Friday, July 31, 2009

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Vue 7 Rules



The things you can do... my mind is blown by this beautiful software.

Check it out!

The best thing I love about that software is the thing that you can upgrade it anyway you want with a small amount of money. You don't have to buy the whole damn thing first to start making amazing shit from your brains.

VANHAINKOTI - Recording Diary 003

I started my morning with Vue 7 training and Ableton 8 jamming. Made a clicking sound with Ableton's "Kit - D55 Samurai" from the kick drum. Added delay to make the sequence more alive and also added my favourite "MDA RingMod" VST on top of it and what I got was this "Small Footsteps" click sound. Great... now I needed some weird sounds and what I got was Arturia Analog Factory VST synth which rules btw... From there I made a sequence with this bell-like fm sound, with delays. Messed around with modulation while I recorded it. Very slow, quiet, but intense. It needed more textures, so from the Analog Factory I found this "Dripping Water" arp... it actually sounded like dripping water before I made it sound like a broken input jack crackle. Recorded... the great thing about recording programmed sequences is that you can read a book, or smoke cigarettes while the song plays. Also it is important to make over 10 minute songs so you have all that time to do whatever you want.
And that's that. I leave the song for now. It rules as it is, but I think I will add more stuff to it. It sucks textures in!

In the other news, I changed the Vanhainkoti Bandcamp site's download things. Now there is only one format to download and that is the all mighty 128k Mp3. It takes less space on your mp3 player and I seriously doubt that anybody would want to listen to my music with super hi-fi audio madness. I don't.

Now it's time to listen to some good music and just chill before the work.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

We Have Plants, A Lot Of Plants

Aavikko Rules!

VANHAINKOTI - Recording Diary 002

Opened up Ableton 8 and started with "Triangle" sound, sounded like crap so I added "MDA RingMod" VST effect on top of it, made three different tracks of "Triangle RingMod" where I messed around with the frequency parameters while recording. Alright now I got what I call "The Vanhainkoti Song Basis", just punch of messed around weirdness for few minutes.
I wanted to have some kind of "Arpeggio" sound, so... I got myself "Keys-Space Keys" sound. It's always good when the sound's name contains the word "SPACE"... then added the fantastic "Corpus - Electro Robot" effect which made it very weird... like somebody playing synth bass on amphetamine and lsd... weird... added few frequency effects to get the lows and highs right and pressed record. Weird...
From the "ALSD Synth Bass" experience I got excited and pulled out my own bass-guitar 4-string Yamaha BB. Which is actually pretty awesome bass for the Very low price it has. I used to hate Yamaha, but this fucking thing has stood with me through many rehearsals and gigs. Ableton 8 has cool new sounds and effects to mess around with, ok so I have my bass in, now I need a fucking effect on top of it so I can be at the same level with the weird "ALSD Synth Bass" madness... What I see is Ableton's "Ambient And Evolving" audio-effects.... they are pretty good for making...well ambient? I slammed "Abstract-Polyrhythm" on top of my bass and what I got was pure madness... added also "car stereo" effect to make it even more strange with certain frequencies. Recorded it all over the whole song and in the end got out this cool tapping riff. Then went to the cross-fading hell... got out the structure of the song... what does it need? "Operator" sound of course! And I got "Ambient-Hold And Dream" for which I slammed on top "Overdrive" and "Ping Delay", messed around with the transpose while recording and then the cross-fades and ta-daa! The fucker is 95% motherfucking done. This is the state I wanna leave my songs and when I got my deadline number of songs ready (40-50) then I start polishing. Strange method, who knows, I like to try out new things. Maybe I will never get them done? I'll be here writing 2011... well that would be pretty awesome also. I don't care.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Monday, July 27, 2009

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Evil Swedish



Thanks Juhis!

Friday, July 24, 2009

VANHAINKOTI - Recording Diary 001

This week I started recording new Vanhainkoti album/albums and I felt that it's my duty as a home musician and a frequent blogger to start a "Recording Diary". I think it is a good way to record the process to text files and share it with people and most importantly to make notes for myself so I can see what the fucking hell I was doing during those early morning hours with a lot coffee in my system and a weird mind. I don't know if people can get anything out of this or not, but at least it will hopefully show that it takes a lot of work to make a Vanhainkoti album and sometimes it doesn't. It's my other work, the one I do for free cause I love it.

