Ethereality News & Weblog

NEWS:
ImagineFX have collected a bunch of artwork, tutorials, interviews, articles…etc from past issues into one volume called Fantasy Art Exhibition Vol.1, and it contains the interview they did with me (along with the tutorial I did). You can now also read the interview directly from their site as well.

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Been a long time since I updated Kitty Cat Diary. Not that I’ve stopped taking photos of Elena–just that I’ve been too busy to sort through them. For it looks like I’m all caught up though. Latest entries:

Shot a quickie session around our apartment’s pool/entrance too:

WEBLOG:
I finally got the Bioshock demo to work on my machine. It seems like it was only months ago that I had upgraded my video card, and now I’m behind the times already. I had to run the demo at much lower resolution than I had hoped to (I have a 24″ widescreen monitor), and the audio was stuttering the entire time. At least the surround sound was working though (I have a 7.1 system), unlike with the Valve games running on the Source engine. I always have problems getting the surround sound to work with the Source games, and often even typing “snd_digital suround 1″ in the command console doesn’t work.

I have been looking forward to Bioshock ever since it was announced years ago. Being a huge fan of System Shock 2, there was no questions as to whether I would play this “spiritual sequel.” I could see why all there’s all this hype about the game (some of the reviews read like love letters), and I did enjoy the demo quite a bit, but I have say it didn’t quite grab a hold of me in the same way that System Shock 2 or any of the Half-Life games did. Perhaps after playing through the entire game I will feel differently. For now I’ll hold back any final thoughts until after I’ve played the whole game.

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I have wanted an IEM (In Ear Monitor–the kind that goes into your ear canal, like an earplug) for a long time now, but never could justify the purchase (the good ones will cost you around $200), but now that I’m on the train everyday, I had enough reasons to go ahead and get one. It was down to between the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro and the Shure E4c, and I ended up getting the Shure. Boy do I regret it. Not that the E4c’s are bad headphones, just that the bass is really anemic and the highs too shrill for my personal taste. I wish I had gotten it from a different online store too, because the one I got it from does not allow refunds on headphones. I had read all kinds of reviews and debates between audiophiles online beforehand, and my instinct told me to go with the one with the flatter frequency response. The Super.fi 5 Pro is supposed to have more hyped bass, which seemed like a bad thing for accuracy, but now I think when used with a portable mp3 player, it probably would even things out, as the portable mp3 players are always short on bass anyway. Now with the E4c, I have to jack up the bass in my Nomad 3 Jukebox, and turn down the highs as well for a more pleasant sound. See, I’m not even a bass head–in fact I can’t stand hyped up bass, so that tells you just how anemic the bass is on the E4c. Now I’ve gotten the right EQ setting going on the Nomad 3, the E4c’s are starting to grow on me, but I just wish I didn’t have to compensate so much with the EQ to get it there though.

On a side note, my Nomad 3 is starting to feel a bit ancient. Compared to the current generation, it’s quite bulky (about double the size of an iPod), and 20 GB just isn’t enough anymore. I have close to 200 GB of music on my machine at home, so naturally I’d want to get as much of it into a portable player as possible. Maybe I’ll upgrade to the next generation of the Creative Vision? I won’t be going the iPod route again just like last time, since I’ve tried my brother Dennis’s video iPod and I think the ergonomics isn’t quite as good as the Creative products (can’t jump between different hierarchy of directories quickly). It doesn’t even have a customizable multi-band EQ setting, which is a deal breaker for me.

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It’s been a few years since I last did a clean reinstall of the OS (WinXP Pro), and with all the crap I install on my system, it always becomes boggled down eventually (even if I clean the registry and optimize settings regularly). This weekend I did a repair install, and I thought it had fixed the problem, as I was able to have Sonar 6 running a lot smoother than before, and actually got some composing done over the weekend. But as soon as I had to reboot for something, I found out all the old problems are still there (Explorer would freeze up, mouse detection would not work, random reboots…etc). Looks like I’m going to have to do a clean reinstall anyway. That’s always a PITA, but at least the machine will run smoothly for at least another year or so (I hope) before it starts to go weird again.

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I’m thinking about selling my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens, as it sometimes misses the mark when focusing–especially in portrait orientation using one of the non-cross hair sensors. That lens is already considered a very good one, and from here on the only way up is the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L, which costs about $1,250 brand new. A bit too rich for my blood, but I might give it a shot on ebay and see if I find a good used one.

Speaking of selling, I’m tempted to sell my Novation ReMOTE SL 25 too, since I have never gotten it to work with Sonar (it did, for about a day with Sonar 5, but not with Sonar 6). I tried the Generic Control Surface approach and the ACT approach with Sonar, but neither could get the transport buttons to work, and it’s also an one-way communication in terms of feedback–the LCD on the ReMOTE SL would not update (and that’s one of the best things about the ReMOTE SL). To tell the truth though, I wouldn’t know what to replace it with. Maybe an Edirol PCR50?

NEWS:
The current issue of Official Corel Painter Magazine’s got an interview with me, so stop by your local bookstore and spend a few minutes to check it out. (The Painter magazine is usually placed near all those Photoshop/computer art magazines.)

WEBLOG:
Do not buy Crest Pro Health mouthwash. Just google that with terms like “dark stain between teeth” and you’ll see why. My wife and I are victims of it, and we have stopped using our bottle and asked for a refund with Crest. We scratched our heads for weeks wondering why we both were getting the dark stains between our teeth. We reviewed our diet, looked into the local water supply, called our dentist, called our landlord, and eventually placed our suspicion on the mouthwash. A search with google confirmed our suspicion, as many others have voiced their anger about the dark staining online.

Right now our favorite is the citrus flavored stuff–although it does contain alcohol (the reason we moved to the non-alcoholic formula in the first place–but backfired on us).

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Vector TD is one of the most addictive games (and free) I’ve played in a long time. If you are prone to addiction at all, do not try this game–hours will be sucked away. You’ve been warned.

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I finally watched Before Sunset for the first time (heard about it through Filmspotting a while ago) with Elena. Man, what a great movie! Now we have to hunt down Before Sunrise and see what their romance was like nine years ago. I think this is probably the first time a romantic drama had a sequel? What’s so interesting is that they filmed the sequel nine years later, and in the story it was nine years later as well, so the rate of how the characters aged is accurate. This is one of the rare films where the entire thing is essentially one long conversation between two people, and if that might sound boring to you, it’s really not at all. If you are in any way a romantic, it’s a must see.

NEWS:
Fresh out of the oven is the main menu music I just finished for Galactic Melee (a MMO space shooter I’m composing the score for). It was a struggle to get into the groove on this project, since a bit of hardware and software problems cropped up, but things are looking much better now. The main menu music combines a few different styles (orchestral strings, glitch, industrial, electronic, ethnic percussions), and its purpose is to get you into the mood for some MMO space combat action. For this track I used:

Cakewalk Sonar Producer Edition 6 (sequencing host)
EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Platinum, Edirol HQ Orchestral (orchestral strings)
Best Service Artist Drums (acoustic drums)
Quantum Leap Colossus (electronic drums, ethnic percussion, guitar)
Roland Groove Synth (bass drum)
Native Instruments Absynth 2 (synth pad, lead)
Korg Legacy Cell (synth pad)
Big-Tick Rhino 2 (rhythmic synth sequence)
rgc z3ta+ (rhythmic synth sequence)
Smart Electronix Augur (synth bass doubling cellos)
Ichiro Toda’s Synth 1 (synth lead)
Cakewalk TTS-1 (synth bell doubling synth leads)
Spectrasonics Trilogy (electric bass guitar)
dblue Glitch (glitch effects)
SonitusFX (compressor, EQ, multi-band compressor)
BBE Sonic Maximizer (drums processing)
Lexicon Pantheon (reverb on snare drum)
PSP Vintage Warmer (mastering)

The trickier parts of composing/arranging/mixing this track were:

1) The orchestral strings always require a lot of work to sound good–varying the volume expession so there’s crescendo and decrescendo at the beginning and end of notes, balancing the mix so no one section of the strings dominate (thus killing the harmonic support of the other sections), yet as a whole doesn’t sound too scattered and unfocused. EQ’ing to bring out certain frequencies so it doesn’t get burried in the mix (the lower spiccato cello notes always need a bit of boost in the high mid’s to give it more bite).

2) Experimenting with a lot of different synth sounds/layers to get the right tone for the synth melody.

3) Mixing the heavy guitar just right so it’s not too dominating, but still has enough weight to give enough impact.

4) Mixing/processing the various drum sounds just right to form a cohesive whole that sounds organic and groovy

5) Using the glitch effects just right so they don’t sound accidental, but works as part of the arrangement.

6) Filling in the bottom end with electric bass and synth bass, but making sure they support the general groove instead of causing distraction.

7) Make sure the various effects routing aren’t fighting each other and causing over-processing of certain sounds.

8) Scooping out the low frequencies on some instruments so they aren’t muddying things up, and boosting some instruments in the high mid’s to give them more punch.

9) Fading some instruments out during some parts so there isn’t overcrowding in the arrangement, and raising the volume of some instruments in some parts for more impact.

10) Mixing orchestral libraries can be problematic, as you need to match their sounds (recorded in different settings, processed differently, playing style is different…etc). I had to mix EWQLOR Platinum with Edirol HQ Orchestral (which had more bite or expressiveness in some articulations), and the two sounds quite different in just about every aspect (Edirol HQ OR is a lot more processed and uses digital reverb, while EWQLOR Platinum is recorded with natural concert hall acoustics).

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, and I definitely learned some lessons while working on this track. The client really liked it, and the various people that’s heard it liked it in general, so I guess I did my job. Now I gotta finish the rest of the score. . ..

WEBLOG:
Elena is back, and life is so much better with her around. I feel sorry for couples that don’t get along, because they’re really missing out life’s greatest gift–a soulmate.

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I’ve read a few zombie novels lately, and the best one so far is Dying to Live by Kim Paffenroth. It takes a more literary approach and has a lot more substance than a typical genre fiction novel, which is rare. Not that all genre fiction is shallow, but there is definitely a huge difference between authors that simply spin yarns, and authors who actually have something profound to say while spinning yarns.

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I threw about 14 GB of music and videos from my collection onto my brother Dennis’s 30GB video iPod (he’s too lazy to rip his own CD collection or convert videos). This is my first experience spending a significant amount of time with an iPod, and I can definitely see what I missed out on when I decided to go with the competition years ago (Creative Nomad 3 Jukebox). The small size is certainly enticing, and the slick design a joy to look at. The ergonomics is a bit clunky, as you’d have to hit the center button a couple of times to be able to fast-forward on the navigation circle, and if you missed a click, you end up jacking up the volume to painful levels by accident. I would’ve much preferred a separate control for either the volume or fast-forwarding. It’s also kind of annoying the only way to travel in the layers of the UI structure is to go forward or back, instead of jumping to various directories as you please (The Nomad is much better in that respect). The iPod also does not allow you to customize your own EQ settings, and that is just unforgivable to me. Factory programmed EQ settings are almost never useful to me, as the people who programmed them can’t possibly know what headphones or speakers I’m using, and which frequencies need to be cut or boosted for it to sound right. I also couldn’t believe Apple didn’t include a recharger–only a USB connector. I’ve never been a fan of Apple, since their marketing strategies piss me off, they over hype their products to the point of false advertising, and there’s always some glaring hole missing in the feature set, ergonomics, or compatibility with everything else on the market. In the end, I felt like if I ever wanted to upgrade my Nomad 3 to something smaller/sleeker/with larger capacity, I’d probably pick something from Apple’s various competitors again.

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Some people move along in life, never stopping to ask themselves what it is they really want, and what it takes to be truly happy, while others are constantly searching for it. Some feel that happiness isn’t something we should feel entitled to, while others feel it’s something that can be pursued and attained, and there are also those who feel happiness is overrated–simply finding peace is enough. It’s really up to your own expectations and goals, and one man’s happiness might be another man’s nightmare.

The experts say that happiness comes from having control over your life, feeling fulfilled, challenged, and accomplished, although these things can mean drastically different things for different people. A person can be happy because he’s got an OK job that pays the bills and has enough time to play as many video games as he wants, and that is enough for him. Another person can feel happy because he’s been working hard and about to get that promotion to be an account director at some advertising company. Yet another person might be happy because he’s finally getting close to finding the cure for cancer after a lifetime of research. Whether our source of happiness comes from accomplishing something that’s considered noble, or simply mundane pleasures, it only matters that you know what you want, and that you are doing something about it instead of doing nothing and blaming everyone and everything else.

I’ll be thirty-five the end of this year (in December), and at this point in my life, I still don’t have it all figured out yet. This is something I talk about with Elena sometimes. She always points out that even if I do end up doing what I really want for a living (writing/directing feature films, or composing music), I might find out that it’s not quite what I had hoped for. Unseen issues that come with the job can turn the whole experience sour–lack of funding, demands on script changes by the studio, low box-office sales, creative differences, unable to secure desirable projects, forced to work in styles you don’t like, trashed by the critics, misunderstood by the audience…etc. But those are things all creative people face, and if one can’t accept that they come with the job, then maybe it’s better off doing something else. I know for me, the rewards are greater than the risks, but simply getting from here to there in itself is an uphill battle. I guess if you can put yourself in the right frame of mind to enjoy that uphill struggle, then you’re already ahead of the game when it comes to achieving happiness.

NEWS:
Surf’s Up is out, so now I can show the work I did for Sony Pictures:

The reviews are on the average positive, scoring a 74% on rottentomatoes and 64% on metacritics. While doing one of my frequent browsing at Borders (for musician’s magazines like Computer Music, Future Music, Keyboard, Music Tech, Sound On Sound…etc), I saw a bunch of Surf’s Up books, and as I flipped through one of them, I saw some of pieces I did. I’m still debating whether to go see it in the theater or wait for the DVD.

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I also uploaded the coloring work I did on the Spoils for Tenacious Games:

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Wait, there’s more. Here’s a piece I did for Galactic Melee, the same game I’m scoring the music for: