Melodic Memoirs

New Rig

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:14:54 GMT

It's been a while since I've posted anything. I've been undergoing some major changes to my studio, including a computer upgrade.

I'm running an asus m2n-sli deluxe board with a
AMD Phenom 9600 (2.3GHz). 3070MB RAM and about 340 gigs of hard disk space. Sound card is M-Audio Delta AP192 1/2.

I'll need to see your ID.

Sat, 10 May 2008 19:20:36 GMT

I've been completely sober for the last 3 months. I don't usually think about it, but sometimes after a really stressful day at work, I get the desire to drink something again.

I don't really feel I was ever an alcoholic, but that's another story. The point is that I promised somebody very close to me that I would never drink again. Since then, I haven't.

Last night was one of those really stressful nights. So as I go through the checkout line with my O'Doul's (Non-Alcoholic beer), I notice that I must have left my ID at home.

She wouldn't sell me the non-alcoholic beer. I understand she was just doing her job. But I am clearly over 21 and the beer has less alcohol in it than a number of medicines and mouthwashes that I keep in my bathroom cupboard.

Fine, whatever.

Quick Update

Fri, 09 May 2008 17:29:15 GMT

I haven't been around in a while, as my band and work have consumed most of my free time as of late. However, my goal for this month is to complete the next installment of Home Grown Music.

I'm working tons of overtime at work so that I can save up money for our cruise ship wedding. Luckily, my job allows me to pretty much work as many hours as I'd like (but also as many as I wouldn't like).

I have many ideas for projects I'd like to work on programming-wise, but they all require me to learn a bit more about scripting languages and neural networks. I've half-finished a pascal interpreter, but I really need to revisit that before I start my project.

MUD-Dev hasn't seen much light, so perhaps I'll write up an article for that guild as well.

I have my hands in too many projects :-(.

Sucky Day

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:53:33 GMT

Man, today was crap. I woke up and went to take the dog out, and found that she decided her sleeping place was the best place to go potty, AGAIN! I take her out plenty. I try not to let her out of her crate until she goes outside, otherwise she'll just go somewhere in my house. Frustrating.

Then, on my way to Kalamazoo, my car died a couple times. I just put a new cold air intake on it, and I think there is a leak before the air-flow sensor. They didn't supply me with the right straight hose to connect the air intake, so I'm sure that's the problem. I'll have to order one tonight.

Then, before I headed into work, I couldn't find my keys! I still can't find them. So I just said, "Screw it. I've worked at least 8 hours for 15 days in a row, I'll just take the night off."

The good news is that, for once, I can afford to take a night off, so it's not too bad. I have one more sick day I can use and a couple vacation days.

And now I have time to play with the new toys I got, and the reason why I drove to Kalamazoo! I bought two new condenser mics today: MXL 990 and 991. I also got a shock mount and pop filter for it. My vocal track recording should improve immensely.

My next buys will be an M-Audio 1010 and a Behringer MX9000 Eurodesk hopefully. Then I will be able to record pretty much everything, including drums. Time to save up some more money. Did I mention I need a new guitar amp?

Video: Symphony X - Sea of Lies

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:41:41 GMT

Herman Li, a witch?

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:23:17 GMT

http://vids.myspace.com/ index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30044934

Scrobble THIS!

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:34:51 GMT

If you look at the left panel on my site, you'll notice that there's a new block on my page. It will automatically update to show you what songs I've listened to recently, not that you care. But if you did, you would know that I am listening to Liquid Tension Experiment right now.

Anyway, if you want something like this on your page, then head on over to Last.fm and start an account! There's even a group for BYONDers.

Cheap Royalty-Free Music

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:55:45 GMT

As many of you know, I am a freelance musician who barely does any freelance work. Below you will find a list of songs I have attempted in my home studio.

Synth:
Synth1.mp3
Synth2.mp3

Orchestrations:
Orch1.mp3
Orch2.mp3 (Experimental Rhythms)
Orch3.mp3

Rock/Metal:
Rock1.mp3
Rock2.mp3

I also have some real music. Ignore my crappy vocals.

So here are my prices.
Midi: $2 dollars per minute.
Mod: $4 dollars per minute.
MP3: $8 dollars per minute.

To Your Scattered Bodies Go

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:38:16 GMT

"First in his bestselling world-famous Riverworld novels"

I really enjoyed this read. Ever since seeing the the premier of Riverworld on SciFi, I've been wanting to read this book.

Where the story-telling is lacking, the concept more than compensates. The entire human species gets resurrected on a planet after Earth is destroyed. The planet consists of a 10 million mile river. On each side of the river is an impassible mountain range.

The story mixes historical figures in much the same way that Time's Eye (another great scifi novel) does.

The main character, Richard Burton, explores the river, hoping that its end will reveal the reason to their resurrection.

BORING = watch_blairwitch() < watch_godzilla() < watch_cloverfield()

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:41:08 GMT

var/const/BORING = 0
me
    var/sick_level = 0
    var/hunger = 5
    var/entertained = 1
    proc/watch_cloverfield()
        while(movie_isnt_over())
            entertained++
            if(hunger) EatPopcorn()
            else
                if(sick_level>0) sick_level --
        return entertained - sick_level - hunger
    proc/watch_blairwitch()
        return BORING
    proc/watch_godzilla()
        return BORING+1
    proc/EatPopcorn()
        hunger --
        sick_level ++


/*  BORING = watch_blairwitch() < watch_godzilla() < watch_cloverfield() */

After I got over feeling sick to my stomach (which was either caused by the shaking camera or the absurd amount of popcorn I consumed, or both), I liked it.

It is virtually nothing like The Blair Witch Project other than the camera point-of-view. It was like Godzilla in that there was a monster attacking the city. The monster didn't look anything like Godzilla, though.