Spoken Words Album

 

The Spoken Words Album on Bandcamp has recent spoken word, ambient 8 string and heavy guitar tracks. The tracks started out as under 60 second bits of music for animations on recent thoughts.

What motivates people? What are their goals? Are some of the questions I ask myself, and when I look on social media, I see many of the worst type of people mixed with many just getting on with their uncomplicated lives. 

See so many people on social media that look to me as if their sole goal is to be "famous". Which mostly comes down to lots of followers on social media and sites like YouTube, with usually the lowest common denominator material. Hate and Rage, but extreme trivia too.

But The Dunning-Kruger effect rings so true. The loudest and most confident ones have the least ability or knowledge. Mr.Beast must be a very lucky imbecile..

I never set out to cure cancer, but I did contribute to the development of music production systems and instruments. In many ways I see music and art as one of the things that "saves lives". Gives many the strength to cope with things in their lives.  

But imagine if there were MORE people with the motivation and ability to fix the big problems the world has?

The previous post here was on the video Motivation, and the scam much of the Wellness Industry is.

Everybody needs Motivation, and maintaining it isn't easy for anybody. Even if you are doing something everyday you love, you get tired of doing it and need a break sometime. When you have to cope with the difficult things life throws at you it is even more an issue. What do you do to charge you motivation battery?

These tracks aren't conventionally structured songs at all.  Part of the attraction to me I guess. Goals Project in Reaper looks like this:

This started with the central clean guitar parts and the spoken word. Using lots of ValhallaDSP Delay and SuperMassive to make it more "ambient" and to contrast with the heavier start and end sections. Those are metal sounds, but don't see them as metal,  maybe punk is closer. Loud brash and very unsophisticated. 

Yet I find the section at end of the ambient-ish bit almost beautiful.

Revised Goals Short:

This again, just used the Lapel microphone I have on the desk for FB Messenger and Zoom calls.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Motivation: Not a Life Coach Scam

 

Was playing around with a clean 8 string sound with the SUPERMASSIVE reverb after watching a Devin Townsend Ambient guitar piece. What I did struck me as being "Life Coaching" video like. Relaxing, so added the strange spoken words. I refrained myself from adding "discount coupons", as it would give the game away too quickly.  

As I didn't want it to be LIFE COACHING at all, added the ROCK & ROLL, and the up tempo distorted guitars.  That feeds into the animation were the serene screens lead to the MEGACURVE LOGO. I wonder if it is still too subtle that it is a joke playing with the genre?

The "Wellness Industry" contains many scammers.  LIFE COACHING was started by a financial planner in the 1980s in the USA, who found his clients didn't need therapy, but he he found could sell them something else they didn't need! 😂   

Supplements, tablets with no medically proven effectiveness, are the same deal.  But did you hear about the Benikoji supplement by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. that killed a 76 people and destroyed the kidneys of others in Japan in 2024?  It isn't all a joke.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Synthesizers Are Just Cool, And So Is Distorted Guitar

 

Synthesizers Are Just Cool, And So Is Distorted Guitar. The track we put on our Bandcamp this morning.  

We also made a YouTube video using an idea I stole from Benn Jordan on X.  2 old music lovers  listening using just 2 frames to make the animation, rather than just the album cover. Will see if it gets pulled, and will do just a record cover version then.

Been listening a lot to the 3 tracks already released from Devin Townsend's POWERNERD album. My track here isn't like that, far more musically unsophisticated, power chords and single note melodies, but I LOVE the sounds!

I started with the JBASS parts and just expanded it from there.  I normally start with rhythm guitar or a bass sequencer. The spoken words are inspired by Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells track, where instruments are introduced, by John Cleese in the last version.  I am not doing that here, but that is where the idea came from.

I have been putting the SAMPLE&HOLD preset in the Surge XT VST on everything recently, and here too. Just love the sound. 

The track is 3 minutes, but it isn't a song. More of a soundtrack clip of a feeling about the title. 

As you can see it is made from 8 bar sections. I always start by laying out a really long drum track, then adlib parts with that on different instruments, and copy and past my track together from that. I may , or may not then re-record better parts after listening to that 10,000 times.  

This animation was made in MOHO Pro 12, like most of my stuff. Done at 1280x720 12fps.

Uses 2 Ricks interview frames. Grabbed a short section of the YouTube interview with OBS, then saved a few frames from VLC. Selected frames with most extreme head movement, but didn't spend any time on it. Moving the front most frame off screen gives the head bobbing effect. The frames are also slowly zoomed in and out. I just eye balled the beat, and copied and pasted sections, so it goes out of time sometimes, but few will watch the video far to notice anyway, if things go the way they normally do.  

Just listening to a Devin Townsend Vpodcast about his Synesthesia and creative motivations.  Expressing how he feels at that point in his life though music.

Here I am just making something related to how I feel at the moment, with the skills and techniques I have at this point in my life. It Makes Me a Happy Camper.  Because I need to make something on a regular basis to not feel down. So it is for my own state of mind.  

