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Thread: Leviathant | Let Dreams Lead - out now

  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by eversonpoe View Post
    dude, it's perfect. if i can get myself to find time to listen to podcasts, i am definitely going to check this out, especially because i'm fascinated with the subject matter.
    Much appreciated! It's funny, I'm not into podcasts, but Melissa is. I think it'll be a fun project.

    I also noticed Soundcloud's compression fuzzes up my smooth Moog bass ever so slightly ;_; Related to that, this year I'll be compiling music I've made over the last couple of years and putting something out on Bandcamp, which should solve the fidelity issue, at least for downloaded versions.

  2. #32
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    Everywhere else gets cryptic little announcements, but I'll share the full skinny here.

    About five years ago, I started making music with the intent of compiling it into an album. Life took some wacky turns, but I've finally sat myself down and tracked everything out into a 45 minute long release.

    If you've been coming to this thread and listening, you've probably heard most of the music on it, albeit compressed on Soundcloud and not properly downloadable.

    I spent some time returning to the multitracks and fixing some things, and I ran the whole thing through my Sound Workshop 1280, which put it in an interesting space and gave cohesion to an otherwise somewhat disparate collection of music. I'm decorating it with photographs taken from the same five-year period. Right now I'm working on the proverbial liner notes, which I'm putting together on my Underwood No 5., and deciding how much additional stuff I want to include there. It'll just be a PDF in all likelihood, but hey. It's my art thing. Considering doing a GoFundMe or Kickstarter to fund a professional mastering. Lord knows I won't make money from sales to cover that kind of thing.

    Here's the tracklist. A lot of what had been sketches got new names.


  3. #33
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    i am very, very excited to hear this in its complete form

    don't know if you need a mastering recommendation (and honestly i don't know if he's even doing it any more) but Wade Alin of Standard Mastering did two of my albums and is fantastic (and affordable).

  4. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by eversonpoe View Post
    i am very, very excited to hear this in its complete form

    don't know if you need a mastering recommendation (and honestly i don't know if he's even doing it any more) but Wade Alin of Standard Mastering did two of my albums and is fantastic (and affordable).
    Thanks! It's been a mild frustration that I've only been putting this stuff on Soundcloud, where the compression does no favors to the recordings, particularly when my friend Mr Moog is involved.

    I hadn't been considering mastering but a friend of mine who runs Turtle Studios here in Philly gave me a good pitch. Since I'm considering that, and since I'll probably put a kickstarter up to help offset that, I've reached out to Josh Eustis to see if he's got the time and interest. Depending on his response, maybe that'll be a stretch goal

  5. #35
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    If you like the music from The Boghouse, you can now get it in lossless format over at Bandcamp, including a super chill 7 minute ambient remix.

  6. #36
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    Gettin' the album mastered next week, so leviathant.com is live.

  7. #37
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    You can now download a lossless copy on Bandcamp and get a 30 page PDF booklet, or you can stream and download on the usual corners of the internet.

    Visit leviathant.com for details.

    Thanks!

  8. #38
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    Digging it! "The Black Fades" is giving me Memorabilia vibes at first. The rest is also wonderful.

  9. #39
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    A little backstory on that first track...

    About four years ago, I was watching videos from a guy who has a couple of Moog percussion synth modules from the 70s. I thought the videos were absolutely terrible; perfect examples of why I'm generally not interested in modular synth stuff, for example:


    At the same time, I was also thinking, why do Metasonix tube drum machines cost thousands of dollars? There weren't a lot of examples online, but I do remember watching the video below and thinking that unique doesn't necessarily equal good.


    I probably tripped down this rabbit hole because the D-2000 had come out, and had some absurd price tag on it, and every clip I heard was absurd.


    But just because demos on YouTube sound bad doesn't mean there's no way to make these things sound good. I'm 99% sure Alessandro Cortini made a couple of records with Metasonix boxes, for example, and I put that stuff on repeat. So I set out to model these obscure, expensive machines using my less obscure, but also expensive drum machine, my trusty Tempest, designed by Roger Linn and Dave Smith. I also emulated some of the sounds from the Moog 701 & 702 percussion modules - notably the upswept kick drum heard in the clip below:



    After creating a kit of weirdo electronic noises, I built out a four on the floor beat with it, and really, really liked the end result. If I had any kind of developed audience, I could probably have released that beat on a four minute loop by itself, but I ended up building up and around it, eventually creating what would become the opening track on my album. You can hear the beat all by itself right near the end, around the time the Portland riot police start firing tear gas on protestors.

  10. #40
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    I'm late to the party, but I'm listening to this on Apple Music right now, and I'm digging the hell out of it. Nice work!

  11. #41
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    This weekend we had a gray, rainy/snowy day that just felt oppressive, after what's been a mild few months. Melissa was in the midst of a 48-hour composing binge against a deadline, so I was stuck in the house without anything to do, just kind of looking outside as things got bleaker and bleaker.

    So I made seven minutes of oppressive analog drone music to go with it, and posted it on Soundcloud where you can freely download it. Moog Model 15 iOS app run through the Sound Workshop 1280b, and Moog Sub 37.

