redvoid's musings » music

redvoid’s eurorack modular synthnoodle

John Sexton — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:36:51 +0000

This is the latest installment of my eurorack modular synth build process. Its been about 10 months of buying and learning new modules and understanding the new permutations that come with each purchase. I am still a little cloudy on the Maths module but otherwise feel like I have a solid handle on most everything else. I had started a new track and let it languish a little as other commitments were getting in the way, but the purchase of a used Fender Jazz Bass was enough to get me back in the studio playing with some sounds, and the modular patch I was working with started sounding interesting, so I rolled a little video.

Image via Wikipedia

Robert Rich On Live Modular Synthesizer Performance (synthtopia.com)

redvoid’s “windy city summers” mix

John Sexton — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 23:49:30 +0000

redvoid under the picasso in chicago

I made this mix after spinning some great music festivals, and getting a chance to travel this summer and see great music away, and there was a feeling I came away from all that with, that made me want to do a mix to capture that vibe, and this is it.

Its available as a 320kbps mp3 free download or stream from soundcloud no account required. Enjoy and please, if you have any thoughts feel free to let me know.

Windy city summers mix cd by redvoid

combining social media for musicians: youlicense soundcloud & bmi together

John Sexton — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:57:02 +0000

image courtesy of WebTreats

This week I had a kind of “ah ha” moment, where no matter how semi savvy I am with a multitude of various social networks, and with the music business itself, every so often there is a use that eludes me, especially as it concerns the integration of multiple sites to create something systematic that is beneficial to me as a musician. Such was the case when I realized what youlicense could do for me.

My first exposure to it was via Twitter courtesy of @MarkMosher and @HethFen who were already avid proponents, the latter of which has written numerous articles on the subject on her blog. I already had a songwriter publishing account with BMI, a Soundcloud page, and this blog. I have also been trying to come up with a good strategy for tying them together to sell my music digitally online, and was not coming up with anything I felt really good about. Then earlier this week, I was logging into my BMI account to register a new work, and I noticed that BMI was also promoting youlicense, and I could get a free starter account as a BMI member, so I went ahead and did it.

What youlicense can do for you is beyond the scope of this article, but Heather Fenoughty speaks of it extensively in her “music business” category of posts.

Interconnecting social networks is often hit or miss, as I’ve experienced having my youtube or soundcloud bomb Twitter or Facebook with way too many spammy sounding updates automatically (as recently as this week) which I have since toned down or turned off. The below is a good example of the kind of cross connected, secure ordering, digital music sales and licensing synergy that can be done with this combo. Youlicense was able to pull all my SoundCloud tracks in via an application connector, so then I just had to select my licensing options, sales options and add the genre and descriptions metadata to the works as to not duplicate effort by having to upload my musical content yet again, to yet another site. The below player is shared as an embed widget in this blog entry on my website, allows you to listen to all the material in the player streamed from SoundCloud, and the “buy” links on the player redirect you to a PayPal secure ordering checkout cart on my youlicense storefront, at which point if you were just a music listener you could purchase the mp3 and if you’re a record label, tv/film/advertising licensing agent, you could license the track for your project in a kind of interconnected social media synergy of sorts.

unreleased tracks by redvoid

This next embedded player goes straight to youlicense for licensing or purchasing:

Well, I am no expert on youlicense and have only recently started integrating it into my personal social web, so I’d like to hear from you. What cool combos of social media have you found to be the most useful for musicians?

Soundcloud + Composition, Performance, and Production Notes on song “Infected” (modulatethis.com)
Composer Heather Fenoughty Offers 51 Marketing Ideas in a Recent Scorecast Post (modulatethis.com)
What is Apple’s Ping? and What Does it Mean for Musicians? (themusiciansguide.co.uk)
Sample Libraries Now on Soundcloud (stretta.blogspot.com)
Free SoundCloud Sampling with Creative Commons Search, Player; Q+A (createdigitalmusic.com)
combining social media for musicians: youlicense soundcloud & bmi together (redvoidmusic.com)

the journey begins: starting a modular synthesizer from scratch

John Sexton — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:51:43 +0000

I am starting to put together a modular synthesizer from scratch and figured it was a good opportunity to share my experiences as I go, to hopefully help others in this same quest.

