Schlakks - Tat und Drang ist der Soundtrack dieses Sommers

Jeder kennt diesen einen Moment. Losgelöst, mit Freunden im Auto in den Sonnenuntergang fahrend, die Luft riecht nach Freiheit und eine laue Brise formt euch wilde Salzwasserfrisuren. Das ist der Moment, in dem man das neue Album vom Schlakks hören sollte. Oder aber es ist der Moment, in denen der Dortmunder Rapper sein Textbuch aus dem Reiserucksack zückt.

Mit "Tat und Drang" präsentiert Schlakks diese Tage sein zweites Album. Und jeder der insgesamt 16 Songs ist dick bepackt mit Lebensbejahung, Reiselust, Nordstadtliebe und der extrem ansteckenden guten Laune eines 27jährigen, der mitten im Leben steht und die Fähigkeit besitzt, sein Umfeld messerscharf analysieren zu können. "Keine Zwänge", "Freiheit ist wichtig", "So lang ich heute mit euch weiß, dass ich lebe", "Ich will nichts Halbgares machen, nicht im Durchschnitt des Alltags versacken", "Das Streben nach ´ner Gegenwart, die alles Hintere topt" und "Das Gefühl der Beatniks im Gepäck" - man merkt, der Schlakks liebt das Leben und schöpft aus vollen Taschen. So wortgewaltig, dass diese Backpack-Romantik nie inflationär erscheint.

Nicht ein Wort verliert der Schlakks an die Szene, ans Battlen, an die Sprüher, Kriminellen und Nachtgestalten - und das tut so gut. An Street Credibility mangelt es dem Nordstädtler nämlich garantiert nicht.  Noch dazu ist er Teil einer aktiven Bewegung in dieser Stadt. Als Gründungsmitglied der tOnbande schufen diese mit dem Rekorder aus einer leeren Kneipe in der Gneisenaustraße einen Ort, der nun regelmäßig bei Konzerten, Parties und Veranstaltungen aus allen Nähten platzt. Networking, das ist für Schlakks und seine Leute nicht nur Schulterklopfen unter den coolen Jungs. Sie nehmen es selbst in die Hand und verändern mal eben die Oberfläche der Stadt. "Tat und Drang", der Titel seines neuen Albums könnte nicht passender sein. Und wenn jemand wie der Schlakks von "grenzenlos" und "in die Welt schmeißen" rappt, dann hat das hier tatsächlich einen tieferen Sinn. 

"Tat und Drang" ist mit Abstand eines der freshesten und ansteckendsten Alben, die Dortmund seit geraumer Zeit an den Tag gebracht hat. Hier hat ein Künstler auf seiner Reise seinen bisherigen Höhepunkt erreicht und perfekt dokumentiert. Nie überproduziert passen sich Rhodes Pianos, Worldbeat-Trompeten und Akustik-Gitarren, Beats und seichte Scratches von DJ Cutz Penza dem Flow seiner Worte an. Denn "Warum würzen, wenn das Mahl doch schmeckt?" So schnell wird man dieses Album nicht leid hören. Wir jedenfalls wünschen dem Schlakks nur das Beste für die Zukunft. Oder, ein letztes Mal im Schlakks Jargon: "Nix muss, alles will."

Tourdates 2014:

Schlakks - "Hell sehn"

www.schlakks.de
www.facebook.com/schlakks

DAS KRACH: cool electro from Dortmund collaborates with Ghana reggae stars

After his debut ep „SKiNNY LiTTLE BiTCH“ gained much success on the internet in 2013, specially in South America, the electronic music producer DAS KRACH from Dortmund, Germany released his second piece of work in may 2014. 

On „Nairobi Lights“ Bjoern (DAS KRACH) leaves the roots of his debut, on which he combined urban styles like Hip-Hop and Indiepop music with dubstep and electro elements. Instead, he now is focused on cooperations with the reggae star BLACK PROPHET from Ghana as well as with the dancehall artist MAD TURKEY and his former band JERICHO WALLS. With his unique sound he squeezes the african reggae movement into a highly danceable electro format which is based on modern Moombahton & Brostep elements. Nairobi Lights was produced in several situations and different parts of the world. Armed with his MacBook, Bjoern joined Graffiti writers on their nightlife tours, he worked in almost dark subway tunnels as well as 11.000 meters above concrete in airplanes as well as on La Palma island and New York City.

