Much happening at Null Device Media Industries these days.
First off, I’ve finally started writing new material. FINALLY. Nothing’s finished, and most songs have a total of two minutes of recording done on them, but still, it’s a start. I’ve got a few songs with some serious potential to be album tracks, and one that’s already proving to be quite epic (read: it’ll be 7 minutes long) but is all full of breakbeats and big symphonic figures and currently bears no small resemblance to old Hybrid.
I’ve also been accumulating new musical toys. I recently acquired a dholak. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s an indian double-headed drum, used primarily in folk music and filmi. It’s not quite as expressive as a set of tablas, but it’s a damn sight easier to play, and it’s louder. I still really want a dhol (the big clangy barrel drum of the Panjab) but those are expensive. Also, in my continuing focus on rhythm construction, I’ve also purchased a few practice drum pads, some piezo transducers from radio shack, and some sheet steel. These elements will be combined to make drum triggers for the dusty DM-5 at the bottom of my rack.
Why the focus on drums all of a sudden? Because as it stands I suck at doing some of the more interesting rhythm programming, and I’m hoping that both learning to play a real live percussion instrument or two and having a better interface for banging out rhythms than the low keys on my MIDI controller might alleviate some of my crappiness.
But don’t worry, because I’ve also acquired some new software too, and it makes just killer, killer dance-tacular sounds. A smidge on the processor-intensive side, though.Someday soon I’m going to have to break down and buy a new system, but I need to store up some scratch before that happens. I’ll need a new monitor too, since my battered Dell VGA has burn-in from SETI@Home.
The studio renovations are mostly complete. I’ve got some bass traps hanging in the corners of the room, and while they’re not perfect, they do make a marked difference in the sound.
Started a full redeisgn of nulldevice.com. Nothing too radical, just tightening everything up.
And, among other things, I need to get more sleep.