Dataless Blog

Changes

2011-09-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Never satisfied to leave well enough alone, I am once again moving. During the time between leaving my current location and taking possession of my new place, I'm going to be doing a bit of couch surfing. That means minimal mobile studio.

15" MacBook Pro
Arturia 25 key controller board
Apogee One audio interface
Bayerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones
Audio-Technica AT8521 headset microphone

Ableton Live Studio 8
Native Instruments Komplete 7
Arturia V Collection 2

There's something about reducing down to a small setup that inspires... already in the past week I've begun two new compositions which I feel are quite promising, based solely on virtual instruments. $20K of hardware packed up and sitting idle and I'm finally writing music again with nothing but a mini controller and some software.

The rest of my equipment will sleep in nice new cases. Two 12 space racks (loaded front and back, thank you thin profile rack modules), a 76 key keyboard case, a lighting case for stands and bench, case for the bass and for the guitar, a big case for my guitar amp and smaller case for bits and pieces.

From this point, I'm looking to put together another six or eight compositions and then finish them up once I'm settled in a new studio. Maybe another six months from now I'll have it all completed and ready to post to iTunes.

Studio Updates

2011-05-06T18:01:00.000-07:00

It's been over two years since I released my CD. What have I been doing? A lot of stuff, very little of it music related.

I have, however, been putting together my new studio and it's finally ready. Here's the rundown:

Korg Oasys Workstation
Roland A-50 Controller
Roland A-80 Controller
Nord Rack 3
Origin Rack
Roland JP-8080 Rack
Korg Zero8 Mixer
T.C.Electronic G•Major Effects Processor
MOTU Midi Timepiece
Blackstar HT Stage 60 Guitar Amp
T.C.Electronic VP1 Overdrive Pedal
Zeta Mirror 6 Guitar Synth
Ibanez S Series Guitar
Ibanez Ergodyne Bass

I've currently got eight new songs in various stages of production, one of them almost complete. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to do vocals or bring someone else in to do them and I'm also considering inviting a DJ friend of mine to come in and drop a few tracks for variety. We'll see how that goes.

If you're still reading this, thanks for sticking with me.

Dead Air

2011-01-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

It's been quite some time since the last post... busy year.

The studio is nearing completion. Here's the gear as it stands now:

Korg Oasys 76
Nord Lead 3 Rack
Arturia Origin
Roland JP-8080
Korg Zero8 mixer
T.C. Electronics G-Major guitar effects processor

And the final addition, this rocking red Zeta Mirror-6 guitar synth... after many years of searching, I just picked this up on eBay. The Mirror-6 is the ultimate guitar synth controller and it looks incredible as well. And now... guitar lessons.

Now that the studio is complete, it's time to start production on a new CD. It's been two years since my first release and I've been working on a few tracks but now it's time to get to work.

Reboot

2010-08-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks now since we returned to the States and things have been moving quickly. New digs, new studio, new gear, new places to hang out and new people to talk to.

The Roland "A" Series keyboards are working out nicely. They're both in pretty fair condition given that they're over 20 years old and they look nice in the studio. We've decided to keep both of the Korg Oasys keyboards, one in the studio and one in storage just in case something happens where we need it.

Not having a vehicle hasn't been a problem. Between Zipcar and our new A2B electric moped, it's been easy to get around. Plus new bars and restaurants in the neighborhood mean we don't have to go far from home to have a good meal or a good time.

We've been busy getting settled in and stocking up so there's not much to tell in the way of new events or projects but it won't be long before the dream fades and it's time to get up and get back to work.

New music, new photography project, new business, new romance... it's all out there. We just have to decide what we want to do first.

For the record, there's photos of the new place on our photo gallery page as well as 600+ pictures from our time in Japan. Check them out.

Return from Japan

2010-06-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

It's only two weeks or so until we've got to pack up our stuff and head back to the States. Six months of living in a foreign country with no visible means of support has been a bit trying but well worth the expense of time and trouble.

Ironically, it's actually cheaper for us to live in Tokyo than it is to live in San Francisco so we can't complain too much about the financial situation. Half a year here has enabled us to get our hands on not only a new violin, but also a Roland A-80 and A-50 keyboard controller as well as, believe it or not, a pair of Korg Oasys 76 key workstations. Not like we need the both of them, but how many times has a backup saved your #bacon?

The bottom line, however, is all about starting the next phase of life. Japan has been wonderful. The food, the drinks, the women... and a whole lot of time to think about what happens next. We'll be back in the States and headed back in to the studio (wherever that turns out to be) to begin work on our next CD. And this time we hope it will actually be "our" CD and not just me by myself.

So... back to the real world... and back to the grind of doing those things that actually make life meaningful. One can only enjoy a dream for so long before the wings cease to work and the monsters begin to catch up. We'll be planting our feet on solid ground, gaining traction and putting some miles on the new ideas we've had the good fortune to fabricate during this brief but passionate affair.

How's that for mixed metaphors?

Back to Something New

2010-05-10T04:38:00.000-07:00

In only two months we'll be on our way back to the States as our six month vacation in Tokyo draws to a close and so it's time to start thinking long-term again. We've got a few pieces in the works already, nothing solid but some ideas.

Along these lines, we've been looking into some new equipment. For starters, we've picked up a very attractive Zeta Strados electric violin.

Aside from that, we're looking at the possibility of picking up a Korg Oasys workstation keyboard to do the bulk of writing and arrangement. Since we won't be needing to be quite so mobile for the next year or so, it makes sense to gear up a bit.

As for audio production, possibly a new Mac Desktop with Logic Pro. Our old 17" MacBook just isn't up to the task of the style of work we prefer to do.

We're looking forward to outfitting our new facilities... whenever we figure out where they're going to be. Stay tuned for more news.

Shifting Focus

2010-04-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

Dataless is taking a little break from music these days to work on one of our other passions... photography.

Back in the day (about four or five years ago, to be inexact) we spent a fair bit of time and money acquiring some pretty high end photography gear and made a comfortable, if not somewhat exhausting, living doing architectural photography. The hours were lousy but the actual minutes were pretty good... and the gear was great. Canon 1DS MkII, an arsenal of lenses including f/1.2 85mm, 20mm, 24mm tilt-shift, 50 and 100mm macro primes as well as a number of useful zoom lenses, flashes, a super nice Manfrotto carbon fiber gear head tripod and any number of accessories, attachments, filters and cases to put them all in.

Do you get the sense that we enjoy the gear just as much or more than the work itself?

They say that being able to make a living doing the thing you love is ideal but we've got to disagree. Day after day of high pressure photography shoots drove the passion right out of us and, ultimately, lead to the selling of the business and the complete rejection of photography of any sort.

And when we give something up, we do it in style. Sold all the gear we could, gave the rest away, and, tragically, deleted every photo we'd ever taken. Even the ones we liked. There's commitment for you.

Fast forward to the present. We bought a pocket camera (the very nice Sony DSC-T90) to take snapshots of our time in Japan and remembered the joy of picture taking. Within a month we were online shopping for our new photography rig.

Canon 5D Mk II
Canon f/1.2 85mm (our favorite from the previous collection)
Canon f/2.8L 100mm Macro
Canon MR-14EX Macro Ring Flash

We're going with all prime lenses this time... no silly zooms or tilt-shifts. It's all about speed and using natural light (except for macro applications that require illumination). Of course, we're keeping the Sony for snapshots... one can not be expected to carry two kilos of camera gear around all the time and it's fun occasionally to just point and shoot without thinking too much about what's going to come out.

Check out our Flickr Photo Stream to see those snapshots and a few of the more serious images we've managed to take so far.

Hyperspective

2010-04-17T23:14:00.000-07:00

Hype... excitement in absence of experience. As a frequent explorer of human nature I would like to say a few words about hype... both of the positive and negative variety.

There are those who look forward with baited breath to every new thing on the horizon and those who fear and hate newness with an equal passion. The interesting thing about these two camps is that they are pretty much the same type of people. Despite their passionate entreats for or against, neither has actually experienced the new thing in a practical sense.

As with any new technology (and I use that word in the broadest possible sense) there are those who predict salvation and those who predict damnation. Go back as far as you like and this remains true. I am sure there were passionate arguments both for and against fire long before anyone had actually experienced fire in their daily lives. Fire good, fire make Ug strong! Fire bad, fire burn Ug! But once Ug had a chance to use fire on a regular basis, Ug most likely realized that fire was both beneficial and problematic. Ug and his contemporaries quickly developed a more complex, nuanced relationship with fire. And so it remains today.

