BASIC's writings

There are some crazy open source apps I've stumbled accross lately.  After some minor probing, one could pick up the recording art obsession with out spending a dollar or cracking software.  I found a sweet sound design app called

Gleetchlab 2.3.  Must have a pretty fast mac, and must love sound design.  If you have those two things you will fall in love with this simple yet very powerful cpu draining tool.  Don't melt your computer!

I am now the father of 2 boys.  I don't think it's really sunk in yet.  My new one, Sawyer, is so chill and sleeps through the night already, so he helps keep it a little unreal since I was prepared for the 2 month marathon sleepless parenting gig again.

I took some time off which translated to working on new music a little more intensely then normal which was awesome.  I hope to have a handful finished for the Gossamer Thread at the CRUX. 

Anna is about to pop!  Any day now I will be a Father to 2 sons.  Anna had a natural child birth the first time around, and she's doing it again because she doesn't really remember the first time. 

The first time, we learned that she had a real need for music to get lost in during the harder parts of labor.  We had this amazing midwife that talked her back down when the labor was getting to be too much to handle.  If it wasn't for her, I think she may have gone for the pain killers, not that that's bad, but it just wouldn't have been what she wanted. 

If you haven't listened to BT's album "This Binary Universe" you should give it a whirl.  The hard copy is on DVD and is meticulously mixed in surround sound.  It's an impressive work, and suits my mood well at the moment.

It's early Saturday morning at the train car.  Nobody's here because it's Saturday morning at the train car.  My midi-controller is winking at me but I'm trying to take a breath before I'm soaked in headphones for the next 12 hours.  

Owen is the real deal...an artistic rareity...a man devoted to "coopetition" (thanks for the new word Weston & Wikipedia).  This CAMMIE winning electronic music producer, makes the beats dirty, plays the game clean, and yes...programs his own synth patches.  You are going places sir.

Thanks for the favor Owen, you know what I'm talking about, I'll see you on the other side of the Thor matrix. 

I'm back from the Bay and very inspired.  There were two breeds presenting to us.  There were the Now-Successful-After-10-years-of-grinding-it-out electronic producers.  The seminar by James Bernard was very illuminating.  After talking about many technical ins and outs of Reason, and recording art in general, he showcased his track that he made 100% with one single 10KB kick drum sample.  He even managed to program a huge wobble bass with it.  Very impressive, James cut his teeth in the days of analog recording and using samplers that max out at 1MB of sample space.  Anybody remember recording vinyl samples at 45 and then pitching down to conserve memory space?  

Reason Producers conference in SF on May 3rd.  Registration is cheap and many seasoned producers will be sharing their tricks of the trade.  6 hours long. 

http://www.theproducersconference.com/

Basic will be there all day with a microscope and videocamera.

It is 10.5.2 not jiving with M-AUDIO.  Stephen, Western US Sales Manager for M-Audio (and an electronic music producer) said in an email that Digidesign, M-Audio and Apple were working "Feaverishly" to solve the problem. 

Well, I have a recording session scheduled with my not-yet-2 year old son this evening so I can use those samples to write all day tomorrow at Empire Coffee during my 13 hour shift.

Did you know that when using a USB audio interface with a MacBook only the forward most USB port is approved for such a use?  This is not true with a USB midi controllers.  You can plug those in anywhere.  Well I'll be buggered!  Just read that on www.m-audio.com

That's why software was freezing up and becoming retarded on me the other day!  I was using the wrong USB port.  And I thought it was a driver thing.  Take it to heart MacBook using electonic music makers...all 1 or 2 of you.  This can cause much frustration which can be disturbing to your young children or significant others.

"Oh my God," came out of my lips about 10 times last night at the electronic music CAMMIES showcase.  I was so totally impressed by everybody's compositions.  

Weston came hard with a crazy track that was full and lusciously pounding with his trademark perfect production prowess.  For those who saw his set, that 3rd one...you know what I'm talking about.  

Ayrian sat quietly and shocked everybody with his secret mean-ass angry pounding dub inspired jams.  One had a harmonica.  His last track made me want to break things - or breakdance.