I have to write this down before I forget...

TXT:: More site news. I've started up a e-mail subscription system for this site. Thanks to Emmet at illequipped.com, I can easily send out newsletters and stuff to anyone who subscribes to the site. The best part is that it's all automated and I wont have to worry about that stuff.

Also, to launch this little subscription Mail List development campaign. I'm holding a little drawing for a Diamond Rio 500 MP3 player! This seems like a fairly cool unit (I don't even have one). There are some catches - so read the page carefully. Subscribers need only enter their e-mail. To be eligible for the drawing, you need to fill in the shipping information fields. Telephone number is optional. Click the Banner to subscribe:

I realize that a lot of people will be discouraged to enter their name and address information to a list database, however, the main purpose is fairness. I don't want to have some people flooding the database with hundreds of Hotmail™ addresses to increase their chances in the drawing. That would be such a waste of bandwidth when I send out site update newsletters.

I might add some CDs to the drawing as well - or maybe some other cool stuff... as usual, this is all still rather new to me, so it will evolve over time. I still can't believe I'm stooping to this level of dotcom-mercialization, but I suppose it's a necessary step if I plan to expand this little hobby into something bigger.

I received some royalty checks from MP3.com the other day, and I still can't believe that they are paying artists out for downloads. This is pretty cool. However, MP3.com will be submitting a 1099 for the royalties and I need a tax write-off. I will probably owe a few hundred for those earnings, so I've already purchased the Rio 500 and will deduct the cost from my taxes. Instead of Uncle Sam getting that cash, someone will get the Rio :-)

I'm still astonished that people even listen to some of the stuff I do. Thanks for everyone's support in the year 2000. I'm looking forward to 2001 - A Cyberspace Odyssey!

Reasons Greetings:: Although Xmas is probably the predominant holiday around the world, I realize that there are people from many different cultures who visit this site, and not everyone celebrates Xmas I hope everyone from around the world has a wonderful Holiday Season!

TXT:: My Friggen Ethernet Hub died on me...So I've replaced my old hp hub with a shiny new netgear 10/100bT autosensing fancy schmancy bells and whistly 8 porter (even though I only really need 5 ports). The crappy part is that I didn't realize it has TWO NOISY FANS! The hub is stuck in a closet tucked away from everything. Still, I probably would not have picked this one up had I known about the fans. I think I'll send it back.

Reason:: You want more examples of Matrix Modulating a variety of parameters all synchronized to the tempo? Here you go:

waves.rns (small zip archive)

AKAI MPC-3000 emulation in Reason. Now you can have the groovyness of the Holy Grail of Drum Machines in Reason :-)

I've just finished up a complete set of Akai MPC-3000 4/4 meter 16th Note loops which I've imported into Reason. Note: These are my loops, not the groove templates from Cubase.net! I used ReCycle to REX the loops and extract the groove MIDI data. The MIDI tracks can be used as Quantization Templates by using the "Get User Groove" function then apply the quantization to your MIDI tracks. This will add authentic Roger Linn/MPC style quantization to your Reason tracks. The Groove patterns should translate over to 2/4 and 3/4 meter without a problem. I'm not certain about 6/8 meter.

The file is an RNS so you can copy and paste the groove tracks to your Reason Tracks. One recommendation - try opening a different loop in the Dr:REX player and hear how the swing effects. The Reason track includes one REX loop made with the MPC using TR-909 hi hat samples.

Peff-MPC Grooves MIDI.rns (1.5Meg Zip Archive)

MPCGrooveExample.rns (64k Zip Archive)

The REX files may be available soon, but the REXs total over 35 Megs worth of Data, and I'm not sure about bandwidth (I would have to upload these on my ol 56k modem or my cousin's DSL) Also coming eventually: Authentic TR-909 Swing and Flam Groove patterns and REX files.

Happy Holidays!

TXT:: Fellow ReBirther, Mr. Wing, has posted up some binaural recordings for the world to listen to. Check them out at Wingdingo.com Thank's for posting those up Wingo, they give me a better idea of the quality of those core-sound mics.

On a side note, I added a few more pics to my Digital Photo Gallery ;-).

Reason:: There's a little debate going on over on the Board on this site about what reason lacks. One issue was synchronizing LFO's to the tempo. There's a simple way to create a synchronized LFO effect using the Matrix Pattern Sequencer. Using the 1/128th note resolution, you can get a very smooth sounding curve which can modulate a variety of things in Reason. To see an example of this download the following Reason Song file:

bpmlfo.rns (small zip archive)

MP3:: I've updated the Silent Night MP3 with a new Mixdown. It's basically the same tracks however, I've made some timing edits on the lead moog tracks and also I rode the faders on the leads to add some dynamic movement. The Overall mix is not quite as loud as the previous mix.