There are 4 songs I recorded this week and they are mostly done, a little bit polishing here and there and they are done. I think I'll to about 40-50 songs and from them I choose the best ones for the new album and the second best ones for the new "Oidar" compilation and maybe with the rest I'll do a little bit of remixing. Why not?

The first song I did this week:
"Massive"
This song is almost fully done with Ableton Live 8's "Operator" synth, which I think has pretty awesome sounds. Messing around with the "Time" parameters I can easily do those "Minimal Clicking" sounds that I'm a very fond of. I made a huge low frequency "Bell Sound" for the basis of the song and I constructed everything around this one sound as I usually do. I used Operator's sound's to make snares and toms and hi-hats and two different sounds for making texture pad and noise texture. "Synth-Metallic IDM Pad" was the pad sound and "Ambient-Glasso Phone" was the noise texture that I did. I recorded both of these live on one-take messing with the frequencies and shit. These textures made the song more alive. Which is always nice...
For the bass-line I used rojalty-free "upright bass" samples which I slammed in to the Ableton's "Impulse" drum/sampler machine hell. I created 3 different patterns and managed to get an early Massive Attack vibe from them. On top of them I slammed Ableton's "Broken Antenna" effect which I used to get the low-frequencies. I recorded the patterns over the operator background switching between 3 different patterns I kept it simple and breathing. Worked out real nice! Little bit of cross-fading here and there and the song is done! It came out easily and it came out good. Just the way I like it! Definite ruler. In my opinion.

"Native Vibes"
This song I started with a "Snare" sample that I looped and slammed with "Chorus and Dirty Ring Mod" effect to make it sound broken and machine like. Also used "OTT" which is the same effect as "Broken Antenna" messing with frequencies to get lows and highs and mids just right for my taste. Then I pressed play and kept it in loop. I started jamming my Aria Pro II cs-250 guitar. A guitar that I loaned from my old buddy Juhis. It has this really dark and soft sound that I like. I recorded two tracks of guitar with "Acoustic Guitar Hall 1" effect on top of them for the reverb and softness. Played around with rhythm and melody. Then I recorded bass that followed the melody guitar part. I used Ableton's "Crystal Bass" effect to make it sound more alive. That being done I slashed two parts off to make brakes into the song, over those brakes I recorded a 3-note melody with Ableton's "Keys-Long Road(Tube)" sound from which I got out this "Mallet" like sound. Worked out perfectly. Song is done and it's pretty nice little tune.

"Whistle"
For this song, I made a beat with Ableton's "Kit-C78 Bender Dos" a 1 bar loop. I slammed a "Mda RingMod" VST-Effect on top of that and got out this really weird drum sound. Then for the bass line I used "Operator" once again. "Bass-FM Argor" with a "Bubbles" delay. I got this "Drill" sound with a very low-frequency. For the "Noise Texture" I used Operator's "Strings-FM Orchestra" with "MDA Vocoder" and "MDA Delay" VST on top of it. Recorded live when I messed around with the "Transpose" parameter and got out this "Whistling" sound. Very weird. I recorded pad performance on top of that with Togeo Studio's "Dreamscapes III" and got out this "David Lynch goes to sleep" sound. Finally I got out my Aria Pro II and hit it with "MDA RingMod, MDA Overdrive and MDA Delay" VST-Effects. Needles to say the sound was was pretty out there... Recorded a simple melody and messed around bit. Then for the final closure I cross-faded the damn song, every track and made it breathe once again. It's almost done, I'm not satisfied yet!

"Nirvana"
Today I started a new song and I felt actually kinda bored, but I needed to do something so here is what I did... I wanted to make a Nirvana song, so I started making a rocking drum beat with Ableton's Impulse sounds. What I finally got out was this weird "Electro...funk...thing...", I made few patterns and recorded the scenes. Now I got the structure, I got my Yamaha BB 4-String out and started jamming. Ending with a "70's Soul Groove" recorded the whole damn thing added "Bass-Preamp and Tone" to make it bigger. Finally for the guitar part, I jammed a solo and rhythm part on top of it with "Guitar-Rich Acoustic Guitar" effect. And that's it, the song has a lot of work to do, I think I'll record the guitar parts again with separate rhythm and solo parts to make it work. The song has something in it. I shall make it work!

And that's that. Recording Diaries rule.

A Night In Tunisia

Super What?

Thursday, July 23, 2009

All It Needs Now Is Paint

I Can't Wait...

...till I get my hands on this album. It sounds so fucking good. Paradise of sounds.