My last post “full circle: my return to modular synthesis” was about my desire to get back into modular synthesizer programming, which of course requires a modular synth, so I started trying to formulate a plan on how to get from nothing to a nicely complex modular with lots of capability. First was the research phase. I did web searches and blog searches for information on modular synths and decided to go with mostly Doepfer modules, but also try to get a Eurorack standard case, so I could mix and match modules from all the manufacturers making Eurorack compliant gear later on as I build from nothing, one or two modules at a time, since spending thousands all at once was not in the cards for my current music budget.

A-119 Ext In, A-120 VCF, A-132 Dual VCA, & A-146 LFO in Doepfer Minicase

THE CASE

This showed me one of the early hurdles in modular synths, which is how to build slowly when the cases are so expensive! The cheap options aren’t all that cheap, and the options that look like something you would want to build a long term infrastructure in, are $530 and up, so even buying 4 modules in a case like that puts you over $1000 and that was still too much for me at this moment. What I ended up doing was buying the tiny “A-100 Miniature Case black beauty version” which was only $140 but had some limitations. The limits are power and space. Power in the Doepfer suitcase model is 1200 milliamps (1200ma) and the minicase I had chosen was only 200ma. Space was new and interesting too, since I am used to thinking of rackmounted gear in terms of how many standard 19″ wide rack spaces. In the modular world, modules are 3U high by that measurement, so a “row” is 3U high but can be narrower or wider than the 19″ standard, so what is important is the width measurement, measured in units referred to as “hp”. So the Doepfer suitcase for example is 84hp wide and comes in 2 or 3 rows (6U or 9U in the old rack units of height), and the minicase I had chosen was only 32hp. Now with my 200ma 32hp limitations, it was time to pick out some modules.

My first goal was a functional synthesizer of 1 VCO, 1 VCF, 1 LFO & 1 VCA so I could have an oscillator, filter it, modulate the filter (filter modulation) or oscillator (pitch modulation) with the LFO and send the results to the VCA output, and potentially assign the LFO to modulate amplitude (amplitude modulation) at the VCA. This is how that plan mapped to my tiny case:

SPACE & AMP REQUIREMENTS WITH VCO BREAKS THE LIMITS OF THE CASE
A-110 standard Voltage Controlled Oscillator VCO 10hp 70ma
A-120 24db Low Pass Filter (Moog Type) 8hp 30ma
A-146 Variable Waveform LFO 8hp 30ma
A-132-1 dual linear VCA 4hp 100ma

30sp 230ma
out of a possible
32sp 200ma

At this point, I was a little discouraged, in that I could make the space requirement, but I was over the limit on the power consumption. I then decided I would go another route, of “if I can’t make a synthesizer just yet, then maybe I can put together a modular filter processing unit”, so I changed the architecture to this:

SPACE & AMP REQUIREMENTS AS CONFIGURED
A-119 external input / envelope generator 8sp 30ma
A-120 24db Low Pass Filter (Moog Type) 8sp 30ma
A-146 Variable Waveform LFO 8sp 30ma
A-132-1 dual linear VCA 4sp 100ma

28sp 190ma
out of a possible
32sp 200ma

Now I made the space and power limits, and would have something like a Moogerfooger pedal made out of Doepfer modules. When I placed my order, two of my module choices were out of stock new, so I did a little email tag with one of the sales guys at AH, and opted to purchase the following as used modules which saved me a little cash too. The VCO costs $100 more than the external input so that limitation was at least a cheaper alternative as well, and not being complete I figured would probably spur me to buy more modules sooner rather than later, so I thought that was probably a good thing too.

