6 hour walk.
dead feet. tender calves.
...but a few tasks completed.
for a small city, it is about as scattered as possible. i want to say it's badly planned, and it is, especially the lack of sidewalks, but it's more like it's planned as a giant suburb of detroit rather than a city of it's own.
so, the necessity of fixing my bike is quite apparent.
one of the things i needed to get was some water resistant spray for some shoes. there's plenty of options, but they're all at least an hour walk one way or the other. how can that be? i'm not sure, but i'm going to take a guess....
see, if i walk down the street that comprises the business district closest to me, it's pretty sketchy. there are some successful businesses, and some very old ones. but a lot of the storefronts are either boarded up or for rent.
could these have previously been somewhere to get shoe spray? it's a reasonable deduction, i think.
for twice the price that it's sold at walmart.
so, i'm going to hypothesize that windsor is in that middle phase where the big box stores have decimated local businesses and they haven't moved into the core yet.
i have to think that there will eventually be a mall built downtown. right now, it's just strip malls a km or two in either direction and a half dead city in the core.
which is why the rent is cheap.
which is why i'm here...
with the spray specifically, i think there's a few places around here i could try and i'd guess at least one would stock it. it's an example of limited actual applicability. i wouldn't have gone as far as i did just for that, and probably wouldn't have actually had to. any kind of electronics would be a better example.
Monday, March 10, 2014
freakishly small feet strike again.
a few months ago, i bought a pair of little girl's rainboots because they fit and they were only $6. not sized.
my shoes are demoed to the point that walking on moist ground produces wet socks, so i took a walk around. i'll get some goo later and save them for emergency; i just wanted to see if i could get something cheap, as that's easier. it turns out i'm a children's size 6, and just about any pair of adult shoes is literally not made in my size.
seriously. i spent an hour in the adult section looking for something small enough, before i walked over to the kid's aisle...
i actually can't remember the last time i bought a pair of sneakers. for years, i've been inheriting shoes from my sister, who has a habit of ending up with shoes that are too small, somehow. i don't ask questions, i just take the shoes. but it means i'm not sizing my feet. the ones she gives me are usually a tad big, but i deal with it.
well, now i know. and there's an upside to it, as kids shoes seem to be cheaper...
the ones i picked up were in a weird store a few blocks down that is something like a cross between a dollar store and a kmart. everything in the place is cheap. they actually had a two-for-one sale, which is the only reason i bothered. even if they are gone at the end of the year, two pairs of shoes for $15 is something i can deal with in the short run.
i think i'll make 'em last longer, though. i've been known to wear $10 shoes for three or four years - until they develop holes, basically.
with stuff like shoes, i'm actually convinced it all more or less comes off the same assembly line. $10 walmart shoes and $150 nike shoes are made by the same children in asia, they just have different labels stamped on them. i don't see any reason to pay more than the least amount possible for it.
it's less that the inexpensive shoes aren't cheap and more that the expensive ones are just as cheap and preposterously priced.
the handful of counter-examples seem to mostly be skateboarding shoes, which are built differently because there's a higher wear level. i have tended to gravitate towards them for that reason.
it actually seems to be the salt that finally ate through a part of the pair i just replaced. i'm thinking if i clean them up, then patch them with the rest of the epoxy i have left that should extend their life. but i needed something with better grip, anyways.
for me, a big part of "urban living" is walking everywhere. this isn't currently the best city for that lifestyle, which just puts extra stress on the shoes. when you're regularly walking five or more km, it doesn't matter what the label on your shoes is - they're going to fall apart. so, you'd might as well try and strengthen them.
i think with the salted through ones, the epoxy will actually make them stronger.
a few months ago, i bought a pair of little girl's rainboots because they fit and they were only $6. not sized.
my shoes are demoed to the point that walking on moist ground produces wet socks, so i took a walk around. i'll get some goo later and save them for emergency; i just wanted to see if i could get something cheap, as that's easier. it turns out i'm a children's size 6, and just about any pair of adult shoes is literally not made in my size.
