Nick Standing AKA Jabun: Multi-instrumentalist, Composer & Mastering Specialist at JabunAudio making dynamic, clean and punchy masters to encourage people to turn up your music, rather than turn it down! Creator of the Skapunk project Better Than The Book
More $5+ Patreon rewards are out: "Mayhem Market" (Mp3 + WAV) + an exclusive unreleased Jabun demo from the writing sessions of 2019/2020: "Arc-welder" for the $10+ patrons!
Hi everyone and hope you're having a great May so far! After Jabun's big Generation Supernova album release in April and the updated Patreon REWARD ARCHIVES, we're back to the usual schedule, and as it's the final Wednesday of the month, that means it's time for some more rewards for the $5+ patrons! This time I'm heading back down memory lane for more of my tracks as plain old Nick Standing, and today I'm sharing with you the first in a new set of orchestral / soundtracky works "Mayhem Market"!
Mayhem Market was released back in March 2013, and was the first track I recorded with the Shure SM27 microphone I was gifted for Christmas the previous year! Much of the inspiration for this track came after finally getting around to watching Disney's "Tangled" (good fun btw), which features an amazingly scored scene running through a market. Super inspired and itching to do some more recording, Mayhem Market was the result of the shortly followed recording session! The description I wrote back then when I uploaded it to Newgrounds is as follows:
"I finally got round to recording with the SM27 I got for Christmas! Just a little soundtracky piece that sprung to mind. Imagine playfully racing through a crowed fantasy market with a good friend, rival or the love of your life, perhaps being chased by some half-wit bad guys or the fuzz! If I could do this as my job, I would be sooo happy XD"
Mayhem Market is a blast from my past which I'm still super pleased with, especially from an acoustic guitar performance point of view. As chance had it, it also ended up being heard by the amazing World Beyond shortly after its release, opening the door for me to join that epic music production team (thanks so much to World Beyond for that opportinuty and praise) and help create much of the amazing stuff we've released together over the past almost decade!
Mayhem Market unfortunately doesn't have any associated artwork, and this is the case for much of my soundtrack type work as Nick Standing from around this time. Nevertheless, I'm sure the music speaks for itself, so close your eyes and imagine a scene, and I'm sure it will be even more vivid than any painting or photo I could provide! I hope you enjoy it whether you've heard it before or this is your first listen!
Grab Mayhem Market when you become a supporter on Patreon, or listen to the track here on Newgrounds below:
And for the $10+ patrons, you've also got an exclusive unreleased Jabun demo from the writing sessions of 2019/20 to look forward to, the hyper-experimental and glitchy "Arc-welder"! Become a $10+ patron to access that and many more rewards now, and remember that you'll gain access to all historic rewards and posts for your Patreon tier too when you become a supporter including the full Better Than The Book and Jabun discographies and much more! With the newly updated REWARD ARCHIVE it's never been easier to catch up with all those posts and music downloads you've missed too! I hope you enjoy them!
That's it for this month's rewards! Next time we'll be continuing with some more soundtracky work, but until then, I hope you have an amazing June to come and thanks as always for supporting my music on Patreon! Enjoy the music, take care, and all the best!
Jabun's full Generation Supernova album is now streaming and playlisted on YouTube and Newgrounds!
Hi everyone and hope you're having a great May so far!
The final (for now) weekly new music upload is here and Jabun's full Generation Supernova album is now available for streaming on YouTube and Newgrounds! Check out the full Generation Supernova album below:
Or grab it with the entire Jabun and Better Than The Book discographies when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month (The reward archives have just been updated too)! Hope to see you there!
That wraps up the promo posts and uploads for Jabun's Generation Supernova album! I hope you've enjoyed these generative soundscapes and experiments over the last few months and I'm sure I'll be back in the not too distant future with another grand Jabun adventure to share with you (still sitting on over 70 minutes of demos from last year's writing sessions)!
