the most important thing i learned from....decades....in school is the following:
if you're going to go to school with the purpose of doing something competitive with it (be that in employment or in academia), you have no option but to pick something you love to do. things may have been different in the past when the field was narrower, but nowadays living in north america means you're competing against two thirds of the planet for just about anything, and if you're not loving it then somebody else is going to mop the floor with you.
you might have a greater pure aptitude in the topic and in general. you might have higher test scores. you might be a harder worker, even. yet, if you're doing it for labour then the blunt reality is that you have no chance against the thousands of other people that do it for *fun*.
it's actually sort of an anarchist's ideal: the only kind of vocation any of us have any real chance in any more is what we'd love to be doing, anyways. the problem is that so few of us were raised with that mindset. we were told to do something we don't love because it is marketable (only to be outcompeted by somebody that loves it), or even to do something we loathe because it's profitable (only to run into the same problem). while that's happening, we're wasting developing skills doing things we enjoy, and getting behind those that figured this out.
if there are changes to immigration, or drastic improvements in living standard elsewhere, maybe it will once again make sense to tell your young, operatic nephew they'd be better off as a dentist. but, as it is, there's no deficit of kids that knew they wanted to be dentists when they were three years old and have spent their whole lives preparing, and the reality is that your nephew doesn't stand a fucking chance against them - he's really better off exploring his vocal chords.
i think that's a mass shift in social mindset that we need to have.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
out of the hundreds or thousands or even tens of thousands of records i've consumed in my life, very few are in the same category as this one. it's a song structuring influence on this particular track, especially in the instrumental second half of the track.
(relevant track: liquify, the day inri messed the world up, all symphonies, more)
out of the hundreds or thousands or even tens of thousands of records i've consumed in my life, very few are in the same category as this one. it's a song structuring influence on this particular track, especially in the instrumental second half of the track.
(relevant track: liquify, the day inri messed the world up, all symphonies, more)
deathtokoalas
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
you can hear it in the short section that features piano mashing and feeding back guitars.
(relevant track: liquify, first movement, others)
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
the song structuring is early queen, the atmosphere is david bowie (c. aladin sane) and the pick harmonics are all eddie van halen. also, the solo is vintage king crimson. you can maybe pull something post-punk out of the vocals....
like, honestly: if you like that layered guitar sound on mellon collie (which is what makes this track), go pick up the first three queen discs.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
the pumpkins were a punk band at their core, but this particular track is a fine piece of mid 70s glam metal, mixed with a bit of progressive rock.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
if forced to pick between grunge and punk, it's more like grunge than it is like punk, but there's a number of stylistic qualities associated with grunge that it doesn't have. the guitar tone is very bright, caused by rolling up the treble - grunge is generally associated with an exaggerated low end. nor do the vocals work well in a grunge context.
“alternative rock" has never been a real genre, and to the extent that it was it applied more to stuff like rem (which corgan certainly dabbled heavily in). the pumpkins fit well into "alternative culture" for a while, but they were generally not considered to fit into that aesthetic in the 90s. they were usually cut out into psychedelic pop or progressive rock, and viewed as more of a 60s/70s retro act.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
it's really not, though. you'd really never hear any grunge bands or personalities talk like that. politically, it was mostly a left-liberal movement with an undercurrent of christian morality (in the love your brother sense, not the kill the gays sense). corgan's always been somewhat of a hippie.
there was a strain of that kind of misanthropist thinking in some of the alternative culture of the early 90s, but it came more out of goth and industrial subculture. it's something you'd hear from trent reznor or nivek ogre, not kurt cobain or mark arm.
it's maybe a bit emo, though, which is another thing the pumpkins dabbled in.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
the pumpkins fit into a lot of overlapping genres, but there was never anything "independent" about them. this is big budget stadium rock in any era.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
people are assholes. it'd be nice if we could just set them all on fire, but there's laws and stuff.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
it's not because you hurt my feelings, it's because your views deserve to be incinerated along with everybody who shares them.
beyond there being laws against setting assholes on fire, the historical record is also clear: oppressing assholes just makes them come back stronger. look at russia. they tried to ban the christians, and a hundred years later the country is teetering on the edge of a fundamentalist state.
so, we have to argue with assholes, somehow. educate them? maybe their kids, but not too harshly, or they'll kneejerk.
really, i think it's better to just resign ourselves to the reality that assholes will always exist and there's nothing to be done about it.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
there's a little button on the thread that says "disable replies".
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
you can hear it in the short section that features piano mashing and feeding back guitars.
(relevant track: liquify, first movement, others)
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
the song structuring is early queen, the atmosphere is david bowie (c. aladin sane) and the pick harmonics are all eddie van halen. also, the solo is vintage king crimson. you can maybe pull something post-punk out of the vocals....
like, honestly: if you like that layered guitar sound on mellon collie (which is what makes this track), go pick up the first three queen discs.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
the pumpkins were a punk band at their core, but this particular track is a fine piece of mid 70s glam metal, mixed with a bit of progressive rock.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
if forced to pick between grunge and punk, it's more like grunge than it is like punk, but there's a number of stylistic qualities associated with grunge that it doesn't have. the guitar tone is very bright, caused by rolling up the treble - grunge is generally associated with an exaggerated low end. nor do the vocals work well in a grunge context.
“alternative rock" has never been a real genre, and to the extent that it was it applied more to stuff like rem (which corgan certainly dabbled heavily in). the pumpkins fit well into "alternative culture" for a while, but they were generally not considered to fit into that aesthetic in the 90s. they were usually cut out into psychedelic pop or progressive rock, and viewed as more of a 60s/70s retro act.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
it's really not, though. you'd really never hear any grunge bands or personalities talk like that. politically, it was mostly a left-liberal movement with an undercurrent of christian morality (in the love your brother sense, not the kill the gays sense). corgan's always been somewhat of a hippie.
there was a strain of that kind of misanthropist thinking in some of the alternative culture of the early 90s, but it came more out of goth and industrial subculture. it's something you'd hear from trent reznor or nivek ogre, not kurt cobain or mark arm.
it's maybe a bit emo, though, which is another thing the pumpkins dabbled in.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
the pumpkins fit into a lot of overlapping genres, but there was never anything "independent" about them. this is big budget stadium rock in any era.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
people are assholes. it'd be nice if we could just set them all on fire, but there's laws and stuff.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
it's not because you hurt my feelings, it's because your views deserve to be incinerated along with everybody who shares them.
beyond there being laws against setting assholes on fire, the historical record is also clear: oppressing assholes just makes them come back stronger. look at russia. they tried to ban the christians, and a hundred years later the country is teetering on the edge of a fundamentalist state.
so, we have to argue with assholes, somehow. educate them? maybe their kids, but not too harshly, or they'll kneejerk.
really, i think it's better to just resign ourselves to the reality that assholes will always exist and there's nothing to be done about it.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
there's a little button on the thread that says "disable replies".
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
there's a more in depth explanation at my bandcamp site. but, over that summer, i was sorting through some old guitar magazines and came across a version of most of this worked out in tab. i had very fast fingers back then; i picked it up pretty quickly. so, it worked it's way into the track for that reason...
(relevant track: liquify, first movement, others)
there's a more in depth explanation at my bandcamp site. but, over that summer, i was sorting through some old guitar magazines and came across a version of most of this worked out in tab. i had very fast fingers back then; i picked it up pretty quickly. so, it worked it's way into the track for that reason...
(relevant track: liquify, first movement, others)
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
wooo!
2014/04/14 23:36 MISSISSAUGA Item processed
so, i'm thinking tomorrow or the next day.
meaning that i may not end up getting any work done on this old laptop, after all. but it's now fully loaded.
including this neat, fairly new little trick regarding playing direct into midi. always wanted something like that...
(i knew this was going to happen, btw. lol.)
2014/04/14 23:36 MISSISSAUGA Item processed
so, i'm thinking tomorrow or the next day.
meaning that i may not end up getting any work done on this old laptop, after all. but it's now fully loaded.
including this neat, fairly new little trick regarding playing direct into midi. always wanted something like that...
(i knew this was going to happen, btw. lol.)
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post...
an aesthetic influence, mostly...i could pull a lot of things out, but i specifically remember listening to large amounts of this record...
(relevant tracks: symphony 0, happiness is a harsh gun, weed in the yard, medicated to the one i love, others )
an aesthetic influence, mostly...i could pull a lot of things out, but i specifically remember listening to large amounts of this record...
(relevant tracks: symphony 0, happiness is a harsh gun, weed in the yard, medicated to the one i love, others )
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post...
an aesthetic influence, mostly...i could pull a lot of things out for that, but i specifically remember listening to large amounts of this record...
(relevant tracks: bach goes loopy, symphony 0, pop music, missed connection, jesus gets fucked on robitussin, tribute, others)
an aesthetic influence, mostly...i could pull a lot of things out for that, but i specifically remember listening to large amounts of this record...
(relevant tracks: bach goes loopy, symphony 0, pop music, missed connection, jesus gets fucked on robitussin, tribute, others)
Monday, April 14, 2014
it's past my bedtime (you can laugh. i'm ridiculous.)
but i think i can declare victory with this ad-hoc setup. it's ad-hoc,
mind you. but it should be functional.
i had to go up to cubase 5. iirc, i didn't do that in the first place because it wasn't playing nicely with my interface. i'll have to see if this version is better. no dongle emulator running in the background. that's definitely nice...
i also went up to guitar rig 5. i'm picky with tone. so, i'll call it an experiment for now.
i was hoping i could use the soundcard in the laptop for playback, but it's turned out to be useless. i had to get asio4all for cubase to even recognize it, but it's not actually working. it's probably a minor fix, but looking at the difference in specs is embarrassing to the hd chip. i'm way better off just headphoning directly out of the pod, even if it's a little awkward, cord-wise.
besides that, the bare minimum (pod drivers, cubase, guitar rig, cool edit) installed properly. and that's all i want running for now. i'll take more things in as i need them (i do use izotope as an effect processor, and there's a few secret plugins i won't mention), but this is meant to be a minimal environment.
if i were to play this live, i'd need a second usb to 1/8th inch out. that hdmi out isn't connecting to cubase. then again, i'd need to move to sonar to route the signal from the usb in, through guitar rig and back out again to the mixer, anyways.
it's not a worthwhile thought right now....
....and the pod provides the option of a clean or wet send in the drivers (as well as to turn the amp sim off and on). i knew that, but it's been a while since i've used it...
i had to go up to cubase 5. iirc, i didn't do that in the first place because it wasn't playing nicely with my interface. i'll have to see if this version is better. no dongle emulator running in the background. that's definitely nice...
i also went up to guitar rig 5. i'm picky with tone. so, i'll call it an experiment for now.
i was hoping i could use the soundcard in the laptop for playback, but it's turned out to be useless. i had to get asio4all for cubase to even recognize it, but it's not actually working. it's probably a minor fix, but looking at the difference in specs is embarrassing to the hd chip. i'm way better off just headphoning directly out of the pod, even if it's a little awkward, cord-wise.
besides that, the bare minimum (pod drivers, cubase, guitar rig, cool edit) installed properly. and that's all i want running for now. i'll take more things in as i need them (i do use izotope as an effect processor, and there's a few secret plugins i won't mention), but this is meant to be a minimal environment.
if i were to play this live, i'd need a second usb to 1/8th inch out. that hdmi out isn't connecting to cubase. then again, i'd need to move to sonar to route the signal from the usb in, through guitar rig and back out again to the mixer, anyways.
it's not a worthwhile thought right now....
....and the pod provides the option of a clean or wet send in the drivers (as well as to turn the amp sim off and on). i knew that, but it's been a while since i've used it...
it took a lot of wasted time waiting for things to copy around all over the place, but i've managed to get my medium old laptop back up (not the really old one that can barely hit google; this is about ten years old, and fully useable for just about anything). the hard drive has been causing me problems since last summer, but it turns out the black screen was actually the result of not activating windows (i forgot i had installed it)...
the drive isn't really to be trusted anymore, though, so i need to be working off a usb key. i wanted to work off an external drive, but windows 7 just flat wouldn't read it. works fine in xp. vista too, even. not 7. there's all kinds of dumb info online about the drive being "incompatible with windows 7", like it broke plug and play compatibility through usb or something. it's a glorified fucking thumb drive. it should read on everything.
but i suspect it's the same basic problem i spoke of earlier, with changes to the way the os reads drivers. i'm not privy to background info on 7 like i am on vista, but talk about arrogance. they get all kinds of complaints on this, and rather than fix it they make it worse.
unless, of course, somebody figured out you could sell more drives by forcing people to upgrade their hardware with their os...
i repeat: perfectly functioning drive on xp, vista. brick on 7. official reason: "incompatible". most likely technical reason: the 7 kernel considers it a "security threat". actual driver: hardware sales.
anyways, i wanted to back up to that drive, so i put vista back on and copied the shit over, and then put 7 back on. it will read fine in xp when my bios comes back. but in order to get it from my new laptop (also running 7) to the old one, i had to use my mp3 drive...
so, it now exists in five places. that's more than sufficiently safe.
anyways, the thumb key is more than enough space for one song at a time for a few weeks until things resolve themselves back to stability.
the thing is that i bought this laptop refurbished to use for school in the short run and turn into an effects rack long term. the hope was also to turn it into somewhat of a live out. i mean, it's hard to lull a tank of a pc out and about. the signal was supposed to dual out of the laptop and the pod into a stereo receiver and play through a set of celestions, which i had interpreted as a sort of modern, technology-friendly update to the classic marshall sound. i mean, trying to run this stuff through amps creates garbage. it has to be through clean signals...but getting as close to the original path as possible struck me as worthwhile.....
it's not quite to that point. well, i never finished the symphony i wanted to perform, anyways. but, it is going to end up with cubase, guitar rig and pod software - along with other guitar effects, which will turn it into a backup guitar studio.
i cannot hook it up to a firewire interface and consequently cannot connect it to the mixer or any of the things into the mixer. nor does it have a midi in/out. so, my options are limited...this is temporary....
....but it will get me back to work while i'm waiting.
there are cheap usb soundcards nowadays. it's not really necessary. but if that bios doesn't flash...
actually, something else i won't be able to do (i don't think) is drive the signal. i'll have to check. the question is if the usb sound card out on the pod takes a dry or wet signal in.
if it does, i have no real complaints regarding guitar tone. i'll just have to wait until the mixer comes back up to tweak it.
if not, i'll have to see how it sounds, but i'm not compromising my tone, either....
unfortunately, it makes sense to me to think that the usb out is just a signal from the unit - meaning it won't matter what i put in front of the thing, it won't pick it up.
hopefully, it surprises me, but it doesn't really make sense to me to think it can do that.
i use it largely for amp sims. i use guitar rig for post-processing. well, it's what each is made for. the problem with the amp sims is they need some fire to reverse that dead, digital sound. i guess if i was doing that corporate emo hair metal thing it would be fine, but i'm not; i find i need to drive it with a tube pre-amp to be useable, and i need to drive *that* with some boxes to get the most of it.
i didn't think that through.
i'll find out in a few hours.
i'm actually able to recreate fuzz-->tube-->amp fairly well with that setup, and without getting evicted.
the drive isn't really to be trusted anymore, though, so i need to be working off a usb key. i wanted to work off an external drive, but windows 7 just flat wouldn't read it. works fine in xp. vista too, even. not 7. there's all kinds of dumb info online about the drive being "incompatible with windows 7", like it broke plug and play compatibility through usb or something. it's a glorified fucking thumb drive. it should read on everything.
but i suspect it's the same basic problem i spoke of earlier, with changes to the way the os reads drivers. i'm not privy to background info on 7 like i am on vista, but talk about arrogance. they get all kinds of complaints on this, and rather than fix it they make it worse.
unless, of course, somebody figured out you could sell more drives by forcing people to upgrade their hardware with their os...
i repeat: perfectly functioning drive on xp, vista. brick on 7. official reason: "incompatible". most likely technical reason: the 7 kernel considers it a "security threat". actual driver: hardware sales.
anyways, i wanted to back up to that drive, so i put vista back on and copied the shit over, and then put 7 back on. it will read fine in xp when my bios comes back. but in order to get it from my new laptop (also running 7) to the old one, i had to use my mp3 drive...
so, it now exists in five places. that's more than sufficiently safe.
anyways, the thumb key is more than enough space for one song at a time for a few weeks until things resolve themselves back to stability.
the thing is that i bought this laptop refurbished to use for school in the short run and turn into an effects rack long term. the hope was also to turn it into somewhat of a live out. i mean, it's hard to lull a tank of a pc out and about. the signal was supposed to dual out of the laptop and the pod into a stereo receiver and play through a set of celestions, which i had interpreted as a sort of modern, technology-friendly update to the classic marshall sound. i mean, trying to run this stuff through amps creates garbage. it has to be through clean signals...but getting as close to the original path as possible struck me as worthwhile.....
it's not quite to that point. well, i never finished the symphony i wanted to perform, anyways. but, it is going to end up with cubase, guitar rig and pod software - along with other guitar effects, which will turn it into a backup guitar studio.
i cannot hook it up to a firewire interface and consequently cannot connect it to the mixer or any of the things into the mixer. nor does it have a midi in/out. so, my options are limited...this is temporary....
....but it will get me back to work while i'm waiting.
there are cheap usb soundcards nowadays. it's not really necessary. but if that bios doesn't flash...
actually, something else i won't be able to do (i don't think) is drive the signal. i'll have to check. the question is if the usb sound card out on the pod takes a dry or wet signal in.
if it does, i have no real complaints regarding guitar tone. i'll just have to wait until the mixer comes back up to tweak it.
if not, i'll have to see how it sounds, but i'm not compromising my tone, either....
unfortunately, it makes sense to me to think that the usb out is just a signal from the unit - meaning it won't matter what i put in front of the thing, it won't pick it up.
hopefully, it surprises me, but it doesn't really make sense to me to think it can do that.
i use it largely for amp sims. i use guitar rig for post-processing. well, it's what each is made for. the problem with the amp sims is they need some fire to reverse that dead, digital sound. i guess if i was doing that corporate emo hair metal thing it would be fine, but i'm not; i find i need to drive it with a tube pre-amp to be useable, and i need to drive *that* with some boxes to get the most of it.
i didn't think that through.
i'll find out in a few hours.
i'm actually able to recreate fuzz-->tube-->amp fairly well with that setup, and without getting evicted.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
i just took a hot shower. it seems to have warmed up the whole apartment. let's see how long it lasts.
of course, it warmed me up too!
but the heat went up a few tenths of a degree and turned itself off. that's measurable.
if i'm understanding what's happening properly, the air should suck that extra heat and moisture up and out. eventually...
yeah. heat's back on, and that cold, dry air is back. hour, tops.
of course, it warmed me up too!
but the heat went up a few tenths of a degree and turned itself off. that's measurable.
if i'm understanding what's happening properly, the air should suck that extra heat and moisture up and out. eventually...
yeah. heat's back on, and that cold, dry air is back. hour, tops.
i can't really complain about the air upstairs today. it's almost 30
outside, with the humidex. and, yes, we have a humidex, which is weird
this time of year, even if not coming out of a brutal winter. so, it's
reasonable to have the air on.
but maybe not so high. it's more than a bit odd to have it be 25 degrees outside and have my heaters (set to 21) on. not a bit, but half-blast. that's independent corroboration, really. what it demonstrates is that the air conditioning is making the basement colder than room temperature. otherwise, the heat wouldn't be kicking in. but what's worthwhile is that that's an objective standard - lower than 21 is lower than normal, and justification to push back.
it's partly because it's early in the year, though. i remember the thermostat reading 26 when i moved in. it'll warm up over the summer. for now, i've just got the windows open.
see, even if it does warm up, though, that doesn't mean i'm going to want to keep the windows closed. it's not just the temperature, it's also the air quality. air conditioning makes the air so unnaturally dry. i really prefer that hot, moist natural summer air. a natural breeze is infinitely superior to a machine vortex (on a different floor at that).
but i'm a little worried about how that's actually going to work. it's going to rain sometimes. i'm in a basement (also note - i haven't seen any ants since the first week i moved in, but an open window is an invitation), so i'm going to have to close it sometimes. if i keep the window open and let the breeze run through, is that going to put the air upstairs on higher power? i mean, that it's working at all down here suggests it's sucking up air through the floor. is it just going to turn itself up higher to suck more? if it does, it could just make it worse in the end, especially in rain situations.
on that note, my best tactic may be to try and crash it. that happens, right? it overheats, or something? if i just blare all the heat i can muster, i could conceivably overdrive it...
i'm not really considering that right now, it's just an idea. a last resort. i get that the guy upstairs would be in considerable discomfort if i were to crash his air (he's a big guy). right now, it's just a combination of unusual factors. i'm going to assume things will right themselves as the basement slowly warms up.
there's probably some kind of equilibrium point, where very small amounts of heat will warm it up a little bit, a little more may actually make it colder in here, and large amounts will overpower. i'd probably have to get that information empirically.
but maybe not so high. it's more than a bit odd to have it be 25 degrees outside and have my heaters (set to 21) on. not a bit, but half-blast. that's independent corroboration, really. what it demonstrates is that the air conditioning is making the basement colder than room temperature. otherwise, the heat wouldn't be kicking in. but what's worthwhile is that that's an objective standard - lower than 21 is lower than normal, and justification to push back.
it's partly because it's early in the year, though. i remember the thermostat reading 26 when i moved in. it'll warm up over the summer. for now, i've just got the windows open.
see, even if it does warm up, though, that doesn't mean i'm going to want to keep the windows closed. it's not just the temperature, it's also the air quality. air conditioning makes the air so unnaturally dry. i really prefer that hot, moist natural summer air. a natural breeze is infinitely superior to a machine vortex (on a different floor at that).
but i'm a little worried about how that's actually going to work. it's going to rain sometimes. i'm in a basement (also note - i haven't seen any ants since the first week i moved in, but an open window is an invitation), so i'm going to have to close it sometimes. if i keep the window open and let the breeze run through, is that going to put the air upstairs on higher power? i mean, that it's working at all down here suggests it's sucking up air through the floor. is it just going to turn itself up higher to suck more? if it does, it could just make it worse in the end, especially in rain situations.
on that note, my best tactic may be to try and crash it. that happens, right? it overheats, or something? if i just blare all the heat i can muster, i could conceivably overdrive it...
i'm not really considering that right now, it's just an idea. a last resort. i get that the guy upstairs would be in considerable discomfort if i were to crash his air (he's a big guy). right now, it's just a combination of unusual factors. i'm going to assume things will right themselves as the basement slowly warms up.
there's probably some kind of equilibrium point, where very small amounts of heat will warm it up a little bit, a little more may actually make it colder in here, and large amounts will overpower. i'd probably have to get that information empirically.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Friday, April 11, 2014
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
this record (and it's other version, which is a bit more experimental) had a ridiculous amount of talented people involved in creating it and the result is very much the sum of it's parts. i can't say i ever came close to emulating this monstrous masterpiece, but the aesthetic on the song of the day is ultimately derived from this source (as well as halo 9).
(relevant tracks: medicated to the one i love, jesus gets fucked on robitussin, symphony 1, curious george, others)
this record (and it's other version, which is a bit more experimental) had a ridiculous amount of talented people involved in creating it and the result is very much the sum of it's parts. i can't say i ever came close to emulating this monstrous masterpiece, but the aesthetic on the song of the day is ultimately derived from this source (as well as halo 9).
(relevant tracks: medicated to the one i love, jesus gets fucked on robitussin, symphony 1, curious george, others)
and, this is where i put my obligatory influenced by post for the day, due to the track being a remix of this one. it was done for a fan comp on the glu list way back in the day and meant to take the track in a more experimental direction.
i got a very terse email from david reilly a few weeks or months later:
"i am aware of what you did to my song."
i'm not sure if we all got that kind of personal response or not. to a point, i can understand his revulsion. despite the nature of the backwards section, evocative or not, this is a pretty personal track, and i went to town with it in ways that i can understand a negative reaction to.
that's partly why i speak of the track, today, as influenced by this one, rather than a remix of it. and, that's actually closer to the truth. it's really barely recognizable.
but, fans of 90s nin remixes and/or the weirder reaches of experimental trip-hop might get something out of it.
as for the track itself, i found something strangely subversive about it. there's about twenty minutes of a minimal bass beats that follows the version on record, climaxing in a wash of noise. i don't really understand addiction, but the picture he paints (especially in the context of the full track, and the state of mind that the ambient bass section represents) is pretty distressing and hard not to react to.
