Ethereality News & Weblog

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(EDIT: Gamasutra/Game Career Guide has now published an updated version of this blog entry as an article. Although the original version here is more subjective and candid, the published version is more objective and complete. Both versions contain sections that the other does not have. You can read the published version here.)

I rarely talk about my day job in the blog, and it’s mostly because I feel it’s not such a good idea to discuss your job in a personal blog. It’s in my nature to tell it like it is–I don’t bullshit or beat around the bush–otherwise what’s the point of having a personal blog? Understandably, honesty isn’t exactly the best policy when discussing the ins and outs of your job publicly. But maybe I can shed some light on what I do at my day job–I’m sure some of you are interested, especially those who are in the game industry or are a fan of video games.

As the studio art director, I have to oversee the art quality of all the games we develop or publish, including advertising and publishing material. Most of my time is spent on 1st party games as that’s our main bread and butter, while 2nd and 3rd party games don’t get as much love, since they are usually developed externally and I just review them during milestones–either signing off on them or make a list of comments with references, mock-ups, paintovers…etc for the external art team/contractors.

When a game is in its infancy, it’s usually just an idea, and it has to evolve into a fully completed game design document (detailing everything about how the game is to be played–from control layout, game rules, user interface navigation, game mechanics, story, content, level design…etc to everything else that can be written down or shown in diagrams). Since I’m a senior manager, I’m invited to all review meetings, and my involvement in a game starts at roughly the point where the initial idea is pitched to the senior managers (usually consists of the CEO, studio director, VP of production, VP of technology, VP of creative, studio art director, and senior producers). We either like the idea and decide to go forward, or kill the idea right then and there. If we go forward, then the game designer will work on the design document, and we review it when it’s completed. The game design meeting usually last very long because everyone will have an opinion about what is fun and what isn’t, and what our target audience will or won’t like. There’s also the very important decision of setting the scope of the game–whether it’s a design we feel deserves AAA treatment (largest budget, longest production time), or maybe just an A, or even B. There may be design elements we chop off right then and there if we decide the idea may not warrant a AAA status, and the scope of the game will have to be pulled back to accommodate an A or B status production. At the end of the meeting, we decide which producer is to own the project.

Once a producer is assigned, I’ll work closely with the designer and the producer on determining the visual style of the game. Often the designer already has an idea when he put the design document together. If his idea is a good one, I’ll use it as a starting point and then refine it, add to it, evolve it…etc. If I don’t feel the designer’s idea for the visual style works, then I’ll come up with something and try to sell it to the producer and the designer–usually with references, mock-ups, sketches…etc. They either like what I come up with, or we pow wow back and forth until we find a common ground. Either way, anything visual is my responsibility, so I’m the driving force behind the visual development, but as part of a team, I also respect the input/opinion of co-workers, no matter what their position is.

After deciding on the visual style, I’ll sit down with the producer and help him budget/schedule the art production by going through the entire art assets list. I have to weigh the pros and cons of using expensive art resources that are very good, or cheap ones that are not as reliable. Our internal art team is quite small, so the bulk of our art production is done externally. I have to pick which arthouse or freelance artists to use, and that usually means I have to give them art tests to make sure they can nail the style we have decided on. Sometimes I would have already done some preproduction work (concepts art, mock-ups) and will use them as the benchmark to judge the art tests. Who we decide to use is always a mix of different factors–how good is the result, how long it took, how much it costs, where they are located, and how well they communicate. Once a decision is made, contracts are drawn up, and we move onto the next phase.

Once we’ve locked down the resources, we officially kick start preproduction, which usually consists of concept art (character design, background design, architecture interior/exterior design…etc), storyboards, logo design, GUI (Graphical User Interface) mock-ups, model/texture/animation tests, render tests…etc. This is also when we sometimes do our on-the-fly R&D work, to makes sure a particular production pipeline is doable for the project. Often some of the preproduction work is already done by us internally, but sometimes we leave it all for the external guys to tackle. I’m the kind of art director that likes the team to take on a sense of ownership, so I try to get them pumped up and feeling challenged. Nothing annoys me more than artists who are just going through the motions with no sense of ownership, no pride, and no creativity–just showing up for a paycheck. Guys like that eventually get fired because game development is all about passion–if you don’t have it, it shows in your work. There was a time back when I was just a grunt artist that didn’t feel passionate about the games I was working on, and believe me, it showed. I could tell the love wasn’t there, and other people could tell too. But somewhere along the way I learned that you have to put in everything you’ve got, no matter what it is you’re working on. That is how you can be the best artist you can be–by trying your hardest always.

