Steve Mueske

The first single from Whom Gods Destroy was released, and I can't stop listening to it.

I'm putting out snapshot EPs of 10 - 15 mins of music every two months, new work plus selected remasters from my back catalog. Started the project Dec 2022 and will continue this year. https://pentachrist.bandcamp.com/

There is, it's just called "Finished Works" now.

I create in 48 32, and tailor rendered files based on medium. It's pretty stupid that most aggregators want 44.1 16 bit, which is, literally, 38 years old in terms of quality. In each case, I dither for the release audience based on format requirements. The raw mixed file at 48 32 makes this pretty easy. I used to record and mix at 96 32, but the audiophile market is pretty small, and I doubt anyone can tell the difference between 96 24 and 48 24. I wish the market supported 32 bit floating point because that would be ideal. In terms of flexibility, this basic approach covers every market I am interested in. Mixing in 44.1 16 means you'll have to resample for any video applications. Downsampling is much better than resampling at a higher rate. FLAC supports 48 24, so that is what I shoot for.

Interesting piece. Glad I got the chance to listen.

Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never) is one of my favorite electronic artists. His brilliant new album "Again" was released on Friday, and The New Yorker did a great piece, part interview, part essay, on him. If you are curious, it's a great read. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/02/the-emotionally-haunted-electronic-music-of-oneohtrix-point-never?fbclid=IwAR2cOnC1sQOtlMkgLmeKeMrfkYvtWBiXMJFURhjX4c-Zwv7nt1yLT6G3y6s

Parallel to @Mahesh's post, I thought it might be relevant to introduce Brian Eno's take on "the loss of humanity in modern music." Eno would classify as a Boomer, but this doesn't service the argument of hooks and songs. It's not so neat as that. This is purely a mourning of the loss of imperfection, and I think it is an important topic not often addressed. https://www.openculture.com/2023/08/brian-eno-on-the-loss-of-humanity-in-modern-music.html?fbclid=IwAR08AveOSmC7-uMM0FMATi0HghFey1PuvzL_0ZCrimdxQXmJPA_RwziDMUE

I don't really have a horse in either race, and don't follow pop music, except in a peripheral sense, but from my experience her comments about Boomer nostalgia are spot-on. I think it's an intelligent response to Rick Beato's diatribes, but that's a whole different thing. I don't think he's railing against current pop so much as the safety of much of it. There are two different arguments here, and the threads of each are probably longer than I care to engage. I can say that she's right, like it or not the musical landscape is much different now. It's much harder to reach the levels both are talking about, but the underground is so much larger and easier to access as a fan. The problem is market saturation.

I don't know if this has been posted or not because I've not followed everything in this thread, but here is Nick Cave's take, which I found very interesting. A slightly different can of worms from music AI, but still relevant. https://www.theredhandfiles.com/chatgpt-making-things-faster-and-easier/?fbclid=IwAR0PLctosaIK1DLtYN5fYq-irKF6Ccd7rSqQnqD85EuxZbSbPq63BOGMRA0

My main DAWs are Reaper and Bitwig, though I occasionally use Studio One, Renoise, Mulab, and Reason. For audio editing I use Sound Forge and Wavelab. I use each for different reasons, but they're all just tools. They all sum the same and will produce great results. It's all about workflow. Right now, I gravitate toward Bitwig because the modulation capabilities are insane. Same with audio editing. Wavelab is the best audio editor on the planet, but when I want quick easy edits I'll use Sound Forge.

My interview on the Now and Xen podcast is up now. https://nowandxen.libsyn.com/072-steve-mueske

The interview this morning went well. The episode should be up later this month.

Last May, I participated on a Zoom panel for Microtonal Adventures Fest. This Friday, I will be doing an interview for the Now and Xen podcast talking about my transition to Pentachrist as a musical identity, in particular the fourth EP in a series of new releases as Pentachrist. Three and Four have a focus on microtonal tracks, and I'm excited to talk about this resurgent focus and how they fit into the larger project.

I finally broke down and upgraded to 14 Ultimate. I have way too much software, but with the 50% off, I couldn't resist. Will be my last upgrade (I hope) this year.

Hola! We're practically neighbors. I'm in the upstate area of South Carolina.

What kind of music do you write? Do you mix on headphones or with monitors? Do you record guitars with mics or virtual plugins? What is your budget?

The final piece for the month is a video poem.

