08.30.01
On Tuesday I sent a copy of the CD to PJ at Musik International for any comments and to take market temperature. I'm perfectly happy distributing with my plan 'A' (amazon) plan, but if she knows someone who can put some promotion behind it, all the better.
Tuesday evening Gunn came over to listen to the CD in sequence. I think he was happy with it. Alex has listened to the CD a couple times. Both Alex and Gunn have commented that it sounds like Passion, but different. Success! Exactly what I was shooting for: Passion, but different.
Still waiting on contributions from Larry. In the mean time, I'm implementing some of the tweaks from notes I have made recently. Last night I reinserted the melody into Wine Strand and fiddled with the arrangement a little.
09.04.01
I worked at home on Friday to create the music for the MOTU AES show intro movie I'm working on. Saturday I installed a new kitchen faucet that 'installed in minutes' - as long as you are a plumber with years of experience and all the right tools and parts. The DE-installation was fairly time consuming. The total project took four or five hours including two trips out for tools (a faucet wrench!) and parts. The upshot was that on one trip out I also acquired a new Dolby Digital Surround Sound Receiver for our television. I'd had my eye on it for some time and it was on sale at Cambridge Soundworks. It really made a big difference in the other system components. The subwoofer sounds better because I'm no longer driving it as a passive speaker. The rest of the speakers sound better because the amp is no longer driving the subwoofer. DVDs sound better because I'm using Dolby Digital now, blah blah blah.
I'm queuing up a list of post archetribe projects. Many seem to be of the soldering iron variety. In addition to the MOTM project, I'm planning some additional modifications to the Prophet 5 including replacing all the keyboard bushings.
Otherwise, I spent much of Labor Day weekend working on non-audio elements of archetribe, such as the cover artwork and all the associated web pages. I'm finding it difficult to relax or commit myself to any other projects until I have closure with this one. Larry is going to try to send me a CD-R this week with his contributions.
09.17.01
Wendy and AM are traveling in New England, so they came over for dinner on the 09.10.01. Wendy asked to her some of the archetribe project. Iowans like myself hang on to very nasal ‘R’ sounds. New Englanders use more of an ‘ah’ sound for the ‘R’ So, when she said ‘MAHrtin’ should have used my music for his film, I had no idea what she was talking about. Martin Scorsese, it turns out – for the Last Temptation of Christ. (success!) We had a great time, but any residual glow from the evening was obliterated by the events the morning of 09.11.01.
The next day I wrote a letter to president@whitehouse.gov explaining my position on the subject. We need to be reminded about what unites us as human beings rather than what divides us.
Laurie Anderson performed as scheduled at the Sanders on 09.15.01. My old college roommate Jody mixes front of house for her when she tours. He supplied tickets for Julie and I, but more importantly, alerted me to the fact that she was giving a show in the first place. I would have missed it otherwise.
She performed her 20-year old piece: O Superman.
O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad
O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad
Hi. I'm not home right now
But if you want to leave a message
Just start talking at the sound of the tone
Hello? This is your Mother
Are you there? Are you coming home?
Hello? Is anybody home?
Well, you don't know me, but I know you.
And I've got a message to give to you.
Here come the planes.
So you better get ready.
Ready to go.
You can come as you are, but pay as you go
Pay as you go
And I said:
OK. Who is this really?
And the voice said:
This is the hand, the hand that takes
This is the hand, the hand that takes
This is the hand, the hand that takes
Here come the planes
They're American planes
Made in America
Smoking or non-smoking?
And the voice said:
Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night shall
stay these couriers from the swift completion
of their appointed rounds
'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice
And when justice is gone, there's always force
And when force is gone, there's always Mom
Hi Mom!
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms
In your automatic arms
Your electronic arms
In your arms
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms
Your petrochemical arms
Your military arms
In your electronic arms
09.27.01
I've been working on the music for Scout's web site recently. We're not done, but we've hit a lull and I'm waiting on word from them.
