a couple more things….

A couple more things I forgot to add in the previous entry:

  • The book manuscript I typeset recently was just accepted officially for publication. This means that my work on that project is done! Hoorah!
  • A while ago I wrote that my Virtual Enclosures article was being translated into Italian and published into an anthology put out by the Transform Italia! people. It’s quite a thrill to have my writings published, in another language, alongside such notable writers as Toni Negri, Michael Hardt, and Immanuel Wallerstein. Of course, sadly these writings are all in Italian, and as such are utterly illegible to me. :-)
  • I just wanted to say that I’ve been having lots of fun laughing with my daughter this week. It’s been cool.

a real update

OK, a real update. Obviously I haven’t been writing much in any forum for a while, including this blog. This is OK with me; blogging is a cyclical phenomenon and I’ve been very busy and generally uninspired to write. In no particular order, here are some of the things I’ve been busy with:

  • Freakwitch is still moving forward. We are closer than ever to producing a tangible product of all our work. It’s odd, Matt and I have been working on this particular project now for 4 years. And at this stage we have little to show for it at first glance; though a deeper glance would reveal a bunch of well-crafted songs, a tight band to play these songs, and an ever more capable studio to record these songs. The acoustic panels are under construction (we have all the materials now for phase one, it’s just a matter of finishing the construction), the band is ready to record, the new headphone system is really working well such that we can all listen while we record, and the energy around Freakwitch just feels better than it ever has. We’re getting close!
  • I seem to be evolving as a guitarist, feeling stretched and challenged for the first time in many years. For most of my career, I’ve preferred electric guitar, but with Freakwitch I’ve pretty much started playing acoustic guitar exclusively. I’ve always used a thin Dunlop Tortex pick (the red ones), because I like the shimmery sound they give when strumming. But lately, I’ve been playing more and more with my fingers (as opposed to with a pick). Not so much in a fingerpicking style, but almost closer to a slap funk bass style; I will literally strike the strings with the backs of my fingernails to create a percussive strum. It’s not as full of a sound as with a pick, but in the context of a rock band that’s not a bad thing. This new style seems to fit in the mix better than the regular strumming I used to do. It’s interesting stuff.
  • Related to the previous item, as I said I haven’t been playing electric guitar for several years. I need to be inspired again with what I can do electrically. Back in the Acumen and Amanda’s Boy days, I had quite a nice guitar rig, it was a rackmounted system with 2 bag end speakers. It was loud, but more importantly it was very versatile sonically. Several years back I reached a point where it was just too much. I couldn’t do any recording with it because it was so loud, so I ended up trading it in on a smaller, simpler rig. In retrospect that’s about when I stopped playing electric. I wasn’t inspired to play electric anymore. When playing electric guitar, I like having lots of different tones at my disposal, and my current setup just doesn’t deliver that. So I’m considering trading in everything — all my electric guitars and the effects units I have, including my treasured Ibanez Artist that I’ve had since I was 15 — in on a new rig that would give me even more versatility than my old rackmounted setup.

    It’s the Line6 setup consisting of the Pod XT Live (a pedalboard that provides all the electronic possibilities you can imagine, models of amps and effects and a way to program detailed combinations of them and save them as presets) and the Variax 300 (black) guitar, which can model up to 25 different kinds of stringed instruments. This rig would give me a sonic versatility that I’ve never had, and plenty of playing room for sonic experimentation. This setup is a modelling setup, which some analog/tube purists despise because they are essentially digital recreations of long-treasured guitar setups. The map-is-not-the-territory argument applies, though my take is that I’d much prefer the versatility to have dozens or hundreds of sound options, rather than one or two “authentic” sounds.

    So yes. This is still brewing. I do realize that it is likely to change the sound of Freakwitch, but this is the right time for that. I’ll still record the acoustic tracks I’ve been doing, but experimenting with overdubs for the album with this rig will be a great opportunity to learn the new setup, and also to give more interesting sounds for the album. But if past experience is any indicator, I’ll get this rig and suddenly, as if by magic, a skilled lead guitarist who gets what we’re all about will materialize and want to join the band. And that’s A Good Thing. :-)

  • I’m still plugging away at No-S. Exercise is still sketchy, but that’s OK. I’m doing what I can given the low temperatures lately, and not worrying too much about it. I do have to say that it’s fantastic that my food intake can be this healthy with almost no effort and attention on my part; the new habits of No-S are certainly ingrained by now.
  • My own headspace is also clearing up. I’m feeling better about my reality lately, and my mood is reflecting this. That’s a good thing, too.
  • I’ve been distracted from my political theory research by the music. And I’m NOT complaining about it. :-)
  • Perhaps the biggest news of all, my wife and I are in all likelihood going to purchase our first house. We’re still technically in information-gathering mode, but it’s looking promising. It looks like for our first house we’ll have 2 options: 1)buy some land somewhere with some kind of structure on it (like, say, a double-wide trailer) and live with that until we can afford to build our house or put up a yurt, or 2)buy a duplex somewhere and rent the apartment to a good friend of ours who wants to do it. Our finances dictate one of those two options, or perhaps another option has yet to reveal itself.
  • Spring is coming! The light is returning!

So yes. Things continue to move.

Quitchcraft acoustic treatments, phase one

Phase one of acoustic treatments for the studio is officially underway. It’s officially DIY, because a)it’s all we can afford, and b)it appeals to my punk aesthetic. I’d love to build a gorgeous studio, but I have neither the time nor the budget. But I do need to make the room our studio is in sound good before trying to record an album makes sense.

I was for some reason hesitant to write about it, but truly I have been hyperfocused on studio design and acoustic treatments as of late. So here’s the plan. We are ordering enough material to build 6 bass traps and 6 moveable gobos. We’re going to use acoustical cotton (as opposed to rigid fiberglass or rockwool panels) as the sound absorber in both designs. The cotton comes in thick, dense sheets of 2’x8’x5.5″. We will also need some lumber, and some fabric.

The bass trap design is simple (though technically these will be “broadband absorbers” since they will absorb high frequencies also). Take one of the cotton sheets, put it inside a wooden frame made by 1x3s, and wrap the whole thing in cotton. Add small legs with scrap 1×3 so that it will stand upright, and put one straddling each corner of the room, making a 45-45-90 triangle. This design is simple and should be very effective at helping to smooth the bass. I will also hang 2 of them in the wall/ceiling corners of the studio.

The gobo design is a bit more complex. For this, I will need to build a 4-sided frame out of 1x8s, that is 2′ wide and 6′ tall. A 2’x6′ piece of MDF board will be attached to one side, creating a reflective surface. The other side of the frame will be cloth, covering up another of the above cotton pieces, leaving room for about a 2-3″ airgap (and some reinforcing braces, along with possibly a layer or two of sheetrock for further mass and acoustic isolation) between the cotton and the MDF.

The gobos have 2 functions. During times when I need to listen carefully to the speakers, such as a mix, the gobos will be arranged to create a Reflection Free Zone (RFZ) at the listening position. And, when recording, we’ll be able to move them around to get the area where the person is performing to sound good.

Eventually, I think we will have a total of 10 bass traps and 14 gobos. This allows one bass trap in each wall/wall corner, one bass trap in the wall/ceiling corner of the short walls, and two bass traps in the wall/ceiling corner of the longer walls. The gobos will be placed against the walls unless needed for recording; 4 each on the front/rear walls, and 3 each on the side walls.

In addition, some room construction needs to happen. We need to install 2 doors in a way that makes sense acoustically, finish sheetrocking the room (adding a 2nd layer of sheetrock to the framed walls, and take care of the ceiling.

The plan for the ceiling is to stuff fluffy fiberglass between the ceiling joists, paper side down in the room except for just over the mixing position (part of making an RFZ) and over where the drumkit sits (to help the overhead mics sound better), with a blanket stapled to the bottom of the floor joists, covering the fluffy stuff to keep the fiberglass fibers from falling down. All other areas of the ceiling will have the fiberglass paper side down. Then, the entire ceiling will be covered in fabric.

Once all these steps are finished, we will have a much larger amount of sonic flexibility while recording, better isolation, better sounding recordings, and most importantly, we’ll have a mixing environment whose sound isn’t distorted by sonic energy bouncing endlessly around the room. We’ll be able to trust what we’re hearing, and mix without overcompensating for bad acoustics.

Furthermore, 2/3 of our efforts will result in modular items that can be (relatively) easily moved to other locations.

Real Soon Now, we will have taken our first bite out of this, and we’ll be about 1/3 of the way there.

w00t! fruit!

Tonight was fruitful. I got the new headphone mixer wired in a way that will work for us. 3 new sets of isolating headphones are on their way to us. And we’ll begin acoustic treatments in the studio within a week or two.

Things are moving forward with Freakwitch. This is a good thing.

When I feel this, I can’t help visualize a big cauldron, stirring (deosil) a big thick sludgy liquid….

Bubble, bubble….

acoustics and studio construction

My mind has been on acoustics lately. Not acoustic guitars, but on ways in which one can improve the sound of a room. In particular, I’m trying to improve the sound of our studio. I have A Cunning Plan(tm) that I actually think we might be able to afford.

But in coming up with this cunning plan, I’ve discovered many people writing about the same problem, ie, how to get a small room to sound good. And in reading about on the net, I came across this behemoth of a studio build diary by a guy in the UK. His work and craftsmanship is stunning. He started in his garage, ripping out the floor so that there was literally a dirt floor, and built up from there — 2 concrete floors (one floated on top of the other for isolation), and 7 layers of sheetrock for sound isolation. This thread is 123 pages long as of now and is highly detailed with lots of, as he says, “piccies.” Fascinating stuff to see what is possible for the truly obsessed. I literally got lost in that thread for 2 or 3 days.

Our modest space and budget won’t allow for anything like that, at least not now. However, I’m confident that my plan will make our studio room much more listenable, to the point where I could probably actually mix songs in it. And that’s A Good Thing.

sound affects

Interesting how sound affects my reality. Last Christmas, I got a pair of car door speakers to install into my car. Given that I don’t have a garage, and that it’s winter in Maine (albeit an incredibly mild one, we haven’t had much snow yet), I haven’t had a chance to install them until today. But, they’re in, and they definitely sound better.

Also, we (Freakwitch) ordered a headphone mixer several months back, but it has been backordered. A serious case of vaporware by the freaks at Mackie. But, the place I ordered them from just got them in, and our order will be shipping out soon.

This means that we can start album production sooner than not, and that’s A Good Thing.

On Empire

I’ve finished part one of Empire, and my biggest task thus far has been to figure out what Hardt and Negri mean by “Empire” itself. Right from the preface, they spend plenty of time addressing this question. The preface contains all of the following passages, describing Empire.

Empire is:

  • “irresistible and irreversible globalization of economic and cultural exchanges”
  • “The [singular] sovereign power that governs the world”
  • characterized by an equilibrium of sovereignty: although there has been a decline in the sovereignty of nation-states, total sovereignty has not decreased
  • “a new global form of sovereignty” with a “single logic of rule” ie, Empire is being articulated systematically
  • NOT Imperialism, but a “decentered and deterritorializing apparatus of rule that progressively incorporates the entire global realm within its open, expanding frontiers” — “Imperialism is over.”
  • NOT a metaphor, but a concept, “which calls primarily for a theoretical approach,” and is characterized by:
    1. Lack of Boundaries: “rules over the entire ‘civilized’ world
    2. Suspends History: “fixes the existing state of affairs for eternity”
    3. Full Spectrum: “operates on all registers of the social order extending down to the depths of the social world.” “Creates the very world it inhabits.”
    4. Blood/Peace Conflict: “although the practice of Empire is continually bathed in blood, the concept of Empire is always dedicated to peace—a perpetual and universal peace outside history”
  • To resist Empire requires an understanding of Magic and Manipulation of Energy: “Our political task” is “not to resist … the passage to Empire and its processes of globalization … but to reorganize them and direct them to new ends.” From a pagan perspective, this is magic, it is becoming adept at manipulating energy.
  • Despite its problematic, Empire is actually an improvement over the old form of imperialism of nation-states: “we insist on asserting that the construction of Empire is a step forward in order to do away with any nostalgia for the power structures that preceded it and refuse any political strategy that involves returning to that old arrangement, such as trying to resurrect the nation-state to protect against global capital. We claim that Empire is better in the same way that Marx insists that capitalism is better than the forms of society and modes of production that came before it” (p 43).

So wrapping one’s head around Empire the concept requires that one think systematically, and hugely, on the macro, zoomed-out level. Empire is a unified, monolithic structure that has assimilated most forms of power, and is adept at assimilating any new forms of power that arise. And interestingly, Hardt and Negri seem to be arguing that to resist Empire, direct assault on perceived weak spots will be ineffective, since that is precisely the type of assault that Empire is structured to resist. Empire is adept at responding to crises, but their response strategies are littered with terms like “shock and awe” or “overwhelming force” or “full spectrum dominance” or “a new Pearl Harbor.” So threats against these perceived “weak spots” or vulnerabilities are responded to with what is perceived as “strength,” which is usually a militaristic, horribly violent assertion of power-over, whether one characterizes such outbursts as “war” or “terrorism” or “conflict.” Rather,

In the constitution of Empire there is no longer an “outside” to power and thus no longer weak links — if by weak link we mean an external point where the articulations of global power are vulnerable. To achieve significance, every struggle must attack at the heart of Empire, at its strength…. The construction of Empire, and the globalization of economic and cultural relationships, means that the virtual center of Empire can be attacked from any point. The tactical preoccupations of the old revolutionary school are thus completely irretrievable; the only strategy available to the struggles is that of a constituent counterpower that emerges from within Empire” (58-59).

So border skirmishes within Empire are no longer effective. That plays right into Empire’s conception of low-intensity warfare, its power is consolidated to resist such attacks. Rather, one’s opposition to Empire must be first of all to redirect its energies, and secondly must attack the idealogical core of Empire. One must refuse to participate (to the extent possible) in the manifestations of Empire that are objectionable, and rather must assert autonomous power, rising up from within the global community, that resist the ever more abstract (and thus less ontologically based) modes of control wielded by Empire.

The Intermezzo of the book is a 15-page section on “Counter-Empire.” I’m looking forward to reading that, as I imagine it will dramatically clarify where Hardt and Negri are going with all of this. Not to mention Multitude, the sequel to Empire….

Now I’m all out of breath…. sorry for the academic bookishness of this post, but sadly it’s necessary to make sense of Empire; the book is written very much in the academic/bookish idiom. Part of my task, if I am to move forward with the writing project in my head I will need to internalize theory such as this, so that I can express it in a more accessible manner.