The Nairobi Lights ep is now fully streamable here:

http://www.daskrach.com

http://www.black-prophet.com

Go to Japan Young Man, and Make a Killer Record Please!Thoughts on Dustin Wong’s album: “Mediation of Ecstatic Energy’

Ex-Ponytail & experimental guitar artist: Dustin Wong (photo: Malcolm Wong)

Dustin Wong’s latest release (Thrill Jockey Records) is a rapt conversation between excited participants that may not even know they live on the same planet. Not that these well-paced loops, colorfully exuberant guitar tones, effect pedaled planetoids of musical dust and light, and the rest of the sounds used on his perfectly titled ‘”Mediation of Ecstatic Energy,’ are capable of dialogue, or live in a particular place. These songs do grow around you, and it seems natural. What I mean by natural, is that this growth beneath you, over you…and so forth--- It just happens before you get too head-stuck into over-thinking this is the case. You’re not thinking about this track or that one, you get caught up in the livingness of the sound, and before you know it by thunder!---- you’re deep within the mad amalgamated beating heart of the thing---half way in, and bound by the blue vines gently wrapping around you-- serving as the slipperiest of manacles.
 

Mediation of Ecstatic Energy

This album is the crown jewel, and final installment of a trilogy. I didn’t find enough meaningful connections with the other works to draw grand themes, or what have you, so I’ll just wax euphoric a bit on what may be one of the best and innovative new albums that have come across my ears in a while. 
 As mentioned---songs on ‘Mediation of Ecstatic Energy,’ feel more like a living organism than a product, well executed or otherwise. The songs visit your body and head without filling any paper work, seeping into your body tissue, or entwining into your hair. Hair drug tests after listening to the album might reveal a heavy dosage of Dustin Wongage! Just imagine music showing up as a drug in your hair. Well sir, the test results are in---you don’t have the job, looks like you’ve been playing a bit too much Pharaoh Overlord for your own good, and certainly for ours!  It’s a fun thought. Anyway, the tunes are closing/opening, perhaps like a plant, or some such life-form that allows you to see its opening, and closing, speeding up its typical motion for your pleasure without need of time-lapse technology. 

Time signatures are unafraid to freak-about, joining up with mordant bass stabs that compliment fiery fine points of guitar work, washed in a protective fluid that travels with the roaming nuclei of emotional depth that spreads itself in many moments during the 14 tracks of album. Most of the music is instrumental, with occasional vocal sounds deftly blurring into the weft of these well stitched together tunes. Upon first listen, the  continuity of the various tracks batting into each other’s eyes, puts me in the mind of listening to Roedelius, perhaps capturing, and releasing with quicker fingers, the sparse and full cosmic lull and lift off  a track from Selbstportrait – Vol. II ----the fourth solo album by the German keyboardist put out in 1970’s. Digging a bit into the artist’s interests—sure enough!! I got that ‘yeah…that was it satisfaction’--- reading about how Dustin was very much into that continuously fascinating German experimental electronic music from 70’s—often called ‘Kosmische’ music. I happen to like that sort of music, so I was all the happier to feel the continuity with something that already lifted me up, and made me pay all sorts of notice, which in turn rewarded.

Mediation of Ecstatic Energy starts with ‘The Big She.’ Oh she’s big alright, a plumpy mash of erratic, energetic lines crossing each other, forming a brilliant loop that jumps about as if reacting to an unseen flash of lightning wearing a flattering lightning bra that burns down to earth, a cadre of lunatics jumping into the fray of sound as it builds and whirs, foot-prints climb in the air all white-gold and jaggy-rising, a portent or an illumination stretches the presence the big gal. Emerald Atmosphere (track 2) borrows the shoes of ‘The Big She’ on her way out, and scatters peacefully to a wide open soundscape enriched by a poised and excited belt of aural dust that flutters and absconds, doubling into itself till it finds itself as Track 3—Imaginelectric. This is the end of the first movement of this mediation, or so it seems to me. Imaginelectric pulls in different directions, exhorting one to embrace the tension--- the deep joy of the splitting-togetherness to be culled into something more powerful. There is no doubt that there is an earnest spiritual quest in this album, something perhaps basted by the wet feelings produced in the artist by moving back to the Japan of his youth. But so much pours over so much. 
M of E E employs a steady diet of counterpoint. Melodies wave to each other constantly. These works grab each other’s hands, crossing paths, hitching onto the train or gliders that carry melodies together--- depending if they’re more terrestrial creatures such as a track like Cityscape Floated (don’t let the title fool you.) The track that precedes this----Liberal Christian Youth Ministry (Wong attended such a place as kid) is a head-full of static-fuzzy guitar pushing up along a vertical column. It sounds like a sort of quiet, but powerful worshiping as it begins, and I thought this way before I knew what the title of the track was, listening to album over and over again. An atmosphere thickens and allows deep breathes. I can only hear the deepest of breathing as ‘Out of the Crown Head’ bows into beginning, and begins to sweat. This album truly manages to lend peace to a heart, as it activates a part of one’s musical spirit that might have been left untouched during your fun moments with many other records that shook you, or took you with it, but didn’t hit a particular spot.

Dustin Wong. Photo: Malcolm Wong

Maybe it’s all the wild, sudden swerving, but always in control movement of the album that makes it sound like such a unitary creature.  All those AB switches that the artist makes such artful use of has produced feelings in this listener that has me grabbing for an imaginary ticket deep in my pocket to so many places, but I need not move from where I am for a ride that will accent a sudden heavy but sweetly precise series of changes in direction within me. Dustin mentions one particular thought in an interview that really summed up where he was going with this work: 
“Sounds allow different contradictions to move in harmony.” I so heartily find myself in agreement with this statement. It’s something that makes listening to music, or music itself, so potentially more liberating than many other activities. Listening to music most certainly does not need to be a passive activity, the equivalent of people being fed their surfeit of media pink-slime as they gaze at a little frying screen, or spool around an inane repetitive pre-packaged vapor—sales-pitch in the drag of music or entertainment. Dustin’s above quoted thought really is the ethos within these songs, and the aura of them. Wong’s aura appears as the umbra of a torched orange shade, and serves as the cover for his album. An aura---an interesting idea at the least!

Here is a video for Imaginelectric: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9vMLgZWH-M

For more on Domenic Maltempi---please visit: http://maltempitown.tumblr.com/

Waves PlugIns günstig bei Waves Universe kaufen - Erfahrungsbericht

Studio Plugins von Waves sind einzigartig, keine Frage. Leider auch im Preis. Wer sich die Bundles einmal genauer anschaut, wird schnell feststellen, dass sämtliche Grundpakete wie SILVER, GOLD und PLATINUM zwar lebenswichtige Standards enthalten, von den beliebten Signature-Serien aber nur jeweils ein Element, quasi als Appetitanreger, beigefügt wurde. Mein Interesse galt daher dem HORIZON Bundle als Mindesteinstieg, von einem MERCURY konnte ich bei einem Anschaffungspreis von 4800 Euro (6300 Dollar) nur träumen. Bis jetzt. Denn wer sich bei www.wavesuniverse.com, laut Internet-Recherchen ein Vater / Sohn Vertrieb und Lizenzverkäufer für Waves, registriert, dem werden sämtliche Bundles schon einmal vorweg teilweise mehrere hundert Dollar günstiger angeboten. Wer nun geduldig wartet, bis Waves in seinem Store "sein Traumbundle" vergünstigt anbietet, dies geschieht bei Waves monatlich mit rotierenden Angeboten, der kann zum richtigen Zeitpunkt mehrere tausend Euro sparen.

Hier mein Erfahrungsbericht: Im Mai 2013 wurde das MERCURY Bundle (Native) im Waves Store für 4 Wochen von 6300 Dollar auf 2899 Dollar reduziert. Nach der Registrierung bei www.wavesuniverse.com wurde mir auf dortiger Webseite das Bundle für 2164 Dollar angeboten, umgerechnet 1600 Euro statt 4800 Euro. Bei einer Ersparnis von 3200 Euro musste ich nicht lange zögern. Das MERCURY Bundle war günstiger als das viel kleinere HORIZON, welches ich ursprünglich favorisierte. Nach dem Kauf bei Waves Universe, deren Webseite ich wegen der recht simplen Aufmachung Anfangs skeptisch betrachtete, erhielt ich die Lizenz binnen 30 Minuten als Email. Im Waves Store konnte ich das Bundle downloaden, mit der Lizenz das Produkt lizensieren und sofort loslegen. Da ich das Bundle auf einem MacBook sowie auf einem Standalone PC ohne Internetanbindung nutze, musste ich im Waves Licence Center die Lizenz auf einen USB Stick ziehen und diesen am PC als Dongle nutzen. Ich habe den selbstgemachten USB Dongle auf der Rückseite des PCs angebracht, so bleiben die vorderen Steckplätze für ILOK und diverse andere Geräte frei.

Ich kann Waves Universe nur empfehlen. 100 % zuverlässig und extrem preisgünstig!

