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hanging out with audiophiles

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Dec 13, 2022 • 1h 13min

HOWA EP 104 - RED MEANS RECORDING

Such a treat to chat with Jeremy aka Red Means Recording. Now you must know who he is right? If not well you're in for a treat. He's an amazing creative soul and funky chap that makes excellent music, teaches and creates exceptional YouTube videos that go deep into the synth and electronic musical world. Highly recommended viewing. He's just great. Link to his YouTube here HELLO! Yes, I realize this has been a lonnnnng time coming. What's been up? The studio build is now hitting a new level of intensity and my Mum just left after a long visit and things have been a tad upside down so Im off my funk but here we are!   LINKS Please go and grab this new release from friend of the pod Marta Salongi and Floating points. It's a fund raiser for the charity Free Youth Orchestra which focuses on removing financial barriers between children and access to musical equipment and lessons so cool. the music is here to buy and thus support looking for something to fill the digital stocking? I can recommend this max for live device from the wonderful friend of the pod Ned Rush. It's called MIDI WAVES and it's ace and not expensive. grab here Jim Keller has been helping me design the new studio. Great to work with him. So much knowledge! Check his beautiful work here Thanks for Diana Walsch for pod support. Find her here Website: dmwalshmusic.com IG: @dmwalshmusic
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4 snips
Nov 9, 2022 • 1h 32min

HOWA EP 103 - FRED AGAIN

Hello! Jamie again. I caught up with this busy Fred on his current US tour.  He’s been busy you ask?  Oh yes. I mean so so busy.  For one thing he’s penned massive pop numbers with Ed Sheeran, Stormy and other huge acts Did you know that?  I mean BIG BIG songs.  And YET his mentor and good friend is none other than  Brian Eno!   Wait.. what? Ah yes, all shall be revealed. See the thing about Fred is he will write a huge song for an act like Clean Bandit in the afternoon, then be on the phone to fourtet for arrangement advice on his solo work by dinner time.  He can write on the road, he can write in the club. He’s prolific as they come this man!   Fred has been doing so well and it was great to get this chance to chat with him  What an exceedingly positive and fun chap he is. So much talent and a very good outlook Lots of nuggets in this chat. Obv we get into the Eno connection and the come up and  Fred reveals some massive beat making secrets he learned directly from Boi-1da.  I get some advice mid show too which I think might be a first :) We are here in part to discuss his ace new LP “Actual Life 3” which you can find in the usual streaming zones.   It’s a real pleasure to welcome on to the Show for the first time Fred….. Again _____   Making music? Want it out in the world? Take advantage of the savings HOWA offers ya! Use this 30% off code http://distrokid.com/vip/lidell
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Oct 25, 2022 • 1h 47min

HOWA EP 102 - MAX TUNDRA

Max Tundra is Ben Jacobs A man that was a child that grew up in London. As pointed out on his bandcamp, he went to the same school as Jude Law and a Chemical Brother, but didn’t know them. In this disposable content age, there’s an undeniable urge to go for quantity over quality is there not? The music Ben makes as Max Tundra comes as rarely as a celestial event. We forget the rising and falling of the sun each day but we don’t forget a total eclipse now do we? This is how it felt when Mocky and I came across the LP “Mastered by guy at the exchange”. We were without sun for a while. In an unknown land that felt Most welcoming and yet most peculiar. It was genuinely new music. Something so rare that still feels fresh all these years later. Here’s what hyper pop bloke A. G. Cook said of Max Tundra’s legacy: “‘Mastered by Guy at the Exchange’ is a true cult album - a playful monolith that sounds both nothing and everything like the 2000s. Stumbling across it as a teenager, it reinforced a hunch I had: that music is a place where anything could happen, and total chaos could be held together by the lightest of pop hooks. There’s an oddly British quality to Max Tundra’s work, a soft and polite maximalism - pioneering, eccentric and infinitely remixable.” Ben Jacobs invented hyper pop As they say in the UK FACTS It’s a good time to be a Max Tundra fan as domino has reissued his first three studio albums to be found HERE 2000s Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be, 2002’s Mastered by Guy at the Exchange, and the 2008 masterwork Parallax Error Beheads You. We get into a lot of his formative years and thankfully he kept so much of his sonic ramblings from that time and they can be found on his band camp page It’s a real treasure trove. Here it is What a legend. If you’ve never heard of him before, I’m so glad I get to make the intro. He’s a true original and a very nice man Please welcome on the show Max Tundra
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11 snips
Oct 9, 2022 • 2h 24min