I don't have any kind of audience for this music stuff, and it isn't my motivation.  A couple of curious friends, or new followers on a social media platform.  If people want to listen to music, it will be big artists they already know. Very different from my Car Illustration stuff... 

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

The X Experience

 

Wrote a different kind of song over the last day and a bit, and made this animated short. 

My Harley Benton R-458MN didn't have the intonation right on the 8th string, and I set out to fix that. It was really only okay up to about the 3rd fret with my half step down tuning, as the saddle couldn't be moved back far enough.

I had to change to a much shorter screw (cut and filed a 15mm M3 to 11mm) and removed the spring in the bridge on the lowest string, and use a shorter 15mm M3 screw on the 7th, too. Moved the saddle all the way back on the 8th. So now with the half step down tune intonation can be set correctly. Screws need to be shorter too, so they don't hit the string going over the saddle on both 7th & 8th with the saddles moved back.  To replace these saddle screws, you have to remove the rear screw attaching the bridge part to the guitar body.

I have it tuned (H>L) D# A# F# C# G# D# A# F. Why? I prefer the tone and the string tension with 9s with the half step down tune.

So this music started just checking out the newly improved intonation. I was also playing with the volume pedal and palm muting, so that on the neck pick up, you go from a very bass like tone (what you here at the start with just the drums) to a metal guitar tone. 

This change in distortion and tone in the piece was the new thing in this Lydian 140BPM piece.

I hadn't added lyrics to anything recently, and after watching the Beato Rick Rubens interview, thought something rap like ( BEASTY BOYS, RUN DMC)  isn't something I had tried.  And the experience on X has deteriorated greatly since RWNJ Musk took over, with the zillions of porn bots morphing into extreme US political mode.  So it didn't take any effort to come up with a few words for this. And maybe it isn't really rap, but that is okay, spoken word works for me.

I just used this lapel mic I have on the desk for FB Messenger calls.  Not one of the mics I have for singing.

The longer 2 minute WHY POST THAT? is on Bandcamp.  Pay whatever you want, including $0.

It isn't a traditional song format, as why would I care about that? Sections A, B, C, D, B.

Have also done the full YouTube video now in 1080p:

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Whole Freak Guitar Clinic at Music Bar M in Osaka Japan [2024]

Mattias's whole hour clinic video was put up 2024/10/11 18:30 by Zanshin, who held the event and are the distributors for his new line of guitars. The guitars are only entering production now in October, and aren't available yet.

I was there. Mattias is a great guitarist, songwriter, singer and maybe, even better entertainer. 

What is particularly cool about this video to me, is he calls out to me by name some 4 times 😍. At 9:15, then 23:44, 45:44 and 46:06. I guess it is one of the things he does, as part of his clinics, and I must say, it sure made me a happy camper.  I get mentioned by name 4 times during this, but behind that there is the story, that even though I was the first there, by about 2 hours, the organizers, NOT Mattias, weren't going to sell me a ticket to let me in, as I didn't know you had to get the ticket at the Music Messe exhibition hall across town... Mattias said I should hang around and "see what happens". I was allowed to buy the last ticket to the event, number 35, shortly before it was to start.

My whole interest in the 8 string guitar is from Mattias. Earlier this year I went to the guitar shops around Umeda Osaka to try an 8 string, and none had one. I ended up buying the Harley Benton R-458MN online. Don't really consider myself "a guitarist", so that seemed the most reasonable way to see how they are.

 A really interesting experience. Very worthwhile for me I think.  Would love a ULV8

but my limited ability doesn't justify the more than our car cost.  But such purchase decisions aren't rational like that.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

The Pace Of Life

 

Before the OBon holidays, and getting sick for about 4 weeks, I was trying to do some piece of music and a music+comic every week.  Seems easy until something like illness gets you to break the routine.

For the last 2 weeks I seem to be back at it. The latest, off the cuff thing THE PACE OF LIFE is above. 

I set out to do a fast "metal" thing, and set 156BPM.  Much faster than I normally play with, and found down picking that verse riff hard and tiring. This is a better take, but hand was getting really tired even after only 4 verses of this!

The comic text is just the first thing that came to me making the animation. Being retired isn't a subject the mostly young interweb cares about, but I do these for myself.   

As I have gotten older, I get more random old memories hitting my thoughts.  Many are of just really embarrassing things that happened. This seems to be a very common thing among us oldies!

There were times I was so busy. Mostly 1981 till 2001 was most like that. 

In a Facebook group I am in, there was a question about the systems I was one of those involved in designing.  It was "what design compromises had to be made"?   But the thing is, I did those designs 40+ years ago, and remember little.  It was a very fast pasted time for me.  I also try and not remember all the "not great" things that happened in the past.  

I used to have a really good memory. That also meant I stayed upset about something for a really long time.  I am glad I can forget much of that stuff now.  I have tried to forget much that isn't relevant to me any more. Seems to clear up the mind for things that are important now.

In my slower paced retirement, that makes me a Happy Camper.  I can do things at the pace I want now.

Have made an extended version of the music as well, and put The Pace Of Life  & The Pace Of Life Extended as a 2 track album on  Bandcamp.  Pay whatever you want, including $0.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Releasing a Music Track & Stems under CREATIVE COMMONS Attribution-Share Alike License

Did that yesterday for my DIGITAL DUST EXTENDED track on Bandcamp.

I output the stems from my project, added a text file with the license info, as below, zipped that directory up, put on google drive, and made a shareable link.

To try and advertise it is free to remix, also made this YouTube SHORT:

Hello There!

I have licensed these DIGITAL DUST EXTENDED Stem files as 
CREATIVE COMMONS Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Adrian Bruce (Megacurve  Kyoto, Japan)   October 6 2024.
https://www.artandtechnology.com.au/

You are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

So why would I do that? 

"Digital Dust" was an expression I heard Rick Beato use to describe unreleased Music Projects sitting unused on Hard Drives.  I think it also applies to most personnel projects uploaded to Streaming sites and Bandcamp from people without any kind of following, such as myself.

The more common use of "Digital Dust" is it encompasses the residual data created through our daily interactions with technology. 

The most popular of my tracks I have put on Bandcamp have had, may be, 12 plays, and most of those haven't been played till the end. So the reality is my tracks on BandCamp are mostly just Digital Dust sitting on hard drives.  

Doesn't mean the tracks are bad, just the few acquaintances who bother to listen to something this guy they know made, don't care. 

They aren't followers for my music, but may follow me as  I designed a famous music production system in the 1980s, or I now live in Kyoto Japan, or they read the Science Fiction Desktop Production articles I wrote and the cool models I made in the 1990s in a UK magazine, or they appreciate the car caricatures or the comics I make.

The Digital Dust 59 second version was done for a music+comic YouTube Short, and that did all I intended it to. It had some 52 views, which is a massive hit for me 😀

So releasing the extended version under the creative commons license is an experiment to see if anything else interesting comes of it.  I expect that little will, as anyone after something like that to work on will not come across it, for the same reasons the original track do not get played.  

If someone was to make any real money from a derived work, good on them! That requires networking and marketing skills I don't have for music. Social Media, and the way people use it, the rage, the hate, but just as much, the utter popularity of utter waste of time nothingness trivia ( my kid sneezed, I like clouds, or I like my toast this brown) makes me ill. The only post type I can do that gets noticed at all is this 😣

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Digital Dust: Independent Music Releases

Another go at the 59sec YouTube vertical SHORT format for a music comic.  The soundtrack waveform vertically, with start at top, the playbar moving down the screen, and the comic happening in front of that. 

I had been making music and comics like this about once a week for a few months, until the OBon Holidays. Got sick after them, and took a few weeks to recover, and then more to recover my MOJO.

I put an earlier version on YouTube where it got some 51 views in 20 hours, and expect it will get few more.

It looks like YouTube turned off showing it to anyone after the initial hour.

I made a few small changes after that 1st version to make the one above. Nothing that would make deleting the first and reloading this one worth it though.

It is Ibanez RG 6 string DROP C#, Ugritone "Drums Against Humanity", Cabinet IR, Squire JBASS with humbucking Wilde Pickups, SURGE XT vst in REAPER DAW. Animation made in MOHO Pro 12. The "digital dust" floating down the screen was done with a particle system in combination with a few binary text strings.

I edited down the music to make this 59seconds. 

The streaming companies all seem to be a scam, when you look into it. Benn Jordan has more than a few X posts and videos about the main Streaming Services and their mode of operating with the major Record labels. Benn getting all his Spotify tracks deleted without warning, for no reason in just one thing showing none of the companies aren't on the level.

Have now put 2 versions of Digital Dust on Bandcamp as an album.  The 59sec animation version and Digital Dust Extended 3:20.  Naming the tracks Digital Dust will most likely prove to be very appropriate. 😀 The cover has a version of the cartoon on it too. Without any kind of following, which I don't have (and any I do have is related to my cartooning or what I did at Fairlight Instruments Pty Ltd in the 1980s), no one but a few friends will bother to play any music I put out, and mention on my Social Media.   

Have, for the first time, made this a Creative Commons, Attribution, Share Alike, to allow remixing. A download link to the STEMS .ZIP file is in the Bandcamp Album description.

What are STEMS?  They are a collection of wave files, each all the same length, starting at the same time, that are all the tracks in my project rendered out. Delay and Reverb are on their own separate tracks too. So if you load them all into a DAW, and play, you get a version on the track I released, except all the instruments haven't been panned. If you mute Delay and Reverb, and add your own sends to the tracks, you can make a completely different mix. The track is 4/4 at 130BPM. 

Trying to combine the JINGLE (music for advertising, short, simple, remember able), Synthesizer with METAL INSTRUMENTAL. It isn't a rock/ pop song structure. It was started to do a 59sec music comic, so wasn't planned as a "song".

This one ends up being a little too simple, a little too repetitive, but does it have to be that way? Generally add more parts as time goes on, but this is a very sparse VAN HALEN, guitar panned left, mix. 

There is always the next one to work that out on.  

Or someone's remix derived from it will be amazing. We will see.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology