The-Corbetts.Org

Getting Into Trackers

sean — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:15:18 +0000

I’ve been wanting to get back into writing music more regularly, and to that end I’m exploring a particular type of music composition tool called a tracker. It’s about as close as you can get to writing music by editing a text file. Actually come to think of it, you can do that… maybe I’ll try that someday.

Anyway, trackers got their start on 8-bit computers, and as a result they’re a great way to really extract all the capabilities of the classic sound chips. They accomplish this by letting you create your own collection of instrument patches which can each combine all the available waveforms, envelopes, and filters. On the C64, for example, this means you can create your own bass drum sound by combining a white noise sound with a low triangle wave, or perhaps a sawtooth note with an intense volume envelope. Then, you take those instruments and arrange them in a pattern editor, which to the untrained eye looks like a nonsensical grid of letters and numbers. There are several C64 trackers out there, but there’s one I like in particular which is both powerful and relatively easy to use, called Cybertracker.

The learning curve on trackers is pretty steep, but the reward is big: you can crank out music pretty fast once you have mastered the basics. So have a manual handy! To teach myself how to use them, I decided to write a song in a modern tracker, called Renoise. The result is below… along with a download of the original session file which you can examine yourself if you have Renoise installed. I called it “softcrunch” because I was trying to think of a word to describe the “organ” sound at the very beginning.

Softcrunch
Audio MP3
Audio MP3
Download (license: cc-by-sa)
MP3 | Renoise Session

(originally posted here: Getting Into Trackers)

A winding road to a tasty signal chain

sean — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:01:00 +0000

Amplifiers has been working on tracking at my place over the last few days, and last night we did some vocals. Ultimately, the signal chain was one I’ve wanted to try for a long time, but for various reasons I didn’t get around to really trying until now. The setup was:

Shure KSM-44 –>
Auditronics 110B Preamp & EQ –>
Universal Audio LA-3A (vintage) –>
Computer input (Layla 3G).

I really dug the sound. The LA-3A leveled Si’s more-dynamicker-than-average vocals nicely, and the bright KSM-44 was a perfect compliment to the smooth 110 pre.

The point of this post, however, is not the setup, though that’s nice: The point is how I got there, and the implications for the future of the setup.

When I first connected the LA-3A, I was getting signal into it and gain reduction out of it… and I could hear it working through the monitors. Sounded great. Problem is, no matter how hard I drove the comp, I didn’t see any gain reduction happening in the computer — it was nearly impossible to keep the level within the sweet range. After scratching my head for a while, I got out the Auditronics manual and traced the signal flow thorough those preamps. As it turns out, the issue was with the modification I had made to those preamp modules to make the echo send (Auditronics-speak for “aux send”) pre-fader, so that the fader didn’t affect the record level. Unfortunately, this mod had the side effect of making the record send pre-insert and pre-EQ, due to the routing on those modules. Unable to come up with an ideal fix, I ended up un-modifying one module (I just had to move a single jumper) and viola, a river max-o-squish flowed forth.

This all means that in order to track with EQ and insert FX, the mod will have to be un-done on all the modules, and thus the faders will affect the record send on every channel. Until now, the faders were primarily for the 2-track mixdown, control room, and studio send mixes, with the echo send knob being an independent level control going to the DAW, which worked beautifully. I haven’t come up with a way to get the mixer to do exactly what I want without many intense nights of soldering and PCB trace cutting, so for now un-modding the modules will probably have to suffice.

But the good news is: Some lovely vintage-gear-powered sounds have been made, and more are forthcoming.

(originally posted here: A winding road to a tasty signal chain)

The New Home For "Paeter’s Brain"

Paeter Frandsen — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:20:00 +0000

First off, I want to thank everyone who has chosen to follow and read this blog over the last few years. It's one I've really enjoyed writing. And in a way, I'm not stopping.

But the kinds of things you're used to seeing here will now be found elsewhere.

If you've enjoyed my reviews and discussion of how my faith interacts with my geekiness, I'm now posting all of those thoughts over at The Spirit Blade Underground, which serves as a hub for a community interested in combining the geek lifestyle with a life lived for Christ.

If you've enjoyed the various peeks at my personal day to day existence or random thoughts on geek related stuff or whatever else is on my brain, you can find me active almost every day of the week on The Spirit Blade Underground Forums! Come by any time and geek out WITH me!

Thanks again for reading and I hope to bump into you again soon!

-Paeter Frandsen

Movie Reviews have Moved!

Paeter Frandsen — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:25:00 +0000

The changes to my blogs are slowly moving along. The first big one was the transplanting of my archived reviews to The Spirit Blade Underground, including my latest review of "Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance", the first of my reviews to be posted at its new home!

So if you're interested in that review or any 0f my future reviews, be sure to find them at their new home at The Spirit Blade Underground!

