Ethereality News & Weblog

June 27, 2009

The Zendrum has landed

Filed under: Film/TV/Animation, Music, My Life/Musings — Rob @ 2:44 pm

WEBLOG:
My Zendrum dream is finally fulfilled. Here she is:
Zendrum LT

Zendrum LT

I ordered the Honey Rock Maple finish, since I liked the deep cadmium yellow and black combination, but in reality the finish looks more like sienna/golden ochre, and only looks like that deep cadmium yellow when under extremely bright direct light:
Zendrum Sunlit

I’ve wanted a Zendrum badly ever since I first learned of it many years ago, and it’s always been one of those drool-worthy gears that seem like more of a luxury than a necessity. That changed for me after years of programming drums on keyboard MIDI controllers, conventional rubber pad-based percussion controllers, or electronic drum kits. I just didn’t like doing fast rolls on the keyboard since it’s not very ergonomic or natural for that purpose (with the iMap layout it’s better, but you can only use your finger tips but not the other parts of your hands). I have a Clavia Ddrum 4 kit, but I don’t program drum tracks on it since I hate having to hit record and then run to the drum kit, sit down, and then play–it’s more like some weird physical game than making music. I could use a wireless keyboard to activate recording, but I’d still have go back to the desk to make any edits, and that’s still a lot of running back and forth. The Zendrum solves those problems by being small enough to have right on the desk, worn on your chest like a guitar, or on your lap, having extremely sensitive trigger pads that you can easily do fast finger rolls on, and laid out so you can use other parts of hands like the heel and the ball of the palms, joints of the fingers…etc. On the Zendrum, I can do double bass kicks, fast 16/32 note open and close hi-hats (including the bell), snare rolls/ghost notes (rimshot and open hits), ride, crash, splash, china…etc all at the same time, and can trade them off spontaneous without having to think too much about it because the layout I designed is so intuitive for me. Here’s what my current layout looks like for Addictive Drums:
Zendrum Addictive Drums Layout

How you’d play with that layout is to put the thumbs on the kicks, index fingers on the closed hi-hats (more like using the first joint of your finger tip instead of the tip itself), middle and ring fingers on the snares, and pinky on the open hi-hats and bells of the hi-hats. The cymbals on the bottom you can use the heel and ball of your palms. The rest on the top (rides, snare rim click, side stick, toms…etc) use your index, middle, and ring fingers.

I’ll be doing some more layouts after I get back to my studio (in a week or so), and I’ll post the layouts as I finish testing them. Off the top of my head I’ll probably be doing layouts for Ezdrummer, Artist Drums, Battery 3 (so many different kit, so I’ll only be doing some of the most used kits), and some of the drum synths I use.

While the Zendrum is a wonderful instrument–one that you can do things on that you could never do with a drum kit or keyboard or any rubber pad based devices, it does still have room for improvement. When I ran into some problems with my unit I talked to the Zendrum folks about them and it lead to them inviting me to play a part in the future development of Zendrum behind the scenes. High on my list would be a software editor, better user interface, more flexible crossfade note mapping, and more intuitive trigger calibration.

Eastwest Voices of Passion arrived, and once again I had problems with the Registration Wizard crashing immediately upon launch, and same with the iLok syncronization, so I had to use another computer to register the product again. After playing around with VoP for a couple of hours, my opinion of it hasn’t really changed–the voice of the Whales singer is what I bought it for, but to piece together a convincing performance would be quite difficult as the product has problems. There are sometimes timbre/texture jumps between some notes that makes it nearly impossible to connect those notes together in a natural sounding manner, and the PLAY engine seems to have glitches too–some notes will cut short before reaching the end, and it happens randomly. I plan on experimenting with Melodyne and see if it could make VoP more flexible than it is.

…

I watched the 12-minute clip of Ron Moore’s new pilot for the TV series Virtuality, and I have to say that I didn’t like it. The reality show element of the premise is completely idiotic, as it’s just ridiculous to think that such a serious and expensive deep space mission would jeopardize the psychological well-being of its crew by subjecting them to the kind of reality show mind-fuck we all know so well. It’s as if being on one of the most important missions the human race has ever embarked on wasn’t tense enough, they’d actually produce a reality show right there on the space station? What kind of an idiot would think that’s likely to ever happen? I can be skeptical and jaded when it comes to how asinine the human race can get, but even I think that’s extremely unlikely.

Or…maybe Ron Moore is just messing with us by faking that premise and something else entirely is happening? Hmm. . ..

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June 18, 2009

Kitty Cat now American

Filed under: My Life/Musings — Rob @ 3:20 pm

WEBLOG:
Elena had her naturalization ceremony this morning, where she and close to a thousand other people were sworn in as new American citizens. The ceremony was held at Paramount Theater in Oakland, and if you’ve been there you already know how beautiful it is. I think I saw a concert there many years ago there but I can’t remember which band it was. My own naturalization was back in 1992 (although I was eligible for citizenship as far back as the mid-80’s–my parents just never thought to actually deal with it until I turned 18, so I ended up handling it myself), and it wasn’t nearly as nice as the one she had. Mine was pretty dry–just raise your hand and repeat the oath and then get your certificate. Hers was a lot more of a show, where they showed videos welcoming the new citizens, had a live singer sing the national anthem, and the guy who hosted the ceremony was a bit of a comedian and spoke to the audience in several different languages (it was pretty impressive). The Mexicans and the Filipinos dominated this ceremony as their cheers were by far the loudest when their countries were called. I noticed quite a few people were wiping their eyes when the host talked to the new citizens about what it means to be an American, the values we hold dear to our hearts, and so on. I was moved to tears too since I believe firmly in those values, even if some of our past government leaders didn’t always seem to be on the same page as the rest of us. Anyway, here are some photos from the ceremony:
paramount theater

paramount theater

The guests of the new citizens were seated in the upper floor, so I could only get a photo of Elena from above:
elena

