The Haunted House

Introducing Amy Olivia Haunts

2009-05-28T23:27:00.002+01:00

At 11.43 this morning Amanda gave birth to our first daughter Amy Olivia Haunts. Her contractions started around 2am and I drove her to hospital around 6am. By 8am she was fully dilated and she arrived at 11.43.Amy was 6lb 8oz in weight and is doing really well, sporting a nice head of hair :-) Amanda is also doing really well. I am so proud of Amanda. She wanted an epidural but because her

Dovedale

2009-04-21T21:20:00.005+01:00

On Sunday the weather was really nice and sunny so we decided to pop down to Dovedales for a mini walk and some ice cream. We couldn't walk too far with Amanda being pregnant, but we walked down the river and sat down for a bit.I am really glad the winter weather is out the way, about time too. Amanda has been taking advantage of the sunshine whilst she is on maternity leave and has been sunning

More Gardening.

2009-04-21T21:17:00.004+01:00

I did some more tidying in the garden over the weekend then Me and Amanda went to Homebase to buy some flowers and plants, so the place looks litle more colorful now. We also started the mamoth task of washing baby clothes ready for her arrival. She has more clothes than Me and Amanda put together. lol. Anyway, few garden piccies below.

Babies New Set of Wheels

2009-04-19T20:50:00.005+01:00

The other day our new pram for the baby turned up. The pram was great fully paid for by my parents. We opted the the Quinny Buzz 3 wheeler as it is a decent size when collapsed. We also got a car seat and the ISOFIX base for the car, but that hasn't turned up yet. In a few weeks hopefully.We now have pretty much all we need for the babies arrival now. Amanda's Mum bought us a Natures Nest, which

Tidying Up The Garden

2009-04-13T20:39:00.003+01:00

Today I spent some time tidying up the garden. I cleared out all the weeds and crap that accumulated over the winter. I also dug out the space under the hedge and put bark chippings down. The garden is looking quite tidy now we just need to get flowers in the planters. This should be done next week.

Easter Weekend

2009-04-13T20:13:00.004+01:00

This weekend Amanda's brother Steve and his girlfriend Rachel came down from up north to visit for a few days. Steve is off traveling soon so came down to see Amanda and Bump before he sets off.They got to our house Saturday morning and we had quite a lazy day and just relaxed. In the evening I made a Thai curry and we watched some crap TV. On Sunday we took them to Matlock Bath and went on the

Pregancy Update

2009-04-10T19:01:00.004+01:00

I havn't posted on this blog in a while because we havn't really done much recently. Amanda is now heavily pregnant so gets knackered quickly. Recently we completed our ante natel classes with the NCT. The classes were great, we learnt a lot of stuff and made some great friends who we are going to keep in touch with.The only other thing we have done, besides tidying up the house and doing lots of

One Blog Becomes Two!!

2009-02-19T18:33:00.002Z

For a long time now this blog has had a bit of an identity crisis. I have mixed posts about my audio endeavors and my personal life in one place and was, to be honest, a little too lazy to do anything about it. Now Amanda is pregnant and due in May this blog, as you can imagine, will start to fill up with baby pictures for our families to keep up to date on the babies progress.Therefore I have

Amy's New Bedroom

2009-02-15T10:40:00.003Z

The past few weeks we have been busily decorating Amy's new bedroom and today we have pretty much finished it off. We assembled the cot yesterday and Amanda attached the mobile and cot bumpers etc.This morning I put up the curtain rail, which for me is a major feat as I am certainly not Mr DIY, but I am getting a lot better at this stuff :-)All that is left to do is to get some extra pictures for

3D baby scan

2009-02-14T14:29:00.005Z

Today we had a 3D baby scan at the Nuffield private hospital in Derby. This scan allows you to see the baby in more detail. I have included a few of the pictures below. Those who have me added as a friend on facebook can see more of

Snow, Snow and More Snow.

2009-02-13T20:43:00.004Z

In the past couple of weeks have had the most snow the country has had in years. I really like the snow my self even though most people moan about it. I find it quite exciting personally.Getting to the train station through 6 inches of snow was good fun and the trains were surprisingly reliable for a change. The morning walk through the snow was made even more atmospheric by listening to

Started Decorating

2009-02-13T20:37:00.004Z

A couple of weeks ago I started decorating the spare room ready for the babies arrival. We first needed to strip off all the wallpaper which was a royal pain in the arse as it was all plastic coated, but we bought a steamer and got it all down in a couple of days.The room has now been painted, but those pictures wont be taken until tomorrow when we assemble the cot etc.We have gone for cream

Started Tidying the Babies Room

2009-01-25T18:26:00.003Z

Now that the arrival of the baby is getting a lot closer we have to get the spare room sorted out. Today we went out and bought a baby changing unit and set of drawers. Once we got it back I started sorting out the spare room. I have booked some time off in Feb to paint the room, but I started today by dismantling the spare bed. We are getting rid of this during the week, so guests have to use an

Continuum now available

2009-01-14T21:56:00.002Z

The new album, Continuum, is now available to stream and buy from my bandcamp page here. It will shortly follow on all the other download stores like iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody, eMusic, Lala, Shock hound, Groupie tunes etc. Then it will be out on CD. Enjoy...

