Trash_Audio

A great and rare overview of the Cwejman’s take on random generation. Cwejman makes some of the best modules on the market: their designs are so well thought out and sound/build quality is so high. Jason Baker does an excellent job explaining its functions and quirks.

Most likely the only example of 303 music I can actually listen to.

4 x 303 and 1 x 606.

- Via Matrixsynth

Benjamin Weinman and I have been playing tag for a few years. He’ll suddenly materialize out of the sweaty crowds at NAMM where he saves Richard and I from a gut-wrenchingly awkward conversation with Meshuggah, or he’ll come to Chicago and destroy the city with his band but he’s finally managed to spare a few moments before going on tour. So here you have it, Ben Weinman of The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Background
I was born in Northern NJ about 45 min away from Manhattan NY. I still live in the same neighborhood I grew up in and can see my parents house from my window. I guess I just had too much shit to stay at their house so I moved to a house down the street. I have been banging on stuff for as long as I can remember. I remember going to my friends house when I was a kid he would help me with my homework and I would figure out the melody to any song he called out on his little toy keyboard. That was the trade. That was my training.

Hardware
I use the crap out of my Universal Audio 6176. It’s very versatile for whatever. Drums, vocals, just banging coffee cups into a room mic. I also, love this little old Moog I found at a pawn shop years ago on tour and my Organ which I put through all kinds of pedals occasionally to spark ideas. It also has a tape recorder built in so sometimes I actually tape sounds and then record them into my computer to get a little tape saturation.

Software
As far as my DAW I’m a Cubase SX kind of guy. I recently acquired SX 6 which just makes sense. The new drum editing features are so quick and user friendly and the built in vari audio, midi detection and export, and transient detection is pretty amazing. The tempo detection helps a great deal with remixes as well. Also, sometimes use FL Studio to change things up. I still think the piano roll just opens up so many rhythmic ideas. As for plugins I have been abusing the Sound Toys stuff a lot lately and Spectrasonics is making some pretty powerful stuff.

Workspace and Environment
It influences me a great deal. I have a basement studio with no light or sound from the outside world. I fully sound proofed my space. Built a floating room. So basically I can bang on drums at 3am in the morning if I want and work until the sun comes up. I couldn’t do that in the past when I was so distracted and limited by my surroundings. Ergonomics are not important and very important. I think Ergonomics effects what you make but certainly does not determine your ability to create. I can’t stand people who complain that they can’t create because they don’t have this or this is not like that or If I only had this or things were like this… blah blah blah. Just make stuff with what you got where you got it!

There isn’t much going on around here so I don’t go out much. I do think that growing with the ability to go to NY where there was a lot of art and culture while still having the ability to go home and jam in a garage or basement had a huge influence on the music I made coming up.

If I could hook a midi keyboard up to my brain while I sleep I’m pretty sure some pretty cool stuff would come out.

Routine
I do things in all different ways. I usually can’t think too much. Just have to pick something up and start making noise.

Eavesdropping
It’s pretty rare that I’ve heard my music publicly but the few times I have I feel pretty embarrassed. Not sure if I am suppose to acknowledge it or pretend it’s no big deal. I feel really uncomfortable honestly.

Extra Curricular
I have done a few things for video games and a bit of commercial work. At the moment I am working on sound design for a horror movie and am also creating and collaborating on Trailer music and orchestrations.

Thank you Scott McGrath, our sponsors, the crew behind Wham Bam, and everyone that came to the BBQ. We’ve learned a lot from this experience and hopefully will be able to accommodate everyone we turned away next year. We hope to see both coasts for T_A events in 2012 but more information on that later…

The photo session in the video was run by Sarah Sitkin and her work can be found here: Sarah Sitkin’s Flickr! She’s responsible for the visual glory on To No Avail and a session with Sonoio. You can read an interview with her about her work on To No Avail here: Sarah Sitkin To No Avail Interview. Below are some selects from photoshoots from this past weekend.

Richard Devine

Nayib of Gorillabox

Scott & Julie Jaeger of Harvestman

Cyrus

For the past several months whenever Rob AA Lowe (Lichens) and I met, he has been showing me progress of this film he’s starring in. It first began with productions stills, vague plots and shooting schedules and finally, about a month ago, he showed me this trailer that has been haunting me since. The video went public today.

A SPELL TO WARD OFF THE DARKNESS (TRAILER) from Ben Russell on Vimeo.

From pagan re-enactors to Scandinavian communes, black metal concerts to Arctic hermits, and the forever Golden Hour to the Northern Lights, A SPELL TO WARD OFF THE DARKNESS is an inquiry into the possibilities of a spiritual existence within an increasingly secular world.

Starring musician Robert AA Lowe (LICHENS) and co-directed by Ben Rivers (UK) and Ben Russell (USA), A SPELL is a feature-length film that lies between fiction and non-fiction, a record of experience that proposes belief in transcendence as a viable outcome of living in the now.

Here are a couple events that we’ll be attending. See you around Anaheim/LA!

Richard and Surachai will be playing at Wham Bam Friday, January 20th in downtown LA. These parties have always been incredible in the past and confirms that LA’s electronic music scene is one of the best in the country. Facebook Event Page

The TRASH_AUDIO BBQ has reached its capacity and RSVP’s are over. If you have paid and have not received information, please e-mail us. The party would not be possible without the help of our sponsors, check them out.

GearTrack

GearTrack, the organizational tool, marketplace, and answer to the music industry’s age-old problem of instrument theft, is currently in development. Through the creation of its searchable database, GearTrack aims to address four main goals: instrument and music gear management, to become a communicative platform and place for exchange, provenance for all levels of musicianship, and prevention of theft through the power of community.

Matrixsynth

You know about Matrixsynth already, it’s probably the reason you heard of our site. I’ve wasted months off my life staring at this site but at the same time getting schooled with “everything synth”. A valuable resource for news/researching, synth pr0n and watching incredible and incredibly horrible videos.

Tip Top Audio

Gur of Tip Top Audio has been dubbed “the smartest man in the room” by his competitors and the quality of his new-school meets old-school designs is a testament to this statement. Redesigning a Prophet filter, TR-808 drum instruments or making technological advances with the Z-DSP computer module – Tip Top Audio is making new audio tools with a nod to the past.

Make Noise Music

Tony Rolando, formally of Moog, has a deep musical background which is very apparent in Make Noise’s designs. Emphasis is placed on performance orientated modules and these modules breathes new life into entire modular systems. With products like the Pressure Points and RENÈ the word ‘presets’ become a reality and performance becomes a possibility. Oh, Make Noise loves vactrols too.

Harvestman Digital Electronics

Scott Jaeger embraces the advantages of analog and digital worlds and combines them into hybrid destroyers of the audio spectrum. If bitcrusher, wavetable distortion, and circuit bending mean anything to you, you’ll understand the potential destructive force behind Harvestman’s designs but the strange thing is – his modules play very well with others as well.

Twisted Tools

Twisted Tools offer an incredible amount of products for such a young company. Their Reaktor patches create sounds you’ve probably heard but never dreamt would be in your control. The layouts and designs are inviting and not littered with hard to reach menus. Focusing on From beautiful performance oriented Reaktor patches to stunning sample packs, Twisted Tools knows what the seasoned musician wants.

Late Night Desires
Anonymous donor. Enjoy this site.

Video courtesy Nordvargr

TipTop Audio has updated their website with essential information and a borderline porn-esque photo gallery of their beautifully designed Station 252 case. It comes in two flavors, the Silver Bullet and I’ve been rocking the Black Widow for a few months and it’s easily the most portable and dependable case out there.

To all our customers who own a Station 252, we just want to assure you that this is not a new version or updated design. This is a website update, probably one that we should have done long ago – TipTop Audio

- Official TipTop Audio Station 252 Page
- TRASH_AUDIO Station 252 Overview

Friendly Integration & Baseck present the 5th Annual: WHAM BAM!

Richard Devine
Surachai
Drumcell
Hyperactive
[D]Squared (Derek Michael & Baseck)
The Tleilaxu Music Machine
Nero’s Day at Disneyland
Eezir
Modesty
Howie

Friday January 20th, 2012. 9PM – 4AM
Downtown Los Angeles!
Directions & Info: 323-213-9736

- Facebook Event Page

“In this SoundWorks Collection exclusive we talk with Composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Sound Re-recording Mixer Michael Semanick, and Re-recording Mixer, Sound Designer, and Supervising Sound Editor Ren Klyce.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a 2011 English-language drama/thriller film. It is the second film to be adapted from the Swedish novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson. The first was a 2009 Swedish-language/English dubbed film. The 2011 film was written by Steven Zaillian and directed by David Fincher. Daniel Craig stars as Mikael Blomkvist, and Rooney Mara stars as Lisbeth Salander. In essence, the film follows a man’s mission to find out what has happened to a girl who has been missing for 36 years, and may have been murdered.”

- Via: SoundWorks Collection

These are some of the events TRASH_AUDIO documented in 2011. We already have a few events planned for 2012 for LA, Chicago and hopefully New York.
There are a total of 89 videos on our YouTube Channel, so feel free to waste away.

Events

Module Overviews