“(I Need A) Bassline” is out!

super excited about this!!

get it on itunes!

big thanks to Jonatan, Chad & Aaron, and Exceptional Records!!

ernesto “bassline” video

created from the studio track & filmed live performance

music & the trouble with options

When it comes to the process of original music creation for a piece of communication, it’s good to have options.  Choices are good.

Music is an incredibly slippery and subjective thing to try to put into words, and you never know how a piece of music is going to play until you try it. So most of the time, it’s easier to do just that.  But when do you stop?

I’d argue that the process of exploring options has mutated into a trend of throwing tracks at the wall that’s ended up hurting pretty much everyone involved.  And there was a time when every music house in the business wanted to show you why the ability to crank out options was fantastic and innovative.  I’m here to tell you why it’s not.

It’s all about finding the balance of quality and quantity.  And expertise is really about the event where those two adjectives become aware of each other.  Being intimately aware of that moment is the composer’s job.

More options that are presented over that tipping point are just more wrong ways to go.

Our process isn’t just about what track ends up being picked, it’s about helping our client figure out what they want in a way that both demonstrates our expertise and doesn’t waste their time.  I’ve heard things like ‘the more options you write, the better your odds’ too many times.  This works against both of these goals.

This way of thinking didn’t really happen overnight.  I think it arose from a need to demonstrate enthusiasm through sheer numbers, and has ultimately resulted in a process that feels more like track selection than track creation.  It’s turned into a numbers game.  Time that used to be spent sculpting and molding is now spent sifting through endless tracks composed by anonymous freelancers for a nominal fee.  It’s devalued the work, the talent, and the process while further raising the expectations on quantity.

And you only need the one right track to win.

But there’s no sense in bemoaning the current state of affairs.

Mostly, I’d like to encourage composers to have confidence in their quality-showcasing abilities.  Because true professionals – no matter how many or how few tracks we deliver, should know how to nail it.  Or at the very least, use their first round of ideas to show that they can.

sidedown audio podcast #16 / waveplant

Josh Wentz of sidedownaudio got in touch after finding my business card.  He asked to do a podcast on waveplant, and being a huge fan of serendipity, I of course said yes.  

You can listen to & download the episode featuring ‘boy’ ‘new moon’ and ‘back on’ here.  enjoy!

ernesto ‘bassline’ remix competition

exceptional is launching a remix competition for ernesto’s latest single produced by waveplant!

from exceptionalrecords.co.uk:

ERNESTO RETURNS – NEW SINGLE + REMIX COMPETITION 

Jonatan Bäckelie aka Ernesto is a 27-year old Swedish soul singer from Gothenburg over in Sweden, who was last seen in action on exceptional with the mind-bending, jaw-dropping album “A New Blues“. You might also have heard his disarming vocal talents on rather fine records by our very own Plej and Blu Mar Ten. 

Ernesto was in town last week for a special show, complete with live band in tow. If you were there, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did ! The show included some gems from his forthcoming albumErnesto Sings, due for release on exceptional blue label later this year. Get a sneak peek at the soul-drenched first single “Bassline” right now on SoundCloud - and it’s out to download on iTunes from June 29th. 

Plus we’re pleased are excited to announce that, in celebration of the forthcoming single, we are giving all of you talented producers out there the chance to remix and rework the song. 

Ernesto himself will pick our glorious winner who will be sent an exceptional goody pack which will include a signed copy of the new Ernesto single Bassline, a goody bag of CDs from the Exceptional back catalogue, plus of course glowing respect from your peers. In addition your mix will be put up as a streamable track on the exceptional web pages with link back to your own website. What better way to show people what you can do? So… 

1. Just download the zip file from here… 
2. Get your creative juices flowing 
3. Email your finished work to info@exceptionalrecords.co.uk as a low res MP3 by 6 July, with the subject line ‘Ernesto Remix comp’. Include your name, contact number and website address (if any) 
Good luck! 

cut & paste ’scandal’ by Bradon Webb

2nd place winner at cut&paste chicago in the motion graphics category.  

directed by Bradon Webb.  music & sound design by waveplant.

