“Hey, breaking up is an idea that has occurred to far too few groups. Sometimes to the wrong ones.”
–Steve Albini

Just as I don’t really “do” Christmas, I’m not a huge fan of the traditions that usher in a new calendar year. Getting blinding drunk for too much money? No thanks. Thus, not a big fan of the New Year’s resolution.

However, I am a big fan of reflecting on one’s life, taking stock, adjusting one’s life goals. And I’ve been doing that over months leading up to 2009. Specifically, about my music, my life, this blog, my studio. More specifically, this blog in relation to my music, my life and my studio. And this blog in relation to world at large.

Just the other day, the great MusicThing blog closed up shop indefinitely. Like many a gear geek, MusicThing was one of the first music production blogs that I came across – if not the first. And what a delight. It got me more excited about the possibilities of production, the joys of finding and creating sound, than anything outside of actually making music myself. And, yes, it probably pushed me closer to opening my own blog.

But there’s one thing that MusicThing’s open-ended hiatus and possible demise easily illustrates: blogging, while not hard per se, is time consuming. Not just the writing – which it can be, especially for long-winded, discursive fuckers such as myself – but the actual time it takes to digest information. You know, to have something to write about that is of possible interest to people other than you and six of your friends. Setting one up is easy enough; coming up with an idea or an “editorial” mission is even more simple. But keeping it going for any length of time past a year or two can be tiresome, even if you’re not doing your own coding (which I am).

And MusicThing had a clear editorial vision, a keen eye for the interesting, and a strong authorial voice. Someone like me, what exactly am I bringing to the table? Other than I can type well. And I’m reasonably literate. (If overly dependent on adverbs.) Other music tech sites cover releases and how-to and such with far more efficacy than I ever could part-time, esp. on my own dime. So that just leaves me as a feeble editorial voice out here on the edges of CreateDigitalMusic and KvR.

I don’t generate enough traffic to warrant any google revenue or to solicit targeted banners. And at some point I have ask, in a word, why? What I set out to promote – the music I’ve been chiseling away at for pert near a half decade; over 25 years if you count all my years before home recording and digital lofi production – is so lost in the haze of technology and trainspotting as to be almost obscure to me now. I’ve become, more or less, a minor advocate for a small cadre of developers that never really asked for my participation. I’ve had some good conversations with a few of these developers, whom I respect a lot (annoyed a few of the same, I’m sure), I got to review/test drive a couple of awesome products, and hopefully I’ve helped them in some way or another. But the truth is what I need to be concentrating on doesn’t translate into a blog quite so easily as “let me talk about cool music tech”. And even that never turned into quite the conversation I had hoped for.

Beyond this, if you read back a few months, you might divine that my relationship with new music tech is, erm, changing. I’m tired of being a beta tester, of buyer’s remorse (whether for pay or freeware), opening an interface and quickly realizing that despite whatever internet/magazine chatter it’s just another piece of software. In some ways, we’ve hit the point of diminishing returns. So unless I’m just going to comment on a lot of shit I won’t necessarily use, ever, I’m doing what again? It’s not like people are turning to me for advice.

Going into this new year, this new post-birthday, I want to get back to making music. I want to play guitar. I want to write songs. I want to finish CDs. Maybe even play out in some regard.

Already I was leaning toward just using what I have. The tools I want/need for my studio at this point aren’t really impulse purchases. Of course, let’s be honest, I’m sure there will be updates and a few goodies I’ll purchase, mostly from the developers/companies I’ve been championing over the last few years (I’m looking at you, Rough Rider Pro); but, by and large, I’m going to force myself to be way more practical and deliberate in my studio. And, thus, I want the software upkeep to be way more minimal.

So, yeah, this blog. At first I thought I could blog about the process of sifting out the chaff of my plugin folder, reviews of the software/soundware I was keeping. I could to try to revive my Album a Day in a less demanding format. Plus I have a bunch of drafts that I could try to revise into shape. But all of this is time I don’t really want to be putting into something that’s more like a job (keeping up the post count as to not fall of the radar) than something that’s bringing me any joy, or at least bettering my life. I am glad that this has given me an outlet for my writing and helped me rediscover my love of that, albeit in an unexpected form. But I think it’s apparent that even that is better spent elsewhere.

The proverbial ice awaits. In a final act of Me-too-ism, I’m going to follow MusicThing’s lead into the greater unknown. O, I may be over-come by a desire to post something. Maybe I’ll finish off my epic over-view of Poi Dog Pondering’s complete recorded output. Maybe an open plugin standard will finally come to fruition. But once I fall off people’s RSS readers then I truly am writing for myself.

