Mimetic Sciences

2011-12-26T14:01:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

It's been suggested lately that I learn guitar, and while I think that is a worthwhile project, the prospect doesn't appeal to me lately. I really don't see the appeal in guitars, except everyone seems to be stuck on them.

Rest assured that the new year will have me writing and recording in my brand, Flux Oersted, more than anything else. To the extent that I can play with other musicians, maybe I will.

To the future!

Robby.

The Cold Red Eyes of Home

2011-09-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

I published my first kindle post yesterday. The Cold Red Eyes of Home is a short story about a man who builds a robot and they have adventures. I chose this story as a test, to see how the publishing process works, but hope to follow soon with more titles. I'm working on a serial story called The Interrogators, and am looking into ways to have it also available as an audio book or podcast. Not sure about the details on that yet. I may publish a collection of essays at some point, if I can find enough of them about. Some of my favorites were written to the Robitron discussion list over the past eight years or so. Some spelunking may be in order to locate them. Luckily, there is a search feature on the messages there. On Amazon.com, you can download free kindle reader software for macs, and there is a free kindle reader for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. I found that useful to me for testing, but now I am interested in getting a kindle. The Barnes & Noble Nook is an interesting device as well. I guess at some point they become like so many remote controls lying about the house.

New Projects

2011-09-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

I've got several new projects in the works right now. The main one is a series of short stories called The Interrogators, based on a couple of dreams I had about a steam punk "body snatchers" sort of thing, that I intend to write in serial form with music. I think it will take place around 1905, so may be post steam punk, just a little bit. Maybe no steam at all. It was a "golden" year of sorts, and that may be part of the stories. I have a couple of loose songs left over from my last album, that would be nice to do something with. I'm not sure if they are "singles" material or not. But I rediscovered them in my iTunes jukebox, and thought, "That was pretty good!" I have an acoustic guitar recording project coming up hopefully, and would be nice if that turned into more than one song. More about that later. There is a drummer attached to this, plays digital drum pads. That seems ideal to me. I may be doing a project using JFRED as a story teller, with incidental music accompaniment. It's for a FutureMusic Summit, but still not sure what the entrance to that requires, or if I can do it or not. I not grok in fullness. Robby.

Fans

2011-09-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

It seems the Chinese are finally leaving me alone. For a year they dominated my web stats by downloading all my music files, and probably didn't understand a word I said. I kept rearranging things and removing all my songs, then making them only available for a donation, then free, but renamed. Eventually all my traffic disappeared. I am either bipolar or enjoy html editing. Possibly both, but not necessarily in that order. My doctor says it is in remission. I don't know how he would know, he does all the talking. I miss the Chinese.

2011-09-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

Finally finished with the setup and distributing of Fabric and Dreams. Now you can get everything from 128k free MP3's to lossless versions in FLAC from our website at FluxOersted.Com. Coming in the next few weeks will be CD on demand from Amazon.com, but apparently it takes them some time to set that up. This makes my fifth offering from iTunes, but we're about to retire two of them, and consolidate our material somewhat. If you're even the least bit interested, you should check out Fabric and Dreams, it really is our best album since Inference Patterns. I didn't know until recently that our best selling single was "Timothy Leary's Dead." It's on The Visitor album. It is a weird and kooky track but I guess the name says it all.

2011-08-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a new album titled, Fabric and Dreams composed of songs that I've written over the past year or so. I feel like this is some of my best work. Some of it was written under duress, during times of stress. Other parts were written using some of my latest software tools. It's been a good year for writing.

The entire album is available for free at FluxOersted.com. I decided to release it for free as a normal mp3 file, and then later to make higher resolution copies available in stores and from other pay-optional sites like bandcamp.com. Strangely, the artwork may take longer to finish than some of the songs.

I went the extra step to register the album with ASCAP though on my web page I am using a Creative Commons license so that people can do what they want with it. You can download it, share it, remix it, and nobody will complain, especially me.

Now, on with the show . . .

