Knowing Yourself

I retired 6 years ago now (December 2024 as I write this), but I still do the freelance illustration as it comes in from our website I set up in 2008, that I found a market for from 2000.  

Drawing and cartooning was an interest from a small child. By "interest" I mean I loved it and did it all the time. I cover some of this in our WHERE THE SMOKE COMES OUT comic. Audio and music later became an interest that lead to a Degree in Electrical Engineering, then working R&D in electronics design and firmware development.

Had to do all kinds of things in my working life, and one was get an understanding of why people are the way they are to deal with and manage them, as well as my internal self.  

But the point I am getting to is, I enjoy working alone and not dealing with people. I am an Introvert, that had to work in teams, and later be a manager. I am glad I don't have to do that anymore. I also like making things , be they illustrations, cartoons, comics, animated comics, paintings, models, sculpting or music made in a studio. Things I can do all by myself in my studio.

I spend a lot of time in my studio now. It is what I want to do. 

But I don't always be productive. It doesn't matter if I make something brilliant for myself or not sometimes. 

I go out with my wife or by myself to restaurants and cafes, and go out of the crowded times. Except of course when our adult kids and grandson visit. 

I did electronics "for my career", and when we downsized in 2019, got rid of all the technical books and magazine, tools and materials I had collected for my career, and to be "up to date".  I was pretty good at what I did, but it wasn't easy, and all rather stressful. I just don't care anymore.  Soldering to repair or make audio cables or changing a Kindle Battery is as much electronics as I care for now.

Knowing what you want to spend the rest of your life doing is important in retirement.  Seems there are many that don't.

Knowing yourself is important for your own future. 

After doing the music+comic, I extended the background music to over 3 minutes. It is on Bandcamp here. 

I then made a video on YouTube of the track:

Not that it will get seen by anyone, other than myself, but I like making things.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

HiFi is Dead, Long Live HiFi

HiFi was injured by the Walkman, then killed off by Home Theatre and the iPod. 

No one sits in front of 2 big speakers, just listening to music anymore, unless a TV screen is there too. It is more likely to be background music while doing something else, possibly playing on a small Bluetooth speaker from a phone. 

BUT "high-end" luxury Audio gear with prices suited to the Lamborghini, Veyron and Rolex watch buyers is alive!

HiFi to play my albums became an interest in Junior High School, that lead to an interest in electronics and making my first stereo. It was a different world back in the 70s, where building an amplifier and speakers yourself was an option and cheaper than buying one.   

I only have a CD/FM radio/BT mini-compo stereo now and don't use it very often.  Just to check how my own original music sounds. I can't use the sound volume to make it an experience. It is annoying to others. 

I now mostly use SHOKZ OpenFit earbuds playing 320kps mp3s from my phone around the house and out for a walk. Bluetooth connected headphones do add an extra level of data compression, but not something a granddad like myself can hear.  Like having stereo BGM  while moving around, and it doesn't block out the cat or family members if not played loud. 

But checking out the world of HiFi has a nostalgic hit for me.  It came as a shock to pick up the latest Stereo Sound above and see how heavy and full of advertising it is.  Reminded me of the heyday of BYTE MAGAZINE in the late 80s when the personnel computer market was booming. Or the Japanese TRANSISTOR GIJUTSU electronics magazine that was even bigger and heavier in the 90s, and now a considerably smaller publication.

The shock continued at the prices in advertisements and gear being reviewed.  Like the 4,400,000yen per speaker for the JBL DD67000:

Or the 2,500,000yen for this Ultimate Headphone Audio System:

This is Luxury Good Pricing.  

Value-based pricing is a strategy that focuses on the perceived value of your product to your target customers, rather than the cost of production or the market competition. This means that you can charge a higher price that reflects the benefits, features, and attributes that make your product unique and desirable.

This is not how things used to be. HiFi was a mass market item, with various brands having a range of items from not expensive to expensive. But those Brands have disappeared or do not make such equipment anymore.  Music doesn't have the same place in people lives any more. There is YouTube, Facebook, computer games etc. for that. The Internet and Mobile Phones changed everything for everybody from the 1990s.

My own adult kids don't have any kind of Stereo. No wonder the brands disappeared. The closes thing anyone has is a Home Theater Speaker System, that rarely plays music.

HiFi, but it isn't called that any more, is now an extreme niche high priced luxury, status symbol, market. Many of the claims made for the gear are absurd, and there are so many snake oil salesmen.  Great sound doesn't cost anywhere near what these "top end" systems cost.   

HiFi is Dead, but gear for wealthy Audiophiles (Audiophools is appropriate occasionally too) lives on.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Music: Listen & Feel Better, 聞​た​ら​と​元​気​に​な​る​し

 

The track Listen & Feel Better (​聞​た​ら​と​元​気​に​な​る​し​) on Bandcamp, another pay whatever. Just take it.

