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On the subject of my not having Internet issues

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To some extent this is a continuation of a recent post “From shame and depression to Art and Business Strateg-ary.”

Well I made it out to the library today.. my main thing was to interact with my case manager person.. if that’s even what you call her? I needed to email her.. plus I haven’t heard from her for a while.. so with any luck, with her help, I’ll be able to get to the bottom of my various issues… and work through them…..

A big open question on my to do list is getting internet, here’s what the scene looks like:

So it used to be that my dad was paying my internet, cable, and phone.. this because his court appointed guardian, the person who issued me the eviction noticed… kept the internet/cable/phone thing going? Then she shut it off and so I have been without for sometime now.

Now.. if I go out and get phone, cable, and internet.. there are government services that will pay for the phone part of that.. I don’t really give a crap about the cable.. I just want the internet.. I don’t think I can just get internet and so given how much the bundle costs.. well that’s just a huge chunk of change for me…

As a result I thought I’d wait till after I took care of the car issues.. so I kinda knew where I stood money wise first.. but.. the truth is.. The monthly gas expense of driving to the library, or wherever else, to find an open wifi connection to the internet.. probably doesn’t cost that much less then just getting the damn internet… and when you combine that with not being able to use the internet to like.. buy stuff.. or say pay this ticket I have for an un-inspected car.. or like.. communicate with anybody without leaving the house, etc.. (not to mention how this can aggravate my anxiety, sense of isolation, and depression) I begin to wonder if it makes any sense at all to wait on the internet.

Mifi

The other option is a pay as you go mifi card I own.. from Virgin Mobil… which has it’s down sides but…  well its about the size of a credit card, but thicker.. has rechargeable batteries.. and creates a wifi network you can sign into to use the internet with.. (and costs less then Cable + Internet I believe)

In someways this seems like the best option of all cause it means I can have internet anywhere.. but I at least haven’t worked out a way that I could get internet access from my desktop using the MiFI.. (which is kinda a serious issue), the Virgin MiFi connection is pretty slow… maybe too slow for video.. and you get knocked off rather regularly.

The Training Issue

The “too slow for video issue” is a major issue as I’m counting on.. every now and then, paying for all you can eat one month subscriptions to various online video training sits.. say for web design.. or music production actually..

This training is pretty necessary for my plan to try and get in the job market one way or another… let alone all my other move forward in my life plans..

One of these subscriptions usually costs.. I don’t know but I have it in my head that it costs.. around $35 for a month. Now.. for web design, very often.. the only other option seems to be to go out and get a book.. something libraries aren’t good at.. and Mifi might not compensate for.. and an individual book.. well $50 isn’t at all uncommon.. mind you that these end up being references you can refer to down the road.. but still.. if I need the training to move forward, I probably need high speed internet.

When it comes to music production.. there really isn’t anything in book form that covers what these online training videos cover.. the closest you can get are these expensive import magazines that are like $15+ a month… But it’s still really no comparison.

So you can see how it turns out that faster internet actually ends up being more affordable then not having internet, or going the MiFi route.. (unless maybe I made it a habit of using friends internet.. though that still won’t take care of the video training thing)

And this becomes even more so if you factor in the issue of being able to upload videos as a part of any sorta content marketing scheme..

So the outlook and questions of the moment

Since the internet / cable / phone were in my dad’s name.. what are the issue of me getting it back? Are there legal issues here? I must find out.

Perhaps MiFi would make sense as an interim solution..

I didn’t mention this.. but I have a not connected to the internet old.. second generation iPhone.. so with MiFi I really could go online from anywhere with that.

I also have the ambition of getting myself an iPad, if I’m ever able to find the means.. these things are growing in importance relative to music production.. and with a MiFi card it could serve the purposes of a smart phone for me (Like I’d ever use a phone to make phone calls)

But there is a situation with my MiFi where I can’t seem to get into it’s wifi network which is a prerequisite for using the internet… and so far there tech support hasn’t been terribly helpful.

From Shame and Depression to Art and Business Strateg-ary

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I have at least a half hour to wait around in this library, so I’m wondering if I can think up something else to post on… I have drafts of some pretty decent stuff still on my Mac Pro.. so.. but perhaps I should try and riff on some of this or talk about.. oh I know……

How about we talk about my shame / life issues / psyche / damage / what is wrong with me?

Yeah.. thats a fun topic

Well I had this conversation with my therapist last Wednesday where she said, on the subject of shame, that kinda the best thing you can do about it is talk about it with someone….  err you think blogging it is going to far?

Well ok, there’s lots of issues…

So lets start with what’s going on right now

My car has this noise.. that is growing worse. It’s scary cause I’m poor, and what is worse is my car is un-inspected.. and I got a ticket for that.. and if I don’t pay it by x date.. I have to pay more.. and that date has gone by and I haven’t paid it.

Now I haven’t paid it cause I’m afraid of putting out my credit card stuff through unprotected open wifi, and I don’t have a phone.. but the point is I haven’t done anything about it.. I mean to message my case worker on the subject, but anxiety over the whole of the situation has kept me from doing so.

So, the car probably needs to get fixed one way or another, and inspected.. but I don’t know how much all this will cost, and have only limited means to deal with it.. plus.. when I leave it off at a garage, and have no phone, not to mention no internet at the house, how do I manage all this? So this stuff keeps getting pushed back, thus making the situation all the worse.

Meanwhile when my internet died, and then my computer.. I lost my calender which tells me when my appointments are.. and I missed an appointment, I’m pretty sure, with my dermatologist.. for which I will likely be charged $80 (remember I have $60 a week to live on?)

I also have shame cause I feel like I’m spending too much money.. and not dealing with any of this stuff, or other stuff.

Then there’s the issue that to find housing there’s an application process to the department of mental health.. and they might actually need the records from the dermatologist.

The result of this, and maybe rainy weather and general coldness.. has had me not wanting to leave the house, or even bed really.. which is necessary for email / internet / all communications with the world.. thus produces more isolation.. and thus makes my anxiety and depression worse.

Fun stuff

So this kinda stuff kinda often happens to me.. where I just kinda breakdown a bit and stop dealing.. and then feel kinda fucked.. and of course have lots of shame about it, which makes it worse… and thus this post I suppose.

