Microscopics

Microscopic Snow Zoom

Microscopics — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:54:34 +0000

A wintery post of ephemeral images.

Snowflakes are made from up to 200 snowcrystals, which form around nucleation points (specs of dirt or pollen). For crystals to form around this nucleus the temperature has to be -35°C or below. The shape a snowcrystal takes is dependant on the temperature at which it forms, and may be up to 4mm in diameter.

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Wilson A. Bentley was the first person to photograph a snowflake in 1885, using trial, error and an adapted microscope and mutated bellows camera.

Some of the first ever photographs of snowcrystals

Wilson Bentley, circa 1902.

These are some of the latest, taken in Dec 2008 by Mark Cassino

And using a scanning electron microscope for a different perspective.
Each image zooms into the white square of the previous image…

93x zoom

329x zoom

908x zoom

1860x zoom

3900x zoom

7000x zoom

18000x zoom

36000x zoom

…and a few more SEM images…

Hexagonal plate with dendritic extensions

Hexagonal snow crystal

Rimmed hexagonal snow crystal

Hexagonal dendrite

Stellar snow crystal

Snow after several days in snowpack

Image showing the differences between a conventional microscope, using photons (light) and a scanning electron microscope, using electrons, which renders everything opaque as it can’t see reflections or transparency.

Happy Christmas everyone**

***

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Gas 0095: Amazon Review

Microscopics — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:49:09 +0000

As an update to our last post about Amazon MP3 UK, many thanks to Sean Stearns for his kind words in his Amazon.com review of Gas 0095.

I heard this album back in the early 90’s and from the moment I heard it was in love. It is without a doubt one of the most pivotal albums of my listening history, and even a decade later I listen to at least 2 songs from the album each day, no bs this will be among my favorites for life.

Also to note it is rare for me to enjoy every single track on an album, there have been a few and this is one of them. Anytime I am asked about electronic music I make sure Gas 0095 is among the recommended listening. The album is like a ride for your imagination beginning with an epic entry of Experiments on Live Electricity, and if your skull isn’t cracked open to give way to a fantastic journey by the end of that song, you are then swept off in bliss with the follow-up of Microscopic, introducing you to the rest of the album, which in essence is an audible journey that everyone should have before they leave this earth.

I am unable to say enough good things about this artist and this album, it has profoundly impacted the music I have listened to since and every time I have listened to it I have heard new things, and I always look forward to where these sounds are going to take me.

We’ve also added a new blog category tag, reviews if you wish to read more album reviews.

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Gas 0095: Now in Amazon MP3 UK

Microscopics — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:40:04 +0000

The Gas 0095 album is now available in the newly launched Amazon MP3 UK store, and as you may expect, everything is available in 256k drm-free MP3 files.

Visit Amazon MP3 UK now…

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“I Can Only See Where to Buy It” Update

Microscopics — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:15:23 +0000

In a slight update to our previous post, we’ve been informed that YouTube user dahmain0trance has left YouTube.

I can only add that pirating is a massive problem for us. As an example, the country with the most visitors to our site only accounts for less than 1% of our sales.

We’re truly grateful for everyone who has supported our label, either by buying the CD, MP3 or Flac, or by posting any links or news in forums, blogs and emails! The more we sell, the more new music we can release…!

“I Can Only See Where to Buy It” A sadly typical comment. dahmain0trance adds a comment to the...
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“I Can Only See Where to Buy It”

Microscopics — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:58:32 +0000

A sadly typical comment.
dahmain0trance adds a comment to the Microscopic video on YouTube…

i dunt really understand the vid but the music, the music is absolutly divine, its so calm and relaxing yet it creeps the f*ck outta you. thnx man. is there a way to download the whole album for free? cuz on the website it only says “buy album” if anyone has anything plz post it or sumthing thnx.

We offered him the album for half price, but of course he never replied.
Anyone want to buy some used studio equipment?

50% Off Deal…
Just to be fair, we’ll also provide the same 50% off deal if you buy the MP3 or Flac version of Gas 0095 before the end of the year.
Just add the code ‘I support Music‘ in the ‘add instructions to merchant‘ area on the PayPal page and we will refund you within 24 hours.

…

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UnBlogged: Mat Jarvis Special

Microscopics — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:58:37 +0000

Artist and curator TJ Norris has posted the latest edition of UnBlogged, which this month is a Mat Jarvis/ Gas/ High Skies special.

It’s a 30 minute show where Mat talks about his work and plays a selection of tracks.
It’s a free download available now from tjnorris.net Unblogged24.mp3 or from iTunes.

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Gas 0095 Quotes: Alex Paterson, The Orb

Microscopics — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:40:57 +0000

For the recent Future Music feature on Gas 0095 Dr. Alex Paterson from The Orb was kind enough to give us a quote about the album…

“Gas 0095 - Escape from New York meets 2001:A Space Odyssey in Another Green World. Pure class.”
The Orb.

Many thanks Alex.

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Tenori-On prototype spotted in 1997

Microscopics — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:41:47 +0000

John Carpenter, film-maker and electronic musician, predicted the Yamaha Tenori-On back in 1981. In his film, Escape from New York, which was shot in 1981 and set in the bleak future of 1997, he predicted that by 1997 all government agencies would have their own Tenori-on visual sequencer. It still needed a little more work to fit all the electronics into a more manageable hand-held device, but it was mostly there.

He also showed the prototype handheld Tenori-On-Red, but it was scrapped as it had too few lights.

It even came with a vectored flight sim as an easter egg.

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Future Music Magazine, Classic Albums: Gas 0095

Microscopics — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:52:49 +0000

We’re very pleased to tell you that there is a 3 page feature and interview with Mat Jarvis talking about the Gas 0095 album in this months Future Music magazine for their Classic Albums series.

Talking to Roy Spencer, Mat goes through the album track by track explaining the stories behind each.

Business is never usual for Gas producer Mat Jarvis. This highly-collectible and experimental electronic album for the now defunct Emit label is proof enough of that. It’s the sound of a man in love with sonics, given free reign to invent a new language in sound. There are no rules.

The interview was transcribed a little strangely, so some of the grammar appears to be a little odd. There are also details of equipment used, working methods, Emit Records, Square Dance Studios, the stories behind the names…

It’s just the sound of robots talking to each other. What are they saying? I don’t know. I just record it.

In future posts we’ll upload some of the material that never made it to the feature, such as quotes from influential artists talking about the album, videos and photographs.

Future Music is also available from myfavouritemagazines.com

Quotes used by kind permission.

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Loudness Wars, the First Strike

Microscopics — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:08:44 +0000

There has been a silent/ not-so-silence war being raged over the past ten years, the loudness wars, and Metallica are the first casualties.

Dynamic (audio) compression is good, it makes things sound warmer, larger, and evens out lumpy recordings. But if you over compress, you make everything sound the same volume, the subtle details are lost and it gets very tiring to listen to, like a photograph with everything the same colour.

We like louder, louder sounds better than quiet, but not if you sacrifice clarity. Some artists use over-compression as an extra colour and that’s great if it works, but not if you use it on everything or the whole track distorts.

Radio stations already necessarily compress everything heavily that’s why everything sounds the same volume, even the quiet intros. So if you compress your music to death and then play it on the radio it won’t sound any louder than anyone else’s, it will just sound worse.

If you’re playing a CD at home or an mp3 on your iPod, you turn the volume knob to the level you want, so even if the music is recorded very quietly you just turn it up.

Enter Metallica. Fans say they would rather play tracks from the new album directly from the Guitar Hero game than listen to the horrible over-compressed and distorted version on the CD. There are online petitions (14k signatures) to get the album remastered, and comparisons on YouTube. The mastering engineer is blaming the record company for sending the album already pre-mastered, but it’s his job to make sure he gets the best quality master in the first place.

We mastered Gas 0095 with no care for loudness, only the music. Badly mastered tracks have a small dynamic range (the different in volume between the loudest and quietest sounds on the track), around 6dB, the difference between shouting and shouting even louder. Gas 0095 has a dynamic range of 32dB, the difference in volume between whispering and shouting really loudly.

“a very interesting electronic album with extraordinarily impressive and natural dynamics” - Bob Katz on Gas 0095

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