New album very very soon.

2009-01-11T09:20:00.002Z

The new creature album, continuum, is really really close to being released now. All the mastering is pretty much completed I just need to listen to the final tracks a few more times to make sure I am happy with it all. So hopefully over the next week or 2 I will get the album first up on to the creature bandcamp page.The track listing is as follows:Music MachineGlideRobotsEvil GeniusRoninTime

There Was This One Time at BandCamp...

2009-01-11T09:10:00.002Z

One of the things I really like about running a small record label and sound design business is the fact that I am not shackled to any larger companies telling me what to do. This leaves me free to try out emerging technologies for launching music projects.One of these such projects is a Web 2.0 site called Bandcamp. Bandcamp is a site that helps you promote and sell your music to new audiences.

Amandas 20 Week Scan

2009-01-07T19:39:00.003Z

Today Amanda had her 20 week scan at Derby City Hospital. The scan is to check for any abnormalities. Thankfully everything was OK and Amanda and the baby are both in great condition.We also found out the sex of the baby and we are pleased to say that we are having a baby girl. We are still thinking about names. A boys name was always going to be easy for us to pick as we decided on that ages ago

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T15:43:00.002Z

Well this is going to be the last post on this blog for 2008. So in the tradition of this site, here is a piccy of some scantily clad young ladies. It is been a really good year. Amanda is expecting our first child and we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. At work I got a good promotion, and musically I have done loads of releases and started building a little sound design business. Lets

Christmas 2008

2008-12-31T15:22:00.004Z

The past few weeks have been quite hectic. The other week We visited my parents in London. Then I was in work up til Christmas Eve. Would have been nice to book some extra time off before hand but I had run out of holidays.Me and Amanda spent Christmas day at home together. We had a really relaxed day. We got up fairly late for us :-) Opened pressies and I made a huge dinner. This year we treated

Electronic Critters : Drum Hits Collection Now Available

2008-12-22T19:42:00.003Z

The Electronic Critters Bite Size : Drum Hits Collection is now available as a digital download from Sounds/To/Sample. The collection costs £9.99 and contains the following:80 x Kicks 102 x Snares 109 x Hats 95 x Toms 54 x Crashes and Cymbals 16 x Cow Bells 16 x Claps 23 x Shaker and Claves12 x Vintage Fruit Machine Sounds 250 x Circuit Bent One Shots 76 x Bleeps Bloops and Glitches32 x

Electronic Critters Multi Buy Special Offer

2008-12-09T22:05:00.005Z

Over on the Sounds/To/Sample site we have a great multi pack discount on both Electronic Critters sample libraries. Instead of paying £39.98 we have reduced the price by 25% to £29.99.Here is the sales info from Sounds/To/Sample:Credit-crunch busting multisaver pack featuring the esteemed Electronic Critters and its new sequel Critters 2: Airwaves, boasting 1,500+ sounds and 3.5+GB worth of fx,

That time of year again!!

2008-12-07T22:20:00.002Z

Well it's that time of year again. Christmas is in only a few weeks away. Where has this year gone!! Today we went out and got our tree. We got a real tree this year as we are spending Christmas at home. Getting the tree in the car was interesting and the hoover worked overtime picking up needles, but Amanda has finally got it decorated :-) Just a few more weeks of work until a little time off.

Electronic Critters : Bite Size

2008-12-03T21:23:00.002Z

For a while now I have been putting together a new sample collection under the electronic critters brand. The brand has been extended to be called 'Electronic Critters Bite Size'. These collections are designed to be high value, low cost sample collections that will be available as a digital only collection via Sounds/To/Sample.The first sample library in the bite size line is called the 'Drum

BBC Good Food Show 2008

2008-11-30T10:02:00.002Z

Yesterday Me and Amanda went to the BBC Good Food Show at the Birmingham NEC. This year we had tickets to see a live demonstration by the Hairy Bikers. We set off about 7.30 in the morning so we could get parked. Getting there was quite straight forward and we got in to the show really quickly.At 10.30 there was a Hairy Bikers demonstration on the British Stage so we sat down to see them. We were

Strange Days and Strange Ways Single

2008-11-22T16:29:00.002Z

Work on my next full-length album, Continuum, is nearly complete and I am set to release it in the new year. In the mean time the marketing and promotional engine is getting fired up :-)Today I have released the first single from the album, called Strange Days and Strange Ways. This is a double A-side single and I am offering it for download FREE of charge. You can't get better value than that :-

Haunts Jr.

