blanketforts Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Hi all- Been lurking on WATMM for about 2 years ever since I heard about AAA, with the odd post here and there. Been making (and DJing) electronic music for about 20 years. Lots of it is archived on SC, BF, and MC (the DJ sets). So... figured I might as well post some of it here. (Note: I'm not Blanket Fort Collapse - that was a total coincidence - I came up with the name years ago and just heard about him recently. Just clearing that up in case anyone was wondering.) So here are all of my recent tunes (made with some combo of Nord Modular G1s, an Octatrack, and various DAWs): https://soundcloud.com/blanket-forts and here are some older tunes (made entirely with Nord Modular G1s): https://blanketforts.bandcamp.com/ Thought I'd just put it all out there. I haven't done a proper album release in a while, so I'd say if you're curious start with the SC stuff from the top, unless you really like Nord Modular G1s, in which case go directly to BC. Will continue to update as I make tracks. Thanks for listening! -mike/bf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Hey, I'm currently listening to your tracks on soundcloud and I like them a lot so far. I really like the compositions, and sound-wise it's really fresh imo, sounds like you're not afraid to mix a lot of different type of sounds and you do that with success. Any reason why you didn't make new releases in a while? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
th555 Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Those tracks on bandcamp are real nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blanketforts Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 Hey, I'm currently listening to your tracks on soundcloud and I like them a lot so far. I really like the compositions, and sound-wise it's really fresh imo, sounds like you're not afraid to mix a lot of different type of sounds and you do that with success. Any reason why you didn't make new releases in a while? Thanks so much for checking them out! I never really thought of my music as mixing a lot of different types of sounds before so it's really cool to get that perspective. I guess I just throw it in the mix. Lately my main goal has been to make tracks where the mixes just aren't too muddy - where every sound has a purpose in the mix. I have made plenty of new tracks but I guess I have felt like I'm relearning my technique in a sense, so that's one reason for not compiling tracks into an "album." But I suppose the main reason is just that I switched from Bandcamp to Soundcloud a few years back because my Bandcamp stuff was Nord Modular G1 only, and so I just started grouping my tracks by year rather than as albums because SC is more conducive to individual tracks. I think I should probably migrate a lot of stuff over to Bandcamp, ditch the Nord purist thing, and make some albums now that you mention it. Another thing I hadn't thought about until you posted! :) Thanks a bunch for the feedback. Really appreciate it! Mike/bf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blanketforts Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 Those tracks on bandcamp are real nice. Thanks a lot! I am really conflicted sometimes about having reintroduced DAWs and hardware sampling because I love the purity of the Nord Modular G1 stuff that I did. But I did miss sampling, time-based effects, etc. Anyway, I really appreciate your listening. Thanks! Mike/bf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychotronic Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Nice setup and usage. How do you record? Daw? Recorder? Lately my main goal has been to make tracks where the mixes just aren't too muddy - where every sound has a purpose in the mix. Yes. After you are done, pump it up to make it sound fucking huge. I'd like to hear that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blanketforts Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Nice setup and usage. How do you record? Daw? Recorder? Lately my main goal has been to make tracks where the mixes just aren't too muddy - where every sound has a purpose in the mix. Yes. After you are done, pump it up to make it sound fucking huge. I'd like to hear that. Thanks a lot! Yeah so if it's a hardware jam I record it all into Audacity on my MBP, just using a Focusrite Scarlette (sp?) stereo in to USB. Sometimes I make tracks entirely in Logic so those are just bounced. And on occasion I make tracks in Logic that include Nord stuff synced to Logic's clock via MIDI, so the audio of the Nord (usually an acid tweak sort of thing) is recorded live as a separate track or tracks - but again, it's still finished off in Logic. As to making it sound fucking huge, I do need some sort of way to finalize / master my tracks. There's a corny audio DSP setting on my car stereo that makes actually mastered tracks sound like shit but makes my too-quiet tracks sound incredible. Sometimes I want to just figure out how to take an audio out of my car stereo and solve the problem then and there haha. But seriously I need some good mastering and also it takes a lot of effort to do live mixes of tracks without messing up the mix - I think I have it pretty good these days but need to keep working on that for liveness and probably mixing tracks in a DAW more often for "finished studio products." Much to think about. Thanks so much for your input! Really appreciate it. Mike/bf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychotronic Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 thx for listening in return Yeah so if it's a hardware jam I record it all into Audacity on my MBP, just using a Focusrite Scarlette (sp?) stereo in to USB. I see. As to making it sound fucking huge, I do need some sort of way to finalize / master my tracks. There's a corny audio DSP setting on my car stereo that makes actually mastered tracks sound like shit but makes my too-quiet tracks sound incredible. Sometimes I want to just figure out how to take an audio out of my car stereo and solve the problem then and there haha. But seriously I need some good mastering and also it takes a lot of effort to do live mixes of tracks without messing up the mix - I think I have it pretty good these days but need to keep working on that for liveness and probably mixing tracks in a DAW more often for "finished studio products." I can see your point. Recording live and having an output that sounds like a mastered track is something quite difficult. I'm up for that challenge myself and have still not reached my target so far.Additionally, yes. Too much loudness just for the sake of itself is no good. I agree on that, but i meant something different here, so let me try to explain. You use an octa