Cornerman

Something completely different, Marathon adventures.

I run, which I love, and is also a necessity to keep the fall out of my brain damage under control. Running reduces the pressures in my head and also builds new neurological paths I can then try and use for getting my skills on a higher level. The mind and body combination is very important, for everyone but especially me.

So last week (and this week) has been all about running. I usually try and run one marathon a year and last Sunday was the one for this year, the ASML Eindhoven marathon. 40th edition and a new parcours. So a nice weekend in Eindoven with a visit to the van Abbe museum, some food, family & friends and a run on Sunday.

Temparatures where absolutely perfect, a bit chilly at the beginning bit ones underway this went away pretty quickly, 12 degrees celsius is pretty spot on. Figured out a pace in the first few miles and decided to try and stick to it. Which I could, even without experiencing the energy dip after 30K. Mostly this is the point after which my energy levels are depleted and at some random point (32, 34, 36) I seem to loose all forward momentum, I basically feel like I am not able to move forward anymore. This did not happen and I could keep the pace, even at the busy last few kilometers towards the finish.

Very happy with the result, no records broken at 3:21:47 but this was a finish I would not have predicted at the start, way above my expectations.

Afterwards some drinks and bites with family & friends, and a very big breakfast the next morning. This is one for the books. A great weekend.

The Max MSP wormhole is a happy place

Getting deeper into Max MSP Is really cool. I am getting better at patching and using the help and other resources such as books in figuring out what I need to achieve my ideas. The biggest win is that I can make notes directly as patches. I am getting more familiar with the names of the objects.

While it takes a lot of time to learn Max, at least for me, it’s a very good way to learn about sound design and synthesis. And I can work on it very consistently, When I can’t listen to music, I can patch, or read and learn. So it’s the biggest constant factor in my musical journey.

It might be a controversial statement, but if you start out with a computer, daw, and Max MSP you have a life long journey. while I love hardware and love playing around with them. If I would start out today I would buy a laptop, a DAW and a MAX MSP license.

After that the biggest investment will be books and resources. At the moment all my hardware is in storage and this is the only thing I have. And the focus is very cool. The possibilities are endless but I have a process where I can minimize my options and focus on a single idea.

I will still install my hardware in my new studio, but I don’t think I will be buying any hardware anymore going forward. I have years of learning and fun with the stuff I have. Even just Max MSP contains a limitless space for developing ideas and making music. Or other art installations.

Now I am confined in the MAX world I am learning pretty fast, and it’s great fun. It also gives a lot of room for interaction with visuals, via jitter, making your own instruments and combine external gear with interfaces and the newly released RNBO, which let’s you export patches to a raspberry pi, the web and others to create stand alone instruments or art installations. All very cool stuff.

It also gives more room for my original ideas around ever evolving instruments and output to different media. I will share some patches open source in the future. Or maybe I will start by documenting my own learning curve, however not sure if that is of interest to anyone. Lot’s of ideas going through my brain this week. Less is more, it certainly gives me more ideas. Now I need to limit my enthusiasm and focus on small steps.

Single machine music, learning music tech before the internet.

I used to think the music I listened to came from one machine, mostly a sampler. As the pictures I had seen upon that point mostly consist of producers with one machine, as the technological marvel everything originated from.

A lot of the time this was an Akai S950 or MPC. Then I discovered a book in the library which had interviews in it with all sorts of producers and Dj’s in their studio’s.

This was a real page turner for me and the first time I saw that there was a lot more equipment involved than just one machine. I couldn’t remember the title but some of the artists featured in the book where 808 state, A guy called Gerald and many others.

It was in the very beginning of the acid house explosion in the UK. So it must have been around 1987/88 when the book was released. Searching for it has not been easy and I haven’t found it yet. Tips are very welcome.

Shortly thereafter I found a magazine called Sound on Sound, which was very expensive for me at the time, so I tried reading it in the bookstore and write down as many interesting things as I could.

Another big thing were instrument folders, Which you could read and learn a thing or two about what everything could do. Information was scarce in those days. Some music shops were reluctant to pass out these folders to youngsters like me which obviously couldn’t afford these instruments back then. Others, which had more of an eye for future business, made sure they had enough material to pass out. And indeed my first purchase was with a shop that did.

