doing real life things this week.
today, i got some serious groceries done. still have to clean, and finalize the schematics for the cd shelf. i also set a doctor's appointment.
tomorrow, i get the wood for the cd shelf. i'll probably also do laundry.
thursday morning, i'll be transporting compost out to the compost people. they're some kids that grow tomatoes and give it away to hungry people. it's better than dumping the coffee grinds and tomato ends in the dumpster, where the organic material simply becomes useless.
friday, i have a doctor's appointment.
seems trivial. but i actually have a hard time making sure i'm doing things like this regularly. they tend to sit. forever.
i might get a mix of clarity done over the next few days, but that's uncertain.
i'm still not clear what i'm doing about drilling.
i'm kind of hoping home depot has a drill bit where i can just get them to do the holes. even if it's a buck a hole or something, it's better and probably even cheaper in the long run.
if not, something i'll want to check when i'm there is the price of bits. there are $20 drills in the pawn shops, but they don't have bits. i only really need the one bit. there's consequently basically no chance i'm going to buy a drill set. if i can just get one bit there at a reasonable price, i probably will and then get the $20 drill.
if i can't get the one bit? at the moment, i'm leaning towards finding some kind of co-op as a preferable option. surely, there's somewhere around here where i can just take a few pieces of wood in and drill some holes in them.
the other stuff i built is just screwing screws into particle board. yes, it's cracked a little, but it's the kind of thing where it's like "who cares?" - so long as it's sturdy. a makeup shelf doesn't take a lot of force. the stove is holding up the piece with the coffee maker. the little table i'm going to make is likely going to be lodged between a chair and a wall. these are items that don't need to be particularly sturdy, so long as they're handled intelligently.
a cd shelf is a different animal because it has to be standalone and has to keep up quite a bit of weight. so, i need to be drilling cleaner holes into bigger pieces of actual wood. i'll probably use particle board for the shelves, but i want solid wood for the bases. i'm probably simply not going to be able to screw the pieces together by hand.
i might try, though, if it comes down to spending $100 on a drill and bit set that i'm going to use a handful of times and then toss in a closet for twenty years.
actually, i'm going to need to drill holes for the pegs, too...
hrmmn.
i don't even know what size they are. i should figure that out before i go.
those shoes are also dead, the rain exposed holes in the bottom of both shoes, but i wasn't expecting them to last long, with the amount of walking that i do. these were very cheaply made shoes. i'm going to let them dry out and keep them for short in/out use, but they're useless for going more than a block.
i got a pair of pink cons about the same time, but i haven't been wearing them much because i tend to get stuck in one pair. those are now the main shoes, but i want to keep them out of the wet, too. so i'm mostly moving to those children's rain boots i got for the fall/winter/spring.
the cheap shoes were actually 2 for 1 so i already have another pair of cheap shoes that i can wear down to nothing for next year....
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
the usb card works, so i really did get a functioning usb 2.0 card
from china for $4. it's not fixing the problem i hoped it would, though.
i have a really old motherboard with usb 1.0 slots on it. this is expanded with a 2.0 hub. i want to connect a 3.0 external drive to that hub. it works, but it's very slow through the hub - much slower than it is directly connecting it to the 1.0. it's a tb drive. now, the 1.1 is workable, but it means i have to leave the drive in an unheated area. the point of the exercise is to bring the drive into the living room, where i don't have to worry about it possibly freezing. i checked the temperature in there last winter and it's not actually that cold but i'm uneasy about it - even though it may even be better to leave it in a chilled environment.
i knew it was the hub the whole time, but i was hoping that upgrading to a 2.0 card would make it a little better as it would need to convert one fewer times. that didn't work out, which leads me to believe it's a model problem rather than a speed problem. in other words, i need to try a new hub.
for the $4, i can't complain, though. it's a valid upgrade and it may find a use before the motherboard crashes.
there's an added annoyance, though, which is that it doesn't read the wireless mouse or keyboard through the pci card until windows launches. it reads them on bootup when plugged directly into the motherboard. so, if i do get another hub, i'll probably leave them both active - the old one through the motherboard and the new one through the 2.0 card.