Slava & momentsound ‘neon life’

 

neon life (click to go the page on momentsound.com)

There’s a trend I’ve noticed in a lot of electronic music back towards simplicity, melody, and soulfulness – all while staying true to the medium to bring out those elements in a way that only the genre can.  It’s refreshing.  

Electronic music production can at times be a bit of a pissing contest – who can make the glitchiest music with the most intricate edits?  I think the problem with that is that it’s easy to get carried away.  I love a good stutter edit as much as the next guy, but what should’ve been icing on the cake gave birth to a movement that started replacing content with execution.

Slava’s new release on the momentsound netlabel tends toward the former style described and features 7 beautiful, stripped down nostalgia-laden tracks.  My personal favorite is ‘come closer’.  That vocal sample gets you right in the gut.  

Nice work, Slava.

release

I found out recently that my collaboration with Sweden-based singer/songwriter Ernesto/Jonatan Bäckelie is going to be released later this year.

He’s an incredibly talented singer with an amazing voice and I’m honored to have worked with him on the forthcoming track.

Details to follow.  Read his blog here.

emulation & classification: pianoteq

Anyone that does computer-based music these days has to decide when to draw the line between emulations and the real thing.

I tend to think software that emulates specific pieces of hardware hardware (like an SSL channel strip or a minimoog) is messy and unnecessary from a classification standpoint.  The major selling point of these products is mainly the price when compared to the real thing.  But it’s not the real thing.  I realize it’s not as simple as this, but let’s put price aside for a minute: which would you rather have?

Digital should do something hardware can’t (aside from function as a plug-in), and hardware should do something software can’t.  I tend to favor products that take full advantage of being in either domain.

But there are a few products that coexist really well in both.  Pianoteq (which is a digital model of a piano, something they call the 4th piano generation) is one of those.  And they’ve added me to there user profiles here.

I remember in version 1, the whole application was smaller than 15 mb.  And now it includes a lot more features, but it’s still smaller than 40 mb.  What’s amazing about pianoteq is the things that you can do with it that you simply can’t do with a real piano, let alone a multisampled piano (which all sound wimpy and distant by comparison).  It emulates the sympathetic resonance of a real piano (another thing sampled pianos can’t), and you can adjust the size, tuning, hammer noise, and whole bunch of other stuff, and now – mic position.  Essentially, you can design the perfect piano for your project without having to maintain, or have space for a real one.

I’m not proposing that we should replace something as beautiful and important as the acoustic piano, but I’m really impressed that someone has figured out how to expand upon this idea of emulation – using the digital domain to push it far beyond something achievable on the original instrument.

underscore –> waveplant

I’ve relaunched waveplant.  

And while there are a few aesthetic and functional changes to the site, the launch isn’t so much about what’s new, it’s about what’s old.

For almost a year, I’ve operated two distinct brands – my company, underscore music, and waveplant, my personal site/brand.  But because both are just me, I don’t think this distinction is necessary anymore.

My path has been a a process.  There was a time where I thought that I needed to separate my career identity from my personal projects in a way that was complimentary.  But I never really wanted to be a company in the traditional sense.

I’ve learned so much since going off on my own and I feel very fortunate to have settled on an identity that I feel demonstrates who I am, what I do, and how I do it.  Thanks so much to eatdrink for all their patience and understanding in creating and revising my site, and most importantly, for the absolutely beautiful job they did.

A waveplant is a lot of things.  It’s a factory that produces sound waves.  It’s a representation of the duality of things – the natural augmented by the synthetic and vice versa.  And it’s a summation of what I love to do: cultivate sound.

Underscore did well in its two years.  I hope waveplant will do even better – if not only for the focus having an identity that truly resonates with me.

I hope you like it too.