August 2005
Friday, Aug 26
Hmmmmmm....we have a little problem.
When I power on the existing light rheostat here in the future studio space, it triggers the Handsonic, playing whatever sound is currently assigned to its D-Beam. This has been happening sporadically, and now it is constant.
And as of this evening, when I operate the dimmer knob, it alters the Handsonic's pitch, sharp to flat, in tandem with the lights.
Admittedly a very good trick, but it's got to go. Hopefully, new lighting circuitry will solve this.
Wednesday, Aug 24
Logic/Motif notes -
To sync an arpeggiated Motif patch to Logic's tempo, set Motif's arpeggiator sync to MIDI - this is global, not patch specific.
In Logic: Song Settings>Synchronization>MIDI>Transmit MIDI clock (via Talbot Sound's temporary MIDI interface, the spiffy little Midisport 2 x 2.)
To record real time control of Motif's patch element volume sliders, I went to Song Settings>MIDI>General: MIDI Thru: check "SysEx with MIDI Thru function." However, the Motif's slider action appears sketchy; you've got to move them slooowly or the changes simply stop taking effect. (This could be done after the fact in Logic's Hyperdraw, but at the moment I detest Hyperdraw.)
Addendum - this could be a MIDI logjam from looping Thru - haven't tested yet.
Monday, August 22
Bob Moog, R.I.P.
Thursday, Aug 18
Oh boy - my first piece of mailform spam.
Got my email this morning, and this pseudo-formal piece of trash came in, originating from the form on my "contact" page. They expressed their desire to have me link to their site as a valuable resource for my visitors. I won't dignify them by saying exactly what, but it's a cheap-ass weather site, similar to weather dot com or wunderground dot com (both excellent resources), except it's bogus and cheesy looking, and when I clicked on my home state, a single city listing came up, as in one (1). There's definitely more than a single city in my state, and Bristol ain't exactly a primary reference point. Fucking low-life bottom feeders.
I guess if it gets to be a problem, I'll have to do something, like implement one of those randomly generated sets of characters in the fuzzy grey box, that you have to actually type in to verify. But if it comes to that, who the hell wants to go through that just to send me an email? I may just have to say, I'm in the White Pages, call me.
How can anyone truly expect any positive result from this kind of crap?
Wednesday, Aug 17
More Logic discoveries...
The Audio window (Command-9) is a window with functions not unlike the Region bin in Pro Tools. This is where you import audio files into your session, audition them, drag them into tracks, rename them, clear them from the session, and convert a filetype when copying it into your current song.
You can also import region definitions of SDII files, and do sample rate conversions. The display is a large window that looks like a flowchart.
I am beginning to understand why some people on certain audio forums say that they only use Pro Tools for editing, and Logic for everything else. This has Very Large Implications.
Also, I bought a 160gb external drive (from Pro Audio Solutions over on Eighth Avenue south) to route audio onto, until Talbot Sound becomes a reality. I had a work-in-progress going over the weekend, and soon ran into CPU usage issues. I was stacking up audio tracks like a fool, streaming them off the internal drive, forgetting that my mighty 1.8ghz iMac is not infallible. In my first external drive test, I cranked up eight audio tracks onto it, and the Audio System Usage meter barely even blinked. I then adjusted the Logic setup to default to thirty-two available audio tracks. It'll give you up to two hundred fifty-five, if your system will handle it.
I say again - this thing is AMAZING.
Monday, Aug 15
School started today for Metro Nashville.
Here's a reposted entry from August '02.
Time was, pretty much all schools started around the first of September. Then, Metro Nashville began starting sooner, ostensibly to make up for any "snow days" that might occur later in the school year. Which was a viable concept; in this part of the U.S., winter precipitation can often manifest as a coating of ice all over the place.
While a large, moisture-laden front will dump snow on Kentucky, and sometimes Georgia and Alabama, the storm is often positioned relative to the state of Tennessee, such that somehow, the precipitation turns to sleet and the temperature will hover right at the freezing point, creating a ridiculous degree of driving hazards that no level of automotive experience or skill can surmount.
Folks in populations farther North attribute the resulting accidents and chaos to a complete lack of driving capability (and perhaps a deficiency of intelligence), but the simple fact is that a roadway covered with a coating of ice can throw any motor vehicle out of control, including a school bus full of children. So, they cancel school if transportation safety is deemed threatened, and, since they started earlier in the year, the kids wouldn't be still in school the first week of June to make up for it.
I experienced that one year. We'd been out for over a week in January during one of the last bigtime serious snows that came around here, and by June the fourth or whatever it was, we were STILL showing up every day, in the now-blazing heat.
But I digress...the public school year begins in mid-August so the students can take their exams before the Holiday Break, rather than being expected to study like hell while Christmas, Hannukah, and New Years are in full swing. This makes perfect sense to me, as I recall several otherwise excellent holiday seasons unjustly tainted by the grim spectre of Midterm Exams upon return to school.
Sunday, Aug 14
There. I changed the style sheets to ".content {background-color:#fff;}", and moved the pale blue swirl down and left.
Easier to read. Better.
Thursday, Aug 11 (later)
Logic is becoming more familiar. One issue has bitten my butt twice, but I'll remember to anticipate it now. (Fool me twice, you can't get fooled again - GWB)
Some progress points:
- I finally remember to go to Song Settings>Recording and check "auto demix by channel if multitrack recording." This separates incoming MIDI information by channel, enabling a group of people to record an all-MIDI performance with their own controllers. That also makes it possible for me to play a keyboard sound with rhythmic echoes with one hand, and play a percussion device with the other, for late-night thrills.
- I got the Environment's MIDI layer set up, and I suspect that there may be an issue with the fact that I have two active MIDI-to-USB sources, rather than a single multi-port interface to handle all controllers. I'll find out when I employ whatever MIDI interface I decide on. The Environment is where you define all the mechanical components of your Song - physical inputs, MIDI instruments, audio tracks, soft synths, Auxes, Buses. This is the concept of Objects, and having your tracks address those Objects. Rather than dialing up a soft synth (for example) as a track insert every time you add a new track, you build your sound modules as Objects in the Environment, and then in the Arrange window, you assign each track to an Object.
The Environment is divided up into different layers: Audio, Instrument, MIDI, and a couple others, and you can import individual layers or an entire Environment from another song or saved template.
- I discovered how to store and recall channel strip settings. Let's say you've got a track with a synth, and three different effect plugins. You save that as a Channel Strip Setting, then recall it in a different song rather than having to rebuild it. I also discovered a whole little world of Factory presets, for even more fun right out of the box. I tell you, this program is absolutely LOADED with cool stuff, in addition to its insane amount of power to create and edit music.
A couple of these nuggets were hard to find, justifying some people's frustration with Logic in general. I share this frustration at times, though more as a memory of doing a project in Logic 2.7 back in '96 when it was still completely German and they had some functions hidden in very obscure or unlikely places, causing me to scream foul curses in the dead of night.
But now it's a thousand times cooler, and has a Vocoder.
Thursday, Aug 11
I just arrived home. I glanced at the clock, and it said 4:20.
So?
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