2008-11-13T17:53:00.007Z

A picture speaks a thousand words. Amanda is 13 weeks pregnant. She had her first scan today. We are both thrilled. I guess this means I will be doing some more decorating soon :-) We have kept it quiet so far just to make sure everything is ok, but all family have been told now :-)

Spannish Graffiti

2008-11-13T17:42:00.014Z

Whilst we was walking around Tarragona we spotted some really good graffiti art near the port. Naturally I got the camera out and started snapping away. Some of the graffiti had been defaced, but I got pictures of the stuff that hadn't been touched. Hope you like them :-)

Mini Break to Tarragona

2008-11-13T17:21:00.004Z

Yesterday Me and Amanda got back from a short 2 day trip to Tarragona in Spain. I had some time owing to me at work so I took the week off. We wasn't planning on going away anywhere but Amanda managed to get some stupidly cheap flights to Tarragona. The flights cost 1p per person each way. Can't argue with that. Even the hotel was cheap at 80Euros for the 2 nights.We flew out early on Monday

Nightmares and Dreamscapes Extended

2008-11-08T16:20:00.002Z

Earlier on in the year I said one of my plans for this year was to re-release all the EP's I put out before Mechanical. The first re-release was the Mechanical : EP Collection, which I released a few months ago.Next on the agenda is the re-release of Nightmares and Dreamscapes. This EP was quite popular when I released it, but I kept on getting a similar request from people. That request was to

Free Radio Frequency Samples

2008-11-07T19:42:00.002Z

As a Free gift to celebrate the launch of Electronic Critters 2 : Airwaves I have made a selection of my raw source material available to you for FREE. When working on Electronic Critters 2 I recorded lots of raw radio frequency sounds using a high end radio frequency scanner (shown above). I then used these raw sounds as a basis for the sound programming for the sample collection. In the file

Electronic Critters Multi Buy Special Offer

2008-10-26T10:25:00.002Z

Now Electronic Critters 2 is going through the manufacturing process, I have put up a special offer on the Haunted House Records site. If you buy both Critters 1 and 2 on DVD you will get a 20% discount, so the price is £31.99 instead of £39.98. That's £7.99 off the full retail price. Pretty good Credit Crunch beating offer I think :-)Your £31.99 gets you nearly 4.5 gigabytes of crazy yet

Electronic Critters 2 Now Finished

2008-10-25T15:41:00.003+01:00

Electronic Critters is now completed. The final DVD image is currently uploading to the manufacturers FTP server ready for manufacturing. I have included some renderings from the case artwork below. The first batch of DVD's should be here in a couple of weeks. Thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered their copy. I will get your disc out to you as soon as I have them.

Electronic Critters Demo and Pre-Orders

2008-10-22T20:44:00.003+01:00

The image above is the new DVD case for Electronic Critters. The sounds on this new version of critters are based around noise recordings from a high end radio scanner. The noises consist of random speech, to static, pulses, data transmisisons, radar beacons etc. These noises have then been processed through lots of DSP effects to create sounds that are completely out of this world.If you go to

Theramin Fun

2008-10-20T22:55:00.002+01:00

A colleague of mine and fellow musician, Jake, of the band Izzy The Push was good enough to lend me his portable Theramin for a week or two between gigs so I could have a go at recording it. I do not know why they call them Theramins. I think portable sine wave emitting hell beast would be a better name.After a few minutes of tinkering with this thing I can honestly say, Theramins rock!!!! Even

Great Electronic Critters Review in RemixMag

2008-10-20T18:23:00.004+01:00

I just found out that Electronic Critters has received a great review in Remix Mag. It is available on their online addition, but is due in next months printed version.They don't give scores, but they do write quite descriptive reviews. Review text is below...WHERE CIRCUITS GO TO GET BENT In preparation for his latest album, Distant Horizon, Derby, UK-based

Shopping Cart

2008-10-19T14:29:00.002+01:00

There have been quite a few changes that I have wanted to make to the Haunted House Records website for a while now. I have now completed the first few.Firstly the whole concept of running Haunted House Records as a label isn't really working. Having the time to find and develop new artists is something that I just don't have the time to do. With the previous line up, Creature has done really

Rough Rider - Vintage Style Compressor

2008-10-19T09:41:00.003+01:00

Another credit crunch busting plugin in Rough Rider from Audio Damage. They have made this excellent compressor, FREE of charge and it sounds really nice. Of course, they have done this as a promotional thing so you hopefully buy some of their other products and this is fine :-)I have been using some of the Audio Damage plugins for a while and I can honestly say they are excellent and priced very

Great FREE VST Music Plugins

2008-10-19T09:33:00.002+01:00

A while go I mentioned about an excellent free vst synths that models a Roland SH101. Well the people that provide that synth also have lots of other goodies available on their site. All FREE, which in our current credit crunch is a great thing.A lot of free ware synths and effects normally tend to sound a bit pants, but I really like the sound of their stuff. All plugins are available for PC

