Living With a Nerd

After listening to both Stasis Dreams and Light Horizon continuously for the past week, I have concluded that both tracks are unsatisfactory in their current state.

Stasis Dreams is supposed to be a fairly simple song, however I fear that it may be TOO simple.  I need to adjust a few filters on the synth roll that appears about midway through the song, and I think I need to add another layer to the entire track just to beef it up a bit.  The song itself invokes the images that I intended it to, however the images it creates are fuzzy and a bit bland in the colour department.  The extra layer added to the song will likely be somewhere midrange.

As for Light Horizons, I need the make the sound “fatter” as a whole.  My intention was to provide a massive soundstage when wearing headphones, and currently it is merely a “large” soundstage.  The ending needs to be tweaked a bit as well.  I think this one has the potential to be my personal favourite off the entire album;  the feelings and images it creates within the mind are amazing, and embody my entire goal for this album.  Light Horizon also has the ”hardest” sounding synths, something I am trying to perfect prior to the start of my next project.  Despite this, I still feel that Cold Signals will be the “flagship single” from The Transient Unknown. 

The next track, which I shall begin work on at some point this weekend (and possibly tonight) is, as mentioned in a previous post, going to be named IC-443.  IC-443 is the official name of the Jellyfish Nebula, and as such multiple self-oscillators as well as phaser and arpeggiator effects will be employed.  I have almost zero experience working with arpeggiators, so the results should be interesting.  I haven’t decided a key yet, but it will most likely use C2, the same as the rest of songs on the album (with the exception of Light Horizons, which is based around C4, or “middle C”.)  I am also going to employ a similar method that I used in Omicron Ceti: every synth is going to have a clone of itself, one with a low-pass filter enabled and one with a high-pass filter enabled.  This seems to provide more freedom in the overall mix, as well as giving the track a more layered feel.  (I’m aware of the fact that this seems to be very obvious, but please keep in mind that I’m a noob when it comes to producing Ambient music.)

Overall, I’m quite pleased with how the album is turning out so far.  It has become less active than I originally envisioned, but the path it has taken is fantastic.  As much as I am enjoying working on it, I cannot wait to begin production on Lost on the Way to the Laundry.  It will require a lot less precision and involve a lot more experimentation…and the implementation of a USB microphone used to record odd, everyday sounds:-)  Always fun stuff.

The topic I am about to address generally has no place on this blog, however I feel compelled to write about it.  Politics.

I’ll let it sink in for a moment.  Ready?  Ok, here we go…

Why is it that when the topic of conversation shifts to politics, most rational, polite people become gaping assholes?  This goes for all sides, all parties, all opinions…people generally lose their minds and babble incoherently if politics becomes the topic of discussion.  Why does this happen?  Why do normally rational people suddenly invoke pundit’s opinions and blindly follow wild ideas as to the reality of things?

I’ve got news for you, folks.  NEITHER major political party has your best interests at heart.  Both Democrats and Republicans are corrupt and selfish; the only difference is how public they are about it and who benefits from it.  All the political theater that you see on TV and in newspapers is designed to keep the public fighting each other so that they can get away with whatever they desire.  Claiming that “those pussy liberals” or “those fascist conservatives” are ruining things is an exercise in futility.  Both sides are just as much to blame for the current state of things, and the very people that got us into this mess are trying to get us out.

Please take this advice:  It’s ok to have your own political opinion and to be passionate about it…but truly think about what you believe the next time you get into an argument with someone.  Ask yourself…is it the truth?  Or is it what you have been told is the truth?

“I’ll show you politics in America. Here it is, right here. ‘I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs.’ ‘I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking.’ ‘Hey, wait a minute, there’s one guy holding out both puppets!’”  -Bill Hicks

It seemed that for a while, EA had been reclaiming their former position as a once respectable company.  Unfortunately, this has been completely undone.

As many of you are aware, EA received massive backlash for their insane DRM included with Spore and the PC version of Mass Effect.   After this, EA began including looser and less draconian forms of DRM with their software.  Late last week, however, EA dropped a bombshell: Command and Conquer 4 is in production and is going to be released…oh, and in order to play any version of the game (i.e. single or multiplayer), you must be connected to the Internet.

Come again?