regardless, the actual pc in there is now built to it's maximum specs. there's nothing else the motherboard can take besides a negligible increase in clock speed. as old as the machine is, i have little reason to think it's going to die any time soon. it's still useful a backup pc, so it's still useful to have the 2.0 card in there. besides a little table that i plan on building in the next week, that's the last thing i wanted to do in that room...
i have a really old motherboard with usb 1.0 slots on it. this is expanded with a 2.0 hub. i want to connect a 3.0 external drive to that hub. it works, but it's very slow through the hub - much slower than it is directly connecting it to the 1.0. it's a tb drive. now, the 1.1 is workable, but it means i have to leave the drive in an unheated area. the point of the exercise is to bring the drive into the living room, where i don't have to worry about it possibly freezing. i checked the temperature in there last winter and it's not actually that cold but i'm uneasy about it - even though it may even be better to leave it in a chilled environment.
i knew it was the hub the whole time, but i was hoping that upgrading to a 2.0 card would make it a little better as it would need to convert one fewer times. that didn't work out, which leads me to believe it's a model problem rather than a speed problem. in other words, i need to try a new hub.
for the $4, i can't complain, though. it's a valid upgrade and it may find a use before the motherboard crashes.
there's an added annoyance, though, which is that it doesn't read the wireless mouse or keyboard through the pci card until windows launches. it reads them on bootup when plugged directly into the motherboard. so, if i do get another hub, i'll probably leave them both active - the old one through the motherboard and the new one through the 2.0 card.
regardless, the actual pc in there is now built to it's maximum specs. there's nothing else the motherboard can take besides a negligible increase in clock speed. as old as the machine is, i have little reason to think it's going to die any time soon. it's still useful a backup pc, so it's still useful to have the 2.0 card in there. besides a little table that i plan on building in the next week, that's the last thing i wanted to do in that room...
heat's on earlier this year than i can remember in quite a while. i'm
used to turning it on mid october or early november. i actually don't
think i've ever turned it on the first week of october....
*shrug*. there was an abrupt shift rather than a slow cool down. it's just not going to hold over 21 in here very long when it's below ten degrees outside. and it doesn't look like it's warming back up to the point that i can get the heat back off.
it might not be on very strong for the next few weeks, but it's definitely triggered itself at 21 degrees. hopefully it's off early.
*shrug*. there was an abrupt shift rather than a slow cool down. it's just not going to hold over 21 in here very long when it's below ten degrees outside. and it doesn't look like it's warming back up to the point that i can get the heat back off.
it might not be on very strong for the next few weeks, but it's definitely triggered itself at 21 degrees. hopefully it's off early.
Monday, October 6, 2014
publishing the wave (inri053)
symphony 3.
this came out of a two-person psychedelic folk project i was working in over late 2001 and into mid 2002. we had brainstormed the idea of a piece that slowly built itself up, like a wave, and that had sporadic pieces of poetry interspersed as it did so. of the two of us, i was the musician, and he was the poet; i generally produced the music by myself. however, my vision of the track proved to be much larger than his, to the point that the two ideas could not be effectively reconciled given the deficit of technology available to us (i simply couldn't find a way to get enough resources to condense the track to under ten minutes). that left me with this seventy minute ambient piece that has mostly stayed hidden in my closet over the last twelve years.
in 2014, i strongly contemplated reconstructing the short version out of existing material, but it would have required a rethink of the process that i felt would be invasive to the poet involved.
this is very much process music. it's built on 36 distinct loops of identical length (just under 57 seconds) that assemble the collage up on a loop by loop basis, hitting it's full point only in the 35th loop. the 36th loop does not fit into any of the patterns that define the first 35, but is nonetheless the climax of the piece. this is followed by a disassembling process that is precisely the reverse of the assembling process. together, this produces the effect of a long wave of sound washing over the listener.
aesthetically, it's likely clear that i had been listening to a lot of "kosmische" style synthesizer music of european origin. it's actually a key part of my musical style, so a bigger exploration of it's themes is not at all out of place. however, i generally prefer to take ideas from the genre and recontextualize them rather than delve into a full exploration. this is somewhat unique in my discography as being an album-length analog synthesizer work.
