This past 2 weeks my work has radically changed. Moving to software has been a real bitch. In the past I would turn on all my gear, and start recording and playing on the gear live. The best results were with old cubase before pc audio midi only. I could jam out riffs fast and get them into the atari or old pc fast like on calling of the dead and fun with knives. I remember all the riffs I played on my nord lead and used the pitch bend to get that cotd sound. I would mix it all live then record to adat then add vocals and mix it again and record with a sony walkman dat recorder. No computer audio. What sucked is I lacked compressors and fx to make the drums punch hard, and things really never sounded that polished. Still I was able to write fast, I wrote calling of the dead in 3 months, fun with knives in 3 months. That is start to finish. Because the old way with live mixing and live midi was so much better when it came to composing and recording my performances in midi. But lacked the polish of good production.

I moved to PC audio based systems on hex angel. Bad midi jitter and timing, bad midi recording, high latency software made jamming and writing fast a thing of the past. I have to stop and edit the fuck out of everything I play in now. I never had to do that before. The sound quality of cubase SX 3 is a joke(all the high frequencies are rolled off, and the mix sounds like there is fuzzy socks on everything) and mixing in it is a nightmare. When you are jamming and getting musical ideas out all you want to do is that, the minute you have to edit things and fix things in the computer the logical side of your brain kicks in and then the artistic side takes a back seat. This switching back and forth between artistic and logical really ruins the flow of how I write. Even when I write with renoise, its the same thing. Except its the latency that ruins it, sound is not instant so jamming sucks. This process makes me have attention deficit disorder. Arm wrestling with the sequencers is what makes me really hate writing music with them, so I stopped trying to play and write with midi and with sequencers.

What I have been doing now is coming up with riffs and progressions on my fender jazz bass. I sit for hours and play on it and write the songs like this. Then I memorize it all and then I program it into renoise. This is turning out pretty good. I have gotten a lot of great plugins. Duende, and the Sony Oxford bundle are so amazing. They make my drums punch like never before. They make the bland boring Softsynths I never cared for before come to life and sound way more real and less plastic like than on their own. I have compared this new way of working to lust for blood, hex angel, and cotd. The software production with these plugins has made my stuff sound way better and it’s not analog at all. I’m baffled. It takes me a lot longer to write like this but I can get the production to sound immaculate. Renoise is super tight and robotic, so dance music sounds perfect on this. I’m so impressed with what is happening.

The goal on this new CD is guitarless dance music with that toybox pink dots melody to it. So it has groove and club appeal, but the super classical melody of the pink dots. Dark, Evil, think angel and womb by wumpscut mixed with the pink dots. It’s funny that I am writing all of this on guitars, but so far no guitars in the mix :) I can write so much easier with a real instrument than a tracker or the bad midi on modern pcs. Instead, I program notes in now, but i play it on bass and guitar first to make sure it works. Working title is – “Death’s Toybox”. I want every song to be melodic and dancable in a spooky toybox way. If you can imagine this. I wanted to do some metal guitars maybe ala bathory, this will only happen if i can get the guitars to sound right, and so far, no go. Still want a Bathory vocal style on a few songs for sure though. I have not started singing yet, But I have about 8 songs started, nothing is finished yet, but if I keep it up like I have been the last two weeks, I hope to have it done by fall.

I hope to bring back the tight club appeal I once had to vac. I hope to make club hits and get people dancing to spooky complex music again. Not this simple distorted repetitive crap that is being played now. I might post some sound clips in a couple of months. I am also interested in working with other artists for the remixes. Some people from the VAC forum I will ask. But who would you want to see remix some vac songs for the new single? Please comment. I also want to find people who want to do music videos and 3d animations for new VAC songs. I also hope to get great artwork for this project. I really want to make this a new VAC thing, a new sound, a new direction, one that has club appeal and musical appeal. I’m not going to do another lp like cotd, or fwk, or anything. This new project is a new thing. I like how it sounds so far. Hope to get it out this year.

Thank all of you so much for donating, you know who you are, it’s saving my life little by little. Wish more would do it though.

I am selling a lot of gear over the next few months. I will post them here first to let my die hard fans have first dibs, I will sell them at a good price, and include and autographed poster in the sale. I am going through some hard times, need to pay bills, going back to school to get a better job. I need your help. So if you have been lusting after some gear here, buy it from me, and I will thank you in the liner notes of my next CD. Thanks. I will only sell to people in the USA. Sorry. Will not ship internationally.

I will be posting new stuff for sale shortly. Details on novation bass station, roland mks 50, tr rack, trinity plus 62, kurzweil ksp8 with expansions, onyx mixer, and all my guitars. I hate letting it all go, but i have to pay an old medical bill, and pay off my credit cards, i have no income so i cant afford payments until i get a decent job. Sucks but man, this is life for most people now.

Acer Aspire One Netbook: Has sold.

Waldorf sold and shipped.