(relevant track: medicated to the one i love)
i got a very terse email from david reilly a few weeks or months later:
"i am aware of what you did to my song."
i'm not sure if we all got that kind of personal response or not. to a point, i can understand his revulsion. despite the nature of the backwards section, evocative or not, this is a pretty personal track, and i went to town with it in ways that i can understand a negative reaction to.
that's partly why i speak of the track, today, as influenced by this one, rather than a remix of it. and, that's actually closer to the truth. it's really barely recognizable.
but, fans of 90s nin remixes and/or the weirder reaches of experimental trip-hop might get something out of it.
as for the track itself, i found something strangely subversive about it. there's about twenty minutes of a minimal bass beats that follows the version on record, climaxing in a wash of noise. i don't really understand addiction, but the picture he paints (especially in the context of the full track, and the state of mind that the ambient bass section represents) is pretty distressing and hard not to react to.
(relevant track: medicated to the one i love)
Thursday, April 10, 2014
just read the cubase manual looking for something about where data is stored (confirming what i've deduced as inescapable, really), and i'm not finding what i looked for, but i did just learn this for the first time.
this would have been useful to me a few weeks ago when i was trying to run 30 vst instruments hooked to separate midi files simultaneously. i ended up pulling the latency down to something ridiculous, and because there weren't any waves running it was a fine workaround, but had i just done this i wouldn't have had to go through the process of mixing out all the midi tracks separately and then cutting out all the silent parts......
all these years, and i had no idea. i will make generous use of this in the future.
this would have been useful to me a few weeks ago when i was trying to run 30 vst instruments hooked to separate midi files simultaneously. i ended up pulling the latency down to something ridiculous, and because there weren't any waves running it was a fine workaround, but had i just done this i wouldn't have had to go through the process of mixing out all the midi tracks separately and then cutting out all the silent parts......
all these years, and i had no idea. i will make generous use of this in the future.
Elliott Jang
Beethoven is a distant 2nd to Mozart in regards to composing
Alex Prendergast
Whew! Thank goodness that's settled!
Patera Milenko
No, you can't really compare the two. They are both brilliant beyond time.
deathtokoalas
bah. beethoven was a creative genius. mozart just knew how to follow all the stupid rules. the result is that beethoven has aged splendidly, while mozart just comes off as a conforming tool.
to put it another way: mozart is merely a period composer. beethoven is truly timeless.
MrEitinha
"You're a Mozart fan!" - Norman Stansfield
toni8675
Any simple comparison between the two of them is just plain childish. Mozart died way younger (and when he died, he already started composing more mature, experimented with chromatic harmony beyond others of his time, and added serious ployphony to his last symphonies), Beethoven lost his hearing, not to mention the 14 years between their births... No one knows how many more things Mozart would have accomplished had he lived as much as Beethoven. There are simply too many variables, that's why you just can't really compare the two of them...
deathtokoalas
it's a very easy comparison: beethoven is exciting, mozart is boring. i see no reason to think mozart would have gained a deeper sense of artistry had he lived longer. what he lacked wasn't age, but emotional attachment to his writing.
toni8675
If the requiem, symphony no. 40, the piano concerto no. 23 (adagio) etc. lack emotional attachment, then I'm curious what's your definition of attachement...
deathtokoalas
well, the comparison is to beethoven; pick something, little of what he did was schmaltzy (with the exception of this piece). but rachmaninov is the apex, specifically his 2nd and 3rd concertos.
almost all of mozart's pieces sound like solutions to engineering problems, those ones included. perfect? sure: perfectly trite.
Beethoven is a distant 2nd to Mozart in regards to composing
Alex Prendergast
Whew! Thank goodness that's settled!
Patera Milenko
No, you can't really compare the two. They are both brilliant beyond time.
deathtokoalas
bah. beethoven was a creative genius. mozart just knew how to follow all the stupid rules. the result is that beethoven has aged splendidly, while mozart just comes off as a conforming tool.
to put it another way: mozart is merely a period composer. beethoven is truly timeless.
MrEitinha
"You're a Mozart fan!" - Norman Stansfield
toni8675
Any simple comparison between the two of them is just plain childish. Mozart died way younger (and when he died, he already started composing more mature, experimented with chromatic harmony beyond others of his time, and added serious ployphony to his last symphonies), Beethoven lost his hearing, not to mention the 14 years between their births... No one knows how many more things Mozart would have accomplished had he lived as much as Beethoven. There are simply too many variables, that's why you just can't really compare the two of them...
deathtokoalas
it's a very easy comparison: beethoven is exciting, mozart is boring. i see no reason to think mozart would have gained a deeper sense of artistry had he lived longer. what he lacked wasn't age, but emotional attachment to his writing.
toni8675
If the requiem, symphony no. 40, the piano concerto no. 23 (adagio) etc. lack emotional attachment, then I'm curious what's your definition of attachement...
deathtokoalas
well, the comparison is to beethoven; pick something, little of what he did was schmaltzy (with the exception of this piece). but rachmaninov is the apex, specifically his 2nd and 3rd concertos.
almost all of mozart's pieces sound like solutions to engineering problems, those ones included. perfect? sure: perfectly trite.
i was able to reconstruct and authoritatively back up my archival material a lot easier than i thought i would be able to. the only thing i've lost of any consequence is a couple of backing files for 'ignorance is bliss'. i can live with that.
now that i'm a little more focused as to what i'm looking for, i'm going to do one more data recovery scan through the other two physical disks to see if i can salvage anything. i'm not overly confident.
as for the script? i did this once before and concluded the data was garbled, but if i can reconstruct the directory structure and file names of the script, and get a bit lucky in pulling out a few text fragments, i should be able to rebuild the script with minimal effort - even if it takes a few days to write it all out and do some virtual testing. well, shit, it could be a month before the bus pirate gets here, anyways.
i'm going to move some things around with the expectation of getting used to living with three discs for the time being. i'm not sure i could even buy a 250 gb sata II drive new anywhere (and second hand hard drives are a dumb idea). so i'm going to end up upgrading.
when i do, i'll move the music files to the new drive. they're both the most important and need the most space. that'll leave me with two 250s i can boot into 32 and 64 bit, respectively, and one to use for various types of backup.
for right now, though, i don't have the appetite to set up a 64 bit system. but i might end up at least nliting it, depending on how much time i end up waiting for, and how successfully i can salvage the other laptop.
as the problem with the other laptop is the hard drive (there's a pattern here; i'm tempted to go to ssd, i'll have to check prices), what i'll have to do is work off an external. then again, it hasn't actually died yet. in the long run, that's another component i'll have to replace, but it's not a priority.
so, i'm chugging away at this. i can't provide an eta for getting back to what i was doing, but i can at least report having a few ideas.
now that i'm a little more focused as to what i'm looking for, i'm going to do one more data recovery scan through the other two physical disks to see if i can salvage anything. i'm not overly confident.
as for the script? i did this once before and concluded the data was garbled, but if i can reconstruct the directory structure and file names of the script, and get a bit lucky in pulling out a few text fragments, i should be able to rebuild the script with minimal effort - even if it takes a few days to write it all out and do some virtual testing. well, shit, it could be a month before the bus pirate gets here, anyways.
i'm going to move some things around with the expectation of getting used to living with three discs for the time being. i'm not sure i could even buy a 250 gb sata II drive new anywhere (and second hand hard drives are a dumb idea). so i'm going to end up upgrading.
when i do, i'll move the music files to the new drive. they're both the most important and need the most space. that'll leave me with two 250s i can boot into 32 and 64 bit, respectively, and one to use for various types of backup.
for right now, though, i don't have the appetite to set up a 64 bit system. but i might end up at least nliting it, depending on how much time i end up waiting for, and how successfully i can salvage the other laptop.
as the problem with the other laptop is the hard drive (there's a pattern here; i'm tempted to go to ssd, i'll have to check prices), what i'll have to do is work off an external. then again, it hasn't actually died yet. in the long run, that's another component i'll have to replace, but it's not a priority.
so, i'm chugging away at this. i can't provide an eta for getting back to what i was doing, but i can at least report having a few ideas.
cmd files may technically be programs, but people interact with them like text. they're more like modern-day scripts, really.
in trying to salvage old files off my working drives (to replace the files on the trashed one), i've noticed that i'm often able to pull text files up that have been deleted for up to five years but i can't pull off cmd files that were deleted last month. it doesn't seem to be dependent on size. i'm led to conclude that ntfs is filing cmd files as programs and they're getting easily corrupted as binary.
but they're not really programs. they're certainly not binary they're text...
i realize that there may be some security issues with treating scripts as text files. but how serious an obstacle is this nowadays really? i mean, if you can launch notepad remotely, you're pretty much in control, are you not? even so, wouldn't it make more sense to block at the kernel than the file system? even backup drives crash. rather, this strikes me as an ancient windows artifact from the early 90s or the late 80s when cmd files really were programs and that should be updated for modern usage. i can't be the first person that's run into this.
i don't know enough about other file systems to comment.
in trying to salvage old files off my working drives (to replace the files on the trashed one), i've noticed that i'm often able to pull text files up that have been deleted for up to five years but i can't pull off cmd files that were deleted last month. it doesn't seem to be dependent on size. i'm led to conclude that ntfs is filing cmd files as programs and they're getting easily corrupted as binary.
but they're not really programs. they're certainly not binary they're text...
i realize that there may be some security issues with treating scripts as text files. but how serious an obstacle is this nowadays really? i mean, if you can launch notepad remotely, you're pretty much in control, are you not? even so, wouldn't it make more sense to block at the kernel than the file system? even backup drives crash. rather, this strikes me as an ancient windows artifact from the early 90s or the late 80s when cmd files really were programs and that should be updated for modern usage. i can't be the first person that's run into this.
i don't know enough about other file systems to comment.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
uploading the souls that create to youtube
just put this up..
so, i'm going through some old files and decided to put this up...
the backstory is connected to a covers compilation put together by cleopatra records called "hymns of the warlock", as well as a remix compilation put together by nettwerk records called "remix dystemper". this compilation was put together between the releases of those two compilations.
the easiest thing to say is simply that there were always two different types of skinny puppy fans, related to a now historical split in electronic music between those who preferred "ebm" (that is electronic booty/body music) and "idm" (intelligent dance music). ebm is only reasonably listened to in clubs because it's simplistic and repetitive; idm is the kind of thing you put on when you're doing homework or reading a book. the separation has been much maligned, but it is intuitively obvious that there are some types of electronic music that do not have much depth (and yet are fun to dance to) and some types of electronic music with dozens of layers to disentangle (and may be less danceable), so i see little point in getting silly about it. skinny puppy existed in a middle point; they always had the ability to attract both audiences because their music was both highly danceable and yet also in an art rock and political/punk rock tradition. this is not unique within electronic music, but it *is* rare. they're not considered to be the high point of electronic art music in the modern era for no reason.
throughout the 90s, skinny puppy fans connected with each other and discussed various topics over the epilogue internet mailing list. within this list, there was much derision directed at the cleopatra compilation due to it's over-representation of the ebm side of the band's sound. the more musically inclined members of the list claimed they could put together a better record, were challenged to do so and eventually did.
i was a fairly recent addition to the list and volunteered for distribution for the sole reason that i had the tools to do so (cd burners were still relatively rare in 1998). the cover art was put together by other members of the list and sent to me for reproduction.
while i would argue that the disc more accurately represents the experimental aspect of the band than either of the officially released compilations did, i listen to it now and wish i would have been more selective. the reality is that i didn't really have the standing necessary in the list (you have to have an understanding of 90s internet communications to get that, i guess) to act as a filter on material coming in. nor did i receive enough material to have the luxury of cutting tracks. there's some interesting remixes/reconstructions, but some of it is very blatantly the work of amateur musicians. i should also point out that i considered some of those amateur musicians to be my friends.
it's up here, as is, for listening ears. should either of the kevins express an opposition to this (i doubt that, but i am not able to tap into their consciousnesses from a distance), they own it and get to make the choices.
tracklisting:
1) the intonarumori project: rain (souless mix)
*2) dmt: blackout
3) animoid row: jahya (meld)
4) livesidog: smothered hope
5) pool-a: downlode
6) krewl: meat flavour
7) inri: hexonxonx (featuring ogrebot)
8) j deell: 200 years
9) triptamine: circustance (vitriol remix)
10) amputate: shore lined poison (deformed)
11) lunar caustic: worlock
12) dmso : anger (adrenergic brap)
13) jesus h. christ: assimilate (ambient mix)
14) lichaem: who's laughing now? (offended)
15) j deell: basement
*16) dj billpheus and oscar the grouch (with special guest vocals by the infinite hheathen): love
* - features bill van roy, later briefly of download
also, i got a copyright notice on this. that's reasonable - some of the remixes differ only mildly from the originals. when i initially put it together, i was selling it roughly at cost (i set up a flat rate, meaning i was at a gain or a loss depending on shipping in a way that mostly washed out. i got some complaints from people that didn't understand shipping rates from canada to the us, but the reality is that it balanced out to something like $50 over a few hundred shipped discs. that just means my estimate of a good flat rate was accurate.) but it hasn't been for sale in 15 years. i don't and never did claim any exclusive rights over distribution (i actually emailed the tracks to some people), it was just something the fan community wanted amongst itself and i volunteered to do because i could and most others couldn't.
the point is i can't control the ads if they appear (i can't tell, i run adblock). i'm guessing nettwerk controls most of this. i don't know what lingering relationship, if any, exists between that label and the remaining members of the band.
so, i'm going through some old files and decided to put this up...
the backstory is connected to a covers compilation put together by cleopatra records called "hymns of the warlock", as well as a remix compilation put together by nettwerk records called "remix dystemper". this compilation was put together between the releases of those two compilations.
the easiest thing to say is simply that there were always two different types of skinny puppy fans, related to a now historical split in electronic music between those who preferred "ebm" (that is electronic booty/body music) and "idm" (intelligent dance music). ebm is only reasonably listened to in clubs because it's simplistic and repetitive; idm is the kind of thing you put on when you're doing homework or reading a book. the separation has been much maligned, but it is intuitively obvious that there are some types of electronic music that do not have much depth (and yet are fun to dance to) and some types of electronic music with dozens of layers to disentangle (and may be less danceable), so i see little point in getting silly about it. skinny puppy existed in a middle point; they always had the ability to attract both audiences because their music was both highly danceable and yet also in an art rock and political/punk rock tradition. this is not unique within electronic music, but it *is* rare. they're not considered to be the high point of electronic art music in the modern era for no reason.
throughout the 90s, skinny puppy fans connected with each other and discussed various topics over the epilogue internet mailing list. within this list, there was much derision directed at the cleopatra compilation due to it's over-representation of the ebm side of the band's sound. the more musically inclined members of the list claimed they could put together a better record, were challenged to do so and eventually did.
i was a fairly recent addition to the list and volunteered for distribution for the sole reason that i had the tools to do so (cd burners were still relatively rare in 1998). the cover art was put together by other members of the list and sent to me for reproduction.
while i would argue that the disc more accurately represents the experimental aspect of the band than either of the officially released compilations did, i listen to it now and wish i would have been more selective. the reality is that i didn't really have the standing necessary in the list (you have to have an understanding of 90s internet communications to get that, i guess) to act as a filter on material coming in. nor did i receive enough material to have the luxury of cutting tracks. there's some interesting remixes/reconstructions, but some of it is very blatantly the work of amateur musicians. i should also point out that i considered some of those amateur musicians to be my friends.
it's up here, as is, for listening ears. should either of the kevins express an opposition to this (i doubt that, but i am not able to tap into their consciousnesses from a distance), they own it and get to make the choices.
tracklisting:
1) the intonarumori project: rain (souless mix)
*2) dmt: blackout
3) animoid row: jahya (meld)
4) livesidog: smothered hope
5) pool-a: downlode
6) krewl: meat flavour
7) inri: hexonxonx (featuring ogrebot)
8) j deell: 200 years
9) triptamine: circustance (vitriol remix)
10) amputate: shore lined poison (deformed)
11) lunar caustic: worlock
12) dmso : anger (adrenergic brap)
13) jesus h. christ: assimilate (ambient mix)
14) lichaem: who's laughing now? (offended)
15) j deell: basement
*16) dj billpheus and oscar the grouch (with special guest vocals by the infinite hheathen): love
* - features bill van roy, later briefly of download
also, i got a copyright notice on this. that's reasonable - some of the remixes differ only mildly from the originals. when i initially put it together, i was selling it roughly at cost (i set up a flat rate, meaning i was at a gain or a loss depending on shipping in a way that mostly washed out. i got some complaints from people that didn't understand shipping rates from canada to the us, but the reality is that it balanced out to something like $50 over a few hundred shipped discs. that just means my estimate of a good flat rate was accurate.) but it hasn't been for sale in 15 years. i don't and never did claim any exclusive rights over distribution (i actually emailed the tracks to some people), it was just something the fan community wanted amongst itself and i volunteered to do because i could and most others couldn't.
the point is i can't control the ads if they appear (i can't tell, i run adblock). i'm guessing nettwerk controls most of this. i don't know what lingering relationship, if any, exists between that label and the remaining members of the band.
yeah. the spindle motor was broken
i'm a dumb chimp with any kind of tool. taking a pair of vice grips to it pretty much destroyed the platter.
but i couldn't fix that in a freezer, anyways. and the idea that i was going to pay $600 or more for recovery is flat out laughable.
this is precisely why i can't hold a job :)
it took no more than fifteen seconds for me to irreversibly damage the drive. and i'd be no less patient with your face, or a power plant.
or care more than i do about the drive.
so be happy i realize that.
that's going to cost me several months.
there was no answer....
i was hoping i could get the drive spinning by unjamming it, but it was clear within seconds that the motor was burnt. the drive was burning up. zero movement.
to replace the motor would mean removing the platters. i neither have the tools nor the co-ordination to carry out something like that. so, removing the platters means trashing the drive. simple as that.
i panicked and twisted hard with the vice grips, hoping a harsh tug would pull it free (but knowing the motor was burnt). i'm clumsy; it shot out of my hands, and pushed the heads deep into the platters, as well as taking a chunk out of the top platter itself.
which was foreseeable the second i grabbed the vice grips. i mean, i knew. but i also knew it was dead.
my only hope at the point was to just tear it apart trying to get the motor to spin. nope. dead.
i know it wasn't electrical because i swapped the boards out. plus, the heat indicates the electricity was getting there.
lost: install scripts going back 5 years, the musical work i'd done over the last six months.
the motor in this unit is actually connected directly to the board. it would have been a (de)soldering job.
the musical work was mostly compiling and remastering. i have the final files, and the source files. what i lost was the intermediate work, which is unfortunate but not catastrophic.
i could theoretically reconstruct the script from my old pc, which has a more stripped down version of it. i don't know if i'll bother.
now that the drive is officially kaput, i'm going to start the process of reconstructing what i had compiled - which was a total of three isos i had put aside to burn at a later date.
right now, i should try to sleep.
i'm a dumb chimp with any kind of tool. taking a pair of vice grips to it pretty much destroyed the platter.
but i couldn't fix that in a freezer, anyways. and the idea that i was going to pay $600 or more for recovery is flat out laughable.
this is precisely why i can't hold a job :)
it took no more than fifteen seconds for me to irreversibly damage the drive. and i'd be no less patient with your face, or a power plant.
or care more than i do about the drive.
so be happy i realize that.
that's going to cost me several months.
there was no answer....
i was hoping i could get the drive spinning by unjamming it, but it was clear within seconds that the motor was burnt. the drive was burning up. zero movement.
to replace the motor would mean removing the platters. i neither have the tools nor the co-ordination to carry out something like that. so, removing the platters means trashing the drive. simple as that.
i panicked and twisted hard with the vice grips, hoping a harsh tug would pull it free (but knowing the motor was burnt). i'm clumsy; it shot out of my hands, and pushed the heads deep into the platters, as well as taking a chunk out of the top platter itself.
which was foreseeable the second i grabbed the vice grips. i mean, i knew. but i also knew it was dead.
my only hope at the point was to just tear it apart trying to get the motor to spin. nope. dead.
i know it wasn't electrical because i swapped the boards out. plus, the heat indicates the electricity was getting there.
lost: install scripts going back 5 years, the musical work i'd done over the last six months.
the motor in this unit is actually connected directly to the board. it would have been a (de)soldering job.
the musical work was mostly compiling and remastering. i have the final files, and the source files. what i lost was the intermediate work, which is unfortunate but not catastrophic.
i could theoretically reconstruct the script from my old pc, which has a more stripped down version of it. i don't know if i'll bother.
now that the drive is officially kaput, i'm going to start the process of reconstructing what i had compiled - which was a total of three isos i had put aside to burn at a later date.
right now, i should try to sleep.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
it's not firewire, but hdmi. *grumbles*. screwed...
...except...
....i could in theory work out the crux of what i was working on by installing the pod drivers direct through usb.
and on that note, i've wanted to set up my other (half broken) laptop as a real-time sound processing device for a while. guitars, mostly, of course - but drums, too. see, the hard drive comes up and down. i was going to wait until i could replace it....
i also wanted to dual-boot it. that's something to keep me occupied as i'm waiting...
i'm just finding the idea of blowing this time reading to be depressing. i jumped through hoops to set this up. i'm pissed off that i'm dealing with broken hardware, and depressed that it's my own stupidity at the root of it.
the problem with the hard disk, btw, is physical. and the way the heads are aligned in the model is really tricky. i don't want to open this up, but i'm going to have to. however, i'm also only going to touch it under the precise circumstance that the arm is unaligned. anything else, and i'm screwing it back up and throwing it in the freezer, because it's pretty much hopelessly broken.
...except...
....i could in theory work out the crux of what i was working on by installing the pod drivers direct through usb.
and on that note, i've wanted to set up my other (half broken) laptop as a real-time sound processing device for a while. guitars, mostly, of course - but drums, too. see, the hard drive comes up and down. i was going to wait until i could replace it....
i also wanted to dual-boot it. that's something to keep me occupied as i'm waiting...
i'm just finding the idea of blowing this time reading to be depressing. i jumped through hoops to set this up. i'm pissed off that i'm dealing with broken hardware, and depressed that it's my own stupidity at the root of it.
the problem with the hard disk, btw, is physical. and the way the heads are aligned in the model is really tricky. i don't want to open this up, but i'm going to have to. however, i'm also only going to touch it under the precise circumstance that the arm is unaligned. anything else, and i'm screwing it back up and throwing it in the freezer, because it's pretty much hopelessly broken.
i didn't realize that my bus pirate was being shipped from asia. i'm pretty sure that the website was registered to chicago. i would have picked somewhere closer, if i realized that.
as far as i can tell, it's sitting in a boat off the coast of singapore, waiting to be filled up with mail.
and it could be there for weeks...
so, i'm considering converting the laptop, which is what i'll have to do if the bus pirate doesn't work anyways. i'm going to do some reading and decide in a few days.
i don't see any rational reason that this couldn't handle a firewire device. i just really don't like the idea of mixing with a laptop sound card. ugh...
but, at least if i get the tracks down, i can remix it later.
as far as i can tell, it's sitting in a boat off the coast of singapore, waiting to be filled up with mail.
and it could be there for weeks...
so, i'm considering converting the laptop, which is what i'll have to do if the bus pirate doesn't work anyways. i'm going to do some reading and decide in a few days.
i don't see any rational reason that this couldn't handle a firewire device. i just really don't like the idea of mixing with a laptop sound card. ugh...
but, at least if i get the tracks down, i can remix it later.
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
i think it's a shame that corgan never fully explored his cyber-metal. i mean, there's some material out there, but he never did an opus and sort of ended up getting upstaged on it by bands like boris.
this was about as metal as i ever really got or ever wanted to get (not due to lack of looking, it's just that the genre becomes self-parody at nearly the moment it amps itself - through the course of my life, and since the 80s at least, it's been virtually impossible to do metal without sounding like an idiot), and informed my punchier outbursts on the track in question. i specifically remember thinking to myself "i want it to hit as hard as xyu". :).
(relevant track: teenage jesus (viewless), liquify, first movement)
i think it's a shame that corgan never fully explored his cyber-metal. i mean, there's some material out there, but he never did an opus and sort of ended up getting upstaged on it by bands like boris.
this was about as metal as i ever really got or ever wanted to get (not due to lack of looking, it's just that the genre becomes self-parody at nearly the moment it amps itself - through the course of my life, and since the 80s at least, it's been virtually impossible to do metal without sounding like an idiot), and informed my punchier outbursts on the track in question. i specifically remember thinking to myself "i want it to hit as hard as xyu". :).
(relevant track: teenage jesus (viewless), liquify, first movement)
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
guitars, and song structures. i haven't analyzed it, but this sets itself apart from a lot of fuzzy riff music by the fact that it's written in a weird modal key (rather than just building itself up on boring old fifths. those iommi riffs are fun, but they're fucking dead on any level of musicality. this isn't.). love the unexpected intervals that show up in the lead part near the end, but it's the way the riffs shift through the chorus underneath the fuzz like some kind of demented cello that really captured my attention and my imagination...
(relevant track: teenage jesus (viewless), many others)
guitars, and song structures. i haven't analyzed it, but this sets itself apart from a lot of fuzzy riff music by the fact that it's written in a weird modal key (rather than just building itself up on boring old fifths. those iommi riffs are fun, but they're fucking dead on any level of musicality. this isn't.). love the unexpected intervals that show up in the lead part near the end, but it's the way the riffs shift through the chorus underneath the fuzz like some kind of demented cello that really captured my attention and my imagination...
(relevant track: teenage jesus (viewless), many others)
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
guitars, and song structures. this is one of corgan's guitar masterpieces and one of the corgan tracks that i took the time to teach myself how to play. during this brief period over '98, i was actually trying to keep the excessive soloing down, but the bridge in this track, specifically, was important in the writing of viewless.
(relevant track: teenage jesus (viewless), many others)
guitars, and song structures. this is one of corgan's guitar masterpieces and one of the corgan tracks that i took the time to teach myself how to play. during this brief period over '98, i was actually trying to keep the excessive soloing down, but the bridge in this track, specifically, was important in the writing of viewless.
(relevant track: teenage jesus (viewless), many others)
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
song structuring. also, the jazz chords he's using (not just here but throughout the record).
again: i loved this record as a compromise between heavy riffage and melodic content. regardless of your views of his later work, you can't take this raw pop-punk classic away from the guy.
(relevant track: teenage jesus (viewless))
song structuring. also, the jazz chords he's using (not just here but throughout the record).
again: i loved this record as a compromise between heavy riffage and melodic content. regardless of your views of his later work, you can't take this raw pop-punk classic away from the guy.
(relevant track: teenage jesus (viewless))
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
anybody else pick up the similarity between this track and sdre's "8"?
i loved this disc - great compromise between the heavy and the melodic. it's truly a shame what's become of dave grohl, but it's not fair to take this first disc away from him.
(relevant track: teenage jesus (viewless))
anybody else pick up the similarity between this track and sdre's "8"?
i loved this disc - great compromise between the heavy and the melodic. it's truly a shame what's become of dave grohl, but it's not fair to take this first disc away from him.
(relevant track: teenage jesus (viewless))
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
it's always weird for me to cite sdre as an influence, given how oblivious i was to what they supposedly represented (i remain convinced that the history written around the band is mostly bullshit) and the reality that i only ever really liked lp2. but, i did love that record for a few years and do still come back to it
...and i did rip the riff to 8 off pretty blatantly in my tune viewless, which was first demoed in late '96.
(relevant tracks: teenage jesus (viewless))
it's always weird for me to cite sdre as an influence, given how oblivious i was to what they supposedly represented (i remain convinced that the history written around the band is mostly bullshit) and the reality that i only ever really liked lp2. but, i did love that record for a few years and do still come back to it
...and i did rip the riff to 8 off pretty blatantly in my tune viewless, which was first demoed in late '96.
(relevant tracks: teenage jesus (viewless))
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post. i used to listen to this on repeat for hours...
(relevant tracks: teenage jesus (epilag), jesus gets fucked on robitussin, others)
(i think this was a link to nurse with wound's spooky loop, from the foxtrot comp for jhon balance, which does not appear to be available on youtube)
(relevant tracks: teenage jesus (epilag), jesus gets fucked on robitussin, others)
(i think this was a link to nurse with wound's spooky loop, from the foxtrot comp for jhon balance, which does not appear to be available on youtube)
Monday, April 7, 2014
Shawn Murphy
at first i thought his was new Offspring. They have similar sound.
Skylineblue
I don't think they sound similar at all, I hate The Offspring yet I love Rise Against.
alwayssum41
"I hate the Offspring" omfg, go listen to "Smash", or "Ignition", or "Ixnay" albums u_u
dinkum83
I hate them to except for no brakes.. they sound NOTHING alike..
alwayssum41
Nothing alike ? Seriously ? And you're taking for example a song from Americana ? Rofl... As I said before go take a serious look at their first albums...
deathtokoalas
the vocalists sound similar, and the woahing is very characteristic.
in a certain, sense, though, every punk band from california since 1978 has sounded broadly similar. this does very much sound like the offspring trying to sound like bad religion.
i don't normally find myself agreeing with sum41 fans, but smash isn't just a punk classic but a general rock music classic. ixnay is kind of mixed, but the jerden-driven jane's addiction phase was definitely more interesting than anything they've done since. i've tried to listen to a few of their later records repeatedly, and the biggest problem isn't that they started working in poppier aspects (i could actually deal with that just fine if it were a bit more tasteful; soundgarden's later work is very different but just as interesting as their early work) but that they just started recycling their own songs. i mean, how many times have they redone dirty magic? there was a punkier one (i think it was splinter) that i gave a really close listen to and it's...it's just subpar by any way of measuring it. it's a shame.
but i really just wanted to add that their first record, the self-titled one from the 80s, is a really good listen as well. "kill the president", "tehran", etc.
also, if you like ignition, please check out the damned's classic "smash it up".
alwayssum41
They've redone "Dirty Magic" just once. The original was on Ignition and they've made it again on Days Go By, 'cause it was Ignition's 20th anniversary. I'm not into their new stuff so much even if "DGB" clearly deserve to be listen compare to "R&F/R&G".. And yeah, the self-titled one and Ignition are totally insane albums. Not to mention "Smash" is completely insane too, even if it was their first record on major label.
deathtokoalas
smash was on epitaph - it was actually the best selling independent record ever for a long time (might still be, i don't know). but i meant that they used the chord progression for dirty magic on three or four albums straight. i'd have to look it up to be more specific...
i actually did a cover of dirty magic myself, back in the fall of '98. it draws a little on their sense of humour.
i remember downloading americana and being borderline heartbroken, lol. haven't paid much attention since.
alwayssum41
Sad, since i consider Conspiracy of One a great album as well (the last one with Ron Welty.. :'( ) And yup Smash was on Epitaph, like Ignition was. I just meant this was the first album being able to be this big 'cause of Epitaph's "explosion" (Hope you got me, I'm french and it's hard to explains my feelings in english). Just noticed the "i don't normally find myself agreeing with sum41 fans", ahah I don't get why, they're so great :)
Shawn Murphy
Well. I believe the singers sound similar. The guitar is a more complex than the typical Offspring song but the rhythm guitar is using a simple power chord arrangement like a typical offspring song. I would consider them the same genre.
deathtokoalas
i suppose the complexity in the offspring's guitar work has taken a nose dive since about '97. it's weird to hear somebody say that, though, because one of the things that initially separated the offspring from most of their peers (bad religion notably excepting) was more elaborate, noticeably thrash-influenced guitar work. noodles used to be an interesting player. now that you mention it, that might be the biggest factor in the offspring going substantially downhill.
there are a few breaks that sound a lot like early green day, especially in the open bass notes. and there's a certain melodramatic poppiness that ultimately stems from bon jovi (people get upset when i point out bon jovi's massive influence on modern punk, but it's true). but it really sounds the most like mid 90s bad religion...
...as mentioned, though, all the so-cal punk bands sound very similar (i know they're not from there, but they sure sound like they are). it's never really made a lot of sense to accuse one of ripping the other off. the thing is that this kind of punk is like a type of modern folk: yeah, folk only produced a handful of original compositions, but they kept being redone with different lyrics. that's really what it's about.
it's the same thing with this. there's not a lot of point in questioning it's musical originality. what do people think of what he's talking about? i do get it, though. i have nothing bad to say about their messaging, but, personally, i'd like these guys a lot better if they were a tad less arena rock. i just can't get my fists pumping like that...
at first i thought his was new Offspring. They have similar sound.
Skylineblue
I don't think they sound similar at all, I hate The Offspring yet I love Rise Against.
alwayssum41
"I hate the Offspring" omfg, go listen to "Smash", or "Ignition", or "Ixnay" albums u_u
dinkum83
I hate them to except for no brakes.. they sound NOTHING alike..
alwayssum41
Nothing alike ? Seriously ? And you're taking for example a song from Americana ? Rofl... As I said before go take a serious look at their first albums...
deathtokoalas
the vocalists sound similar, and the woahing is very characteristic.
in a certain, sense, though, every punk band from california since 1978 has sounded broadly similar. this does very much sound like the offspring trying to sound like bad religion.
i don't normally find myself agreeing with sum41 fans, but smash isn't just a punk classic but a general rock music classic. ixnay is kind of mixed, but the jerden-driven jane's addiction phase was definitely more interesting than anything they've done since. i've tried to listen to a few of their later records repeatedly, and the biggest problem isn't that they started working in poppier aspects (i could actually deal with that just fine if it were a bit more tasteful; soundgarden's later work is very different but just as interesting as their early work) but that they just started recycling their own songs. i mean, how many times have they redone dirty magic? there was a punkier one (i think it was splinter) that i gave a really close listen to and it's...it's just subpar by any way of measuring it. it's a shame.
but i really just wanted to add that their first record, the self-titled one from the 80s, is a really good listen as well. "kill the president", "tehran", etc.
also, if you like ignition, please check out the damned's classic "smash it up".
alwayssum41
They've redone "Dirty Magic" just once. The original was on Ignition and they've made it again on Days Go By, 'cause it was Ignition's 20th anniversary. I'm not into their new stuff so much even if "DGB" clearly deserve to be listen compare to "R&F/R&G".. And yeah, the self-titled one and Ignition are totally insane albums. Not to mention "Smash" is completely insane too, even if it was their first record on major label.
deathtokoalas
smash was on epitaph - it was actually the best selling independent record ever for a long time (might still be, i don't know). but i meant that they used the chord progression for dirty magic on three or four albums straight. i'd have to look it up to be more specific...
i actually did a cover of dirty magic myself, back in the fall of '98. it draws a little on their sense of humour.
i remember downloading americana and being borderline heartbroken, lol. haven't paid much attention since.
alwayssum41
Sad, since i consider Conspiracy of One a great album as well (the last one with Ron Welty.. :'( ) And yup Smash was on Epitaph, like Ignition was. I just meant this was the first album being able to be this big 'cause of Epitaph's "explosion" (Hope you got me, I'm french and it's hard to explains my feelings in english). Just noticed the "i don't normally find myself agreeing with sum41 fans", ahah I don't get why, they're so great :)
Shawn Murphy
Well. I believe the singers sound similar. The guitar is a more complex than the typical Offspring song but the rhythm guitar is using a simple power chord arrangement like a typical offspring song. I would consider them the same genre.
deathtokoalas
i suppose the complexity in the offspring's guitar work has taken a nose dive since about '97. it's weird to hear somebody say that, though, because one of the things that initially separated the offspring from most of their peers (bad religion notably excepting) was more elaborate, noticeably thrash-influenced guitar work. noodles used to be an interesting player. now that you mention it, that might be the biggest factor in the offspring going substantially downhill.
there are a few breaks that sound a lot like early green day, especially in the open bass notes. and there's a certain melodramatic poppiness that ultimately stems from bon jovi (people get upset when i point out bon jovi's massive influence on modern punk, but it's true). but it really sounds the most like mid 90s bad religion...
