The Rest of Your Life (v4)

Hey guys,

Another plug for some vids I’ve got up on Youtube – one’s an (older) original track of mine, and the other is a remix of the new Vile Evils single I just did the other day (slow day at work hehe).

As always, let me know what y’all think …

Listening To: Hard NRG 8 : Various Artists (MOS)

Current Horn Factor :

Quote of The Day
MyBumMyChum please describe web 2.0 to me
MyBumMyChum in 2 sentences or less.
mynameizzzEarl you make all the content.
mynameizzzEarl they keep all the revenue.

If you can’t tell already (by the fact I haven’t posted anything for the last few weeks), BB07 apathy has well and truly set in for me now dear readers. I don’t know if I can see it through to the end of the series, and I definitely can’t be arsed blogging about it at the moment. Besides, this blog is about so much more than just Big Brother, isn’t it gang ? 😉 So instead, I’m going to tackle a completely different topic for today’s enthralling TROYL installment, namely that of “collecting”.

Whether it’s stamps, football cards (baseball cards for our seppo friends), comic books, those poxy porcelein figurines off the back of the TV guide, or explicit polaroid photographs of their numerous sexual encounters, most people have at one time or another, kept a ‘collection’ of some sort. I myself started out collecting Tintin comics when I was a young lad (still have the whole set somewhere in storage), before moving on to “Australian Plastics Modeller” magazine, and a brief flirtation with philatelly (although stamps are a lot less exciting than your average Tintin, which is why the latter was a ‘passing phase’ at best). I also went through a stage of collecting scars in the latter half of my “difficult teens” and early 20’s, but thankfully the appeal of that eventually wore off also.

Now, some would argue that these days what I mostly collect is pornography and parking tickets, but I beg to differ. “Collecting” would be far too methodical a phrase to describe the chaotic nature of my prOn stash, and the parking tickets are not something I purposefully amass, they simply come to me as a consequence of being too lazy to ride my pushbike to work, and choosing to drive instead. Rather, I like to think of myself as ‘collecting’ something far more ephemeral. This particular “pashion” (or compulsion ?) for ‘collecting’ has been with me since around the mid 1990’s, and is a direct consequence of my being a (bedroom/part-time/amateur) musician.

You see gang, the “thing” (or things) I spend a fair bit of time collecting these days are – SOUNDS !

Hold up, hold up ! Before you shut down your browser in disgust (“Sounds ? You purple-haze, hippy, motherf$ka !”), let me explain.

Back in the mid 90’s, when my friends and I first moved away from our guitars and drumkits to PC-based music production, the ‘tech of choice’ for the bedroom musician was something called “software trackers”. I can see a grin of fond memory spreading across some of the faces in the crowd (“FT2” … “Pro Tracker” … “MMedit” …. ring a bell ?), but for the rest of you I’ll give you a very quick run-down. A software tracker (A.K.A “grid-based, sample pattern sequencing program”) was a way of arranging ultra-short snippets of sound (samples) into meaningful compositions. The upside being that the resulting music file would only save a copy of each “sample” once, along with a very simple record of the order (and pitch) at which all the sound snippets were strung together to make the actual song.

Think of it as a very early version of the humble MP3. Just like MP3’s, a lot of the resulting ‘compositions’ were nothing more than simple ‘rips’ of popular commercial tracks, streamlined for quick downloading and music piracy on the (pitifully slow … 3 hours to download a 300kb file @ 2400 baud) pre-internet data networks. However, just like ‘ground-breaking’ hip-hop and electronic musicians + DJ’s such as The Beastie Boys and The Prodigy could with their ‘hardware’ studio gear, some of us used the “tracker” software to produce original tunes. We’d grab samples from far and wide (a drumloop from an old disco record, a single note from a mate’s Juno synth, 5 seconds of dialogue from a 1970’s ‘Blaxploitation’ flick), and … viola … a cheesy 90’s ‘underground’ techno track to share with our mates in Helsinki, via the wonders of Fidonet.

Being in this ‘scene’ for a few years, I think it’s inevitable that everyone starts to build up a ‘collection’ of their favourite samples (sounds), which they tend to use more than others. There’s a whole array of ‘classic’ samples from that era now, like the so-called “Amen Loop” (a drum loop used on a plethora of 90’s break-beat hits), various TB-303 acid-bleeps (coz not every uneployed teenager could afford a 303, even back then when they were still relatively cheap), and so on. Yeah, I’ve got them all, just like every other man and his dog. MY big thing though was dialogue samples. Too much time listening to obscure bands like Cabaret Voltaire, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult & Ministry, and before you knew it I was raiding the bottom shelves of Blockbuster for all the Z-Grade Roger Corman and horror movies with titles like “The Demon Bimbos from Planet X”, just to get my hands on the same original sample sources they used.

This was before the days of DVD as well kids – much harder to get decent sound reproduction when you’re recording at only 16-bits from a vintage early 80’s VHS player using a coax cable and your crappy 90’s (unshielded) soundcard. Just like other groups of “collectors”, my muso friends and I would trade samples between ourselves, try to ‘out-do’ eachother with particularly “good” examples of sampling, etc. To this day, I still remember feeling really cut when one particular mate of mine used a great sample I’d taken from “Return of the Living Dead”

(the line was “I love you, and you’ve got to let me eat your brain”)

in one of his online tracks, before I’d had a chance to use it in a song of my own. It was gold dammit (!) … one I’d sourced entirely myself (instead of being inspired by one of the aforementioned obscure bands). To add insult to injury, he’d only swapped me a bunch of crappy 8-bit 303 sequences for it

I could go on and on about samples like a true obsessive, but as we all know – nothing stays the same, people and technology evolve. I got out of writing music for a few years, then started slowly moving back into the fold. Used samples & trackers again for a while initially, before discovering the newly evolving “modular studio software” technology epitomized (at the time) by “Buzz Composer”. No longer limited to simple samples, instead for a while there I was collecting “Buzz Instrument (and effect) Plugins” – which were basically little bits of independent software code that you could “plug-in” to the Buzz environment to generate sounds in REAL time (like little software versions of physical studio hardware). Buzz plugins are the pre-cursor to today’s VST plugins, basically. I’m not strictly collecting sounds (as such) at this point I guess, but sporadically gathering sound-producing tools.

Finally then we come to the present (or near present) day, when my 10+ year participation in that ‘orrible thing called the “workforce” finally starts to reap measurable ‘rewards’, and therefore my budget for spending on music production gear (not counting electric guitars, effects pedals and four-track recorders … I had THAT shit when I was a teen … over it hehe) actually becomes more than non-existent. Ergo, I finally start buying real music HARDWARE again, instead of just producing with software (and the occasional midi-controller keyboard, like the EVO mentioned in an earlier blog post). I buy my first ‘proper’ hardware synth on Ebay – a venerable 1980’s workhorse called the Korg-Poly 800. Shed-loads of tweakable parameters, lovely 80’s Depeche Mode synth-pop sonic possibilites. Unfortunately, the programming is a bitch (bugger all physical controls, just membrane buttons and lots of scroll menus). The synth comes with oodles of patch programming sheets the previous owner had squirelled obsessively from the ‘net … and

suddenly I’m back to collecting sounds again, but now they’re not samples, they’re rows of LFO settings, VCO routings, and DCO waveforms.

I get rid of the Korg after a few months of fiddling, but the ‘collecting’ bug has well and truly bitten by then. I go through a few bits of gear on ebay (the Korg, an Alesis-SR16 drum machine), lust over some brand new synths (and sounds) while I’m overseas, and eventually settle for a classic 90’s techno BEAST called the Roland Alpha Juno (gotta luuuuurve ebay !). Just like the guy who sold me the Korg, by this point I’m madly downloading patches and sysex editors for my ‘new’ pre-loved synth off the ‘net, the user groups, wherever I can find them. I’m making my own patches (the Juno being easier to program than the Korg), organizing the ones I’ve already got into “sets” … basically obsessing about all the phatt SOUNDS I can get out of this baby.

Some time after THAT, I get my Novation X-Station. Suffice to say, if i was drooling about the sonic possibilities of the Juno, I positively cream my jeans when I get my hands on the X. It’s not actually that easy to find patches/presets (i.e. sounds) for THIS baby on the ‘net, it’s only been out a few years after all … but believe me, I ALWAYS keep an eye out I’m so tragic now, I actually publically scoffed at the recent ‘new’ patch-set the manufacturers made available on their website (programmed by the keyboard player from Jamiroquoia supposedly) in one of the bigger user forums because “there aren’t enough NEW sounds in there – we’ve heard most of these patches before”.

