Altavoz’s blog

This is my plan for the next 8 months:

January: Finish live in Buenos Aires
February: Return to Seattle, Snowboard, Go to Tahoe to Visit Blythe/Tom
March: Visit parents in Mexico
April: Live in Bogota/Periera (visit Nina)
May: Return to Seattle, Have BDay, Rest
June: Live in Barcelona, Sonar (June 14-16)
July: Scott/Alison Wedding (July 21)
August Burning Man (August 27-September 3rd)
September: Decibel 2007 (Sept 13-16)

Also possible:
Mutek Montreal (May 31st-June 4th)

New track:
Retroit

Also created a myspace page even though their UI was designed by retarded children:
http://myspace.com/joelpryde

I usually don't buy into the whole new years resolutions.  Resolutions that are created on a particular date for reasons of custom are rarely abided.  I have seen entirely too many full gyms in the first week of January to believe anything else.  So these aren't resolutions for the new year.  These are resolutions that I have had brewing in my head for the last few months and I am now taking the opportunity to write them down.  (did that sound entirely like a copout?)

Anyways, in no particular order:

• Don't drink during the week (at all)
  I am far from an alcoholic but I do enjoy the booze perhaps a bit more than is healthy.  The point being however that I would like to be able to enjoy the booze for quite a few years more.  This means treating it with moderation and saving it for either special occasions or moderate use for weekend nights out on the town.
• Play a live set out
  I've done this before but it was at my own party and I was hammered (see above) and totally butchered it.  I now have enough material for a live set I just need to condense it down to a dancy hour of hard ableton loops.  I also need to replace my BCF-2000 as American Airlines sent it to parts unknown.  This time I need to stay sober throughout the entire set and focus on the music.  Because that is what really matters, right?
• Learn MAX/MSP and build some effects/instruments
  I have become, to put it mildly, completely obsessed with MAX/MSP in the last week.  It is a perfect environment for building completely unique instruments and effects.  After writing tons of DSP code it is so refreshing to not have to write another FFT and just be able to drag a box on screen and type in some numbers.  It is versatile and easy to use at the same time.
• Publish a track
  This one will be the hardest as I am terrible at promoting myself and record companies are not knocking down peoples doors for new techno tracks.  I'm setting my sights pretty low for this one.  ITunes, mp3 labels, whatever.  I just want something out there for sale that I made.  I need to focus on pushing my tracks out there and focusing on making tracks that get people moving but also are original.  Also getting better at mixing down and mastering couldn't hurt.
• Keep in contact with my parents
  As both they and I travel the world on our individual paths it is entirely too easy to loose contact with them.  Hopefully I will be able to spend a month or two with them in March in Mexico.  In this next year it is more important to keep up with them than to advance my career savings.
• Get into a place where I can buy a houseboat
  This is somewhat contradictory to the last one.  I would like to end this year however with enough saving that I can put down a chunk on the downpayment for a houseboat.  I want to live someplace cool and have a place I can work on both programming and music.
• Become fluent in Spanish
  I've been working on this one for quite some time and made a ton of progress.  In about a year I have gone from almost zero knowledge of Spanish to having an intermediate to advance level of conversational Spanish (in addition to being able to understand the seriously wacky Rio Platense dialect and intonations).  I want to spend a good chunk of this coming year in Spanish speaking countries and I need to keep reading and practicing even when I am not.
• Lose 10 pounds of fat, gain 10 pounds of muscle
  I hate to list this one as it is so damn cliche and I am in no means either fat or weak.  Looking and feeling good is important to me however.  I need to go to the gym or work out every single day this year.  It is something I enjoy doing so it really should not be such a big deal.
• Don't accrue crap
  One of the best things about my life right now is how few possesions and semi-permanent expenses I have.  I need to not lose the ability to move around easily and quickly.  Unloading my last apartment of 2-3 years was such a pain in the ass.  I don't want to go through with that again until I have a permanent place (or rather never go through with that again).

I'm still figuring out the art of mastering (much thanks to this quide: Ozone Mastering Guide) so I decided to go back and remaster some of my older songs:
Lupis

And another one.  This one is a bit harder and crunchier.  Also some of my first attempts at using Ableton's Sampler in a constructive way:
MatePata

I've been producing quite a bit but have totally slacked in putting songs up on Vox now that I have my own shiny new website.  Here are links to some new sounds:
Fill In The Blanks
Spaceman
Beddemi

New mix up:
Buenos Aires Mix