At some point I’ll figure out how this fits into my overall plans, such as they are. With a new mission maybe, or at least new sponsorship that will provide me with the time to type away about my peculiar and narrow obsessions. I’ll be around, and I’m sure I’ll be unable to control my urge to not just shut the fuck up, but this place will most likely be quite for the foreseeable future.

Thanks to those who commented. Thanks to the readers who came here deliberately rather than just following some errant google search. Thanks to the other sites that kept me going even when my ADD (not really) pulled my attention elsewhere. Thanks to the developers who put up with me or encouraged me. And, fuck it, thanks to me for making it this far and knowing when to bow out.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Peace,
C. Puffer

I was thinking that I wasn’t going to do this. It’s not like I have that much to say throughout the year, so “wrapping up” seems a tad redundant. But, really, it’s bitter cold outside, the coffee is strong, and my girlfriend is sleeping off her New Year hangover¹, so why the fuck not?

Top digitallofi.com posts of 2008²:
1. Well, I’m happy to say that a significant portion of my traffic comes through various subscription services, stumbleupon, off my favorite sites, and I have a good number of returning visitors. So, cheers to you all. You’re among probably about a couple hundred other “regular” “readers”.
2. My unintentional backhanded compliment to SynthEdit and some of the better SE authors.
3. A Pre-Sonar8 launch bitch-list of what I thought was the most ripe for updating, and which missed the mark pretty vastly. Really? That had to be one of my weakest posts all year.
4. I’m just going to go ahead and roll up my 2008 Holiday Gift Guide for the Disenfranchised posts into one big pat on the back for myself. Most of this traffic the result of a mention on CreateDigitalMusic.com, which just further illustrates how necessary that blog is. If only on a personal level.
5. Again, thanks to CreateDigitalMusic and the dude who made BeatBurner and released it as donationware.
6. My “review” of SonicCharge’s delightful, “controversial” new musical sound generator. Again, mostly thanks to cdm.com; Peter, if I made any money I would pay royalties or something.
7. SonicCouture’s Gamelan: Believe the hype. Coming in 2009: The Digital LoFi Gamelan EP.³.
8. Found Sound.
9. Part of my misguided, half-hearted but on-going campaign for an open plugin standard.
10. Yeah, even I don’t know what I’m thinking sometimes.

Digital lofi’s top software instruments of 2008:⁴
I don’t know, I guess I’m going to go with the 1-2 punch of GForce’s VSM & MTronPro. And Synplant. And didn’t BFD2 come out in 2008?

digital LoFi’s top DSP plugins of 2008:
Good God this is a tight field. Let’s just give the title to the fuckers at AudioDamage. If they made an EQ there would be little debate their absolute Godhead status among purveyors of DSP. No actually, there would be lots and lots of debate. And let’s give props to Voxengo for continuing to make waves for the rest of us. And the donationware/freeware/perpetual-betaware developers who just keep raising the bar every year.

digitaL LoFi’s top soundware of 2008:
Do I even need to discuss this? Goldbaby, SonicCouture, NineVoltAudio. Independently owned and conceived all. Honorable mention to Homegrown Sounds; I’m looking to see what they have in store. And I look forward to kicking myself for neglecting PureMagnetic for so long.

Puffer’s favorite album of 2008:
Didn’t buy too much new music this year. I want to say Poi Dog Pondering but shamefully I haven’t purchased that yet, only listened to their stream of it. I really was digging the new Slipknot album⁵, but I have a feeling once I really hear the older, harder stuff I won’t find it quite so satisfying. The Eno/Byrne joint really rocks the party. But I haven’t had enough time with it. I’ve probably listened to the General Fuzz catalog more than any other single artist outside my playlist shuffle mode.⁶ And Boards of Canada: Always BoC.

Digital Lofi’s top hardware acquisitions of 2008:
Most definitely my pawn-shop MPC1000. I barely know how to utilize it to its fullest, but I’m determined to learn it and to use it live.

Saddest non-Trend of 2008:
This Was Grindhouse: A site in search of movement and a guiding hand. A movement in search of…

DigitalLoFi’s no-brainer digital audio industry predictions for 2009:
Alas, Project5, we hardly knew ye.

