Robot Cousin Soundworks

Quick update on the Sesame Street/Aniboom thing: We’re currently standing at #16, which is fine. I’m still excited to be up there as far as we are. We could always use more votes, but then again, I think it’s still totally awesome that NPH could actually see our video. And he might like it!

Onward.

I’ve recently discovered “Sleep is Death” by independant game developer/musician Jason Rorher. Rorher’s focus on emotional gameplay is still here, only it’s not longer up to him to provide it to the player. Instead, SiD tasks Player One with enjoying a storyline, setting and characters completely written and controlled by none other than Player 2.

Yes, that’s right; It’s a point-and-click adventure that’s played different each and every time you play it, because both players are crafting the game as they go. It’s a game-maker, of sorts, with a heavy emphasis on storytelling. Yes, people have been doing this for years with D&D, writing their own campaigns, setting up traps, being absolutely develish or angelic to the unsuspecting player, but to take the idea of that, and apply it to a 2-player-only point-and-click game introduces an element that may be sorely lacking in today’s big budget titles: excitement.

Since learning of SiD’s existence and checking out the card chest of completed stories (these pages are created once a game is finished, and you can sign-up and upload your own to the site), my mind has been aflutter with all of the weird little (or big) stories. Murder mysteries, sci-fi comedies, post-apocalyptic tales of danger and excitement. And yes, I know what the game looks like. Just by looking at it makes me want to recreate some of the amazing adventure games that Sierra used to make (Police Quest, King’s Quest, Space Quest… other quests).

So, if anyone reading this wants to have a go at it, let me know! Leave a comment or email me (jordan _at_ robotcousin.com) and we’ll share a story. It’ll be weird, irreverant, bizarre, and perhaps moving… or I’ll try and kill you with every step you take.

Fun!

So I’ve been notified by Mr Curtis Carey of the Curtis and Tara show that he has entered ‘Today Vs Tomorrow’ in Aniboom.com’s Sesame Street Animation Contest (not the official name, not sure what is.) The thing is, right now, on the leaderboards, we’re #120* (#1 being the top video).

Wanna do something productive and positive today? Vote! Of course, I’d feel horrible if you actually didn’t like the animation but felt the need to vote just because I’m asking you to. So, if you enjoy the short, 2-minute film in the least, please vote appropriately. If you don’t like it, please don’t vote it down.

Link to the video in question (Aniboom.com)

Now, I do realize now that one must sign up (for free!) to be able to vote. This will probably send a lot of people away from it. Stay strong! Sign up, it only takes a second! Please?

*EDIT: Holy Hephaestus, we’re already #42!!!

EDIT #2: Now, as of this typing, the video is ranked #4 overall. Wow.

So I was looking into seeing how other people managed to somehow come close to getting the ever-elusive ‘Pumpkins-tone‘, and I found this, which has to be one of the more musically-inspiring things I’ve read in a while…

Yeah, on a side note: I saw them live at Madison Square Garden in the late 90s. I had tickets to the show that was cancelled because their keyboard player overdosed and they kicked jimmy out of the band. So a few months later they played a makeup show. It was like an out of body experience. I though Id be disappointed because Jimmy Chamberlin is one of my favorite drummers, but the drummer from Tool filled in and rocked it.

Their intro literally brought tears to my eyes. The Garden was pitch black, and this piano loop started to fade in, real gradual for about 5-10 minutes. I forget what song they opened with, but they snuck on stage while it was still pitch black, and then they hit the opening chord and simultaneously these blinding white lights came on from behind the band and I swear it was like seeing God.

On a side-note of my own, the ending piano to ‘Farewell and Goodnight‘ will always ‘get me’. I tried to pay homage to it in my own way, but I don’t think it’s nearly as good.

Moog introduces their newest unit, the Auto De-Tune.

