Progress Report Update

Updated Progress Report Listing:
01. the writers cage [100%]
02. acculturation problem [100%]
03. abstraction algorithm [100$]
04. shadow of a doubt [100%]
05. DIST embodied [100%]
06. this was escape [100%]
07. trust in decay [100%]
08. brilliant decline [100%]
09. idiom [90%]
10. dead pulsar [100%]
11. en force [95%]
12. suicide pact [100%]
13. a thousand year deceit [100%]
14. an uneasy respite [100%]
15. our collapsed star [100%]

Today I am working on re-doing the vocals for "en force", a very EBM influenced track that started out minimal and became very complex. I am going to keep it's complexities but I want to feature a very minimal EBM vocal approach and shorten the track considerably. I am already out of space on the album and I do not want to omit any tracks that made the cut.

The "DIST embodied", single is also coming along nicely. Ingo is mastering the 2 actual "DIST embodied", mixes and I just finished one of the B-sides, entitled "Resistance". Working on the final track right now, which at the moment is called R010R24. I title all my ideas by numbers before they become songs and adopt names. I am currently in the 40's with R010R ideas. 24 was made immediately after "Gradual Destabilization". It did not make the cut for the END album because I found upon reopening it that I lost all my drum kit sounds in an HD transfer. SO I am rebuilding the track from the scratch MIDI and the few WAVs I dropped in the folder. It is turning out even better than before. I am really happy overall with how this "Dist embodied", single release is turning out. More info very soon.

Here is a new desktop design for promotion of the LP. Low rez, dirty industrial, optimized for 1680 width screen to be used with a black background.

Recording Journal: November

Change of plans. The LP "End.Of.All.Reason" will be released early in 2010. I would have to rush things to get it done in time and I am still nitpicking little inconsistencies. Also Ingo is very busy with his own album, it will take him some time to finish the mastering.

So I have decided to release a digital single with 4 tracks much sooner. "DIST embodied", was a track I did collaborating with I, Parasite earlier this year. The single will feature a club cut mix and the LP mix of the track, as well as two b-sides. One was omitted from "End.Of.All.Reason", because of space, and the other is the final Noise Process track that I was putting together before the project went defunct. Completely rewritten and R010Rized..

This single will only be available through a special R010R site that I will announce when the time comes. Until then check out the new clips at: soillodge @ ning and gear up for more content and new releases as 2009 finally draws to a close.

Recording Journal [October]

R010R - End.Of.All.Reason
[progress report]

01. the writers cage [100%]
02. acculturation problem [100%]
03. abstraction algorithm [100$]
04. shadow of a doubt [95%]
05. DIST embodied [100%]
06. this was escape [100%]
07. trust in decay [95%]
08. brilliant decline [100%]
09. idiom [90%]
10. dead pulsar [100%]
11. en force [95%]
12. suicide pact [90%]
13. a thousand year deceit [95%]
14. untitled [80%]
15. our collapsed star [95%]

Main focus is lyrics and vocals for "idiom", completion of vocals for "suicide pact", and decision on vocals or instrumental for the untitled track. Everything else at 90-95% is just attention to detail production items. I am going to start sending the completed tracks for mastering to further the process and attempt to make the end of 2009 release date. I do not want to rush anything, but I want to get this LP out as soon as I can. However I will not compromise ideas and if this means the LP is delayed until I am happy with specifics, so be it.

Recording Journal Week...uh. I lost count :P

Been so damn busy I have not been able to keep up with the journal. I did some remixes, an exclusive R010R track and an exclusive Advent Dawn track for some compilations. When they are released I will get more info.

For now though, I have no new images, but I have a track off the album for you to hear at: http://soundcloud.com/soillodge/abstraction-algorithum [yes I misspelled algorithm, I tired to fix it but Soundcloud edit will not budge.]

There you can also get a taste of my brand new minimal electro indie rock en devour "Chinese Sheetrock!"

More info soon. I promise this time. The album is almost completed and I am working on figure out a schedule with Ingo for mastering it. Time flies though, and I am deeply into US politics and our national situation. Anger makes great Industrial content..

`michael

Had to take a bit of a hiatus through the last couple months because of a family emergency. SO forgive me for losing track of what recording week this is. These past 2 weeks I completed a few more songs including "Trust In Decay", and "En-Force". I also placed a couple of new clips up at the soillodge website. At this rate the album should be complete and on it's way to be mastered by Oct. I also wrote and recorded a new Advent Dawn track with Ingo Beitz for the upcoming compilation "Sanity is Slavery". More info on that soon.

I have some ideas for the End.Of.All.Reason release as well. Digital and Physical package options. Right now though I am too scatterbrained to lay them out. I need to turn on the 360 and kill some "necromorphs" :P

Recording Journal- Week six

I have been back in audio mode for about 4 days. I have chosen 15 tracks thus far to fill out the album. This makes it about 82min-but when I pull the tracks together to make the LP seamless I will take up this extra time. Preliminary track listing is:

R010R - The.End.Of.All.Reason
1• the writers cage
2• acculturation problem
3• suicide pact
4• dead pulsar
5• escape
6• DIST-embodied [featuring Christopher Jon of I, Parasite]
7• brilliant decline
8• untitled nine
9• abstraction algorithm
10• trust in decay
11• untitled ten
12• idiom
13• shadow of a doubt
14• en-force
15• our collapsed star

I am currently replacing some sounds and doing pre-mixes for en-force, escape, and suicide pact because they were written with some older synths and I wanted to bring the Virus B and some Reaktor ideas into the equation. Nothing has finished vocals yet, I still have rough placements set on the songs, which is why I have not uploaded any clips yet. I may just have to upload some instrumentals in the meantime, I just avoid doing that because I feel vocals and lyrics add so much more to a track. If anyone wants to drop some feedback on this, I would appreciate it.

Also keep in mind- the artwork I am posting in this blog are just ideas. I am not going to post the actual artwork-also I cannot do this effectively because the package will have textures that cannot be produced digitally, just like Gradual Destabilization did. There will be a great contrast in the final package though, because of my growing love of stark vector imagery and my ongoing fascination with photo-manipulation. The CD and package will be worthwhile to own and examine, and it will fit the music perfectly. Again it will be another limited edition printing, hand designed with a digital press and screen printing from Sire Press.

The updating and migration of all files is completed. There are roughly 20 tracks that I need to sort through and decide what is appropriate for the album and what needs to wait and evolve some more. Unfortunately my brain is on audio-overload, which means I need to switch to art for a while until it can reset.

Recording Journal: week 2

I am migrating tracks now. This has to be done because I upgraded some of the instruments and FX I have been using throughout the past 2 years. Some of these tracks were written with Battery 1 and some of them were even on Cubase 3.1. In fact I just upgraded to SX last year and I have only written a couple R010R tracks since the upgrade. Mostly it has been remixes and special tracks for compilations.

Now I am working with NI Battery 2 [I really do not like 3] and I am moving a lot of softsynths over to the impOSCar and Reaktor. Luckily though, I did know to drop down the real instruments to WAVs whenever I completed a track. So I do not have to go searching for real synth patches anywhere. In fact my biggest dilemma right no is migrating drum kits to Battery. I did not save the drum kits for each track and now I have to spend 20-30 min tracking down every individual WAV file-through my vast collection of 100 drumkits :/ A real pain in the ass. I am kicking myself for not thinking ahead.

Today I refinished the very first track [The Writers Cage] and the very last track [Our Collapsed Star] both working titles. I am very excited because I got to start using the Battery 3 drum kits [even though I only like the Battery 2 unit]. Also I have been able to change some of the weaker synth sounds I had saved, to some of the bad ass new Virus B patches. Thanks again to Chris [I, Parasite] for selling this beast to me. I was borrowing a Virus C [from AiB] when I wrote "Gradual Destabilization", I really did not like how smooth and clean it sounded. I was also fond of the dirtier and powerful Virus B. So now it is my backbone real synth alongside the KORG MS2k.

Then I have my noise beast! Early on in R010R, I used a Nord 2 specifically for noise. Then when I heard the 4ms Noise Swash [again thanks to Chris-IP] I knew I had a replacement for my noise needs. Now I am having a great time adding total noise to these tracks. It really makes an incredible impact. I will put up some new demo tracks soon. I just need to test some of the mixes for accuracy...

R010R-End.Of.All.Reason [2009]

The follow-up to last years R010R LP "Gradual Destabilization", is in the production stages.

This LP was started immediately after GD was complete. All the songs are written, sequenced, and mostly recorded. I just have to add the vocals and figure out the placement. Also I have more tracks that I can put on an 80min CD so I have to figure out what to use and what to set aside for later.

In this discussion post I will put all the updates for the audio [supported by clips on the website player] and updates for the artwork concept. I am working with Sire-Press again, so the package will be a very artistic and specific part of the album.