2011-08-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

In the 1970's Radio Shack sold a Moog synthesizer that they branded as "Realistic MG-1 Concertmate." It is essentially the same synth as a Moog Taurus or the Rogue with a few differences. One of the more interesting features it has is an auto trigger that you control the frequency with the LFO. It also has a continuous filter setting that would be like playing a Juno 6 with hold button on.

I've got one of these and it has suffered the ages rather poorly. The plastic end caps were held on by hot glue and these have popped off or are loose. I swapped the actual keys with my Moog Prodigy to restore the Prodigy. So the MG-1 has some broken keys. At one point, I tried to lower the pitch by an octave, and inadvertently changed its tuning so that the frequency change between an octave was off.

I bought a nylon tuning kit consisting of a set of plastic rods that fit into the little groove of an electronic trimmer pot. I have been successful in re-tuning the MG-1, but it has some other problems keeping pitch, possibly from the old broken keyboard, or some component on the main circuit board I'm not sure.

I still really like sounds it makes, so I'll have to keep working on restoring it now that I've become reattached to it again.

2011-07-11T20:13:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with a live band called "Gizmo" for the past few weeks. We've been playing some Gary Numan covers and some Cars songs. It's been exhilarating to play my synth with a live band. I love having a real drummer. We've been playing for a few weeks now and have about 6 songs worked up. 2 are originals that I wrote with guitarist David Gilmore. We've had a good chemistry going on so far. Freddie Hill is the basist and the producer. Carmelo Gonzales is our drummer, and despite his predilection for speed metal, he has performed well as an 80's revival band. David Gilmore is our guitarist and he rocks, but must be prodded to turn up, contrary to guitarists everywhere.

I play an Akai Miniak virtual analog synth. I have some real analog synths, but so far the maniak has been sufficient for everything we've played so far. We rock on the Candy-o and Dangerous Type Cars covers. We do some originals like my song, Velvet Elvis, and that has been so far our most popular song.

So far so good, and I look forward to another practice this tuesday in Freddie's basement.

2011-03-10T14:43:00.000-08:00

New Release

Flux Oersted has released a high definition digital album called Subterraneans on BandCamp and in an abbreviated form on the Creative Commons site Jamendo.com.

This is a very representative album in terms of our style and productions. Some of the songs were originally rendered on 4-track tape, with newer recordings made entirely in the digital domain.

This is all part of a plan we have to start offering 192kb/s MP3's for free, but also offer FLAC, and other lossless or near lossless formats for a small fee. The difference would be lost on most computer speakers, but if you've got a nice sound system, or listen to headphones, you might appreciate the higher fidelity recordings.

Our apologies if this gets cross posted several times.

Flux Oersted featuring Dutch Cartoonist
Photo by Robert Cambron

2011-02-05T09:41:00.000-08:00

Dutch Cartoonist

The latest outcrop of mirth from IMS is Flux Oersted's Dutch Cartoonist, featuring Jools Aspinal. Jools has kindly sketched out a few songs for their new release: Solid Mercury EP. This is a 7 song EP that is available for streaming, and free download from FluxOersted.Com. There will be an upcoming album before long, adding more material to the EP's songs list.

What's it like working together with Jools on the EP? "I'm liking the variety of sounds we're getting. I felt like Flux Oersted had fallen into a rut of 80's synth voices and couldn't get up. We're still using the same equipment, just trying to broaden our horizons," says Robby Garner, founder of Flux Oersted Music.

What kind of equipment are you using? "Mainly a MacBook Pro computer and a buttload of software."

What is the inspiration for your music? "I've done a lot of research for this album, reading from history books and women's blogs in Afghanistan. It's all about pain and the release that manifests itself as a crusty stain of synthesizer music."

Do you get much feedback from your fans? "No, not really. They are just download statistics to us. The occasional influx of money from MP3 sales says we matter to some people, and every once in a while somebody clicks 'like' somewhere. We produce music for ourselves. The rest is like a side effect."

What do you see in the future for Flux Oersted and Dutch Cartoonist? "I think it is about 1 o'clock. That will be next for us."

Hear the Solid Mercury EP at Flux Oersted Music

2010-11-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

Weren't you at the Meeting?