And THAT, my friends, is my story. YOUR TURN NOW TO FESS UP – WHAT’S YOUR SECRET ‘COLLECTING’ SHAME ? 😉

So, I’ve been keeping busy lately battling the flu, moving office, moving webservers (and all the associated hassle of setting up mail redirects, moving the blog etc etc) and 1001 mundane things like installing our new clothes drier (a rant for another day).

I’ve also found a bit of time to venture out in a new musical direction, namely doing a bit of film scoring.

Now, I did a very basic job of ‘scoring’ my own (ultimately short-listed, but non-winning) Tropfest short earlier in the year. However, this just involved cutting down the duration of one of my own music tracks, and dropping it in as background sound.

The film score I’ve been working on lately, however, is a much more involved piece of sound engineering for a short ‘teaser’ trailer for some accquaintences off an Aussie film-maker’s board. They’re basically trying to get funding to be able to shoot the film proper, and have shot a short trailer to show potential investors. It’s essentially a horror / thriller flick, and the preview looks fairly slick. Apart from incidental sound / dialogue, I’ve had to do the whole sound-mix and music from scratch, trying to build suspense and work together with the visuals.

It’s been an interesting experience, and I’ve been using it as an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of my new DAW (finally upgraded from using Jeskola Buzz and Modplug Tracker to the ‘pro-sumer’ choice of SONAR HS 6 XL) and get some decent use out of the X-Station. I’ll post the trailer (or links) up here once it’s done and the guys are happy with the result (we’ve gone through a few versions now with the last beat sequence causing headaches, but they’ve FINALLY managed to clarify what they actually want).

So – any other musos out there looking for something ‘new’ to try – I’d definitely try posting on some of the film-maker boards out there, and offering your scoring services for free. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a film project that interests you, and you’ll be helping out the film-makers as well.

That’s all for now

UPDATED 26/04/07:
——————-

‘K gang, the trailer is finished, and viewable here, and on my MySpaz band page

12. You dig Kellie Osbourne’s Moog-inspired synth tattoo. 

11. You read the Sound on Sound back-catalogue of hardware reviews almost obsessively, especially whenever a particularly sweet looking synth comes up on Ebay.   

10. The top favourites in your browser include VintageSynth, the Harmony Central user reviews, and the Musical Instruments > Professional Audio & DJ Gear > Synthesisers category on Ebay.

9. Instead of subscribing to Yahoo groups involving celebrity porn like the rest of humanity, your subsriptions include groups like “Synth Programming”, “Alpha Juno & MKS-80” and “Polyphony for the Masses”

8. You get involved in passionate debates on the InTheMix forums about the relative merits of ‘true’ analogue vs VA hardware.

7. Not only can you wax eloquently about extended ADSR envelopes, aftertouch and oscillator pitch drift in said arguments, but you actually know what the terms you’re bandying about mean.

6. Although you live in a relatively small two bedroom apartment, and wouldn’t really know how to operate it properly, you occasionally have dreams about breaking into Jack Dangers’ house to steal his Synthi 100.  

5. You find yourself listening to early 80’s records by bands like Depeche Mode & Ultravox, and thinking “hmm yeah, I think that’s preset 32 on my Poly 800” or “Oberheim OB-X solo – I like it !”.

4. Your partner complains that you sometimes wake her up, mumbling things in your sleep like “Yes, but the real question is – does it have any LFO’s ?”, and “If you sign it Mr.Moog, I promise I’ll blow you right here !”.

3. You abuse the arpeggiator on your synth to make ringtones for your mobile phone, having graduated from downloading the MP3 patch demos of obscure 80’s keyboards on Sealed’s page for said purpose.

2. When you take your fiance overseas to see your homeland for the first time, you take time out from visiting historic sites and family, to drag her around a bunch of dodgey musical instrument stores, trying to find the elusive “too good to be true, they’re Eastern European and too niave to realise what they’ve got” synth deal.

1. When you finally do get married, and score yourself some cash in the process, not only do you buy whitegoods for the both of you to use, you also blow a good chunk of it on a new synth, having compared potential purchase candidates for literally months on end beforehand

Listening To: Electroluv : Mr.Gelatine (Magnatune)

Current Horn Factor :

Quote of The Day
CMadz I have myspace so I can keep in touch with certain friends …
f8kt1tZ nigga, you need 2get yo’self some new friends !

