Topics

1

12K + LINE / regarding the new shipping costs...

« on: February 26, 2013, 09:42:34 am »

... yeah i know. It's that topic again...
I see that LPs now cost 17$ shipping to germany... is it at least tracked for that price?
some orders from the US have been lost over the time, and I would be willing to pay that amount if I'd get tracking in return...
But I assume that's not the case so here comes question 2:
If I finally have to switch over to buying 12k releases at my local record store (or a-musik ;-) ) instead of ordering directly... do I get the download possibility this way too?

2

SYNTHESIZERS + SOUND-MAKING HARDWARE / confessions of an acid addict

« on: February 15, 2013, 04:24:32 am »

there's a dark shadow in anybody. mine is that i love 303 clones.
the funny thing is, that i don't produce acid music, or dance tracks at all. at least not very often, and if so then it's just for entertainment, without any further musical ambition.
i just love this sound.
while i'm not at all interested in the original 303 machine itself, because of it's clumsy programming, i'd love to get a pair of each clone. it's just too much money to justify this. i've 3 clones at the moment, an acidlab bassline v1, a v2, and a x0xb0x.
and i don't dare to sell even one of them because i fear i might miss it soon.
i feel very bad.

3

FIELD RECORDING / field recording sampling cd

« on: August 09, 2012, 01:57:30 am »

you can discuss endlessly about the sense and nonsense of sampling cds. but this really outplays everything:
http://www.loopmasters.com/product/details/1433/Glimpse-Found-Sounds-and-Field-Recordings

found sounds and field recordings.

i don't want to comment this any further except for:
this is the ANTI-field-recording in my opinion. the complete opposite of what found sound actually means. (irony: found sound shall be found on a sampling CD, yes).

while field recordings are essential for my music, i don't regard them as a signature for myself (nobody actually cares whether i recorded this or not. it's irrelevant for the listener). but what definitly matters for me is the recording process. i would not miss that!

why on earth would anyone just skip the recording process?  

this is SO wrong.  

4

SYNTHESIZERS + SOUND-MAKING HARDWARE / hxc floppy emulator

« on: June 15, 2012, 06:15:31 pm »

after paying 120€, 2 months of waiting, 4 hours of frustrating fiddling and 10 minutes of email support i got a HXC floppy emulator working in my asr10.
it replaces the internal floppy drive and mounts floppy images from an SD card. it does not replace a bigger disk or scsi, but getting rid of all those floppy disks is great!

the emulator works with literally every floppy device, may it be a classic computer, sampler, keyboard or even CNC machine. the only thing to keep in mind is that you need a PC with internal floppy drive to create disk images from floppies. (usb drives won't work)

just wanted to mention this, since the one or the other might still hang around with an old sampler or whatever.

hardware can be purchased at http://lotharek.pl/
and the software is available here: http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
as mentioned above, the software guy, jeff, does an excellent support job too!  

5

SELF PROMOTION / florian von ameln - textures (ltd. ed. cd-r)

« on: April 22, 2012, 05:33:48 am »

Hey folks!
i'm proud to announce the release of my first album textures.
it features 10 tracks, rather droney and minimal, with a slight lo-fi touch. those who enjoyed the sequence 3 compilation might be familiar with one of the songs already.
textures is released in an edition of 50 CD-R's, delivered in a hand stamped cardboard case.
the artwork was developed by a.-m. lueck, a young photographer from Nuremberg, germany.
textures was mastered by rafael anton irisarri.



you can stream it, and if you like it, order on my bandcamp page: http://ab-arts.bandcamp.com/album/textures
it's 9€ + shipping, but I give a 10% discount for 12k forum members in the next four weeks, so 8.10€ + shipping for you. the discount key is: ecdysis (which is the current state of my left hand's skin ;-) )
also shipping for 12k forum members starts already now.
if you prefer non-bandcamp purchase contact me via florian _at_ ab-arts.de

spread the word, thanks a lot!

edit: forgot to set it from "pre-order" to "release"... fixed this now

6

SELF PROMOTION / Florian von Ameln & Barn Owl, April 24., Nuremberg

« on: March 08, 2012, 11:26:01 am »

It's a pleasure for me to anounce my first live show in years, and my first ever solo show:
On April, 24. I'll warm up the stage for Barn Owl, at the lovely K4 in Nuremberg. 
Additionally, it marks the official release date of my debut album.

If you like guitar drones / ambient and reside in Bavaria, Germany, Barn Owl alone would be a good reason to come along. But I hope to meet this high level.

It's 10€, doors open at 9pm.
http://musikverein-concerts.de/barnowl.php

See you there!

7

STUDIO + RECORDING TECHNIQUES / mastering studio recommendations

« on: February 25, 2012, 05:39:06 am »

any recommendations for a mastering studio i could contact?
i finished recording and mixing material for an album, and mastering would be the next logical step. it's rather droney guitar ambient stuff.
taylor mastered my first release to my absolute satisfaction, but i'm open for other names here too, as i'm always happy to establish new contacts.

8

STUDIO + RECORDING TECHNIQUES / sound on film

« on: January 23, 2012, 03:37:21 am »

i just got hands on the audio part of a leftover cinema movie projector. complete with motor and laser unit (but excluding the optics and projection lamp).
i have no clue what to do with it right now, but i remember seeing a website tim prebble linked in his blog... with different optical audio systems, like the oramics machine, and many more (using spinning discs mostly). 

i consider painting a blanko filmstrip and see what happens. or i might invest the money and let some of my music copied to 35mm filmstrip. maybe using the machine during a live performance, pulling the film by hand through the machine... (unfortunately no live performances could be arranged lately...)

has anyone worked with such a machine or is - like me - in general interested in optical sound reproduction?
from an academical/engineering and also a philosophical point of view i'm somewhat obsessed with optical sound reproduction.
the machine itself is as simple as fascinating. it's fine mechanics, with the robustness of an 1950s fuse box, but paired with high-tech laser (to accurately read the sound-track from the movie). for me, this is a clash of cultures, a 50 year spanning future shock, soon to be pushed out of business by digital projectors...

9

FIELD RECORDING / weirdest field recording happenings go here...

« on: December 11, 2011, 10:05:57 am »

while i was setting up my recording equipment today a dog showed little too much interest in my olympus ls10 and the attached rycote.  
suddenly the sausage dog opened it's mouth... snap! and away he was! with the olympus in it's mouth. fortunately i was wearing headphones, and as the dog arrived some distance, the cable pulled the recorder out of it's mouth again. luckily!

here is the recording:
http://soundcloud.com/ab-arts/dog-eats-olympus-ls10

what's your weirdest field recording happening?

10

OTHER MUSIC / dead can dance reunion

« on: November 24, 2011, 03:47:13 pm »

i saw that dead can dance anounced (once again) a reunion, incl. world tour and a new album in 2012. i missed their reunion tour in 2005 or when, so i'm curious if i'll make it this time.

while i don't in particular listen to their music anymore since years, i was still attached to their music when i was younger, say 10-15 years ago. (i'm not that old, so i started to listen to their music when they already had disbanded).

what about you? any dead can dance love in here?

11

FIELD RECORDING / Lavalier Mics

« on: November 21, 2011, 10:58:05 am »

hey there, i've a question...
is someone using lavalier microphones for field recording? my current field recording setup is the olympus ls10 + a beyerdynamic mce86 shotgun.
since the beyerdynamic is relatively quiet (a fact they fixed with the mce86 II), i think it might be worth getting another microphone into the setup. the LS10's internal mics are okay to my taste, but their stereo field could be wider (and the mce86 is mono), therefore i think a stereo set might be good choice! i suspect that an X/Y stereo mic might not be that different from what the LS10 offers to justify the price, while two seperate condenser mics would require two stands also (which is too heavy for my taste then). that's why i got interested in lavalier mics...
the dpa 4060 are really often referenced on websites to be really great for ambience recording, and they're light, small, unobtrusive etc... however they're quite expensive. but then i saw the (new?) rode lavalier, which would be an affordable stereo set. the rode has approx. the same sensitivity as the DPA, but i did not found information about the self-noise.
does anyone use lavalier microphones for field recordings and could share experiences or even sounds? especially not from the dpa 4060, which can heard in several recordings on tim prebble's blog already.