USED MODULE REPLACEMENTS
Qty 1 A-120 24db Low Pass Filter (Moog Type)
Qty 1 A-132-1 dual linear VCA

So now, the cool part. I get the little beastie home, and run it through an effects send/return loop on my mixer, and I start sending a deep house track through the unit, but found the input gain knobs on the external input to be very steep and touchy on the 1/4″ input at least, and realized that the LEDs on the module were also used as metering so I dialed it down to find the proper input level, but found it easy to overshoot in both directions of too hot or too quiet with barely a smidge of difference in the knob position, but I switched to the 1/8″ mono mini input and it seemed easier to dial in proper levels, and I was away. The Moog ladder filter sounded good, but too was not lively in a linear way on the resonance knob, but that’s cool, its analog and a little unpredictable which is cool creatively to help you find more unexpected creative territory. I quickly had some cool stuff going on, and toying with the LFO on different possible modulation points was fun too.

I then decided to think about all of the possible patching permutations, and was trying to go through them all, and was pondering if anything more was available, and decided I would try to make one of these non-oscillator modules act like an oscillator, and the LFO was the most obvious choice, since it had a L, M, H toggle switch on it, and on high, we have an oscillator. It was a lot stronger than I expected it to sound, especially on the big pulse width modulation square wave. Filtering that led to some really electronic sounding goodness, and bumping up my modulation routings since the LFO outputs all 3 waves at once from its 3 different waveform outputs, so that gave me some almost FM sounding sonic sidebands and that was getting pretty interesting. So I looked at the box again, and decided to try to see if the Filter would self oscillate with the resonance cranked, and sure enough it complied, and I was using down saw waveforms to make star wars blaster noises in nothing flat. This was pretty amazing really, since two of modules basically amounted to a preamp and amplifier, I was already getting a lot of mileage out of basically the sound generation abilities of two modules, so the slowly built future is starting to look bright.

WHAT’S NEXT

I figure I want to get the TipTop Z3000 VCO, so I have a legitimate oscillator, and I again need to wrestle with the case. I like the Monorocket Suitcase, but what I think I really want is the Plan-B Zero case, which is what of NIN uses on stage in their live shows. I looked into pricing one of these, and ended up frustrated, after going to the manufacturers page, the resellers pages, searching online forums, and even subscribing myself to a Plan-B email mailing list, I was disappointed to find out that even though they announced their Zero and Ringer cases at NAMM’09 in January and promised within a quarter to have these cases available, the reality is its now been as of the writing of this post 10 months since that hyped and hotly anticipated release, and it is still vaporware. So if the Zero ever comes available and is priced attractively in the next couple of months, I will consider it, but if not, I think I will end up grabbing the Monorocket suitcase, since its cheaper than the Doepfer and has solid space and power.

full circle: my return to modular synthesis

John Sexton — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:12:11 +0000

Of late, I have been bitten by the modular synthesis bug. For those of you who don’t know what that exactly means, let me quickly explain. Most synthesizers whether analog, digital, or virtual are comprised of sound generation components called Oscillators (aka a VCO), Filters (VCF), & Amplifiers (VCA), and modulation sources like Envelope Generators (EG), & Low Frequency Oscillators (LFO). In addition to this there are Noise Generators, Sample & Hold Circuits (S&H), wave shapers and many other possible accessories too numerous to mention. The “VC” in many of those designations stands for “voltage controlled” which actually only applies to analog synthesis, so in a digital, it might be called a DCO, and in virtual synthesis since it is really just software modeling going on, they may choose VCO or DCO as the metaphor for what the oscillator is doing since it is literally neither. What gives any given synth its distinctively characteristic sound, is how many of these items, of what type, in what configuration you have.

