The Problem with Music

Its kind of late and I am not around any of my music equipment, and I'm stuck in a real shitty youtube video vortex, and I guess this blog post is my last attempt to escape it. Basically, I stumbled upon this video after watching a few Glen Fricker vids (real smart dude by the way, even if his aesthetic is a bit overdone, check out his channel here). After reading the comments on said video, I felt a real compulsion to listen to shlohmo and write this post.

Glen Fricker spends quite a bit of time talking about how the human element of music is being "edited out." He spends quite a long amount of time ragging on drum samples, and how they can never have the feel and emotion and subtle variation of live drums. Glen also talks about autotune, and this one comment on the aforementioned boyinband.com video cited autotune as being the one sign of "no talent." Basically, it seems to me like alot of these people are seeing a fundamental issue with alot of music technology that has come out today. They see it as corrupting, or trying to shortcut some essential element of music, and they want to lambast the culprits for it.

First, let me address Glen Fricker. Glen Fricker's complaints about samples make absolute sense, given his exposure to drum samples and how he has seen them used in the studio. If you are a metal band, and you want to get that big fucking drum sound, then yeah sample replacing will make ur drums sound lame as shit, because glen is absolutely right when he says that samples will never have the feel of live drums. Samples aren't live drums, and the idea that supposedly talented musicians are content with having producers sample replace their hits is fucking sad. So in that respect, I agree with glen.

I disagree with the concept that samples in general are always bad in every conceivable way. Like, shit, do you listen to hiphop? Like, come on. Really? You think all hiphop is terrible? Glen probably can tell sampled drums from real drums, and so i guess he is allowed to hate "all hip hop" but the rest of you probs couldn't pass a double blind test. My guess is that all of you are about as dumb as me, and I sometimes wonder if I could truly tell the different between live drums and sampled drums with my eyes closed. But the point, sampling is objectively not a bad thing, and has an interesting aesthetic in its own right. Early hardware samplers in particular have a very interesting lowpass filter (becuz of the lower sample rate) and graininess to them that live drums don't have. Samples can be pitched up, pitched down, reversed, bitscrambled, and enveloped all with relative ease, and that shit can sound cool as fuck. Like seriously, it can. Yeah, samples can't replace live drums, but i'd like to see live drums make some venetian snares.



Like, live drums cannot make that sound. Like, they fucking can't. And I don't mean to say that live drummers can't play as fast, because they can, but live drums will never sound that choppy, never sound that screwed, it will never sound like that. Do you see what I'm saying? And if you wanna say "well sounding like that sounds dumb" then thats your prerogative, but its my right to buy and purchase and share music that I think is cool so I'm gonna do that, but don't go around saying that venetian snares doesn't make music or doesn't have talent. Literally, pull your head out of your ass. It would take you literally a million years to figure out how to make that song, shut the fuck up. And it is music, because a substantial group of people enjoy it like they enjoy other things that you call music, and music is a social construct anyway, so fuck off.

Next, I want to address the complaint by Glen Fricker and millions of other "true music fans" that autotune sucks. Again, autotune sucks when its used to make up for a singer's bad and out of practice singing. But, when autotune is used as an effect itself, it can sound pretty cool. When a singer who can actually control their voice sings with autotune, and the settings on the autotune are just right, then autotune can essentially be used to allow a singer to control a synthesizer. Check this shit out:

   

Like, look at that shit, they took two vocal tracks, ran them both through autotune, and hardpanned them, and you get this fuckin sweet stereo soundscape thing, where the machine processes the voice differently at some points, and the same at other times, and it sounds real cool. You get this weird funky thing which sounds cool. Thats what autotune can do if you use it right. It's like, the song has to be built around the autotune, it can't just be thrown in for no reason.

But lets really address a deeper issue here. People keep talking about a "problem with music" and here is the real truth. There is no fucking problem with music. Or really, put much better, the problem with music is not the fact that people are using samples or autotuning their voice. The problem is that idiots who don't know what the fuck they are talking about say dumb shit on the internet and it makes me get mad and write these dumb blog posts about a topic that everyone already knows the truth about. There is no such thing as "good music" other than music that lives up to its own standards, and its up to us as a society to decide whether artists succeed and fail in doing what they want to do. Some people think very heavily about that, some people don't, but it is all a process, an active interpretation. We all actively contest the definition and value of music everyday by what we listen to, how we listen to it, and how much we pay for it. And its evident that based on youtube comments, some people value music alot more highly than others.

This was a shit blog im sorry just like fucking youtube comments man oh my god.

what i am doing with my life

well, Im headed back to carleton p soon. I'm bringing all my music equipment with me, but only so that I can do shows there. Someone from my school found out about [The Rap Album] and pretty much shouted it out everywhere. So yeah, I've got a following i guess? idk. Somebody told me that they were getting high and listening to it with friends, and that made me really happy because thats the kind of stuff i want people to do with my music. Idk, i'm just glad my marketing-by-not-marketing worked so well with the 18-24 year old demographic.

