The (not-so) new communication style – texting (teen style)

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Fresh

Greetings readers….

Over the last week, I did a podcast about letter writing as a lost art, moreover, the tech of communications. In that podcast I mentioned texting as the long time popular way of communicating -especially- with teens. I text a lot, on a regular basis, but never really do it if I need to get a quick reply out of the blue (to me, it only makes sense to use the phone (at least) if you need a prompt response).

My teenager daughter is away at college summer program. I know I’m showing my age, but it is beyond me why she continues to TEXT me more than call home to communicate, especially when there were times where she needed an immediate answer (or so I thought). I’m (laughing) trying to figure out the teenage psyche when it comes to choosing texting over calling when 95% of the time, the texting is continually. I’ve resolved my logic to the fact that …it’s just the way it is in this day and age – another revelation of fatherhood. LOl>

Take care…. 🙂

Posted in Daily Musings | 4 Comments

AudioMo is here

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Fresh

Greetings readers. Yesterday I happened to stumble upon (I don’t even remember how) a post on app.net regarding the recurring challenge, AudioMo. Being a musician, studio owner/engineer/producer/remixer by night and wrangler of audio, I enjoy posting (at times) when and where I can. The challenge of posting audio everyday appealed to me, but is far from being a foreign concept, considering I’ve been podcasting since 2006. The rules regarding AudioMo are simple and are posted below.

“Monday is 1st July. This means the start of AudioMo.

AudioMo is a month long audio challenge. Just record an audio a day, then tweet the link to that audio with the AudioMo hashtag. The AudioMo hashtag is simply #AudioMo”

You can find out more at AudioMo’s website.

Here’s my first post: Day 1- AudioMo Challenge: What’s it about? #audiomo

Have a great day.

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ADN = Awesomely Done Networking

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Fresh

I like it…ADN!

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Coming Soon……

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Fresh

yeah…..

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It’s the small things….

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Fresh

Greetings …

We’re about to head into summer in the DC metro area. I’m looking forward to it. Since my last post (the exodus from FB), a good deal of time has been spent job hunting, as I (with a bunch of other ex-coworkers) got laid off from our company (sequestration, government contract not funded, yadda yadda yadda). With the time I’ve had on my hands outside of the job search. I finally got a chance to give my website a much needed facelift, not only in a theme change, but adding another page to show my run stats, and one to host episodes from newly created podcast entitled “Tech Times”

I really like this theme…it took me long enough to find it on the WordPress.org site. It looks so good that it’s motivated me to blog more. so stay tuned.

Have a great day…

Doug

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FB – The Sabbatical

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Fresh

Greetings All…

Hope this post finds you well. It has been an interesting past two weeks. A few things sort of came to an apex and caused me to make a decision one evening that reflects the graphic you see above.

Lessee, it all started with some podcast commentary by a good friend Ray Garraud, who hosts “The Garraud Files Podcast”. In Episode 14, he extemporaneously spoke on his thoughts regarding social media fatigue. He made some great points which reminded me of a phone conversation a few months on how much social media is consumed by people today. It definitely got me to think, more than usual, about my own rate of daily consumption. It was, then, a week ago that I was listening to an episode of Kojo Nnamdi’s Tech Tuesday Show on WAMU.org. A good part of the 07 May episode of The Computer Guys (and Gal) talked about using and/or unplugging from FB and Twitter.

[THIS JUST IN: I just noticed yesterday’s (14 May) episode entitled “Unplugged: Overcoming Our Digital Obsession” !! Maybe I should listen to that before finishing this post! How ironic, LOL]

In any event, I thought of the time spent on FB (particularly) and what is was gaining me. My FB habits have never really been like most users. I rarely page hop, keep a very low friends list count compared to many, and generally share tech posts and participate in music fan pages. What I did notice that for me, it began to become a time sink – checking posts during the day, checking messages and posts at night and (unfortunately) being exposed to others drama (very childish). As mentioned, things I wanted to accomplish (and complained I didn’t have the time for) were not moving forward as a result.

By Tuesday night, I left FB and interestingly enough, haven’t missed it at all. I’ve learned (thus far) that I wasn’t attached to it as I thought. Oddly enough, I dont think I’ll ever leave Twitter though (#earlyadopter), and ADN is my new spot, a fresh and clean community similar to Twitter, but about engagement (tech and otherwise), without the branding and ads! (free to join, by invite only (thanks again, Ray) :-). Will I come back to FB? Maybe. It is certainly a good place to connect, but for now, I’d like to reap whatever benefits I receive from this sabbatical.