The November meeting came and went. Little was said about the software I told you about. We had hamburgers and fries.

The office looks better now that we've started finally getting rid of the retired equipment, the monitors that don't work, the stacks of old computer keyboards, and the old PC frames, already stripped of RAM and hard drives. Now they are much better off in a pile somewhere. Somewhere not in the office.

I thought it would be hard to do, and I was a bit forlorn, but it passed. In honor of the move I had a Newcastle Brown Ale.

I want to also convert a room on the top floor to my occasional haunt, because I like the view from the window in there. I depend on setting to deliver mood. I seldom take mood to another place. Working around cats makes environmental stability an issue sometimes. They always have other plans and don't make those clear until you're up to your elbows in something eminent.

Suffering for art can take many forms.

2010-09-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

The What For
Just got Reason 5 (and Record 1.5) . . . Love it! These are some great systems. I've already fell in love with Neptune, the vocal pitch perfector and voice synthesizer. Whether I'll ever use the Kong Drum Designer, I don't know yet. I am still just messing around with basic instrument editing and recording.

It is both a blessing and a small curse that you can't use VST plug-ins with Reason. The small curse is small because Reason is a tight bit of code that is rock solid. (something VST can never quite claim onto)

The new mixer in Reason is fantastic. It emulates something that I know nothing about, but the little cartoon I get to look at makes life simpler at the touch of a button.

See you on the bitstream,

Robby.

2010-07-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

In The Name Of Expediency

To prevent racial profiling, everyone should have to show their travel papers when asked. Checkpoints should be established between each town, and cars should be searched by drug and bomb sniffing dogs, frequently, and as often as possible. Hiring millions of new guards and police officers and dogs will not only create jobs, but will ensure that I can travel freely from one checkpoint to the next. If I am mistaken for an illegal alien, I should be sent to Australia, or Canada for processing. On my return, I should have to stand in line to re-apply for citizenship, all at the government's expense of course. People should have to pass a drug test in order to vote, place a telephone call, or to buy a pack of rolling papers. Ice cream should be a severely controlled substance since obesity can lead to premature death. A twinky should require a doctor's prescription. Snickers should be banned outright. High fructose corn syrup should be outlawed in a zero tolerance double secret prohibition, but remain available on the black market, sold by shady mafia types primarily. If high fructose corn syrup becomes illegal then only criminals will have high fructose corn syrup, as it is a lethal weapon when wielded by fat people.

2010-07-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

Is Brian Eno Really God?

I've seen it countless times, usually scratched into the paint on bathroom walls in clubs and universities, "Eno is God." Is it true?

I can only say that one of the properties of God is perfection, and Eno is not that. His voice is crappy. All his live stuff is like something produced in a garage some place. And yet, as a producer for David Bowie and Talking Heads, you'd have to say that his contribution was priceless, and beyond reproach. He made art, he is an artist, his art is good. The very fact that people continue to praise him in public restrooms must speak volumes about his influence on them.

But what makes the man special? He went where nobody went before? Is that it? He is a great composer? Really? Improvised everything? He tells people to just go with their feelings and somehow turns that into a finished product.

I think his free spirit just sort of lofts above the surface dwellers of this world in a heavenly fashion. That is the secret behind his proclivity for inspiring graffiti artists.

Flux Oersted on Corporate Records

2010-04-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

I am releasing two albums plus some new material on Corporate Records, starting today. My own record label, Institute of Mimetic Sciences, inc. takes precedence, but I like the cut of their jib.

Flux Oersted on Corporate Records

These songs are still available on iTunes and Amazon.com, but Corporate Records just seemed like a logical alternative.

"Automatic for the people!"

Robby.

2010-03-02T11:43:00.000-08:00

Gilmore Sessions

David stopped by Self house last night for some guitar recording and collaboration on a new song. We've been planning this for some time, and it finally worked out. The guitar part has a jangly kind of REM flavor and is within 4 minutes long. David showed me how to play some accompaniment that he heard for the piece, and stressed a sort of "pushing" theme for the vocals.

He also expressed a desire for a kind of voice, similar to one we used on the Casio CZ-1000, that is similar to the "vox humana" voice on a memory moog. I have the closest thing in the OP-X Oberheim emulator, but may go with a Pro-53 voice for some of the parts.

We recorded the guitar in a neutral amp setting, so that we could build the rest of the song before deciding what kind of amp simulator to use. This is contrary to the Black Sabbath cover we recorded recently, where we wanted the "sound" first before recording.

I've been listening to the guitar track today and have pretty much settled on a vocal line and some of the lyrics, so progress is coming very easily for this one. I think the vocal tracks may enforce David's "pushing" meme, but be very pop oriented.

The accompaniment tracks are revealing themselves to be what David described, but also some good synth parts for the song.

Robby.

2010-02-05T11:19:00.001-08:00

Did you know that my song, Sixteen and SINless was first mentioned in a William Gibson novel?

"Mona could see the sun through a couple of rips in the black plastic they kept taped over the window. She hated the squat too much to stay there when she was awake or straight, and now she was both. She was 16 and SINless, Mona, and this older trick had told her once that that was a song, "Sixteen and SINless." Meant that she hadn't been assigned a SIN when she was born, a Single Identification Number, so she grown up on the outside of most official systems. She knew that it was supposed to be possible to get a SIN, if you didn't have one, but it stood to reason you'd have to go to a building somewhere and talk to a suit, and that was a long way from Mona's idea of a good time or even normal behavior". -- From Mona Lisa Overdrive, by William Gibson. Published by Bantam in 1988

2010-01-25T14:44:00.000-08:00

The width of a circle
Greetings for my first 2010 post. Activities have picked up at the Institute.

We are going through some advances in the facilities here at the Institute. Weatherization and painting have been ordered but not scheduled yet. Hopefully, those activities will not be too intrusive.

I'm starting to work on another musical theme, involving the usual suspects in terms of synthesizers and drum machines. Will let you know of progress there.

I had contact with Neil Bishop recently. He is one of the founders of Institute of Mimetic Sciences. He has given his blessings to our current record label aspirations, and some moral support for the rest of our activities. It seems he has started earthrover.net and is involved in some other mimetic research activities. We discussed ramping up IMS non-profit activities, but I declined, siting recent success as a record label, and my predilection with conversational systems outside the HuMimics realm of software systems. We give our thanks and best wishes to Neil, who continues to be available for consultations.

Sara has been involved in fund raising activities, and has helped us get grants in the form of weatherization, and other fund raisers. She is spearheading our January applications.

We remain thankful for our patronage and for the resources we've maintained.

Stay thirsty my friends, and don't let them know you're thinking.

Robby.

2009-12-20T12:48:00.000-08:00

Season's Greetings

Things are slowing down here at the Institute, holidays coming and taking some time off to relax. I have to balance house chores with software editing and music production, but lately have been taken more by the chores around the studio. My brother brought me a weight bench a while back, and the only space for it was in my main studio, so I've been dodging that while working with my trusty old powerbook down there. Yesterday I finally put some more weight on the bar and started bench pressing that in between takes on the macbook. I'm sore as hell today, but happy with the fruits of my labor on the machines down on level zero.

Today, I'm languishing on the mezzanine level and washing dishes. I am betting that will be the norm until Christmas. So far, looking forward to a Nero Wolf marathon, and perhaps something else if I've been shaking the boxes right.

Stay thirsty my friends, and don't let them know you're thinking.

R.

2009-11-09T11:09:00.001-08:00

Korg Update

Korg no longer require the USB "dongle" as copy protection for their Legacy Collection synths. They have also today released an update for Mac snow leopard. Woo hoo! Today is a great day for that.

2009-11-07T18:35:00.000-08:00

MP4 Sessions

The jam sessions for the Korg mono/poly are exploring the various presets from korguser.net and playing the distorted ones with intervals that make some very righteous sounds. There are some good sounds just in the downloads for this synth.

