CIR Official Site.

I hope everyone had good, safe holidays. If not off of work and doing something fun, then enjoying the extra pay from working! Things here have been quiet. I’ve been taking a lot of time off to recover from the move and accidents from the summer/early fall. I’ve been starting to write some new material however. I have 4 tracks in various stages. I don’t know if they all will be finished or if some will be gutted and sampled for later use. We’ll have to see how progress goes on them.
This year I have a few tasks set out for myself. I want to start to break into a different genre of music. I won’t leave industrial behind but I want to do something new. I’ve located 3 potential vocalists for some trip hop. I just need to get a track finished and on CD for them to work on some lyrics/vocals and take it from there. I’d also like to start back on the RCM training I stopped last year when my arthritis got really bad. I’m thinking of maybe signing up for the summer test cycle. I still have my goal for writing a proper symphony in the next 4 years. I’d like to achieve that goal, along with the others I have set out for my self in music.
This year, maybe…..just maybe…… I’m hoping to play at least one show. It’ll probably be around the end of summer to give myself lots of time to see how my health progresses and prep a set. It’ll be 5 years in May that I played my last show. I’d like to not have it go any longer then that EVER again. I really do miss it. Even if I can’t play drums anymore, I want to get out there and start playing/getting my music to people.

cheers

Happy Halloween to everyone out there. It looks like it’s going to be a rainy evening where I am. I hope everywhere else has some nice weather. If you’re out drinking, DON’T DRIVE!

cheers

I was sitting around a couple weeks ago pretty down and thinking of something to pick myself back up. I decided that I want to start playing shows again, knee problems be damned! So, I spent some time thinking about how I’d make this happen. I decided that I would sequence the tracks live and have everything as flexible as possible. To do this, I needed to add more buttons and keys. With this in mind, I’ve added another keyboard and controller to the mix. I’ve picked up the Novation SL Mk II 61 key keyboard and the Novation Zero SL Mk II controller.
With these I should be able to put on a good set. I picked up a 3 tier stand for these and my Edirol PCR-800

A note on the Novation keyboard and controller, they are AWESOME! I love the action on the buttons, sliders and knobs much better then the Edirol PCR-800. They are even better then the MAudio axiom 61. The reason I went with the Edirol over the Maudio was that the overall construction felt more stable then the maudio. Even though I didn’t like the knobs as much. The novation feels very solid. I’m completely loving it! I’d highly recommend this keyboard and controller over anything else that’s on the market. I’ve tried a range of different keyboards and the Novation so far is my favorite. It cost a bit more then the other 2 I mentioned but it is well worth the extra money.

I’ve also picked up some books to help with the mastering process, which will save a pile of time in releasing tracks and in the future, discs. The books are –
Mastering Audio – the art and the science
The Audio Mastering Handbook
The Recording Engineer’s Handbook
Mixing Audio – complete practices and tools
Dance Music Manual

cheers

After an almost 10 month dry spell, I’ve finally written a new track. It is uploaded and linked in the members section in the forum. All you need to do to listen to it is register on the forum, login and check the members section. There are some other goodies in there too that are special bonuses for registered forum members. If you want to listen to the track, well, you’ll need to do the above.

This is going to be on the next disc that I’ve just started working on. I’m still waiting for the first disc (Electro-cute the world) to be mixed and the art finished up. The mixing deadline is the end of the month, so I hope it’s going to be done for then. If it isn’t, then I’m going to pay someone else to do it for me and have it ready for the end of september. The art will be done shortly after the disc is mastered just so I can listen to all the tracks in their finished form and devise the track order. It won’t take long to do and to get it out once it’s finished being mixed.

I’m pretty excited to start work on the new disc. I’ve been just waiting for a long time because I didn’t want to start anything until the first disc was done. Now that the deadline is close, I’m starting work on the new disc. I’m thinking of a few themes for the disc. If I don’t follow something I’m tossing around, then it’ll be a normal release like most discs. If what I’m thinking of will work out (I’m still working out the math to make it work) then this will be something pretty interesting and definitely something that hasn’t been done before.