RAW VEGAN AGAIN. Getting in shape is helping my mind stay fit and be able to really start cranking out music again. So far it is a software binge. Studio is torn down, renovations. I am on the go, making music anywhere that I can, with Ipad, and my toshiba satellite a665 I can run a ton of plug ins, and with renoise, I don’t need a real keyboard to play riffs and write drums. Renoise is the only software that makes things sound good in the way that I like. I am actually really connecting to it more on a serious level, the last two toxic coma lps were written with renoise, and I loved how the production of psychophreak and the self titled turned out, loud, punchy, mean, distorted, warm. Not perfect, but good enough for my style. So far I am making an electronic LP, I don’t think there will be any guitars on this lp, I don’t have a way to record them right now any how. So all my new material is going back to that Calling of the dead meets fun with knives style, dance, industrial. I hope to capture rage on this LP. Something that has been sorely missing in the last 3 VAC lps. I feel pretty pissed off these days so I need to let it show. I have learned a lot of tricks in renoise to get me some glitchy drums finally. So I am very happy with my drum production in side of renoise, its perfect sample accurate timing as well, even with VSTs. Not using any midi or hardware this time. Honestly, with trilogy, atmosphere, and a couple of software synths that I like, largo is great, I love superwave as well, along side the jupiter 8 soft, Prophet vs is ok too, I am able to get sounds I am happy with. On Ipad I really dig the IMS-20, Rebirth, Ielectribe, and Electrify for basic sample based beats on the go. This stuff does not replace hardware, I hope to get back to using hardware again when time and space permits. Financial hard times have lead me to cut back. I had no choice. I am really happy with the results so far. Sound quality is fine and I can get it super loud with out mastering. The tricks and built in FX on renoise are so cool. I am actually having fun with this. I dreaded stepping down to software, but now, I am very happy with renoise, it is worth every penny and it is so much easier to use for me.

New Toxic Coma Video.

VAC lives because Toxic Coma Lives. The beating heart of my musical desires rest and get all their power from Toxic Coma. So far the currant incarnation of Toxic Coma is Myself, Lunggravy, and krztov. Krztov has yet to add a damn thing other than a sample of Lunggravy snoring from gravy’s iphone. Toxic Coma is like what I do to warm up and get non VAC ideas out of my head. I am generally a class clown, who has to fuck around and joke and act like an ass so all the seratonin runs out then i become the angry pissed off depressed asshole who makes VAC. Its my process. The social aspect of toxic coma also drives me, being alone and miserable all the time really can zap all the creativity out of you. I think that is the VAC Lul, If i don’t have friends and love in my life, I wilt, as does my music production. Things are looking up. At the same time though money is so tight, I am looking for more work to make more money so this sucks. Life goes on, must make due with what I have. I am blessed to have you fans, to have a music career, and to have people who give a shit about me. I thank all of you for that. I am also adding a food blog to the EDT blog. I will post some of the stuff I make and give recipes. Any how. Happy Holidays, Enjoy the free toxic coma, oh and btw at the top of the page there is a toxic coma link you can click on, this is now the official toxic coma page :) Also, please go to my official forum, or my facebook page, to ask questions for the new Toxic Coma Interview I am working on for the EDT blog. You ask a question, and Toxic Coma will answer it.

#VAC irc is back. To login use pidgin or another irc client for mac or windows, and login to this sever: irc.mibbit.net, then join #VAC . type /j #vac at the prompt. You should join the Official Velvet Acid Christ Chat, I go in there now and then. Lots of cool people.

I am now adding new articles weekly on the media blog, Reviews, and shining the spotlight on things I like. VAC writes all of these reviews and articles..

Click thei mage above, or Click Here To buy them! and BTW, please leave a comment if you buy one.. comment here that is…

I loved you so much. I will miss you every day of my life.

Zyden, rest in peace, you were the best dog in the world.

2005 – 2010.

To young to die. I wish i could of moved long ago, these neighbors are bastards. He was given decon or something maybe, he acted and bled out like it. But, maybe he had a genetic disorder too the doctors told me. I cannot believe he could go from fine to horrid in 3 days. The transfusion and vit k shots didn’t work, he started bleeding out last night. Nothing could be done, he was pissing blood and shitting blood. I don’t feel like doing anything. I miss him so much. I planned on running with him this summer like we used to when I was raw. He was my walk running buddie. I really miss him. He was so cute. He made me happy.

My heart is crushed. I’m devastated.

My poor dog, is so ill, i just had to spend money on a blood transfusion. 1500 for un insured dog care :( i don’t know what it is, his blood is only 6%, hardly any Tcells, like he was poisoned.

But at this level, the doctors are saying it might be bone cancer. he is only 5, i cried my heart out today, one of the worst days of my life. i am so sad its breaking my heart. I don’t know how i can afford to feed him a barf diet. a raw dog diet. its so expensive, i am hoping we can heal him, but i doubt it, i’m so scared of losing him, this is the worst i have felt in my life i think. I’ve lost most of my friends over the last 4 years, and now this, i am so morbid right now. He got sick out of no where. falling down, pissing himself, crying.. i am so pissed. I hate to sound so emo, but honestly. My heart is breaking. We get him back tomorrow, but who knows how long the blood transfusion will hold for. I am going to try raw food on him, get him to drink veggie juice if possible. I don’t have the money. it sucks. if you want to donate and help out, please do it on my web page on the donate button.

Please help zyden. He is such a good dog. He wants to live, when I took him to the vet, even though he is so sick, he acted just like we were going on a walk, i walk him all the time. One of the best moments in my life is at 2am on a summer night walking him in the park by my house while i was listening to the b52s on my raw vegan high, it is one of my most warmest memories of all time for me. When the doctors explained to me how sick he was, my jaw dropped, i thought i took good care of him feeding him healthier food. Maybe its his genetics. I didn’t feed him raw though. :( They said that other dogs in his shape come in could not even move. He is standing, walking, and acting like he wants to live. I’m so sad.