NEW IDEA

Duration: 5 hrs apprx.


(the above image shows a part of my setup, mainly the PRESONUS FIREPOD with all the drum microphone cables connected. click to make bigger)

Last night i decided to make some basslines, kinda experimental stuff i wouldnt usually do and it sounded quite good. Today i decided to record some drums to this track and film the whole thing, quite satisfying to watch back myself playing drums with nicely recorded sounds rather than the bad quality video phone audio!

VIDEO

REBIRTH

Back in 1998 Propellerhead and Steinberg teamed up and created the REBIRTH RB-338 software.

The software is now free from the Propellerhead website and theres loads of cool Roland history too if you like that sort of thing.

Without sounding too much like an SOS article heres why i like it so much.. (but also where it annoys me)

+'s:
- its saves getting a pile of old Roland kit.. (two TB-303's, TR-909 and 808)

- looks like a program designed in the 90s :)

- from all the clones, samples and sequencers floating around in softsynth world this is pretty close representation of what the hardware sounds like. Although to be fair if you want a 303 sound you essentially need a real 303, same goes for the drum machines. The slides and accents on the 303's are pretty faithful when compared to most bassline emulators, with these the saw and squarewaves are normally fine but they lose out when matching the elasticity and analogue squelch!

- Rebirth teaches how to program basslines! which is time consuming and frustrating but sounds ace.

- You can export loops, and use the program with reason. (Reason Hardware Interface)

- Its Free now! (Before it was free it was torrented anyway)

-'s:
- It is not a pile of hardware.

- its extremely easy to twiddle for ages and end up with the same generic sounding 140bpm acid house!

- Rebirth will not run on anything past MAC 0S9. unless you have classic mode on eariler OSX machines. thats why i have it running on an old crummy laptop! at least it has a use :D


SO i like Rebirth, and its fun. Have been using it a lot lately to see what i can get out of it and had some pleaseing results!
Just made some basslines i'll incorporate into a song in logic sometime this week. so ill post something up somwhere somehow soon!

GRABBY HANDS 3

Its been a week since i lost all my stuff. However luckily, my G5 remains intact and safe in the countryside, far from the reaches of the derby scum that breed down the alley from my house.

Decided to master all of the tracks that i had salvaged from my girlfriend and the ones burned to CD for previewing in my mastering suite (a Peugeot 306)

This whole thing taught me a valuable lesson in backing stuff up but you can never be two careful protecting all those precious 1's and 0's.

Logic Setereo mastering.
Above EQ and making it louder with GAIN and adlimiter, the best thing i've found to make the tracks sound good is multiband compression, its just the technical way of screwing the lid onto tracks and finishing it all off nice so it sounds good to me, and hopefully to others too!

I have also mixed all the tracks to sound a similar level because they have all been exported at slighly different levels and need some continuity if they are to work well on a CD together!

irony

ok so, planned to call this GRABBY HANDS for no real reason at all.

it seems it took two theives to use their grabby hands to grab and run with my stuff to seal this off as unfinished.

its all come full circle. maybe im reading too much into this...

sealed off..

Well, long story short got my laptop and midi controllers stolen last night so the grabby hands EP in its final stages have been lost into the ether! probably end up in a cashconverters somewhere within a nice shiny macbook.

Seen it as a sign to move on and do something totally different now, so check for posts but unfortunately this weblog is the only evidence of a lot of stuff so it greatly valued!

Pretty bummed out about the whole thing but material posessions only have so much value in the long run. With a new year im sure good can come eventually.

Updates soon, but in the meantime. i gotta get my stuff back together! they even took my gloves! MY GLOVES!

Myspace Player

Duration: 30 mins apprx.
from now on, the mypace player will appear here so music can be listened to without any external links, enjoy!

GRABBY HANDS 2

Duration: 10 hrs apprx.

The EP is looking good so far. I have now got six demos together and hope to get these all polished off and sounding right over the next couple of weeks.

The latest demo is on the myspace here.

The demo name is 'Just a Tab' although that is just a working title as it will probably end up as the title track 'Grabby hands' when the CD is finished.

Another step in the process is deciding on some album art so i'm going to get in contact with some people for some help in that area! I think it would be nice to get some good artwork done for this record.

I have also recently set up a bigcartel webstore to sell some of my music should anybody be interested!

studio

Duration: 30 mins apprx.

this is just an image of what my studio looks like at the moment :)
missing a few bits and bobs but a good mixing setup for me

GRABBY HANDS 1

Duration: 10 hrs apprx.

(click to enlarge pic)


Grabby hands is the latest EP and is nearly complete.

Two tracks 'Depth' and 'Eyes Uprise' can be heard on the myspace HERE

Its certainly a lot more 90's sounding, a bit like Acid mixed with my own electronica sound.. Hip hop breaks backed up with Roland TR 808/909 rythms and Roland 303 basslines with distortion and reverb for that awesome 'squelch' sound. Fun :)

CLICK HERE for a video of me Adjusting the controls on the 303 in reason (this combinator patch is probably the most authentic 303 mock up, even better sounding than rebirth in my opinion)
If i had a spare £1200 i'd probably buy one of these extrememly rare and overpriced 80's bass guitarist stand-ins.

FACEBOOK

To many people, the world is run by facebook, without receiving updates on their mobile phones about 'So and So just commented on So and So's Status' and other needless information regarding the most antisocial form of being social (sitting behind a computer), these people would be better off. Nevertheless, 'Nosey Social Networking' (where everyone knows what everyone's been up to) has its benefits, especially if you like embarrasing drunken photos of yourself, or even better, promoting a band or solo project!

So i decided to hop on this bleak looking band wagon and set up an artist page for Stu Roland (nothing like myspace music but thats for kids right?)

Entered all the details about how it all started for me, what different monikers i have branded myself with over the years and some nice discography.
Unfortunately I am unable to upload any music on Facebook until i prove my identity with a passport or drivers license. I decided against this as its all a bit sketch from where i see it. The less facebook really knows about me is probably better.
So! ill leave it up to Myspace music an Last FM to stream my music to the world.

Back to facebook, the best bit is i can copy email addresses and quickly promote the Stu Roland page over the whole of facebook within people i know (278 apparently) and the best bit is, when someone becomes a fan it tells ALL their friends that they became a fan hopefully creating the 'Ohh whats that i think i might click on it' effect.

:3

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Stu-Roland/55941525445?ref=ts