For example: Few technologies have polarized the community of computing enthusiasts quite like the iPad. As a pre-orderer and now owner of an iPad for just over two weeks, I can say first-hand that there are just as many who abjectly despise the iPad as there are who can't wait to get their hands on one. The rhetoric around this device has been off the scale of reason. Whether you think the iPad is a gift from the Gods or that Steve Jobs is the anti-Christ, you probably have a lot more in common with your equal opposite than you think. As any good photographer knows, when you attempt to view the world through two opposing polarized filters you can't see anything at all.

In truth, the iPad is a tool like any other and, as such, can be valuable in one hand and worthless (or worse) in another. Which it is for you depends on which you make it to be. As for me, the iPad has replaced the Kindle DX as my reading tool of choice, my iPod Touch for portable music and photo presentation, and my 13" MacBook for watching videos while I work on my 17" MacBook. I am also enjoying it for casual game playing and news perusal (i.e. train time activities). But probably the most interesting and unexpected use is for what we used to call "interactive media" back before the popularity of the internet. In the guise of e-books, iPad apps such as The Elements and Phaidon Design Classics signal the rebirth of the long defunct "Director CD-ROM" style of media rich tools for personal edification. I got my start doing rich media and kiosk applications and am happy this category has come back to us.

No, the iPad is not the last word in computing, nor is it an overblown PDA with no real market. It is something entirely else... something that can only be understood and integrated into one's practical life by real experience.

As for hype... I could go on and discuss Twitter, Barak Obama, the internet, television, moveable type, stone toolmaking and walking on dry land but I don't wish to belabor the point. In each of these cases, the obvious benefits have come hand in hand with obvious drawbacks and, as should be very obvious by now, none of these steps turned out to be the last one... neither raising mankind to the point of godhood nor casting us into the fires of annhilation.

So the next time you hear someone going off on a rant about how wonderful "Product X" is going to be or how society is unlikely to survive its release, please consider the millions of years of increasing complexity that have proceeded it and the millions more which will follow... and enjoy a bit of perspective.

The New Rig

2010-01-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

So here's the breakdown on the gear we're currently using:

Hardware

MacBook Pro 17"
Akai APC40 controller
Korg Microsampler keyboard
Audio-Technica ATM75 headset microphone
Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro headphones
Sony PCM-D1 field recorder

Software

Ableton Live 8
Alphakanal Automat1
Arturia Analog Factory
GForce

Minimonsta
Oddity

Izotope

Ozone 4
Vinyl

Native Instruments

Absynth 4
Akoustik Piano
Battery 3
FM8
Guitar Rig 3
Massive
Pro 53

U-he Filterscape
Waldorf

Attack
D-Pole
PPG Wave 2.V

Now, let's see what comes out of it.

Vacation's Over

2010-01-10T17:35:00.000-08:00

We haven't been very active these past three months, a lot of things have been going on that's kept us out of the studio. First of which was the disassembly and removal of the studio.

That's right, Dataless is moving. Or perhaps it's better to say "has moved". During our previous trip to Japan in October we decided to pack up our gear and come here for good... or at least for as long as they'll have us. So we sold off most of the excellent gear we've collected over the past two years, put the rest of it in storage, bought some new travel-sized gear to work on and hit the road (hit the air doesn't sound quite as dramatic or exciting).

We arrived in Tokyo five days ago for the first three months of a planned six month stay. Since we're basically freeloading it (as if you could anything for free here) and don't have proper visa papers, we'll have to bounce in and out of the country every 90 days or so to stay legal. Hopefully that won't be a problem, at least not the first two times. After that who knows?

Gone Virtual

2009-09-03T01:06:00.000-07:00

The time is drawing closer for our next trip to Japan and future tour of the US. Do we really want to carry a bunch of gear around while we work on our next release?

In a word, no.

There's no way a Korg M3 and Arturia Origin are going to fit into the overhead bin. We're letting them go and replacing them with a very small controller keyboard and a Macbook Pro running Ableton Live Studio 8 and an array of software synths including Native Instruments Komplete 5, G-Force's Minimonsta, Waldorf's PPG Wave, the built-in Ableton tools and the very cool Alphakanal Automat1.

It's not the room full of lights and knobs and cables we're used to working with, but it's lightweight, mobile and powerful enough to meet our needs and we're excited to be working on material for a new album.

More information on that coming soon.

TuneCore Widget

2009-07-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

We've added the TuneCore Widget to our blog page here so that you can now listen to our finished songs directly. There's also a "buy" link built into the widget which will take you to our page on the iTunes Music Store.

Check it out!

Beginning Work on our Second Album

2009-07-21T00:46:00.001-07:00

Today we've begun working on our second album, as of yet unnamed.

Our first album, Irrational Number, was produced in our home studio using something like eleven different sound sources (keyboards and rack modules) plus guitar, bass and vocals. This time we've decided to take a different approach and do the entire album on a single keyboard.

We've selected the Korg M3 as our workstation of choice due to its sonic flexibility, built-in sampler, sequencer and audio processing capability. We'll be upgrading it with more sample RAM to hold the new EX3 wave data, the EXB-RADIAS board to add 24 voices of analog modeled sounds and a vocoder and the EXB-FW firewire card which enables the M3 to act as a virtual software synth with full audio and MIDI integration into our Logic DAW environment.

As for the music, we've got a couple of brief sketches already which suggest a softer, more ambient and loungy sound. We're looking to round off some of the edges from our previous work and go in a more relaxed and accessible direction.

Gearography

2009-07-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a rundown of the hardware and software equipment used in the production of our first album.

Keyboards & Tone Modules:

Alesis Ion
Korg

M1r EX
M3
R3

Kurzweil K2500R
Moog Voyager
Nord Lead 3
Roland

JP-8000
MKS-30
SUPER-JX
V-Synth XT

Yamaha TX802

Computer & Software:

Apple iMac 24"
Apple Logic Studio
Izotope

Ozone 4
Vinyl

Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3

Guitars:

Ibanez

Ergodyne bass
S-Series guitar

Roland G-707 guitar

Mixing & Interface

Behringer RX-1602 Mixer (x2)
MOTU MIDI Express 128 (x2)
T.C. Electronic Konnekt 24D Digital Interface

Irrational Number Available on iTunes

2009-06-17T00:56:00.000-07:00

It's official. Our first release "irrational number" is now available for preview and purchase on the iTunes Music Store.

Click here to direct your copy of iTunes...

http://tinyurl.com/dataless

Thank you to everyone who helped to made this possible.

Busy in Tokyo

2009-06-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a very busy month for Dataless. We're in Tokyo and have barely been able to come up for air the whole month of May. And speaking of Air, we went to Club Air in Diakanyama tonight and had the pleasure of seeing Nakata Yasutaka (中田ヤスタカ) spin. Not only that, but we met and spoke with him briefly and passed our demo CD to him.

Nakata-san was very casual and nice, took a few moments to chat and said he'd check out our tracks on YouTube. Then he went and threw down an amazing, gut shaking set of mostly original material. Given what passes for "techno" these days, his original club pieces could be called "cyber-techno"... take the typical thump thump and filter-swept wail of standard techno (minimal and house) and the ever popular cut the lows and sweep the highs to build tension then drop the kick after 32 bars and turn all that on its ass. If you've heard Capsule, Imagine that stripped down, folded back on itself and run through a chipper-shredder during an Tesla-induced electro-mechanical resonance quake and that's about what it sounds like.

And the club's sound system was a force to be reckoned with. Pure power... folded W subwoofers stacked three meters high in a third sub-basement and a wooden floor with just enough bounce in it to so that everyone in the place was dancing, whether they intended to or not. Sound pressure levels and subsonics literally sent us to the bathrooms before the set was done.

Japanese people are a very lively but kind-hearted bunch. Despite the energy in the room, there was a sense of almost tribal harmony (without all the modern-primitive trappings, of course) and we enjoyed the experience greatly.

Irrational Number in Release

2009-05-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

Dataless has just completed the process of submitting our first release, Irrational Number, for inclusion in the iTunes Music Store. The submission process takes between 4 to 6 weeks so we're hoping to see our tracks visible and ready for purchase on the US, EU, Canadian, Australian and Japanese iTunes stores by mid to late June.

We will keep you posted as things develop.