...as mentioned, though, all the so-cal punk bands sound very similar (i know they're not from there, but they sure sound like they are). it's never really made a lot of sense to accuse one of ripping the other off. the thing is that this kind of punk is like a type of modern folk: yeah, folk only produced a handful of original compositions, but they kept being redone with different lyrics. that's really what it's about.
it's the same thing with this. there's not a lot of point in questioning it's musical originality. what do people think of what he's talking about? i do get it, though. i have nothing bad to say about their messaging, but, personally, i'd like these guys a lot better if they were a tad less arena rock. i just can't get my fists pumping like that...
obligatory influential post.
joy
division was more a late 90s thing for me. up until that point, i'd
heard bits and pieces, but it was one of the many "before my time"
things. about mid-98, i was listening to a lot of adore-period pumpkins
bootlegs (that much maligned record was better in bootleg form), and
corgan was routinely doing a cover of "transmission" (edit: there is a
corgan version of isolation under the name starchildren. that was a long
time ago...). that convinced me to pick up still second-hand, and i was
hooked...
i'd argue this is a more engaging listen than either of their official records. joy division was at it's best when it was existing in that space between punk and goth. there's this sort of malevolence in his voice...
(relevant track: idiotic, too cold, drive, teenage jesus, others)
i'd argue this is a more engaging listen than either of their official records. joy division was at it's best when it was existing in that space between punk and goth. there's this sort of malevolence in his voice...
(relevant track: idiotic, too cold, drive, teenage jesus, others)
Sunday, April 6, 2014
deathtokoalas
well, given that my song of the day is the remix of this i did for the souls that create back in '98, it is obvious that this is where i need to make my post for the day.
it's really incredibly ironic that the military picked an anti-exxon track to torture guantanamo inmates with, as though they're fucking gloating or something. "we are the evil empire, we kill and maim with impunity and don't you fucking forget it.". it's enraging....
well, given that my song of the day is the remix of this i did for the souls that create back in '98, it is obvious that this is where i need to make my post for the day.
it's really incredibly ironic that the military picked an anti-exxon track to torture guantanamo inmates with, as though they're fucking gloating or something. "we are the evil empire, we kill and maim with impunity and don't you fucking forget it.". it's enraging....
666alikat
i dont think anyone could consider listening to this torture. that just doesnt seem reasonable. It seems more reasonable that some journo saw the name and thought "yeah thats weird enough to scare old people and anger idiot youths"
deathtokoalas
yeah, i have to admit i was a little skeptical. apparently, the band was told they used the song "according to an inside source" (i'm paraphrasing). i suspect the invoice they sent them was a pr/awareness thing.
the thing is that the torture is mostly about the volume, and they could have used just about anything to do that, so the source is largely irrelevant.
Jesse Waters-Wolfe
It was a heavily edited, distorted version of the song.
Tami Smith
“As it turned out, the soundtrack being played at a deafening volume was by the band Skinny Puppy. It bothered me greatly that they would use this music. Skinny Puppy was something that I always listened to growing up. I have memories of my life that I have assimilated to memories of the music of Skinny Puppy. Skinny Puppy has been the soundtrack to my life! So to hear something that was so personal to be used as a form of torture, that really hit home. That made it something that I was no longer able to turn a blind eye to. I really focused on it and it really bothered me.” -Terry Holdbrooks former guard
Saturday, April 5, 2014
well, i got the ram updated in my old pc from 640mb to 1gb, which cost me $12. 1 gb is the max the board can take (this thing is ooooold). i haven't re-installed my sleek image yet, but it's definitely faster just browsing through the desktop. i have a usb 2.0 card (yes, the ports are 1.1, it's that old) coming for $10. i'll eventually have to replace the hard drive (mechanical parts, *will* eventually die), but this old clunker is otherwise absolutely maxed out.
the guy that sold it to me jerked out, though. he said he'd sell the 256 sticks for $4 each or give me 5 for $12. well, it's no brainer. i was expecting at least one of them wouldn't work, and sure enough one of them doesn't. but, within the 5 sticks are 2 64s. so, i got 2 working 256s, a broken 256 and two working 64s. well, i would have paid $6 a stick (that's still stupidly cheap), but if you're going to sell them at $4 a piece (and having one that doesn't work is a reasonable chance one takes when buying 15 year old ram from kijiji), why bother basically giving me two 64s for free? why not just tell me you only had 3 in the first place?
i'm going to hope he made an honest error on that, cause it doesn't otherwise make sense to me.
...not like i have any use for two sticks of 64-mb sdram.
the guy that sold it to me jerked out, though. he said he'd sell the 256 sticks for $4 each or give me 5 for $12. well, it's no brainer. i was expecting at least one of them wouldn't work, and sure enough one of them doesn't. but, within the 5 sticks are 2 64s. so, i got 2 working 256s, a broken 256 and two working 64s. well, i would have paid $6 a stick (that's still stupidly cheap), but if you're going to sell them at $4 a piece (and having one that doesn't work is a reasonable chance one takes when buying 15 year old ram from kijiji), why bother basically giving me two 64s for free? why not just tell me you only had 3 in the first place?
i'm going to hope he made an honest error on that, cause it doesn't otherwise make sense to me.
...not like i have any use for two sticks of 64-mb sdram.
people
have heard swans and lpd, but the truth is that my analog string sounds
in the late 90s were mostly trying to emulate the mellotron found on
this record, which would subsequently be purchased by tony banks and
used prominently in genesis. in any case, this is the root of all of it.
so, the other suggestions are not wrong, they're just finding a common
influence.
(relevant tracks: constant, throughout)
(relevant tracks: constant, throughout)
this
more or less replaced fixed as my go-to nin record for busing and had a
big influence on me in terms of rhythms slowly developing over time.
it's something that mostly comes out in the remixes, this sort of
evolving, mutating thing...it's very much process music....
(relevant tracks: on sexual awkwardness in adolescence, symphonies 4 & 5, teenage jesus (suicide), others)
(relevant tracks: on sexual awkwardness in adolescence, symphonies 4 & 5, teenage jesus (suicide), others)
this
record had such a weird influence on me, mostly because the sequencers
are consistently using vanilla general midi settings, which is all i had
available to me at the time through my pc sequencer. so i found myself
relating really heavily to these primitive string sections...
(relevant tracks: schizoid, wish, on sexual awkwardness in adolescence)
(relevant tracks: schizoid, wish, on sexual awkwardness in adolescence)
deathtokoalas
this was their comeback disc, after their disastrous attempt at trying to be real life big ass rock stars. it's interesting to note how many people are pointing out they were young when it was released. i was 14 as well. first sonic youth disc. and, yes, it had a huge effect on me..
(relevant tracks: screwed up, all the symphonies, [2002], more)
Paul S
they've never screwed up, not artistically. Don't think they ever been considered 'big-ass rock stars' ----where did you get that from ? theyr'e like the artiest rock band ever,
deathtokoalas
they toned things down dramatically at the precise time they signed to geffen. the band had a bit of a split personality for pretty much it's entire existence, but they were very obviously in world domination mode between daydream nation and washing machine, and i don't think it's a coincidence that that's their weakest period (non-inclusive), musically.
Paul S
I like all their albums but fair enuff.
rickiwarrior
Hi. I could not help reply.... I understand how this album is a comeback, but I do not consider it´s predecessors disastrous attempts at all. I think that Sonic Youth´s relevance is based in that period you call "weakest" as well, because then, they proved that their talent can be comprehended massively (or commercially), not only by hardcore fans.---------------------------------------------------- I was born in 1982, so in 1995 I was just 13 years old. I started with Sonic Youth recently, around 2000, after I borrowed Dirty from a friend, and since then, is one of my Sonic Youth favorite albums. Washing Machine is really difficult to dig, so it takes 5 times more to love, and at this moment, for me it´s equally loveable as Dirty, I don´t know how would I feel about this in the future - (by the way, I can get enough of WM and The Diamond Sea.....ufff)---------- Finally, where does the Geffen period ends and begins?
deathtokoalas
what you mean to say is that they watered the sound down to sell more records.
sonic youth's cultural relevance is not their geffen years. it's their sst years. sister and daydream nation, particularly (although daydream nation wasn't on sst). the stuff after washing machine was very good for a while, but it will have no cultural impact. likewise, as bad a record as it was, people in their 40s today may look back at dirty as something they liked in a period of their life, but it will not be passed on to the next generation.
daydream nation, on the other hand, will be referenced for the next century.
this was their comeback disc, after their disastrous attempt at trying to be real life big ass rock stars. it's interesting to note how many people are pointing out they were young when it was released. i was 14 as well. first sonic youth disc. and, yes, it had a huge effect on me..
(relevant tracks: screwed up, all the symphonies, [2002], more)
Paul S
they've never screwed up, not artistically. Don't think they ever been considered 'big-ass rock stars' ----where did you get that from ? theyr'e like the artiest rock band ever,
deathtokoalas
they toned things down dramatically at the precise time they signed to geffen. the band had a bit of a split personality for pretty much it's entire existence, but they were very obviously in world domination mode between daydream nation and washing machine, and i don't think it's a coincidence that that's their weakest period (non-inclusive), musically.
Paul S
I like all their albums but fair enuff.
rickiwarrior
Hi. I could not help reply.... I understand how this album is a comeback, but I do not consider it´s predecessors disastrous attempts at all. I think that Sonic Youth´s relevance is based in that period you call "weakest" as well, because then, they proved that their talent can be comprehended massively (or commercially), not only by hardcore fans.---------------------------------------------------- I was born in 1982, so in 1995 I was just 13 years old. I started with Sonic Youth recently, around 2000, after I borrowed Dirty from a friend, and since then, is one of my Sonic Youth favorite albums. Washing Machine is really difficult to dig, so it takes 5 times more to love, and at this moment, for me it´s equally loveable as Dirty, I don´t know how would I feel about this in the future - (by the way, I can get enough of WM and The Diamond Sea.....ufff)---------- Finally, where does the Geffen period ends and begins?
deathtokoalas
what you mean to say is that they watered the sound down to sell more records.
sonic youth's cultural relevance is not their geffen years. it's their sst years. sister and daydream nation, particularly (although daydream nation wasn't on sst). the stuff after washing machine was very good for a while, but it will have no cultural impact. likewise, as bad a record as it was, people in their 40s today may look back at dirty as something they liked in a period of their life, but it will not be passed on to the next generation.
daydream nation, on the other hand, will be referenced for the next century.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Monday, March 31, 2014
discovering the bus pirate
this might be the most awesome thing ever. i am not speaking lightly.
it's like 1% of the cost of the tools that recovery rip-offs use. it's actually cheaper to buy this little thing than it would be to hack together a homemade solution, and it's actually multipurpose - not only is it 1% of a pro device, it actually even pays for itself. it's even cheaper than a recovery evaluation would be...
but the assembled nature of it cuts out all the uncertainty of stringing together cannibalized cables to power sources. things get fried that way, but it's a last resort. not any more. it cuts out the need to use legacy hardware. should work direct from a laptop.
it's going to come with a learning curve, sure. but it could put the fucking vampires out of business. given what this could sell for, to manufacturer it like this and sell it for $30 is just shockingly decent.
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Bus-Pirate-v36-universal-serial-interface-p-609.html
it's like 1% of the cost of the tools that recovery rip-offs use. it's actually cheaper to buy this little thing than it would be to hack together a homemade solution, and it's actually multipurpose - not only is it 1% of a pro device, it actually even pays for itself. it's even cheaper than a recovery evaluation would be...
but the assembled nature of it cuts out all the uncertainty of stringing together cannibalized cables to power sources. things get fried that way, but it's a last resort. not any more. it cuts out the need to use legacy hardware. should work direct from a laptop.
it's going to come with a learning curve, sure. but it could put the fucking vampires out of business. given what this could sell for, to manufacturer it like this and sell it for $30 is just shockingly decent.
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Bus-Pirate-v36-universal-serial-interface-p-609.html
Sunday, March 30, 2014
was looking at a blu-ray writer for better storage. the
price of media is still ridiculous. but finding one for under $30 is no
longer infeasible (if still requiring a little luck). not a priority,
though...
there may be a new format out in the next two years. that should help bring the blu-ray prices way down.
there may be a new format out in the next two years. that should help bring the blu-ray prices way down.
the flash made it give up faster, which is actually an improvement.
cleaning the drive turned the fan noise down but didn't fix the read
issues. it just spins. windows. dos. no os at all. same thing. so, i'm
concluding that the drive is broken.
which means i haven't ruled out the ide on the board.
today, i need to get an external sata/ide-->usb thing and some other things. i'll be taking a run for old parts (ram for my secondary board is like $2/stick, might as well fill it up. it's also time to upgrade to usb 2.0, lol, given that usb 3.0 cards have pushed the price down. it's useless from a store's perspective. like, $5. and if i can find one for cheap enough ($10) i might even upgrade the chip from a pIII 500, although the max the board can take is pIII 950.) tomorrow and will grab an old ide then.
i mean, that board has maximum specs that are dirt cheap to attain. might as well...
which means i haven't ruled out the ide on the board.
today, i need to get an external sata/ide-->usb thing and some other things. i'll be taking a run for old parts (ram for my secondary board is like $2/stick, might as well fill it up. it's also time to upgrade to usb 2.0, lol, given that usb 3.0 cards have pushed the price down. it's useless from a store's perspective. like, $5. and if i can find one for cheap enough ($10) i might even upgrade the chip from a pIII 500, although the max the board can take is pIII 950.) tomorrow and will grab an old ide then.
i mean, that board has maximum specs that are dirt cheap to attain. might as well...
alright, yamaha...
i know it's a little odd to go looking for a dos firmware installer for a cd-rom manufactured in 1999, but you really couldn't spare the 200 kb on your website? was it the bandwidth?
jerks.
there's legacy hardware sites, but they don't even support dos anymore, so i have to install windows to flash the drive. ugh...
i don't even think it's going to work, it's just a last chance before i trash it.
worse, people that flash things know it's not always so good to flash things from windows.
i could brick it trying to fix it. right now, i don't know if it's programming is corrupted, if it's physically broken or if it's just ridiculously dirty.
that little 200 kb (if that) file could prevent somebody from having to buy a new....
yeah. great system we've got going, here.
if you're curious, i'm trying to get the boot block on my motherboard to kick in. it's just simply not reading the floppy connector, but i think it's because the pin is damaged on it. the sata drives are spinning, but they're not reading. and i don't think i'm getting power to the usb ports. the ide connector seems to work, and the drive is spinning, but the drive isn't reading in my other pc at all, so i can't really conclude that that isn't working until i can verify that the drive is working. i have an ide dvd but i know it doesn't read cd-rs well. so i need the drive to work to rule out that the boot block isn't kicking in, before i go through the process of trying to serial in.
i know it's a little odd to go looking for a dos firmware installer for a cd-rom manufactured in 1999, but you really couldn't spare the 200 kb on your website? was it the bandwidth?
jerks.
there's legacy hardware sites, but they don't even support dos anymore, so i have to install windows to flash the drive. ugh...
i don't even think it's going to work, it's just a last chance before i trash it.
worse, people that flash things know it's not always so good to flash things from windows.
i could brick it trying to fix it. right now, i don't know if it's programming is corrupted, if it's physically broken or if it's just ridiculously dirty.
that little 200 kb (if that) file could prevent somebody from having to buy a new....
yeah. great system we've got going, here.
if you're curious, i'm trying to get the boot block on my motherboard to kick in. it's just simply not reading the floppy connector, but i think it's because the pin is damaged on it. the sata drives are spinning, but they're not reading. and i don't think i'm getting power to the usb ports. the ide connector seems to work, and the drive is spinning, but the drive isn't reading in my other pc at all, so i can't really conclude that that isn't working until i can verify that the drive is working. i have an ide dvd but i know it doesn't read cd-rs well. so i need the drive to work to rule out that the boot block isn't kicking in, before i go through the process of trying to serial in.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
48 hours until i can get back to working on my mobo. it's going to be a while before i'm back to recording.
so, i'm going to do a song a day. i've been playing with this "channel trailer" feature on youtube. honestly? ridiculous idea. but, it does provide for a big button to push. i'd rather they set it up so it cycles through a list, but it's clearly designed for tv shows rather than musicians...
but, i can do that myself with minimal effort. so, song a day, moving forwards, chronologically (and selectively).
i'm going to start here. this is actually from april 11, 1998.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNDvac3oCwc
so, i'm going to do a song a day. i've been playing with this "channel trailer" feature on youtube. honestly? ridiculous idea. but, it does provide for a big button to push. i'd rather they set it up so it cycles through a list, but it's clearly designed for tv shows rather than musicians...
but, i can do that myself with minimal effort. so, song a day, moving forwards, chronologically (and selectively).
i'm going to start here. this is actually from april 11, 1998.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNDvac3oCwc
so, the guy upstairs wants to turn the air conditioning on when it's a
high of two degrees. i'm an open-minded person, but that's really a
signal that it's time to lose some weight for your own health. and i see
no option but to turn the heat up to 25.
i get the feeling that the window is going to be open all summer.
i get the feeling that the window is going to be open all summer.
Friday, March 28, 2014
some of the other answers might get you something close (just be sure to crank the fuzz with some kind of tube preamp, and probably even a line booster - this is very high gain), but it sounds to me like that octave-y sound is actually an electronic relic of his guitar synthesizer tracking in and that the actual answer is something along the lines of digital distortion on a violin or cello patch, rather than anything created with guitar pedals you can get in a store. it's also probably manual whammy technique getting that envelope wah, rather than anything digital.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
actually, rachmaninov and angst go well together. under 15, and it's just notes on a screen. but a little older than that is probably the ideal age to get this right.
she's hitting the keys with sufficient force. that's the big thing. and it's a russian thing, consistently. her western counterparts want to over-intellectualize and turn it into some dainty prance, rather than the noisy protopunk classic that it is.
i'm mildly relieved. i suppose that if we end up on the other side of some curtain, we can still rely on the former soviet states (and satellites) to play the russian classics for us properly, without having to endure westerners butchering them.
she's hitting the keys with sufficient force. that's the big thing. and it's a russian thing, consistently. her western counterparts want to over-intellectualize and turn it into some dainty prance, rather than the noisy protopunk classic that it is.
i'm mildly relieved. i suppose that if we end up on the other side of some curtain, we can still rely on the former soviet states (and satellites) to play the russian classics for us properly, without having to endure westerners butchering them.
i have a moderately recent american version and a modded russian version designed for smashing pumpkins fans (creamy dreamer) and what i've found is that the russian muff seems to be designed for better sound at lower volumes. the russian version does sound clearer and more usable here, but that's why. it has to do with the way a muff works. it's supposed to be plugged directly into a tube amp at high volume levels. this test is consequently largely useless.
deathtokoalas
the orchestra sounds good, but she's just not hitting the piano hard enough.
Eleanor Gay
Does she need to pound the keys to mke the music? Maybe for you to hear the music.
deathtokoalas
this particular piece needs to be pounded, yes. bourgeois westerners that want to focus on masturbatory techniques have consistently failed to understand that for close to a hundred years. the russians grasp it properly...
go find a russian recording to hear it bashed out the way it's supposed to be, then come back.
shantihealer
Your right, my friend, she not only underhits the piano but kind of smacks it.
SugarTomAppleRoger
You are joking of course. Few can play with such power as she does.
deathtokoalas
i've pointed out a few performances that have the proper level of aggression. she just doesn't sustain the smashing throughout.
Ricardo Macayo
y tú muerte a los koalas si que sabes de música!
deathtokoalas
i apologize if i've mistranslated, but i think you're asking me why i hate koalas.
the answer is that they're revoltingly cute.
valkhorn
I hear nothing wrong with it. The notes are clear enough, and she plays with finesse - which is very hard to do on this piece, esp. the last movement.
deathtokoalas
see, that's the problem - the finesse. this isn't a technical, subtle piece. it's a banger, meant to be played with all the bourgeois sophistication of "tutti frutti".
anyways, i'm repeating myself. thread closed.
the orchestra sounds good, but she's just not hitting the piano hard enough.
Eleanor Gay
Does she need to pound the keys to mke the music? Maybe for you to hear the music.
deathtokoalas
this particular piece needs to be pounded, yes. bourgeois westerners that want to focus on masturbatory techniques have consistently failed to understand that for close to a hundred years. the russians grasp it properly...
go find a russian recording to hear it bashed out the way it's supposed to be, then come back.
shantihealer
Your right, my friend, she not only underhits the piano but kind of smacks it.
SugarTomAppleRoger
You are joking of course. Few can play with such power as she does.
deathtokoalas
i've pointed out a few performances that have the proper level of aggression. she just doesn't sustain the smashing throughout.
Ricardo Macayo
y tú muerte a los koalas si que sabes de música!
deathtokoalas
i apologize if i've mistranslated, but i think you're asking me why i hate koalas.
the answer is that they're revoltingly cute.
valkhorn
I hear nothing wrong with it. The notes are clear enough, and she plays with finesse - which is very hard to do on this piece, esp. the last movement.
deathtokoalas
see, that's the problem - the finesse. this isn't a technical, subtle piece. it's a banger, meant to be played with all the bourgeois sophistication of "tutti frutti".
anyways, i'm repeating myself. thread closed.
no grit. and, look at 3:23: he's catching his breath? maybe his suit is too tight, and it's restricting his breathing. then he prances through the rest of it like it's some kind of gentle ballet...
this should be beaten down with every ounce of emotional and physical force that can be gathered, as though the police have shown up to steal your last ounce of vodka at 4:53 am and there's nothing you can do about it....
this should be beaten down with every ounce of emotional and physical force that can be gathered, as though the police have shown up to steal your last ounce of vodka at 4:53 am and there's nothing you can do about it....
deathtokoalas
his is worse, he sounds bored through half of it. yeesh...
i have a version by the soviet symphony orchestra that owns everything i've seen online so far, but my discs are packed. i can't even find info online. fucking cold war, getting in the way of what really matters...
Concertos n°2 and n°3 (USSR Symphony Orchestra, feat. conductor: Gennady Provatorov, piano: Victor Eresko).
find that one if you want to hear somebody just bash this out.
XaverScharwenka
Or simply enjoy one of the best versions ever, by Earl Wild... but then again, we all like things differently.
deathtokoalas
earl wild does not sound like a very russian name.
perhaps, you'd like to suggest a wonderful slavic folk version of 'the entertainer' while you're at it? grigorii does gershwin? on balalaika?
fucking hipsters.
1231CarrieCheuk
your profile pic is so frightening
deathtokoalas
that's only because you can't see the muppets dancing around me.
South Texas Piano
Please tell them to save you
deathtokoalas
i believe that request ought to be formed in terms of a question, but you forget that the average muppet is a monster!
12x12surface
Can you post it on YT??
deathtokoalas
i don't have muppet copyright access.
his is worse, he sounds bored through half of it. yeesh...
i have a version by the soviet symphony orchestra that owns everything i've seen online so far, but my discs are packed. i can't even find info online. fucking cold war, getting in the way of what really matters...
Concertos n°2 and n°3 (USSR Symphony Orchestra, feat. conductor: Gennady Provatorov, piano: Victor Eresko).
find that one if you want to hear somebody just bash this out.
XaverScharwenka
Or simply enjoy one of the best versions ever, by Earl Wild... but then again, we all like things differently.
deathtokoalas
earl wild does not sound like a very russian name.
perhaps, you'd like to suggest a wonderful slavic folk version of 'the entertainer' while you're at it? grigorii does gershwin? on balalaika?
fucking hipsters.
1231CarrieCheuk
your profile pic is so frightening
deathtokoalas
that's only because you can't see the muppets dancing around me.
South Texas Piano
Please tell them to save you
deathtokoalas
i believe that request ought to be formed in terms of a question, but you forget that the average muppet is a monster!
12x12surface
Can you post it on YT??
deathtokoalas
i don't have muppet copyright access.
deathtokoalas
i agree with those arguing that she's butchering this. i've always interacted with the piece as a blaring romp, written by an emotionally insecure male that is releasing all of his anger and frustration. she's playing it in a soft and sensuous manner that invites a sultry lounge singer.
the notes are flawless, but there's just no rage or sadness or frustration in it.
deathtokoalas
i mean, maybe she's trying to sex it up. fine.
...but this really needs to be played by 40 year old virgins (ok, i'm exaggerating) to get the maximum feel out of it.
Tim
your understanding of the composer's work is clearly limited if you think anything he wrote is devoid of lust or passion. also, wang's artistic conviction and integrity are what make her performance so remarkable. interpreting a piece in a way that deviates from the norm (or, in this case, your personal preference) is not indicative of poor musicianship.
deathtokoalas
did i not point out that she played the piece flawlessly? but if you understand where the piece is coming from, and all the self-doubt and insecurity attached to it, you'll realize she's completely missing the point.
i mean, if i want to listen to shmaltzy, upper class nonsense i'll go listen to mozart or shostakovich or something. what makes rachmaninov special is the social anxiety in the writing. you take that away, and it's just another delve into aristocratic masturbation. there's plenty of that for those that want it, without needing to ruin that which stands away from it.
i kind of held back a little bit initially, but does she look to you like somebody that has ever experienced the kind of shit rachmaninov went through? young, beautiful, rich. she'd need a brain transplant to get her mind around this. it would be remarkable if she did understand this emotionally, that is as something more than notes on a page - which she does clearly understand quite well.
Vlad
eugh...welcome to music, blessed art it is, where each comes with their own interpretation.
deathtokoalas
this is scored music, not jazz. personal contributions should be kept to an absolute minimum. the performer is a worthless intermediary between my ears and the composer's mind - a necessary evil. i don't care what she thinks.
Vlad
Scored music is still subject to interpretation (not talking about improvisation). Any two people will feel to play the same piece differently
deathtokoalas
completely wrong liberal bullshit. if i want to listen to yuja wang, i'll listen to one of her compositions. i'm here to listen to rachmaninov. the moment she brings her individuality into the process is the moment she completely fucks up. you need to get your head out of this relativistic gallow before it comes down. there are correct and incorrect ways to play a piece.
i don't want to continue this into perpetuity, so i'm just going to be clear about the non-relativistic reality of things before i close off further comments.
there are two ways to perform a scored piece of music:
1) the way it was written
2) incorrectly
this slutty performance is not capturing the piece the way it was written. it's a "modern interpretation" that replaces the tortured soul of the piece with vapid and gratuitous sexuality. therefore, it's wrong. there's no further worthwhile debate on the point, unless you want to resort to the idiocy of "it's just your opinion".
it's not. and that decadent attitude is destroying our culture and our civilization.
out.
i agree with those arguing that she's butchering this. i've always interacted with the piece as a blaring romp, written by an emotionally insecure male that is releasing all of his anger and frustration. she's playing it in a soft and sensuous manner that invites a sultry lounge singer.
the notes are flawless, but there's just no rage or sadness or frustration in it.
deathtokoalas
i mean, maybe she's trying to sex it up. fine.
...but this really needs to be played by 40 year old virgins (ok, i'm exaggerating) to get the maximum feel out of it.
Tim
your understanding of the composer's work is clearly limited if you think anything he wrote is devoid of lust or passion. also, wang's artistic conviction and integrity are what make her performance so remarkable. interpreting a piece in a way that deviates from the norm (or, in this case, your personal preference) is not indicative of poor musicianship.
deathtokoalas
did i not point out that she played the piece flawlessly? but if you understand where the piece is coming from, and all the self-doubt and insecurity attached to it, you'll realize she's completely missing the point.
i mean, if i want to listen to shmaltzy, upper class nonsense i'll go listen to mozart or shostakovich or something. what makes rachmaninov special is the social anxiety in the writing. you take that away, and it's just another delve into aristocratic masturbation. there's plenty of that for those that want it, without needing to ruin that which stands away from it.
i kind of held back a little bit initially, but does she look to you like somebody that has ever experienced the kind of shit rachmaninov went through? young, beautiful, rich. she'd need a brain transplant to get her mind around this. it would be remarkable if she did understand this emotionally, that is as something more than notes on a page - which she does clearly understand quite well.
Vlad
eugh...welcome to music, blessed art it is, where each comes with their own interpretation.
deathtokoalas
this is scored music, not jazz. personal contributions should be kept to an absolute minimum. the performer is a worthless intermediary between my ears and the composer's mind - a necessary evil. i don't care what she thinks.
Vlad
Scored music is still subject to interpretation (not talking about improvisation). Any two people will feel to play the same piece differently
deathtokoalas
completely wrong liberal bullshit. if i want to listen to yuja wang, i'll listen to one of her compositions. i'm here to listen to rachmaninov. the moment she brings her individuality into the process is the moment she completely fucks up. you need to get your head out of this relativistic gallow before it comes down. there are correct and incorrect ways to play a piece.
i don't want to continue this into perpetuity, so i'm just going to be clear about the non-relativistic reality of things before i close off further comments.
there are two ways to perform a scored piece of music:
1) the way it was written
2) incorrectly
this slutty performance is not capturing the piece the way it was written. it's a "modern interpretation" that replaces the tortured soul of the piece with vapid and gratuitous sexuality. therefore, it's wrong. there's no further worthwhile debate on the point, unless you want to resort to the idiocy of "it's just your opinion".
it's not. and that decadent attitude is destroying our culture and our civilization.
out.
you want to know why we can't have another cold war? because i can't find any decent recordings of rachmaninov. no, i don't want to listen to some asian child prodigy that can hit the notes but has no emotional investment because she lacks the maturity. i don't want to compete over who can do it better, either.
the best version i've heard of the second piano concerto (by far) is by the soviet orchestra, which i found as an import from france (you can keep your freedom fries) in a second hand store several years ago. it's nowhere to be found online. and, it's not hard to guess why. instead, we have versions by west germans, koreans, jews from chicago...WESTERN VERSIONS....
none of them compare to the soviet version.
what is important in life is not which set of bankers controls which oil rig. what is important is the ability to listen to high quality renditions of universally recognized russian classics. likewise, russians have an inalienable right to access american renditions of american jazz.
"we have bitches brew, too. dmitri play trumpet through superior delay system. better quality big muff for vladimir's guitar."
it's not the same, dammit.
we need to put this into perspective before we revert back to that fucking bullshit all over again.
the best version i've heard of the second piano concerto (by far) is by the soviet orchestra, which i found as an import from france (you can keep your freedom fries) in a second hand store several years ago. it's nowhere to be found online. and, it's not hard to guess why. instead, we have versions by west germans, koreans, jews from chicago...WESTERN VERSIONS....
none of them compare to the soviet version.
what is important in life is not which set of bankers controls which oil rig. what is important is the ability to listen to high quality renditions of universally recognized russian classics. likewise, russians have an inalienable right to access american renditions of american jazz.
"we have bitches brew, too. dmitri play trumpet through superior delay system. better quality big muff for vladimir's guitar."
it's not the same, dammit.
we need to put this into perspective before we revert back to that fucking bullshit all over again.
rando
In my opinion, it was Fripp, who changed and developed Belew's guitar style and technique this way. This video basically shows, what guitar techniques and what playstyle you had to have, when wanted to be in King Crimson.
deathtokoalas
belew picked a lot up from fripp, but he never lost his more playful style - and it's something fripp desperately needed to counter his medieval dour. the biggest give away that it's belew rather than fripp is the presence of anything that contradicts the structure of the piece - be it a double time lick, an unexpected syncopation, etc. i love fripp, but the truth is that the man ticks like a clock.
In my opinion, it was Fripp, who changed and developed Belew's guitar style and technique this way. This video basically shows, what guitar techniques and what playstyle you had to have, when wanted to be in King Crimson.
deathtokoalas
belew picked a lot up from fripp, but he never lost his more playful style - and it's something fripp desperately needed to counter his medieval dour. the biggest give away that it's belew rather than fripp is the presence of anything that contradicts the structure of the piece - be it a double time lick, an unexpected syncopation, etc. i love fripp, but the truth is that the man ticks like a clock.
uploading movement one to youtube
first section of the industrial grunge opera i've been working on since 2006.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tNP9yHJWWM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tNP9yHJWWM
uploading the spontaneous combustion of leonardo pisano to youtube
this
was constructed out of commands in matlab as the project in a course i
took on wavelet design. no instruments or samples were used in this
recording.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea-RR0FvjQQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea-RR0FvjQQ
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
uploading evil is a human construction to youtube
i
was spending a lot of time stumbling through ottawa bars at the time,
imagining guitar solos over unimaginative house beats....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haUlXmRA-A0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haUlXmRA-A0
uploading like divine amoebas to youtube
a commentary on the invasion and occupation of afghanistan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRsX2NKqqsk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRsX2NKqqsk
so, i pulled some of the releases out and put them up for sale as lightscribe cd-rs in jewel cases with whatever cover art comes to mind. the discs will be standardized, but the package they come in could be all over the place.
it's not the point. the point is the number on the disc, for collectors, if any happen to take an interest in what i'm doing.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/merch
it's not the point. the point is the number on the disc, for collectors, if any happen to take an interest in what i'm doing.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/merch
ok, maybe people are right. maybe if i'm going to post so much criticism i should post some stuff i like.
first, here's my cd list:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/music/index/index.html
second, it's over here in timeline form:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessicas-Music-Collection/505092896244390
third, here's a playlist with highlights that will grow as i work through the reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3JSjmqp0cbtJ3wEtlfPjMu2xYH7DKIHP
i'm further going to mark my favourite discs as i go forward.
.....'cause it's good marketing. i'm not pretending otherwise. i enjoy the conversations i have, but the point is that people are supposed to click on the link and check out my music. maybe i should just shut up. but youtube's advertising model really doesn't make any sense, given that people can post whatever they want right on the page (and that most people with a measurable quantity of brain cells use adblock).
about the best advertising i could pay for would be to interact with fans of records that have influenced me. that's actually not possible to buy, but it's certainly more meaningful than an annoying decal on the side that most people are going to literally or mentally block out.
then again, i'm certainly not the next katy perry. there's not really a way to mass market this stuff. it just has to somehow find the right audience.
first, here's my cd list:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/music/index/index.html
second, it's over here in timeline form:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessicas-Music-Collection/505092896244390
third, here's a playlist with highlights that will grow as i work through the reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3JSjmqp0cbtJ3wEtlfPjMu2xYH7DKIHP
i'm further going to mark my favourite discs as i go forward.
.....'cause it's good marketing. i'm not pretending otherwise. i enjoy the conversations i have, but the point is that people are supposed to click on the link and check out my music. maybe i should just shut up. but youtube's advertising model really doesn't make any sense, given that people can post whatever they want right on the page (and that most people with a measurable quantity of brain cells use adblock).
about the best advertising i could pay for would be to interact with fans of records that have influenced me. that's actually not possible to buy, but it's certainly more meaningful than an annoying decal on the side that most people are going to literally or mentally block out.
then again, i'm certainly not the next katy perry. there's not really a way to mass market this stuff. it just has to somehow find the right audience.
Monday, March 24, 2014
ok. so, that cd drive doesn't read anything. it just spins. lol...
i think it's the only actual *cd* i have. i have two dvd ides, and two dvd satas. that was the initial cd-r i saved up to buy when i was in my mid teens. you know those reasons you get a job when you're 15? i wanted a cd burner, to make demoes with. but it seems to be cooked...
it doesn't sound good, either.
couldn't be more than $5 on kijiji. if i can find one...
i think it's the only actual *cd* i have. i have two dvd ides, and two dvd satas. that was the initial cd-r i saved up to buy when i was in my mid teens. you know those reasons you get a job when you're 15? i wanted a cd burner, to make demoes with. but it seems to be cooked...
it doesn't sound good, either.
couldn't be more than $5 on kijiji. if i can find one...
this is some progress:
if i put in a cd-r (not a dvd) into a cd-rom (not a dvd-rom) connected via the master ide cable, with the jumper to master (not cable select) it indicates drive activity that is otherwise not present.
unfortunately, i burnt the motherboard cd on what seems like my last cd-r. i thought i had a stack of lightscribe cds, but it turns out they're dvds. i'm not sure why i bought lightscribe dvds, but whatever. and i was silly enough not to put the amiboot.rom file on it.
so, now i'm searching for a cd-r to burn a 1 mb file on to. *sigh*.
if i put in a cd-r (not a dvd) into a cd-rom (not a dvd-rom) connected via the master ide cable, with the jumper to master (not cable select) it indicates drive activity that is otherwise not present.
unfortunately, i burnt the motherboard cd on what seems like my last cd-r. i thought i had a stack of lightscribe cds, but it turns out they're dvds. i'm not sure why i bought lightscribe dvds, but whatever. and i was silly enough not to put the amiboot.rom file on it.
so, now i'm searching for a cd-r to burn a 1 mb file on to. *sigh*.
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