Because like thats the thing. I don't want my music to be discovered on the radio. I want my music to be something you stumble upon at 3am, something that your friend sends you and its only got 1000 views on youtube. Something that one guy you know really likes and you think, "idk, maybe i'll check that out." Idk, If you hear a song of mine on the radio, its gonna be a song you didn't know about and you'll wonder why you think its so good and then you'll be like "OH WAIT x^2 MADE THIS FUCK". Idk, something like that.

So yeah, the reason the "x^2 is bored" pretty much stopped was laziness, album release, and now I have to pack up my shit to send it all to college. I'm sure I will be able to make videos when I'm at college tho, even if I'm not gonna do any new song writing. But i've got some stuff in the works. I've been thinkin about new songs for sure. Idk if i'm gonna try to workshop material that i made two years ago and release it anymore tho (even tho i got a fuckload of material I could do that with), cause thats what the rap album was and idk if i was happy with the way it turned out. I wanna make new shit now. Idk, maybe you will get the rest of 2012-2013 x^2 at some point. I've been listening to alot of twinklecore recently. Its gonna be rad.

Anyway, see ya'll later! Keep it real, and remember to send an email to theneedledrop.wnpr@gmail.org and tell him to review my album. See you in a couple months, maybe even sooner! Love ya to death!

Got my meds back

So that was fun, but not that fun. I'm glad i have my medication now because that means I can actually do things. In fact I've basically finished 2 more tracks on the rap album. So that's pretty cool. I forgot what not taking my meds for so long feels like, and I don't know why I used to think it was "fun". In all honesty, it's kind of like tripping acid. My brain moves a mile a minute and thinking is so easy but actually doing stuff is hard AF and interacting with people is a bit weird and like everything is just really overwhelming. Idk, its not that fun. I mean it is fun, but its not like, good. Idk. It's weird. It's not healthy probably.

The good news is that a thought alot about the game I'm making. Not Varg (speaking of which i just played through the demo and it says it would be out summer of 2013 WOW i fucked that up), but another game. It's called "My 8-bit Existential Fantasy" and is basically a ripoff of Yume Nikki. It's gonna be weird AF and creepy as hell. I'm also gonna have fun designing all the music which is gonna be balls weird. Like all sorts of weird mangled and bizarre loops and all sorts of disorienting things that are bound to cause cognitive dissonance. It'll be a grand old time. Idk when thats gonna happen though.

For now, I need to concentrate on finishing the rap album. That shit has been unreleased for way to long and it makes me sad. I have like 4 of these albums planned out in my head and its like most of them don't really need any new songs (except for one). but like I've got the schematic of all of them laid out. I just need to stop being lazy and actually make them happen.

I feel really bad about wasting my break, but there wasn't much I could do about it. Like, Just coding the midi sequencer was alot of effort, and the only reason I was able to finish it was becuase i could copy alot of code from other projects. Idk, ADHD is real man.

Anyway, hopefully classes wont be to tough this term and I can still make some music. I'm gonna do a ton of live shows this term, thats for sure. idk if i'm gonna do another radio show, but like, i'm gonna perform a bunch. so if you're in minnesota, check it out.

I'm gonna go to bed.
             

So college is cool

That's where I have been all this time. I really really really like it. Thank you Carleton. I had some free time so I'd figure Id update this because I haven't. The music has been put on hold for a bit, mainly because I haven't found the time to just kind of sit down and compose stuff. There's always something to do. I've also just been trying to put a band together and that takes time. I haven't really adjusted to the new environment enough to record yet, so most of my musical output has taken the form of improvised jamming, which I've been doing via my radio show at Krlx.org. It's from 4am to 6am Minnesota time. Check it out.

I have grown kind of tired of recording. I like the instantaneous-ness of improvisation. Everything you do is immediately laid out. At the same time, I really appreciate the precision of recording. It's just nice. Making songs on my laptop is also kind of hard because I'm not as used to FL 10 as I am to FL 8. I just like the way FL 8 works. I am familiar with it.  

Anyway, you all should tune into my radio show if you really wanna know what I am thinking about. Maybe I'll have a new song at some point, but I just don't think I'll find the time for it. IDK. We will see what happens.

See ya later!

I might be taking a break from music for a while

Idk, I just haven't been feeling it recently. I'll try to finish mastering the new EP for August. I still havent got a new microphone shockmount yet so I can't really do any serious recording. I don't think the rap album is gonna be finished in time. Writing lyrics is so hard for me even when it's not rapping and when it is rapping it's even harder. I feel like I don't have any conceptual basis for my music right now, you know? Everything is just kind of "oh i bet this is cool" or i feel like I'm trying to hard. There's no greater point anymore, you know?

I'm thinking of doing stand up. I've been writing some material and I'm gonna try to find a comedy club open mic and preform some of it. I also might just record me telling the jokes in my room and upload that to youtube or something. I need to get some press.

