Virtuosity revealed (a post-recording tale). 


In the last two-and-a-half days, I completed a CD. Recorded, mixed and now prepped the entire thing. How is this possible for an anal-retentive like me? I had help - from one of the most talented people I've ever worked with. 

"Who's this?" you might ask. Well, his name is Gregory Taylor, and he is a co-worker of mine. He is also one of the few people that has taken the concept of virtuosity seriously, and has become an absolute master in the use of software during live performance. The software is radiaL, created by Cycling '74 (my guys), and Gregory has been using it since the OS9 days. He is so good that, no matter what sort of craziness I threw at him, he was able to come up with exactly the right matching audio to match.

"But radiaL is a looping product!" you might object. Sure - on its surface. But Gregory uses it to weave textures and haunting melodies that have no noticeable origin, and he has developed a lot of the material that he uses for looping. By mixing this with some heavy-duty effects, he does much more than you would ever think possible from a loop-oriented artist - and he does it in real-time. Gregory is one of the few people I can point to who has become a virtuoso in the laptop world.

I believe that we will be releasing this work Real Soon Now - I'll announce here once it is available. It some pretty abstract work, and represents a lot of different tools from me (MPC-2000, grooving electric bass and prepared acoustic guitar). It doesn't sound like "me", but it also doesn't sound like Gregory, either. I guess this sort of mix is why we invite other musicians into our lives, is it? 

Posted: Fri - August 26, 2005 at 12:29 PM          

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