Shoot More Video!

I think it's amazing just how many people turn to YouTube as a first source of reference. It's become secondary only to Google as a site I turn to in order search for information about stuff.

And I'm not just talking about films/tv shows/bands - things that translate easily to the medium of video. I regularly use it to find software tips and tutorials, product reviews, I even search it to find videos shot in venues we're playing at to get an idea of stage layout, etc... And with the number of people playlisting music these days, it's a fairly practical alternative to services such as Last.fm for finding new music as well!

So it goes without saying that anyone attempting to promote anything these days should have a presence on YouTube. We've been posting tracks on YouTube for a while now - mostly with static images to accompany the music (as many people do). More recently, Andy shot our own low-budget video for Red Sky, which we were both very pleased with. We've also uploaded some videos of our live performances as well.

So now we're turning our hand to some other video work. Last weekend, we headed down to Docklands to shoot a video for our next FREE single, Fear No Evil. As with everything like this, we pulled in some favours to make this happen - an old friend of ours, Graham, is shooting and editing the video for us, and Dhiraj of Primal Pictures was kind enough to let us use his space at Limehouse Town Hall.

In true non-rock star fashion, there was much self-conscious shuffling when I was asked to bop away and lip-synch to the track - there's a reason Andy is the front man of this operation! I was much more comfortable behind my trusty QS7 playing away... However, thanks to everyone involved, I think we're going to end up with something pretty special for this video.

On the subject of video, we're also in the process of recording and editing our own electronic press kit at the moment. We've been collecting video footage for a good while now and it's great fun looking back over old clips of rehearsals and recording sessions to find stuff for the EPK. This is a much more personal video - a genuine look at the how's and why's of what we do.

And so our video presence grows, and hopefully people coming to YouTube as a first point of reference for Eat More Cake will find our channel useful!

www.youtube.com/eatmorecaketv

Eat More Cake on Urbantorque Transmissions!

So what better way to enjoy the snow than with one hour of the purest wintery chill-out in all the world, courtesy of Eat More Cake with Urbantorque Transmissions and Noice!

We put together this one hour show for Urbantorque which is syndicated across 11 radio stations across Europe. You can also listen to or download the mix on Urbantorque's website, or on MixCloud.

We had great fun putting this together, and it would be great to know what you think of it so please drop us a line and let us know!

Meanwhile, we're putting the finishing touches to our next free giveaway, so we'll post details of that very soon!

Ut Transmissions - 14/01/10 - Eat More Cake by Urban Torque® on Mixcloud

Ableton Live Suite 8! Woop!

So I managed to justify the cost. Sort of. To myself (and my credit card) at least...

Thanks to Ableton's 10-year anniversary 20% off sale, I am now the proud owner of Ableton Live Suite 8. Just finished downloading all 1.5+GB of it and am now decidedly excited about getting home and putting it on my Mac. Woo-hoo!

I mentioned in my last post that I was thinking of upgrading. I'd been thinking about it for a while, since I was still running version 6 on stage, and I don't like being too far behind the times. Also, now our main Cubase-running studio PC is not in my project studio, I wanted to embrace a new way of working in a new environment, rather than just using something else to do the same job (same plugins, same workflows, etc.). Live Suite seemed to be the sensible way forward, and I can still run my old favourite VSTs if necessary through Ableton.

So I'm a happy bunny, and I'm also looking forward to seeing if a new software environment will change the way I've been writing recently. A lot of the ideas that came out of my project set-up were too big, too loud, too tired. I was writing on autopilot: make beat, add layer, add usual compression with usual settings, send to group, add usual saturation plugins, add more layers, add usual reverb, etc...

I'll keep you posted - maybe I'll even post some snippets of the ideas that come out of my first writing sessions with Ableton. Watch this space!

Project Studios - A Change of Plan...

Andy and I are a bit like treacle sponge and custard - individually, we're still worthy of note but together we're much, much better...

And so after a few months of non-work, non-creativity, and non-progress we've re-shuffled our project studios. Again.

We now have our original main studio PC (complete with all our important plugins/sounds) at Andy's, in a room where we can both work together sensibly. It's this ability to work together that has been lacking recently - whilst we can write new stuff in our own separate spaces, without the opportunity to come together we've been unable to finish any new tracks, do any remixes, reworkings of old stuff, etc... Everything we'd been doing over the previous 6 months had ground to a halt, but now we are back in business!

Andy's still got his mobile ProTools rig, and I've got Ableton running at mine, so we still have our own even smaller project studios to work in as well. (However the transition from writing in Cubase to writing in Ableton for me will be an interesting change. Am trying to justify the upgrade to Live 8 Suite at the moment to aid my progress while the 20% sale is on!)

Anyway, we had our first studio session together in around 3 months last night and we were cracking on with a remix we've been hoping to get round to for AGES. Sounding heavyweight too - should be a good one. Hopefully, there's still enough time for us to finish it up - it's a forthcoming release on UrbanTorque, so it would be nice to get on board.

Meanwhile, we're putting together the finishing touches for the follow up to Red Sky, a completely free release of an old favourite track of ours. More details of this to follow soon!

2010 is our year. If you haven't already, pop over to your favourite digital download store and pick up a copy of Red Sky (Part 1 and Part 2), spread the word and if you make just one new year's resolution this year, let it be 'Eat More Cake'!