before i start babbling around, let me just say:

BEHOLD

taping trouble by audiot.eu

Anyway, I’ll write more as soon as this album is finished – it looks like I’m gonna need every single minute left to work on this thing, so once again, bear with me and listen to “Take It Back” in the meantime. The blue player in the upper left, remember?

It’s not a typical audiot-song, more like “normal”. I’ll tell you about this later. Enjoy….

WOW, has it already been one year? unbelievable!

i just received an email from the rpm-challenge folks asking me to sign up for 2010. and i gladly did right on the spot! for those of you who haven’t heard of it, the challenge is to record an album in 28 days – just because you can. that means you have to come up with ideas, write the whole stuff, record and mix it all within the month of february. there’s nothing to gain except self-respect and huge amounts of fun :-) and you could cheat of course by just recording stuff you already have etc. but you would only cheat yourself.

this thing really is a race against yourself, the real question is: are you able to get up and just do this? no excuses.

after writing and recording my own stuff for many years but never finishing anything because of never-being-satisfieditis, last year’s rpm-challenge changed this for me. as many of you know, that’s where my first album corner came from. so i can tell from my own experience, if you ever needed a kickstart – this is it!

once again, i have no idea what i’ll do this time. since the work on my 2nd album is already in progress – and one song’s already released (“wipe it clean”, in the blue player to the upper right…), i thought about doing something completely different. but that’s about all i’ve figured out so far. and i’ll try not to think about it for the next 14 days, so it’ll be completely fresh once february kicks off……not to mention that i’ll jump around in wild panic because i’ll have no idea whatsoever how to do this. FUN !!!

so go ahead and sign up right here and tell everyone about it! and, if you tell me, i’m gonna write about it – giving you the exposure you always wanted right here on this ridiculously famous site :-)

Hi there!

If you’re still there that is. Well, I am! Lurking in the shadows for a while planning the next steps on the way to world domination. This little (!) vacation gave me some new ideas, new things to check out and lots of inspiration. Stay tuned for that.

I’m finally continuing the work on the 2nd album, part of it will be released before the end of the year – and this time I mean it! Between family matters, water and heating installations and making a living as a teacher, creating new music has moved to the background, which is unfortunate, but was necessary nonetheless.

So here’s to new focuses, foci or whatever more than one focus is called. I hope you all are doing well and thank you for reading!

i know there haven’t been many updates recently and this one is just a quick question to get you thinking. actually this is not just about music but can be applied to virtually anything.

yesterday, i read an entry in some german musicians forum about a guy who wasn’t really sure what to answer when someone asked him what instrument he was playing. he identified himself more with the band than his instrument, that sort of thing – this isn’t exactly what this post is about, but it got me thinking.

what exactly is it that you do? and more important, do you even know it – and know how to phrase it without sounding shy or silly? this is very important because it tells you something about yourself and the path you’ve chosen so far. are you a drummer? or a musician? or an artist? or all of it? or what?

this goes for any other profession as well. what exactly is it that you do? think about this, as will i, and try to put it into words – words that convince not only whoever’s asking, but yourself as well.

to be continued…

and wondering where it’ll take me. i guess it’s about time for an update on the new audiot projects. as you guys already know, there’s music in the making which was supposed to end up on an album called “traitor”. this became more of a working title and then ideas came up like crazy  – so here’s what’s happening right now:

i’m up to 19 songs so far, 7 of them are awaiting vocals. it seems there won’t be any instrumentals this time, but one never knows. those 19 will have my voice on them. so i’m gonna do some vocal-recording and then 5 of the above mentioned 7 can be mixed and thrown out into the world. the other 2 will need maybe a solo and maybe some fills. i’ll do that after the vocals.

and it seems there will really be two albums, one in the style of “corner” and one with more “regular band stuff”. and once again there’s a lot of experimenting involved, lots of flaws left in there and again it kind of scares me what my mind comes up with. so if for me “corner” was like standing in a forest at sundown, peeking through some trees at a scary little cabin – this next one will be like stepping through the door and have a look at what’s inside. and i really don’t know if i’ll like what’s in there – but at least i’ll find out soon. fortune favors the bold, right?

