Next gig: a week Thursday - Hulk Dash as Bad Visor

michaelforrest — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:31:45 -0500

When: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8pm to 12am BST

Mood Tracker again

michaelforrest — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:29:39 -0500

Seems my Facebook app has been quietly gaining users.

From people all over the place. The last mark is zero because the data doesn't get changed until midnight. I couldn't work out how to narrow the range - the flash kept freezing!
I'm staying with my family today, and somebody reminded me I know celebrity psychologist Paul Britton, and that perhaps I should be talking to him and other people about this application. And perhaps I could somehow monetise it.
I have no idea how I would monetise it.

0 comments

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

Radiohead Reckoner Remix

michaelforrest — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:00:06 -0500

So I spent this afternoon surrounded by a circle of gear, recording this remix, after Dave kindly donated the 'stems' (they must always be referred to as 'stems', with the quote marks).

I didn't want to go too electronic on it - I decided I wanted to do something that wouldn't be too out of place on a Radiohead record. It was nice sitting inside a circle formed by my drum kit, rack units, microphone assembly, moog prodigy, cello, trumpet, clarinet, controller keyboard and laptop. The only bad thing is it meant I was listening to my speakers at the wrong angle, meaning I was mixing it slightly wrong as I was going along - hopefully it's not TOO bad, now that I've tweaked it.

There was a lot of music spilling into the vocal track, so I ended up incorporating this into a fill, bringing in the 'big' music. Oh anyway. Have a listen.

Listen here and vote for it: http://www.radioheadremix.com/remix/?id=868

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Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

What Art Is, To Me

michaelforrest — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:44:45 -0500

This is my first ever comic. I think it explains a few things anyway.

What Art Is, To Me

Flickr possibly isn't the best place to put a comic, but I'm sure you won't have any problems reading it, handwriting notwithstanding...

0 comments

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

Geoff Tyson - Polyrhythms - Michael Forrest Remix

michaelforrest — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:28:31 -0500

Geoff sent me the vocals to do some music under. When I think polyrhythmic, this is what I imagine.

1 comment

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

L1NA Listeners

michaelforrest — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:32:54 -0500

I've been tracking the number of listeners reported by Last.fm (see last.fm/music/L1NA). Here's how it's been looking.

MF is Michael Forrest on Last.fm.

(L1NA is the project I was doing with Halina that we sadly had to abandon)

I suspect hope subsequent collaborations will perform similarly. Well - should be better really - this, I think, is just bubbling viral spreading without any marketing.

3 comments

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

Michael Jackson vs Eurythmics vs Michael Forrest

michaelforrest — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:37:36 -0500

Mischief

michaelforrest — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:55:17 -0500

2 comments

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

Sad but inevitable realisation

michaelforrest — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:04:53 -0500

I'm not going to make it as an artist. I have the talent but not the demeanour, nurture or training. My work is all about pushing technical boundaries but as music it is too ungrounded - too unlimited. I am stylistically fickle and I'm not prepared to live on the bread line in the service of my art because what constitutes art to me develops on a daily basis.

By letting go of my pursuit of high art I have the potential to be happy. I can enjoy listening to music without bitterness or disappointment. I can be gentle and subtly expressive in my work instead of constantly trying to tap into a higher plane of sonic originality. I can breathe again.

I am still in the early stages of mourning this loss. I am intensely sad, but I'm not miserable - I am optimistic, I know this is for the best.

My place is to produce work like this. My real talent is in lifting artists' work to new places, taking things like this to this.

update
Just to clarify - I'm not stopping making music, no damn way!!! I'm just saying I'm focusing on being a producer rather than trying to be the artist from now on. Quincy Jones instead of Michael Jackson.

6 comments

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

I Don't Want You - Michael Forrest

michaelforrest — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:31:12 -0500

I've had this in my head a lot so it's the sort of thing that's probably worth sharing.

I'm calling this project 'Alone In Crowds' - me + cello + moog + drum pedal to bang the back of the cello and occasional collaborators.

It's not a great performance, I'm not a good singer, I can't play the cello that well, but you get the idea. I made myself sound better by cutting off the attack phase of some of the notes. Singing lessons soon I guess.

I spliced together the best bits rather than trying to do a better performance because I'm lazy. Try to ignore all the studio clutter and just imagine me on a red curtain background in a nice shirt and tie.

The wrist band on is from the Collision Festival - Suzywan sorted out for me. Cos she's nice like that.

I am so in love with my Moog Prodigy I can't tell you.

My camera is filming from next to my very noisy fridge, by the way. That's what the ambient metallic drone is.

0 comments

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

Cello + Moog

michaelforrest — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 05:49:51 -0500

I started messing about with curtains last night in the dark to try to make a video of my experimental cello + moog + vocals style. I didn't manage to get anything satisfactory filmed - I didn't have enough curtain for the viewing angle I wanted, and I kept breaking things - I need somebody to help really!

I did get this picture though.

