Tag: scott riesterer

Mixing and Mastering Marshall and The Boyfriends

Over the summer I took on a fun mixing and mastering project for a synth-pop band called The Boyfriends headed by Marshall Watson. The album is full of catchy hooks, has a diverse roster of vocalists, and a generous helping of awesome. I’d highly recommend checking it out if you’re looking for some motivation on a dull dreary wet day (or on a bright sunny summer day too for that matter).

For this project I made heavy use of the Waves Neve Style Vintage EQs and compressors. I got some great results from the free FXPansion DCAM Compressor in parallel on my kick and snare. I was also delighted to discover the Plug & Mix bundle. They had a promotion selling the whole pack of forty-something plugins, including free copies of any future plugins they add to the bundle for $50 so I had to snatch it up. They sound great and feature stylish but simple, and effective interfaces.

You can check out the album here:

 

There’s now a music video for Dark Days done by Matthew Barrett which you can check out below… 

 

Maker Faire 2014 and a WCMA Nomination!

Maker Faire SpreadOn June 8th I performed Sonidos de Cuba at the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire. My wife was also showing off her Drift clothing and accessories (you can check out her stuff here). Previously I had used a laptop running Ableton Live with an Akai APC40, a Korg Electribe ES1mkII and my trumpet. This time I debuted my new live setup focused around the Elektron Octatrack. I’m also using an Arturia MicroBrute, MFB Kraftzwerg, Electo-Lobotomy Sonic Forest, Manastone Hank Drum and Trumpet. Changing my setup has caused the songs to evolve quite dramatically. I’m still playing back stems from each song on the album, but sequencing them on the Octatrack has changed the way they’re configured. The Octatrack is also sequencing the two synthesizers which imparts some great new life into the material. Continue reading “Maker Faire 2014 and a WCMA Nomination!” →

New Toys for the Studio!

Fall and winter of 2013 saw a few new instruments enter my arsenal at Studio Sublime. The strangest one came first. My wife bought me something called a Sonic Forest for my birthday. I must admit my initial reaction when she showed it to me was not very enthusiastic as I didn’t really know what to make of it or how I would incorporate it into my music. However, when it arrived I quickly fell in love with it and the experimental, hands on approach to music making that it invited. Basically, the Sonic Forest is a wooden box with a contact mic inside and a 1/4″ audio output. Attached to the box sprouts a forest of guitar and bass strings of various lengths that you can pluck, rasp, bow or otherwise molest to produce a variety of sound textures. It also has a Mute switch and a tone switch that functions as a high-pass filter. I made a short song using only the Forest and effects from Ableton Live and you can listen to it below. You can also check out Electro Lobotomy’s other esoteric creations here: http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/ElectroLobotomy?ref=l2-shop-info- 

I received a generous bit of birthday money from my Grandpa so I decided it was time to pull the trigger on an instrument I’ve been obsessing over for a while now: A Hank or Steel Tongue Drum. Hank drums are propane tanks modified into beautiful musical instruments. Continue reading “New Toys for the Studio!” →

The Original Sonidos

I recently posted a sound collage featuring the original field recordings I captured with my H4n in Cuba. These are the sounds that eventually became the foundation for Sonidos de Cuba. I’ve also gone through my sound collages and commented to label the various sounds they feature. I should be posting two more soon. One will feature recordings I gathered on Galiano Island here in BC. The other will feature some recordings I did with a few mics from Cold Gold Microphones. They were kind enough to lend me a few to test and I really enjoyed using them. I actually brought the simple contact mic with me to Japan and Thailand. It was a lot of fun to use on mechanical devices.

I’ve been listening to a lot of music from astrangelyisolatedplace lately and I’d really recommend checking it out. There’s some beautiful ambient soundscapes there that you can listen to free of charge by some talented artists.

Free EP on Bandcamp!

I’ve released a free EP of some of my older work on my Bandcamp store. I discovered and developed my unique style of working with field recordings in these four songs. Sonidos de Cuba was born from these early acoustic explorations. I like to think of them as musical larvae or protozoa, which is why I’ve called the EP Proto-Sonos.

The first song is Rain Down. It rains a lot in Vancouver. Therefore it was a natural choice to use a bed of rain recordings as a foundation for a song. Continue reading “Free EP on Bandcamp!” →