Singing the national anthem:

Obama welcoming the new citizens in a video:
obama

Happy American Kittycat:
elena

elena

All in all, the entire process of her getting her citizenship went faster and smoother than we had expected–in fact we originally planned to have everything done in about six month, and it only took three and a half (everything meaning from handing in her citizenship application to getting her naturalization certificate). The entire process from getting her immigration visa to her citizenship took almost four years total. Generally this is pretty fast as she never got rejected during any step of the process over the last few years, passed every interview and exam on first try, and never had any documents get lost in the mail or under the processing pile. Supposedly Immigration/Homeland Security has been working on improving efficiency, and apparently it’s working–or at least it is in California.

It’s interesting that for a long time I didn’t feel comfortable in any kind of official ceremony, but today I felt good. In the past whenever any government official got on stage and tossed around words like freedom, justice, liberty…etc, my inner voice just sniffed and rolled its eyes, because for a very long time I disagreed with the people running the government–it seemed all they ever did was to ruin America’s reputation. But ever since Obama took office, those negative feelings have melted away, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way (except the kind of idiots who voted for Bush Jr. twice).

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June 15, 2009

TC Electronic Konnekt Live, Korg Pandora PX5D, Eastwest SD2, and ranting about BSG’s final season

Filed under: Film/TV/Animation, Food, Music, My Life/Musings, Writing — Rob @ 4:25 am

WEBLOG:
As our trip starts to wrap up, we have kicked into “shopping mode,” trying to see how much stuff we can cram into our luggage for the flight back. Elena’s buying plant seeds for our herb garden on our balconies, household and kitchen gadgets, and of course beauty products and clothes. As for me, it’s always the same predictable stuff I always buy–music gear for the studio, books on musicianship and art (plus a few novels here and there), and CD/DVD’s. I’ve got two boxes of books coming from amazon.com–all musicianship related books (orchestration, guitar playing, drumming). I really hope our luggage won’t go over the weight limit, but ven if that happens, it will only cost us $25 extra per check-in luggage, as long as it’s under 70 lbs (50 lbs is the usual limit). $25 for 20 lbs is actually a really good deal considering how expensive international shipping to China is.

…

I mentioned before that I needed a new audio interface since my Line 6 Toneport UX2 is just not as stable as I’d like it to be (I get audio dropouts and unable to initiate audio driver errors sometimes). After much research online and asking around, I decided to go with a product that may not have the best reputation for driver stability, but has excellent pedigree and audio quality–the TC Electronic Konnekt Live (slightly more expensive model than the Konnekt 24D). While I should’ve learned from my past mistake of choosing an interface with unstable drivers, my reasoning is that drivers can be improved and updated, but an interface with mediocre components and sound quality could never really improve. Even though TC Electronic seems a bit behind on their driver updates, they have made progress and the recent update seems to have soothed a lot of complaining user base. I have tested the Konnekt Live on Elena’s old HP laptop (with a Belkin firewire express card–which is audio industry preferred Texas Instruments chipset), and it runs fine and sounds great (though I can’t really assess the audio quality until I get back to my studio and run critical listening test with my trusty Klein + Hummel O 300D’s). The old laptop’s specs are barely keeping up with the minimum system requirements so I can’t set the buffer too low (about 256 to 512 minimum)–I should be able to go lower on my quadcore main DAW back in the studio. I tried running Sonar 8 on that old laptop with the Konnekt Live and while it runs, it drops out constantly because the CPU hits 100% too easily. Running low-resource intensive synths in Xulop Chainer does much better–I tried Imposcar, Synth1, Oatmeal, and they all worked just fine. Edirol HQ Orchestral was too demanding for the slow laptop though–I couldn’t even play a single note without the audio dropping out or with heavy stuttering. So far it’s looking good, since at least I know the interface works, and comparing the audio quality to the Toneport UX2, I can hear that the low frequencies from the Konnket Live is more substantial and tighter (but this is only through the Sennheiser HD555 headphones. Must test with my K+H monitors to know for sure). Here’s a photo of the Konnekt Live in my temporary mobile rig:

On a related note, while testing the interface, one of the 1/4″ TRS jacks broke off its tip inside one of the input sockets, and it took me forever to get the damn thing out. Here you can see the broken tip:

I first tried to push the metal clamps inside the socket to the side and tried to dig the tip out, but there was just nothing to grip onto to pull the tip out–especially when the metal clamps are pretty tight. The tip was being held by the third clamp deep inside, the the front two clamps made it hard to extract the tip too, although they could be pushed aside. When I was almost ready to give up, I decided to post on KVRAudio.com and see if anyone’s got a good suggestions, and I was so glad I did, because someone suggested drilling a hole from the inside and then push the tip out. I was trying so hard not to destroy the interface as I just bought it, but I did not want to try any of the other suggestions like using strong bond glue since it could gunk up the inside if I wasn’t careful. So drill a hole I did. First, I had to take the interface apart, which was easy as it’s all just screws:
konnekt live opened

This is what the circuit board looks like:
konnekt live opened

Then I drilled a hole in the plastic socket where the tip was stuck. You can see the three metal clamps clearly. Since the tip was stuck in the second row, I couldn’t access the metal clamps, otherwise I only needed to pry the clamps out to get the tip out:
drilled hole

I then pushed it out with a tiny screwdriver. You can see the hole drilled in the socket where I shone a LED light through (right-hand bottom corner):
drilled hole

Luckily everything went well, and the interface was not harmed in anyway, except for that little hole which does not affect the performance at all. I probably voided my warranty though–oh well.

