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.