HOWA EP 100 - NIGEL GODRICH

Nigel is my kind of producer He has a strong sense of quality, a strong sense of who he is and what potentials artists have to be cultivated and captured. He’s my kind of producer because he gets his hands dirty and doesn’t just act as a fan of the band and take on that guru role but he’s in the trenches, setting up the mics for perfect phase alignment, getting all the sonic chains correct but without a limiting rule book. There’s so much inventiveness in the productions alongside the incredible, undeniable tone. Of course there’s that ego and strong sense of self and I ran into his resolute perspective a couple of times by asking questions he deemed sub par or misguided. Let’s put it this way, you know where you stand with Nigel and of course he has a strong perspective. Imagine the courage and strength of conviction it would take to tell Thom Yorke or Paul McCartney that they could better a take or that a lyric felt cheesy or what have you. We might all think we want to be told yes all the time but Nigel, it feels, understands when to say no and let his point be known and I love that about him. I have immense respect for him. He's made some of my favorite records and I think it's fair to say that he's my favorite living producer. So needless to say it's an absolute thrill to have him on the show. It’s even more special to me that he agreed to do episode 100. NIGEL!!!!! Nitty 100 is a BIG one I get my hands on a rare Chamberlin M1 from the excellent Rob Burger and sample it in a most painstaking manner yielding a set of 8 instrument captures that showcase the sounds on the tapes in a way that’s never been heard before. I sent the finished pack to some amazing musicians and they all came back with beautiful music to demo the sounds. You’ll hear tracks from Dave Sitek Hainbach Dana Wachs Andrew Huang RJD2 Money Mark and I also made one that sneaks in at the end of the show 🙂 EP 100 Baby! bringing the heat!!! I only managed to make all this with the expert kontakt and decent sampler scripting help of Owen Bolig and GUI design from Tobias James. In the sample instruments you can blend 3 different layers. The DRY is a direct output from the instrument running into a Telefunken V72 preamp The DIRT is the signal processed though a silvertone amp head into a Roland RE-201 space echo in spring reverb mode 3+4) The DUAL MONO ADT NAGRA recordings are the star of the show and the motivation behind the instrument. The output of the Chamberlin was sent to 2 nagras at the same level. I played with the varispeed of one nagra tape machine and not the other so when the NAGRA channel on the kontakt or decent sampler is set to mono you hear unique ADT style phasing that’s varied per key press using scripting magic (Kontakt only). So there’s 3168 samples that make up the 8 instruments with a total of 4.62Gb of audio. Get ready! The Chamberlin ADT is available to Patreon members on the soul science level! Music for EP100 comes from Lok44 who’s LP 44problems is to found on TRUST. I was bugging out to this. I think he triggered something from my youth and I very much enjoyed the flashback! Thanks to sonible for their kind sponsorship Their plugins are well worth checking out. smart, clear and good sounding. Triple wammy! check them out 🙂 Thanks also to access analog for THEIR kind sponsorship Good news! They have given me a code to share with you all at check out so you can try this wild service for yourself and remotely control a pye compressor from the comfort of your studio or roaming about with a laptop with wifi. True 2022 business. The code you need at check out is....... trial-howa enjoy! Drums from this ad spot are from the That Sound “Hanger” library here shouts to my studio building crew! Jim Keller at Sondhus and Matthew Marinelli at coral sound thanks to Diana Walsh for cleaning up the audio as ever Last my most certainly not least, thank you to my lovely wife! Without her this show never would have been. Just would not have ever reached episode 1! Im so proud of her. She’s having her first solo art show as a painter here in Nashville at the brand new ZieherSmith Gallery. The show is called STIM and it’s going to be up from the 24th September. Check this link here for info! BYE x
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9 snips
Sep 23, 2022 • 1h 37min

HOWA EP 101 - TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS

TEED has an excellent new LP out now called “When the Lights Go” available on his Nice Age label. Check it ooot! HERE is Link to the album, tour info and loads of ace merch! If you didnt already get the Chamberlin ADT sample instrument I made here https://www.patreon.com/HOWA 4.64 Gb sample instrument of the instrument used by Bowie on Low! ahhh yes…let’s get on with the show….. It’s high time I chatted with this chap. We’ve hung out at multiple LA gatherings over beers and somehow never ended up in a suitable setting for a good chin wag. This has now been completely set right in what is a true alpine ramble twixt myself and the excellent TEED. We pass many a scenic wonder on our winding adventures. Touching on: the LA twilight zone Honesty and ambition Being cool TEED history Unknown music! The making of the new tones Equal love of jungle and Bach It’s just my kind of hang. Hope you enjoy it! Music comes from Andrew Huang ! he made his track exclusively with the Chamberlin ADT sample instrument I made from over 3000 samples of the VERY rare Chamberlin M1 all running to 2 Nagra tape machines simultaneously with a varispeed on only one deck to create phase and ADT effects PER note. EPIC! get it now! https://www.patreon.com/HOWA Ep101 ! YES It’s a shortee this time. I’m trying for a half bi so I can keep up with the DELUGE of interviews I’m been doing of late. Such good people, I want to hurry them out. art lovers ! Please check out my wife’s first solo paining show here it’s called STIM. I’ve been present for all the making of these and I’m so proud of her. It’s huge news for our family and I think so many of you will love the style and also the story behind the work as we discover about out autism. More on this soon 🙂 Thanks to Distrokid for the kind sponsorship :) Get your music steaming in minutes! Take advantage of the savings HOWA offers ya! Use this 30% off code http://distrokid.com/vip/lidell
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5 snips
Aug 20, 2022 • 1h 50min

HOWA EP 99 - DAVE OKUMU

You may know him for his soaring solo musical adventures or maybe you’re old school and you were always down with his band The Invisible. Perhaps you’ve seen him playing with Amy WInehouse or Grace Jones. Perhaps you’ve heard his collaborations with Adele, Yoko Ono or Tony Allen? Perhaps you’ve not come across him yet, in which case I’m very happy to make the connection. I know him as  a genuine, fascinating, generous and ultra simpatico friend that I see far too infrequently. There are few people I know that enjoy talking as much as Dave. He leads you into wild and wonderful places in his delightful and engaging explorations and I’m always keen to see where we might end up. In his presence, time seems to slow down and I find that deeply relaxing and very welcome. I often feel a tad in my head, or even headless but Dave brings a groundedness that is very settling. Those who know him have experienced his radiant smile and his tremendous, heart felt hugs. I feel very lucky to be friends with Dave. He’s a real one of a kind and an absolute beast of a musician.I had the chance to get a sneak peak of his new LP and it’s really mind blowing stuff. Just wait ! Ah yes. At long last, I’m so happy to welcome my friend on the show. Please welcome Dave Okumu Nitty 99 is an exploration of the Eventide H8000 and its excellent 4 part MIDI pitch shifter which appears to be the sound we know so well on the Bon Iver track 715 Creeks. I run all sorts of stuff into it and it's a delight! Can't believe this is my first time using it. Music for EP 99 comes from the rather excellent Botany! Superb. https://botany.bandcamp.com/album/deepak-verbera Still available for download is This EP FORUKRAINE performed by Rob Burger and sonically crafted by me all proceeds to the Ukrainian Redcross. Please consider a small donation :) I’d like to thanks Diana Walsh for her help prepping the interview audio @dmwalshmusic on the gram 🙂 PLEASE keep the music coming ! send submissions to lidellmakeswaves@gmail.com   side orders: Dave mentions Elizabeth Fritsch pots and how he'd like to live in one. When you see them you'll understand why. She's an absolute master and channels such beauty in her work. link HERE
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Jul 7, 2022 • 2h 41min

HOWA EP 98 - TONY ROLANDO

Mr maker of the odd circuits, Mr man with a vision to create a company from the ground up that dramatically changed the modular synth world forever, Mr maker of synth woven musics. Please welcome Mr Make Noise himself, Tony Rolando! We get into chatting about his excellent new album “Breakin’ is a Memory” Which you can find here Come and delve into this new work and imagine where Tony’s head is at. Making all these incredible instruments for us all make NOISE with whilst keeping his passion for the original motivation ---- the music making itself. He has the irresistible urge to create sound and frame these nocturnal excursions into an LP. He's made all this in his few free hours outside MN to stretch out and fashion a record, his way in his home studio. I’m really glad found space for this. It’s a great result and this LP is a rich listen! We get into all the juicy inside knowledge about how it was made from Tony himself. What machines were used and how. The mindset, the techniques, it’s all here! This chat is not an attempt to dive "Biographical". For that I highly recommend you listen to this interview that mylarmelodies conducted with Tony as it contains a quality insight into the Make Noise back story and Tony’s history, philosophy and such. Fantastic listen! Click here In the nitty I crack out an early version of the Make Noise Strega which was a collab with Tony and pod guest Alessandro Cortini. Such a powerful and fun little box! I put it together with a Befaco Noise Plethora (which is a self contained sculpt-able noise bath of a module) and use my voice to populate three loops that don’t care about one another. Like dogs, they all run free. Once you fill up these three, free loops, you can bounce them all to a virtual cassette deck alongside any input that might also be coming in to spin to tape. Once this new bounced recording stops, the 3 main loopers you used to make the 1st layer are emptied automatically and you can fill them once more and then bounce them to a 2nd tape deck until you reach the 3rd wave of loops that go to a final reel at which point you are all full up and need to delete either all or some of the parts you made to make room for new ideas. Birth and death is one of reasons to love looping. To know you must destroy to grow something fresh. So yes, I used the excellent Loopy Pro on an M1 iPad to build this looper with an Akai APC40 connected via a Hub the USB-C port on the iPad Pro. I was able to run signals to physical channels of a mixer using a class complaint audio interface with multiple outs. The whole idea behind this setup was to be as close to the moving parts as possible and to be able to reach all the controls extremely easily to manipulate all the important aspects that need to be influenced by hand as it’s all a performance and this makes it somewhat like making food. For stir fry, you need your ingredients right there. If you have to drive to buy ginger in the middle of a cook its akin to needing to halt the flow to get a machine recorded right if not easily connected and playable. This is key. All the factors from sound tone shaping, to levels to FX they need to feel playable. Having used loopers as my way of expressing myself live since around 2000, I have a very strong connection to working in this way. I made my loopers in Max/MSP but I must say, Loopy pro is a wonderful tool to build custom live looping setups in 2022 using a tool like an iPad that has a superb touch interface is a bonus. It’s all very welcome and I think it’s really the best tool you will find to make a custom looper that allows more options than a Boss 505 or any other hardware unit. I will include the loopy pro patch I made for this nitty for all the members of the HOWA Patreon on the soul science level :) The music for EP98 comes from Raj Pannu. Really unique stuff I feel. He has a patient and detailed flow that bubbles along in an immersive bass aquarium with subtle motion charted throughout. It’s like minimalism in the evolution of parts with a lot of sound pressure pushing and with a bold forward motion. Here’s a link to some of Raj’s music. I’d like to thanks Diana Walsh for her help prepping the interview audio PLEASE keep the music coming ! send submissions to lidellmakeswaves@gmail.com Thanks to Distrokid for the kind sponsorship :) Get your music steaming in minutes! Take advantage of the savings HOWA offers ya! Use this 30% off code http://distrokid.com/vip/lidell show music Highly recommended pod for these times: LIVING MYTH with Michael Meade
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5 snips
May 26, 2022 • 1h 46min