So expect more regular posts and updates now that work is back on schedule. I’ll have a bunch of stuff going into the members section of advance previews, talking about the theme of the disc, some feedback on tracks in progress and some other members only stuff. Again, to get access to this content, just register on the message board, (forum) login to your user account and check the members only section for this content.

cheers

Well my posting has slowed down a lot in the last year and a bit. Things sorta drifted off and not that many people have been stopping by, signing up in the forums and posting comments, so I didn’t really feel the need to post random little bits of stuff that CIR’s been up to, mostly because there’s nothing to post about. I’m still waiting for the disc to get finished, which it’s still close to being done. It’ll get pushed back again and again no doubt. Things in the past few months fell a part in real life. The place I was living in got closed up due to financial troubles. I moved out of Ottawa and everyone else got their own places somewhere else. Since the guy that was living with me was also mastering my disc, it’s going to take even MORE time to finish up. I’ve given him until the end of August to have it all finished up otherwise I’ll have to find someone else to do it for me so I can finally get it out there. I’m sick of waiting for him to finish it up. I don’t want to write more tracks until it’s done because it’ll never get done if I do that. I’ll always use my newer tracks replacing the older ones and it’d go on like this for, well, forever. Nothing would get done. Rather then maybe have that happen, I’ve packed everything up and sent it to him and haven’t done much else since. There were some problems at home, I moved and my knees have really been bugging me, so I haven’t even really felt like writing any music lately anyway. I’m still waiting and would like it done right away but I don’t even know if I’d have written anything in the last bit if it was finished. Some of the medication I take may be getting in the way of writing music. I’ve heard that anti depressants can cause this to happen.
Well if by the end of Aug my disc isn’t finished, then I’m going to pay someone to finis it up for me. One way or another, I’ll have the disc finished this year. I have someone working on the art and it’s coming along well. I’ve been listening to the disc back to front for a few days now trying to figure out a track list for it and without having the final versions of the tracks, it’s hard to set a track list in stone. The songs change enough that the track list I pick out now might not be as good as something else when I have the finished ones.
Music wise there really isn’t much going on. I might be doing some tracks for a up coming unreal tournament 3 mod called Tac Ops but I’ve heard that the Unreal Tournament 3 community is very small, so a MOD won’t get a very good player base for it anyway. I just don’t know if I want to put in that much work for 50-70 people that will play the game and most of them without map music anyway. Most people that play MODs are more serious players and I don’t know too many serious players that listen to the in game map music. Most have it turned off so they can hear things around them much better – like foot steps.
I’ve temporarily stopped my music certification from the RCM since I’ve moved. I’ll now need to get someone in the area to teach me the content every week and find the next closest test centre.
Come Sept, I’m going to hook up with my old music teacher from highschool and have him mentor me again more closely to give me some new direction and reignite my fire for composition.
I’m also still debating weather or not to put online my “classical” and Frag Ops tracks. I might put up a poll on the front page or in the forum asking people if they’d be interested in having them up as they are now (un-mastered) If there is enough interest, I might put them online for people to check out.

Well, that’s about the quick run up to what’s going on.
To sum it up very quick for people that are too lazy to read, like me:
The disc will be out this year, most likely before Oct.