Highly entertaining and very informative, I give you “MARSH: Slipperman’s Recording Distorted Guitars Thread from Hell”

An exerpt:

You gotta start in the room with ‘the sound’. First, Put in some fucking earplugs, so when you go to get sounds on the desk later you’ll actually have an opinion on ANYTHING. Then, get ‘Einstein’ to fiddle with his miserable square wave rectifier/noise generator until he confirms it is indeed producing “his sound”. The incredibly new and amazing sound you haven’t heard from anybody else…. in the last 15 minutes. This is MAJOR, once attained, we now have a starting point. We can now feel free to embark on our hellish voyage into the most fruitless and subjective undertaking ever conceived in the history of man’s sad efforts on this sad and forgotten pebble in space. “A great guitar sound”. Something NOBODY has agreed upon for more than 15 minutes since Ike left the White House.

Just stumbled across a free e-book on sound design/synth programming, titled “How to Make a Noise: A Comprehensive Guide to Synthesizer Programming“. I haven’t read a lot of it yet, but will be poring over it eventually. Even though there’s a more complete retail version of it that comes with patches to download outside of the ones for Chapter 1, I would think that anyone could gain at least something from checking out the free version. Have at it!

Just when I start thinking to myself “As much as I love the M-Tron (G-Force Software), I definitely have little-to-no-use for the M-Tron Pro”, they go and make a new soundbank for the Pro. It now samples the “Optigan”

I have wanted an Optigan ever since I first heard about it. Then again, I’ve also always wanted a Mellotron, and now have the next best thing in the M-Tron. Why must they tempt me? I shouldn’t complain. I’d rather the Optigan be available digitally than not. That means someday, somehow… it will be mine.

I love KVR.

Since I first started using Logic in 2006, I’ve used KVR to get a hold of both free and demo-versions of commercial audio plug-ins and software. For the past year or so, I haven’t really been around there much, but a few weeks ago, I signed up again, as I couldn’t remember my old username (on there now as robot_cousin). Now I’m watching my favourite plugins/developers and am notified if there are any updates or news.

There’s an entire community on the site’s forums that discuss all things from music theory to technical support, music listening to product reviews. For anyone dealing with audio in any capacity this day and age, you’d be doing yourself a service by checking the site out. I would say that it’s the ‘New York’ of audio plugin sites, but I’d be hard-pressed to find another site out there quite like it. However, if anyone reading this knows of a similar site, I’d love to hear about it.

The reason this post is coming to you now is because, as I stated, I recently got back into checking it out regularly, reading the forums, stuff like that. When I had first visited the site, it was at the dawn of Apple’s Intel processor, and plug-ins with a universal-binary (the ability to run on Intel and PPC processors) download option were few and far between.

Fast-forward to 2010, and we’ve got an OS that is ‘Intel-only’ on the mac side of things. Doing a quick search for ‘Universal-binary’ only AU plugins, even just the freeware ones, I’ve stumbled across 192 results, most of which are looking pretty snazzy. Not the least is this one.

The TT Dynamic Range Meter from Pleasurize Music Foundation. Before describing the plug-in, a little write-up of the company, directly from their site…

Our aim is to improve the sound quality of music in its various recorded formats – including data compression methods such as MP3 – as well as music destined for radio broadcast.
Only music that provides a positive musical listening experience has real market value. The Foundation’s aim is to increase the value of music within the creative production process for the entire music industry.
The objective is to revive the willingness to pay for music and therefore to create a healthier basis for all creative participants within the music industry.

While I might argue that dynamic range doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with sound quality (a crappy recording could be extremely dynamic, for instance), nevertheless, their aim is a good one. So, they’ve offered the free plug-in listed above, which I will definitely be using on every recording I make, going forward.

PMF on the TT Dynamic Range Meter:

TT Dynamic Range Meter makes it possible to provide releases with a whole-number dynamic value to be printed on the recording medium as a logo, giving consumers an immediate means of knowing the dynamic quality of a recording.

An online database is planned for furnishing information on music already released with the standard. In this way, conditions have been met for the creation of a single standard for audio recorded media – a step which was taken by the film industry over thirty years ago. Music with small dynamic range has a low value, for example DR4 (Dynamic Range = 4dB). Music with a large dynamic range has a higher DR value, for example DR14 or more. In this case, music can breathe and loud events are actually louder.

