ReFill:: I was going to release the Theremin refill, but I decided to update the files and add some new samples to the archive. The new samples feature a modified Moog Etherwave processed through a variety of effects. The theremin output is processed through a couple of LP filters, and a ring modulator. An Envelope Follower CV controls the cutoff frequency of a sherman filterbank, while a step sequencer is used to modulate the cutoff frequency of a MF 103 Lowpass. The step sequencer adds a rhythmic element that makes it easy to chop up with ReCycle. In addition to the original sample set, the final fill will have another 25 samples and RX2 files.

I've finally posted up the logic 6.3.x update for the rewire setup. It's pretty bare, and my logic environment programming skills are somewhat rusty, but it demonstrates sequencing in Logic and routing MIDI to Reason.

I'm watching the Britney Spears Concert live broadcast... Why God Why? Man she really can't sing, and the lip-syncing is pretty bad too. For those who have not heard of Antares Auto-tune, if you hear a voice with a synthetic sheen (like Britney's), the track is being processed with Auto-Tune! I'm surprised the engineers are not using the AutoTune hardware on her live vocals, because it's so painful to watch her sing so off tune--yes even in her lingerie. The massive video display system is pretty cool though. The PDs get high marks for use of display element technology. > time to flip the station....

If you surf over to the Antares site and start looking at some of their plug ins, you should know that they have some products that seem very similar to the GUI and processing concepts from Ohm Force.

TXT:: Everything is back up and running... That was a relatively painless hard drive crash, it just takes forever to reinstall everything. Now i know better and have an emergency restore image saved.

TXT:: Oy! Massive Hard Drive Crash.... I lost my Panther boot parition on my tower system. It's only been running about 3 months and yesterday when I started up the system, I experienced some kind of Kernal Panic. Forutnately I have redunandant Systems on several drives, so the system managed to boot up in Jaguar. Disk First Aid was useless... the cataloging data was crunched.

Fortunately, most of my irreplacable data had been backed up or on separate drives and were unaffected by the crash. All of the website data is on my Panther drive so it was unaffected. I did have about 600 megs of stuff on my desktop which seemed lost, including some new logo illustrator files, a UC-33e freehand file that took me a few days to create, and the data of a new refill. There were about 3 Reason song projects too. The data on the drive is toast and will probably require a reformat/reinstall. Fortunately most of the crucial data been recovered thanks to Virtual Lab from BinaryBiz.com! What a lifesaver! Since I have 3 hard drives on my system, I installed Virtual Lab on the Jaguar partition, and managed to locate the crucial data on my dead Panther Drive and save it over to the SCSI drive. Unfortunately Virtual Lab didn't quite fix the drive, but at least i saved the 2 gigs of important stuff (which i should have backed up anyway).

I have a new project for the week.. Reinstalling software... sheesh.

The Ornette Coleman Quartet was fantastic! But the sound sucked at the masonic auditorium. The quartet consists of two bass players, a drummer, and Mr. Coleman on Sax/Trumpet/Violin. The mic on the Sax was way too loud and really overshadowed what the bass players were doing. With music like Ornette Coleman, the compositional complexity is as important has hearing his virtuosity. One Bassist was playing fingered lines while the other was bowing, and they would hit these fascinating harmonics with overtone harmonies. Or as most people would hear it .. some really crazy stuff that sounds more like noise than music.

I went with Joe, and his friend Thoren, who is has a Hip-Hop label that features underground artists in the SF Bay Area. Thoren's project is fascinating, and he played some of the stuff that will be released on Paraphan Records, first CD - A compilation/epic CD that features tracks from the diverse lineup of artists. I was really impressed by the production, and how the underground hip hop production and rhymes have a lot more depth than what i've typically heard on TV or Radio. The CD will be released in May, but since this is a startup label, I'm not sure how it will be distributed. I think he'll either have copies available directly or through CDBaby.com