The sound of analog: New York indies Whispering Olympians talk about getting bullied by some hippie bitch, Egyptian gals and the smell of vinyl

Folks who love bands like The Shout Out Louds, Polock or Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin should pay attention to this limited 12-Inch called "Scrimmage Shark EP" by the US Indiefolk duo Whispering Olympians, that was released on Jan. 1st.

It´s Domenic Maltempi and William Olsen from the Hudson Valley region of New York who produced and recorded this 5-song-EP brimful of slacker-cool guitars and soft electronica. On this 300 copies limited heavy black patter Whispering Olympians play diverse Indiefolk that´s going straight to your heart. Listeners will sense the sympatico odour of Stephen Malkmus tickling their noses whenever they´ll give listen to these songs. What a pleasure to meet Domenic Maltempi for an interview at the Barbés Jazzbar in Brooklyn:

LJOE: First of all let me congratulate you guys with your 1st release on vinyl and in general. A lot of musicians told me that it was a magical moment when they opened their freshly pressed vinyl at home and were too nervous to place the needle on the record, fearing they would damage it. So they scratched the needle over the record before it started to play. Did you have a similar experience?

a 1967 West German stamp
was the inspiration for the artwork

Domenic Maltempi: Thanks so much Bjoern. I'm enjoying the blog, and Whispering Olympians are happy to have our first interview appear on a German blog, if for no other reason then that the album art started off with an interest I had in a 1967 West German postage stamp.  If one looks at the finished album cover, you can guess at its peregrinations to its current form. That part of the process of assembling this EP was the most magical moment for me--- seeing the jackets come together. I suppose because I was more involved in that phase of  bringing the material to life in this object, and it's little black round grooved baby inside. My band-mate William Olsen was much more integral in handling aspects of the vinyl record itself.  Don't get me wrong. Seeing that beautiful heavy black platter with band images/names in that center cut--when you first pull it out of its sheath all scintillating is an emotional experience, and yeah, maybe I did feel a bit on edge, junkity-fingered dropping that needle for a virginal ride around the neighborhoods of these tunes.

LJOE: We´re glad that Vinyl is celebrating its comeback. Even fashion stores like Urban Outfitters are selling vinyl next to their collections. Also a lot of people think that vinyl just sounds better when you play it. Agreed?

DM: I remember back in late 90's reading that it was then the only musical format increasing it's unit sales. I think vinyl will always have lovers. I think it will survive many other mediums. It will also always have a market. For me, they were the first ways I experienced music. The first music I ever bought was a 7inch recording of a theme song from an American show " The Greatest American Hero," about some goofy-ass blond-afro guy who was a real shitty super-hero, but sort of 'helpful' in a rude, or tripping, stumbly-bumbly way. If you listened to punk music, or home-made/unlabeled music back then---that was just it's format, so you fell in with it like the friend who wasn't a friend before you were both bullied in a sandbox by some hippie bitch in the fourth grade with psychedelic braids and a gnarly lisp.

Provided that one takes care of their record, yes, it will sound better. An analog medium sounds more there-there to me. There's something less draining or wearily demanding from listening to a record over it's digital counterpart. It's certainly not as convenient. There are more important things then the medium: mastering, speakers, room you're playing it in--for example. There are more senses at work: the smell of the album cover, that light touch of lowering the tone arm into the groove you mentioned above, the sight of the stroboscope indicating the precise turntable speed. It's a hell of a lot more visceral. It's a fuller experience, in a more privileged world where we seem to concede a fuller experience for conveniences that cozen you out of a lot of what you don't even get a chance to know you enjoy! I think the differences have become more and more marginal as far as quality of sound is concerned, but I still hold with vinyl in that old chestnut of a debate.

LJOE: The sounds on your record are very congenial, slacker-cool and relaxed. You sound more like an upstate band (in a positive way!) than a stressed band from New York that has to survive. Where do you take your calmness from? 

DM: Oh Christ, if only I were! I do consider myself a congenial sort, but hardly cool or relaxed most of the time. I'm a  bit of a mess. Sometimes when I really lock into music---dancing or just swaying in a fixed mono-purposed way---I become super-calm---slacking into my messiness with aplomb and great cheer! I'm a bit of a spazz, less of a slacker than I was, but a bigger spazz now! I'm that slightly wet cigarette you can't light up 2 AM---found it in some ratty blazer in a forgotten closet after your body sickened of it's sleeplessness and needed to sit on a porch and smoke. But you couldn't light it up, and paced, and talked to your lighter, and cursed the porch creatures, and cursed the..... OK, maybe I'm being a little hard on myself, yeah I can be sort of relaxed in my own way. Will Olsen on the other hand----and you can just hear it reproduce itself when you listen to these sick hypnotic baritone lines on our album. He's got that unlocked house away from the city sort of spirit running in him. So measured and calm, and just there---- knows a hell of a lot about hydrology, and wood and a bunch of other things along those lines as well!  I've spent a lot of time in upstate, NY---during some many important times in my life. It's a big part of me, and I do think that creating these songs, getting their lives going--up in the Capitol Region of NY-- in Will's house--- is an important component to it's sound.

