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brettworks

thinking through music


  • March 30, 2023

    Art About Music: Alma Thomas’ “Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music” (1976)

    “Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music” (1976) by Alma Thomas Continue reading

    art about music
  • March 29, 2023

    Database: Seth Drake On Harmonic Coloring

    “Let’s say you have a bunch of hot AF signals that hit a limiter and now, suddenly, these waveforms have gone from being big and round and way over zero to being square and sitting right at zero. Anytime you have square wave forms on the sides of those squares–as the wave transitions from the… Continue reading

    database
  • March 28, 2023

    Still In Motion

    (video: Jacques Barrette) Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • March 27, 2023

    In The Moment Music Production Constraints

    “I feel the important part of making a track is to recognize the point where you have to listen to what the track wants. This point comes in around 40–50% of the whole process, where it’s not so much about what you want with the track anymore, but what the track wants you to do… Continue reading

    constraints
  • March 23, 2023

    Database: Ryan Lee West On Exploring Tone, Destroying Sounds, And Going Off The Grid

    “I think it’s really essential to explore tone—the tone of synths and drums and how bright or dark they are and to listen carefully to how they behave alongside other sounds, exploring tiny amounts of distortion, delay, filtering and compression. But also, don’t be scared to destroy sounds. Sometimes, chaos is needed in electronic music… Continue reading

    database.
  • March 22, 2023

    SEK 2

    Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • March 21, 2023

    Rhythmified (148 bpm)

    Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • March 20, 2023

    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

    workflow pressure
  • March 17, 2023

    Of Many Returns

    On Spotify, Apple Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • March 16, 2023

    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

    Uncategorized
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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

  • Curating the Week: John Berger, Writing as Mixing, EQing Vocals
  • 14 October
  • Database: Christian Löffler on Working Quickly and Using Field Recordings
  • Curating the Week: The Additional Touch, Philip Glass’s Music, How to Write a Paper
  • Performance Practice: Lessons from Music for 18 Musicians

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