Yesterday I received Larry Fast's data. The first piece I integrated was pretty much a drop and replace action. There was no doubt that, "yes, of course it was supposed to sound that way." The piece I worked on last night was Conversation with the Other. On the drone tracks Larry supplied I low pass filtered it with the Filter Factory and processed it with the PCM80. The other tuned percussion he supplied I placed in untouched. It has been about a month since I worked on Archetribe music at all. Hopefully I can finish up with Larry's integration in the near future, depending on what is happening with Scout.
I nearly failed to make it to work yesterday due to a novel and unbelievably painful experience. I have no idea why, but after I woke up, certain movements would cause white hot bolts of pain where nothing else existed. Certain movements such as, say, stepping off a curb. A car could be hurling down the street and I would have absolutely no idea because the only thing in my mind was blinding agony. My neck had about 2 degrees of movement available and stayed crooked to one side for most of the day. The net result of this made me look not unlike Al Gore.
Bosch knew I was in serious pain. Of course, Julie was quite understanding. She responded my teasing me with items in my preferial vision, usually her butt. After countless Chinese remedies, a epsom salt bath and what I assume to be a considerable amount of damage to my liver from ingesting 1200mg Ibuprofen in 24 hours, my condition has been upgraded to "highly uncomfortable."
09.28.01
Last night worked on adding Larry's stuff to The Lattice. I also worked on the break in the last section. Replaced all the non-lead-doumbek percussion from that point with some loops I exported from a Reason project I created. I still need to make that transition work better.
10.01.01
Finished integrating Larry's work this weekend. Made small changes to several compositions based on notes I took from the last sequential listening with Gunn. Bounced all changed material and burned a new CD. Listened to the new CD, made changes to four compositions, bounced. Getting close.
On the most recent listening, I'm finding the climax of Cycle of Dust unsatisfying. Dismantled. Added some stuff, took some stuff away. I'm still working on it. Worked on CD artwork - inner liner notes and the art for the CD itself.
Got a message from Jamal this morning. He received the test CD and has expressed his approval. I was nervous about this, but I did not realize how nervous until I received his message. I'm quite relieved.
10.02.01
Cycle of Dust refuses to come together properly. I can't say any of the futzing I have done has accomplished anything positive. Fixed some minor audio issues here and there. Located Strett'a bar code information. Researching duplication options.
Going nuts with mastering. I keep thinking the lookahead limiter police are going to revoke my license, but when I compare the overall CD level with most releases today it still seems anemic.
Sought opinions for the cover artwork. Most people prefer the original art I have been working with, not the newer, cleaner design.
10.03.01
Artwork is almost done. I can save some money, and potentially speed up the process by generating my own film, but a stumbling block has been the UPC artwork. Locating inexpensive Macintosh software or a someone willing to generate a barcode has been problematic. However, I found the coolest site: http://www.milk.com/barcode/ This will generate barcode artwork for you online - even calculate the checksum. I fall into a small category of people who have their own UPC designation, but use it infrequently. This resource is perfect for me. So, now I can finish the artwork and send it to Pageworks tomorrow.
I have this crazy mastering idea which involves carting my monitors to another location. I think I'll execute this plan this weekend. I cleaned and exported all projects into smaller files - this process is like a snake shedding its skin in reverse. Now I'm only keeping track of audio I'm using in the project. Everything will happily fit on one DVD-R. The rest will be archived which is a frightening prospect. I'll be backing up for days and days...
I've been studying the average (RMS) levels on modern compact discs to get an idea where my levels should sit. 10 years ago, a nicely mastered popular music CD would sit at about -16dB RMS. These days the average is -14dB (for example, Bjork Vespertine) I've encountered some other, more drastic examples. XTC Apple Venus hums along at -12dB. The prize goes to Radiohead Amnesiac at -10dB to -8dB. You can assume all these CDs peak at or close to zero so Amnesiac had an average 10 dB dynamic range.