TXT:: Thursday Night i went out to see The Supplicants, a local SF jazz group. How I got to this show is a interesting story. I met the drummer, Sameer, when I visited the new Apple Store in SF. He was pretty cool and told me about the group and some upcoming gigs. I was talking to my friend, Joe, who told me that he did a few gigs with Sameer, and that he's probably one of the top 3 drummers in all of SF. So we decided to meet up and check out the show. I can't say that it's for everyone, since it's not your typical lounge act type of music. The Supplicants are really deep, and

they dive into some really interesting textural hypnotic grooves. What Joe said was absolutely true, Sameer really is one of the finest drummers i've ever seen. Oh yeah, he uses Reason, too. During the second set, Joshua Roseman joined in the session on trombone, which was a real treat. They were playing at the beat lounge in North Beach, and it was a really intimate crowd of not more than 20 people. So this really was a special show.

Anyhoo, there's more festival stuff going on tonight, and I'm excited to see Ornette Coleman.

MP4:: I haven't really worked on a track for a long time. The book has occupied all of my time in the last year. Anyhoo, my friend, Jeff Hudson, is taking a film class and his project required some original noise. The subject of his film, "Crazed," deals with a jealous stalking murderer who slays his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, so the tune has an aggressive tone created ala scream 4. The main parts were developed using Reason and the factory soundbank/orkester drums. I used the spectrasonics Symphony of Voices library; some samples from the Loopmasters Jazz/World library. Everything was rendered to audio tracks in Pro Tools LE where i mixed and tweaked the sounds a bit more. The heavy lead is a bit unruly. I tried to squeeze it into the mix, but it get's a little wild at times.

Originally the track is about 18 minutes long with slow mood buildups and climaxes, but i edited it down to a 6 minute version. The short edit of "Crazed" is encoded in MP4 and require Quicktime 6/iTunes 4, and an MP3 version can be streamed from the following link:

Crazed.pls

Power Tools for Reason 2.5:: I recently heard that Future Music reviewed the book and gave it with a 6/10 score. I still haven't seen the review, but I'm really curious to see what was said. It's a bit difficult to find FM around here in California. I know there are a few places that carry it, but I just can't remember which stores. Computer Music, also put a nice reference to the book on page 47 of the March 2004 issue. It's not a review, but they used the tip on dual mono cabling and reference this site. That was cool of them.

Power Tools for Reason 2.5:: I've been getting some inquiries from Europe about Power Tools for Reason 2.5, and I really don't know if it will be stocked in stores that don't normally carry books in English. Online orders are probably the best way to obtain a copy. If you really really really want a copy and can't find a way to get it, I can work out some kind of arrangement to get a copy dispatched to you.

If you're planning to go to Frankfurt Musikmesse (March 31 through April 3, 2004), the book will be on display at the Backbeat UK/Guitar XS booth. Halle 4, Stand J80. You can speak with Nigel or Tina.

Evolution:: So, I've picked up an Evolution UC-33e MIDI controller. I know there are tons of controllers out there, but having a lot of controls seems to be an important feature, especially with Reason. The Enigma programming software really makes it easy to set up control parameters. I've been having quite a bit of fun with the UC-33, and I'm going to post up a few enigma files and example Reasn song files. Perhaps even a few tutorials.

TXT:: I recently heard that my friend, Sascha, submitted a track selected as the best remix in the BPM/BT Remix contest of BT's song "Communicate". Congratulations to Sascha and Shane a.k.a. Toksin. Naturally, I wouldn't be mentioning this unless they used Reason as part of their production arsenal :-) The track is online at their website.

REX:: The props have released the new REX shared Library for Reason users who do not own ReCycle 2.1. This new library will be necessary to use any RX2 loops created with 2.1 and ReFills like the Circuit Bent REX fill. If you have installed ReCycle 2.1 or the ReCycle 2.1 demo version, you will not require this update. Others should visit the Propellerhead Software Website, download and install the updater.

