ambient

I'm studying for my PhD in electroacoustic composition at the University of Birmingham. As part of the project I've started building a website which will form a part of my final portfolio, the idea (actually my supervisors idea) is that it will connect everything I'm doing together; the blogs of my journeys, photos, descriptions of the places that I visit, maps of sound walks, field-recordings, and compositions. It's still very much in its early stages, I've never done a website before, other than a Bandcamp page. Comments would be most welcome, particularly if you've been to or are planning on visiting the places, even more so if you live there. The only sounds up so far are from a very recent visit to Belgium, I've got some from a trip to Amsterdam to upload later. There's a piece of music that I'm working on from Amsterdam that is up there too. I'm reasonably happy with how the site is starting to look. I managed to find an app that works how I want it to for the maps; it kind of does what I want anyway, I need to experiment with it. I've realised that there's going to be a fair amount of duplication across the pages and the content; I don't want people to have to skip to another page to see some photos, or to listen to something, so I'm putting photos and sounds in the sound walks section that will also appear on the photos and sounds sections. Some will also probably be in the blog section. Some people I guess might just want to look at the photos, or listen to the sounds. I'm using the free site at the moment, you can add photos but sound has to be via a link to Soundcloud, so I'll probably upgrade to a paid version in the next day or so. It's pretty versatile. You can have an image rather than blank behind the text for instance, I thought that looked good, but made reading the text awkward at times. I'd really, really like people to comment on it, and hopefully interact by adding comments to the contents, especially people who've either been, are planning on going or live in any of the places that I'm visiting. https://placesandsound.wordpress.com/sound-walks-and-maps/

Could you get some made for it by someone like Kent Armstrong?

The Overwater 7 string was something like 7.5kg. A huge sound.

I think Bandcamp is fantastic for releasing music through. I release through my own label on there, and also release stuff through a few other small labels; who as well as having websites also use Bandcamp. I suppose it can be disheartening to work realky hard on something and for it not to be hugely commercially successful; but is that why you do it? Another thing with Bandcamp is it’s a shop window. I’ve got some nice gigs through people finding my stuff on there, I’ve also got music in the British library’s national sound archive through there. I’m kind of straddling two different paths, I produce ambient music myself using a variety of instrumentation, that sells ok, and I get to play at some really cool places; I played in Amsterdam the other month which was brilliant. I’ve got radio play coming up soon on the BBC through an album I had a track on. I’m also currently putting together tracks for another programme. I won’t get paid for that play though, it’ll cost me more to join PRS than I’d get back. I also do weirder electroacoustic stuff. That’s a different audience altogether, I’ve just today been approached by a Canadian DJ wanting to play my EA stuff on his show, again I won’t get paid for that. Though I always ensure that I’m credited for any plays I get. I don’t personally believe that I’m part of the ‘music business’, I create music, I play music, if people choose to buy it then that’s great.

That's the annoying problem with playing a 6, or indeed a 7 string bass; lack of string choice if you want to use something other than round wound.

I guess heavy is quite relative term though?

I remember reading a short while ago about the guy who designed the Steinberger bass. He came up with the minimalist design but wasn't happy about the sound; he felt that it lacked sonic depth and I guess 'bassiness'. He noticed that the sound improved when his design was clamped to the workbench, which he put down to the increase in the mass. Consequently he came up with the idea of using carbon fibre, which is denser than wood, and gave an improved sound.

I've never heard of that, I'll be sure to check that out. One the great things doing this is discovering what other people have done; either musically or in books. Thanks for listening :)

Thanks for listening. It’s probably the first piece for my PhD portfolio. The title of the track is the title of my PhD; Connecting Places to Sound. Beneath the sound of the traffic in most cities is a wonderful musicality, whether it’s birds singing, church bells, bicycle bells, we tend to ignore it though. I mostly used GRM plugins, the sounds themselves were recorded on a little Zoom H2N recorder. The classical music is some buskers sat by the Rijksmuseum.

An electroacoustic piece. There's no instrumentation at all here; it's all just sounds that I recorded during a recent visit to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. I did a gig there, and spent most of the three days wondering around the museums; specifically the Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk, and recording in the streets and around the canals. https://m.soundcloud.com/user-987830578/connecting-places-to-sound-one-amsterdam

You can download them yes. Click on the 3 dots at the side of the video, that should give you the option to download. I've attached a photo of one of mine.

I'm usually asleep when I have a nightmare.

The Make Noise 0-Coast is an excellent foray into the world of the analogue synth.

http://www.synergydistribution.co.uk/Welcome.html

I had fantastic service from Alan at Synergy last year when my PJB Double 4 broke down.

Sony MDR 7506, I just got a pair. they have very long curly cable. Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro also have a long cable.