It should arrive on my doorstep in a week or so!

Thanks MBO!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Only Way To Fly

Bones Rules



Try to beat this J.J.

Listen To My Dancing Feet



That is exactly how I dance.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Keuhkot



Live 1993.

I'm going to see this band next Saturday in a park. That band is a legend.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Heaven

Just got back from Joutsa. 250km from Helsinki to north. Middle-Finland. It's a place where my relatives live. Beautiful little town with 5187 people living there. The place where I spent all my summers after I was born. Also we went to see 3 different contemporary art exhibitions that ruled. My mind is blown. Also my uncle burned a beautiful image in my brains when he listened to Dire Straits from a c-cassette with a volume that would blow anybody's mind!

In the other news:
Vanhainkoti broke 1000 download record on Soundcloud.com. That is something I'm honestly surprised, I never thought my little home project would be ever downloaded and listened to all over the world. I should be proud. A little bit. Just a little.

Also my friend from my childhood, Juhis a man with a beautiful taste on electronic music (italo disco) got himself into a law-school. I'm so proud of him. And also the fact that a man that drinks more than Finland all together is going into a law-school. That is right, if something is.

Alright I'm going to now drink singapore slings and smoke cigarettes. I love you all! YOU ALL RULE! EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL! FUCK YES! DRINK BEER! TAKE YOUR PANTS OFF! LISTEN TO MBO! LISTEN TO BRITNEY! FUCK! DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! WE ARE IN THE FUTURE! 2009! RULES! FUN! YEAAAAH!



Joutsa looks just like that.

*from the MBO's "This Is Hell" cover*

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Friday, July 17, 2009

777

From LP5

For Kids It's Brilliant



Autechre's LP5 has remained one of my all time favorite albums ever. It also was one of the first ones that really got me into thinking about making my own electronic music some day.

Small Talk

In Finland we don't have the "Small Talk" thing. We are known to be silent people. At least we did 20 years ago, these days Finland is getting more and more people from all over the world, so maybe the "Small Talk" will arrive some day, but I tell you when the autumn/winter/darkness/coldness HELL starts again, it will shut you up. Summer is different, then we are free.



I cried when I saw this the first time.

Nerve Pill



RON RULES!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Space General <-> Avaruus Kenraali, VideoMusic

Phy asked me to make a video of this Vanhainkoti song called "Avaruus Kenraali". It's from the album "Lupausten Liima" and it features no other than Phydeaux_3 on vocals speaking about his experiences in space.



Listen to "Lupausten Liima"

Thanks PHY!

Fun

What a great morning once again on my summer-vacation... coffee... cigarettes... juice... Kurt Russel's eye-patch.... Ableton Live Suite 8... recorded romantic guitars... bass... keys with noise... snare sample... effects... mixing... listening... cigarettes... coffee... listening... coffee... listening... mixing... bass sound... mixing... panning... listening... feeling happy... listening to country music of the 70's... banjo... coffee... cigarettes... What a great fucking morning.



Is there nothing better than posting pictures from your Ableton project?

NO.

Post Edit: oh yeah, I need a fucking condenser microphone. Is there any good and cheap ones around? Is it possible?

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Kurt Russell Star Wars Audition

My Prayer Has Been Answered



The first movie I ever saw in a movie theatre as a little kid was TMNT I, rest is history.

It seems that some genius is developing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action film that's coming out in 2011! My brain just melted. They are searching for Martial-Arts people to play the foot-clan parts. Sign up now!

comingsoon.net

VANHAINKOTI - Oidar 1



"Oidar I, is the first compilation of greatest discography outsiders of Vanhainkoti. Songs that didn't belong anywhere."

Until now. I felt that even the outsider Vanhainkoti songs have place in this world, so "Oidar" compilations it shall be.

You can listen/download it from here --> http://vanhainkoti.bandcamp.com/album/oidar-i

I go drink that beer now.

Monday, July 13, 2009

VANHAINKOTI - Palavien Taivaiden Takana



It is here! I uploaded all of the Vanhainkoti Discography to Bandcamp.com during the weekend and also the new Vanhainkoti album called "Palavien Taivaiden Takana" which I recorded last week everyday from 9am to 2pm. I must say that the bandcamp site is pretty amazing and it's free. It solved all my problems how to publish my albums and keep them in order and now you can download Vanhainkoti songs with high bit rate and even that fuckin metadata is automatically included! Fuck yes. I'm feeling happy. My battle-station is fully operational.