LJOE: In an earlier interview you said that you´re living "a little too close to your hometown New York". What does that mean? Can you find connections from this quote in the music that you do with William Olsen?

DM: I was probably talking about wanderlust and then thought of wanting to leave New York, which I have before, and always think about, but it's terribly impractical for me. I achieve satisfying this wanderlust most deeply from music and movement inspired by music in a residual way and directly, then by-- say---traveling. I guess people underestimate how sound helps them wander out of their usual mental meanderings and physical every-day places.  But yes, I'm from New York, and not living too far from where I grew up, and that certainly contributes to a tension caused from being too close to what you're overly-familiar with. It might spring up in a lyric, or way of delivering a line, or in tempo.

LJOE: By the way, Vinyl sells good on tours. Will the Whispering Olympians play some shows? 

DM: Yes. I'm not sure if we will be in Germany any time soon. That would be cool. Set it up. Let's do it. I'll drive the helicopter over Europe with a parakeet on my shoulder! But yeah--- we are working towards having enough quality material to play a few shows in and around our area come spring. Hopefully we will have a release in upstate and city of New York, and radiate out from there.

LJOE: Let´s talk a bit more about New York. I guess there is no town in the world that might host more musicians in one city---especially in places like Williamsburg, that where everyone seems to be in a band. Do these circumstances make it easy to play shows and aggregate a pro-music audience?

DM: There are many musicians and bands out there in the area you mention of course. Perhaps friendly competition and the opportunity to be in a roiling pot of a lot of new sounds and bands will improve the quality of some acts.Of course there are far more 'life-style' bohemians out-there using music as a sort of accessory to their collected or acquired coolness----where living in the verges of 'X' means 'Y,' and showing up at gig 'B' renders them 'C'----or something. We have before, and maybe even more so now---you have to ignore a lot of uninspiring or bad bands while searching for one that you might connect to. There's a lot of bullshit in the way. I enjoy seeing a lot of emerging bands, and I certainly hope that more and more people come out to see live music, and interact with other lovers of music, playing or listening. It's fantastic to share these experiences with people through music, and build from them as an artist, or just as plain ole' person.

LJOE: What about the girls? Do they roll their eyes when you mention that you also play in a band or do they still think its cool :-) ?

DM: Oh god, about them? I don't know! Good question. I get mostly half-rolled eyes, if much a response. But it depends of course. I'm in my 30's, and I will get a lot of  'that's nice.'  There will always be those girls who think it's cool that you pursue and take on what you love, and didn't become your dad after pretending to be everything he wasn't (assuming your dad was sort of lame.) I don't know, maybe golf and anarchist entrepreneurialism is hotter right now--or something worse. There will always be something romantic about being in a band, or falling in with a sound from a band. Moses was in a band in Egypt I think---before he moved, and he was considered quite cool by those Egyptian gals and their sexy helmets.

LJOE: So what New York indie-band can you recommend to us and our readers in Europe?

DM: The Crystal Stilts are pretty cool. Caged Animals--- I have a weakness for Twin Sister---Long Island band. I'm probably forgetting so many. I don't listen to a lot of indie-stuff---as loose of a label as we both know that is.

LJOE: Domenic, thank you so much for your time and all the best to you, William and the Whispering Olympians!

DM: Thanks you so much for writing to me about music and our band. 
If anyone would like to check us out, please visit here http://whisperingolympians.bandcamp.com/

I will write a story of no less than 500 words for whoever wants one on whatever topic you choose, and stick it in the album. Just refer to this blog when you order! Albums come with free digital downloads. 

"He will rule and reign this planet with trash and narcissistic paranoia!"

Jérôme Duvall

Jérôme Duvall calls himself "Terry Richardsonesque. Disturbing. The most beautiful something on earth." The indie-electro-trash creature produced his debut in Stuntcat´s NEGATIVLAND studio during the last weeks. You can tell that Jérôme loves chubby beats a la Beasty Boys, urban sounds and french sequencer patterns. Linda, singer and riot woman of the indierock duo Stuntcat, joined him during the recordings and added some vocals for his first single. This song is downloadable for FREE, so help yourself, folks!

 
http://www.facebook.com/Jeromewasntbuiltinaday

http://www.facebook.com/stuntcatmusic

Re:Generation. Remix mastermind Skrillex worked together with the DOORS!

