"It's broken." A favorite moment from Firefly

River Tam fixes a problem.

The Faint-Wet From Birth

One of my favorite Tunes from The Faint-Wet From Birth

2001 Macworld about the Digital Hub = iPhone 3GS

This Daring Fireball post:http://daringfireball.net/2009/11/a_car_and_a_bicycle
linked to this video:

Starts around 3min 10seconds

Cell Phones + Portable CD Players and MP3 players + Digital Camcorders + Portable DVD Players for playing video + Digital Still Cameras + Handheld Organizers = Some of the things the current iPhone 3GS does.

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Google story in 2 minutes while I work on a 10 year old Mac

They've created so many things I take for granted in the last few years.

As I type this I'm installing Mac OS X on a machine so that I can use a 10.3 upgrade disk so I can run Pro Tools 6.4 with a Digi 001 interface on a Mac G4 built at the same time Google started. (I'm typing on a 3+ year old Macbook Pro.)

Posted via email from A Total Waste Of Time

Anvil Launching

Posted via email from A Total Waste Of Time

An unexpected email leads to a course correction.

After working on one of the Marqui Adora songs all day I read this email message from Danny Ashe:

Subject:Hey Guys

I've been giving this a lot of thought and have come to a big decision. My days with Marqui Adora are over.
The fact that it doesn't bother me that we haven't done anything in months, tells me my heart is not in it anymore. For months I've been debating whether or not I should do this and I guess certain things have happened lately that have made me realize there's too many things I sacrificed for music. It was fine to sacrifice them at the time, but now I feel I need to move on.

I got a job in Spain, so I'm leaving right after Christmas and will be there for most of, if not all of 2010. Not sure if I'll be coming back to the States though... at least for a while.

It's been great working with you guys but after 20 years of playing music I'm officially ready to concentrate on a new career, new experiences and new goals.
I wish you both the best with the music and if at any point you want vocals done for the songs we haven't finished, let me know.

Take care,

This is Danny Ashe signing off...


So there you go. Joe and I hope Danny does well in everything he chooses to do in his life. (For my part I hope he falls back into making music someday since he is one of the most talented musicians I've ever worked with.)

Thanks for all the good times and good tunes Danny.

-John Tooker
Marqui Adora

Tweaked Walk Away for a few hours today.

I might need to coin a new phrase for doing major corrective/elective surgery on a recording.

Maybe I'll call it Die in a Discoing a song since that was the first Marqui Adora song I did that to.

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Trying out an iPhone blogger App

BlogPress Lite a free version just for blogger.
http://bit.ly/4XjKs



Test pic of one of my studio assistants.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New lessons added to Garageband Store. This one could not be resisted.

And when I finish that one...

Hope they add bass guitar lessons soon.

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My happy moment of the day.

Looking at the listeners page on the Marqui Adora Last.FM page shows we have people enjoying our music all over the world. And these are just the people that use last.fm!

 http://www.last.fm/music/Marqui+Adora/+listeners

Posted via email from John Tooker

I learned something today... (From a gay fish)

So Sunday morning I was telling Nikki about a thought I had that week that explained why I liked music and art and didn't really care about professional sports. My thought was that when I've gone to see a band perform I want them to play well. I want them to play well for my sake for the audience and for themselves. When I leave a show I'm excited to have seen someone do something well even if it was a band I don't care about.

 Contrast that to a sports fan. When you are a sports fan you have teams that you like and root for and ones you don't like and root against. You will be disappointed even if you see one of the best games ever if it's not your team that wins in the end. You can't enjoy seeing someone with skill and talent play because they are wearing the wrong jersey.

 I felt great about this analogy and felt it clearly expressed my point of view.

 Then Kanye West feels the need to interrupt someone receiving an award because it wasn't the person he was rooting for.

 http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/435995/taylor-swift-wins-best-female-video.jhtml#id=1620605

 Thank you Kanye for using your idiot powers to prove my point so elegantly.

 I'm glad I'm not you and don't see the world through your retarded eyes.

 http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/220762

Posted via email from John Tooker

The dead whale carcass of the music could feed a lot of smaller fish and a few sharks.

Two good reads about the current music business.

 Artists Find Backers as Labels Wane : http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/technology/internet/22music.html?_r=2

 Music and money: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2009/08/23/On-Music

  
Related video:

 

  
(The sharks would be ticketmaster and livenations 360 deals in this case.)

Posted via email from John Tooker

Only six songs remain in the drums folder onto the Bass folder!

Since the 10th of last month I've moved along a bunch of songs from the need to finish drums folder to the need to finish bass folder. Only 6 remain in the drums folder of the 14 and of those six I have worked on 4 of them to some degree or other. I'm rather pleased with that progress since I also was trying to pass a certification for Soundtrack Pro 2 at the same time. (Which I did.) Logic 9 continues to help things move forward at a brisker pace and since installing Snow Leopard I've recovered almost 16GB of space!

So I think my next plan of attack will be to move the songs in the bass folder forward until most of them are ready for guitars. Some of them might not even require much to move onto the guitar folder. Here are the ones currently in the 02 Track Bass folder:

Posted via email from John Tooker

Things I've noticed about Logic 9 while getting my oil changed and tire repaired.