cheers,
IR

As winter comes to a close and a week of good weather left my knees feeling a bit better, I sat down to work on some music. It’s been so long since I’ve worked on music or even touched that computer, that I hadn’t even bothered to set it up since it was moved to a different location and I got a nice desk for it. I’m using the Ikea Jerker desk. The name of the desk is just as awesome as the desk itself. I highly recommend it to anyone that can find one. I noticed that they stopped selling them because I’d like to get a few more swiveling side shelves and the rolling thing that goes under it for something to put my feet on to keep my knees straight while I work. No dice on this one though. Anyway, getting back on track, after setting up the new location, updating the software on the computer I was back up in action. I ended up getting a nice shell to expand on. I have so many music ideas floating around in my head usually, that it doesn’t take much to get something started. The hard part is using my ideas and expanding on them to get a full track, or finding the right sound to use. After 5 hours I rendered what I had and stopped for the day. I put the mp3 on my other computer and listened to it a bunch of times to get ideas on how to expand on it and finish up the track. A week later I put into action my ideas on expanding the track and rendered it out again. Right now its structure is done, all complimenting sounds mixed in and some voice samples added. All that’s left is some fine detailing. Adding in some drum fills, cymbals, minor changes, maybe adding in some noise samples for more texture and maybe adding in some short synth hits or 1 bar lines to be placed randomly through out the track for further variation. Certainly don’t want the track to sound stale. After a few more hours the track should be complete. I will post it online when it’s done up in the forum members section. If you want to get a preview of it, you’ll need to register an account and login to the forum to get access to the members section, then the track itself when I post it. There is no downside to registering in the board. You do miss sneak previews of tracks and in the future, there will be other features I’ll have for members.

As I come up to my 25th birthday, I find myself wondering when I’ll play live again. That is, more then I usually think about it. If all goes well with the disc when it’s finished, I might start to gear up for something near the end of the summer and hit up the kids going back to school. As my knees feel better with increased medication, I think about trying to do some shows a lot more. I’ve put everything on hold, even posting tracks on facebook and myspace because I want my disc to be mastered, finished art and *fingers crossed* a deal with someone to put out the disc. I don’t want to have mush of anything on the go until the disc is finished (art and mastering) After this is done then I’ll probably plan a set even if I don’t play and post up a bunch of tracks. I’ve been notified that it’s mostly complete now, I just need to sit down and have a final listen to them and give them the OK for final rendering. Apparently it’s close now but finding time with the guy that’s doing it recently is becoming very hard.

Cheers

Sorry for the delay in posting but there hasn’t been much in the way of news. I’ve been struggling to adjust to the increased work load with my new job. My knees have been getting progressivly worse since I started near the end of August 2008 and have only recently been getting better. My new dr is taking it slow moving to more effective medication to cover the increased work load. So it’s been a long and horrible road which still has a few more months of travel before things will be ok. In this time, I think I’ve only written 1 track. I have been getting to know a local industrial musician Sean of Synkro and will be working with him in the future on a disc under a different name. He is going to finish this term at school and finish his disc before we start something. We’ve also been talking about doing some live shows…. I’d be helping him on stage for Synkro, do a CIR set and then this new project.  Everyone should check his music out, it really is fantastic! Synkro Main Site and Synkro on MySpace

Well that’s about all for now. I’ll try and make some small updates here and there just so there’s not so much time between my posts.

cheers

I received my grade from my RCM Harmony 3 exam I wrote in August. I passed with 81%! Right now I’m working on Harmony 4 with will test in December. I’m getting close to becoming fully musically certified.
I’ve written a few tracks over the summer, nothing electronic – mostly testing out my knowledge and putting it together in orchestrated tracks. I’m still debating about putting them online or not. I will continue to think about it.
That is all for now.
Please keep checking back in for updates. Also sign up on the forums to get advanced releases of tracks and many other goodies that come up for forum members. It’s free to sign up, so why not?

The 2 tracks I posted up last month have been moved to the main music downloading section on the site. The advanced preview for forum members is over, so to download them you don’t have to register a forum account and be logged in. You can just hit up the music link and download the mp3’s for free.

Enjoy!

I have put up 2 tracks to download in the forums. To get to the songs, you’ll need to sign up for an account on the forum, login and look in the members section. There is a post that has the links to both of the tracks. There are a few other members only goodies that are posted up as well. Feel free to download the tracks. They are pre master cuts of the final version before mastering for the disc release.

So sign up on the forum if you haven’t already and download the tracks!

Enjoy