The Trough

This Blog is 24% Evil!

2008-05-05T07:59:00.002-05:00

...According to the Gematriculator that is. If you've ever wondered if a site was good or evil now you can find out by pasting the URL into the Gematriculator to find out. Or, you can paste in any block of text for even more fun. How did we all get by before the Internet?

Return of Return To Forever

2008-05-01T08:28:00.002-05:00

I only recently learned that the legendary lineup of Return To Forever is actually back on tour (Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola & Lenny White)!

Pretty amazing these 4 amazing musicians have put it together to tour - if you are a fan of the original "fusion" style of the 70's, or if you just appreciate seeing/hearing some of extremely talented players then these are the guys to see!

Leningrad Cowboys

2008-04-17T08:42:00.002-05:00

Sure, you've heard LOTS of covers of Sweet Home Alabama, but you just gotta admit that NO ONE does it quite like the Leningrad Cowboys... and especially with the Red Army Choir taking the backing vocal duties!

Dallas Guitar Show - April 18-20

2008-04-16T10:49:00.002-05:00

Time once again for the Dallas International Guitar Festival at Dallas Market Hall. I went for the first time last year and it was a lot fun to see some vintage guitars as well as some of the best players out there! Great to meet up with fellow gearheads too. Prices on guitars can be pretty out of control, especially for what passes for "vintage" these days, but it is still a cool thing to see so many under one roof!

Free Space

2008-04-14T08:28:00.004-05:00

It's been a while, but I'm back with some more news! Here are some cool freebies... Adobe labs is an Adobe Systems hosted web site where new (and mostly unreleased) software is posted for the public to try out before it officially ships.

Adobe Labs site

The majority of technology on the site is free while the technology is in it's early beta stages. a few very useful and FREE online web applications are available on Adobe Labs. The first is called "Share". For those of you familiar with Photobucket, it's kinda like that except this allows you to store more than just photographs and images.

Share allows each user up to 1GB of space to store images, music, documents, and anything else you may want to store online for retrieval later (and from another machine perhaps). You can even "share" your images and documents with others by sending them a direct link to your online file, or attach an email to them directly from the online interface. Share is an online application so no need to install anything. Just go to the link above, register for your free Adobe account, upload your files and access them from any other computer that has internet access. Who couldn't use a free GB of online space?

There is also a free Photoshop Online application that looks mighty handy as well. Great for quick photo edits and simple to use!

Game Develeoper's Conference

2007-12-03T11:12:00.000-06:00

Time to start thinking about the GDC once again - GDC in San Francisco is extra early this year - February 18-22, and the cutoff for the discounted registration rate in Jan 16. Full registration info here.

Of particular interest to us audio types is the Audio Track, where it looks like there are some interesting topics covered this year.

Seeing Redd

2007-09-17T09:43:00.000-05:00

Mr. Redd Volkaert that is! Just a plug for a local Austin guitar hero, and one of the nicest guys to ever pick up a Tele. If you are a fan of fun country music, western swing, blazing chicken pickin' guitar, or just want to catch a great show then check out Redd's site for dates, pics and info.

Redd has played with tons of the greats, and most known for his gig as Merle Haggard's guitar man for several years. You can catch Redd a few times a week in Austin, and he's always sure to put a smile on your face (as well as floor you with a handful of licks from his old Telecaster!)

Austin Game Developer's Conference starts this week

2007-09-04T15:01:00.000-05:00

Its time once again for the Austin GDC, so you'll know where to find us. Looks like some interesting talks this year (and a few good evening parties too ;) Hope to see you there!

Heritage Guitar Inc. to be sold

2007-09-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Interesting news for you guitar buffs... Those that follow Gibson guitar history know the story where a few Gibson employees went out on their own and took over the old Kalamazoo Gibson factory when Gibson decided to move to TN in 1984. Some folks claim the Heritage plant has been turning out finer guitars than Gibson themselves ever since.

Well, Heritage apparently is finalizing the sale of the company, but no details are yet available as to who the buyer is. Makes you wonder if Heritage guitars from this date and earlier will now become collectible ones that everyone cites as the "good old days" of Heritage, before xyz company took them over and ruined them. Sure hope that doesn't happen to the quality! They are still one of the finer totally US-made guitars.

Daryl Pierce - Musician, Producer...friend!