before the albums are actually released i might put out some sneak peeks to let you know what’s coming. i thought about this a lot but am still not sure how to do this without spoiling the surprise – we’ll see about that. and still no making of video i’m afraid – getting into video-stuff would delay this whole thing even more….

so now you’re up to date and thanx for staying tuned. and even if i don’t know how this new stuff will sound once it’s finished, i can already say: if you liked “corner”, then you’ll love what’s coming. but if you didn’t like it, then you’ll love what’s coming. how’s that for a slogan? :-)

so here’s what the guys over there wrote about it:

“If Tom Waits fell off the wagon and went on a three month bender before recording his next album it would probably sound like audiot!

Welding the classic rock of Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath and art school sensibilities, audiot has come up with a top notch track that is certainly way off the beaten track!”

how cool is that?

by the way, the guest-judges-round should start soon. i really wonder what they’ll say about it… and after that, if i got it right, the people (that’s you) can vote again.

gosh, i really hope i can finish the new album soon – it’s gonna be even more weird and sick…

this is about the new Bill Champlin record called “No Place Left To Fall”. you may have already heard or read about it, depending on where you live i guess. here in germany, Bill Champlin is not as big as he should be. but anyway, you can find all sorts of information about this new album anywhere on the net. what i’d like to say about it, since i’ve had the chance to fully listen to it yesterday, is quite simple. this album is outstanding. it’s a great piece of songwriting, arrangement, craftsmanship and let’s not forget a lot of fun to listen to. but since this blog is for people who are somewhat more into music than the average listen-to-some-radio-while-driving-to-work-in-the-morning-kind-of-guy i’d like to give you some good advice you might not find in another review. this album simply is one awesome lesson for every musician. you’ll find songwriting with some edges and corners you wouldn’t expect and still it all runs smoothly like a bar of soap covered in babyoil on an airhockey-table…….ermmm, oh well, you get the idea.

and then there’s of course the playing itself – and wow! you can learn so much by closely listening to this masterpiece. there’s nice voiceworks by Bill and his mates and even if Bill’s voice is not really my favorite, soundwise, he’s just doing a great job. there’s outstanding performances by all of the musicians, topped by the ridiculously awesome creative greatness of Billy Ward, who’s simply drumming this album to the all-time-must-haves. sorry for this, but it would seem i’m kind of short on superlatives :-)

this record is a perfect example for ‘being in the moment’, which is (or at least should be) every musicians priority. you’ll find the right thing played at every single moment. and that’s a great lesson in itself…

so before i write myself into tears of joy, i’ll say it again. go and buy this album. if you do, naked women will have sex in your backyard – or men, whatever floats your boat…

this is soooo cool. who’d have ever thought something like this would happen? believe it or not, this is the 300th entry on this site! well, i did fail miserably in my attempt to post once a day – this site went online end of may 2008, but still 300 posts is really cool, don’t you think? thank you all so much for reading, for your interest, your time and your feedback! so here’s to the next 300! yay!

and if that wasn’t enough, the song “bankjob” won the 10th week of the people’s music awards in the category off the beaten track! hooray! and no, i was not the only contestant. check the charts out here and look around a little, cool music up there. this means i’m in the next round where there’s guest judges to decide if it’s any good. now, you and i know that it isn’t, but let’s keep it a secret, ok? anyway, i’m really happy about it and once again, thank you so much to those who voted for me! by the way, you can listen to the song by clicking play on the blue player to the upper right – but you already knew that, right?

that’s it. take care y’all.

audiot signing out.

now, it’s been almost a week since that last part, so you had plenty of time to clean up your studio, take a dustcloth and the vacuum cleaner, organize all those bits and pieces and be ready to work in a clean, tidy and well organized environment from now on.

i told you this series will have four parts, so what else can we clean up you ask. the second thing that needs some tidying is your song. believe it or not, chances are there’s a lot of dirt in there. ok, we’re not talking freejazz here, but everything that’s being listened to is kind of clean in terms of the songwriting. “clean” might be a stupid word to describe this, but i can’t think of a better one. the idea is to have the song (here it is again) cleaned up. that means no unnecessary licks, no notes that don’t really fit in there. the right chord at the right place and not just the standard chord because it’s the only one you can play. go through your song, note by note, and pick the chords that fit in the best – make them up if necessary. think of “sweet home alabama” for instance – quite simple, standard D, C, G chords, right? nope. listen to it very closely. on the one hand, the song is more complex than you might think – lots of important details in there. but on the other it’s even simpler than standard. you can find lots of songs that are really well cleaned up by listening to the eagles – this is of course just one example. good funk music is often exemplary when it comes to cleaning up, good hiphop as well. the thing is to do what’s right for the moment. if the song calls for a guitar solo, so be it – if not, leave it out. do you really need that b-section? correction: does the song really need that b-section? and so forth. it’s not about writing the most complicated song – more like the other way around. i always wanted to write awesome progressive concept albums with 20-minute-songs. today i’m in the process of writing two-part-songs, one part for the verse and one for the chorus. that’s it. and who’s to say which ones are better? i can’t, even if those are my songs. but i can tell you one thing, nowadays i can finish a lot more songs and record them instead of carrying them around in my mind for years without even bringing them to paper. and people like them, the 3 people that actually do listen to my stuff that is :-)

but this is not about my songs, simply because my songs have no hit-potential (i know, “hit” is one of those words today), they’re not for the masses. but they are clean. and if you want to come up with something people would want to hear, then it has to be clean. throw out anything that is not necessary. it’s like packing a backpack for a hiking-trip. you first make a list of all the stuff you’d like to take with you, then lay it all out on the bed, then go buy a mule and you’re ready to go…. the better way is to make a list, lay it all out, throw half of it away and put the other half in the backpack. it will be fine.

i love comics, especially ones that are simple, like those for instance (that’s just the current one, there’s a new one each day…) – because i love the way they simplify everything. their people are made out of a few simple strokes but still you know what it’s about. i really dig the simplify-idea and i think it’s very important in songwriting. a song still can be complex of course, but it has to be clearly shown what it’s about…

damn, i really felt my english sucked in this one and i sincerely hope that you get the idea. good luck with that :-)

yeah, finally a real entry again :-)

before i’m starting with this, remember that i’m not a professional sound engineer, technician, producing great or anything related. so the following ain’t written in stone, it’s just what i found out during my creative journey so far. your experience may differ, maybe some of this is plain wrong. so just think of it as ideas or theories and we’ll be fine.

i would like to divide this “cleaning up”-topic into 4 parts. and this entry is, oddly enough, about part 1 :-)

this first one is kind of a no-brainer, at least it should be – so i’ll make it brief. because it really is about cleaning up. cleaning up your studio aka workspace that is. simple as that. you might think ‘what the hell is he talking about?’ but there’s a reason why there’s a huge industry dedicated only to the task of organizing workspaces. there’s a reason for pocket-calendars and filofaxes, flipcharts and magnetic boards, post-it-thingies and different colored markers, lots and lots of software applications helping to keep track of it all.

well, i’m not that much into all those little helpers – i prefer to rely on my brain, even if this sometimes is quite a challenge depending on the number of things to remember and the current state of mind i’m in, but let’s not go there… did you ever see someone freak out in wild panic because he/she lost his ___________________ (fill in name of little helper)?

anyway, this here is just about keeping your studio clean and tidy. and don’t you ever underestimate the importance of this! i’m not writing this for those guys who think they need their creative chaos with pizza-slices (already green and shiny on top) lying around, piles of all sorts of cables on the floor – some working, some not – and so forth. those people might as well make their music on a dump. it doesn’t have to look pretty, it needs to be well-organized and working for you. so take the time to once and for all sort out the cables that don’t work etc. – get a bunch of boxes, draws, whatever to put spareparts, screws, tools, plugs, adapters and so forth in. find a way to organize cables, hang them on the wall for instance. i guess you can see what i’m getting at. you should also wire up the pieces of equipment you use regularly and keep it that way.

for example, i have two modeling devices to record guitar with. so they’re both connected to an audio-interface with the usb/firewire-cable already standing by as well as the guitar cable. and they’re both connected to a midi-interface for faster and easier sound-programming through the computer and this doesn’t change. when i want to track guitar or bass, all i have to do is plug in the instrument and the laptop and that’s it. as soon as the new studio is finished (which might be a while…), the audio interface will be wired at all times to the desktop mac as well. and to continue the guitar-example, the picks, slides, string cleaner, spare strings are at arm’s length as well as the guitar stand with the instrument i use the most. so it’s all right there where i need it, when i need it. including the sounds. i once took the time to program a whole bunch of guitar and bass sounds that i now use almost exclusively. they’re all versatile and can be shaped after the tracking with dynamic effects etc. there’s also a di-box standing by in case i want to do some tracks that can be reamped later. this all might sound a bit complicated, but that’s only my crappy english. in fact, i set this up once and now i’m always ready to record guitar and bass whenever i freaking want to. so you see, this goes hand in hand with the workflow ideas i wrote about in this earlier entry. but it’s not the same. this one here really is about a clean and tidy workspace. so take the vacuum cleaner every once in a while ;-) and get some dustcovers for your equipment. it’s a lot more fun to work on gear that’s clean and looks as if it’s brandnew.

another aspect of this is the way you organize your stuff inside your computer. i strongly recommend you create a template that you can use for any song or projet you’re working on. this takes a few minutes once and will save you hours later. just create a folder that you can name after the song later. inside of it, create other folders for audio samples, instrument tracks, effect patches, backup songfiles….. whatever you need and always save the single files in the right place. you might want to invent your own system of naming files, so you can see at once if a file is really used or just standing by as a donor of pieces if necessary. and of course, have a working system to backup your stuff up and running that you use at all times. after each and every session i save everything at least three times to different locations, so each location has the same status – always.

this part of the work is kind of boring and not as much fun as the actual writing or playing of course. but having a working system that keeps everything cleaned up, organized and perfectly accessible at any time makes this as efficient as it gets and gives you more time for the music.

to be continued…

hopefully i’ll find the time to get back to regular posting again, it’s just not happening at the moment, for i’m being pulled in 11 different directions all at once. sheesh.

but for now, behold: focus – hocus pocus

by the way, they’re still around! check out their youtube-channel right here, quite a bunch of newer videos there.

anyway, this is just to tell you, i’m still here and still working on soundtracks for love, baby…

working on “traitor”, my 2nd album (listen to the 1st one “corner” in the blue player to your right) provoked some thoughts about the future, actually the present as well, of the album as such.

looking at websites or profile pages of independent artists creates the feeling that’s it’s just about single songs instead of albums. songs are uploaded as soon as they’re finished and more often than not, they don’t even seem to be related to some kind of album anymore. now, is this so?

it would make sense, because people listen to music on their mp3-players, create their own playlists and pick single tunes from download-sites. so is this the switch from rug to patchwork-quilt? and if yes, would it be wise for an artist to jump on that train? there’s another point to this, it would be more web2.0-ish if an artist would release each song as soon as it’s done because that would mean more frequent updates to his/her page or profile. one more advantage might be that each song would be noticed and listened to equally (at least at first). with the release of a whole album there’s always songs that draw more attention than others.

but on the other hand, i do like the concept of albums. to me it’s a lot less confusing, especially if someone covers a wide variety of styles with his/her music. so the albums would be like folders on your desktop that keep the songs together that belong together and give you a better view at what the artist did so far, because you see the different phases of his/her work. and the artist has the possibility to group songs together, so the album is more than just the sum of its tunes.

that leads to another thought. is this just triggered by the market? do artists simply react to the new era of consuming music? or do they welcome this and like the idea of thinking in smaller units? as for me, i’m not sure. right now, i’m in the middle of creating what i thought of as my 2nd album. but as a matter of fact, it’s more like 2. one of them very much related to the first one, stylewise. and the other one a straight hardrock record (about 8 songs each at the moment). now, there’s a decision to be made – should i do 2 albums, write more material for both and release 2 full records when they’re done? or should i just mix it together and do one album with those 16 tunes, even if they don’t really fit together? or, should i just go ahead and release every single song once it’s finished and don’t care about albums at all? or do the latter and then group the songs together once all of them are out? but who would be interested in an album if all the songs were already released? or, release some of the songs, so people already know half of the records, but have to wait for the records themselves to hear the other half?

i guess the main question here is: does the rug really tie the room together?

at this point, i have no idea. and instead of helping me to get closer to a decision, writing this confused me even more. damn!

just a quick note that this site might not be available some time during the day. my provider does some database-updating-thingy, so i apologize for any inconveniences that might arise. of course, i should have posted this yesterday, because if you can’t open the site, you won’t be able to read this note. but at least the feedpeople should get it………and since they read the content without actually coming here, this is redundancy at its best, i now realize – ok, moving on…

there is also still the issue of the site being way too slow. i haven’t found out why – yet, but i found myself a cool and gifted netguy who’s willing to help me with this, so there’s a new light at the end of the tunnel. let’s hope it’s no upcoming train…

that is something i do all the time, since i wrote my first song – about 18 years ago that is. accidentally i should add.

for some reason, i always write stuff i cannot play or sing – and it sucks. breathing for instance is usually no big deal once you got the basics down. there’s of course – and always will be – songparts that are hard to do, but those are just a few. oddly enough, i managed to write songs, lots of them, that i myself could not breathe at all. how stupid is that?

and although i’m through with this “airless phase”, i still do this with other parts – like drum- or guitarpieces i simply can not play. now, today that shouldn’t be a problem, right? we have computers and such to do this for us. but this is just not how it works, at least for me. even though i do almost everything with the laptop, i still take pride in my music (stop mocking me!) and the things you hear are really played and recorded, not drawn in with some pencil tool. and this is important to give it authenticity, which is one of the most vital things in music – or any art, for that matter. so right now, while working on the second album, i spend a whole lot of time practicing – just to be able to actually play those things i’m making up for myself. it usually is about precision. when i come up with a drumpart, it’s something i am basically able to play – if you can think it, you can play it – so that’s not the problem. same with guitar or bass. the hard part is to play it clean and precisely, to make every hit or stroke count and equally important. to have no fingernoises or rimclicks and so forth. this is the big challenge for me, so it’s writing the stuff and then tracking a really bad version of it, so i can figure it out in detail. and once i know exactly what to play, i practice like crazy to simply not suck too bad on the real track.

and that’s my point. there’s this saying here (no idea if there’s something similar in english…): one grows with his challenges. or as i probably mentioned many times before: practice something you can NOT do, instead of playing something you already own over and over again. so maybe i should feel lucky to have such a freakingly perverted subconscious that throws all those rocks at me during songwriting, because it knows me all too well. but even if this makes me playing better, it still would be nice to come up with something i could do right away every once in a while…

1. part I
2. part II
3. part III
4. part IV

last time i promised you a list with music i think is great for practicing. but before i do that, i’d like to give you two links to agility-heaven. you know, drummers have their rudiments, guitarplayers have their scales and so forth. and although those do improve precision, balance etc. they’re also for developing speed. now what can a singer do get faster or maybe doing some showing-off? well, it’s not as simple as doing scales, but it’s a lot more fun. so here’s two links to (drumroll please….): tonguetwisters, YAY !!!

• the tonguetwister database
• 1st international collection of tonguetwisters

go ahead, check them out. do each and every one of them (at least in your language) until you can say them loud and clear without pausing in a normal conversation tempo or faster. the secret is starting slow. as lots of double-bassdrum-wizards say: don’t worry about the speed – the speed will come. so start really, really slow and make it a priority to speak very precisely. and once you got that down, speed it up a little. by the way, those make great warm-up exercises as well – note to myself: there should be a warm-up entry anyway.

just have fun with them and remember to work especially on those you can NOT do :-)

and here’s one of my favorites, it’s maori, the language of the original inhabitants of new zealand, and it’s nothing more than the name of a hill. there you go:

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga- horonukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu (it’s one word)