Doepfer A-100 Modular System

For example, since often times, the characteristic sound of a synth is thought to come from the kind of filter it has, you might think that a Moog Minimoog and a Roland SH-101 should sound similar since they both have 24db low pass filters, but if you compare the routing architecture diagrams of the Minimoog and SH-101 carefully, you will see they are radically different in terms of how each component is able to function. Because of these hardwired routing differences, you can modulate one VCO with another for Frequency Modulation (FM) Synthesis on the Minimoog, but not on the SH-101, even though they both have multiple oscillators, so despite the many similarities, this is one of many things that one can do that the other cannot, and the pros and cons work in both directions, so there is no obvious solution. These kinds of limits on one unit versus another is the reason so many synthesists end up collecting such a wide diversity of gear, so they can get that “Moog sound” for one track, and that “Roland sound” for another.

the modules and routing diagram of the minimoog

the module and routing diagram of the SH-101

With modern DAWs, full of virtual instrument and effects plugins, you would think there should be no need for external gear at all, but one thing I have found from my many years of doing electronic music, is that the one thing that computers cannot seem to completely mimic is analog synthesizers, even popular virtual analogs that are supposed to be an Arp Oddysee or whatever, end up sounding to my ears more like a Nord Lead, Korg Prophecy, or Access Virus aka virtual modeling synths, not truly analog sounding, because that is precisely what those software plugins are, and having worked with many of these synths over the years, no picture on my computer screen with the right make and model name stamped on it, can fool my ears into thinking I am really on a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5. I have already ditched all my hardware effects except for one compressor, and one tube preamp used for my Condenser Microphone, which needs hot levels prior to the A/D conversion, and I am in the process of ditching many keyboards, (drum machines, romplers and samplers especially) other than my analog synths, (a Syntechno TeeBee, a Roland Alpha Juno-1 w/ PG-300 controller) and yes my Nord Lead since multi effects, sampling & virtual synthesis are indeed so good in software now, and I kept my Nord because it is better than most plugin virtuals. In my pursuit of analog bliss, I was finding that my future gear purchases were torn between many different models, many of which are costly units in and of themselves, so to round out my synth collection, I was looking at buying a new Moog Voyager, a vintage Korg MS-20, a Roland TB-303, and an Oberheim SEM (which was recently reissued), which would end up costing me $10,000 or more to complete the set, and that’s if I was able to track them all down in decent condition. To top it off, many of these vintage pieces are pricey to repair and maintain in addition to the already inflated vintage prices from their limited supply and high demand.

If only, there was one synth that had all the different kinds of filters I liked, a choice of the type / number of sound generators and modulators, and I was free to modify the routing architecture any way I could conceive of myself on the fly, that would be perfect. In the back of my head, I knew about modular synthesizers and had programmed on a few of them, but never owned one myself, since for many years it seemed that they were only ever produced in the distant past, and would have the same high cost, low availability, and frequent repairs issues of other vintage pieces, but that has since changed, as companies like Serge, Doepfer, and many others are making brand new modular components that are well built, available and reliable. So there it was; the final answer confirmed in many ways was now staring me in the face and it was called a modular synthesizer. This is not a completely new idea to me in a Newtonian “Eureka” moment as much as it is a return to my origins as a synth programmer, since I learned analog synthesis originally on an Emu Modular in the SYCOM electronic music labs of USF in my college days, but even with that bit of personal history, it was easy to overlook the benefits, since most music gear catalogs do not sell modulars, and most mainstream music equipment manufacturers do not make modulars anymore, so what is usually consuming the mind with thoughts are music equipment catalogs stuffed with one glossy page after another of shallow shiny new plastic keyboards brimming with youthful optimism promising to be the solution to all your problems, while the great substantive wise elder is easily forgotten. I credit my experience with modulars as the reason I have a solid understanding of programming any analog synth, since when it is you that has to connect every component into a functional design in order to even make any sound at all, it forces you to truly understand the underlying concepts, or else not be able to get anywhere interesting. The fact that modulars by definition, by being a collection of disconnected parts, with no patch memory, have to not only be connected, all the knobs must be adjusted to make it sound good, so the laziness afforded you of a brand new synth loaded up with thousands of patches where all you have to do is turn it on, and hit up and down arrows to call up tons of sounds someone else wrote who did understand the architecture, you no longer have to understand how it works, or how to program sounds from scratch, and you can simply scroll through the work of engineers and sound designers in complete ignorance. So now that you’ve opted for that synth that everyone else owns, and are using factory patch #230, you have abrogated the control over the timbral landscape to someone else, eliminating a vast swath of the potential creativity available to you as an electronic musician. What I have done over the years to compensate for this, is to backup the patches on my disparate units via midi sysex and then initialize the unit so I could force myself to at least program all of my own sounds rather than, rely on someone else, but I was still stuck with the hardwired routings the given gear manufacturer had provided, and I have also heard my keyboards used on other people’s records enough that I can pick out the Juno, or the Nord or whatever quite easily, as I’m sure many of you can too. Modular synthesis is a great break from all of those limitations, and imitations, since even if someone else bought a modular from the same company as you, what are the odds of them buying all of the exact same modules, and furthermore what are the odds of them hooking those modules up the exact same way, and furthermore adjusting every knob and slider to the exact same positions? Well, obviously the chances are nearly nil.