…

My last round of purchases at Guitar Center consisted of some instrument cables and various configuration adapters (no matter how many you have, you’re always missing some), Eastwest Quantum Leapo SD2+iLok (Eastwest is doing their buy-one-get-one-free deal right now for their Play libraries, so I’ll be getting Voices of Passion as my freebie), and the Korg Pandora PX5D guitar multi-effects processor.

I really thought long and hard about which of the Eastwest Play libraries to get, and originally I was going to try to also get Ministry of Rock, Gypsy, and Silk, but eventually decided to just get SD2 and VoP for now. I already have enough libraries for guitar, bass, and drums, so MoR would contain to much overlap. Gypsy’s main allure for me are the guitars and the violin, but I already have guitars and the violin is supposed to be programmed mostly for gypsy styled playing, which makes it less flexible than ideal. Silk is drool-worthy, but it’s new and more expensive, which means in a year or so the price will drop just like other Play products. I picked SD2 mostly because of the new addition of sound design patches–you can never have too many of those, especially for scoring. I debated about VoP since its legato portamento does not sound anything close to what you think it should sound like based on Eastwest’s advertising–it’s very unnatural and synthy when you hit the transition between notes, and recorded phrases are typically not flexible at all to compose with. But the Whales singer in the library is the only one I’ve come across from all the vocal libraries that sounds anything close to the kind of breathy/airy/soft female voice I like–other libraries tend to favor the more mature deeper voice or the classical soprano voice, which always feels like more technique than heart to me. I’m going to use VoP in conjunction with Melodyne, which I’m sure will vastly improve the flexibility of VoP.

I installed SD2 yesterday and it was such a pain in the ass. My Sony VAIO FW-390 comes with Vista 64–bit, and for whatever reason, both iLok and Eastwest’s registration wizard just would not run at all–they keep crashing no matter what I did (uninstall, re-install, reboot…etc). Finally I tried registering the iLok and running the SD2 registration on an older laptop that’s running WinXP 32-bit, and it worked like a charm. It’s unacceptable that I had to resort to using a different computer, because what if I only had one computer? The argument for and against piracy really just goes around in circles–if there were no piracy in the first place, developers wouldn’t need such drastic measures for security, but annoying and problematic security measures only piss customers off–many refuse to buy any product that has such security measures. No one wins in the end. I wonder just how many more copies does products using hardware security devices sell compared to products using simply serial numbers.

I was eager to test out SD2 so I installed it on the Sony laptop, even though without the benefit of a separate hard drive. I think SD2 is what Stormdrum should’ve been–all the extended and new material makes SD2 a lot more complete and usable. I thought Stormdrum was pretty good, but it did not blow me away because there weren’t enough variety and the velocity layers were too limited. SD2 is just a much more inventive product, and the sound design patches add so much to the value of the library. I suspect they added those because of recent competitor’s scoring-oriented products like A.I.R., The Elements, Synergy, Evolve…etc have been so popular with composers.

I got the Korg Pandora PX5D mostly because I wanted more variety in my guitar effects arsenal when recording without the computer (I mentioned before that I sometimes prefer to not be influenced by the visual representation of musical data that sequencing software depends on). Korg’s sound design has always been more interesting to me than those of other companies, and the Pandora has some unconventional effects that you just don’t see in other similar products, except in more specialized products that concentrate on imaginative effects. The built-in effects on my Zoom MRS-8 are certainly usable–no worse than those found in other products, but the navigation is a chore and the effects are the typical conventional variety. I almost bought a used Boss Metal Core distortion pedal while at Guitar Center, but after comparing it to the distortion on the Pandora, I don’t think it’s worth it to spend the extra money, as some EQ’ing could probably get the Pandora close enough to the ideal metal distortion sound I want. But then again, the ideal metal distortion sound is like the Holy Grail–you think it exists but you may never find it. What sold me on the Pandora was mostly because of the demo videos of Sevendust guitarists promoting it–I thought their endorsement was sincere and the examples they played in the videos sounded good enough to me. You can check out the videos below:
Sevendust Rocks the Pandora
Sonny Mayo of Sevendust rocking the Pandora (I think the product he was dissing was probably the Line 6 POD.)
John Connolly of Sevendust rocking the Pandora

…

We been searching for the best pizza place in the Silicon Valley, and I made a list of some of the most mentioned places in online reviews. One of them was Amici’s East Coast Pizza in San Jose, and we had dinner there a couple nights ago. We ordered a large pizza with half Calabria and half Spicy Pepper Chicken. In general it was unsatisfying since the pizzas were kind of dry, the toppings sparse, and the spices weren’t as strong as we’d have liked. I think pizzas need to be a little bit greasy to be really satisfying, and Amici’s pizzas were a bit like eating healthy pizza–not quite the point.

…

Quickie TV reviews:

Breaking Bad (season two) – I had high expectations for season two since I was totally blown away by season one, and I was not disappointed. Breaking Bad is by far one of the best written, directed, cast, and acted television shows in the history of television. The one episode with the “previously on Breaking Bad” segment done as a song sung by a Mexican band–I nearly died–it was fucking brilliant. All the other writers and directors out there working on other TV shows need to watch Breaking Bad and take note, because the people behind Breaking Bad are kicking their asses and taking their names. The airplane crash at the end was a bit out there, but I suspect they will do something with it in season three.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (season two) – I liked season one enough to give season two a shot, and season two started strong, especially with Cameron’s malfunction, but I was so disappointed they did not build on that, as it was the most compelling aspect of season two. The rest of season two had some great moments, such as John Henry’s education, but that whole subplot involving Jesse and Riley didn’t do much for me. I was very intrigued by the “Will you join us” plot twists towards the end, but unfortunately the show has been cancelled. There will be no season three.

