c74 Max workshop

Monday through Friday at Project Lodge there was a free crash course in cycling74 software tools: Max, Jitter and Max for (Ableton) Live. I was able to attend all of Monday and the last 3 hours of Thursday's classes. Pal Gregory and co-presenter and new pal Darwin held forth on the near east side and the lovely weather allowed visits on the bicycle.

Know enough to be dangerous at this point and ahead will be digging into this deep and useful set of strategies to enhance the electro acoustic rig. That's what I have when Gregory and I do our gigs. The basic concept is to play mostly hand held stuff, some of it of my own invention and some of it high tech from, well the early 90s. So no drums, just a table with a bunch of wired up gadgets:
DrumKAT
Mini-MIDI keyboard hack







I made this from an old keyboard that was meant to plug into a PC. Jon G hot wired it to just be a plain old MIDI keyboard. I removed the frame, sawed some off and replaced all the white keys 'cept the 2 on each end.

The little blue pickup in the upper left is set up all industrial-strength and can be attached to stuff easily. It's like a little mic to amplify the little stuff. I also plug it into a trigger input of the KAT, attached to the sawed off piece of color coordinated wrist-rest pad - it's my 'kick drum' trigger. You just tap the little guy with your toe and "whooom!".

Upper right is the remaining example of my the original set of 4 electronic drum pads made from plumbing parts. It still works anyway.

At the bottom is a plastic mouthwash bottle festooned with a piezo pickup glued on to it's mouth - tap tap, whump, bink, etc.

The 'rack' will have my trusty Yamaha MU-80 tone module/effects box, Uptown Flash MIDI controllable mixer, Mackie 12o2 mixer and some yet-to-be-determined MIDI interface for the Powerbook. Losing the old 486 PC laptop (Win95!) and Bome's MIDI translator formerly used to interface Mini-MIDI kbd to the rest of the rig.

Immediate goals: System Exclusive messages translated from incoming KAT notes to change voices, pitch, duration and effects on the fly, enhancing the KAT's multi-note/multi-message generating capabilities in order to play 'rule games' for auto-accompaniment. And nifty things like setting tap tempo (adjusting delay times) on the fly. This last item on the hit list will allow matching tempos set by Gregory's looping and delays in performance, hoo!

Spring, just around the corner

and this morning, the first fly of twenty-ten lit on my kitchen window sill.










































RIP little guy.
Be seeing your cousins soon, I have no doubt.

listen:
David Bowie - Outside
Dave Douglas - Five
John Metcalfe - Scorching Bay/The Inner Life ii

Apex DT250A DTV converter

Last week my Digital TV converter box, an Apex DT250A, refused to power up. When I'd press the power button, instead of the light going from red to green for GO, it simply blinked red. Bah! After contemplating replacement which I can ill afford, I used Google to find a thread on an online help forum where my exact problem was detailed along with a possible solution. It seems the power supply may have a bad capacitor. A closer look:


















Aha! The bad component was all swollen just like a human injury! Scrounged through my parts box for a 470uF 25V cap - zilch.

Hannah mentioned that what she often does with discarded electronics in incorporate them into her art projects . Reuse, repurpose...this got me thinking: discarded components, hmm...I have some little power supplies in parts box. Scrounge, scrounge..yes! And as luck would have it, one power supply actually had the very component needed..sweet! After about 45 minutes of dorking around inside the little black box to replace the capacitor, cursing the observed phenomenon that a little knowledge can be dangerous, postulating that a sane man would have just chucked into the trash and moved on, yadayada - my Apex POS had been given a 2nd lease and will provide it's digital link to the broadcast television medium again, for better or worse*

Then Hannah, home by now, wrote that I might look in the butter compartment...and behold: at tasty morsel of chocolate from the neighborhood shop. It was consumed hastily it was, and with celebratory glee!

*2011 update: The Apex DT250A is shite! Another el cheapo Made in China DTV box (Magnavox E172516) was recently inherited from my late step father so I gave it a whirl. Picture quality is greatly improved! Channels 3 and 47 no longer glitch out when there's stormy weather. The Apex also used to 'forget' channels 3.1 and 3.2 and required retuning to bring them back. Next time I'll know better than to waste time with this nonsense. Magnavox E172516 is OK.


listen:
Tatooed Love Boys (Pretenders tribute) live

read:
Smithsonian March issue

view:
Spike Jones Colgate Comedy Hour episodes

have some oatmeal

and start your day braced for the aforementioned nasty elemental forces. You have time for breakfast, really, you do. It helps bucking up for the day to be much easier. After years of avoiding the oats cuz instant is like cardboard porridge and not so good for you with the artificial 'flavorings' included. Tom has decided to be good to his heart and circulatory system with this yummy meal. It takes even less time than eggs 'n' toast. My hippie 'whole-y-er than thou' self suggests to use organic ingredients if possible, to look after our planet's health in the process. And they taste better too - you get what you pay for in both ways.

Tom's Oatmeal with Nuts and Fruit

I like these:















..any whole grain raw oats would be fine.
Measure out the oats, 1/2 to 3/4 cup is plenty, then pour into the bowl you will use to eat them.
Measure out double that volume of water, bring to a boil in a medium size pan.
While the water is coming to a boil, gather the following:
5 or 6 walnut halves
1/4 cup raisins
small ripe banana
honey
1/4 cup milk
Getting out the milk early and letting it equalize to room temp is also recommended.
Add oats to boiling water, lower heat to keep it boiling but not boiling over.
Stir occasionally while you separate raisins, break walnut pieces into quarters or kernels and slice up the banana.
When the the water has boiled away and the oats are fluffy (usually 10-12 minutes), cover the pan and remove from the burner to let sit for a minute.
Finally, scoop oats into your bowl, add nuts/fruit/milk and drizzle some honey:














































Enjoy with your bevvie of choice. Been trying to switch over to breakfast tea. Stash's English Breakfast or Earl Grey. Still, it's hard to resist that morning coffee since Madison has an abundance of great roasts. Here's one:






















A fitting way to close this post might be to quote my old pal Dmitri:
"Never regret the extra expense and trouble of having high quality food."
Over the years I have found this to be very good advice.

listen:
Ornette Coleman - To Whom Who Keeps a Record, The Shape of Jazz to Come
T-bone Burnette
David Bowie - Outside

read:
Andy Summers - One Train Later

view:
Terry Gilliam's latest, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassis (!)
Spalding Gray - Gray's Anatomy
Coen Bros' Oh Brother Where Art Thou

more snow and ice for the holidays

blizzard

We've had a foot and a half of snow here, Madison was specifically mentioned on CNN. I guess we are in the thick of it.

















































Dug a path to the street and cleared the sidewalk this morning.

Just got a call from the boss: tonight's show is cancelled..yay!
Only wish planning had transpired to be snowbound with my sweetie.
Hope we can still have our dinner date tomorrow..

Arboretum

Last Saturday Hannah and I with Tim and Bess hiked our beautiful nature preserve for a nice sunny jaunt around the marsh in our lovely Arboretum here. Ahh, sunshine, fresh air and good company.