Take care….
F!

Posted in Daily Musings, Social Networking | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Pathways to music composition (tech and otherwise) in 2013

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Fresh


My Lab

Just yesterday I was having a chat with another musician/producer over Gmail. We were talking about related topics regarding music production. Part of the discussion was about his loose timing of the hi-hat in hip hop to give that “bounce”, another was about using Battery 3 vs Battery 4 as a drum plugin in your DAW of choice, we switched to using Reason 7 vs Live 9 for production, yet another topic was about knowing when not to succumb to gear lust (he has a modular synth being delivered next week) and to make music with the tools (gear) you have. Yet another topic was the bass guitar track I recorded on a recent song and his enjoyment of how it sounded in the mix. The gist of all those topics made me think of a related blogpost I wrote about a year and a half ago on the subject of music composition today.

Ironically, this evening, I visited the blog of David Frank, of The System. He and Mic just released “System Overload”, all brand new tracks and a new edit of their hit “Don’t Disturb This Groove”. I, like many die hard fans of The System, was excited to see and hear them come back together to record brand new music, music which was defintely worth the wait.

Back to David’s blog. He posted (yet another) very interesting article that shares his insight on how some of the ways he composes music for The System. David is classically trained, as well as technically sharp in electronic music composition/production. If you’ve ever (especially) heard live interviews, with David, he continually talks about how his musical training and use of gear, over the years, play their distinct roles in his composition. It’s insight like this that I don’t ever recall seeing in any other similar interviews I’ve read.

I’ve had many discussions with artists/songwriters/musicians who use digital audio workstations and sample libraries to compose their music, with regards to how urban contemporary and pop music is often arranged and composed today.

  • Is there less “musicianship” due to feature laden DAWs?
  • Are arrangements of today that are getting heavy rotation just basically loops?
  • Are sample libraries solely being used over actually playing and recording actual instruments?
  • Is the music of these two genres, for example, too simplistic due to simply stringing pre-recorded tracks together?
  • Are song elements such a bridge, modulations, key changes greatly absent (as opposed to what was heard decades ago) or are songs more attibuted to just a hook for the entire tune?

    • This can be debated, most certainly. The use of DAWs today, undoubtedly, make popular music composition easier (for lack of a better phrase) because of the features built in. I personally find David’s approach not just insightful, but very interesting (but of course this is due to my own journey and level of musical training as a musician). What say you?

    ::: oceans of rhythm :::

    Fresh.

    Posted in Music Production/Studio Recording | 4 Comments

    The Sunday Soundtrack – 14 Apr 13

    Posted on April 15, 2013 by Fresh

    Greetings Listeners….

    Welcome to another edition of The Sunday Soundtrack. “It’s been a long time, I shouldn’t have left you…” (a little hip hop lyric reference there). It’s great to be back with another edition, albeit overdue, of the podcast. It’s about 12:37 am here in studio, but it’s done. I hope to stay on a regular (to be determined) schedule. Starting with pre-production on Monday for the following Sunday helps, doing a little everyday helps even more. The plan is to finish Saturday evening 🙂

    For my new listeners, The Sunday Soundtrack podcast is geared towards giving you an alternative listening experience to the standard Sunday afternoon commercial smooth jazz formatted programs and expose you to independent artists with tunes that provide that same smoothness, but in such genres as electronica, nu jazz, downtempo, experimental, chillout, instrumental jazzy hip hop, and the like. Please feel free to take a listen and leave comments, if u like. You can also reach The Sunday Soundtrack at (301) 458-0499

    Without further delay, let’s get to the playlist.

    1. Moon Beat – LTJ X-Perience/Moon Beat
    2. Consequences (Late Night Mix) – Blank & Jones/Relax 4
    3. Gutenmirgenduft (Morning Scent) – dZihan & Kamien/Gran Riserva
    4. Subsolitude – Hypoetical/Pendulum
    5. Try Me – J Boogie’s Dubtronic Science f/Goapele & Capitol A/J Boogie’s Dubtronic Science – OM Records 2003
    6. Square Purity – The Jazzment/Beats – Old Stuff
    7. Sunbeams – Uko/Cafe Del Mar – Vol. 7

    Some special shout outs:

