Rebirth

2015 marks the rebirth of the NTMusic.org.uk site in its new format and with a mindset to continually update and expand on the work that is currently available from NTMusic. If this is your first visit to the site it’s worth noting that a majority of the compositions are from the archive of NTMusic spanning over 15 years with 10 of those concentrating on producing music solely with digital workstations and sequencers.

From the very first latency happy VST instrument Neon from Steinberg to the most modern, NTMusic has used and covered them all as part of the exploration of sonic experiences with an extensive usage from 2000 – 2009. Its interesting to see that those that stood out in the beginning are those that have continued to either be developed or have become standard such as Reason, Reaktor and the main workstation itself Cubase to name but a few. What where once struggles with latency (the delay between hitting a note on a Midi Keyboard and the response from the program/VSTi) are now becoming standard in order to accommodate the ever growing demands of these applications. Also returning is ‘Return to the mixes’ a series that will cover the compositions on the site and break down the processes and instruments used to create the pieces.

Away from VSTi instrument based compositions you can also listen to the tracks produced from the Quasimidi Quasar sessions and the Yamaha DJX Sessions. The DJX Sessions where the first to introduce Cubase into the equation and was certainly an interesting learning curve on a now unthinkable 90Hz PC. So slow is 90Hz that Windows 95 running Cubase 3.5 was unable to stably transmit the MIDI data required in some parts of the composition; amusingly you would suddenly get a mass of MIDI information passed to the DJX and all hell would break loose with the sounds that where produced surprisingly reviving itself without completely crashing. Using Audio at this stage with such little power was not an option and the only means of saving the work was on a Floppy Disc, this is the reason why none of the final mixes you hear from the DJX have survived in a MIDI format as eventually the length of the pieces supersede the 1.4mb available on a Floppy Disc and my knowledge of computers at this point was very limited. And this is where it got interesting. Losing the work from the DJX made me realise that not only did I need my musical aspirations but needed to seriously understand computers and how they worked in order to get the very best from my sonic experience and to keep and share it.