either as ambient or kosmische or process music, this is mostly meant as background music.
written late 2001 and early 2002. this file is ripped from a cd-r that was burnt around 2002, as that was the option that would produce the most accurate reproduction of the original composition. republished without modification in 2014. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - synthesizers, guitar, bass, digital wave editing, production, composition
released january 15, 2002
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-wave
this came out of a two-person psychedelic folk project i was working in over late 2001 and into mid 2002. we had brainstormed the idea of a piece that slowly built itself up, like a wave, and that had sporadic pieces of poetry interspersed as it did so. of the two of us, i was the musician, and he was the poet; i generally produced the music by myself. however, my vision of the track proved to be much larger than his, to the point that the two ideas could not be effectively reconciled given the deficit of technology available to us (i simply couldn't find a way to get enough resources to condense the track to under ten minutes). that left me with this seventy minute ambient piece that has mostly stayed hidden in my closet over the last twelve years.
in 2014, i strongly contemplated reconstructing the short version out of existing material, but it would have required a rethink of the process that i felt would be invasive to the poet involved.
this is very much process music. it's built on 36 distinct loops of identical length (just under 57 seconds) that assemble the collage up on a loop by loop basis, hitting it's full point only in the 35th loop. the 36th loop does not fit into any of the patterns that define the first 35, but is nonetheless the climax of the piece. this is followed by a disassembling process that is precisely the reverse of the assembling process. together, this produces the effect of a long wave of sound washing over the listener.
aesthetically, it's likely clear that i had been listening to a lot of "kosmische" style synthesizer music of european origin. it's actually a key part of my musical style, so a bigger exploration of it's themes is not at all out of place. however, i generally prefer to take ideas from the genre and recontextualize them rather than delve into a full exploration. this is somewhat unique in my discography as being an album-length analog synthesizer work.
either as ambient or kosmische or process music, this is mostly meant as background music.
written late 2001 and early 2002. this file is ripped from a cd-r that was burnt around 2002, as that was the option that would produce the most accurate reproduction of the original composition. republished without modification in 2014. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - synthesizers, guitar, bass, digital wave editing, production, composition
released january 15, 2002
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-wave
Sunday, October 5, 2014
i've aborted the idea of finishing the vocal wave. what i have could be reworked to include the vocals, but i'd consider it kind of weird to cut up his vocals and try to sequence them together in a logical manner at this point, considering i haven't spoken to him in years. remixing stuff is one thing, but the time window for that kind of collaboration in absentia has long passed. that's an idea for the imagination.
that means i'm stepping back from my developing idea of clarity as alternate rabit demo, because now it would just be the rabit demo plus or minus a few tracks. the clarity single just got a lot smaller. three tracks.
focus now is finalizing clarity. i'll have to stop to take snapshots in two or three places, but finishing the track - completely - is the next thing in the chart for sure.
that means i'm stepping back from my developing idea of clarity as alternate rabit demo, because now it would just be the rabit demo plus or minus a few tracks. the clarity single just got a lot smaller. three tracks.
focus now is finalizing clarity. i'll have to stop to take snapshots in two or three places, but finishing the track - completely - is the next thing in the chart for sure.
zen
this was constructed purposefully as a slice of absolute absurdity, and it's really the only way to make sense of it.
the core of the mix was created mid december, 2001. it was slightly remixed on october 5, 2014.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/zen
the core of the mix was created mid december, 2001. it was slightly remixed on october 5, 2014.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/zen
clarity (redone original demo) (initial upload)
i'm actually temporarily stopping with clarity, because i didn't finish it until a little later.
the next thing up will be that #9 monstrosity. it's likely that i'll upload without modifying it, but i want to listen with a nonsleepy set of ears to determine if there's any way to finish it.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/redone-original-demo
the next thing up will be that #9 monstrosity. it's likely that i'll upload without modifying it, but i want to listen with a nonsleepy set of ears to determine if there's any way to finish it.