Important lesson learned, be nice to other people, it’s the best investment you will ever do.

A few years later Future music arrived in the shops. Cheaper than Sound on Sound and more accessible, for me at least. The best thing about Future music where the artist interviews and the pictures. I think I learned a lot from just studying the pictures. A great magazine and one I looked forward to every month. At some point there was even a Dutch version.

Ever since those days I am still reading Future music & sound on sound. This week Future music announced they will stop producing the magazine. Although I had switched to the digital version I always had a subscription and still looked forward to each new issue every month. Just like I did when I was a kid. Call me nostalgic but I like the format, the pictures and the way information comes to you at a slower pace. The online world might suite a lot of people better nowadays and the way information is available is great. But it also has another side, things disappear when people stop hosting them, what if YouTube shuts down and all the tutorials vanish?

The physical form, whether it is a book, a magazine, a record, always ingrains itself differently into the brain. I can’t count the number of times I flipped trough old issues of Future music to find an interview or read something about a technical subject. It’s your personal library which you can organize the way it works for you. With the disappearance of yet another publication this ability to build and maintain my own library is diminished.

Which to me is sad. As it is an invaluable part of how people really learn and internalize things.

Construction takes time and a lot of energy

While the prospect of a nice creative space is very appealing, construction works take a toll on me energy wise. Last week was pretty much a week with a little less construction and a lot of recharging for me. This limited my energy for music making as a whole and thus I didn’t get anything done.

I did however got some fascinating books on music, as I tend to look for inspiration when I can’t really do much else, I discovered that the excellent series, Electronic music and sound design has a English version of the third book in the series. Which I ordered. Whilst a lot of books are available in libraries this isn’t one of them. And it’s very convenient to have these books available at all times, so I bought it. Hopefully it will arrive soon.

As I have mentioned earlier, these books have a lot of knowledge on sound and sound design, so even if you don’t fancy learning Max msp, these books are really great. You can learn everything there is to know about synthesis. Take your time as some bits can get pretty complicated. At least for me. Really looking forward to diving in part 3.

Another book I stumbled upon was on Minimalism about the history and significance of minimal music. This is also on the way. Will write a review on it as soon as I finish reading it.

Books always give me lots of ideas and searching for new books always gives me energy, even when I am really out of energy. So while not much has happend with music this period. This way I feel I als still moving forward.

Interior design, selecting vibes for the creative space

As the work on my new creative space is ongoing, as it happens with building stuff, things happen unexpectedly. So my gear is still in boxes and I am on hold music making wise. I have now spent some time on thinking about the interior design of the space. The focus will be on the vibe, not so much the technical logistics of the space. I am aiming for a table where I can set up gear, or anything I need for a creative process. Whether it be music, writing or drawing.

Making moodboards is fun, and deciding where things need to be and what colors I will have in the space.

As far as music making goes I have postponed it until the construction is over. It takes out to much energy trying to do this while all this is going on.

A short one this week, as not much is going on, on the creative front. I am just dabbling in things at the moment.

See you all next week.

Art & income, the finance of art

This week has seen the demise of Aslice gaat stoppen. Aslice was all about creating a more equal pay for musicians, for a fairer distribution of the revenue from music. Via a community driven structure.

There is a very big discrepancy between the income made by the artists who make the music (producers) and the people making a living out of playing the music (Dj’s). It’s not a coincidence you need to be a DJ/Producer nowadays to generate any income from making music.

The idea was pretty simple, Dj’s send in their playlists and from those lists the producers of the music get a paid an amount for each time a track is played. This means the Dj will make a little bit less, but the producer gets a change to have an income out of their music.

Not all Dj’s are big earners, and many struggle to get a decent wage out of it. You can still read everything there is to know about Aslice and their system om the website. But this brings up a bigger question there is in the arts in general, not just music, but writers, sculptors and painters and so on. All these people have trouble living of just their art. And have all sorts of jobs on the side.

Aslice & the importance of community

The biggest problem (in retrospect) for Aslice was the absence of a lot of Dj’s and mainly the bigger names and highest paid people in the industry. The problem with those people not signing up is that you miss a lot of revenue which should go back to the producers. But also in the lower echelons of the income pyramid it missed the volume to really make a breakthrough.