The Digital Lofi Audio Blogosphere 2008:
*CreateDigitalMusic.com: The check’s in the mail.
*AnalogIndustries.com: Jesus, dude, get over yourself.
*MusicThing: Tom, as far as I’m concerned you could post once a year and still be one of the best music blogs out there.
*MatrixSynth: I get tired just thinking of all the posts they’ve put up just while I’ve been writing this. What’s not to love about synthporn? And what could make synthporn even better? Babes!
*http://rekkerd.org/: The only thing that could make ronnie’s site better would be if more people joined in the discussions. And this year I’m going to take part in one of your competitions, I swear.

Most unwelcome Digital Lofi blogging affectation of 2008:
Footnotes.⁷ It didn’t start off as a tribute to David Foster Wallace, more just a ripped-off conceit, but I’m fine with it turning into one. He is a writer I will truly miss.⁸

So, I guess that’s it. It’s approximately my birthday this time of year, so wish me a happy birthday in the comments.

PS – I’ll most likely be updating, correcting and revising this post over the next week or so while I get together my New Year’s Ambitions and Ruminations. Hell, it will take me a week just to sort out the footnotes on this Hindenburg.

^{1I stayed in. For what’s it’s worth. I’m going out on my birthday presently.
2Mostly according to Google Analytics. I really should look more closely at my server reporting. I’m also discounting any older, perennial posts that keep generating traffic. But other than that, these are really the top posts.
3Don’t hold me to that.
4Let’s not be sticklers for release dates, okay? I got ‘em in 2008 and they are all pretty recent.
5Go ahead and mock me. My girlfriend does. As does pretty much everyone else. I don’t know, something about their shtick appeals to the 13 year-old boy in me.
6Honestly, some of it gets a little lite-jazzy in places for my taste. But it is top music, really. And great for coding. Music for coding is important.
7 Really, they’re kinda of a pain in the ass, and roughly double the amount of time to post, no matter how entertaining and useful they are for my long-winded style.
8Though I suppose it could compete with not deciding how I want to type out Digital Lofi/digitallofi/digital lofi/Digital LoFi/Digital Lo-Fi/et al. But I won’t even go into my reasons behind this.}

No real update, though I’m writing an epic post on my troubles with PACE.

But I did get my font issue with this site sorted out. While certainly not dazzling it should be a whole lot easier to read, and should scale correctly.

So I encourage my few new readers to go back through the archives and/or recent few months and fully enjoy the wit and wisdom¹ of C. Puffer without straining your eyes.

^{1Self-deprecation doesn’t really translated to type very well, does it?}

Chris over at AI threw down a little challenge for the weekend: write a track in 10 minutes. Soup to nuts.

I wasn’t able to really think about it because my girlfriend’s dad and step-mom were in town, as well as my cousin and yadda yadda. On top of which I had a web site crap out on me on Saturday and it needed to be rebuilt.

But I held off on listening to the other entries in hopes that I could get into the studio. It’s only 10 minutes after all. I wanted to avoid any influence, any hint as to how to approach it. Sure enough, Sunday night, late I gave it a shot.

Yeah, that didn’t work out so well. Not that I think that’s terrible, it just lacks imagination. Well, it just lacks, imagination among other things.

But more to the point, that there took me a little under an hour. It took 10 minutes for me just to get microTonic setup and pumping out a beat. (Even there I punted; it was a beat I was had been cooking several months ago when I was working on a lot more music than I am now.) Anyway, I didn’t get to anything close to a structure until about 20 minutes! Forget about breaks or edits.

So by the time I’m throwing down the trance synth you know I’m in trouble.

This tells me a few things:

My workflow, in absence of composing or just mucking around, is for shit. I’m forgetting all my keystrokes.

I work slowly. No, really, really slowly.

Finish up learning to play my “live” rig.

RE:
Scriptorium Instruments

I must find out if it’s possible to distribute custom scriptorium instruments, and the logistics of getting it into the hands of licensed scriptorium users. Sort of like, “You own this sample library; you own scriptorium. Here’s some instruments.” Or if I was to use my own samples (unlikely).

Sometime last year I wrote about how I had once owned a Moog MG1/Realistic Concertmate. It’s not just that I had no idea what it was or barely used it while I had it, or even that I sold it to some friends for like fifty bucks – it’s that of all the crap I’ve hung onto over the years I had to get rid of that. And every once and a while something comes along to remind me how misguided I was at certain points in my life.

Today this is pointed out via Analog Industries. Alerted to a new freebie sample set from the dedicated geniuses at Goldbaby that utilizes a Moog MG1 run through a bunch of Audio Damage plugins. I’m not on a broadband connection right now so I won’t be able to audition them for a while. But I’m prepared to download and weep.

_{Photo ripped the matrixsynth flicr stream}

Chris Randal, of Audio Damage renown, has informed his readership that he marking his 40th birthday today. Happy birthday, Chris. Welcome to the declining years.