Now that the destination is set, I am on to the next thing, which is figure out what kind of modular synth to buy for myself, and try to figure out what it will cost to get me started. So far, I have been thinking that Serge is too expensive, at $1500 or $2500 per module, I could only get 4 modules before blowing the budget on my older analog dream team list. There are tons of small DIY oriented modular makers, but I am more interested in programming the synth than I am building it in the electronic components and cabinets sense, so that sort of led me naturally to either Doepfer A-100 system, or Eurorack which would include Doepfer modules and modules from lots of different manufacturers. I then went to the Eurorack MegaModular configuration site, and the Doepfer custom config page, and made this initial config, which still has plenty of opportunity to change. I am still asking myself lots of questions on the topic and would love to hear from anyone with a modular synth, as to what they went with, and why.

I’ve already had some of my burning questions answered by some qualified people. I first ran into Escape Philosophy on a Synthgear posting, and when I saw a post for his Error Correction EP release on his blog I made a comment. In the meantime I posted a tweet about the music and he replied saying that my question merited a blog post about analog sequencing to answer the question in my comment. Pretty Cool!

musical projects: superfiends

John Sexton — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:04:14 +0000

Over the years, I have created a bunch of different musical aliases I work under. Usually what happens, is I reserve the moniker “redvoid” for work I do by myself, and whenever I work with someone else collaboratively, I create a new alias for that, or sometimes, whether working collaboratively, or solo, I will create another alias when I work in a musical style that is divergent from what “redvoid” is known for. In any case, the Superfiends moniker was created to describe the electronic experimentation work I do with Steve Rush aka funky49, who is more known for his nerdcore hiphop, while I am more known for the breakbeat and electro-house electronica work. Steve & I also have another alias called “2 Def Mice”. Over time, I will write up many of my other projects to clarify what is meant by Defcon6, Window Seat, Beyond & Back & Static Grooves.

the superfiends logo

We did our first Superfiends album called Divebombing in response to the RPM Challenge which is based on the NanoWriMo challenge of writing an entire novel in a month, as its musical equivalent, writing an entire album in a month. Our RPM page desribes Superfiends like this:

“Superfiends is a creative collective consisting of Redvoid (John Sexton) & Funky49 (Steve Rush). Over the years under various project names Redvoid and Funky49 have released breakbeat, drum and bass and nerdcore hiphop records on various indie labels. The Superfiends moniker is all about removing the traditional limits of genre orthodoxy and freely blending elements from anywhere while still acheiving a cohesive sound. This sound’s distinction comes from the Superfiends’ rhythm scientist process. the Superfiends’ sound has evolved into a complex mix of ambient, trip hop, illbient, chillout, over hip hop, dub, trance and electro beats with a human focal point and a subliminal message of humaneness. Allow the music of the Superfiends to invade your mind with their message of meditative self awareness, universal compassion and peace.”

The following year, we did another album for the RPM Challenge called “Prestidigichillitation”, and our liner notes describe each track and the concept for the overall concept album. The sound of Superfiends is more evolved in the Prestidigichillitation album, and in terms of musical influence is closest to some zone between the illbient music of DJ Shadow, the minimalist, dub, triphop hybrids of DJ Spooky, and the idm music of The Orb.

