analog | Epilektric

Posted 13:15 by epilektric & filed under Sound Design.

After yesterday’s post Making Horror Movie Sound FX I began wondering were I could acquire a violin bow and and possibly a cymbal for super cheap. Before I discovered cheap bows on Amazon.com I looked around for some DIY articles.

Most of the homemade violin bow articles I found were of the artisanal variety involving expensive wood, specialty tools and most importantly, skill. Then I stumbled on the Awful Horsehair Bow at Moonmilk.com.

Clever as it is to use such cheap materials, I’d end up spending about the same on the wood, hardware, etc. as I would purchasing a cheap bow on Amazon.com.

Quibbles aside, Moonmilk is a virtual warehouse of DIY din makers. Its purveyor Ranjit Bhatnagar has been constructing instruments of questionable construction and unique timbre since at least 1993.

There is no question that making your own instrument is a great way to acquire some wholly unique sounds. If a little inspiration is required a quick dig through Moonmilk should get the gears turning.

Posted 09:49 by epilektric & filed under Albums, Music Releases.

The first full length album released under the Epilektric moniker, CD01 has a gritty lo-fi quality to it. The tracks are experimental and highly influenced by IDM artists like Autechre and Aphex Twin although they donâ€™t sound much like those artists.

There was a lot of sound design involved with creating samples for this album. Clips, snips, and bits of processed audio were collected and edited for sequencing. Very little in the way of live FX processing was used.

The tracks in CD01 represent a leaping off point for my exploration into complex rhythmic structures. A music critic might write in his review

“Slices of percussive noise bounce amongst dissonant tonal constructions and disembodied voices.”

But that’s just a lot of B.S. and really it’s an amateur collection of fuzzy sounds imitating better tracks by far better artists.

All in all, I still find this album an interesting listen and queue it up from time to time.