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brettworks

thinking through music


  • December 7, 2023

    Marimbafied (sketch)

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    from l’atelier, marimba
  • December 6, 2023

    Database: Paul Morley On The Thinking Process And Technological Limitations

    “It’s all about the ears and imagination and the process. It’s a thinking process, almost. Ideas come from various members, and then it’s survival of the fittest ideas. A lot of stuff is improvised, and then 6 months later you notice that an idea that happened there is still attached to the music.” “What created… Continue reading

    database
  • December 5, 2023

    Keywords: One Instrument

    One Instrument is a constraint in the form of a pact with yourself to use just a single source for sounds in a track. I’ll make do with this you think, using the thought as incantation, and off you go exploring what you might do with the instrument. The One Instrument principle goes against the… Continue reading

    keywords
  • December 4, 2023

    Same Walk, Different Music

    Our subway stop has been under repair for a few months, so going anywhere involves walking a half mile to the 74th street stop. The 12-minute walk isn’t scenic, but it is a good time to spend listening to music. In fact, walking—not running, or sitting—may be the best way to listen to music because… Continue reading

    listening
  • November 29, 2023

    Piano Through Valhallas

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    Uncategorized
  • November 28, 2023

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Kali Malone’s “All Life Long” (for organ) (2023)

    Playlist. Continue reading

    Brett’s Sound Picks
  • November 27, 2023

    Keywords: No Click

    No Click is a simple constraint for recording in a DAW: don’t play to a metronome click. Without a click, the producer’s playing is free to follow its own ever-changing tempo. Without a click, the producer unfolds a performance with its micro-timings intact—in other words, a performance that captures a moment’s real time flux. No… Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • November 27, 2023

    Database: James Heather On Presenting Minimally

    “It is not always the right decision to be just adding and adding things when making for the sake of it and because it’s easy because of technology. The foundation has to be there of the message, and that can actually be presented minimally.” James Heather database. Continue reading

    database
  • November 22, 2023

    Tuned 12

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    Uncategorized
  • November 21, 2023

    Database: Koreless On Noise Reduction, Constant Renewal Of Sounds, And Conventional Structures

    “I think filters are one way of cutting frequencies… Nothing above this frequency can come through, but noise reduction stuff works with what’s called an FFT, and so you split the audio bands into, say, 1,024 bands, and you control each one… It’s like a different way of controlling the frequency response using PCAs per… Continue reading

    database
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Thomas Brett is a musician and writer who holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from New York University. He is the author of Principles of Electronic Music Production and The Creative Electronic Music Producer, a book described by Sound On Sound magazine as “a deep philosophical analysis of the various creative inspirations, ideas and processes involved in producing electronic music.” His essays have appeared in the journals Popular Music and Popular Music and Society, as well as edited collections by Routledge, Oxford, and Cambridge University presses. Thomas has played percussion on Broadway since 1997 and writes about music at brettworks.com.

Recent Posts

  • Studio Observations: Listening To Improvisation
  • Database: Shane Parish on Revoicing and the Game Of Subtraction
  • Jup-8000, No. 1
  • Curating The Week: Blogging, Music and Truth-Telling, Memory
  • Resonant Thoughts: Daniel Poppick’s “The Copywriter” (2026)

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