Saturday, March 14, 2009

Hiroshima Thunder

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I got asked to do a solo performance on drums in late January this year. Despite my excitement to perform and the fact that i have been thinking and putting together in my head since a while already how the performance would be delivered, I managed to put very little time into the actual physical preparation for the show. I guess I just thought about it so much that once getting to do the technical aspects of it ended up working somehow, but I still feel that for repeating such a show I will have to work my act out a bit--- especially since there are specific sounds ant things I actually want to achieve with this.

The generic idea is this: each piece of the accoustic kit is caught by a microphone, and then brought through a bass synth/envelope filter to isolate a specific note, then sent through a specific line of effects for each piece, mixed and amplified. I want to basically turn the kit into some music making machine, or a one man band, but still keep the vivual performance of the drummer going and have the impression that there is this accoustic quality to the performance via the kit--- something you can't get with an electronic kit for instance. also, using mics, the room quirks and the feedback would creat 'hopefully' happy accidents that will either push my improv in a new direction or just texture the auto-composition already going on.

Getting the stuff amplified really loud so the sound from our home-made p.a. matches the kit's natural volumes wasn't really a problem, the main thing that I had to constantly focus on and control was the feedback from the mics. Anyway, I guess working on the project a bit would help me figuring these things out a bit... maybe i should switch some mics for contact mics or triggers or something.

But it was loud and chaotic, and at least it created most of the impression I wanted to create within 15 minutes.

AIDS Wolf

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Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Image and video hosting by TinyPic

6 comments:

dnml said...

sounds really radddddickal. wanna see it. p.s. I still have yr b-day present. giving it to you when yr in minnneapolis! p.s. we're playing together in Madison with Zola Jesus. XXXXXXtended bonding.

dnml said...

Sounds awesome. I know that Angela had some troubles with contact mics feeding back all the time (but she was trying to use them on cymbals). She loves her drum triggers, but they are kind of an investment (for decent ones). THis is of no help, but you should discuss with her when we play togther in Mpls, and madison. Madison is: You, us, and zola jesus at the Corral Room.

and don't let me forget to give you yr belated belated b-day present.

dnml said...

ooops. I thought that first one never made it.

unholyxpope said...

this saturday!!!!!! (march 28)

its gonna be sweeeeet!

Kim said...

one person bands yes ! i like this idea of taking an acoustic drumkit to another level, kinda like black pus, that stuff sounds so big for one person

Perfect hair forever said...

where can i hear thisss ?/?