Robert Henke aka Monolake

I came across this video after reading through various music forums. Robert Henke is a software engineer for Ableton. He is also part of Monolake an electronic music act based in Berlin along with Gerhard Behles (CEO of Ableton), and Torsten Pröfrock.

The video is a 1hr 35mins long workshop in New Zealand and is defintly worth a watch if your into Audio Engineering and Live Performance/Music Production.

Click to watch the video

No Country for Old Men

Saw this a few weeks back and although I thought it was a good film in parts it just didn't seem to explain enough for me, the ending never came to anything although it left you thinking afterwards which I did like. I thought Javier Bardem played a really good antagonist and thats what made this film shine. I'd give it a 7/10 and would still recommend it as a watch.

Directed by the Coen Brothers.

In rural Texas, welder and hunter Llewelyn Moss discovers the remains of several drug runners who have all killed each other in an exchange gone violently wrong. Rather than report the discovery to the police, Moss decides to simply take the two million dollars present for himself. This puts the psychopathic killer, Anton Chigurh, on his trail as he dispassionately murders nearly every rival, bystander and even employer in his pursuit of his quarry and the money. As Moss desperately attempts to keep one step ahead, the blood from this hunt begins to flow behind him with relentlessly growing intensity as Chigurh closes in. Meanwhile, the laconic Sherrif Ed Tom Bell blithely oversees the investigation even as he struggles to face the sheer enormity of the crimes he is attempting to thwart

Closer to the Edit

Richie Hawtins 2001 album named DE9: Closer to the Edit got me thinking about producing. I stumbled across this on the web a while ago and it made me think.

"After recording, sampling, cutting, and splicing over 100 tracks down to their most basic components, I ended up with a collection of over 300 loops, ranging in length from 1 note to 4 bars. I then started to recreate and reinterpret each track, putting the pieces back together as if an audio jigsaw puzzle- using effects and edits in between each piece. This 53 minute piece, consisting of over 70 tracks and 31 ID points, represents what those loops became, and how their interactions created something that had not existed before."

Richie Hawtin

This is something that has given me ideas for producing, I always struggle with arrangement but I have a few loops I've made myself. I am going to strip them down even more to there basic components and try to make a small mix using simple edits in the same vein as Richie Hawtin to see if my work will flow better!

The Orphanage

I've just watched, The Orphanage and I've decided to write about it on my blog. I thought it was a brilliant film that was really well directed. It's geniunely creepy in some parts and the acting is excellent, there is a very creepy atmosphere throughout the film, in the same vein as Pans Labyrinth which coincidentally was directed by Guillermo Del Toro, he however Produced this and is directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. Some of the shots will have a big influence on my short 6 minute film, which I hope I can give a similar feeling of atmosphere.

The film did feel like it dragged a little in parts but this only adds to the films atmosphere, its defintly better paced towards the end of the film when her Husband leaves her in the orphanage alone. The ending is fantastic and don't be put off by the subtitles. Go and see it!

Interview with J.A Bayona and Sergio Sanchez on The Orphanage

40 Second Pilot

Underground TV

A few weeks back I was working for the Underground TV, which was initially a student project but it managed to get a contract with Propeller TV sky channel 195, the programme is about underground dance music and looks at a lot of upcoming as well as estabished artists.

My role as one of the camera operators, gave me the experience of working in a professional environment whilst working towards a deadline. This left no room for error so the setup had to be perfect for the one take as a lot of the artists where under time constraints.

Music Production

Bit of a catch up

Decided to post a link to myspace as I've put a couple of tracks up that I done a while ago, although these are still not finished I thought it would be suitable to post, as I've had a serious lack of updates on my blog. Style: House/Techno

www.myspace.com/davidgowansmusic

I've had a few DJs requesting me to finish them so they can play them out, mainly extending intros and outros for mixing purposes and putting a few variations in the beats and a bit of filter play to build areas and drop them. Im trying to get my tunes so they sound as though they are all the same style without sounding samey. Im quite pleased with them so far and think they are a good basis to work from.

They were produced in Ableton Live 7, plugins used where mainly Simpler for messing with samples using the lfo envelopes, pitch attack etc. Impulse for programming the beats and the Waves package for compression, EQ, Delay and Reverb, using Automation to bring the Dry/Wet of effects to build parts and drop them.

Luckily I've had the benefit of producing from two different computers with there own monitors, Tapco S8's and Yamaha HS50Ms, this has given me the ability to realize that monitor speakers can sound completely different, I realizied the bottom end on my speakers (Yamaha) was too much so when I tested my tracks on the Tapcos they barely had no bass at all!