Electronica EP updateWednesday 02 December 2009

Things are progressing nicely on the electronica EP and the first two finished tracks, "Dreams in Plastic" and "Throwing Stones", are now available on the ScarKord reverbnation site. These are veering more towards the cinematic soundtrack side but there will also be a mix of uptempo numbers on the EP to balance things out a bit. Hoping to have the finished EP ready for the new year.

On the collaboration front, Cosmo from Clear Air Turbulence is keen for us to put together a live show next year. This will likely be a mixture of C.A.T. and ScarKord material and I'm just working out the logistics at the moment and listening through C.A.T. material to get a rough running order together. We're also working on some new C.A.T. demos, with me adding additional keyboard parts and sequences to flesh things out a bit.

ScarKord at the movies...Thursday 03 September 2009

Came across this rock climbing video which uses my remix of Oursvince's 'Around' as the soundtrack...

Climbing Newfoundland, Asylum from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Oooh... look at the pretty lights!Wednesday 05 August 2009

Guess what the Postman delivered today? Wasn't expecting it to arrive for a least another week, but Thomann obviously got some new stock from Akai...

Who would have thought...Monday 03 August 2009

... a new soundcard would give you so much joy!

I've been through quite a few soundcards since moving to a laptop and never really got along with any of them. First, I went down the USB route, using my NI Kore controller but got lots of glitches. Then a Novation XioSynth, less glitches but had to whack the latency up pretty high. Then I tried using ASIO4ALL with the onboard soundcard. Surprisingly, this gave the least glitches of all but shocking sound quality. Finally, I made the jump to Firewire via the Focusrite Saffire LE - great sound, but more glitches and flakey as hell! (e.g. Random drop outs requiring a reboot about once an hour.) To be fair, the firewire implementation on my Dell Studio is meant to be pretty crap so it's more likely to be that than the soundcard, but it was still annoying!

But then I found the Echo DJx. All I can say is WOW! Great sound, no glitches at all (!) and running drum racks in Ableton at 3ms latency! Finally, what I'm hearing from my headphones is exactly what I'm playing on the Korg PadKontrol. And being an expresscard, it fits nicely on the side of my laptop with no nasty wires or PSU's to contend with.

Now all I need is my Akai APC40 to arrive, then I can start working out how to take ScarKord live!

(Update - Dec 2009 - Since upgrading to Windows 7 and using the legacy firewire drivers, the Saffire LE is behaving itself nicely! Glad I kept it now as the pre-amps are great!)

StuffMonday 27 July 2009

Just a quick update on what I've been working on of late. (Apart from cracking out a few remixes for AcidPlanet competitions that is!)

I've been asked to contribute a track to a forthcoming SynthVox summer compilation (not that the UK weather is anything like summery at the moment). This will be some original ScarKord material rather than a remix, I'm just trying to decide what style of track will work best. Got a nice little electronica piece I've been tinkering with, with the working title of 'Dreams in Plastic' which is the current frontrunner. Just finished adding in an oboe part (really) which I think sounds cool. Just gotta squeeze in a string part and some drum edits then I think it will be finished.

I'm also collaborating with my old friend Cosmo Valseca of Clear Air Turbulence again, contributing some keyboard overdubs to his latest demos. He's hoping to have some tracks uploaded to his Reverbnation page later this week.

[Update - 3rd Sept] The track 'Sail Instead' is now on Cosmo's Myspace page and features my keyboard parts on the chorus's.

Until next time, SK

Might Like You Better (ScarKord’s Serious Remix)Friday 10 July 2009

Just uploaded an alternative mix at a more sedate 130 bpm. But the mix is anything but sedate! Breaks, false ending, hidden acid, glitched vox and even a little nod to Kraftwerks Tour de France in there too. (Thanks to a vox loop from the rather excellent 'Electronic Point Blank' library).

To be honest, this is much more my usual sound than that drum & bass nonsense I've been dabbliing with (ha ha).

Anyway, please have a listen and leave some feedback on acidplanet if you can. Be interesting to hear whether the 'real' me is preferred to the fake one!

