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Pitch Black Rude Mechanicals mistrust remix

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I'm now officially a "Remixer for Hire"! The official remix I did for New Zealand band Pitch Black is back from the mastering house and going to be released on all the major download sites at the end of October. I've done a couple of remixes before, just for fun, but never an official one with all the stuff that goes with that sort of thing (royalties, writing credit, legal stuff etc.). Doesn't seem like much compared to what a lot of bands and musicians have been upto,  but I'm 40-something and doing it as a hobby when my kids are in bed and it's my first "official" release, so I'm chuffed to bits! The track is now up on my Myspace music player, but if you like it, please buy the hi-res version when it comes out on iTunes, Beatport, etc. Rude Mechanicals (mistrust remix) on Myspace here... Pitch Black on Myspace here.... For the techies out there, here's the blurb about the gear I used: Acid Pro 6, Izotope iDrum, TAL-Dub 2, and LiveCut VST plugins, on Windows XP laptop, Behringer USB soundcard, using some of individual Wavs (24 tracks) from original version of Rude Mechanicals (supplied by the label). Mixed down using cheap headphones from Tesco!

Filed under  //   big chill   mp3   music   pitch black   remix   rude mechanicals  

A "proper" release at last

It's taken me long enough (how long have I been making music?), but I'm finally getting an "official" release - as in, on a proper label, legit, and I'll getting a % of sales, licensing, etc. I've done a remix of a track called "Rude Mechanicals" by a New Zealand band called Pitch Black (dub/electronica/IDM stuff), which is being released on their label at the end of October on all the main music download sites round the world (iTunes, Beatport, Amazon.com, etc.) It's part of a remix singles release along with versions by some well-know remixers and DJs from Australia and NZ. I know people do remixes all the time, but this is an official one - I got all the parts from the band's management, they and the band approved it, and it's being properly mastered this week. Took me a long time to get it sorted into something that sounded ok and did loads of different takes on it, but finally finished it last week, 2 days before the deadline! I know it's not quite all my own work, but I'm chuffed to bits. Not really bothered about the money (what's 50% of 99p per sale?), but it means a lot of exposure and maybe some more work as a remixer! I've mentioned the Pitch Black remix earlier in my blog.....

Filed under  //   mp3   music   news   pitch black   remix   remixer   unsigned  

Croydon Library track on O'Neill TV

I've just found out that my some of my tracks can still be heard on O'Neill TV - the place that all the promos for O'Neill surfing contest are shown. Three tracks (Croydon Library, Never Alone, and Hello) were used in Deep Blue Open 2005. The thing that sets this film apart from all the regular surfing events is that it focusses mainly on the effects of Tsunami on the Maldives. Watching it again recently reminded me of the devastation of the hurricane in Burma and the earthquake in China. Click the link here to watch the whole film (approx 25 minutes): O'Neill Deep Blue Open 2005 on O'Neill TV If you don't want to sit through the whole thing, here's a short clip: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPIDdLCTLUg] The film has been shown all round the world on TV (eg the Fox network in the USA, Channel 4 in the UK) and in all the O'Neill equipment stores. A couple of the clips from the film are on the Video Wall section of my blog - and have received a lot of plays since they were uploaded to Youtube. I remembered the other day that O'Neill Europe started up a TV channel on their website last year and that the whole of the DBO 2005 film was up there in its entirety. I thought that it might have been replaced by footage of more recent surfing events, but I checked yesterday and it's still there. It's a bit tricky to find if you're searching for it on the O'Neill site as it's fairly well-hidden behind some of the 2007 events, but it's there...... New music.... We recently got rid of our old desktop computer at home and replaced it will the Dell Inspiron 1300 laptop/notebook that I bought a couple of years ago. Before we binned it (actually - gave it to Adam - eldest stepson), I had to transfer hundreds of files including loads of half-finished tracks I'd made in Acid Pro over the last few years. I've just started listening to some of those tracks and rough arrangements and I really think I can do something with them. Maybe some of them will turn up as new tunes soon. One thing that should finally see the light of day soon is the remix I've been working on for the last few months. It's for a New Zealand band called Pitch Black and the song is "Rude Mechanicals", the title track of their latest album. Site changes.... My website schizophrenia has kicked in again and I've changed the site theme again (and will probably change it again). I wanted this blog to look fairly original and be able to tie it in with the main mistrustmusic.co.uk site (and my myspace page). Some work ahead to make everything tie up!

Filed under  //   acid pro   burma   china   dell   earthquake   film music   music licensing   oneill   pitch black   remix   rude mechanicals   surfing   tsunami   video   youtube  
Posted May 28, 2008

Everything's gone mobile

I've just launched a new add-on to my blog/website. It's a mobile website, built on something called Winksite. I came across this through my elearning daytime job when I was looking into podcasting. Winksite lets you make webpages that can be viewed on mobile phone, and it's something I've wanted to do for a while, but never got around to it. I've only added a few things to it at the moment, some things are copied directly from this blog, but I'd like to have some mobile-only content. At the moment, it's in it's infancy and I haven't tried it out on many phones, so I'm hoping that a few of you who read this blog and who have mobile phones will browse the mobile pages and let me know if there are any problems with it, or if it works ok. The address for the mobile site is: http://winksite.mobi/mistrust/music or just click the Winksite logo...

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Other news: I'm still plodding along with my remix of Pitch Black's Rude Mechanicals. Should have it finished soon, but it feels like it's missing a melody or pad line, so it's that which is holding me up - plus I only get about 10 or 15 minutes a night to do something with the remix because I've started taking Paul for a drive a lot earlier than usual. I got a message posted on my blog the other day from the editor of an e-learning magazine in the USA, asking if he could use one of my posts in the forthcoming edition of his mag. It's something I wrote a few months ago on my e-learning blog about getting young children used to the language of the Web as soon as possible. I said yes to them using the article, so it should appear in ELearning! Magazine in a few weeks, in a section entitled "The Last Word". More fame!

Filed under  //   e-learning   family   pitch black   remix   rude mechanicals   social networking  

Everything's gone (Pitch) Black

I've been working on the Pitch Black remix for the last week and a half, but I'm getting quite bogged down with it. The problem is that I've been too reliant on sample CDs to find something that fits the existing tune ("Rude Mechanicals") and not really restricting myself to only a few sounds. I use Acid Pro pretty much all the time for getting ideas down quickly, but it's too easy to become lost in all the options that it gives you. My attempt at this remix is a bit "directionless" at the moment, and I'm probably doing the wrong thing by listening to remixes of other Pitch Black tracks in order to get some direction. A friend of mine - DJ and musician, The Only Michael - who did a Pitch Black remix a couple of years ago, advised me not to listen to other remixes, and to just do what inspires me from the original track.

Filed under  //   artists   band   dj   download   music   pitch black   remix