Topic: "teague chrystie sonically doodles something"

So, this video is the "last test" in the long development of a new thing I'll be doing. I'm pretty sure that this particular one is going to remain unlisted, and that the next one — and all others — will be public.

This is an hour-long improvised activity of music. (Yep, "activity" as a verb.) I'll call it a sonic doodle.




For what it's worth, these aren't "the new thing" that I'm doing now or anything — just a thing. I think there may end up being another ongoing project (or two) that's more of a personality-driven thing.

Anyway. Just thought I'd share. No plan with regards to a schedule for these; maybe there'll be a few in a given week, maybe there'll be none in a given week. Applying rigor to musical fuckwithery is a drag.  big_smile

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: "teague chrystie sonically doodles something"

I really enjoyed this; to be honest I'm rather blown away at your ability to improvise on multiple instruments for over an hour without it falling apart, because goddamn. The different layers of sound and overall texture were fantastic, and this is coming from someone who usually doesn't care for electronic music. Very much looking forward to the next one!

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Re: "teague chrystie sonically doodles something"

I maintain that you need to get on the Twitch music channel.

http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Music

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Re: "teague chrystie sonically doodles something"

SWEEEEET! Are you using ambiloop per chance?

The difficult second album Regan

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Re: "teague chrystie sonically doodles something"

Teague, you've blown my world right open. For years I've searched for a decent looping setup I can run thru my DAW - never found one so I gave up like ten years ago. Now, upon google searching, (thanks for the inspiration - no way stealing your thunder - mainly bored of my rack fx loop guff) I've found Mobius. I might have to hide in a hole for a while while I setup stuff up. My world of random musical creations has just gotten bigger. A lot bigger. So, cheers.

The difficult second album Regan

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Re: "teague chrystie sonically doodles something"

FUCK YEAH MAKE STUFF



Anyway, for what it's worth, my current setup is as follows:

"Main Mic" — static SM-58 and pop filter, used for vocals and sometimes micing the acoustic guitar
"Hobo Mic" — portable SM-58 on a gooseneck, used for micing whatever the hell I want to in the moment
"Little Synth"— Alesis Micron (which also has an SM-58, allowing for vocoder-ness)
"Piano" — Casio Privia, which I can also use for e-piano and string sounds
"My Tablet" — I love the app Nanoloop, for creating background loops from a tone sequencer
"Electric Guitar" — Schecter Blackjack signal from a lil' Peavey practice amp

all output to:

"Red Mixer" — the instruments are all fed into the old FIYH mixer board, which is a Behringer somethin'-somethin'

outputs to:

"Akai Head-Rush E2" — bought it for its looperness, I use it now mostly as an echo/delay pedal

outputs to:

"Ditto Looper X2" — my main loop pedal

outputs to:

"Silver Mixer" — the old-old FIYH mixer. This mixer devotes one input to the "final" pedaled output from the Ditto looper, one (safety) input to the fresh signal out of the Red Mixer, and one input to the headphone signal coming out of the Mac. All of these signals are combined and

output to:

1. the Mac, which is the main audio-recording computer
2. the PC, which is the main video-recording computer, by way of an M-Track USB audio interface
and
3. my local soundsystem, speakers or headphones, for live-monitoring in the room



The long and short of this is that — by simply moving my "all the time" laptop over to the music area and plugging in the webcams and M-Track — I have the ability to pick an instrument, adjust the sound I'm making with the instrument, adjust the specifics of the delay-pedal effect I apply to the instrument, and then record that instrument into loop. The way the Ditto works, I have the ability to "undo-redo" the most recently recorded instrument. Between the ability to tweak the instrument sound, the delay effect sound, and then do a re-do take if necessary, I can improvise everything on the fly and (theoretically) not get trapped into keeping something crappy in the loop.

In case I happen to use this set-up for building out a real song instead of a live-loop performance, the Mac — the computer I'd be doing that editing on — is sending its headphone signal into the actual Silver Mixer. As in, the Mac's microphone and headphone jacks are both being fed into the same mixer. (This doesn't present a feedback problem because my software setup on said Mac does not include live play-through.) This whole rigamarole is to benefit the "audience" of the video recording — any sound editing I'd be doing on the Mac is also being fed into the Silver Mixer, which means that the PC will always hear whatever the fuck I'm doing, whether it's live-loopin' or editing audio. If you were to play a YouTube video on the Mac, the webcam audience would hear it, in other words.

This has been a long, evolving process. We're only one or two versions into builds that have actually worked.

*curtsey*

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: "teague chrystie sonically doodles something"

Oh you know I love the fuck outta this.

I'm not one for live performance due to a lack of hardwired performance talent and because I get way too cerebral about the whole thing instead of staying loose. So it's always inspiring to see you do your magic, Teague.

What's your DAW?

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Re: "teague chrystie sonically doodles something"

Also, having listened to like half of this at this point, makes me think of Dead Man, in spirit. You seen Dead Man? Neil Young scored the movie improvising live twice through and picking his favorite parts out with Jarmusch.

Rill good working music. Going to start from the beginning later.

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Re: "teague chrystie sonically doodles something"

Aural: Not really much of a DAW involved at this point — I'm recording into Audition, which isn't doing anything at all in the YouTube video, and I only used for the MP3 to rub a sonic one-light onto the hour. Light excitation, light widening, light normalizing, export.

Paulou: Well, I hope Neil Young will remember that a Southern Man don't ... actually, you know what, the joke is not worth the association with the joke, I'm good.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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