Growing up and backing up

February 4th, 2010 by Martin

Right, after the fright of the previous post, I've decided to implement a proper backup strategy! Like a real, responsible grown up... who doesn't want to lose all his recorded material from the last 10 years. (Warning- this post won't be music related in the slightest... just some good old geekin out).

I'm going for a triple whammy.

  • RAID 1 setup on my 4 hard drives, where two drives are mirrored. A nice RAID 1 setup article on LifeHacker
  • Just got a 1 terabyte(!) disk from Seagate, only gonna use it to backup using the Win7 backup utility.
    Finally Haukur recommended BackBlaze online backup for 5usd per month. I've already run it on my Macbook and it works much more seamlessly than both Mozy and Carbonite.
  • Happily reunited with the Atlastop band disk, it is now synchronised using the SyncBack freeware program ... onto a folder on my PC (which in turn is backed up in triplicate).
  • NOW BITE ME U EVIL BIT MONSTER DEMON SKRUNTER! (øh, maybe I shouldn't anger the information bishnu just yet, still gotta go through my scrapyard of dvd's and external disks, or or maybe just throw them all out?!)

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    Dialog!

    January 28th, 2010 by Jonas

    This is the sound of a band who´s harddisc just broke down.

    Experiment with a bassguitar, a Radioshack Reverb and rasmus´brand new Foxy Fuzz.

    Dialog!

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    Nosegrunder

    January 25th, 2010 by Martin

    Most of the time whenever I throw a single sample on a track and pile on the random vst plugin effects.... silly stuff comes out. And this is no exception.
    nosegrinder
    But it does have it's charm.

    It would be impossible to guess what the original sample was. But the DAW that I used should be pretty easy.

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    Yamaha VSS30 sampling keyboard

    January 19th, 2010 by Martin

    Been looking for one of these for a long time. In fact ever since the Sigur Ros interview in Soundonsound. I've have scoured fleamarkets in Denmark, and checking the second-hand websites yielded nada. It's not the type of item that one finds in the dark parts of scandinavia. So....

    Ebay to the rescue!

    I love the crunchy sound and the immediacy of editing. However,... one thing that bugs me is the lag between pressing the Sample Record button and the actual recording. Worst of all - this lag is always different, so it's impossible to time when you actually sample. The end result is that you can't record rhythmic sounds or noises with any form of attack. Then again there is plenty sustained type sounds to sample. So I guess this is all part of the VSS-30's charm. Speaking of charm... the arpeggiator is surprisingly useful and exactly the sort of instant fun that I was looking for.

    On a side note. I threw out the box that the unit came in (see pic).... even though it was dilligently stored by the previous owner, which meant that it was at least 10 years old!. I used to store all my music gear boxes... just in case I wanted to "sell it later". But recently I've been thinking "hey, commit to your gear - learn how to use what you have".... by the way I've got a Kyma Capybara 320 for sale.

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    Red sound treatment

    January 11th, 2010 by Martin

    I just got these on 'extended' loan from a friend, thanks Morten. Who bought them directly from the manufacturer. They are surplus stock, which was built for the Red Studio 4 in DR Byen where I spend most of my daylight hours.
    Can't wait to set them up in my home studio,... then finally everything I mix will just come up like pearls and champagne bubbles!

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    Synaesthesia 003 on Music of Sound Blog

    January 9th, 2010 by Martin

    I've been an avid reader of the blog Music of Sound. It's just the right combination of audio gear, art and informed opinion (of an experienced film sound editor no less).

    Recently the author, Tim Prebble, has begun a series of experiments called Synaesthesia, where he asks "What does this sound like" and then he suggests a photo or an image.... and I've posted a response in audio here (1st entry).

    The most recent Synasthesia (003) was a much more abstract photo.

    Image from Music of Sound Blog

    To which my suggestion was-
    sy003martin

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    Happy new year!

    January 4th, 2010 by Haukur

    Here is an interesting view on The Loudness Wars and use of compressors.

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    Fleamarket Organ and Rhythm-machine

    December 31st, 2009 by Martin

    A few summers ago I was up at my parents summerhouse in northern Zealand in Denmark. At the local fleamarket I stumbled across a nicely beaten up organ with a auto-accompaniment rhythm-machine.

    100dkr and a sore back later... Voila-

    I have no idea who the manufacturer is... The organ itself is an Antilope A-205 and is very flat sounding. But the built in beats are nicely crunchy from the built in speaker (especially when 're-amped' through an iPhone, which is being waved through the air to create a slightly flanged/filtered feel).
    rhytem machine beats faster tempoes
    bossanova
    simple rock
    waltz
    slow rock
    country
    march3
    Feel free to download and use the samples. They're CC- Attribution. Happy new years!

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    The UFO is landing

    December 30th, 2009 by Rasmus

    Yesterday I received a little old audio toy bought from ebay: The Radio Shack Electronic Reverb Control.

    It's not really a reverb, but an analog delay from start 90's (I guess). The sound is dubtastic and lo-fi! Here's the first sound doodle:

    RadioShack_01

    ...and here's the second test:

    RadioShack_02

    The tracks are recorded by plugging the Danelectro guitar directly in the Radio Shack. The MICROPHONE amp is turned down and the three other parameters (DELAY, REPEAT, DEPTH) are turned all the way up for the effects to be maximized. While playing the guitar I fiddle with the DELAY parameter, which adjusts the delay time.

    Most people circuit bent these devices, for exaggerating the feedback and for other noise effects. Well, I think that would be a pity, since it sounds great and distict without circuit bending!

    Actually Audio Damage has made a simulation of the devices called RatShack. It cost 39.99 us dollars.  I paid exactly 27 us dollars (thats inclusive shipment cost), so here's a strange case where the simulation is actually more expensive than the vintage gear!

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    Binaural soundscapades

    December 29th, 2009 by Jonas

    2 person sonic expriment. Only 1 instrument each. Myself on contra and Tobias Wiklund on trumpet. Recorded binaually with a couple DPA's and a Zoom H4... tastiest overdubs then thrown 'aleatorically' into protools. Best heard on headphones.
    KUV-projekt

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