Robot Cousin Soundworks

Normally, I’d leave this blog to discuss audio and gaming-related things only (more-so audio, of course). I’d like to break away from that at least for this one post.

Today, it rained lightly. I was coming out of the grocery store, and the smell of wet asphalt was all around me, and it was wonderful. Which brings me to the purpose of this post…

Top 3 Favourite Smells:

1. Hotel hallways – Not many people agree with, or understand, me on this one, but I must say, my all-time favourite smell is that of a well-kept hotel (possibly motel) hallway. There must be some sort of industry-standard issued cleaner that does it for me, I don’t know, but ever since I was young, the hallway aroma of any given hospitality establishment makes me eternally happy.
2. Wet asphalt – Before my 6th birthday, when we moved in with my grandmother in her house, I lived in a regular, everyday subdivision. I recall playing out in the rain a lot, be it racing my toy motorbikes up and down the curb with my friend Kyle, or running up and down the street with my friend Mark. I wouldn’t normally be outside when it was pouring, as kids get sick at the drop of a barely-diseased hat, but I have always loved that feeling of an impending storm, and the scent of the pavement as it was pelted with water. Playing outside in Kyle’s backyard, with Tonka dump trucks in his sandbox, hearing the far off boom of thunder; for me there is no greater memory.
3. Newly-constructed house – Again, before moving in with my grandmother, I seem to remember my parents and I attending a lot of open-houses of not-yet-painted builds. The clean-but-dusty, bare wood smell of an empty house not yet lived in is fantastic, and I really suggest anyone reading this to at least check out an open-house, even if you have no intention of buying. The ‘new car smell’ doesn’t even compare.

So, tell me, what would your favourite smells be?

The Commodore-64 coming back?

Ok, so apparently, my news is late, and this was announced a while ago. Now, there’s an issue with using the name…

From the article:

When the Commodore 64 returns from the dead, it may not be called the Commodore 64.

In mid-March, a company calling itself Commodore USA unveiled what appeared to be a new incarnation of the iconic early-80s machine. “You fell in love then. Fall in love again,” the site said as it dissolved from an image of the original Commodore 64 to a slightly-less-retro machine with, yes, a built-in keyboard. According to the site, this apparent reincarnation of the Commodore would include not a mere 64 kilobytes of memory, but a 64-bit quad-core processor – plus Gigabit Ethernet, a DVD-RW drive, and a 500GB hard disk.

The site – which has a retro look of its own – said the machine would debut in June, and according to Barry Altman, the man behind the company, it’s still set for a June arrival. But when Altman originally launched the site, he didn’t have the rights to the Commodore name. And now he says the company has merely secured the temporary right to use the name as he negotiates a more complete deal. And if he does secure the rights, he’s not quite sure the machine will be called the Commodore 64.

“We’re still toying with that,” Altman told The Reg today. “We could call it a Commodore 64, ’cause of the 64-bit processor. Should we or not? I don’t know.”

Altman says he slapped the Commodore name and logo on his site in an effort to, well, locate the rights holder. That way, he could negotiate a deal that would allow him to slap the name and logo on his site. “It’s such a convoluted entanglement of corporations and subsequent corporations and sell-offs and resales of that trademark over the years, it was very difficult to determine who the real trademark owner was – or is,” Altman explained.

“We wanted to go to the dance. We didn’t have a partner. In order to entice whoever that legal entity was or is, we just put the logo up on our website.”

Sadly, I doubt it will include a SID chip, unless they emulate one, which would be fantastic. Anyone who would be interested in making some classic C64 SID tunes, should check out reFX’s QuadraSID.

I have an AKG c451 B on order right now. I was going to get the c414 XLS, but with the 451 being half the price and still a stand-up mic, I figured (for now, at least) I’ll go with that. I really only need it for some voice work and foley. I was kind of stressing spending so much on the 414, and just the other day I realized that all of the foley that my classmates and I had for any of our projects were actually done using the 451. That did it. Cancelled my order for the 414, and might get my 451 by the end of this week.

In other news, I found a really great, cheap way to get some room treatment done, and I think I’m going to give it a shot. If anyone is interested, you can check out this post here by Matt Mayfield over at Logic Pro Help.