Firefox FTP Client

2008-10-19T09:24:00.002+01:00

When updating the Haunted House Records website I normally use an FTP client called Smart FTP to send the files across to the server. This used to be a free program and it was quite good. But it has now changed over to a paid for program. I was going to buy it, but someone recommended me an FTP client called FireFTP that integrates in with the firefox browser. I gave it a try yesterday and it is

Electronic Critters 2 : Coming Soon

2008-10-18T10:37:00.003+01:00

For more months than I care to remember I have been busily working on the 2nd edition of my Electronic Critters sample Library. The first edition was based on Circuit Bent children's toys. Electronic Critters 2 will be based on something different, which you can probably guess from the above image :-).I will post with more details soon. I am nearly finished making the sound content. When that is

Family Wedding In London

2008-10-14T19:40:00.002+01:00

Last weekend we went down to London on the Saturday for My cousin Claire's wedding. The wedding was in Chingford and the reception was near Chigwell. We set off on Saturday morning fairly early and drove to my parents house where we got changed.From my Parents house we drove to the church. It was quite nice going back to Chingford as I was born there so it is always nice to go back there. The

Holiday to Gran Canaria

2008-10-13T21:12:00.008+01:00

Last month Me and Amanda went away for a 2 week holiday to Gran Canaria. It's taken me a while to write it up here because I am lazy :-) We flew to Gran Canaria from East Midlands airport on the Monday and got to our hotel around 10pm.We were staying in Puerto Rico which is on the south west of the island. The resort is quite built up and in a bit of a valley with hotels all the way up the

The Chaser UK Film Trailer

2008-09-24T20:43:00.003+01:00

A while ago I wrote on this blog that I had provided the music for a film trailer. Well that trailer has now been released and the film is out in the cinema. You can view the trailer below. The track I provided was Hive of the Nightmares and Dreamscapes EP. The track is more of a dark ambient piece. It's the ghostly noises etc you can hear in the background.

Alesis IO|26

2008-08-30T16:12:00.003+01:00

I have just received a new piece of kit for the Studio. I really needed to replace my aging USB audio interface, so I have replace it with a new Firewire Alesis IO|26. This new piece of kit offers 26 inputs, 8 of which are XLR/jack inputs with phantom power and decent mic preamps. The device also has 8 output which I can eventually use for re-routing audio to a analog summing mixer in the future.

Bank Holiday Walk 2

2008-08-30T16:00:00.002+01:00

On the bank holiday Monday we decided to do a more adventurous walk. We picked a walk out of the AA book that starts near Axe Edge, just outside of Buxton. After looking through the instructions the day before, Amanda decided it would be best to try and trace out the walk on the OS map first as it sounded like it could get confusing.Amanda looked like a proper geek huddled over a huge map on the

Bank Holiday Walk 1

2008-08-30T15:56:00.002+01:00

Last weekend was a bank holiday here in the UK. Me and Amanda decided to go out and do some walking. The first walk we did was near Linacre reservoir a short distance from Chesterfield.It turns out I have done this walk years ago with Neil and Caroline. I thought I recognized parts of it, but I wasn't sure. But after Amanda spoke to Caroline earlier on in the week, it turns out it was the walk I

Sound Design and Science Fiction

2008-08-24T08:33:00.002+01:00

Last week I finished reading a book called Sound Design and Science Fiction. The book discuses how sound design has changed over the years in cinema and how advances in technology have helped progress the field. The book talks about difference science fiction films including George Lucas's THX 1138, Star Wars, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Aliens, Terminator 2, and the Matrix series.I definitely

Mechanical : The EP Collection on CD

2008-08-23T18:15:00.003+01:00

My latest release, Mechanical : The EP Collection, is now available from all the main digital download stores. The CD version will be available to buy soon. I am waiting for the first box of discs from the manufacturers. The manufacturers upload software has produced the case renderings below. I hope you like them.I wanted to go for a very simple design on this case. Lots of white and very crisp.

Film Trailer Licensing.

2008-08-23T17:25:00.005+01:00

Over the past few weeks I have been talking to an independent film distributor called Metrodome Distribution. They got in touch with me because they were interested in licensing a section of one of my tracks. The track in question was Hive off the Nightmares and Dreamscapes EP. They want to use part of the track in the UK version of the trailer for the Korean film 'The Chaser'. You can see the

Dovedales

2008-08-23T17:15:00.002+01:00

Last weekend I had to go into work all day Saturday and half of Sunday as I have a project nearing completion. Amanda came and met me at work on the Sunday and we drove off to Dovedale for a walk.Dovedale is one of the more touristy paces in Derbyshire so the first couple of miles were quite busy with people. But the route we took soon got us away from everyone else. The weather was mainly good

