Kicked off this morning with Battery, as I tweeted a couple of hours ago. Wrote a drum part, added a little Automaton (Audio Damage) and a bass line using my “go-to” bass sequencer, Rob Papen’s SubBoomBass.

This is what I have so far. Time to walk the dog and see what ideas come to mind.

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Dog walking complete and it all seems to have turned a bit dub. (Just drums as that bass line was too reminiscent of something I think Mass of Moments?)

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And after tea, a little bit more. Playing around with a couple of sequences in Massive and SubBoomBass which work quite nicely with the break beat.

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Update 4 – After a week away

Worked on the bass line and some of the drum sounds. I think I have enough to turn this into a track now. (And I’m really pleased with how it’s shaping up.)

Four (20100305) by kieronjames

Update 5 – Fun with SBB and PSP Nitro

Whatever becomes of this track, gotta say, I’m having great fun putting it together!

Four (20100306) by kieronjames

I’ve been working on this one for a while and I’m getting happier with the mix. Need to tweak the arrangement though – not sure about the first appearance of the guitar or its sound. I think that will be removed once I have the vocals. It seems incongruous early in the piece.

You can follow the history of work in progress as Johnny developed and the story of the track’s title on this post.

One thing which Pure Tone suggested, was some “girly vocals”. This set a train of thought in motion and I was looking around some movie sites last night. The track is pretty light and bouncy so I was after something with a touch of humour for some of the quiet sections. I thought these four lines would work well and I’m delighted with the way Salwa Azar has delivered them.

Johnny, is this true? ‘Cause if it is…

Good luck Johnny

Bye bye Johnny

Say kid, what do they call you?

…never should have picked a name like that. A name like that you gotta live up to.

Any last words Johnny?

Johnny (A Name Like That) by kieronjames

Been working on some ideas for the third track for Four. This is a little different from Organised Sound and Recap, but I am really intrigued by the way it’s shaping up. I can hear a thumping, repetitive bass line working well with this and I’m eager to add a solid groove (most likely Battery).

Update 3: 21/02/2010

Here’s the first arrangement. Some of the transitions definitely need improving. I’ve been on this for a big chunk of the day, so I suspect I’m completely burned out. If levels are all over the place, apologies. I’ll sort it tomorrow night when my ears are fresh again.

It’s interesting the way that this piece has developed. The original upload – just the percussion – reminded me of Devo (not any particular track I can recall, just the “flavour” of Devo). As I’ve progressed, it’s evolved into a completely different sound and as I mentioned over at Last.fm, for me it has ended up tipping a nod to much of the stuff I was listening to at college in the late 80s.

In particular – and I’m not entirely sure why – Prefab Sprout comes to mind, so for this reason it has been named “Johnny” (main lyrical theme of their Goodbye Lucille #1).

The most recent arrangement (below – 22/02/2010) still needs a lot of work.

Update 3: 22/02/2010

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Update 2: 20/02/2010

Was a joy working on this with the new machine tonight. Gets the job done so quickly, though I must confess that I still have regular crashes with Audio Damage plugins – even after a fresh install on a brand new OS. There’s something wrong. Anyway, here’s a bit more – with a bass line which I’ll open up (VCF/envelope) somewhere in the track.

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Update 1: 18/02/2010

Seems to have taken a slightly different direction than I was expecting. Still playing around with sounds at this stage – little else:

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First Upload: 15/02/2010

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This is the second track I’ve put together for my debut album FOUR, which will be released on 1st July by Clear Notice. (This will leave six months to create the three sibling albums for Somió, Half-BIT and Blue Omen.)

Recap is a remix of Capitulation – the first piece of music I composed, at the time using the Jonathan Scary moniker. It has been mastered by Pure Tone, though we may tweak a little when I have all the other tracks for the album completed.

Recap by kieronjames

You might have noticed a shiny new personal conference call widget in my blog sidebar. If not, have a look now. It’s the 03TALK one and I think @markdalby has done a really great job.

It’s free and available via WordPress plugins. It’s also highly customisable – allowing you to change all the colours to match your WordPress theme and configure your personal offline status message. OK, all of that’s very nice, but…

WHAT DOES IT DO?

03TALK is the UK’s first mobile-friendly conference call service. You can read more about why it’s “mobile-friendly” here.

