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The world turns. Advice for a pandemic.
The world turns. Advice for a pandemic.
Well, the world has changed since I last wrote here, how are you doing?
…it’s okay if you don’t have an answer for that. I don’t.
TL:DR – coping advice, release information (more…)
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Breaking silence
Silence is the language of the gods. All else is just translation.
Breaking a silence is a difficult thing, once you are used to it.
I wanted to break silence on the first of December, but it took a few more days and returning to Ireland to sleep, to work up the energy to write.
In my last post, I wrote as if the worst was over. As if things were returned to normal. It still makes me chuckle. As…
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12:12:12 - Moving Forward
12:12:12 – Moving Forward
12:12:12 Libra is just wrapped up, and the future shows are taking shape. 5 out of 12 so far. Next up, Scorpio, bringing 12:12:12 to the halfway mark.
That said, this is far from an automatic process, and I’m never certain that I can keep up the monthly show pace. Part of the reason is that the last few weeks have hit me harder than I would have liked, and details are below.
(more…)
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Next Show: What Does Home Mean To You?
Next Show: What Does Home Mean To You?
This next show, Saturday 22nd June, feels like a bit of a struggle. One reason is that I’m away for valuable preparation time and that’s a bit worrying. The next is because it deals with a fairly fraught subject for me: the concept of home.
So when I don’t know something and it doesn’t seem like the dictionary definition covers it,I ask. And ask. And ask. Strangers, friends, strangers who became…
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Hawthorn, The Illusionist
Wait, what does this have to do with music? Or zodiac?
Well, there is a Celtic zodiac. And it’s gorgeous. I’ll start with a picture of a Hawthorn from my back garden. Ours is pink, but they sometimes bloom white or a mix.
In Celtic zodiac, the tree that is blossoming as you were born is the influence over your life. There’s an animal apiece, but that’s for another post.
Here’s where it’s even…
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12:12:12 - New Showcase Begins Next Week!
12:12:12 – New Showcase Begins Next Week!
Welcome to 12:12:12.
12 months. 12 showcases in different venues. 12 zodiac signs.
Each month VANCORVID celebrates the strengths, themes and tones of the rising sign. Artists are invited to collaborate on a show of their choosing, or are welcome to apply. Photographers, videographers, graphic artists are invited and welcome. The intent of this showcase is to be multidisciplinary and immersive.
A…
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Finished Challenge: Roundup
100 days of production complete. Well, that’s that for another while. I think I’d like a few days where I don’t *have* to do anything serious, but I’m also hoping that habit formation kicks in and I do the work anyway, just without having to post about it.
To mark the end of the hundred days, this is available on BandCamp. It’s rough and unmastered but as a rough draft I think it can still…
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What's your process?
What’s your process?
I’ve abandoned listing these as days.
My process is mainly movement and memory. Or to put it another way, I don’t really have one.
Usually I try to build what I can, struggle, equivocate, go for walks, try to think and think and practice. Sometimes I’m just sitting at a keyboard coming up with the same variations on a theme that don’t quite work.
The issue, partly, is because I am trying to do…
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Day 76: Write out your worries/looking back
Day 76: Write out your worries/looking back
I landed back in on Friday from a pretty full three weeks or so of travel (and I’m still not finished) and my body promptly decided to fall over and not get up for days. It was a needed couple of days indoors without the sense of immediate packing. I can pack tomorrow.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m just temporarily wrecked. I love travel, and I’m delighted to have got to see the things I’ve seen, talk…
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Day 22: I'm never opening a restaurant.
Day 22: I’m never opening a restaurant.
If there’s one thing music has taught me, it’s that no matter how much you think you know, you are one step away from opening a barrel of what-the-fresh-hell-are-these worms.
There will always, always be something you don’t know. Whether it’s an ability to estimate your own work, supplies, equipment, material, skill, programs, something will be overlooked.
At least with music you don’t have a…
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Day 15: Levels
(Now at the stage where I’m hammering these out where and when I can)
If you record and produce your own work, I have a piece of advice for you. Unless you know your settings, do not try to set up vocal lines and record on the same day.
I don’t know about you, but I take a lot of time testing out sounds and levels and listening back, but that gets tiring. Performing takes again and again is…
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Days 10-14: Commitment. Expectation. Ritual.
Days 10-14: Commitment. Expectation. Ritual.
Some weeks will overbalance. In those times you learn what will slip between the cracks.
This past week I learned that if I decide I’m clearing out all kitchen and bathroom cabinets in one go, writing probably won’t happen after work. Those trade-offs can be worth it, though. My kitchen cabinets are pretty fantastic and that lightens the mental load just enough that other work goes better.…
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Day 9: Fear and Challenge, Part 1
Day 9: Fear and Challenge, Part 1
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
Helen Keller
I feel it’s a good time to talk about this as it’s been a surprisingly difficult first week of the challenge, and it’s largely due to fear. I say part one, not because I have multiple posts planned, but because I expect this won’t be my last word on something this huge.
I…
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As I work standard office hours, I don’t have a lot of time to record sounds without worrying about noise complaints. Weekends are mine to play with, however. Accurate representation of social life with this challenge:
youtube
The fact that it’s -10C out and snowing doesn’t hurt, either.
So, I made a thing! For recording my voice without horrible plosives and fricatives that need to be cleaned out by a more experienced audio engineer. (With apologies to Adam and Martin.)
Brief glossary:
Plosives or stops are consonant sounds that are formed by completely stopping airflow. Stop sounds can be voiceless, like the sounds /p/, /t/, and /k/, or voiced, like /b/, /d/, and /g/. In phonetics, a plosive consonant is made by blocking a part of the mouth so that no air can pass through.
Fricatives are characterised by a “hissing” sound which is produced by the air escaping through a small passage in the mouth.
Affricates begin as plosives and end as fricatives. These are homorganic sounds, that is, the same articulator produces both sound, the plosive and the fricative.
If you’re curious about this, more information here. I’ve never seen it broken down in this way before and it’s also a really interesting way to analyse different accents. For example, implementing or excluding a glottal stop in your speech will bring your accent halfway to a totally different place. For a funnier visual representation, read this.
This wasn’t something I noticed about my accent until I started recording my voice in my apartment and had to listen back. My apartment isn’t too bad for recording and I like that there’s some level of aura in it, but my gods do I have bad plosives.
Usually the way around this is a pop shield. Also known as pop filter, vocal pop filter, pop shield protector. I have a hunch that if you searched for all of these individually they might be priced differently, but I’m not in the market for one I have to pay money for right now.
You can buy a fancy one that clips on to your mic stand, but I currently don’t even own a mic stand. Rather than add to the shopping list and delay myself, I’ll make one and upgrade later.
You will need:
Wire hanger
Pair of ratty old tights (pantyhose)
Small amount of grip strength
The instructions are here, and straightforward enough. Bend the hanger into a rough circle. Stretch one leg of the tights over it. Adjust position and gather slack. Try to make it look like it maybe remembered a circle once.
You can also do this with an embroidery frame, if you’re the type of person to prettily stab something a few thousand times. I respect both of those choices.
Progress in phone photos!
Second-last one ended up that shape because I tried to yank a whole leg over the frame. It doesn’t work out great, as you can see. Better to just tie off the slack at the top and keep tugging around. I recommend ratty old 40 denier tights that you fish out of the back of your tights drawers and the dry cleaning hanger you are least likely to miss.
Cost: $0
Fricative is now going to be my faux-swear of choice.
Day 8: Let’s get weird with fricatives As I work standard office hours, I don't have a lot of time to record sounds without worrying about noise complaints.
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Day 7: Eat before editing
Day 7: Eat before editing
I was a full wreck so I made a ton of garlic kale mashed potatoes (which counts as colcannon, hooahh) and worked on fixing up drum tracks. Artist life can be thrilling, indeed.
The previous day had me realising that I needed to do the bare minimum and focus on rest. No violin, no piano, no concert rehearsal. Just Ableton, and back to sleep. Sorry, habit streak.
I mention food first in this case,…
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Day 6: Shivers and synthesis
Day 6: Shivers and synthesis
Early start, lot of information. Lot of caffeine and resulting full-body shudders.
Questions: do I try crank this out before going to training? Did I somehow miss a day of working or posting?
I did not, but later I went to strength conditioning and had to leave. I was too tired to keep up, which set off a panic response I was too exhausted to counter. Which means, you cry. It’s not anything more…
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Day 5: Keys 37:88:78
Day 5: Keys 37:88:78
I used to collect keys. They look cool, they don’t take up a huge amount of space, and there’s endless variety. Given I have limited space I don’t have as much of a passion for it anymore. Eventually, I want a wall of keys.
Between my iRig and my M-AUDIO I have 125 keys. That’s a good start. Could say that with my laptop keyboard I have another 78. 203, excluding any house keys.
I spent more…
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