The next set of $5+ Patreon rewards will be out at the end of month again as usual with the $1+ rewards following a week later on the first Wednesday of June, but until then, I hope you have a great May ahead filled with good times and vibes and thanks as always for suporting Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various projects in all the ways you can! All the best, take care, and enjoy the music!
I made something! Introducing "NOISE": A custom white noise user oscillator for the KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synth Kit! (Free download or donation)
Hi everyone and I have something super exciting and off-topic to share with you this afternoon!
I recently was gifted a KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 build it yourself digital synth kit for my birthday last month (huge thanks to my twin Eamon), an exciting compact digital synthesizer which you put together yourself (IKEA style), that KORG also released a free software development kit so you can create your own custom sound sources (oscillators) and audio effects for it (IF you know how to programm in C++ (which I admittedly do not, but that's no problem))! You can use it standalone, or as an audio processor or sound module and it's incredibly versatile! There was one thing which seemed missing out of the box though...
Among all the custom user oscillators people had made and distributed on the internet (and there are a tonne of great ones), for the life of me I could not find anything which was just a simple noise generator (free or otherwise) so after some research, I figured I'd do some code tinkering try to make my own... and it was a success! No point in keeping it to myself soooooo...
Introducing NOISE: a simple white noise oscillator with adjustable soft-clipping for the Korg Nu:Tekt NTS-1 so you can shape the noise with the envelopes, filters and effects for making percussion sounds, sweeps and the such!
NOISE is free to download with an optional donation on my JabunAudio website (where you can find out more about it), and I've put together a quick demo video explaining the features and giving some usage examples too:
I'm still new to the coding for this synth so it's a VERY basic user oscillator, but as I learn more, I look forward to creating some more exciting custom content in the future! If anyone else has one of these fine DIY synths, then I hope you like my very first program for it and enjoy making some noise, with NOISE!
It's Bandcamp Friday once again, and the first one since Jabun’s new “Generation Supernova” album was released!
In case you're not familiar with it, in support of musicians impacted by the coronavirus, Bandcamp is waiving its revenue share fees on the first Friday of the month from midnight to midnight Pacific Time, meaning that if you purchase anything from Bandcamp this Friday 7th of May, the artists you support (including myself) will get more of the sales revenue than usual since Bandcamp doesn't take its cut, and you'll be able to support the music you love more directly than ever on the platform!
If you've been itching to purchaseJabun's new "Generation Supernova" albumor pick up one of my other albums as Jabun or Better Than The Book, now's the best time to do so! Check out the Bandcamp pages below and thanks again for supporting my music in any way you can, it really means a lot:
Jabun's "Voyagers" is now streaming on YouTube and Newgrounds!
Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to May so far! Also, a happy 505 Day to everyone who celebrates the fun little Roland Tr-505 drum machine (I know what I'll be doing tonight)!
It's time for the next weekly music upload for Jabun's 3rd album Generation Supernova, and today, track 04 Voyagers is now available to listen to on YouTube and Newgrounds! Check it out below:
Or grab it with the entire Jabun and Better Than The Book discographies when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month (The reward archives have just been updated too)! Hope to see you there!
That's it for this quick post and I'll be back next week with the full album streams and playlists for the entire Generation Supernova album! Until then, I hope you have a great week to come whatever you're up to, and thanks as always for supporting Jabun and my various music projects however you can! See you next time, take care and enjoy the new music!
Announcing updated PATREON REWARD ARCHIVE posts for 4th October 2018 -> 1st May 2021 including the full Better Than The Book & Jabun Discographies, Mp3s, WAVs and Art + behinds the scenes articles, demos and more!
Hello everyone and a warm welcome to potential new patrons and visitors if you're reading too! Today I announce the updated set of Patreon reward archive posts for all rewards covering from 4th October 2018 (when I started on Patreon) to 1st May 2021 for the convenience of Patreon supporters and new patrons!
These months' rewards cover the full discographies (as of 1st May 2021) for my ska punk / pop punk project Better Than The Book and electronic / cinematic / ambient project Jabun, as well as a few bonus tracks, covers, and some of my discography as plain old Nick Standing, and the REWARD ARCHIVE is here for your convenience so you can pick up all these rewards (Mp3s, WAVs, artwork and more depending on your tier) in one place when you sign up. No need to search through all the posts manually: Just click the link to the REWARD ARCHIVE below (which will be pinned to the top of your feed when you sign up), select the archive for your tier, dig in and enjoy the music! Hope to see you in the comments!
Become a patron for as little as $1 a month to access the REWARD ARCHIVE below and all new music as it's released:
Better Than The Book's full discography (as of 1st May 2021):
One Small Step EP
Heartbeats [The Knife] + GG [Good Game]
Meteor Shower 2017 demo, MLGG + Stars Racing {Patreon exclusive}
Two Years On album
Two Years On [Instrumentals] album
A selection of pre-BTTB demos {Patreon exclusive}
Hopes and Dreams album + press photos, lyric sheets, and a behind the scenes studio photo and story
Get A Haircut [Radio Edit] {Patreon exclusive}
Hopes and Dreams [Radio Edit] {Patreon exclusive}
Mark Your Wall & The Bigger Call, Maybe... {Patreon exclusive}
Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] album
Jabun's full discography (as of 1st May 2021):
Bergamot
Diamond Eyes - Nine Fifteen Ft. Jess (Jabun Remix)
3rd September 1939
Apollo
Clare Jeffrey - 60 Days [Jabun Orchestral Mix]
Distance
Home
Verlies Projekt - (Feels Like) Heaven [Jabun Hardcore Remix]
The Ocean Above + Noir
Jabun [Alternate Reality] - Warrior (Kesha METAL Cover) {Patreon exclusive}
Daydream album
15-4-20 album
Generation Supernova album
As well as:
Erase Stuff (Mashup) {Patreon exclusive}
Nick Standing - Nothing Else Matters (Metallica cover) {Patreon exclusive}
Nick Standing - Sonnet For A Spider Girl
Nick Standing - Mr. Knife + I Won't Eat My Broccoli!!!
For those of you on the $10+ DEMOlition Pigeon tier, you also have access to all the work in progress, demos and behind the scenes monthly articles too including:
A sneak peek at Better Than The Book's "(The Travelling To See Eva Song)"
Journey into Better Than The Book's "Get A Haircut"
Better Than The Book - One Small Step's artwork story + a new mix
A deep dive into Better Than The Book's "Meteor Shower"
More Better Than The Book artwork stories + another first(ish) draft mix from the new album
Work in progress artwork for Better Than The Book's upcoming Hopes and Dreams album + a demo master for track 06 "Get A Haircut"
An in depth look into the creation of Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album cover (+ demo alternatives)
A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "The Hardest Part"
A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "Artificial Ignorance"
A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "And I Fear"
A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "Brighton"
A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "GG"
A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "You've Got A Lot to Say"
A behinds the scenes look into Better Than The Book's "Hopes and Dreams"
10 minutes of exclusive demos for upcoming Jabun tracks
Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
Another behind the scenes look at an exclusive Jabun demo
A look into the artwork for the 2nd Jabun album
A sneak peek demo at an upcoming cover song
A behind the scenes breakdown of Jabun [Alternate Reality]'s Kesha Warrior metal cover
An exclusive sneak peek at next year's 3rd Jabun album, demo + photo
Another sneak peek demo from next year's 3rd Jabun album
An exclusive first sneak peek demo from Better Than The Book's next album
Artwork reveal (with story) for Jabun's 3rd album
Another sneak peek demo from Better Than The Book's next album
An exclusive unreleased Jabun demo from the writing sessions of 2019/2020
An exclusive unused unreleased demo from the writing sessions for Better Than The Book's upcoming 3rd album
More Better Than The Book will be coming soon as I'm busy recording the project's 3rd album, but the next few months after this post will be focused on more of my other music as plain old Nick Standing! Until the next post and then, thanks so much for supporting Better Than The Book, Jabun and my various music projects on Patreon, I hope you enjoy the music (and articles) above and to come, and take care!