American music producer and remix mastermind Skrillex: people love or people hate him. Skrillex was nominated for a total of five Grammy Awards on Nov. 30th 2011 and three; "Best Dance/Electronica Album," "Best Dance Recording," and "Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical". His latest "Bangarang" EP from Dec. 2011 is an absolut dancefloor smasher as Skrillex picks up early Prodigy and Aphex Twin ideas (like always) and squeezes his fresh synths like other people squeeze oranges for juice. For the Re:Generation project Skrillex even cooperated with three the members of The Doors (Ray, Robby and John) . Re:Generation is a documentary movie that will  come out February / March 2012 and shows 5 DJs (DJ Premier, Pretty Lights, The Crystal Method, Mark Ronson and Skrillex) as they remix, recreate and re-imagine five traditional styles of music. Skrillex and the dying rest of the Doors? Like it our not, it rocks. So come on baby light our fire!

 

Skrillex working together with the dying rest of the DOORS

Stuntcat released their new single "Robert The Doll" for free today

Click the image to download in HiRes

Linda and Bjoern Hering, better known as the german Indie- and Noiserock duo Stuntcat, released their brandnew digital single "Robert The Doll" for free today. The song will also appear on their second album which Stuntcat are writing and producing in their NEGATIVLAND studio right now.

"This gives you the chance to listen to what we´re working on right now", Linda told us. "Feel free to download this song via this player below. In return you could share the song with your friends and tell them to like us on our facebook page", she continued with a smile in her face. So go ahead folks, download and tell Stuntcat that you like´em. We already did because "Robert The Doll" contains wonderful crunchy disharmonies and could be a lost hit from Sonic Youths´ Experimental Jetset, Trash and no Star album from 1994. Stuntcat ties up perfectly to their debut "You look so alien in your bloody tuxedo" and are giving us the hope to get a great developed second album!




- Deaner

Qualität statt Masse - District Audio bietet ausschließlich hochwertige Studiotechnik an

Der Weg zum eigenen Digital-Recording Studio ist heute einfacher denn je und die Musikstores stellen Musikern und Produzenten eine schiere Unmenge von Produkten und Geräten zu sehr erschwinglichen Preisen zur Verfügung. Was vor 20 Jahren noch einer überschaubaren Elite von Tontechnikern vorbehalten war, ist seit der Digitalisierung der Aufnahmestudios nun mühelos in jedem besseren Proberaum wieder zu finden. Wer sich einmal in dieses Feld gewagt hat, kennt den ewigen Kreis des Kaufens und Verkaufens von Equipment zum Zweck der besseren Klangausbeute, der feineren Differenzierung und Auflösung der Klänge und Frequenzen sowie einer sauberen und damit am Ende effektiveren Arbeitsweise. Nur durch naturgetreue Klangwiedergabe, unverfälschte und saubere Samplings sowie einer ausgewählten Mikrofonie ist das Ergebnis, der perfekte Song, ohne Stress, Gefluche und Kompromisse zu erreichen.

Den begeisterten Musiker und Produzenten vor einer Vielzahl von Fehlkäufen und Experimenten zu bewahren hat sich Monocular - Mastermind und Tontechniker Jan Koray mit seinem neuen Shop District Audio zur Aufgabe gemacht. District Audio bietet nicht die unendliche Masse von Recordingprodukten an - stattdessen gibt es ausgewählte, kompromiss - und zeitlose Endprodukte, für die der Shop - und Studiobetreiber beide Hände ins Feuer legt. Universal Audio, Chandler LTD, Emperical Labs, Great River oder Eventide sind nur einige Namen aus seinen ausgewählten Outboard-Schmuckstückchen, Focal und ATCs finden sich in der Abhörsektion. Dazu stehen Vovox Kabelsätze, UAD Karten, feinste Royer Labs Mikrofone sowie Audio PC Komplettlösungen fest im Programm. Die Auswahl ist wunderbar gefächert und erschlägt den Nutzer nicht beim Durchblättern der Webseite. District Audio verfügt über ein eigenes Studio mitten im Dortmunder Süden, wo Kunden bei einem persönlichen Gespräch in gemütlicher Atmosphäre Equipment und Instrumente antesten können. Produzenten und Klangkünstler, die ihre Suche nach der besseren Aufnahmetechnik nun abschließen wollen, um sich die kommenden Jahre aufs Eigentliche zu konzentrieren, sei District Audio unbedingt ans Herz gelegt.

http://www.districtaudio.de

- C.

