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

NAMM 2001:: I'm getting ready to head down to Anaheim to meet up with the Phead crew, jesuspark, frizz and co. I guess this will be the year of REASON. After the much anticipated release of the propellerheads latest application, the curious will not be disappointed. I'm just looking foward to seeing everyone again. Tage has posted some images of the Propellerheads Booth at the Anaheim Convention Center on the Prop's site.

It's hard to beleive that a year has passed already since I was trying to piece together the MIDI file for the old Reason Demo, Archer. Unfortunately, the old "Realizer" file formats are not compatable with Reason. I _could_ start over from the original cubase song file and manually translate the song into Reason, but i'm just being lazy. hmm... My flights delayed by an hour. Maybe i'll start working on this now...

anyhoo...more stuff later, if and when I actually arrive there. :-)

REASON:: I've made my REASON ARCHIVE publicly accessable. This doesn't mean that there isn't a private page for subscribers--there still is and I will be updating that page shortly. I've posted up a new reason hardware configuration. It's a rudimentary multitap delay which uses a Mixer and 8 delay units . There's a second version of the multitap delay which uses 3 mixers and 8 delay units with tap feedback wired into the Delay Array. The latter SuperTap works much better. This File will be distributed in my next newsletter.

Recently it's been brought to my attention that Computer Music Magazine has yet again put some of my hard work on their CD-Rom distributed with their publication.I know the loopholes which allows Computer Music Magazine leverage...They downloaded the mods from the Official Propellerheads archives and my samples from analoguesamples.com, so I have no grounds for justified litigation. There is a deeper "ethical" issue here. I would like to see the articles they have written and would even purchase the back issues, but I can't even place an order. I don't know who's fault it is that the orders were not processed - but I do blame the publication in general for not trying.

Anyhoo...enough bitching...It's just that if anyone should be conscientious of intellectual property rights, it should be a publication like Computer Music, otherwise it paves the way for stealing intellectual property and profitting from people's generosity. Let's face it - the only reason they add those CD-roms with their Magazine is to increase sales, and obviously it works, because they've added (to my knowledge) my work in three different instances over the past 3 years. I'm just peeved that I can't even get copies of those issues :-)

Intellectual Property:: The rules of all the content are the same...Users are free to download, and use the Mods, Samples, and other Miscellaneous files for their own artistic pursuits. The Files are not allowed to be resold (especially on a Computer Music Magazine CD-Rom) as part of sample collections or song collections, etc. without my written permission. In most cases, I'm very willing to allow this without consideration other than being credited as the creator.

