Mods for iPods and Play for May

Friday May 9, 2008

Friday Greetings! Today was a bit gray and cloudy but all told not a bad spring day. The topic for tonight is music technology and the focus will everyone's favorite portable media player, the iPod. What most folks don't know is that Apple's tiny tech marvel is really a small computer, complete with CPU and RAM. Given that information, some clever folks have successfully ported the Linux operating system onto the iPod, and dubbed their efforts iPodLinux. With Linux comes a whole range of serious and frivolous applications, including the seminal FPS game Doom. If turning your iPod into a pocket computer is too geeeky, then you can always get the cute little dancing doggy shaped speakers. Having said all this, I must confess I've never owned an iPod, though as with all cool, tech-toys I've coveted them on occasion. Perhaps at some point the fates (and my budget) will allow me to catch up with the rest of the civilized world.

The picture of the week was created using Makehuman and Anim8or.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some rock drums.

The PC game of the week is Travian, a browser-based building game.

The book of the week is The Poetry of Robert Frost

Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!

May Day and Music Upgrades

Friday May 2, 2008

Hi all! Friday brings lovely spring weather and slightly cooler temps. The topic for tonight is music software and the focus will be on upgrades. Software for music creation runs the gamut from free trackers to pricey studio packages. I've always tended toward the applications somewhere in the middle of the price/performance curve. The sneaky “gotcha” that underlies building a library of cheaper programs comes when a new version of your favorite music tool is rolled out. The good news is that the upgrade is usually available at a decent discount from the maker to users of the earlier versions. The bad news if that if you go through enough of these incremental updates, you end up paying a higher cumulative amount. I suppose this problem applies to buying the premium, flagship products as well, but when you're on a tight budget you feel the pinch a bit more. I actually ended up about 3 versions behind the current Acid Music Studio release until I could raise enough to upgrade. Some music software companies also offer the option of upgrading to a higher version (again at a reasonable discount) once you've purchased one of their entry-level products. I've been a long time user of the Orion Pro music production package and have been very happy with it. Orion formerly came in to flavors: Orion Pro, and Orion Platinum. With the relase of Orion 7.5 on May 1, the old Pro version has been dropped. Synapse software, the makers of Orion, are graciously offering Pro users an upgrade to the current version for a limited time. It would ordinarily be great to get the latest version of Orion for about a quarter of the retail list price, but even that fractional amount is a stretch for some of us on a tight software budget. Until free or open source stuff catches up to the performance level of commercial apps, I'll have to keep trying to play catch up when I can.

The picture of the week was created using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view

The loops of the week are some big bass runs.

The PC game of the week is still Command and Conquer 3.

The book of the week is The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion by Will Eisner. A graphic novel that is the final work of a great comics innovator.

Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!

Adieu to April and Collective Creativity

Friday April 25, 2008

Greetings! 'Tis Friday and I'm back with the usual mix of creativity and high spirits. This week the topic is writing, and in particular we'll talk about working with others. I recently started on a collaborative project with a small group that has been working on creating a short film. This is new territory for the old Gray Cat but it's fascinating to be in this type of learning situation. In the past I've only completed short poems and outlines for stories. In the group, every session yields new insights and quantifiable progress. My point is that like a musician who only spends time practicing alone I had been isolated as a writer. You need to join a band or group to truly grow and develop as an artist. The payoff is both better productivity and a wealth of other viewpoints and ideas. If you're looking to get a start on your next artistic work, give collaboration a try. You may be surprised by the results.

The picture of the week was created using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view

The loops of the week are some bluesy electric piano riffs.

The PC game of the week is still Command and Conquer 3.

The web spot of the week is the Philharmonia Orchestra site. Lots of cool stuff to be found here including a great library of sampled orchestral instrument sounds.

Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now

Practical Practice and Rehab for Rehearsal

Friday April 18, 2008

Hi All! Friday is here once more and the topic for tonight is music. Rehearsal is a subject that every musician must deal with. Hours of exercises, scales, and general noodling build confidence and skill. I must confess that being both a keyboard player and guitarist, I find myself waxing in one department while waning in the other. Practice time can also conflict with whatever other interests, jobs, or projects you have going on at the same time. In my case the pull of computer programming, graphics, web surfing and TV all detract from hours available. Some players recommend setting aside a regular practice time each night, and my former guitar instructor suggested even taking time to strum while watching TV. The moment of Zen occurs when muscle memory and reflexes kick in, and your fingers seem to play the notes themselves. I think tonight I'll give my downstairs neighbor a bit of Smoke on the Water or Sunshine of your Love on guitar. If you really want some inspiration to keep practicing, take a look a this t-shirt bearing the classic “Carnegie Hall” joke. When faced with practice time, don't get discouraged by the challenge and keep on trying!

The picture of the week was created from a photo using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view

The loops of the week are some vaguely Asian flutes.

The PC game of the week is still Command and Conquer 3.

The Web spot of the week is the official Electric Light Orchestra site.

The book of the moment is Asterix and the Laurel Wreath by Goscinny and Uderzo; a classic European comic combining both sharp humor and beautiful artwork.

Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!

Regress for Success

Friday April 11, 2008

Hi All! It's another fine Friday evening here in sun-drenched so cal. The topic for this week is the creative process and a method for finding your muse. I deal mostly with art as it relates to technology but sometimes you need to take a step back to break a creative block. If you're a visual artist, try spending an hour or 3 away from the PC screen and drawing with pencils or crayons or ballpoint pen on a sheet of 3-hole binder ruled paper. The point here is to return to the media of childhood and see if there is a fresh source of ideas in the mud-pies we all made while growing. If music is your thing, try beating simple rhythms on a hand drum or tambourine. Pick up your old harmonica or ukulele or recorder and see what melodies emerge. If you write, try composing a silly story in the style of Dr. Seuss. Creativity and imagination are the basis over which we build artistic technique. Try it and see if it doesn't jump-start your inspiration.

The picture of the week was created using Bryce.
Click on the image for a full-sized view

The loops of the week are a set of deeply effected sampled guitar bits.

The PC game of the week is still Command and Conquer 3. The battle for tiberium continues.

Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!

New Programming Projects

Friday April 4, 2008

Hola and TGIF! It's April and the weather is mild and suitable for springtime. This week I started my first SDL project using Dev C++. I've done some work in the past with SDL and the Euphoria programming language, going so far as to write a header for SDL and a number of associated libraries. Euphoria quite a bit easier to work with, but C++ has the advantage of being a much more widely used langauge. I had a couple of false starts trying to add the SDL files to my project by hand before stumbling onto the the DevPak which contains all the necessary SDL stuff in an easy-to-install package. So far I'm still at the mud-pie stage, but if this works I'll try adding some other SDL libraries such as SDL_mixer and SDL_TTF. The other programming news of the week was that I downloaded and installed a copy of thinBasic, yet another interpreted programming language with a syntax based loosely on BASIC. It looks quite cool, but as always I've more projects then time to work on them all so it will have to wait for a decent test drive.

The picture of the week was created using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view

The loops of the week are a set of sizzling synth bass parts.

The PC game of the week is Command and Conquer 3.

The book of the moment is Beginning C++ Through Game Programming, 2nd Edition by Michael Dawson.

Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!

Making Music from Noise

Friday March 28, 2008

Greetings! It's Friday once more and the theme for tonight is music. I've embraced randomness as a tool for music creation, and I'm starting to do some work with white noise. Most simple software synthesizers have a white noise generator as one of their basic oscillator types. White noise in a raw form seems distinctly non-musical, but by applying some filters and effects you can transform the noise into strange and lovely sounds. This technique works particularly well for creating percussion sounds for synthetic drum loops. Give it a go and see if you can creates some truly unique sounds of your own.

The picture of the week was created using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view

The loops of the week are a set of synth drum sequences.

The PC game of the week is still Sid Meier's Pirates!

The book of the moment is still Desperate Husbands by Richard Glover.

Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!