SOPA/PIPA: American Law, World Problem

The big news in the world today are the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) which both are being developed in regards to online piracy and copyright infringement. Sounds simple? Well, right now they are two most controversial bills, much like the NDAA ,that also infringe on personal privacy and freedom, brought to you by, the US Senate floor. Thought be shelved and vetoed, they are back on the table for restructure and a possible vote later this year, read more here. Supported, as usual, by a combination of democratic and republican lobbyist, movie and music entertainment moguls, and some of the largest internet corporation such as GoDaddy.com, if these bills go through not only is the entire internet risking possible damage to it very core foundation, freedom of speech, but will also it undermine years innovation and integrity.

How will these bills work if implemented? That will be the catch. You see, it is all based on what is "deemed" as copyright infringement. Take the current Wikileaks for example, what if the US Government, or any government for that matter, decided to copyright sensitive, high-security information. The result would be, that under these bills, the US could have all links pointing to Wikileaks terminated, thus terminating the websites accessibility and rendering it useless. The scary thing is that this can be used in platforms such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, Flickr, Twitter, etc—all platforms that were highly utilized by the Occupy Wall Street and Arab Spring movements. SOPA would not only institute the same practices as regimes such as China and Iran that outlaw the tools used by activists and thus circumventing censorship—Even scarier, take this out of the US/European agenda and put these types of bills in the hands of other countries. This possibility of a governments ability to squash dissent is appalling and completely unconstitutional in US politics as it goes against the First Amendment of the United States that says,

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Thinks about the type of message this sends to the world. On TIME's Techland blog, Jerry Brito wrote,

"Imagine if the U.K. created a blacklist of American newspapers that its courts found violated celebrities' privacy? Or what if France blocked American sites it believed contained hate speech?" Similarly, the Center for Democracy and Technology warned, If SOPA and PIPA are enacted, the US government must be prepared for other governments to follow suit, in service to whatever social policies they believe are important—whether restricting hate speech, insults to public officials, or political dissent."

The only way a website will be able to declare immunity from this will be to voluntarily police their own sites and censor. All of this means that it will be harder to share information online. Bottomline!

Reporter/Activist Amy Goodman from Democracy Now reports:
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/17/wikipedia_reddit_to_shut_down_sites

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate — that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

—Mikolaj N. Bakunin

Fighting Pro Tools DAE Error -9073!

Some technical issue on troubleshootings with the music production tool Pro Tools:

A DAE Error 9073 gave me a hard time some days ago.
It happened on my DualCore Laptop (4Gig Ram) that I am using live on stage with a Pro Tools 9 system. I found different ways of solving this problem in different discussions. Everyone had different ideas to solve this error. Here is a quick summery how to help yourself. At least it worked in my case:

1. Extend the DAE Playback Buffer Size to Level 4!
a DAE 9073 happens when the head of your harddrive can´t get the data fast enough to fill the Playback Buffer. Increasing the buffer size gives the system more time to fill the buffer. On the other hand your system acts a bit "lame". Means, if you hit PLAY it takes a second before the software starts to play your regions because the buffer is filling up first. So put it back to Level 2 when you record in the studio.

2. Defragmentize your Harddrive MIGHT work, a better way to solve the problem is to
make a new, very small partition on your harddrive. If your session is about 4 Gigs long, make a partition of 5 Gigs and put your session in there. So the head of your harddrive will not move all over the drive but stays in that very small partition and is able to get the data faster.

3. Pro Tools loves 7200 RPM harddrives. Slower ones may cause the problem.
4. Don´t host your Pro Tools System and the recordings on the same harddrive.
5. Increase HW Buffer Size to 1024 Samples.

Number 3 and 4 did not work in my case. I have a Laptop with a single 5400 RPM drive. Number 1,2 and 5 helped solving the DAE -9073. Well, hope it works everytime in the future, too!

Hosen runter, Schwanzvergleich!

