Iterate
about.
Iterate is the electronic musical alter ego of Steven Jarvis. Under the Iterate moniker, Steven produces original electronic music is sorta ambient-ish IDM (along with some synthpop) for release and live performance.
Steven lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas US where he is a freelance web designer and developer. (THIS site is not indicative of his work; it was put together in about twelve minutes about 2AM one morning.)
news.
- 2007.06.13: New upcoming show: Iterate will be DJing and/or doing a Live set at Techno in the Park (or whatever it's going to end up being called) on Sunday, July 15th at the University of Arkansas Agri Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Also on the bill: Aaron, Jeremy Doty, and Allen23. I'll be going on last, around 4:30pm. Come on out!
- 2007.06.07: REAL SOON.
- 2007.06.02: new music coming SOON.
- 2007.02.05: updated the new temporary website.
- 2007.02.03: working on setting up some new live dates, both live P.A. and DJ sets. I've been working sporadically on what I hope will be a great quirky (but accessible) minimal techno DJ set.
- 2007.02.02: I'm working on some new music finally. This time around it's more techno than synthpop, a more stripped-down minimal approach, but still melodic. More sophisticated? Maybe. I dunno. I like this direction, though.
- 2006.11.05: fall update. Still on a bit of a hiatus while working on other projects. I hope to have some new music ready by Christmas.
music.
Releases
Some semi-permanent mixes. All are 192kbs MP3s unless otherwise noted.
- Wiring Diagram: one of the songs from the cycle "Love Songs for Lonely Robots, a modern synthpop fable" due for release in late 2006 or early 2007.
Beta versions
These songs are likely to change or get torn apart and incorporated into other pieces, but they'll exist here until then (and probably afterwards). All are mp3s, too.
Live Sets
- OUTPUT v1.1 Live Set: As recorded into Ableton Live (not recorded off the mixing board). Longish at 22 minutes/32MB.
DJ Sets
gear.
Despite my love for analog synth and drum sounds, my studio is all virtual. Cranky old analog music gear is a terrible temptation, but I've resisted... so far. My "studio" (such as it is), is completely virtual for the time being.
hardware.
- Apple iMac: the latest revision of the Apple iMac 20". It's a 2.16 GHz Intel Core2Duo with 2GB RAM and a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive running the latest Mac OS X (currently 10.4.9). It's got some other bells and whistles, too (dual layer SuperDrive, etc.). I lurves it.
- Apple MacBook: the latest revision of the Apple MacBook. It's a 2.16 GHz Intel Core2Duo with 2GB RAM and a 160GB 5400rpm hard drive running the latest Mac OS X (currently 10.4.9). It's got some other bells and whistles, too (dual layer SuperDrive, etc.). It's the mobile version of my iMac, pretty much. It's what I use for performing live.
- E-MU 0404 USB 2.0 Audio/MIDI interface: en route Got great reviews for sound quality and low latencey in Keyboard and Sound on Sound. Will have more details soon.
- Novation ReMOTE 25 LE: The best possible bare-bones two-octave keyboard controller. Just great.
- M-Audio Axiom 49: Full-featured four-octave USB MIDI keyboard controller, with sliders, encoders, and drum/trigger pads. I really haven't spent enough time with it, and it's currently in the hands of the nefarious the erratic ninja. I should retrieve it and get to know it better. Could be a great controller for playing the Jupiter 8-V (see below!).
- faderfox micromodul lv-2: an amazing little midi controller built specifically for use with Ableton Live. I'm tempted by the new LC-2 version (LV-2 - one row of buttons + one cross-fader), but the LV-2, so far, is the best midi controller I've found for the iterate + ableton live combination.
- M-Audio DX4 studio monitors: Sure, I'd love a pair of nice, expensive Genelecs or Events, but I'm constantly surprised at what a good job these "consumer level" studio monitors do.
- Sony MDR-V600 headphones: Great, inexpensive headphones for studio and live use. A lot of people prefer the DJ-700s, but the 600s fit my ears better.
- LaCie 250GB external hard drive: For backups, sample storage, and my music collection. I only carry what I need for DJing or production usage on my computer. Great, inexpensive, and not visually offensive. Soon to be joined by a 500 GB one for backups.
software.
- Ableton Live: Though I've used other music production software, I've settled on Ableton Live and have really gotten to know it better over the last year. It's a really amazing piece of software. When I got back into producing electronic music, I specifically chose Live for its flexibility and great user interface. It also includes a handful of simple but really useful effects and instruments that are almost all I use. Currently using Live 6.0.3.
- Ableton Operator: I've purposely restricted my use of VSTs and other plugins. Getting Operator (mostly due to its excellent sound quality and deep integration with Live) was part of that deal with myself. I've been delighted with Operator's ease of programming and use. I've got some great presets from CovertOperators and TrackTeam Audio, as well (though I rarely, if ever, use presets without mangling them pretty extensively in Operator and with effects).
- Ableton Sampler: Sampler (and the new Racks feature in Live 6) has opened up a whole new world of sonic possibilities with Live. It's an amazing piece of software. Live 6 is an order of magnitude more complex and powerful, and Sampler just pushes all those cool new features over the edge.
- Alphakanal Automat softsynth: The first (and for a while, the only) exception to the "only use Ableton Live and its Instruments and plugins" rule. Automat is a great (and FREE) softsynth that uses subtractive synthesis and has a great interface and some really useful features like excellent sidechaining.
- Izotope Ozone 3 mastering plug-in: One of the few non-Ableton plug-ins I use regularly. Ozone just makes a mix sound better in general, and really helps when mixing down and mastering for release (yeah, yeah, I know, I haven't released much yet, but I'm working on it, and Ozone is an essential part of that). Really lives up to the hype.
- Arturia Jupiter 8V softsynth: I LURVES me some Jupiter 8 sounds, but I can't afford/don't want to deal with a big heavy cranky pre-MIDI 25 year old synth (no matter how cool they are). The softsynth version is getting rave reviews — and for good reason! I
must have it! More on this soon...
- Apple iTunes: For all my audio storage and playback plus for converting rendered AIFFs from Live into mp3s.
- Exploring some other plugs and apps these days, too. More on that later...