Author: Arend
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The Best YouTube Comment I’ve Ever Seen
This comment may be the funniest “found humor” I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure I have ever felt so much desperation as one Anthony Rotella. User anthonyrotella8791 on YouTube writes, regarding a chiptune remix, “Beautiful…please add another like…it is at 666 likes.” Beneath the comment is the downward-pointing arrow and the text “1 reply,” beckoning…
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Imperfection Makes Radical Creativity
Imperfection makes radical creativity. It takes the creativity and makes it radical. The world of “good taste” is riddled with classism. Stodgy vocal pedagogues, early detractors from recorded popular and folk music would say (and still do), “You shouldn’t sing like that. You can’t.” They would rather people learn the “right” way to make music.…
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Random MIDI Mutes and Semi-Generative Drums
I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of silence in music, and I dreamed up this technique, using a sequencer to more-or-less randomly mute a signal. The idea was to program a beat but then have the sequence be periodically interrupted by silence. I was partly inspired by this tai hirose track. Now you…
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Just Keep Rolling
Always keep rolling, even if it’s a dissatisfying take! I’m in that habit when it comes to tracking others, but not always for myself (oops). I can’t tell you how many gold nuggets of one single phrase that I lost because I hastily deleted, thinking the whole take was garbage. Then I’ll go back and…
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Each Engineer Has a Touch with a Mic
There is much ado about fancy mics among musicians and engineers, just as there is much ado about fancy guitars among guitarists. And don’t get me wrong, these instruments can certainly sound inspiring. However, any guitarist worth trusting will tell you that so long as the instrument isn’t unplayable, you can make great music with…