It’s Mental

Time for some HARDCORE!  This is the next track off Reaver EP#1, Mental Orgasm. Don’t ask me what I was thinking when I wrote this, I think it was around the time of the rise of Hardcore in Sydney. Makes sense I guess…..

Studio build

So the studio build continues, the electrics are in and the sound absorbent insulation is in, 22 bags of the stuff, it was a full day of work. I feel like all I have done is spend money! $1000 for this $2000 for that… damn it’s all starting to add up. I also had to buy myself a new laptop as well. And to think I have been at this music thing for 20 years so I already have most of the stuff I need, I could only imagine the cost if I had to get everything new. The image below is what will eventually be the mix position, where I will be sitting when working in the studio, still seems a long way off…..

Finally….

Well here it is finally, the new rvrmedia.com/blog  Done in wordpress, and it has taken me the best part of today to get it looking like this. I’m still not 100% happy with it. Still plenty to do and heaps of stuff to add, as you can no doubt see. I want to blog every weekday in June so I will need a platform that makes things easy and wordpress certainly does that. Anyway I’ve really had enough of this today, expect some goodness tomorrow.

Rock’n it Suckers

Today we have something very special. A DJ mix just recently done by a good friend of mine, DJ Unknown, he has been experimenting recently with Jackin House music and this is his current tune selection. Personally, It’s nothing like the style that I play, but I find it very enjoyable to listen to, very funky….. I’ve also made this avaliable on my Soundcloud

Enjoy…..

It’s the final countdown…

Wow! So many things to blog about, studio build, plugins, demo mix…. where do I begin. Yesterday I got myself a copy of the Korg Legacy Collection. I was primarily interested in this because I wanted a Korg Polysix keyboard. This keyboard is a legend, It was used by Joey Tempest from Europe to write the classic keyboard riff to ‘The Final Countdown‘, I can see why! (However a TX-816 and JX-8P where used when they recorded it) and I remember having one in school so it was one of my first encounters with a real synthesizer. The thing absolutely rips, the sounds fit perfectly with even the most modern of productions. Full, bold and solid are just a few of the adjectives I would use to describe how it sounds. However, I wasn’t entirely convinced that needed to get then entire collection, that was until I read the KVR top plugins ranks and noticed that two of the other synths in the pack (M1 and MS-20) appear in the top ten! Well that convinced me, and I am not disappointed at all. Amazing….. If you are producing any sort of music at all, I highly recommend you get these plugins they are reworks of keyboards that will be shaping the sound of things to come for a long time……

More on Reaver EP#1

Here is the next track in our continuing series about Reaver EP#1, this is the second track of the EP ‘The Prank’. Obviously I wrote this a long time ago and can’t really remember what I was going for, lets just call it eclectic ! Chuck in a few synth hits, a few rave back beats and a number of ripped off samples and what do you get ? A warehouse track…. anyway take a listen…..



DJ Hi Shock

I haven’t talked about any other artists for a while, so lets do…. Artist of the week….

Hi-Shock is a techno artists that has been active even longer than I have, we crossed paths briefly back in the late 90’s but since then I’ve not had anything to do with him other than seeing his name appear on the odd party flyer. I had no idea what he had been up to until I friended him on Facebook and checkout his happenings. Looks like you have been busy in the last 10 years… excellent !

DJ Hi-shock, Simon, to his friends, has been busily building an arsenal of deep and minimal techno tracks that could sink a battle ship. Taking a tour through his profile on Beatport will give you a taste of the sonic experiments he has embarked upon. From the traditional deep, full, techno sound of Ageha, The angry and dirty warehouse feel of Zath and a few surprises from Asama Express which sends you on a ride of anticipation, expect nothing but full on in your face minimal tech.

With his record label Elektrax in full swing and churning out plenty of tunes I think we will hear much more from Hi-Shock. Excellent work.

The Build Begins

Why am I freaking out ? Building a studio should be a good thing, right ? It’s something that all musicians dream of, a place to work without distractions away from the day to day grind of everyday living, a creative space. But at the moment I feel exactly the opposite….. Stressed out and worried, I’m not even doing any of the work yet. There are three builders in the backyard putting everything together and every time I go and take a look at where they are up to I get a sense that the project is just getting more and more out of control. The walls get higher, the yard seems smaller, and to roof is not even on yet. I did get a sense of this recently when we did some landscaping in the front yard, but not this bad. This is a roller coaster.

I recently quit my job of 20 years aswell, so things are compounding. It was a great job, I had flexible working hours, I was in a senior position the pay was not that bad, so why did I quit….? Well it was the only job I had ever had since school and it was time to go and try something different. Working for myself perhaps….

My hope was that pouring all this out onto a page would somehow make me feel better and get things straight in my head, I don’t know how effective it has been. Anyway here is a picture of the stupid studio……