Might Like You Better (ScarKord's Serious Remix)

Another one night drum and bass remixFriday 19 June 2009

Another one night drum and bass remix then - but hopefully quite different to the Bleed Electric one (don't want to get accused of sounding samey - ha ha).

Let me know what you think!

Might Like You Better (ScarKord Remix)

Time for a change in direction?Wednesday 17 June 2009

Funny isn't it. You can spend ages refining, editing and sculpting your electronic masterpiece, making sure not a single beat is out of place and no one listens to it.

But when you spend a couple of hours one rainy evening, doing a 'just for fun' drum and bass remix, everyone listens to it, you get your highest chart placing and loads of glowing reviews!

I think there's a lesson in there somewhere :)

Birds as high as planes - ScarKord remix

Birds as High as Planes (ScarKord Remix)Saturday 06 June 2009

There's a new ScarKord remix available for download over on acidplanet.com. It's a fierce drum & bass remix of the track 'Birds as High as Planes' by the band Bleed Electric.

As well as suitably manic beats and vocals glitched to buggery it features some evil swept bass courtesy of Native Instruments Massive. Not my usual style, but good fun all the same.

Once more into the shed, dear friendsWednesday 20 May 2009

Inspired by reading about Thomas Dolby's fabulous studio in a dry-docked life boat (which looks amazing by the way), I've decided it's time to get what's left of my old studio equipment and set it up permanently in the shed at the end of my garden - better there than gathering dust in the loft or sold for a pitance on ebay.

It remains to be seen exactly how much time I'll get to spend up there, but as I seem to spend half my evening wiring up my laptop / USB controllers / audio interface / Kaoss pad / Bitrman etc. it will be good to have an alternate set-up ready to go.

Stylophone feedback modificationMonday 18 May 2009

Came across a blog entry on Jim Purbrick's website, detailing a feedback modification for the new stylophones that creates some nasty, distorted tones. (Nice!)

jimpurbrick.com

The modification works by routing the headphone output into the mp3 input thus creating a feedback loop. I managed to find a couple of alternative feedback points too (some switched, some through potentiometers) and also took the opportunity to reposition the pitch bend knob to the front panel.

A word of warning though, the quality of the factory soldering and indeed the wiring itself is pretty poor and I managed to inadvertently rip the vibrato switch off of the circuit board - taking the soldering point with it! Fortunately, everything else is working fine and I've repurposed the vibrato switch for a couple of bend points which generate a constant drone - much easier than struggling with the stylus.

I'll hopefully get some photos and sound samples up in the next few days.

Thanks to Jim for the idea!

The man from Delmonte he say...Friday 08 May 2009

... no.

As expected, my Madame Guillotine reworking was just a little too different (i.e. entirely different) to the original so wasn't one of the winning entries. Cole did go into great detail as to his criteria for judging, but his first bullet point pretty much summed it up!

• Still recognizable with the original song - however chopped up and in different styles it may be

Madame Guillotine (ScarKord Reworking)Tuesday 14 April 2009

New remix/reworking available to download from Acidplanet.com.

This is a reworking of the track 'Madame Guillotine' by Cole Coleman. It's technically an Acidplanet contest entry, but is a bit too far removed from the original to be a serious contender. Saying that, Cole himself seems to like it...

"Hello ScarKord, I found your entry to be surprisingly interesting - and I liked it! I would love to see this backing a video. I guess the Experimental genre often hears that. Good work. Thanks for your time and entry!"

Don't mind the messThursday 02 April 2009

I'm just in the middle of revamping the site and migrating parts of it to bandcamp.com, so apologies if any of the links aren't working. Bandcamp looks to have a lot of potential and I really like the simplicity of it.

If you are looking for the ScarKord Distorto plugin, it can be downloaded direct from here or via the plugins link at the top of the page.

Clockwork Robot ColossusSunday 15 March 2009

I forgot how much I hate soldering! Now, does anyone know where in the UK you can buy Altoid mints :)

www.clockworkrobot.com