Bound in Oblivion music blog

How do you get a sound that nobody else has when everyone uses the same gear?

Try building it yourself. I’ve spent a the better month and a half building this custom distortion box. I call it the “Current Source 465″ after what it originally was. Its two different types of distortion and a feedback loop that creates a weird synth type oscillation.

When you build your own gear, you can make things that would never see the light of day. You can design it from the ground up to fit your liking. Normally for a product to make it into commercial production it has to appeal to the masses so that it can sell a lot of units. Features have to be cut to maintain cost effectiveness. Building things yourself gives you freedom and control. A chance to break away from the norm. I’ve never felt like I have conventional taste in anything. In fact I am board to death with mainstream consumer culture. This is my way of balancing things out.

Lately I have been buying up a lot of old 1940s & 50s test equipment. Some of it old military, some of it random surplus.

Over the next several months while writing the next Bound in Oblivion release, the boxes will be gutted, rebuilt and given a new life.

I’ve noticed that newer machines you see these days seem to lack a certain soul that the older units had. Many of them hand built with pride and skill. Its a little sad to see that fade into the past. Mass production factories make to much sense. A machine built with soul costs to much and takes to much time.

Old crappy tape machines

Just because I’m silent doesn’t mean I’m not plotting.

We have a number of new tracks being worked on and still more to be written. This is about the time when we start thinking about post production. Actually in a weird way most songs start off in post production. Yea, I know that doesn’t make sense. Just go with me on that one for now.

I recently acquired some old mini tape machines.  Beaten and abused as they are they seem to work. So I figure it might be fun to bust them open and do some circuit bending. I heard there is a way to wire in the tape head and use it as a distortion. This has not yet been confirmed, but I’ll try anything once. Aside from that I will pop them open and hard wire/solder some jacks onto the PCB. The plan is to record audio tracks to the mini tapes and bounce the tracks back into the computer. So the mini machines become a sort of fx processing unit designed to F#$K up the clean pristine clarity of the digital world.

Old but usefull

I’m not sure how good or bad this will sound, but it seems like fun to give it a shot. By wiring in the jacks right to the PCB I should be able to bypass the built in mic. One of the machines has a line in already, but the jack is a lot smaller than a 1/8th jack.

This is not a new idea in any way. Sound Engineers and Gearslutz around the world have been doing this will the big professional reel to reel tape machines for years. The difference here is we don’t have that kind of budget. If I had a reel to real of any size I would uses the hell out of it.

The fun thing with recording in digital is you can pick and choose how you want to color the music. I choose to color it dirty.  Case-

We took a week off to work out a remix for a French Industrial Band called “Sub-Division”. They are a well polished with a lot of determination. Their song writing and recordings are to be admired. Not to mention English is their second language. So with that in mind its cool that they managed to put together a complete album. I know if I tried singing in French not only would it be a song about counting to 10, but I would feel insanely silly and embarrassed that I may have said everything wrong and with a really bad accent.

The track we remixed is called “love Assassin” You can download the Bound in Oblivion remix here! Please feel free to check out their MySpace site. They have many songs and teasers up on the MySpace player. They are currently promoting their new Album called “Ten years before the dream”

Case…

Its hard writing lyrics. First of all everything that can be said has already been said. Second, anything you write runs the risk of sounding incredibly cliche. You have to be willing to walk the line absurd while maintaining your honesty as an artist. Lyrics in my opinion have never been my strong point.

So lately I’ve been sitting in the studio writing a new song…
and I try to write without worrying how ridicules the verses might sound…
just so long as they are honest…

This song I am starting with the lyrics and writing the music as I go. Most of the time I’ll do the music first and add the lyrics as an after thought. I think its important to break your habits if your going to keep things fresh. Put yourself outside your comfort zone. Try different approaches.

Over analyzing things, I ask myself what makes a good song good? For me I would have to say the emotion behind it and the over all performance. If you sing about things you don’t feel or believe, then its not going to transfer in the print. Nobody else is going to feel them ether.

And the tech side of all this:

That’s Logic Pro 9 on an old G5 Mac. (not supported by Apple) I started using Logic back in the mid 90s before Apple bought Emagic. It works well for me. Personally I think you can make great music with almost any of the DAWs out now. For me its a personal choice, I am quick and comfortable with it, so that’s what I use. I encourage you to do the same.

I don’t normally spend that much time in the dark. Studio photos just look cooler when the lights are turned out. Really not a good idea to try and work in that sorta condition. Case-

So here I am sitting in my tiny studio. The last batch of BiO songs are done. This leaves me with a fresh state of mind to continue on. Writing the music is what I enjoy the most. I have always been more of a studio person. I deeply enjoy the technical side of things. Playing live is great, but getting to work on new music is just what my mind needs to unwind. I guess you could say I’ve got a lot of pent up energy. Sequencing and sound design helps me focus and allows me to make order out of chaos. If done right I avoid going postal a short while longer.

The studio here is small, and when it comes down to it we don’t have as much gear as some other industrial acts. However with some recent additions we now have a superb signal path. In my opinion its better to have a few nice things instead of a bunch of junk.

The main core of the studio is a Mac G5. There is a rack with a Virus TI and various other pieces. Our Mackie Onyx mixer ties it all together. Between Z. and i we have a number of outboard synths. I always hate it when people list every single piece of gear right down to the Furman power conditioner so I wont. But I have a few quick photos.

The guitars we have are not cool nor vintage but work well as sound sources. I have a vintage shortwave radio I use a lot for pulling sounds out of the air. Its good to have a few unique things that can inspire.

As for the actual writing of the songs I never know where to start. After I’m done with one I feel like I might not be able to ever write another. Then over time little bits and pieces start to form inside my head. Before I know it I have something to build on. One thing for sure, it helps to have a lot of sounds to work with. So I spend a great deal creating textures before a song even develops.

Today I thing I will start with some drum sounds, maybe a bass line. Then lots and lots of noise. I’m glad I have my co-producer close by me. I’ll be in the studio for a long time tonight… -Case

Kitty says “I’m helping!”

Hell-o and welcome. We have decided to set up a music based blog to share with you the process and progress we make on the new Bound in Oblivion album. It will be mainly studio and band related info with a few bits and bites of personal drama. (just kidding)