Power Tools for Reason 2.5:: If you live in San Juan/Hollister area, you can check out the book at the local libraries. I've donated copies in both the San Juan Bautista Public Library, and the San Benito County Public Free Library (computer section). Also, a copy is going to be placed in the University of California Santa Cruz Library, and also at my alma mater, Columbia University.

I've also just heard that the book will be reviewed in XLR8R Magazine. I'm still a bit shocked by this news since XLR8R usually doesn't review technical books. From what i've heard, they are expanding into the production aspect of electronic music with gear and software information. The review appears in the April issue of XLR8R, so it should be available soon.

There might also be a review in the upcoming issue of TapeOp. I haven't confirmed this yet.

Naturally, I'm a bit worried about the publicity. Good publicity is great for the publisher and my teeny-weenie royalty check, but I'm just waiting for someone to hammer the book with a negative review. Backbeat books is under the same mother company as Keyboard Magazine, so they have a half page ad placed in the april issue for both my title, and Jim Aikin's title, Power Tools for Synthesizer Programming.

For those who never read the messageboard, you have to check out this link to Robert Cory's site. There's a unbeleivably cute picture of his daughter reading Power Tools for Reason 2.5. Mozart started at a young age, but one can only imagine what little Kiara will be capable of in the future!

GarageBand:: I dropped by the new Apple Store in San Francisco, yesterday, and discovered that the latest update to GarageBand now supports ReWire and Reason. I personally haven't tried it, but the word is that it syncs up. This is probably worth a try if you are currently using GB and Reason. There more information about the GarageBand 1.0.1 update on Version Tracker.

ReFills:: The Circuit Bent REX Refill is done, but I'm having a bit of trouble because the files were created with the beta version of ReCycle 2.1. I'm going to have to check this problem out before it gets released. I think it has something to do with the updated REX Shared Library. Users who have the old 1.2.1 REX Shared Lib will encounter an error saying "File too New". I think the easiest work around is to simply install either ReCycle 2.1 or even the demo version of ReCycle 2.1. This updates the REX Shared Lib to the current version and the REX loops should play in Reason or Cubase, or Logic without a problem.

In the meantime, I was working a little side project and tweaked out the patches for the Rhodes ReFill. The new patches are far more expressive and they play more like the real instrument. These are now availalbe for download on the Reason page.

TXT:: Well, everything went pretty smoothly for the Day of Remembrance presentation. The engineers at the Salinas Community center had set up the large screen which worked really well for the video. Even though I had set everything up for stereo, the house PA was mono, so i only had to run one cable to the amp. Even though i hate doing live gigs, this one turned out to be pretty easy. It was a nice turn out with about 130 people coming to attend the observance. Even though the documentary aired on PBS about a year ago, many people had not seen or even heard of the film. People really enjoyed "Words, Weavings & Songs" because it carries an optimistic message with a the right balance of history and levity. One benefit of these gatherings is that everyone brings a lot of tasty treats, and I had a pretty good sugar buzz going while dismantling the rig. I'm just glad it's over. I wont have to worry about doing this for another five years! Actually i might have to set up a remote PA in a couple of weeks, but now i have all the cables made, so this will be a piece of cake.

Samples:: I've changed the samples page. I thought about posting up the sample archive downloads for people who use other applications, but the server is getting a lot of traffic from the ReFill downloads alone. I'm now planning on posting sample library reviews instead. The latest review is from the Loopmasters Jazz/World and Lounge/Chillout libraries. Matt Pelling from Loopmasters has given me the ok to post up RPS files that include loops from these libraries.

ReFills:: The Stradivarius violin ReFill is now online. Weighing in at 24Mb, this is a fairly big download for modem users (yes, i'm still on a modem). This refill is also included on the Power Tools for Reason CD-rom, so if you have the book, then you already have the ReFill.

I've also archived some old Moog Etherwave Theremin Samples and packed them into a ReFill. This is a small file and will go online in the near future.

