Banana Pudding

While I've been writing lately on my analog synths, I'm not sure how best to record them. They don't have MIDI, so I have to multitrack them on audio tracks to get them into the DAW I'm working with. I have so many VST synths I could easily find some similar sound to use on one of those. Sometimes too many choices chokes the whole process. I had all day today to get something recorded, but couldn't seem to get motivated. There's this one song that I've been playing around with, and maybe it's just not time yet to commit to a track. I recorded a video of me singing a sort of country song, that may surface some day in one of my things, but it may not ever see the light of day. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

The Pernicious Spectre Tour

Flux Oersted is planning a live performance in the coming months, (TBD) called The Pernicious Spectre Tour. The main thrust is an internet viewable show featuring old favorites and new material from N=108. IMS will provide the venue.

Happy Holidaze

I feel like I've used this title before. If you remember it, please forgive me, I am just caught up in the Christmas spirit. Bless the meek for they shall inherit the toaster oven. I'm trying to be as meek as I can, but when you got as much to brag about as I do, It's hard. I'm trying not to just burst with outward big head vibes that would send everybody into a self-introspection thing. You don't owe me anything, and that's how I like it. The holiday season has traditionally been rather hard for me, with bouts of depression, alienation, isolation, and the like. This year I feel pretty good so far. I'll tell you guys if that changes for the worse, but so far so good. I hope your reality is as nice. Robby.

108 Set One

108 Set One Hear the 20 song list from soundcloud.com in the order intended.

October EP

October EP Flux Oersted has produced an EP for the band, N=108, released in late October. Sources close to the band report that it was mostly music included in Flux Oersted's Volume IV, but that individual tracks had been remastered, and the selection includes some of the new writes since N=108 was formed. New Beginning is a song that was written as a TV theme or for the opening titles of a film. It features guitar, sampled, and played through an amp simulator. Response has been good for this song, and expect more of this type in future recordings. Down the Road is a song that carries a spooky Jupiter 8V part, and another synthetic guitar, played through a distortion amp simulator. Very reminiscent of early Flux Oersted, but built entirely in a notebook computer. Robby Garner's synthesizer playing is poetic in the forms that he takes against the other tracks in the songs. He has a knack for tracing the melody of the bass against what he seems to consider as the backing synth line for that instrument. The instruments are all softsynths, and as such, are almost imaginary in their makeup, but once recorded, they become alive in the essence of classic machinery and samples of real instruments that have been plucked out of the imagination and into the quiver of an musical archer. These are all songs that might have been recorded a decade ago with FM synthesizer modules, but here they are rendered with modern synth emulators and samples that sound very much like the original instruments. Bass guitar and electric guitar are set forth in a very complimentary form to the synthesizers. All in all, October EP, is just a taste of things to come. Soon to be released on iTunes and Amazon.com, get a taste of it at bandcamp.com where you can find FLAC and other high resolution formats available.

Edgar Allen and the Poe Boys

A modern day Edgar Allen Poe, if he would have had synthesizers, Robby Glen Garner makes music of the macabre that follows your footsteps like a landlord without trust. By veil of darkness, by cover of night, he tasks you, he tasks you, until the day be done. Follow the edeavors of Robby/Flux Oersted and his band, N=108, as they mark their path until dawn. You will not be disappointed, and your memories will not be altered. 

We are the music makers And we are the dreamers of dreams - Arthur O'Shaugnessey 1804-1881. (Willy Wonka)

September's New Album

Volume IV by Flux Oersted

Released August 23rd, 2012, heralding the latests synthetic songs by Flux Oersted's band, N=108. With the exception of the first three songs, these are songs that have been accumulating in the "maybe" hopper for the past year or so. Those first 3 songs were brought back from an earlier, discontinued album due to their popularity in Russia. (Not that they will be buying copies of Volume IV)

This is primarily a digital domain produced collection, with a few exceptions. There are songs based on a real Moog Prodigy, and a few songs have tracks played on a real Roland Juno 6.  But for the most part, these tracks have been bounced back and forth between Apple Logic and Propellerhead Reason. I find Logic easier to jot things down with, and it has some of my favorite virtual synths. But finished tracks are then imported to Reason for mastering and for the addition of vocals and other tracks.

N=108 occasionally use Sonar on an older PC notebook in order to use some of my older VST synths, like OP-X and Absynth, but they almost always finish things with Reason because they like the mastering suite and mixer on there.

As for content, I think Volume IV is more entertaining than the last thing Flux Oersted put out, Fabric and Dreams. It's more raw and has a variety of material that I feel has a broader range of song types.

Volume IV is available in multiple formats at BandCamp.com  Also available from iTunes, Amazon.com, Spotify, etc.

The Creative Processing

Song Writing

I started a new song yesterday, writing in Logic, using virtual instruments. I expect the project to end up in Reason, because I like to finish things in there. Reason has good mastering tools, but Logic has some cool virtual synths and I find it easier to jot things down in there.

It's coming along nicely. I'm wondering if I can capture what I hear in my head with the tools that I have. Usually, my songs end up as a conglomeration of things that I didn't plan. This song even has lyrics coming before I finish it, which doesn't always happen. It is serendipity to have things arrive in this order, so that I can add my pads and accompaniment with the lyrics in mind, as opposed to having to fit the words in between whatever I came up with for music.

The percussion for this song is still a mystery to me. I don't want to use loops this time. I am thinking of playing the drum parts on a keyboard, or possibly not having percussion. Why not break with tradition?

I did say recently that I wanted to get away from my time proven formula for song writing. Vocals/Synth/Pads/Drums.  I think the slower you go the more options you have. I'm still trying to follow that sound in my head to see if I can reproduce my imagination. That would be special.

Process of Making Stuff

The Next Big Thing

I've been thinking about my next record album for a while, and thought for a while that I didn't have enough material to start. Actually, it turns out that I've got enough material to reject most of what I had, but that left me with a firm preamble of material that rocks. I've got to keep rejecting songs that are not good enough for a strong next offering.

I thought about some songs that have my traditional synth bass and strings arrangements, and have moved onto songs that are irregular from my past offerings.

There are some songs that I used to like, and some of them have never been recorded. I'm working with songs that were written in 1982, and they are better than anything I've composed since then. I just hope I can tie them together with songs that originated in the new technology. The older songs are more player oriented, whereas the newer stuff is more voice oriented, more of a sound gimmick than the songs that I originally wrote on piano.

Some of these songs are sort of orchestral in nature, and have parts that I have to coordinate and sync in the scheme of things, but we have the technology.

The Laws of Physics