sketch.and.jam 3Speak Podcast

Here is another original instrumental composed in MPC with synths from Arturia and AIR with drums by Akai. I compose these things while on my commute into work on the train. Eventually I export each synth track and master them in cakewalk. This composition sort of has a buzzy feel to it so I dug up some old footage of leaf cutter bees and bumble bees as the video to go along with it.

That's all for now, thanks for looking :-)

It's time for another #midimonday with a video of my commute out of Chicago. I finally got back into composing music while on my commute after dealing with a bout of tendonitis. After about a month of physical therapy my hand tendons have finally been stretched out now I can finally play the keyboard again. For this one I used mostly Arturia synths and some drums from EZ Drummer.

That's all for now, thanks for watching :-)

Just a little darkwave tune I composed on my work commute.

Here is a pile of pigeons for this #featheredfriday. Someone goes around and dumps millet at various spots in the city and I happened to see all these pigeons pile on. I suspect this whole pile of feed was gon within 5 minutes. Towards the end of the video you can see them just start layering themselves over eachother to try and get a peck of food. The ones who miss out will be doomed to eating cold McDonalds fries and big mac bits elsewhere int he city. That's all for now, thanks for looking :-)

A massive corporate conglomerate is secretly funding research into developing the ultimate project manager. Their specifications require that this project manager be able to withstand hazards of the job, be able to close sales and fight off unruly clients. They must only accept minimum wage for payment.

Most of the candidates failed immediately and disappeared into the protein bank in the form of dried meat sticks sold as organic snacks in the health food stores. Only one candidate has been able to defeat all of corporate’s obstacles. Now he will be selected to work on a new skyscraper construction project in Asia which is only a small challenge compared to the secret training he withstood.

Little does the corporate conglomeration know that the project manager has figured out his employers are weaker than him. Slowly he moves pieces into place where he will overtake the entire organization and force the C-suite into doing project management work for him for less than minimum wage. If there are any complaints, they will find themselves sold as non-organic jerky in discount dollar stores. If they are lucky and survive one project they will be sold as canned potted meat in pet stores.

That’s all for now, thanks for watching 😊. The video was created in 3ds max and vray with help from the cloth modifier and tyflow. Music was created in MPC with synths such as Iona, Pigments and EZ Drummer.

Here is a strange music video for this #trippythursday

The military has just developed an experimental uniform designed to enhance a soldier’s agility in combat. The fabric bonds with the wearer's skin and becomes extremely flexible. This feature allows soldiers to squeeze through tight spaces and better withstand nearby explosions.

Unfortunately, this technology has a catastrophic flaw, and the bonding process became irreversible. The test subjects didn't just wear the uniforms they morphed into them and became living fabric. Without an internal skeleton, these soldier-based uniforms collapse into flat, folded piles of clothing. The only solution to keep them inflated is with methane gas.

Now with a surplus of these cloth soldiers, the military began selling them to robotics companies as skin for new robots. Every now and then the electronic components beneath the fabric periodically spark, igniting the methane. These explosions cause explosive chain reaction throughout the units.

Military strategists see an opportunity to deploy these cloth soldiers in swarms as living explosive weapons, overwhelming enemies with massive clouds of flammable gas. The moral of the story is to always read contracts carefully, especially when volunteering for experimental technology.

Video was created with 3ds max and the cloth modifier. Music was created with Massive X synth and Arturia Pigments and mixed in Cakewalk with a bit of EZ Mix effects. That’s all for now, thanks for looking 😊

The Polynesian spirits are angry. They have discovered their island will be developed into 15-minute city projects. All the plants will be ruined and a Styrofoam burning power plant will be put right above the volcano. The three spirits of earth fire and water decided to form an alliance to stop the development. They all shouted in strange ancient languages at the multinational corporation in unison hoping to scare them back to their banking hubs deep within Asia and Europe. Sadly, all the CEOs had earbuds in and didn't hear them.

Next, they tried appearing in their dreams to scare them off. But alas these tech-bros all microdose on psylocibin constantly and just thought it was another trippy vision. Finally, the volcano spirit decided to make some rumbling on the foundation of the site, perhaps then they won't build next to an active volcano.

Instead, one of the contractors found a way to bribe the tectonics consultant to spin a rosy picture to the local government that everything was safe. Seeing as they had no luck, the spirits decided to unleash fury in all directions by freezing parts of Europe, burning parts of Asia and causing an outbreak of ragweed in the Americas. All this effort by the spirits only managed to delay the project by a few weeks.