At this point the programmers will have a basic prototype engine for us to throw placeholder art into, so we can see how things would work in the game. A game at this stage is quite fun to look at, because it’s a mess of placeholder art, programmer art, designer scribbles..etc.

Now comes production, which is when all the art assets used in the game are generated. This is the long haul, and is the bulk of a game’s development time. I have to track art assets as they are generated, review them, critique them, do mock-ups, show more references, paintover stuff that isn’t working…etc–basically to get the art team to deliver what I deem as high quality work suitable for the style of the game. On the managing side, I have to keep track of the outstanding tasks, make sure stuff gets turned in on time, watch out for kinks in the production pipeline and resolve any problems that come up during art production. I also have to assess the strengths and weaknesses of artists on the team and assign the right task to each person. If someone isn’t working out on a task, I try assigning him a different task. Usually I try to assign tasks that the artists are interested in, and I always give them to benefit of the doubt that they can pull it off, until they prove otherwise.

To be a good art director, you have to have the eye for spotting potential. I’ve more than a few times put artists on tasks they’ve never done before and knew nothing about, because I recognized the potential and I knew with proper direction, they will not only pull it off, but do a beautiful job too. So far I’ve been right every time, and the artists always appreciate me believing in them and challenging them to grow, to learn, to improve, and to mature as artists. Some art directors are just there to make sure things look good, while other art directors act more like mentors–I belong to the latter group. I have a knack for teaching, and I know I’m a damn good teacher as the past students I’ve taught told me so after I stopped teaching. So naturally, my style of art directing is more like mentoring, and this doesn’t work with every artist–the younger artists tend to respond to that style of art directing more than older artists, because the younger artists are typically less experienced and thirsty for knowledge. When need to, I can switch gears and be a more co-worker type of art director and drop the nurturing mentor aspect, as I know the veteran artists prefer that. It also just happens naturally too because the veteran guys know what they’re doing, and all they really need is for you to point them the right direction and they’ll forge ahead. Some of them probably have more technical knowledge than the art director does, as veteran guys are the ones in the trenches everyday, dealing with every little problem in the art production first hand.

During the production, there are usully a few important milestones–first playable (when it actually starts to resemble a game, no matter how ugly or primitive it is), alpha (when all the game mechanics actually work, but still have unfinished art, music…etc), beta (everything should be completed, except there are bugs, and maybe some minor art updates that wouldn’t affect testing), and gold master candidate (the fully completed and tested game that can go into duplication for shipping/releasing). Sometimes during production, you might find out during one particular meeting that the higher ups are not feeling the visual direction of the game–that’s when you need to think fast on your feet and come up with a solution right away. This usually involves doing some mock-ups and getting the higher ups to sign off on them, and then implement the new direction down the chain of production.

Towards the end of the production is when things are the most hairy, because that’s when you start to run out of budget, and if there were any situations that forced you to paint yourself into a corner during production, this is when you really start to feel the full blunt force of it. This is also when everyone is on the edge because it’s crunch time (for you non-industry people, it means working longer hours and weekends to get things done), so it can be a real challenge to keep everyone on the team feeling positive while we keep forging ahead. The most difficult part is probably the technical hurdles–when graphics and programming are not working well together and the artists must work closely with the programmers to find solutions, or else the game will crash at certain spots, or graphical bugs will remain open.

Then comes that special day when we go gold (once the quality assurance department declares all bugs–at least the priority ones, are all fixed)–that’s when the beers come out and people celebrate. There are usually some support tasks after we go gold, but they are usually pretty easy stuff.

So, what is the difference between an art director and a regular artist–especially a good art director?

Based on my experience, art directors that can’t walk the walk and only talk the talk are the kind of art directors that artists hate to work under–unless they really know what the hell they’re talking about (maybe they studied art but just isn’t very talented at it, but knows a lot about it). The basic mentality is that if the art director doesn’t have any expertise or experience as an artist, what right does he have to tell a bunch of talented, trained, and experienced artists what to do? I’ve worked under an art director like that it was like a bad joke, but on the other hand, I’ve worked with producers who surprisingly do have very good eyes for art, and can art direct competently to a certain extent (but they do have limits). These guys are usually well-versed in different art styles and are fans of animation, comic books, fine artists, illustrators…etc–basically the kind of guys who are not artists, but probably own quite a bit of art-related books and pay more attention to art than most people do.

The worst kind are the ones who are not artists and don’t even know the correct terminologies used in basic art foundation theories, and they spew a bunch of nonsense that makes no sense to anyone, and use ridiculously vague adjectives and verbs to describe things that actually do have proper art terminologies–thus confusing the hell out of artists they’re trying to direct. They also know nothing about well-known artists, filmmakers, various styles/mediums, notable animations/films/comics/art history, and cannot reference or make analogies that artists can actually relate to. Guys like that do far more damage than good, and should never be allowed to art direct unless there’s no one else qualified, but believe it or not, some do manage to bullshit their way into the industry and actually work as art directors. BUT, things are never that simple in real life, since what an art director is varies from company to company. There are generally the following types of art directors:

1) Someone who is really a manager (tracking art assets, scheduling/budgeting, drafting contracts…etc), but not an artist. (The above described worst kind falls in this category, but for some reason they act as art directors and not managers as they should. If they simply just managed, I would have nothing negative to say about them at all.)
2) Someone who has a great eye for visuals, knows a lot about art, have leadership skills, but may not be a great artist.
3) Someone who is a very good artist and can also lead other artists.
4) Someone who is a combination of all three (with varying degrees of emphasis on each).

The best art directors I’ve seen are almost always the ones who have extensive experience as artists, understand the art production pipeline, are talented and passionate, can multi-task very well, are easy to get along with, know how to task you according to your strength and interests, and know how to weigh the pros and cons of every situation carefully and make the right decision. These guys can take something you’ve done and quickly paintover on top and show you exactly why yours didn’t work, and how you can make it better–guys that can walk the walk and talk the talk.

Recently there was a thread on cgtalk.com about art directors, and I made a post there, stating the qualities a good art director should have. They are qualities I strive to meet, even though I may not be on target all the time. It does take the right personality to art direct, and if you don’t have those characteristics, you will not be able to art direct efficiently (this is why many production artists or lead artists might be excellent artists, but they never get promoted to being the art director because they just don’t have the right personality for it). But here’s another industry complexity–at some studios, the lead artist is more like the third type of art director, and they have someone else they call an art director, but is really an art manager (the first type). Pretty confusing, huh?

Anyway, the list of qualities I listed were:

An AD is not just a production veteran that knows the pipeline very well, and can use the essential softwares at an expert level.

An AD is not someone who just knows how to draw/paint/design at an advanced level.

An AD is not someone who is simply knowledgeable about a wide range of styles, genres, mediums.

An AD is not just someone who can schedule, budget, and enforce milestones.

An AD is not just someone who is on top of what new tools are available for improving the pipeline.

An AD is not just someone who understands the big picture and can work with producers, CEO’s, director of technology, creative director, marketing, publishing…etc at the highest level to establish the visual look of every single product coming in and out of a studio.

An AD is not just someone who can carry himself in a manner so when meeting with clients, publishers, investors…etc he could be pursuasive when discussing the visual aspects all projects at the highest level.

An AD is not just someone who knows how to utilize the right external resources (arthouses, freelance contractors), but also know how to manage them.

An AD is not just someone who can nurture and inspire a team of artists.

An AD is not just someone who can pass on his own knowledge and skills so younger/less experiencd artists can benefit from his expertise.

An AD is not just someone who other artists on the team respects because he walks the walk, not just talk the talk.

An AD is not just someone that knows how to use each artist on the team to their strengths, or how to take care of them so they are happy when working on projects.

An AD is not just someone who has the ability to spot potential, and task artists with something they’ve never done before, simply because he knows they can do it if given the right amount of encouragement and direction.

An AD is not just someone all the senior managers and top level personnels respect and rely on, and would feel lost without.

An AD is not just someone who instinctively knows what works visually and what doesn’t, or what is appropriate/effective and what isn’t for any given project.

An AD is not just someone who knows how every aspect of the visuals should look–from user interface, retail box advertising, in-game graphics, concept art, animation, logo design, to font choices.