I managed to finished up the REX loops for the Chachi Jones Circuit Bent refill, today. I'm not sure how useful these will be, but they do make interesting textures. There are several different sets of samples processed through some hardware effects and some processed in Max/MSP. I tracked a set through a moogerfooger ring modulator, and processed the alphabet through it. I turned these into a velocity switching NNXT patch for some cool spelling effects.

I dug up an old Digitech PDS 1000 digital delay pedal that sounds really lo-fi. I think i've had this thing for over 20 years, and it sounds like hell -- and that's good :-). It was a little difficult to tweak all the knobs simultaneously while triggering the speak and math, but there are some cool samples.

I ran into one major snag. The final refill turned out to be about 64 megabytes. I know it's not that big if you have broadband access, but i'm going to split up the files into several refills. One will be exclusive REX2 files and the other will be the straight samples. This should even things out a bit.

The loops are a bit tricky to use since they don't exactly synchronize to standard beats. They have their own interesting grooves, and with a bit of experimentation with pitch and envelopes, you can create really unique textures.

TXT:: I've been busy the past week getting an A/V presentation setup ready for a gig. I'm not fond of doing any remote location stuff because PA systems and rooms usually sound terrible, power is usually unreliable, and to get the sound I want would require that I take a bunch of extra equipment--compressors, eqs, etc. At first i considered just hiring an A/V company to handle the video and sound for this video presentation, but someone is loaning a LCD projector, and the location has an old PA system, so i'm going to try to make this work on my own.

It's been ages since i've done an installation, so my soldering skills are a little bit rusty. After about 4 hours i managed to finish up all the cables to hook up a little mackie 1202 to the house system. I should have taken less time, but i had to harvest old connectors and desolder them, then resolder them. Fortunately i had about 60 meters of old canare cable laying around, so this has been a low cost project. The 1202 will mix signals from the PA mics, a Video Deck, and my iPod. I set up a nice little playlist of jazz tracks to add some ambient music. Did i mention that I hate doing live gigs?

I'm not sure how i got stuck with this, but i've been appointed vice-president of the local chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. Last year they told me that I was supposed to secure a guest lecturer for the annual "Day of Remembrance" observances that are held at the Salinas community Center. Rather than have the same people regurgitate the same old story, I suggested that we show a documentary film or video. Since it was my great idea, I have the responsibility of making cables and playing A/V geek. The "Day of Remembrance" is a memorial to honor the people who were placed in American Concentration Camps during World War II--uh yes, this is a little footnote in history that usually isn't taught in schools outside of the USA, but there were concentration camps out in the deserts here where citizens as well as immigrants of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated during the term of the war. Ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and supported by the mass of Americans outraged by the attack on Pearl Harbor, people like my father and his siblings, my grandparents, and my great-grandparents, were sent out and detained in these camps.

The chapter president, Tony Boch, has a son, Akira who is is a cinematographer and editor, for the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. Akira (or as we call him, Ton Ton) is involved with several documentaries about this period in history. So it made perfect sense to show one of these films. He provided us with several documentaries from the museum archives, while the press releases indicate that we're showing two, i think we may only present one titled "Words, Weavings & Songs" directed by John Esaki.

Besides being AV Geek, I've been busy getting all the refreshments and doing layout, cover photography and printing up programs for this event. I suppose i could delegate out some of the work to the other members, but i'm probably the only tech saavy person in the small community of members. It would a bit difficult to ask some of the nice old ladies to learn how to use illustrator to make up a event program, or dig through my spare parts trunk to find me some Neutrik gold contact female XLR connectors ;)


Server:: Anyhoo, if you're reading this, then the server is back online. Sorry about the interruption of service, but the box was relocated to a new hosting location. The new location has more bandwidth, so those transfers should still be quick. The box has been hit with an average of 2 gigs a day. I thought this would die down after a month of being online, but it just seems to increase. If things get out of hand (like 2 gigs a day isn't already), i may have to limit file availability or have the admins choke down the throughput.