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/redone-original-demo
actually, this isn't going to require cutting after all, that's not how i
did it - i went along and pasted the sample a dozen times in a way that
just mildly overlaps with the end of itself. so i don't have to worry
about finding the perfect cut, i can just go along and find the place
for the next sample by ear.
this should be fairly simple to construct very similarly, minus the improved sound quality.
and, in fact, i'm going to use cool edit for this part, as i think the blurry sound of the mix is an artefact of it. the song needs to be blurry.
i downsampled too, lol. i remember now that the noise was too intense, otherwise. it was a trade off between losing some of the subbass and softening some of the mid-high noise generators.
i may be able to mix the subbass back in, but one thing at a time....
i mean, now that the thing is downsampled, it will sound like 16bits if upsampled back to 32. so, i could then take the original file at 32, lowpass it and mix it in to bring some of the kick back.
that's a mixing stage thing, right now i'm reconstructing....
the fadeover happens to coincide with a bass beat. i'm almost certain that's what i did in the first place. so the syncing issues i was concerned about for this part are really non-existent.
the eyeing it out part has more to do with comparing the level in the waveform of the mp3 with the level in the reconstruct. how much did i amplify the fade? what percentage did i use for the paste over? i'm lucky that the possibilities are binary, as it allows for a finite number of possible choices. i can be confident it's extremely close to the original.
this should be fairly simple to construct very similarly, minus the improved sound quality.
and, in fact, i'm going to use cool edit for this part, as i think the blurry sound of the mix is an artefact of it. the song needs to be blurry.
i downsampled too, lol. i remember now that the noise was too intense, otherwise. it was a trade off between losing some of the subbass and softening some of the mid-high noise generators.
i may be able to mix the subbass back in, but one thing at a time....
i mean, now that the thing is downsampled, it will sound like 16bits if upsampled back to 32. so, i could then take the original file at 32, lowpass it and mix it in to bring some of the kick back.
that's a mixing stage thing, right now i'm reconstructing....
the fadeover happens to coincide with a bass beat. i'm almost certain that's what i did in the first place. so the syncing issues i was concerned about for this part are really non-existent.
the eyeing it out part has more to do with comparing the level in the waveform of the mp3 with the level in the reconstruct. how much did i amplify the fade? what percentage did i use for the paste over? i'm lucky that the possibilities are binary, as it allows for a finite number of possible choices. i can be confident it's extremely close to the original.
uploading clarity loops to the scratch pad
i'm tired of sorting through the page and finding the sketchpad link, then going through a captcha every time i post the sketchpad link, so i've put the link in the about section and will refer you there when i speak of the sketchpad.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica-Murray/41134747113?sk=info
so, i've uploaded a sample of the drums in 32 (i think it's 24, but it reads everywhere as 32) bit audio, and if you can play it without downsampling you can hear how thick they are. that got lost in the mix. my abilities to upsample are now much greater, so i should be able to convert this into a much better sounding mix.
going from scratch is consequently the best way to do it.
even if it's going to require some crucial dicing skillz.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica-Murray/41134747113?sk=info
so, i've uploaded a sample of the drums in 32 (i think it's 24, but it reads everywhere as 32) bit audio, and if you can play it without downsampling you can hear how thick they are. that got lost in the mix. my abilities to upsample are now much greater, so i should be able to convert this into a much better sounding mix.
going from scratch is consequently the best way to do it.
even if it's going to require some crucial dicing skillz.
so, i have an early instrumental mix of clarity to build on, but it's in mp3 and i'm not entirely happy about the mix - partly because the samples were in 32-bit and it's lost. depending on how different the result ends up, i may upload it but i think something would be missing from the source if i were to rebuild around that source. unfortunately.
so, i'm going to rebuild clarity from scratch, which means relooping. i have all the loops, but some of them are going to need to be re cut which is going to create something asymmetric. i'm ok with this, as it may improve the piece slightly to process the files more separately. the initial mix was done in cool edit, which is an intriguing but messy tool; i'm going to be remixing in a proper multitrack interface in cubase.
if it's a disaster, i'll have to rebuild from the mp3. i'm hoping i surprise myself with the accuracy of the recuts...
so, i'm going to rebuild clarity from scratch, which means relooping. i have all the loops, but some of them are going to need to be re cut which is going to create something asymmetric. i'm ok with this, as it may improve the piece slightly to process the files more separately. the initial mix was done in cool edit, which is an intriguing but messy tool; i'm going to be remixing in a proper multitrack interface in cubase.
if it's a disaster, i'll have to rebuild from the mp3. i'm hoping i surprise myself with the accuracy of the recuts...