What the WordPress widget does is allocate a dedicated and permanent Conference Room Number and Access PIN to you. You can use these as frequently as you like and the facility is available instantly. You can advertise your number when you’re “in call” at the click of a button (the little grey avatar in the bottom right hand corner) and place a custom offline message on your blog if you’re offline.

CLEVER, BUT WHY WOULD I WANT ONE?

The applications of the service are pretty limitless really – it’s much more than a standard multi-party conferencing service. You may want to use it to arrange a two-way voice call with somebody whom you know, but not well enough for either party to share their telephone number.

I’ve already used the service to arrange a call with a couple of musicians and a producer to talk over a track we’re collaborating on.

So here it is. The fruits of around three weeks work and the first track for the album FOUR. The track has been beautifully mastered by @pure_tone whose attention to detail and ability to make stuff sparkle is second to none.

My plan at this stage is to complete FOUR before moving on to the other three albums, two of which are collaborative. I’ll be posting four bars of some of the individual channels here too – to see which inspires the collaborators and me to write for Blue Omen, Half-BIT and Sómio.

“Organised Sound” is a phrase coined by the stratospheric colossus of sound, Edgard Varèse. I was switched on to Varèse’s life and work by Chris Randall’s Analog Industries blog. From time to time he produces limited run, sound-themed tee shirts. I missed his Delia Derbyshire edition (sold out), but managed to get hold of one of the fabulous Varèse shirts designed by Stefan Goodchild.

And that’s the story behind the first track for FOUR.

Organised Sound by kieronjames

New year, new goals.

I posted a few days ago about my plan to release four albums this year and this week I started on the first track (not necessarily in terms of running order) for Four, which will be released under my own name. As mentioned in the last post, the other three will be produced under the Somió, Half-BIT and Blue Omen projects / collaborations.

So, here are twenty bars laying out some of the ideas I’ve been exploring for Four Track #1 (as yet untitled).

Once the track is complete, I’ll also post four bar samples of each of the stem files and select one sound for each of the “sibling” tracks on the other three albums.

Update: 22/01/2010

Hard to believe I spent three to four hours getting the sound on these four words and I’ve still not mixed or EQ’d the vocal track! Anyway, @groovecriminals was curious about what had taken me so long and whilst I’m sure it’ll be a disappointment, may as well put that work into the context of the piece:

Organised Sound (work in progress) by kieronjames

Update: 21/01/2010

Got a little more time on this. Have some doubts, but I’ll sit on it for a day and see what I think tomorrow / Saturday.

Four Track One (work in progress) by kieronjames

Update: 17/01/2010

Uploading the second update via Soundcloud as I’ve no FTP access today. May continue to do this as it makes it easier to annotate files. Might even consider upgrading to a paid Soundcloud account. Anyway, not had much time for this as I’ve been working on a track for Gavin Fisher (aka @bootslam. Added a bit of guitar (new melody) and some effects using PSP Nitro.

Four #1 by kieronjames

First Upload: 07/01/2010

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There. I’ve said it. I’ve even written it down. And when I’ve finished this blog post, I’ll tweet about it to 400 people. There’s clearly only one reason for such behaviour. By telling the world, the pressure I place upon myself to deliver is increased and hopefully even more focus is brought to this ludicrous plan.

OK, by James Fahy’s standards, 48 tracks isn’t even vaguely prolific. It’d probably take ambienteer a couple of months but it will represent more than three times my total output this year. So how on earth do I expect to achieve this? Well, there is some method in my madness.

My aim is to produce four albums, each containing 12 tracks. These will be released under the following artist / project names and two of them are collaborative, so the work will be shared:

• Kieron James
• Half-BIT
• Blue Omen
• Somió

The first will be an instrumental album entitled Four and at least one element – however filtered, glitched and twisted – from each track will make its presence felt in its counterpart on each of the other three albums. Some of these tracks may share more than one sound or idea from the original. They may even extend to full-blown remixes, but because these musical projects are so different, I imagine the foundation track will bring very little to bear on its sibling.