2007-08-01T18:17:00.001-05:00

Just like to introduce a friend and musical collaborator in the Great White North (Saskatoon, Canada that is)... Daryl Pierce.
Daryl is an accomplished musician, audio engineer, editor (and capable of just about anything involving music and a computer!) I really like his talent for using different instrumentation and unique rhythms to produce easy-to-love pop compositions. He contributed several songs to our Adobe Soundbooth CS3 project, and he's also got a fine self-titled CD of his own work up for grabs as well.

Head on over to Daryl's page for clips, or over to his Blog to see what's on his mind!

Summer NAMM Trade Show in Austin

2007-07-20T18:40:00.000-05:00

I's about that time again! The Summer NAMM show is in Austin once again and runs from July 27 - 29. The North American Music Merchants organization is for manufacturers and dealers of music gear, and this show is where manufacturers exhibit their stuff for industry buyers to peruse. As always, this show is not open to the general public, but rather for music gear industry folks.

The Summer show is of course far smaller than the annual Winter show. I've never been to the smaller Summer show so I am looking forward to it. I believe it draws smaller companies, and more "boutique" products such as high end guitars and amps - which is always great stuff to check out! Should also be some great entertainment in downtown Austin for the weekend.

The Future is Unknown

2007-07-19T08:50:00.000-05:00

Just like to point out a great band whenever I catch one... Mr. Unknown Hinson has been making the rounds for many years as the self-proclaimed "King of Country Western Troubadours". I wasn't sure what to make of this guy with his stuck-on sideburns and vampire/western look, but somehow it all works! The trio is tight, lyrics hilarious and Hinson rips out some impressive rockabilly and country riffs on his Reverend guitars. Catch him at the Continental Club in Austin this weekend, or at a venue near you - this guy is truly an original!

Adobe Soundbooth CS3 has arrived!

2007-07-02T20:37:00.000-05:00

The new Adobe Soundbooth CS3 was released today, including 40 royalty-free musical "Scores" provided by Sonic Farms, as well as a great selection of audio tools, and sound effects. The perfect application for easily adding customized music and effects to your video or Flash project. Soundbooth is also now available within several of the Adobe Creative Suite bundles as well!

Guitar Gizmo Alert - Pocket Pod!

2007-06-25T10:59:00.000-05:00

Line 6 is at it again - they've now managed to cram those classic tones into a mini POD that runs off batteries, has a USB connector for downloading more presets, and is small enough to fit in your guitar case! And all this for $129. Looks like a great thing for any guitar picker.

Line 6 Pocket POD

Adobe Online Seminars on CS3

2007-06-24T16:40:00.000-05:00

Adobe is offering a number of upcoming web seminars on the new Creative Suite 3 products - these are a great way to find out more on what the Adobe products can do for Video, Audio, Desktop Publishing and Web Design. Go here for the full schedule - to follow are a few events:

Delivering Flash Video - Introduction to Flash Media Server
Thursday, June 14th, 2007 11:00 A.M. PDT
Thursday, August 9th, 2007 11:00 A.M. PDT

New Features in CS3 – Adobe Media Encoder with Device Central
Thursday, June 28th, 2007 11:00 A.M. PDT

Introduction to Premiere Pro for the Mac user
Thursday, July 12th, 2007 11:00 A.M. PDT
Thursday, August 30th, 2007 11:00 A.M. PDT

Flash for Video Professionals Part 1 – Introduction/Overview
Thursday, July 19th, 2007 11:00 A.M. PDT

Adobe Media Player
Thursday, August 16th, 2007 11:00 A.M. PDT

New Features in After Effects CS3
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 11:00 A.M. PDT

Stevie Ray & Jimmie Vaughan Gear stolen - Police need your help!

2007-06-20T10:40:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty big deal here in Austin, the home of the late SRV and still brother Jimmie...

SRV thieves still at large - POLICE NEED YOUR HELP

Since recent news was announced about the two bastards that allegedly stole Stevie's equipment from Jimmie Vaughan's storage unit many people have read the story as "the thieves have been caught" - This is not the case. James Matthew "Matt" Malone was arrested in April at a hotel for methamphetamine, posted bond and was released from jail. Austin police later figured out James Matthew Malone stole the items from Jimmie Vaughan's storage unit. The thieves are still at large, the Austin police need your help in finding them.

Arrest warrants have been issued, but they are still at large and you should not approach them. If you have information regarding their location, please call 911 or the Austin Police Department at 512-974-6855. The men are James Matthew "Matt" Malone, and Michael Shane Winders.