3 comments

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

Michael Forrest Gadgetry

michaelforrest — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:27:24 -0500

http://grimaceworks.com/mf/lab

This is my minimal live setup - geared towards maximum sonic potential and malleability - that is - I can be completely in tune with whatever the audience is up for. I'm sequencing on Ableton rewired through Reason, and using a homebrew Max/MSP patch to turn my Korg MicroKontrol into a makeshift Electribe-style drum machine running a rack of Subtractors. I have a Faderfox LX2 to trigger loops and switch instrument channels. I keep my loops organised in the browser in Ableton by song - each song will have about 3 audio channels - drums, bass and one or more layers of miscellaneous 'musical' sounds. Then I have 5 MIDI parts that I build up as I'm playing. I've annotated the video anyway.

0 comments

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

Mood Tracker Update

michaelforrest — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:16:43 -0500

My idea was never just to hide a happiness charting application somewhere on the web to be forgotten about. That's never gonna work. Not even with Facebook integration.

No, to keep this data fresh, it needs multichannel access; it needs to ask you for data.

About a year ago I first built a web application that periodically enquired after my happiness. It is a very strange feeling to have a message like that pop up in your IM client. Even when I'd written the code to make it talk to me in a nearby terminal window, it still sorta gave me a warm feeling.

I'm used to being asked how I am. But the only answers I can really legitimately offer are 'fine' or 'great'. This Facebook app is a much more scientific approach. I want a record of my mood, I want to be able to track and remember what made me happy, so even if I can't remember the feeling, I can't deny that it happened..

I still haven't made it past 6/10 for the whole time I've been working on it but - well - I'm sure I will sooner or later.

Go and try it out for yourself at Facebook: Mood Tracker.

0 comments

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

Music production tip: getting vocals in time

michaelforrest — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:16:35 -0500

Seventeen years ago when I first started using tracker programs, I found it difficult to lay down a note sequence with the timing I wanted just by stepping through and looking at the numbers.

I found it useful to tap out the time first, without the tune, on the computer keyboard, to mark out the timing. Then I'd replace the placeholder notes with the right ones. Much easier than trying to do it all by eye (or relying on a perfect take! ).

Today I tried out a similar technique on an audio file in Ableton Live. I was trying to get some a cappella vocals into a certain rhythm. I usually to find this very frustrating - the shapes of the waves don't really tend to line up with phonemes and I always end up dragging warp markers about for ages and making a big old mess.

Today, I had the idea of singing the vocals with the timing I wanted and then just lining up the real vocals to this.

This was much MUCH easier than trying to do it any other way! You can see here I've been quite loose with it - I am trying to get out of the habit of over-quantising - it sounds good anyway. Next time I get an a cappella I'm gonna do this with the whole lot.

0 comments

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

My Facebook app: Mood Tracker

michaelforrest — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:34:51 -0500

I have made an application for Facebook. It's called Mood Tracker. It sticks a little chart on your profile that tells people how happy you are feeling. You can tag your moods to develop an idea of what makes you tick, and see a list of how your friends are feeling.

It's something I've been kicking about for ages - last year I was working on this concept but it was more extravagant and featurey. The user model became a problem and I never really got it working very well. However, I did use it myself for a while and I found it had a lot of value in helping me understand what makes me tick. When you are asked to quantify your happiness, and it comes out low, you have to start thinking about why. This is a good way to break out of the numbness of depression - you can see that you used to be happier, you realise that something is wrong now, and you can try to do something about it, instead of remaining in that weird resigned oblivious mindset.

Ratings can be tagged. This is a good way to get an overview of what you should pursue, and what you should avoid. The unhappy tag cloud is hidden by default.

I will be focusing on enabling more input channels for this application next. It is important to be able to report your mood at any time, and another key feature of the application is that you will be ASKED from time to time how you are feeling. This means you are more likely to record data for moods when you might be less inclined to be thinking about what your mood is.

Feel free to install the app here: Mood Tracker - I hope you find it useful.

2 comments

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

Ruby On Rails OCD

michaelforrest — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:59:09 -0500

I had to put this in one of my application initialisers. Yes, I am clearly way too perfectionist...

class Array
  alias :to_wrong_sentence :to_sentence 
  def to_sentence
      to_wrong_sentence(:skip_last_comma=>true)
  end
end

Default behaviour without fix:
['egg','beans','chips'].to_sentence # -> egg, beans, and chips

Default behaviour with fix:
['egg','beans','chips'].to_sentence # -> egg, beans and chips

PHEW.

1 comment

Michael Forrest music downloads: iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3

Michael Forrest Feed

Next gig: a week Thursday - Hulk Dash as Bad Visor

Mood Tracker again

Radiohead Reckoner Remix

What Art Is, To Me

Geoff Tyson - Polyrhythms - Michael Forrest Remix

L1NA Listeners

Michael Jackson vs Eurythmics vs Michael Forrest

Mischief

Sad but inevitable realisation

I Don't Want You - Michael Forrest

Cello + Moog

Michael Forrest Gadgetry

Mood Tracker Update

Music production tip: getting vocals in time

My Facebook app: Mood Tracker

Ruby On Rails OCD