and from what i heard so far you use unconventional sounds and samples. Thats the thing that i really like on your sound design, cause i'm into that myself. (I normally go mad with my field recorder to get anything that could work as something in my tracks).But doing stuff like that presents a extra challenge, cause weird sound material is not easy to handle in terms of creating a proper mix while actually playing music live with gear like the octa.You said you currently try produce a less muddy mix, so i guessed that you kinda try to preproduce the material for your octa. (really guessing here)So yeah, having a less muddy mix is the first step. Making sound where everything works together in terms of frequencies positioned in the stereo field. You can go really hard on this by doing something like using a mid/sideband processing chain with EQs and gates in combination with some stereo positioning tool, to create a lot of space between everything, really thinning out the sound.After you're done with that, you should try to play the material and see if it is thin enough and the track still works. That part is important cause the octa has that fancy resampling knob that enables advanced sample diving, which is a lot of fun but can cause your preprocessing output to fuck up hard if done wrong, especially if you go mad with compressors. (I made that error myself and that fucked up my sound on stage really hard. Anyway...)Now, by making it huge it mean something like adding more weight to the upper bass spectrum on everything that sounds too thin, doing some mild transient targeting compression on stuff that needs more musical(!!!) impact and finally doing some mild exciter / naturalizer combo. Thats the part i'm still working on. I tried going mad with some maximizer limiter tools on preprocessed material, but that kinda killed the sound. I'm currently thinking about thickening up stuff in my preprocessing chain using some analog gear. I got a old mackie mixer and some weird tube distortion pedals. So the next thing i will try is something like, giving preprocessed samples some weight back using the mackie mixer and possibly add some subtle tube saturation using that tube pedal thingy i got. I also heard some people talking about rerecording stuff directly played from monitors by just putting a field recorder in front of them to kinda naturalize the sound by transit through air. (still sounds a bit voodoo to me, but i will try it anyway...)Just some thoughts cause why the hell not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blanketforts Posted October 14, 2015 Author Share Posted October 14, 2015 Thanks for the extensive discussion / suggestions! Much to absorb and think about... I should say that I've been doing this "live studio recording" for 20 years in different permutations, so much so that it's second nature to me to approach a track that way. Which I suppose is a bit ass-backwards really, and definitely my more "polished" stuff is just done in DAWs directly. But that's the thing... it's so "polished." I feel like I might have more to offer if I keep trying to refine the live thing rather than work in DAWs exclusively. I say second nature to approach a track in a live way. This does NOT mean that I have even close to "arrived" as far as getting my live mixdowns to sound as good as I want them to. You're absolutely right that I "preproduce" the tracks; the live element is really more a live arrangement, and actually with the OT it's even more like paging through arrangements and making adjustments (along with tweaking pre-arranged Nord Modular stuff). So yeah there's a lot of prep going on. But I think it's still worth it to be able to reproduce things, or come close, live. I don't know. It's a constant process of course. I'll definitely take some of your ideas into consideration. I say some because there are so many...! But seriously, much appreciated man! Thanks again- Mike/bf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychotronic Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 I should say that I've been doing this "live studio recording" for 20 years in different permutations, so much so that it's second nature to me to approach a track that way. That's why we are able to discuss this a bit deeper. Cool! But that's the thing... it's so "polished." I feel like I might have more to offer if I keep trying to refine the live thing rather than work in DAWs exclusively. I feel the same. Human error is a great source of oddity. Most songs that i like have elements that are not in tune or are somehow odd, but the musician made them work by a proper play style based on his feelings. I'll definitely take some of your ideas into consideration. I say some because there are so many...! But seriously, much appreciated man! Sure, feel free. I have a eye on your soundcloud once in a while. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blanketforts Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 New track, just in time for AE-LA! :) [sc5]https://soundcloud.com/blanket-forts/triggered[/sc5] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blanketforts Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 Whoops, embedding failed above. Here's the track again: https://soundcloud.com/blanket-forts/triggered Hope you like it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thiefinger Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Nice stuff. Great grainy sounds and enough variation going on. Nice programming on the drum patterns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blanketforts Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 Thanks Thie! I really appreciate the feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JD57 Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 As to making it sound fucking huge, I do need some sort of way to finalize / master my tracks. There's a corny audio DSP setting on my car stereo that makes actually mastered tracks sound like shit but makes my too-quiet tracks sound incredible. Sometimes I want to just figure out how to take an audio out of my car stereo and solve the problem then and there haha. But seriously I need some good mastering and also it takes a lot of effort to do live mixes of tracks without messing up the mix - I think I have it pretty good these days but need to keep working on that for liveness and probably mixing tracks in a DAW more often for "finished studio products." I have done a similar thing using old 90's 2000's aiwa or sony whatever what not stereo systems. A lot of them have pretty advanced EQ and compression preset things, and also sometimes a stereo enhancer. It's pretty neat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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