The Mac is here.

The Interface is here.

The Mics are here.

The Software has been downloaded.

Now for the business cards and slight site re-design. Gotta get the business in business.

One thing that’s been bugging me, though… my Mac Pro (and all Macs sold now, I guess) are now full-on using Firewire 800 (otherwise known as 1394b). You’d think they’d offer, you know, an adapter or cable to help EVERYONE OUT THERE WHO IS STILL USING FW 400, but no. Nope, no such adapter even exists in my city. If I want to order one (and I’d actually prefer two), I have to pay ridiculous shipping. Therefore, I guess it comes down to me buying and installing a FW 400 PCI-e card.

I’ve missed owning a tower.

I have funding! The hurdles have been passed, and I have come through, richer on the other end.

Now to spend intelligently! The gear list includes, but is not limited to, the following;

• Mac Pro
• Pianoteq
• Addictive Drums
• AKG 414
• Sennheiser 421 (love this for radio voices)
• Heavyocity Evolve
• Much sound-proofing from realtraps.com
• Logic 9 (hey, why not?)
• Amplitube 3

I’d type more, but I’m actually too excited to really get it all out in words.

I should probably take this time to mention to anyone reading this who doesn’t subscribe to my Facebook page that I’ve finally been approved for a loan to buy equipment and start up my company for real. And I’ve done everything that I need to do… except…

There’s a bureaucratic hurdle that I’m more than willing and more than able to get over, but unfortunately I have to wait until the signing officer for this document is in their office, which they haven’t been in the last little while. Each day that they’re not there, I’m told they will be there the next day… and when I show up (now I’m just calling beforehand) I get told “Oh, tomorrow, they’ll be in.” This has happened 3 times so far.

I want to push so much music out, it’s crazy. I’ve never felt so pent up with creativity. I think it may be because I’ve sort of limited myself as of late to what I’m doing, so that when I have all of my ducks in order and everything set up, I can always, at a moment’s notice, go over, heat everything up, and get cooking.

Lately, the excitement has dwindled because of how much the carrot has been yanked away from me the closer I seem to get, but over the past couple of days, I’m getting ideas non-stop for all sorts of music. I’ve got 4 projects (one is a sound edit) that are on the queue when everything is green-to-go, and I can’t wait to jump in.

Here’s hoping I get that signature tomorrow.

—

Note: Updated the links on the right.

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

From the moment I touched it, I wanted it. The settings, the controls, the feel, the name behind it. A long time ago, when getting paid for music was a concept MUCH farther away than it is nowadays, I saw it at a Musicstop in Halifax.

The Roland V-Synth.

The D-Beam, the Time Trip Pad, and everything else it offers is like some sort of insane ’synth-fiction’ creation, designed to conjure up the craziest sound imagineable. One of the last bastions of hardware synths.

And therein lies my problem. If, and that’s a big ‘if’, I get funding for building my studio, then that would be my chance! My chance to finally have a V-synth of my very own. You see, outside of a silly little Yamaha basic, non-MIDI keyboard, I’ve never owned a hardware synth. I’ve been totally software-based since I began. I want to change, I want to plunge in and own it, both physically, and musically. I want the tactile advantage of a hardware synth.

But at what cost? What would I replace in my studio? It’s a give and take, because I’ve only budgeted for a certain amount, and right now, that includes what I think I need so far. Do I cut something else out? Pianoteq? Heavyocity Evolve? The Mac Pro? The sound treatment? The extra monitors? Some of these are a definite ‘no’.

Choices, choices. But hey, I would much rather be in a position of trying to decide what gear to get and what to pass on, than to not be purchasing any at all.

No complaints, just thoughts.

I’m going to take a little break from audio-talk to discuss something very important.

Google Documents.

I have now converted to ‘the cloud’, as it were. Cloud computing is definitely a very excellent thing. After years of dealing with Open/Neo Office, and the inconsistencies and weird quirks, I am finished with them. The Google Spreadsheet app alone is worth the cost… if there was one. But, as with pretty much all things Google (save for the Android), it’s completely free.