Thanks to the magic of Sanrio Corp & Fender U.S.A, I know what I want for Xmas !!! Forget your Kirk Hammet signature edition B.C Rich Walocks, your Joe Satriani custom Ibanez Strats, even your increasingly rare Saul Hudson (Slash) signature edition Gibson Les Pauls. Walking past Bondi Inter-Music (normally a shop for serious musicians), I saw one of these babies in the window, and knew a new legend in high-demand collector guitars had been born. Mark my words people … in five or ten years time, these things are going to be worth an absolute MINT !!! ;-) 

It kills me Just to clarify, this isn’t some cheap ‘novelty’ guitar either – it’s a fully working, ‘proper’ stratocaster from Fender (Squire), albeit in a “smaller size for younger players”. Now I know the guys at Sanrio have been trying to expand the (evil) Hello Kitty empire of late. We actually have a Hello Kitty toasted sandwich maker at home (for sheer kitsch value), and have been also tempted to buy the Hello Kitty alarm clock & television, among other things. A Hello Kitty Strat though ? That’s just …. tres bizzarro !

Was the product manager at Fender smoking crack when he agreed to this unholy partnership ? For that matter, was the purchasing guy at Inter-Music smoking a similar bag of crack when they decided (a) to not only carry these things, but (b) to give them pride of place in the display window displacing various Roland Grooveboxes & Korg Electribes ? I know it’s coming up to Christmas, but honestly these things should be sitting in a dusty corner of the store somewhere, not taking up valuable display space near the front door, where they’re likely to cause injury to serious musicians who see them and double over in paroxysms of laughter ?

 

To be honest, I’m not even sure if these things are targetted at boys or girls. I mean the pink colour, and the Hello Kitty motif would make you think it’s aimed squarly at girls. But then if you look at the kid on the packaging, it could conceivably be a pre-pubescent Hanson-esque looking boy. Granted, you can’t see all that in too much detail on the box shot above, but just trust me on this one.

You’d think it would all end there gang, but it doesn’t ! I noticed something else looking at the box-shots just now, which I missed when I was photographing it with my phone in the window. There’s actually a website – www.fenderhellokitty.com 

From looking at said site, it would seem the version of the Hello Kitty Strat we have here in the Asia-Pacific region is actually a bit watered down, in terms of its Kitty branding. The American version of the strat appears to have a HUGE facsmilie of Kitty’s noggin taking up most of the body of the guitar, whereas the one I saw in the shop only has the smaller logo (as found on our toastie maker). Oh … and yes gang … from the website I’ve also discovered there’s a companion Badtz-Maru bass guitar as well – perfect for those wanting more low-end out of their Sanrio-powered sound.

Rrrrrrrawk on, boys and girls

 

Listening To: Greatest Hits : Sheep on Drugs

Current Horn Factor :

Quote of The Day
Blauw If i die and i get reincarnated, i wish i was my girlfriends pussy
Argy Why ?
Blauw Then i would be able to see all my friends again

Well gang, it’s another shameless plug from me for some ebay auctions I’ve got running. Any keyboard players / musicians in the house, please check out the following:

Korg Poly 800 – {SOLD}

Perfect for 80’s Synthpop + Trance & Techno. My first hardware synth, so it’s my baby … but it’s gotta go

Novation XioSynth 25 {UNSOLD}

The new combo Midi-Controller, Audio Interface & VA (Virtual Analogue) synth from acclaimed UK innovation powerhouse Novation. As luck would have it, I can get these to you at significantly below the RRP of $699 (and upwards) that most retailers in Australia will sell them to you for. We’re talking only $599 people … so snap one up NOW before my suppliers wise up and stop letting me have ’em at this price !

 That’s all for now y’all …

Listening To: Clawfinger : Clawfinger

Current Horn Factor :

How was your weekend guys ? Mine officially started about 17:30 on Friday afternoon, after a hardcore 1 hour+, two person ‘panel’ interview at work for a ‘Client Service Executive’ role. The latter is a job I used to seriously covet – pretty much ever since I first started working here almost 2 years ago. The reasons were mainly to do with the wages (bound to be better than pitiful rate I started on initialy, and defenitely bound to be better than the crappy (expired) contract I’m now on), the chance for more people interraction and less staring at a PC all day … and if I’m honest, the chance to work in the only area of our business which actually features some quality female ‘glamours’.

