It’s been awhile since I posted some projects using the Free Royalty Free Music, so I thought I’d share some recent ones
The Admiral Digby Museum in Nova Scotia (that’s in Canada), is doing some video about promoting archives and museums. I love museums!
Some promo video about a Red Balloon and a Boy: While the concept is not entirely original (I have vague memories of a weird French film I saw in elementary school), this children’s book (written by a dentist) is planning to donate 10% of the proceeds to two charities: Autism Speaks and Make a Wish foundation. Very nice.
A video from IdeaPotion, an iPhone App Developer which released a really cool looking game where you build up massive Domino sets and then knock them down (and you can view the results from a bunch of different angles) Awesome idea, and you don’t have to clean up the mess when you’re done! (or leave them on the floor and then step on them with your bare feet and oww… those dominoes hurt sometimes, painful memories…)
A lovely video of a Water Vole (what the heck is a water vole? watch the video to find out!).
A Hypnotherapist working in Ireland is using the Egyptian music for a project about hypnosis, Egypt, Pyramids and Sleep Temples and something called Somnambulistic trance (which makes me dizzy just trying to pronounce)
I found this lying around on my hard drive. It’s the song 抱きしめたい (Dakishimetai) by ミスチル Mr. Children. I was practicing it to perform at a Japanese friend’s wedding (yes, that wedding actually, long story…).
There are plenty of mistakes to find, but the biggest thing that sticks out to me (this was recorded about a year ago) is my pronunciation of the たちつてと (tachituteto) which sounds… very rough, heavy American/English accentized (come to think of it, the same goes for all those artists who go to international schools in Japan for some reason, go figure). Video is flipped, so don’t freak out about my left/right hands.
Anyway, yup, that’s me singing in Japanese and playing piano at the same time. Enjoy.
Many people are curious how the creative process goes when I write music. So I recorded a bunch of clips while I was writing the music for Arvale: Treasure of Memories.
It’s a short video at about 3 minutes and it it’ll show you pretty much how a song gets created from start to finish.
It may even emit a giggle or two
What do you think? Ready to write your own music now?
While I’m quite used to using Digital Performer on one monitor now, I really wish I could have just a small extra monitor where I could tweak plugins while composing and mixing.
But monitors are huge, require big monitor cables, laptop adapters, and a big power cables. Four things which are a no-no for my Portable Studio.
I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if there was a USB powered mini-monitor?’ So I did a bit of research, and lo-and-behold! The Mimo USB powered mini monitor came into existence!
Picked up the Mimo UM-710S (non-touch-screen) from Amazon for like $150. Here’s what the box looks like (why do people like looking at boxes?).
It includes the monitor, some instruction manual you’ll never read, a CD with drivers you won’t use (especially if you have a Mac), and another mini-USB cable.
You have to download the Mac Drivers here (latest PC drivers are there as well), installation was quick and simple. I guess there are touch-screen drivers for the more expensive models too. I couldn’t think of any advantages for a touch-screen in my situation.
Took me a while to find out where to plug in the USB cable.
Right in the center on the backside. I plugged in the USB cable and… nothing. Huh.
The USB cable in the box was junk. Luckily, I have about 2 million mini-USB cables, so it was no problem just using another one (still… ?!). A pretty blue light on the side came on and I got to see another tiny little Mac desktop (fully and easily configurable from the System Preferences Displays menu).
The screen is actually quite brilliant and the colors are actually often better than my laptop screen. My camera will not do it justice, so just imagine as you check out the photos.
The monitor slides out onto this thing and can be rotated to landscape:
And works quite well for Twitter applications like Seesmic or TweetDeck.
Or you can rotate the screen to portrait for single column stuff such as instant messaging in Adium or Skype.
I don’t know the exact resolution of the device (800×480) but I do know it is the perfect resolution for running Arvale: Treasure of Memories
But I’ll mostly be using it for situations while composing like so:
And especially when mixing, like so:
This way, I can keep my eye on all of the faders and adjust things on the main monitor, while still being able to adjust plugins and virtual instruments on the mini monitor.
Most plugins with simple interfaces (DP and Waves plugins) fit just right and leave just enough room for tweaking the settings.
But how big the device itself? Is it really portable?
To give some size comparisons, I pulled out my PSP.
It’s slightly larger than a PSP.
About the same thickness as a PSP.
And it’s light enough (less than a pound) and slim enough to fit in my tiny hands
That’s it for the Incredible Shrinking Studio for now. So, how does it all come together? Does it all still fit on the desk? More importantly, does it all still fit in my Gear Bag?
I’ll be doing a lot of Audio work this month, so I’ll be sure to take some pics of it in action.
‘What?!’ I hear you screaming. Why on earth would I need a portable chair?
Believe it or not, I have run into a few situations where I have packed up my recording gear in a hurry and needed to work on some audio projects in a place where there was either no chair, nothing comfortable to sit on, or nothing at a good height for me to work at.
Also, I travel quite a bit (hence the portable studio) and am currently living in Tokyo, Japan; where space is at a premium.
Now, there are lots of portable stools, such as stuff from TravelChair, Coleman, and a slew of generic names. They’re mostly for outdoorsy stuff (you know… nature, camping, birdwatching, tail gating, etc) and I even went to a local REI and tried them all out.
They suck. Most of them are uncomfortable to sit on for more than 1 minute, are made of plastic parts or worse, and don’t support a lot of weight. Granted, I’m not a big dude, but I am brutal with a lot of my gear, so I like things to be of high-freaking quality and able to take a beating.
The Walkstool is made in Sweden. It is made from commercial grade anodized aluminum and has a heavy-duty nylon mesh seat. The Walkstool can hold up to 550 lbs. (250 kg, yeah, really… check the video at the bottom, it’s nuts). The Walkstool weighs about 800 grams (28 oz).
The Walkstool was originally designed for the electricians, service technicians and engineers. These workers needed a light, compact and heavy-duty stool they could carry in their tool bag and use on the job site on a daily basis and would continue to be awesome.
In a nutshell: The Walkstool kicks ass.
Folded up, it’s slightly larger than the width of my laptop, as you see in the pictures.
The Walkstool has telescoping legs which allows for two sitting positions, which you’ll see in a bit.
Here’s what it looks like when it’s unfolded and legs are telescoped out. And that nylon mesh seat? Damn comfortable. I sat in it for about 3 hours and my butt never fell asleep. That’s passing for me. It does feel a bit like you’re about to go on a bike race at first, but you get used to that when you realize you’re not pedaling.
Telescope those legs back in, and it still stands on its own. It still mystifies my mind when I look at it. I have no idea how it stands up either. But I use this position quite a bit, as I like to be slightly below my computer.
This angle makes it look lower than it is. But at this height, it drastically reduces the strain on my wrists while typing and mousing (carpal tunnel, tendonitis, etc. = immense, annoying pain, avoid at all cost).
The Walkstool also comes in a plethora of sizes (from 18 inches up to 30 inches standing (45 cm-75 cm) and backed by a 2 year warranty (not that you’ll need it).
For the record, I got the Walkstool Comfort 55cm/22in. It cost me $79 on Amazon. I have no affiliation with either. I’m just super satisfied and like the product a lot
And just for fun, here’s the video of a Volvo V50 on top of 4 Walkstools:
Cool, huh?
What’s next for the Incredible Shrinking Studio? I need just a little more screen real estate when composing/mixing, but I don’t want to lug around another monitor and I don’t want to use a power cable.
The solution? A USB-powered mini-monitor, coming up!
