Thomas Brett
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Database: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry On Instant Inputs And Outputs
“I’m a miracle man–things happen which I don’t plan, I’ve never planned anything…Whatsoever I do, I want [the recording studio] to be an instant action object, instant reaction subject. Instant input, instant output.” Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry database. Continue reading
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Keywords: Effects Chains
(Photo: rolandus.com) Effects chains are black boxes for processing sounds assembled without knowing their musical output until you hear it. Think of them as routes for sounds to travel, flowing from one effect to another and picking up distortions, resonances, artifacts, and colorations along the way. Effects chains allow the producer to think big by Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: Warren Zanes’ “Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska” (2023)
“Why are the Sun sessions Elvis’s best? It’s the spontaneity. That short echo. They’ve got a little Nebraska in them. Those records, they’re pretty closely connected in some strange metaphysical way. I suppose their relationship would be in the characters but also, without a doubt, in the sound. It’s a dissociative sound. It’s the sound Continue reading
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Database: Aphex Twin On Not Reusing Sounds, Avoiding The Obvious, And How All Sounds Break Down Into Really Simple Things
“I’m not into multitracking, I like things to be live. I record everything live, and I’m not bothered about saving sounds. In fact, I erase them on purpose. I have a library of stuff, but it’s stuff I haven’t used yet. And also I don’t want to use a sound I’ve used before. There’s an Continue reading
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What Makes A Good Software Instrument?
As a percussionist, I don’t have a favorite musical instrument, which makes sense because percussionist are, by training and maybe by temperament, generalists. We learn how to strike and vibrate a great many instruments–from tympani, djembes, and snare drums to marimbas, gongs, and glockenspiels–without playing favorites. Each instrument is a world and requires its own Continue reading
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Database: Frequent On Giant Effects Chains And Arbitrary Decisions Leading To A New Musical Place
“Just make a giant [effects] chain. A lot of times people ask me how I make a sound, and it’s like, I just didn’t stop where you would have stopped twenty effects ago. There’s no secret thing: you just keep doing shit and eventually you’ll get something interesting. And that’s the non-technical aspect of it: Continue reading
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