took place behind the scenes to create those releases.


Check out the "Live Takes Vol. 1" EP now and stay tuned to the Rotation(s) blog as The Carrier Wave takes control for the entire month of January!