Author: zingblog

Mix Master

Last week I had the first mixdown/mastering session with Erik in his studio working on one of my songs. It was a really good experience. I never realized what a totally skilled producer he is. He pretty quickly and systematically moved thru the song, adding little bits of effects here and there, mainly EQ, compression, pan and volume, plus a bit of reverb, and sometimes something else on specific tracks. I learned alot just by watching him. He really separated the instruments, putting everything in its own space and still blending it all together well. He EQ’d the bass, piano and kick drum so everything in the bottom end is clear, distinct and strong. He also has a ton of professional grade effects, and knows them well. He did a setup for the vocals (not sure what FX exactly) to make the sound really good. In the end there are a ton of effects on the song, but it doesn’t sound effects-heavy.

The song is maybe 90 percent there, just a couple tweaks to go. I’ve listened to it on my iPod and it’s definitely better than my mix even on those cheap headphones. I can hardly wait to listen on my good stereo. We just got our new dishwasher Saturday and our new fridge today, so now the kitchen/dining/living area is free of the dreadful grinding sounds of dying appliances (really it did not sound at all good) and the way is clear.

New Goal: The Appliances

Well football fever died almost as soon as it was born. The Jets played a good three quarters of football last week, but in the end the Colts overcame their defense. Ah well, at least we have Super Bowl Sunday free now.

In other news, our dishwasher broke down last week. Jeannie for some reason has gotten really stressed out over this, although Lizzy has cheerfully volunteered to help out with doing the dishes, which is nice. Then last night our fridge started to go on the fritz, so we now have two appliances that need replacing. Guess we’ll spend the weekend shopping. Fun fun fun.

Ski Season Woo Hoo!

We just got back from a great weekend skiing with our friends Seth and Cathy and their daughter Erin. Thanks guys for a great time.

We went up Seth’s place Friday night and got up early and skied all day Saturday. The grownups skied on our own in the morning while the kids were in lessons, and in the afternoon we all skied together. The snow was really good and Lizzy and Michelle both did really well. Michelle went up the chair lift for the first time, and skied down the mountain a few times with good form and control, doing nice S-curves. I spent my afternoon mainly with her. One run we tailed along the end of a lesson of two other kids who were at Michelle’s level, joining in their train.

Sunday only Seth and Lizzy I and went skiing, while Jeannie and Cathy and Michelle and Eric hung around the house and plated in the snow. Seth, who used to be a ski instructor, gave Lizzy a lesson and I followed along working on my form, which was a good thing to do. Lizzy is getting good, skiing blue trails and even some diamonds, to the point where I have to work to keep up with her sometimes.

We only skied a half day Sunday, and as an added treat we got to see an awesome Jets game. I haven’t watched much football this year because: 1. I’m generally pretty busy and usually have things to do on Sunday, 2. I generally don’t like television cuz of the ads, and football on TV is like one giant commercial, and 3. I’m still down about the Buffalo Bills losing four Super Bowls in a row. But if there’s ever a time to get into it, it’s when your team makes the playoffs.

Right around the kickoff I was loading the car for the trip home, but we decided to stay until it looked like the game was getting to be a blowout. It turned out to be a real game, and we ended up staying for the whole thing. The Chargers made a few mistakes for sure, some stupid after-the-play penalties and some missed field goals. And while no one on the Jets made any spectacular plays, they really showed some discipline and came together as a team. Good defense, good running game, the classic way to win a football game. So now we’re all getting psyched about the possibility of the Jets making it to the super bowl. Still one game to get thru before that though.

And now, it looks as if our month-long frozen streak has abated. The weather this week looks to be mild, with highs into the forties. Feels positively balmy.

You Can Fake Talent But You Can’t Fake Effects

That was our motto in the band Infinigon back in the day. I was reminded of it over winter break when I saw my friend and collaborator John Neumann. This weekend I did a new batch of mixes on the tracks for my forthcoming record, continuing to drill down on the vocal mixes and effects, tweaking the reverb and chorus, and getting a consistent sound between tracks. I think I’ve gotten to the point where they are pretty much there: good to listen too, nicely blended but not too muddy. The new mixes can be heard here:

HeatWave60.mp3
Earthbound60.mp3
WhoCanFoolMe52.mp3
FineRedWine61.mp3
TouchTheCeiling37.mp3
AngelOrAlien60.mp3

As I’ve mentioned before I’m going to do the final mixing and mastering at my friend’s studio, and toward that end I’ve been writing software for him in exchange for studio time. I’ve been busy working on an updated version of his music library player the last few weeks. It’s almost done so there’ll be a post about that soon.

Meanwhile the deep cold continues outside. I’ve found that if I can keep my feet warm I’m pretty happy. My kids got me a new pair of slippers for xmas, which helps a lot, and Jeannie got me some nice warm socks too, which helps more.

The Oh-Tens

Had a very nice winter break. A bit of time off work, relaxing and getting caught up on things, Xmas with the family, a trip upstate to see family and friends, plus more visiting around the home turf. All doing well. The hit gift this year is a game called Qwirkle which my brother got for my daughter. It’s sort of like scrabble but with shapes and colors instead of letters. The kids enjoy it and the grownups too. I even brought it along to my friend’s for New Year’s eve.

It seems every year around this time Jeannie and I binge on videos. Fits in well with escaping from the darkness and cold. Last year it was HBO’s “Rome”. One year we watched the entire LoTR trilogy. This year it was Firefly/Serenity. The show is a few years old, and they only made a handful of episodes and a movie, but it was very shiny. Like Rome, it was too good to be on TV.

I listened to my album-in-progress a few times. Mainly satisfied, some tweaks to make. Jammed on diagrams for my origami book. Up to step 70 or so on the Medieval Dragon, complete with diagrams, page layout and annotations. It’s looking like it might get to 100 steps! Worked on some software projects. Did some home repairs and touch up painting in the hall and kitchen.

Now it’s the start of a new year, a new decade. Hurm. Been very cold for three weeks now. As always I hate the cold. Back to work. Everyone in the office is grumpy and it seems everyone’s trains have been running late. At least I’m looking forward to some ski trips.

News on the Street

It’s Thanksgiving break, and I feel like I have alot to be thankful for this year. Things are generally good for my loved ones and my overall situation, and goals I’ve been working towards for years have been showing signs of progress and paying off. Of course its easier to feel good about life when you’re relaxed. This is my first break since the start of the school year in September, and we’ve been taking it easy and getting things done this weekend. No big travel or entertaining, other than going to Jeannie’s folks for Thanksgiving day. Played a fun game of Earthopoly (Monopoly with a “go green” spin) with the kids. Jeannie and I both went bankrupt early, and it was and epic battle between Lizzy and Michelle.

I got a nice big block of time to work on music. I re-recorded, edited and mixed the vocals the song “Angel or Alien” (soon to be renamed “U.F.O.”). It sounds much better and this makes six out of nine songs ready for mastering.

I kicked off the this winter’s home improvement project cycle. We have four projects on the slate and I thought I would tackle the easiest one first and knock it off the list this weekend. It was just to shore up some towel bars in the bathroom that were coming loose from the wall. However one thing leads to another and jobs are not always that simple. I took off the first bar and put in a new stronger wall anchor. But then the towel bar would not go back on to the mount since the new anchor had a bigger screw head and the towel bar would not fit. Bad design. We had to get a whole new set of towel bars and rings. The dimension were just different enough that it meant drilling new holes and painting over the place where the old mounts came up. So it turned into a three day job. But whatevs, it’s done now. Woo-hoo. Three to go.

One nice surprise this week is that the town paved our street, so we went from having the bumpiest, potholiest street in town to the newest, smoothest one. Immediately the kids started clamoring to go out rollerblading, but it was sort of rainy for a couple days, so it had to wait until the weekend. We finally got a chance to play outside. Lizzy recently got her cast off her arm, and immediately did some cartwheels, something she’s been pining to do for weeks. The weather has been really mild all November, and we still are picking fresh parsley from our garden and believe it not have roses in bloom.

Now we’re turning the corner into December. Looking at three intense weeks of work and everything, then a short week and some time off for the holidays.

Pentagon Origami Tessellation

One upside of having all these meeting at work is I can sometimes fold while sitting and listening. Tessellations are very popular in origami these days, although personally I haven’t done much with them. But I was hanging out with Eric Gjerde in San Francisco few weeks ago, and I got intrigued with a couple ideas. Here is a tessellation I came up with that features all pentagons. It doesn’t use pentagonal symmetry however, the underlying grid is square. It’s an ancient pattern used in Moorish and Mideastern art and architecture. But it’s a cool pattern and I a haven’t seen it folded before so I decided to give it try. I actually just sort of started doodling it in a meeting that was dragging on, and it dragged on long enough that I had a fully folded sheet by the end of it. People really responded to it, so I decided to make a better one out a nicer paper.

E is for Elephant

Since I got back from my trip I’ve been meaning to get another build out on my Foldinator software. It’s very close, I swear. But fate has conspired. My work situation is, um, interesting again. The VP of my new group is leaving the company at the end of the year to start up a startup, which puts my team somewhat out in the woods again. Meanwhile we are aligning like battleships amid icebergs with two other platform projects and one brand business unit to bring a whole slew of web sites online on our technology stack in the new year. Crunch time is coming as we all figure out the missing pieces we need to go live. I’ve been spending most of my work days doing planning lately, and trying to jam in some coding in the spaces between meetings. So it’s been hard to sink my mind into another codebase.

The other thing is I’ve been working on a new origami sculpture which I want to have done by Thanksgiving. I came up with the idea right after I got home from PCOC and have folded a few tests out of foil, to the point where I have it refined enough to give it a go from nice paper. These advanced models take a while to work out.

To take your mind off your troubles, here’s a link to an article about the OUSA Holiday Tree in the American Museum of Natural History, featuring an alphabet of very nice models, including one by yours truly.