Everything everywhere all at once

We tried watching this movie the other day, it's meant to be some you-beut aweseomsauce movie ... but we just couldn't get into it. Very muddled, hard to follow - not for us. Loads of people liked it (I believe it won a bunch of awards as well), but not our thing.

In a similar vein, a few weeks prior we watched the Queen biopic. I can honestly say I never thought about Freddy Mercury's name. Now that I've spent three seconds thinking about it, it is kind of obvious that it was a stage name. I didn't realise his ethnicity either - again, probably because I don't spend a lot of time thinking about celebrities.

The way I normally work is I'll like a specific song (or songs) from a band but not be a fan of their other stuff. No idea why, but I know some other people love bands and all their works. I'm not a fan of country music, but there are some specific country songs that I like.

Piano, day one

I've been very frustrated for months due to not being creative. I've tried writing, drawing, bass guitar and a few other minor projects. None have really filled me with passion or had me excited to get stuck into them. For example, each time I try and write something, I just stare at a blank screen for a while or type out something very trite and unreadable, then go do something else. Very meh.

There are lots of things I'd like to try out to try and improve being creative... but my budget is $0 and isn't likely to change anytime soon.

So today I've tried to start teaching myself piano, just from watching YT videos. Am I going to be able to play beautiful music? No. Or at least not yet, it's going to take a while. And lots of practice. That's going to be the key, focussed practice. Not easy when I'm often away for weeks at a time, but it's got to be a better use of my time than staring at my phone.

Idea

Since I've been gearing up a bit make more video content with my camera, I figure I may as well create another video clip for my so-called "music career".

I'm not actually creating any new music, but that'd be a simple way of practising using the camera with a specific goal to work towards. I want to make video clips for other people, but I need to make sure that I can produce reliably good video first. And that means practice.

I'll probably grab one of the songs from one of my albums that I've already published (despite pulling down my previous website) and use that.

As for ideas, the one I've got rattling around in my head at the moment is to get a dancer, dress them up like a ninja and have them dance around in the streets. In order to do this, I'll need to get someone who will agree to be the ninja, then get a suitable ninja-esque outfit. Simple black clothes with some black bmx armour ought to do it.

Legalities ... not too sure about the laws regarding going around in public dressed as a ninja. Might need to notify the local police station. Need to wear a high-vis vest. Having a camera out will help, so long as whoever is dressed as a ninja is mature enough to not act like an idiot - especially if the local constabulary show up.

It's getting closer

Woohoo! I've upgraded my music box a bit. It's now running Windows 7 and I splashed out and got some better software including a DAW. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but I'm hoping that it'll really get my production levels up.

I'm looking at a couple of microphone setups. My choice at the moment would be a Behringer B1 Condensor microphone. They are supposed to be pretty decent and they are cheaper than most condensor mics (which are better than standard dynamic mics). The downside is that they need phantom power to run which needs to be supplied by the mixer.

My current mixer (Behringer UB502) is pretty nice but it is a basic unit that does not have phantom power. So to run a decent mic I need to upgrade the mixer. I'm looking at the Behringer 1204USB which is pretty nice but carries a hefty price tag. I'd be looking to drop about $500 between the mixer and the mic (plus some cable and a pop guard and probably a stand).

Considering that my voice ain't that crash hot and that I have not recorded any lyrics since setting out (repeatedly) to record more lyrics, it makes me wonder if it is worth the effort to spend that much on a microphone. It will definitly be worth it if I manage to collaborate with someone who can sing, but not yet.

So before I can splash out on a mic and mixer I need to release my fourth album (which is where I am stuck at the moment). On the plus side, if I can get my music output up, then I'll be picking up the mixer, mic and assorted bit but also a camera and some accessories for that as well.

Blurgh - getting too hard

Video editing - it isn't supposed to be this hard.

I've used both Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro and found both of them to be quite superb. I'm currently on the market for a basic but decent video editor. Ideally, I'd grab one of the Pro programs, but there are some minor considerations (like cost and hardware) which make it unfeasible.

I've been looking at a number of different editors and I can't say that I'm overly excited by any of them. There is a good round-up of the various different editing programs available here which shows a variety of different options. I like that they focused on the "home user" market and I'm surprised that Adobe Premiere Elements came in third. I may have to have a look at the ones that came in first and second. Or at least download the trial versions and see how they go. Pity the trial versions are over a gigabyte!

Of course, this is all moot since I have not been creating any music! Gah, I really need to get into gear with this. If I can't produce when I have the time available, how am I supposed to produce when I am time poor?

Next weeks' plans

So here's the skinny;

• Need to finish and publish fourth album.
• Need to make at least one video clip and upload (two or three is better)
• Need to get going on lyrics and songs.

I think I may be going about this the wrong way. I've been so busy wrapping myself into circles that I've lost sight of the bigger picture. What I need to do is get cracking on production rates. I already know I can't do quality, so I have to go for quantity.

Still need to set myself up properly in order to get busy with music creation. Software that needs to be obtained / upgraded:

• Go Vista to Win7 for music box
• Get better editing software (Adobe Premiere Elements 8?)
• Get better music making software

So much to do, so little time to do it. No matter, so long as I am doing something, then I can only improve, Also, will probably want a book showing how to use said editing program as I want to take advantage of the features (such as transitions, effects and titles).