Jabun's Deep Space receives a Front Page Award here on Newgrounds.com!
Hi everyone and hope you're having a great day so far!
Some amazing news to share today as Jabun's Deep Space (Track 02 from the Generation Supernova album) just received a Front Page Award here on Newgrounds.com! Thanks so much for the love folks!
Hope you enjoy the music, and if you like it, pick up a copy on Bandcamp below:
Or grab it with the entire Jabun and Better Than The Book discographies + all past rewards for your tier when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month! More music to come soon!
That's it for today and it's looking to be a busy one for me laying down more basslines for the next BTTB album, but until next time, thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various projects however you can and I hope you have a great week to come! Take care!
Jabun's "Deep Space" is now streaming on YouTube and Newgrounds!
Hi everyone and hope you're having a great final week of April so far!
It's time for the next weekly music upload for Jabun's 3rd album Generation Supernova, and today, track 02 Deep Space is now available to listen to on YouTube and Newgrounds! Check it out below:
Or grab it with the entire Jabun and Better Than The Book discographies when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month! Hope to see you there!
That's it for this quick post and I'll be back next week with the final track from Generation Supernova: Voyagers! Until then, I hope you have a great week to come whatever you're up to, and thanks as always for supporting Jabun and my various music projects however you can! See you next time, take care and enjoy the new music!
Jabun's "Supernova" is now streaming on YouTube and Newgrounds!
Hi everyone and hope you're having a great April so far!
The new weekly music uploads for Jabun's 3rd album Generation Supernova start today, and following the pre-release single Turing Machine, the opening track of the album Supernova is now streaming on YouTube and Newgrounds! Check out and relax to Supernova below:
Or grab with the entire Jabun and Better Than The Book discographies when you become a supporter on Patreon for as little as $1 a month! Hope to see you there!
That's it for this quick post and I'll be back next week with track 02 from Generation Supernova: Deep Space! Until then, I hope you have a great week to come whatever you're up to, and thanks as always for supporting Jabun and my various music projects however you can! See you next time, take care and enjoy the new music!
Jabun's 3rd album "Generation Supernova" has been released! Patreon rewards are out in celebration + an exclusive unused unreleased demo from the writing sessions for Better Than The Book's upcoming 3rd album for the $10+ patrons!
Hi everyone and hope you’re having a great April so far! Today I’m super excited to finally release my 3rd album as Jabun – Generation Supernova! Check out the album teaser video below:
Generation Supernova is a 37+ minute collection of 4 tracks exploring generative music methods in the studio. Each track utilises a carefully designed system set up to generate a never-repeating and ever evolving soundscape which was conducted and guided to build an emotional and developing journey from the first note to the last.
(SKIP THE FOLLOWING FOR A SPOILER FREE EXPERIENCE BEFORE YOU LISTEN)
Track 01 – Supernova utilises 2 short free-time recordings of Rhodes piano performances which were then duplicated and layered playing at different harmonic and sub-harmonic pitches/speeds either forwards, backwards, or bouncing between both, with some added echo for extra ambience and polyrhythms. Each layer was faded in or out to build and reduce the intensity of the composition throughout its duration. The title Supernova was chosen to reflect the feelings this track brings to me, a great expansive explosion of sounds gradually fading out much like the astronomical phenomenon; beauty with hints of sadness, and later something else.
Track 02 – Deep Space utilises 2 random arpeggiators each given a set of notes to choose from and told to play a note at a consistent regular interval, the first once per quarter note (at 100 BPM) and the second, once per second (60 BPM), along with a randomly triggered note-repeater leading to more interesting polyrhythms. Beneath this is a short free-time performance which was then duplicated, reversed and played back at 2 (sub)-harmonic pitches/speeds. The piece develops with an improvised synth melody (later returning in reverse) as well as a programmed drum machine performance. Unlike the warmth of Supernova, Deep Space feels cold and isolated to me, the persistent ticking of time, that feeling of drifting perhaps aimlessly reflected in the improvised synth and its subsequent return. Nevertheless, the regular beat of the drums keep marching on.