seriously. i spent an hour in the adult section looking for something small enough, before i walked over to the kid's aisle...
i actually can't remember the last time i bought a pair of sneakers. for years, i've been inheriting shoes from my sister, who has a habit of ending up with shoes that are too small, somehow. i don't ask questions, i just take the shoes. but it means i'm not sizing my feet. the ones she gives me are usually a tad big, but i deal with it.
well, now i know. and there's an upside to it, as kids shoes seem to be cheaper...
the ones i picked up were in a weird store a few blocks down that is something like a cross between a dollar store and a kmart. everything in the place is cheap. they actually had a two-for-one sale, which is the only reason i bothered. even if they are gone at the end of the year, two pairs of shoes for $15 is something i can deal with in the short run.
i think i'll make 'em last longer, though. i've been known to wear $10 shoes for three or four years - until they develop holes, basically.
with stuff like shoes, i'm actually convinced it all more or less comes off the same assembly line. $10 walmart shoes and $150 nike shoes are made by the same children in asia, they just have different labels stamped on them. i don't see any reason to pay more than the least amount possible for it.
it's less that the inexpensive shoes aren't cheap and more that the expensive ones are just as cheap and preposterously priced.
the handful of counter-examples seem to mostly be skateboarding shoes, which are built differently because there's a higher wear level. i have tended to gravitate towards them for that reason.
it actually seems to be the salt that finally ate through a part of the pair i just replaced. i'm thinking if i clean them up, then patch them with the rest of the epoxy i have left that should extend their life. but i needed something with better grip, anyways.
for me, a big part of "urban living" is walking everywhere. this isn't currently the best city for that lifestyle, which just puts extra stress on the shoes. when you're regularly walking five or more km, it doesn't matter what the label on your shoes is - they're going to fall apart. so, you'd might as well try and strengthen them.
i think with the salted through ones, the epoxy will actually make them stronger.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
see, this is what i mean. if you analyze this part, it's pretty simple. just two arpeggiated chords. but it somehow got saved in this fucking mess that's almost illegible.
that, by the way, is unregistered win 9x software. save your binaries, kids.
i should probably go looking for a freeware replacement, it's just that the format on nwc is really unique and awesomely simple.
i'm not sure one really exists...
so, that's 18 1-3 page files to print at the library tomorrow. and then i'll be on to recording the parts.
something i'm remembering is that a lot of the tracks got split into bass/treble clefs as a part of the process that made them illegible. so there's actually less parts that that. i'll leave some split, recombine others. easier if i just print all possible combinations and figure it out after.
something else i'm going to need to do is figure out just how bad my acoustic is. it got warped on a cross country trip ten years ago and sounds atrocious. may have to use an acoustic simulator. or even look for something cheap on kijiji.
hopefully it's at least playable.
i should probably go looking for a freeware replacement, it's just that the format on nwc is really unique and awesomely simple.
i'm not sure one really exists...
so, that's 18 1-3 page files to print at the library tomorrow. and then i'll be on to recording the parts.
something i'm remembering is that a lot of the tracks got split into bass/treble clefs as a part of the process that made them illegible. so there's actually less parts that that. i'll leave some split, recombine others. easier if i just print all possible combinations and figure it out after.
something else i'm going to need to do is figure out just how bad my acoustic is. it got warped on a cross country trip ten years ago and sounds atrocious. may have to use an acoustic simulator. or even look for something cheap on kijiji.
hopefully it's at least playable.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
uploading footage of an occupy fundraiser from last year to youtube
shredding a little at an occupy ottawa fundraiser, in the summer of 2012. this is the most stripped down version possible of the second and third movements of symphony #9. which is an "industrial grunge opera".
recorded first movement of the piece:
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/proverbs
full version of fundraiser:
https://vimeo.com/45641874
the most important things i learned from occupy are:
1) people that share a dissatisfaction with the world as it is do not necessarily form a shared vision of how they'd like to see the world.
2) capitalist indoctrination is far deeper than many anti-capitalists consciously realize.
3) a tendency to throw temper tantrums is not necessarily something people grow out of.