Note that this plug-in isn’t meant to give you more dynamic range. It is simply a metering plug-in that will be able to notify you of just how much dynamic range it’s sensing. In order to make dynamic material, well, you just have to have your ears on straight.

Before I go, I would be remiss not to mention another good website about the fight against the Loudness War, TurnMeUp.org. Some educational stuff on there for those who don’t know why music sucks so much now. Check it out.

Now to start using K-Metering…

Everyone remember Zed?

For anyone who might not, here’s a quick blurb, from the link I just posted.

ZeD was a Canadian variety television program and website. The series premiered on CBC Television in March 2002 and ran to 2006. Hosted primarily by Sharon Lewis and Ziya Tong, ZeD publicized creative works from Canada and other countries, including a substantial portion of material created by viewers and new artists. ZeD thus considered itself to be “open-source television.”^[1]

It was a pretty neat show, I must admit. I really liked it. Liked it so much, I submitted quite a few tracks for it. This was during my Halifax months, from 2002-2003. So you’d have a profile on there, and you’d upload whatever you wanted to, and then the show would then, at no charge, but also with no payment to you (who cares!) choose from a bunch of the content online to showcase each week. Well, imagine my intense excitement when a track of mine was actually featured! Yes, my music was going to be on national tv!!

The track was called ‘Crimson Head’, and, at the time, I was very proud of it. Thought it sounded good, and had a good flow. I listen to it now, and can still sort of pull some of those feelings up from the grave of the past, but mostly, I cringe. I cringe when listening to a lot of my older stuff. Hell, some of my newer stuff as well. But you know what? I kept writing, I kept going.

“You have to get all of the bad songs out of you, so you can start writing the good ones.”

I’m not sure who first said that, but it certainly fits. Anyway, this track was, at the time, my pride and joy, my finest accomplishment, my little electronic opus (don’t worry, it’s only like 4 minutes long). It ended up getting the attention of certain people. I tried to write more like it, but apparently, that failed.

And today, I’m going to let you all hear it.

Crimson Head

http://www.codeorgan.com/

The jist of it the site, from the site itself…

The Codeorgan analyes the ‘body’ content of any web page and translates that content into music. The Codeorgan uses a complex algorithm to define the key, synth style and drum pattern most appropriate to the page content.

Firstly, the Code Organ scans the page contents and removes all characters not found in the musical scale (A to G), and then analyses the remaining characters to find the most commonly used “note”. If this is an even number the page is translated to the major pentatonic scale of that particular note, it becomes minor if there is an uneven number.

It’s sad and nerdy, but I think it’s neat that www.robotcousin.com is in the key of Cm.

It’s out, it’s official; Project R has been announced. Check it out here.

The real name for it is “Bail-out! A Recessionary Rock Opera”. It’s a collaboration between myself, Chris Fulton, and Josh Linton, my friends from Fetal Films. I’ve worked with these two with both “Gamer’s Manifesto”, and more recently “Manic Chiropractic”.

I’m not going to give too much away, but I can say this: It’s going to be a short musical (it IS based on volunteer work through the NB Film Co-op, after all), and it will also be the first musical done through the co-op. It centers around one man’s plight with downsizing at his previously-well-paying job, all done through song! We’re planning on having about 5 songs in it, each about 3-4 minutes long, and I’ve already begun to write the music for it (rough demos, nothing polished yet. Drums aren’t timed up, nothing mixed, it’s all too loud, no vocals, it’s like everything is sonic drywall right now. Just the chords, and the melody-thus-far.) The lyrics are pretty much done, although up for tweaking if necessary

From the NB Film Co-op E-News…

Fetal Films and Robot Cousin Soundworks team up to rock the Recession in 2010!

The Great Recession of ‘08 calls up many colourful images; ashen, grey-suited hedge-fund managers fleeing AIG and Lehman Brothers like so many rats from a sinking ship; Red-faced right-wingers shouting “socialist!” in the faces of those who dared question the virtues of unbridled free-market capitalism; And of course, the sparkling, shiny bail-out greenbacks supposed to make it all just go away.

