My third full length album is finally finished. It still lacks a name and artwork but all its 10 tracks are mastered and done. It will be out this autumn on Bandcamp, Spotify and all the other digital outlets. Planned release date: To be announced.
Now listen to the first track of the album called ‘Red in a sea of green’
I have finished building the TTSH Arp 2600 clone and here you can see it installed in my studio.
Right now I’m in the process of testing it and learning all of it’s secrets.
I noticed I haven’t been posting here in a while so here’s a little update to what I’ve been up to lately.
First of all, I have spent A TON of my spare time on building that Arp 2600 clone called the TTSH, or Two Thousand Six Hundred. It’s a massive build and I’m almost finished with it now. I will post some more pictures and sounds when the case and everything is done.
Also I switched jobs recently, so I’m now I’m back working with what you call User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Design for E-commerce. I have been there for four months now, so a lot of my creative energy have been directed towards that. I’m a senior in this area and it’s something I have been working professional with for over 20 years now.
The next album is still in the works. Gotta finish it now, I know..
Something I have been trying to fix for a long time is the annoying high pitched noise that I would hear in the background when recording sounds from my external gear. I guess it has been there more or less since I got my expensive Asus motherboard for the PC. That was years ago but it wasn’t really until I started building and using my modular synth that I started noticing the noise. Somehow it was enhanced by the modular to a degree where I couldn’t ignore it anymore.
I tried a lot of things to solve the issue including buying two kinds of audio ground isolators. They did work. Well sort of… First of all I had to use a lot of them, because I have a big selection of external gear I want to record. Secondly the isolators capped a good part of the lower end spectrum, so a bass sound or kick drum would sound very week. I could compensate with an EQ but it was just too much hassle and I would never get it to sound exactly like it did without the isolators.
There is this thing called an USB isolator which you can buy on the cheap from Amazon or from China, or whatever. And they really do work as promised, by removing just the USB noise and keeping everything else. The problem is, until now if you wanted an USB isolator that could be used for Hi-speed USB, meaning it should be able to shuffle enough data for more than two audio channels, they would cost in the range of $250-300. But luckily, technology tends to evolve and today a hi-speed USB Isolator is finally affordable.
HiFImeDIY is now selling a Hi-speed USB Isolator with a price tag of $79. I got mine a few weeks ago and I’m super happy with it. All USB noise is gone and I’ve had no problems like dropouts etc running 16 channels in 24 bit and 96 kHz sample rate.
So.. yeah I’m super happy. One less problem to worry about. :)
Here’s a better version of my new track called Deep Strategy. Now I just need one more track for my (full length) album. I’m starting to search for a suitable label, so please do hit me with any suggestion you might have. The style will mostly be electronic dance music on the deeper, more atmospheric side, with a mixture of progressive, deep house, modern techno and a dash of ambient. Think Lost and found, Bedrock, Sudbeat and Microcastle.
https://soundcloud.com/knatter/deep-strategy-clip
Which will of course be part of my next album which now is aaaaalmost finished.
I was digging around in some of my old boxes and came across a big bunch of cassette tapes. Most of them are more or less irrelevant today – they contain the normal stuff a young man would record from the radio and LP:s in the early 80s to mid 90s. But some actually have tunes that I produced in the early to mid 90s, when I was part of this company / band called Cyberpunk Development. That music was never released so it will be fun to listen to it again, some odd 20 years later. If it’s any good I will put it up on my Soundcloud page.
Oh, and there is also a DAT, but I don’t have any way of playing it, since I don’t have a DAT-player. Just had a look at Ebay and they are super expensive. Like 5000 SEK and upwards for a portable Sony DAT Walkman. What the hell?!
I might get another drum machine. Just wow Arturia. You just made a lot of producers salivate, all at once. Now where, in my tiny studio would I be able to fit this monster?
Many people seems to like the track I posted a preview of on Instagram the other day, so I’ve decided to finish it. Been working on it today and I think it’s turning out great. Still have to name it though…