Ok, so moving right along.

What I think is at root to all this is a combination of the wreckage brought about my a whole lot of life trauma mixed with a huge about of fear.. sometimes fear just to remain among the living.. but fear that blocks me, or challenges, my moving forward.

The solution to this is to try and be gentle with myself.. and not judge it so harshly.. and try and facilitate my own becoming.. and kinda try and built a supportive world around myself that’ll help me move forward.. but it is forever a struggle.

Strateg-a-ry

Now there’s also this deeper side to this that lives in my art.. a story I have to tell.. which is sorta what I’m trying to do with my art and with promotional efforts of that art.. or.. well I guess this is a long story.

See.. the idea is that a part of how you market something is in the story telling.. and the more drama / the thicker the plot.. generally speaking.. the more compelling the story.. so this is a story that’s to be told.. sorta in the art, in the packaging of the art, and in.. let say the promotional materials.

A combination of.. probably shame and lets say.. the trauma stuff.. and general unpleasantness of starring at the darker sides of your being.. and whatever have you.. has a way of making this stuff difficult to talk about, or even hold inside your own consciousness.. but the idea is that this is what my art is to explore.. or to try and explore.. and thus.. in so doing.. I gain some degree of control over it or.. it helps me to grow through it.. or something like that.

Further more.. the stories that are hardest to tell are usually the most important, most valuable stories.. and this is really the gift I have to give to the world.. assuming I’m strong enough to tell it and get through it.

Yeah.. so that’s looks like a decent enough post?

(still have like 20 minutes of downloading to wait through though)

What Komplete Unlimited 8 is bringing to my EQ, Compression, and Mixing table

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I’m in a library downloading the stuff that was supposed to come with Komplete Ultimate 8 ( I wrote about the instillation, among other things, and this problem, over here. )

It’s annoying.. I had to wake up early to make sure I’d make it to the library to do this, the library’s wifi is slow so it takes forever.. I feel like I’m getting penalized for being a paying customer… the downloader says I still have more then 2 hours of downloading to do.. and I kinda have to use the bathroom.. and don’t want to leave my computer unattended…

But Anyway

So Komplete Ultimate 8 has been pretty awesome so far. The best word I can use for it is “vast.” It’s vast in terms of the new sample libraries.. the new synthesizers, new effects processors, and updated versions of old favorites.. The vastness somewhat impacted that I was on version 6 prior to the upgrade but…

I’m here downloading the parts of the bundle I most wanted… and I thought I’d get into a little bit of a talk about that.

EQs And Compressors

EQs and Compressors are the most bread and butter tools of the trade for mix engineers. For me they perform two basic tasks

  1. Shaping the sound
  2. Coloring the sound

These two tasks don’t exactly happen independently of one another.. and there’s various reasons why folks seek out vintage unites.. to help impart various qualities.. and shape the coloration of there productions.

Well Komplete Unlimited 8 comes with 1 EQ and 2 compressor emulations of what would be found on certain classic SSL mixing desks (that’s part of what I’m downloading) as well as 3 other classic compressors.. so there’s quite a bit of new stuff here.

Now I should say something about my library of EQs and Compressors

Early on I decided I’d invest in “Liquid MIx” to handle the issue of wanting classic EQs and compressors for my production. The deal with Liquid Mix is you get a huge library of them.. all of which use a technology called “dynamic convolution.” It runs on a DSP chip that’s in a box along with a kind of controller where you can by hand control your EQs and compressors.. and this box connects to your computer via firewire.

Now it turns out there’s a couple problems here.

  1. My version of Liquid Mix limits me to 16 mono instances, and 8 stereo instances… and a typical production of mine probably has upwards of 16 stereo channels.. so Liquid Mix can’t be used on everything.
  2. It runs off a firewire buss which introduces latency into the equation.. what this means.. is if you were to play a note into your computer.. latency is the time between playing that note and hearing it back.. and the latency is such that once you put Liquid Mix into a production, you kinda can’t do any more recording in that production.. which means it forces you to kinda compartmentalize your recording and mixing stages… which is a problem for creativity sometimes.
  3. It’s horribly unstable.. I gather in large part because of firewire buss conflicts.. but.. that’s really only the tip of the iceberg.. and I’m still learning to deal with it.

Now.. Liquid Mix gives me the best emulations I have of this kind of vintage gear.. but the problems it presents also makes me kind of hesitant to bring it into my projects… as a result..  of this and the limited number of instances I can have.. I end up having to rely on other plugins much of the time.

The reset of my plugin folder for EQs and Compressors

Waves

I’m one of them Waves Gold happy campers.. my version of Gold gives me 2 character-ish compressors.. the Renaissance compressor.. which is something of a classic software compressor, and the H-Compressor.. which is meant to, broadly speaking, give you some of the analog warmth coloration producers are always clamoring for.. but I must say I’m not all that in love with it.

For colorful EQs I guess there’s the Renaissance EQ, all though there’s not much color there really.

There’s other EQs and Compressors in my Gold bundle.. but not of the coloring kind so much…. although a few will shape dynamics in interesting ways.

PSP

Just as PSP was coming out with this.. well they came out with this bundle of EQs.. all kinda sorta inspired by classic EQs.. but not really trying to be uber accurate.. they are great in terms of the color they can impart and in terms of not really using a lot of processing power in the process.

IK Multimedia

IK Multimedia has this here T-Rex mastering software that comes with all kinds of compressors, EQs, limiters, and other goodness.. that they also offer as individual products.. and sometime ago I scored a deal on some of them individual products..

So I have emulations of 2 classic compressors, 1 classic eq, and an interesting limiter.. these sound great but are processor hogs.

MOTU

Motu make my main DAW, and as such, what they offer I can’t actually use in other programs like Ableton Live or Maschine… but since I work with Digital Performer more then anything else.. I usually can work with these.

The Master Works EQ is really kind of my favorite EQ.. gives a kind of british color if you will.. but I like it most for the user interface.

There’s a leveling amplifier which is a kind of “optical compressor” which is.. basically smooth sounding.. that for no good reason I rarely use.

Well… that’s about it.

