Orbiting Onions

The Ecuador Three - Neverending Sums

2010-04-14T21:20:00.003Z

The Ecuador Three - Neverending Sums

2009-08-06T14:59:00.000+01:00

2009-08-06T14:58:00.001+01:00

2009-08-06T14:54:00.000+01:00

Dear audio software makers...

2009-05-13T02:23:00.003Z

...stop living in the past. This is the Sony Oxford EQ, widely considered one of the best EQ plugins:

...and this is Tracktion's built-in EQ:

They're both extremely similar in both function, and the amount of control they offer, but the second works like a real computer program (drag and swoosh the circles around til it sounds as you wish), while the first, 'pro' offering has a pile of twaddly little knobs as if keyboards and mice were never invented. Crossing fingers that one day, VST makers will realise that they're designing GUIs, not rack units

The Peace and Love EP

2009-05-01T06:04:00.006Z

An easier way

2009-05-01T02:08:00.001Z

Goodbye blogspot, hello tumblr

Seeing infinity

2009-03-16T15:17:00.004Z

I'm not a Sasha Frere-Jones fan (due to tripe like his "Paler Shade of White" nonsense), but this really resonated:

Russell’s recording sessions were a departure from the average hit-making process: they were closer in principle to jazz than to pop or dance. Musicians received brief instructions, rehearsed equally briefly, and then played for as long as felt right. Tapes from these sessions were then edited and recombined to make multiple records, a practice common to Jamaican pop forms like dub reggae. Russell often mixed songs more than ten times, highlighting different instruments each time, seeing infinity in an inch of tape.

(re: Arthur Russell)

Wanted: Musicians (Dublin area)

2009-02-11T09:56:00.005Z

I'm starting a band to play originals (and covers that I can pass of as originals) and need

a drummer
a bassist
a keyboard player

If you're able to sing and/or write songs, it'd be a huge plus. Here are some tunes:

The Ecuador Three - Hey (or how the band did its thing)
The Ecuador Three - Easy (Thus Do All)
The Ecuador Three - Gideon
The Ecuador Three - Handshake Drugs
The Ecuador Three - Dublinism

Prog Prog Prog Prog

2009-02-06T02:10:00.001Z

Prog Rock Britannia - An Observation in Three Movements (part one of three)

Pretty self-explanatory, really

Helm's Deep y'all

2009-01-06T02:34:00.002Z

16 year olds write songs, 16 year olds forget about songs, 26 year old man digs up songs he wrote when 16, finally records album, thinks wistfully about how things have changed, chorus til fade... by Rob Matthews and His Mate Hamish.

Helm's Deep (102mb zip)

Handshake Drugs/Marquee Moon

2008-12-20T05:15:00.003Z

Now with added cornet! (by me, not by that guy)

The Ecuador Three - Handshake Drugs

2008-11-17T04:13:00.004Z

Here's a mostly pointless cover of Wilco's Handshake Drugs the veers into Television's Marquee Moon for a few minutes in the middle. Contains viola. And doubletracked tambourine.

The Ecuador Three - Handshake Drugs

Coltrane in slow motion

2008-10-08T21:30:00.008Z

"Hey what's up with Don the bassist, he's looking like shit"
"Don started doing heroin"
"Jeez, how could he be so stupid"
"All the really good jazz musicians did three things. They read the Bible. They did heroin. And they practised a lot. Don wants to get better, so he's started reading the Bible and doing heroin."
- I Love Music thread

I've been listening to a lot of John Coltrane lately. It's not just that his playing is fast - it's more like he's playing amazing melodic lines and he just happens to want to play them extremely quickly. They'd be just as interesting slowed down. By way of example, here's India at half speed:

John Coltrane - India (The Ecuador Three treacle remix)

Carpenters Challenge: Rainbows

2008-08-28T17:05:00.002+01:00

The Carpenters Challenge: record a Carpenters classic, if possible making it even more airy fairy than the original. First up is our man Manketta (or Brian to his mam), seen here on the right, with a glitchy update of a middle of the road classic. Stay tuned for versions of Superstar, We've Only Just Begun and more...