With such a rainbow-palette to draw from, Fetal Films (Photo of Chris Fulton to left by Jeff Crawford) (Chris Fulton and Josh Linton) and Robot Cousin Soundworks (Jordan Roherty) thought: “hey, why not set this hot mess to music?” And so a rock opera was borne…

“Bail-out! A Recessionary Rock Opera” – a unique musical film project in the history of NB indy film…

Fetal Films’ past work – the Silver Wave Best NB Comedy Award-winning films “Gamers’ Manifesto” and “Manic Chiropractic” – were films of modest ambition; few sets, a small crew, no pricey film-stock – films about slackers produced by slackers. So, to help them pull off the garish spectacle that is the modern musical, Fulton (Writer/Director/Co-producer), Linton (Lead Actor/Co-producer) and Roherty (Composer/Co-producer) are calling on some of the usual suspects to lend them a hand. From Moncton, Danny Thebeau on Camera, from Fredericton, Jen Chiasson rocking the Editing Suite, with other frequent collaborators having their numbers called soon. In addition to the familiar, Fulton and Linton will be rounding out the group with song and dance professionals, including a much-needed choreographer to harness and channel Linton’s raw, natural rhythm into a mainstream dance-style.

The Fetal Film folks are trying (Josh Linton to right) to bring something unique to the NB indy film scene, but will need support from the NB film community at large – we hope to feed off of your enthusiasm to push us through the process and hold us accountable to you, the NB film fans.

Regular updates will be posted on the e-news feed. Will be holding auditions in the months to come, so look for alerts in the e-news and on Facebook.

Anyone interested in dropping a line of encouragement, or for more info, you can reach Chris and Josh of Fetal Films at: recessionrockopera@gmail.com

Thanks!
Chris, on behalf of Josh and Jordan.

Winning films “Gamers’ Manifesto” and “Manic Chiropractic” - were films of modest ambition; few sets, a small crew, no pricey film-stock – films about slackers produced by slackers.  So, to help them pull off the garish spectacle that is the modern musical, Fulton (Writer/Director/Co-producer), Linton (Lead Actor/Co-producer) and Roherty (Composer/Co-producer) are calling on some of the usual suspects to lend them a hand.  From Moncton, Danny Thebeau on Camera, from Fredericton, Jen Chiasson rocking the Editing Suite, with other frequent collaborators having their numbers called soon.  In addition to the familiar, Fulton and Linton will be rounding out the group with song and dance professionals, including a much-needed choreographer to harness and channel Linton’s raw, natural rhythm into a mainstream dance-style.

The Fetal Film folks are trying to bring something unique to the NB indie film scene, but will need support from the NB film community at large – we hope to feed off of your enthusiasm to push us through the process and hold us accountable to you, the NB film fans.

Regular updates will be posted on the e-news feed.  Will be holding auditions in the months to come, so look for alerts in the e-news and on Facebook.

Anyone interested in dropping a line of encouragement, or for more info, you can reach Chris and Josh of Fetal Films at: recessionrockopera@gmail.com.

Introducing… the “Eigenharp”

From the official site…

A professional level instrument which allows the musician to play and improvise using a limitless range of sounds with virtuoso skill. The unique design of the keys makes this the most expressive electronic musical instrument ever made. The Alpha can play and record loops, change scale and key, transpose, alter tempo, program beats, create arrangements, switch and layer multiple sounds, all while the musician is performing live on stage.

I believe this will run an interested musician approx $4,000 U.S. thus making it the most expensive electronic instrument currently on the market. However, there’s also a smaller, cheaper version called the “Pico” that doesn’t include so many options.

And here’s an excellent BBC article with a video of someone showing the reporter how to use it, and also it being used in the context of a band

Bonus video: Pico performance!

RPM Challenge 2010 is a go! Sign up here. Don’t know what I’m on about?

From the site…

This is The Challenge - Record an album in 28 days, just because you can.That’s 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material recorded during the month of February. Go ahead… put it to tape.

It’s a little like National Novel Writing Month, (NaNoWriMo.org) where writers challenge each other to write 1,700 words a day for 30 days, or the great folks over at February Album Writing Month (fawm.org), who encourage artists to write 14 new songs in February. Maybe they don’t have “Grapes of Wrath” or “Abbey Road” at the end of the month, or maybe they do—but that’s not the point. The point is they get busy and stop waiting around for the muse to appear. Get the gears moving. Do something. You can’t write 1,700 words a day and not get better.

Don’t wait for inspiration – taking action puts you in a position to get inspired. You’ll stumble across ideas you would have never come up with otherwise, and maybe only because you were trying to meet a day’s quota of (song)writing. Show up and get something done, and invest in yourself and each other.

Anyone can come up with an excuse to say “no,” so don’t. Many of you are thinking “But, I can’t do that! I don’t have any songs/recording gear/money/blah blah blah…” But this doesn’t have to be the album, it’s just an album. Remember, this is an artistic exercise. Just do your best using what you have in order to get it done. If you have a four-track, become a four-track badass! A mini disc, a pro-tools rig, a Walkman, an 80’s tape recorder – use it. Do your best. Use the limitations of time and gear as an opportunity to explore things you might not try otherwise. If you can afford studio time in a “real” studio, fine, but let’s be completely free of any lingering idea that “good” records can only be made in a studio. If that were so, then all the old scratchy blues records or Alan Lomax field recordings that have changed our culture – the world’s culture – wouldn’t still resonate with us today as they do. Springsteen’s haunting classic “Nebraska” was a demo he did at home on a crappy machine. That album is fricking awesome. What label would put those recordings out now? (See: who cares) There are a million examples of this kind of stuff, but the fact will always be: Well written, honest music is compelling and undeniable no matter what it was recorded on. So put it to tape.

February will come and go whether you’ve joined in or not, but do you really want to be left out?

So there you have it. I feel like crap because of last year’s “one song” entry, so I’ll be sure and AT LEAST get farther this time around. All tracks will be posted here as well, denoted as being part of the RPM Challenge.

For all music makers out there, sign up! What have you got to lose?

The holidays have just passed, and with them they have brought many nice things for me, and hopefully for all of you out there reading this. Two things of note:

• ARTcessories Zdirect Di Box! Haven’t tested it out yet, but I will be soon.
• “Sometimes I Rhyme” by Curtis Carey of The Curtis and Tara Show.

“Sometimes I Rhyme” was a wonderful surprise and a fantastic gift. From the rhyming stories about a jungle gym with an appetite, to breasts, shortcut keys for Adobe Flash, and even Jesus vs Buddha, this book of absurd and awesome poems should probably be on your list of neat gifts to give people who appreciate neat gifts. I’ve already decided that I’ll be picking it up for someone who I previously couldn’t think of anything to get.

Also, if you’re not listening to their podcast, you obviously hate fun. See below:

Crazy deal available until Dec 31st 2009

You buy and register one of their listed products (StealthPedal, StealthPedal Deluxe, AmpliTube 2, AmpliTube 2 Crossgrade, AmpliTube Fender™, Ampeg® SVX, AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix™, AmpliTube Metal), and then you get to choose from THREE (3) of their plugins (AmpliTube 2 Crossgrade, Ampeg® SVX, AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix™, AmpliTube Metal, T-RackS 3 Standard, SampleTank 2.5 L, Miroslav Philharmonik CE)

Just got this email from IK Multimedia. I would jump at this deal if I could afford it right now, but unfortunately, I cannot. A few years ago, I did participate in a group buy deal from IK, and I ended up with a ton of samples (SampleTank 2) I never use (it doesn’t really seem like they work… sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, maybe I’m missing something, maybe I didn’t care enough), but it came with Amplitube 2, which was the free plugin they let me choose. This looks like an incredible deal, but even though I’d be saving $900, I’d be spending over $200 that I don’t currently have to spend.

If only this deal had shown up sometime early next year. I would absolutely love to have that pedal.

The plugins I would probably choose would be Ampeg, T-Racks, and Amplitube Jimi Hendrix. A lot of people prefer Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig, and I’ve tried it, but there’s something about Amplitube 2 that just got me from the start. I think it’s the wonderful crunch sound they emulate that I had difficulty emulating in GR. Perhaps it’s because it seems to take few system resources to run.