Given I’ve been happily seeing the fabulous IG (glamma78) for almost 8 months now, and we got engaged a while back (more on that to follow in another post), that particular motivation for the job has well and truly evaporated. I’m also getting somewhat sick of working for this company/in FMCG’s again (which is the reason I left the first time around), and given the appalling trends with regards to payrates in the rest of the business, I’m quickly reaching the bitter conclusion even the CSE roles are bound to be woefully underpaid compared to industry norms. To top it all off, I was informed on Friday that the interview process to secure one of these roles is going to be especially long and convoluted, and may involved up to four or five separate rounds of interviews and presentations on my part – so after a weekend of introspection I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion I’m not overly thrilled about this prospective role. Methinks it’s time I kick looking for work elsewhere up another few notches !

OK, all that aside – as I said, my weekend started about half past five on Friday arvo, after my hardcore interview. Had a brief chat with my fiancé on the phone before leaving work, and rocked up @ her place (after going home to change) around 19:45. I’d told her to dress in something “funky & casual” without telling her where we were going, and she didn’t disappoint – coming downstairs from her apartment a vision of beauty in a sexy red dress, long black coat and knee high leather boots. The Funky Monkey Taxi Service as represented by yours truly then proceeded to drive her to the city, where I took my baby out for dinner after only a mere 20 minutes of looking for parking. We went for tapas at a popular restaurant in the Spanish quarter – our lack of table booking circumvented by the clever ruse of sneaking in while the lights were dimmed for the staff performing a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ to one of their patrons. The food was great, and followed it up with a brief spell of pseudo-salsa (salsa on IG’s part, pseudo on mine) dancing when we cut in on the birthday revellers’ dancefloor. Fantastic night out, really !

Saturday day was a bit of a write-off as far as I’m concerned. IG went to go see her grandma in the morning, and a Bollywood Dancing class with her mate Erin in the early arvo, while I had to drop my car off at mums place and various handyman things (change lightbulbs, flyscreens etc) to perform while there. I ended up spending more time there than I’d planned, but at least I got storage sorted for the impending move to IG’s, so it wasn’t too bad. Got back to Bondi in the evening, and settled down to a ‘quiet’ night at home watching tele, listening to music, sipping on some yummy wine and other fun things you can do with your fiancé 😉

Sunday morning was a bit of a lazy one, then just before lunchtime IG and I went to buy her a new outfit for the afternoons impending action. Said afternoons ‘action’ consisted of a singing competition at PJ Gallaghers Hotel @ Parramatta in which IG was entered, and which is the reason for the title of this post. Y’see gang, as usual Lisa gave a stellar performance, singing her heart out with the songs she’d been practising all week and looking a million dollars in the sexy outfit she’d picked up for a few well spent quid in Bondi Junction. In fact, if it wasn’t an arrestable offence (and I wasn’t a bit squeemish about fűcking in front of a room full of strangers) I would have liked to have my wicked way with her right there on the stage – that’s how good she looked ! True – in terms of singing alone she had some pretty stiff (pardon the pun) competition – but her combination of looks, talent and determination should have earnt her at least third place, and for a while there it was looking like a serious possibility.

That is, until they brought out the 11 year old. Now I don’t know about you, but I always thought eleven year old kids had their own talent quests ! People who aren’t old enough to drink in a pub shouldn’t be allowed to sing in competitions there either. Logical, right ? Not in this case, it seems. The pre-pubescent was wheeled out on stage complete with a DX-7 (brilliant old-school Yamaha synth), and proceeded to ‘enthrall’ the audience with a composition of her own devising which sounded like a bitter-sweet Delta Goodrem number. Hello … 11 year olds singing about the pain of a broken relationship … is it just me, or is this just wrong ? To make matters worse, this particular eleven year old happened to be the niece of one of the contest judges. Given this, my heart sank as I realised at least one of the winning places was sure to be hers. I wasn’t wrong either !

When the results were finally announced, the top two places went to a couple of genuinly talented ‘semi-professional’ singers from some local cover bands. The third spot went to an old guy called Jimmy, who’d ‘entertained’ us with a crap rendition of ‘Singin in The Rain’. Not surprisingly, I’d also spotted him outside earlier talking to the MC of the competition, and it was clear they were old mates or also possibly related. The ‘audience vote’ ostensibly went to … yep … you guessed it … Mini-Delta … erstwhile niece of the guy judging the competition. Alltogether now …. riiiiipped ooooorf !