Mantekka - Rainbows

Jenny Is A Fox

2008-08-15T15:19:00.005+01:00

This is one of those tunes where I tried to put too much stuff in and it never quite came together as I planned, so I uploaded it so I can leave it and finish something else. Oh well. I'm one track closer to finishing the Peace And Love EP (provisional cover above).

The Ecuador Three - Jenny Is A Fox

The Ecuador Three - Gideon

2008-07-01T17:51:00.004+01:00

Quick little cover of the My Morning Jacket song recorded in just under an hour on a rainy Saturday afternoon

The Ecuador Three - Gideon

Opus Dave

2008-06-13T16:05:00.004+01:00

There comes a time, it seems, in every young man's life when his friends sit him down and make him listen to the album they've been writing about him behind his back for the past two months. Here it is: (all tracks credited to The Retro Cowboys of Delta Dineenadelica)

Free VSTs that aren't shite

2008-05-09T16:50:00.004Z

I use Tracktion 2 for all my recording needs. It came free with my soundcard, and is a joy to use. The built in EQ is pretty good, and very intuitive. The MDA plugins included, however, leave a lot to be desired. For those of you interested in this sort of thing (hi Andy), I present to you my list of usable free VST plugins to get you started:

Steroid Bouncer - processing for stereo tracks that aren't really stereo, i.e. bass direct and mic'd amp
Cyanide - simple sigmoid type distortion
endorphin - excellent dual band compressor, intuitive controls, good for heavy squashing
Bionic Delay - nice dub type delay - make left and right delay times different and you can get nice Haas effect placement
newB - bass enhancer, can be good if used subtly
Freeverb - the daddy of free reverbs. Only really has one sound (medium room) but it's a good one
Ambience - good reverb for when you want an obvious effect
SIR - impulse reverb. Get impluses here and here.
Tapeworm - Mellotron VST. Nice flutes

Easy (Thus Do All)

2008-05-01T13:44:00.004Z

I thought I was onto a winner with this one until I realised that not only did it rip off Place Your Hands by Reef, but Wide Open Spaces by The Dixie Chicks. Oh well...

The Ecuador Three - Easy (Thus Do All)

Undercurrent

2008-04-30T00:34:00.002Z

Here are two old (2004) tunes done for a college video documentary project. They're pretty much pastiches/ripoffs (try and guess which one is trying to be Four Tet, and which one is DJ Shadow). Nevertheless, I remember being pretty proud of them at the time, young and foolish as I was.

Dave Dineen - Speaker Music
Dave Dineen - Title Music

The Ecuador Three - Hey (or how the band did its thing)

2008-04-02T03:49:00.005Z

A (slightly work-in-progress) song for ye all.

The Ecuador Three - Hey (or how they band did its thing)

Retro Cowboy Delta Dineenadelica

2008-03-28T16:32:00.005Z

Another far-fetched flight of fancy, this time courtesy of Norman Davey.

Retro Cowboys of Delta Dineenadelica - The Curse (a preview from the Album "Songs In The Key Of D Dineen)

Tuned like a guitar...

2008-03-05T22:33:00.003Z

...played like a cello. The arpeggione was invented in 1823, but quickly fell out of favour, its only notable work written by Schubert. I want one.

DJ Shadow...

2007-12-25T22:17:00.001Z

...talking about crate digging (from the film Scratch)

Guitar Army

2007-06-15T23:55:00.000Z

“ ”

Glenn Branca is seeking 80 guitarists and 20 bass players for his upcoming performance of "Symphony No.13 (Hallucination City)". This performance will be in Dublin on July 15 at Grand Canal Square as part of Analog.

I'm seriously considering doing this - the avant garde (ahem) leanings might not be to the likings of Stuckists like Rob Matthews (he knows who he is), but I reckon it would be an amazing thing to see, nevermind take part in.

Original Press Release

~~Rhys Chatham - A Crimson Grail (Part One) (400 guitars)~~

Neurovision

2007-05-28T21:29:00.000Z

Take three musicians. Sit them down to watch the spectacle that was the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Soak in alcohol. Add instruments and a dash of Tull. Record.

