Uhhhh.. Happy New Year?! I know, I've been soooo bad about reaching out and letting you all know what I've been up to with my music. I've released a smattering of YouTube stuff… And some Facebook Stuff… And some Instagram Stuff. So if you've been following me on those platforms, you've seen some of the stuff I've done. If not, you can find those links at the bottom of my blog and follow me! I'll talk about all that stuff later below.
But first things first.. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I've been in production on my next album, “Into The Broken Nothing.” It's really becoming one of the most complex albums I've ever done. But I noticed a rift in the music. As some songs are very deep, very dark and very emotional, yet another group of songs are more Electronic with a dance vibe; taking me back to my work back in the 90s. As a result, I'm missing the flow for a singular album. Currently I have around 13-14 songs in various forms of production. That's becoming one heck of a deluxe album. So I've decided to break the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) stuff into a separate album. And that one will be released first. The new album will be called, “Electric Kingdom.” And I've already got 6 tracks on that one in production. If I decide to add some of the DAWless stuff I've been working on, that will complete the songs for the album and I won't have to write anything else. It's still going to take some time to finish. So don't expect it out until maybe summer.
Going back to “Into The Broken Nothing.” There's another reason why I am delaying that release. I really need to find a vocalist. Maybe even a couple of vocalists. I'm not happy with my singing on it. I have people in mind, but I need to reach out. And I can't do that until those tracks are finished. So the songs are still being written and developed. And now that it is going to be it's own release, I will need to write more music for it. I just don't want to wait years to do another release. So “Electric Kingdom” should fill that gap. But when “Into the Broken Nothing” does release, it will probably be some of my best work (at least for me personally).
Let's talk tech! You can skip to my final thoughts, if that doesn't tickle your fancy! If you haven't noticed, my modular synth has grown.. uh.. considerably. From this…
To this…
Yes, it has become quite the glorious beast! Why the major upgrade?? A couple of things for me. As noted in my last Blog. My house had a major power outage that damaged the smaller case's power supply. And I seriously thought that it had damaged the modules, as they began malfunctioning. In that Blog I noted that I thought I had resolved the issue. But after that was posted the modules started malfunctioning again. So I needed to purchase a replacement case to test and see if I had lost several hundreds of dollars worth of modules (Yikes!). I also didn't want to go back to the case brand of the smaller case. I wanted something with a more “robust” power supply. However, the smaller case had a few built in features unique to that model, like audio I/O, Midi to CV I/O and power. Whatever I decided on needed modules to replace those features, thus the need for more space. Luckily, someone on Reverb gave me an excellent deal on this double decker unit (or 6U in modular talk) brand new. I have old gear laying around that I was able to sell on Reverb to fund this project. Plus the Modular market is very robust. People are constantly buying new modules, trying them out, and then turning around and selling them for fairly cheap. Not only that, there are literally hundreds of these modules out there from different manufacturers at various prices. So you can get all hardcore and buy modules for around $800-$1000 bucks each, or you can be like me and buy cheap ones for anywhere from $30-$150 bucks each. And of course I didn't buy these all in one whack. List an item for sale, wait for it to be sold, buy some modules when it gets sold… rinse and repeat! A good portion of the modules you see in that rack were purchased used. But in excellent condition! The benefits? Some people buy these setups to just make random noises. Not me, I'm building a custom instrument. And here it is in Action!
As you can hear, the beast I've made is very musical. And that's exactly how I want it. I've set it up so that it can be controlled on it's own, controlled from a DAW, or in the case of the above video, controlled DAWlessly with an external sequencer. It's really fun patching this stuff together like a mad scientist and creating these sounds from scratch!
Finally, in regards to music getting out there. I also did a Hardware Jams challenge over the Winter using my Modular again. “Hardware Jams” is a Facebook group that does a Weekend Challenge, where you need to write a song over the weekend using only your hardware setup, ie. DAWless, ie. No computer, based on the theme that they provide. Then the winner is picked according to the voting from the group members. The challenge for that weekend was “Dawn Chorus.” Doing a song that would encapsulate the dawn or morning. So I submitted this song, which was showcased on their YouTube Live feed along with the other entries. I didn't win, but it was a lot of fun putting my Modular Rig to the test again. I was quite pleased with the results. You can check it below..
Final Thoughts…
As you can see from the above vids, I have been keeping busy. But the holiday madness, birthdays, sickness, adulting and other things do tend to put music making in the back seat. That's just life. But for any of you who take the time from your days to listen to my tracks or play it while you're working, studying or relaxing, I appreciate it. Hoping to grow my library with new releases soon. But until then, check out the links below to see what I've released musically so far. And thanks for checking in!
One final note for all you Facebook and Instagram users! You know how you make your little reels, etc. etc. and you have the option to search and place music in the background of your post? My music is on there as well. Next time you are thinking of what music to put under your reel, perhaps you can consider putting my music on there? Just search for “Masterjoda75” and my stuff should pop up. I actually get some reasonable royalties from FB and Instagram when my music gets posted on people's reels. No need to do anything else but just stick my music on your reel. Thanks again!
-Joda
Listen to and purchase my music here: https://jodaproductions.com/links
Find me on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/JodaProductions
Find me on YouTube here (like and subscribe!): https://www.youtube.com/
click here to follow me and listen to my tracks on Soundcloud
Instagram: masterjoda75