Otto Matta

I like the guitar riffs! They're very similar to Juno Reactor's 10,000 Miles. They're geeky-fake, like on Delta's As a Child...

A get-rich-quick infomercial with a hot hostess?

I record my rhythms on the keys as well. I like "jamming" until I find something that seems to work, and then build on that. Occasionally a rhythm is created from a melody that didn't work. I also find it very beneficial (if it's not obvious) to separate all your rhythm instruments into individual tracks. So, for instance, if you've recorded a kick & snare thing on the keys, separate out the snare onto its own track. It's going to be hard to avoid the grids of traditional sequencers and still have simplicity. Trance is a very linear genre of music, as is most stuff with a beat. I'd also look into NI's Reaktor if you're looking for something a bit more unusual. And if you come across anything really interesting that's non-linear, let us know!

Thanks, my fellow 35-year-old! Yeah, man, I think it would sound better if toned it (and the kick) down a bit. They honestly didn't sound so *snappy!* when I was mixing them, but they came out a little loud in the recording. Thanks, though.

I see. How about giving Cycling '74's Max/MSP a spin?

You have to create your changes. That's just part of the creative process. Begging your pardon, you sound like you expect your software to do the creating for you. The best it can do is inspire you, allow your thoughts to flow freely, and help organize things for you. But it won't do your creating for you. Music is fundamentally a problem solving process, and if monotony is a problem, it's up to you to figure out a creative solution, which usually involves a lot of play and/or a lot of work. The way you solve your musical problems ends up being what YOU sound like. What Veracohr says is true: Learn your synthesis, and during that process seek out the platform that helps you get your ideas across, helps you solve the enormous complexities involved with making music, and simply helps you be creative. I've heard a lot of good things about Logic.

Yeah, McKoy, it's cool. The beginning and end remind me a little of Vangelis. Nice textures. And I like how you slowly bring in a beat. I could use a little more separation in the sounds, and maybe a lead melody or two in the central part. Nice.

Damn, if only I were curious enough.

Thanks, man. You're talking about the last track, though - Chandelier - further on down the page. I just posted this two days ago. I thought about expanding it, but since the second half is virtually a mirror of the first half, I felt it might be too much "been there heard that".

Damn, that Le S4B0T3UR track is high cool.

I sooo have to listen to that again now that you brought it up. It's been a while. Thanks! Yeah I agree that really early Total Eclipse has not aged especially well, but I can still get off on a few of their tracks. And Violent Relaxation is such a great double album, still highly listenable. I haven't been listening to anything old recently, but now I'm in the mood. I'll report back.

Thanks for the feedback, Billy. I'm glad you like it. And yeah, I probably got lazy with the production, and the middle, where there's the most stuff going on, is probably suffering currently. I need to take the track for a spin on some different sound systems and see what it's doing. How I yearn for that day when I can write with monitors in a nice acoustic space. Thanks, Rotwang.

Thanks, Nemo. You were right. I re-encoded it using L.A.M.E. VBR and it sounds better. Re-uploaded. TORBJÖRN! Stop dragging your ass on the carpet! We have guests! Gosh, I'm sorry about that. It just means he likes you. Yes, I think we're talking about the same impOSCar part. It's smack-dab in the middle.

*chuckle*

Seems pretty clear to me that in order to stay fresh, one can't lose sight of playful experimentation. Seems once one loses that, the music becomes sterile to the listener and probably not as fulfilling to the writer. But it's a struggle, though, because, I think, it's ultimately harder to stay naive and childlike than to be knowledged and technical. It's easier, for instance, to use a great preset than to program your own sound by twiddling a bunch of buttons at whim, the former being relatively unfulfilling, the latter being a royal pain in the ass sometimes. But what part of one's musical identity is one willing to trade off, is the question. And that gets into a whole lot of psychological and emotional and experiential issues.

It's true! I've definitely had problems with it, but it's almost always a n00b user problem. The program doesn't dumb itself down to people like Reason does. You have to reinstall it with each upgrade, otherwise it's just not going to work properly. Should that be necessary? I don't know, but it works. The sound is awesome, the flexibility is awesome, once you get the hang of the interface it's awesome. It's got all sorts of little bugs and glitches, it can be deeply frustrating, and it seems to work differently on everyone's computer, which are all either nasty or awesome, depending on how you look at them. Once in a while I hang out at the Cubase message boards, which are a giant and dynamic assortment of problems and praise. It's fascinating.

Hello. My, don't you look nice. That hat is very flattering on you. What is that, polyester? Please make yourself comfortable. Would you like something to drink? Whiskey on the rocks? Coming right up. TORBJÖRN! NO, TORBJÖRN! GET DOWN! BAD TORBJÖRN! GO LAY DOWN! That's a good boy. Sorry about that. Here's your whiskey. You know how dogs are. Oh, darn, did he rip your shirt? I'm so sorry. I'll pay for a new one. No, I insist. Will you take a check? Why don't you sit down and listen to my new track while I write you out a check. Maybe you'll like it. It's inspired by the ancient Mayan concept of time being cyclical rather than linear, something that's been dominating my thoughts, and which I now wholeheartedly believe. I've also been inspired by a book I was reading recently called Godel, Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, as well as a book called Last and First Men, a novel about the distant future of mankind; also Plaid's soundtrack to an animated movie called Tekkon Kinkreet, and 70s synth music in general. It is also loosely based on what I call my "flash forwards", or experiences I have of a pretty grisly demise of human society by what appears to be some sort of nasty radiation. It's a tad conceptual, but I hope it's still at least satisfactorily listenable. Aw, man, is Torbjörn humping your leg? TORBJÖRN! Stop humping that poor person's leg! If it's worth anything, Torbjörn doesn't hump just anyone's leg. I'd take it as a compliment. Torbjörn doesn't hump my leg. The recording is a 192kbps mp3. Sorry, that's all I've got at the moment. The .WAV is stored in a hermetically sealed vault surrounded by laser-activated explosives. Here are some headphones. When you're ready, just press play. Hope you like it, and look forward to hearing what you think of it. By the way, it seems the drums are particularly snappy in the mp3. A compression issue of some sort.

I guess considering when the music was made I have to be more respectful, but I still can't listen to it for fun. I have a hard time with the really early stuff across the board, except Juno Reactor's early work starting with Transmissions.

Probably. I just remember Trip to Trancesylvania being very cheesy and We Created Our Own Happiness being only a little bit better.

Oo! I know! Was it Yanni Live in Athens? That dude's hair is dynamite.

Yo' mama's full-on. Full on my crizotch. Ja, I don't listen to old X-Dream - it's a bit too "happy happy joy joy" for me - but from what I remember it was neither the old nor the new definition of "full-on", but closer to the former. Been a while, though.

Hmm. Was it... a documentary on penguins?

Good luck to you, then.

Yes, I agree, it is true that in most cases a person can't be seriously involved with other things if one wants to make serious music. A small minority of people can do it, but as far as I'm concerned the average person is like a pie-chart of achievement. The bigger the slice (amount of focus), the higher will be the quality of that slice. A relationship or school or a high-impact job will cut the music slice dramatically.

A really good Seinfeld rerun?