Start with the rules, then break them. - MSML
Enter: Mad Scientist Music Lab
In the heart of New York City, a măgĭck marvel unfolds, a dominion where
“Synthōs“ and “db Küblex”,
architects of sound, labor in obscurity. This sanctum, dubbed Mad Scientist Music Lab, or “MSML”, is no ordinary studio but a test tube of audial innovation, where digital granules morph with occasional organic elements under their wild experimental hands. Like conjurers, they weave in ephemera from transient collaborators, adorning their creations with musical whispers and solos that flutter in and out of existence. They sculpt soundscapes that transport the listener to realms uncharted, to Zones where the mechanistic alien beats defy the mundane, marching beyond the borders of the known and into a landscape rich in contrast. Here, melodies and tones emerge from disparate realms entwined, crafting an intricate tapestry that pulsates with life. Each piece is a journey through the labyrinthine corridors of the inner psyche, the heart's trials and passions, and the mysterious nature of all things. MSML boldly crafts music inspired by the retro and neo-frontiers of electro-musical avant-garde.
MSML tracks sound like a vast array of musical hybridization inspired by various music genres ranging from: Industrial / Goth / World Music / Electronic-Dance / Experimental / Digital Underground / New Wave / Generative / New Age / Neoclassical / Ambient / Atmospheric / Movie Soundtrack / Metal / Shoegaze / Steampunk
Core members- "Synthōs" and "db Küblex" contribute to every aspect of MSML's music creation process, especially in co-envisioning. However, they particularly excel in the following areas, which form their măgĭck formula:
db Küblex: Initial Stages of Composition/Programing/ Arrangement, Keyboard Synths/ Modular Synths/ Sample Sounds
Synthōs: Drum Machine Programming, Additional Modular Synths, or added Plugins or Samples ~ Later Stages of Arrangement Composition Treatment, Editing, Mixing, Mastering
Project Objective-
To create original music, story, and visual art designed to breathe life into video games and cinema of chosen genres, weaving a multi-medium mosaic that captivates and enchants.
To collaborate with all types of artists for further artistic exploration in making studio-engineered and live or pre-recorded music.
Target Audience-
"Our mission is to resonate with those searching for experiences beyond the conventional boundaries typically imposed on the music and video industry. We strive to create Zone music that blends various styles, capturing the full spectrum of soundscapes. We are committed to pushing the limits of artistic expression, venturing as far as our creativity allows. Join us and journey through enigmatic realms and untouched themes."
Guest Collaborators:
Premik Russell Tubbs: flute solo on "Cosmic I"
Nathaniel Schroeder: bass guitar/ plays bass guitar on the track
"Shadow of the Cyborg"
Andrew Ciarlelli: All guitar parts on "Cosmic I"
Marek Kisiel: bass musician / plays synth bass on the track "Symphony of Ladicus"
Michael Schott: pan (tongue) Drum on the track "Symphony of Ladicus"
Synthōs: The Conjurer of Zone-Tracks
Synthōs is a music producer and co-creator/core member of the project Mad Scientist Music Lab. His expertise spans a comprehensive range of music production disciplines, including programming, arrangement, mixing, editing, sound engineering, and mastering. Beyond the symphony of sound, Synthos is a nature photographer and post-production art director for video. He also excels at writing, poetry, painting, drawing, and illustration.
His music panache spawned from numerous influences such as 50,60,70,80s science fiction/ comics/graphic novels, varied books, art, and movie genres like film noir, thriller, drama, action, mystery, documentary, and Japanese anime. His shadow side appeals to the NY underground gothic industrial club scene, where he appears as an interloper passionately escaping in his interpretive dance performances.
Synthōs does not come from an early background steeped in traditional music theory or the practice of instruments. His compositions and abilities come to him more naturally and exist mainly in the depths of his heart and mind. From an early age, immersed in art, games, music, psychology, and philosophy, he was a discerning listener and a meticulous observer, yet a deep probing thinker.
In sound or visual, once imagined or learned, he dissects ideas or compositions, deconstructing each minute detail comprising a musical piece, an image, or a story. He scrutinizes and ponders the subtlest elements, contemplating their impact on the whole. Possessing a vigorous analytical and creative drive, he envisions numerous possibilities for reimagining or drawing inspiration for new creations.
He perceives one of life’s most profound gifts to be the art of re-imagining and re-crafting everything he encounters, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. With each encounter, he seeks to infuse new life, to elevate the essence into a form more intriguing and luminous than its original conception.
In unison, his mind's eye and inner ear operate as an artist, engineer, and sorcerer. He was forged and destined to be an amalgam of Sage, creator, and influencer.
Elucidation of “db Küblex"
Keen and inquiring from the start, db Küblex's musical journey began with the piano, transitioning to the clarinet and settling into the saxophone during his teenage years. Dissatisfied with traditional boundaries, he plunged into the coming-of-age electronic effects processors, ultimately embracing the digital wind synth. This transformation catapulted him into pioneering music, where he sculpted sound with relentless innovation.
