Osteocephalic » Osteocephalic http://www.osteocephalic.com Getting Productive with Music Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:08:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Resolution 2008 http://www.osteocephalic.com/2008/01/08/resolution-2008/ http://www.osteocephalic.com/2008/01/08/resolution-2008/#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2008 07:56:21 +0000 Apollo http://www.osteocephalic.com/2008/01/08/resolution-2008/ In January 2007, I had a mishap with my computer, which cost 12.5 gigabytes of data, including a directory on my Desktop called “Music.” You can probably guess what that contained—all of my noodly compositions from about 2001 until early 2007. After taking my computer to the recovery place, I was left with no working files. In my closet somewhere, there’s my non-working PowerBook G4 (a video card failure crashed the motherboard) with an intact drive that may have some of it.

After the catastrophic data loss, it was hard for me to write music productively. Toward the end of the year, I realized that I hadn’t really gotten significantly toward any releases. Despite having a bunch of equipment, I don’t have a productive workflow, a live performance setup, or even a recognizable style.

Near the end of the year, I decided to upgrade Reason to version 4 and Logic to Logic 8. Since I’m spending money on music software now (I’m considering upgrading Live to version 7, as well), I might as well get with the program and put some music out in 2008.

My resolution for 2008 is to try to write a track a week. Every Tuesday, I have to start a fresh new track. I can always come back and revise or remix the work of previous weeks. Not all of these tracks are going to be good, but maybe I’ll end up with my workflow. And if just 20% of those tracks are releasable, that’s an album this year.

What’s your resolution?

]]> http://www.osteocephalic.com/2008/01/08/resolution-2008/feed/ 3 Introducing Osteocephalic http://www.osteocephalic.com/2008/01/08/introducing-osteocephalic/ http://www.osteocephalic.com/2008/01/08/introducing-osteocephalic/#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:03:04 +0000 Apollo http://www.osteocephalic.com/2008/01/08/introducing-osteocephalic/ My name is Apollo Lee, also known in some places as Osteocephalic. I’m a classically-trained musician, who has struggled to master modern music software. It comes down to a lack of focus and discipline, which I intend to solve here. I’ve been attempting to write electronic music for a number of years. I might as well succeed this year.

This blog is about music composition, primarily using software tools and inexpensive hardware. Much of the techniques I talk about here will be very basic as I get more and more familiar with software that I have, in some cases, dabbled with for years.

My goal in doing this is to gain in-depth insight and practice in creating compelling music with various software packages, alone and in concert. I’m kind of a bonehead at some of this stuff, but that’s not going to stop me. I have numerous problems with my setup or with the things I’m trying to do musically. As I work through these issues, I might as well tell the world about it. Hopefully, someone will find something useful here.

The software in my arsenal:

The hardware in my studio:

What do I know about creating good music with this software? Not much. But, I’m gonna learn. Join me!

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