NewSc2

Well, another year came and went, and I’m finally 25 years of age.

I heard from a good friend once that a good friend of theirs (yeah, 3 degrees apart) said that every year of their 20’s was completely different, and each year represented a different phase. 24 definitely was one of those years for me (as was 23, 22, 21, and 20).

Because my birthday falls so close to New Years, I think I’ve always looked at this time of the year with even more impetus to turn a page in my life. A sort of uber set of New Years resolutions.

I don’t really remember what my resolutions for 2008 were, but I feel like I hit a few goals. I handled money a lot better (well… sort of), I slimmed down about 12 pounds, and I started running. This was the year that I actually sat down, studied, and learned music production, instead of just buying expensive machines for decoration. And even though I’m nowhere close to making music I’d consider “good”, I’ve seen a lot of progress =). My company’s sales grew, too. It was difficult, and sometimes I have no idea how everything fell into place, but things did, and hopefully 2009 is even better.

I’m not exactly sure what resolutions I want to set for 2009, but I know it’s going to involve music and work.

I consider myself a pretty well-rounded person, but over these past few years “well-rounded” has started to become more of a “jack-of-all-trades, master of none”, and that’s something I want to shake loose. Being well-rounded has given me a better perspective on things, and sometimes I can use what I’ve learned in one area and apply it to something totally different, but I really need to buckle down and find my niche.

So I guess that’ll be one of my resolutions. Hopefully, at the end of 2009, I can look back on this post and feel that I’m closer figuring out whatever my niche is. I guess 2010 will be dedicated to perfecting whatever it was that I decided on in 2009.

I was reading some article about the Chicago Bulls. The writer was talking about Derrick Rose’s ‘infamous’ crossover against Andre Miller, so I decided to YouTube it. And came across my first YouTube HD video:

Open the link in its YouTube page to see it in full resolution.

My weight’s been hovering around 164 (give or take 1-2 pounds) for the past couple months, but with all the Christmas drinking and eating, it’d slowly been inching up over the past week. I think I started off the week at 165, which went up to 166 after Angie’s party, and 167 after Christmas Even dinner, and last night I had some lamb with my mom and drank half a bottle of wine.

When I woke up today, I weighed in at 170.5 lbs. =X

So I figured I would eat well and step up my workouts over the course of the weekend to undo the damage, and refrain from alcohol or bad food. Ate a tuna salad for lunch, had some salmon and stir fried vegetables as a snack, went to the gym and did a round of squats and ran for about 10 minutes.

Came home, had a protein shake, and decided to weigh myself for shits n giggles. I’m 165 again. I swear I look exactly the same, but in the past 8 hours I’ve eaten 2 meals and lost 5 pounds?

*shrug*

A few weeks too late, but here goes:

Elaine (my cousin) and Teddy looking at Elaine’s beagle (whose name escapes me)

That last pic was Elaine’s dad looking at my flash’s hot card thingy. Hence the confused look.

Aw, look at how happy Teddy is. He’s smiling!

I’ve figured my way around quantum physics, calculated the equilibria and titration points of polyprotic acids, and determined the amount of heat transfer in chemical thermodynamic processes.

But sometimes, there isn’t anything more frustrating than adding up all of a month’s purchases, taxes, receipts, money owed/money sent, and trying to justify that with what our bank account says. The worst is when my numbers tell me that we lost, say, $5k in a month, but my accountant says we actually made $3k, and the bank says we broke even. Ugh.

September, October, and November receipts, reports, invoices, QuickBooks, and Excel.

I’m finally getting the hang of subtractive synthesis. I don’t know why it took me so long, but after a steady couple weeks of tweaking and reading, I’m getting the basics down — what waves sound like what, why harmonics are necessary (as opposed to a sine wave tone), envelope generators and LFO modulation… and I’m applying those skills with some success. The sounds I make aren’t very good, but they’re close to what they’re supposed to sound like, and my improvements are motivating me to keep trudging along.

With my advances in synth programming, I’m getting better at live jamming too. Electronic music relies so heavily on different timbres and sounds to create a well balanced song that it’s hard to apply exact piano theory to my music. A thick bass line doesn’t necessarily mean just play the low notes — a thick bass sound needs to have some higher harmonics to bring the sound forward, needs to mix well with the rest of the percussion in the song, and possibly a couple layers to add sub-bass and “pluck.”

So while before I would get stuck trying to think of how a sub-melody or harmony would fit with existing lines, now I have a basic idea of what works or doesn’t work before I try something out, and I know how I could tweak sounds to make them fit a little better. Again, I’m no expert, but having no idea (as opposed to some idea) of how sounds work is frustrating. That much has changed.

After analyzing a lot of my favorite songs, I’m realizing that most House/Progressive songs don’t have an incredibly complex drum pattern. They’re all mixed very well (something I need to read up on after I get a little better at sound design and songwriting), but most focus on a vamped melody and pads.

I think the whole “electronica/techno” cliche has really done a number on the listener’s mind. The “mm-tz mm-tz” 4/4 basic electronic beat is so prevalent and quotable, but it really disappears in good electronic tracks. When I started producing I was always looking around for “that drum machine” or “that drum sound” because I felt like it was so important. It is, and a few reverse samples for good measure brings movement to a track, but everything around the track is what’s important for a good song. The 4/4 beat is the easiest thing to jot down, 808/909 samples are easy to find, and the “perfect” bass drum is never going to be a be-all and end-all for a track.

Apart from all the theory, I’m in the process of getting my studio hooked up proper. Half of the electricity in my room is still out (=\), but I’m gonna try and fix that today. Once I have my modular hooked up I can start applying the basics of synth programming a lot better. A modular synthesizer is a very visual way of programming synths (what you see is what you get, no sub-menus or LCD screens), and should be really fun to mess around with.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to program several patterns to get a decent live jam going before the end of the year (and before I turn 25). I have a personal syllabus planned out for this “semester” — the live jam is my midterm, and my final will be a 3-4 track “record.”

- Songs get boring to DJ with after a few months. A good song is a good song, but bringing in fresh songs is necessary.

PROGRAMMING SOUNDS:
- Turn off synth effects and modulation.
- Program your own presets.
- program sounds in mono
- program sounds while a sequence is playing to sample the changes
1. Program envelope amplifier (easiest to get right)
- use short and long sounds to create a good mix
2. Program the filter cutoff/resonance to shape the sound.
3. Move onto the filter ADSR to add depth to the sound.
- makes plucking or quacking noises, filter sweeps
4. Use LFO to add complexity to the sound.
- sync LFO to master clock.

PADS:
- The key to programming any sounds is the initial transient — the Amp EG’s Attack/Decay.
- Pads also need movement (LFO, Filter Envelopes), should play continuously when the key is pressed (having a hard time getting my head around the different ways, but sustain max is one thing?) and should be tweaked while sequencing chords.
- Something about setting sustain right below decay stage for it to “loop”?

PERCUSSION:
- Almost all percussion has fast attack, sustain, and release. Tweak the decay to add body to the sound.
BD: Sine Wave + Enveloped Pitch, layered with Pulse Wave or Sound for “click” to drum
SD: Triangle Oscillator + Noise, High-Pass Filter.
HH: Filtered White Noise (fast A, S, R + Med to Short D)
Shakers: Same as HH, longer decay, LFO (fast sine wave) modulated HP filter cutoff
Cymbals: Same as HH, or Ring/FM. Two square waves, played high, detuned 2 octaves. Fast A, S, R, med D (again). Feed to a modulator. Program a layered pink noise “click” to add to initial crash.
Claps: Difficult to synthesize. White Noise, HP Filter, Saw LFO (very fast, max depth) modulating Filter cutoff. Pitch Envelope down, no retrigger. Program a series of arpeggiated staccato notes (?) to sequence the number of claps.
Cowbells: Easy. Two square osc, or sine + square. One at C#5 (554Hz), other at G#5 (830Hz). Fast A, D, zero S, R. BP filter.
Congas: Two osc + Small FM. 1st osc, sine. Fast A, D, no S/R. 2nd osc, any noise + Fast A, any D, zero S/R. HP + adjust noise amp decay’s slope for slapped congas.
Tambourines. Difficult, same as claps but HH’s, sequenced and arpeggiated.
Toms: Basically higher-pitched BD’s (Sine + White Noise, both share same 0 A, S, R, and med D). Or snare: Triangle wave + noise, modulate noise wave w/ pitch falling.

Tone: Main oscillator is usually sine or triangle wave, with pitch modulated by a positive pitch envelope.
Skin: White noise (resonance) or Square wave (transience). Resonance = part of the sound, transience = room.
Usually same ADSR for most sounds — Fast A, S, R, Med D. 2nd Oscillator’s decay is always the same or shorter than the main tone’s decay.
Experiment with decay slopes.
Use filters to shape the sounds.
Experiment with FM and ring mod for new drum timbres. Example: Use 2nd wave, noise wave, to modulate the main oscillator to reduce the tone.

Housey Chords = Minor 7th chords.
Compressors can be used to bring out the quieter transients and shape a sound to make it sound more upfront.

I missed writing papers for school, so sometimes I spend a few hours to put together some thoughts and brush up on my skills. This was one of those examples.

Should Governments (or Society) take over distribution of knowledge? (The Future of Open-Source)

The problem of piracy is rampant today. We’re slowly, but clearly, moving to an age where information and tools of creativity are clearly being freely redistributed, whether by piracy or open source.

Is this such a bad thing? Is the world a better place because of piracy? Are we giving the less privileged a chance to compete and add to the overall good?

So why shouldn’t governments take over piracy? Many people are already stealing programs like Photoshop, Ableton Live, Final Cut Pro, etc. If each of these companies were paid a reasonable $25 for each program, instead of the $1000 they charge, they would probably make about the same amount of money.

Let’s tax the consumer for the benefit of the overall society. A free, sponsored version of Photoshop or Logic Pro would allow more people to access a music making program and therefore raise society’s artistic level. Let’s do the same for books, education, and entertainment.

Things like YouTube, blogs, and online newspapers have taken traditionally paid material and given them away for free.

Take Bill Simmons, for example. People can read his works for free on ESPN.com. Simmons gets paid, ESPN gets some residual advertising money, and we all laugh and get some enjoyment. This is a perfect triangle of distribution, but it doesn’t always work this way. Simmons just got lucky picking the right style of entertainment/art to pursue. There really is no current model like that for music, and musicians work just as hard, and are as talented as our best bloggers.

In a perfect world, the government could hire or contract out artists and computer programmers to commission these tools and vices for the general masses. This would all be for the greater good of society. I know I sound like a communist now, but just hold the thought for a second.

It’s obvious that human society has never really anticipated this sort of free distribution of goods on such a mass scale. The cassette tape has been around for 50 some odd years, and paintings can get photographed and shown, or displayed in a book. But digital information has revolutionized our economics.

This can only continue. More and more information will be available through the collective mind (the internet). More movies will be made open source and hosted on YouTube, more internet comics will appear, bypassing newspapers, and more books, lectures, voice communication (phones), and more photos will be hosted. But how do these people make money? They make money by hosting little text-based ads that clutter the consumer’s experience, and by packing T-shirts and posters for fans and shipping them out.

Technology is advancing faster than ever. We’ve finally reached the point where human’s collective information is available from the palm of our hands, and soon enough it will be even more accessible, in ways we can barely imagine. Cybernetic technology is in the future, and when this happens, there really will be no point for many of the “necessary” purchases we make today. Full industries will shrink, from record labels to printing presses and more. I’m not predicting that we’ll all be riding Segways and products will be delivered in vacuum tubes, but industries have fallen before, and they will again.

When technology and information converge on this point, how will we handle money? We each will be pitching in to the collective pot, adding to the “open source.” But new entities, like governments, will probably rise to ensure our internets will prosper.

I need to figure out how to end this… I should read and cite some sources, too.