It takes quite a bit of energy to affect multiple parts of the world with spirit power. They retreated deep within a cavern to recharge thinking they had stopped the project. While they were sleeping, they were unearthed by an excavating machine and brought to the British Museum to be put on display. When they woke up, they were upside down inside a glass case with lots of tourists snapping photos of them.

What has become of their precious island chain? Will they have the power to get out of this terrible museum? Perhaps they will throw caution at the wind and just set off an ultimate cataclysm, but this will take centuries to prepare for. Eventually they accept their fate as artifacts in an airtight glass case and decide to slowly charge their powers to unleash fury. In roughly 1,000 years they will have enough power to cause some chaos, for now get your tickets to see them before they get put into storage again.

Sketch was created via Ohuhu alcohol markers with some acrylic marker overlays. Music was composed in MPC 2 with various synths like Jura, Iona, Pigments, EZ Drummer and a few others. That’s all for now, thanks for looking 😊

Inside a hyperbaric chamber various chemicals are being added to form synthetic meat. Vein structures start growing as graphene particles are bombarded with radiation. All sorts of chemicals are then added in the hope that crude proteins will start forming. Perhaps the veiny sludge can be shaped into chicken nuggets and sold at various fast-food joints. As the experiment progresses all sorts of strange structures start forming and intersecting with one another. Suddenly the matter starts forming networks and seemingly useful organs for a larger being. As the sludge finds purpose the hyperbaric chamber is breached, and the veiny structures start spilling out into the real world. Whatever they hit they start to absorb more material to grow. Finally, they find a suitable host to overtake in the form of one of the lab technicians. Now this new lifeform has become a parasite that overtakes all humans in its local vicinity. This lab was placed in one of the most populated cities and thus the parasite overtook humanity quickly. Now it uses its vast connected network to form a hive mind and starts plotting its colonization of other planets.

Music was composed in MPC 2 and Cakewalk with various synths such as Jura, Iona, Pigments and Minibass. Visuals were created with 3ds Max, Vray and Tyflow. No AI was used in the creation of this video thanks for looking 😊

Here is an original instrumental with a strange scifi story for this #midimonday

A large international pharmaceutical company has developed the perfect sleep aid. Or so they think. All the rat studies look fine and even the monkey studies show promise. Thus, it is time to move this sleep drug into human trials. Some poor sap is pulled in off the street with a promise of free logistics warehouse gift cards to spend during the holidays. They just sign a waiver and take some pills for a month while checking in on their mobile device for the promised gift cards.

As the test subject takes the pills, they fall asleep within a minute. But while asleep their mind races with all sorts of mechanical hallucinations and strange colorful distorted thoughts. When their body finally wakes up again, they are completely exhausted. The next night they take the pills again and suddenly realize they are connecting psychically with all the other trial participants. They form a hive mind in their dreams at night and again wake up exhausted the next day.

To bean counting chemists the trial looks good on paper, but the long-term side effects are sleeping during the day and connecting to a new reality in dreams at night (a dangerous combination). Due to an effective advertising campaign with lots of smiling, dogs catching frisbees, golf course hits and cruises the whole populace gets hooked on the pill. Now during the day everyone sleeps and at night they burn up their otherwise useful energy in a holographic psychic realm. Within 10 years society collapses and only the Amazonians living in the jungle are left as normal humans.

Drawing was created with microns and alcohol markers with a few highlights from acrylic pens. Song was created in MPC 2 with synths such as Iona, Jura and Arturia’s pigments. Drums are from EZ drummer’s Synthwave library. The audio and video were mixed in after effects and mastered in Adobe Audition. That’s all for now, thanks for looking 😊

Here is a sketch that evolved into a micron stipple drawing of a leaf insect. I combined it with a midi composition I was working on last week. You can see the sketch process where it starts out as just the basic outlines then evolves into the more complex patterns of a leaf insect. Eventually everything in pencil gets traced over with microns then the pencil is erased and the stippling begins. Once the inking was finished, I played a bit with coloring it in photoshop. Then after about 100 layers I animated various leaf textures over it. Towards the end the leaf insect population explodes into somewhat of an infestation. That's all for now, thanks for looking and happy #midimonday