so, i'd like to announce my new cult-based subscription business model.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
200 subscribers
deathtokoalas
i don't really get this subscribers thing, but the number seems to be increasing steadily.
i don't really get this subscribers thing, but the number seems to be increasing steadily.
Faust Skelter Noize
You post really musically informative comments on videos. Lol. I was listening to la dispute and deadMau5's new record. You had the top comment on both vids.
deathtokoalas
i've been aware for a while that people seem to be subscribing to the wrong feed. putting a like up on this page or subscribing to me on youtube indicates you're interested in the music - and i've certainly had a few people interested in the music, but not nearly that many, from what i can tell. my channel is an artist channel. if you want to follow my comments, you should be following me on google+, because that's where they get sent from.
so, what i think is happening is that people are liking my comments and subscribing to my artist feed, then interacting with the "wrong" content.
the reason it can be a tad offsetting for me is that it builds up false expectations. i'd like to think that uploading a video with 200 subscribers might mean at least 50 will watch it. but that number seems to be more like 10. i'm getting far more hits from random surfing...
so, i said i don't "get it". i do "get it". i perhaps should have said "i don't see the use of this subscribers thing, but...".
from my perspective, i'd probably argue they should consolidate the feed so that "subscribing" to deathtokoalas is a one-click operation that sends both comments and uploads to the feed. the user should then have the option to subscribe to comments, uploads or both - and i should get the metrics, so i can measure how much interest is tied into what.
as it is right now, i don't really have a clear understanding of how many of the 200 people are interested in reading my comments, are interested in listening to my music or are just subbing out of a sense of solidarity.
i do realize that it's weighted very heavily towards the comments, though, and that the result in most cases is just a dead feed, creating a dead sub.
it's especially confusing, considering that i comment on a lot of social issues. i'm not really that close to either, but i'm closer to deadmau5 than la dispute; most of my stuff is instrumental, so deadmau5 is a better comparison just on that basis alone. there's some possibility that a deadmau5 fan may get something in the feed and dig it. but, there's really little reason to think that the subs that come out of solidarity for a feminist statement or a geo-political analysis or an anarchist rant are going to translate into any kind of interest in the music - that solidarity could be coming from the world's biggest folk fan, or a hip-hop purist, or an older person that listens exclusively to "classical" music. having that all mixed up into a confused user base that doesn't seem to know what they want to subscribe to just creates a number that doesn't really have much meaning, in the context of what i'm creating and what i'm doing to promote it.
i have a new top track...
'boogeyman' and 'mom' have been bouncing back and forth for a few months, but it's actually balancing off two aspects connected to usability of the site rather than an implication of popularity. i've stated this before: youtube hits measure marketing reach, not audience size. i mean, i'm a hair under 200 subscribers and it seems like less than ten of them have bothered checking out the song i uploaded yesterday morning. i've been through this before and it's just a function of the site: i don't read my feed often, either. it's just daunting to get twenty minute videos thrown at you every few seconds. you want to sit down and watch youtube content; it's not a feed that you can really check on the bus, like facebook.
'mom' has in truth generated far more interest, but that's because it's placed second in sequence and has an outlandish name, causing people to jump over the first track to it. boogeyman is fourth in sequence, meaning it's rarely the first point of engagement.
but, this file has three tracks in it - 9,10,11 - so it's been up on the front of the page for the longest. that's why it has the most hits.
it'll cycle out on monday morning, and 'mom' will no doubt catch up within a few weeks. the first demo cycles out at the end of october. i'd have to guess that 'mom' will catch up before then and will be most likely to hit 2000 first, depending on any spikes or lack of spikes i get as i'm entering the promotion cycle for the second demo. i would expect that a newer track will be the first to hit 3000 and start climbing higher.
i'll have a better statistical breakdown of my first demo promotion period at the end of october.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gTfycvt1VU&list=PL3JSjmqp0cbslW9qCBKT_nEcwUt1DY0aN
'boogeyman' and 'mom' have been bouncing back and forth for a few months, but it's actually balancing off two aspects connected to usability of the site rather than an implication of popularity. i've stated this before: youtube hits measure marketing reach, not audience size. i mean, i'm a hair under 200 subscribers and it seems like less than ten of them have bothered checking out the song i uploaded yesterday morning. i've been through this before and it's just a function of the site: i don't read my feed often, either. it's just daunting to get twenty minute videos thrown at you every few seconds. you want to sit down and watch youtube content; it's not a feed that you can really check on the bus, like facebook.