Idk, it's a weird time. I feel like I've reached some pinnacle because my high school self has everything it wanted, and I haven't evolved enough to want something new. I have nothing to strive for, and I'm not dead yet. I've plateaued.

I'm not gonna try to force music out of me. If I wanna make a song I'll make it, but I'm not gonna lie to myself by making something I don't want to. I hope you all can understand that.

But I don't have like any fans so what the hell who cares.

Despite you're best efforts I am still alive

Hey guys, just wanted to give you a quick update on whats going on.

I am alive, and just graduated high school. Woop de fuckin doo, i know, but this means that now music can really take a top priority for a while. There's gonna be alot of content this summer, both music and otherwise., and it will all be really cool.

First off i'm working on a new EP thats gonna come out around the beginning of july and be all shoegaze. Then there is gonna be an album coming out around august. Or at least I think there will be. Idk. Rapping is hard.

I'm gonna try to put new videos on the youtube atleast every week, so thats something to look forward too as well.

Maybe I'll even try to get a gig. The last one went pretty okay.

1500 hits to the website

we are just chuggin along aren't we. It's not that much, tbh, but its a really nice and rounded out number.

I wonder when I will get 3145 views. Maybe you can help?

new song + whats up everybody

Made a new song. Go check it out in the singles section. It is very aphex twin inspured becuase thats all i was listening to this morning while I did my homework. then I finished my homework and I was like "I wanna make a song" so i made one and it sounds like Aphex twin. It isn't that surprising.

It's also mastered differently then most of my stuff is. Most of my just has a limiter on the master and that's that. But with this one, I subtracted 8.0 dB from all the channels and then set the limiter gain to 8.0 dB and the ceiling to 0.0 dB. This is essentially zero gain, but it still sounds louder than it would have if we had just set the limiter gain to zero (or at least that's what my ears are telling me). Now, not only do we preserve some of the dynamic range, but we also get the loudness. It also feels a bit more open and spacious, because all the signals aren't mushed together.

Mastering is surprisingly difficult. Most of the tracks on TYGFAC don't have limiters on them at all because I didn't really know what it was. All I noticed was that when I wanted to have a bunch of instruments the limiter made everything really quiet and when I had only one or two instruments it made those super loud (listen to Industrial Horror Funk, near the end, you'll see what I mean). I also didn't know that going beyond 0 dB was bad, and I couldn't hear any distortion through my headphones. On the other hand, when I listened to some of the tracks on my old speakers that my grampa gave me, everything sounded really shitty. There's wasn't straight up distortion, but it all sounded really muddy and murky. Essentially when I listen to it on anything other then my beats headphones it sounds really bad. On the other hand none of my friends seem to notice anything wrong with it, so who knows. Maybe these speakers are just shitty.

I'm thinking of remastering all the songs on TYGFAC and then putting out a cd. I mostly wanna do it because that album cover is too fucking good to not ever see a physical existence. I don't know when I'll do it but I will at some point, and it will be so cool.

Anyway, that's whats up with me. Go download the new song.

Look how close the donate button is to your mouse

It is surprisingly close now. Only the most recent post is available to look at and there isn't an archive which is maybe not the best idea thing but I really like the fact that the donate button is so close because now people might actually be able to see it and only when they see it can they click it and give me all of their money.

I had a weird dream. I went to a Dubstep concert and some nerdy kid I know was blowing up a playground. It was kinda lame and underwhelming.

In other dubstep news, my MLP dubstep video has reached nearly 1000 views, with 661 of the views coming from the United states. That is a pretty clear act of god in my opinion, and definitely shows you wear the internet's priorities are. 931 views, it is my most viewed video of all time. Other interesting statistics include that 90 percent of people stop watching the video after the first minute, and the video is most popular with men aged over 65.

Anyway I'm still stuck in the midwest so no new content but you can watch this video of me playing "Big Buck Hunter". It's pretty friggin sexy and I get every bitches. I didn't want to talk loud though because I thought everyone on the boat would look at me weird. But after they saw my impressive Bison hunting skills they did all look at me but instead of laughing at me they said "Look at his powerful erection" and I was like "thank you it is very powerful" and then every girl sucked my dick and I am not lying at all.

Blogging is hard when you can't think of anything to blog about.

WHO IS PSYCHED FOR DESERT BUS???

I AM PSYCHED FOR DESERT BUS!!! Man this is about to be the most Canadian thing about Canada. Like More then maple syrup. A bunch of funny Canadians (that also happened to be members of the famed sketched comedy group loading ready run) will play the world's most boring video game Desert Bus until people stop giving them money, and then donate all that money to charity. And of course, they stream their pain and suffering live over the internet, so that you can laugh. But they also do all sorts of cool things like have auctions, giveaways, and celebrity guests. They also let YOU, THE VIEWER, ask them to do silly thigns in exchange for a donation. It's so awesome.

It's gonna be starting this Friday, November 18th, 6:00 PM PST (that's 9:00 PM EST) and its gonna be the best thing to happen since the universe was created. You can go to http://desertbus.org to find out more and stay posted.