Release now or build anticipation?

OK I think this is it, the cover art for forthcoming album Formant Potaton. I had it slated for October release, giving time to send out promo CDs to magazines for them to review. However, Rock The Trojan Fader / Trojan Fader Style only garnered one review, in The Wire ("It's so much like spending an hour of your life on a treadmill that you should probably carb up for it.") I sent out 15 or 16 promos for Bounds Green, I think the fact that it is getting a vinyl release will help its prospects of being reviewed, but who can say?
Formant Potaton consists of 12 songs, 10 of them with computer vocals. The songs are really catchy and I think it's one of the best things I've done. I can either set a release date a couple of months away and send out promos in the vague hope of generating some publicity and anticipation, or given that there are very few manufacturing / distribution issues with MP3s, I could just put it online straight away and start earning from it now! What do you think? Is it too soon after the last album? What does it mean for release schedules in the internet age? If you have an opinion, give me a shout, mail or comment.

The psychology of better sound

http://www.retrothing.com/2007/07/playstation-1-a.html

Reading down to the comments, there is an unattributed reference to "the $485 wood knob, yes KNOB, to reduce vibration that might be experienced with the original plastic knob." Who knows if that is true, but I can believe it...

I was recording tracks from some old DATs into my computer recently, and compared the sound of a digital transfer compared to analogue via a gold plated £10 phono lead. Of course the digital method would be preserving every bit, and the analogue way would just further degrade the audio and lose information, right? Guess which sound I preferred.

EDIT! Thanks to anonymous comment, here is the knob in question! The description is awesome. I was going to quote a sentence or two, but it's all pretty hilarious and far beyond parody.

Mailing list now operational

Hi, if you send a blank email to cylobnews-subscribe@durftal.com and follow the instructions, you can subscribe to the new mailing list. Mails will be sent from time to time about things like gigs and releases. I promise not to sell your address to any spam gangsters!

Get FLAC-ed

Well, what do you know: the FLAC versions of the latest releases are now available, so you can hear every nano-particle of detail in crystal clear "digital quality"!

Rock The Trojan Fader
Trojan Fader Style

p.s. if you don't know what FLAC is, look here.

Gig Reports

Bournemouth 20 July 2007


pic (c) Chris Moss Acid

The above resulted in the below:




Moor Music Festival, Yorkshire 21 July 2007
The dancefloor was 2 inches deep in mud!

Cylob auf Deutsch

Cylob auf Deutsch ... thanks, Tina!

Winter and Spring

Winter



http://www.mediafire.com/?fryjdp2umml



Spring



http://www.mediafire.com/?bhdihmlvmys

Cylob Industries has launched

Front page glory on bleep.com! Below you can preview and buy the first releases. Also on preview is Bounds Green.

Programming and Flexing

I've been continuing my CMS upgrade and maintenance mission. Tonight I got bogged down in the SoundPatch manager, but I've completed it now. It was nothing more interesting than juggling arrays of numbers: sheer boredom. Listening to Funkmaster Flex made it bearable. The link takes you to over 4 hours of 90's hip-hop tunes. There are some great ones in there. (This is old news for those in the know, I know...)

oh... this could come in handy: http://wmdeez.wordpress.com/2007/07/08/we-are-not-90s-snobs/

Gauging interest in short run CD's

Hi, would you actively support independent music!
You know how the music industry is going down the toilet right? Do you like my sound, and would you like to get a tangible object in return for your support?
Here is my idea:
You pay roundabout £10 / €15 / $20 via PayPal, I send you a CD of one (or more) of the albums I am currently in the act of releasing online.
There are many companies specialising in short CD runs, if I made 100 of each release, could I sell them? Perhaps each CD could have an exclusive mix or track not available online.
I have heard that CD sales are nosediving, but I have also yet to find out how successful my downloading venture will be.
Anyway, if this something that you would be interested in, please leave a comment or send a mail to info@cylobindustries.com.
P.S. Vinyl... forget it, I can't do that myself. Apart from anything else, runs would need to be in excess of 500. I need a hookup with an actual record label for that!

Bribed

Thanks to those who participated in the grass-roots promotion! I offered to link back to those who took part, these 3 said yes:

Dan Panton
Nick Varney
Mascodegama

MSC Finished

It just has a minor glitch that needs ironing out.

The curves can be applied to pitch, volume or other sound parameters. Playback speed also has its own curve. "Comb" shapes can be created with adjustable spacing, offset and width. Parts of curves can be copied and pasted, and two different curves can be multiplied and pasted back into any slot. Selections can be made in precise blocks, and altered using the slider on the right.
The curves can be played back as loops or just once through, at an adjustable speed specified in seconds or steps per quarter note, for tempo dependent patterns. A "jitter" parameter randomly scales playback speed for slight variations.

Spannerisms

I answered a few questions for Spannered. Don't expect any wild or crazy revelations!

Sleeves

Haven't seen them in real life yet, hurry up Mr. Postman!

