rashbre central

Wednesday, 8 March 2006

Guitar Practice with a Fender GDEC Amp and Midi files

I'm gradually learning a few chords on the guitar and steal shamelessly from the ideas on GuitarGAS. The amplifier I use is a Fender GDEC, which allows rhythms to be generated automatically, and this makes the practice experience more interesting and more fun.

The amp has three main ways to generate the rhythms : by pressing some buttons on it, by connecting an external unit to play through it (like a CD player), or by sending it MIDI sequences. I thought it would be useful to collect some common guitar track practice Midi files and I've stored them across in my iDisk file on .mac. These tracks play the tunes indicated, but without the main guitar part.

Being midi format, the files are very small and can be reconstructed to use different instruments and sound types if you have a sequencer such as Garageband, Logic, Sonar or similar. They mainly play directly on a PC or Mac, but the sound will be limited by the quality of the sound card. Quite a few of them have guitar tablature describing the chords too.

Here's a list.

If you are learning guitar, feel free to click here to download a few and have a play.

Tag: music, guitar, gdec, fender, midi, tabs

a lesson in branding

Thank you netchick, for this entertaining video.

Tuesday, 7 March 2006

Tom Waits for no man

You say you want a revolution? weh-hell - the Tom Waits group on last.fm is having one! I'm a member of that group (Mr Waits is a favourite singer/songwriter of mine) and the fans are revolting.

The group is very quiet, there's no group picture and the current leader of the group, DarklyDoug, seems to no longer by an active Last.FM user, in that his profile say "last played a track in May 2004.

Yes, there are other groups specialising in Tom Waits. However, wouldn't it be sad if the group named after the man himself is a ghost-ship! In an attempt to prevent this from happening, there has been a call to revolution.

The aim of the revolution is to force elections for a new leader and, lets face it, almost any leader would be better than one who does not participate for over eighteen months. So, you now have the opportunity to join a revolution (before 15 Mar 06)!

And update cos this old post gets a few hits checkout this about Tom Waits from May 2008

Monday, 6 March 2006

Something to get your teeth into

Someone in the UK has just done some calculations about the average value of a tooth fairy tooth. Its around £1.24 or just over two US dollars. Apparently it has been quietly creeping up, along with the average income of a ten year old which is now around £800 per annum (thats around $1,400). The thing with the tooth fairy money is its now worth around £20 million per year, which is quite a lot of bars of chocolate.

Some people see the tooth fairy as a sweet little creature like the one above, yet I envisage someone who is a bit of a bruiser. Must be something to do with the pain. Or something about when darkness falls.

Want to email the tooth fairy, or play some toothsome games? bite here. And to hear how Horrid Henry got on, see here.

Tag: teeth, tooth fairy, dentist

Sunday, 5 March 2006

snow mo

I've been in Regents Street, London today having all the excitement of buying a replacement battery for Julie's Powerbook. The Apple store has an almost pornographic amount of new stuff now, with the new Mac Book Pros, intel iMacs and even the rather strange new iSpeakers.

London was bright and sunny, but the phone call from Mel in the snows of Cumbria asked if I could 'pretty please' add a copy of a Video Blog entry onto my German web host so that it work well with Christina's site.

Its a great Vlog of Mel & John & Co in the snow of the Lake District and so I agreed, as long as I could also post it here (click to view). A fun video and nice tune too!

If you enjoy it, a spin across to Adam at the Common People to drop a comment would be nice.

Tag: snow, Lake District, vlog, video

Saturday, 4 March 2006

on a bed made of linens and sequins and silk

An indelible bond had been soldered in that moment of recognition between the first two and later, in a Turkish bath, they revealed their stories to one another between sips of a strange, tangerine liqueur.

Two further young people appropriately lathered, overheard their stories and then these four met a fifth whilst turning in their towels. After adopting the moniker The Decemberists, these wan vagabonds began playing their peculiarly styled music in various concert-halls and brothels all across the globe.Joe Anderson Joe Anderson
Tag: music, guitar, Decemberists

with one leap

So today, in amongst the things already planned for the weekend, I will be editing "The Triangle", which is the fledgling novel from NaNoWriMo last November. I thought I would be at this point sooner, but once writing finished, the rest of my life quickly washed back in.

I need to find a way to keep the balance of interest in the story, rather than having the reader skimming lines and thinking of how much laundry they need to do. I'm justifying the time gap as distancing myself from what I wrote and now want to find the point where my own interest in the story begins to wane.

The style of writing in NaNo encouraged verbiage, so pruning will be essential. Usually when I blog, I re-read and chop and I suspect with this bigger work the same will be needed. The forward and backward references in a novel are a particular challenge. If I can't remember who a character is, then what chance have any readers got!

I expect I will be staring at a sleeker book by the end but, hey, Annie Proulk's book about cowboys was only about 60 pages and she had it made into a film as well!

So the rules for my editing include:

• Never write a 100,000 word story someone else could write in 10,000.
• Never let friends be the first readers, unless you know they can be impartial. Use someone who will be harsh, but honest.
• Never discard the removed sections.
• Save often, with revision numbers.
• Use time to get distance from the story.
• Don't be afraid to cut. Everything can be rewritten. That's the beauty of drafts.
• Listen to editors. They've been trained to spot things.

Where's my scissors?

Tag: novel, writing, NaNoEdMo

Friday, 3 March 2006

drum beats

I'm sitting watching some television this evening but have a small piece of 'homework' to do related to explaining something about drums.

I recently edited a small music track for Christina Nott, and my main contribution was to add some drum sounds and balance the sound. I was asked how I made the drum sounds. Well, to confess, not a single drumstick was harmed in the production of the piece. In fact I used a virtual drum kit connected to a keyboard. So how does this work?

I took a set of drum samples from a CD and copied them into Ableton Live, which is a special kind of sequencer software. What this means is that you can hook a music keyboard up to a computer and then use the keys on the keyboard to trigger the samples of drum sound. With Ableton, you can set up different sounds 'columns' (like a spreadsheet) and the select a 'row' of sounds which will all trigger together and can optionally loop (repeat).

So, it is quite easy to set up a sequence A, then B, then C, then D and trigger them in order or randomly as required. The program also allows the sound characteristics of the drums to be modified (like tone controls, but many other specialised functions too). This also means it is possible to place the sounds around the mix in stereo, so different drums can appear to come from different parts of the soundstage.

Another piece of software I use for music editing (on a PC) is called SONAR. Here is someone describing the way to do equivalent drum effects in that program.
Tag: music, drums, Ableton

Thursday, 2 March 2006

Thursday Thirteen (V13.0)

1. My Powerbook seems to remember the last Thursday Thirteen I did, it is easy to remember the next number (ie this is number 13);
2. The tin can logo on my blog illustrates that I am editing my novel now, in NaNoEdMo. No counters for this one, but 50 hours during March is all it takes.
3. I sent Elizabeth her birthday present on Monday, to arrive Tuesday - it did.
4. I posted a card to Elizabeth on Saturday, but it had not arrived by Wednesday.
5. This weekend I will write something about drums for the folk at GuitarGAS.
6. I tried to buy something on the internet today but it said that my credit card would not work; then I got an email confirming the order. So now what do?
7. National Book day today, but I have not read anything.
8. Today was the first time I have had to run my car to defrost it in the morning for at least a couple of months.
9. There are some excellent snowdrops in the garden. I shall take a photo in daylight. Its like a sign of spring;
10. The daffodils indoors have all popped out now and look great;
11. Is still my favourite number;
12. Bailrigg FM have said they will play the Christina Nott record next Wednesday; I would like to add some keyboard before then to compare for the best version.
13. I will need to map out the next few weeks in my calendar - I havn't a clue where I am supposed to visit;

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. Leanne's Thirteen!
2. Ivory Frog's Thirteen!
3. Uisce's Thirteen
4. Chickadee's Thirteen!
5. Judy's Thirteen!
6. Raehan's Thirteen!
7. Lunchtruck's Thirteen!
8. Janne's Thirteen!
9. Andrea's Thirteen!
10. cq's Thirteen!
X. (leave your link in comments, I'll add you here!)

Get Leanne's Thursday Thirteen code here!
Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! Leave your link as a comment and I will link to you and you can continue the chain!

Tag: Thursday Thirteen

Wednesday, 1 March 2006

da Pinchi?

By chance I have read both of the books in the current London trial about the Da Vinci Code, as well as Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.

The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail named Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln contest Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code as having many similarities with their work. They describe a secret society identified by Sauniere known as Priory of Sion dating back to the first crusade and creation of the Knights Templar. The assertion in the Leigh Teabing (sic) book was that the Merovingian dynasty were descendants of Jesus and his wife, Mary Magdalene. They used a cliffhanger episodic ending to chapters and say their style has also been pinched.

Rennes-le-Château, France is a key location in these conspiracy theories and secrets about the foundations of Catholicism. Rennes-le-Chateau involves claims about the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians, Priory of Sion, the Rex Deus, the Holy Grail, the treasures of the Temple of Solomon, the Ark of the Covenant, ley lines, geometric alignments and is even site of the Gabriel Knight computer game.

Elements of the Jesus/Magdelane ideas were also incorporated into Umberto Eco's 1989 novel Foucault's Pendulum.

So, did Dan Brown like the ideas in the other books (some of which have been popular 2am coffee conversations, in any case), did he invent it all, drive his own separate investigation? or what?

When I read Da Vinci Code, I enjoyed it as an adventure yarn and enjoyed some of the references, such as the Louvre pyramid (where I have stood and passed my hand into the mystic point of pyramid focus, well before I read da Vinci) and I've also reflected briefly on the correlation between the various stories - not as 'theft' more as parallel musings on a related topic.

In my opinion, Dan Brown's earlier book Angels and Demons, may be his best defence. It was written years earlier and has some elementary plot similarities with the later novel. I read it and considered it as a test bed for the da Vinci novel. I read the demons book after da Vinci Code (like most people) and I'm sure I can't be the only one to spot thematic and plotline similarities.

And then, still in 2am coffee mode, there's the origin of Tarot cards, maybe as a catechism to pass on the secret messages?

Another one to watch for the next few days.

Tag: da vinci code, allegedly, Sauniere

Tuesday, 28 February 2006

flipped

Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, is Pancake Day. In the olden days, during Lent the eating of all dairy products was prohibited, so pancakes were made to use up eggs, milk and butter. The pancakes could be easily made and cooked in a pan or on a griddle. They were fried in butter or fat and served flat or rolled and sprinkled with powdered sugar, topped with preserves or sometimes doused with alcohol.

I prefer thin, flat pancakes, served individually, with lemon juice and sugar. And don't forget to flip them in the pan!

Tag: pancake, Lent

PJ-amarama

Yesterday's New York post was supposed to have a musical attachment, but it didn't work. I wanted to include a music track that had been going through my mind for a few days. Its Radiohead meets PJ Harvey - "the mess we're in" and I've edited on an introduction by PJ. So here is a second attempt, with another random photo from my wanderings in New York and the opening lines of the song..."Can you hear them, the helicopters? - I'm in New York - No need for words now."

Tag: music, guitar, PJ Harvey, radiohead