Category Archives: General

Distrokid

Been having a play with the Distrokid service and thought I’d upload my previous three EP’s to the main streaming and download services. So you can find ScarKord on Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Apple etc.

Very impressed with how straight forward it all was and how quickly everything started appearing in the various stores.

If you fancy trying it out for yourself, here’s a link to a discount that will get you 7% off your first year… https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/2911288

The Climb

Had a rare free evening tonight, so created track number three using only samples from Sound Aesthetics Sampling. As it was mainly built around the ‘Mountain’ sample library, I called it ‘The Climb’.

Although it’s a been released as a ‘Jason Vine’ track rather than a ‘ScarKord’ track, there is some pretty extreme processing going on particularly to get the percussion noises. It’s been a great exercise to coax these sorts of noises and patterns out of what are primarily melodic libraries.

The identity crisis

Well, it’s gone full circle. After writing a second song as ‘me’, I’ve now remixed myself.

First, the original. ‘Strange Resonances‘ was once again created only using sounds from Sound Aesthetics Sampling, namely their Mountains and Talua libraries, for their Show Us Your Music promotion. It’s darker than my other Sound Aesthetics track ‘Life In Pieces‘, reminding me of Massive Attack’s soundtrack work at times.

It was still a slower, cinematic track though, so I experimented with ramping up the tempo and it worked surprisingly well some 50bpm faster. The drums needed work though, so I went with a UK Garage / 2-step style broken beat which topped things off nicely. I also added some extra strings too for the extended breakdown section.

So, where to next?

Thanks for listening!

Four posts in four days! Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has listened to my #loopathome tracks on soundcloud and metapop. It’s a marked difference to the trickle of listens I usually get on soundcloud, although it’s also true I haven’t been particularly productive over the last few years.

I’ve obviously been a lot more blocked than I had realised, and whilst a large part of that is due to the disruption of moving the family home and taking on a massive rebuilding project over the last couple of years, I do still get time in the studio but generally procrastinate or create little 8-bar loops that I decide to throw away due to self-doubt.

But, this weekend of experimentation gives me much to feel positive about and look forward to, as well as putting me in touch with a new group of talented musicians from around the world. Let’s keep it going!

Native Meetup London

Had an excellent time at the Native Meetup today at London’s Point Blank studios. Lot’s of really interesting tutorials throughout the day and great to meet so many talented and friendly London based musicians and DJ’s.

Highlight for me (apart from the ‘Breakfast in Bread’ lunch by the canal with my fellow attendees Colin and Rob) was trying out the new Native Instruments Maschine Jam and it’s brilliant. Particularly like the touch strips and the way you can use them to ‘strum’ instruments. It’s really intuitive and lots of fun too – will definitely be getting one of those soon!

They are planning to run these sessions every two months or so and the next will be on Sunday 4th December. More details will be on their facebook page…

www.facebook.com/groups/1168432673181443/

It’s a thumbs up!

Well, not only did I get the chance to remix my musical heroes, Plaid, but I’ve also had an e-mail from Andy Turner of Plaid too, who wrote…

Though it’s not a factor with the competition, I must say your mix is my favorite in to date 🙂

It doesn’t get much better than that!

Modular Update 1

So I stripped all the modules out of their rack and made a start on adding the additional 3U space. Nice to finally find a use for all that ridiculous Amazon packaging!

modules

Here’s what the empty rack looked like before I started.

empty rack

Next, I created a cardboard mock up, just to get a rough idea of measurements.

mock up

Then, using some left over MDF and plenty of polyfilla, I added the new, sloped front to the existing rack.

sloped front 1

sloped front 2

Next step will be to sand and repaint it, then add a few little bits and bobs such as an XLR connector for the PSU. I already cut some internal access holes to pass the cables through for the spring reverb tank and bus rail which should both be arriving any day now. The MFB Seq 01 is delayed until early Feb though 🙁

Have also had a slight rethink about some of the other modules and will likely get an Intellijel unity mixer to give me space for more tiptop drum modules. Also, seriously considering a XAOC Moskwa sequencer which I researched last night – looks fantastic, but will have to rejig the bottom row a little to fit it in 🙂