In said post, he anticipated the occasion by noting some of the musical milestones of a particular lifetime. Since there’s nary a bandwagon I won’t jump on, here are a few of mine, though it’s not my birthday:

• #1 Song on the day I was born: “The Sounds Of Silence” Simon & Garfunkel
• First new album I purchased with my own cash: “Duty Now for the Future” Devo¹
• First stadium concert: Grateful Dead, Providence Civic Center²

As a present for Chris why don’t you head over to his label and buy one of his records. I assume he gets to keep all the profits for those (since they’re digital downloads it’s all his, right?) it’s the next best to his requested Paypal cash grab³.

^{1That sounds way more prescient that it probably was. Before and after that anomalous purchased, mostly influenced by my best friend at the time, my tastes were a lot more in keeping for a kid growing up in NH in the 70s. However, I rediscovered the album in my punk rock years and realized how fucking brilliant it is. To this day, one of my favorite albums. And I still have that copy, much worse for wear.}

^{2This was before their mid-to-late 80s resurgence; I happened to be in town the night my cousin was going, and getting a scalped ticket was incredibly easy and cheap. My cousin ended up being a life-long deadhead. I did not. Though I’ve often wanted to cover a Dead song for the academic exercise of it, and simply to be contrary.}

^{3Yes, I know he was joking}

PS: While we’re on the subject of gift giving, I do want to call attention to the two most recent posts from sensible misanthrope Violent Acres that are about the best things I’ve read on the issue: #1, #2

Here’s something well worth reading: What Have I Learned, in which our author and blog host, a one James Kirsch (nom de guerre: general fuzz), ruminates on what it means to be an independent musician and self-producer, making music for the shear joy and intellectual satisfaction of it, only to release it to the perceived indifference of the Web.

So, not a prescriptive cataloging of EQ and compression tips as the post title might lead you to believe; no “How to build a super saw patch” here. What we get are some thoughtful excogitation for we project studio jockeys, huddled over our screens of Project5, Logic, Live, et al, filling up our hard drives with sound collections and virtual instruments, inflicting the results on girlfriends, family, newsgroup acquaintances. I’m not full agreement with everything Mr. fuzz is offering but the spirit of it is %100 on the money.

The irony of it is with this one post the general negates a lot of what he was writing about. He has generated a whole lot of feedback, made a lot of people who weren’t previously aware of his music, and collected I’d imagine a bunch of new fans, many of whom would gladly buy his music.

I for one am chuffed to have discovered the collected works of general fuzz. Nice downtempo tunes with a breeze of jazz blowing through the spaces, full of hooks and well-considered instrumental embellishments. Perfect for an early morning work session, such as I’m enjoying as I’m writing this. I’ve paid for albums that weren’t half this good. Click on the album cover above to check out his complete discography.

General, I salute you. (Groan…)

Allow me to present for your consideration one of his fine songs, off his latest release, Cool Aberrations:
general fuzz, “reasonable ability”:

I’ll finish up my series of posts celebrating cross-platform plugins with an elder statesman of the cross-platform plugin world, SonicCharge’s absolutely awesome µTonic (or microTonic).

I bought this back shortly after it was released, or at least when it was reviewed and demo’d in Computer Music. I made the decision like 15 minutes after installing the demo. It is really that fabulous. It is both simple – the presets are by and large brilliant – and really, really deep. To this day I’m constantly surprised by the sonic interest it adds to my music and the sounds I can get out of it – and I use it a lot.

I’m bringing this up for few reasons:

• It fits in perfectly with my cross-OS celebration, natch.
• A few months ago SonicCharge updated all the code for today’s top-o-the-line Macs (and a built a new Vista installer, though the program itself worked fine).
• In conjunction with said update they also released a new folder full of patches.
• To give away a little freebie pack of patches for use with µTonic.
• To make you suffer through a lot of back story.

All of this after the jump.
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Well, not really. This is one of those years when I abstain as much as possible from Christmas. I don’t do this every year, but more than occasionally. As I’ve said, no kids, a family that is understanding or feels similarly. My girlfriend is with her family, and we did our small Xmas before she went away (believe me, I know how good I have it with her) so I can have a day as uneventful as I’d like. I won’t go into a tirade or anything, but suffice to say, while I understand the need for family and communal celebration, the religion/consumerism aspect bring forth the curmudgeon in me.

Also, my good friend just called to tell me that his beloved pet had suddenly and unexpected shuffled off this mortal coil. Sad news.
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