Friedemann Tischmeyer sagt den lautesten Alben den Kampf an

Das Problem ist mir durch langjährige Studioarbeit mit jungen Bands bestens bekannt:
Alle Erwartungen der jungen Leute konzentrieren sich fast ausschließlich darauf, das ihre CD am Ende so richtig knallt. Die Musikindustrie hat es seit 20 Jahren vorgemacht und einen Lautstärke-Standard an den Tag gelegt, welcher erstens als semi-professioneller Studiobetreiber trotz diverser Softwarepusher wahrlich schwer zu erreichen ist und zweitens ein Empfinden von Musik gefördert hat, welches die Qualität eines Songs an der Lautstärke misst.
Im Bewerbungssektor, bei Schreiberlingen diverser Gazetten sowie einschlägigien A&Rs ging eine CD, die es nicht auf den aktuellen Industriestandard von nur 3 db Dynamikschwankung brachte, schnell mal unten durch.
Für den Laien ein kurzes Erklärungsmodell:
Ein leiser Ton im Song besitzt logischerweise wenig Lautstärke, gemessen in Dezibel (db), ein lauter Ton viel. Über dem lautesten Ton des Songs liegt der „Headroom“, der Freiraum bis zur Übersteuerung. Nach dem Studiomix passiert in einem Masteringstudio mit der Aufnahme simpel gesagt folgendes: Der Dynamikbereich zwischen den leisen und den lauten Tönen wird verkleinert, der komplette Song in seinen Wellenformen „zusammengeschrumpft“. Diese durchaus kompaktere Wellenform kann dann in der Gesamtlautstärke weiter in den Headroom hochgezogen werden als der vorab lauteste Ton der Aufnahme. Als Ergebnis wirkt der Song kompakter und lauter.
Diese Technik wurde in den letzten 20 Jahren so verfeinert, das wir nun am Ziel sind: Es geht nicht mehr lauter, die Spitze ist erreicht! Das ist die gute Nachricht. Die schlechte ist, dass die lautesten Songs unserer Zeit keinerlei natürliche Dynamik mehr besitzen, soll heißen, alle Töne matschen auf einer Lautstärke munter vor sich hin. Als Ergebnis hat man eine CD, die man nach drei Songs abschalten muss weil einem danach die Ranunkel bimmelt. Spitzenreiter dieser Disziplin sind momentan Metallica mit ihrem Album „Death Magnetic“ (2db Dynamikschwankung), aber auch „Stadium Arcadium“ von den Red Hot Chili Peppers spielt ganz vorne mit.
Langsam stellen sich hoch bezahlte Tontechniker die Frage, weshalb man an solchen Alben vorab mit empfindlichstem Equipment monatelang produziert um feinste Nuancen in den Songs zu verändern, wenn am Ende der gesamte Mix (!!) bis zum Erbrechen durch einen Brickwall-Limiter gewürgt und sämtlicher Dynamik beraubt wird.

Seit dem 15. Januar 2009 soll sich das ändern.
Friedemann Tischmeyer, Mastering Engineer und Autor zahlreicher Tontechnikbücher, gründete die Non-Profit Organisation „Pleasurize Music Foundation“ (www.pleasurizemusic.com) die sich die Abkehr vom Lautheitswahn zum Ziel gesetzt hat. Hinter ihm stehen schon jetzt über 1100 international namenhafte Engineers und Produzenten, Musiker und Musikliebhaber. Ziel ist die Einhaltung eines Standards von mindestens 14 db durchschnittlicher Dynamik in einem Song und dadurch bessere Klangqualität für alle Formate sowie die Einführung einer Kennzeichnung durch die Plattenfirma auf der CD selbst. Ab Juli 2010 soll der 14 db Dynamikumfang in der Pop- und Rockmusik flächendeckend als Lautstärke-Standart gelten. Damit wäre jede CD gleich laut (so wie die Filmindustrie bereits 1970 für sich einen Lautstärkestandart erhob), die Musik wieder erträglich, interessant und hörenswert und auch die Frustration verschwunden, indem sich eure Fans wieder an euren Songs erfreuen, statt zu mosern, das man eure CD immer viel lauter drehen muss als die von den Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Unterstützt die „Pleasurize Music Foundation“ mit eurer Stimme:
www.pleasurizemusic.com

Hier gibt es außerdem ein Plug-In als VST (ab Mai auch RTASund AU) zum freien Download, mit dem ihr den Dynamikpegel eurer Produktionen messen könnt.
Zum Abschluss ein paar Dynamikangaben bekannter Alben, gefunden in einem Artikel von Fritz Fey:

1987 - Michael Jackson – Bad -13 db Dynamikschwankung
1991 – REM – Loosing My Religion – 12 db Dynamikschwankung
1994 - Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun – 9 db Dynamikschwankung
1997 – Eagle Eye Cherry – Safe Tonight – 4 db Dynamikschwankung
1999 – Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication – 3db Dynamikschwankung

Ab hier wurden die Alben im Rocksektor brutal.

- C.