But why is a more equal distribution important? Everyone can go for their own succes by working on their own channels for revenue? Yes, these are options. The only problem is by doing this individually you can never reach all the corners of the eco system. You simply don’t know if someone is playing your music if they don’t tell you. Instead of being able to let the music work for you after you released it, by letting others play it (in other words sell it), you have to go out there and do this all by yourself. By playing the music yourself or do other activities to sell yourself.

The problem being, there is a limit to what the individual can produce as output. There is a limited amount of time, and energy one can produce. And as a musician this isn’t your job, your job is to make new music. The Aslice system provided a way for musicians to generate income from music when other people went on and did their thing with it. I.e do their job. Making music is not a hobby, as an artist you have to be able to generate income from your music. And not just when you are at the top of the pyramid. Aslice provided a revenue stream without the artists having to put in time to generate it. Passive income.

An eco system can’t function if only a small minority profits at the expense of the work of all the others in the eco system (otherwise known as a community). This inevitably leads to a hollowing out of that system. Artists drop out and no new ones can join. And some point the eco system collapses and a barren land is what is left. You can’t participate if you can’t live from an eco system. It’s that simple.
You can’t reach your full potential if you can’t work on your greatest skill, and have to to all sorts of side hustles to keep afloat.

Individuality & the illusion of succes

This is a problem in the whole of society, in the last 30 years or so this has become the main issue. The belief succes of the individual is solely the outcome of choices and changes that individual has made and taken. Throughout society the illusion that succes is a choice. Whatever is going on outside the circle of influence and the outside world. Just work ‘hard enough’ and seize ‘opportunities’ and you will reap the rewards.

This is only partly true, you can only be as successful as your environment is. Maybe a small percentage can fight their way out of a position of disadvantage, but the first thing they do is leave the place where opportunities are slim.

Succes, for the most part, is the outcome of great communities and solid infrastructures. You simply can’t do everything on your own. A society can’t function without education, health care, affordable living, access to food and so on. These things form the foundation for the individuals to thrive, the access to this infrastructure needs to be organized in such a way, that the majority of participants in these communities have acces to it and be able to use it.

You will have to work on, maintain and build these infrastructures before you can become successful as an individual. Every member needs to make a small contribution to this infrastructure and help others to become successful in order to stay successful themselves. The most well known way to organize this is paying taxes. It’s that simple.

The arts and the revenue model

The world of arts has been plagued by declining in funding the last few decades. All emphasis was placed on building your own revenue models. A lot of subsidies which maintained a lot of the infrastructures, think public venues, studios, art centers and educational systems have been minimized or downright cut all together. Which implicitly meant the art community had to fend for itself. A fairer distribution of the revenue generated with the art becomes crucial.

By subsidizing important parts of the eco system, the money involved becomes almost invisible. People pay taxes for all sorts of things and don’t think about what is funded with the money. This makes a lot of people even wary of paying them. Most people can only think about the stuff they don’t want funded by taxes. That’s why the democratic process is important. But that’s another matter altogether, the simple fact is, the lack of togetherness, which has crept in, in the vast majority of society is also very prevalent in the art world. It wasn’t easy making a living from arts before and it certainly isn’t now. The community in the arts world has vanished.

The revenue stream, and the value broader society has for arts & culture has declined. And therefore the system fails for individual artists to make a living. The revenue model has shifted towards the individual, it’s not the art that needs selling, it’s the individual. Things like the 1000 follower principle, where 1000 people pay 1000 dollars a year and generate an income that way solely hinges on the individual to be able to generate art (or mostly content).

This immediately comes to an halt when that individual has a calamity and can’t make any more music (or content) and the revenue streams stops. There are no safety nets within the system. The most hearth-wrenching examples are the Gofundme pages where artists seek help in paying for cost of living and medical bills ones they fall ill. Nevermind paying for their recovery. Passive revenue from songs played is an absolute necessity.

There is a massive limit in earning power of an individual, this is true for everyone, but especially artists, where art needs to be sold, in this case music played before any revenue is generated. For musicians music played needs to be a valid stream of income. But they can’t live off albums alone anymore. And this is a big risk, it takes a lot of time working on an album and the only way to pay for this time is by the music being played when the music goes out into the world.

Once it’s out there, a lot of the revenue sticks to the top of the pyramid. The balance within the revenue stream is off. A fairer distribution is why a platform such as Aslice is important.

Community back on the agenda

Technology enables us to quickly build a solution which when carried by a large part of the community can restore the balance in revenue pretty quickly. So everyone can carve out their piece of the pie and keep going, and add too the community and eco system. We just need to instill a realization that everyone has their fair value within the eco system. Not just a shout out on social media, but a simple small amount whenever you use a track someone has made. These are not big numbers, it’s about volume.

Technology can help us work out the distribution, the how of the equation. But for things to truly happen we need the majority of the community involved. This can only be reached if we put the topic of the community back on the agenda. Within industry gatherings we not only need to talk about the branding of the artist on an individual level, but talk about a healthy eco system and community as well. How we build, maintain and develop the eco system and subsequently the community.

And not just about the fun stuff, like making music together, collabs with instrument builders and so on, but be frank about the numbers, the accounting behind it all. The “boring” bits. The risks of being a one person company as most artists are. And the risks involved when you do not get paid enough for your work. The bullet points below are just a few of the risks.

- - Insufficient income for health insurance.
  - Insufficient income for periods with less gigs, or to buy insurance against income drops.
  - Insufficient income for building up a pension.
  - Insufficient income for insurance against disability.

And these are just the individual risks, some risks for the eco system

- - No new or improved venues for younger talent to work and perform
  - No real networks are maintained as everyone is to busy making ends meet.
  - No synergy and scale advantages that a healthy eco system provides for growth and future proofing of the eco system.

It’s not just about money

A community has a lot advantages for people who are part of such an eco system. You can grow your craft a lot faster you can focus on your skillset and not worry too much about other things. Everyone can learn and feed off each other and grow organically. Being part of a community is essential. For these systems to be able to flourish everyone has to contribute some of there time and energy towards that community. In a society this is done via taxes, we then pay other people with other skills to run the eco system. Now the world of arts need to do this themselves. The ‘invisible’ part in the form of subsidies is no longer there. The creative community might have gotten used to this too much, who knows. But in the current political and economical landscape you can’t count on this anymore. The creative community needs to organize this themselves. We need to make sure the eco system is healthy.

The most important thing for people to be able to contribute is that the revenue is divided fairly among the participants, so we can all work on the pillars of the system, such as education, safe spaces to work and crate, get together and interact. So everyone can work on their craft and be able to excel as much as possible and cover the basic risks.

Aslice had a great model to achieve just that. For everyone to be able to make a decent living and thus can dedicate some of their every to build a community in which everyone can work and make a living of their art.

For society as a whole this is very important, as art pays a big part in letting people be able to think critically and provide safe places for people in oppression. As a society we simply can’t progress without art. That’s why the art community has to take a hard look in the mirror and realize the need to work on the eco system and community as absolutely essential.

Ongoing construction

This week is all about the construction of my creative space. As this is going on for a week at least, I am not really finding the peace I need to make music. Which is ok, what I am doing is researching studio layouts and acoustics. Which is fun, and acoustics are a world of its own. Maybe this is better suited when I am actually aware of problems in my mixing.

It was fun researching anyway. The layout will be pretty flexible, I am planning a table where I can build setups and use for other creative activities and a fixed workplace where I plan my computer, a controller, sound card and speakers.

There will be a bookcase for all my books, and other items I use for inspiration and studying. And if there is some room left, a couch. We will see.

Max MSP projects, notes and ideas

What I have been is organizing my notes and ideas for Max MSP projects. So far I have only build and expanded a looper project. And making notes on ideas for projects I want to figure out. Learning while doing, as to not get stuck in manuals and books all the time.

I have taken the time to work out some of the concepts into short descriptions of functionality and made lists of the order in which I need to build it. So it makes some sense from the start. The danger with Max MSP is that I start somewhere and end up somewhere which is miles from my original idea. Which in most cases isn’t a bad thing. But whenever I return to a patch to work on it some more, I first need to figure out what I did in the first place.

Working more focussed towards a goal and making sure I document the steps and the patch I will be able to get stuck in every session, without figuring out what is was the patch is supposed to be doing.

Planning for the coming weeks.

The main focus will be finishing and decorating the creative space. After this is all done, I will be able to start and finish projects more easily which I am really looking forward to.

