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On Reducing Workflow Pressure
A pernicious music production pressure is the unreasonable hope for each step of the process to generate immediate results, offer no resistance, and to go perfectly. I try to reduce this pressure. One way to do that is to divide the process into separate, self-contained steps. (The steps feel like games.) An example from my Continue reading
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Speculative Music Theory
Music isn’t argument,it isn’t practical,it can’t answer questionsor prove theories. Music isn’t competition,it isn’t a talent display,it won’t boastor make a show out of notes. Music is attentionand time intensified,a sound witness conjuringcounterpointsand the rhythms of feeling. Continue reading
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On Redoing A Not-So-Great Version Of A Track
“It was all change until the very last second.” Verlyn Klinkenborg, Several Short Sentences About Writing Recently I was getting a track ready for release. Usually this involves revisiting music finished some time ago. I find it helpful to let time pass between a first draft and its subsequent edits so I can forget about Continue reading
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Database: U-Ziq On Using What’s At Hand
“Finding a sound that works is half the battle. I am not one of those producers that considers themselves a ‘sound designer’. I hate the term, actually. It makes me think of cinematic rumblings, car park door slams, and Hans Zimmer–all that does nothing for me. I am a musician. I like to use what’s Continue reading
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On Moby’s Slow Motion Ambient
Electronic music producer Moby’s Ambient 23 collection contains some compelling pieces that are evocative and reward close listening. The tracks alternate between synthesizer-based electronic washes of sound and austere piano pieces built upon a few still tones. One of my favorites of the former type is “amb 23-11.” Structurally the music is a I-vi-V progression, Continue reading
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Listening And Remembering Qualities Apparent: Tony Williams On “Cantaloupe Island”
For three or four years when I was a teenager I bicycled on weekends to second hand record stores, searching for jazz albums I had read about or listened to on late night FM radio. Mostly I was interested in the drummers on these albums—Tony Williams, Max Roach, Jack DeJohnnette, Roy Haynes, Baby Dodds, Papa Continue reading
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