    I find it suits being played loudly in headphones while working on stuff. I've been looping it for a half hour myself at work just now.

  12. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by Leviathant View Post
    This weekend we had a gray, rainy/snowy day that just felt oppressive, after what's been a mild few months. Melissa was in the midst of a 48-hour composing binge against a deadline, so I was stuck in the house without anything to do, just kind of looking outside as things got bleaker and bleaker.

    So I made seven minutes of oppressive analog drone music to go with it, and posted it on Soundcloud where you can freely download it. Moog Model 15 iOS app run through the Sound Workshop 1280b, and Moog Sub 37.

    I find it suits being played loudly in headphones while working on stuff. I've been looping it for a half hour myself at work just now.
    gives me the same feeling as some parts of the dragon tattoo score, which is perfect given your intention to match it with the weather that day.

  13. #43
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    Listened. Loved. Bought.

  14. #44
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    At it with the analog pads again. This time, not nearly as oppressive - check it out at Soundcloud.

    It started when I put together a patch on my JP-08 late at night, and just loved the way the resonance sang. I also recently bought a Boss RV-500 reverb and it is lush. Anyway, I was just playing these four notes over and over, listening to the resonance of two different sustained notes interacting, and then I played the second part overtop. I'm barely functional on a keyboard, so I was surprised at how well it went together. I hit record, and played it through about three times before I got the whole thing in one take.

    It was late but I knew it needed something more, so I fired up my Behringer Model D and dialed in something syrupy sweet, and noodled a little bit overtop the second occurrence of the harmonies. While I'm playing, I'm bringing in the second and finally third oscillator, for some subtle timbral variation.

    The oscillators on the JP-08 are cross-modulated, so they're a little out of pitch, which is why the lead synth sound flutters sometimes.


    After I posted it on Soundcloud, I had an idea pop into my head: The Model D is an American design, the JP-08 is Japanese. I've got an SH-01a, and a Poly Evolver Keyboard - Japanese, American. So I've actually recorded alternate takes: one with only Roland equipment, one with my DSI Poly Evolver & the Model D.

    It's interesting how easily the JP-08 instantaneously sounds good, so I was curious if I'd be able to match the tone of the JP-08 on it. A lot of what sounds good in this track (to me) are the filters. It took a while, but I was able to dial in a pretty damn close patch on the PEK. Of course, I cheated a little bit... the PEK's analog oscillators didn't quite have as much heft as the JP-08's - but last year I loaded up the custom waveshapes with oscillators from my Roland boutiques, including the JP-08, and I bring it in at about half the volume of the analog square wave to add the missing girth.

    I haven't posted the strictly-Japanese and strictly-American versions though. Maybe another time.


    It's entirely possible that this is the first thing I've shared (that's not rock music) that also doesn't contain any sequencing in it.

  15. #45
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    ☝️ Those two efforts got me started on a series of chill analog music that I've found to be really good for listening to while you stare out the window.

    This past Sunday, I put a bow on it and released "into, away" on Bandcamp, an EP of 4 songs largely inspired from being stuck in the house. The alternate version of "the long fall" is included as a bonus track.

  16. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by Leviathant View Post
    ☝️ Those two efforts got me started on a series of chill analog music that I've found to be really good for listening to while you stare out the window.

    This past Sunday, I put a bow on it and released "into, away" on Bandcamp, an EP of 4 songs largely inspired from being stuck in the house. The alternate version of "the long fall" is included as a bonus track.
    gonna wait to buy this til the next bandcamp fee-waiving day!

  17. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by Prettybrokenspiral View Post
    I saw you advertise this on Insta the other day, bought it and have been really into it, along with the new Ghosts and the Dispatches From Elsewhere stuff. Good shit!
    Thanks so much!

    Are you into the Time Machines stuff that Coil did? This kind of reminded me of that a little..
    Nailed it - one track in particular is very much Coil/Time Machines influenced. I had grabbed the Moog Model 15 modular app for the iPad and dove into making a really harmonically rich, dynamic sound. Honestly, I had made a recording of that track ("lockdown") that was much longer, and I would just listen to that (more loudly than I should have) for... well, longer than makes sense to release on a more digestible collection

  18. #48
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    finally remembered to put it on my ipod and it's running now.

    RE: Coil - I put How to Destroy Angels (Remixes and Re-Recordings) on during say the third or fourth day of the pandemic. It was a little much on the mood-setting to where it was actively making me anxious. whew.

  19. #49
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    The EP is getting me through my morning. Again. Great stuff.

    Went through the thread and I'm going to get that podcast onto my feed. I've seen some of the stuff you've posted on twitter and it sounds fascinating but limited (I mean it is twitter) so this should be interesting.

  20. #50
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    Another year, another Puppetry Conference - this time, via Zoom. I was tasked with creating music for a piece called Demon Daycare by Marte Ekhougen. Marte sent me a few examples of the direction she wanted, and I knew right away where I need to go.

