This is an old entry that I haven’t published until now…

I’m facing extremely irritating problems with my DAW at the moment. Nothing really works, at all, sort of.

Motu have finally released the new firewire driver for Windows 7 so I could, for the first time ever, use my Motu 828mkII under Windows 7. My Windows 7 installation hasn’t crashed a single time (since February) until now – when I’ve applied this driver. I’m not using Windows 7 to produce music since I haven’t had a functioning sound card (no – the crap on my mainboard is nothing remotely close to a sound card even though it can produce sound). So I’ve been using Windows Vista (64 bit Ultimate edition) which have been a solid platform. Cubase 4 have always had its little bugs and quirks but have been marching on rather good still. I bought Native Instruments Komplete 5 when it was on a big sale last summer and that’s when things started to happen. Absynth can take down everything upon loading. It’s actually a gamble using it and that’s why I haven’t explored it as much as I would. Reaktor, Kontakt, Massive and FM8 works nice though, so that’s what I’m using the most at the moment. I thought about upgrading to Komplete 6 but there’s no point when the shit doesn’t work - is there? And that’s in Vista. It works like a charm on my newly purchased MacBook Pro.

Back to Windows 7. After the driver for the Motu 828mkII have been installed the system is anything but stable. It can crash when I hit play in Winamp, then the screen-saver starts or when the login prompt is shown. Motu won’t acknowledge the problem and my only solution is not to use Windows 7, which I’m luckily only has a free trial version of.

But, I’ve managed to produce two remixes for the Little Boots remix competition. One co-produced with Patrik and one on my own.

Patrik’s own, Gearsluts remix, can be found here:
Little Boots - “Earthquake (Gearsluts Shaky 16th Remix)”

Neither of them got to the finals, but we’re still very pleased with them anyway.

I’ve also produced a remix for “My Despair” by In Strict Confidence and that competition will be decided in March. Fingers crossed!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately - mostly regarding music, what I’m doing musically and why.
What’s the point, really? Why do I have all the gear I’ve got? What’s my goal?

I don’t strife to be in-the-spotlight-famous - don’t think I could coup with that. But I’d like to become someone. I’d like to produce and be a part of something people refer to as “really good” or “simply amazing”. I’d like to play live at more trance parties. I’d like to support, or produce, a big music act.

I’m not giving up, nor am I selling my hardware equipment even though I’m using software solely today - and I got more software coming…

I ended up in third place in a remix competition which was extremely fun, but it didn’t seem to get me anywhere.

But in the end, it’s the heart-warming comments that really is the driving force behind my music creativity.

Tongue-tied Twisted at the Digitally Imported forum wrote the following when listening to Heliosphere:
“was gonna call it a day at wrk… simply cant now….!!!!! yyeeaahh”
There are some other really amazing comments as well which I’m reading a little now and then when I need it. Those can lift me up when I’m down and inspire me to continue creating music.

Fans, friends, family and lover - Thank You for Listening and boosting my driving force!

Next up: mindXpander Live @ Mimerlaven, Norbergfestivalen. See you there!

I’ve been home from the office a couple of days with an incredible head-ache. So, tomorrow my brain will be examined using the MRI method and I’ll also meet an eye specialist since one cause might be a damage to my retina, or that my optical nerve has become inflamed.

Anyhow, being home a while can get a bit boring. So, when curiosity took the upper hand, I installed Windows 7 after a quick download from Microsoft. The first impression is simply nice! They’ve got rid of the stuff you find annoying in Windows Vista and they’ve optimized the code too so a clean install is much more efficient on my quadcore than Vista is. Even though in beta, it managed to install the drivers for my webcam all by itself (I just can’t get it to run under Vista x64) and I even my Motu Express 128 working after installing the drivers. I do have trouble getting the Motu 828 mkII to work, but I guess that Motu needs to tweak their firewire drivers a bit first. I could be a case for Microsoft too - we’ll see. I really liked the new program bar with the Start button. What I still miss is a good multiple desktop solution.

Waldorf’s been creative and managed to squeeze, more or less, a Blofeld into a VST called Largo. Rumours say it’s got the VA oscillators from the Q+, the wavetables from the PPG Wave, The Wave and the µQ. Sweet!

Sugar Bytes has also come up with a nice piece of software. It’s called Consequence.It’s a chord sequencer and by looking on the videos, on Sugar Bytes webpage, it seems rather cool actually.There’s also a MIDI output feature which will allow for chord, or arp, triggering on MIDI compatible gear. The demo is downloaded. I’ll get back with a short review when I’m feeling better.

Okay, so I’ve been quite busy at the office with various stuff and haven’t had the time to compose, nor to blog about anything interesting. Sorry ’bout that.

Anyhow, I’ve written a new track and I’m now working on the lyrics for it. I might have got a female vocalist for it, so hopefully this will turn out to be something good.

The track is based around a couple of thick, layered, pads and a cute melody. The drums might sound Enigma-ish (in a good way) and there’s a Tangerine Dream-ish arpeggio in the background.

No title for it yet, but I got a couple of suggestions.

Sorry for entering a journal post instead of a blog post. Will blog more when I got more time on my hands.

Oh, the pads in the track are created in Kontakt 3 using waveforms bought at Galbanum. Since Rapture won’t start in my 3-bit version of Cubase 4 I just started creating patches in Kontakt 3. I’ve been using it too little. You can do crazy things with it!

It became a blog entry after all… ;-)

Almost every song, track or project, I produce is a journey. A journey through sounds guided by inspiration and the machines I’m working with.

Some projects have a destination, or a goal, which I have a pretty good view of. I want it to sound in a certain way, not be short than a certain amount of time, have a specific feeling to it and so on.

I don’t have my mind set on the type of sounds I want to use - I only have a hunch. Therefor I most often let the machines guide my way through the creation process and a lot of sounds I’m using are tweaked presets that gives me inspiration while playing something when browsing through them.

I’m right now listening to the first track of the upcoming Pretorium album and I must admit that I’m very pleased with it. It would be fantastic to do a live show with loads of musicians. Live drummers, guitarists, bassists, a string quatet perhaps and vocals. Not sure that any label would be interrested though… but I’ll have a look around. It’s at least well worth trying - isn’t it?