I’ll admit it. I’ve got iPad Fever big time, especially after seeing someone in our orchestra using one during the Easter service (long story). Given that I’ve pretty much drunk the Kool Aid on using my iPhone and iPod Touch witih TouchOSC, the iPad seems like a logical next step. Since I can’t afford a Lemur, I’ll take the poor man’s route.
Note that I have not yet purchased an iPad. I’m waiting for the 3G version to come out because the idea of NetFlix Instant Watch is appealing. But then I saw this from Ryan Noise…
Now I pretty much am trying to hold myself back from jumping in the car and driving to the Apple Store. We’ll see how long my will power holds out!
Before you dismiss this post as a history lesson, please do me a favor and read through it. There’s a point to all this, one that might be of use to you.
I’m frequently asked how I learned so much about synthesizers. The question usually comes from people who’ve never met me in person because if they had, the gray hair would be a giveaway to the fact that I born only a couple of years before Robert Moog showed his first synthesizer at the AES convention in 1964. So, I’ve pretty much grown up with the modern synthesizer in one form or another.
Because of my age and the luck of being born in Denton, Texas (home of one of the finest music schools in the country), I was exposed to electronic music fairly early in life. The year I was born, a man named Merrill Ellis came to the university and eventually established the electronic music program at the school. Over the years, I was able to hang out with faculty in the program and students who were taking classes in the program, due in large part to my father who was a professor in another college and an ardent supporter of my hobbies and interests.
Synthesis in those days was sometimes crude, sometimes unpredictable, but always wonderful. I had access to the most wonderful playground a kid like me could have. While my friends were off learning how to throw a football or do a layup, I was learning what oscillators were and why certain waveforms sounded the way they did. Heady stuff for a pre-teen who had a love for both music and electronics.
In junior high, my school bought a synthesizer (which I recall as being a Micromoog) for use in the band. I played saxophone, and the synthesizer was really the domain of the percussion section. But my band director would let me come in the band hall before school and during lunch and tinker with it. What a glorious time that was, having a synth all to myself even for short periods of time, and I created what I thought then were some pretty cool sounds.
Over the years, I owned various synthesizers. Arp, Moog, Sequential Circuits, Roland, Korg, and others came and went. Some stayed (much to the chagrin of my wife who even now is eyeing my Roland SH-1000 with a glint that says “Someday, my friend, you are off to the rubbish heap…”). Some continue to be used in my work (the same SH-1000 for instance). And all were a part of the ongoing education that has led me to today.
Ah, today. Today I carry around spot-on software versions of some of the best synthesizers in the world, which I could never afford nor did I have the space for (unlike my friend Mike Kent who seems to have figured out how to have a synth museum and keep peace in the family!). But I digress.
The point to this post is that there’s very little that can substitute for the long road through synthesizer history. I learned how to turn knobs and plug cables from one place to another and how waveforms worked because I had to. While I still fondly recall the feverish repatching of a synth onstage in the middle of a song just to get to the next sound, I’m not all that interested in returning to that work process when I can click a button my controller and call up the same sound on my laptop in just seconds (and not have to remember which cable goes where).
So how do people in 2010 (I know you can hear the “you kids today!” in my voice…) learn synthesis? And more specifically, the concepts of analog synthesis that are the underpinnings of many of the software synths we use today? You can certainly buy books, you can scour the web for information, and you can do a lot of experimenting. All very good approaches to the craft.
But here’s the (potential) pot of gold you’ve been waiting for while suffering through this walk down memory lane. What if I told you there was a way that you could learn from a master, right on your computer, from a master instructor who can show you the analog world related to today’s software synths? What if I told you it would only cost you a day or two of your time and a dollar on your credit card? You can, and here’s how.
Head over to macProVideo.com, one of my absolutely favorite video training companies. And look for the “3 days for $1″ button in the upper left-hand corner. Or heck, just click on it below:
That will take you to a page where you can sign up for a trial subscription to every tutorial offered, and you’ll only pay $1 for three days of access. Now understand this: you do have to cancel your subscription before your trial is over, or you will end up being renewed at a monthly cost. In fact, let me state that again:
You do have to cancel your subscription before your trial is over, or you will end up being renewed at a monthly cost.
With that disclaimer out of the way, let me say that I suspect you will want to become a subscriber at some point. All of their tutorials are top-notch, and I am a very satisfied customer. But… BUT…
Before you go gorge yourself on Logic Pro or Ableton Live or Pro Tools tutorials, be sure to check out A/V Fundamentals 201: Analog Synthesis in a Digital World. I ran across this course while doing some scanning through the titles, and I’ve been watching it this morning because a) you can always learn something and b) Richard Lainhart, the instructor, is phenomenal.
Just have a look at the samples if you’re not convinced by my sales job. And by the way, I get absolutely no kickbacks or any sort of compensation from macProVideo.com. I’m just a very satisfied customer who is always happy to tout the products of such a great company).
So, what are you waiting for? Spend a buck and spend the next day or two learning synthesis from a master. You’ll thank me later!
Now get out of here and go learn!!
Image from Native Instruments' web site
Native Instruments has given us another holiday collection this year. The Holiday Selection 2009 is a free instrument that contains sounds from various KORE and KONTAKT instruments. 45 sounds, 360 variations, all free.
The instrument uses the free KORE 2 Player which you can also download from Native Instruments’ site. I listened to the various demos and really liked what I heard. Have a listen to “The X-mass Hullabaloo” for an interesting pad sound and a bell sound. And don’t be turned off by the dance flavor of the demos. There’s gold in the patches for just about every style.
There are those who discount these free instruments/collections as not worth the effort, but I’ve used something from all of the free KORE packs in several productions. If you’re looking for that “something different” to use even in one section of one song, this might be what you need.
The site has a new look. I’m not completely happy with it, but I’ve waited long enough to do something about it. So, it’s now a work in progress (kind of like that whole Google-in-perpetual-beta thing). I may change the width of the columns, I may change the color scheme, and I may change the overall layout. But it has changed now and will continue to change.
Change is good. I’ve gotten over my mental block of ensuring that everything is perfect before introducing any changes, and so this is a baby step.
If you run across some area of the site that doesn’t work in your browser (yes, I’m talking to you Internet Explorer 6 folks…), let me know. I’m testing in IE7/IE8, Firefox 3, Safari 4, and Chrome. Most everything should work in all those browsers, but I do see some annoying formatting things here and there.
Oh, and happy Thanksgiving!
Finally. The last hurdles are leaped, the last bushes removed, the last cats skinned. Okay, that last one is a bit creepy. But the point is that the real work is done.
And along the way, I’ve learned some lessons.
I’ll be back on Friday with more news and a challenge of sorts. Take care!
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. — Lao-tzu
I feel like we’ve take thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of steps in the last three months. Every day I inch a bit closer to the goal, and yet I feel like it continues to move further away. I’m disappointed that I missed my January 1st launch goal for the new features, and I’ve learned my lesson (the hard way) about relying on folks who mean well but aren’t capable of delivering.
But enough of the past. I’m much closer today than I was yesterday, and I’ll be even closer in a few days. The final elements are clicking together, and I’m excited and relieved to be getting ready to launch some aspects of the site. My “big bang” plan fell through, so now I’m concentrating on incremental additions.
And the first is content. So many of you have contacted me about when the content will be available (and it already is if you haven’t looked around). The more important question is when you’ll be able to contribute, and that’s the first aspect that will open up. I’m in the final stages of testing, so it’s right around the corner.
In preparation for that, you may seem some momentary lapses in site features. I’m moving some things around structurally to alleviate some organizational problems that have plagued the site from day one. So don’t panic if you suddenly aren’t able to see the front page. The existing content will be at the following link throughout the changeover:
http://www.sacredloops.org/content/
Eventually all this content will be loaded over into the new filing system, but for the time being it remains at the link above.
Just wanted to post this to ensure you that all is well and moving forward.
…have been greatly exaggerated.
When I was in college, my mother phoned me to say that she had been told of my death. Apparently someone in my high school graduating class had heard from someone else (who heard it from a friend and so on) that I had died. Somehow that rumor became fact to many because my entry in one of the high school alumni listings showed me as “Deceased”. After reassuring my mother that I felt fine, I tracked down the source of the rumor and corrected it.
It seems that rumors are flying around (thanks to some folks) that Sacred Loops is dying or is already dead. That was news to me, so I thought I’d post an update just to quell any consternation among the one or two of you that actually read this blog and/or utilize the site. We’re still here, and we’re still moving forward on multiple fronts. It’s just taking a lot longer than I had planned.
And here’s why.
When I decided last year to revamp the site and offer a bunch of new options and ideas, I turned to a trusted individual to handle the look and feel aspects and some of the other web-related activites. This was so I could focus on the content and strategic (yes, Virginia, there is a strategy) parts of the site. To make a long story short, I trusted someone who ultimately betrayed that trust and set me back quite a few weeks in both planning and execution. I’m not naming names, so don’t ask. Suffice it to say that I’ve learned my lesson (again) about relying on the commitments of others. As my father always said, “Trust, but verify”.
I’ve said it numerous times, but I do feel like we’re almost home in terms of getting the changes in place. The majority of the issues remaining are not technical in nature, but the simple fact is that I had to step in and address the technical and site implementation issues before I could return to the planning and strategy. Call me crazy, but I want everything to be great before changing it over.
If you have specific questions, feel free to email me at kent (dot) kingery (at) sacredloops (dot) org, and I’ll try to answer any questions I can. Be prepared for me to say “It’s none of your business.” if you ask questions that I think are, well, none of your business. I appreciate all who have offered to help (and I’ve taken a few of you up on specific things), and rest assured this site has not been abandoned. More importantly, what this site represents to me and others is still the same as it was when I took it over from Dan.
So, there it is. We’re still here, and we’re still kicking. There’s still content available, and very soon I’ll turn on the beta version of the content management pages so you can upload and search and so forth. Then I’ll concentrate on the education portions and some other interesting ideas.
If you haven’t taken the time to fill out our short survey, why not do that now? The information will help us in a number of ways, not the least of which is understanding our audience at a basic level. Here’s the link for those that missed it:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=yAvC0H2vQVihRnweURQoZg_3d_3d
Thanks again for your support, faithful readers (and downloaders and other fans). Have faith.
…the behinder I get. I saw that on a plaque in someone’s office a long time ago, and I think it applies to me pretty much these days. I took some time off at Christmas (first vacation in a long time), hoping to get a lot of work done here. And I did. Probably too much work.
But I’m finally getting everything straightened out again. Videos encoded? Check. Site structure repaired (after disastrous attempt at moving stuff around)? Yup. Content management system in place for files? Final testing, boss!
Just a bit more and we’re there. Hang on…
Kent
I finally got the old content restored from a backup (long story behind that) and have the site back up and running in its old form. I’m doing some final testing on the now-severed content pages and hope to have those up this evening.
2009 is starting off with a whimper rather than a bang…
Kent
Well, it turns out that my new WordPress theme is part of the problem (not sure why since I’m not really a WordPress guy). I’m still working on it and will probably forgo the new WordPress theme in favor of getting the content system online instead. I need to separate the content pages from WordPress now, but I should have it online today.
Nothing like a big build-up and then a system flaw to ring in the New Year… Sheesh!
Kent