Thank you to everyone who has helped to make this possible and a very special thank you to Michelle Murata to whom we owe our entire music career.

Arturia Origin

2009-05-01T01:21:00.001-07:00

The completion of a project is a time of reflection on past experience and anticipation of future adventure. What better time to add a new piece of gear to the studio?

Accompanying us on our forthcoming two month trip to Tokyo will be a brand new Arturia Origin Synthesizer (serial number 0003!) recently acquired from friend and fellow musician Roman Stange at our local neighborhood music warehouse store.

The Arturia Origin is a four layer, 32 voice analog modular modeled synth with step sequencer, effects and an amazing array of modulation and signal routing possibilities. It will give us something to do while we're not busy doing everything else we're already too busy to do.

Unfortunately, to make room for this new piece of gear, the t.c.electronic Finalizer 96K mastering effects processor and Alesis ML-9600 cd mastering hardware had to go. But that's okay... Logic Studio and the Izotope Ozone 4 are quite sufficient for now.

Irrational Number is Done

2009-05-01T01:12:00.000-07:00

The first EP release by Dataless, irrational number, is now complete. Tracking and mastering are done and promotional copies of the disc with card are prepared.

On Saturday we leave for a two month stay in Tokyo to promote this release and collect sounds and ideas for the the next one. Monday the 4th offers a unique opportunity to meet producer Yasutaka Nakata (Capsule, Meg, Perfume, Coltemonikha) in live performance and to possibly pass along a copy of the EP for him to review. News on that as it develops.

In the near future, look for irrational number to appear on the iTunes music store along with free download of a bonus track on this blog.

But for now, packing and preparation for a two month stay out of the country. There is much to do.

You Want on Youtube

2009-04-22T01:13:00.000-07:00

Dataless has posted our third pre-master release ... "You Want" featuring the iZotope Ozone 4 mastering effects plugin (still in demo mode) which we're considering getting to replace our t.c. electronic Finalizer 96.

You Want features words and music by Dataless and is dedicated to everyone who has ever made a mistake and discovered it too late. You Want is presented in HD with 320kbps audio. Video is not our medium but we're getting better at it.

View You Want in full size HD on YouTube and, of course, email us any time at datalessmail@gmail.com with your feedback and ideas.

Name Cards

2009-04-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

The new Dataless namecards are completed and being printed as of now. Here's the front-side graphic...

Only 100 this run... in a hurry to get them done before we're off to Japan.

Getting Ready

2009-04-14T00:55:00.000-07:00

Dataless is close to finishing the final track for our upcoming release. We're making some new marketing materials and getting ready to spend a couple of months in Tokyo while we shop our music around. More news ahead...

Swim on YouTube

2009-03-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

Dataless has just posted our first original pre-master recording "Swim" to YouTube. Swim was written, performed and produced by Dataless at the Fleeting Edge studio in San Francisco and features sounds produced by the Roland V-Synth and Super JX plus the Korg M3 and R3 recorded and arranged in Logic Studio Pro

View Swim in full size on YouTube.

Many thanks to Bret Truchan, creator of the GlitchDS and Quotile cellular automata music generation tools for inspiration on this song and for being a good friend and all around great guy.

We're working on our final song for the upcoming Irrational Numbers EP, "Velocity". Email us at datalessmail@gmail.com with your feedback and ideas.

Habit of You on YouTube

2009-02-21T15:16:00.000-08:00

We're launching the blog and posting our first pre-master video on YouTube... Habit of You featuring the words, voice and cello of Unwoman with her kind permission and support.

View Habit of You in full size on YouTube.

This pre-master recording of "Habit of You" is from our forthcoming EP "Irrational Numbers". Habit of You includes original voice and cello tracks from Unwoman's "Habit" on her 2008 release "Trouble" re-made with percussion, instrumentation and effects by Dataless. The video itself is live playback of the song in Logic Studio captured and compressed to video using Snapz Pro X.

We would like to feature your animation or imagery in our music videos. Post your video response to our video on YouTube or comment here with links to your online work and we will contact you to discuss collaboration opportunities.

Irrational Numbers is our first EP and will be available on iTunes and for limited hardcopy purchase on May 30. Look for more information and new pre-master tracks here and in our YouTube postings.

Email us at datalessmail@gmail.com with your feedback and ideas.