Acid Cactus

[zoetrope]

Acid Cactus is another PS-02 recording. Let me know what you think.

[trashy]

I was listening to this in class. I asked my student Stephen (who is in Special Ed) what he thought of it. He called me "fat boy" and made a farting sound. Me, I like it. Way to use weird sounds without drowning out the mix.

[zoetrope]

And you didn't record the farting noise so I could add it to the mix?!?

[Eric Rottmayer]

i like this. very soundtrack-esqe. it reminds me of Red Rock West or maybe
Gas, Food, Logging. got any more?

eric

[zoetrope]

it reminds me of Red Rock West or maybe
Gas, Food, Logging. got any more?

Thanks for listening. I'm not familiar with either of those, but I'll check them out. I do have more which I'll post at some point.

[Eric Rottmayer]

just to clear it up, both of those mentioned are films. Red Rock West is a cheesey,
but good, Nic Cage/Dennis Hopper thing and Gas, Food, Logging was Ione Skye
with J. Mascis doing the soundtrack. anyway, both have sort of a desert feel,
which reminded me of your song as well. maybe too much information.
i just has some coffee. sorry. nice song though.

eric

[j.johnston]

The weird sounds are pretty cool. What are they?

[zoetrope]

Recorded in this order (on PS-02):

Track 1 - My daughter has a Thomas the Tank Engine book with push buttons, each button plays a song. The batteries are nearly dead, so now when you push a button you get the first gasp of sound and then it dies. I recorded the book's speaker with the Zoom PS-02's internal mic using a patch that added some delay while I pushed the buttons.

Track 2 - I created a patch for my electric guitar that sounded similar to that famous Spaghetti Western sound, but with a little more distortion. I adjusted the tone and volume knobs on the guitar too till I had the sound I wanted. That's the lead guitar.

Track 3 - Chords. I created another patch for a Ventures style 50's surf vibrato sound. While listening to the first two tracks I put in some chords and plucks to help fill out the sound.

At the end of the song I played with my volume knobs for the static. It's an old old Washburn electric guitar and I've never cleaned out the pots, so there's plenty of dust and crud in there.

I downloaded the 3 tracks to computer and opened them in Cool Edit Pro for mixing. I set the panning and levels there and mixed it down, converted to 44.1, then very slightly compressed the finished file. Then I converted to MP3 128 kbs.

[zoetrope]

got any more?

Here are more songs in general --> http://www.2090.org/outlawyr/zoetrope/songs/
and here are the songs that are most similar to Acid Cactus:
9volt
Late for the Train
Mexicoma
Train Lament

[JES]

Loved Acid Cactus -- was drawn to the title. Nice use of found sound and playing. I've been wanting to start experimenting in that direction myself. Any tips/stuff you wish you knew when you started doing it?

So that Zoom PS-02 thing. You find that real useful? I've looked at it but can't quite figure out what it's for. . . . Were all the songs recorded on it? Were the drumbeats off it?

Best,
--JES

[zoetrope]

Loved Acid Cactus . . . Any tips/stuff you wish you knew when you started doing it?

So that Zoom PS-02 thing. You find that real useful? I've looked at it but can't quite figure out what it's for. . . . Were all the songs recorded on it? Were the drumbeats off it?

As for the Acid Cactus sound, i was mostly ripping off Tortoise. So my best advice is listen to some Tortoise, then rip them off mercilously. Beyond that, I was just playing around making weird noises and that inspired everything that followed, so I guess keep your ears open for inspiring weirdness and play with it.

As for the PS-02, it is GOD. I run a discussion board at http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/index.php for those who are similarly addicted to this greatest of all gadgets. To quote the info at Zzounds (where I bought mine):

The Zoom PS02 Palmtop Studio is a completely self-contained recording studio that fits in the palm of your hand. Creating a digital multi-track demo can now take place anytime, anywhere. The PS-02 allows for recording onto 3 separate audio tracks with the ability to digitally "bounce" tracks together.

Features
- 3 audio tracks on Smart Media
- Additional virtual tracks allow for multiple takes on each track
- Multi-effects and guitar amp modeling
- Drum and Bass accompaniment
- Punch-in/out, Bounce Recording functions
- Built-in microphone
- SmartMedia recording (capable ofexpanding to an optional 128MB card)

It is truly amazing. Acid Cactus and 9Volt were recorded entirely on the PS-02; other songs I've linked to were recorded in part on the PS-02, part on computer. Everything mixed on computer using N-tracks.
There is no better way to spend $200
If you get one, plan on getting a 128mb smart card and a card reader.

[JES]

Thanks. I'll check out your site -- just took a quick look and it seems like there's a nice little user community.

Best,
--JES