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Electrofringe is just around the corner, and this looks to be a particularly good year. I’ll be there as usual, doing a few talks. No gig this time, but I am contributing to Patchwork, an exhibition of ‘patch art’. Here’s mine:
It’s a screenshot of an AudioMulch patch that I’ve been using for the past year or so for live performance, in conjunction with a Behringer BCR controller. Over the weekend I installed Ubuntu Linux on two of my computers. I tested the waters with Ubuntu Desktop on an old desktop PC that I rarely use and was surprised to find that the installation was completely painless – it detected all of the hardware and even set up partitions so I could keep the old Windows installation. But I was so impressed with Ubuntu, I got rid of XP on that machine. I then replaced XP on my old laptop with Ubuntu Studio, which is optimised for media production. It even runs AudioMulch pretty well under Wine! What can I say? I’m now a Linux convert! I reckon Ubuntu is the best OS I’ve used. I was afraid it would be too difficult, but if you’ve ever used the Windows command line or registry, Ubuntu is actually very easy. There is a learning curve, but it feels empowering. And of course Ubuntu is free, open source and all that good stuff. Other OSes now seem so restrictive and cumbersome by comparison. Ubuntu also has all the bells and whistles if you want them, such as the Beryl visual effects, and performance is much better on my old hardware than Windows ever was. One of my favourite thing about using Ubuntu is that installing most programs is just a matter of selecting them from the ‘Add/Remove’ menu – no need to search the web for an installer, then download and run it – Ubuntu does it all automatically. Likewise with software updates. Next I’m going to set up my main desktop PC to dual boot Ubuntu Studio and XP so that I can still access the few programs that I need which won’t run on Linux/Wine/OSX (mainly Adobe Audition) but mostly I’ll be using it as a file server and media center, running MythTV. When the new Macbook Pro arrives I won’t be putting Windows on it. If anything I’ll add Ubuntu to it, but Wine also works on OSX, so I’ll still be able to access many of my Windows programs where necessary. Instead of Audition I’ll use ProTools, which is OK, since I also use it at uni. Eventually I hope to leave Windows completely. I highly recommend that you give Ubuntu a try – especially if you have an old computer lying around. There’s nothing to lose, and you may just fall in love with it like I have! I’m concerned about the possibility of Google turning to the dark side (a la Microsoft) what with their practically limitless potential to mine data, compromise privacy and manipulate access to information. We’ve already seen their ‘don’t be evil‘ policy conveniently forgotten in acquiescing to Chinese censorship. But my goodness they’re developing some extraordinary applications at the moment: tools that are innovative, efficient and a joy to use. And so I’ve decided to go Google for most of my online (and many previously offline) activities. What really convinced me of this choice is the Google personalized homepage, which can now function as a virtual office, accessible from anywhere with internet access, including mobile phones. The first step involved setting up Gmail to manage all of my email accounts, then switching to Google Reader for my RSS feeds. With this accomplished I’ve ditched Mozilla Thunderbird. Then I replaced Time & Chaos, by setting up Google Calendar, Google Notebook and a to do list. Finally, I set up Google Docs & Spreadsheets to (almost) replace Open Office. I’ve organized my Google personalized home page so that all of these tools are available at a glance. Of course it’s best to access this using Firefox, with the Customize Google extension enabled. Although many of these Google services are still in beta, they mostly work flawlessly. The only serious annoyance I’ve experienced so far is that the personalized home page works better at google.com, rather than google.com.au, which doesn’t display the calendar properly. Hopefully this will be fixed soon. (UPDATE: fixed with a new GCal module.) For now I’ve set my homepage to https://www.google.com/ig although I occasionally get redirected back to google.com.au. I’m sure this is all old news to some of you, but if you haven’t yet tried going Google, I highly recommend that you give it a go!
This Is Not Art is on in Newcastle this weekend. It’s my favourite Australian festival – if you’ve never been, you should check it out. I’ll be doing a couple of talks and a couple of performances.
This is my latest toy. I’m using it as a MIDI controller for AudioMulch (with the help of Ross Bencina’s P5 Glove MIDI software and Jamie O’Connell’s MIDI Yoke). The thumb and each finger can send a separate Continuous Controller value (using custom flex sensors) as can each of the X, Y and Z axes in relation to the infrared receptor. It’s fun but somewhat difficult to control. Partly it’s a matter of learning to use it, like any instrument, but also my hands are a bit bigger than it’s designed for. I’m not sure how practical it’ll be for gigging, but it makes a nice change to be able to do more obviously gestural performance (compared to using a mouse or a fader/knob box). This news has been everywhere today. It has implications for (the ongoing saga of) my next laptop choice. I reckon the Macbook Pro is now edging ahead again – especially w/ the educational discount – although I’d be much happier if it had Firewire 800 and 4xUSB 2 ports… As bandwidth and storage have steadily increased, we’ve gone from 128kb mp3s being acceptable several years ago to 192kb now being the standard quality. I’ve recently been encoding new mp3s at 320kb, which is the highest quality possible for the codec. But it’s still lossy compression, so I’ve started looking for alternatives. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) looks like the best option. It’s like zip/rar for audio, maintaining the original (eg CD) sound quality, and can include metadata such as artist and track names. Support for it is sporadic at this stage: VLC, Winamp (with a plugin) and Songbird can all play it, but iTunes doesn’t, nor do most current portable devices. But I have a strong feeling that FLAC is the way to go for the medium term, so I’m going to make Alias Frequencies releases available in this format.
I have a Korg Wavestation AD, a classic synthesizer module from the early 90s, heard on countless soundtracks and electronica albums. I bought it a few years ago, but have hardly used it. I mainly make music with software these days, and there’s now a software version of the Wavestation available. Still, hardware is useful (this synth also has built-in FX, and can operate as a standalone FX processor) and it would be attractive to someone out there. My dilemma is whether or not to sell it. It’s worth about AUD500, which is an awkward amount – it’d make a dent in my current debts, but it’s not enough $ to make a major difference to my life. So it’s tempting to hang on to it. I also tend to regret selling things, or throwing them away. Most notably a ghetto blaster that I used for my early cassette cutups, which I threw out a couple of years ago. I still have nightmares about that – it was broken and useless, but had sentimental value. This Wavestation doesn’t have quite as much sentimental value, although it belonged to Boxcar, an Australian synthpop band of which I was quite fond. And John Watermann used a (different) Wavestation AD on some of his recordings, so owning one makes me feel a bit closer to him. But if I can sell it for $500 then I think I will… Bettered by the borrower – copyrights and music composition Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project Famous Cannabis Users Google Idol THE MARRIAGE OF CADMUS AND HARMONY FOR CHILDS The Mercury Theatre on the Air sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ! (awesome software!) SONY admits that CD/44.1PCM is inferior Video Downloader xTal – free mp3 DJ VSTi plugin ANNOUNCEMENT February 21, 2006. AudioMulch 1.0 released AudioMulch 1.0 is now available from the AudioMulch website (http://www.audiomulch.com). The release marks the end of an extended public beta-testing period spanning almost nine years, which has resulted in robust software ready for the stage, studio and classroom. This version includes over 40 new example documents contributed by community members, along with a number of bug fixes and tweaks. Ross sends a special thanks to everyone who has been involved with AudioMulch so far. Check the release notes for full details of all the changes in this release (http://www.audiomulch.com/100notes.htm). Read the full press release here: http://www.audiomulch.com/press/AudioMulch100PressRelease21Feb2006.pdf |
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