Colin OOOD
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Posts posted by Colin OOOD
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17 tracks now... hopefully the quality is staying high!Time for a bump.
16 tracks so far, all of high quality.
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A little OOOD announcement for you, plus something to listen to
We've been doing a lot of work lately on polishing up our favourite OOOD/Unconscious Collective tracks from the 1990s. I've still got all the original Cubase data and the sample data from the old Ensoniq sampler we used on all our 1990s tunes, so many of them have been 'rebassed' (new kick and bass sounds replacing the low end of the original mixes) and a couple - 'Watching Spangles' and 'Silence', our first release ever - have been totally recreated from the ground up using all the original data but new sounds and production. No idea what we'll end up doing with them yet as we've made them for our live sets in the first instance, but maybe an album, maybe a series of EPs... who knows Suggestions welcome!
Anyway this mix includes them all, plus a couple of other tracks for good measure. We hope you enjoy it, please let us know what you think in the comments on Soundcloud; your feedback means a lot to us.
"> " type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%">Thanks for listening!
Colin
Mods please feel free to move this thread to a more appropriate section if necessary.
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It's true, you can't polish a turd. But you can roll it in glitter, and the longer I do this the more I find that you can give glitter a surprisingly smooth, polished finish. When I mastered Intense Visitations I was surprised at the original production; it was the first time I started believing that our own tracks of the time weren't as badly-produced as we'd previously thought, compared to some of the big names. But I think that tune came out quite well in the master
It's impossible to make a really badly-produced oldschool track sound like a modern production, but it's certainly possible to make it shine in its own way, and give it a good chance of working on a modern dancefloor. I'd love to get my hands on some of those classics.
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Opus, each and every time. Much is in the hands of the engineer with any rig, but my experience is that a well-tuned Opus rig gives me a deeper, more emotional experience than anything else I've heard - certainly more than F1 (and I've played on F1 rigs tuned by Mr. Andrews himself). Something about Opus' all-analog signal path, IMO; nothing else has the bass.
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Whoa now.Also my friends tell me a lot of progressive is played in Goa so you see it can also be called Goa Trance.
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I've done it again, haven't I. Me and my big fucking mouth.How do you do it Colin? Can you really tell me you never once pressed play?
Opinions follow
Not directed at anyone in particular.#if rhetorical question then skip_to tl;dr
Ok so... how do we do it... Since about 2000 we've always played with live instruments over the top of playback; I do the same with my sideprojects. Between 1994 and 2000 we would take the entire studio on stage and alternate between full-live sequenced tracks playing back off Cubase into synths and samplers, and DAT playback whilst we set up the synths and samplers and sequencer for the next live track. Towards the end of that period I got a hard drive for the sampler and worked out how to auto-load instruments using program change messages, which let us play three live tracks in a row. We had to stop doing it that way when we started to work with multitrack audio as we were using the studio completely differently and it just wouldn't work on stage.
Apologies if the following is too much information haha... OOOD has 'pressed play' exactly three times since 1994, all in the days before we had a laptop. The first time was in 1995, when we booked an OOOD live set in our home towm of Oxford without realising that Steve and I were actually due to be in India at the time. Nigel, our third member, enlisted two of my housemates and took the mixer, a bunch of analog synths and the DAT player out of the studio and played the set off tape with them miming. Nige would have been doing his normal Synthi lunacy over the top. We called it 'Out Of Our DAT'. The second time was in 1997 when we were booked to play in Athens. A fuckup with the tickets meant we had to buy our own, and we only had enough money for one of us to go, so I went. It was mortifying. They'd kindly brought in a couple of really nice synths (Juno 106 was one) but had neglected to supply cables or a mixer. The less said about that the better. The third time was in about 1999 when we played of CD in a small pub, also in Oxford. That one was a choice, but we all agreed afterwards that not having any interaction with the music just felt wrong. If we'd said it was a DJ set it would have been fine but it was a last-minute gig and they really wanted us to play live, but we were like "nah, the place is tiny, there'll be hardly anyone there, anyway we're halfway through a track and if we move the studio we'll never get it sounding the same", so then we were like "ok fuck it we'll mime like The Secret do" but then we were like "shit the place is packed and everyone we know is here and they all expect us to do what we normally do".
