I engaged my dad in a discussion about systemic racism and racial inequality in the UK today. He doesn't believe it exists. It's only a problem in the USA apparently. Most of the arguments I made were dismissed with the reasons of "that's the way they choose to behave" or "they're genetically predisposed to be that way". I pressed him on evidence for those claims but couldn't really nail anything down. I was more forthcoming with the basis for my claims but I don't think my arguments were good enough. I am committed to reading more and gaining more knowledge so that next time I am in a better position. Still, I was saddened to see this reaction from my dad, even though I half expected it. The 38 days since I posted this poem have been a blur. I wrote it not long after we got the news that my aunt had committed suicide. I live with mum and game daily with my cousins so I encountered a lot of powerful emotions in the weeks following. Never have I felt empathy-based emotions so strongly before. The initial rawness appears to have passed now but I have no doubt that there's a lot of healing still to happen. Otherwise, things have been good. My exercise and strength training has been going well. I'm really happy with how my music is sounding at the moment, even if I could be working harder. Nearly all the houses surrounding our communal garden are now occupied, which is nice. It really feels like a community now and seeing people in the garden every day helps lessen the isolation of lockdown. But most importantly, I am going to go kayaking again soon. I can't wait.
Those responses themselves are literally expressions of systemic racism, not that you'd get your dad to recognize it. I suppose it's completely unsurprising that someone who "doesn't believe" in systemic racism would be perpetuating it."that's the way they choose to behave" or "they're genetically predisposed to be that way"
Yep, it's bad. I hope that I can sway his viewpoint but I don't hold out much hope. He is quick to anger and get defensive. Arguments quickly stray off topic and turn into rants. My skills in arguing and knowledge in the subject aren't currently good enough to pin him down. But I'm learning about both so maybe someday.
Good on ya. I know these conversations can be tough. I eased in to a conversation with my wife today about similar issues (between you and me - she's a little bit racist). It was a good conversation. I wish you well.I engaged my dad in a discussion about systemic racism and racial inequality in the UK today.
There's still a few things to do on this one but here is the track I have nearest to completion currently: https://clyp.it/djfcuy12?token=eedf8aa88b8b39b135575e46b766ac3f
I loved the septuplet (do people dare say the proper "sextuplet", nowadays?) groove. The snare ghost notes! The outro buildup was probably my favorite part. Really good, dude. My high school friends and I used to live on triplet/sixteenth timescales together when we practiced the Blue Devils' "Ditty". Classic case of when a jargon gets hijacked. Really did enjoy your track, though :). I'm finally making new material again, it feels perhaps too good. My main problem is overcompressing everything. Separating volume from timbre. P.S. Have you ever heard of Louis Cole and/or the band "KNOWER"? P.P.S. Made a post:
Thanks! I'm glad you dig it. I'd call it a sextuplet groove. Septuplets would be 7, right? The snare ghost notes come from an EQd, stereo delay on the drum buss. And yeah, compression is easy to abuse. Outside of the instances of Neutron and Ozone I slapped on the mix buss for this quick bounce, there's not a single compressor running on that track. I try to get most of the way there with arrangement and fader levels, then use EQ as the icing on the cake. That percussion piece was rad. I never understand how people are sitting motionless watching stuff like that. It makes me move. Were you playing in that vid? I had drum lessons for years as a kid so I know all the weird drum rudiment jargon. And I have heard of Knower! Louis Cole is a very talented musician. I especially enjoy the live versions of Overtime and Time Traveller.
I dig both of these! The first one has a real classic feel to it. I think it must be that saturated Rhodes type sound (like in this track). I look forward to hearing them fleshed out.
Thanks for listening! :) As for the classic synth, I messed with the settings of a preset named "Asia" of Arturia's emulation of the 1974 Oberheim SEM synth. Bass guitar was played on a five-string bass guitar. Will be revised. The bass synth in the second song is built from native ableton oscillators (operator), which I just kinda fiddled with until something OK happened, but it still needs work. I'm trying to always consider CPU optimization for eventual live performance, and native is the way to go. edit: NOTE: not "Native", in this instance. I'm sure you know, this is for posterity. In the modern age of cheating with youtubb tutorials, it's an entirely different ballgame than when I stopped producing five years ago. It's like finally getting cheat codes. And then crazy great software updates, too. I am not worthy.
Yyyyup. We almost assuredly never said "sextuplet" 'cuz "sex". Welcome to the southern U.S.! No no, I never played for the Blue Devils, lol. Just high school drumline, but about five or six of us got realllllly technical with it. I learned that version of "Ditty" for snare, and then tenors (also called: "quints") and then partially bass, but the 'Devils have since changed it, perhaps even several times. I think, ideally, it'd get sprinkled in with rudiments and time signatures from each year's marching pieces. Sidestory, sorry: Went to high school summer drumline camp twice, and on the second time was kicked out, because I was caught at 10 pm by the local college campus police with two of my bandmates while they were smoking cigars at age 16 or 17. Sent home, the next morning. Parents furious. Ahem. Anyway, we'd make up phrases, like triplet cheese pataflafla para flam-flam, and pretended like it was code for something, by responding "AHHH... ohhhHHH. Yeesssss...". Then someone would protest by scatting trap set drum sounds as accurately as possible, like "tsi-tsi-brrr-cah-brrha-brr-ahpp-prrr-KAH!" or whatever, it was all totally normal. Ozone addict, here. I'm trying to make it the only plug-in I use besides Ableton's native stuff and Arturia's synths. Going for live performance, with two ex-drumliners, from above stories. Latency is a concern, obvz. It may be that I end up processing my master track and even some processing chains on a central rasperry pi hooked up to three synchronized instances of Albeton. Gonna have to work that out fully when our new "band" can actually meet up. I built a little studio in the past few months, so that's online now, and woooooooo! Been fun. Still getting my DAW legs back, though. My overcompression is perhaps at least semi-intentional. I think it's the genres I listen to that influence me, like vaporwave, futurefunk, and countless other electronic solo "french touch sampling disco tracks from mother's basement" type acts. I at least somewhat compress each track individually, then sidechain compress individual instrument tracks pretty liberally to the kick and snare, and then even introduce a little bit of Ozone's maximizer in the master. And it doesn't help that I still mix/master in headphones, because I live with someone that I care about, who, assuredly, doesn't appreciate hearing the same sample 153 times within one minute while I attempt to fine tune it. Even if they're on the other side of the house. And I've seen good mastering practice, but right now, for me, it's all about smashing things together and seeing what sounds come out ASAP, all the way down the chain. I've done some of this before, but going for original vox, now, and working towards a trio live performance, and so many more things, it's an entirely new scenario. Fun. Yeah, "Overtime" is great, longtime fave, but hadn't seen/heard "Time Traveler" yet, thanks :).