NaSoAlMo: What it is and why we like it

This month, or November actually, I plan on participating in NaSoAlMo, other wise known as National Solo Album Month.. This is a thing where various musician / sound artistic types.. decided to participate in a challenge to create a solo album in a months time..  Basically.. it’s an excuse to get serious.. for a month.

Last year, as long times followers would know, I created ZarMattAThustra’s Deep Space Adventures.. for NaSoAlMo….  This, I must tell you, was one hell of an adventure. There’s nothing like working your ass off on something, if you want to grow by leaps and bounds… and at the end of last years National Solo Album Month’s thing..  I felt like I had made a giant jump in my music production / etc skills..  And so now, we embark on the next adventure…

On the Stategery and tactics of taking on such a challenge

Generally speaking.. if I’m working in my conventional ways.. and didn’t have a lot of other stuff to contend myself with.. was very focused.. I could maybe spit out about a track a week.. which might be around.. oh lets say an average of about 6 minutes a pop…. which comes out to what, like 24 minutes of music? Well.. the challenge is to make an album of at least 29:09 minutes.. so that’s not quite going to cut it.. and seeing as I have other things to deal with in life.. and seeing as last year I only found out about this about half way through the month… one must develop alternative strategies and tactics.. which is perhaps another interesting thing to deal with… 

So, lets take a look at last years strategies.. and this years strategies.

ZarMattAThustra’s Deep Space Adventures Production Strategy 

I found out, as I said before, about this challenge, about half way through the month.. but had already begun work on a few tracks.. so figured I could still make a go of it.. If I tried something radicle.

My radical process started with.. working with different types of sound generating type programs.. where you improvise via tweaking various parameters and record the results. This instantly creates a whole lot of music.. but then you have the question of “is this interesting music?” So the next challenge is “how do we make this interesting music?” This became the jumping off point for an experimental sonic adventure. For the most part, this involved the following approaches:

1. Lets Process the crap out of these audio files.
2. Lets mix stuff together different versions of processed audio into a kind of composite audio file.
3. Lets slice up the audio file into discreet loops n stuff
4. Lets sequence the loops
5. Lets integrate this with our usual way of working 

 Well, that’s the broad outline anyway.. 

Tools Used

1. Ableton Live
2. Arturia Storm
3. Native Instruments Komplete (mostly Reaktor)
4. A Wimpy G4 Mac
5. Reason
6. A guitar
7. A Zoom H4 field recorder 

Ok, so that’s the basic broad brush stroke outline of it.. You can read more of my writings related to this project here…  That would be the full list.. The writings where I wrote during the production are as follows: Off In Reaktor Land, Red Rum Re Drumed, and finally Gonzo adventures in music production.

Should you like to hear the album in it’s entirety, you can find it on over here at mattsearles.com/music. 

At the time I created it.. I wasn’t real sure of it.. but since then I’ve gotten a lot of good reviews from people.. and now figure.. well, it’s probably a pretty good album.

The New Production Adventure

Tools likely to be used:

1. The Bad Ass 8 Core Mac Pro
2. This here new MacBook (2GHz Due)
3. Komplete 5
4. Kore
5. Ableton Live
6. Reason
7. ReCycle
8. A Tascam 16 channel Mixer as a MIDI controller
9. An M-Audio DJ like MIDI controller
10. A Guitar
11. A Slide Bass
12. Digital Performer
13. Liquid Mix 16
14. Couple of budget Condenser Microphones
15. Zoom H4

In addition to all that madness..  I’m looking to add VirSyns Cantor Vocal Synth and… VirSyns “Take Five FX bundle” which includes Bark, Matrix, Reflect, TDesign, and VTape. Indulge me as I talk about these a little, won’t you?

1. Bark is a pretty interesting looking  27 band filter / EQ and compressor
2. VTape is a set of analog tape emulation plugs that emulate tape based saturation, delay, and flange. I’m very much in need of a tape delay type effect.. and very much wanting some sort of analog tape emulation warmth.. 
3. Reflect is an Algorithmic Convolution Reverb. Even in the current version of Digital Performer, I’m not feeling like my reverb bases are covered quite enough.. and I expect Reflect to really help out along these lines.. and the integration of Algorithmic and Convolution technologies into a single reverb unit is a quite attractive thing.
4. TDesign is a Transient former.. I don’t know too much about this sorta effect.. but it does give you control over your dynamics / transience.. and there are quite a few production folks out there whom are very into such things
5. Matrix is a Vocoder, and according to a recent issue of Sound On Sound, a very impressive Vocoder.

 So… as you can no doubt see.. We’re talking about a massive upgrade from last year’s project.. studio wise anyway, so, what of the plan off attack?

Plan of Attack

I have lots of music ideas, and I’m pretty sure this project isn’t going to be able to explore them all.. but, we’ll certainly see how far we can make it.

• The first thing I want to do is.. See if I can’t jam out some stuff using Kore to control various Reaktor beatboxes, sequenced instruments, and sound generators..  This will effectively create one box full of building blocks.
• Next I want to experiment with a somewhat traditional-ish approach to sequencing.. where you play around on a keyboard, quantize stuff, and put together stuff that way..
• I want to use ReCycle to create REX files out of some of the results.. to use as building blocks that way.
• A rather central thing I want to explore is.. vocals. These vocals will probably be ether.. me speaking into microphones and vocoding the hell out of it.. / Melodying the hell of it.. or Cantor stuff.. somehow creatively mixed into the music.
• I’m actually thinking of the possibility that this album project could feature some sort of a narrative / lyrical whatever.. that might sit at the center of the album.. which would be a really huge jump for me to take.
• I see a part in the process where I jam away on guitar and bass to construct.. well… something or other.
• I imagine a part of the process where I have all kinds of content loaded up into Ableton Live.. and use the MIDI controllers / Mixers to kinda improvise out something…

 Of course, in the end, all this stuff must me integrated into one giant process… so, wish me luck…

Since I got the new MacBook I’ve been obsessed with a new video blogging project. This seems to have come out of the blue.. not that I hadn’t been thinking about video a good deal prior.. but jumping into this like this.. The level of commitment I’m now feeling for it.. the excitement and passion I’m feeling for it.. The feeling of just being possessed by it… that is very surprising to me.

It’s as if God spoke to me and said “Matt, you must start video blogging, you must become a video blogger.” “Well God, that’s a little random, don’t you think?” Of course the trouble with God is.. there’s really no one to turn for for second opinions.. well I suppose there’s always Satan but…

It comes to me like a revelation.. like one day you wake up and you realize “this is what I’m supposed to do,” and though you had thought about it prior.. never did it command you.. . not like this.

What’s brought Matt to this new video blogging project? 

Ok, brace you’re self.. this could get long.

Somehow I always wanted to be a film maker.. since I was little kid… So it should be no surprise that I took some video and film making classes in college.. though.. the equipment at Mass Art, the only state art school in the US, was not capable of.. well I couldn’t do what I wanted to do with it.. so I never really got too into video or film making while there… really only dreamed about it.. though I did take a few film criticism type classes to kinda.. prepare I guess… 

But I can remember hanging out in the dorms.. getting high with some folks.. and telling them how in a few years anyone can own a video camera, the tools to edit it, and how we’d be distributing it via the internet.. imagining that world of possibilities.. and so.. I sorta went in that direction.. with my music, learning web design skills.. etc.

Somehow.. somewhere in there.. perhaps it was a result of my first “real job” as an interactive designer.. I was able to afford a video camera.. I also bought Premier and After Effects. I think I must have been on a G3 that could barely handle it.. it didn’t have a DVD burner, and the hard drive was tiny… so in practice I didn’t do much video.. just played around a bit.. shot video.

I started creating a kind of video library of.. just raw footage.. some of it dating back to the collage years.. with the idea that I’d eventually do something with it.

Sometime latter.. still on that old G4.. I started dating this girl whom.. I fondly refer to as Sue of Zen. Sue was hard of hearing.. needed subtitles to watch tv or films. When she was thinking about getting HBO I saw my opportunity..  ”No, you should get Net Flicks I said… I was thinking “if she needs subtitles to watch films.. she probably will be fine with foreign films.” So.. I conned her into letting me pick the films.. all the great film makers of film history.. for the year or so that we were involved.. I’d see up to 8 films a week.

The effect of Sue of Zen and I watching so many films was.. I became a horrible film snob.. I mean when you watch that many films.. that many of the greatest films ever made.. it’s hard to tolerate the crap!  I haven’t watched films like that since.. and I’ve grown a little more forgiving of Hollywood.. 

Well there was one other effect.. I became a lot more sophisticated about film.

When it came time to buy my Mac Pro.. I was thinking Video Making when I bought it. 8 Cores, a better then standard graphics card, 1.7 or something or other terabytes of space.. go for the 2 24″ HD screens..  etc.. I was even budgeting in professional video cameras and lighting rigs.. . 

But the thing was.. I wasn’t really jumping in head first into the video production stuff.. Hell, I wasn’t doing much of anything.. well, that might be over stating it. 

A few latter: 

Anyway.. so a long story, right? I can’t really get into everything about what I’m up to.. so lets go into what I’m up to at the moment..

Adventures in Apple’s Motion 3D

Motion is a motion graphics program.. that’s sorta 2.5D-ish, that’s a part of Final Cut Studio.  Motion graphics is basically animation with tittle graphics for film and TV.. My approach is basically painting plus the dimension of time… 

So I don’t know Apple’s Motion..  And Apple hasn’t done a real good job with thinking through the learning process… as the manuel is rather sucky. They have a few training videos, but they don’t really get you up to speed.. they just kinda give you a few things.. and from there you just kind of fumble around.

For the last couple days now.. I’ve been doing these little motion graphics projects.. which are perhaps more about learning the software then it is about making great work.. I’m aiming for great work, but who knows if I’ll actually get there.

Still.. I can see the potential…   

A couple days latter (I think):

I’m slowly getting to the point that I kind of understand what’s going on in Motion.. It’s not really that hard to pick up.. though there’s a depth to it that still seems a little out of reach, maybe? Or maybe there’s just a lot of things I figure I ought to be able to do, that it should be able to do.. but I can’t figure out how to do it or even if you can do it.. but then I’m new to the case….I’ve rendered out a number of motion animations.. and.. I have mixed feelings on them.. of course there not exactly meant to stand on there own.. In any event, that I now feel like I’m getting a feel for the program.. my expectations for what I ought to be able to achieve.. is now to start really going up.My latest sets of projects have been to take stuff that I’ve designed in photoshop.. or created in photoshop. In Photoshop these images are constructed with lots of layers.. In motion I take the images of the different layers, and set them up in 3D space.. so the layers now have spatial relationships between them.. and I’ve got a few lights going.. and I’m goofing around with the cameras.. and everything is sorta moving around a little..This really does feel like painting plus the dimension of time… Painting in motion, if you will. Though using this kind of language to talk about it seems to overstate it a little.What I’m doing is very much in keeping with the kinds of stuff I was doing with After Effects those few years back. The After Effects CS4 upgrade is now on my “to get list”.. and I may likely get it rather shortly.. assuming that I continue my video commitment.. 

Motion Graphics / Animation Goals

My plan of attack, technology wise, is to start with Motion.. of course. Eventually I’ll jump into After Effects… of course.. And then, assuming I can get Cinema 4D to run on this computer, well.. there’s that. The first objective, I guess, is to obtain some serious competency with Motion.. and then into After Effects. Cinema 4D I expect to be a giant learning project, and for that.. the goal is simply to get to a point where I’m able to start creating stuff to integrate into this sort of motion graphics / animation pipeline.. as a pose to going all out into 3D animation. What I mean is.. I get the ball rolling with this stuff.. and then just add pieces to it.. a process by which I hope to develop competency with the other stuff.. but real competency with that stuff.. only needs to be at a level determined by this stuff.. if that all makes sense.

Conclusions

I don’t know what will come of all this stuff, but it’s a fun adventure to go on.. and I have laid down the ground work in many ways.. to hopefully do something great.. We’ll see what happens………..

[Editors note: This was written yesterday.. and seeing as Matt bought the MacBook, its likely he may start posting endlessly on the subject, and thus asks me to apologize on his behalf.] 

I’m sitting here thinking “hmm, I wonder if they’re in stores yet?” Should I race out and buy one? I’m so frightened.. yet in a rather Mark Hanser-ish way, tingly…. Ok.. so let this be an entry to help rationalize the damage I’m about to do to my fiscal situation…I don’t know if I can rationalize it, really.  Do I even need a laptop? I mean.. hell yeah, I want one, but do I need it?

I have a crapy laptop.. the sort a self respecting person refuses to take out in public.. Plus it has no hard disk space… and I can’t really do anything with it. Right now it rests by my bed side as a DVD player.. and even for that it sucks.. cause of the screen.. depending on the angle of view.. you can’t see things.. and you certainly can’t do design work on it.. plus it’s a PC so half my software won’t run on the damn thing.

Yeah.. there’s lots of reasons to want a new laptop…  and yes.. I do believe in the notion of having both a laptop and a desktop.. ether that or just a really powerful laptop.. but seeing as I have a monster of a desktop.. the laptop need seems less.. is it just for computing when I’m not sitting in this chair? 

I wonder how such a laptop could change my life. When I got the cheesy laptop.. I thought “oh cool, I’ll be able to work anywhere,” and I fantasized about the meaning and implications of this. But the reality was.. I was lucky if I got 2 hours of battery life out of it.. you could barely watch a whole movie on battery.. I certainly couldn’t do design work on it.. and lets face it.. it’s a pc, and who likes PCs? And there was the issue that it was rather heavy to have to lug around.

It did become my main computer for a time… My G4 PowerMac was so much more wimpy.. all it had going for it was hard drive space.. 

Latter that night, having picked up a new MacBook

Yup, I got the MacBook. How is it? It’s pretty awesome.. I have a video review I hope to put together..

There’s some technical issues.. I’m planing on replacing the hard drive.. which means I can’t really install any software that’s copy protection scheme ties it to the disk.. So.. so far about all I got on there is DP and Reason.. none of the Native Instruments stuff, Liquid Mix can’t run on it cause it has no hard drive..  

I suppose I could put some of that stuff on there in demo mode but.. thing is it literally takes about a day to install all my software.. and I’m not even sure that it would all totally fit.. and what if, in the interest in disk space.. if I should want to not put certain types of stuff on the laptop.. how should I divide my stuff up?

So yeah.. long story short.. I have limited software on there for now.. as I wait for a new drive to arrive.. once I get around to buying the thing…

I will say that battery life is way better then my old Dell… it’s also lighter, better constructed, less bulky, better designed, better OS, significantly more power all around… better features.. and.. well, costs a good deal more. (The old one was free after all) 

So.. I’m already feeling like the experience will be substantially different then what my experience was before.. We’ll see. 

So, if you haven’t heard.. a couple hours ago from this writing, Apple announced new laptops.. revisions from the MacBook Air to MacBook’s to MacBook Pros.. I’m not feeling totally up to speed on things… but I’ll give you where I’m coming from.. But I’ll give you the basics of what’s new, and follow it up from there.

What’s the hubbub about?

First off, what’s new and exciting?

• New “unibody:”  Stronger, lighter, thiner, nicer design
• Multi Touch Track Pad supporting gestures
• New Screen: Better color
• All Around more speed: processor, RAM speed, bus speed
• New Graphics system.. Apple claims up to 5 times the speed of the old laptops (Adobe CS4 stuff ought to really take advantage of this)

Ok, so that’s really about it..  Contrasts between MacBook and Mac Book Pro

• MacBook Pro offers two graphics processors.. one that consumes less power, the other is more powerful.. where as the MacBook only has one. 
• 13″ versus 15″
• 4.5 pounds for the MacBook, 5 pounds for the Mac Book Pro
• MacBook has 2 USB 2.0 ports, where as the MacBook Pro has 2 USB 1.0 ports plus a Firewire 800 port.. and oh yeah.. the MacBook Pro has a ExpressCard/34 slot.. 
• MacBook Pros have faster processors.. though not by large margins
• The new MacBooks Start at $1300, the Pros at $2000.

Out side of all that.. you do get more hard disk space on the pros.. and blah blah blah… but its all custom configureable from Apple’s website. There’s a New MacBook Air on the way.. which is significantly more attractive to me then there first model..  so.. What computer makes sense for you, of course, has to do with what your needs are.. to illustrate this concept, I’ll give you what I’m looking at. 

Matt’s Laptop Needs

I own a Mac Pro.. and an outdated cheesy pc laptop. In a new laptop I’m really looking for a secondary sorta Mac.. so for this reason “cheap” is good… There’s been roomers that Apple would announce super cheap ultra portables.. If they did, the question for me would be “is it the right mix of stuff?” This didn’t happen, though might still happen in the future.. one would think this could have a huge effect on Mac market share if it did.. so one assumes there’s some likely hood to it.. but even in a secondary laptop I do want “some power.”

I do everything from video to sound to animation to graphics to web stuff.. and who knows what I’m forgetting to mention.. all of which like power.. but um.. ok, here’s what I’m really looking at:

• To be able to do presentations
• I’m thinking of looking at doing work as a live sound engineer, and to have a system for making those live recordings.. and latency willing.. possibly effects processing.. where I can use my effects as a pose to what a house system has on offer..  Along with this goes a making multitrack recording of live performances that then can be mixed and potentially done any number of things with.
• Live Rig as musician.. use my synths and effects.. this can be my rig.
• The usual not being tethered to a desktop stuff.
• Some software allows you to connect multiple computers in order to increase your power.. like render farms for 3D graphics.. this kind of thing.
• If I were doing web work.. I could show you right from my computer.. what I was working on for you.. This is really ideal.
• Being able to watch movies portably.

Because I have a Mac Pro.. this laptop being secondary.. power not being so important and portability being more important then power or other considerations..

I find myself looking at the 13″ MacBooks  

Size matters 

The first issue is screen space.. 13″ is not happy time for pro apps… productivity is an issue.. but you can connect up a second monitor.. and I happen to own a 17″ monitor that’s not getting to much play these days.. so instant duel monitor at home.. and 13″ does have a portability advantage over larger laptops. And we’re only talking about 4.5 pounds.

But I want my Firewire Port!

Currently my studio features 2 pieces of Firewire Gear.. an audio interface and Liquid Mix 16. The latter is a DPS processor that, do to how it connects to your computer.. has huge latency issues making it useless for live applications.. Still.. not being able to use it with a 13″ laptop is still an issue. 

On the interface side of things.. stuffs a little more complex. My current interface would like to be updated.. the trouble is that, generally speaking, firewire interfaces are better then there USB brethren: USB 2.0 doesn’t have the same data rates.. not to mention requires more processing power… so in USB interfaces you don’t get the same number of ins and outs, and or sample rates.. as you can get over firewire. Things like MicPres are more important to actual sound quality.. but the better Pres are often limited to more high end gear.. and that gear is on the Firewire side.. it’s sort of suggestive that I might have to buy 2 interfaces.

Of course, as it turns out, my studio does have 2 USB interfaces: a Kore 1 controller plus an H4 Portable recorder.. the latter featuring phantom power even.. So really the only reason I would need to invest in a new interface is for live applications where I had a band going into the laptop.. and it turns out there are fairly cheap interfaces that can handle the mount ins I’d likely be wanting to handle.

I suppose the other issue is most video cameras want the firewire port… and Firewire drives are surely preferable.

So those are really my only complaints / Issues

There maybe more issues when I look more closely at the subject.. we’ll see.

The model I’m likely to go with probably runs $1400 plus a kind of extended warranty deal. In addition to that I’m thinking of getting a Mobile Me account and a $500 1 TB Time Capsule.. and a $50 AirPort Extreme Card for my Mac Pro..

Of course the trouble is.. I have limited money till a CD matures in a few months.. so I don’t know but..

And the other thing is a social media friend is looking to sell his old Mac Pro.. I was feeling pretty serious about buying that.. till Apple announced the new MacBooks..

Later that night: 

Well, I just discovered that hard drives are super cheap for this sorta computer.. we’re talking $80 for 500GB.. which means Matt’s going to go for a cheaper laptop and buy a drive to swap in there.. So.. anybody wanna buy a lap top drive? 

In this episode I share my last sorta finished bit of music.. that I’ve been meaning to post forever.. I’m not sure what I think of it.. maybe you can leave your comments to help me think this through.. At the moment I’m thinking the mix could be fixed up a bit.. with respect to the base end.. That’s my chief issue.

I wrote a lot about this little project.. and so.. well, I should leave some links to said posts.

• Music to Freak Out Stoners: Music Production in the Deep End 
• MTFS Revisited: New Sonic Adventures

After this, we get a few posts that.. Kinda go into the depths.. and these are sorta subtextual, at least, stuff on this production.

• From Linguistics and music, to depth  psychology, psychedelics, mysticism, philosophy.. and Aesthetic as it relates to my musical art project
• Notes from a rad mad Electroacoustic creative music production process
• Some Jolly Lyrics.. to the music I’m making
• Must post something….. News from the front: Music Production blah blah blah’s

So I guess that’s it.. after that the blog kinda goes off into sound synthesis… which may sorta form the basis of what I show in the next podcast episode.. so till then hope you dig it.

I should add that should you want to subscribe to this via iTunes, this be the link. 

 

 Music to Freak Out Stoners Revisited [6:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

After quite a hassle.. Digital Performer 6 is finally running on my system. The first thing you noticed about DP6, versus 5, is you got a new interface.. This new interface has 3 main implications:

1. How do you make a wheel again?: You have a new interface to learn… you must learn new ways of doing whatever it was you were doing before.. 
2. There is a Psycho Acoustic principle via which software with new shiny interfaces always sounds better then the old ugly ones: More then anyone ever wants to admit.. our perception of audio is influenced by suggestion.. and so it is that if the software you’re using looks pretty.. well you think it sounds a whole lot better. From the point of view of someone producing music.. this is a nice feature.. as it inspires you on your adventure..
3. Stuff is Streamlines, or at least that’s what MOTU would have you believe: For the period in which you can’t figure out how to do what you used to take for granted.. stuff isn’t streamlined…. But I must say.. there’s a lot of stuff about Digital Performer that I really thought was.. well ways in which DP wasn’t exactly making sense in a modern production context.. and what do you know.. they’ve worked out much of that.

Beyond this grooviness.. we got other new grooviness.. but none of this is what’s really striking me at the moment.

Matt, what is really striking you? 

What’s really striking me is a sense of Awe of what I’m able to do in my studio now. On the sonic software side of things we got Digital Performer 6, Ableton Live, Reason, Native Instruments Komplete, Kore 2, and Liquid Mix 16… plus a couple other odds and ends. There are gaps that still need filling, which I could go on about ad nauseam… some of which I’m looking to rectify in the short term, others more long term.. but however you want to slice it.. there’s a lot of power under the hood.

Why are you struck by this now?

This is a complex topic but.. There is this sense that “software tools are not as good as hardware tools,” or at least that would be a simple way of putting it. It’s quite a bit like some people feeling that vinyl records are better then CDs… That vinyl is somehow “warmer” then CDs. This is a complex topic that can go into subjects of sample rates, ramifications of particular mastering issues for vinyl… and on and on and on. In the world of music production technology the topic is even more complex as that the technology of production is much less static then the issues of Vinyl and CDs.. which, lets face it.. people are choosing low quality MP3s anyway…  so what does it really matter?

My production tools acquisition process has always been one where issues of “price versus performance” plays the key roll.. If hardware tools are 1o% better then software tools, but cost 40% more.. I’m probably going with the software.. But in the world of serious sound engineering.. it’s the finally 10 or 5 percent that separates the men from the boys.. Most of what makes a good record are the people making it, not the tools.. but tools are very important.. and if you don’t have the right tools.. you’re probably not going to get there.. 

All of this talk is somewhat abstract.. until you actually start listening to the gear… In the last few months I’ve been going through a few years of Sound on Sound magazine.. reading reviews, interviews, and whatever.. trying to get a better picture of what gear is out there.. production techniques.. and all sorts of related things.. as well as scouring the internet.. and listening to all kinds of samples of all sorts of tools.

Somewhere in this process I began to think “hmm, maybe my tools aren’t so great?” But then DP6’s new look and feel came to the rescue.. and I started to perceive differently.. and started to discover how amazing some of the tools I have really are.

So I mean it was a kind of subjective shift that brought a new perspective.

Where the Artist Plays

As I tried to get to before.. the most important thing is not your tools.. it’s you. And it’s not even really your skills so much as your spirit.. for it is, after all, the spirit who employs said skills.. and even said tools!

There is something to be said for habit.. I find myself approaching my music making in more or less the same way as I always have.. In the last 9 months or so.. I’ve gone on all manner of fun little experimental adventures.. exploration of process alternatives.. and what not… But even with all that.. as I approach the music making today.. I do so in the hum drum of habit.

Habit?

For many, habit is a state inside of which growth doesn’t really happen. However.. if there is sufficient anarchy in your habits.. that anarchy is always going to be putting you in varying positions which you will have to wrestle your way out of.. and that’s often where the interest in my work comes. Or that’s one way of putting it.

Still.. I’m not without desire to get out of my usual habits.. it’s just that.. such ambitions are not really the most important thing.. the most important thing is getting the damn ball rolling.. and if that means playing to your preexistent strengths, so bit it. 

Getting the ball rolling? 

Yeah.. getting the ball rolling is the most important thing. As we speak the ball is in motion.. Wether I’m working a way on music, screwing around with photography, working with video, computer graphics, web design, whatever.. at the very least.. each day.. I do something.

The end goal is to have as much of your energy as possible pouring into this work.  The more of you you can put into it.. the better the work will be… By which I don’t necessarily mean that you should “be in your work” but.. well thats complicated.

Next Day Sometime

My work is a strange beast!  In someways, going about what I’m going about.. I feel like I’m working on Indra’s Net version 2.. Indra’s Net was a project I worked on sometime in 2004… and at the time the laptop I was using.. well the screen was freaking small.. which effected things in a number of ways.. the processor, even for the time.. was very much on the budget side.. I never had enough RAM.. some of my software wouldn’t even run! And we didn’t even have enough hard disk room to save what we were doing in anything other then MP3 files!

Now of course.. we’re using 2 24″ HD displays.. We only have about 2GB of RAM but that hasn’t been a real issue in the music production department.. We have software that’s 2 generations beyond what I was using on Indra’s Net.. We have ridiculous amounts of processing power…  and we have more disk space then we’d ever use for music production. Finally, instead of Cubase we are now using Digital Performer.

Beyond all that we are 4 years in the future.. 4 Years more mature.. whatever I’ve learned about music production since then.. and 4 years evolution in my work. 

So.. The implications of all this.. are actually kind of big.

Implications on habit

I don’t think I spoke elegantly about this last night.. and now that I’m a little further along in my production.. new things are growing clear.

Habit, in a certain way.. is like a path you’re walking down.. habit being an act that keeps you on that path.. and so it is that we see our selves evolving further down a path.. There are certain things we add to our bag of tricks.. certain things that change things a little bit.. lets explore in the context of the current production.

New to the new studio.. is a lot of new Reverbs. Digital Performer gives us a convolution Reverb.. and Kore 2 gives us a whole number of other sorts of new reverbs.. besides new reverbs there is, for me.. new ways of thinking about how to use reverbs.. varying .. and how I might EQ them… all of which has to do with creating a sense of space inside of which our music is happening.

My music, of course, is about space.. moving through space.. more psychic space then real space.. and music production in general.. creating a sense of space is important..

project specifics 

I think of the music as something like a buddhist meditation.. it is something like thoughts flowing through consciousness.. consciousness is our stage.

The use of Reverb and delay, and how I’m mixing stuff.. can transform.. or contextualize something that would normally be thought of as aggressive or rocking.. into something more ambient.. something we don’t think of as aggressive or rocking.. and in a fluid sorta evolving mix.. with respect to our sense of space.. the context can give us different shades.. where the aggressive bits can be more like textures.. to being.. something to rock out to.

This production is very much like this.. about this..  We have this rather industrial type percussion.. which rises in intensity over several measures.. and also moves from very far away to closer.. It repeats.. with gaps between repeats.. and it isn’t until it’s second repeat that it ever gets close enough to us that we feel it as heavy in anyway.

The sound elements that start off far away, and move in closer to us.. are all simply repeating the same lines.. no variations at this point.. accept in how they play against the other repeating parts.. and with respect to there location in the mix.

Everything has this ambient like feeling to it.. Until part way through.. We have a rather lead synth sound.. it repeats twice.. but then.. when it might repeat.. in comes a church organ.. which though it does start of a little ways away from us.. it doesn’t start off in audible.. and it’s repetitions are variations.. and it becomes as if the repetitions of the different instruments are now kind of.. playing against each other in a new kind of way.

It’s during this stage of the music’s evolution that I’m now bringing in a string section. The string section will not be playing a repetitive part.. but will instead be playing in ways the plays off the harmonic ecology of the mix.. repetitions we do find in it.. will be to echo other instruments.. and to create a move clear coherence.. in the material.

For now the music is moving into a place where it could be quite a bit more aggressive.. to be heavy and rocking.. but where we are at now is still a bit of a dream. 

How this Compares to Indra’s Net 

What I failed to mention about the Indra’s Net Project was that.. I had just bought Komplete 2.. (5 is my current version).. and I was really just started to explore the tools.. and a new version of Cubase.. Now I actually know the tools..

What we are seeing now is subtleties.. between the new reverbs, the larger sound pallets… and the mix has a much greater kind of.. quality to it.

Ok.. well finally I want to share some of my pictures from a hike I took around Blue Hills about a week ago.. there’s been a few requests so…  gotta get on that, right?

Before we get started.. let me just say I’m new to photography.. really only picked up a camera for the first time at the early part of this past summer.. but that said.. I don’t think I’m really that bad at it.. really just learning… and as I take you through these, I’ll no doubt talk about it a little… 

Ok, so Entering Blue Hills

We are entering via the main pond.. and before we get to the main field.. by the main pond, well it looks kinda like this, right? 

If you walk up the hill towards the big dark tree there.. and look out over the field.. here’s your view:

Kinda pretty, ha?

If you walk into the tree line.. and then just a bit to the right.. you’ll come to this view of the pond / beach…

Not really sure if that was the pic I meant to post for that scene.. but oh well…

Here’s one around the same area.. but with the tree’s obstructing our view.

And here we have another view of the water:

Should I add that these are all taken at about the same time of day?

Shit.. I def posted the wrong one here!

Anyway.. its a bit of a walk from here.. across a few fields.. and you eventually end up on “The Old route 128.” Which.. I guess is 128 before it.. was moved? lol, clearly I don’t know anything about it…

This is all more or less the order shot.. and me looking for something worth shooting.. well, I was messing around with focal ranges.. which is different from how I normally shoot.. and wanted to see what I’d get with this aperture if I zoomed in on something and.. with the background kinda out of focus.. and here’s what I got..

Which lead into this series.. who’s mood I rather like.

I do rather like the super saturated look.. along with that very high contrast. 

This little series was more or less taken with me standing in the same position.. just rotating around. 

And.. if we get out of this little mini series.. and rotate around to the street.. we see our bicyclist friend again.. riding away from us…

You know its kind of funny.. cause this pic is just sooooo unusable!  I mean its way out of focus.. you got that mad lens flare.. before I digitally developed the hell out of it.. it looked way the hell over exposed.. so that this was really an experiment of taking an unusable picture and making it usable.. not that it’s so great even as is.. but.. I still sorta like it.. perhaps with an “if only.”

But you know.. good enough for telling our story.

Anyway.. so its about at this point where we get to a place on the old 128 that I was really digging.. if you pay attention to the marks of the street.. you’ll see an awful lot of the following pictures take place around the same place.

Ok, now pay attention to these leaves coming up… as again they’ll give us a sense of where we is at.. looking in the opposite direction down this street.

lol, it’s like a Terry Gilliam movie, ha?

And look.. its that guy again… (notice the leaves still?) 

And yet another unusable.. though I like it.. him going the other way.

And again we turn our attention to the trees…..

If you note the look of the ground.. you see we’re still in the same place.. more or less.

And just a we bit further up the road…

I like the sense of how far the road goes up there.. and then the mood of the leaves and the light.. and all that. 

And this is where I started getting into exploring color in the digital darkroom, in a slightly different sorta direction:

And a different angle on the same fallen tree: 

And then just up the road, just a little bit.

And this is more or less at the end of this little walk of ours:

So that’s the main of our little walk, right? 

With that, I leave you… Want more? My flickr photo stream can be found at flickr.com/photos/mattsearles and.. the photo set from this hike can be found here… with much bigger versions of these pics.. which kinda helps.. in many cases.

It’s been kicking around in my head for a little while now.. well the past few days, feeling inspiration to make something great. It started with DIYDays… which got me inspired to get serious about film making… and what of the From Here to Awesome Film festival stuff played at Mass Art recently….. That really got me going bit.

Then I took a look at my first attempt at video podcasting..  My impression of it, after not looking at it for ages was.. well that yes it has flaws but.. the potential it speaks for knocked me out.

My approach to film making is in no way conventional.. I would describe it as “a painters approach to film making.” Or maybe that’s my approach to editing and post production.. A way of thinking where this end of things becomes the core of the process.. and the other parts are more like “lets go get some raw materials.” In any event.. the process is that of an exploratory painter.. really. 

Raw Materials 

As it turns out.. I have some raw materials.. video I’ve been shooting for the raw materials of a project.. I have a tun of tapes going back the last.. oh, I don’t know.. lets say 8 or 9 years.. plus a few that go back a whole lot further.

The idea behind my shooting was to make a kind of record.. to kind of show you life in a way that you wouldn’t otherwise see. To try and open the worlds eyes to reality.. or something like that. Who knows, I was on LSD or some psychedelic when I conceived of it, right?

But now I’m contemplating “a new stage of raw material acquisition.” To put it another way, I’m thinking of buying new cameras. 

Thinking about Cameras 

Generally, in thinking about cameras, we have a few categories of video cameras.

1. Social Media Cams: These are generally cheap.. usually pretty pour quality.. but the kinda things you can always have on you, which is the real key here.. and they don’t really call attention to them selves.. we are talking flip cams (that run around 100 bucks) or perhaps smart phones that let you broadcast live over the internet via qik. These could also be just basic photo cameras that also let you shoot video.. even the cheapest of cheap cell phones often have this sorta option
2. Spy-ish Cams: These are cheap from the perspective of video quality.. and actually not all that expensive..  The cameras them selves are usually sub $1000, perhaps sub $500.. The real point of these cameras is that nobody knows your using them. I like the idea of being able to shoot without calling attention to myself.. both from the perspective of documenting something as it is.. without the subject becoming self conscious.. and the idea that you could create a narrative film.. taking place in real spaces.. without anyone knowing there’s a film going on.
3. Quality Video Cameras: From my perspective.. we are talking about the ability to have a lot of Aesthetic control here.. If we are talking from a serious film making perspective.. all the other cameras are rather “punk rock” where as.. here we are talking.. cinematography. These are cameras that cost many thousands of dollars.

Quality Cameras Canon EOS 5D Mark II  

Let us start with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. This is really a DSLR.. which is to say a camera for photography.. a very professional camera at that.. It lists for $2700 for just the body, and $3500 for the body and the lens. (The lens being worth a bit more then a grand I believe). 

Besides being a pretty serious DSLR, the 5D Mark II is also a camera capable of shooting 30 fps 1080p… which it records to H.264. From a film making perspective.. being limited to 30 fps is not really ideal.. though firm ware could change this.. But over all.. for the price, it’s very difficult to beat this camera.. as a video camera. I mean.. for this price and having a lens system? Not to mention that you’re also getting a very nice DSLR? So I’ve been thinking seriously about the 5D Mark II. 

Red Scarlet 

Ok.. this is what we call in the biz a game changer. 

And

Ok, since most of my readers are probably not the type to be following this sorta thing.. let me kind of break this down for you a little.

Here’s a link to a little thing that explains what 3k means. This isn’t a totally accurate statement.. but it’s something that will point you in the right direction “3k is to HD what HD is to standard deffiniton.” 3K is ideal if you want to bring what you’re shooting to theatrical release.

The price of $3000 is.. for a red scarlet.. is probably about what you would be paying to rent, for a weekend, a current 3k camera. I could point you to $10,000 camera’s I’ve lusted after.. that are not capable of half of what this Red Scarlet is capable of.

Now the final thing that sets the REDs apart is.. its a bit like shooting with film, in the sense that you have something like a negative.. which you can develop from.. a negative having more dynamic range then actual picture out putted. This means a much higher level of aesthetic control..  

Well, I think I’ll end this post here, for now.. there’s many more subjects to cover on this subject.. We’ll see what happens. 

Adobe has announced new versions of there Creative Suits…  You can see video presentations of all there new software at tv.adobe.com. What I’ll be talking about in this post is stuff relating to what I’m sorta evaluating.. which is the Web Premium Bundle.. and After Effects CS4. On that note, lets start with some of the videos…

Adobe Web Premium CS4: 

As you might expect from adobe.. the video lies.. (I say this due to my past bad experience with Adobe… ) The video lies in that it suggests that Indesign is a part of the Web Premium Bundle.. and it is not!

My bad Adobe Experience

I thought I had posted on this.. but haven’t been able to find the post so.. here’s the deal:

I went to buy the web bundle.. but um.. the adobe site wasn’t real clear.. bad usability, and all that.. which is sorta ironic for a company building design tools! So I bought the wrong bundle by accident…  I was on the phone with Adobe on 4 ceperate occasions trying to streighten it all out.. each conversation had me moving between various people to talk to.. each seemed to take upwards of an hour.. an it seemed that nearly everyone was giving me a different story…  the long and the short of it was.. I don’t know if I’ve been refunded yet for the wrong bundle! And if you ask me it’s all about what’s bad with Adobe…. and this video being misleading is just more of the same!

On the Subject of the Bundle 

I wrote this post around the time I bought the bundle.. and provides some reasonably good background on the subject.

Web Standards

The problem with the bundle.. well it feels a little bit like Adobe “doesn’t get it.” One of the biggest revolutions in the world of web design has been Web Standards.. we design sites in such a way to separate out content, presentation, and behavior..  and introduce graceful degradation..  If this is done right.. then whatever you’re using to view the site.. be it IE, FireFox.. your PDA, iPhone.. if you have accessibility issues so there’s a voice synth speaking out the page.. whatever..  it will work on your platform in the most ideal-ish sorta way.

The trouble with the Adobe software has been that it does not enable this sorta industry standard development practices…. The learning curve nessisary to doing this kind of development is great.. and you’d like tools to help with that.. Not only that but.. “designers” tend to think visually.. and so you’d like tools that allow you to think visually.. as a pose to think code.. in terms of working out a design.. from a process perspective.. and blah blah blah.

Adobe has been… about 6 years late to the standards party? And you know.. on the internet things move really really fast.. so I don’t think there’s any reasonable excuse for this.. In any event.. Fireworks.. which is a web graphics orientated program.. will now spit out standards compliant code.. which is a groovy thing.. and Dreamweaver looks like.. they’ve done a number of thing to help with a standards based work flow.. so I am digging that.

Dreamweaver.. as of CS3, introduce the AJAX Spry framework.. This allows you to, via WYWYG, put together AJAX stuff. AJAX is.. how web applications are made, basically.. It’s kind of a way of using XHTML, JavaScript, CSS, XML, and server stuff.. to do certain kinds of stuff.. lets say. AJAX is a groovy technology and all.. but it is not without problems.. though it should be said that, as with most technologies, the problem is not so much the technology as how the technology is used…  and um… the problem with the Spry framework.. is it is much less then best practices… in how it does its things.. 

My feeling is.. I’d like to see the software get better at standards out of the box.. but at least its headed in that direction.. if at an unforgivably slow pace…. and I really need to get my hands on the software before I can really judge these things too well. 

Flash CS4

Flash CS4 is the most compelling part, at least for me personally, to the Web Premium bundle upgrade:

Flash has ALWAYS been the best tool for web based animation.. trouble is.. not a hell of a lot has happened to Flash, as far as animation is concerned.. since like.. Flash 5… we are talking the last tech bubble here! Most of the excitement in the Flash platform, since version 5.. and including version 5… has been all about the developer side of Flash.. and since FLEX is were a serious Flash developer would turn.. you’d hope you’d see better design and animation tools in Flash.. and indeed, we are now seeing them.

The new feature of being able to modify different parameters individually.. be it transparency, scale, its location on the screen.. being able to modify motion curves…  in a rather After Effects-esk way. This will revolutionize how I work with Flash.. and it’ll do this, really, on a process level.. which is a very deep thing. 

But Adobe didn’t stop there! They finally gave us IK (Inverse Kinematics.) Basically we are talking about Bones here.. which is a core feature of character animation in 3D graphics. This is also a very big thing for animation.

If all this isn’t enough.. we get some kind of a new 3D tool..  It didn’t look all that impressive from the presentation.. though I didn’t think the any of the Flash stuff looked all that impressive in the presentations.. unless you kinda knew what was going on…  I mean they were using a very boring project for there examples.. but this could be a very cool thing to.

PhotoShop CS4

There’s a lot of new stuff in Photoshop that looks interesting.. New ways of dealing with camera RAW.. the ability to bring 3D objects into PhotoShop and paint directly on them..  There’s bad news that Photoshop will not be 64-bit on the Mac.. which is a big downer.. but Adobe claims there new way of using your graphics card will more then make up for that.. This, as we say in the biz, is spin…  

Sound Booth CS4

Sound Booth is new to the Web Premium bundle. I do a lot of music production.. and for a lot of what Sound booth does.. I have better apps.. However.. it does have some spectral editing abilities.. which I would really love to play with.. and Sound Booth is more geared to working inside of this kind of media production environment.. as a pose to music production more generally.

I think it’s nice they put Sound Booth in.. for anyone who’s doing Flash.. I think sound in Flash isn’t really good enough.. I mean Flash projects don’t have enough attention paid to sound.. and this ought to help that a little bit.

After Effects CS4

Here’s the After Effects video:

So what do you think of that? Let me take you through it…

Mobile Us 

First we have a tool for creating content for multiple mobile platforms. My first impression was “Why are you putting this into after effects?” I mean.. After Effects isn’t a video editing tool.. it’s a special effects, motion graphics, animation, compositing type tool….  If I’m creating stuff in After Effects… that stuff’s next stop is a video editing program… before it’s final output.

Now ok.. this is a little complicated but..  what are you creating content for? What percentage of content is purely for mobile platforms? What I mean is.. that same content, don’t you probably want to stick it on youtube, or some other online distribution platform? If that’s the case.. you want to render stuff out of After Effects at the resolution of.. well the highest resolution you’re making your stuff for. As a result.. when you render stuff out of After Effects.. you’re not going to be saving on render times.. by aiming at smaller resolution platforms..  

The only thing I will say on behalf of this new feature is.. having guides that tell you when and where stuff in your frame is going to be cut out of on a target platform.. is very important.

Search

This is a very interesting part of the Adobe Suites… Basically.. there’s meta data that follows media through out the system.. and this is a fairly central part of the search. This is quite revolutionary stuff.. but.. if After Effects is you’re only Adobe Video / Production sorta program..  of what use is it to you anyway?

In my studio Final Cut Studio is where I work with video. When it comes to music production, that might have something to do with a scoring video… that’s taking place in Digital Performer, Ableton Live, Reason.. etc. None of this stuff will carry that meta data…  So for folks in this position.. you’re basically waiting a few years to see if Adobe’s stuff.. gets adopted by a wider echo system of developers.

I’m basically working on.. . lets call it the pro side of the DIY spectrum… what this means is I don’t often have an actual production team… and the process of inputting the meta data into this system..  will likely be neglected in most cases.. particularly if the pay off is lost as soon as I start working in one of those non Adobe products! Though apparently some of the Adobe stuff will turn audio speaking into text for the meta data… 

Matt’s Choice

Price 

The Web Premium bundle will now set you back $1700… and the upgrade (which is what I’d be buying) goes for $600. After Effects $1000 for the full, and $300 for the upgrade. That, at least in my world, is not chicken feed.

Economic Considerations 

You know.. there’s a couple things here..

1. The economy is slowing down. What does this mean to the budding entrepreneur / whomever? It means its time to stop spending money on stuff!!! I mean if the great depression 2.0 is just around the corner? Things will hopefully not be that dyer.. but whatever you think about this sorta thing.. one wants to be careful about the choices one makes.
2. On a Personal Level… I have a limited amount of cash to live off of.. until I sell the house.. and I’d like to not sell the house till the housing market / economy is in a better position then what we find today.. So again, I gotta be careful about spending money.

CS4 Bundles thangs

A lot of people you talk to are saying “There’s a new CS4 already?” These are complex tools and its hard to keep up with it all. My situation is even worse.. cause in addition to that bundle.. I’m doing video, music production, and 3D graphics..  photography.. etc..   At $600, am I going to get my money’s worth out of the new versions?  That’s my big question mark.. I mean.. If Firework’s standards support is actually pretty good.. the Dreaweaver stuff turns out to make a difference.. Of course we expect Flash to be all that.. Having sound booth has its advantages…  The photoshop stuff could really mean something..   You know I’m just on the fence about it.

After Effects 

After Effects is another matter. I own After Effects 4.0.. which is like.. pre Mac OSX… and will not run on an Intel Mac.. So I need to drop the money on After Effects just to have an After Effects! If I was getting on After Effects CS3, I think I might be passing on this upgrade.. but as of now, there’s no question that I’m upgrading. 

Other Expenses? 

So here’s some other things I’m thinking of spend money on.. in the relatively short term

1. RAM, probably a couple hundred dollars worth
2. HD Camera, probably around $700
3. Cantor Vocal Synth $400
4. Breverb reverb: $280
5. Binarual microphone set up thing.. I think we are talking about $200
6. Laptop..  more then a grand
7. If I go with such a laptop.. add $500 for time capsule 

 Out side of this.. There’s the possibility of other software upgrades…  and can I afford those?

Day’s latter:

 Hmm.. I think I should just post this as is.

So recently I’ve been reconnecting, a bit, with folks from my college days at Mass Art.. and in the Studio of Interrelated media program.. with an interest in checking out folks work.. Which brings us to todays subject of Mr. Bobby Abate.

I believe I first met Mr. Abate while I was in the August Studio Program at Mass Art.. This is a program for high school students.. where you take a bunch of classes for the month of August.. it was an amazing time, living in the Dorms.. I met him and a girl he was hanging with.. while smoking butts outside the dorm.. just sorta randomly.. and ended up doing something that night.. don’t quite remember what.

Any who.. Bobby was a brilliant Artist.. I mean he just made a lot of really amazing work.. and what do you know.. his work’s still quite great.. and he’s one of the folks from that time who’s still very serious about his artist’s pursuits… 

So here’s a Youtube video of his I really liked:

One of the thing’s that struck me sorta funny about this video is.. he mentions Tony Oursler as  the guy who got the funding he was trying to get.. What I thought was sorta funny about that is that Tony was the video professor at Mass Art while we were there..  Tony is often hailed as one of the top 5 or so video artst’s to come out of the US ever.. so pretty stiff competition, right? But also this video makes me think of Tony’s work.. in that you have this kind of degradation of video in a way that calls attention to it’s video-ness in a way very similar to Tony’s work.. a sort of similar aesthetic..  Though clearly Bobby Abate’s work is.. well I want to say more erotically charged? And um.. has a certain dangerous quality in that and.. well lots of stuff really.

You can see more of his work at his official website.. sweetkitty.com, brilliant stuff. 

I should maybe close on.. in reference to the video.. I don’t actually know a heck of a lot about the art world today. My carrier vision has always been about searching for new existential / asymmetric relationships to the market place.. but.. working out the art world part.. is something to do.. as I tend to want to go down rather serious avant guard -ish paths.. In any event.. you look at how Brilliant his work is.. and… well shouldn’t he be in a very high stratosphere?