'mom' has in truth generated far more interest, but that's because it's placed second in sequence and has an outlandish name, causing people to jump over the first track to it. boogeyman is fourth in sequence, meaning it's rarely the first point of engagement.
but, this file has three tracks in it - 9,10,11 - so it's been up on the front of the page for the longest. that's why it has the most hits.
it'll cycle out on monday morning, and 'mom' will no doubt catch up within a few weeks. the first demo cycles out at the end of october. i'd have to guess that 'mom' will catch up before then and will be most likely to hit 2000 first, depending on any spikes or lack of spikes i get as i'm entering the promotion cycle for the second demo. i would expect that a newer track will be the first to hit 3000 and start climbing higher.
i'll have a better statistical breakdown of my first demo promotion period at the end of october.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gTfycvt1VU&list=PL3JSjmqp0cbslW9qCBKT_nEcwUt1DY0aN
after inri029 is inri030, which i uploaded a few weeks ago.
that is indeed a different person singing, and that voice will define a handful of things in the next couple of inri-numbered releases. the 'rabit is wolf' material includes the vocals of this other person.
what i'm actually going to be focusing on for a bit tonight is trying to reconstruct the bass part in this track. it's actually a very simple tune - there's really only 6 parts in it. but, i initially recorded the vocals and bass to a single file. basement recording in 2001 didn't include fancy things like mixer interfaces and digital audio workstations; i had one 1/4 inch jack in, and at most two tracks to record in with, by splitting the single into left and right with a 4-track tape recorder. so, the initial file had the bass on the left and the vocals on the right (or vice versa). unfortunately, the only thing i have to work with at this point is a single stereo file with the bass and vocals together.
i can't really redo this. the synthesizer parts are mostly improvised, around a melodic theme. further, everything is just a little bit out of time - which i fully realized and exploited fully to make it sound unusual.
the vocals and bass are mostly separated, though, enough that i may be able to salvage most of the bass part with a wave editor and very carefully overdub what i can't. the key thing is making sure the timing is identical to what exists in the recording.
i'm not going to kill myself over this, though. if i run into problems, i'm likely to quickly abort. if not, expect a mix up in the next day or two.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/me-myself-and-the-time-i-thought-this-was-a-good-idea
that is indeed a different person singing, and that voice will define a handful of things in the next couple of inri-numbered releases. the 'rabit is wolf' material includes the vocals of this other person.
what i'm actually going to be focusing on for a bit tonight is trying to reconstruct the bass part in this track. it's actually a very simple tune - there's really only 6 parts in it. but, i initially recorded the vocals and bass to a single file. basement recording in 2001 didn't include fancy things like mixer interfaces and digital audio workstations; i had one 1/4 inch jack in, and at most two tracks to record in with, by splitting the single into left and right with a 4-track tape recorder. so, the initial file had the bass on the left and the vocals on the right (or vice versa). unfortunately, the only thing i have to work with at this point is a single stereo file with the bass and vocals together.
i can't really redo this. the synthesizer parts are mostly improvised, around a melodic theme. further, everything is just a little bit out of time - which i fully realized and exploited fully to make it sound unusual.
the vocals and bass are mostly separated, though, enough that i may be able to salvage most of the bass part with a wave editor and very carefully overdub what i can't. the key thing is making sure the timing is identical to what exists in the recording.
i'm not going to kill myself over this, though. if i run into problems, i'm likely to quickly abort. if not, expect a mix up in the next day or two.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/me-myself-and-the-time-i-thought-this-was-a-good-idea
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
updating inrijected (inri022) & inrimixed (inri023)
i've also converted two tracks on this record (3,4) from mono to stereo.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inrijected
as well as tracks 1 and 2 here.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inrimixed
that's all of them.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inrijected
as well as tracks 1 and 2 here.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inrimixed
that's all of them.
updating inrisampled (inri003)
today is a listening day and i heard something i didn't like.
these songs were created in mono, and i didn't see any reason to convert them to stereo; i actually thought the mono sound added a bit of a charm to it. they played through both channels in cool edit, on youtube and on bandcamp, but i just got the annoying left-ear thing through the downloaded flac, so i converted them to stereo for the upload.
it won't sound any different through the streaming. maybe there's a slight loss of character in moving from the original to the mono, but i think the ability to play it on modern equipment is more important.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inrisampled
these songs were created in mono, and i didn't see any reason to convert them to stereo; i actually thought the mono sound added a bit of a charm to it. they played through both channels in cool edit, on youtube and on bandcamp, but i just got the annoying left-ear thing through the downloaded flac, so i converted them to stereo for the upload.
it won't sound any different through the streaming. maybe there's a slight loss of character in moving from the original to the mono, but i think the ability to play it on modern equipment is more important.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inrisampled
to spin inside dull aberrations (final album mix)
written in the summer of 2001. remembered over july, 2014. completed august-september, 2014.
publishing to spin inside dull aberrations (inri048)
that completes inri029.
i want to see how much of the main track of inri030 that i can salvage for the j-squared part, but i believe the vocals are inseparable from the bass, permanently placing the track in rabit. i may have a trick or two.
the next project is that choir.
i don't expect a track to cost me as much time as this did for quit a ways, looking forward. the pace of uploads is going to increase quite a bit.
--
credits
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/to-spin-inside-dull-aberrations
i want to see how much of the main track of inri030 that i can salvage for the j-squared part, but i believe the vocals are inseparable from the bass, permanently placing the track in rabit. i may have a trick or two.
the next project is that choir.
i don't expect a track to cost me as much time as this did for quit a ways, looking forward. the pace of uploads is going to increase quite a bit.
--
this track represents somewhat of a refocus, but it never found itself to fruition in the way it was meant to.
over the summer of 2001, a friend of a friend decided he wanted to start a band and asked me to play bass. now, we didn't really have a lot in common besides both being musicians. i was spiralling out into obscure independent music, and he was into all the mainstream rock bands. 2001 was the point where grunge was losing it's last bit of mainstream potential, and giving way to nu metal and various watered down, corporatized offshoots of hardcore. so, i was sitting around listening to tortoise and writing jazz compositions and he was sitting around listening to limp bizkit and writing mtv/radio rock. how could this legitimately work?
there was a small amount of overlap, centred mostly around tool. it so happened to be that tool had just released a new record, we were both listening to it and neither of us really had anybody else to talk to about it. so, something formed out of that.
now, when you're an isolated twenty year old that's never been lucky enough to meet another musician you can start a band with, you take what you can get. it seemed implausible that it was going anywhere, but wasn't that the case for every other band that ever went anywhere when they first started off? i don't think either of us thought we were natural creative partners, but we had a set of common goals and if we could put aside our differences...
see, the thing is i knew that the only way anything was going to happen is if i sat down and recorded a bunch of stuff. but, i also knew that this is a guy that defines himself in terms of his oversized ego and that the whole purpose of it from his perspective was to give himself a way to explore it. that's not the worst trait to have if you want to start a band, either. my overwhelmingly shy introversion hasn't exactly got me filling stadiums, has it? nor is it ever going to, and i realized it even at that stage. so, a natural role would be for me to play the producer (along with the bass guitar) while he throws some stuff at me. if that meant i'd be doing 90% of the actual recording, that would be ok, but i realized i had to let him provide the actual song structures or he'd storm off and pout about it.
so, i waited for him to provide some material. and waited. eventually it became clear that he didn't actually have any serious songs. we did a few demos, but he could barely play what he was trying to demo and the tracks were not of a gigging quality level.
in the mean time, he'd recruited a guitarist. he kept saying he was talking to a drummer (no drummer ever appeared), and he also recruited another friend of a friend as a singer. so, we had what seemed like a full band, if you include the imaginary drummer. what i saw was an opportunity. if he wasn't going to write some songs, i guess i'd have to...
the other guitarist almost immediately dropped out, and the whole project really fell apart rather quickly when the guy that initiated the whole thing stopped showing up to practice. it was several weeks in a row that only the singer and i showed up. i had a few songs i had written, so we started working on those instead and that became rabit is wolf. predictably, there was much pouting.
that leaves this particular song in an isolated limbo. when it was reworked for rabit is wolf (jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/the-day-i-saw-you-cry ), it took on the epic and experimental nature i was exploring at the time and lost the crux of itself as a stadium rock song. i feel something valuable was lost in this process, if for no other reason that this is so dramatically different than anything else i was doing at the time.
thankfully, i still have the original drum files, and i remember how to play the guitar part, so it's simply a process of recreating it. the raw mix sounds exactly as the track did in 2001. the complete mix takes it to it's final conclusion.
written in the summer of 2001. remembered over july, 2014. completed august-september, 2014. as always, please use headphones.
over the summer of 2001, a friend of a friend decided he wanted to start a band and asked me to play bass. now, we didn't really have a lot in common besides both being musicians. i was spiralling out into obscure independent music, and he was into all the mainstream rock bands. 2001 was the point where grunge was losing it's last bit of mainstream potential, and giving way to nu metal and various watered down, corporatized offshoots of hardcore. so, i was sitting around listening to tortoise and writing jazz compositions and he was sitting around listening to limp bizkit and writing mtv/radio rock. how could this legitimately work?