An AD (a good one) is all of those things combined. That is why it’s so damn hard to find a good AD. Most candidates applying for AD positions only have a few of those qualities, but not all. Many are not good artists at all, but can manage. Others are great artists but can’t manage or lead. Also, a good AD for one project may not be the right person for a different project, though some are very versatile, but they are rare. If an AD can go from something like a hardcore action/realistic title, to a wacky cartoony title, to a charming/cutesy casual title, to a stylized anime-influenced title, then he’s a damn good AD (assuming he has all the other traits mentioned).

What makes that list confusing is that in some studios, they break all these responsibilities up into two or more different positions (like the lead artist/art manager combo). I guess I have the short end of the stick at my job because I do all of those things, and not for just one game, but multiple games at once (anything that comes through our company). Sometimes I find myself juggling five or six games at once, so it can be pretty insane. They know I’m over-taxed and I need help, but whether they can afford to get me help is a different issue altogether.

Sometimes I do miss the days of simply being an artist.

Want to know how much of a glutton for punishment I am? Because I love music so much and our company does not have an audio director, I volunteer to direct the audio on the games I work on. As a composer, it’s far more effective for me to communicate to the composers we work with, since I speak the language of music and can give them direction on composition, arrangement, and even mixing/mastering. Often I’ll just go ahead and describe the orchestration and they’ll try to match it. Composers really appreciate it because instead of getting comments from a producer telling them to “make it more scary sounding,” they’ll get something from me that’s more like “take out the vibraphones as that’s killing the mood of the cue. Add some contrabassoon low note drones. Have the strings play some high pitched harmonics and tremolos. Change the harmonic progression so there’s no resolution–just one dissonant harmony after another.” It makes a world of difference because vague and non-musical terms can be easily misinterpreted, and with me giving precise musical feedback, there’s no room for misinterpretation.

So, there you go–that’s what I do everyday at work.

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The bass guitar has been on my “list of instruments to learn” for years now, and I’ve finally gone and done it. After some research, I got a used Warwick Corvette $$ Double Buck 5 string with Nirvana Black finish from ebay:

It did not arrive in very good condition–a broken 3-way switch, some rust on screws, saddle, and with belt scratches on the back. I’ll take care of the rust with rust remover gel, and I’ve gone and replaced the 3-switch this afternoon (I hate soldering!). I dropped by Guitar Center in San Francisco to pick up a new 3-way switch, and they tried to make it sound like you had to be an electrician to replace the electronics in your instrument–basically to scare you into spending $100 or more to let them do it for you. Yeah right. Anyone who can solder and is not a complete moron with horrible eye-hand coordination can do simple electronics repairs. Whether you want to spend the time doing it is another matter I guess. I personally enjoy the occasional repair work and have opened up more than my share of home electronics and fixed them–all jut relying on educated guess and common sense.

while at GC, I tried out the Line 6 Lowdown Studio 110 combo amp, and it performed surprisingly well for such a tiny little thing (10″ driver running on 75 watts). The low B-string on the Warwick Corvette $$ 5 string is particularly punishing when you turn the active preamp up, and 110 handled it just fine–as long as you crank it to volumes beyond its intended use (practice and small gigs).

While there, I couldn’t resist the temptation of trying out the legendary Music Man Stingray 5 and the Bongo, and I really wish I didn’t because now I want one of each. The Stringray 5 played like a dream–extremely smooth action, and with that famous metallic punch–begging to be slapped hard and fast. Even without plugging it into an amp, a single thump on it and I can already hear that unmistakable Stringray sound. Plugged in and with the active electronics turned up–Oh. My. God. It’s like I just gained a another year of skills in slapping automatically. Absolutely mind-blowing. The Bongo was also very nice–probably tonally more versatile than the Stringray, since it’s easier to dial in a more mellow sound with the Bongo. Some people think the Bongo is ugly as sin, but I think it’s actually quite a cute looking piece of wood–kinda like a round bubble.

I hate to say it, but the way the Stringray and the Bongo played really took away the joy I felt for the Warwick. Don’t get me wrong, the Warwick is a solid piece of wood, and has its own uniqueness, but it certainly isn’t as smooth or exciting as the Music Man basses. (Edit: I need to retract this sentence here, since after I posted this blog entry, I put a different set of strings on the Warwick and it made a huge difference. The new strings the previous owner had just put on it prior to selling it were flat wound Ernie Ball Slinkys, and gave the bass a really mellow tone, which is good for certain styles, but terrible for punchy slap tone. I replaced the strings with a set of DR Hi Beams, and it made all the difference in the world. I still wish the Warwick had a mid-tone knob for the active EQ though, since I loved the low-mid and high-mid knobs on the Bongo.)

I just won a Line 6 Variax 700 Acoustic too, but it probably won’t arrive for at least a few more days. I had contemplated other Variaxes like the electric and the bass, but the acoustic seems to be the one that gets better reviews, and based on the sound examples on Line 6’s site, I like the models in the acoustic much better than the acoustic ones in the electric. I almost went for a 705 bass, but it’s already discontinued and I don’t want to deal with non-existent customer support down the line. The bass models actually sound quite good, but most reviews seems to agree that the action is not very good.

I used to feel that tonal versatility is where it’s at, and I can live with not-so-great playability if the tonal versatility is excellent, but now I think that first and foremost you need to really love playing the instrument, because you will play better, have a better time, and your emotional bond with the instrument will be much stronger than something that merely “does its job.” I’ve always wanted a Parker Fly guitar, which is not cheap, and it’s because I played one once almost ten years ago and it blew me away with how smooth the action was. I have not been able to get it out of my mind ever since. One day I will own a Parker Fly. I’ll most likely end up with a Stingray or a Bongo too.

If you’re not a musician, it’ll be hard to understand gear lust. Although photographers share similar weaknesses for gear lust, it’s not quite the same, as musical instruments span a very wide range (guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, microphones, mixers, monitors, softwares…etc) and different models can have very unique personalities of its own and can contribute to your music in very different ways–even changing the way you play or compose. With photography gear, different models and brands do pretty much the same thing, and the differences between them are not nearly as drastic as with music gear.

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A few of my paintings are featured in a new fantasy art collection titled Fantasy Art Now, written by Martin McKenna, with a foreward by Boris Vallejo.

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Enchanted was a comic book series I created/wrote/illustrated for a few years in the mid-late 90’s. After all these years, I still get the odd email here and there asking me whether I’ll ever continue the series, and what happens to the characters. I just got an email about Enchanted the other day, and every time I do, I always wonder if I should revisit the Enchanted universe at some point.

Truth is, I stopped enjoying doing comics towards the end of my comic book career. I didn’t enjoy having to draw and paint the same things over and over, or all the stuff that I didn’t have an interest in but must anyway because the script called for it. For example, I enjoy depicting characters the most, but if I write a scene that involved the characters walking around in a busy city, then I’d have to illustrate all those damn buildings, hundreds of windows, various types of cars, traffic lights/signs, storefronts…etc over and over and over throughout the scene. You get the picture? Also at some point I figured out that art for me was a means to an end–the real passion for me lies in storytelling. As soon as I figured that out I no longer enjoyed doing comics, because I could just write and tell the stories I wanted to tell, instead spending all that time illustrating the imagery. Not that I don’t enjoy drawing and painting, just that I’d prefer to pick and choose what I wanted to draw and paint, not simply because the script demanded it.

Will I ever continue the Enchanted saga? I really have no idea.

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Portal is one of the best games I’ve played in a very long time. Initially, I thought of Portal as a nifty little extra in the Orange Box lineup, but after playing it, Episode 2, and Team Fortress 2, I have to say that Portal was the one that stole my heart, and it alone was worth the price of admission. I thought it was going to be a challenging brain twister and that’s it, but Portal ended up being one of the funniest, creepiest, and cutest games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing, not to mention one of the best ending credit songs ever. This game is a testament to the sheer brilliance of Valve’s storytelling. Portal could’ve been just an exercise in clever game mechanics (Valve hired the students who designed the original game, which was a student project), but Valve gave it a soul when they weaved their special brand of storytelling magic into the game. In my book, Portal is an instant classic and a masterpiece.

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I was very disappointed by Auralex MoPADs. Based on all the recommendations that recording/musician-related magazines constantly give to their readers regarding the MoPADs, you’d think the damn things were the cat’s meow. Not so. Not by a long shot. If you’re interested in the details, read this thread that I started at recording.org.

So be warned–MoPADs will not necessarily do what Auralex claims. Do some math first before you waste your money like I did.

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Some recent films I’ve watched:

Grindhouse - If you’re the type that can enjoy mindless fun every once a while, you’ll probably have a good time watching Grindhouse. I have to say, Rodriguez’s Planet of Terror was a lot more entertaining than Tarantino’s Death Proof, but in general I’ve always felt that Tarantino was by far the more talented one.

