Thomas Brett
-
Differ, Be Important: The Make It More Interesting Concept
interesting – holding or catching your attention; from Latin interesse ‘differ, be important’ A surprising percentage of my production tinkering involves trying to get a part to sound more interesting. Recently I was adjusting piece no. 6, which had never been among my favorite tracks, but I had committed to making it better by increments.… Continue reading
-
Resonant Thoughts: Donella H. Meadows’ “Thinking In Systems” (2008)
“One of the most powerful ways to influence the behavior of a system is through its purpose or goal. That’s because the goal is the direction-setter of the system, the definer of discrepancies that require action, the indicator of compliance, failure, or success toward which balancing feedback loops work. If the goal is defined badly,… Continue reading
-
Journal Note: Tweaking Audibility, One Part At A Time
In addition to writing blog posts, I also write notes to myself about music making. These notes are free of narrative and big picture theorizing, focusing instead on the nuts and bolts of what I did, why I did it, and how it worked out. Some notes do eventually become blog posts, but most of… Continue reading
-
Without Methods, But With Principles
Even though I’m always on the lookout for them, I don’t have any reliable methods for producing music beyond trying out a lot different things and going with those things that sound interesting. But even though I’m without methods, I have relied on a few fundamental principles to move my work along. Principle No. 1… Continue reading
-
The One Fell Swoop Principle
I spend a fair amount of time trying stuff out in the depths of my music software. Okay, I’m not actually going that deep—imagine a swimmer ducking under water and going down oh, six feet down. But it’s deep enough to feel the blue calm below the water’s busy surface, deep enough to enjoy the… Continue reading

You must be logged in to post a comment.