maybe it's a stupid idea to think about new mics in general... so feel free to talk me out of this.
keep this really brilliant manifesto in mind: a lesser photographer, which maps perfect to recording addicts. or to modular system junkies. or bicycle tinkerer. ok, this is getting off topic now ;-)

12

SYNTHESIZERS + SOUND-MAKING HARDWARE / Kyma / Capybara320

« on: August 30, 2011, 08:30:35 am »

I know that there's at least one Kyma user around here, so I dare to ask a few questions...

I tried out a reasonable priced used paca for a few hours last year but was shocked about the usage of the Kyma X software and the quality of presets (some were astonishing, some were disillusioning. Considering the amount of money I skipped that.

Now I've the possibility to get hands on a reasonable priced Capybara 320 (basic configuration). While I still remember that I disliked Kyma X, I think i could cope with it. But now I have the fear that a basic Capybara 320 might have not enough CPU power to be happy on longer term. And maybe the Capy is no good when a next generation Kyma software is out?
So again I'm hesitant... even for this older machine it's still much money.

I remember the paca to have quite dense and good reverbs (which I'm lacking actually), and the Tau editor looks promising. I recently started to learn supercollider, which is based on the smalltalk language (the Kyma scripting is based on smalltalk). I'd have to stop with supercollider - spare time is rare, we all know that...

Would be great if (former?) Kyma users here could give me an opinion on the Capybara 320.

13

COMPUTER MUSIC / Max Mathews passed away

« on: April 22, 2011, 02:20:21 am »

Computer music pioneer Max Mathews died on the morning of 21 April 2011 of complications from pneumonia.
As probably many know, Mathews was a pioneer in the fields of formal languages for music synthesis, speech synthesis and controllers for synthesizers.
A recent interview with Mathews can be accessed via the computer music journal here.

That's been a sad day yesterday. The day started with the news that Gerard Smith, TV On The Radio bassist, died of cancer. Now, 24 hours later, Mathews.
I'm into indie-rock in general, but TV On The Radio are just a league of their own. Saw them live two years ago and cannot think of them without Gerard Smith.

14

SELF PROMOTION / imperfect objects for perfect moments

« on: April 19, 2011, 09:09:44 am »

I'm happy to announce that my debut EP is now available on bandcamp:
http://ab-arts.bandcamp.com

The recordings have been made during the last years, and although some might be qualified as songs and some might not, all of them share a common theme of imperfections, noises and distortions.
I didn't plan to release it physical originally, but later realized that it was mainly a matter of money. I was curious to see how much work it really is to release a physical object. Now, some months later, I see that it's a lot - and in fact not only a matter of money but also of dedication. I have deepest respect for all the small labels going through this procedure regularly.
However, here it is, an edition of 50 CDr's.
I hope you like it.

15

STUDIO + RECORDING TECHNIQUES / My tape delays died :-(

« on: March 30, 2011, 03:24:19 pm »

since years i've got these two dynacord echocord super s75 tape delays, both only half functioning, but that was okay for me. i got them cheap and loved their shortcomings.

however, the better-functioning (this could be wired as send) died somehow. it fall back to the functionality level of the worse-functioning (insert only) + some pretty ugly humming-noise.

the insert-only way of wiring (use one of the 4 mic preamps on the front for input, do the level adjust etc... and then get the output on the back) always annoyed me. the more-functioning could be wired with one cable from the back. i'm done. i barely used them because i was to lazy to set them up. 

now i'm thinking of selling those.
but not without replacement. it may not be a tape delay - a used tape-delay is out of my money-range these days. a good emulation would be just fine for me. but the sound-on-sound has to be fine, it has to do nice pitching when changing the delay time, and charming wobble. let's do some namedropping!