Knocked Up - Fun, but overrated IMO. Felt like they sometimes chose to put more jokes on the screen at the expense of more in-depth character development.

Transformers - It’s not really worth writing about, except to bash Michael Bay as a director, and that just gets old. If he had grown more as a storyteller/director, then maybe there’s something to write about, but it’s the same old jackhammering of all your senses during every moment, bombarding you with overly dramatic music even in irrelevant scenes, so that the audience can be lead through every scene by Bay’s iron claws at the nape of the neck. The best way to sum up Michael Bay’s directing is that he’s directing for people who are severely lacking in emotional intelligence, so he cranks everything up to 11–be it unnecessary use of slow-motion, unnecessary emphasis on shots that play no importance whatsoever to the story development or even the scene at hand with close-ups, inappropriately dramatic music, and pointless dramatic lighting.

In the end, it’s all mindless fun anyway I guess–hot chick, robots kicking each other’s ass–maybe we should all stop expecting Michael Bay to one day become a filmmaker with depth and maturity. The man likes to make disposable entertainment, so maybe that’s all we should ever expect from him.

Surf’s Up - When I did work for Surf’s Up, I thought Chicken Joe was the ugliest thing ever. But now that I’ve finally watched it, I think he’s actually my favorite character in the story. My buddy Chris is a lot like Chicken Joe, so it was hard not to like Joe. Overall I enjoyed the film a lot, as it was not the typical pop-culture joke laden fare with talking animals that we’ve all become impatient with by now. The humor felt a lot more genuine, and the pseudo documentary approach was very refreshing. The surfing scenes were just stunningly gorgeous–Sony’s animation department kicked ass on the CG work.

Spiderman 3 - I was never a fan of this franchise, but I watch films like this simply to keep up-to-date with the current CG quality bar. Not much to say except films like this are more or less disposable entertainment (although at a level that’s less insulting to the audience’s emotional intelligence than Michael Bay films).

Ocean’s Thirteen - I didn’t like this one as much as the previous two. It just wasn’t as clever, thrilling, or humorous as the previous films.

A couple of TV shows worthy mentioning:
How I Met Your Mother - My brother Dennis recommended this show to me, and it’s one of my favorite shows now. Really good sitcom writing is hard to find–most sitcoms may get one chuckle out of me in an entire episode–if even that. How I Met Your Mother is far funnier than most sitcoms in rotation currently, and are obviously written by writers that are young, hip, and with the kind of wicked sense of humor I identify with.

Kid Nation - I have a basic dislike for reality shows in general, but I admit that they can be compelling during moments when the people involved forget the camera crew is there, and display something genuinely profound in the way they interact with another human being. I knew this show would have that “Lord of the Flies” appeal in some aspects, so I gave it a shot. Now it’s one of my favorite shows because I find that children are just less pretentious than adults due to lesser control over their emotions, and they are less likely to do what is “expected of them” on camera (even if it’s simply because they don’t really understand what people will expect of them). When children get worked up, they’re a lot less likely to care about the presence of a camera crew, and you really see their true colors come through. The show may be a bit too controlled to be truly interesting, but it’s understandable that the producers couldn’t possibly have allowed a “Lord of the Flies” scenario–that would’ve been too disturbing and too uncontrolled.

And of course, I never miss an episode of The Office. Jim and Pam forever!

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I read W. Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge recently. It started out a bit disappointing, but became more compelling as you start to care about Larry’s spiritual journey. The excessive description of high-class society and its parties got a bit tiresome, as the novel could’ve maintained its full impact without all those descriptions of inconsequential characters that are mentioned only as scene dressing, and then never mentioned again. It’s as if Maugham was afraid that the readers will forget what a society snob Elliot was, and has to keep reminding us at every opportunity. In the end, the book’s insight into religion and spirituality was fairly basic, and as a human drama, lacked poignancy to have left a strong impression. I’ve always wanted to read something by Maugham, and now I have. Can’t say it has compelled me to want to read any more of his works though.

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Many years ago, I had written about Mary Kay Letourneau’s case in the editorial section of one of the issues of Enchanted, and it caused Enchanted to be banned in one of the states (can’t remember which one, but I think it’s one of the southern states). Essentially, I had expressed sympathy for the couple, as I felt it was not a typical case of child rape, as the circumstances were very different from what we usually think of as child rape criminal cases. I’m not going to discuss the details of the case since you can easily find all the details online. Anyway, I have not kept up with the case for a couple of years, and I’m very happy to find out that after Mary Kay finished her sentence (seven years later), the two were still very much in love and are now married.

I was going to write a lengthy vent on how one-size-fits-all law systems will always cause injustices as there will always be exceptions that defy categorization and generalization, but I think this is something either you agree or don’t agree with, depending on your personal dispositions.

When I try to rationalize all the reasons why I was/am on May Kay and Vili’s side, I can see obvious mirroring in my own life that makes me sympathetic to their case. My first serious girlfriend was nine years older than me, and I was a minor at the time (I was seventeen). At no time during our relationship did the factor of age ever come up, except when early on I asked her if she cared that I was so much younger. Her reply was, “No, I think of you as someone my age–in fact you seem older than me in many ways.” It was a relationship as normal as any other, and the idea that she could’ve gone to jail based on a technicality just doesn’t sit well with me. I’ve also had friends who were certainly precocious and displayed far more maturity and wisdom than some of the adults I knew, and they were treated badly by adults that were inferior human beings in every way. I was a precocious kid myself, and I certainly knew what the hell I wanted and had far more conviction in my life’s goals than most adults around me, so I can understand very well why Mary Kay did not see Vili as a typical thirteen-year old (the fact he was artistically talented resonated with me as well). There was also a point in my life where I was in love with a teacher, and we were very close and shared a deep bond (I was sixteen, and she was thirty-five). I was asked to go live with her and her family in Japan, and I really wanted to, except it didn’t feel right to intrude as she had two daughters and was in an unhappy marriage. Instinctively I knew if I had accepted her offer, it would’ve lead to a lot of drama, and I just couldn’t disrupt her life like that. But other than my own life experiences making me predisposed to taking Mary Kay and Vili’s side, is probably the fact that deep down inside, I’ve always been an idealist and romantic, and I’ve always felt that the legal system for the most part is flawed (thought I understand the need for the law to treat everyone the same, even when we are so different from one another). Whether Mary Kay and Vili’s marriage is a successful one that lasts a lifetime remains to be seen, but at this point, it’s no longer important because how many people’s “normal” marriages are successful anyway? The fact that after all the tears and hardship they still remained together and got married is enough, and for me, the curtain is drawn here, and it’s a happy ending in my book.

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It’s been fun and frustrating upgrading the studio–one of those things where you just can’t rush any of it–from research, comparison shopping, placing orders, receiving shipments, checking for defects, returns/exchanges, hooking up each new piece, to experimenting with better placement within the studio. Anyway, I took some photos today–not the typical “here’s my studio layout” kind, but more of the “lavishing love and attention with my camera” kind:

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When I started my search for a killer pair of studio monitors years ago, I had no idea that it would eventually lead me to my current favorite piece of gear in the studio–the Klein + Hummel O 300D. Yep, I’ve gone and done it, and no, it did not cost me almost $7k (I was incredibly lucky to find a pair on ebay). It was listed for $3,000, and as I watched and watched, not a single person bid on it, so I went for it. Thank God it did not have a sensible reserve price, because anyone who knows anything about high-end gear knows that the 300D’s are a steal at $3,000. This past couple of years in general has been rough for me, and the 300D’s sure soothed the pain a bit. Just look at those soft curves on the waveguides:

Here they are, sitting pretty in my studio (need to add some Auralex Mopads to cushion their bottoms):

Here’s a Sound On Sound review that reads like a love letter. I generally prefer Hugh Robjohns’ reviews to Paul white’s , as Paul tends to be more cautious with negative remarks (for the sake of not pissing off the advertisers?).

You can find out more about the sexy Germans from Klein + Hummel’s website.

I’m not sure if I can add anything to Hugh’s review–he’s certainly heard a lot more high-end monitors in his career, so he’s bound to know a lot more. If he says the 300D’s are amazingly good, then who am I to argue? My own experience with them (after having had them for a few days) is that they are certainly very revealing, accurate, with an open soundstage, non-fatiguing, and have the cute little K+H red lights in the front that blinks if you overload the internal limiter–which I’ve yet done (I’m pretty sensible when it comes to monitoring levels–I try not to exceed 90db, and usually keep it at around 80db~87db). For such a small size, they definitely do deliver unbelievable big sound, yet remaining accurate and not hyped in any frequency range. I’ve thrown just about all kinds of recordings at it–classical, industrial, metal, electronic, jazz, vocals, rock, pop, film/game scores…etc and they have performed beautifully. They do reveal bad recordings for what they are though, whereas lesser monitors mask the shortcomings. I’ve listened to some of my own recent cues, and I’m hearing things that have changed my mind about how I should mix them. I don’t think I’ll be using the digital inputs, since I’ve read from other 300D owners that they aren’t really all that better than the analog inputs.

All in all, I’m just thrilled to have the 300D’s in my setup, and I’m also ecstatic over the killer price I got them for. I doubt I’d want to add the O 800 sub to them, since the 300D’s go pretty low already (definitely lower than the listed 40Hz, since it’s a closed enclosure and 40Hz is what’s rated as within the flat response range). Maybe if one day when I need a larger studio, I’d add the sub.

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I want to give a shout out to Jeremy at Guitar Center’s San Jose branch. He was a very cool guy who helped me demo a bunch of monitors and allowed me to move them around (which the stores typically don’t allow) to get more accurate listening positions for A/B’ing different pairs.

I might have ended up with a pair of JBL LSR6328P’s if I didn’t see the 300D’s on ebay, since I was quite impressed with those during my last listening test there. The 6328’s blew the 4328’s out of the water (I had a good impression of the 4328’s until I heard the 6328’s), as they made the 4328’s sound almost timid and limp. The 6328’s had much nicer soundstage, and overall a lot more articulate and dynamic (not in a hyped way).

I got to test the new Mackie HR824 mkII’s while there too, and I was quite disappointed. The treble was rolled off and sounded like there was an invisible blanket over the high frequencies (maybe Mackie chose less fatigue over accuracy?). It’s still got that fat bottom end like the previous version, which may or may not be accurate, but for the bass heads, they’ll buy them just for that.

I got to hear one of the Blue Sky 2.1 systems (finally!), and they were definitely nice, but sounded like there was a hole missing in the frequency range (lower mid’s). It must be due to the crossover issues in the 2.1 setup.

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The 300D’s weren’t my only recent ebay winning bids–I also nabbed a Kurzweil PC2X master controller keyboard:

You can find more info at Kurzweil’s site.

I almost went for a CME UF-80, since I finally got to try one out at Leo’s Pro Audio (in Oakland) recently, and the action is not nearly as bad as some have claimed on the internet. In fact, it felt remarkably like the Kurzweil and Fatar’s piano action. I was going to get it because I wanted to connect a Yamaha BC3 (breath controller) to it, and it comes with the connection ready (otherwise you’d need to spend a couple hundred more just for a converter). But when I saw the PC2X on ebay, I had to go for it, since I could connect a ribbon controller to it, AND it’s got the breath controller port too, not to mention it comes with some pretty good sounds. My logic is that if I’m paying the same price, why not get something that actually makes a sound–I might find some presets I really like. I don’t need all the knobs and sliders on the UF-80 anyway, since I already have a Novation ReMOTE 25 SL. I ended up getting the PC2X for $711. Not too shabby at all.

I nabbed a few other items off ebay as well–a M-Audio 4×4 MIDI USB interface (my Midiman 1×1 is not going to cut it now that I’m adding more gear, since I don’t want to do too much chaining), and a Behringer Xenyx 1622FX mixer (please don’t groan. Not all Behringer products are crap. Plenty of Behringer’s products have gotten great reviews. Besides, if I hear any unwanted coloring/noise from the Xenyx, I’ll immediately get rid of it and get something more “respectable”).

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All that remains is pretty much acoustic treatment. I’m willing to spend up to a couple of grand to treat my studio, but any more than that, I might have to consider the DIY solution. I’m currently looking at both Realtraps and Auralex solutions. I’m a lot more impressed with Realtraps so far, since their customer service is a lot more in-depth, and they are the one company that gets name-dropped constantly at high-end audio forums by reputable mastering engineers.

I’ll need a good all-around mic too, since I don’t have a decent one in the studio right now (just a couple of el cheapo’s). I haven’t had the need to record vocals or acoustic instruments for a long time now, but that’s going to change real soon. Maybe something like a Studio Projects C1, Shure Beta 87C, or RØDE NT1-A.