Blessings of Cuteness

Mandy2qt — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 01:45:00 +0000

It's been a fairly mild winter--- yay! Here are a few pics of our awesome children who rock the world! Really! They don't make them any better than this. :-)

I don't often post here anymore. Of you're a faithful reader, drop me a line bc I might quit posting altogether unless I hear from some readers. Lol.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

ObsoleteAudio is Now a Community Blog!

sean — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:38:56 +0000

I’m happy to (re?) introduce long-time friends Darren Morton, Brian Schultz, and Si Lewis as bloggers here. This is in an attempt to start putting together an audio services (recording mainly) business, and to document a broader array of nerdy projects.

Darren is our resident tube guru and will likely be posting about various projects he’s got on the bench. He’s also a wellspring of music industry history and trivia and will hopefully share some insights about the ins and outs of what went into classic recordings.

Si is the lead vocalist and Bass-VI-ist for Amplifiers and is a self-professed gear supernerd. He also builds guitars, and will share a bit about what goes into that process.

Brian is an engineer-musician and likes to make both crazy and classy sounds. He was the lead guitarist of the now-defunct regional Pittsburgh band Recession, and will be sharing noises and info on his recording sessions and gear.

(originally posted here: ObsoleteAudio is Now a Community Blog!)

The New Home For My Reviews!

Paeter Frandsen — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:50:00 +0000

This week I've begun "transplanting" my movie reviews to The Spirit Blade Underground, which will be the new home for my movie reviews starting this weekend, with my review for "Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance".

Although before now, The Spirit Blade Underground has been designed mainly for updates for my production company and a weekly Bible study, I'm changing the focus a bit to make it a hub for celebrating and examining geek entertainment culture from a biblical perspective, as well as exploring the Bible from a geek perspective.

So if you've enjoyed reading reviews of movies, or my thoughts on video games and board games of the geek persuasion, I think you'll enjoy the new "Spirit Blade Underground"!

The new posting format and emphasis of The Spirit Blade Underground will be taking shape over the course of the next few weeks, but I will plan to make an announcement here once it's gotten into the new groove.

I'm excited about the upcoming changes and I hope you enjoy them!

Stay tuned!

Skyrim Worship Revisited

Paeter Frandsen — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:42:00 +0000

Since posting my thoughts on the religions of Skyrim, I've taken something of a newer approach in a somewhat "meta-gaming" vein. Now I've determined that my character is in some way "immortal", with origins from a higher dimensional plane. I've decided that my character has the same knowledge that I do. Namely, that his real name is Paeter and he lives in the real world and no one he interacts with in Tamriel is "real", but rather simulations of reality that some dark force has placed in my path to conceal the existence of the "First Cause", which I feel compelled by reason to seek out.

For this reason, a quest for power and dominance over Tamriel has become my focus. Not in the usual power-mad way you might think, since as I mentioned, my character is aware that his environment is an illusion and none of the "people" he interacts with have any real feelings. They are deceptive simulations.

Rather, my quest for power is so that I might finally have the strength to go toe to toe with the biggest, baddest cosmic "god" they can throw at me, and get him to squeal regarding the truth of the "First Cause" before he dies.

For this reason, I take on every quest I can, since knowledge and experience gives power toward this end. I do the "good" things and the "evil" things, playing the sick game of whatever dark power is trying to deceive me, until I can finally strip away the lies and begin my true quest for the truth.

Obviously, this would be a scary and psychotic way to approach real life (so I don't recommend it), but the difference here is that my character, an extension of me, knows objectively, based on irrefutable evidence, that his experience of Tamriel is an illusion.

In one sense this is an extremely nerdy way to take a game too seriously. Definitely pretty wacky, but a lot of fun. I even "sold my soul" to the daedra "Nocturna" in exchange for the power she coughed up, but little does she know she's gonna a get major butt kickin' too when the time comes! Stupid fake deity...

;-)

Chronicle (Movie Review)

Paeter Frandsen — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:44:00 +0000

Reviewing movies is usually fun, but sometimes when I go to review a movie, I have a strong suspicion that I won't enjoy it that much. Ordinarily, I wouldn't spend money to see it, but because I've built my podcast largely on sci-fi, fantasy and horror movie reviews, I feel an obligation to see and review every flick in those genres that I can as they come out. This means that it's very common for me to walk into a theater suspecting I won't have a good time and walking away feeling like my time and money were wasted. But there are those other times, when a movie could have turned out terrible, that I breathe a sigh of relief when it turns out to be a solid flick.

This was not my experience with "Chronicle". I suspected it might be an annoyingly shallow film, but hoped for at least a decent sci-fi movie, based on the trailer. Instead, what I got was a fantastic sci-fi film that fans of the genre will kick themselves for not seeing as soon as possible.

"Chronicle" is about three high school seniors who discover a mysterious, presumably alien substance underground. Their exposure to the object grants them all telekinetic powers which they learn to control more and more as the story progresses. At first, their abilities are merely sources of entertainment, as they play practical jokes on others, or in some way use their abilities to gain attention and favor with others. But Andrew, who is constantly mistreated and misunderstood, begins to lash out with his powers, bringing severe harm to others.

If at some point you begin to feel like you may have seen this movie before, you've probably watched the classic anime "Akira" at least once. It seems clear the writers took inspiration from Akira at several points, both visually and in terms of the story itself. Although "Chronicle" has far more sympathetic characters, and also a plot that makes sense.

The movie is shot in the increasingly popular documentary style, similar in some ways to films like The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity. I've seen several movies that use the same shooting style as this one, but I've never been more impressed with the variety of ways in which the camera was used while still limiting every shot we see to what an "in story" camera could potentially record.

We start the film limited to only what Andrew captures with his video camera. But as the film progresses, we begin to see events through multiple camera sources including a blogger's video camera, news footage, in-store security cameras and similar sources. And in the second half of the film, telekinesis is also applied to control of the cameras, allowing for some angles never seen before in a "doc" style movie, but that are still consistent with the limitations of using only "in-story" cameras.

This may give you the impression that the shooting style will be used to cover up a low budget and keep the movie grounded. But by halfway through this movie, things are anything but "grounded", as the boys learn what a simple ability like telekinesis really makes possible. By the end, the scale on which their powers are used is nothing short of epic, and I was thrilled and thankful that many of the most jaw-dropping moments were not spoiled in the trailer.

Not to say that this is just an effects film, either. Andrew is the character through whom we experience most of the story, and despite the dark turn he eventually takes, it's hard not to be sympathetic with him. He is picked on mercilessly by other kids, abused by his step father and only develops friendships with the two other boys because of a shared common experience. Relative unknown Dane DeHaan plays the troubled, socially awkward Andrew with great sincerity, and may even remind you of a real kid you know or knew in high school.

My complaints about the movie are few. I would have loved to see actual high school age actors playing these parts. Seeing twenty-somethings in these roles has become common in Hollywood, but the film could have had added realism and intensity if they had cast more age appropriate actors, or changed the plot to be about college students.

Although most of the effects are wonderful, I felt that a few of the visual effects shots could have been better. A floating baseball comes to mind. (Why not just use fishing line, guys?)

Throughout the movie I ran into numerous themes worthy of discussion on the ride home from the theater. Andrew's cousin, Matt, who also gains super powers, has been reading a bit of philosophy for one of his classes and often has little nuggets to spout about human nature. He contends that we are "creatures of will" and can never have our desires satisfied. And biblical anthropology would agree with this, I think.

We are free creatures gifted with free wills, and yet because of sin we are separated from God, who is the ultimate source of fulfillment. Until the day when he removes our ability to sin and gives us new and perfect bodies, all of our attempts at self-fulfillment will fall short. It's possible the theme of "failing to fulfill our own desires" was an intended parallel to Andrew's story, who seems to believe that he can use his powers to get the things he wants from life.

Andrew himself also shares a personal philosophy that is intriguing. At one point he tells his camera that he has been thinking about evolution. Specifically natural selection and "survival of the fittest". He reasons that because a lion does not feel guilty when it kills a gazelle, that there would be nothing wrong with him harming or even killing a weaker human being.

This is a very striking statement, as it clearly demonstrates the inevitable, horrifying result of consistently applying a belief in naturalistic evolution to the way we live and think of others. Taken out of the realm of academic theory and applied to life, naturalistic evolution will lead to terrible harm inflicted on one human by another. This movie is far from an argument for theism, but it stands out among sci-fi films as being willing to shed light on the "dark side" of a worldview taken for granted by millions.

Near the end of the film, Matt comments that even after all Andrew has done, he is still not a "bad person". I have to say, after seeing all that Andrew had done to that point(watch the movie and see for yourself!), I'd love to ask Matt for his description of what a "bad person" WOULD have to do to earn the title! Does a poor upbringing or being mistreated by others give us license to lash out and harm or kill people? When DOES a person go from good, to neutral, to bad, and how does Matt know what this objective standard is?

Sure, it's being a bit nit-picky, but beneath the surface of small comments like Matt's are unstated yet deeply held philosophies about who we are and what right and wrong is that can be harmful if not examined and picked apart now and then.

Chronicle is a fantastic, dark-toned sci-fi flick that could have been revolutionary but settles for being a fantastic must-see film. It is also likely to give you some things to ponder about who we really are as humans when the curtain of idealism no longer hides our innermost desires.

Rated PG-13 for for intense action and violence, thematic material, some language, sexual content and teen drinking.

Quality: 9.0/10

Relevance: 8.0/10

Somebody Turned One!

Mandy2qt — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:42:00 +0000

Blink.... And you might miss it..... What blessings God has bestowed upon this grateful woman... <3 Thank you, Jesus... For each child of wonder....

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