mudpeople

I do this hardware improvisation thing, but I've never played it out before. Fully hardware, mostly analog, almost entirely sequenced live on the fly. Sometimes I think it even sounds alright.

I've definitely had my share of times listening to psytrance and doing drugs. I'd probably do them a lot more, still, if I didn't have a job, and if they didn't kick my old ass so hard when I do do them, these days... Nowadays I don't even drink alcohol. Just cannabis and coffee for me these days. I first got into electronic music, and psytrance, when I was living in a small town in Nevada where there was barely any smokeable weed, let alone a variety of psychedelics, so I've always loved the music no matter what state my neural chemistry may be in. Back when I was first learning to DJ, I liked to test how well I could do under various states of intoxication, with varied results. One of my best mixes ever was recorded after being awake all night on cough medicine, then drinking like a 12 pack of beer. Don't try that at home, kids.

This is the first "serious" mix I've done in nearly 10 years. https://hearthis.at/mudpeople-yh/aug-26-2020-dj-tech-4x/ Luis M- Amplitude Point- Rastutel Stoertebeker- El Dorado Daana & Brendan Lawless- Discovery of the Shadow Daana- Hindu Kush Lampe- Crystal Caves Snok- A Spinning Object Kleesh- Roll Deep MNGRM- Voyager (Troy Polygon remix) MNGRM Unbreakable Autosome- Ice Reflections Medular- Neuroluminescence Luis M- Basslien Lask- Ohrwurm Frech & Koch- Deep Sky One Dub Connection- Coasting Michael Lawrence- Journey to Poundu John Lead-Tunnel Vision

More about the 90s but a pretty good one. Has a special place in my own heart cuz that was the era I first got into electronic music: And this Goa classic: Not exactly a documentary though it has interview segments:

I helped a little back on the first one, always wondered what happened... (I was alleycat back then) I'd be willing to give it another try, I'm definitely a more capable musician now than I was then

Supposedly psytrance died already in 2006 https://nabirecords.bandcamp.com/album/psytrance-is-dead

Been almost a year since I recorded anything. Lots of practice and a few workflow tweaks. Almost entirely improv, the only thing pre-sequenced was the basslines. https://hearthis.at/mudpeople-yh/nuclear-magic-live-improv-july-10-2020/ Keystep Pro is the main brain, and runs Neutron, Minilogue XD, 0 Coast, and Minitaur, and clocks Circuit, Tanzbar Lite, and Microfreak Circuit runs Nanozwerg and Micromonsta Tanzbar Lite runs MBase11 and Rakit Drum Synth Long audio clips from Ableton all other effects are hardware, mostly cheap Chinese pedals, and a Kaoss Pad Quad Recorded from the Soundcraft EPM12 onto Zoom H1. The levels turned out about as spot on as they ever get on the first try, so all I had to do was convert to mp3.

Pixiejanet is a friend of mine on FB, she was doing fine last I heard. I might have a few others on my facebook unknowingly.

Incidentally their reaction to the track is often a great indicator of their general temperament.

https://hearthis.at/mudpeople-yh/live-november-9-18-fixed/ As usual, almost everything is hardware. All improvisational, no script, no plan. Recently got the Arcade Series Returns pack of Max for Live sequencers from Isotonik, which includes some really nice generative sequencers that map to the Launchpad for fun moving lights and stuff. Also got a few more fx pedals for various synths, mostly Electro Harmonix as it turns out. Their effects are just the perfect quality for the right price. Also recently got a DIY kit, Rakit Drum Synth, and built it. My first DIY kit build. ( rakits.co.uk/product/drum-synth/ )

Faster than I usually do, 170 BPM. Still a typical mudpeople track. With Phoscyon 303 lines, and as it turned out, all software. Usually I use at least the Microbrute... https://hearthis.at/mudpeople-yh/gravity-assist/ I'm sure I'll hear something small to change pretty soon, but the main bulk of the work is done.

Personally I have plenty of satisfying results making acid lines with the Microbrute. Bonus because it's actually great for a whole lot of different sounds besides acid lines, but the filter really does lend itself to them. I've considered getting a 303 clone of some kind mostly to use live, but every time I have the money I've decided I can't justify spending on something that I pretty much have covered. Especially for such a one-trick pony. The MAM MB33 Retro is super cheap, and every demo I've seen sounds 303-y, but again I can find reasons not to; no more room on the MIDI thru, only one empty in left on the mixer :P. When I want actual-303-sounding acid lines (put side by side the Microbrute will definitely sound different to any 303) I've got Phoscyon. I got it on sale for something like $40 USD from Plugin Boutique. Definitely worth it, it sounds pretty good and it's rather easy to emulate 303 sequences in a piano roll if you know the sliding and accent tricks.

I mostly eat vegetarian, but from time to time have some kind of meat. I've never been a huge dairy person, except for cheese. Don't like straight milk, though I have ready access to raw milk from 2 very well-treated cows who live right near me (honestly I'm even less enthusiastic about raw milk). Anthony Bourdain made a great point, that vegetarianism as a moral choice is a First World luxury, that people in developing places don't really have the option and are just trying to survive with whatever they can scrounge, whatever it may be. But, I was curious and looked up the typical diets of common chimpanzees and bonobos, our 2 closest living primate relatives, and they're "omnivorous frugivores", eating whatever, but mostly fruit. So it's certainly in our biology to only eat fruit.

Sometimes I do the same note, depending on how it sounds, but usually I'll find another harmonic. I guess I do it differently each time, and by ear, so idk how accurately I tune them relative to the root note. I prefer to not pay too close attention to the specific harmonic ratios (which at least in Live are never not 12 tone Equal Temperament tuning [without 3rd party aid like a m4l device] so the ratios aren't super accurate to begin with but that's a whole other can of worms) and just find what sounds decent.

I was around starting in like late 05, 06 for sure. I was alleycat then.

https://hearthis.at/mudpeople-yh/freeze-live-june-14-2018-fixed/ Been really loving that site, btw, as an alternative to SC. So far no spam in my DM box, no like-mongers, and no mumble kids. Anyway the recording is the live improv setup at work. Basically what happens during the set is selecting patches from the synths that have memory, selecting drum and Circuit patterns, patching the synths that don't have memory, making sequences for 2 of the synths, selecting melody + bass + kick lines from the rack of prewritten clips (without labels on some, most just labelled by root note), muting and unmuting various parts on various machines, making sure the levels are good and nothing is too loud (the Micromonsta has a tendency to really shred thru a mix at higher octaves, as a good wavetable should), triggering the Kaoss Pad Quad, and overall trying to keep it from sounding like an overly-repetitious 8-bar noodle-fest. I've taken a lot of trouble to make this setup VERY hard to play the same thing twice, even if I'm using the same patterns it's unlikely to be in the same key when played next time, and definitely unlikely to be played alongside the same patterns as before. Especially since 2 synths are run by generative sequencers, and 2 others (the main monos, Microbrute and Triode) are run by the ML185 Max for Live sequencer which maps almost flawlessly to the Launch Control XL. And when I get bored of any patterns I delete them to make room for new ones. Recently I had the idea of making sets of bassline clips that are meant to be something like a basis for progressing through a track, starting with one rather basic pattern then evolving it into a few more clips. It's begun to help make it feel less like just single patterns repeating. And there's no reason to feel locked into just those grouped together, they can definitely be mixed and matched. Someday though I hope to find the perfect sequencer, hard or software, that can do psytrance bass on the fly (The ML185 can do it, but is limited to either 8 16th notes, or using 1-3-1-3-1-3-1-3 stage lengths, where each of those 3s is a single stage, so a single note and single velocity, which sucks).

Most recent recording of the improvisational live hardware setup: As usual, it's almost entirely hardware. I spent a lot of time developing a setup that is difficult to play the same thing twice, and is surprising even to me. Mostly it works out! It's definitely a lot of fun to play. With Minitaur, Micromonsta, JP08, Microbrute, Triode, 0-Coast, Tanzbar Lite, Circuit, MBase 11, Kastle. Recorded from the mixer Record Out with Zoom H1.

Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ov6vu1ulsxdmoho/live fixed April 16 2018.ogg?dl=0

Fully hardware (except the long audio clips from Live). With: Moog Minitaur, Jomox MBase11, Arturia Microbrute, MFB Tanzbar Lite, Novation Circuit, Audiothingies Micromonsta, Make Noise 0-Coast, Meeblip Triode, Bastl Kastle All MIDI starts in Live. A few channels are clips, the rest are sequencers. 2 synths are run by ML185 step sequencers which map really well to the Novation Launch Control XL, 2 others are run by generative sequencers that are always making new different sequences. All the audio goes into the Soundcraft EPM12 and a submixer for the Tanzbar Lite and effect returns. All the analog synths have fully analog signal paths right up til 1) part of the signal is sent to the Zoom MS50G DSP effect unit and 2) the audio is recorded onto the Zoom H1. The Minitaur bass box gets a nice Electro Harmonix overdrive pedal and sidechaining with FMR RNC. So far most of the rest of the effects are EQs, but I'm working on that. Master channel effects by Korg Kaoss Pad Quad. https://www.mixcloud.com/josephkastelic/live-april-15/

My computer is (like most every computer Ive owned) too slow to play any modern games, so basically I stick to anything older than 2013. Modern consoles really don't interest me mostly because of the huge emphasis on being connected to the internet and also the huge price tags. Currently I'm playing Dead Space 2, Torchlight 2, Skyrim, Oblivion, Doom 3, and Call of Cthulhu-Dark Corners of the Earth. Skyrim in particular is pretty much the main game I play. Gotta build those houses. I've been into games since I was very young when my mom would take me to the arcades and I'd play QBert and Star Wars (the one with the vector display Death Star trench). My first FPS was Wolf3D, and in highschool I was way into Duke3D (and made some fun maps, one designed to be played while tripping ). First console RPG was Dragon Quest, then very shortly after we discovered Final Fantasy. Nowadays, though, I don't have a huge drive to play games like I used to (no spending 15 hours straight playing CS without even drinking water or using the toilet), mostly they're a fun time killer. Something about those LootQuest type games, no matter how many Skyrim characters I make, somehow its still fun to find new interesting loot.

Begotten is pretty difficult, yeah. The same director did Shadow of the Vampire, which is much easier to watch and has a coherent plot and actual dialogue. Begotten I guess is meant to be some kind of Christ allegory.

I currently use Live, switched after using Renoise for 6 years or so after I started accumulating hardware (Renoise at the time was very bad for MIDI [has since changed]). I've been able to make psytrance with both of those. I've also done it in Reaper, ReBirth, Jeskola Buzz, SunVox and several old "PDA"-era music apps (including SunVox again), though never really got beyond the writing stage. After reading some debate about Live's render being inferior, I made a test: I made the same basic bassline-kick-percussion loop in both Live and Reaper, with the same exact MIDI, the same exact patches. I rendered from each, and opened them with Sonic Visualizer to see the spectrogram. Sure enough there was a difference in the resolution of the lower frequencies from Live, which were very, very slightly more blurry than Reaper. So, there is a difference, even if it is very very slight.

My newest finished track: https://hearthis.at/mudpeople-yh/cookies/

Put some more pieces of the puzzle together, with an overdrive pedal and outboard compressor for the Moog Minitaur bass.