Battle Star Galactica (reimagined) (season four) - I have mentioned before that BSD started to go downhill for me in season three, and season four really didn’t change that, although the ending was satisfying enough. My problem with BSG in the last two seasons is that the writers obviously were just making it up as they go, and for a premise with multi-layered complexity, that is a very ineffective way to maximize a compelling pacing and story structure that holds its shape until the very end of the series. I’m sure Ron Moore and his writers had some skeleton of a plot for the entire series, but so much of the big events that has happened in the last two seasons were obviously just pulled out of their asses as desperate attempts to keep the show interesting. When they ran out of good ideas, they repeated old tricks and that felt gimmicky and lazy because we’ve seen the same execution and treatment multiple times already. When writers do not exercise restraint, they become self-indulgent. When you give every moment the same epic and dramatic treatment, nothing stands out, and the scenes that should’ve been the most powerful becomes diluted because everything other scene were not treated with restraint. They don’t seem to understand the concept of contrast. The lack of a well structured pacing was a big problem–everything was big and in your face, like a symphony where every other note is a big fucking tutti–just random, arbitrary made-up melodrama that felt like they were only written for the sake of being dark and depressing and traumatizing, serving no other higher purpose in the overall storyline. How many times did they use the “Admiral Adama explodes with fury in private and then slides down against a wall in a mess of broken sobs” gimmick? It was powerful the first time, but when we see it again and again it felt cheap, and it did not drive home the point that Adama was deterioting–it only felt like a cheap trick. It’s as if the writers weren’t inventive enough to come up with a different way to express the same idea.

****Spoiler Ahead****

One point that really annoyed me was how they came up with the final five cylons. They literally pulled it out of their asses in production meetings in the later seasons because they did not take the precaution of working such an important plot point into the overall structure of the entire series. That is not how you approach an epic series that requires many of the plot structure to be worked out beforehand. And Ellen is the final cylon? Seriously? That is probably the single worst decision the writing team made (although I’m pretty sure it was all Ron when you get down to it). Talk about a letdown and a misstep in satisfying storytelling. There was no relevant intellectual or emotional resonance for the series in that decision–it was completely meaningless.

****Spoiler Ends****

Now, I’m not unsympathetic to the complexities of writing for a television network show where you don’t know when and if the plug will be pulled, and that makes it hard to create a set structure for the entire series, but some of the blunders the writing team made on BGS were just so uncharacteristic of what I expect from a talented team of writers. There were so many moments where the show relied on emotional trauma and random plot twists that after a while it became just a string of cheap tricks. All those moments of people staring each other down, super tight zoom shots of somebody’s tear drenched eyes–they just became routine, predictable. Every moment is monumental and epic, and everyone’s emotional turmoil was a tidal wave, but without contrast they all blur into a mess and all semblance of a carefully crafted narrative is lost. While I respect Ron Moore’s obsession with realism and darkness, I think he’s lost objectivity and could no longer construct satisfying pacing and variety as the series went on. Piling on the tragedies and gritty darkness is not a replacement for good storytelling–sometimes too much is just too much. I really enjoyed the first two seasons as the pacing was far better and the storytelling devices haven’t been abused to hell yet, but starting with season three everything just went downhill.

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May 31, 2009

Trip coming to an end soon

Filed under: Film/TV/Animation, Latest Works, Music, My Life/Musings, News, Photography, Travel, Video Games — Rob @ 5:13 pm

NEWS:
Uploaded some new photography in the photography section.

Ed Levin Lake – Some photos I took while strolling around Sandy Wool Lake in Ed Levin County Park, Milpitas:

New Kitty Cat Diary entries (some new additions in the older dates as well):

WEBLOG:
We just got the notice for Elena to go in for the swearing in (in about two weeks), and after that we just wait for her new passport and our trip would come to an end. This does mean that from now on we both have to leave China every seven to nine months as both of us are now considered foreigners. The upside is that we get to go shopping in Hong Kong and we love the food there.

…

We went and got Elena a new Compaq Presario CQ60-202US laptop from Frys, and it’s actually quite nice for such a cheap model, with tasteful design and enough horsepower for every day computer use. Our old laptops will go on ebay.

I’ve been pretty happy with my new Sony Vaio FW-390, but I’m not at all happy about the amount of bloatware Sony installs on their laptops, as I’m still discovering useless crap that I don’t want on my computer. It’s been a pain trying to figure out what can be uninstalled and what you need to keep in order to use all the special Vaio functions. I wish these companies would actually allow you to choose and pick what to install into your laptop when you make the purchase.

…

While at Guitar Center the other day, I tried out the new Boss Me-70 guitar muti-effects board, and I think it sounds noticeably better than the previous ME-50. The distortions in particular don’t sound as synthetic and overly processed. I also spent some time comparing the Boss Metal Zone MT-2 and Metal Core ML-2, and it’s actually really hard to pick one, as they both sound good but different. I’ve heard the online sound clip of the MXR Dimebag Distortion pedal and I wasn’t all that impressed. I may actually end up getting a Korg Pandora PX5D since I thought the video of Sevendust demoing it sounded really good, plus its a full-blown multi-effects processor, not just a one-trick pony.

I was looking forward to try out the new Korg microKORG XL, which replaces the older model, but as I was going through the presets, I just kept feeling like the days of getting hardware synths is really over. I could easily get equivalent sounds from many of the software synths I use, and I already have MIDI keyboard controllers so I don’t need another one. I don’t gig, so I have no reason to get a small portable synth, and if I travel, I just bring my laptop and my Korg Nanos. It’s actually kind of sad since I really love hardware synths, but they just aren’t all that practical when today’s software synths have gotten so good and cost so little.

…

I really wanted to like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, since it gets such rave reviews, but after a couple of hours I was totally let down, just like I was let down by the other similar games like Fallout 3 and Morrowind. At this point I just have to admit that I will never like those types of games. The idea of a sandbox is great, but if the NPC’s that populate the sandbox are paper-thin, with horrible animation and voice acting, and with really clunky game mechanics of interactions, it turns the sandbox into a kitty litter. I also cannot stand NPC’s that look like perfectly normal people–not psycho freaks or mutants, but as soon as you’re spotted they will start screaming and attacking as if you had just killed their family. What is that all about? Why can’t there be an option to talk to or negotiate with those NPC’s? It’s a symptom of lazy design that feels very similar to how the Japanese will put random battles all over the place in their RPG’s. Outdated and illogical. Bad designer, no cookie!

I never thought linear games were bad, because the linearity is crafted carefully to be a compelling experience (Half-Life series is the perfect example), whereas a sandbox cannot guarantee that kind of expertly crafted thrill ride. No sandbox games has ever been able to deliver the kind of emotional immersion that finely crafted scripted games could, because in order to create a compelling experience, the writer/designer must be able to dictate the pacing and the order of events, and that goes against the idea of a sandbox game (and cinematics don’t count–I don’t consider cinematics gaming). I need to just stop trying these sandbox games from now on.

I gave Halo 3 a try and it didn’t take, just like the previous games. I actually did finish the first game on the PC years ago, and it did try my patience in some parts due to the repetitive levels, but I enjoyed it enough to finish it. With the second one, I really just couldn’t care less about the part where you had to play as one of the aliens. Emotional immersion is the most important part of a game for me when it comes to single player games that cares enough to have a premise and a storyline, but when you pluck the player out of the body of the protagonist and shove him into a character that the player just couldn’t give a rat’s ass about, you immediately lose the player’s emotional investment. It’s a bad call and I really do feel that the people who are writing and designing the Halo games don’t know what the hell they’re doing. The silly midget aliens with cartoony voices also piss me off to no end. Even the one-liners the aliens spout off during battle sounds so cheesy and clichéd. You just do not put slapstick elements into a deadly serious premise–it’s a total mismatch of tone. Humor can exist in a serious premise, but it has to have the right tone that match, and I think the Halo people are just don’t understand that. With the third one, the game remains a series of “go from point A to point B, then battle it out, then move to point C.” Whatever story it had, it was only thrown together to move the player to the next battle, as opposed to really telling a compelling story with great pacing and emotional impact. I also dislike the cinematics, especially when they depict what is happening on the alien side, because it disconnects the player emotionally from the story of “you” living in the body of Master Chief. This is a unique aspect of video games that many designers don’t understand. It’s not a novel, so don’t approach it like one, because the player is not an observer like a third-person point of view novel, but must experience everything first-hand, especially in a FPS–that’s the whole point of a FPS. This is something the Valve people understand instinctively and has championed with the Half-Life series, and it’s one of the most effective storytelling approaches that exists in video games. The Halo fanboys love to trash the Half-Life series, which to me is a bit like people who eat at Denny’s laughing at people who eat at the French Laundry. I need to just stop trying the Halo games from now on too.

…

I stopped by Japan Town the other day when I was in San Francisco (picking up a pair of sunglasses I had lost in a restaurant the day before). I picked up a few CD’s while there:

GijonYMO -Yellow Magic Orchestra Live in Gijon 19/6 08
Excellent two-disc set of their live show. If you are a fan of YMO or its members’ solo works, you’ll likely enjoy this one. They performed some classic YMO songs in their set, and with age, their use of electronics is a lot more subtle, and they try to incorporate them in a very organic way with acoustic instruments. I think it’s a good approach.

Olivia Lufkin – TrinkaTrinka
It’s not as strong as her previous albums or EP’s, and the title song is probably the strongest. I still think she needs to work on her lyrics since her writing is still awkward as she doesn’t seem to have any idea that rhyming is actually quite important to most song structures. Melodically her recent songs also don’t seem as strong as her past works–she’s starting to sound like she’s running out of interesting melodic contours and grasping at straws in some melodic progressions. I think Jeff Lufkin needs to release a solo album because it’s obvious that the songs he contributes to are the strongest ones. At this point I’m actually doubting Olivia’s ability as both songwriter and musician, as I don’t recall ever seeing her being credited as the sole writer, instrument(s) performer, or arranger of any of her songs–she appears to rely on the ability of others way too much. Maybe it’s unfair for me to expect singer/songwriters to be able to do it all–compose, arrange, perform, produce..etc.

Olivia Lufkin – Olivia inspi’ Reira [Trapnest]
Mix of both songs completely written by others, and some that Olivia co-wrote. The ones that others wrote were actually the strongest songs on the album, which I think is a little disappointing. The whole reason why I even bother with songwriter/singer types is because they display ability beyond those of puppet pop stars manufactured and controlled by record companies that groom them and design their every single move. So when a singer/songwriter starts to look more like someone who just sings songs others write, and does not perform any instrument to acceptable level of expertise, I have to wonder if someone like that is all that different from the manufactured pop stars. Disillusioned is the word on my mind right now.