Understandably, IG was a little upset. We talked about a night of wine, massage and other skin-on-skin contact to soothe the nerves after such a disappointing loss as we drove to my place to pick up some of my work clothes. We hung out there for a little while and got some dinner, then I gave her a few early birthday presents and we headed back to Bondi. We ended up crashing in front of the TV though when we got there, wine & massage kinda fell by the wayside, and eventually we just went to sleep after a double dose of Goran on Criminal Intent. Not a bad weekend all in all, but that bloody 11 year old should be barred from competing in her uncles singing comps !!!

Listening To: Black Cherry : Goldfrapp

So – in case you haven’t worked it out yet (or you’re not one of our regular readers), I happen to think my partner (the divine IG) is pretty damn cool ! As such, I’m always happy to give the stuff which floats her boat and which I haven’t been exposed to previously at least the one go, if not making it a regular thing for me too. To date among other things, we’ve gone to the Spanish Club to do a bit of latin-dance and I plan on taking classes with her at some point soon when I get my act together. I’ve also accompanied her on several occasions as a spectator when she’s indulged in another of her passions – namely the ancient Japanese (i.e. 1950’s ?) art of Karaoke.

Now you may be thinking “Karaoke … eww… cheese-o-rama !” Yes, it can be. However as Gwyneth Paltrow & Huey Lewis showed in 2000’s Duets … it can also be classy, sexy and downright FUN ! “Sexy” is certainly a phrase I’d associate with IG normally, and this is without a doubt a factor she brings to her singing performances. Not only CAN my baby sing, and sing exceedingly well for all but the hardest numbers or ones she hasn’t tried before, but she also has a great stage presence. Enough of the Lisa-admiration society though … that’s not the primary purpose of this post.

Rather as I’ve already told you, I’m the kinda guy who likes to “give it a go”, especially if it’s something IG is into. Going along merely as a ‘spectator’ just doesn’t cut it, so last weekend after a few glasses of wine and before we went to check out The Eastern in Bondi (a pub we’d never been to previously), I tried my hand at belting out a few tunes along to some of Lisa’s karaoke DVD’s. It was fun, it was hilarious, and we were extremely silly. I had a great time, though in my heart of hearts I *did* just quietly think I kinda sucked. Here’s the boy who’s shamelessly released an EP before. Though I didn’t actually sing on too many tunes on that one, thankgod *s*

Anyhoo … last night rolled around, and Thursday is always karaoke night at a certain Petesham pub IG and I have been frequenting for the purpose. Despite the suckiness of my weekend ‘at-home-performance’, or perhaps because of it, I decided I’d sing a tune or two last night. The last time … nay the ONLY time I’d previously attempted a public karaoke performance was back in 1998, in an Arab-owned Irish Pub in Uppsala, Sweden (try saying THAT three times quickly !). It was a group performance with two drunken lads from Northern Ireland, two Italians and a dude called Barnaby from Boulder Colorado, and I can’t even remember what we sang. ‘Twas one of those crazy ‘lads nights out’ basically.

So it was with a little trepidation that I took the stage – doubled by the inescapable knowledge my partners most recent ex (the only one I occasionally sense a glimmer of nostalgia / regret about) is a semi-professional singer who actually happens to run a karaoke night at Star City Casino, among other places. I know, I know – I think about everything on far too many levels, don’t I groovers ? 😉 Anyhow, my first song was “Knocking on Heavens Door” – the only thing I can still play on guitar, having long since lost the skill to play anything else through years of non-practice. Now I must admit I got a bit of stage fright happening for that first number – leg trying to madly jiggle, trouble focusing on the words on the teleprompter despite knowing them by heart, sweaty palms; the whole thing. Nonetheless, to my surprise I don’t think I sucked too badly, despite it being the Dylan (slower) version instead of the G’n’R cover I’m used to.

After my first mini-ordeal finished, I had to stay on stage to do a duet with IG on “Love Shack”. Feeling a little better this time, still need a drink though. Other people go up next, including a solo or two from my partner, before my next song. I choose “Can You Dig It” by PWEI next … not only because I happen to love the song, but also because I’m interested in seeing what it will sound like karaoke-fied. Awful … I’m having to sing most of the bits which use samples in the original (and damn cool samples too), and the backing beat sounds cheesy instead of funky. Damn … I think that sucked, but mainly because of the song-choice. A few more people go up, then I get called to the stage again. I’m thinking it’s my final choice of the night … Sweet Child O’ Mine … but no, IG has pulled a bit of a shifty on me and put me down to do “Ice Ice Baby”. OMG ! I can’t rap for shit !