I am aware that while this form of DRM will not affect most people, it still seems to be a bit excessive.  What if the servers are down?  What if they are permanently taken down?  What if you are in an area where there IS no Internet access?  I understand the need for software companies to protect their investments, but things like this will only drive people to piracy.  After all, what’s the point of paying for a product when the illegal version provides a better experience?

There are one of two futures ahead of us.  In one future, software manufactureres wise up, realize that people are going to “steal” their product no matter what they do, and they may as well not piss off their actual customers.  In fact, they will come to find out that by treating their customers as customers and not thieves, their customer base may grow and their customer satisfaction will skyrocket.  In the other future, software companies will reach the point where you must be logged into an encrypted authentication server for their software to function…leaving most people to simply pirate the software and use it as they see fit.

One future ensures the survival of the software industry; the other ensures it’s death.  Making it easier to obtain and use their products illegally rather than legally does not help their cause in any way, shape, or form.  Remove all DRM, remove all copy protection, use nothing more than a simple CD key, and treat your customers like customers again.  People are going to circumvent security measures on software anyways…don’t give them more excuses to do so than they already have.

There was a point in the history of the English language where insults weren’t relegated to mere 4 letter words.  Where a man’s mind and tongue were as essential a weapon as his side pistol and verbal jab was just as powerful as a literal one.  Here are just a few examples.

*The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: *
She said, “If you were my husband I’d give you poison.”
He said, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: “Sir, you will either die on the
gallows or of some unspeakable disease.”
“That depends, Sir,” said Disraeli, “whether I embrace your policies or
your mistress.”

“He had delusions of adequacy.” - Walter Kerr

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” - Winston Churchill

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great
pleasure.”  - Clarence Darrow

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the
dictionary.” - William Faulkner(about Ernest Hemingway).

“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time
reading it.” - Moses Hadas

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved
of it.” - Mark Twain

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends..” - Oscar Wilde

“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a
friend…. if you have one.” - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second…. if there is
one.” - Winston Churchill, in response.

“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.” - Stephen Bishop

“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” - John Bright

“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.” - Irvin S. Cobb

“He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.” - Samuel Johnson

“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.” - Paul Keating **

“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.” - Charles, Count Talleyrand

“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.” - Forrest Tucker

“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on
it?” - Mark Twain

“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” - Mae West

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go..” - Oscar Wilde

“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support
rather than illumination.” - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” - Billy Wilder

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening.  But this wasn’t it.” - Groucho Marx

While I’ve never been a rabid fan of the Harry Potter series, I have enjoyed the movies on a nerdy and purely entertainment level.  The storyline never sucked me in, but I do appreciate it’s complexity and originality.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a fantastic movie.  I’m not sure I would agree with critics in that it is the best one, but it certainly ranks up there.  Having never read all the books and having never seen Order of the Phoenix, there was quite a bit I was confused about.  Luckily, it seems to be one of those movies where if you don’t understand everything going in, they give you just enough info for you to figure it out on your own.

Once again, the cast steals the show; the actors aren’t just acting out characters, they ARE these characters.  In a very wise move, it appears that most of the young actors who play major roles are all talking about leaving the world of film after Deathly Hallows has been completed.  I’m not sure what the others are doing, but Emma Watson (who plays Hermione) says she plans to go to Brown University.  I personally applaud them in this decision…they are young, they have made millions of dollars (and thanks to royalties will continue to do so for a long, long time) and they have no real need or reason to get mixed up in the soul-sucking entity known as Hollywood.

In a way, I looked at this movie the way I see a Zatoichi movie: it was slow-paced, not a lot of action going on, and if it was any other storyline you would likely be bored.  Somehow, the two and a half hour run time seems to last half of that, and at no point did I think “ugh…is it over?” (I’m looking at you, Return of the King.  Awesome movie, but you don’t have to end 5 times.  Just end once.  Thanks.)  The special effects did their job, although the Potter brand of CGI is definitely CGI in its appearance. 

A bit surprisingly, there were a couple of scenes that could have been interpreted as passively homo-erotic.  Given the publicity a year or two ago to Dumbledore’s sexuality, this was unexpected.  I’m not sure if these scenes were never interpreted that way, and it was just my horrid mentality creeping in and ruining things…or if the scenes really did have (very) slight homo-erotic overtones.  In any event, it does not matter; this only applies to a couple of scenes, most of them right at the beginning.