Walk through Wolfscote Dale

2008-08-05T21:00:00.005+01:00

We had quite a busy weekend last weekend. On Saturday our friends Neil and Caroline came around for dinner. Amanda cooked, she made a nice quiche for starters, then duck and apple lentels for a main followed by creme catalana for dessert. All was very tasty.On Sunday we went out for a walk with Neil and Caroline. We went to Wolfescote Dale. Me and Amanda have been here a few times earlier in the

Electronic Critters In Electronic Musician Magazine

2008-08-01T20:45:00.003+01:00

I have just found out that Electronic Critters has been given a mention in Electronic Musician Magazine. This is cool as it is a major printed recording magazine in the US. Kinda like Sound on Sound is over here.It's not a review though, more of an editorial news piece. Hopefully it will drive up sales some more. Getting in print magazines really does help.Here is what they said:Haunted House

Happy Welly - Radio Bumface

2008-07-27T16:02:00.003+01:00

We have released a new Happy Welly EP called Radio Bumface on Haunted House Records. It contains 8 crazy new tracks and is completly FREE, because we are nice like that. You can get if from here.

Kawai R-50 Drum Machine

2008-07-27T12:35:00.001+01:00

Amanda did a bit of EBaying for me the other week. She got me an old 1980's Kawai R-50 Drum machine. It looks all nice and old and retro. It contains 12bit samples, which at the time was a high bit rate. Unfortunately I can't use the machine yet as it didn't come with a power adapter, so I will have to nip to Maplins during the week. I am suspecting that it will sound quite shit on its own, but

Birds of Prey

2008-07-27T11:52:00.004+01:00

After our walk to Derwent Edge yesteray we stopped off at the Rowsley shopping centre near Bakewell to look around the shops. Whilst there we saw a stand showing off some birds of prey. They were collecting money for their charity.In return for a small donation you could hold one of the owls. The owl we held was called Muggle and is from India. First Sharon had a go, then Aamanda, and then Me.The

Walk Along Derwent Edge

2008-07-27T10:37:00.008+01:00

This week our friends Sharon and Mark came down to visit. They liked the idea of going for a walk to we picked a walk that wasn't too difficult yet was very scenic. Derwent Edge fitted the bill for this. This is the 3rd time Me and Amanda have done this route now, so we didn't need to refer to the book, even though we took it with us.We set off from the house just after 8 and drove to the start

Blackpool

2008-07-20T21:32:00.004+01:00

Yesterday Me and Amanda drove up to Preston for her old school friends, Carolines, 30th birthday party. The party was at the cricket club and we stayed in the Ibis hotel which was pretty much next door.Amanda's other school friend Kim and her husband Graham where there also so we spent a lot of time chatting to them. Preston is only a short drive away from Blackpool, so Me and Amanda, Kim and

New Creature Album

2008-07-15T17:09:00.007+01:00

A little while ago I mentioned that I was going to do a series of EP re-releases. Well the first of these is ready. I have repacked the Daisy Cutter and Twilight EP's along with some remixes.This wasn't just a case of putting both EP's together. I have mixed both records from scratch using the original multi track recordings. The result I think sounds great. The album is winging its way to the

Family Wedding

2008-07-15T16:59:00.003+01:00

Last weekend we took a break out of our busy house re-decorating schedule to go down to my parents in Essex for a family wedding. My uncle Trevor and Aunt Gill were celebrating there 25th wedding anniversary, so they decided to renew their wedding vows.I got the train down Friday night as Amanda had to drive from Wales. On Saturday I had to go out to get some new trousers and a shirt, as I have

Electronic Critters Review In Computer Music Magazine

2008-07-02T17:47:00.003+01:00

Today has been quite exciting. My circuit bending sample library DVD, Electronic Critters, has received it's first magazine review. It got a score of 9 out of 10 in the August edition of Computer Music Magazine on page 109. You can click the image above to read it in more detail.Champagne all round!! Well perhaps not, maybe a nice cup of tea instead. :-)

Walk Near Goyt Valley

2008-06-29T19:13:00.002+01:00

Today we managed to go out for a walk. This is the first walk we have done for quite a few weeks, so we was really looking forward to it. We went with Neil and Caroline, but they have done a lot more walks recently as they went on holiday to the Lake District a few weeks ago.We was planning to do a walk near Kinder Scout, but as we drove closer to it, the weather started looking as if it would

Creature Interview On ChainDLK.Com

2008-06-28T09:06:00.003+01:00

A couple of months ago I did an interview for chainDLK.com, an online independent music magazine. That interview has finally been published. You can read it HERE.The photo was taken by Neil of NeilDuffinPhotography last year sometime, although I now weigh 3 stone less than in that photo. lol

Interesting Business Books

2008-06-28T08:54:00.006+01:00

I recently read a couple of interesting business books that I thought I would mention here. The first is called 'The Long Tail' by Chris Anderson. This is essentially a popular economics books that discusses how the internet has changed the face of product distribution. These days, you no longer need a "hit" to survive in a market place. This book discusses all those niche products that are not

Holiday In Portugal

2008-06-25T21:10:00.006+01:00

Me and Amanda got back from a nice holiday in Portugal on Saturday. It's taken a few days to get the photo's sorted out as I am lazy :-). Like our holiday to Portugal last year, we returned to Albufeira. Last year we stayed in the new town section which is quite clubby. We was so busy when there, that we never got around to visiting the old town.This year Amanda booked a hotel in the old town.

Walk Around Matlock and Cromford

2008-05-19T06:38:00.002+01:00

After trying lots cheese and chutneys at the food festival on Saturday we went for a walk with Neil and Caroline. We kept it fairly local and did a walk around Matlock and Cromford.We set off about 9.30 in Cromford. There was a fair amount of walking up hills in this walk. The most difficult bit was walking up near the heights of abraham in Matlock Bath. Shouldn't complain though, it's all good

Bolsover Food Festival

2008-05-17T15:00:00.003+01:00

Today Me and Amanda, along with Neil and Caroline went to the Derbyshire food festival at Bolsover Castle near Chesterfield. We have been planning to go there for months now. Neil and Caroline picked us up at 9.30. We decided to take our walking boots as the festival was outside and the weather was forecast for rain.At the festival there was all the usual local food producers with their stalls.

Derwent Edge. We Can See Where We Are Going This Time!!

2008-05-11T18:40:00.004+01:00

The weather this past week has been amazing. Well especially for England. It has been a bit of a stress full week. At work I had an internal interview for a new position which involved a lot of preparation, but luckily, both interviews were done Friday so I didn't have to worry about it over the weekend.We planned to do a walk at Kinder Scout today, We starting driving up there around 7am, but

Sound Mangling Tools : Part 3

2008-05-03T11:52:00.004+01:00

The next sound mangling tool I am going to have a look at is AudioMulch. This is the blurb from the site, as they can explain it much better than me :-) AudioMulch is an interactive musician’s environment for computers running Microsoft Windows. Bringing together the popular with what has up to now been considered experimental, AudioMulch merges the worlds of mainstream electronica and

Sound Mangling Tools : Part 2

2008-05-03T11:29:00.003+01:00

The other day I started an entry about sound mangling tools, and I started off with Audio Paint. I didn't really get time to put an example together earlier in the week, so I have done one now. As stated before, Audio Paint, turns images into sound. The length of an image depicts time, and the height of the image determines how many oscillators are used. The image I used below was 8000 pixels by

creature - promo1 Now Available

2008-05-01T20:53:00.003+01:00

My new promotional album, promo 1, is now available to download. This 10 track album is completely free to download. You can even give it away to your friends. In fact, let as many people know about it as possible. I even encourage you to upload promo1 to torrent sites and news groups.The first 9 tracks are from all my releases to date, so it gives a nice historic cross section of music. The

creature - promo1

2008-04-30T21:01:00.002+01:00

Within the next few days I will be releasing a new promo album for creature. This album will be completely FREE to download. The album represents a cross section of music from all my releases so far.I am releasing it purely for promotional reasons, but it is a good way for people to check out some of the music. The track listing is as follows:01 - Ferrite02 - Hive03 - GeoSwitch04 - Terrapin05 -

Roland SH101 Software Synth

2008-04-29T21:57:00.003+01:00

I was sent a link to an interesting and free software vst synth the other day. It's inspired by the classic Roland SH101 analog synth. I have had a little try of this VST and it sounds great. I am not sure how much of a SH101 emulation it really is, as I have never used a real one, but it does sound good. I think I can definitely find a good use for this synth on my next album. The synth is

Sound Mangling Tools : Part 1

2008-04-29T20:26:00.005+01:00

I am currently preparing and tooling up for starting the next Creature album. I will probably do more circuit bending for this album, but I also want to experiment with different ways of completely mangling and decimating sound. So I have been on the lookout for some useful tools to help with this. First up is a nice little tool called Audio Paint.Essentially this tool turns images into sound.

Quite Afternoon Walk Around Belper

2008-04-27T19:34:00.003+01:00

It has been a while since Me and Amanda went on a walk, so today after lunch we decided to do a local walk around Belper. We have done this route before with Neil and Caroline last year.The walk is nice and simple, 5 miles in length, with only a little steep bit. We was still tired though afterwards. We set off about 1pm and the walk took just under 3 hours as we wasn't in a rush.The weather was

Electronic Critters Available From Sample Magic

2008-04-21T19:48:00.003+01:00

Today Electronic Critters went live on Sample Magics new download portal, Sounds/To/Sample. The direct link the Electronic Critters is here. This is a cool thing to happen. They are quite picky about the sample collections they stock, so I was quite happy when they got in touch with me.Here is the blurb from the site: About Sounds/To/Sample Sounds/To/Sample is a one-stop pro-audio download

Glitch With Ableton Live 7 and Novation SL Controllers

2008-04-19T16:06:00.006+01:00

For the last 2 years I have been using Ableton Live as my musical composition software, and they are currently up to version 7, which I have. I havn't done a huge amount of work in this yet as I had been getting Electronic Critters ready for launch, but recently I have been getting some of my files ready from the Daisy Cutter and Twilight EP's ready for re-releasing as a complete album.When

Distant Horizon Available For Licensing

2008-04-14T19:37:00.003+01:00

I have been in the process of trying to get some of my music available to licensing agencies since the beginning of January. For those who are not sure what this means, licensing is when you give companies the right to use your tracks in TV, Film, Advertising, etc.My chosen licensing agency is Pump Audio, who are a sub division of Getty Images, the stock photography licensing company. It has

Electronic Critters Merchandise

2008-04-12T16:09:00.003+01:00

Things have been quite busy with the Electronic Critters Sample DVD release. I have just signed a contract with a large sample disc provider. I have signed up with them for the online distribution rights to Electronic Critters. This means they will handle all the download sales for Critters aswell as marketting and promotion. The company selling the disc is Sample Magic, via their new online

Free Happy Welly Album - Tales From The Teapot

2008-04-07T19:57:00.002+01:00

I am in a generous mood again this week. I think it must be the spring air. We have decided to release Happy Welly's very first, and previously un-released album, Tales From The Teapot for FREE. As in totally FREE.The album contains 18 tracks of full on crazy weird stuff. Click HERE to get it.

Electronic Critters Now Available

2008-03-25T20:04:00.005Z

Well, after months of work my Sample DVD, Electronic Critters is all finished. I had the first manufactured batch of DVD's turn up today, so I have spent time this evening packing jiffy bags so the people who pre-ordered the disc wont have to wait too much longer.There is nothing quite as satisfying as building something from nothing, and then having people liking your work enough to pay for it.

Distant Horizon Review in Regen Magazine.

2008-03-24T09:06:00.002Z

I have had another album review, this time in Regen Magazine. The album got 3 out of 5, so not too bad, as this magazine is notoriously harsh sometimes :-) All in all I got some pretty good constructive feedback. He makes some interesting points, and asks whether my desire to use experimental sound sources, yet keeping the album reasonably commercial sounding was deliberate or not. Well, in fact

Listening Post Art Exhibit.

2008-03-23T21:01:00.002Z

Whilst visiting the Science Museum in London for Amanda's birthday trip we went to see an audio visual art installation at the museum called the Listening Post. The display consisted of lots of small LCD screens set up in a dark room in a grid. The installation basically listened to thousands of Internet chat rooms and forums. This text would then be converted into synthesised, and vocoded

Dirty Dancing On Stage

2008-03-23T20:45:00.005Z

After visiting the science museum and checking in at our hotel we headed off on the tube to Holborn to find where the theatre was. Once there we quickly nipped in to pick up our tickets and then headed off to find somewhere for dinner. We didn't have any fixed diner plans, so we went on the hunt.After a while we found a Pizza Express, so we went in there. This is probably our favourite pizza

The London Science Museum

2008-03-23T20:34:00.005Z

We have just got back from a weekend away in London. Ages ago we booked tickets to go and see the west end musical, Dirty Dancing. This trip was for Amanda's birthday. Her birthday was actually in February, but this weekend was the only time we could get tickets.On Friday we drove down to my parents and spent the evening there. I also took the time to help my Dad with a book he was writing. On

Sloe Gin Finally Ready

2008-03-15T17:51:00.004Z

Last october we picked a load of sloe berries to make our own sloe gin. They have been sitting in a large jar infusing since then. Today we decanted the gin back into some bottles and gave it a try. The result was good, it tasted nice and smooth as well as sweet. Well you would expect it to be sweet with the amount of sugar in there.My next drink to make will be some cherry brandy. I might do

Walk Around Manifold Valley

2008-03-09T20:03:00.010Z

Me and Amanda went for another walk today. Like the last 2 weeks we had a lie in and set off at 10am. This week the walk was too Manifold Valley. This is in the same area as Wolfescot Dale, it's just up the A515 from Ashbourne.The weather was quite good when we started the walk, but it started to turn a little nasty for about an hour when it rained. But after that it was ok. Todays walk was quite

Distant Horizon Review in Side Line Magazine

2008-03-06T21:54:00.002Z

I have had another review for Distant Horizon this week. This time Belgium EBM and synth pop magazine Side Line has reviewed the album, and this is what they had to say:"The debut-album “Mechanical” of this British artist sounded quite promising. “Distant Horizon” goes on a similar way, merging pure ambient soundscapes with some low tempo rhythmic. The electronic arrangements are quite well done

