Myxological

Where the fuck is the sun?

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:01:55 +0000

It’s late February. The sun literally hasn’t been out in like 6 months I think. You’d think one would sleep more when there’s no sun, but it just ends up confusing me.. my preamble to being in a nursing home shadowing and driving the staff crazy (the one future pro). Some things just aren’t cool.. including today’s entry into the Throw Away Music Series. Thank goodness for LOST tonight. Until then.. sound effects.

Peace Please

A Song a Week?

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:51:16 +0000

I meant to get alot of work done this week, both on my own music and the projects I’m on.. especially as I’m signing a deal to do a new iPhone game. But then the Starcraft 2 beta happened and I lost my fucking mind and became the best low-level Zerg player the world has ever seen.

Then tonight, inspired by Jonathan Mann’s “Song a Day”project that he’s been doing for like well over a year now, I put myself back to work. While I doubt I can live up to a song a day with everything that’s going on, I aim to hit at least 1 Throwaway Music Series entry a week.

Tonight’s Entry:
Feel Better

Ray Ray’s Birthday Remix

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:28:15 +0000

For my friend Ray’s birthday this past weekend, my apartment was scheduled to be the place of a mass celebratory gathering. Any time people come over though, I usually assume it’s because they just wanted to dance on my carpet (very soft and blue). And since most of Ray’s friends are really into the new generation of folk stars, I figured I’d remix a David Dondero song to be fitting for the occassion.

Artist: David Dondero (Remix by Robot Horse)
Track: REMIX The Stars Are My Chandelier
http://www.RobotHorseProductions.com/music/Remix_RobotOnDondero.mp3

Monday Night Mixer

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:31:32 +0000

It’s February 1st, and it may be my first day fully sober since a week before New Years, which means 2010 has just started for me. My New Years Resolution was to try less noise for a few weeks, but like the standard-fare rapidly ballooning facebook women who LOL to everyone about the weight they promised to keep off while posting pic after pic of themselves birthing Heinekens, I’m finding myself making nothing but noise.

My first actual recording of 2010 features me losing my mind and coming to with a sander wrapped in a t-shirt resting on an acoustic guitar with an ebo taped to the strings.

You Know Better

Thirsty Horse – The Love Each Other Compilation

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:26:58 +0000

I began writing and recording music at the tail end of 2006. I’ve spent the past year or two toying with the idea of putting out an actual album, but it never happened, mainly because I wasn’t confident in the material but also because when you first start doing anything you take it much too seriously in a weird kind of way. Or maybe that’s just me.

But recently I have kind of hit a point where I want to move on from all the work I’ve done and just move forward with where I’m at now. I didn’t want all the old material to just go to waste though, as I know it would rattle in the back of my head to rework and re-record alot of these songs to be able to use them for something in the future. I kind of don’t want to deal with that. So instead I picked 10 songs from the past 2 years that I am not completely embarrassed of, and have meticulously hand-crafted the “The End of Thirsty Horse : The Love Each Other Compilation : Bullshit from 2007-2009″ album.

In other words (my manager says I need to create hype, not anti-hype) DOWNLOAD MY CD ITS REALLY GOOD. Pete and Shaun G liked it, and they’re as different as apples and oranges.

Download track by track or the entire zip file below. If you like it, feel free to donate. I love money more and more these days.

Complete Album in a ZIP file

Individual Tracks:
01 Screwed
02 Apart
03 Strongest Man Alive
04 Breather
05 Destroy the Need
06 Oh the Fun
07 Floating (Big Wilson River remix, featuring April Acerno)
08 Carry the Weight
09 Fire
10 The Next Step

Space Rocks – The Official Soundtrack

admin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:51:56 +0000

For Madeleine Bliss’ 2009 art exhibit, I was asked to record narration and create a custom soundtrack for the video accompaniment to the show itself. Complete Soundtrack can be downloaded here free of charge.

*Update. Space Rocks Video is now Live!*

Space Rocks: A Look at Far-Out Minerals from Madeleine Bliss on Vimeo.

Electronic Sound Design & Effects Chains

admin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:15:24 +0000

(effect chain on base drum and snare tracks)

Why redo the work if it’s already been done? That’s often my thought when going for a particular sound. It’s usually easiest to take the closest preset available and tweak it until it is close enough. I still whole-heartedly support this mindstate, as the minutiae can easily sidetrack and destroy whatever vision was forming when you sat down to begin work.

The only danger of that mindstate is that you are then reliant on other people’s work (presets), and when it comes time to honing in on the sound you really want, you don’t understand so much what you’re doing. Alot of times I find myself turning nobs randomly just in hopes that it will end up being the magic control that makes everything perfect. That rarely happens.

NicksTutorials.com has been a great asset in really getting into understanding what makes each sound. He sells video tutorials that go in depth through every feature and function of the oscillators and envelopes in Ableton Live (all of which grants an understanding that I’m sure could be used in any application). From how to achieve specific timbre for a sound, to how to layer the levels of the oscillators to control every moment of the sound, to utilizing complex effect chains to essentially make any sound you want from the digital source. Utilizing the ability to chain layers of instrument and effect macro controls together, in conjunction with my new digital mixing board, is making it incredibly easy to do things that I previously thought were quite difficult.

This is another entry into the Throw Away Music Series that I threw together to experiment with tonight. No sound or effect presets are used. Everything is built from scratch except for the drum samples themselves (which are heavily modified by the ground up effects chain anyways.. and my new love for Redux).

http://www.RobotHorseProductions.com/music/general/ExperimenTATION.mp3

The Throw Away Music Series

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:08:12 +0000

I spend alot of time working on initial ideas that never end up evolving into anything usable for any project. Normally I just pack these quick one to two hour experiments up into a folder, where it then lays forever forgotten. I figured that instead of doing that, it could be cool to post them on a somewhat hidden blog instead. Here’s tonight’s throwaway experiment. It utilizes a source sound of the spring of the cup holder in my car (when you expand it to allow for a drink to fit in), with basic drum tracks and a very basic oscillator.

http://www.robothorseproductions.com/music/general/SpringBug.mp3