Working It Out

The bizarre week has taken it's toll and frankly I am tried of it. So let's get back to the music.

As you all know, I bought a Kaossilator. I hooked it up to the computer and went to town on it for a few hours on Sunday. Like anything new, I practiced and tried out a few things. As I played, I soon realized that like anything, I would need a Hell of a lot of practice. I think many people think when they get something, it will be easy and they can just create. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Here is a clip from my first session.



Terrible, right? Well what did you expect from my first time out, a symphony? All jokes aside, I will need more practice and I will post clips of my sessions and you can tell me if I am getting better or worse. The cool thing about recording the sessions is that I can take them apart in SoundForge and find usable samples so I can still mix them into my music. This will create the unique sound I am trying to achieve.

Like everything, it will be work. But it is work I am looking forward to. I have talked to NovaBelle and she will also begin teaching me piano. I will try to get some clips of that in the near future. I will not be spending my life doing all of this but I must dedicate at least 30 minutes to an hour a week to the piano and 2 hours a week to my music. I know it will be tough but I wont run.

I just have to work it all out.

~Julian

Star Trek meets NIN

This is made of complete awesome. Had to start your Friday off right!

~Julian

Kaos, Cold and Blue Screen of Death!

Saturday was a very cold day. I mean, so cold I felt it down to my bones and thought maybe leaving home was a bad idea. But I would not be persuaded.

NovaBella and I left for midtown on this cold, cold day. Our intention was to eat out, hang, buy a Kasossilator and have a few drinks toward evening time. We had fully planned on meeting all out mission objectives and end the evening returning home, drunk and laughing. Nature was having none of this.

Long story short, We had a late lunch and started to walk to Sam Ash around 49th street. The cold was seeping into us, We started to shiver. I tried mind over body and calmed myself down but that only lasted a short while. (I love mind over body stuff. I will need to talk about it in the future.)

Once we reached our destination, I was in one of Heaven's music rooms. Everything turned into a whirlwind of playing with keyboards, asking questions, making synthesizer robot voices and making it to the object of my recent affection.



Happy Happy Joy Joy feelings took over. We left Sam Ash and walked one block. We gave each other the 'look' and decided we needed to go home. I know in some places that 11 degrees is not cold, but for this guy and his gal, its the arctic.

At home, part of the evening was spent playing with my new toy and having fun. I was sad when we left to go out and play poker with friends.

Sunday came and I woke with music in my heart and ideas in my brain. I sat at my computer ready to create new masterpieces. I had to shut down my computer and restart it because it was acting slow. It was in the middle of an update when the power flickered.

Yes......The dreaded blue screen of death had struck my computer. I thought all hope was lost.

Everyone, listen to me, back up your data! I had not done that and for a moment I thought I lost everything. After a frantic phone call to a friend of mine, he talked me through the steps to retrieve my information. I was saved by the skin of my teeth but spent my Sunday instead of creating music but trying to piece my shattered computer life back together.

I do not leave you with music this fine evening, merely a tale of caution. Back up your data.

Once I am back to full strength, the music shall keep coming. Now I need to get to back to work.

~Julian

Needs Kaossilator

You ever see something you must have?

It happened to me this week. Despite all the mountains of work and my attention being pulled in several directions, I was thinking and day dreaming about music. I know I treat my music like a wonderful hobby but there are times you need to get serious.

I want a KAOSSILATOR!



I have been obsessing over this machine for days now. Talking endlessly about it to the point I am making people's ears bleed. Here is a little Youtube on how it works.



I spent some time doing research and such but nagging thoughts entered my weary mind. One thought was "How serious am I going to take all of this?". I spoke with NovaBelle and we came up with, if it is fun, then go for it and damn the costs! I was also looking into several other KORG items I want to purchase but my thoughts were to starting a bit small and work my way up.

This weekend.....The music is on!

And to leave everyone on a musical note, I came across this on Facebook and was all about it.

Feel It In My Bones Paul Webster Remix (DJ SKittlez S.Y.M. Instrumental Edit) by DJSkittlez

I love this stuff!

~Julian

Reaver and SoundCloud

Reaver-JulianRavage by Julian Ravage

Reaver - Julian Ravage

I haven't been too happy with 4shared over the last number of weeks so I decided to change sound formats. I found Sound Cloud and it seems to be working out well. You have a certain amount of minutes for your account(which is about 2 hours) in which you can upload music. I am going to give it a try for a little while and see if they hold up. The only draw back I had with Sound Cloud was it took hours for me to upload Reaver, otherwise I would have had an update yesterday. Their tech support seemed pretty nice and were working on the problem.

In other news, people are probably wondering when any of my new music is coming out? I have been working on it but have only put two tracks together. I will need a few more under my belt before I start showing them off. Everything in due time. I wanna try and do this right.

And finally, yes I have joined the dreaded twitter army. So if you follow me, I will follow you and life will be bliss.

~Julian

PS- I know many people are helping with the tragedy in Haiti. If you would like to donate, the RedCross is accepting donations to help the relief effort. I wish the people in Haiti better fortune and better days ahead.

Knight

Knight - Julian Ravage

It is Saturday and I can feel the energy of the day. Tonight feels like it will be a good night! I am sure I will keep my Facebook up with pictures of today's adventures. I wanted to put up a track from the older collection.

Enjoy the night. Drink and be free you children of the world!