there was a small amount of overlap, centred mostly around tool. it so happened to be that tool had just released a new record, we were both listening to it and neither of us really had anybody else to talk to about it. so, something formed out of that.
now, when you're an isolated twenty year old that's never been lucky enough to meet another musician you can start a band with, you take what you can get. it seemed implausible that it was going anywhere, but wasn't that the case for every other band that ever went anywhere when they first started off? i don't think either of us thought we were natural creative partners, but we had a set of common goals and if we could put aside our differences...
see, the thing is i knew that the only way anything was going to happen is if i sat down and recorded a bunch of stuff. but, i also knew that this is a guy that defines himself in terms of his oversized ego and that the whole purpose of it from his perspective was to give himself a way to explore it. that's not the worst trait to have if you want to start a band, either. my overwhelmingly shy introversion hasn't exactly got me filling stadiums, has it? nor is it ever going to, and i realized it even at that stage. so, a natural role would be for me to play the producer (along with the bass guitar) while he throws some stuff at me. if that meant i'd be doing 90% of the actual recording, that would be ok, but i realized i had to let him provide the actual song structures or he'd storm off and pout about it.
so, i waited for him to provide some material. and waited. eventually it became clear that he didn't actually have any serious songs. we did a few demos, but he could barely play what he was trying to demo and the tracks were not of a gigging quality level.
in the mean time, he'd recruited a guitarist. he kept saying he was talking to a drummer (no drummer ever appeared), and he also recruited another friend of a friend as a singer. so, we had what seemed like a full band, if you include the imaginary drummer. what i saw was an opportunity. if he wasn't going to write some songs, i guess i'd have to...
the other guitarist almost immediately dropped out, and the whole project really fell apart rather quickly when the guy that initiated the whole thing stopped showing up to practice. it was several weeks in a row that only the singer and i showed up. i had a few songs i had written, so we started working on those instead and that became rabit is wolf. predictably, there was much pouting.
that leaves this particular song in an isolated limbo. when it was reworked for rabit is wolf (jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/the-day-i-saw-you-cry ), it took on the epic and experimental nature i was exploring at the time and lost the crux of itself as a stadium rock song. i feel something valuable was lost in this process, if for no other reason that this is so dramatically different than anything else i was doing at the time.
thankfully, i still have the original drum files, and i remember how to play the guitar part, so it's simply a process of recreating it. the raw mix sounds exactly as the track did in 2001. the complete mix takes it to it's final conclusion.
written in the summer of 2001. remembered over july, 2014. completed august-september, 2014. as always, please use headphones.
credits
j - drum programming, orchestral sequencing,
guitars, effects, synths, electric bass guitar, digital wave editing,
sampling, loops, equalization, vocals (5), production
the rendered electronic orchestra includes tuba, saxophone, flute, clarinet, orchestra hit, piano, violin, viola, cello, contrabass and various full string sections.
sean - vocals (track 6)
jon - guitar (track 6)
released september 16, 2001
the rendered electronic orchestra includes tuba, saxophone, flute, clarinet, orchestra hit, piano, violin, viola, cello, contrabass and various full string sections.
sean - vocals (track 6)
jon - guitar (track 6)
released september 16, 2001
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/to-spin-inside-dull-aberrations
to spin inside dull aberrations (reprise)
the second half, split off, to make the first more attractive to certain people, but still allow for full listening pleasure.
created over a few days near the end of september, 2014.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reprise-2
created over a few days near the end of september, 2014.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reprise-2
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
uploading to spin inside dull aberrations (reprise) to the scratchpad
pretty rough, but this is the idea of the end of the track. i spent the morning "mastering" it to sound a little bassier. i need to add some noise, but it's not going to be very structured.
i also spent last night enjoying my track in the state it's meant to be enjoyed, and i have to say i'm very, very happy with how it came out...
http://googledrive.com/host/0B5JfVE9XTZikMS1zek9ER0xSU1E/scratchpad/
i also spent last night enjoying my track in the state it's meant to be enjoyed, and i have to say i'm very, very happy with how it came out...
http://googledrive.com/host/0B5JfVE9XTZikMS1zek9ER0xSU1E/scratchpad/
Monday, September 22, 2014
to spin inside dull aberrations (final single mix)
so, part 2 ended up being a bit more minimalist than i was initially thinking, but i think it's the better way to get the idea across. the busier piano part didn't really segue well, it just sounded kind of hokey. maybe it's 'cause i'm sick right now, but this really feels like the right way to end it.
the reprise is quite large and may take a few days, but it's actually very much rooted in a monotonous sort of minimalism so it's not going to be nearly as ridiculous to build up. i spent two months on this. if you take a flip through the page, you'll see it was actually quite a struggle: broken guitars, fighting with headphones, sequencing strings, etc. but it's done...
bandcamp offers high quality downloads (not yet for this track, after the reprise - i don't do single tracks, full album dls only) but compresses a little on playback. try to boost the bass just a tad to compensate.
written in the summer of 2001. remembered over july, 2014. completed august-september, 2014.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/to-spin-inside-dull-aberrations
the reprise is quite large and may take a few days, but it's actually very much rooted in a monotonous sort of minimalism so it's not going to be nearly as ridiculous to build up. i spent two months on this. if you take a flip through the page, you'll see it was actually quite a struggle: broken guitars, fighting with headphones, sequencing strings, etc. but it's done...
bandcamp offers high quality downloads (not yet for this track, after the reprise - i don't do single tracks, full album dls only) but compresses a little on playback. try to boost the bass just a tad to compensate.
written in the summer of 2001. remembered over july, 2014. completed august-september, 2014.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/to-spin-inside-dull-aberrations
ok, got it, think i can refocus...
also, the coughing has started. i'm going to need some cough syrup.
there's a song for that.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/01-jesus-gets-fucked-on-robitussin
also, the coughing has started. i'm going to need some cough syrup.
there's a song for that.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/01-jesus-gets-fucked-on-robitussin
Sunday, September 21, 2014
must have picked up a virus. it's weird though because it's only three symptoms: sore throat, sore muscles and tiredness. no coughing, fever, stuffinesss, anything like that. but it means i've been sleeping quite heavily since thursday. i wasn't sure at first that it was a virus, but i'm sure now...
so, it's going to get put back another day or two.
there's a yearly event in detroit tonight called the noise camp that i was going to check out, but the virus/rain/sunday combination is going to keep me in. the hope was that it would be done completely before i left; it's not even close. i may actually even crash (again) within minutes...
i'm at least more awake than i've been in a few days and think i can get some work done tonight....
so, it's going to get put back another day or two.
there's a yearly event in detroit tonight called the noise camp that i was going to check out, but the virus/rain/sunday combination is going to keep me in. the hope was that it would be done completely before i left; it's not even close. i may actually even crash (again) within minutes...
i'm at least more awake than i've been in a few days and think i can get some work done tonight....
Saturday, September 20, 2014
of course, now i'm having trouble with figuring out that segue point.
i don't want it to sound too similar to the time machine, but my brain is producing a similar sort of collapse and fade. i know what i want the third part to sound like, and the framework is constructed, i just need to fill it in. but how i'm going to get from a to c is currently eluding me...
i don't want to skip tracks, but i might have to. i'm going to give it a few more hours.
i don't want it to sound too similar to the time machine, but my brain is producing a similar sort of collapse and fade. i know what i want the third part to sound like, and the framework is constructed, i just need to fill it in. but how i'm going to get from a to c is currently eluding me...
i don't want to skip tracks, but i might have to. i'm going to give it a few more hours.
Friday, September 19, 2014
to spin inside dull aberrations (overdub mix)
i've included the raw mix to document what the track sounded like in 2001. so, i've included an overdub only mix as a counter to it to document what was added in 2014. paste the two on top of each other to get the cubase output of the track.
created over august and september, 2014 to augment track written late in the summer of 2001.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/overdub-mix
created over august and september, 2014 to augment track written late in the summer of 2001.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/overdub-mix
i'm actually going to skip the part altogether...
it's a neat riff, don't get me wrong, but it works in contrast to the cracked out white zombie riff - if it's played once. maybe twice. but over a four bar repeat, playing them off against each other ruins both.
i can't put it at the front or the middle as that would be anti-climatic. and it doesn't work at the end, either.
there's enough pizzicato bass in the world. the song doesn't need it.
that means i'm done the first part. amazingly.
well, let me sleep on it...
it's a neat riff, don't get me wrong, but it works in contrast to the cracked out white zombie riff - if it's played once. maybe twice. but over a four bar repeat, playing them off against each other ruins both.
i can't put it at the front or the middle as that would be anti-climatic. and it doesn't work at the end, either.
there's enough pizzicato bass in the world. the song doesn't need it.
that means i'm done the first part. amazingly.
well, let me sleep on it...
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