Listen to or download AEJOTZ albums, free, at aejotz.bandcamp.com

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

electro-music.com radio MKII

I command you to check out electro-music.com radio MKII.

Just go to electro-music.com/radio and click the MKII banner.

Do it! Do it now!

Why?
Because it's the best 24/7 stream of rhythmic-melodic electronic music in the world!

I'll be re-launching Satellite 5 on ScrubRadio.com very soon.
But in the meantime, and in-between time, MKII !!!

Yes, they play some AEJOTZ music. They even play some Dreamsofasiagirl.

Yay! Wahoo! Wukka-wukka! Boing!!!!

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Mixed Blessing - oh what a punny title!

I got my new Behringer Xenyx 1202 mixer yesterday (for my 60th birthday... booo!) and it has changed my musical life. Thanks to the presence of the mixer, all of my equipment is hooked up and ready to go at any time. This makes it hassle free to switch or combine instruments. It used to take several frustrating minutes of cord and connection manipulation to change things, which was a real musical momentum killer.

This should make me more productive, right? That depends on what you call "productive." If you're referring to "product," maybe not.

You see, the only way I could readily add layers in the old days was to record tracks on a multi-track recorder. This encouraged me to record those tracks. Duh. But now I can play the sequencers and arpeggiators on my instruments and then immediately jam to them on my other instruments, and it's as easy as pushing a couple of buttons. My rig is now a musical momentum feeder!!

In other words, I'm too busy playing new music to record anything! And I'm having a blast!

My favorite part of music has always been the creative part. I've never cared much about product. Yes, my recorder is also connected and only requires pushing the "REC" button to record whatever is going through the mixer. And I'll probably do that sometime. But most musicians will understand that pushing that button changes things psychologically.

I play with my synthesizers in the same sense that a kid plays with toys. It is joyful recreation for me. I've been a pro musician and it sucked the joy out of the music. I still feel associative stress anytime I touch a guitar. But my synthesizers are not tools used in stressful work. My synthesizers are the coolest toys I ever had.

So maybe I won't record 20+ tunes in 2014 after all. Or maybe I will. But that's not as important as the time I spend being AEJOTZ the synthesizer cyborg.

The next time electro-music.com does a live broadcast event, I might sign up. I now have everything I need to do a live-online show. That's pretty exciting and a little scary.