Post Senior Show

I lost track of updating the blog. This was mostly just for a class grade but I'll give this one more update post senior show. Thanks to everyone that came to the performances and gave their support. Thanks to the people that bought hard copies of the work or took a free download business card. Keep an eye out for my work in the future :p

Theoretical Art Gallery (thesis work)

I've been asked from one of my professors to create a theoretical gallery in which I would be the curator for. I'd like to take inspiration from a gallery I've been to in NYC called Cosm. By day, the gallery hosts a number of 2D works by artist Alex Grey. By night the gallery becomes a music space with each room hosting a different music act. Most of the acts were DJ sets but there was an acoustic room as well.

Since my thesis work revolves around electronic music, I would probably set up a gallery in a similar fashion to Cosm. I would send out a call to other music and sound artists within my circles to come and enjoy a few scheduled nights to show off their sound work. Options would include DJ sets and acoustic acts. Not stopping at sound, I would also offer a chance for visual artists to set up in the gallery space. Depending on how the spaces would be divided I would expect installations to intermingle with the sound intuitively. Installations don't have to be the focus of the visual arts however. Alex Grey's Cosm is my source of inspiration and most of his work is 2D.

Previous posts of mine included a number of sound artists, all of which I would contact. In regards to my hypothetical gallery however, I would like to focus some attention to 2D artists that would share space with the sound artists. Newgrounds recently opened up an art portal, so I might try to contact artists from this spot. A few of my favorites from newgrounds include:

Jared Africa: I'm not sure if that's his real name but his work is mostly sharpie and pen. Psychedelic in nature, his work compels visuals that I think would work hand in hand with some of the sound work I'd expect.

Tyra White: Another artist with excellent work, I can see her pieces falling in perfectly. In case you haven't noticed, the names are links that lead to their digital galleries. you can investigate these artists if you'd so choose :)

Rtil: This guy is a tough one. I've followed him for a number of years but I have never been able to find out his real name. I've also never tried contacting him but at the same time I've never had reason. He's European so if I included him in the show I'd have to find a way to fly him over but if it was possible, his sci fi landscapes would fit right into a gallery of electronic music. He's an animator so most of his work focuses around anime characters, but I'd really like to emphasize his landscapes. Click the image for a full screen view.

Upon: Another artist of whom I'm unfamiliar with on a personal level. He's based out of Washington D.C. and I have a number of friends there. I would travel to meet him if I had the chance. Upon's work has that style I'm looking for. He's also a musician so he could probably jump into the sound festivities if he so choses.

The night I went to Cosm, there was a large group of people dancing in a hall. It was much like a rave, except for the fact that Alex Grey was working on a painting in the middle of the crowd of dancing people. There was a feeling of community at Cosm that I would hope to style my gallery after. After having attended that show, it felt less like I had attended a gallery and more like I attended an experience. That is the feeling I would hope to achieve with my gallery. With so many young artists coming together for a few nights of art and music, I would want the gallery to have a sense of love and community. While most of the work would be 2D and sound I would encourage these artists to collaborate on installations that would help transport gallery spectators to another world. It's a tall order but considering all factors realistically, I'd say that it would be entirely possible down the road with enough advanced planning. Cosm originated in a gallery space in NYC but after a few years they were able to build a "church" and what seems to be a cult. While I'm not interested in building a cult out of a gallery, I'd say that creating a similar experience would be a lot of fun and not out of the question. I only listed four potential artists, but newgrounds is a community with a lot of talent and there would be plenty of leeway for additional artists. As initially stated this is theoretical gallery, but the opportunity for it in the future feels real enough.

Youtube Videos

I just spent a good few hours last night throwing up a bunch of stuff on youtube in a lazy attempt to grab up some attention. I noticed that a kid who downloaded one of my songs from NG already posted one of my tracks. He gave full credit to me so it's all good... I just wish he linked to the original song file so people could download it :P

I also noticed that he threw Dumbstep into the title. The track isn't a true Dumbstep song because it's in 4/4 but I'll be honest in that the track is heavily influenced with rhythmic syncopations in the synth patterns. It's more of an experimental Dubstep song then a real one. Here's the youtube vid he threw up. He's using an image of Hokusai's Wave print... I remember doing a copy of it back in highschool for some senior project :)

Like I said, I spent a few hours making lazy picture videos. Here's a link to Quarl's music page and here's a link to Laqur's. The Quarl account might not have any dumbstep but it has a few rhythmically inspired DNB tracks. All the song descriptions should include a newgrounds link where you can download the songs by clicking on an icon of a floppy disk. In the words of xKore "Bask in the glory of free music."

Air Guitarist :p

If the last post didn't make you giggle in some way shape or form then this one is probably going to have the same effect on you. As I've been doing this air drumming thing now for a couple weeks I've been thinking "man, it would be awesome if I had someone to pretend to play air guitar with me. Then I could have an air band."

So I shot out a few texts to see if anyone was interested. A friend of mine Andrew Wheeler has agreed to learn the songs and perform with me. He doesn't have a music background that I'm aware of but that's not really important for the performance. I just need someone that's willing to go out on stage with me and have a shit ton of fun.

This whole air performance idea actually reminds me a lot about what I enjoy in music. I started playing drums around eight years ago towards the end of middle school. I picked up the drums because I wanted to have as much fun as possible. Drums just seemed like the most intuitive instrument to pick up and start learning. Because the tones on a drum kit are so specific, you can learn the drums by just listening to other drummers. Unlike other instruments which can feel daunting at first due to the apparent number of notes. Yes, you can still learn melodies by ear, but generally speaking there are 12 tones to try and find a melody within and that's not considering moving between octaves.

The performance might not be the most amazing thing in the world to watch but it's a lot of fun to perform. To me, music should be a fun or enjoyable experience. The experience might be subjective and not enjoyable for everyone but that should be common sense. At this point I would like to challenge any readers to post their opinions on what music is. I don't expect to get any responses but if I do I promise I won't comment on your opinion. Feel free to be as specific or as non specific as you want. If you like lyrics, write it. Are you a man of melody? Go for it. Do you like middle eastern folk jazz fusion when applied to heavy syncopations and fast tempos? Cause if you do, now would be the time to share it with us :p

Air Drumming

So in my adventures to try and find a way to bring the dumb step sound live I've started playing with the idea of air drumming. I know what you're probably thinking "AQLUR! That's a really stupid idea!" Well, to be frank it is. As I have stated this genre of music is called dumb step. We're not trying super hard to be taken seriously and that has led me to start doing performances with just a few drum sticks and an invisible drum kit.

I'm doing this in favor of a DJ set due in part to the nature of the music. Because the songs all move about through awkward time signatures, common DJ mixing techniques such as beat matching doesn't really create much of a flow. A measure in 5/8 won't synch up with a count of 7/8 until around 35 counts which is really inconvenient for phrasing anything that sounds coherent. If I do this air drumming thing I can present the sound work in a way that doesn't compromise the music at all. This method also allows me to have a good amount of fun with the performance which is why I got into music in the first place. When I started drumming eight years ago I decided on picking up an instrument that was stress free, easy and intuitive.

Air drumming is all of that... except it's not always easy. I get really into it actually and I'm usually more tired than I'd normally be on a real drum kit after just a few minutes. Also, some of these rhythms are impossibly hard to try and nail. I'll be posting some videos soon for lulz but for now here's a still from an experimental prototype recording...

A few more peeps make dumb step...

Well, I recently caught a few more people trying out their hands at dumbstep. I'm not sure if any of these people are considering to continue with making dumbstep but I'd feel bad if I didn't post their info here :)

Chromanut

Ian usually goes by the moniker sessilenomad but for his dumbstep alias he's going by Chromanut... which shouldn't be confused with Chronamut; another NG user from which Ian's new name is based off of. We've collaborated before and I have a lot of respect for his work so I'm glad he finally got around to making a dumbstep. It's a short track but it's pretty clean. Click on his name for the song.

xKore

Here's just a little dumbstep experiment by NG user xKore. His work is usually insanely good. I'm not sure if his heart was entirely in this one but here it is. Again, click the name for the music.

Trohn Javolta

Another great anagram of a famous actor. This guy wishes to remain annonymous so I'll just give the link to his song.

In related news I recently uploaded a song to newgrounds that wasn't really written with a time signature in mind. Mid way through the song it sticks to 12/8th notes but for a little while there's some ambience with the time signature. Here's the link.

How to write easy Dumbstep beats.

This article is just a copy/ paste of a thread I wrote up on newgrounds. Here's the link to the original thread so you can read the comments. You might be wondering where the 7/8 portion of the essay is. Truth be told, I got lazy and never bothered writing it.


At 1/18/11 08:14 AM, Quarl wrote:
Dumbstep

So dumb step is obviously not for everyone. I'm thinking of working my senior thesis around it though so I want to try and encourage people into making some. If you don't know what dumb step is at this point here's something Spikrodd wrote up a while ago. This is just a quick little tutorial on making syncopated beats. I'm trying to keep it really simple to encourage all kinds of producers to give it a shot. These tips don't even have to be applied to dumb step at all. You can apply these little rhythmic ideas to any genre for instant win. Let's start with what in my opinion is the easiest division to work with.

5/4

Making dumb step is surprisingly simple. Just make a dub step chorus and add an extra beat to the measure. This will give you a simple 5/4 rhythm instead of the typical 4/4. It's an easy division to work with but the difference can really add some funk to your beat. You can include the snare on the typical 3rd beat of a basic dub step rhythm too. A good simple structure to work with is a kick on the count of one, a snare on three and a hi hat on every quarter note. Spikrod used this exact structure in his last DumbStep track:

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/385291 

After you have the bare bones of the beat you can start experimenting with adding drum notes here or there. In this 5/4 rhythm it's really easy to just sustain that 4th melodic note for an extra beat if you can't think of anything to place in that added space.

To help you write the rhythm you might want to consider how you might change it up in the following measure. You can keep it the same, or you can modify an element within it to help give the beat some character. If you're interested in keeping a dancier rhythm, keep the snare in the following measure symmetrical to the snare in the first.

9/4

Remember when I said you could write something in 4/4 and add a beat to the measure? You can do it to a count of 8/4 or 8/8 as well. Also, as I said before you can sustain that last melodic note if your having trouble. That's really all there is to 9/4.

7/4

Fish sticks.

WHHOOOOOO????

Who Is Behind DumbStep?

So, this group of young producers didn't just randomly decide to start making music one day. As I said in my last post we all have a number of different aliases on a website called newgrounds. I'll give a quick list of whose who with some links...

Devin Powers: Devin goes by the alias Reanu Keeves for his dumbstep experiments but his main account is SineRider. He has a number of albums digitally released. You can check them out here.

William Burns: You know his dumbstep alias SmithCommaJohn. Now get to know his main account Spikrodd.

Me: Laqur is my recently aqcuired Dumbstep acronym. My old name was Ruqal and my even older name was Quarl. I've since returned to Quarl but am considering Rlauq.

That's everyone that's contributed to the sound so far. I'll update when new people start making tracks. I'm expecting at least two...

Syncopation Catharsis

Hi, Cory MacNiven here posting a little bit of info about my sound work and what I do. A lot of it is music related so if you have any interest in playing with time signatures or Dubstep then read up a little bit. If not, stick around anyways and maybe you'll learn something. Before I talk at all about my work, let me cover the basics for understanding the ways in which music is divided using western standards.

Time Signatures

Time signatures are easy to understand. Most of what you listen to is probably either 4/4 or 8/8. The first number tells you how many beats are in a measure and the second one is the general tempo of the music. If the time signature is 4/4, then you can count four pulses (beats) before the measure repeats. Since 8/8 is twice the amount you can count 8 beats twice as fast. 16th notes are even faster, 32nd notes are twice that and 64th notes are what I like to use when I want to make IDM noises. A time signature of 7/4 simply means that you count to seven before repeating. 7/8 means you count the rhythm at twice the speed.

Dubstep/Dumbstep

A genre of electronic music that has entered the mainstream over the last few years is something called Dubstep. The element of the music that characterizes it the most is a heavy distorted synth lead or bass line. A common purveyor of the genre includes some some sort of filtering of this lead instrument with a wavy pattern. Connoisseurs of Dubstep call this sound "wub wub." The genres drum rhythms are characteristic of a 4/4 pulse and a snare on every count of three.

Some friends of mine and myself have taken it upon ourselves to free up the rhythms in Dubstep. We've grown somewhat bored of Dubstep in 4/4. We've started playing with rhythms such as but not limited to 7/4, 9/8, 5/4, 28/16 and so on. We call this perversion of sound Dumbstep and we pride ourselves in it's sheer stupidity. We've created aliases on Newgrounds.com so that we may offer this sound for free for any one who is interested.

Laqur

This is my alias for my Dumbstep music. The first thing you might notice on that page is that I'm a very pretty girl. Well the truth is I'm not. The Newgrounds audio community has a running inside joke about gender and popularity. Moving along, you can click on one of the CD icons to listen to one of my songs. On the player page you can click the floppy disk icon to download the music. I might recommend listening to Rise Again or Angry Jellyfish. Some people have been known to like It Came From Outer Space. 

SmithCommaJohn

He goes by the alias SmithCommaJohn but his real name is William Burns. He was the person who started pushing us all around to make Dumbstep. His sound has been growing a lot this last year and I'd say he's about good enough now to blow any pro out of the water. His recent Dubstep remix of Daft Punk's Derezzed is the perfect example of why I feel this way. The same rules apply for his pages. Click on a CD icon to listen to music and click on the orange/ black floppy disc to download the song.

ReanuKeeves

Probably my favorite alias out of the group ReanuKeeves keen sense of parody gives the genre a cuddly and likable aura. Devins been pretty consistent with his output and releases tracks regularly. We're currently working on a collaboration. The ball is in his court at the moment so I'm waiting to hear back from him but last I checked the mix was sounding quite sassy.

Quis-Quingle

We're still waiting on a song from JP Nuefeld but I've listened to something he was working on for the group and it was immensely clean. Since JP doesn't have any Dumbstep yet I'll just link to his main newgrounds account Rig. At this point I should probably mention that everyone brought up in this post has alternate newgrounds accounts. If you're interested in hearing what we sound like when we're not playing with Dumbstep post a comment saying so and I'll throw that into the next update.

Links

Want to start making Dumbstep or any other sort of electronic music for that matter? Read these...

New To Audio? 

This link is just an old help FAQ on newgrounds that points you in general directions for getting started with electronic music.

How to Write Easy Dumbstep Beats

I made a tutorial recently on how to write dumbstep rhythms. If you can't quite get your head around those time signatures this should help you. You might notice that my main Newgrounds account has a yellow icon. This means that I'm an Audio Moderator. I've been making music on Newgrounds for a long time and I'm well known by the regular community. I like to think I'm important but the truth is, everyone mentioned in this blog post is a Newgrounds Audio Moderator.

Dubstep

Still confused about the original Dubstep sound we're perverting? This wikipedia link will tell you most of what you need to know.

I'll exit this post with a quick little youtube video Devin threw together. I'll be uploading my Dumbstep to Youtube eventually but for now there's this: