processartifact

“music” “sound design” and “musical sound design”

 There are distinctions within my interests and methods that may be helpful to some, and personal history that may be of interest.

 I write music on acoustic and electric guitar and I play drums and other percussion. I work with field recordings (found sounds) and virtual / midi instruments. I have been deeply engaged with granular synthesis and other digital audio workflows over the past 25+ years. I pitch shift, filter,  loop, layer and I engage in xenochony.

Origins and inspiration:

“When we started out, we just wanted to make strange noises”. -Mark Mothersbaugh/ Devo

I’ve had an ongoing connection to music making since I can remember. My impulse towards creative recording is unequivocally rooted in self- motivated explorations with our home stereo system, at as early an age as 7 or 8.

 We had a Panasonic console system “all- in- one” amplifier/ AM/FM/ turntable and cassette)

 The empowering experience of learning how to record songs off the radio with the cassette deck was transformative, as many can remember and relate to. A typical scenario would have me listening to FM radio commercial breaks, waiting for clues that the music would be starting, with my fingers on record+play buttons. There was a pattern to these commercial breaks and I would attempt to hit record just prior to the first song starting. if I liked the song I would keep recording and if I didn't like this song, I would stop, rewind and re-cue.

 A turning point in my experience, was when I began to notice interesting sounds which may be commonly understood as “artifacts” or “glitches” caused by the limits of the mechanical “latch-controls” of the cassette recorder, coupled with the juxtaposition of moments in time, or “unintended sound collages” resulting from re-recording over the same tape multiple times.

 With my child fingers, trying to engage record was not a casual experience. Standard would be that I was a beat or so late for the start of a song. With this mechanical system, the record head engaged with the tape, as the tape speed was still accelerating. With a more lazy or faltering approach with the buttons, this disconnect was further pronounced. The resulting recording would have a slurred effect as the pitch and speed “ramped up” before stabilizing at normal speed. Of course this is a common experience with analog tape recording, and many remember this.

 Inspired by these moments though, I soon discovered that I could press the latch buttons (record+play) 1/2 or 3/4 of the way down, and more extended, bizarre sounds could be created. These effects may be commonly defined as “tape modulation” or “tape warble” as the tape speed would struggle and waiver.

 Along with uneveven tape speed, there were other distinct effects relating to the pressure, and I beleive, even a slight distance of the play head to the tape that could be achieved with the latch controls. With this it was possible to superimpose a recording over a previous recording on the tape. There exist at least a few common terms for this kind of effect with magnetic tape. These include “print through” “ghosting” “tape bleed” “magnetic memory” and the more poetic “sonic shadowing”

  While I developed a certain finesse and level of control, it should be stated that all of this was done with highly unpredictable results. These experiments became enough of an impulse for me that I recall my mother and father at different points “catching me” doing this, telling me such things as “I absolutely should not be doing this because I could break the system, etc…a

 Further, I have a strong memory of essentially appropriating audio cassettes of my father's and using them for this purpose, and continuing with this kind of thing in secret.

 With two older brothers, I was steeped in classic rock throughout childhood and my teens. While I became aware, within the work of the Beatles and Pink Floyd, for instance, of the use of tape loops, backwards playback, etc.

 It would not be until my mid 20s that I learned of the rich history of Musique concrète which pre-dates these guys by 20- 30 years. 

Quotes:

“Geez, Andrew, you'd really have something there if you just added a little music” -Producer, Steve Daffner

“Yeah, but who gives a fuck” -Producer, Mark Bingham

"These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy...in front of every house in the summer evenings, you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or old songs. Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal cord left. The vocal cord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape." -John Phillip Sousa

—--

At least one other deeply inspirational time was in my early 20s when I discovered Kate Bush’s album the Dreaming and the Butthole Surfers album Locust Abortion Technician at around the same time. In their own ways, these two albums left pointed impressions on me. 

Original music and sound recording archive

(Renaissance of intimacy …12 tracks / mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/renaissance-of-intimacy

Fanfare For the Compromised Man (…7 tracks / mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/fanfare-for-the-compromised-man

Within Feedback (…16 tracks / mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/withinfeedback

Industrial Witchcraft (… 10 tracks / working mixes/ not mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/industrial-witchcraft

Laundry room Session (… 11 tracks / working mixes/ not mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/laundry-room-session

Cloud Confucian (… 23 tracks / including some excerpted, working mixes/ not mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/cloudconfucian

Wasteland Skirmish (…37 tracks / mostly excerpted, working mixes,/ not mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/wasteland-skirmish

War or Sex Scene (Your Pick!) (… 36 tracks / mostly excerpted, working mixes, not mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/war-or-sex-scene-your-pick/

The Wedge (… 14 tracks / All excerpted, working mixes, not mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/the-wedge

One Vast Quarry (… 12 tracks / Noise Rock, not mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/one-vast-quarry

Rug Hour is #1 (… 10 tracks / Multi- lingual digital Dada- Funk)

https://www.processartifact.com/rug-hour-is-1

Pushing All The Buttons At Once (… 9 tracks / The Lost Noise- Rock Album, not mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/pushing-all-the-buttons-at-once

After Clock (… 13 tracks / not mastered) soundtracks)

https://www.processartifact.com/afterclock

Bamboo Brigade (… 5 tracks / not mastered) soundtracks)

https://www.processartifact.com/bamboo-brigade

Phillip St. (… 10 tracks / by Stephen G. Smith, produced & arranged by Andrew, not mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/phillip-st

Diatom Club (… 8 tracks / by Nate Tabor and Andrew Smith, not mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/diatom-club

Hooligan Hoop (… 7 tracks / Hyper- Wank Glitch Techno/ Vol. 32, not mastered)

https://www.processartifact.com/hooligan-hoop

Additional:

Evil Nurse Sheila!

Music Boxing

Click Dings

Incredible Sons Of Scarface

Accounting for Analogous Glints

Constance Street Studio

Selections from video in development

Video produced with Eric Buchner, David Sullivan, Jason Sleight, Brant Kilber, Jason Lindsey

World As Is:

Video Engine Again:

Reverse Process:

Renaissance Of Intimacy:

Drift Dome/ Draft_1 / w/ audio

Protoucher/ Draft_1 / w/ audio

MacroSpore_8

Wasteland Skirmish (trailer)

Additional cymatic Studies/ Short clips/ (rough w/ no audio)

Grinder Bird: