Moving Forwards

Hello people!

Well, it's been a week or so since I released the Sabotage EP. The ReverbNation, Twitter and Facebook page are all receiving some increased interest, which is all good. But, if you know me, it doesn't stop there.

I'm on my way to finishing another EP. This one is slightly smaller, with two pure DnB tracks, and if I may say so myself, they're sounding pretty awesome.

I'm working on creating a monthly podcast as well, where I'm going to feature unsigned DnB artists, and play you some of their tracks. I'll also be giving you some updates on the general world of DnB, and maybe some reviews as well.

I also have an internet DJing session, which is scheduled to be about 2 hours long (at the moment). It will be held in January, and I'll provide a listen in link closer to the date. Be sure to check this blog, the twitter feed or the facebook page to recieve the link so that you can listen when it goes live. Most of the tracks played will be unsigned DnB, Dubstep & Electro artists. I'll make sure I'll post a full track list with links to the artists pages and websites on this blog, the day of the session.

Just another quick note, I'm going to try and schedule the session for 8PM British time, which means I'll actually be doing it at 4AM my time (Western Australia), which is a slight pain in the arse, but ah well. The session will be left up to stream as many times as you want for about a month (depending on artist approval).

Make sure you check out the ReverbNation account (www.reverbnation.com/akumadnb) to listen to Sabotage, and keep your feed-eyes posted for the new EP due to be out in a couple of weeks.

That's all from me,
Brad

Akuma Presents: SABOTAGE

Click here to download!

Track list:

1. Sabotage

2. On the Edge

3. Shades

4. One Nation

SABOTAGE is free to download! Stream versions will be added to the YouTube, Soundcloud and MySpace accounts.

So a little explanation on this one. These are all brand new tracks (no reworks). SABOTAGE and ON THE EDGE are straight up hard hitting DnB, SHADES is an atmospheric one, and ONE NATION is more of a Dubstep style song.

Finally!

Right, here's the deal:

I finally have a decent internet connection. I'm still trying to iron out a few issues with the router and the modem, but it seems to be fairly stable and operating at a nice speed.

I also have a shiny new Alienware computer, for all my gaming needs, and soon to be my music workstation as well. So, I'm going to make all the transitions from my laptop to my new desktop.

Once that's all done, I'll finish off the songs I've been working on over the past few months and upload them to the YouTube channel. Plus now I'll probably get some time to work on the tutorials blog.

So hopefully, things are looking up.

Short Update

Just a small update to let you know I'm still alive.

I'm still struggling for an internet connection, and I have no time at work to do anything on Akuma, so updates are going to be a little slow still. Hopefully, after this weekend, I'll have a dedicated high-speed connection at home.

The new website is in development and will be completed shortly. It will be uploaded when I finally get my internet connection, along with a few new tracks and some articles for the tutorials blog.

All in all, I haven't given up, I'm not dead and I haven't yet been admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

New Website

I am currently designing the new website to promote my music a little better. Once up akumamusic.com will link to the new site. You'll still be able to reach this blog by the old link of:

akumamusic.blogspot.com

Tutorials

Keep your eyes posted over to AkumaTutorials for week by week guides, hints and tips on production and synthesis.

In the near future I'll be going over creating solid D&B beats using the wonders of FL Studio's FPC plugin, and the simple but effective mixing techniques you can use to get the most out of your drum samples.

I'll also be going over creating some nice DnB bass sounds using the Rob Papen "Blue" synthesizer, as well as some leads and pads.

I'll also be talking about the various ways you can automate in FL to get more out of your mixes.

See you soon!

Sorry!

Okay, so for the non-existent people who allegedly read this blog, I would like to apologise for my lack of visibility over the past couple of months. I promise you, there's actually a good reason this time.

I have moved from Manchester in the UK to Perth in Western Australia. Yeah baby, I'm on the other side of the freakin' world. Aussie winter is warmer than UK summer, the nightclubs are pretty good and I can still get a pint of Guinness if I really wish.