~~Neurovision (7 songs, 63MB zip)~~

And now, ladies and gentlemen, SKING!

2007-05-10T02:59:00.000Z

Here's an oldie from a fried Mars bar eating mate of mine. I can't figure out the lyrics for the life of me, but I think they have something to do with the vertical movement.

DJ Sking - Can't Go Up, Can't Go Down

etree Friday

2007-03-30T15:42:00.000Z

I've been meaning for a while now to put together some kind of post about the etree/archive.org Live Music Archive - a monstrous collection of live bootlegs that you could get lost in for weeks. It does skew slightly towards the jam band side of things, but there's enough variety to guarantee that you'll find something you like.

My Morning Jacket - Gideon - Bonnaroo, 2006-06-16

The Dismemberment Plan - Sentimental Man - The Middle East, 2003-07-24

Gomez - Get Miles - Cleveland Odeon, 2003-05-08

Rogue Wave - California - Bimbo's 365 Club, San Francisco, 2006-03-30

By the way, the above photo is of a random Nigerian guy hugging commentator Eamonn Dunphy during Wednesday's Ireland/Slovakia match in Croke Park. With thanks to Wes Gorman.

A model of restraint

2007-03-22T04:26:00.000Z

Buddy Rich was born in 1917. This was filmed in 1981. Not bad, old man.

De Blues

2007-03-20T23:04:00.000Z

Rob Matthews (seen here on the left) would have you believe that this is not the work of his own hands, but an unearthed gem from 1926, talking about an old Dave Dineen, and not any contemporary person of the same name. Affectionate mockery or vicious satire? You decide...

~~Blind Lemon O'Hara - Dave Dineen (1926)~~

Loops of fruit

2007-03-04T00:49:00.000Z

Right, Mullen, listen up. Here's how I put together drum parts in Fruity Loops:

Play the main bit of the song on an acoustic guitar, taking particular care with regards to timing and feel
Using the wave editor of your choice, make a one bar loop of it. Note how long it is
Make a new project in Fruity Loops and set the bpm to match the length of your one bar loop. bpm = loop length / number of beats (probably 4) * 60.
Put the loop on one of the tracks. Now you can add drums on top until it sounds good.
The most important thing to get right is probably the swing. I usually put hi-hats all the way across (i.e. 16th notes), and nudge the swing slider until they're in time with the guitar
Add your favourite drum samples. Often for, say, a kick drum, I'll layer an acoustic sample (for some gritty warmth/feel) with a drum machine kick (for a serious low-end smack). I've heard Mylo is a big fan of this method

Here's one I made earlier (no vocals yet though):

The Ecuador Three - Easy (Thus Do All)

And that's it...

A blast from... a while back

2007-02-27T02:14:00.000Z

Here's a random jam recorded in a living room way back in November 2002 (we're only playing Tony Hawk 2, and those are video tapes on the windowsill). The muffled small room sound was pretty strong in the original recording, so I've tried to tart it up with some reverb. Your truly is on acoustic, Shano (see below) is on bass, and electric guitar is provided by none other than Norman, inventor of the world famous SLiMDisc software. Peter Smith provides random cupboard closing sounds towards the end as he goes about cooking his dinner.

Dav, Dave, Shano - Riders on the Slide

Introducing Shano

2007-02-22T10:49:00.000Z

Here's a tune by a bass playing ledge I used to live with - funk, soul and reggae is his usual sort of thing, but this is his first foray into more of an abstract mellotron electronica type yoke. Whatever. The bassline is still great.

Mantekka - Private Space

New Home

2007-02-21T15:00:00.000Z

Screw you, Vox

Here's the plan...

2007-02-07T04:18:00.000Z

Well, I hope to get into this whole home recording yoke, hopefully culminating in the recording of some kind of Psychedelic Masterpiece^TM. As a means towards this end, future entries may include:

fragments of tracks to try out certain recording techniques
full, original songs (yay!)
random YouTuberry
usual mp3 blog stuff - rare tracks etc.
mp3s from friends' bands and so on

Entries will not include:

scathing critiques of government transport policy
chronicles of celibacy
stupid in-jokes