Listen/Download the new Vanhainkoti album "Palavien Taivaiden Takana" and the rest of the discography from vanhainkoti.bandcamp.com

Post Edit: Happy Birthday Patrick Stewart!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Done

Dirty

I'm listening to the 6 songs I recorded this week and thinking could they be the new Vanhainkoti EP or album. There is one song that's over 20minutes.
Sounds good to me! We'll see.

When You Woke Up In The Morning

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Composing

Sometimes you just need to write down what the hell you are going to do next.

Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes



Thanks Ville!

Now listen to that amazing bass line.

Hotel Motel Shakkiday Inn

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Good Times Most Of The Day

I'm having my first paid summer-vacation in 4 years. 3 weeks of pure holiday. Of course the Finnish weather is cold and wet when I'm on holiday, that's that Murphy crap all right. I'm spending my vacation with guitar, bass and ableton live 8. Recording my new Vanhainkoti EP. The pure excitement of my new audio-interface produces a lot of new songs. Maybe I'll do the 5 song ep or 4. Stuff I've recorded sounds to me a lot like the early Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. Moody and Dark and Slow Tempo, just the way I like it. Yesterday I recorded a heavily distorted broken blues song with a guitar "solo". Fun, FUN, FUN! I'm all excited cause I can now record easily instruments without that stupid latency that used to ruin all my dreams of making Dark slow tempo moody songs with guitar. RULES.

In the other news I added my last.fm widget right there on the right. Now you can see in real time what crappy music I'm listening from Spotify. I used Last.Fm alot like 2 years ago or something. Then my computer broke and I forgot about the whole thing. Maybe I should install the plugin again for winamp so it would show when I listen to MBO. Cause MBO rules.

All right, I go drink coffee now. Keep it true.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Summer Vacation

3 weeks off from work.
Recording new Vanhainkoti material.
Summer Vacations Rule.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Mmm... Boys

It's almost 5am here in Helsinki. Still drunk and everybody else is sleeping like weird babies. This is for You. One day we all we will drink beer together and dance to the amazing brilliant beat of this incredible song! It's all true!

4:11am @ 4th of July in Helsinki

Sing with me!

"(Thunder) (x10)
I was caught
In the middle of a railroad track (Thunder)
I looked 'round,
And I knew there was no turning back (Thunder)
My mind raced
And I thought what could I do? (Thunder)
And I knew
There was no help, no help from you (Thunder)
Sound of the drums
Beatin' in my heart
The thunder of guns!
Tore me apart
You've been - thunderstruck!
Rode down the highway
Broke the limit, we hit the ton
Went through to Texas, yeah Texas
And we had some fun
We met some girls,
Some dancers who gave a good time
Broke all the rules, played all the fools
Yeah, yeah, they, they, they blew our minds
And I was shakin' at the knees
Could I come again please.
Yeah the ladies were too kind
You've been - thunderstruck, thunderstruck
Yeah yeah yeah, thunderstruck
Oh, thunderstruck, yeah
Yeah
Now we're shaking at the knees
Could I come again please.
Thunderstruck, thunderstruck
Yeah yeah yeah, thunderstruck
Thunderstruck, yeah, yeah, yeah
Said yeah, it's alright
We're! Doing fine
Yeah, it's alright
We're! Doing fine
So fine
Thunderstruck, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Thunderstruck, thunderstruck, thunderstruck
Whoa baby, baby, thunderstruck
You've been thunderstruck, thunderstruck
Thunderstruck, thunderstruck, thunderstruck
You've been thunderstruck"

--> My Radio Show

Friday, July 3, 2009

Drunk Finnish Guy Lights Up A Midsummer Pyre

I Love Finland.

Beer Is Better In Finland



"Beautiful Finnish girl entertaining people on the street. To be the next Britney Spears!"

Finnish Drinking Habbits

It's All True!



"Stand-up comedian Rich Lyons and finnsh drinking habits. Recorded in Irish Bar O'Maggie's at Hämeenlinna 2006."

VANHAINKOTI - Kirva

I made new song this morning! I used my new audio-interface to record my bass and Ableton Live. FUN!

Check It Out and Enjoy.

Post Beer Edit: Or don't.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Hidden Masters Under Dead Suns

The 1st of 4 Madame Blavatsky Overdrive EP's is out today and available for download for free from their amazing blog! LISTEN TO IT NOW!

madameblavatskyoverdrive.com