10.04.01
Artwork is finished. Mastering is another issue altogether. I have opened each project and determined appropriate limiter settings that will provide more or less the appropriate RMS throughout the CD. This, however, is only a portion of the battle and I'm dangerously close to opening the multiband compressor can of worms.
10.15.01
Just got back from England on MOTU business. Before I departed, I shipped the masters and artwork off to the duplicators. Because it seems like ages ago, and also because my brain has moved on to other things, I can't say much about the mastering process other than I ended up using a multiband compressor on about 50% of the project. It dawned on me that I was using UPS to ship artwork and music DATA (granted, about 600MB, but still feasible) which seems utterly absurd in this day and age. I should be receiving a color proof shortly.
11.26.01
My head is exploding. I'm currently sipping some sweet sencha I brought back from Japan with me and trying to collect myself. Too many things are happening all at once and I've been so busy, I have not had a moment to note that archetribe CDs arrived last Tuesday. That took an absurdly long time. I've notified Amazon about the new title and it will be weeks before they'll provide a purchase order. Even longer for it to be entered into the database.
12.04.01
Returned from a successful NY AES show. Archetribe is now available at amazon.com. Unleash the hounds.
12.27.01
Good news to start the new year! Echoes, a syndicated radio program carried by more than 160 radio stations, has added earthtones to their playlist. It debuts on New Year's Eve and then goes into regular rotation. Find a radio station near you or listen to Echoes on the web.
I had forgotten I sent copies of earthtones to my family members with their Christmas presents. My dad deemed the CD "interesting" - a comment I found hilarious.
01.23.02
Promotional budget: $0
Beating Hans Zimmer: priceless
------------------
From: John Diliberto
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 16:18:41 -0500
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
Subject: ECHOES TOP 20 for January 2002
ECHOES TOP 20 FOR JANUARY 2002
1.David Darling - Cello Blue - Hearts of Space
2.Erik Wollo - Wind Journey - Spotted Peccary
3.Will Ackerman - Hearing Voices - Windham Hill
4.Dead Can Dance - 1981 1998 - Rhino
5.Archetribe - Earthtones - Stretta
6.Michael Hedges - Beyond Boundaries - Windham Hill
7.Keola Beamer - Soliloquy - Dancing Cat
8.Lisa Lynne - Maidens Prayer - New Earth Rec.
9.Richard Searles - The Green Man - Earth Dance
10.Samite - Kambu Amgels - Wind Over the Earth
11.Shaman's Dream - Prana - Shaman's Dream
12.Hans Zimmer/Klaus Badelt - The Pledge (soundtrack) - Milan
13.David Michael/Randy Mead - Mountain in the Sky
14.Jane Siberry - City - Sheeba
15.Paul Avgerinos - Words Touch - Round Sky Music
16.Darshan Ambient - Vermillion Sky - mp3.com
17.Ishq - Orchid - Dakini
18.John Lakveet - Sequentiagite - Vagern Records
19.Ancient Future - Planet Passion - Ancient-Future.com
20.Lumin - Hadra - Lumin Music
-=-
Just returned from the NAMM show. Recorded a bunch of Warr Guitarists and the Trey Gunn band playing live with three MOTU 896 and DP 3.1. Mark Warr is a genuinely nice guy and I was awed by the talent of the Warr Guitar community. If you have a chance to see Brian Kenney Fresno, please do so. You'll wet your pants.
(photo by Ray Ashley)
04.08.02
Did an interview on WZBC on Saturday. I have a recording of it, but I'm not sure I should post it. My perception of time compressed such that a short pause felt like an eternity - so to compensate, my mouth moved as fast as possible - faster than my ability to form a coherent sentence. To fill the gaps, I would utter such emotionally stirring phrases such as "uhhhh...." and "um....." Quite the public speaker, I am.
04.19.02
Holy Cow! Hearts of Space play selections from Earthtones this week and even name the PGM 626 : "ARCHETRIBE" 04.19.02-04.25.02
Archetribe was featured release on Musical Starstreams program #0216 the week of April 21st.
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