Overall, if you enjoy Harry Potter in any capacity, you should definitely make it a point to see this movie on the big screen.  Many scenes take advantage of the size, and with the number of people on screen in certain scenes, having everything appear bigger ensures you don’t miss small details.  Buckle down, put up the cash for a ticket, and make an afternoon out of it.  Overall, an 8/10.

As an avid fan of science fiction in movies, books, and other media, I am always searching for gems that defy the norms in the genre, especially as the genre has grown into such a commercial behemoth.  An author I discovered in my late teens has kept her place as having written some of my favorite stories in the genre.  The series that jolted to life in my mind is the ‘Pattern Master’ books, written by Octavia Butler.  If you’re not familiar with her, she broke barriers not just in the content of her writing but also by being one of the few (if not only) black women to break through into a largely male dominated genre.  In her works themselves, she breaks down racial and gender barriers and submerges us all into the human experience.  She explores and lays open sexuality, leaving not as something scorned but as part of the natural expression of being human.

 Her characters are real, believable, and serve as exciting vehicles for the journeys that she takes us on.  The language is typically gritty and well paced, with well captured, believable dialogue.  Even more so than her style is the content that she explores.  Without spoiling much of it, she has written some of the best psi-combat scenes that I have read.  She pushes the envelope on the imagination, and even though her books were written between 20-30 years ago, they are still very relevant today.  There is a certain timeless quality about them that transcends the generations and evolution of society.  We still have many of the same problems today that were present when she wrote them decades ago.

My recommendations:I also enjoyed Parable of the Sower and some of her short fiction collections. 

If you read only one series from her, read the Patternist series (available in a collection called ‘Seed to Harvest’).  If you read only one book, read Pattern Master.  This is the first one written in the series, last one in chronology, but by far the best. 

Overall, most of her books are quick reads and not more than 200 pages.  Enjoy!

Earlier during the summer @ E3 Microsoft made a host of announcements.  One of them was that there would be a new Xbox Live Update scheduled for release before the end of the summer.  Now I, like many, thought that this was MS being hyperbolic again and didn’t really expect much.  Well it seems as though the house that Gates built will be releasing this update some time in August and, from the looks of it, seems promising.

Some of those updates include: a smoother Party Invite and connection experience, Subscription Notification that tells you when your Gold Membership is about to bite the dust, and even the additions of Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm.

Now these are some note worthy enhancements and there is much more to look forward too, but the biggest enhancements have to be the Netflix Update and Games On-Demand.  From your console you can now watch movies streamed directly through your connection without interruption when your connection fluctuates, download more recent games like “Mass Effect” and save them straight to your console TO KEEP, and even host a movie watching where you and your friends via Xbox Live can enter a virtual theater and enjoy the same movie experience.

Yeah, me likes, me likes alot.

While working on Light Horizon last night, the music seemed to rip the steering wheel from my hand and push me out the door, leaving me to watch the vehicle careen down its own path. 

I never expected the track to go in the direction that it has; however this detour is of the more scenic variety.   I think it flows better with the rest of the album than my original idea, and even though I didn’t intend to travel this route, I see the advantage in it.  Over the past few months, I have found that creating music is a lot like writing a book: sometimes, the characters say things or take actions that you never expect…and then you realize you are grateful that your fingers thought of it before your brain.  Upon taking this new path, Light Horizon may now very well “sound” the most like it’s title, although I’m hoping that award will end up going to the title track, “The Transient Unknown”. 

The Transient Unknown will be the ONLY track that breaks the two word naming convention used throughout the rest of the album.  The purpose for this is two-fold: to indicate that this track is very different than those that came before it, and to promote a sense of wonder and intrigue due to the difference in the name.  I like to believe that the people who have the mental capacity to enjoy this kind of music have the mindset to consciously notice that the last track has three words in its title while the rest have only two.

Here is the current track listing as of today:

1. Cold Signals
2. Fomalhaut’s Zenith
3. Light Horizon
4. Stasis Dreams
5. IC 443 (work has not started on this yet)
6. Omicron Ceti
7. ???
8. ???
9. The Transient Unknown

IC 443 is the official name for the Jellyfish Nebula, which is made up of the remnant of a supernova.  I promised Brittnie I would make and name one of the tracks for her, and she loves jellyfish…so IC 443 seemed like a natural fit.  Not to mention Jellyfish are easy to translate into music…and the name rhymes.

Overall, I’m really pleased with how Light Horizons has turned out.  However,  in its current state, it’s only 4 minutes 32 seconds long.  The last 45 seconds or so get REALLY trippy, but the moment doesn’t seem to last long enough.  Knowing that this annoys me when listening to ambient music, I would imagine that this affects other individuals as well.  I will likely add an additional minute or two to the track.  If nothing else, it will give me an opportunity to retool the ending so that it feels more like “crossing the light horizon” instead of just “the end”.

Yeah...I need more space...

While I will require more room for my next project, this meager setup is sufficient for my needs on “The Transient Unknown”.  Before you is a 20.1″ Dell LCD, an Axiom 25 MIDI controller, and a Cooler Master Scout mid-tower stuffed with my PC.  I use an MDR-V600 set of headphones (barely visible in the picture, between the MIDI controller and the LCD monitor) for recording and mastering, and I use a set of Logitech Z4 speakers to test bass response and to get an idea of how the tracks will sound on an average, “real world” set of speakers.  Music production is completed using Reason 4.0.1, ReBirth RB-338 2.0.1, and a wide variety of free software synths.  Everything is assembled together using Audacity.   

The current track I am working on is called “Light Horizon”.  This is the only track on the album to not be based around note C2, and is instead based around C4 (aka “Middle C”).  The higher octave gives a sense of being awash in light, similar to the movie “Sunshine” but without making you go insane.  I almost have the main track laid down, after which effects, position tweaking, and mastering are all that is left.  I estimate that I am right around 35% finished with it.

So far, my meager workstation and equipment has been sufficient for this album.  When It comes time to start work on ”Lost on the Way to the Laundry” (LotWotL), I have a feeling that I may need to expand.  I am considering picking up a used MC-505 off eBay, as its size and capabilities would integrate well into what I am trying to accomplish.  While my current production tools would suffice, the MC-505 can create the sounds I am looking for rather easily.  Plus, it would be cool to own.  IN addition, I hope to eventually upgrade the headphones to an AKG K 271 MK II.

So far, each song for The Transient Unknown has taken me between 5-10 hours to create (most of them closer to 10 hours).  As I have no previous experience in serious ambient music production, I’m not sure how this stacks up.  I feel like I should be spending more time on each song, but once I lay down exactly what I want and it matches perfectly with what I wanted to accomplish, it’s time to move on; it just seems like it should be taking longer to produce tracks, though.  This has perplexed me, as at one time I would have expected ambient tunes from people like Mishka, Aphex Twin, Redshift, etc. to take a very long time.  Considering the (comparatively) rudimentary equipment at my disposal, combined with my lack of experience…well, I’m starting to believe it might not have taken as long for those folks to produce their magic as I once thought it did.

Is the time invested indicative of creativity and quality?  Or merely an arbitrary number representing the distance between point A and point B? 

Just a reminder: The Transient Unknown should be available on iTunes, Rhapsody, CDBaby, Napster, etc. at some point before the end of this year.  Below, you can check out the three tracks I am releasing for free off the album.  They provide an excellent representation of what to expect once ”The Transient Unknown” is completed.  Download them, tell your friends about them, do whatever you want with them; they are sans DRM and I encourage you to distribute each one freely amongst your social circle and amongst peer to peer networks.  Go nuts.

Cold Signals

Omicron Ceti

Fomalhaut’s Zenith

Bioshock provided one of the most intense experiences I have had with a video game.  The storyline, the setting, the control scheme…everything about it surpassed my wildest expectations. 

Bioshock 2, originally scheduled for release later this year, has officially been pushed into sometime in the first half of 2010.  While it is disappointing to be told that I have to wait before I can devour the steak, knowing that the steak is of a tastier and better cooked variety makes it worth waiting for.  I am glad that the team recognized that they would need more time to create the game that both they and us the gamers deserve.  In a single game, Bioshock became an incredibly important franchise, mixing excellent storytelling with intense action and topping it off with a generous heaping of scares.

I have never balked at the necessity of more development time.  Blizzard and Valve are responsible for some of my favourite games, and as such I have gotten used to the wait.  “Ready when it’s ready” should be a mantra that spreads itself across the entirety of the industry, but I recognize that reality does not permit this.  Still, it is refreshing to see a development studio recognize that they need more time, and actually have the balls to do so publicly. 

There are many things that were perfect in Bioshock, and few things that needed to be fixed.  Hopefully, they will only fix that which was broken.