TXT:: MacWorld 2001 was quite interesting...All I can say is that new PowerBook G4 is stunning! It's rather difficult to look down upon my old wallstreet after gazing into the 15" panel of love on the G4. I met a lot of interesting people from all over the place. I'm not usually a chatty person, but the moon was in the right position or something and I had a lot of nice conversations. A lot of people stopped me to ask about the Nikon 990 - Even when I was standing right in the Nikon Booth trying out new lenses.
I spent a lot of time ogling at the Media 100 systems as well as Lightwave 3D and Maya for MacOS X. Late March is the release date--a day I dread since I'm not really certain how these audio applications will run on it. The new Wacom LCD tablets were simply brilliant. I was surprised how responsive the stylus is. I told the rep that I'm not really into graphics, but the interface seems so much more intuitive than using a mouse - especially with all those cables and knobs in reason...This could revolutionize user interfaces in general.
Reason:: was a MacWorld Expo! Guitar Center had a retail booth and representatives from Steinberg and other companies displaying their MacOS compatible products. I was wandering past the Titanium PowerBook display and hear a familiar sound in the background. I said to myself "Damn, that sounds familiar!" I walked around a little bit more and saw a desktop and powerbook running Reason with Eyes Inside (the demo version) playing.
I had that 10Meg unfinished version of Eyes Inside on my PowerBook back at my hotel room and tried to figure out a way to transfer it to the Steinberg rep's system. I grabbed a spare 32Meg SmartMedia Card (Digital Film) from my camera stuff and popped it into my Wallstreet and transferred the file to the card. The Next morning, I went over to the convention center and popped the Card (with PCMCIA adapter) into the Steinberg Pismo and transferred it over. That Nuendo interface he had it connected to is great. I just wish they had better (louder) speakers.
Weather:: San Francisco was miserable-- a huge storm hit California this past week (although today is quite sunny as usual) A friend of mine met up with me around lunchtime, and she told me that the embarcadero was flooding. So I hopped in my car and took a little drive down to the waterfront and caught some spectacular images of the waves crashing over the wall into the boulevard. This was a pretty amazing sight to see. Almost as amazing as the new PowerBooks :-)		I wasn't the only crazy person down on the embarcadero. Quite a few spectators came out to catch Mother Nature's Show.
I met up with John Paul (Maus from the Propellerheads software message board--fellow reason user) after he saw the images I was posting from the show. He was there with Bitheadz Software (Unity DS-1, Retro AS-1, etc.) Ironically I was there talking to another person about Phrazer and had just picked up a copy of it. Finally ACID for MacOS! I was really impressed with Maus' skills - he is a really talented keyboard player. He was there jamming on his Peavey controller with a PowerBook running Bitheadz Black and Whites ... The sound was quite impressive, but his talent was even more so. I have yet to install it on my home audio system, but I can't wait to see how well it works at reading SF ACID files that I've been assembling on my friend's windows set up.		John Paul, Mike, and Andre & Ringo :-)
Music:: My jazz buddy and I went over to Yoshi's in Oakland one night. Neither of us had been to the new location at Jack London Square since the venue moved from Rockridge. I had suggested facing the weather, since the performance seemed rather intriguing. We saw the Remembering Wes Montgomery Quintet. The group featured Featured Melvin Rhyne on Hammond B3 Organ and "Killer" Ray Appleton on Drums. These gentlemen performed with the late great Wes Montgomery and are carrying on the tradition. The band also features alto saxophonist/woodwind player Vincent Herring who is local, guitarist Peter Bernstein from New York, and percussionist Duma Safir (I can't remember where he hails from, but it was amazing to hear him perform on the congas). There's nothing quite like the sound of a Hammond B3 with 122 Leslie playing the blues. The show was intimate with plenty of anecdotes about Wes Montgomery and showcased some of the members original work along with classic works. This was serious jazz - not that "jazz lite" or pseudo "jazz" stuff that I make on occasion. I've mentioned this before--i'm not a jazzhead, I'm quite ignorant about the genre, but I love watching and hearing these legends perform.
Ti:: So the burning question....Which version to get? The 400 MHz PowerBook G4 for $2,599 or the 500 MHz PowerBook G4 for $3,499. The 400 MHz machine comes with 128 megs of RAM which is okay if you use Virtual Memory, but since you shouldn't use VM with audio applications, upgrading the ram to at least 256Mb. This option is about $300 more bringing the total to $2,899. Now if you plan to do 24bit 96kHz audio recording - you're going to need more than 10 gigs of HD space. At least 20 Gigs and partition it. Upgrading the 10 Gig drive to 20 Gigs is another $200 which now brings the total to $3,099. So for another 400 bucks... why not just get the standard 500 MHz Machine which comes with 256Megs of RAM standard with a 20 Gig drive?
My old (but very reliable) Wallstreet is 3 generations old -- in hi tech chronology that's the equivalent to Precambrian Era in Earth's Geological History. Well, like a jack ass I took the plunge. I know I should wait until the price drops or until they ship these units with OSX installed, but the glowing (now rightside up) apple logo hypnotized me into placing my order :-) It was quite cool since I just used my apple store account and placed my order at the show via AirPort. They don't ship until February ~~~FRACK! I'm sooooo glad that I didn't pick up a PISMO 500 MHz G3 when they were released last year!
Subscription:: I received the Diamond Rio Package yesterday. I'm a little bummed that it's not the full retail version like I had promised on the subscription page, but hey - it's all there. Woops...i justed checked the box and there's no documentation or CD Rom for the drivers and software. This is all downloadable from Riohome Support. It's just shabby when they don't come through the way they promise. I will leave the contents in the original Fed Ex Shipping box that Diamond sent to me. I'm really quite surprised how well this subscription campaign is going. I appreciate everyone's interest -- not that I haven't been teasing and taunting with subtractor patches, reason song files, and the MP3 player. Still, I'm really quite grateful at all the support from everyone out there in cyberspace. I had initially anticipated that the drawing would occur in Early March, but if the current rate of playback royalties continues, The drawing will occur within a week or so.

TXT:: 2001 is getting off to a slow start. I've been busy with a bunch of crap (literally and figuratively) One nice thing about technology though. What used to take me a full day of work to do on a 386 now only takes me 45 minutes on a G4 - after I finish that scripting, next year it should only take 5 minutes.