Back onto the music, Chaotica. Yeah. Erm. With the move and everything, it never really got the loving care and attention that it so very much needed, and with that kind of got scrapped. To be honest, I'd got really tired of rearranging and remixing all the tracks. I could never get them to sound how I wanted, and I don't think I ever will. So on that note, no, Chaotica will never be "released". If you want a copy, just throw me an email, but I can't promise a quality listening experience.

There is a silver lining to all this though, there is new material on the horizon. In fact, since I've been here I've created about 50 (nearly) useless patches for my synthesizers and actually completed two tracks. Yes: completed (until I listen to them in two months time, decide they're crap, re-mix them, re-release them, realise once again they're still crap, and start something afresh).

I see a dangerous and a destructive cycle within my creative process, but the problem probably lies with that the only feedback I am receiving on my music comes from myself. You can never really trust yourself to fully and honestly criticize your own work in the proper way. You spend the first few days with the creation still high on the ecstasy of creating it, therefore altering your perception to be more accepting of it's flaws. Then that high wears off and you become over critical, and decide its crap; but other people could listen to it and think it was actually good.

Without that public feedback I'm never going to grow at this. I'm never going to truly understand my creative flaws and only try to perceive the flaws with my creations, therefore desperately trying to correct the symptoms without ever addressing the cause. And here we are back to destructive cycles again.

I'm not sure whether it's a naivety thing, the fear of embarrassment or just a simple case of temporary loss of confidence and self esteem from not being in work for the past two months, but I just can't bring myself to submit to any labels. Have I been producing long enough? Is it of a good enough quality? Is my music appealing to other people enough? In what circumstance would my music be distributed? As a commercial track, a club track, a tag on the end of the label's yearly compilation CD? I haven't a clue. I know I won't find the answers until I ask the questions, and that means actually start submitting my material to labels, but I'm still not sure I should do.

And now I've written this I could never include the website with the release. Hell, they'd probably Google me, just to see if I had any popularity or following. They'd find this article and probably think I was a problematic nutcase with mild schizophrenia. But then again, I suppose a lot of successful artists have a few similar personality traits.

I don't know.

I have limited internet access at the moment, so the new tracks will appear for preview either on the soundcloud or the YouTube account whenever. Could be tomorrow, could be next month. I seriously haven't got a clue what's really happening at the moment.

"Chaotica" - Full Album Coming June

Time Again

I know it's been a month since my last post, but that doesn't mean I've abandoned this blog or Akuma music. In fact, it's quite the opposite really. I've been working on several things at the moment, all with the intention of producing more quality Drum & Bass tracks.

So what's been happening? Well, lets see...

Chaotica EP

Work has been increasingly intrusive on my social life and free time lately, working night shifts and weekends. This has led to a bit of neglect on promoting Chaotica, which in hindsight might not be such a bad thing.

The full EP is going through a re-master, with some tracks going through some more structural tweaks. After spending some time sitting down to listen to the EP after it's production and after leaving it alone for some time, I've noticed improvements that desperately need to be made.

For example, "Chaotica" and "Don't Scream" are going through an arrangement change at the moment. I'm going to try and shorten the two tracks a little bit and add some punch and dynamics to the drops in each song. "Chaotica" definitely needed some mixing, a little remastering and some sampling changes to the drums. "Don't Scream" was an issue of arrangement mainly, but still needs some serious mastering.

"Bright Lights" is going through a remastering process, and I'm looking to really beef up the bass a little more. Maybe some layering, and possible a couple of sample changes in the drum kit.

"The March" needs some tweaking. Again a little mastering and some synth pattern changes. The bass drum has also be swapped out for something a lot more "punchy".

"The March (Angels Remix)" is being left alone for the time being. That was a joint project featuring my brother's input, so I kind of want to leave that one alone.

Once everything is completed and finalised, I'll look at seriously promoting the EP as best I can. It may look like a busy night tonight followed by me trawling around Manchester city centre with some CDs in a ruck-sac.

New Stuff

There's some good new tracks going to be released after a while, probably appearing on the next EP after I've finished promoting Chaotica. Some new PrimeLoops.com sample packs have helped me with really creating some interesting new drum patterns and sounds creating a little more of a Junglist vibes to these new songs.

Currently, one has a solid title of "Deadzone". The other's project files are simply named "1" or "Drum n Bass Skin". In fact, there's four versions of "Drum n Bass Skin", all built from the first, and all extremely different.

I'm using a lot of classic bass synthesis techniques with this new stuff, adding some heavy distortion/overdrive and other effects to create some interesting wobble and reese bass synths.

For this new stuff I'm concentrating heavily on purely creating my own sounds, rather sculpting sounds from presets included within the many synth VST's that I have. So, after experimenting with bass and getting that to a gold standard, there'll be some more pads and stabs being generated and added in.

So, it looks like this new stuff is going to take a little longer to produce, but it's a hell of a lot more fun to write!

Anyway. That's it from me.

I'll let you know when the Chaotica EP (Final) is out. Bye!

New YouTube Account

I've now created the new YouTube account. As of yet it doesn't have anything uploaded, and I've not even got around to entering all the profile information yet. But, it's up at least.

Obviously, the first thing to be going up will be the Chaotica EP. I really want to promote it a little more since I haven't had much feedback. I think I just have lazy friends... I'm sure they'll get around to giving it a listen, especially if it's easily accessible on websites like YouTube and Soundcloud.

As well as all that I have a few new tracks in the process heading towards the release of yet another collection or even EP. I'm going to make a real go at making this one even better than Chaotica, hopefully sending it off to some record labels. We'll see how it goes first before I bother with that.

I have some time off coming up after tomorrow so I think I'll make up some Chaotica EP Cd's and start distributing them freely. I know a shop in Bury and a couple in the centre of Manchester that would happily sell off my CD if I provide them with free copies.

There's other ways I can promote Akuma, but I'm not getting into the whole details of how I'm going to be doing that here. Well, not yet at least. Firstly I need to buy the CDs, print the CD covers and even look into some binders to make a little album art booklet inside with more information into Akuma and myself.

You have to spend money to make money as they say. Not planning on making money out of this quite yet though.

There's also the issue that if I start getting some shops to start selling the Chaotica EP, I may have to pull down the free download, and just offer the YouTube and Soundcloud streaming versions to people who haven't got access to those shops, or the funds to buy the CD. Plus, do I really think that Chaotica is good enough for people to be spending their hard earned money on? I'm not sure, as I've received little feedback so far.

I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, subscribe to www.youtube.com/AkumaDnB and listen to Chaotica when it's up.

Much thanks!

Feature: St. Lewis

Hey guys. Just a quick post to let you all know about the producer, St. Lewis.

Well to start, he comes from the same area as me and we used to play in a band together a couple of years ago as well. In fact, the first Akuma tracks were produced by Lewis as well (some unreleased stuff I've never found after my computer died). I remember the night we booked a hotel room, got wasted and just messed around with FL Studio all night, and what a night it was. That was the night the name Akuma was born, if I remember correctly.

His YouTube channel features some of the tracks he's completed, including original work and remixes. There's a underlying dark style, with a lot of Aphex Twin influence shining through in a couple of the mixes. It's raw, dark a lot of fun to listen to. Unfortunately at this current moment I'm unable to turn it up to a more Brad friendly volume as I'm in the office. But, I am downloading the MP3s (which are available free) which I'm planning to blast out at home later.

Since Lewis is drummer, and a damn good one at that, each track features catchy and very addictive drum patterns that drives the music through. "Symphony Scratcher" is a must listen.

So get down to his channel here and have a listen. Please leave comments and feedback.

The Chaotica EP

Download "Chaotica EP"

1. Chaotica

2. Don't Scream

3. The March

4. Bright Lights

5. The March (Angels Remix)

The download is currently only available via Megaupload (Link at the top), sorry. I'll source more mirrors when I have time.

Please enjoy and leave any feedback you may have.