I try to roll with it, with IG jumping up on stage to provide back-up dancing. Sweeet *g* I get in maybe one third of the words … ‘rollin in my 5.0 …. Ice Ice Baby’. It’s too fast for me … so I kinda suck again … but I feel strangely good about it all the same. After some more random singers and IG numbers, I finally get called up to do SCOM. My stagefright has almost entirely gone by this point, the leg is only trying to jiggle slightly, palms are dry and I’m not struggling to read the words … in fact I even sneak in a bit of improv on one of the ‘wo oh oh oh’s which noone notices but which gives me a warm inner glow.

The final verdict – yes, I still kinda sucked … but I did have a great time, and given regular practice I hope in due course my suckiness will reach a level where it is only barely perceptible. Guess what ? I’m planning to put that practice in … because now I’ve tried it, I think I shall be at least a semi-regular participant, and not just a spectator.

Proving once again gang, that it never hurts to try something new ! Have a great weekend, I’m off to Greenwood for a ‘boy’s night out’ with one of IG’s mates and some other lads. Let’s just hope there are no fights this time … this is the same guy who punched on with someone outside the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club on the first ‘Summer Bay’ post !

Peace out y’all …

Listening To: Magick : Def-Fx

So, I came into a bit of extra cash the other day. Thinking about what I was going to do with it, I decided it was time to do something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. It’s time to get serious about my music, and actually invest a bit of cash in it again after many a year. Yes kids, I’ve decided it’s high time I get a midi controller keyboard. No more fŨcking around, trying to control multiple parameters within Buzz using just the mouse and keyboard. No … I’ve decided its time DB gets his hands on something with assignable knobs !

< --- I'm talking about lovely knobs like these ...

Previously I’d been thinking about forking out for the M-Audio Oxygen 8 (pic below) … in fact, this was the piece of kit mentioned in the “2004 Good Riddance” post. I even had a quote from James @ Intermusic in Bondi on one of these babies.

However, doing some research on the ‘net and reading reviews from various people, I realised this probably isn’t the best controller you can get in its price-range. It’s decidely ‘plasticky’ for a start, and only features 8 assignable knobs and one assignable fader.

Instead, further research reading convinced me the Evolution MK425C looked to be a better bet than the Oxygen 8. Not only does it have 8 assignable knobs like the former, it also has 10 assignable buttons AND assignable mod + pitch wheels ! Whoo The more assignable controls you have, the more functions you can map inside Buzz (or any other softsynth/tracker/sequencer) basically …

It even has global kill-send for all parameters —>

OK, so having settled on the Evo, I gave James a call. “Have you got the Evolution MK425C in stock, dude ?” “Funny you should ask that. I’ve got one in I can do you a great deal on. Guy bought it last week. Got it to his motel room, threw the box out.” “Yeah …” “Yeah … and then he decided he wanted something else, didn’t he ? So it’s got all the software, all the cables, and the manual … it just doesn’t have a box ….” “Bwahahahaa !” You gotta love guys from Darwin who change their minds, don’t you ? The prices at Intermusic look to be pretty decent as is, but given there is no box with my unit (*s*) James is gonna knock the $$$ down even further to below the 250 mark … which definitely beats the rip-offski price they’re charging for the same controller at Venue ($265). Schweet !!! It’s even got a *real* midi-out, unlike most USB controllers, including the Oxygen 8.

What all of this means of course, friends and fans, is that I’m very excited about my weekend now ! Tonight I plan on going out and getting pissed with some of IG’s friends … who says she gets to do all the partying, just coz she’s in Spain ? But tommorrow, I’m picking up my new toy from Bondi ! Check it out below … doesn’t it look sexy ? Doesn’t it look sexier than the Oxygen ? 😉

Of course, I’m not a 100% sure how much fiddling I’m going to have to do to get it to work properly with Buzz … I might even have to use the software that comes with it and a couple of VST-I’s in the short term … but in the words of M-People we’re “movin’ on up, moooovin on up” Expect a review / rundown on my Evo experience in the next week or so !