The Daily Rave

Although I fell that I've managed this week fairly well- except for a few skipped office hours- I haven't been producing music much.

Even a year and a half after switching to Mac, I still haven't settled into an ideal solution to replace FL Studio, which is Windows only. SuperCollider has proven revolutionary, to say the least, but is less than ideal for producing music quickly, at least at this stage.

I'm currently considering shelling over for Ableton Live, as a new version came out not too long ago, and I'm beginning to get the feel of the demo. Last summer I played a lot with Renoise, but I never bought it, and now the interest has faded.

The biggest problem is that it's very hard to know if an application will work for me until I've produced several works with it, and most packages don't allow saving or exporting with the demo versions. It's easy enough to steal the software, but then there's no motivation to buy it.

Also: my biggest complain as a Mac user? Huge shortage of free VST and AU plugins. The reason for this is almost too simple: the most popular solution for making plugins is synthedit, which is Windows only, and the developer has no interest in porting it.

Hopefully, I'll be able to produce plugins myself in C++ before too long. Dreams occasionally come true.

37 weeks!

The other day before music theory, we discussed the prevailing backlash against emo. We generally agreed that emo music was not inherently bad, and some people pointed out that the purpose of any music was emotion anyway.

"But that's not it," I said. How could I resist? "Clearly, the purpose of music is to make money."
"You're joking, right?"

I was, I suppose, serious, though not in a literal sense. This caused much bickering and gnashing of teeth until Professor Henry, gliding into the room, proposed to give his thoughts on the subject.

He mentioned that the purpose of music was fundamentally unclear (duh) but then went on to say that my point of view was somehow spiritually bankrupt (heavens!) and suggested that the purpose of music might be an expression of the inner soul.

Sometimes I find that taking a backwards or deranged point of view brings me closer to discovery than bursting through the french-doors of the academy.

Today I had my last final exam, and soon I'll be back home again...
Is it weird that I don't want to move out? It will certainly be nice to be home, but I still don't want to leave my dorm- who knows if I'll ever get to live in a dorm again!
Today I have to take down all of the weird decorations that I've worked so hard for all year, so I took a video and a bunch of pictures so that I'll remember what it looked like years from now.


( Thanks for the memories (and watercolors) )

I'm becoming more and more convinced that copyright law needs serious reform, if not complete resolution.
From the FAQ at soundexchange.com:

"The recent U.S. Copyright Office ruling regarding webcasting designated SoundExchange to collect and distribute to all nonmembers as well as its members. "

That means that Internet radio stations have to pay SoundExchange royalties on my music, even though I'm not a member of SoundExchange, and I won't see any of that money unless I join and pay them a fee. Why should the RIAA have any rights to my music? Copyright law isn't protecting my rights to my own intellectual property at all, it's handing them over to a corporate entity.
So far I've licensed all of my music under Creative Commons, but that won't be enough anymore. I'm considering releasing my music under the Public Domain. This would mean that any person could download, listen to, modify, or even sell my music without owing the SoundExchange anything. However, I would no longer hold any exclusive rights to my music, and there is no obligation for anyone to attribute the music to me, but it's the only way that I can see avoiding giving my music's rights to SoundExchange.

I've started shamelessly shoving my music in everyone's face again. I've posted my podcast on every podcast directoy I could find.

I've also posted almost all of my music at the podsafe music network (basically telling podcasters that they can use my music in their shows). I kind of got carried away.
Much to my shock, three of my (older) tracks appear on a Polish podcast, supposedly a summary of the hottest new tracks posted to the podsafe network. They only play short clips of each song, but there's also commentary. Unfortunately, it is in Polish, so I can't tell what he's saying about me...

I've sent a heads-up to the wonderful dadacast, hopefully they'll play another of my tracks again.

I've started using GarageBand.com again, it's been well over a year now. Of course, it won't be my ticket to the top (in spite of what their marketing wants me to believe) but it is really the only good place I've found on the Internet to get peer reviews of my music.
I came across some very interesting personal messages while there. Some people seemed to be huge fans of me back in '05, and I completely blew them off! Then there's this interesting message:

" Hi

I'm booking up & coming bands for the Emergenza Festival in 112 venues across the U.S. in such clubs as the Avalon in Boston, the Metro and Double Door in Chicago.
I was wondering if Savant Trigger would be interested in taking part."