I’ve talked in broad terms about the project with Shadi, my collaborator in Blue Omen, but I haven’t had the opportunity to discuss this with Fernando Fonseca, the other half of Half-BIT as he’s taking a well-earned rest and I really don’t want to disturb him. I’m just hoping that Fernando is as “up for this” as he has been with our other work together. If he isn’t, I’ll need to find another collaborator, because the idea is really starting to resonate with me!

So apparently it’s Black Friday in the US. Not really sure whether there’s any significance beyond a general sale, but the good news is I managed to pick up a copy of Native Instruments’ Reaktor 5 for €99. Quite a bargain.

I didn’t really know what it was, though I’ve heard @ambienteer and @fjfonseca refer to it a good deal on Twitter. So I thought I’d satisfy my curiosity whilst the price was low.

Much to @dustmotes‘ doubtless incredulity, I have managed to hook it up to Cubase (without any sticky-backed plastic) and here’s my first upload. I’ve been messing around with the drum sequencer “Massive”, using some of the on board samples. To this I’ve added some Audio Damage Automaton FX and a quick and dirty bass line using Rob Papen’s SubBoomBass.

I can see that this is going to be fun

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Update 7: 03/01/2010

Here’s one that somehow never really gelled, but I’ve been so backwards and forwards with it that I’ve run out of steam.

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Update 6: 22/12/2009

I’ve been really on and off with this track for way too long. I’m at the point where I might just ditch it. I’m uploading 48 bars and as you can see, I’ve been pulled in lots of different directions with it. In truth, it’s all over the place. I’m not sure I can salvage anything, so I might bin it (or park it at least) and start with something new.

But I think I’m done for 2009. Time for a break and return in the New Year with a fresh direction.

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Update 5: 10/12/2009

A glitch too far? Very probably. Still screwing around with this to see what falls out. Creating some wah wah effects from Monday’s brass stabs. Still some bits I like and others which will go. Not the quickest track to come together, but I think it’ll get there in the end. May work on something else for a while and come back to this.

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Update 4: 07/12/2009

Last night, Doyle suggested some brass stabs – an idea supported by Linda. They both got me thinking and I couldn’t wait to have a play. It takes the track in an entirely different direction from the idea I’d loosely formulated, but hey!

I’ve not got very far – just toying around with some ideas, but is this the kind of sound we were all thinking of?

(Needless to say, there’s very little chance the brass will stay this “straight” throughout the track. It’ll need to be treated, glitched and generally bent out of shape, but I may keep the odd 4 bars here and there quite conventional.)

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Update 3: 06/12/2009

I’ve been a bit blocked – and I think it’s this track in particular. Really happy with the drum part and some of the other bits. I’ll add lots of incidental percussion – little fills here and there – once it’s complete, but it’s not coming together quickly. Then again, what’s the rush?

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Update 2: 01/12/2009

Starting to develop some parts, but still no arrangement to speak of. Again, not mixed or anything yet so levels are probably all over the place.

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Update 1: 29/11/2009

Had a bit of a play with this today. Added some elements which I like and some I’m not so sure about. I’ll leave it for a couple of days and see what stays and what goes. Also need to start thinking about a lead part.

As usual, there’s no arrangement here, not even an introduction – so prepare yourself as you hit play! The drum loop I’ve created is also pretty raw. The bass drum triplets, whilst powerful, are clearly repeating too frequently. I’ll pull these in probably once every 8 or even 16 bars once the piece is further on.

Not sure at all about the funky wah wah guitar type synth sound. I suspect that will die. Only bit I’m really happy with at the moment is the repetitive bass line and the drums (once the BD triplet frequency has been reduced.

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First upload: 27/11/2009

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Shorter distance to cover this week (42 miles), but a couple of quality sessions (finally) after the drudgery of running at easy pace for five weeks. I also have to work around business travel, which despite only taking a relatively small chunk out of the week, invariably interferes with my “flow”.

It’s important not to add too many intensive sessions straight away, so I’m sticking to two tempo runs and another Lyme Park hilly run on Saturday. My midweek long run will be tomorrow (not really midweek) and with these dark winter evenings, I’ll miss the early evening park runs with the dog. We’ll make up for it on Saturday, Buffy.

I’m not going to add too much content to my own blog, since it’s being covered in detail over at Half-BIT.com, but I will take a moment just to add a brief description of what Fernando and I are working on.

It started with a tweet from @AudioPornTwitz about a Little Boots remix contest. The Earthquake stems were posted online so I DM’d Fernando to see if he was interested in having a play with them for our follow up to Separate.

Earthquake – GAP RMX by Half-BIT

Last week was a complete wash out. Never been so disappointed with my complete lack of commitment to a training schedule! Granted, there were a couple of days where it was less convenient than others, but there was a time when if it meant getting up at 5:30 to make sure the week’s mileage was completed, that was what happened.

I have committed to knocking some serious minutes off the appalling GNR time in September, so it’s time to knuckle down. This week’s mileage target MUST be hit. Thus begins the final week of Block 1. Next week it’s time for some quality.

Anybody remember Cosecha? And the fun we had pulling together PS011, recently released by the outstanding PublicSpaces netlabel?

Well, Mr Fonseca and I require your help again. Our newly formed collaboration, Half-BIT will be providing an art sound installation at Netaudio’s EXPANDING 09 Festival on 14 November in Barcelona.

Half-BIT is all about collaboration. It’s our raison d’être. It’s how the whole project was kicked off. And we want it to be global. Our first track started life as a wonderful IDM piece from Alka’s Dog Lost in the Woods album. It was remixed by Fernando Fonseca, then remixed again by me. None of us have actually met. Alka is based in New Jersey, Fernando kicks around Barcelona and I inhabit the far less urban-cool, though equally chic Cheshire, UK.

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What we need from you

Just like Cosecha, Fernando has asked me to seek parameters to create a new source file for him to glitch the hell out of for a sound installation on 14 November (when I’ll be tucked up in front of Faithless at Manchester’s Warehouse Project). And we need YOU to help with those parameters.

This time, I intend to use two of my favourite VSTs: Ohm Force’s Symptohm and BigSeq2 from Audio Damage. I’ll request some parameter values to create the sound (e.g. send me a number between 1 and 5000) and you’ll tweet back with your number. Just like Cosecha, I’m not going to disclose which values are being requested, but unlike Cosecha, I anticipate far fewer requests being made of the contributors. (Promise!)

Once I’ve handed our sound over to Fernando, he’s going to work even more collaborative magic to create a very special piece for Barcelona.

Play your part by adding a comment below with your Twitter username, or tweet us up with #halfbitbarcelona in your tweet.

We’ll keep you informed of progress via our favourite collaborative social networking wonder-drug: Twitter.

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The Contributors

The following people / organisations have volunteered to respond to data requests.

@_alka
@BlueEydGlambert
@dust_bunnies
@fbish
@groovecriminals
@heuristicmusic
@HipGnosis23
@leeconnolly
@LucidAcid
@madebyrobot
@publicspaceslab
@pure_tone
@retorta
@ronsens

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Sound 1 – Ohm Force Symptohm Output [30/10/2009]

Thank you to all the contributors for providing numbers today. Below you’ll find a SoundCloud player which previews the three bar loop your numbers have generated. Don’t get too excited just yet. There’s a second stage to the process where we mash this up using Audio Damage’s BigSeq2.

The table below illustrates how the sound was generated from the numbers supplied:

Parameter	Request	Received	Contributor
Note	1-12	5	@alka
Note	1-12	5	@BlueEydGlambert
Note	1-12	12	@dust_bunnies
Note	1-12	3	@fbish
Repeat (0) Reverse (1)	0-1	1	@groovecriminals
Tempo	110-180	123	@heuristicmusic
Beats	2, 4, 8 or 16	8	@HipGnosis13
Loop Length	1-4	3	@leeconnolly
Symptohm Sample	1-123	72	@LucidAcid
Slide Time	1-4000	1	@madebyrobot
Morphing	1-6	3	@PublicSpacesLab
VCA	-30 – +4	-7	@pure_tone
VCF Cutoff	60-8000	4358	@retorta
Voice Filter Type	1-3	2	@ronsens

 

None of the contributors was aware of the parameter for which they were submitting a value. The request simply read (for example), “Please send me a number between 1 and 4000 (inclusive). Thanks.”

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Phase 1

Here’s how the loop was generated:

The first four contributors provided the notes for the loop. I preselected C major scale and with 12 notes in an octave we have a pattern of E, E, C, D.

Parameter 5 governs whether the pattern should then repeat or reverse (0 for repeat, 1 for reverse). So the second four notes are D, C, E, E.

Parameter 6 establishes the tempo of the loop: 123bpm. Parameter 7 sets the note length: 2 being a minim, 4 a crotchet, 8 a quaver and 16 a semiquaver. The loop length was established as 3 bars by Lee Connolly. The sample preset from Symptohm is 72 (literally counting through the sample files in the Symptohm library!) and the remaining four parameters establish the filters applied.

Loop 1 – Symptohm

Symptohm (Half-BIT #Netaudio) by Half-BIT

More to come! Stage 2 will be the mash up and sequencing in Audio Damage’s BigSeq2.

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Phase 2

Here’s how the loop was generated:

Phase 2 of our Netaudio project applied a VST plugin named BigSeq2 from Audio Damage to the source file above. Once again, the values were requested without conveying to the contributors which parameters they governed. The table below illustrates how the values were applied:

Parameter	Request	Received	Contributor
Preset	1-40	25	@alka
VCA Step Size	4, 8, 16 or 32	4	@BlueEydGlambert
VCA Gate	1-100	43	@dust_bunnies
VCA Decay	1-70	36	@fbish
Filter Type	1-6	5	@groovecriminals
Filter Frequency	40-2000	1688	@HipGnosis13
Filter Resonance	0-100	76	@HipGnosis13
Delay Time	1-8	8	@leeconnolly
Delay Feedback	0-100	37	@LucidAcid
Delay Send	1-100	40	@madebyrobot
Bit Rate	1-100	89	@PublicSpacesLab
Bit Depth	8-24	19	@pure_tone
Distort Fuzz	0-20	15	@retorta
Distort Warp	0-20	17	@ronsens

 

Loop 2 – Symptohm plus BigSeq2

Symptohm BigSeq2 by Half-BIT

Thank you to all the contributors. That’s my bit done. Now it’s over to you, F.

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I think the single most impressive thing about Twitter has been the opportunities for musical collaboration which it has brought about. This, my third significant ‘joint venture’ is with the amazing talent, Scott Lachance, aka Digitube. I really am absolutely thrilled to have an opportunity to work with such wonderful musicians and producers from all over the world.

I’ve only just begun with this and I do have a slight problem with one of the VST instruments drifting slightly out of time (around 2′10″ which I’ll fix). I’m uploading the small amount I’ve done and I guess here will be as good a place as any for Scott and I to exchange ideas as the piece develops. The upload of work in progress has become something of a tradition and people do seem to enjoy chucking in their two pennyworth as a track evolves (which I both seek out and value hugely).

This has not been mixed at all. Levels are definitely awry.

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Update: 07/11/2009

FInished track. Mastered by @pure_tone

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Update: 24/10/2009

Really great to speak with Scott on the telephone this evening. Felt very inspired after our call and so I did a little more work on this track. Spent quite a bit of time on the percussion and created a kinda funky guitar out of one of the stems (actually came from the drum stem, using BigSeq2 to create the groove).

I’ll have another listen tomorrow, but in truth barring level checks and EQ tweaks, I quite like the place this has got to.

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First Upload: 23/10/2009

Just playing around with some deep percussive ideas for this first upload. No arrangement and no mixing completed so far.

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Digitube Original “Organic Build 2″

Scott published his ‘let’s kick things off’ MP3 on SoundCloud and I’m uploading it here too for reference. Clearly, it’s much more than a ’starter for ten’!

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Last week was a huge disappointment. No lack of effort or intention, just ill health and business travel conspiring against my running schedule. This kind of thing happens and you just have to put it behind you and move on.

This week’s target is 60 miles and, as ever 25% of the weekly mileage needs to be in the form of Sunday’s long run. So today, I psyched myself up for a fifteen miler – albeit at a very comfortable pace. The weather was lovely. A chill in the air (enough to wear gloves and the gimlet) but bright with an occasional appearance from the sun.

This is the penultimate week of 100% slow running and it will be great to add some quality sessions (hills, tempo and fartlek) to the mix the week after next. Tomorrow I’ll download, complete and send my entry for the Brass Monkey 1/2 Marathon in January. That’ll be a good incentive.