Another new song. The download link (to a .WAV file) is the down arrow on the right. This thing is in 124.5bpm (or 249bpm if you prefer) and Gmajor. I'd love some loops to go with it. Right now it's rather naked. Could go in a lot of different directions.

249bpm by evanvale

Started a new song yesterday. Had the idea that all the musicians I know should add onto it or provide a loop for it. It's 134bpm and is in C Major (no sharps or flats).

the heavens by evanvale

It needs a lot more loops to be contributed by you, the listener. It needs to build and build (with no resolve in the end). The download link (to a .WAV file) is the down arrow on the right side of the play bar up there.

Steve came over last night. Felt like I hadn't seen him in forever. We hung around and drank beer, he came to dinner with my family, and we rehearsed this song 5-6 times. The audio quality is not bad for a video camera.

Great Irish ballad. Maybe my favorite. The Lakes of Pontchartrain is thought to have originated from Irish immigrants in the South during the American Civil War. The Irish melody also could have been brought over by the hired British soldiers in the South, where the story involving an immigrant and a "Creole girl" would later be affixed to the classic melody. Lake Pontchartrain is in Louisiana, and is the second-largest saltwater lake in the U.S. This is a great version of the song. The singing is spot-on and the two musicians are perfectly in-sync from start to finish. Paul's choice of hairstyle/glasses frames is rather unfortunate, though.

I mentioned some time ago that a lot of my music is hosted on archive.org, and that I would get to the details later. Well, later is now. Or.. now is later. I'm confused.

Netlabels release material under Creative Commons licenses. This means that the author can determine how his music (or video, or book) is licensed. Typically it is released as "Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative" which means you are free to share the music--spread it far and wide as long as you give the author credit and do not use it for commercial purposes. This means that people can take my songs and burn 100 copies to CD if they like, as long as they do not sell the CDs for profit or use them for commercial gain (use them as the soundtrack to a film, for instance). In the unlikely event that someone 'stole' my songs for commercial use, I could sue and it would be upheld in court, even though I have not pursued an actual copyright. Not to mention, I have the source material for all my songs and could prove that I composed them.

I followed the custom of releasing material as albums, though they are not actual albums. I will list them here in chronological order, with a bit of explanation. All the following music is non-dance electronic music. The whole genre is really esoteric and not for everyone. Although I started making music in 1996, all of this "released" material is from 2001 and beyond (there's good reason for that).

Ekiv EP - several short, intense tracks from my first year living with Jaime in Athens. Most of the percussion sounds on here were sampled by me (smash two things together and call it a snare drum)

Fish Food EP - more laid back, more lush sounds

Safety Glass EP - back to rough, harsh sounds. I think this is my best release

Sinister Device LP - full-length (about 50minute) release that has over 15,000 downloads. "The public's" favorite release of mine. Lots of help from friends on this one.

Millions Never Tried EP (with e-sin) - cooperative album with a friend of mine. The latest (and most mature) of my releases. I love the first two tracks, along with "Seren." (The link below plays the songs out of order, so scratch that previous statement)

Plus there are several more songs (of different types) on my personal music page, and several "leaked" tracks on different file-sharing networks.

New earsauce song. I think it's almost finished. It uses acoustic instruments/sounds, but it is an electronic song. I think it is turning out pretty well.

estivation by earsauce

I'm going to nerd out here for a second. Bear with me.

I built a new computer over an 18month period. That alone is a long story. It was meant to be a gift to my brother but I failed over and over to get this thing to boot. Anyhow, I instead bought my brother a camera and this is now my computer. I got it working maybe six months ago. It's a new computer. It's nice. I can actually use Lightroom as it was meant to be used. Blah blah. I've never been one for flashy new computers; I always just wish my old one would have kept working. Anyway, it took me way too long to realize that this new computer can't record audio worth a damn. Lots of noise.. it seems to add a frequency in all the recordings, like a low-to-mid hum. I believe everything that has been recorded onto this computer in the last six months is useless. It's all I can hear when I listen now.

As a workaround, I purchased a USB interface cable, which has audio hookups on one end (that go into my mixer) and a USB plug on the other end (which goes into my PC). Ain't USB grand? I can barely remember what we did without them.

So I had difficulty getting everything to work right, BUT... I think it's going to work. Not only that, I think it's going to work really well. While I was trying to get everything set up properly (pacing around, muttering curse words, running wires, reading related message boards--all in between feeding and changing the baby), I left my Dave Smith Evolver plugged into my computer. That way, if anything started to work while I was messing with settings, I would know instantly because I would be able to hear my synthesizer coming through.

Dave Smith is a pioneer. Among other things, he was the main engineer of the Prophet-5 (and its more recognizable brother, the Prophet-10... early Van Halen, anyone?) and the originator of the MIDI interface (maybe the most important music technology invention to date). He has worked for several companies, but eventually went on to form Dave Smith Instruments.

I have owned a desktop version of the Dave Smith Evolver (Serial 00694) for maybe six years and I am very happy with it. It certainly doesn't look like four hundred dollars (I paid that for a used one actually), but it sounds like it. It is an analog-digital hybrid, sort of the best of both worlds. You really can't make the analog filter on this thing sound bad even if you try. Of course it has its disadvantages: it is hard to program, it can only input monophonic MIDI signals, and only one setting can be altered at once. Basically it's not good for live performances. I think the layout of it is nice and I can cook up a sound/sequence pretty quickly on it. Here is about three minutes of what I recorded last night. It takes a little while to fade in, so don't turn up your speakers.

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It's time for Evan to pass the hat. Steve and I need money to get our album mastered. We get a surprisingly good response to this old album when we give it out, so we thought we'd set up a system for donations. If you click "download" on the link below, it will bring up a Paypal payment screen. If you have a Paypal account, it couldn't be easier to donate seven dollars. If you do not have a Paypal account, it is still easy to purchase/download the album with a secure credit card payment. We have it set up for a minimum of $7, in case our relatives wanted to give us more as a Christmas present or something. You can stream all the tracks for free below, or visit the actual site on which it is hosted. It is an easy, convenient system. Anyway, throw us a bone! $7 for the album means a) less than 34 cents per track and b) less than ten cents per minute of audio. Also, if you like it, you can click the "share" link below and post a link to it on your Facebook/Twitter/Livejournal/What have you. Thanks in advance.

This is a set of self-produced home recordings. All 21 songs run together seamlessly to create the feeling that the listener is hearing a jam session. This album will never be released as-is except through bandcamp.com. Proceeds from downloads of "innovation avenue" will go towards the mastering of our next album, for which we will be seeking representation from record labels.

CREDITS:
Released 19 July 2009
All songs composed, arranged, performed, recorded, and produced by Evan Valentine and Steve Bower
Cover art by J. Adam Morris
Hosted by bandcamp.com
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