  • My entire podcast massive: Fave, Big La (Todd Kelley), DarrenKeith, Anji Bee, Nikki, BSOTS, DJ Diva, EJ Flavors (The Sensei), and T. Grundy (Mr Brilliant). All excellent podcasters whose episodes range from smooth jazz to soul to hip hop to R&B to chillout to funk. My hats off to all of you, thanks for the encouragement
  • All the podcast drops done by the crew above AND listeners – thank you!
  • Ray Garraud – The Garraud Files Podcast, a versatile tech enthusiast, author, blogger, podcaster, public speaker, and good friend with whom I’ve had several great conversations with on his own thoughts of mobile podcasting and the evolving tech out which allows it. Thanks for the push, Ray!
  • Calandra and Madeline for the re-encouragement
  • @DVSJr, @Upright for the re-tweets/favorites about the return!

    • I hope you’re enjoying the tracks. Please feel free to follow the The Sunday Soundtrack on Twitter

    Take care and have a great week.

    ::: oceans of rhythm :::

    Fresh!

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    Posted in Indie Artists, Podcasting, Sunday Soundtrack Musings, Sunday Soundtrack Podcast | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

    Smooth Sunday – Last night’s work

    Posted on October 15, 2012 by Fresh

    Greetings,

    In our last episode :), I was working on rearranging and audio file our keyboardist recorded into a basic arrangement for the band to start rehearsing. The only thing in the audio file I wanted to delete was the scratch drum track he included, but since it was on contiguous file and not a set of stems, that couldn’t be done. Here’s in lies the magic of using the MIDI file he exported from his Reason 5 project. I finally got it late last night and was able to import it into Logic for greater editing. What’s great about using a MIDI file in a DAW is that your choose from a library of software instrumentsto make an entirely different sounding song. What can be bad about that flexibility is belaboring over WHICH grand piano, bass synth, string ensemble sounds best! In any event, I finally settled on some instruments that sound smooth, and was able to bounce the MIDI files to an mp3 file with no drums that the drummer can now rehearse to.

    Flexibility is good…

    Catch you later…

    ::: oceans of rhythm :::

    F!

    Posted in Logic/Logic Pro/Logic Pro 8, Music Production/Studio Recording | 2 Comments

    Chronicles of a Mix – M&Ms (10 Oct 12)

    Posted on October 11, 2012 by Fresh

    Greetings…

    11:46 am on a Thursday and I’m breaking for lunch a little early, but eating at my desk (have a task I’m working on with a colleague and just got the ok from our supervisor on format – of cousse the task is due early this afternoon).

    Those of you keeping up with my last few posts have followed the work I’m doing on getting this track completed for an upcoming (and long overdue) CD project. This has been after (I hate to admit) a long hiatus from working on the project, steadily that is. This brings me to the subject of M&Ms (no, not the world renowned candy): Motivations and Momentums. When it comes to reaching goals, I’m a task-driven guy that needs a plan to execute in order to even think about successfully reaching the goal(s). One of my favorite quotes is “Failing to plan means planning to fail, so plan the work, then work the plan.”. That’s all well and fine, but without the motivation and momentum behind that, it amounts to just a pretty phrase. M&Ms apply to many interests I have – achieving good financial health, achieving good physical fitness (exercise), achieving, most importantly, the proper spiritual walk with Jesus. What I’ve learned is that none of each of those can or will occur without staying motivated and keeping the momentum going – actions truly speak louder than words. Planning is great and truly a necessary foundation, but execution is key.

    So, back to the music, right now the M&Ms are there and I’m finally realizing that movements, even though they are small, are better continuously, than no movement at all. Simple concept, yeah, but it really wasnt sinking in for a longgggggggg time. Last night’s was a continuation of working on the drum track. The entire drum track arrangement is complete with final editing of the kick drum track, now it’s time to EQ the individual drum tracks to satisfaction, then play back in the mix for proper levels, before bussing them out to the submix.

    In parallel to that, I’ve just about finished editing the orchestral arrangement and have decided to substitute the legato clarinet with a full string ensemble track. I think the legato flutes will stay though. I think so more editing may have to take place to eliminate any overlapped notes, or gaps that will allow the entire orchestral arrangement to sound more realistic than it does at the moment.

    Anyway, M&M’s and music (M-cubed?). I think I may get some for the studio….(candy that is….)

    ::: oceans of rhythm :::

    Fresh!

    Posted in Logic/Logic Pro/Logic Pro 8, Music Production/Studio Recording | Tagged , , | 2 Comments