I've been working on a revised version of Eyes Inside. It's finally coming out a way that I like. The Reason song file is already 10 Megs and it barely plays on the G3/300. It's peaking out the CPU usage meter on the MP G4, and I'm still not finished. One odd thing I've noticed with reason is that age old problem of having _too_ many options. It's very easy to go off on tangents and explore different possibilities.

Typically, a track takes me about 30 days of work or 72 intense hours. The former can translate into several months of going over a track; adding and subtracting elements; rearranging; remixing; changing sounds or keys. It's more or less composition by trial and error. A lot of these projects get scrapped because they just don't work for me. Eyes Inside could easily become one of these tracks, but I'm going to push it through - I will get it eventually. Paradigm shift took me about 3 months, but Axis Mundi took a few hours. It comes and it goes....

I envy these guys who can come up with stuff in a matter of hours, but then again, what I'm doing doesn't involve a lot of cut and paste. I've been going in an editing the midi data directly in the somewhat limited sequencer and toiling with that velocity lane bug that wasn't fixed in the release version of Reason 1.0. The other day, i rendered about 14 different audio tracks from the reason file and imported them into Pro Tools. I then proceeded to do some "kung fu" to the drums and stuff. I realize now that i need two machines: One for recording and One for Dr.REXs. Maybe I'll give this a shot and slave reason to the Pro Tools 5 MIDI clock and see what happens.

Tomorrow I go to MacWorld to see those new Titanium PowerBook G4 - mmm they look tasty. Maybe it's time to retire my old Wallstreet. to quote Mr. o.i.n.k. - "Apple has a way of making you feel inadequate"

TXT:: My Uncle, Shirabu, in Japan is the coolest...He keeps an eye out for cool obscure music for me. The latest find is a new release from Isao Tomita--yeah the same composer who performed the electronic Also Sprach Zarathustra and the Star Wars Theme from the Casio Pyramid suspended in the air. This new CD is a suite of pieces based on the Lady Murasaki Novel, "The Tales of Genji". There's nothing electronic or new age about it. It's a full orchestra production with native japanese instruments. The production is quite brilliant as well with some fantastic ambient/anechoic effects to set the mood. I'm sure this will get released internationally soon. You can tell that this CD was recorded with a Western Sense of Audio Aesthetics - no offense to Japanese Productions but Occidental Reverbs just sound better IMHO. I think it has something do to with being in an environment with small structures and no massive cathedrals or hard surface chambers like in Europe.

Here's a cool Isao Tomita related site with a bunch of images: http://listen.to/tomita

REASON:: I've updated my budding Reason archive with the file list on a new page: [link deleted] Again, only list subscribers have exclusive access to these files! Included on this page is an archive of about 90 subtractor patches (usable with the demo version) which I 've been tweaking around with for the last month. I also posted another Reason Song which I can't seem to finish. There are some moments in there which someone may find useful - so feel free to copy n paste and hack 'n jack, etc.

What? You don't know what the URL is? Maybe the next time I send out an e-mail notice, you'll be prepared by subscribing to the site news :)

TXT:: I hope everyone had a happy millennium eve. I had a great night out at Mecca in San Francisco. The highlight was definitely the music. Kim Nalley and the Johnny Nocturne Band, a local Blues and Jazz act, put on a really splendid performance (even got my tired old butt up and dancing).

This site is usually about electronic music, but one can't live on distorted sawtooth waves and filter sweeps alone. Sometimes it's nice to see people who can "really" play ;-) On the downside - my chair had candlewax on it, and It smeared all over my trousers and the back of my jacket. I had a great time nonetheless!

TXT:: Well My Reason Song Archive is starting up. I'll Probably be putting a few unfinished files up on there. Perhaps someone else can find them useful and finish them up or use them for inspiration for their own tracks. These will be reason song files (RNS)--not published song files (RPS)!

For those people who subscribed and received the e-mail without the URL, I apologize. I sent a second e-mail sent which contains the URL for the archive page. Please don't distribute the Files or the URL, but do let me know if you do something cool with the files :-) I will probably change the URL periodically, and will keep people informed.

I need to get Em to modify the e-mail script so that your addresses aren't listed in the header -- if this is even possible.

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UPDATE:: That little e-mail situation has been fixed. Thanks for your patience while we get the bugs worked out. To see more of Em's Handiwork, visit illequipped.com - the site that's really nothing about nothing. He's developing a little web community thingy where people can set up personal pages and upload files and stuff.

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!