At an elite art high school, db Küblex defied musical norms, carving out a singular sonic identity. Though careers in sound design and composition beckoned, he sees himself as a futuristic kind of musician; he delves into sound as a deep philosophical and technological exploration. His music becomes a form of psychotherapy, centered on cerebral manipulation and self-discovery.
db Küblex strives to create music that artfully navigates the diverse interplay between opposites, illuminating the shadowy expanse between darkness and light. His compositions strike a delicate balance of fear and beauty, evoking eeriness and serenity. He intends to explore the intricate boundary where opposites coexist, weaving through the nuances of turmoil and harmony. By integrating abrasive, dissonant sounds that challenge and provoke alongside melodies that resonate with joy and luminosity, he aims to craft a soundscape that can be, at times, unsettling yet captivating.
His work blurs the lines between digital and acoustic realms, creating an aural ambiguity that confuses and delights. This fusion encourages engagement, making listeners move with the rhythm while pondering the music's genre and essence. His approach merges cutting-edge electronic sounds with traditional, live-played instruments, embedding memorable melodies that linger in one's consciousness, aiming to pioneer a new genre.
Ultimately, his music is a journey from despair to hope, designed to challenge perceptions and inspire a shift from negative to positive thinking. His goal is to evoke a spectrum of emotions, guiding listeners from sorrow and frustration to optimism and nostalgia. Through this evocative exploration, he aims to highlight the beauty in duality and carve out a unique space in the musical landscape.
What is modular synthesis? Modular Synthesis is a group of specialized modules that are connected together via patch cords in order to create a “patch”. Unlike most “keyboard synthesizers”, Modular synthesizers have no hard-wired architecture and can be patched in almost limitless ways to achieve the specific goals of the musician. Both audio signals and voltage signals can be used to affect modules.
-Full hands on control
-True freedom on how you put a synthesizer together
-You get to play with knobs, switches, cables, and other visceral items.
-Discover new sounds through experimentation
Modular synthesis is creating and manipulating sound electronically but having no predetermined parameters or signal paths found in most synths. Otherwise known as Generative Music-
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You can craft a uniquely individual and distinctive sound
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You create the sounds you want, but you also get to create the way you generate and manipulate sound/melody/ rhythm using in real-time many different vectors of influence utilizing a hands-on network of human-to-gadgetry interfacing/ modulation. This modulation occurs through actual knobs, sliders, switches or touch pads, etc.
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You achieve a more powerful, complex, and ever-changing exploration into music-making
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In software, a mouse can only control one mod at a time.
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In modular synthesis, there is no predetermined signal path
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not locked into Western scales/ harmony
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Modular can be anything you want a musical instrument to be
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CV or Control Voltage means controlling any parameter of the sound
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Function generators can be quickly changed or mixed in quasi-unique ways
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The unexpected happens all the time in Modular Synthesis which is part of the fun, part of the journey, fundamental to this creative process and letting go of one’s musical paradigms.
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When the process is wrong a lot of times it just ends up being right.
In Modular Synthesis, all modules play specific roles and perform functions in which all do something to voltage. But what that voltage does artistically is completely up to the user.
Rationale behind Modular Synthesis in our song process:
HOW WE PRODUCE THE MUSIC:
Arranger/ Arrangement-Arranging can broadly be defined as the process of transforming a collection of musical ideas into a complete track. It can involve everything from writing notation or harmonies,re-arranging parts, adding parts, removing parts, planning the structure of a song or adding effects. In a traditional sense, arrangement is the flow of a song from start to finish. It has sections: like an intro, verse, buildup, chorus, breakdown, drop, and outro. The arrangement is the working flow of different movements within your music.
Mixer/ Audio Mixing-
Audio Mixing is a process of blending individual things in a recording to come up with as good as possible the desired version of a song. The mixing process includes:
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Fine-tuning the sense or sound of each instrument using EQ (equalization)
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Balancing pre-recorded track levels
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Panning tracks between speakers to come up with a stereo image
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Compression, adding reverb and other effects, improve the already recorded song.
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Taking a song from a starting point to a more finished optimal place
Often, mixing also includes aspects of editing. Editing is often choosing the best bits of a song and sometimes even includes building a musical element from scratch. On other occasions, mixing includes more than editing or the editing involves separate stages in between mixing and tracking.
Programmer/ Programming-
Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices and computer software, such as sequencers and workstations or hardware synthesizers, samplers, and sequencers, to generate sounds of musical instruments. These musical sounds are created through the use of music coding languages.
Audio Editor/ Audio Editing-
Audio editing is the process of manipulating audio to alter length, speed, and volume or to create additional versions such as loops. Audio editing is almost always done using a computer and audio editing software but used to be done with analog tape and razor blades by splicing and taping in a pre-digital world.
The editing stage should primarily be used to move parts around that are not in time, to fix pitches that were a bit off, or to polish the tracks. The only goal for this stage is to make the song sound as good as it can be and nothing more.
Audio Production Editing-
Audio editing should not be confused with audio production editing which uses sophisticated audio software that can work to clean up old and noisy audio and apply particular effects such as ‘tape saturation’, compression, and Equalization.
Sound Engineer-
The sound engineer designs and manages sound levels and outputs, and is responsible for maintaining the physical sound equipment, like amps and microphones. ... The sound engineer can be further responsible for editing, mixing, and mastering music tracks so they present the best performance consistent with the artist's and or production company’s vision.
A studio sound engineer plans a recording session with an artist or musician, sets up the required equipment, recording each instrument separately, and then editing and mixing recorded tracks, enhancing the sound to achieve a high-quality recording.
