Signal to Noise Magazine

Keston and Westdal’s latest release, One Day to Save All Life (ODTSAL), has been reviewed in Signal to Noise, The Journal of Improvised and Experimental Music. This review from “The most respected journal of experimental, improvised and otherwise interesting music” (DustyGroove.com) is the highest praise yet for the release. Please visit Unearthed Music to read the review.

Unearthed Music makes full-length 128kbps MP3 previews of every track in their catalog available on their website. So, in light of the review I am including one of my favorite tracks from ODTSAL, Electric Sheep, as today’s sound on AudioCookbook.org. If you like what you hear consider purchasing music from our independent and artist owned label. Why? Because without your support we and others like us would not be able to continue providing you with the music you love. And what kind of world would that be?

Electric Sheep

 

ACB August 2008 Sample Pack

Today, freesound.org approved the ACB August 2008 sample pack. This sample pack is comprised of sounds found on AudioCookbook.org that were posted during the month of August, 2008 in the Share Remix Adapt category. My goal is to package these sample packs on freesound.org once a month so you have access to high quality versions of the sounds on ACB.

Each sound is uncompressed and available through freesound.org in it’s original .wav format for free download and use in non-commercial works (I will most often grant permission for commercial use if you contact me in advance). If you make use of these samples please consider donating to ACB using the paypal link in the sidebar.

Piano Mallet Bass

The sample I included in the Piano Mallet Loop has been used in three pieces that I know of so far and are all linked somewhere on AudioCookbook.org. So tonight I am presenting another example of using a mallet to produce sound with a piano instead of using the traditional keyboard that we are familiar with. The mallet I used to get this sound was the steel handle of a socket wrench with some thick rubber bands wrapped around one end. I bounced the rubber bands of a few of the strings in the lower register and got this simple bass melody.

Piano Mallet Bass

Here are the pieces that used Piano Mallet Loop. All of them are very nice. A big thanks to tacitdynamite, Fourstones, and small.cat for sharing their compositions.

Little Ditty #1 (tacitdynamite)

Mississippi (Founders Mix)

Red (small.cat)

Cuba, Illinois

Once again, today I set out to experiment for a few minutes and make a new sound using some processing I had yet to use. But like it is prone to happen, as I tweaked and played around a musical piece started to emerge. I sequenced a series of vocal samples then applied a real-time randomizer to the sequence. Second in the chain was a vocoder plugin programmed to produce a Csus chord, followed by a stereo delay. Underneath it I layered a low melody and automated the waveform setting for one of the oscillators to get a digitized static effect. I titled it Cuba, Illinois after a town of about fifteen hundred people in Illinois called Cuba. I’ve never been there, but I like the juxtaposition of the town and state names.

Cuba, Illinois (Rough)

Fifty Consecutive Sounds

Today notes the fiftieth entry in my One Sound Every Day project. That’s fifty entries in as many days. I wasn’t sure I would be able to manage this task, considering all my other responsibilities and interests, but it’s been a fun and delightful journey. I have had to give up a few vices and a few positive things too. My piano practicing has suffered, but I don’t doubt that I will be able to remedy that eventually.

The good news is that the discipline involved in producing something every day has created a bi-product of about fourteen new pieces, and this was not even the goal of the project. So, to mark my fiftieth entry I have decided to let you hear an unreleased full-length rough mix of the first composition I have completed that is a result of contributions to One Sound Every Day. Please have a listen and feedback is always welcome.

Forgotten Complex (Rough)