And the fact that I can access it from anywhere that has access to the internet (and doesn’t have the site blocked) and I’m golden. Add to that the fact that I was able to share a document to another GMail user (could’ve shared with multiple users too!) in the blink of an eye, and now, I’m just left really trying to find a downside to all of it. Is there one? Internet connection required? That’s almost a given for anyone, anyway.

If you haven’t checked out Google Docs yet, I highly suggest you give it a while. And hey, if you want to share a document with me, send it along to slaptheolsentwins (at) gmail (dot) com.

Project R/’Recession: The Rock Opera’ is still being hammered out, note by note, instrument by instrument. I’m having a bit of difficulty with one of the pieces, as there’ll be a lot of orchestration from things like horns and strings, and those are some of the hardest to fake through virtual instruments. Also, my computer is choking. Yay for the ‘Track Freeze’ option (think “Flatten Layers”, if coming from the Photoshop side of things), but even then, you can only freeze so much and get away with it.

On the RPM side of things, I’m actually coming up with a lot of good stuff… which is a problem (for RPM at least). I actually want to turn these into real tracks. And I know that just because they’re for RPM doesn’t mean they didn’t happen, but I don’t think I could bring myself to put a song into two groups. If I actually had a record deal, and was making songs, b-sides would be b-sides, and the track list of an album would be that and only that, not songs from another place or anything like that. Billy Corgan has the same sort of hangup, so I guess I have him to thank for that way of thinking. I can’t help it! It’s a rule, but one I haven’t had to enforce just yet.

So I’m left with about 3 tracks worth of stuff I really, really like, and refuse to put towards RPM, even though I’ve come up with them, and recorded them within February. Will I finish my RPM album? Looks like no. Does this bother me? Not in the least.

RPM is doing what it was meant to do, and for that, I am thankful.

An ode to my favourite plugin of all-time, Modartt’s Pianoteq.

I don’t have room for
All of those huge sample sets
15 Megs is great.

The sound is awesome
Procedurally Perfect
Mic Placement as well

Modartt Hit it big
Pianoteq is quite “Grand”
Diff’rent tunings rock

Generate at once
A totally brand new sound
Not the same next time

Site update 50% done. Actually, all I really did was change the background image (still not happy with it, but perhaps I’ll change it yet) and the header image. Anyway, at least it’s all blue now. Might work out the grey on the page as well.

In music-news, work began on my RPM album last night. I put down the basics of the first track. I know it’s going to be the first track because it’s precisely how I want to open the whole thing. A sonic kick in the face to let you know “You’re Here Now.” Hmm.. maybe I’ll call it that.

Work continues on the musical. Getting a really good, gradiose chord progression, but I won’t say yet what it is. It’s got to be something that sounds grand, something that causes people to immediately take notice. It also has to kick you in the face, sonically.

So much violence, next to no silence.

With the RPM album (that’s already got a title!), I’m finding it a bit tought to make music for myself. Does it sound good to me? Does it really, really matter this time? Sort of yes to both. All I know is, good or bad, I’m going to release this by March 1st. Well, I’ll be putting it online for my site probably the same time it goes up on rpmchallenge.com, so you can decide where you want to listen to it (or if you want to listen to it at all).

I wish I had more to add, but I don’t.

February is going to be a busy month. People reading this can look forward to the following:

• New Site Layout – Not too radically different than what’s already here, but as mentioned previously, you’ll have to update your bookmarks (unless subscribing via RSS, which you should be) to go to www.robotcousin.com/blog. Also, a colour change is happening. Apparently, orange is the colour of unpredictability and being unstable. As much as I would like to say that I’m going to model it after the music I want to make, for visitors, it doesn’t seem that welcoming.
• More music – RPM Challenge 2010 is soon underway (and if you’re not making music for it, at least check out the page to see what’s what. Root for me or something), and I’ll be posting a bit of music on here at first, I think. A little way to keep myself motivated. When it’s all said and done, I’ll take whatever half-finished idea I posted and exchange it for the ‘real-deal’, so there won’t be two versions of tracks floating around.
• Some Third Thing I Can’t Remember.
• Updated clips for the demo reel – I did music and sound for Manic Chiropractic, why not put a clip up? Why am I asking you?

Out.