Otto Matta

But you still like her, right? Because she's pretty and characteristically worn around the edges with age?

Didn't Simon say that about Ott?

What the hell are you all doing to your digipaks to wreck 'em? Even my first digipaks are still in great shape, with that wear that gives them character. It's not like you have to present them to your mother for inspection.

Big Dogs. Hehe. Great stuff. Solid. You gotta roll with the big dogs. Sounds a little like Primus doing laid back electronic rap. Colin - That early track is pretty cool, man. Especially for 1987. A year later's when I started. Wish I had some recordings of that stuff. Heavy electro shit, with little equipment but a lot of adolescent heart.

Agree. Awful.

Love Digipaks. It's like having a good ol' record sleeve again, only smaller.

Hey Nomis. Thanks for sharing your music. Some of the best stuff I've heard here. It's very solid, very tight, very crisply produced. Very Scandinavian. On the downside, and this is merely my opinion, it sounds a little TOO tight, and sounds a little too much like other stuff out there, especially Logic Bomb's Headware (which is not in itself a bad thing, of course, but it's several years old now). You've clearly got the technical aspects down pat, so if I were you I'd work on digging inwardly and finding your own, true voice, one which will escape the limitations of time and style. If you're not so much interested in that, and I can't expect you to be, then you're doing just fine.

Makes my heart go pitter patter. Or something like that.

I'm sorry, but I can't wait until May 15th. I'm slitting my wrists as we speak, since I can't bear the suspense. Goodbye world. If only you'd released this album a month sooner.

Medecine Drum did some American Indian type stuff. Supernature's the only album I've heard, and I don't have it anymore so I can't give you details, but there were at least two tracks on that album with that sound. And I assume they continued it on later albums (together and solo stuff).

Robotic lady vocals are my bag.

It really depends. Vocals in psy? No. Vocals in electronica? Only if it's sliced and vocoded - one of my favorite things ever. Vocals in rock? Sure. I think, unlike most people it seems, we like to depend on the music itself for its character, rather than on someone singing to supply it.

I hear everything you're saying, bro. I wrote music for a long time myself, and got so damn frustrated with it - I could never get my stuff to do the things I wanted it to do. So I started painting instead, and that went well, but I always hankered for music. I'd break all my equipment back out and try again, only to put it all away again a few hours later when it became too frustrating. However, and this ties in with your comments about limitations, I had no idea at the time that the equipment I was using pretty much sucked and that I was limiting myself far too much, and therefore wasn't able to accomplish anything. I too believe in limiting oneself to an extent, but I also believe there's a nice middle ground that's not too little and not too much, and I think I've hit close to the sweet spot with Reason (although I'd like to get Cubase to make the production better). So maybe, if you find you're missing your music-making, perhaps you've made things too limited, or maybe even too complicated (not consolidated and simplified). Or maybe it's just a time in your life where you need to take a break from it so that you can come back to it fresh and full of inspiration someday like I've somehow managed to do. Either way, you should be making music, I think. The track you shared here a few weeks ago was amazing. Anyway, thanks again for your words of support.

You're way too kind, Symph. I don't know what to say. I'm just glad you guys are around to listen and help me along with the process. It certainly is encouraging. Thanks for taking the time to listen and for the great compliments, and I hope I can keep it up, while improving. By the way, what sort of equipment do you use? And when can we expect some more tunes from you?

Hope you like it. Okay, dammit! Thanks, man. It's actually my third completed track, with some intermittent doodles in between. The second one - Generationz Out - was listed last weekend, but it may have timed out. But yeah, I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of Reason, although having it "mastered" is still a ways away. And thanks, I try to keep things simple, which may or may not be to my benefit. Anyway, thanks for listening and the comments. Very kind of you, and it keeps me motivated.

OMFG, I just got a giant, mossy troll woodie. Thanks Amphiton.

Now I'm curious...If I split two a mono channel into two mono channels panned to the left and right, this doesn't make it a stereo track, does it? And if I apply mono to the bass overall using a stereo imager, doesn't that make them still mono? Now I'm confused.

It works for me, but maybe it's just wishful thinking; ceremony, as it were. I would certainly trust your opinion over mine, though, regarding production. I'm relatively new to all this myself.

Good points. Thanks. The snare drum especially has been screaming to be synthetic, but I wouldn't let it. But now I will.

Wow, Charlie. That's really a very, very nice compliment. Thank you. Mission accomplished. I can die happy.

My thoughts exactly.

Well, that's what happens when you get totally, helplessly obsessed, I guess. I left my apartment once this weekend, to get 1. beer, 2. cigarettes, and 3. that lousy goddamn thing we call food. Hope you like it. Well damn, Charlie, thanks. Yeah, it's a chorus/vocal sample. The concept? More spaceships, I'm afraid. No, it's a combination of things. One, I've been really passionate about the idea of what it would be like to be the dust that circles around the perimeter of galaxies, orbiting every few billion years or so, and how peaceful that must be - and if one thinks about our very, very distant evolution, this is what life might become (unless it already is...); and two, the abstract idea of what interstellar radio would sound like. Fun, fun, fun. Thanks for listening, Charlie.

I failed to mention earlier in the thread that Sonys are in my experience horrible for studio monitoring. I listen to headphones exclusively when I make music, and the HD280pros are perfect.

Thanks for the opinion. What sort of music do you write? Do you aim to perform live, or do you just create? And lastly, have you tried Operator? If so, what do you think, compared to the synths in Reason?

I bought some DJ equipment a few years back and have used them seldomly, but I live in constant fear that my CD would skip during a gig. It's intuitive, I guess. I mean, youv'e probably played CDs on all sorts of CD players; some you trust, some you don't. You generally get what you pay for.