Logic 9 uses an image of the arrange window as the sessions icon image and for the quick look preview. Very handy for figuring out which version of an arrangement you are looking for without having to load the session. You can see the Logic 8 below session to compare. The screen shot even removes the toolbar so it doesn't have wasted space.

Also tried out the Flex time on this song slowing the tracks from 77bpm to 65bpm and the results did impress me. (Though I will be re-tracking the parts for performance reasons.)
 
The new groups floating window is very useful.
 
I like the new zoom commands even though I will have to retrain my hands. They are more useful and I don't have to twist my hands into bizzare shapes just to zoom in or out. If you've used a previous version you have to choose the defaults since it doesn't automatically replace them when you upgrade.

Posted via email from John Tooker

My new trick for programming Hi-Hat parts

Instead of using a single MIDI instrument to play a Hi-Hat pattern, which tends to sound very mechanical, I'll layer a second Hi-Hat instrument with varying velocities so that the sound changes more then it can with a single instrument. By varying the hits velocities I'm able to achieve a very unique sound as well.

 So far I have the best luck mixing Logics sounds along with rewired sounds from Reason's Reason Drum Kit sounds which have a high number of samples per instrument. I also tend to put both sets of Hi-Hats in mono to avoid phasey weirdness.

Posted via email from John Tooker

Moved a few songs up the ladder.

Finished tweaking the drums for a few songs so they get to move up to the next folder. I'll do a few more of the drum parts and then move onto the Bass guitar bits.

Posted via email from John Tooker

Tweaking drums and sorting files...

Moved one song up a level in my 8 folder system and moved a few others towards that moment by fixing drum tuning and cleaning parts up. Here's the bottom row as of today. (Other songs live in the higher numbered folders as well. My thinking at the moment is to move them up in waves.)

Posted via email from John Tooker

These things make me so damn happy. Baptazia-Super Sunday

Baptazia - Super Sunday - Master x / Rhymes & Noisia

Posted via email from John Tooker

These things make me so damn happy. Baptazia-Super Sunday

Baptazia - Super Sunday - Master x / Rhymes & Noisia

Posted via email from John Tooker

For my dead homies...

A fitting Les Paul tribute indeed.

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1470

Spin seems to be actually using the web correctly...

First time I've seen a magazine really do that..

http://www.spinearth.tv/report/amanda-palmer-on-a-picnic

<a href="http://www.spinearth.tv/report/amanda-palmer-on-a-picnic">See full report...</a>

Very busy doing nothing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8196807.stm

Wouldn't it be great if the above video was followed by this one?

Posted via email from John Tooker

New Radiohead soon? Leaked track...

More info:
http://www.ateaseweb.com/2009/08/13/new-radiohead-track-leaked/

 

Posted via email from John Tooker

Wow...

This has a few moments of WTF? to it.

 related
Thom Yorke Analyse (From The Basement)

Posted via email from John Tooker

Make noise keep clean keep busy

New Dave Smith Synth

 

  
Keep clean!
http://mashable.com/2009/08/13/iphone-soap/

  
I might try this one out...
https://www.rescuetime.com/

Posted via email from John Tooker

Trailer for Legion.

FX looks cool.

Dog in a swing and more!

  
Maxim rarely does something well but this appealed to me.
http://www.maxim.com/humor/stupid-fun/83547/hipster-douchebag-soundboard.html

  
I still don't really understand Furries.
http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/08/when_furries_attack_the_furry.php

Posted via email from John Tooker

Girlfriend Doesn't Realize Boyfriend is on Vacation - CollegeHumor video

via collegehumor.com

It's a little long but stick with it 'till the end.

Posted via web from John Tooker

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip 'The Beat That My Heart Skipped'

via youtube.com

I do love the crusty loopyness of the tune.

Posted via web from johntooker's posterous

nothing to see here testing something

move along...

Posted via email from johntooker's posterous

Well that does put a positive spin on things.

see more hipster robot webcomics and pixel t-shirts

The new-new-new plan of attack for the Marqui Adora recordings.

Joe and I both share files using a service called DropBox (Click this link to try it and both you and I will get extra space for FREE!) Since the two of us use Logic Pro 8 (Soon to be Logic Pro 9) we can both open up the project on our home machine and get right to work without having to exchange DVDs or hard drives. (On a side note we did find one glitch. We have to save as... a copy to get DropBox to work well each time we change the session. So we add a new three digit number each time Song Blah 005 as an example.) Sadly Danny still doesn't own a Mac so he can't join in our reindeer games.

The one thing I've changed today is I've created several numbered folders that show the songs current progress by showing what is needed to be finished.

01-Track Drums
Means a recording that needs the drums to be finished.

02-Track Bass
Drums are finished now the bass needs to be.

03-Track Guitars
Drums and Bass finished but not the guitars.

04-Track Vocals
Drums/Bass/Guitars are finished needs Vocals.

05-Track BG Vocals
I think you can guess this one.

06-Mix
Means all the recording should be done, including any Keyboards, and it should be ready for editing and mixing.

07-Master
Mix is approved by everyone else now it will wait until it is joined by others so it can be mastered and released with them.

08-Finished
Song is released or about to be released.

I decided against a dedicated keyboard section since we add those at will though the whole process.