EDIT: This record will be released on 10 September along with the download. The vinyl will have 4 extra tracks not available online. I'll be letting everyone know how and when to order directly from WeMe, or you can just ask your friendly independent record shop to order one (if there are any left where you are...)

EDIT2: I've got one in my hands now. What can i say... you're definately going to want a copy. I'm super-relieved I managed to line up the text on the spine correctly. Oh yeah the music's not bad either!

Cylobotnia that once was live

About 6 weeks ago, I did some internet "radio" broadcasting from my bedroom alongside Aleksi Perala.
The session is now available for download at XLTronic. The links are in this messageboard thread:
http://xltronic.com/mb/96895/296
Some ace new tracks from Aleksi are included. Then we get a bit or quite a lot drunk towards the end. There are a few good moments of live jamming before that. Check his new album too if you like.

P.S. Here's what our collaborative album of 2003 sounds like:



P.P.S. Here's our MySpace.

MultiSlider Composer

Here's the latest function I'm in the process of building into the CMS. I've made the GUI and data handling side, I just have to finish off the actual working bit, but it's doing my head in as usual. The theory isn't so complicated, I just have to take it one step at a time to avoid brain meltdown. Anyway, when it's finished, the shapes that you can draw will be able to be mapped onto parameters in any SoundPatch (which is a sound generating piece of code.) The nifty bit is that you can select a range, and apply simple transforms, such as bringing every 4th slider up a certain amount. I plan to build in other functions when I've got it up and running, such as generating pulses, making sine / square / triangle waves etc. And also to have a similar GUI creating waves for use within SoundPatches.
Next on the to-do list is to make a SoundPatch librarian, so I don't have to keep on making sounds from scratch for every track. After that is to make my own version of Traktor, that won't require making constant micro-adjustments to keep 2 (or more) tracks in time.
I did an interview for Computer Music about my music system, it's supposed to be out next month.

EJR has been bigging me up

Schools fixer, photographer, web designer, singer, film maker and racing car driver (and close chum, and I left at least 5 things off the list) Emma Jane Richards gave a plug to the new stuff, so here is a link back inviting you to examine the inner contents of her brain matrix.

Durftal Podcast

You can manually find and download live and DJ sets and exclusive tracks from me, EDMX, Paul Blackford and Soundmurderer on Durftal.com, or just load up this URL into iTunes as a podcast, and put your feet up as all the goodness downloads directly into your playlist. Latest addition today is a Roller-Rink Boogaloo mix from EDMX, which is a tempting slice of electro, funk, disco and soul not to be missed!

Instruction

The latest Nick Collins jam. I made this GUI in Supercollider for it.

(from the helpfile) "Instruction Synthesis (breakpoint set interpreter) - Converts a buffer of virtual machine instructions into synthesis. Based on breakpoint manipulation with linear interpolation. The limited command set:

0 interpolate from last to new breakpoint over PARAM *5000 samples (ie down to about 10 Hz, sampling rate dependent)
1 new random breakpoint from PARAM.rand2
2 new breakpoint by perturbing last breakpoint amp by PARAM
3 new breakpoint by interpolating from last breakpoint amp to its inversion
4 new beakpoint by interpolating (t=PARAM) last two breakpoints (zero amp breakpoint by instruction (3,1) then (4,0.5))
5 new breakpoint by damping last breakpoint amp (multiply by damping), damping= PARAM
6 new breakpoint at amplitude +PARAM

8 do next command if probability PARAM
9 goto instruction PARAM within the buffer."

As always, it's a case of tweaking the sliders until you get something that sounds good. You can get all manner of things that sound like buzzy cables or radio static, as well as some rich tones - I worked out a hack to be able to play tunes with it. A few of my own (noisy) sound samples are below:



EDIT: I posted the patch to the Supercollider User's List.

No Flipping Way

Never knew this fanpage existed.

Release Date Changed, Bribe extended

Hi, the new single has been put back to the same day as the album: 16 July. So the "bribe" scheme is extended for another week, don't miss your chance to get an exclusive unreleased track! Here is a re-cap: If you paste this code into your website, blog, MySpace or similar page, and keep it there until at least the 16th, I will send you the track:

Once you've done that, send an email to info@cylobindustries.com with "Bribe" in the subject line, your name, the www address of the website you posted it to, and which email address you want me to send the track to, if not the one you're using. (Make sure your email account can handle 5 or 6 MB...) The track will be delivered on or close to * 16 July *

If you would like me to link back to your site when the scheme is over, let me know and I'll be happy to return the favour.

Another one...

...that sounds nothing like an 808, 909 or 606: AudioRealism Drum Machine! I mean, it's not bad, but posting sound samples of direct comparisons is probably unwise.

Even more radio action

The Trojan Fader continues to ignite radio playlists around the world, clocking up three plays and counting, the latest being on Dublin's XFM Chillage Idiots show.

James Brown on YouTube

If you only see one JB clip on YouTube, make it this one from his 70's TV show and not the one redefining the word "overblown" alongside Pavarotti and an orchestra of millions.
And don't forget to get your T-shirt (with body heat) here: