Daemon

Half a year ago a nerd friend of mine ordered me to make an electronic album with “dirty basses” and funded the production generously. Originally the project was meant to be a space ambient album when we negotiated about it first time in the spring of 2019. (The last ambient song of the album “Multidimensions” was finished back then.) However, after the summer this nerd guy wanted some more strong stuff in order to play the sh*t out of his sub-woofers. Then I started to make this eclectic collection of electronic music with experimental progressive metal influences or something like that. Unfortunately I cannot tell, if the music fits into some sub-genre of electronic music because I don’t listen to different electronic music that much. (Mostly the electronic stuff I listen is some sort of minimalist ambient, video game music, or some Jarreish-stuff.) In the end the album was polished and mastered with the nerd friend’s custom bass setup.

Songs 1 “Noaidi” and 9 “StormCloud” probably mostly represent my prog metal influences. Song 5 “Hiitola” has some improvised jazz influences. The rest of the songs are my take on the DnB-ish/dubstep-ish/whatever-ish route. Bass frequencies go approximately as low as 17–30Hz which is why sub-woofer is recommended for  optimal listening experience (assuming you can call it “listening” anymore). BPM of the songs is mostly around 100–120 with the exception of songs Hiitola (160) and AI (175). Time signatures can be a bit mess at times. Thus the album is not aimed for dancing but I don’t prohibit it either. Besides drum samples (and one piano track), the whole album has an original sound design. In the future I would want to make my own drums, though. Only free open source Linux software is used and some additional (virtual)analogue synthesizer hardware (Korg R3, Arturia Microbrute, and Roland SE-02).

Unfinished version of the album was published in SoundCloud too, but the finished stuff was released on bandcamp. Later on somewhere next decade (!!) this will be my debut album on Spotify and other streaming services (until the distribution process within a week or so is finished). Here is my distributor’s (Distrokid) hyperfollow link for streaming services (it will notify or take to the page when the album is live): https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/aeroll/daemon

UPDATE:
The album is now on Spotify, Deezer, Google Play/YuoTube, iTunes etc.

Teaser songs from the upcoming album

Nörttikaverini tilasi kokopitkän albumin elektronista musiikkia “likaisilla bassoilla” ja maksoi anteliaasti. Yritän saada sen valmiiksi vuoden loppuun mennessä, mutta tässä on pari demoversiomaistiaista siitä, mitä tuleman pitää. Linux-musiikkiohjelmointi ja analogisyntikatkin pääsevät oikeuksiinsa. Hyvää Kauheaa kekrijuhlaa!

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A nerd friend of mine ordered me a full album of electronic music with “dirty basses” and paid generously for it. I try to finish it by the end of this year, but here are some couple of demo version sneakpeaks about what it is going to be. Linux-music programming and analogue synths are coming to life. Happy Horrifying Halloween!

Some recent small music projects

Lyhyesti: on tullut syntetisoitua saundeja aika paljon Zynillä ja Helmillä, joista alla yksi näyte (subbariversio). Ohjelmoin pianolle myös harjoiteltavan etydin, jonka joskus toivottavasti saan haltuun.

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I have been synthesizing a lot of sounds recently with Zyn and Helm. Unlike before, I am starting to use my own synthesized sounds exclusively on my electronic productions (excluding drum samples on Hydrogen kits, though). Maybe it turns out something in the future. I experimented with some bass sounds on that first song but it wasn’t bassy enough for subwoofers, so I made a dedicated subwoofer mix with additional help (since I don’t have a subwoofer and couldn’t hear a thing when mixing).

The second song is a short étude I composed to practice my piano playing techniques. My longer term goal might be to practice Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (3rd movement) if I find enough time for that. Practicing dynamics is also important for my expressively dynamic synth sounds I aim to make more and more.

天下 Tiānxià

Julkaisin uuden albumin. Se sisältää joitain Kiinan reissun aikana ohjelmoituja kappaleita ja muutamia muita. Kun pianoa ei ollut käytettävissä, tilanne johti minut kokeilemaan uusia elektronisia tyylejä ja lopputulos on kuultavilla tällä albumilla kokonaisuudessaan. En ole oikeastaan aiemmin tehnytkään tämän tyylistä elektronista vaikka musiikissani on aina ollutkin vahva elektroninen painotus. (Erityisesti kosketinsoittajana ja tietokonenörttinä se on helpointa genreä tuottaa.)

Suunnittelin julkaisevani tämän albumin joku vuosi tai puoli sitten, mutta “Samsara” viivästytti tätä tuotantolimbossa. Se on edelleen aika sotku, mutta saa nyt luvan kelvata. On yllättävän vaikeaa sovittaa vaikeita pianoralleja elektronisiksi sovituksiksi ja löytää sopivat saundit jne. Siksi helpointa olisi vain tehdä elektronisiakin kappaleita vain elektronisina alusta saakka. Olen luonnostellut kappaleita yleensä MIDI sekvenssereillä ja niiden köykäisillä äänifonteilla, mutta seuraava askel olisi varmaan tehdä kaikki virtuaali-instrumenteilla alusta saakka (kuten spekuloin aiemmassa postissa). Kokeilua ja pohdintaa on siis tiedossa jatkossakin.

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I published a new album. It contains some songs I programmed during my China trip a year ago and some others as well. Not having an access to pianos led me to experiment with new electronic styles and the result can be heard on the album as a whole. I actually haven’t done this kind of electronic music before even though my music has always had a strong electronic leaning. (Especially as a keyboardist and computer nerd it’s the most easiest genre to produce.)

I planned to publish this album like a year or half ago, but the song “Samsara” delayed this into a production limbo. It’s still quite a mess but this has to do for now. It is actually surprisingly difficult to rearrange advanced piano compositions into electronic pieces and find fitting sounds etc. That’s why the easiest way to make electronic songs is probably to make them electronic all the way from beginning. I’ve been sketching my songs on MIDI sequencers and cheap soundfonts but the next step on this might be to move on making virtual instruments all the way from beginning (as I’ve concluded on an earlier post). So, there will be experimentations and speculations in the future as well.

Loput “Kiina-biisit” | The rest of the “China songs”

Tässä loput Kiinareissun aikana ohjelmoimista kappaleistani. Ensimmäistä inspiroi Hong Kong, toista Shenzhen.

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Here are the rest of the songs that I programmed during my China trip. The first was inspired from Hong Kong and the second from Shenzhen.

Eka breakcore biisi | The first breakcore song

Terveisiä Kiinasta taas. Julkaisin tämän uuden kipaleen Hong Kongissa, jonne saavuin tänään, koska soundcloud on blokattu muualla Kiinassa… Jos ei lasketa joitain aikaisempia pieniä kokeiluja, tämä on ensimmäinen varsinainen aluevaltaukseni breakcore genrestä (“intelligent dance musicin” eräs alalaji) sekä seurausta useiden viikkojen pianovieroituksesta (siten myös täysin ohjelmoitu). Teen varmaan paremman version muokatuilla saundeilla joskus paremmalla ajalla.

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Greetings from China again. I uploaded this new song at Hong Kong where I arrived today, because soundcloud is blocked in mainland… Without counting some little experimentations earlier this is my first breakcore song made week ago, and a result of many weeks without possibility to play piano (thus also fully programmed). I’ll make a better version with tweaked sounds maybe later.

[Tiānxià: Shànghǎi Shì]:

Devastated OST

Soundtrack indiepeli Devastatediin on nyt julkaistu. Itse peli ilmestyy myöhemmin Steamiin. Toistaiseksi jotkin kappaleista ovat melko raakasisältöä peliin ja saatetaan muuttaa albumiystävällisemmiksi myöhemmin.

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Soundtrack for an indie game Devastated is now published. The game will be published later on Steam. For now some of the songs are raw mixes for in-game and might be changed into more album friendly later.

Jotain elektronista… | Some electronic…

Vähän filleripostailua, kun en ole mitään julkaisukuntoon tehnyt viime aikoina. Nämä biisulit piti tulla aikanaan yhteen peliprojektiin, joka jäätyi viime kesällä.

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These songs were meant to be in some video game project that froze back in last summer.

Mod_

Mod_ on eklektinen kokoelma instrumentaalisia kappaleita. Jotkin niistä ovat improvisoituja äänityksissä. Nachtwing part 2 oli sävelletty joskus 2011, joten koko albumi käytännössä alkaa puitteiltaan siitä. Paljon olisi silti vielä tehtävää. Kuitenkin on iso homma tehdä kaikki itse, joten prosessi on hidasta. Päätin siis julkaista albumin joka tapauksessa. Jos jokin on pahasti pielessä tai jälleenrakennuksen tarpeessa, kappaleen tai muun päivittäminen onnistuu helposti. Lisätietoja albumista on bandcampissa.

Mod_ is an eclectic collection of instrumental songs. Some of the songs are improvised in the recording process. Nachtwing part 2 was composed somewhere in 2011 so everything else practically starts from there what comes to this album. There may be still much to do. However it’s a big deal to make everything by myself so the process is slow. I decided to publish the album now anyway. If something is terribly wrong or in a need of reconstruction, it’s easy to update the song or something. For more information, visit the bandcamp page.

UPDATE (full album in YouTube):

UPDATE: New Vision playthrough 25.3.2015

Drowned (8-bit)

Tämä sävellys oli tehty jossain 2009 tienoilla. Se oli ensimmäisiä sävellyksiä, joita on tehty pääasiassa pianolla improvisoiden (sitä ennen sävelsin enemmän softilla).

Kokeilin myös soitella uudella 8-bitti rumpusetilläni, jonka tein Hydrogeniin. Se ei ole vielä valmis, mutta julkaisen sen piakkoin. Tämä on myös ensimmäinen äänite uudella Alesis io|2 interfacellani. Kaikki syntetisointi on tehty VA-syna Korg R3:lla. En ole varma, oliko latenssiongelmia rumpuraitaa soittaessa, mutta pitänee ohjelmoida koko homma seuraavan kerran, kun tekee chiptunemusaa.

This composition was made somewhere in 2009. It was one of those first compositions which were composed mostly by improvising with piano (before that I composed mostly with software).

I also tried to play my new 8-bit drum kit that I’ve made for Hydrogen. It’s not ready yet but I’ll publish it soon. This is also the first recording with my new Alesis io|2 interface. All the synthesizing is made with VA-synth Korg R3. I’m not sure was there latency issues at playing drum track but next time I probably should program all the way when making chip-tune music.