tl;dr - The idea of 'pressing play' has honestly never occurred to us as a reasonable proposition, even from the very beginning, mainly because when we got together as a band we already had between us a fair bit of experience with live electronic music and the idea of not playing as live as we could every single time just never entered our heads. The times when, through circumstance or choice, we played pure playback were all associated with negative experiences. It feels like that as musicians it is axiomatic that our live performances involve some degree of actual live interaction with our music. I know I can speak for the other guys in the band here as well as Mark, my ex-partner in Kleesh.
I can see how you might find me exasperating, I really can, and I'm sorry about that. I'm not bashing artists trying to get their music out there - at least, that's not my intention. There are loads of ways of getting your music heard, from playing live to DJing to working closely with DJs to playing producer sets. But having taught music technology to primary- and secondary-school kids for 10 years, I just find it amazing that if it's possible for all four groups of three 10-year olds at a particular school to each write a song in Ableton and then perform it live to their whole year group using Session View and a bunch of MIDI controllers triggering clips, it's so hard for some psytrance acts who call themselves 'live' to get even a little bit of interactivity in their sets.By the way, I never tell anyone we are "live" other than live in person. I think this bashing of artists trying to get there music out there must stop, "the audience deserves more from you " do they, we give our all to our best abilities at the time, don't we all?
I'm not necessarily talking about doing what we do, or what Tom Cosm does, or any specific way of getting your hands involved in making the magic on the dancefloor, but I am trying to encourage - however clumsily and inappropriately - people who want to perform 'live' to put a little thought into how they are going to "use their best abilities at the time" to actually perform live in some way, because apart from the truth-in-advertising aspect I believe it's far more fulfilling both for the performer and for those on the dancefloor who are interested (in whatever technical or non-technical way) in what is happening on stage and how it relates to what they're hearing.
It opens the door for the unexpected moment of genius... the spontaneous moment or even the mistake that gives everything a lift and can energise an entire dancefloor but is only made possible if you allow an element of risk. People bang on about co-creation but for me - and, I think for many (most?) musicians who can play instruments or who use technology to introduce some interactivity to their performances - the stage is where we engage our hearts and co-create with the dancefloor at least a small aspect of their musical experience in real-time, then and there, in a way simply not possible by definition with pure playback. And I think to myself, how can anyone deny the importance of that? I guess that's where my not-being-able-to-stop-bringing-it-upness comes from.
Can't say fairer than that, I guessDo you really think the "audience" is watching you, or just dancing?
"and what you were actually doing on stage... could you answer them honestly? Without being embarrased, even a little?"
Yes we could. I would say, "we are playing our music in person, we are here, as best we can right now, with you, loving it, loving the vibe, trying to connect, still here, still with you, not embarrassed at all. What were we doing on stage? Trying to touch your heart, yes I know it sounds woo, but that's just us, that why we keep going"
The music is there to be danced to, no question, but let's face it, you and I and everyone else are on that stage between the speakers with everyone dancing in front of us (indeed, mostly facing us these days) at least partly to be seen, to be identified as the source of the music; if that weren't true we'd find other ways to get our music played at events which would mean we'd get a chance to experience it through a big rig too
...and with obvious exceptions our scene gives more kudos from being identified as someone who makes the music than from 'just' being a DJ.While I can therefore understand the temptation, I can't picture myself actually telling a thousand people, or ten thousand people, or ten people that I/we are playing 'live' when the only thing live on stage are the performers. I admit I might be wierd in that regard, however. Obsessive in terms of integrity. And yes, sometimes it's the promoter who decides how the act is billed, but it's my experience that increasingly often promoters now ask acts how they want their bit of the flyer to read, so artists are more involved than ever in how their participation is marketed.