Implications

So what this basically means is outside of Liquid Mix.. I have a lot of EQ options for coloring, but not a whole lot of compression options that I really like.. and in both instances I do feel somewhat limited.. and so this is an areas that’s needed improvement.

So the question is.. how well does Native Instruments emulations work for this stuff? So far, from what I’ve played with.. they’re not too rough on the processor and seem to sound pretty good.. but I really need to play with them a whole lot more before I really have a strong opinion.

Master Buss Compression

In my last post I talked a bit about master buss compression, along with a little about what compressors are and how they work. Well.. putting a compressor on the master buss, which is to say pretty close to the end of you’re audio chain.. is a technique I like to use a lot.. probably in nearly every production I do these days.

At the moment there are really only 2 compressors I’ll put to the task.. the Renaissance compressor from waves, and the SSL master buss compressor that’s a part of Liquid mix… which presents the problems I talked about before.

So.. I feel like I don’t really have a lot of options for the Master Buss.. The good news is that  Unlimited 8 does indeed give you an emulation of an SSL master buss compressor.. so that’s exciting.. that I could use that compressor without having to turn to Liquid Mix… pluss they offer another compressor that is popular for master buss compressing.

On the subject of emulations

Different technologies, for emulation classic EQs and Compressors, all have there strengths and weaknesses.. well this is true for modeling almost anything really.. and so having a collection that uses different techniques.. or is simply from different companies.. often even if they’re emulating the same piece of gear.. is nice to have.

I should maybe add that with analog gear.. you can take to pieces of gear of the same model and there will be some variation… and here where we are somewhat talking about two emulations of the SSL master buss compressor.. but I believe these are actually different models of SSL master buss compressors.. so there’s more color variations then simply modeling two members of the same model, or the business of there being two different techniques for doing so.. or even just two different modeling algorithms.

And a final conclusion

I have 1 hour and 3 minutes now.. for the downloads to finish.. and I think I need to download a Guitar Rig update on top of this!!! So Native Instruments is annoying me..

But I’m excited from what Unlimited 8 might bring to to the table.. with respect to EQ, Compression, and mixing. And really, I can’t wait for this download to finish so I can run home and get started with it.

With any luck.. this will cover these bases well enough so that this wheel stops creeping..

Now if I can only find away to afford Slate’s Virtual Console technology.. I’ll really be golden!

Adventures in Komplete Unlimited 8: Instillation, Mixing Drums, Master Buss Compression

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Slightly after Instillation I noticed certain key stuff, that’s a part of Komplete Unlimited, missing.. and these were in fact, for me, some of the most desirable stuff…

  1. The Solid Mix Series: Dynamics, EQ and Buss Compressor emulations from one of those wonderful SSL mixing consoles.
  2. Retro Machines MK2: This is a sample library of vintage synthesizers from the 70s and 80s. (One of the areas in my sound pallets I’ve most wanted to upgrade)

I haven’t gotten a chance to message Native Instruments Tech Support to figure out what the hell the story is.. and given that I don’t have internet access in the home.. this is probably going to be quite a mess…

Err.. I should maybe say something about the instillation?

When you get your self ether Komplete Unlimited, or the upgrade to Komplete Unlimited, you get a USB hard drive.. and you install all the software directly off that Hard Drive.. which is actually really cool because the instillation process takes a few hours.. and it used to be that you had like 15 DVDs to go through and to have to switch though the DVDs while installing… this kept you tied to your computer, and waisted your day away.. with just the hard drive. .you can actually screw around on your computer doing other things.. (though it’s probably best not to do anything with the drive(s) you’re installing onto), or you go do other things with your time.. which is nice.

(Perhaps I should mention that the instillation is like 240 GB, so enough to max out your typical laptop hard rive)

So that part was pretty cool.. and the process of authorizing was, actually kind of bizarre to be honest. NI uses this AIR app called “Service Center” and in it you put your serial numbers.. which of course have to be painfully long, and easy to screw up, and if I screw it up.. well the deal is, if your trying to authorize it on a computer that doesn’t have internet, once you’ve put in those serial numbers, it generates this special file.. that I then have to put on my laptop, and drive to the closest open wifi I can find.. I double click on it.. and get a response file.. that I then go and bring back to the computer I’m installing the software on, in order to authorize it so I can actually use it.

So the issue with the long serial number is that it’s very easy to put in the wrong number… and you wont find out until you’ve driven away.. and so it could have turn into this painful back and forth, but fortunately I got it right on the first try….

It used to be.. you’d have a demo mode so even if you were having some trouble with the authorization process, at least you can begin playing with your new toys….. Now the demo mode lets you play for 5 minutes before it stops working. (I grow more empathetic with pirates everyday it seems)

What is bizarre is… in the Service Center you literally have like the serial numbers for every product you’ve ever bought from Native Instruments.. so we are talking stuff that came out..  I don’t know.. maybe 12 years ago.. which you can’t actually run on a modern computer… (well maybe you could under Windows XP)..

And for some reason.. though I’m just trying to authorize Komplete 8.. the thing it gave me was to authorize both Komplete 8 and Komplete 3.. the latter of which was probably from more then 5 year ago, and again probably needs XP to even run..

So I thought that was kind of strange.

Getting to work in Komplete Unlimited 8

Well as annoyed as I might be about the issue of there being missing parts to my madness.. parts I REALLY want to play with.. the truth of the matter is there is still a crap load of new stuff to go and explore.. and that’s going to take me a while.

To some extent I would compare it to.. well years ago.. I owned Reaktor, and then I upgraded to Komplete.. and I would say it probably took me about a year to get up to speed on all the stuff that came with Komplete.. it’s seriously that vast, complex, and sophisticated.. particularly if you’re new to this kind of technology…

So what I’m saying is you can compare what Reaktor is to say Komplete 3.. as being something like what Komplete 6 (the last version I owned) is to Komplete Unlimited 8.. in terms of there being just that much new stuff on hand.. or at least that was my initial impression…

Actually.. they try and give you a bigger impression of what you’re getting your hands on then what you’re actually getting your hands on.. or at least that was my second impression.

But really this post is about the 3rd impression

So one of the first things I did was fire up my DAW and load up “the sampler known as Kontakt 5.”

See.. the way Native Instruments is working these days.. is they have these.. kinda.. lets call them “major programs” that then go and host other programs… or something like this. My guess is this makes it more cost effective for them to deal with changes in operating system and other things they need to do to keep there software up to date… then having a zillion individual instruments and effects…  But no one really likes this hosting scheme too much.. although when it comes to Kontakt hosting sample libraries.. it’s not really an issue.

Kontakt 5 to me.. the upgrade.. is pretty exciting.. although I still haven’t really explored it much at all. Kontakt is a modular sampler.. which is to say there’s lots of modules you can string together to shape your sound with.. and so.. there’s a lot of excitement in the new modules.. which.. well to start off with I’m just mucking about with factory presets and the expanded library that Komplete Unlimited 8 gives you.. so I haven’t really had a chance to explore the inner workings of Kontakt 5… Another nice aspect to Kontakt 5.. is there is apparently a whole new system for bussing / routing around audio inside of the sampler.. which.. is kinda a big deal.

Anyway, haven’t played with that ether.

So, my first project (which I haven’t done too much more then audition and select some sounds)

I started out with an Abbey Roads 70s Drum Kit.

The Abbey Roads stuff was recorded in Abbey Roads using the gear they were using at whatever the time period in question was.. 60s, 70s, 80s, or modern… and then you have some tools to further shape the sound inside of the sample instrument..

See if we are talking about drums there’s a variety of approaches to record drums.. but usually you got your self the overheads microphones.. which is where you start out.. and then you add the directly miked.. umm.. snare and kick usually.. anyway.. the point is that by mixing and process different channels of a drum recording, thats how a mix engineer shapes the sound of a drum kit.

Well the Abbey Roads kits aren’t that sophisticated.. (although maybe Kontakt 5′s new bussing system could allow you to get around this) basically your limited to adjusting the volume and pan positions of the direct recordings of the individual drum pieces… then theres a volume and stereo width control for the overheads.. and then for the “room mic,” which gives you the sound to the rooms ambience..

This and you can control snare bleed.. which is the sound of the snare… when you hit some other drum and the snare rattles as a result.. this results in “a more authentic” drum sound.. which is why you might want to keep some.

Finally there’s an options panel.. that.. well I used this randomize control.. to slightly randomize how hard I’m hitting the notes and the timing of the notes.. again.. to give a little more authenticity for when I get around to programming out the parts.

=====

A couple days latter:

Yeah.. it turns out that the internal bussing system of Kontakt 5 does allow you to deal with the Abby Roads stuff with a whole lot of control.. although at some point along the way you realize you’re loosing the authenticity of that 70s drum sound. (They didn’t have what we have today, nor did they apply today’s mixing techniques, to drums in the 70s..)

Oh… and really I would say the reason that the Synthesizer sample library and the SSL emulations.. EQ and Compressors.. were left out.. was to make it harder for pirates to pirate.. because I checked my email today and saw a link for the downloads. This is annoying because #1 I don’t have that much space on my laptop and #2 The only way I’m gong to get enough bandwidth to download this stuff.. is to go to the library.. which keeps kinda crazy hours on Fridays and weekends, so it all has to wait.

This brings us to another subject, which is the implications of this on the production I’m now working on….

Master Buss Compression

There’s this technique called “putting a compressor on your master buss.” So I shall have to explain compressors and master busses.

You master buss… well what it is is.. whatever tools your mixing with.. you have this giant mixer that’ll mix, like, a gazillion channels down to 2 channels.. for your left and right speakers.. you know… stereo? So.. the technique we are talking about involves putting a compressor on that last stereo channel..

So compressors.. there’s a lot of different designs.. and whatever.. especially when we are talking about the emulations of classic vintage gear.. but basically… the way it usually works is you have an incoming signal… and then you got like a knob with the word “threshold on it.” The threshold knob looks like a volume knob but really what it is.. is… well once the volume of the audio coming into the compressor reaches the level you’ve set your threshold knob… the compressor engages.

Ok.. what does it mean to engage? Well generally speaking.. a compressor compresses the dynamic range of the audio.. which is to say the fluctuations in how loud that signal is… the range from silence to loud is “compressed.”

If you’ve heard of the loudness wars, that’s people squashing the dynamic range.. and then turning the whole thing up so you have a higher average volume level.. that then sounds kind crappy compared to if you were using the whole dynamic range.. but I digress.

So that’s the 101 of compressors… but besides the threshold knob.. there’s how much compression the compressor is going to apply to the incoming audio.. there’s how long / gradual it takes for that compression to totally kick in once the threshold is reached.. and then there’s a decay control to control how slowly the compressor disengages once the signal goes below the threshold.

Ok, so that’s hard to conceptualize… but basically you can use compressors in a lot of different ways to.. and that gives you the tools to use them in a lot of different ways.. and not all compressors have all those controls and blah blah blah.

The technique of putting a compressor on the master bus.. is a special kind of thing… and its somewhat.. controversial in some circles.. but.. kinda probably form the 70s on up.. every hit record had the SSL Master Bus compressor on it (the compressor I’m missing right now.. at least in terms of Native Instruments emulation there of..)

So.. what happens is.. you set the master bus compressor up.. and you got audio going into it.. and.. it does a bunch of things..

First of all it’s said to “glue the mix together.”  When ever you put multiple audio signals through the same processor.. they do tend to glue together a bit.. but this particularly true for compressors

Second… the compressor does compress the sound.. it makes it “more punchy.” For many mixers.. the implication of putting a compressor on the mix bus is that you then compress other elements of the mix less.. because you’re already lightly compressing the mix as a whole.

3rd: You are now mixing into the master buss compressor.. so what you hear is a result of what the compressor is doing to the audio.. so all the choices you make while mixing are effected by that compressor.

Now… most of the time you probably don’t put the master buss compressor on at the very start of the project.

So…… getting back to our story

I don’t usually have any kind of problem getting my mixes to “glue together.” I read about people talking about the issue of glueing mixes together.. and how this is such a big deal… and blah blah blah… but its not a problem I’ve ever ran into.. so it seems to me sorta crazy.. that everyone in the industry seems to be having so much trouble glueing stuff together when they’re mixing inside of the digital domain..

But.. it may be that the reason I never have this glue issue… is A, I don’t even notice the problem in my mixes but.. more probably.. B, I mix in a different way / style form everybody else.. so that it’s actually a lot easier for me, at least with respect to the glue issue.

However, all that said..at least in terms of how I’ve started working on this project.. I’m actually running into the “oh no, I need glue” problem.. so I’m really feeling the need for that SSL buss compressor.

Mind you.. I have other options in my studio… and a part of why I’m having the glue problem is that I haven’t actually started mixing anything… too much.. so…

But umm.. yeah that seems long enough for todays post.

The Resurrection of My Mac Pro

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Like a Phenix it will rise.. and better then before no less!!!

I wont, at this time, go into all the gory details.. but I was right, the Mac Pro’s problem was the graphics card, and I’m now in a parking lot, waiting for my therapist appointment, before its time to run home and install the replacement.

Apple offered me $250 to replace the card.. this being a card from a 4 year old computer.. so $250 seemed like crazy talk to me, especially considering it wasn’t really that highend 4 years ago… well the card I found was for the same money.. couldn’t really afford any more then that (but boy did I want that $800 card).. but stronger.

I’m not sure how much stronger the new card is, but it does have like twice the VRAM… so that’s something.

That and my version of Komplete is updated to the Ultimate..

All of this “changes everything” don’t cha know. While the priority ought to be working on the website, lets be honest.. .there’s nothing that will be able to pull me away from music production for sometime to come!

I mean Sweet Jesus!!!

Well actually

Last night I had sorta come to a conclusion for what I should be doing art wise… I should be doing “what I need to do.” And then the big question is “what do I need to say?”

So much of what I normally say, or normally feel motivated to say.. or whatever.. is a whole lot of intellectual whatever.. but really.. I think what I need to say is something .. not really intellectual so much..  what I need to do is tell a story..

I’m not sure how this is going to all work out.. but I this is what I figure:

  1. I will be working heavily to create the content to tell the story with.. this is what I believe is of primary strategic importance. (Process wise I’ll be doing this to find out what my story is.. while I’m at it.)
  2. I will be mucking about with the web technologies.. trying to upgrade my skills.
  3. I’ll be working on new music / sound projects.

I believe, as an outgrowth of number 2.. well I’m gong to try and update my site as soon as I can… and put my music into digital distribution… and I guess then start trying to promote it while continuing to do those other 3 things.. and see if I can’t leverage the site / project in some way to get work while I’m at it.. for when next money situation seems dyer.

But really.. I have no idea where this will lead or where I’ll come out or what will happen. I just pray I can keep my head above water.

A Bad Best Buy Customer Service Experience

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By way of context, I want to start off with #1 Why I’ve never been big on Best Buy and #2 the background of this experience.. before moving on to the actual bad experience.

Why I’ve never been big on Best Buy

I think it’s safe to say that I am a “technology guy.” Hell, an internet celebrity friend-ish person I know has often accused me of being a “technologist” which.. in this tech-e geek-e internet world is really saying something.

I’m also the guy who researches before he buys and generally finds that he knows more about the products then whatever customer service person he’s encountering…

And I guess that’s the deal.. I go to Best Buy and you can just feel it.. they’re used to dealing with low information consumers.. the sort who don’t know the difference between RAM memory and Hard Disk Memory… the sort who is easily taken advantage of.. isn’t very savy, etc.

I have something of a history of feeling insulted by the customer service people at Best Buy.. maybe I’m easily insulted that way, I don’t know.. but I feel like there’s always that assumption that you don’t know RAM from Hard drives..

After that, they often aren’t in a position to actually help me.. and perhaps because they are out to meet the needs of a broader consumer base then I represent.. I never feel too terribly well served by them.. and.. I often feel that for my specific needs.. what they’ll have in stock would be a choice that costs more then I need spend..

Never mind that it can often be quite difficult to get a sales person when you want one, and they’ll bug you when you don’t.

And on and on it goes.

The Context of This Visit

At the moment I’m church mouse poor.. trying to live off $60 a week, if you can imagine that.. and the computer I normally rely on recently died.. I also have a laptop but it’s not really up to the task of the desktop.. the good news is I have some material means to address the problem… including making my laptop more able to play the roll the desktop once played

Now, as it stands.. my job is to redesign this website, and right now this project involves creating content in the form of digital graphics, maybe paintings, and perhaps photographs.. stuff that takes up a not unsubstantial amount of space..

The trouble is.. that I have less then 1GB worth of disk space on this lap top.. and I have lots of graphics on the old computer I need to move over to the laptop if I’m going to be able to move forward on this project.. also, its worth saying.. having less then 1GB of space on your hard drive will considerably slow down your computer’s performance because your computer uses that disk space for virtual memory.. for the operating system.

So.. basically I can’t really move forward too much till I do something about the my disk space issue…..

Well as it turns out I have a 500 GB “Rugged” drive.. the problem with this drive is it won’t take power from my computer’s USB, so I gotta plug it in if I’m going to use it… so the other day I was like “screw it, I can afford to replace the chord” and so I went off to the local radio shack to see what they had.

Well they didn’t have the right power supply… and if they did, it probably would have cost about $25 or so.

I then I got to thinking.. that I might be able to get a new Rugged drive.. for not too much more then $100.. and thus get a new power supply in the process, and if so.. the idea that 1/4 of that price would go to the power supply just seemed crazy…

Thus Began the Hard Drive Hunt

I went to all the local stores that might sell said hard drive: Best Buy, Target, Walmart, even the Apple Store…

Best buy had it for $160.. and… I was just having a really hard time rationalizing the investment.. particularly when you can buy a none rugged drive.. with like 1TB of space.. for $100.. so clearly at $160.. it just ain’t worth it for me..

(I should maybe mentioned that the different between the LaCie Rugged drives and other drives are.. that they’re supposed to be rugged.. so there a good choice to take out with you and your laptop… )

Finally I went and got myself some free wifi to go check the computer store I actually do like shopping at… Micro Center… and what do you know, they have what looks like the same drive for $110.

Well.. its like 4PM at this point.. not the ideal time to go drive into Boston [creeping up on rush hour] plus, considering the gas money involved.. I’d much rather wait till an un rainy day so I could also spend the day walking around Boston and getting some exercise and what not.

And then I thought “wait, what if Best Buy does Price Match?”

My Best Buy Shopping Experience

So I ran in and talked to a sales guy “you price match?” “Yeah, everything but Amazon, cause they can name there price.” “Microcenter?” “Yeah, we’ll price match Microcenter.”

And he tells me to go over to the computer section.

So I do.. takes some doing but I find a sales guy “Yeah, we price match, but you gotta go over there to customer service.”

Ok, I’m a tiny bit annoyed cause they are sending be around the store when I don’t need to.. and now I gotta go wait in a customer service line… but I’m excited about the prospects of getting a new drive.

In the line I get a new story “yeah, we price match as long as its within” I can’t remember the number of miles here “a Best Buy” which is pretty much everywhere…

So consistency is clearly not Best Buy’s strong suite here.

So eventually the women looks up Microcenter and the drive I had found didn’t come up… and there was some back and fourth on that.. so eventually it seemed I had to run back to my car to find my laptop to prove my point…

When I got to the laptop I discovered that the page wasn’t still up.. so I had to run off to some place that had open wifi…

Mind you.. I really didn’t want to waist this kind of time…

Anyway.. so my search showed the hard drive selling for $107 at Microcenter.. I did another search.. just through Google.. and what do you know.. it was selling at fucking Best Buy for $104.

And I can tell you the average price was around $110.

So back to Best Buy I go… bring my laptop.

I don’t know if they had wifi or not.. but I show them the Microcenter thing.. and its discovered that this isn’t specifically the Boston Microcenter.. its just in there system.. where this price is to be had…

Now if it can be price matched to any place that has a physical location within X miles of a Best Buy, it need not be at that specific Microcenter to price match, right? So as a customer.. if I say had a smart phone, do you not think I would then be checking every other Microcenter across the country, or finding out at what Microcenter it was at?

So.. yeah.. I’m sorta annoyed..

Next I show her the freaking Best Buy price.

No, we can’t price match our selves? I’m thinking “WTF?”

I mean.. if the story is you can price match a anything as long as it’s within X miles of a Best Buy.. you would think Best Buy ought to qualify right?

After this she has me going back and forth between micro center and them on my not connected to the internet laptop… and then finally.. after much hassle.. and me getting pretty upset over this BS.. cause you know.. to me it’s like “do you or do you not price match?”

Someone says no you can price match us.

So after having to go through alllllll of this crap.. they’re like “oh, no, its a different sku.”

It was like they were trying to make sure I couldn’t get it at the price matched price.. that that was what was really important to them… not me the customer..  where as from my point of view.. I was generously giving them a chance to have the sale.. and now I was already working too hard for them.. and they weren’t treating me well

“Would you like to buy it anyway” she said.. OMG I was going to bight her head off. “NO! I say in a somewhat kurt way.”

I mean.. fucking A.. they have a computer.. if they had so much done a google price they would see the going price was about $50 less then what they were selling it for.. this on something that only cost $160.. at there unrealistic price. And secondly.. the two hard drives were fucking identical.. so where’s your value proposition for why I should spend an extra $50 on your drive.. and further more, why the hell would I buy it from you at this this price after we’ve established that what I want can be had else where for less WAY LESS MONEY?”

Not to mention, I found found those prices in like 2 minutes of time. .I could leave the store, do it again.. if not for the hassle.. and fine a qualifying store, I’m pretty freaking sure.. so why couldn’t you do that for so as to help me avoid the hassle?

I mean that would be customer centric.. that would be giving me a good brand experience.. that would be making me want to buy stuff from your store more often.

Now, I can tell you.. even though I know I could probably find a cable for my drive for $25, and buy a 1TB drive at Best Buy for $100.. I’m not going to do it… and I will continue to advocate.. to anyone who will listen “don’t buy shit at Best Buy.” And.. in the future, as has been the case for as long as I can remember, Best Buy will be the last place I will turn!!!

So you tell me how this is good business practice for Best Buy?

I have to say, as well, that this makes there price matching seem rather miss leading.. The idea of price matching is to suggest you’re safe, you won’t find it cheaper then here.. and who, as a customer, gives a fuck if there competition is a store with a real physical location or not.. unless that physical location can give you some kind of added value… which Best Buy doesn’t really do for me.

So, lets recap

#1 You have a customer service person who put on this attitude where it seemed like every step of the way she was trying to keep me from getting what I wanted price matched.. including to the extent to which she was getting the rules wrong.

#2 Every sales person I spoke to had a different explanation on how the price matching worked..

#3 I waited way too much of my day screwing around with them.. and number

#4.. I believe good customer service is when you try to actually help the customer… and there really wasn’t any of this going on.. There was nothing about this customer service person who made me feel like she had the least interest in helping me or giving me a good shopping experience.

So you know, you can tell Rain Man Best Buy SUCK!!!

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An update: It’s now two days latter, I’ve just gotten back from a quick trip to Boston (and Microcenter) as a part of the “get the Mac Pro running again” project.. and I just want to say this: The drive was indeed at Microcenter center for $109….  Though I was glad I didn’t spend the money because.. as having the Mac Pro running again will change my priorities

A day in the life of: My to do’s

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#1 My first order of business is to work out this pill situation.. I went to the pharmacy yesterday asking if my pills had been called in.  They said yes.. I took them… and then took the pills, and then this morning found they were the wrong damn pills.. or.. pills I need.. but that I don’t really need to get refilled for a couple of weeks… the pills I need are for the smoking.. and I’m fucked if I can’t quit.. so im feeling deeply screwed at the moment…

#2 I gotta email my dermatologist.. find out when my appointment is… what the results of the test are.. hoping I doin’t get charged $80 for missing an appointment…

#3 The Book / Info hunt:

So I’m going to go to the book store to scour the collection… basically what I need is information on CSS3, lots of Canvas API stuff.. including the 3D stuff.. and.. stuff on using SVG… and maybe JQuery.. although I don’t really know to what degree JQuery is really what I need to be jumping into right now.

Beyond that it’s basically stuff like.. what are the best practices for this that and other other thing..

So it’s too the book store and then the library to search there system to see if they have some of this stuff so I don’t have to pay so much money… and if I can find a kindly librarian that might listen to my sob stories… and help me lower my bill…

#4 I need to get an appointment at the Apple store for them do look at my Mac Pro and see what’s wrong with it.

#5 I gotta organize my calendar.

#6 I got to down load all this API stuff. / find out what what the skinny is on the API’s for

  1. Indaba
  2. Flickr
  3. Google Maps
  4. Google Analytics
  5. Google+ (do they even have an API for that?)
  6. MySpace (well you know.. they’ve been coming along.. wonder if they have anything?)
  7. Last.fm
  8. BandCamp
  9. Facebook
  10. Sound Cloud

#7 I also need to find out about the whole twitter / face book log in system

#8 I also need to look into the subject of facebook / Google+ app creation

#9 I have to email a DJ.. about a local electronic music group.. or what the story is on that.. and also I’d like to find out what blogs he’s looking at and whatever else.

#8 I gotta put some of my music into this particular sound cloud group for a local music group I am sorta a part of

#10.. I need to find out about paying for this ticket…  so that I might keep my car on the road for a bit

Beyond all that.. its just more web design related stuff… and whatever else I’ll put off until tomorrow me thinks.. ok.. on with the day’s adventures

 

Artist’s/Bands Website: Thinking about the HTML5 Geo Location API and the future of the music business

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Just a quick-e background thing so you know what I’m talking about.. The HTML5 Geo Location API allows a web page or web application to know where you’re at, if you want to let them know where you’re at…

The big application for this is thinking about Mobile computer and the mobile context for computing, and we use web pages / computer applications differently in a mobile context then the usual desktop or laptop context. This contextual change is THE BIG THING, and understanding what it could mean for artists.. leveraging the implications… can equal HUGE competitive advantages for the artist(s)/Band. (Not to mention others)

So what I thought I’d do is share some medications I’m doing on the subject..

Maybe the job of the artist / band is not to build a fan base so much as it is to build a community. I know I’m finding that with many local bands… what brings me to the show might often be as much the artist as it is the community of people around that artist, and how I’ve become a member of that community…

Now I’ve been looking at subjects like social biology and evolutionary psychology.. and one of the things we are finding.. is about how people belong to groups.. and we are finding that we can look at groups from a kind of game theory tit for tat kinda perspective.. that this lys behind what groups fail and what groups don’t… which has played a huge roll in human evolution… and we could look at the group as playing this huge roll in human evolution which historically hasn’t been looked at all that deeply.

Lets get Pragmatic about this

The American Pragmatist movement in philosophy (we’re talking American Civil War generation) brought statistics and probability theory to philosophy… and started to talk about the existence of a belief in our culture as having to do with it’s use value.. and your adoption of that belief, or behavior, or whatever, of having to do with it’s use value to you..

Another words.. what you believe has less to do with truth then it has to do with value… and value in relationship to your own kind of ecological context.. that is to say the environment you are living in.. and how you are relating to it..

This then creates “the market value” or demand for beliefs and behaviors and what not

Also.. there’s this famous case where supreme court justice Oliver Wendle Homes upheld freedom of speech for an anarchist (Homes was a conservative guy) saying that free speech has a pragmatic value for the welfare of the community.. wether or not we believe in what that person over there is saying.. the diversity of believe / views / ideas = genetic diversity and thus is important and has a lot of value to give to the echo system / countries well being.

Err, but what does this mean to us?

So then I began to think that maybe the thing that an artist really needs to do is inculcate the right kind of values into the artist’s community.. I mean if values = how well a particular group does in a larger echo system of groups / communities.. that also mean’s that the artist’s well being is tied to that value system.

Back to our social web

And so all of this brought me to thinking about social media and community.. marketing, content marketing, crowd sourcing.. and all those other trendy web terms.. but particular how to think about these things relative to site design and the business objectives of the artist.

The suggestion here is that a big part of how the web design ought to be thought about is… how does it help the artist’s community.

Now.. what a community needs.. depends on the community.. this isn’t a one size fits all thing.. but might there be a way one could build technology that could be customized to the needs of the community?

And so my first thought is to start to think about various scenarios.. and think about stuff in relationship to this.

So one idea is the mobile web experience of an event

You could go to an event and check in.. to check in.. you could check in with your facebook account, twitter, or just an email.. because, after all.. the HTML5 geo location API can tell that you are indeed where you say you are, which is at this show.

Now.. from a bands perspective, knowing who’s coming to what show has a lot of value.. it has value in terms of “customer relationship management” and “sales funnel optimization” and all kinds of business-e things…. so getting fans / community folks to sign is.. there’s a whole lot of obvious incentives for the artist.

But what about the community?

Ok.. so lets talk about clubs and bars. Why do people go to clubs and bars? Music, sure? But they also might like to mingle with the opposite sex.. and so there could be a kind of social network built into the site.. and how might that facilitate such mingling?

Better yet.. how could you use such a network to help “new people” feel welcomed into the group?

Well one idea for the community is to have “games,” that are designed to create certain behaviors (reinforce the cultural value system you want in your group).. so for instance.. there could be a game by which you community members get points, while at a show, for signing up new members.

Without going too deeply into this.. if the artist is about a certain value system.. then the way someone is let into the community.. or “the brand / marketing execution” needs to be consistent with the brand / band values… I mean.. you could join the network without feeling welcomed to the network…

Technologically / User Experience speaking, how do we make you feel welcome? Safe? That’s a big design challenge.

Very often.. when a new person comes into a group.. that new person feels uncomfortable because the individual members of the group feel uncomfortable with the new person.. or don’t know what to make of this new person… so how could a mobile social network solve this problem?

Maybe there’s people in the network whom are “greeters.” Like there thing is to make people feel welcome.. and maybe somehow they are rewarded for that.

I mean.. you could virtually put up a sign over your self that says “anyone want to talk” or “I’m interested in these subjects, if you wanna come talk to me, this is your key” or whatever..

You could use the mobile social network as a kind of augmented reality system via which you sent out social signals that you other wise might not be able to do.

Ok…

Well I’m not sure how all that will work, have to think about it some more…

The Documentarians

Ok.. so there are these people taking pictures.. or shooting video.. perhaps tweeting for that matter.. it might be that they could post what they’ve shot, even via our website.. to sites like Facebook, flicker, twitter, whatever… it could also be that if the system knows about you’re accounts.. and you post the content with the hash tag of the event, everyone at the event can now see that content.. and people coming to the event page… say on a mobile device, trying to figure out if they want to come to the show… or people looking at the website from there home computer.. can see this content to.

Now here’s what I was also thinking…Camera create meta data around images including things like what time the picture was taken… so there might be a kind of real time way of experience the show.. by using this data… maybe while your at an event you could go back through time of the event…

And.. if people are capturing audio and or video… how this could be a part of it…

So then an event can because this thing you can explore on the band’s website..

And of course documentarians… get points, right?

How about twitter links and facebook mentions? (For facebook we’d probably want to limit the amount of updates you could make.. cause we don’t want you to be spamy.. but based on the code in your link we could track who got the most click throughs)

I’ve always thought, without a doubt.. one of the things a band ought to do is to encourage people to hand over there email to sign up for the news letter with the incentive that they can get an audio recording of the event if they do so..

But.. of course.. with Facebook apps, and all the rest of it, we are getting a whole lot more data… so for instance.. we can know if we want to send that person an email asking them to come to our show that’s like a 20 hour drive from there address…

When you clicked on a profile of a person.. who was, say “a documentarian” it could provide links to all the photos, videos, and whatever else they’ve made..

I don’t know.. I’m just thinking about this.. and how you can empower the community to build the community.. almost like a self organizing system…

Hell, maybe the answer is to make the tools simple for community members to create stuff with?

Well.. I got a couple of shows to go to.. so I’m off, more thoughts on this stuff latter, no doubt…

My Home Studio: Music / Audio

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I’m sorta looking into this business of putting together a resume.. which means.. what skills you got.. and along the way.. one of the things to look at is “what does you’re studio look like… and so here’s a mostly complete list (although a few of these items aren’t currently in my studio, but indeed I do know them):

DAWs (Digital Audio Work Stations / Production Environments)

Cubase, Digital Performer, Ableton Live, Maschine

VSTs

Motu MX1, Kontakt, Massive, FM8, Pro-53, Reaktor, Absynth, Omnisphere, BFD + Daw Specific VSTs.

 FX

Waves Gold

(L1 Ultramaximizer, MaxxBass, TrueVerb, S1, Renaissance Axx, Renaissance Compressor, Renaissance Equalizer, Renaissance Reverb C1, C4, MetaFlanger, MondoMod, DeEsser, Paz Psychoacoustic Analyzer, Enigma, SuperTap, IR-L, Doubler, Doppler, Q10 Paragraphic Equalizer AudioTrack, MV2, Wave Tune LT, H Comp, H0Delay)

PSP

PSP 84, PSP 608?, Nitro, EQ Bundle (PSP ClassicQ, PSP ConsoleQ, PSP McQ, PSP NobelQ)

IK Multimedia

Vintage Tube Compressor/Limter Model 670, Vintage Tube Program Equalizer, Optop Compressor, Intelligent Multi-algorithm Brickwall Limiter, High precision Linear phase Equalizer

Classic Studio Reverb: Hall

VirSyn

Bark, Reflect, Matrix, Tape delay, tape saturator, tape flanger, Transient designer

Audio Ease (All In Bundle)

Altiverb, Speakerphone, Cabinet, Periscope, Riverrun, Deep Phase Nine, Orbit, Follo, Roger, Snapper

Other Goodness

  1. Lexicon Native Reverb Plug-in Bundle
  2. Liquid MiX,
  3. URS Channel Strip Pro
  4.  Native Instruments Kore 2
  5.  Guitar Rig
  6. + DAW Specific Effects
  7. Max/MSP/Jitter

Studio Hardware

Mac Pro 2 * quad core 2.8 GHz Intel Xeon (8 cores), 10 GB of RAM and few TB of hard disk space include Drobo.. 2 27″ Monitors

Controllers

Keyboard, Launch Pad, APC40, Maschine, various Nano Controllers, Kore2

Berhringer MIDI Foot Controller FCB1010

Rolland Guitar Synth

Monitors:

M-Audio BX2 A Audio Monitors

Audio Interfaces i/0

  1. Apogee Ensemble
  2. MOTU 828

Portable Recorders (can also act as interfaces)

  1. Zoom H2 portable recorder
  2. Zoom H4 portable recorder

Microphone Preamps

Liquid Channel Microphone Preamp

+4 on the Ensemble +2 Motu 828 +4 on a Tascam 16 channel Digital Mixer (which perhaps doesn’t have the best A/D D/A)

Microphones (ranging from budget to ghetto)

  1. M-Audio Pulsar 2 (matched pair of small diaphragm condensers)
  2. MXL 144r Ribbon Microphone
  3. SM57 Microphone
  4. MXL Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphones
  5. Shot Gun Microphones
  6. 2 Lapel Microphones

The Wonderful World of Gutiar

  1. Gibson SG
  2. Engager Rebel 30

and a few other odds and ends

I just thought it would be interesting if I had it all laid out.

Fleeting hopes

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I don’t really know what to post about.. I’m just sitting in a parking lot with open wifi and figured I should post something…

I’m in this kinda funny zone.. my loneliness has me wanting to post more.. cause hey, at least I have you to talk to, right? Err, are you even there?

I think I’m making some breakthroughs in my struggle with self.. but.. I don’t want to get to excited about this stuff.. but there is a kind of rising sense of hope lurking about.. hope that I could kinda sorta start feeling human.. or like..

Ok, so there’s a whole lot of stuff in my life, and in my psychology…. my life being in some ways an out ward manifestation of my psychology… that kinda keeps me feeling less then human, or like.. like there’s something wrong with me that keeps me from living a life that would be.. sorta less about pain…

On the subject of this problem… what I’m finding is new understandings of like.. what is keeping me here, and how all this is working.. and it seems like the tightness of the weave, that keeps it all in place.. is starting to loosen up a little bit..