Atomic Spatula » guitar

New Music Gear

greg — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:47:02 +0000

Given the state of my left thumb, guitar playing is out for the next few months. I thought I would try to do something with MIDI and soft synthesis. I picked up an M-Audio Axiom 25 MIDI/USB Controller. I had intended to use it with Garage Band, which it does reasonably well, but it came with Abletron Live LE, a de-featured version of Live. Since I want to figure out how to do more loop-based composition and/or performance, it seems to be the way to go.

The learning curve on Live looks pretty steep. Unlike Garage Band, it’s a tool that assumes you’re going to spend some time with it to learn. At first, I had no idea how to even get started. Then I found that it’s got integrated tutorials, and I was off and running. The Axiom works nicely with it, giving physical controls that will make using the gear creatively much more natural. Somehow, having to grab a mouse, find a virtual control, and mess with it’s pixels clears most if not all creative musical ideas from my brain. Having physical transport controls is a huge gain all by itself.

The keys on the Axiom are really nice – in fact, hard to believe given the price of the thing. I almost wish I’d gotten the bigger 49 or 61 key version, but there’s no run on my desk for that, and I’m not a real keyboard player anyways.

The Axiom is also pretty complicated. I’ve not done MIDI years, and the jargon and conceptual model has changed a lot, particularly with integrated digital audio and software synthesis. I’m looking forward to getting back up to speed.

A bit of playing

greg — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:11:57 +0000

Here’s a quick idea. Guitar is in drop-D, 146 bpm with a quarter-note echo. I tuned the base down there also. The canned drums are from Garage band.

sled

Seems like a verse to something.

Musical Obsession of the Day: Helmet

greg — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:52:50 +0000

I’ve been catching up on Metal lately, mostly due to my daughter’s interests in a few different bands, and to some extent, followng Mike Patton backwards to Faith No More. This effort has landed me in the early 90’s. When I was back there, I was listening to a lot of 80’s punk, though I had seen Jawbreaker live, and was moving on to a bit of Hardcore, and some of the NYC noise bands of the day, such as Live Skull.

As I remember it back then, Metal seemed like a dead end, and as a guitarist, I avoiding playing anything like it. In hindsight, there was a lot going on, with some bands adopting some of the aspects of Metal, while adding other influences and styles. As a result, I find myself catching up on what happened on that branch hat would lead to speed metal, death metal, and thrash, as well as popularizers like System of a Down, Korn, etc.

This look backwards has brought me to Helmet, and I’ve picked up their Unsung: The Best of Helmet 1991-1997 CD . Helmet is really a cross-over between more classic metal, hardcore, and punk. The guitars are often in drop tunings, yet have some of the disonant ringing of the NYC noise bands, Vocals can vary from punk, to Black Sabbath, to hardcore. The production is rougher and warmer than we’re used to hearing these days.

Here are a few examples:

Unsung
Bad Mood
Wilma’s Rainbow