A lot of work goes into planning, writing, producing and mixing down a complete concept album like this, and we were deadly serious about our storyboarding and execution and still managed to knock both albums out in less than one month each as the RPM Challenge requires. The album names in this post are linked to the free downloads of those albums, so it would be great to get some additional feedback. A very brief discussion occurred on launch on rhyme torrents when the 2nd album was released, and I have heard from my personal friends on what they thought, but if you have anything to say, positive or negative about any of the Superfiends music, we’d love to hear about it in the comments section.

recent redvoid music happenings

John Sexton — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:59:39 +0000

Well, Steve Rush aka funky49 reminded me I hadn’t blogged in over 4 months so I decided to do a recent events update to say what’s been going on during this time period. So here goes:

Static Grooves members from left to right, Thee Joker, Redvoid & Thee DJ Q

Static Grooves

I started a new electronica group called Static Grooves that consists of myself, Glen Carter aka Thee DJ Q, and Jason Filipini aka Thee Joker. The live performance aspect of the group is based around all 3 of us running an Ableton Live rig with controllerism interfaces, and doing some other live performance type work as well leaning toward the improvisational.

So for me, the task is playing jazz trombone improv over the Liquid D&B and deep-house grooves, and for Thee Joker, it is his chance to do vinyl turntablistics, and for Glen it is throwing dub delayed samples via midi controller locked to the clock of the current main groove DJ which is a job that rotates between the 3 of us, while the others do their improv performance bit. We started out on a lark by doing a frat party and just improvising while the others dropped grooves, and so we came up with the name, and immediately got a monthly residency at The Improv comedy club in Ybor City in the front bar after the comedy show lets out, which quickly turned into a bimonthly residency, which led to us being featured as the TBT “Artist of the Day” featuring photos of us in downtown from our recent photo shoot by alignbetween, and being mentioned by Wired Blogger HipsterPlease on his blog, and we also posted up a MySpace page and a Twitter stream. On the MySpace page, we posted a 3 part audio demo called “Live @ The Improv Parts I-III”. Most recently we did a show for the Sig Ep fraternity of USF with a “School Boys & School Girls” theme which was at Skate Park Tampa, and was off the chain.

Rhino Cubes

We also are all 3 DJs that promote the Rhino Cubes mobile DJ Attack booth, or as we like to call it, “the DJ Mech Suit” which has its own built in lighting and sound rig, so you can bring big club sound to any location via a trailer hitch. Rhino Cubes featured us spinning at the Grand Re-Opening of the Sam Ash at the historic Kapok Tree location in Clearwater, FL, and the Sam Ash owners got to witness our performance and were impressed, and gave positive feedback. Thee DJ Q of Static Grooves was also featured with the Rhino Cube on News Channel 8 being interviewed by local news celebrity Gayle Guyardo. He was also called the “world reknowned DJ” by Kirsten of the reality series “Bridezilla” in an upcoming episode trailer now available on the web. I was also featured in a new Rhino Cubes promotional video of some of my past performances in the cube.

Funky49

Nerdcore rapper funky49, asked me to drop some musical parts on a new track for FermiLab in Chicago he was working on that was the US response to the Swiss CERN, nerdcore rap about their large haldron colliders studied by particle physicists to test string theory concepts, quantum mechanics, and astrophysics theorums. He was also invited to visit the facility where he got the grand tour, performed for the physicists, shot a music video, and was featured in the Chicago newspapers Daily Herald and Beacon News as well as being interviewed on WBIG AM1280 out of Chicago. I also performed as funky49′s DJ at Nerdapalooza 2009 and ended up in the highlight reel from the event too probably because I was rocking the Ableton Live, Korg Zero-8, MacBook Pro computer science rig at the event.

Redvoid Music

As for me, I DJ’ed a chillout set at Arts on 8th Art Gallery in Ybor City, for the celebration on Pulitzer Prize Award Winning Photo Jounalist to China in the 1970s shortly after Nixon got it opened to the West for the first time. I headlined a Fusion Thursday night at GBar in Ybor City Tampa, and dropped an electro-house, fidget, Indie Dance Nu-Disco set with my ugliest material for the darkside crowd that turns up there, perfomed an electro-house set at Full Moon Saloon in Ybor, and I spun on WMNF 88.5FM Community Radio in Tampa twice on 5/8 and 8/1 on their electronica show called Zentripziteez, and I posted a new electro-house and fidget mix CD to my SoundCloud.