Two things really help with bass. One is to roll it off somewhere around 35hz - 50hz. Sometimes I use a 6db filter, sometimes 12 or 24. It always depends on the material. The other thing that helps a lot is to make everything mono below a certain frequency. I tend to target 75hz, but again that varies. If there are big spikes, a notch filter really does wonders too.

Here's the thing, he's got a great ear, and I love the videos he's done with Animals as Leaders and Polyphia. He's a guitar guy. He likes guitar stuff. As do I, but... At bottom, this has little to do with an actual critique. It's a sales pitch for his book. "Look how quickly I can identify pop progressions." The implication being that if you buy his book, you will too. A lot of what he says is spot on, but there's nothing inherently wrong with three chord songs. I'd have been much more interested in the idea of "safety" in commercial music and approaching it from a cultural critique perspective. Why is pop music often safe, ultimately? What are the benefits, the pitfalls? But it's an ad. We can't forget that. The part that absolutely sucks for me is that it's just another form of naked capitalism, and he does it at the expense of other artists' work. This is not new in any form of cultural criticism. But it IS stale, selfish, and disappointing.

I absolutely hate moving my studio. I did it in September 2021, again in January 2022, and will probably have to in another 8 - 12 months. I took pictures and documented everything (like you), so that I could do even basic things like reassembling the main desk. Hoping this one's permanent for you and that you can create good work there.

It depends on how you're getting it to your target levels. If it sounds good, you set it to render to -14 LUFS, and it sounds different then there's normalization going on during the rendering process. I would suggest paying more attention to your meters and turn off any auto-normalizing. There are also proper steps for resampling and bit reduction. The dithering algorithm can change the character of the sound. To answer your question, no every track does not have to be mastered, but mastering is a way of separating the processes so that each stage has its own focus. That's a different question, though, than the one about mastering changing the character. The latter is a process / learning question. It's never about the amount of plugins. It's about it sounding unified and balanced.

Thank you for your detailed response! Your experience with the art exercise is interesting. A couple things might be worth noting. During April many poets already write a poem a day in an exercise that is called NaPoWriMo here in America. It's not seen, typically, as something merely to do to learn a lesson or for the expansion of craft lessons (although, sure, the latter can be a goal). It's mostly a celebration of an artform with few actual readers. I already have two books out, and writing is a regular practice. The difference, in this situation, is the stage and the context. This project has a national audience and is intended to be a fundraiser for a non-profit literary press. In a sense, it's a way for me to donate time, meaningfully. I'm also curious about sustaining energy, ways to keep producing from the context of daily living. Because it's a visible stage, there are pressures. My goal only is to keep generating material and to learn from this pressure to produce by looking at the entire process from a meta-standpoint. What do I learn each day? How many times can I pull a rabbit out of a hat? The poems are taken off their website after 60 days. I will delete my blog posts as well. I'm just trying to take full advantage of the opportunity, hopefully write a few good poems, and provide some insight into the process each day for lay readers and anyone interested in the process. Thank you so much for asking these interesting questions!

I just found out that I'll be one of the poets participating in the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project for April. This is doubly exciting because April is National Poetry Month and the 30/30 challenge, a fundraiser for a national non-profit literary press, is a major venue. I'm also a little (okay, a lot) nervous because I tend to write slow, and I'll be writing and posting a new poem every day. Warts and all. My goal is to raise $350 for the press. I'll set up a blog and detail progress for anyone that wants to play along. This should be an interesting challenge! BTW, it's an American Press and National Poetry Month is an American thing. I didn't think of this till just now, this being a multi-national forum. The rest holds true. Edit: It's difficult trying to corral everything with separate posts, so I'll post links here. Fundraising page: https://tupelopress.networkforgood.com/projects/190139-steve-mueske-s-fundraiser Official Tupelo Press 30:30 Project page (updated every morning, but places newer work above older work): https://www.tupelopress.org/the-april-2023-30-30-project/

I have really eclectic tastes. I listen to everything from ambient to all out metal. The albums I've returned to again and again this year, though, are Sneaker Pimps Squaring the Circle and Steven Wilson's The Future Bites. Just good, clever pop. Also on heavy rotation is Nils Frahm's Music for Animals, which is ambient minimal. I love dark jazz and find that I listen to a LOT of Bohren and Der Club of Gore. For metal, Septicflesh gets played a lot. There is a guitarist named David Maxim Micic that completely blows my mind. I have a playlist dedicated to everything he's released.