Gut feelings lead to very simplistic hardcore sounding riffs. The arp voices lend themselves to some freaky things sort of like what I'd expect from the Native Instruments Absynth 4. Some of the voices suggest preludes to songs, but the best of the lead sounds really lend themselves to hardcore.

I'm going to jam with these voices for a while before even thinking of new material. I still want to spend time with the MS-20 and Polysix voices to keep things melodic and musical.

2009-11-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

Korg Legacy Collection Analog Edition 2007
I've been waiting quite a while to get this update to my synth collection. Korg originally included the WAVESTATION synth in their analog collection, but have replaced it with Mono/Poly, the Korg MP4. That is the synth I've been looking for. The presets include lots of ARP stuff, and some formant vocal patches that are fun to play with. I like it enough to be tied to a USB dongle for copy protection. My computer only has 2 USB ports, but in general, I only use the other one for keyboard input. This leaves me one free for recording vocals later. Not really a problem in my setup.

The PolySix and MS20 synths are as expected and I may even find use for legacy cell, but this Mono/Poly is the one I've been waiting for. There are some voices that go beyond any MiniMoog emulation I've heard, and it rivals the SonicProjects OP-X that I already have. There are even some string machine sounding voices that Mono/Poly does well.

I think I'll find some great uses for Mono/Poly, and it is a good feeling to have PolySix in the arsenal again. My hardware version has seen better days, but this software recreation is a comfort to have around. MS20 is useful in a variety of unique situations, and the LegacyCell has some nice sounding combinations of synths to work with.

It's just a matter of time before these synth legends speak out in my music.

2009-10-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight I tried to give a short description to most of the songs at FluxOersted.com

I tried to give at least a clue towards what lies underneath the links there. Maybe that will help people find things they like. I'm finding that the US contingency of visitors is listening mostly to Anthrope and Alien Influence albums. Those two are good, so I am pleased. The 2000 Chinese listeners are all over the place. I can't help wondering how they decide what to play. Big question mark there. I don't care as long as they are satisfied.

A listener is a terrible thing to waste. I felt that I should at least try to describe some of the cryptic titles that lie in wait at my web page. Some of my descriptions are telling, others more elusive. I'm trying to type this while a cat licks my hand, so pardon me if I cut it short.

2009-10-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

Rockmartian Splendor

Music as therapy might describe my hobby if I were getting better, even more so. My latest effort, "Romancing the Stoned" is part a capella, part synth music, and a couple of old things. I always wish it was better quality, but I'm lucky to be able to put two sentences together as it is, so I really can't complain.

When I first started my web page at FluxOersted.Com most of my listeners were Chinese. As time has gone by, most of the listeners are Americans. Hopefully some of them not me. (I listen to my own music quite a bit.) As the number of songs there approaches 100, it seems clear that it's one of the best deals around for free music.

It's best to try as many songs there as possible. To some, they may all sound the same, but I think there are some real gems hidden among the MP3 files there.

2009-10-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to some of my earlier albums from FluxOersted.com partly as an effort to prevent re-inventing the wheel, and partly because I don't fully remember them. I know there are some people who think all synthesizer music sounds the same, which is really just sad to me. I am not one of those people obviously.

Right now, my two favorites are Anthrope and Alien Influence. Anthrope was written during a highly stressful period when I was serving on the jury of a murder trial. I listen to that now, and it brings back the tension and the insomnia that I had then. Alien Influence is really some of my favorite music though, and if only the rest of the world could recognize my talent, then we'd all be in agreement on something.

For some reason, my ipod hangs up when I try to play m3u lists from some of these, and I think it is because the size of my mp3 files gets pretty big some times. I went for quality, and am too lazy to go back and re-sample them at a lower resolution to get a smaller size. Some of the earlier stuff is at 128k but most of the new stuff is 320k. At the moment, I don't have any plans to change this. If you purchase a Flux Oersted album from iTunes or Amazon, etc., you get like 198K which isn't bad, but I'd rather have the files that on my web page personally. I suppose it is a matter of how miserly you are and how little you care about how fidelity. I like my synths to be almost live, so I go with the top fidelity.