I’m probably being too harsh, but I really did expect her to grow and improve as a musician and songwriter, but she apparent hasn’t, except that her live singing is actually now tolerable as opposed to being horrible like in the past. At this point her siblings (Caroline and Jeff) are exhibiting more talent and skill than she has.

Nokko – Hallelujah
I’m a big fan of Nokko’s previous band, Rebecca, and this first solo album of hers from the 90’s doesn’t sound much like her, since her wild and expressive singing style has been tamed to the point of being almost unrecognizable. The music is not bad–acid jazz, funk, and dance club mixtures. I’ve seen Youtube videos of her later solo work and they sound much more interesting.

Morikawa Miho – Her Best
Collection of songs from her earlier albums–basically the period when she was still a teenager and a little older. There are actually a few songs I don’t have and they’re pretty good. I’m still impressed now when I listen to her earlier songs, as she has really good control over her projection and can manipulate the timbre and tonal quality of her voice with a mastery that many singers twice her age couldn’t.

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May 22, 2009

Kitty Cat passed the test!

Filed under: Books, Computers & Gadgets, Film/TV/Animation, Music, My Life/Musings, Video Games, Writing — Rob @ 10:03 pm

WEBLOG:
Yesterday was the big day–the reason why we’re back in the States, and Elena passed her citizenship test! She’s been studying so hard for it non-stop and it all paid off, but of course she had to fulfill all the citizenship requirements in the first place to even get to take the test. To be honest, we really only had about 70% confidence that she would pass, since she’s still so behind on her English, and the American history, government, and reading/writing tests are so extensive (to the point that most Americans would probably fail if they took the tests). She was so relieved and ecstatic–laughing and smiling from ear-to-ear the whole day yesterday, and she’s still giddy now. I love seeing her so happy–it makes me feel like the world is in a perfect state. Now, we just wait for the letter that tells her to go take her citizenship oath, and then the passport would be on its way. We miss our beautiful and cozy home in China, but we also love being in the States. In a perfect world we’d be able to transport our home in China to the Bay Area and the cost of living would resemble something saner.

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I have wanted a Zendrum for years, and always felt that it was too expensive, but after struggling with programming drum tracks on keyboards and rubber pads since 1998, I’ve finally decided to take the plunge and join the tribe of Zendrummers. To my delight, they have updated their circuit board this year, so my Zendrum will be the most sensitive version ever made, making even snare buzz rolls possible on a single trigger–that is something impossible to do on keyboards or rubber pads. I’ve picked the LT model since I’ll using it sitting down a lot, but it could still be worn on the body with a strap, and I’ve ordered the Honey Rock Maple, which I think is the best looking one of all the colors they offer (although some of the more natural wood finishes are quite nice too):
Zendrum LT

I did think about maybe ordering a custom color (which costs $50 more), but the more I think about it, the more it seems it’d be hard to top that yellow and black combination, which has that high tech sports car vibe. All black would be pretty cool too but playing it with dark lighting might make it hard to make out the triggers.

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So the Kensington Laptop Riser arrived, and I’m happy to say that it lived up to my expectations. Not only does it raise the laptop to a comfortable eye-level, it is also quite sturdy and does not wobble when typing. When I stack a few books under the front side (for more ergonomic typing without adding an external keyboard), it remains sturdy. Here how I’ve set it up:
Kensington in use

What I also love about it is that it’s adjustable and very portable–folds up nicely so you can just slip it into your laptop bag:
Kensington

With all the other more expensive and bulky laptop stands/risers out there, this one by comparison is so simple and portable. The only thing I wish it had is an adjustable front riser so I don’t have to prop the front up.

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I have completed my Korg Nano series collection. I must say, I’m liking them more than I thought I would. Here they are in my mobile setup:
Zoom MRS-8 and Korg Nanos

Temp Workspace

I originally got the white versions of the Korg Nanos because that’s all they had in stock, but I really wanted the black ones and Elena didn’t like the look of the white and blue at all–she said they look like the kind of cheap fake products sold on the sidewalks in China. While I do think the color scheme of the white versions is part of the charm and are supposed to look a little toy like in order to charm the pants off of laptop geek musicians, I have to agree with Elena that the black versions just look like higher quality products.

After testing them out, here are my thoughts:

-I mainly got them because I’m in the middle of traveling and I think they are the perfect size for traveling with a laptop and audio interface. They make even the smallest normal sized keys MIDI controller keyboards look huge and clumsy.

-I initially only got the NanoPAD because I wanted the X/Y pad and the roll button for programming fast repeating glitchy beats–there is just no easy way to do that otherwise. But then I realized adding the other two wouldn’t be redundant (considering I already have a full-blown rig at home), since when not using them while traveling, they can simply expand the range of my Novation ReMOTE 25 SL on the desk–for example, I don’t have to hit the octave buttons as much because the NanoKEY adds two more octaves on the desk (and I don’t have to turn on the big 61 and 88-keys keyboards just to try out some ideas or test a synth patch).

-After having all three and using them in conjunction with each other, I realized that to me, they really are made to be used together (unless you are integrating them into an existing rig that’s already got MIDI controllers). For example, the NanoKEY cannot do smooth/slow modwheel or pitchbend rides, but if you pair it up with the NanoPAD, you can use the X/y pad on it to do mod/pitch smoothly/slowly, or if you paired it up with the NanoKontrol, you could assign the knobs/sliders on it to do them.