Oh yeah...

What I'd been posting about before...

I need to get my game face on. It's Friday already and so far I have not written or recorded any lyrics, now video recorded and composed no new music. I really need to lift my game and get busy.

On the plus side I have worked out two options:

1. Get a Mac - this would be around $1,500 for a basic, entry level model but would come with iLife and Garageband which would make things easier. 
2. Get Windows 7 ($130), Adobe Premiere Elements ($100) for editing, Fruity Loops ($160) for making music and a video camera ($300) and I can use my existing computer for around $700 and as a plus, still be able to use all my old software.

Not much of a choice really.

Preparing for increased output

Well, I have been looking at different options that are available in order to increase my music and music video output.

Increasing video output is relatively easy. I had been comsidering the old "get a Mac" solution that everyone else has been suggesting. Since I don't have a Mac I figured I'd look into it (since that would mean that I'd have all systems - Windows, Linux and Mac).

But computers aren't like Pokemon.

The cheapest option would be a Mac Mini (which is just a box) and use the old keyboard, monitor, etc. However, even this "cheap" option is still $1,500.

On the other hand, I already have a reasonably powerful computer that is getting under-used. I could get Windows 7 (currently running Vista - yuk!), Adobe Premiere Elements 8 for video editing, Acid Pro for music and keep using a slab of software that I already have and have enough change left over to buy an entry level high-def camera.

Looks like Apple is going to lose out on this one. I've used Final Cut Pro on a G tower and it is indeed awesome, but I can buy a car for the same price.

However, the point is moot if I don't step up my music production. So I should probably get on top of that first!

New video Up!

Well, slowly getting things done.

My song Svelte now has a video on YouTube! That makes my second video clip, this time from my second album, Jump.

This one is more of an experiment than the first one was. For this one I was trying out a video camera that I picked up off eBay. It's one of those low-profile "sports" type cameras that you mount on the side of your helmet or motorbike or skateboard or w/ever to catch all your "extreme" sports moments.

The camera itself isn't too bad for a $30 camera - but the annoying thing is that it comes with a time/date stamp feature. The really annoying part is that not only was this feature not advertised, you can't turn it off either! Dang!!!

Oh well, guess if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. :(

It'll still come in useful for some specific shots, but I doubt I'll be using it much.

Getting back on the bike

Not that anybody really cares, but I've started to get back into the old exercise routine.

As usual, I've added a page on my site to publicly track my progress. We'll see if this progresses longer or not.

In other news, I've got my copy of Ubuntu Studios! Whee! I've already installed it and have been having a bit of a play with it. There is precious little documentation around for it, but it seems promising so far. I've already had a bit of a play with the drum machine that it comes with which is fun and reasonably intuative.

I am a little disappointed that I didn't find a good video editor (like Cinerrala) bundled in, but it remains to be seen if I'll be able to make any video clips during the holidays.

I've already shot a bunch of test footage with a camera mounted on the bicycle to make a filler video clip with, but I got nasuous watching the footage, so I don't know if I'll be able to use it or not.

We'll see.

Still no sign

Ordered Ubuntu Studios a while back. It's a Linux based digital creation suite. It has music and video software that should work quite nicely with my existing setup and get me streamlined and producing more music.

However, the first disc that arrived had an error on it and would not install properly. So arranged for another copy and it still has not shown up (this was in March!) which is starting to annoy me.

No matter, I have some time off coming up, I'll have to see what I can do then in order to get some stuff produced during the allotted time. If I can get hold of a camera, I'll see about making another video or two. That would be sweet. Still in discussion with others about collaborating, which will be awesome, but I need to get my own skills up first in order to make sure that I can keep my end up and bring a decent amount of talent to the group. Maybe.

Gotta keep practicing.

Been a while

Whoops, totally forgot about this.

Going to have to do a catch-up post. Very sore at the moment as have been taking self defense classes and feeling it today. Tsbytomd will be better soon.

Musicwise, hit a bit of a dry spell, but getting better(ish), for loose definitions of the word "better". Getting fitter(ish) sortof. Hmm, lots of room for improvement (lots).

Getting there

Well, on my way today out to get a midi controller. Been playing with the Acid XPress 7 software and it is totally awesome.

I'm sure that people who make music properly would say "pft" but since I'm starting out I really like it.

First podcast finished!

Sweet! I'm on a roll.

Okay, so the first podcast is in the can. Haven't put it up on the website since the host is having issues at the moment and the site is down. But that's okay because I haven't built the site yet!

So got the first one done on schedule (finish them on Sundays for a Monday publication) even though I had a bit of a learning curve with all the new software. I'm using three or four programs at the moment. No doubt I could do it with a single program if I paid for a good one, but I like using freeware.

In related news, dug out the old music I'd made under the Dj Pyro name back in the day and pulled the better ones (read: less bad) into a ten-track album. Of course, calling the album "Pyro" but putting it under my new stage name of Tsbytomd.

So it is all coming together nicely. I have an old friend who has offered to show me how to do midi sequencing and stuff so that should be good. I have a program (also freeware) to get started with and if i can pull some halfway decent stuff together then I'll be splashing out for a midi controller of some type. I have a few on my watchlist on eBay to see if I can pick one up cheapish, but I'm not holding my breathe.

Looking forward to getting started!