Track 03 – Turing Machine utilises 4 evolving sequences generated using an initial input fed into a deck of cards and a coin flip acting as a very basic modular synth style Turing Machine. You can see the original handwritten manuscript including the sequences, generation rules, and more in this album’s bonus materials. These 4 generated sequences were then arranged for synthesizers to create an intensely building track accompanied by multiple layers of random arpeggiated heavily distorted electronic drums/percussion, additional orchestral and electronic percussion, as well as a carefully arranged string orchestration developing on one of the Turing Machine sequences for added harmonies and tension. The hypnotic and minimalistic atmosphere of Turing Machine reflects the relentless and driving inorganic computations and calculations I’d expect from a complex machine, and being based around a Turing Machine inspired set-up, the title seemed rather appropriate.
Track 04 – Voyagers utilises 2 instances of an 8 note looping sequence, the first consisting of 32 steps, and the second only using 31 steps (shortening the final note), resulting in a gradually phase shifting relationship between them throughout the piece in a similar way to Steve Reich’s Piano Phase. These sequences were then arranged for string orchestra and pipe organ on opposite sides of the stereo field, gradually building the piece by adding additional instruments and layers at harmonic/sub-harmonic pitches as well as additional glitching sounds using randomised arpeggiators, another set of phasing sequences for synthesizer, and additional percussion. The two phasing sequences which form the basis of the track, I like to think of as representing the twin Voyager space probes launched to explore interstellar space, each on their own undoubtedly lonely, but unfathomably awe-inspiring journeys into the unknown. Even as they explore further than humans might ever reach physically, no matter how far apart they drift, they’ll always be connected by their origin on our small blue planet.
(READ THE ABOVE BITS AFTER LISTENING FOR A SPOILER FREE EXPERIENCE)
Generation Supernova was a fun and rewarding exploration into generative music methods, with each piece very much the result of the unexpected fruits of conducted chaotic experiments in the studio, much like the 15-4-20 album. Whether you sit down to listen intently, have it on in the background while doing something else, or simply immerse yourself in the sounds, I hope you enjoy these semi-ambient, generative experimental soundscapes, from the strange early months of 2020.
In case you’ve not seen them yet, you can also check out the full album credits, special thanks and descriptions on the Jabun – Generation Supernova Bandcamp page! Read more below and I hope you have fun exploring:
All tracks written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Album artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]
In celebration of Generation Supernova’s release, there’s whole handful of rewards for my supporters on Patreon!
For the $1 patrons, you’ve got the full mp3 album and artwork including alternative album covers, the original unedited album cover photo, and a high resolution scan of the original handwritten Turing Machine Generation Manuscript! Pick it up below:
For the $5 & $10 patrons, you’ve got all that + the highest CD quality WAV files for all 4 tracks! For the $10 patrons, you’ll also be getting an exclusive unused unreleased demo from the writing sessions for Better Than The Book's upcoming 3rd album! Check out the rewards below:
If any of that sounds good to you, then become a patron today for as little as $1 a month and remember that you’ll be also getting access to all past rewards for your tier including the full Better Than The Book and Jabun discographies, many Patreon exclusive bonus tracks and more! I hope to see you there!
And that’s it for this post and set of rewards! Now that Jabun’s Generation Supernova album is out, I’ll be uploading tracks from the album to YouTube and Newgrounds each Wednesday until mid May, and no doubt be sharing other things in the mean time too! With such a big release, I’ll also be taking a short break from rewards to update the Patreon REWARD ARCHIVE posts again, but I’ll be back with new rewards for the $5 & $10 patrons on the final Wednesday of May, and the first Wednesday of June for the $1 patrons! Until then I hope you have a great month ahead and enjoy the new music, and thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book and my various projects! More music to come soon! All the best, and take care!