-One interesting thing I discovered is that if you have both the NanoPAD and NanoKEY, don’t bother using the clumsy rubber pads on the NanoPAD to program/play drums–they are practically useless for that. The rubber pads are very insensitive and cannot handle fast repeating notes or fast alternating dynamics well. Unexpectedly, the NanoKEY is far superior as a drum programming/playing tool because the velocity sensitive keys are way more sensitive and playable than the rubber pads on NanoPAD–I can even do very fast sustained snare rolls on the same key, which is impossible to do on the rubber pads. UNFORTUNATELY, you cannot play drums on the NanoKEY and still use the roll button + X/Y pad on the NanoPAD at the same time, since the roll button only responds to the rubber pads and not to other MIDI controllers.

-You cannot play the NanoKEY like you would any typical keyboard. There have been keyboards with tiny keys before, but this is a whole different problem, since the white keys only extend up to 50% of what should’ve been the whole length of the keys, and do not exist between the black keys–that makes it impossible to play any kind of chords where your fingers must go between the black keys at the upper 50% of the key length. The only way to play those chords now is to use two hands, or do very awkward finger bending and use your fingernails to play some keys. In general, you must think of NanoKEY as a totally different instrument and approach it with a different playing strategy, or you’ll be miserable trying to play it like a traditional keyboard.

Overall I think it’s a really neat set of toys that can be used to do some pretty interesting things, and can even handle full-blown music production if you know how to use them right. The NanoKEY is probably the most awkward one of the series, and it’ll never replace full-sized keys, or even miniature keys like those on the Korg Kontrol or microKORG, but it’s still far better than using qwerty or a mouse, and the portability is unbeatable. The velocity sensitivity is actually quite good, but sometimes pressing away from the center may not register the intended velocity, which isn’t too much of a problem since the keys are so small it’s hard to really hit off center.

My verdict–I like them, and they are exactly as advertised–fun, cute, very portable, and surprisingly usable for serious music production.

…

Also in the photo above is the Zoom MRS-8 8-track digital recorder (right above the Nanos). Originally I picked up the Boss BR-600 8-track digital recorder because the MRS-8 has been discontinued. But after trying the BR-6 out for a few days I decided I rather try my luck and hunt down a used MRS-8 on the internet than to be stuck with the BR-600. It’s not that the BR-600 is bad–it’s actually quite good–it’s just that the MRS-8 kicks its ass in a few important areas. Some of the key differences that are important to me were:

-MRS-8 can have 100 markers per project, while the BR-600 only allows one. WTF, you know? ONE marker for an entire project? Were the designers at Boss smoking crack?

-The MRS-8 is visually better designed upon first glance, with better layout and visual clarity of each section, not to mention more information in its LCD display (although to be fair, once you have read the manul for the BR-600 and have used it for a little bit, its interface becomes very clear and easy to use).

-The MRS-8 has MIDI out, which means it can control other sound modules, which greatly expands its sonic palette.

-MRS-8’s lossy compression is not as aggressive as BR-600’s (I read that somewhere in one of the musician’s forums, but I’m not 100% sure if it’s true).

-The MRS-8 has 27 sounds in a drum kit (but 18 of them are the same for all the kits, while only the first 9 sound of each kit might be different–in fact sometimes only the bass and snare changes when you switch kits). BR-600 only has 9 sounds per kit, missing the 18 extra sounds of the MRS-8 have like splashl, hand percussion, tambourine…etc.

-The MRS-8 has bass sounds in additional to drum sounds, and you can play the bass with the drum pads and select different scales to play in.

The BR-600 does have some things over the MRS-8 though, such as being much lighter and thinner (only about 50% of the MRS-8), and the onboard mic is stereo instead of mono like the one on the MRS-8. The BR-600 also has USB connection, which is not a big deal to me since I have a card reader for the MRS-8’s SD cards. The one feature the BR-600 has that I wish the MRS-8 had is the ability to record/import custom drum sounds, but the MIDI out on the MRS-8 kind of makes up for it since I can just use an external drum module.

I never meant to use a mutitrack recorder to do finished tracks anyway though–it’s meant to be a sketch pad to get ideas down quickly without turning on the DAW computer (I don’t turn on that computer unless I know I have a big chunk of time to devote to making music, as that computer’s dedicated to music production only). More than likely all recorded material on the multitrack recorder will be re-recorded with the DAW sequencer anyway, so it’s not that important to have great sounding drums or effects during that phase. Another important reason I wanted to get a multitrack recorder is because I miss making music with simply my ears instead of being influenced by the visual representation of musical data in DAW sequencing software. I find that when I see visual data, my creative thinking gets influenced because I’m a highly visual person, and when I’m working without that visual aspect, I would often make different creative decisions, and I think it’s important to keep that aspect of myself alive.

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I’ve been trying to narrow down my audio interface upgrade choices, and it’s quite interesting that the more you research, the more it seems like the vast range of choices out there all seem to be missing one important feature you need. I used to think it’s ridiculous how many audio interfaces are on the market, and now I wished there were more, just so that I can up my chances of finding the perfect one for me. I’m actually not asking for much, just an interface that’s reliable, has low latency, has good quality preamps (ideally 60db or more of clean and clear gain), has at least one pair of stereo inputs, and one pair of stereo outputs, and instrument inputs. If it has onboard DSP or some kind of direct monitoring effects front end (like the Gearbox/Pod Farm for Toneports from Line 6, which is what I have now, but can be unstable at times), all the better, since I would be able to add some light compression and monitor with reverb–all without any outboard gear. I could always do software direct monitoring in Sonar (and as far as I know, most DAW sequencers allow it), but it’s more taxing on the CPU and there’s always the problem of slight latency. At the moment, the interfaces I’ve narrowed down to are really just the TC Electronic Konnekt 24D and MOTU Ultralite MK3, but the Konnekt doesn’t have 64-bit driver yet (which is not a problem for my desktop DAW as that runs WinXP Pro in 32-bit, but is a problem for my new Sony VAIO, which is running Vista 64-bit), and the Ultralite is actually a bit of overkill for my needs. The Focusrite Saffire could’ve been a contender had Focusrite just given it one pair of dedicated stereo inputs, but for some reason they made the stupid mistake of only having a pair that doubles as instrument inputs. How the hell they came up with that configuration I will never understand, because it’s just stupid to think that people would want to pull out their input from a mixer or a keyboard just so they can plug in a guitar or bass.

On a related note, my Toneport UX2 is doing an OK job on the new Sony VAIO FW-390, even though I still sometimes get audio drop outs or the ASIO driver would fail to initialize, but in terms of latency it’s actually doing better than when I used the Toneport on other computers I have. Maybe it’s the latest drivers that’s improving things, and if that’s the case, perhaps I don’t need to upgrade, but until I get home to try the new drivers on my main desktop DAW computer, I can’t know for sure, and by then it’ll be too late since buying audio interfaces in China costs far more than buying them in the States.

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My Creative Zen 32GB has returned from RMA, and apparently it was easier for Creative to just replace the unit, because that’s what I received–a brand new Zen. I can’t believe they didn’t even bother peeling off the screen protector I had on mine and send it back to me–now I have to use the new unit without a screen protector until I get home and install one, or waste money to buy another pack. I’m happy that the new unit appears to be problem-free, and after uploading the contents from the previous unit (I had the foresight to backup the unit before sending it in for the RMA), it’s working flawlessly. Count me as a happy customer.

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I had high hopes for Eternal Sonata, but after playing it for a couple of hours I just got bored out of my mind. I can’t stand random battles since I see them as lazy game design, and I can’t stand the format of transporting the characters to a battle stage–all of it feels so dated and clumsy. I also can’t stand heavy-handed writing that doesn’t pay enough attention to the finer details of dialog and flow (which strangely enough, has the same clumsy vibe as bad writings in porno films, except without all the cheesy double entendre). I nearly lost it when the two young male characters faced battle with the rats for the first time, the younger boy turns to the older one and asks, “Uh, how do you fight battles again?” as I was presented with the choice of redoing the battle tutorial I had already done with the main female character in a previous chapter. No one talks like that–not even in a fantasy world. It’s the symptom of lazy writing and design. I don’t like it when the in-game story is mingled with the mechanics of the game because the designer/writer is too lazy come up with a better way (and there is always a better way), unless we’re talking about it being done on purpose, like in Conker’s Bad Fur Day where the game mechanics and the in-game story are intertwined in a clever and humorous way. Anyway, whenever a game makes me feel like I haven’t been presented with any compelling reasons to continue playing, I stop. In the two hours I played the game, at no time was I presented with any motivation to find out who the hell the characters were or why I should give a damn about any of them, or if there’s even a story or premise I should care about. The pacing was horrible, and the only interesting things I’ve found out about the game were through game review sites that talked about the premise. If a game fails to draw me in on its own merits after an hour or two, then I just assume the reviewers only played on because it’s their job, and even if the overall enjoyment derived from the entire game is positive, to a gamer who isn’t forced to play on and finish the game, it’s too little and too late. The number of hours it takes a badly designed game to shape into something enjoyable is time I could’ve spent doing a ton of other more interesting things. Another thing that kinda bugged me a little is the obsession that Japanese has with doe-eyed young characters. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up on anime/manga and they are a big influence on me as an artist, writer, composer, and director, but seriously, why the strange fascination with Lolita complex and bishonens? Why must every character look like big-eyed dolls and act like cringe-inducing burikos? Sure, we all know the Japanese love cute and adorable designs, but this fixation just becomes uncomfortable after a while. I guess they must wonder about America’s fascination with costumed superheroes and talking animals as well.

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I finished reading Let the Right One In, and I have to say that the book isn’t nearly as good as the film, as it has a lot of details that I’m glad was cut out of the film. I think the film picked the best elements from the book to concentrate on, and omitted or changed elements that weren’t conductive to the heart-warming yet morbid beauty of the film. If I had a choice I would choose to never had read the book, because it only taints my memory of the film.

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Quickie film/TV reviews:

Star Trek (J.J. Abrams reboot) - The film was fun and disposable entertainment done right in the way that Iron Man was done right. I’ve never been a Trekkie, and while I did watch The Next Generation sometimes when its on, I wouldn’t really call myself a fan. This film didn’t change anything for me in general. The premise is a little forced since revenge stories are so trite, and the reason for this particular revenge is just silly. There are also some eye-brow raising coincidences that borders on jumping the shark, but I think most mainstream films have them these days. The film could’ve used another 30 minutes of character development for the supporting crew members, since we don’t really get to know them at all, with all the attention being focused on Kirk and Spock (but the film is already quite long in length, although it felt just right in the theater).

Mad Men (season two) – Mad Men is fast becoming one of my favorite TV shows. It’s a fine example of what a serious attempt to bring literary quality to television looks like. There are so many layers and unspoken moments that could only be described as visual equivalent of a great American novel. The characters are all fascinating, and it’s refreshing to have a main character that’s just a complete mystery. I mean after two seasons, I still barely know anything about Don/Dick–what makes him tick and who he really is. I’m looking forward to watching season three.

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