Saturday, October 4, 2014
uploading the wave to youtube
regarding symphony 3....
i seem to have run the file through some reverb or something around the year 2007. however, i also have a rip of the file from a cd-r i made back in 2001. this is a long piece and the a/b is going to take some effort, but i'm currently leaning towards leaving the 2001 mix here just out of principle.
this is absolutely the next inri number, but there's some other things in the chronology before it, which gives me time to a/b it a few times.
this is the youtube upload, which is the 2007 mix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQdW5_lKtUY
i seem to have run the file through some reverb or something around the year 2007. however, i also have a rip of the file from a cd-r i made back in 2001. this is a long piece and the a/b is going to take some effort, but i'm currently leaning towards leaving the 2001 mix here just out of principle.
this is absolutely the next inri number, but there's some other things in the chronology before it, which gives me time to a/b it a few times.
this is the youtube upload, which is the 2007 mix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQdW5_lKtUY
i know $50 is a lot for one disc, but it's 7 hours and has six records on it - including one that's not for sale. so, you could look at it as getting a free record, considering the five that are for sale separately are $10 each. the shift in technology doesn't devalue the price of the music, it just makes media filing more convenient.
really, it's more about being realistic about the model. purchasing these records is an act of solidarity, to keep me going. it's not like purchasing a commodity over a market. the mp3 downloads can be thought of that way, but nobody is going to buy a cd-r from me unless it's explicitly to support me. so, it's more like setting a pledge amount.
but i'm honestly of the opinion that 6 full length records for $50 is really a fair price.
really, it's more about being realistic about the model. purchasing these records is an act of solidarity, to keep me going. it's not like purchasing a commodity over a market. the mp3 downloads can be thought of that way, but nobody is going to buy a cd-r from me unless it's explicitly to support me. so, it's more like setting a pledge amount.
but i'm honestly of the opinion that 6 full length records for $50 is really a fair price.
i've decided that there are two rabit songs i'm going to rip up: clarity and 9:46. these are both lengthy, epic pieces that i feel i have total (musical) writing credit over. but i'm going to finish two more that do have vocals, too (#9, wave). also, the vocal versions will continue to exist on the rabit demo, while i place the instrumental versions on j^2. it's not that the vocals aren't important to the songs - they are, in that form. however, they could and i think should both exist in alternate form without vocals. i just consider them pieces worth placing in my proper discography (all rabit releases will be treated as eps or singles, regardless of length). they share a thematic unity with what i was doing before and after rabit, whereas the other tracks mainly do not. i may also finish some acoustic demos, but that's less certain. the rabit material that's been previously released will be only minimally altered.
i'm hoping i don't have to rerecord any parts for those two, but i'm not going to let the idea act as a disincentive. while i want the pieces to sound as close as possible to how i intended them to sound, that isn't necessarily going to mean complete conformity to what already exists. that is to say that they're likely not going to be identical, which gives them their own flavour as alternate versions, rather than karaoke versions.
so, that's going to be the opening sequence of disc #6, whatever i call it, which is going to largely contain material that came out of the cynicide/rabit sessions:
1) to spin inside dull aberrations - 18 minute version. cynicide outtake.
2) clarity (instrumental reconstruction). rabit outtake. ~12 minutes.
3) breaking free of boxes (instrumental reconstruction). rabit outttake. ~10 minutes.
the wave is the next release, i just have to figure out how i'm going to get around the 291 mb upload max, or how i'm going to split it in two.
the clarity single will follow, with instrumental and vocal mixes as well as #9 (probably titled 'zen'), a sped up vocal version of the wave and some other things from nov-feb, 2002.
the demo itself will follow right after. there were two demos released - a 5 track and an 8 track. i'm going to attempt to merge them into one demo. so, the demo will have an extra epic appended to it, but otherwise be unchanged.
i'm also going to release the tour ep i was contemplating. logistics would have made it difficult for the two of us to perform the material, as sean did not play an instrument and it was not written in a way that makes it easy to teach to a musical beginner. so, i derived an evil plan to perform the material as an acoustic duo. there are numerous demos of acoustic material written for that purpose that were meant to be packaged in a tour ep. of course, like everything else in my musical career, that never actually happened. but, it's an idea worth completing, i think. the shape it forms is going to depend on an analysis of the actual material, but i could see myself adding synth parts to a lot of it.
the next thing up is the trepanation symphony, which exists in a dozen different forms that may require two or three discs to explore comprehensively. i do not know exactly how i will scatter this material around, but it dominates the output for the spring of 2002.
there are some scattered pieces in the second half of 2002 that were explorations of ideas developed in rabit that never went anywhere there and will be directed towards j^2. untitled will get it's own single and inclusion. there's another piece with working title 'ostrich' that will get similar treatment. j^2 will be sequenced for release near the end of 2002.
the very end of 2002 sees the beginning of work on the first trivial group symphony, and is a definite shift in period.
my workflow...
- clarity*
- #9 [zen]
- the wave (both)
- clarity single
- time, psi
- 9:46 [instrumental]*
- rabit demo
- rabit live acoustic demos
- trepanation
- untitled*
- atom's*
- taught to twist the affected so low*
- ostrich*
=============
- trivial group
* - j^2
(18 + 12 + 10 + 14 + 5 + 5 + 15 = 79)
i'm hoping i don't have to rerecord any parts for those two, but i'm not going to let the idea act as a disincentive. while i want the pieces to sound as close as possible to how i intended them to sound, that isn't necessarily going to mean complete conformity to what already exists. that is to say that they're likely not going to be identical, which gives them their own flavour as alternate versions, rather than karaoke versions.
so, that's going to be the opening sequence of disc #6, whatever i call it, which is going to largely contain material that came out of the cynicide/rabit sessions:
1) to spin inside dull aberrations - 18 minute version. cynicide outtake.
2) clarity (instrumental reconstruction). rabit outtake. ~12 minutes.
3) breaking free of boxes (instrumental reconstruction). rabit outttake. ~10 minutes.
the wave is the next release, i just have to figure out how i'm going to get around the 291 mb upload max, or how i'm going to split it in two.
the clarity single will follow, with instrumental and vocal mixes as well as #9 (probably titled 'zen'), a sped up vocal version of the wave and some other things from nov-feb, 2002.
the demo itself will follow right after. there were two demos released - a 5 track and an 8 track. i'm going to attempt to merge them into one demo. so, the demo will have an extra epic appended to it, but otherwise be unchanged.
i'm also going to release the tour ep i was contemplating. logistics would have made it difficult for the two of us to perform the material, as sean did not play an instrument and it was not written in a way that makes it easy to teach to a musical beginner. so, i derived an evil plan to perform the material as an acoustic duo. there are numerous demos of acoustic material written for that purpose that were meant to be packaged in a tour ep. of course, like everything else in my musical career, that never actually happened. but, it's an idea worth completing, i think. the shape it forms is going to depend on an analysis of the actual material, but i could see myself adding synth parts to a lot of it.
the next thing up is the trepanation symphony, which exists in a dozen different forms that may require two or three discs to explore comprehensively. i do not know exactly how i will scatter this material around, but it dominates the output for the spring of 2002.
there are some scattered pieces in the second half of 2002 that were explorations of ideas developed in rabit that never went anywhere there and will be directed towards j^2. untitled will get it's own single and inclusion. there's another piece with working title 'ostrich' that will get similar treatment. j^2 will be sequenced for release near the end of 2002.
the very end of 2002 sees the beginning of work on the first trivial group symphony, and is a definite shift in period.
my workflow...
- clarity*
- #9 [zen]
- the wave (both)
- clarity single
- time, psi
- 9:46 [instrumental]*
- rabit demo
- rabit live acoustic demos
- trepanation
- untitled*
- atom's*
- taught to twist the affected so low*
- ostrich*
=============
- trivial group
* - j^2
(18 + 12 + 10 + 14 + 5 + 5 + 15 = 79)
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