26-06-2016: enough listening to close inri000, but slowed down by further annoyances

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inri-cassette-demo-1
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

so, i've tried a few times to get a good listen in and there's been a number of complicating factors. i decompressed from flac to wav and it helped - i think maybe because i caught the machine in an upsample to 32 bits. i do still think that might be a factor. it's apparently hard to get windows to not upsample, but that's why i've stripped everything down to asio for now. i'm still getting some kind of interference on the old phones, but i wasn't getting it on the new ones so i'm not convinced that it's local. rather, it's the same apparent broad field issue that these phones seem to have big problems with, sometimes.

the a/c will be on strong for a while; i managed to get the heat in here up past thirty due to the nice humidity outside. finally.....so, i have a strong control, anyways.

as for what i have heard, it's kind of a mix of what i might expect from the equipment and what i might expect from the interference. these phones are absolutely flat and consequently absolutely honest. what that means is that it's a lot less forgiving, and i'm getting a more accurate signal - which means less bass and harsher highs. it's a reminder that newer equipment is newer and people aren't necessarily going to hear these pieces the way that i'm intending - but that mileage varies, and sometimes there are accidental improvements, even if that's hard to even define because it's actually all relative.

it's probably obvious that i need to listen a bit more to disentangle it and get a cleaner understanding of what i'm hearing. so, i'm going to try listening to the old phones through the laptop, and the new phones through the mixer. once again, this is just to isolate - the first two demos simply cannot be further altered. the audio is otherwise closed.

as mentioned, i will need to wait until the alter-reality catches up before i can permanently close the record. for this demo, that will happen at christmas.

but, i've now posted all the posts that i need to post, so i'll be moving on from inri000 when i feel i'm ready to - either tonight or tomorrow.

finalizing inri000

these are the first demos i recorded, written 1994-1996 and recorded in the second half of 1996. this corresponds to the end of my 15th year and the beginning of my grade 10 school year. on the one hand, it's an intriguing document of a socially maladjusted teenage punk. on the other hand, it's a 15 year-old kid learning how to use a recording studio (and how to play the drums). influences are displayed on my sleeve just a little too loudly at times.

i was attempting to create something that could be described by the words disturbing, schizophrenic, unique, bizarre, twisted. looking back, i think i succeeded more than i realized at the time. this is a difficult listen that would be appealing to fans of the obscurantist reaches of 80s punk and 90s grunge. i manage to maintain a strange sense of melody, though. in truth, my current adult self is somewhat impressed with my teenaged self at this current point.

that being said, it should not be forgotten that i was fifteen. i am at times rather crude, and i display a childlike understanding of certain issues. most poetry written at the age of fifteen is not particularly insightful. again, though, i surprise myself at points.

this is the first time i'm publishing these demos in any form. i've remained frighteningly self-conscious of them over the years. over the last seventeen years, the audience has been extremely limited. initial reactions suggested i take some time to perfect my performance skills, particularly my drumming skills. however, this indicated a lack of understanding of my intent in the overall sound. the playing is quite purposefully abstract with the aim of exploring mental illness.

the demos were initially dub-mastered onto a 110 minute tape that would have flipped after the eighth track. that tape was at some point recorded into a soundblaster and compressed very heavily; this is the only source of the material that i still have. so, i had to decompress the files from those 128 (or worse) kbps mp3s and run them through some digital mastering equipment in an attempt to "undo" the compression. what that is is a half-effective trick to recover data that is in actuality forever lost. nonetheless, i should point out that while these files were recorded entirely in 1996, they were substantially digitally modified in late 2013. finalized on june 26, 2016. as always, please use headphones.

i consider this an archival release with little direct listening value. i've pointed out repeatedly that i was 15. however, various segments have been isolated and pulled out for a higher listenability value over here:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inricycled-a

this release also includes a printable j-card insert and will also eventually include a comprehensive package of journal entries from all phases of production (1996, 2013, 2016).

credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, drums, vocals, keyboards, tapes, found sounds, percussion, production.

released december 25, 1996