    You can listen to it here on Soundcloud

    Behind the scenes/ruining the magic: I started by breaking out my ride cymbal and my Blue Babybottle mic, which I placed very, very close to the cymbal. I recorded a few hits, and then I put three of them on the timeline, panned left, center, and right. Then I set them to play at half speed. So that drone at the beginning - that's all Sabian HHX ride cymbal. Then I grabbed my Ibanez soundgear bass and played a few notes in the same frequency - then reversed them & added copious quantities of reverb. The middle part's mostly Roland JP-08 drones. The electronic cicada sounds are a patch I made on my Poly Evolver Keyboard many summers ago trying to mimic the sound outside - so glad I finally found a home for that patch. The FM sweeps are on my Sub 37. Melissa played a melody on our toy piano, and I did some tweaky delay over it.

  21. #51
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    Quote Originally Posted by Leviathant View Post
    Another year, another Puppetry Conference - this time, via Zoom. I was tasked with creating music for a piece called Demon Daycare by Marte Ekhougen. Marte sent me a few examples of the direction she wanted, and I knew right away where I need to go.

    You can listen to it here on Soundcloud

    Behind the scenes/ruining the magic: I started by breaking out my ride cymbal and my Blue Babybottle mic, which I placed very, very close to the cymbal. I recorded a few hits, and then I put three of them on the timeline, panned left, center, and right. Then I set them to play at half speed. So that drone at the beginning - that's all Sabian HHX ride cymbal. Then I grabbed my Ibanez soundgear bass and played a few notes in the same frequency - then reversed them & added copious quantities of reverb. The middle part's mostly Roland JP-08 drones. The electronic cicada sounds are a patch I made on my Poly Evolver Keyboard many summers ago trying to mimic the sound outside - so glad I finally found a home for that patch. The FM sweeps are on my Sub 37. Melissa played a melody on our toy piano, and I did some tweaky delay over it.
    definitely the most unsettling thing i've heard you do, and maybe my favorite?

  22. #52
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    I have a new track that I made that I'm super fuckin' stoked about but I can't share it because I reached out to my old bandmate from Warfilm and asked her to lay down some angry vocals for it.

    I had set up my Tempest and my SH-01A in the bedroom, because my study is now where I work, which makes it incredibly difficult to be creative after the workday. Every now and then, I'd open up two folding tables and set up the two and just start plonking away at ideas, and this one was something that came together not too long after the wave of civil unrest in response to the murder of George Floyd. I could see pillars of smoke from my window. There were fucksticks in the comments of my Facebook friends' posts saying ignorant things. And I started out making a gnar-gnar sound, which I wrapped in a beat. And then I got to playing with the SH-01A over it and ooooooh man, it clicked.

    I dragged the two over to the study and plugged them in, and recorded what I'd just done. As-is, I probably could have put it out, but I laid down a foundation on bass under the chorus movement, and it was exactly the glue I needed to bind them together. I had instinctively left a lot of room between parts, and after letting it sit for a few weeks, I recorded some screeching guitar and it's just right.

    I have no idea what Renee has in mind for the vocals yet, but we're going to record them in a socially distant way next week. aaaaaaghghhh.

  23. #53
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    Get it @ https://leviathant.bandcamp.com/album/get-it
    (All sales are going to Renee for this one)

  24. #54
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    told myself i wasn't going to spend more than $60 today but this pushed me up to $65. curse you for putting out such good music!

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    This is the perfect soundtrack to the dystopian firescape I am in today, great stuff.

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    I've probably mentioned a few times that I've been focusing on a more performance-oriented approach to the electronic music I make. Part of that was the plan that someday I might play some live gigs, but it also changes my approach.

    This came in handy on the Friday when I was scrambling to put the EP up. I had a few ideas on my Tempest that I hadn't fleshed out, including the first eight measures of the track that I later called "Hold On"

    I knew I wanted some kind of big pad sound overtop of it, so I went to my pad machine, the Poly Evolver, and put together a patch that was rich in harmonics and responded well to changes in the filter. I tied the mod wheel to FM between the digital oscillators, and the sound that came out was right where I needed it to be - but then I ran it through reverb and it went absolutely over the top. I went back to the Tempest and added in some more electronic percussion, and on Friday morning, I basically slammed the track together.

    A couple days later, I decided to have a go at playing the whole thing live. The version on the EP was performed live, but I'd added reverb and delay via VSTs. In the video below, I'm using the Boss RV-500 for reverb, and the Yamaha E1010 for delay. I also kind of lost track of time so it's about a minute longer than the EP version.


  27. #57
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    great/beautiful stuff

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    @Leviathant , I love that big pad sound. It reminds me of a mixture between the relaxing-ness of La Mer and the nostalgia of A Warm Place.

  29. #59
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    Wait... are you from Pennsylvania? I noticed your band Slow Andy is listed as York, PA.

    I live in Charleroi, about 3 1/2 hours west.

  30. #60
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    Quote Originally Posted by neorev View Post
    Wait... are you from Pennsylvania? I noticed your band Slow Andy is listed as York, PA.

    I live in Charleroi, about 3 1/2 hours west.
    I am indeed in Pennsylvania, but I'm now in Philadelphia, about a half mile from the Jersey border. Bit longer of a drive, I'm afraid.

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