HOWA EP 97 - HOLLY HERNDON

Holly Herndon is an American composer, musician, and sound artist based in Berlin Germany.After studying composition at Stanford University and completing her Ph.D. at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, she pursued a music career internationally. Herndon's music often includes human singing voices (including her own), is primarily computer-based, and regularly uses the visual programming language Max/MSP to create custom instruments and vocal processes. She has released music on the labels RVNG International. and 4AD. Her most recent full-length album Proto was released on May 10, 2019 which was the first full length record to utilize singing neural networks. She's recently released a way to interact with her digital twin called Holly plus and as of now you can upload polyphonic material to her homepage and receive a version of your recording with Holly plus as the voice for all parts. She is well informed about the most modern issues relating to digital rights that go alongside ideas such as renting your voice as a virtual performance instrument, as opposed to the old school reliance on sampling. There's a complex array of legal challenges on the horizon and most of us are hip to the potential of very convincing deep fakes and such. Will we be able to download the voice of Bob Marley as a kind of VST style instrument ? It seems clear we will and that ownership of these voices is going to be crucial going forward to make the market a free and fair place. For those interested in the cutting edge, Holly is cohost of the podcast Interdependence which covers the people, projects and technologies shaping 21st century culture with a large focus on moving to web3. In the Nitty I return my piano to the renaissance by having it tuned to a 1/4 comma meantone temperament. I wanted to see how the equal temperament we know so well might stack up in a triadic battle against the old ways. It’s pretty fascinating to me. I hope you’ll get something out the of trip back to 1523 when the meantone would have been dominant. HOLLY links Holly+ Other peoples clothes book recommendation Cathy_Berberian Lauren newton LINKS TO MUSIC FROM THE SHOW Chants Platzwave Manor LINK TO FORUKRAINE This EP was performed by Rob Burger and sonically crafted by me all proceeds to the Ukrainian Redcross. Please consider a small donation :)
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7 snips
May 6, 2022 • 1h 11min

HOWA 96_BONOBO (LIVE SHOW SPECIAL!)

It's a first here at HOWA. YES  I've a returning guest ...... Si Bonobo ! He was here before on EP29 and now he's back to walk us deep into the making of his latest live show. It's an amazing spectacle, with a full band, ample electronics, guest vocalists, wonderful immersive visuals and a very ambitious, scalable delivery. Huge stuff! Was a treat to have him swing by my studio here in Nashville to share a coffee and have a good look into what REALLY makes such a superb show.  Hope y'all enjoy :)
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Apr 12, 2022 • 1h 54min

HOWA EP 95 - DANIEL ROSSEN

First of all please send music, comments and jokes to lidellmakeswaves@gmail.com and I’ll check em :) Feel free to join the pod patreon for the best sounds and max patches in the known universe and all that! link HERE Let's get on with the show! Ive been lucky enough to work with Daniel on my album Compass (2010) where he overdubbed a stack of these double speed, beautiful burnt crystaline, shimmering pentatonic runs that wind their way through the song “completely exposed” I was working with Chris Taylor from the Band Grizzly bear which is how many of you will have doubtless discovered the magic of Mr Rossen’s voice and song craft and what a craft it is! His style is so singular and he’s got that passion in his writing and playing that sets him apart with an intricate, elegant touch on guitar that has both urgency and solidity. There’s real fire in him and at the same time a soft vulnerability and it all races around in these huge landscapes he paints in sound. Amazingly this is his first LP and what a beauty it is. A Timeless beauty at that. It’s called YOU BELONG THERE and was released a few days ago on APRIL 8 2022 on warp records. He’s currently out there, SOLO on the road on a short US and Euro Tour. I saw him in Nashville and was mesmerized. What a talent he is. A humble soul also, with immense talent and a welcome dash of dry humour. HERE is a link to his webpage so you can see he’s coming to your town :) so with all that said, please welcome to the show, the rather wonderful. Daniel Rossen _____________ This episode features music from 5 excellent contributors! Oort CLoud services: Runnershigh No CIty West Erez Rok Zalokar https://shop.naturescenerecords.com/ Thank you to Fabfilter for sponsoring this nitty episode! I get super deep into the world of Timeless 3, their absolute BEAST of a delay plugin. It can pitch shift, distort, lofi, reverberate and custom tap its way into your world. It’s available for desktop AND ios and I’ve made a bunch rather sweet presets for it on my adventures with it that work on both platforms. SO killer. In the nitty I explore the idea of making evolving delay sequences using the excellent tap designer part of the plugin. Patreons get the presets of course ! some juicy ones based on my marshall time modulator! _____________ BONUS POD RECOMMENDATION! I was super excited to listen to the pod that mylarmelodies put out with James Blake HERE is the link. Some super insightful nuggets in there. I highly recommend you give it a listen if you’ve not already.

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