4) at the end of the day, the revolution can only ever be in the mode of production.
5) hippies don't like challenging music
but, despite the substantial challenges ahead of all of us, it's important that we continue to take the time to speak out against fucking bullshit.
recorded first movement of the piece:
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/proverbs
full version of fundraiser:
https://vimeo.com/45641874
the most important things i learned from occupy are:
1) people that share a dissatisfaction with the world as it is do not necessarily form a shared vision of how they'd like to see the world.
2) capitalist indoctrination is far deeper than many anti-capitalists consciously realize.
3) a tendency to throw temper tantrums is not necessarily something people grow out of.
4) at the end of the day, the revolution can only ever be in the mode of production.
5) hippies don't like challenging music
but, despite the substantial challenges ahead of all of us, it's important that we continue to take the time to speak out against fucking bullshit.
i'm just remembering the precise reason i didn't do this before.
i don't have any formatting! i lost the nwc file, leaving an unwieldy midi file that sounds 'right' on playback but is an annoyance to read. it's a linear scroll. and it's not even barred right. it starts with an artificial slur an eighth off the one and runs forward horrifically....
tactics...
i think if i can get each staff out to a pdf file and take it down to the library to print it, i can mark it up by hand. so, that's tomorrow's goal.
grargh. well, i need to do this. and once i get going it'll be more fun.
i don't have any formatting! i lost the nwc file, leaving an unwieldy midi file that sounds 'right' on playback but is an annoyance to read. it's a linear scroll. and it's not even barred right. it starts with an artificial slur an eighth off the one and runs forward horrifically....
tactics...
i think if i can get each staff out to a pdf file and take it down to the library to print it, i can mark it up by hand. so, that's tomorrow's goal.
grargh. well, i need to do this. and once i get going it'll be more fun.
stuck in the middle of an alley closing in on all sides (vst mix) (original upload)
written in early 2001. initially rendered mar 6, 2014. corrected on mar 7, 2014.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/vst-mix
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/vst-mix
Thursday, March 6, 2014
yeah, i'm fixing some panning issues i previously missed altogether and going to just double that last guitar to get some more definition.
on the one hand, i want to get the backing tracks right because i'm going to export it to wave when i build the guitar parts up. i don't want to deal with trying to get the equipment to play back midi and audio at the same time with decent latency. the external mixer i bought was designed for audio, and can handle a heavy load of it at low latency, but isn't responding well to a stack of 30 vst instruments running sequences. if it was a different project and i cared more, i'd dump the load off to external hardware. i have an extra head (for an electronic kit) that can function as a drum machine. but i know it'll just be easier *and more stable* if i bounce the midi into one audio track and build fresh from it. that means i want to get it right. i mean, i can always go back and redo it but....
on the other hand, i don't really care a lot about what the guitars in this version sound like. it's more of an experiment for me, for future reference, to see what i can actually do with the technology nowadays.
'cause the reality for years was that you could get pretty good pianos and flutes and violins out of synths but there was simply no way to get a guitar to sound good at all except to play it through an amp. then there were amp simulators. and now they've got giant databases of samples that you can hook the sequencer right into and that sound relatively good.
the acoustic sound is better than it used to be, but still not so good. i'm getting the impression, though, that plugging a sampled paul into guitar rig and triggering it with a sequencer has the potential to provide some otherwise unattainable sounds, simply by the nature of what a staff of music is vs what a fretboard is. where the possibilities get really fun is mixing that approach with live playing...
so, i got what i wanted out of that. but this track needs live playing and that's what i'm more interested in.
on the one hand, i want to get the backing tracks right because i'm going to export it to wave when i build the guitar parts up. i don't want to deal with trying to get the equipment to play back midi and audio at the same time with decent latency. the external mixer i bought was designed for audio, and can handle a heavy load of it at low latency, but isn't responding well to a stack of 30 vst instruments running sequences. if it was a different project and i cared more, i'd dump the load off to external hardware. i have an extra head (for an electronic kit) that can function as a drum machine. but i know it'll just be easier *and more stable* if i bounce the midi into one audio track and build fresh from it. that means i want to get it right. i mean, i can always go back and redo it but....
on the other hand, i don't really care a lot about what the guitars in this version sound like. it's more of an experiment for me, for future reference, to see what i can actually do with the technology nowadays.
'cause the reality for years was that you could get pretty good pianos and flutes and violins out of synths but there was simply no way to get a guitar to sound good at all except to play it through an amp. then there were amp simulators. and now they've got giant databases of samples that you can hook the sequencer right into and that sound relatively good.
the acoustic sound is better than it used to be, but still not so good. i'm getting the impression, though, that plugging a sampled paul into guitar rig and triggering it with a sequencer has the potential to provide some otherwise unattainable sounds, simply by the nature of what a staff of music is vs what a fretboard is. where the possibilities get really fun is mixing that approach with live playing...
so, i got what i wanted out of that. but this track needs live playing and that's what i'm more interested in.
uploading a tentative vst version of stuck in the middle of an alley closing in on all sides
i'll probably revisit this, but i'm uploading it as is for now.
in addition to being the core of what will be the finished track, it's interesting to point out just how good computer music can sound nowadays. excluding the introduction, i didn't play a single note in this song. the guitars are all played through midi-based vst instruments and put into digital amp models and digital effects emulators. it's really rather remarkable how far the technology has come....
written in early 2001. initially rendered mar 6, 2014.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/vst-mix
in addition to being the core of what will be the finished track, it's interesting to point out just how good computer music can sound nowadays. excluding the introduction, i didn't play a single note in this song. the guitars are all played through midi-based vst instruments and put into digital amp models and digital effects emulators. it's really rather remarkable how far the technology has come....
written in early 2001. initially rendered mar 6, 2014.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/vst-mix
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
spoke too soon. the drums sounded good, but the latency got really bad with more tracks...
i have a dozen drivers to try. i'm going to hope that the problem is that they're windows 7 drivers. they advertise these things as xp/7, but there's a big difference. a few tracks, it would sound fine, but do anything complicated...
so i think i need to find a middle point.
i have a dozen drivers to try. i'm going to hope that the problem is that they're windows 7 drivers. they advertise these things as xp/7, but there's a big difference. a few tracks, it would sound fine, but do anything complicated...
so i think i need to find a middle point.
fuck you, cubase.
changing your soundcard out doesn't mean deleting all the tracks that are attached to the previous soundcard. and, no, i didn't think to back it up or check that all the tracks were there before i saved it. honestly. what the fuck?
that's a lot of work that just disappeared. not happy about it.
i was in the process of building the track back up from scratch, anyways. i didn't lose any notes. and i'm not sure what i would have kept and what i would have replaced. it's just sound font info.
but, damn it, that reference was nice to have.
ugh.
need cigarettes.
at the least the vst instruments are still there. but, now i need to write out thirty vst settings by hand before i start again...
this track is actually straining the card. i mean, that's a lot of vst instruments running all at once, which is why i switched the card from the m-audio to the alesis in the first place.
grargh. a lost day, nothing worse.
it's all the guitar tracks that are just killing it. they each need their own instrument. it should be less of a problem once i get the guitars played out manually.
changing your soundcard out doesn't mean deleting all the tracks that are attached to the previous soundcard. and, no, i didn't think to back it up or check that all the tracks were there before i saved it. honestly. what the fuck?
that's a lot of work that just disappeared. not happy about it.
i was in the process of building the track back up from scratch, anyways. i didn't lose any notes. and i'm not sure what i would have kept and what i would have replaced. it's just sound font info.
but, damn it, that reference was nice to have.
ugh.
need cigarettes.
at the least the vst instruments are still there. but, now i need to write out thirty vst settings by hand before i start again...
this track is actually straining the card. i mean, that's a lot of vst instruments running all at once, which is why i switched the card from the m-audio to the alesis in the first place.
grargh. a lost day, nothing worse.
it's all the guitar tracks that are just killing it. they each need their own instrument. it should be less of a problem once i get the guitars played out manually.
i'm closing off my second-phase playlist as existing between my zeroth and second symphony.
phase three was a short serious music phase, whereas phase four was a psychedelic folk project that got a little out of hand. to be properly contemporary, i'd have to label it as 'freak-folk' (although i had no idea such a thing existed at the time). four should up quick but three needs some love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C65VadHnXN4&list=PL3JSjmqp0cbtYmywctLw8KaXgXG3A2ZOF
actually, that's premature - there's two further tracks to add, that i'm working on right now.
headstart on the serious phase (all overlap right now):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ-2_duUjaw&list=PL3JSjmqp0cbuMnSLyxGUzsdB_vip3GPbH
it looks like the phases are going to be roughly 3-5 hour chunks. the number of tracks and track lengths are going to vary substantially, but that's going to remain roughly constant. there's also going to consistently be some overlap. that's a time length that allows an idea to be fully developed over a few "albums".
phase five is the trivial group phase, which ran from about '03 to about '06. after that, there's actually not much that i've completed. the proverbs project i started in '06 is only about a quarter finished.
and that's a long time, actually. eight years. yikes.
getting there...
i'm really hoping there's not another eight year black hole, but life's a funny thing.
phase three was a short serious music phase, whereas phase four was a psychedelic folk project that got a little out of hand. to be properly contemporary, i'd have to label it as 'freak-folk' (although i had no idea such a thing existed at the time). four should up quick but three needs some love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C65VadHnXN4&list=PL3JSjmqp0cbtYmywctLw8KaXgXG3A2ZOF
actually, that's premature - there's two further tracks to add, that i'm working on right now.
headstart on the serious phase (all overlap right now):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ-2_duUjaw&list=PL3JSjmqp0cbuMnSLyxGUzsdB_vip3GPbH
it looks like the phases are going to be roughly 3-5 hour chunks. the number of tracks and track lengths are going to vary substantially, but that's going to remain roughly constant. there's also going to consistently be some overlap. that's a time length that allows an idea to be fully developed over a few "albums".
phase five is the trivial group phase, which ran from about '03 to about '06. after that, there's actually not much that i've completed. the proverbs project i started in '06 is only about a quarter finished.
and that's a long time, actually. eight years. yikes.
getting there...
i'm really hoping there's not another eight year black hole, but life's a funny thing.
Monday, March 3, 2014
uploading symphony 5 to youtube
i skipped ahead one ep to get this up. this is the ep i'll be finishing after i finish the ep i'm finishing. but this is the completed version...
===========
the core of this was written in my parent's basement in the spring of 2001. planning on going to a rave that weekend, i had previously purchased a large amount of drugs; i was, however, forced to stay in due to having a calculus test that sunday (the rave was out of town). well, my parents were gone for the weekend, most of my friends were out of town and i had a massive stash of drugs...
it is quite literally a symphony of psilocybin induced madness, written directly into an ancient, hacked score-writing program while i was tripping.
in the spring semester of 2006, i took a course in electronic music design that had a recorded component and pulled the score off of my hard drive with the intent of finally recording it properly. all guitars were played live, while the sequenced sections were played on better equipment than i had available at home. the ambient sections at the beginning and end of the track were also written in 2006.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXD4R9R0UNI
===========
the core of this was written in my parent's basement in the spring of 2001. planning on going to a rave that weekend, i had previously purchased a large amount of drugs; i was, however, forced to stay in due to having a calculus test that sunday (the rave was out of town). well, my parents were gone for the weekend, most of my friends were out of town and i had a massive stash of drugs...
it is quite literally a symphony of psilocybin induced madness, written directly into an ancient, hacked score-writing program while i was tripping.
in the spring semester of 2006, i took a course in electronic music design that had a recorded component and pulled the score off of my hard drive with the intent of finally recording it properly. all guitars were played live, while the sequenced sections were played on better equipment than i had available at home. the ambient sections at the beginning and end of the track were also written in 2006.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXD4R9R0UNI
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