smueske

Coax, thank you very much for listening!

This was a pretty cool experiment. I think the second section was the most successful. I didn't really think of whales. I thought of a bunker or room miles underground, weird lighting, the hum of strange machines bent on becoming self-aware. Very meditative. I like the drone-like frequency interspersed with shorter feedback loops. Very cool. It would be cool if you could record a few of these and work it into a composition.

"Night Drive" was mastered this week. As promised, it is now posted on Reverb Nation and is available as a free download for two weeks. Also, all 13 songs from the forthcoming album have been uploaded in the highest MP3 resolution available. Steve Mueske - ReverbNation

Kevin, many thanks for listening and for the good words! Take care, Steve

Hey, Daniel, thanks for listening. The songs in the player -- songs 1 - 13 -- are the songs in the order of the album. You may want to wait two or three days because I bought "mega storage" and will upload them in 320 kbps CBR (as opposed to 256 VBR). I don't think this ambient track will be on any album -- I mostly posted it for amusement because, as I mentioned, I've got hundreds of these (which I do mostly for learning exercises). I haven't started album #2 yet because I want it to be radically different than the first and I'm still experimenting with ideas. Again, thank you for your time. I really appreciate your listen.

Hey, thanks for listening. Yeah, that's me, though the picture is 2 years old. My hair is about 2 feet longer, but I still have the beard. :)

Apparently, I lied about not posting for awhile. I do a lot of sound experiments and very rarely play them for anyone. I finished this one last night and thought it might be amusing for you to hear the more twisted side of my work. The song is called "Slowing" and it is 14th in the player. Steve Mueske - ReverbNation

But my point is, it's not. I don't use FL Studio and I never use patches without editing them to death. You can say what you want to say but it certainly doesn't sound like taking the easy route and using whatever patch from the first vst synth I load in the host. There's no way in hell I'm using a triangle wave that sounds like a synth clarinet. Look, you may not like something. That's fine. But to even think that I'm being lazy and just taking whatever a synth gives me is not right. I hope I don't sound like a prick, but I do want to challenge your assertion (because you say it a lot, as does Jose) -- that sounds "common" as if somewhere there is a group of people all using the same sound. It's a recognizable sound because a saw waveform sounds distinctly different than, say, a sine or triangle wave. As I said, I built the sound up using three oscillators using a saw wav (what some would call a super saw) and detuning each of them slightly. Anyway, I'm done challenging. I just get riled up sometimes. It's weird, I don't care if someone doesn't like a song -- but if they challenge the time I've invested in designing sounds, then it bothers me. It's my issue. I own it. But I still feel it is important to correct misconceptions. If someone thinks I'm taking shortcuts, that bothers me. I care deeply about sound. At the same time, I wouldn't really care if the sound I'm using sounds like something already used. Sounds are just tools -- like colors. No one says "Geez, I've seen red before". It's the whole thing, the whole package, the sound as an image -- that's what matters to me.

Daniel: Thanks for listening. I've tried a billion different things for that first arp sound. Nothing seemed to work right. Then I asked myself, what do you really want to hear there? I wanted a saw. Just a simple saw sound. So I created a patch using three oscillators, each of them with a saw, and detuned slightly. I don't think I'll get a different sound in there that'll work. Maybe we'll agree to disagree but you use that word "common" a lot -- to me, I'm starting to think you mean "recognizable" (when common often means ordinary). I construct every patch by hand and I do work very hard at creating sounds. Just wanted to put that out there. It's not like I'm using freeware and selecting a patch and saying "wtf, this is good enough." I do, however, thank you for your time and honesty. Good to see you around here again.

Hi: I promise this will be the last post in here for awhile. I have finished the first final mix of "Night Drive" (formerly called The Number 11), and have a few questions. Link is Steve Mueske - ReverbNation The song is fifth in the player. 1.) How is the mix? 2.) Is the song good enough to include with the others on my album? I like this piece a lot but I have a few concerns. First, it's really short -- 2:30 on the dot; second, the instrumentation is very simple; and third, it's got a different feel than a lot of my other pieces. I'm not terribly concerned about the last thing because the mastering engineer is very good at making the songs play well with each other. Please give me your honest feelings on this. I'm sitting on the fence with this one. The song I originally planned to be the 13th song on the disc I've given up hope on -- it needs more time. If this isn't right for the album I'd like to know. Twelve songs would be enough for a full-release and I don't want to include something just because I can. I've worked pretty hard on it and gotten it as good as I can get it, but sometimes, as we all know, that isn't enough.

Just a reminder that today is the last day to download these two songs. After today, they will still be available for streaming.

Hi, I posted render 2b of an electronic song called "The Number 11" It's the last song in the player. Steve Mueske - ReverbNation

Render 3c now up (notes in original post). Steve Mueske - ReverbNation

I met the guy that runs the label on another workshop and sent him a disc when I released my EP last year. He initially said he was interested but I sent a few follow up emails that didn't get answered. Since then, I finished four more songs and am halfway done with the last one (which was planned for a re-release). I decided to follow up with one last email. I explained what my goals were, that I was currently #2 in my genre and that I really wanted to be on his label. Lo and behold today I opened my email and there was a contract attached. If there's one thing I've learned in the last two years, it's that if you want something, ask for it. The worst that can happen is they'll say no. I used to be one of those shy guys who "doesn't want to bother anybody". I still am to some extent but trying to get my name out there has taught me to be a little more thick-skinned and pro-active.

Thanks, bud, hope you like them! Steve