DRL Echobox

mfdz

worked on mfdz bunches today. got php online (almost). ohhhhh! shit! I have to get up early tomorrow. I am not superman!

grabb.it
going online in a major way withour new "wild" css. I'm working on it right now to go to bed.

At Dusk
start in the studio tomorrow, working on mixes. I want to warp time.

life
Marissa and Inana live here now, they are a wonderful addition to the household! Its so nice to be woken early by the sound of new friends.d

I've decided that Lars Von Trier's movies are about the futility of watching them - an argument which happens to support my anti-video-narrative position very well, thank you! The reason is that his characters have a tricky way of being impossible to empathize with. Because they all live either hopeless or inconseqential lives, just on the edge of my ability to suspend disbelief, I find that any glimmer of empathy I have for them is offset by the fact that my only and best recourse towards helping them (and they all need help) is to STOP WATCHING THE MOVIE.

Tonight is one of those nights where I wake up with very dry eyes - the window in the bedroom got shut all the way, and the heat is on, but I know this kind of 6am wake up is from the whiskey (and karaoke) last night at Pix. It was Ryan's birthday, Amy sang a truly heart-rending version of "Love is a Battlefield", Mike W was the volunteer KJ, Leb kept things going with the rock stylings of Joan Jett, and your's truly had a rough time with MJ's "Smooth Criminal", but made up for it by having the gall to sing the Ghostbusters theme song.

The At Dusk record is getting very close! We listened to rough mixes in the car on the way home from the studio, and that's what they were - rough. I was a little surprised because they sounded so good in the studio, but I guess that's what happens when you get them off the big speakers and into the real world. I think they are rough in just the right way - ie. good balance and energy, and could be cleaned up with some diligent de-EQing.

(please skip the next paragraph)

We've been doing mostly additive EQ - not quite my style - and I think it shows. Instead of adding frequencies to the vocals to make them cut through the guitars, I'll removee the corresponding frequencies from the guitars, to let the vocals shine through. --Googling around, I could not find any resources on the difference between additive and subtractive eq, so here goes: Any time you EQ a signal, you are introducing phase irregularities (in its extreme form this is the sound you're familiar with from electronic music as the resonance of a filter sweep). When you boost a frequency band with EQ, the phase irregularities are in the loud part of the signal. When you cut, those same resonances are in the quiet part of the signal, de-emphasizing them. Most of the time if you have more than one eq boost on a channel, you can get a cleaner sound by cutting the frequency between your boosts, killing the boosts, and turning the whole thing up. Now I will tell you that a cleaner sound is not always better. A cleaner sound is not always better.

Tomorrow: STRENGTH background vocals from John and Patrick. Also I will smash by head because Music For Dozens is down down down. Now it is time to go back to sleep.

recording
mfdz
karaoke
eq

Sometimes I get it in my head that a certain word makes a good refrain. So I say it alot. My theme-word for the week is boring. Not that I'm bored, just that I aspire to be more boring. Not to you, my dear readers, but to my real-life peeps. Like that time I made everyone laugh by spouting non-sense. I could avoid that.

Umm. I'm 26 now. Duh.

(My real reason for being boring: to save up a bunch of exciting so that I can explode with it all at once, like maybe sometime when the sun is shining and everyone least expects it.)

Did you know that our cats lick each other's butts? It might not be the butt, but instead something near there, that they lick. That is not boring but it is juvenile to have an excessive interest in it.

Amy thinks that I should keep her informed when I have a change of plans mid-stream, and she is depending on me for something. This strikes me as extremely sensible. I alittlebit wish for a GPS beacon I could wear.

I dreamed I was on Letterman, in the studio audience, when I interrupted his hostness loudly during a skit. He took it in stride. What choice did he have?

ahh shit have you guys heard Koto Y Soto?

it feels good to blog dumb stuff again. if you want geek stuff you should read my Free Culture Kool Aid blog.