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Friday March 7, 2008
Hi again! March has marched in and this weekend marks the start of daylight saving time in the US. I generally balk at the loss of an hour's slumber but that's cause I'm a lazy old gray cat. The topic for tonight is music and I'm going to clue you in on a very simple yet interesting technique for creating bass loops. The simple part of this formula for bass lines is that there are just 2 notes used; the root note and a second note pitched 1 octave higher. Now open up your sequencer of choice (I use Orion Pro) and start up the step or pattern editor. You'll probably want to select a synth bass, but I've found it works well with a sampled bass too. We're going to alternate between the first low note (L) and the second note that's an octave highter (H) every 16th of measure, (or 32nd of a measure if the song tempo is slower than 90bpm), for one whole measure. That's it. You have a retro bass that will juice up your techno masterwork. If you really want put some cheese in your tacos try adding a bit of phase, flange, or wah to the effects chain . You can also vary the basic Low-High (LH) pattern to add some variety. Try HL, or better yet, HLLH-LHHL. It's fast, easy, and works surprisingly well, and now it's part of your musical arsenal. Go nuts!
The picture of the week was created using Carrara Studio.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some energetic synthesizer runs
The web site of the week is the official Star Wars site. Here you'll find a wealth of information about the movies, merchandise, and just about everything else related.
The PC game of the week is Titan Quest, which combines a cracking good FRPG with the rich world of Greek Mythology.
The book of the moment is Digital Sci-Fi Art by Michael Burns
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday February 29, 2008Hello and happy leap year! Once again we have an extra day on the calendar to ponder our fates and to celebrate the good stuff. The topic for tonight is computer games and the history thereof. Any regular reader of this blog will know that I'm very keen on space games of all types and the game I'd like to focus on is one of the earliest. Star Trek, an unauthorized computer game based loosely on the TV series first took flight in the early 70's. The first versions of the game were written in BASIC and were text only. The Star Trek game put the player in command of the starship Enterprise, defending a small number of star bases against a horde of Klingon enemies. The game was turn-based and required more strategy then quick wits and reflexes and favored any player who was good at doing polar to rectangular coordinate conversions. It would take later generations to add graphics and real-time action to the mix, culminating in games like Atari's Star Raiders. You can still find a number of free versions on the web including some vintage 70's and 80's programs that run on emulators. One of the demo programs included with the Euphoria programming language is Langwar; a game very much like classic text Star Trek with the names changed. For the real lowdown check out the Star Trek page on the Games of Fame site.
The picture of the week was created using Project DogwaffleClick on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are a group of deep bass synthesizer samples
The web site of the week is the Language Guide, a site with descriptions of several major and a few obscure computer programming languages.
The PC game of the week is still Dark Star One. Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.Bye for now!
Friday February 22, 2008
Good Evening! Friday in So Cal bring colds weather and rain again. The topic for this fine winter night is music and more specifically resources for learning to play Blues on the Net. The first stop on our tour of this rich musical territory is the Slowhand Blues Guitar page. The main attraction here is a cool free Blues guitar tutorial with an emphasis on the distinctive style of Eric Clapton. Further down the road you'll find the Fender Player's Club and still more free Blues guitar tutorials. This site has a good variety of lessons for all skill levels and some tasty audio demo clips. An added bonus is that you can find lots of other tutorials ranging from Rock to Reggae in the “woodshed” section. Finally I have a site offering some free Blues piano instruction in relatively small and easy to digest bites. You'll get a bit of foundation work as well as a rundown of more advanced riffs and tricks. You can't get good unless you practice too but it can't hurt to have some help getting started. Give them a try!
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 group of sublime synthesizer samples
The book of the week is Manga for Dummies, a beginner's guide to drawing Japanese style cartoons.
The web site of the week is Free Gamer, a blog devoted to free and open-source games. This page has a nice presentation and has been kept up to date.
The PC game of the week is still Dark Star One. I'm still in the early stages of the game, building my reputation by doing a bit of pirate hunting.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.Bye for now!
Friday February 15, 2008
Hola! It's the Friday before President's Day weekend and the topic for tonight is free software. I have a couple of new additions to my ever-expanding collection of graphics programs that deserve a bit of attention. The first half of tonight's double-feature is MakeHuman; A free (GPL) program for creating detailed 3D models of human figures. MakeHuman produces very high quality objects with an almost eerie level of realism. The controls are easy to use and you can adjust the parameters to make almost any male or female body type. The one deficit I could find with the program is that it doesn't include any means of adding hair or clothing to your carefully constructed human model. So MakeHuman is great for making a model of a nude, bald person. If you really need hair and clothing you might do well to buy the more widely-used Poser package. The other freebie software pick of the week is Bryce 5.5, a program I've been promoting here for some weeks now. Version 5.5 is just one step behind the current cutting edge (6.0) and while not quite as powerful, it's still a full-featured commercial release with all the bells and whistles intact. Bryce excels at creating landscapes, but has enough features and capabilities to do animations as well as realistic images. Huge kudos and thanks go out to DAZ Productions for releasing the last version of Bryce, when they could've simply dropped it and kept selling the latest. I can only hope that this practice becomes a trend in the industry.
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 group of blues drum parts
The web site of the week is a history of computer graphics and animation.
The PC game of the week is Dark Star One, a space trading game in the spirit of Elite.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it. Bye for now!
Friday February 8, 2008
Warm winter greetings! I'm back for yet another Friday evening of shared artistic thoughts and views. Tonight I'll talk about the use of recycling in music and graphics. The term appropriation applies to the practice of using borrowed elements in the visual arts. In music a new composition can be made entirely from short sound samples or loops. Some controversy has emerged over the legal use of material under copyright, especially in the current electronic age. The alternative is to use royalty-free images or sound-bytes to complete your next collage. You can find more than a few sites offering free or inexpensive content, so consider making your next masterwork from some recycled raw materials.
The picture of the week is a sci-fi image created using Project Dogwaffle (textures), Anim8or (models), and Bryce (terrain and rendering).
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some simulated acoustic guitar strums. These samples haven't been Acid adjusted.
The DVD/film of the week was The Big One, from director Michael Moore; a documentary dealing with corporate downsizing in the late 1990's.
The web site of the week is artist Debi McSwain's Daily Painting blog. I have trouble coming up with some words, a picture and music loops every WEEK, but Debi manages a daily post of some truly lovely paintings. Check it out!
The PC game of the week was still Sword of the Stars. I've started a small-scale search for another 4x game to slay my few remaining hours of free-time, but in the mean time SOTS is the best.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it. Bye for now!
Friday February 1, 2008
Hi All! Welcome back to my words for the tail-end of yet another week. I was browsing eBay this week when I spotted what looked like a remarkable deal. A full-featured 3D modeling and animation package for less than $10. The specifications listed were very impressive, as were the screen shots. So what was the catch? The software in question is Blender, a program that can be downloaded for free from the developer's site. That's right amgios, some clever parasites are selling pieces of FREE software to the unsuspecting neophyte bargain hunters. Not just Blender but some of the very best free and open source stuff is being sold online, including Audacity, NVU and Open Office. I can see repackaging free stuff on a CD or DVD and charging folks a bit for the media, but these guys are simply providing a download address. My suggestion is to ALWAYS do your homework before buying such a low-priced package. Chances are, the cool music or graphics application you're considering is available elsewhere for the downloading.
The picture of the week was created using Project Dogwaffle.
Clic
k on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some drum loops.
The PC game of the week was Sword of the Stars.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday January 25, 2008
Chilly winter greetings! It's a cold and rainy January eve here at the gray cat's place. The topic for tonight is music and I'm going to share some web sites that offer free music stuff. I've mentioned KVR Audio before as a good place to hunt for free and commercial plug-ins. You can search for instruments, effects or host programs in a huge variety of categories, ranging from free and lightweight to costly and capable. It's an easy way to expand your favorite music program without breaking the bank. If you're a musician in need of some manuscript paper or guitar tab sheets you need look no further than blanksheetmusic.net. Finally, if you crave the sound of a good march, then check out the music section of the John Phillip Sousa site. Here you'll find complete MIDI files of all 136 of Sousa's marches, as well as short MPEG, and RealAudio clips. Among my favorites is “The Liberty Bell”, which became famous (or infamous) as the theme from Monty Python.
Last week's meme-tag resulted in feedback from 40% of those I tagged, so I guess it was a little less than half successful. I'll bug my old pal Mark later about getting on the ball and passing the meme on.
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 sweet synthesizer parts.
The book of the week is “The Selected Poetry of John Donne”
The PC game of the week is Forged Alliance yet again.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
