Armor & Swordplay

Thanks to some fancy footwork and a little sweet talking I've been able to accumulate a bevy of medeival themed sound effects from the folks down at Badger Blades and Arms & Armor.

It all started with a caluculated trip to the MN Renaissance Festival where I fell in with Imp & Tiki manning the BB booth, where they were good enough to not only talk my ear off about the intracacies of weapon manufacturing, but also whack various swords together so that I could capture them digitally in all their splendor.

With that out of the way it was on to the other task at hand: the sound of violence!

As I was unable to find a volunteer to wear a suit of armor and agree to be endlessly pummeled, I opted for the next best thing and befriended Charles at the Arms and Armor booth. A computer geek as well, he was down with my quest and passed on what turned out to be a fortuitous forging of alliances.

After a bit of on-site field recording I left with a laptop full of sounds, and A&A main man Craig's email address.

I contacted Craig and he was up for a little impromptu banging on the beater set of armor at his shop. How luck was I that they're located in NE Minneapolis, 10 minuites from where I work! A true sound of battle veteran, Craig was able to coax the true sounds of combat out of a few pieces of armor in about an hour, and I then had a ton of stuff to head back to the lab and tweak.

These sounds proved to be heavily reverbed, and will work well for dungeon like interior spaces, but just wont cut it for the wide open outdoor vista's enviosioned by the Age of Chivalry Team for the HL2 Mod i'm working on.

So I dropped Craig another line, and he was gracious enough to loan out a partial set off the beater armor, and I went to task with the help of Jeremy's well stocked and beautifully envisoned studio space. Things couldnt have gone better! In no time I had beat/bent/rattled/scraped and coarced all the sounds I could imagine needing. (as well as a few i'm not quite sure what to do with :P)

If you add that to my recent medeival based projects for Playful Minds, you've got a recipe for some of the most authentic sound effects available for the genre.

I'll have some new sfx examples up on the DemoReel soon!

Turkey Jam II

Just a quick one...we're not dead!

Over the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend LCL hunkered down for a moments respite from the familial drama unfolding all around us to send some interstellar sounds into the atmosphere.
A good time was had by all, and some magic moments between friends were had.

Big thanks to the babysitter for rocking Thora's world while we rocked ours!

DK Sound Design Demo Reel

What's been keeping me busy lately, glad you asked!
I've been diggin in on Music and Sound Desing for a coupla Video Game Projects.
Head over to my Demo Reel, and you can get a taste of what i've been up to.

If anyone is looking for wierd noises, I'm your man!

Feedback is always neccessary. (In all senses of the word)

Julie is busy as well...being the best mom in the world to our recently turned 2 year old! (Happy Birthday Baybay)

Stay Good, Y'alls
DKLCLMF

Willy August Project

Jeremy's other band the Willie August Project had been getting some good pub lately, including nomination's for Best Electric Jazz Group/Artist, Best Jazz Recording from the Minnesota Music Academy.

You can get the record from their site, here here or here.



Excerpted from the Minneapolis City Pages Article:
"Siems and drummer Jeremy Hauer are the Willie August Project (named for Siems's grandfather), and in six years of playing together, they've developed a strong mid-range telepathy resulting in subtle, seamless music that, while not shattering any great boundaries, bridges gaps between such things as structure and freedom. Joined here by bassists Scot Hornick and Jim Chenoweth, as well as pianist Laura Caviani for two tracks, the Willie August Project offers consistently inventive improvisation on this direct-to-two-track session of original tunes."

Good Luck Fella's!

PowerUps

Things are moving...slooooow.

In the meantime I picked up some side work doing Music and Sound Design for a coupla video games...and on that note.



The PowerUps totally rocked my world last night.
This band cover's classic video game music with high energy committment to the anthematic soundtracks to your (my) favorite childhood (adulthood) pastime.

Highlghts inclued, but not limited to, music from SuperMario Brothers, Defender of the Crown, Metroid, Dragons Lair, and Ms. Pacman.

If they're coming to your town, it's a gauranteed thrill ride of nostalgia for (us) aging gamers who were there when it all went down.

Cheg eet oud!
.endofline.

Buckminster Fuller

Yesterday I dug into some Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller info cataloged out on the web.
Mentioning him to several people throughout the day ellicited blank stares and a resounding

"Who?"

Short answer is the guy who came up with the Geodesic dome.
The longer list includes Buckyballs (or Buckminsterfullerenes) Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth TETRASCROLL Goldielocks & the Three Bears: A Cosmic Fairy Tale, and just generally having a forward thinking concept of the world we live in and how to interact with it.



If you've never heard of him, you will soon , now's the time to check him out!


Me, i'll be reading.
Stay good til then!

www.emptyfree.com

Came across this site that whipped out a quick and dirty review of some LCL nuggets recently:

"For those of us that have been touched by the hand of Brian Eno I highly recommend the Beautiful Flute E.P. and The Butterfly’s View E.P. (minus the title track). The processed flute on these tracks is very reminiscent of Eno’s Discreet Music, a disc I’ve listened to only several hundred times. The title track to The Butterfly’s View is their “noise” track and shows why some folks shouldn’t bother with the genre, especially when they’re capable of better things like “Seed01” (My Bloody Valentine without the major fuzz). Some of the live tracks and jams brought to mind Godspeed You Black Emperor!, not a bad thing in my book."

If we link to it, and it's got a link here, will you get stuck in a link-loop? (I hope not)

Many thanks to the wandering musical seekers stopping to check us out.
Hope you find something you like.

Let us know!
dk

Displayin' Around

Fired up the gear the other night and did some preliminary testing of the new digital system.
Things are shaping up for the summer...thar's some exciting days ahead.

Distractions lately include OX-OP, Spicy BlueFin Tuna TarTar, Art Surfing, Toy Shopping, and Robot Watching.

Hope you're liking the site...seems pretty good for now.
ThE music is all for you!

dk

With the Quickness

Spring rapidly upon us.
Here's a distraction...magnificent VR photo panorama's...with a concept twist.
(My favorite)

There's a new music page for accessing all mp3's at a glance...with links to each individual page highlighted in pink.

Hope yoo like eet!

Streamlining

Is it ever enough?

This guy blew my mind on Monday!
Less IS more!!!

A new service for sharing web based playlist has a suggested LCL primer.

Anyone got an extra phasor pedal they're looking to part with?
More is MORE!!!

.endofline.

Now is the TIME!

This is it!
You've been waiting such a long time, and we've been waiting for you!
It's official, the cabinets are chocked full of goodies.
Over 3 Gig of Music for your perusal.
High quality scans of album artwork so you can roll your own CDR copy's.
We hope you find your stay with the Lab to be pleasant.
Expect more good things in the future including an expanded album art section, live photo's, witness testimonials, LCL sightings, artist biographies, updated promotional materials, and generally more stuff.

Thanks for playing,
DKMPLS LCLMF

Now You're Cooking With Gas

Progess continues...

Backbone in place...

Media coming soon...

Waste.org thanks yous very much...

Music on the way...

Until then...

.end of line.

New Site Launch!

Welcome

LCLWWWPhaze II
Launch

Roll Your Own LCL CD's

Working on filling in some holes.

Enjoy
LCL

Website Phase II Pending

Much News Ahead

Drummer Getting Hitched!!! Congrat's!!!
Willie August Project
New Album Out NOW!!!

Experimental Thora Project Status: On-Track
Gear Acquisition Ongoing/ Constant

Life in Progress

.End of Line.