Oops. Looks like Savant Trigger missed out on his first gig opportunity- not that I would have been able to perform live in the fall of '05 (or even now, really, although I'm getting ever closer). In the end it's some kind of huge battle of the bands-but it would have been a lot of fun :).
Who knows, my tracks have improved even more in the last year, I might get another offer...

EDIT: I've been played on another podcast already...Buster's Charity Show, out of the UK. Unfortunately, they played The Nihilist, which is just a terrible vocal performance on my part (it's ear-splittingly flat). I got a good laugh out of the DJ trying to pronounce "The Nihilist", though. He said that he's "terrible with foreign languages." :)
(BTW, you can pronounce it either as the NILE-IST or the NEEL-IST).
Too bad he skipped my name in the show notes, though.

I realize that no one listens to podcasts, but that didn't stop me from making one:

Savant Trigger Podcast

Subscribe RSS
(Copy and paste this link into iTunes to subscribe to the podcast)

It's about twenty minutes long, and I think I'll post it about every two weeks or so (that is, if anyone listens to it).
There's some cool stuff there that I don't think a lot of you have heard yet...

I can't stop thinking about what happened today at Virginia Tech.
There isn't as much horrible footage from this particular tragedy (warning, cliche soundtrack), but I still found it nessesary to gorge myself with such instant classics as chilling gunshots captured on mobile phone by now-citizen-journalist Jamal Albarghouti.

Looking at youtube's most watched clips for today, I'm having trouble seeing anything VT-related, although the top hit for today is eerily relevant (an SNL short where everyone gets shot).
The VT clip with the most hits reached 26,000, whereas the SNL short hit well over 150,000. There have been some clips that have hit over 30,000 hits by tagging themselves with the VT massacre yet have nothing to do with them (I find this very disturbing).

I made an audio mashup of clips from the massacre, hopefully the creative beast will soothe my obsession.

I watched 28 Days Later. It was somewhat entertaining but extremely self-righteous.
I really need to make a lot of progress on my upcoming performance using SuperCollider. I still need to figure out how to do larger architectures. I wonder where I would go for longer patch examples?
I've been on a 9/11 kick lately. The videos are haunting and mesmerizing. I want to compile a lot of the footage and put it on a DVD to play in a loop as a video installation. What would people think of me, I wonder?
There was a student art gallery in the dorm last night. There was some cool stuff (especially films) but I kept on being drawn to my own pieces, "The Deck of Angst" (ink and poetry) and "Assorted Atmospherics" (music compilation). Is it common for artists to like their own art more than other people's? I have yet to determine if I'm inexcusably narcissistic or just inexorably brilliant :).

( Facial Transformations, because everyone else is doing it. )

My latest obsession is an EXART project:

Cringey Songs (work in progress)

The original concept was to make music based on very annoying or distasteful ideas.
As you might expect, some of this stuff is so bad that it's good, and other things aren't quite bad enough...yet.
Tomorrow is the Mini-Musicircus, I hope it goes according to plan.
Ryan Carpenter got an accordion for free today. I really want a free accordion. Does anyone have a free accordion? Maybe someone does.
Still debating on MAX/MSP versus Pd or even anything else. I really just want to learn it all.

( I really don't want to get pee on my bed. )

Wow, real hectic last few days. I've got another EXART event going down, and I still need about five more people before thursday before it can really be effective. Also, registration opens for me tomorrow, but I still have library fines, so I think I can't do it quite yet. Also, the dumb IT department decided to make everyone change their passwords on registration day (the only day that everyone needs to get into their accounts immediately, and none of them work.)
In other news, I'm going to be a guest speaker for Intro to MIDI demonstrating my mad SuperCollider skillz (...I do have mad SuperCollider skillz, right?)
I'm considering purchasing MAX/MSP.
Today it rained like hell.
On Sunday I went with Jen to MOBOT to see the cherry blossoms, among other things.
( Pretty Pictures! )

Today after coming back from a lock-in at Rufus's church I found a large board on the floor of my dorm room with things like "BUS 4" and "TRANS-4" hand-painted on it, along with what looked like a huge electrical ruler, if such a thing makes any sense.

