The weblog of Vlad Spears: musician, science fiction hero, Max/MSP/Jitter gangsta, Daevl incarnate. Currently engaged in fast action on slow sculpture, I have an ongoing love affair with animism as an approach to creativity and an affinity for all things automata, gridded or digital.

Fine Print

All written material on 2Second(fuse) authored by Vlad Spears is published under the Creative Commons Some Rights Reserved license, unless otherwise indicated.

 

Attribution - Noncommercial - NoDerivs 2.0

 

Fight corporate ownership of culture:

Create and Disseminate!

020060301 23:40 •

Making Noise With Martin Spernau

Working as a sound artist in the digital age, my palette includes, literally, any noise which may be captured.  I make use of highly processed environmental material in my more ambient pieces, and a favorite trick is turning what should not have been percussive into drums.  Once I’ve coaxed a sound into 0s and 1s, it’s free to become whatever I wish.  The edges and artifacts remaining from its source incarnation provide a grounding, organic mystery.

I’m always interested in examining the techniques of others, and it’s terrific when they make it easy.  Wicked environmentalist Martin Spernau has a very nice mini-podcast up explaining how he created the clicking back-beat for his recent track: Father, I have been dreaming.  And while some of us cyborg-meld with our studios full of blinking lights, Martin created his latest audio horror play using only GarageBand and the built-in mic on his iSight.  Here’s sonic proof you can create great sound with a very minimal setup.

Check out Martin’s dark, enveloping audio works, Mindwarp and Outro.  Be prepared to have your skin crawl away from your shivering bones, and like it.