I had to make some changes to the Reason Song File as well. This was a tedious task, since I had to switch between Pro Tools and Reason to make changes. Once the new Reason Tracks were Rendered, i had to switch back to Pro Tools to import them. One of these days, I hope Direct Connect for Reason is released. This would make my life much easier.

MP3:: I just uploaded that Reason Christmas Song to MP3.com - Silent Night By Joseph Mohr & Franz X. Gruber. Again, it's rushed and a little rough around the edges. I didn't bother to edit some of the lead lines. I just woke up and checked the mix to see if it's passable, and it seems to be ok, so I posted it up. It's done in New Age style with some nice vox pads and filtering string pulses. It sounds a bit like Kitaro and Vangelis. The full reason song file for the accompaniment is about 8.3 Megs so I wont be posting it. The file without samples is only about 200K and requires the REASON Factory Sound Bank, so I'm posting it as well. Download from the links below:

Happy Holidaze!

Silent Night [for Reason and Moog]

Silent Night Backing Tracks.RNS (176K Zip Archive)

I'm posting the RNS file since I feel it's pretty futile to try to copy protect reason songs. Feel free to use the Subtractor Patches in the tune. There are some DX-7 like FM sounds which are pretty cool. I'm quite pleased with the Filter effect with the NN19 set up too. As usual, I'd appreciate being given credit if you use the patch - just leave the patch name intact if you publish it in a Reason track. Thanks!

TXT:: I finally received the retail package of Reason! The designers did such a nice job putting it together. From the Graphics to the Box to the CD Case and CD-Roms. It's very tastefully done. Another Triumph for the Propellerheads!

It's holiday time again, and I'm trying to finish up a little X-mas tunage created with Reason and other stuff. The accompaniment is created with reason with some solo analog leads on a Moog Liberation, the coolest performance synthesizer ever made. It's hard to beleive, but this bad boy even has aftertouch! There's a little IR sensor with a mechanical shutter connected to the chasis of the keyboard. When you apply aftertouch pressure, the chassis moves the shutter between the IR LED and the phototransister to modulate Control Voltages. But there's nothing quite as cool as using the ribbon controller on the handle :-)

Hopefully, i'll get the solos finished in the next day or so and upload an MP3 :-)

TXT:: I spent a nice day procrastinating serious work. I guess I'll have to pull an all nighter editing this stupid 20 page document. No, I'm not back in college...I graduated in 1991 dammit!

A greater part of the day was spent corresponding with a fellow squarepusher fan. He asked for some samples from the AXIOM peace mod, and I renamed the files and imported them into REASON. I was pretty astonished at the versatility of that sample set. Hopefully in the future I can convert it into a ReFill (.rfl) file, but until then reason users are welcome to tweak around with AXIOM peace.rps file. It provided a nice distraction for me to blow off my work.

The RPS works with the REASON demo version...er it should work. I highly recommend using a MIDI keyboard to play the samples because they really sound great when you play chords. Please let me know if there are problems.

Download AXIOM peace.rps (2.5 megs) <--gotta love that audio file compression in Reason!

TXT:: I've changed around the navigation frame on the site. This is a little more like the layout I had originally planned. The site (like anything I do) is coming together slowly. I'm not sure how the graphics will render on different browsers, but if it seems really tweaked out, please e-mail me and let me know which browser you're using, or just post a message up on the board. Thanks!

I've put a selection of my Digital Photography online. Just a few things from snap shots to some rather artistic images. It's a fun distraction ;-)

Peff's Digital Photography

RBX:: I've added a new filetyper utility called Prop Drop. This utility will fix the file type/creator codes for Reason Files (songs, subtractor patches, sample patches, etc), ReCycle! Files, and ReBirth files. This is only for MacOS users who have problems with these files when downloaded from e-mail or web servers. It requires MacOS 7.5.5 or later.

MP3:: Eyes Inside - the new mp3 mix is a little bit different and available in MP3 format now. I will post up the RNS file (yes, the regular song file that people can use to and tweak around and save) soon.

"You see, gentlemen, reason is an excellent thing. There is no doubt about it. But reason is only reason, and it can only satisfy the reasoning ability of man, whereas volition is a manifestation of the whole of life, I mean, of the whole of human life, including reason with all its concomitant head-scratchings." - Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground

Just a little something I happened to read the other day ;-)

I've been fooling around with reason, assembling little sample sets and converting some mods into reason files. As anyone who surfs this site knows, I've been pretty liberal about sharing information and files with ReBirth. However, I'm still trying to decide whether or not to share any reason song files.

Many people who use ReBirth are very aware of how easy it is to actually plagiarize music ideas created by others. I've had people e-mail me, ex post facto, that they've used parts of my songs for their projects. In fact there have been several noted incidents where people have completely stolen ReBirth tracks and claimed them as their own work on MP3.com artist pages. From what i've learned in the few years I've been using internet technology, If you make a file public, it will be used, hacked, plagiarized, and quite possibly used for profit by someone else.

I've been doing some serious contemplation about the nature of Reason's copy protection. The propellerheads have gone to great lengths to set sample and MIDI copy protection with reason published song files, but there are several obvious ways which can be exploited even with these safeguards implemented.

Mute and export: One of the easiest ways to steal a drum loop or bassline or synth riff is to solo a reason instrument on the Mixer module, set the loop locators, then export the loop as an audio file. If the riff requires transposition or a different tempo to fit in your track, it's not a problem to alter the MIDI data and Tempo data before you export the audio. You can then take the audio files and reload them into an NN19 Sampler module or load the audio back into your audio pool. This makes it quite easy to take any single section of ANY Reason song file.

I will probably be chastized for coming out with this, but it is a serious issue that has been bothering me. I want to make some reason songs public, but I doubt that I will make any complete work available in the Reason Song File formats.

REASON:: The public Demo version is now online! Congratulations to the guys at Propellerhead Software for revolutionizing Music Software, yet again! You can download the demo version now from the Propellerheads Home Page. They asked me to do a demo track for it, however I'm not really that pleased with the results. I'm not even certain which mix they included in their archive. I'll eventually polish it up and make it available. Prepare to be blown away by this application.

TXT:: This week I installed a stealth serial port in the dual G4 Power Mac. This board replaces the internal modem and phone jack with the vintage RS-422 serial connection and works with my old MOTU MIDI Time Piece II. It works quite well and seems fully compatible with OMS - just like they advertise :-)

I've also been fooling around with a new digital camera and doing some astrophotography with it. For example, the moon. Shot with a Celestron 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain Reflector and 30mm Ocular with the Nikon E990:

I was a real shutterbug about 15 years ago...Now with this new camera I'm getting that itch again.

RBM:: So what's up with Polar? I've put it online on the computer controlled FTP, but I can't seem to change the file permissions for download. Hotline users can download the mod now. Web users can download the mod from the link below when it's active. The demo song is unfinished, but these other projects are a keeping me a little too busy so it will have to wait before becoming official. The soundset and graphics are complete. There might be some problems with the 303 knobs. If you happen to see this glitch, please drop me an e-mail.

Polar.RBM(5.3 Mb)

More TXT:: What a crazy Presidential election this year! the part I find most disturbing is the threat of litigation by the Democratic Party and vice-president Al Gore. If this succeeds he will have invented a new type of political maneuver: the "sue" d'etat - It's utter folly that almost makes me want to move to France! I hope there are no Floridians there. My personal views on this [deleted]

For the record, I voted for Ralph Nader.

TXT:: I've been busy with stuff...unfortunately, Polar has been delayed until I finish. I may put the unfinished version on the computer controlled ftp. It's probably no secret what I'm up to ;-) Yep you guess it...I'm playing with my new system!

While I've been fooling around with stuff, I ran across a cool little finder feature in the help center. The horizontal application switcher bar (like a task bar on windows). This isn't like one of those apps which gives you a taskbar simulation on MacOS. So feel free to download the script and use the app bar switcher. There's a compiled executable and the uncompiled applescript in the stuffit. Click on the image to download the archive:

TXT:: Got a new system...yep I sure did - even though OS X isn't coming installed on new G4s. I just picked up a nice warm fuzzy Power Mac G4/450 dual processor. I thought I was going to pick up a little cube for Mom, and trade her for her single 400, but while shopping I was talking to this guy who said that two that he has at work, actually cracked :-( It's some kind of strange design flaw. If you lay a cube down on it's side and jar it a little too hard, the acrylic layer will crack... So I said to myself...screw that idea.

I'm also a little peeved with Fry's Electronics. This is the first time they've given me such a difficult time when making a purchase with a check. Apparently my check for the new system was approved really quickly without a request for a password verification from a manager, and the sales people freaked. So the store manager relays a message through a sub sales department manager saying that they will "deliver" the computer in three days when the check clears. I replied. That's 5 days you mean, it's Thursday today. I was a little pissed since the manager could see the record of what I've purchased from them. If I wasn't so distracted by the attractive derriere on the Russian sales girl, I would have really been pissed.

Yes, I ended up paying for the system on my credit card and now, I'm a happy camper...except for reinstalling all the damn software.

Anyhoo - back to fishing...