The Return Of Wolfscote Dale

2008-03-04T21:20:00.003Z

Last Sunday Me and Amanda went out for another walk. I was already quite knackered from the past week as I had been to the Gym on Thursday, Friday, and for 2 hours Saturday morning whilst Amanda took the car to the garage. I was determined to go out for another walk though.We decided to do another walk near Wolfescote Dale near Buxton. This is the same area we went to last week, but a different

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I - IV

2008-03-04T17:35:00.004Z

The mighty Nine Inch Nails, probably the only band I have followed continuously since 1990, has just released a new album of instrumental tracks. What makes this album special is it is their first album to be released without the support of a major record label. Trent Reznor is releasing the album himself with a similar model to Radiohead's pay what you want model. Here is the pricing structure:

Free Drum Samples For Download

2008-03-03T21:24:00.002Z

Because I am such a generous and giving person I have put up a load of drum kits samples I created for my last album, Distant Horizon, for free on the Haunted House Records website. First up there are 22 kits from an old Korg Electribe ER-1. Then there is a kit sampled from a Yamaha DD-10 kids drum machine. I have not circuit bent this device yet, so it is a clean kit. Lastly there is a drum kit

Electronic Critters Sample CD

2008-03-01T16:10:00.003Z

Way back at the beginning of last year when I was planning the Distant Horizon album I started a marathon circuit bending spree over 4 months. The intention was to use a lot of the sound samples from this in the making of the album.After I had made lots of circuit bent recordings, I chopped up all the sounds and started processing them with weird and wonderful effects. This created some really

First Review For Distant Horizon

2008-02-29T17:52:00.002Z

I have had my first review for Distant Horizon on ChainDLK.com. The reviewer gave the album 4 out of 5 stars. The reviewer is German, so the english translation reads a little funny, but here it is:A new release for the Haunted House-recording artist CREATURE hailing out of Derby, UK. CREATURE is Stephen Haunts and he continues with this new full-length his path performing a special sort of Dark

Alan Wilder Article on Sine Line

2008-02-29T17:28:00.002Z

The Side Line magazine website has posted an interesting article by Alan Wilder, the man behind Recoil and previous member of Depeche Mode. The article is a candid look at the current state of the recording industry touching on the lousness war, and the demise of major labels.In the article he also discusses Mute's future (his current label) and even the future of his own recording contract. It's

Wolfscote Dale and Railway Trail

2008-02-24T19:49:00.002Z

After a busy few weeks Me and Amanda decided to go out for a walk today. We both needed to get away from it all. Amanda has had to be in Wales a lot for work recently, and I have been working on a nightmare project at work which involved going into work yesterday, so we were looking forward to getting out into the country.Amanda picked a walk out of the AA book which was near Ashbourne and goes

Creature Mentioned on Createdigitalmusic.com

2008-02-24T08:25:00.002Z

Just a quick note to mention that my album, Distant Horizon, has been given a mention on createdigitalmusic.com. This music blog is one of the only websites I check religiously everyday as it has a wealth of useful articles for experimental music producers like my self.What's also quite cool is that the hit counter for the Haunted House Records site has jumped through the roof over the last

Inside Ableton

2008-02-19T08:05:00.003Z

I came across an interesting video from a germen music magazine where a guy went through the ableton office with a video camera. Always interesting to see the companies behind the software tools you depend on. If you look very very closely you will see a new product they are working on, a Vocoder :-)You can view the video here.

Amandas Birthday Meal

2008-02-17T16:52:00.004Z

This weekend was Amandas 30th birthday so we was up at her families for a meal on Saturday night. Amanda booked a large table at the Original Masons pub near by for 7.30pm. Early evening everyone got ready and there was the usual scramble for the bathroom.At 7pm Angela loaded us all into her land rover and drove us all to the pub. We got there dead on 7.30 and met up with Amandas Brother, Nan and

Up North For Amandas Birthday

2008-02-17T16:39:00.005Z

On Friday it was Amanda's 30th birthday. We both booked the Friday off so we could drive up to Amandas families near NewCastle. On the Friday evening Amanda wanted to cook a dinner for her family.For dinner we made a pasta and chorizo for the starter, a beef stew for the main course and a pineapple and coconut pavlova for desert. We prepared the main course the evenine before so it would be

Glitched Audio As An Effect

2008-02-15T11:57:00.004Z

One of my personal favourite effects to use when writing a Creature record is that of glitching. This is when you get say a drum loop and make it sound broken and well, glitchy. I have 4 main tools in my arsensal for doing this.First, and most traditionally, I just zoom into a wave form and cut bits out and re-arrange them. This give the most immediate and broken, wonky sound.Another technique

Tristram Cary - UK Electronic Composer

2008-02-15T11:20:00.003Z

The other day I found an interesting documentary about an electronic music pioneer called Tristram Cary. This guy was creating bizzare ambient electronic music in the 1950's using his own built synthesizers and sophisticated tape splicing techniques. He then went on to be one of the co-founders of the EMS synthesizer company.Everything is explained in the documentary, and it is well worth