Heaviest rains I've ever seen at Webster today. I wanted to just go out without an umbrella or raincoat and get soaked but I couldn't think of anyone that would be willing to do that with me :O

Thanks for the nudge, pyralisha!

I can't believe it's been 16 weeks already. School is going by way too fast for me :O.
This past semester I've gotten a lot more "involved" on campus:
-Webster Undefined, which is a lot like Philosophy Club was at WHS :)
-Senator of Fine Arts for SGA
-Newly-elected RHA President for next year
-Began new club for experimental artists called Webster EXART.
(EXART has a bitchin' website, too!)

What have y'all been up to??

WINNER!

is completed!

I don't think I've posted at all throughout November, but the story really bloomed into something special. There were some moments where I was actually tearing up as I wrote something. I've never been that attached to characters that I've created before.
My 50,000th word was "fearlessly."

ALSO, I won National Solo Album Month. This is considerably easier, as I did it all on the last day :)
The name of the album is "sickle," and it's mostly weird experimental tape-music stuff. There's one track with me circuit bending toys!
Check it out...IF YOU THINK YOU CAN HANDLE IT!

sickle

I just found out tonight that my music has been used in a podcast!

A user named 391 has found my music on ourmedia.org and decided to use it in his "dadacast." 391 asked first, even though he (she?) didn't need to, because I've already licensed the pieces as creative commons. Unfortunately, due to ourmedia's message structure, I didn't get the message until today (he sent in late July).

The pieces he used are abomination in D minor and ShinE.

The podcast's website is here, where you can hear the entire episode. So far the podcast seems pretty awesome, I'm definitely subscribing.

I think this is the first time that my music has been broadcast (never mind that it's over the internet). I really don't care about the "exposure" as much as the fact that people are enjoying my music. A great big thanks to 391 for this. Now I'll be all smiles for probably a week or so.

EDIT: It turns out that "391" is the name of a magazine started by francis picabia in the early 1900's, and 391.org is a website that continues in the same spirit (although it doesn't seem to be tied with the original magazine, which I would have guessed.)

I've named my novel for NaNoWriMo "The Demiurge"
And I've made a signature pic for it:



Only two days left to get ready!
I wish I could have gone to the kickoff today, but I don't have a car! I thought I wouldn't need it this weekend, so I sent it in for repairs. Mistake. (Oh, well, I didn't really have time to go, anyway.)

I've also made a wallpaper for November to keep me motivated. I used a picture from NASA of the horsehead nebula. It looks so dark and ominous...it reminds me of the character Samuel in my story (after whom the story is named)

( some tasty wallpaper-y goodness )

Today I thought that I was going to begin my media class, and I had the whole day planned out perfectly
but...
I showed up at the room and it was empty. Turns out the class is on thursdays. I need to learn how to read a schedule.

Anyway, I was randomly inspired this evening, so I went down to a practice room and hammered out a song in about 30 minutes. I really like it, and I didn't make stupid lyrics this time. Bad recording, though, just a warning!

Three Parts (mp3)

( and the lyrics... )

Whew, this week started with a bang.
Today I finally handed in my stupid research paper that I've been stressing over for the past month. Damn, I need to learn how to write!

Fun fact: today I volunteered for the all-collegiate choir, which only occurs once every four years. Sweet! I love festival choirs. I just hope I can go :)

Tonight I finished a piece of music for our school's magazine; I hope that they print it. I'm putting it behind a cut so you can perform it! Don't worry, no musical experience necessary. Let me know what your performing experience of it is like, LOL

( Opus, by Greg Sabo )

I've spent the last few days visiting rufus and my sister at their respective colleges. I had a great time (and drove a lot). Here are some highlights:
1.) Going to goodwill with Jen
2.) Jen buying me some Burt's Bees (I love it, BTW, thanks!)
3.) Animaniacs!!
4.) that sandwich shop playing Radiohead really loud.
5.) The ten-mile walk...of death.
6.) Chicken Pot Pie!!
7.) Watching Whore Dead Zone.
8.) Butterfly effect (awesome movie, btw)
9.) OHMYGOD

I finished my scarf already. Now it's too frickin' hot to wear it. But it turned out really good (Thanks a lot, rufus!)

( And the fate of my broken iPod... )