~Julian

Finding Style

I have been spending part of the evening listening to samples and trying to make my own. It has turned into a second job but a fun one. I see all the possibilities with it but I am trying to find my voice, my style.

Style is important and it helps define your music and yourself as an artist.

I enjoy the journey and want to keep searching for my inner voice.

I listen to all kinds of music. I found lately I have been listening to two artists. Their styles are mind blowing and I am looking into creating my music which combines these two dreamers.



DJ Tiesto has hit the scene of the world and just doesn't stop. He is getting pretty big across the world and I love what he did with Adagio for Strings. This one is one of my favorites and put it on repeat all the time.



Warrior's Dance by The Prodigy has been killing my ear drums. The entire album, Invaders must Die, is fantastic. I cant get enough of it.

I feel my style is a mixture of the two but I am still working on it. It's all about finding yourself.

Always remember to experiment. I made the mistake of giving up when things were not working out musically. Now I try to power through.

~Julian

Abyss and Distraction

"Abyss" - Julian Ravage

I never liked following the pack. The thought of following others always distressed me. I have this under lining thought that no one really knows what they are doing and a good portion of the time, they are just feeling everything out as they go.

This drives me to great distraction.

And because of these thoughts, I doubt much of my ability and drive to do things. It does seem pretty pointless in the grand scheme of life. I promised myself that this journal would not be about negative emotions and problems. But they do crop up every now and again.

I spent a good part of my Sunday researching other Trance/Techno/Electronica artists. Midway through, I felt I made a mistake. One thing a dreamer or artist should never do is compare their work with others. It makes you doubt yourself and your ability to create. You can look at the world and see a lot of talent and wonder how you fit in this world.

Then I powered on through that emotion and continued on to what I wanted to know. I pushed pass that negative energy and looked further into the direction I needed to be. Why doubt my ability or even my fun because some other nobodies on the net? I had to make sure I was doing something productive.

As I searched, I came across to few sites where someone can plug their music/album.

AudioStreet is a place I checked out. You can upload your music and album art by becoming a member. I spent part of time going through artists and listening to their music.

CTG Music was another placed I looked at. You can hotlink your MP3's to the site. You get rated and reviewed by other artists in the community.

These were two sites I checked out and found them interesting but wasn't sure that was the direction I wanted to go. Dont get me wrong, a place where artists can get together and talk shop is fantastic but you have more artists then people who just want to hear music. The market is drowning in people showing their stuff, the public has tuned it out.

I had to get back to the fun.My day turned a bit brighter when I put the headphones back on and played around with the music again. It is about the music and that should be the one thought in your mind. Drive back everything else and have fun. You will feel better. I promise.

~Julian

Lord and the Past

Lord - Julian Ravage

There are a few subjects I want to talk about. One of them is the past. About 5 years ago I got a hold of a few programs and wanted to make some music. I pretty much spent hours, days and weeks creating music. As long as I liked it, it was good. I even created a whole album. I burned some CD's with a few tracks and pushed them all over the place. It was one of my favorite moments in life because I just wanted to put something out there to change the world.
The track "Lord" was one of my favorites and managed to get it played at a few club nights due to some DJ friends. I thought I was on my way to the big time and was having fun all the way.

Then everything changed.

Trying to create music and finding a real audience was harder then I thought. Things started to fall apart. I grew frustrated and let everything sit on my external hard drive and dive into something else.

The reason I became frustrated was because I wasn't learning, sharing and growing. It would seem I was more impulsive 5 years ago then I am now. Maybe I mellowed? I dont really know.

I have taken a real hard look at myself lately and told myself I needed to do things different. I need to look at things and make smarter choices. With all the projects I have been working on, I feel I am getting better at shaping things the way I want them.

The one thing I haven't learned was sharing.

I need to share what and how I am doing things. This journal is not just a place to put my projects forward, this is a place where I can document the changes in me. A stage where my victories and defeats go hand in hand. I can help push fellow dreamers into expressing themselves. Where I can help push myself and lift up little dreams into the sky.

Lately I have been doing research on many subjects from promotion to YouTube tutorials on FL Studio and AcidPro. It is turning into a lot of work but It feels worth it and best of all, fun.

No matter what I do, I want to share the creative process. I have no inside track to getting ahead or anything like that. Just doing this for fun and the challenge of it.

I plan on this year turning into a bit of a wild ride. I have been working on new tracks and plan to post my "older" stuff. I still have other projects besides music on the horizon. I will share other dreamer's works whenever I come across them and do what I can to help.

I have been thinking about this for a few days. I guess I just had to share it.

~Julian

Photo Art by NovaBelle

Hello to everyone in the New Year 2010!

This year will be a special one with many changes on the way. But onto the beauty at hand.

NovaBelle and I were talking the other night over drinks at the Thirsty Scholar. A great place to sit, drink, talk about art and life. As we spoke, I brought up NovaBelle's photography. Her eyes grew bright as we spoke. She does have a love and passion for taking wonderful photos on her free time. Something I try to encourage when I can. After a few moments I convinced her to let me show some of her stuff here.

Below are some of my favorites of her work.






This one is a personal favorite.

I am trying to convince NovaBelle she needs to have her own online portfolio or photo blog. She is still toying with the idea. I will support her anyway I can.


On a more personal thought, this blog isn't just for my projects. I enjoy art and music more then anything. If I can show off an artist's work then I feel I am doing my part to bring some color to all the dreamers out there.

~Julian