Building a dedicated creative space

Having a space for your creative adventures can be important in maintaining consistency in the process. This past week I have not been doing any actual music making, reading manuals or learning stuff. I have been cleaning out my attic so it can de build into a studio space. Or to more exact, a creative space. As music is not the only creative thing I like to do. Writing, coding & drawing being other creative outlets for me.

Construction will begin shortly and in the end this will be a space where I can put my musical instruments, and other stuff I use to work on my various projects.

Up until now the kitchen table was the place to be, which had a downside that after each session I had to clear everything again. And building stuff up before starting a session.

I can also create specific longer term setups for projects more easily in the new space. I have been thinking about the layout and various other things. But we will see where it ends when all the construction is finished.

Why I need a dedicated space

Lot’s of people can work anywhere. Whether it be on the sofa, at the kitchen table or in any coffee shop in the neighborhood, that is great, but not me.

I need a space where I can go to and everything is available, plugged in and ready to go. It’s easier to start, take breaks and finish things for me that way. It’s also a space which has a lot of stuff in it which gets and keeps me inspired. Like books, art, music and miscellaneous bits.

It also save me the energy I now need to take a few pieces of kit, set it up, have a session and tear it down again. Even just sitting in a custom space and thinking about projects, solutions and take notes is worth having it. It’s a luxury I know. But if you can have even a small dedicated space this will undoubtedly improve your creativity, efficiency and consistency. Just going in for an hour every day is easier when everything is in one place and ready to go.

It’s been a long time coming, so now that it is finally happening I am pretty excited. Next thing will be planning the lay out of the space.

Sampling, an art form.

One of my favorite instruments is a sampler, ever since I watched music documentaries like lola da musica and read magazines with studio pictures in them I was drawn to these magical boxes which could record sound and then be worked into a completely different sound altogether. And make tracks with those sampled sounds.

Sampling is an art form in and of itself, finding samples or making your own as is more common nowadays is a real cool expression of someones insight into music. From the early days of making collages out of existing materials and making it your own with deconstruction and rebuilding out of existing materials has been a legitimate art form. The things you can do with sampling from an artistic perspective are endless. Everyone hears and feels something different and will go into a different direction with the same sample. It’s really intriguing.

Albums like Endtroducing by Dj Shadow is one of the most well known examples of sample based music (all done on an MPC 3000), but most electronic music and hip hop would not exist without samplers. For some reason, and this might be just a collection of nostalgic reasons, music from the late 80’s and early 90’s has some qualities which I attribute to the samplers and more specific the limitations of gear in those days. Maybe it’s the less boxed in way of thinking about genres or simply the case of “If it sounds good, it is good”.

Some of my favorite tunes made possible by sampling, many more can be added but that would make this blog extremely long ;-). So 2 well known examples.

Roger Sanchez – Another change

Dj Shadow – Stem (Cops & Robbers remix)

A lot of these devices are unaffordable these days, things like the Akai MPC 3000 & Emu sp1200, and the Akai S950 are commanding crazy prices. There are some very nice and in my opinion overlooked samplers which can be bought for less money, like the Emu ESI 4000 or the Akai S3000. Even the MPC 2000XL can be found a little bit more affordable. Question is, would you go down the route of these vintage tools or not?

Some cool documentaries

First off some inspiration which could sway you to go the hardware sampling route. Whether that be old school samplers or newer ones. Here is some cool documentary stuff which got me inspired, and still gets me inspired these days. Pretty old stuff from the nineties and some newer things as well.

Rogers Sanchez on making another change

Lola da musica (dutch) Drum & Bass

Lola da music sampling (dutch)

My sampling adventures

At that stage in my life these devices costs more than a couple of months of wages so these were out of reach. Stuff for future dreams.

One of the most intriguing samplers was the MPC, made by Akai. A lot of great music had been made with these. It’s a staple in many studio ever since its inception. What was so great about it, to me, that it was all about beats, rhythms and structures. This had a large pull for me and many years later I bought my first MPC, a 2000XL. By then hardware sampling had fallen to the wayside in favor of sampling with the computer. So this MPC was rather cheap at the time. And I loved it, then it died and I replaced it with another one.

Work & life got in the way and I didn’t have enough time to dedicate to music making so unfortunately I sold it. But it has always held a big place in my inspiration and I always missed it, even just looking at it gave me an urge to make music. The period after these last of the old school samplers died out and all the focus shifted to software in the industry I always looked at it as a missed opportunity. Akai kept developing the MPC’s with mixed success, the MPC-1000 was a nice one, the MPC-4000 was a bit of a miss. Both great machines to be fair. Just overlooked I think.

The last decade has seen the return of hardware sampling in many forms, mostly led by beat oriented devices, such as the Elektron Octratrack, Digitakt, things like the OP-1 (Field), Tracker based stuff like the Polyend, the M8 and so on.

There is a lot to be said for these devices. As you can create whole tracks with just the one device and some sound sources. Which can be as easy as recording stuff on your phone. Looking back at my days with the MPC 2000XL it was time to get a more modern version out of storage, in an effort to further simplify my setup.

Modern MPC’s

The current MPC line up is pretty much a DAW in a box. It’s much more powerful than the old MPC’s which has its downside as you can fall into the wormhole of possibilities just as with a DAW. For me I worked around this by only focussing on sampling sounds from my small Eurorack case and trying to create some grooves with it. Setting limits that way. Nevertheless the MPC one, which I use, is a lot of bang for your buck. Whether it’s a MPC in the classical sense is up for debate. And with the new 3.0 software approaching this debate is pretty heated at the moment.

But I am a firm believer of making a device your own in such a way it fits your workflow and with a machine which has these capabilities this is possible. Might not be for everyone, but there are lot’s of alternatives out there.

I love the new line of MPC’s, especially the one with it’s attractive price point and all the options, it even has CV/gate outs, always a nice feature if you have a modular or any other synth with CV/gate.

My current approach & future ideas.

My workflow is pretty simple, the MPC is there for sampling and editing sounds from the modular, then I make a program filled with the samples from one session. Which gives it an instant coherent sound and vibe, then I make some basic sequences and see what I can get out of it.

All pretty basic, but for now that’s just what I need, for the future the MPC will function as a hub between the MAX map world and the modular, but I haven’t completely worked this out yet.

This was a good week music wise. Hopefully I can continue this week.

Research, into everything, fueling the creative process

Past week has not seen any musical activity, apart from some patches without sound. As I needed a recovery week after a pretty busy week traveling, visiting cities and social interaction. Which always takes a toll on my cognitive energy levels. That is just how it works when you have permanent brain damage.

It’s all worth it, being among friends, family and visiting cool places and soaking in art. All the while trying and stretching my limits a bit. That part of the equation did not go as planned. So this week I had to dial down on some activities like making music in order to recover as quickly as possible.

One of the things I try not to do, is break the chain. Or in other words, I need to stay active in my music making process or creative process on a regular basis. As I have mentioned before, there is no point in going all out for a couple of weeks and then not do anything again for months. That is not how you build habits and get better at anything.

So I have devised a few other activities which I can do and are related to making music and or the creative process in general. One of the things is research.

Applying research to the creative process

What do I mean by research? Well I don’t mean it in the scientific sense. But rather finding books, gear, interesting topics that can spark ideas. This week I have been thinking about design in a broad sense. Architecture, beautifully written code, visuals, and so on.

So I just started out writing some search options, and see where I end up. I love all sorts of mathematical things, most of them go way above my comprehension but there is something beautiful about it. While searching I stumbled upon the book, The nature of code , interesting and added it to my reading list.

While looking around the internet for visuals I found Generative Art. Going further I got into the wormhole of visuals and coding I reconnected with a long term interest in live coding of music, among others there is the coding language Tidal Cycles. Which I watched some video’s on.

Another interesting book on music & coding is Fundamentals of Music Processing.

What do I do with this?

So while we all browse the internet on a daily basis and find cool stuff, it’s hard to do and try everything we see, as there is simply too much. I always get inspired by simple seeing all the stuff people do with all the things out there. And even by just going tru the index of a book I get triggered for new ideas which I can apply to my own set of tools.

It always sparks an idea and an approach which I haven’t thought of or something I can try with my own setup.

I am in no way inclined to start learning something totally new like live coding when I am just getting my head around Max MSP for example. But in all these resources there are pathways you can apply to your own creative process or way of thinking about your workflow. And the most important thing. It keeps my process going even if I don’t have the energy to work on the ‘core’ which is making music.