leafcutterjohn.com

Micro-Sound Remix update I & new duo project NAILS

Hello everyone, 

I’ve had several inquires about where people can find the remix files – well they don’t exist yet I’m afraid. I was planning on making the next micro-song available for remix but I have not had change to make a micro-song yet as I’ve been a bit busy on other projects lately (like the the never-ending rent payment project). Sorry about the delay, but it’s nice to know you are generally into the idea.

Nails artwork made with Processing

One of the things I did last week was to make a myspace site for my duo project with Seb Rochford. We are called NAILS and you can visit, listen & befriend us right HERE! There will be more music up when we have had chance to do more edits….

best wishes,

Leafcutter John.

Tags: leafcutter, Micro-Song, nails, remix

Open Remix. Do you have free space on your Server?

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UPDATE – Server space has now been kindly donated by Thorsten at highpointlowlife.com Many thanks to him and all that offered assistance! 

I’ve been thinking about the suggestion that I should make the stems of the next Micro-Song available for download so you can all have a go at doing a re-mix. This would be great but I think that it will eat up all my bandwidth – SO….

Do you have any spare server space to host the stems and subsequent remixes?

If you do please contact me or leave a comment. If no body volunteers in the next week or so I’ll make the stems available via yousendit.com on a first come first served basis.

All the best, 

Leafcutter John.

Tags: leafcutter john, Micro-Song, re-mix, remix

Micro-Song #2

For this micro-song I’m turning what could be described as the national instrument of Greece, a country which for many reasons fills me with joy. The Bouzouki is capable of a wide variety of sounds and emotions and I have not used mine as much as I should so it’s perfect for making a micro-song with.

This micro song is truly experimental in nature. I started of by recording the instrument using my little sony d-50 and my binaural Soundman mics. I gave myself the rule that I could not use my fingers directly to play the instrument in the conventional sense. So I used soft beaters to hit and scrape the body and strings. I used a rubber balloon to create low pitched farts along the strings, and a jaw harp with it’s vibrating metal component against the strings (that’s not me in the video!).

With the sounds transfered to Logic I set about layering parts of the recording to create a composition. I used some compression to get the level up in places and a touch of reverb to tie the sounds together a little. One of the great things about using binaural microphones is that because you wear them in your ears any movement of the head results in panning in the recording. This technique is very evident in the micro-song. From the screen grab you’ll see a MIDI region, this is a sampler playing sections of the original recording.

To listen to the song I’d recommend using decent speakers or headphones as you’ll not hear any bass on most computer speakers.  

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Take care,

Leafcutter John. 

To find out more about the origins of the micro-song idea read I thought you used to be a musician once?

Tags: binaural, Bouzouki, logic, Micro-Song, sony d-50, Soundman