I was deliberately unspecific about what constitutes 'live'ness, but I think you answer your own question for yourself belowPlaying melodies live... but what if you didn't have piano lessons before?
Plenty of scope for magic... and mess, but then that's what practise is forThat's what i would love to do once i get proper gear. Making new midis over tracks, programming them for live tweaking or arps like you can do in Phoscyon for example and ofcourse some FX. Maybe some extra drum loops... ofcourse it's not perfect but that would be best with my knowledge.
Stick with it!
Absolutely. But that's independant of how it's described. Tristan, being the driven genius showman that he is, would be as successful even if he described his performances as 'producer sets'. Using the word 'live' however lets him tap into associations that we all have with 'live music' - bands, concerts, instruments, musicianship, spontenaity, real-time raw creativity - to imply that this is the kind of thing that's going on, albeit in a much more esoteric and technical way given the nature of the music. If that's not what's happening, is 'live' the best way to describe it?...Or is [Tristan] putting out total energy, and the crowd love that connection alongside the music? Isn't he the biggest most loved artist out there at the moment? So ask your self why? I know.....
tl;dr Truth in advertising is important; literal live performance is easier than you think and can add hugely to the experience; there's more than one way to skin a fish; humans are wierd and amazing.
I feel an affinity with Don Quixote at this point!
All with love. I'll try and get back in my box now.-
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It's obviously vital that the music sounds good. It's also important to ask yourself if you'd be satisfied as an artist with just pressing play and then pretending to tweak knobs, and whether the audience deserves more from you if you're going to tell them you're 'live'. Imagine how you'd feel if someone who loved your music came up to you after your set and was interested in the technical aspect of your performance, and what you were actually doing on stage... could you answer them honestly? Without being embarrased, even a little?
As far as "connecting with the audience" goes, nothing connects a performer more with the audience than when they can see you actually doing stuff with your hands that they can actually hear; that's when they know they're part of a magic moment of creation. How you get there is up to you
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Cheers Mr. OrbBig love and loads of respect colin !
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I still lurk very occasionally, I still have a lot of love for this place, but (and this is the first time I'm telling ANYONE this) it got to a stage for me a while back where the whole being-really-active-on-three-forums thing was getting too much for me and I decided I had to let something go. I still spend far too much time on the internet, but in general my forum activity as a whole is a pale shadow of what it was back then!
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With OOOD the four of us play live keyboard, guitar, percussion and samples/FX as part of the live set. Quite often I double lead lines (at least the easier ones!) on the keyboard, or play harmonies, etc. The guitar adds a different texture that isn't present on the studio versions. Back in the 1990s we used to take the entire studio on stage and play tracks off Cubase whilst tweaking 303 and all the other analog synths in real-time, but that stopped being quite so possible when we started using multitrack audio.
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It seems strange for people here to be arguing for less integrity. Psytrance ethics - yay, let's make a better world by PRETENDING.
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Artist: Unconscious Collective (aka OOOD + Tim Healey)
Title: Fluorostan EP
Label: OOOD Bandcamp 2013/Flying Rhino Records 1996
Cat: None (AFR009)
Format: Digital download (flac/mp3/etc)
Release date: Out now!
Download link: http://oood.bandcamp.com
Track listing:
1) Fluorostani Transcendance
2) Synchronicity Converger
I'm very pleased to present to you the FLUOROSTAN EP, first released on vinyl by Flying Rhino Records in 1996 as AFR009. Both of these two tracks were written and produced by Steve, Nigel, Tim and me in one single session in my old bedroom studio in Oxford in 1996. Tim brought some of his equipment and wierd and wacky sound sources with him and between us all we entered The Zone - that place where time stops and you manage to fit a month's writing and production time into 5 days.
I'm proud of it to this day; we captured something in that session that - for me - has withstood the test of time and still sounds fresh today, in its own way. After it's release we were told it was Flying Rhino's best-selling EP to date, but we offer it for you to download from Bandcamp at the knock-down price of £whateveryouwantopay. Both tracks were remastered recently from the original DAT, and the EP includes a photo of ̶̶m̶̶y̶̶ ̶̶b̶̶e̶̶d̶̶r̶̶o̶̶o̶̶m̶̶ the Stooodio as it was around the time we wrote the tracks.
Bon appetit!
Listen and download here - name your price!
http://oood.bandcamp.com -
Seriously loved Noom Records back in the day. A lot of those tracks still sound good now.
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Also available direct from Vertigo Records on their Bandcamp page @ www.is.gd/tobuyoood
Thanks for the fantastic review, glad you liked the album!
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So, no pressure then!Colin I love your mastering I would love to have you master everything and anything goa related ever. Please don't let me down. Cheers.
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Just because of your immaculate mastering skills I have to check this out; out of pure appreciation.
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OOOD - You Think You Are - OUT NOW!
Vertigo Records VERTIGOCD028
---> CLICK HERE <---
to buy now direct from the label as CD or digital download!
So... after 4 years work it's finally on the shelves and available for download! We're really proud of this one, we think it contains some of our best work to date. Axis Mundi has written a great blurb for it... it's sales-speak of course but he really did like it:If you listen to psytrance, there's a very good chance that OOOD has become a well-known name to you. The UK group has been making music for nearly two decades and toured extensively across the globe, ever defining and refining what has come to be a signature sound. Their newest album, "You Think You Are", represents a duality in their history. Simultaneously an edgier departure from, as well as an evolution of the sonic trends which have made them so desirable and famous amongst trance connoisseurs, OOOD's latest collection of electronic dance confections is a treat that remodels and redefines a unique brand of funky sound filled with acoustic clarity and meticulous attention to production detail and quality.
From start to finish, this ten-track album (featuring collaborations with famous producers Ott and Loopus in Fabula and remixes involving Sonic Species and Spanish newcomer Forufreezer) immerses the listener in an array of crisp soundscapes permeated by rich, heavy basslines, percussive minutiae, and melodies and rhythm arrangements designed to tickle you from your synapses to the soles of your feet. These frequencies have a pleasantly visceral quality that seems to jump out of the speakers and each track feels like a distinct and coherent chapter of a longer musical saga. From the breaksy "Happiness" to the tension-wringing "Shpiral", from the pulsating "The King And Eye" to the etheral headiness of "Dum Dum", OOOD have broken and twisted the standard definitions and tropes of trance music in all the right ways.
All things considered, OOOD's "You Think You Are" is easily one of the most innovative, enthusiastic, professionally-made works to hit the trance scene in 2012, and has all the makings of a genre-redefining album. Having been following this group since my induction into this music, I've always held higher-than-normal expectations for OOOD's musical output and this album has delivered and exceeded those expectations and then some. There's something that everyone can dig on within these tracks, and amongst the ever-widening ocean of music this decade, "You Think You Are" stands out as a beacon of quality and achievement.
Also available from Amazon, Psyshop and Beatspace
You Think You Are: Amazon.co.uk: Music
OOOD: You Think You Are (CD) - Vertigo Records - Psyshop
OOOD: You Think You Are - Vertigo Records - Beatspace
Don't forget we're also giving away a track for free download as WAV, MP3 or any other format you might want! Check here for details:
www.soundcloud.com/oood/oood-oddball-uptempo-rerub -
OOOD - Oddball (Uptempo rerub)
http://soundcloud.com/oood/oood-oddball-uptempo-rerub
The original version of this tune was released on the Broken Robot Records 'Oddball' EP which reached #1 on Trackitdown and #13 on Beatport with Hedflux's stellar remix. We have upped the energy a little with a 2012 remix and we're offering the track for free download as WAV, FLAC and MP3 as a teaser for the album, out on Vertigo Records on November 23rd.
To get the full WAV version, click the DOWNLOAD button to go to our Facebook free downloads page. Then simply make sure you've liked our page and click the Download button.
To get any other format, go here:
http://shop.vertigo-records.com/track/oood-oddball-uptempo-rerub
...enter your email address and click 'Buy Now'.
Enjoy!
If you like this track please check out our website www.oood.net
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I'm not pointing my posts at you, but I do have a special interest in live performance and your posts just happen to be the ones that stand out to me as deserving of a response.
When you saw Talamasca play live, were you standing behind him watching what was going on, as I did? Did you talk to him before his set about how he performs?
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Look, this is gonna seem like I'm picking on you; honestly I'm not, but I think you're missing a distinction between music you enjoy, and a good live performance. The times when I've stood behind Cedric (Lestat) and watched what he's doing when he's on stage - he hasn't been interacting with the music in any way. It was a little while ago I saw him last, and maybe he's stepped things up a gear in the last few years, but although he'd done some work before the festival we both played at (chopping a few of the tracks around a bit and adding some extra sounds as audio clips to a 1-hour arrangement he'd prepared beforehand) there was no element of live performance there except his holding a MIDI keyboard over his head (that he'd borrowed from us) and pretending to play it. It wasn't even plugged in to his computer.exactly.
so long live the masters who actually do this.
Erez, Lestat, Simon, just to name my favs
He's a charming man and a great entertainer (if a little light-fingered...), and he put a huge amount of energy into his performance, and many people danced and enjoyed it, and the music was driving and powerful and well-produced, but 'live' it wasn't.
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Figures!by the way, im on my 4th beer atm
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I hate to burst your bubble but most of the Hallucinogen live sets I've seen since 2000 have been 24-track multitrack playback (from a hardware multitrack) mixed live on stage with added FX processing and live SH101/MS10 tweaking. There's a lot of muting and unmuting of pre-prepared material going on in this kind of setup, believe me. He does not 'do EVERYTHING live'. He's started using a laptop for playback now rather than the hardware so I'm not exactly sure how he's changed his workflow but I think it highly likely that he's not moved too far from what was working so well for him before; if anyone has hard info rather than speculation I'd be interested to hear it.didnt get what u meant about life insurance.
regarding simon, at one of his shows, at one point he had the groove from The loin sleeps tonight on for about 15 minutes and put in medleys from many other tracks over that groove.
The set continued in this fashion.
it was not just muting and unmuting tracks, trust me.
but maybe he did that once too.
Shpongle live sets include a varying amount of pre-prepared playback to support the live elements. Or is that really the sound of a Shponglehorn?
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If you use the word 'live' to describe what you do, you're telling people that at least part of the music they're listening to is being created live on stage. If that's not happening, you're not playing live, and (whether they care or not) the audience is being misled. Bottom line.
If you're a live act, you'll be getting paid more for your appearance than you would if you were just DJing those same tracks. This is because you're supposed to be doing something special - something hard, something that most people can't do, something more involved than just pressing play, or using the buttons and faders on your JP8000 to control Traktor, without using the keyboard to play anything (as I saw one big name do for his headline set at a party here in Bristol a while ago). It's not about you. No matter who you are, no matter what incredible music you make, you - as a person - are as worthy of being paid to get up on stage just to dance as is that 18-yo candy raver with the pacifier who storms the stage during your set. And it's not even about the music you make; we can assume you wouldn't be there at all if your tracks weren't able to get a dancefloor moving. If you're telling people you're playing live, it's about what you're adding of your own real-time creativity to the music coming out of the speakers.
I don't care what live acts do on stage, as long as they're busy doing stuff I can hear. And I mean - BUSY.
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I close my eyes and pretend to be asleep. Takes about 5 minutes. Next morning I find I wasn't actually pretending!
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Matteo started the track with us when he was in Bristol to play for Tribe of Frog. He had his laptop set up in my studio and when he went downstairs for a piss I changed his Facebook status to "English pizza is much better than the crap we get at home".Awsome! Great news, love the artwork and eager to hear the new OOOD sound!! All the best!
BTW English Pizza ahaha
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your favourite artist names
in General Psytrance
Posted
Obviously need a new band name!