The Chaotica EP is Copyright "Akuma"/Brad Smith 2011. If you wish to use or redistribute any of the material used in the download, please contact bradley.smith1990@gmail.com

Longer than expected

Okay, so the Drum n Bass stuff for Vol 2 is taking way longer than expected (like, spent a week working on it and I only have one finished song and a smidget of another). The stuff thats coming out is really nice though. I have the PoiZone synthesizer on a leash, and it appears to be doing what I want it to (created a beasty synth for a track called "The March"). It's a lot of turn this nob left, turn this one right, turn this on, nope too much, arghhh stop making that annoying beeping sound, there we go.

I've also experimented with the Toxic Biohazard synthesizer as well, as it features heavily in "The March", driving the bass line. But I'm yet to get it to do anything more interesting, for now PoiZone and Sawer seem to be the sure way to create some really thick, hard hitting synth sounds. As for the drums (In case anybody hasn't realised yet I'm using FL Studio here) the FPC is working great for layering my kits, and it works very nicely with the Piano roll. I think it allows around about 64 pads for a kit, and with an option for many, many different layers within one pad it's perfect for building some great DnB drum kits. Thinking about it, I'm also thinking of having FPC layer and trigger my effects...

I'm going to spend a bit of time mastering the use of automation waves, particularly removing and then replacing bass or treble within the drum tracks to add some dynamics when building up to chorus sections. I don't want to overplay that trick though, since it can become quite old very easily.

If anyone has any tips on mastering Toxic Biohazard, be sure to drop me an email since I'm pulling my hair out using it!

Anyway, I have a surprise for you all. Remember I was just talking about a track called "The March"? Well, I wasn't going to do this but here's the track via soundcloud! Hang on....

Rendering 7%

:| Okay. I'll wait.

Rendering 32%

I'll get there eventually. W-hay! It's done! Right, here's the soundcloud plugin-ma-bob for "The March".

The March by akumamusic

Skyline Remixes Started

Vol 2 is approaching completion, and the Skyline Remixes have been started. I'm currently working on a DnB version of Alone, changing it's whole sound and structure, while maintaining the original essence of the song. I believe it'll be a good 'un.

Tonight (if I don't end up partying) will be the finishing touches on a couple of Vol2 tracks, and I'll also be wanting to get all the album art finished (some of which I haven't even started yet).

So yeah, just that little update to keep you informed. I know I'm rubbish at keeping to my deadlines, but what can ya' do?

Doing Things the Good Ol' Way

For the purpose of completing the remixes of Skyline and finishing Vol 2, I've decided to purchase a drum sample pack from Primeloops.com - both the FL Studio and Reason versions totaling nearly £30, which I don't think is a bad price.

I definitely think it's about time to start making my mixes sound more solid and professional, so purchasing some good sampling content was must. Both packs are currently downloading as I write this and I'll be looking forward to plugging them into FL and Reason and having a good play tonight.

The problem is that plastic burns a hole in my pocket, and I'm now finding myself browsing through PrimeLoops' awsome collection of sample packs and licking my lips a lot. I'm seriously thinking of downloading some Synth packs as well. Maybe some acoustic packs for my lighter work? Maybe mixing that in to create some weird Liquid DnB. Or maybe I should put my wallet away and calm down.

Either way I'm going to have lots of fun producing the rest of the Skyline Remixes and the Vol 2 stuff...

Vol 2

Hi Guys,

Vol. 2 is nearly here! It's two-part collection. "Vol. 2: DnB Sessions" and "Vol. 2: The Mix Sessions". It's pretty self explanatory really. The Mix Sessions stuff is all the tracks (+ more) that was released to YouTube under the Mix Sessions name. DnB Sessions is the really new stuff that no one has heard yet, but as a hint: "Don't Scream" is part of that collection, even though it's not really DnB.

Strangely enough, the Skyline stuff isn't nearly ready yet. Well, the collection itself has been finished for ages (it's up on the YouTube account), but I haven't gotten around to the remixes yet. I've been working a lot and have also been trying to catch up on general life. There's some really cool and different directions I wanna take with these remixes (sneak peak: there may be some vocals) which only adds to the time they're going to be finished. So, you'll have to wait a while for that release.

Also, I am still waiting for material from Alter Ego. Danny has said he's got some new mixes he wants to send me, but they're not quite ready yet, which sucks. I've got some unfinished tracks but I really don't want to review them. Well, because they're unfinished. I know he's busy with work right now, so lets give him some space shall we?

Hmmm, I might even feel an Akuma/Alter Ego collaboration down the line... I'll have to talk to Danny about that.

So, release date for Vol 2. is sometime this week. That's as specific as I'm going to get.

As for Skyline + Remixes, I haven't a clue. Sorry!

Promises Broken

Remember last week I told you I would be releasing the following....

• Full hi-quality download of the "Skyline" collection, including three bonus remixes
• "Akuma Vol 2" featuring brand new tracks and tracks in the "Mix Sessions" collection.
• A review of some of Alter Ego's material (headed by some old band mates Danny & Kyle).

... and I didn't. Well, I will! But it's going to be on Tuesday. I would have them ready for Sunday, but since I'm in Wales again this weekend, I don't have a strong enough internet connection to upload anything.

Who knows, I may come back to Manchester on Sunday, and you might get them early. Who knows....

The one, and only

I think it's about time I shared my love for Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin. The guy has some serious heavy-weight material going on, and for those of you who know of Aphex Twin, will know of his continuous work within the electronica music industry.

It's around about 04:35 in the morning, and I'm spending my time browsing YouTube. At this surreal time in the morning I often find myself listening to strange but wonderful music, and Aphex Twin always appears in the search bar at some part of the night.

But I'm not actually going to show you an Aphex Twin song, I'm going to show you a song that was somehow distributed across the internet via Torrents and P2P filesharing software as being Aphex Twin (just like the famous apparent Ghost in the Shell song, which I'm pretty sure turned out not to be Aphex at all) but indeed, Mr. James seemed to have no involvement with the song at all. I could be mistaken, but that's what I've gathered from information around the 'net.

I had aquired this song a while ago while browsing around the internet for some Aphex Twin material, and when I found this track I absolutely loved it, and I've just rediscovered it. The song is simply titled "Violin Solo". Imagine: violin + jazz + minimalistic bass + jazz piano chords = hyperactive yet extremely cool and laid back, Italian coffee bar. That's this song all over. Give it a listen, it's brill:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5j3CORfxmw

Don't Scream!

Right, so I'm excited about this mix. While I was working on it I sent the work-in-progress versions to Danny from Alter Ego to grasp his opinion of the track, and he liked it!

So, after a few bottles of beer and a Chinese takeaway last night, I got to work on finishing the song I call, "Don't Scream". I'm not sure why it's called that, maybe because of the creepy feel, but who knows. My mind doesn't always work properly.

Anyway, the song isn't available on the YouTube channel yet because I don't want to keep releasing anything under the "TheDarkMunk" channel name. I'm going to create a dedicated Gmail address for Akuma Music, along with it's own YouTube channel as well.

But the song is available via SoundCloud! And here it is:

Dont Scream by akumamusic

I'm also still awaiting Danny to send me his finished Alter Ego tracks so I can do a piece on them. So, that will come in due time...

Long Break, Back on Track

After a short break, and some dabbling here and there, I'm back in the creative mood again. I've been working on some tracks loosely based on psytrance and have also been experimenting with some new beats and sounds.

A new work in progress, "Don't Scream", will be ready in a couple of days and will hit the YouTube account shortly after.

I've also got some goodies coming up over the coming week:

• Full hi-quality download of the "Skyline" collection, including three bonus remixes
• "Akuma Vol 2" featuring brand new tracks and tracks in the "Mix Sessions" collection.
• A review of some of Alter Ego's material (headed by some old band mates Danny & Kyle).

Alter Ego, I believe, was first conjured up during the days of playing in "the jam room" when me Danny and Kyle were part of an industrial death metal band (or somewhere near that genre), Serafim. The both of them started to experiment with FL Studio, creating some interesting tracks using hip-hop, jazz and metal styles to influence their core sound.

So far from what I've heard of Alter Ego, I love it. Keep your eyes out for a review of some of their tracks this week.