TXT:: The server box will be moving to a new location tomorrow, and service to this site and my email will be offline. Things should be back online by Monday.

TXT:: Rasteroids Design (my cousins, Tamiko and Miles-nepotism in action) helped me develop the Power Tools for Reason CD-ROM. The CD-ROM info file are webpages that contain the credits and information about the people who made demo songs and contributed to the samples. Not intended for Web publishing, the info pages are graphics heavy and can be viewed at the following address:

http://www.rasteroids.com/projects/dookie4/

Miles created a set folder icons for the different operating systems, however the icons do not appear on Windows partition. The main CD icon appears, but the folder icons are missing. I think we forgot to include the .ico files during the master burn. The MacOS 9 and MacOS X paritions work fine, but i forgot that windows handles icons differently. Because of the error, icons for all operating systems are available for download. They have also created desktop images based on the info files.

Power Tools for Reason CD-ROM Icons

TXT:: I've aquired a couple of new toys, the Chachi Jones Circuit Bent Speak & Spell and Speak & Math. I never had either of these devices when I was a kid, but I would visit my friends and spend hours playing with theirs. Chachi, (who turns out to be a fellow ReBirther!) has taken these antique electronic devices and modified the circuits by adding pitch bend, looping, and glitch shifting features. You can run the devices as normal, then tweak out the speech signal. When looped, the speech synthesis circuitry creates some wonderfully bizarre tones and glitch patterns.

It's virtually impossible to reproduce a loop tone, so I've been tracking the sounds to and marking some cool parts. I guess it's a bit like regressing into a second childhood, but I find myself spending hours playing with these toys. Chachi responded to my email and has given the OK to produce a free refill featuring samples from the Speak & Spell and Speak & Math. It takes some time to come up with loops that are easy to process with ReCycle, so i might just make an archive with straight samples with loop markers.

I procured these unique devices at Robotspeak, a music store in the Lower Haight district of San Francisco. This is great store that caters specifically to the electronic musician. I took the entire Bitplant crew over last week, and Sandra ended up walking out with a new iPod.

da Book:: After having the chance to recover from NAMM, I've finally had the opportunity to go through and pick apart the book. My main gripe is that I did not have the opportunity to proof the cover or the copy on the cover, and there are a couple of phrases that should be changed. First of all, the phrase "Foreword by Alex Swift of Massive Attack" is somewhat misleading since Alex has indicated that he does programming for Massive Attack and is not a group member. Under the text of the foreword (which i did proofread) it properly reads "Alex Swift's programming credits include Massive Attack's 100th Window and Peter Gabriel's UP" .

So I hope 3D, Daddy G, Mushroom, and Neil will not be offended by this error. It wasn't Alex's fault, and if anything, it was my responsibility to make sure something like this didn't happen.

On the back cover, there are two really embarrassing errors. First it states that I am "a software developer for Propellerheads." which sounds like I'm employed by the propellerheads and actually do programming of Reason. Nothing could be further from the truth unless you consider making quicktime video tutorials "software development." The other part states that i'm a "Reason Expert" which is an exaggeration. The real experts are the developers like Pelle and Marcus since they know the intricacies of how Reason works from the inside out. I would consider myself an "avid user of Reason". This is really terrible, and I hope the propellerheads wont be offended by these mistakes.

I'm still disappointed with the cover art. It's better than the original concept, but it could be improved even further. The one saving grace is that they used one of my original photos for the artwork, but it's covered up by the text blocks. Months ago, Hami and I considered making up book jackets that would present a proper cover for this book, and now that idea seems like a necessity rather than an option.

So what have i learned from this experience? Make sure to have full creative control and the last word when it comes to cover design. I don't mean to sound ingrateful. This entire experience has been a new adventure, and I've made quite a few mistakes along the way. I'm really quite critical of my own work. This is probably derived from a highly evolved self-doubt neuroses, and I know I'm not alone when it comes to this character trait. I guess that's the only way to improve.