Another very similar to the last few being a C Lydian thing, all very automatic and familiar, where the guitar is actually down-tuned a half step, but played as if it wasn't. Take into account they are down tuned doing the synth parts. 

The instrumental thing was mostly done, then there was more news about how terrible and evil SPOTIFY is, again. Then I remembered recording a few of their advertisements and thought of repurposing the speech for this.  

She: 聞たらと元気になるし（Kiitara to genki ni naru shi, Listen & Feel Better )
He: 凄い                                 (Sugoi , Amazing/ Wow)
She: 広告無し楽しめる         (Kokkuku nashi tanoshimeru, Ad-free fun )
He: 凄い                                 (Sugoi , Amazing/ Wow)

What it means to me is ​

​音楽聞た​ら​と​元​気​に​な​る​し - Ongaku kiitara to genki ni naru shi, Listen to Music & Feel Better.

Music really helps my mood. Couldn't live without it. I don't even need it playing to hear it.

Before I added the speech and vinyl record noises, the Reaper project looked like this:

Not double or triple tracking the 6 string rhythm guitar, but the jazz bass plays the same parts.

I don't mind it all, as it means something to me. Few others will hear it. 

Unless you know me, see this blog, you wouldn't even know about it, and it would be completely unfindable. There are 1000s of tracks uploaded daily, fighting to get noticed on the major streaming platforms, and I am not even on a major platform. The subscription costs to get on the platforms just makes no sense to a retired grandfather hobbyist, not even trying to make it as a recording artist, such as myself.  

My BlueSky feed has become a mix of music creators, music mixing/mastering, cartoonists and comic creators. And of the over 140 following me at the moment, it is only the same one or two people I know that acknowledge a few of the things, music, cartoons, comics and music animations, I have posted there. 

I assume this is because many new to me followers are on the platform  at the "grow their followers" stage, where they follow a lot, hoping to get followed back, and later unfollow.  Many that have followed me have no relevant bio or posts at all, and I assume  have no interest in the things I do.

When I was at school, I thought it would be cool to have friends with actually some of the same interests, as it seemed no one did. Much later when I was working for a living, I discovered, that even when we did, such as studied electronics/ computers and music at university, others reasons and interests were completely different from my own. Usually complete opposites. Same thing for many of the Westerners living in Japan, the how and why they are here. A few famous people like PENN & TELLER (the magicians) or ADAM & JAMIE  (The Mythbusters) worked well together, but have completely separate private lives and just annoy each other.  Proof having some of the same interests doesn't make for good friends.

So little hope for Social Media of any platform to change any of that. BlueSky is proving to be far more interesting than X/Twitter ever was for me though. At the moment. Just by being a simple social media platform and not an advertising engagement scam.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Japanese Listening Bars: Golden Age HiFi

 

My first interest in electronics way back when was HiFi and audio to play music. When I started, you could actually learn something from Audio Magazines, with technical analysis of amplifier topologies and loudspeaker designs. The wonder of the CURRENT DUMPING QUAD405. The glory of the Great America Sound's AMPZILLA.  I had a '70s British HiFi Magazine with an article I stared at for years on the first PHASE LINEAR 700B into the country: 

Then HiFi morphed into the grifting "golden ears" and "magic thinking" of oxygen free power cables and such rubbish with sky high prices, that never entered into the world of Studio Sound I had move into. 

I still occasionally look at the world of HiFi, and the latest stereo magazine in Japan here has an article on the Listening Bar JAZZ HOUSE ON LAVA in Yamanashi Prefecture at the foot of Mt. Fuji.

There are quite a few of these Bars/Cafes in Japan. Never heard of something similar in different countries. They are owned and run by avid 12" vinyl album collectors with Golden Age HiFi gear and, generally, top of the range old studio monitors. The owner selects and plays the music at live band levels. You sit and listen.  They all started as record collectors and HiFi fans, and took the step to turn that into a paying job as a café.

Speakers like the JBL4350 were built into the walls of top end studios and used as the far field monitors back in the day. Not what you find in a studio these days, which is more likely to be high end GENELEC powered DSP corrected monitors. It seems most of these old monitors ended up in Japan, where they were renovated and became prized possessions of many a  HiFi fan, along with similar huge monitors from the likes of ALTEC and TANNOY.

Live sound levels are not a problem with these kinds of speakers, with the huge power amplifiers they get teamed with. It is what they were designed for.

These bars mostly use 12" vinyl and top end turntables, related to their owners peak collecting years, before the CD.  Expect more than a few 78rpm Jazz Classics as well in their collections.  

I had some 120 12" vinyl albums at the time I sold them all, and my turntables around 2018. I never replaced all of them with CDs. There were many albums I had that had a good song, than the rest was filler.  That is the way the record business was. 

The only 2 12" Albums I still kept:

Kept for the album sleeves, not the records inside. These both meant a lot to me. Never a fan of "the sound of vinyl". It was only great until the CD was invented.

I extended the LOVE OF VINYL? after making the above MUSIC+COMIC. Features vinyl record noise from the few albums I recorded into Reaper (the needle drop and sound before a song starts and at the end where the arm automatically lifted and returned to the rest position. ) before selling them. Strategically arranged noises from Synthesizer and Guitar are featured too.😀 

The Reaper Project:

Now on Bandcamp, embedded here

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Creativity Gurus: Books & Notes

The Rick Rubens - Rick Beato Interview was the first time I really noticed what Rubens had been involved with and what he actually did.

I am a few years older than both Ricks, and was really into music, was working at Fairlight Instruments at the time designing electronics, and reading some of the music and much of the keyboard and synthesizer press back when Rubens started out. 

Rubens was a punk guitar player and played guitar and programmed the DMX drum machine on the 1986 Beastie Boys - No sleep till Brooklyn. That he understood that RAP was music at that time shows why he become the producer guru he now is.  I remember reading the USA Magazine KEYBOARD in the 1980s and the cover proclaiming something like RAP ISN'T MUSIC.  At the time I was so far away from that world, but still realized that wasn't a truth in anyway.

Rick Rubens, in his recent book, and in the Beato interview, seems to have always been a calm guru type, with a very wide perspective on music. 

An interesting read for the most part, but don't think he covers anything I hadn't thought about and considered in my own creative endeavors.  

The Fairlight CMI was a significant mile stone in instrument and music development. The sampling and composition tools made a one man band, that people like HANS ZIMMER ran with and made their career in film scoring with. Page R in particular. But it was all very expensive.

I look back now and think Rodger Linn's Akai MPC, had a much bigger cultural contribution, thru its use in RAP /HIP HOP. Not that the designer considered that at the time. It was a user sampling Drum Machine, but by sampling others music and raping over it generated a new world of music and copyright problems!  Rodger's original digital drum machine programming was also an inspiration to the PAGE R I mentioned about.  His matrix Linn Instrument is also interesting, but a real niche thing.

I wonder if Rodger is about to come out with his own book on Being Creative?...

Creativity. It isn't just paintings or songs. Designing instruments requires it was much as any creative endeavor. The form of it is just different from a book author with his characters, plot points and story.

Brian Eno has his own status as a Music and ART Producer Guru. His OBLIQUE STRATEGIES cards with ambiguous statements, is rather like Rick Rubens advice or suggestions. Very Guru Like.

There are between 100 and 128 cards depending on version with statements expected to trigger the stuck creative mind, like:

• Use an old idea.
• State the problem in words as clearly as possible.
• Only one element of each kind.
• What would your closest friend do?

I made up a version of this with a numbered 0 to 99 statements and D100 dice. An interesting exercise, but I have never really used it.  Here the dice rolled 59, which is Do the washing up

Latest version of OBLIQUE STRATEGIES cards on Eno store is 50+pp.

Brian Eno's MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS was on constant repeat in my studio around 15 years ago.  Like Tangerine Dreams Ziet, it changes the atmosphere in a room without taking it over. Both of these were firsts in Ambient Music, and bursts of creative genius.

Yesterday I was informed of  Brian's new book, ‘What Art Does’. 

The initial version is limited to 777, signed, with individual watercolor slipcase books for some ¥33,000, which seems outrageous to me. There will be a non limited version from January, but no word on that price.  It says the money is being donated to a charity, but is that one of those now, very rare,  NOT FOR PROFIT charities?  Asking the poster what the January price would be resulted in me getting blocked by the guy promoting it on Bluesky.  So is he part of that charity, do you think, and did so before I could ask if  it was non profit? 😏

"Eno and Adriaanse’s book looks at why people create art, how it helps people, and the role it plays in keeping communities together".

I am interested in seeing this new Eno book, but it is not about Creativity as such.  As I put on Bluesky, I know why I create art:   "... for people like myself, we have to regularly create something to be "Happy Campers".  Not everything is some great work of art, and it need not be, but we had to do it, at that time, in that place.  Where place is a mental state as much as anything else."

But to get back to Creativity, a video clip post I saw by the JHS PEDAL guy, repeats something I have found myself.  "You can't design a completely new original guitar pedal, by staring at a guitar. The inspiration or strategy has to come from outside, in a different field." 

The mind and where ideas come from may never be understood.  I am amazed that having time and no distractions is so significant to the process to me. Do something else, go for a walk, and you will see something out of the corner of your minds eye, that leads you to a new solution or the direction you need to go in.   Ambiguous statements and guru advice serve the same function to "look sideways".

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

The Dark "Truth" About Bots

 Two years ago I did this love song to social media:

And yes, it isn't really a love song, but a criticism of Social Media.  I have a low profile on Social Media. Few followers, and mostly just post the music and cartoons I have just completed, which only two or three acquaintances will bother to look at, or listen too. See it mostly as something to look at when you don't have anything at all worthwhile to do instead.  

The bots on Twitter were terrible 2 years ago. Mulusk then bought it, made it X and made the bot problem a billion times worse.  All on purpose by the look of it. 

Benn says in his video here, anything about Social Media bots ends up looking like a conspiracy theory itself, confusing what is "Truth" itself.  Watch this for yourself:

It all seems consistent.  Is it "a war on truth"?  

Myself, as a non American, not living in America, it seems unbelievable that Americans could make a Stupid, Rapist, Racist, Lying Crook, their president. But if Americans, like Russia before it, cannot see "Truth" any more, then that is an explanation as to how it happened.   

This time line of X giving AI Bots access and making truth difficult to discern is particularly interesting with relation to the recent US Election date.

And that in January the prompts driving the bot accounts violated OpenAI's T&Cs, causing them to on mass apologize. Funny if not so terrifying. 

The very brief look up I did on Vladislav Surkov did not show the paper Benn shows in his video. Maybe something for some other time. I really don't care at the moment.

I haven't deleted my X account, mainly as that is the place to get news on what Urasawa Naoki is up too, and on Japanese Art Exhibitions. I am on BlueSky, finding it much nicer, but what I do isn't what the masses follow anyway, and I am not going to change that.  

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Old Man Shouting At Clouds - What Genre Is That?

 

Posted this on Social Media this morning after recording that 57 second music clip using 7 string drop tuned guitar. A bit on that here:

It carries on from a previous post on OUR STRANGE MUSIC.  That is an expression Mattias IA Eklhund uses about his very odd (by Western Standards, but not by 5,000 year old Southern Indian standards) time signature and his harmonic lead wiggley wiggley he does. 

But this post was brought on by this RANT - OLD MAN YELLS AT METAL video: 

I agree with him that some young guys saying what he is doing "isn't metal" is rubbish. Metal has evolved into a zillion branches, and some young guys may only be familiar with some of the most recent.

This is probably mostly wrong but an attempt at such a family tree:

HP42 goes and plays a bunch of clips of recent metal, and I must say, most don't interest me at all.  Metal has changed from memorable riffs of LIVING AFTER MIDNIGHT, PARANOID or even ENTER SANDMAN, to be more about a rhythm played on a downtuned guitar playing against the kick drum.

Recent stuff seems more extreme version of what LAMB OF GOD did. 

In my music+comic at the top of this page, I think you could describe what I am doing as simple ROCK&ROLL, with a metal, downtuned guitar tone and double pedal kick drum. But then the synth stuff probably makes it go to Industrial something something.  I guess that is one of my styles that doesn't sound like someone else, and that is fine by me!

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Social Media Lost It's Shine?

Seems that way to me, on this November 11 2024.  

For years the shine has been coming off social media, as algorithm changes meant you don't actually get to see posts of friends any more and the pushing of advertisements and disinfo increased.

Seen others on X saying they lost many 100s of followers after the US election, as the disinfo bots got turned off.   I don't have as many followers as they lost, but did loose a handful, but that makes no difference to me at all.  

I am still on Mastodon, BlueSky, X, Instagram and Facebook, but there came a point some time ago where posting anything just became a waste of effort. Seemed, may, be 2 people would see anything I posted on X or Facebook, but more often 0, as the post vanished into the timeline before anyone even noticed it.  BlueSky, Mastodon and Instagram have always been a why did I bother at all, and Mastodon doesn't have anything but the most trivial posts of others 99% of the time.  Posts I have no interest in engaging with. 

BlueSky seemed to originally be populated with old Twitter "thought leaders/head geeks" with a following of some kind.  They are now pushing starter packs with themselves as the must follow people.  Have to say though, I have yet to learn anything worthwhile uniquely on BlueSky. 

There is a lot of Over Sharing, and tend to see that as an American thing, like being loud, but most isn't interesting in the least. We all have our own "small happiness" , like a nice cup of coffee or warm raison toast with just the right amount of cinnamon, but if that is the only thing you have to post, I don't want to see it!  

Instagram  is now solely for seeing posts from our daughter or on our grandson. 

Twitter was once a more interesting place. For many of the early years I would write a post, then delete it without sending most of the time. Has been a way to connect with similar minded people. Or find out about events I am interested in. 

The paid blue tick scam has impacted X a lot, but as long as people and businesses, remain X only and post about events they are producing, it will remain useful.  

X has never a place to get any interaction with an offsite link to my art or a music post.  A post with such a link may have gotten a like, 💗, but no one ever left their time line to check something out, unless it was that one acquaintance.

Will probably still post about my art and music, but it is the making of it that remains my focus, not the promotion. 

One thing being on Social Media showed was which Americans supported the Felon Rapist, even if they didn't directly say it and just poo pooed Climate Change or some such issue over time betraying their RWNJ leaning, while even saying they don't want to discuss politics. Useful to keep in mind to avoid... 

I few years ago I thought Blogging was completely dead. but the changes to Social Media have revived it to a degree, even if I am the one that comes back and reads these posts.

Have to include the Vloggers too. There are so many 30 minute videos that should have been a half page blog post now.  YouTube is all about how long views watch, so the padding, drink cup off coffee now, to extend that makes for a poor experience a growing amount of the time. And the AI generated drivel is even worse. Many reviews are all just Astroturfing what ever the product is. 

Some want to be "real people" talking about what ever it is, but I don't find they add anything. 

UPDATE: Nov 15 2024

Musk had new T&C for X come into effect Nov 15, and that seemed to force a mass Exodus from X to BlueSky, and things have definitely picked up on BlueSky. But the whole "time line" thing speeding past is still so much worse than a forum with topics.  The whole character limit means posts are by design, just short passing comments. 

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Our Strange Music

 

Our Strange Music was expanded from a 58 second thing did a couple of days ago for a short animation. No Singing. No Speech either.  Starts with a synth swoop up, has a weird guitar riff in the middle and ends with a sweep down. No Bass and no guitar solo. 

Isn't a standard song structure at all.  Has a few repeating melodic phrases, and variations. Actually doesn't have any place to put words or singing. But that is okay this time.

Guitar is all 8 String, and one riff is in the bass guitar region. Did consider putting some synth bass thing in it, but didn't come up with anything worthwhile.  Playing with low 8 string riffs and coming up with something interesting is a recent endeavor. 

When I have a memorable melodic phrase, something I want to hum to myself, it needs to be repeated, BUT NOT TOO MUCH!  So instead of the same phrase have similar phrases, and use those as well.

The way this is now, there isn't any room for singing, and to make way, would replace some of the melodic lines with vocals sing the same melodies. Probably not coming back to do that here though.  

Is it interesting?  I think it is interesting enough. 

And the next day we came back and turned it into this, Looks Like It's Ganna Be a Good Day with a few lyrics:

Looks like a great day

Looks like a great day

I hope its ganna be a good day.

Looks like a great day

Looks like a great day

I hope its ganna be a good day.

  Trying to have a positive feel about it. Much better for my mental health.

So is it a song? Not really, Has some vocals, but more a spice to that part of the track. Maybe makes it more uplifting, as the words indicate that too.

But is it really just a different version of one of the previous 4 tracks we did? In a way it is, as they are all this same Lydian/ tempo project I have been working with.  They all don't sound like the same song though, but do have a very consistent style and approach.

Have put this, and two other recent tracks in an EP here: Three in Lydian @ 143BPM on Bandcamp so you can make up your own mind.  As an artist, you want to find your own style/ voice, and I think this is mine at the moment. It doesn't sound like someone else.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

The Wrong People

 

The Wrong People on Bandcamp, the track above, is the now the forth version, with a few changes.  The only comment I got about another track on this Album, is it ”sounded like a slow jam”.  That comment would be based on his musical taste, their frame of reference, and have no idea if that is Meshuggah or Garth Brooks. But all these tracks are derived from jammed improvisations I do. 　　

Found inspiration in the Sabine Hossenfelder video on Election Systems this morning for a new Spoken Words album track. I didn’t pronounce Machiavellian correctly, if Dictionary is correct, but is a word I have never used before, and don't remember it ever coming up in conversation, unlike Narcissist. 

 

We are in long shirt weather in this part of Kyoto now. 

I will now listen to this 1,000s of times for things I think I need to change. Do those edits and remix, possibly record new parts, and then listen to that another 1000 times. As it is now:

I repeat that a few times, then abandon it.  So I expect the track will be different tomorrow, or in a few days time. 

The Wrong Type of People become Politicians. Well, maybe 99% of them anyway. They have the same characteristics as the typical CEO. And the words in this are just about that, and not elections, impending or not. 

Sabine's video covers research that randomly selected citizens, like jurors in the legal system,  have very good outcomes under some test cases. Also that approach is hated by everyone asked.😄

The episode of  THE ORVILLE  - Majority Rule, on a democratic governing system rather like likes/ dislikes in Social Media. The society has no actual authorities or politicians, just a system of voting by the general public on everyone's behavior in real-time. As you can imagine that is also terrifying!

I expect in another 1000 years, the earth, countries and the governing system may not be recognizable to someone from our time...

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Coffee & Rock is Joyous

 

The track is also part of the Bandcamp Spoken Words Album. 

This maybe the first time I put my real self in a video and thumbnail, rather than a cartooned version. I probably will not do it again.

It was a really wet Saturday afternoon yesterday (2024/11/2), and I pulled up my current Reaper template project and recorded the first version of this track with my Ibanez RG 6 string. Took all of 5 minutes for the playing. Editing the much long improvised rhythm guitar and melodic takes into a track took much longer. Take 8 & 16 bar sections and copy and paste it together. Usually have to cut out lead bits to give space to even hear the rhythm guitar. But this one is all about the CHUG of rhythm guitar part, as in the opening 8 bars. Love the Guitar Pinch Harmonics too.  

Came back on this sunny Sunday morning and added the 16 bar melodic synth part to the center section to add a little more interest in something that is really quite repetitive even if has that rock aggression I love. Used it unquantized as I played it. There is a fine line between "feel" and "sloppy" but think this is "good enough". Doing this for myself anyway.

I visit a local café alone about once a week and put in my JBL ENDURANCE RUN 2 headphones, have breakfast, sip coffee and listen to music from my phone or mp3 player.   It is a joyous thing for me. Unlimited refills with a comfortable table and not too crowded.

I don't use SPOTIFY, but take my music with me. I rip all my CDs to hires mp3s using dBpoweramp, and have done for many years. SPOTIFY is a pox on the music industry and I do not use it.

I only recently discovered Devin Townsend and listened to these albums in detail recently at a café. 

But if I have just made my own new track, I could have it on continuous repeat listening for things in it "that annoy me or start to feel wrong".  Part of my track release process. After I have uploaded a track to Bandcamp, I may revise and upload it 4 or 5 times before I give up and just abandon it.  I never try and make anything Perfect though, that is a complete waste of time, and end up with it is what it is.  

it is what it is being a product of who I was at that time with that amount of enthusiasm and skill for doing whatever it was.. 

My most frequented café is GUSTO here in Kyoto Japan. Will sometimes go to a Starbucks for a new Frappuccino thing or seasonal cake, but otherwise find that place nowhere near as comfortable. Starbucks coffee is just burnt, bitter and way over priced. I just don't get why so many want to sit in a Starbucks working or reading. I assume it is to be seen, or have a personality type that to be surrounded by bad coffee and noisy people makes them comfortable.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Spoken Words Album

 

The Spoken Words Album on Bandcamp has recent spoken word, ambient 8 string and heavy guitar tracks. The tracks started out as under 60 second bits of music for animations on recent thoughts.

What motivates people? What are their goals? Are some of the questions I ask myself, and when I look on social media, I see many of the worst type of people mixed with many just getting on with their uncomplicated lives. 

See so many people on social media that look to me as if their sole goal is to be "famous". Which mostly comes down to lots of followers on social media and sites like YouTube, with usually the lowest common denominator material. Hate and Rage, but extreme trivia too.

But The Dunning-Kruger effect rings so true. The loudest and most confident ones have the least ability or knowledge. Mr.Beast must be a very lucky imbecile..

I never set out to cure cancer, but I did contribute to the development of music production systems and instruments. In many ways I see music and art as one of the things that "saves lives". Gives many the strength to cope with things in their lives.  

But imagine if there were MORE people with the motivation and ability to fix the big problems the world has?

The previous post here was on the video Motivation, and the scam much of the Wellness Industry is.

Everybody needs Motivation, and maintaining it isn't easy for anybody. Even if you are doing something everyday you love, you get tired of doing it and need a break sometime. When you have to cope with the difficult things life throws at you it is even more an issue. What do you do to charge you motivation battery?

These tracks aren't conventionally structured songs at all.  Part of the attraction to me I guess. Goals Project in Reaper looks like this:

This started with the central clean guitar parts and the spoken word. Using lots of ValhallaDSP Delay and SuperMassive to make it more "ambient" and to contrast with the heavier start and end sections. Those are metal sounds, but don't see them as metal,  maybe punk is closer. Loud brash and very unsophisticated. 

Yet I find the section at end of the ambient-ish bit almost beautiful.

Revised Goals Short:

This again, just used the Lapel microphone I have on the desk for FB Messenger and Zoom calls.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Motivation: Not a Life Coach Scam

 

Was playing around with a clean 8 string sound with the SUPERMASSIVE reverb after watching a Devin Townsend Ambient guitar piece. What I did struck me as being "Life Coaching" video like. Relaxing, so added the strange spoken words. I refrained myself from adding "discount coupons", as it would give the game away too quickly.  

As I didn't want it to be LIFE COACHING at all, added the ROCK & ROLL, and the up tempo distorted guitars.  That feeds into the animation were the serene screens lead to the MEGACURVE LOGO. I wonder if it is still too subtle that it is a joke playing with the genre?

The "Wellness Industry" contains many scammers.  LIFE COACHING was started by a financial planner in the 1980s in the USA, who found his clients didn't need therapy, but he he found could sell them something else they didn't need! 😂   

Supplements, tablets with no medically proven effectiveness, are the same deal.  But did you hear about the Benikoji supplement by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. that killed a 76 people and destroyed the kidneys of others in Japan in 2024?  It isn't all a joke.

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Synthesizers Are Just Cool, And So Is Distorted Guitar

 

Synthesizers Are Just Cool, And So Is Distorted Guitar. The track we put on our Bandcamp this morning.  

We also made a YouTube video using an idea I stole from Benn Jordan on X.  2 old music lovers  listening using just 2 frames to make the animation, rather than just the album cover. Will see if it gets pulled, and will do just a record cover version then.

Been listening a lot to the 3 tracks already released from Devin Townsend's POWERNERD album. My track here isn't like that, far more musically unsophisticated, power chords and single note melodies, but I LOVE the sounds!

I started with the JBASS parts and just expanded it from there.  I normally start with rhythm guitar or a bass sequencer. The spoken words are inspired by Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells track, where instruments are introduced, by John Cleese in the last version.  I am not doing that here, but that is where the idea came from.

I have been putting the SAMPLE&HOLD preset in the Surge XT VST on everything recently, and here too. Just love the sound. 

The track is 3 minutes, but it isn't a song. More of a soundtrack clip of a feeling about the title. 

As you can see it is made from 8 bar sections. I always start by laying out a really long drum track, then adlib parts with that on different instruments, and copy and past my track together from that. I may , or may not then re-record better parts after listening to that 10,000 times.  

This animation was made in MOHO Pro 12, like most of my stuff. Done at 1280x720 12fps.

Uses 2 Ricks interview frames. Grabbed a short section of the YouTube interview with OBS, then saved a few frames from VLC. Selected frames with most extreme head movement, but didn't spend any time on it. Moving the front most frame off screen gives the head bobbing effect. The frames are also slowly zoomed in and out. I just eye balled the beat, and copied and pasted sections, so it goes out of time sometimes, but few will watch the video far to notice anyway, if things go the way they normally do.  

Just listening to a Devin Townsend Vpodcast about his Synesthesia and creative motivations.  Expressing how he feels at that point in his life though music.

Here I am just making something related to how I feel at the moment, with the skills and techniques I have at this point in my life. It Makes Me a Happy Camper.  Because I need to make something on a regular basis to not feel down. So it is for my own state of mind.  

I don't have any kind of audience for this music stuff, and it isn't my motivation.  A couple of curious friends, or new followers on a social media platform.  If people want to listen to music, it will be big artists they already know. Very different from my Car Illustration stuff... 

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The X Experience

 

Wrote a different kind of song over the last day and a bit, and made this animated short. 

My Harley Benton R-458MN didn't have the intonation right on the 8th string, and I set out to fix that. It was really only okay up to about the 3rd fret with my half step down tuning, as the saddle couldn't be moved back far enough.

I had to change to a much shorter screw (cut and filed a 15mm M3 to 11mm) and removed the spring in the bridge on the lowest string, and use a shorter 15mm M3 screw on the 7th, too. Moved the saddle all the way back on the 8th. So now with the half step down tune intonation can be set correctly. Screws need to be shorter too, so they don't hit the string going over the saddle on both 7th & 8th with the saddles moved back.  To replace these saddle screws, you have to remove the rear screw attaching the bridge part to the guitar body.

I have it tuned (H>L) D# A# F# C# G# D# A# F. Why? I prefer the tone and the string tension with 9s with the half step down tune.

So this music started just checking out the newly improved intonation. I was also playing with the volume pedal and palm muting, so that on the neck pick up, you go from a very bass like tone (what you here at the start with just the drums) to a metal guitar tone. 

This change in distortion and tone in the piece was the new thing in this Lydian 140BPM piece.

I hadn't added lyrics to anything recently, and after watching the Beato Rick Rubens interview, thought something rap like ( BEASTY BOYS, RUN DMC)  isn't something I had tried.  And the experience on X has deteriorated greatly since RWNJ Musk took over, with the zillions of porn bots morphing into extreme US political mode.  So it didn't take any effort to come up with a few words for this. And maybe it isn't really rap, but that is okay, spoken word works for me.

I just used this lapel mic I have on the desk for FB Messenger calls.  Not one of the mics I have for singing.

The longer 2 minute WHY POST THAT? is on Bandcamp.  Pay whatever you want, including $0.

It isn't a traditional song format, as why would I care about that? Sections A, B, C, D, B.

Have also done the full YouTube video now in 1080p:

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Whole Freak Guitar Clinic at Music Bar M in Osaka Japan [2024]

Mattias's whole hour clinic video was put up 2024/10/11 18:30 by Zanshin, who held the event and are the distributors for his new line of guitars. The guitars are only entering production now in October, and aren't available yet.

I was there. Mattias is a great guitarist, songwriter, singer and maybe, even better entertainer. 

What is particularly cool about this video to me, is he calls out to me by name some 4 times 😍. At 9:15, then 23:44, 45:44 and 46:06. I guess it is one of the things he does, as part of his clinics, and I must say, it sure made me a happy camper.  I get mentioned by name 4 times during this, but behind that there is the story, that even though I was the first there, by about 2 hours, the organizers, NOT Mattias, weren't going to sell me a ticket to let me in, as I didn't know you had to get the ticket at the Music Messe exhibition hall across town... Mattias said I should hang around and "see what happens". I was allowed to buy the last ticket to the event, number 35, shortly before it was to start.

My whole interest in the 8 string guitar is from Mattias. Earlier this year I went to the guitar shops around Umeda Osaka to try an 8 string, and none had one. I ended up buying the Harley Benton R-458MN online. Don't really consider myself "a guitarist", so that seemed the most reasonable way to see how they are.

 A really interesting experience. Very worthwhile for me I think.  Would love a ULV8

but my limited ability doesn't justify the more than our car cost.  But such purchase decisions aren't rational like that.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

The Pace Of Life

 

Before the OBon holidays, and getting sick for about 4 weeks, I was trying to do some piece of music and a music+comic every week.  Seems easy until something like illness gets you to break the routine.

For the last 2 weeks I seem to be back at it. The latest, off the cuff thing THE PACE OF LIFE is above. 

I set out to do a fast "metal" thing, and set 156BPM.  Much faster than I normally play with, and found down picking that verse riff hard and tiring. This is a better take, but hand was getting really tired even after only 4 verses of this!

The comic text is just the first thing that came to me making the animation. Being retired isn't a subject the mostly young interweb cares about, but I do these for myself.   

As I have gotten older, I get more random old memories hitting my thoughts.  Many are of just really embarrassing things that happened. This seems to be a very common thing among us oldies!

There were times I was so busy. Mostly 1981 till 2001 was most like that. 

In a Facebook group I am in, there was a question about the systems I was one of those involved in designing.  It was "what design compromises had to be made"?   But the thing is, I did those designs 40+ years ago, and remember little.  It was a very fast pasted time for me.  I also try and not remember all the "not great" things that happened in the past.  

I used to have a really good memory. That also meant I stayed upset about something for a really long time.  I am glad I can forget much of that stuff now.  I have tried to forget much that isn't relevant to me any more. Seems to clear up the mind for things that are important now.

In my slower paced retirement, that makes me a Happy Camper.  I can do things at the pace I want now.

Have made an extended version of the music as well, and put The Pace Of Life  & The Pace Of Life Extended as a 2 track album on  Bandcamp.  Pay whatever you want, including $0.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology

Releasing a Music Track & Stems under CREATIVE COMMONS Attribution-Share Alike License

Did that yesterday for my DIGITAL DUST EXTENDED track on Bandcamp.

I output the stems from my project, added a text file with the license info, as below, zipped that directory up, put on google drive, and made a shareable link.

To try and advertise it is free to remix, also made this YouTube SHORT:

Hello There!

I have licensed these DIGITAL DUST EXTENDED Stem files as 
CREATIVE COMMONS Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Adrian Bruce (Megacurve  Kyoto, Japan)   October 6 2024.
https://www.artandtechnology.com.au/

You are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

So why would I do that? 

"Digital Dust" was an expression I heard Rick Beato use to describe unreleased Music Projects sitting unused on Hard Drives.  I think it also applies to most personnel projects uploaded to Streaming sites and Bandcamp from people without any kind of following, such as myself.

The more common use of "Digital Dust" is it encompasses the residual data created through our daily interactions with technology. 

The most popular of my tracks I have put on Bandcamp have had, may be, 12 plays, and most of those haven't been played till the end. So the reality is my tracks on BandCamp are mostly just Digital Dust sitting on hard drives.  

Doesn't mean the tracks are bad, just the few acquaintances who bother to listen to something this guy they know made, don't care. 

They aren't followers for my music, but may follow me as  I designed a famous music production system in the 1980s, or I now live in Kyoto Japan, or they read the Science Fiction Desktop Production articles I wrote and the cool models I made in the 1990s in a UK magazine, or they appreciate the car caricatures or the comics I make.

The Digital Dust 59 second version was done for a music+comic YouTube Short, and that did all I intended it to. It had some 52 views, which is a massive hit for me 😀

So releasing the extended version under the creative commons license is an experiment to see if anything else interesting comes of it.  I expect that little will, as anyone after something like that to work on will not come across it, for the same reasons the original track do not get played.  

If someone was to make any real money from a derived work, good on them! That requires networking and marketing skills I don't have for music. Social Media, and the way people use it, the rage, the hate, but just as much, the utter popularity of utter waste of time nothingness trivia ( my kid sneezed, I like clouds, or I like my toast this brown) makes me ill. The only post type I can do that gets noticed at all is this 😣

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology