Friday, March 30, 2007

Yearning Cries

How long have I kept you here
How long will I keep you here
You cry
You creep out of me when I hear you
You crawl out of me when I hear you
Shivers, cold shivers you give me
How long must I wait

You were there, I knew you were
Whenever I hear you, I stop
I simply stop
Whenever it talks about the omnipotent one
I shiver

How magnificent you are

How many have you healed
How many have you killed
How many find comfort in you
How many find angst in you

How many have used you for power, fame, fortune
Many take pride of you
Many study and become obsessed about you
You fill out the emptiness in souls - so they thought

You - for good and evil
You oh great music
Such power you hold, such power so old
When will I have time for you

For you, the creator and greatest author of music
Please accept this
Its simple. Just me. Just me and what you gave me.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Ebox pictures

Apologies for not posting this. I've had this setup for almost a month now I think. I use a USB keyboard. No. Not the qwerty one.


I meant this. Due to bandwidth issues, I would like to post a link to the whole flickr set instead of posting them here. The set also include the first assembly pictures I posted. The picture of the left is the Behringer UMX-61. Obviously, it's a 61-key MIDI controller. 8 knobs. 8 buttons. 1 volumer slider. 1 pitch bender whell. 1 modulation wheel. 2 octave button switches.


What's really nice about the keyboard is that it is small and light enough to carry round. I don't have a case yet but I am hoping to have one soon. Yup, it's a USB keyboard.


This is the keyboard I've used for the song "Rock of my Salvation" that my sister sang. We will be re-recording the song soon due to some noise and lyrics issue. Whoops.


Friday, March 16, 2007

Commodore lives again

The Commodore 64 was my first exposure to the digital world. It is a world of its own when I think about it now. It is what introduced me and my dear brother to computers. It was plugged into a 21" colored TV. Eventually, we also owned a Commodoe 128 which also had a "Commodore 64 mode". Me and my brother would do sprite animations just for the sake of it without the ability of saving them since the disk drive (which is a huge 5.25" diskette drive bay that looks like a large HDD enclosure now) is broken.


We lived in Bulacan back then and my father brought this from Saudi when he used to work there. I don't really remember how we learned to use the thing, but we were probably taught how to type in its commands in order for us to load games. We had a huge library of games then in diskettes. 5.25" diskettes in different colors. I always played "Beach Head" and "Bruce Lee" with my brother then. I also remember some Olympic-game-themed title but can't remember it's name now. "Pitfall" and "Pitfall 2" was another favorite. Then there's "Impossible Mission". I do remember trying a C64 emulator years ago and did have it working.

Anyway, I just saw in tipidpc that this beast is back...only this time, it's a branded gaming pc. It is now running under the name CommodoreGaming. They have 4 setups to fufill your gaming hunger: Commodore G, Commodore GS, Commodore GX, and the ultimate Commodore XX. Curious as I was, typing in "Commodore" in google brings about another site named CommodoreWorld. They have 2 products available right now, Commodore Gravel and the C200. There isn't much product specs on the site, but a PDF specification sheet is available. Check it out here. I don't think their products are available at the present right now.


Going back, CommodoreGaming does offer midrange to high-end gaming rigs. What's notable is that even their lowest (but still fast looking at the specs!) model is equipped with 2Gb's of RAM. There is no comparison table available on the site, but I've listed them down here anyway for convenience:


There is no price yet on the website but the specifications are indeed intended for those who have an apetite for serious gaming. I have hopes that the price is reasonable enough in order for good ol' Commodore to be a name once again in the computer market.


Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Cakewalk Sonar 6.0

Cakewalk Sonar 6.0 Producer Edition

I have been using Cakewalk since it's pre-sonar days. I think I've started with Cakewalk 3 or 4 back then. I had a Roland MP401 Midi ISA card connected to my Celeron 300A back then. The card is with me though. Never thought it would be around here in the Philippines until I saw it in good old Perfect Pitch. That was around 1998 though.


Anyway, I was playing around with Sonar 6.0 and did a recording with my sister singing. I had 3 tracks loaded up, Native Instruments' Akoustik Piano (yup, that's a "K") taking up 2 of them (1 MIDI and 1 Audio for VST), and my sister's vocal track. This wasn't at all planned since I was playing alone when my sister came in singing "A strange way to save the world" with me. Everything else was history.


Song title : Rock of my Salvation

This also is my small attempt in trying to make both tracks sound balanced. It's recorded live, multi-tracked. Will be posting some pictures soon. Here's the song.


Tuesday, March 13, 2007

HULK...now in MIDI!

Do you remember the angry, big, green machine we loved? Dr. Bruce Banner has finally listened to his right brain for creativity and has now come up with this!

Yup! It's the Hulk's hands! AKA Media Systems has come up with this crazy but brilliant idea of actually applying MIDI technology into the giant's hands. Project title is HULK$MASH.

Flickr
Photoset can be found here if you are interested in venturing to the project.




Interestingly, its not supposed to be used for people, animals, or objects... but we can always hit objects that we are allowed to right? Say...a table that produces a clashing cymbal when hit? What about a piano middle C? That would be weird..







Anyhow, Bruce Banner here seems to be enjoying his creation. I hope he doesn't hulk$mash his gear!

Overall, I find the idea simply brilliant. There more details in the flikr photoset if you want to pursue becoming a hulk$masher. It doesn't give you details though on transforming into a full radioactive green monstrosity.






From: http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/03/11/hulk-hands-hacked-smash-stuff-send-midi/

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Tips for Church Musicians

Disclaimer: I refuse to be called religious. I simply acknowledge that what the true Bible says about God sending His Son to die on the cross and resurrecting on the third day to be real and His love is unconditional for all. This is what I know is true, regardless if James Cameron believes it or not.

For those people who don't know me, I have been a church musician for more than 10 years. Yup. More than 10 years of playing black and white "for the love of God" as Steve Vai would have written it.

If I counted how many Sundays were that, I'd be lost. It'd be worse if I counted how many times I was late. Of course, everyone would know I was late! Hehe. Funny how people would count lates more than the times you were on time. People.

Anyway, God has been faithful and good throughout the years despite my inconsistencies and flaws. So here are some tips for you guys who are in the same field:
  1. Relationship. Make sure you're on track with the Almighty. Better terming would be "in tune" with God.
  2. Commitment. You want to rock for God? Let your "yes" be "yes" and your "no" be "no".
  3. Practice. If you rehearse for a gig, a show, a concert, or any other activity that involves performance, you find the time to practice. All the more you should do this when your audience is the creator of music. Oh, and practice on your own. Further your skills and be the best you can be.
  4. Discipline. Be consistent in keeping these.
I might have missed some important points, but for now, this will do. I have yet to tell more about my mishaps, dreams, and frustrations too.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Ebox ver 2.0 - Digital Audio Workstation - Some more pictures

After posting the hardware specifications here and taking pictures while installing everything, here it is. It isn't final, but I hope it's worth to look at. I've posted the same pictures of my digital audio workstation in tipidpc's "Show me your rig" thread.