The Future is Now

I have upcoming gigs, at Oasis Sushi Bar & Lounge in St Pete Fri Oct 2, Sat Oct 3, and Sat Oct 17 at The Improv in Ybor with Static Grooves. I also started a weekly digest of my Twitter Stream which should begin this Sunday morning, and we’ll see how it goes from there.

getting “in the zone” by staying open

John Sexton — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:32:03 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

“Open” is how I feel when I am “in the zone” which is a phrase used a lot by jazz artists who improvise. Both terms are used by practitioners of meditation and free diving as well and it turns out they are talking about the same thing. When free diving the experience is closer to removing inhibition as you lose your fear of being submerged underwater when you are an air breathing mammal doing an activity that is directly defying death, and blatantly going against your innate nature of self preservation. As soon as the fear is gone, you can free dive to your max potential. I remember taking college classes in jazz improvisation (4 semesters worth) and in class, people did some of their worst improvising since they were under pressure, being graded, being watched by their fellow students and their professor during a morning class to make it that much worse. The very same people on the band stand at a live gig at 3AM after some drinks and dancing on their breaks could improvise like Coltrane. This is because they were blocked by their fear, stress and racing thoughts rather than letting go. What do all these disparate things have in common you ask? All of them and several more activities have been measured by EEG to create alpha waves in the brain. This neurological state is what artists of all stripes would call “in the zone” and it requires that you are “open” and that your racing rational thoughts are turned off. Another name for this state of mind is a “flow state” of consciousness.

For me, the quickest way to get open is through expulsion, play, and channeling the more primal aspects of human nature. Yogic breathing or pranayama is another way to get in the zone. Essentially what is going on when you do these exercises is you are stilling, and quieting the rational mind. In Eastern cultures this stilling of the mind is considered essential to being whole in your humanity, so it can serve you in more ways than simply allowing you to be more creative musically. Westerners tend to think of this process simply as relaxation or stress relief, but that is a reductionist way of looking at something so important. Without connecting to the emotional, irrational, truth in the body, you are unbalanced flailing around in only half of your potential and you’re going to create music that sounds like its coming from your head which isn’t going to move anyone. For us in the West, getting started down this path can be difficult at first. My rational senses are so strong that I have to go through what amounts to fits of unacceptable behavior in order to prime the primal pump within. Some people have suggested that our modern lives are so cluttered with noise and movement that still meditations are not effective anymore which is why they suggest active meditations where you do a repetitive task with focus to allow the storm in your head to silence. Also don’t think of “meditation” as this big scary serious and foreign thing. It can be almost anything as long as it distracts you from your thoughts. I like to play with toys in a childlike fashion, get silly, crack stupid jokes and laugh a lot. In the Scorcese short film Life Lessons the Nick Nolte character plays basketball inside his art studio loft before ever putting brush to canvas. Walking or dancing may also qualify as an active meditation as long as you can do it in a way that makes the busy mind cease. I also jam a lot, which is an improvisation method, I do pure jazz improvisation as a warm up to writing other forms of music, I like to play scratch DJ on some vinyl, or fiddle with knobs on my synths to make the most extreme noises possible in that childlike play approach as well. For me extemporaneous musings such as this equate to being an active meditation. Disconnecting from utilitarian function allows you to get lost in what you’re doing, and that’s where you want to be. Once you’re there, all your formal musical projects with deadlines all seem to fall into place. All of these things I did intuitively at first and much much later came to rational discoveries that showed me how and why this might be a good thing to do. When Johnny Depp met Hunter S. Thompson to study for the Fear and Loathing role, Hunter instead of shaking his hand, zapped him with a cattle prod, then took him home, started drinking whiskey, and they went out back and started blasting holes in all kinds of stuff with a shotgun. On the surface it sounds insane, but when you think it through in the context we’re talking about here, it makes a lot of sense, just not rational sense. What is rational about a festival like Burning Man? Nothing, but it is very human and spurs a lot of creativity. Maybe the writing analog for this would be rap freestyling, free writing, quick and sloppy poetry or prose, writing one word on many different pages and rearranging them or cutting them up with scissors or setting them on fire. William S Burroughs cut up methods worked like this. He was an intensely creative writer and seemed to understand what the creative processes effect on the brain well when he coined the phrase:

“exterminate all rational thought”

Now, you’re in the zone.

throw your own renegade party with a rhino cube

John Sexton — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:25:16 +0000

Imagine for a minute that you had a portable DJ setup, a complete PA sound system with banging subwoofers, and a complete night club style lighting rig, but rather than having to tote a truck load of flight cases, racks, trusses, stands, gig bags and crates full of cables to be hooked up, it was all self contained in a tiny popup cube that was on a small trailer, could be driven and dropped off anywhere, the top popped up, and full lighting, sound and dj booth were prewired and immediately ready to go. Well that is the vision that created the Rhino Cube.

redvoid throwing down in the Rhino Cube

The Rhino Cubes founders share my vision of music, technology and idealism when it comes to running their own socially conscious business. Unlike many other products made for DJs which are poorly designed and overpriced, Rhino Cubes has built their product from the ground up the way it should be done, the way you would want it done if you had done it yourself, rather than create just another hunk of overpriced plastic designed to make you part with your dollars without giving you the satisfaction of a thoughtfully designed and engineered system with its user’s needs in mind. It is a marvel of high quality actuating motors to raise the top of the cube, industrial strength power sourcing options, and thoughtfully ergonomic layout. The result is a nightclub you can take anywhere with nothing more than a trailer hitch, and the whole world becomes your potential dancefloor. If you want a small taste of what’s in store, see it in action for yourself and remember that this time around, the lights, sound and music will be more intense than that initial Gasparilla launch video.

Saturday March 14, 2009 Rhino Cubes will be participating in the St Patrick’s Day night parade in Ybor City to show off what the Rhino Cube is capable of. The lights have been programmed for maximum impact, the sound system dialed in, and the DJs, DJ Q and myself have energetic underground music planned to highlight the renegade “party anywhere” aspect of the cube.

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beach party

John Sexton — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:15:50 +0000

I was asked by James Webb to perform at the next Beach Party event Saturday March 14, 2009. This is an all day event starting around 11:00AM and running until dark or later. My timeslot is between noon and 2:30PM EST. I am very much looking forward to this event, since it and the series of beach parties that it belongs to, are the real deal. The DJ lineup includes Redvoid (yours truly), Kevin Julian, Mooj, Pascal V., DJ Q, J. Webb, DJ Chang, DJ Jon, Ian, Von and possibly others not on the flyer. The main idea behind the beach party series is to provide people a chance to hear real electronica during the day, on the beach, in the sun rather than in a smoky club, late at night while giving the DJs a platform to spin the material that they value the most without concern for a particular club, promoter or event telling them what they can and cannot do. This is a welcome change of pace since here in Florida, we have beautiful weather that we Floridians often don’t take enough time to enjoy, and this format creates a kind of South Beach vibe like you might find during WMC, which I will be talking more about in the coming weeks. Since its only two more weeks until WMC now, consider this your warm up event to get yourself in the mood for South Beach.

beach parties are a great way to spend a Saturday

You may notice that the flyer does not list a location for the event. This is a kind of nod to the old school method of individuals who want to go, need to ask one of the people involved for directions directly. If you’re new to the scene, this may seem like an unnecessary pain, but those of us like myself who have been in this for a while, understand the reasons behind this choice, and think its a good idea. For one, its the people who care the most who will be there, among the many other reasons. It is somewhere in the Tampa Bay area. nuff said.

On the day, I will post updates live to my blog from the event via my iPhone so those of you following from other parts of the world can get a glimpse. For now listen to some music, pull up some beach pics and imagine how much fun it will be.