Here is the news report is from KVUE.com

EA Partners with APM

2007-06-11T09:29:00.000-05:00

A great new trend is that the quality of game music seems to be more greatly appreciated by other parts of the entertainment industry! Of course we've all known this for a while as we cringe at some of the stuff coming out of the TV speakers for of our favorite shows, and don't get me started on some those commercials. Hopefully we'll see TV and film folks starting to use the work from game music artists - and perhaps even calling us first next time!

Electronic Arts and APM Music partner to provide EA's video game scores for TV, film, commercial and new media productions. Game scores from many top selling video games including The Sims, Medal of Honor franchise and Tiger Woods PGA Tour are being made available for use in television, films and other media. Production music is the result of a landmark agreement between Electronic Arts (EA), the world's leading videogame publisher, and APM Music, the world's largest provider of music for use in film, television, radio and new media productions, expanding on a nine year relationship between the two companies.

The first 10 CDs produced through this agreement span numerous musical genres. "Medal of Honor?Redemption" provides powerful orchestral cues while "The Sims: Jazz Lounge" lays out groovy retro tracks and sweet bossa novas. The thumping "EA Sports Rock" offers gritty rock, driving beats and hard-core electronica which contrasts with the sweeping, cinematic orchestral cues and transitions of Medal of Honor. The music scores from the selected EA titles, which were originally created for use in video games, were edited by APM Music into tracks ideal for licensing into television, film, commercial and new media productions. An additional 10 CDs are planned for release each year, continuing to draw from EA's existing and upcoming video game releases.

Read the full story here.

1,680 Guitars

2007-06-06T08:05:00.000-05:00

Well, it seems like a cool idea, but did it really have to be that riff?! More than 1,680 guitar players turned out in Kansas City, tuned up and took part in what organizers say was a world record rendition of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" — a song that was the first many of them ever learned. Did you know that this breaks the previous world record of 1,323 people playing the same song in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1994? Aren't glad you don't live in either of these towns and had to hear it?

See the full story on Yahoo News.

Best of the Best

2007-06-05T07:48:00.000-05:00

If you are into game music, then this new CD is for you! Game Music Central today announced that the same composers who created the music for God of War, EverQuest, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Hitman, Jade Empire, King Kong, Myst, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Lord of the Rings, Outcast, Rayman, SOCOM and World of Warcraft have contributed to Best of the Best: A Tribute To Game Music – the world’s first compilation CD featuring music inspired by some of the greatest games ever, performed by award-winning celebrity game music composers. This Collector’s Edition CD includes a 6-page booklet with photographs and printed autographs from the 20 featured composers.

For more info or to purchase the CD, visit the Game Music Central site!

Has the loudness of CDs finally hit its peak?

2007-06-04T08:15:00.000-05:00

Interesting mainstream article in the UK Sun calls out where some folks are actually starting to notice that newer CDs are somehow "too loud". Those of you involved in recording of course know this argument well - a good engineer knows to keep the nice dynamics intact on a recording, but the pressure of the market is always to process the final recording with more compression and make it louder so that it competes with other recordings. I love the mention of modern "wizardry" used to squeeze more volume out of recordings! I suppose all the digital tools must seem like magic these day - and I suppose that's one reason they are so easily overused. It really is a horrible trend that started around a decade ago - funny that you can put in newer CDs and actually hear them get louder, and typically worse sounding, with each successive year. Its a horrible trend, and maybe now it has reached its peak. You can only compress it so much before even the general public starts to realize that it really does start to sound bad without any dynamics left!

Austin Game Conference

2007-05-21T21:03:00.000-05:00

It's that time again... the Austin Game Conference is coming to town September 5 - 7. Registration is now open, and there are savings got registrations before June 13.

What's the deal?

2007-05-09T17:26:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd share this handy link... DealNews. Here they post the best deals of the day on everything from airline tickets to Z-line furniture. Especially nice are the deals on electronic and computer stuff you probably never knew you needed ;)

Adobe Soundbooth wins DV Magazine's Black Diamond Award!

2007-04-25T10:12:00.000-05:00

At the NAB 2007 show in Las Vegas last week, DV Magazine presented their annual awards. The Best of Show Awards are given in recognition of outstanding achievement in the advancement of the art and science of video technology. Among the winners was Adobe Soundbooth, pulling in a Black Diamond award! Word has it that the demos of the pre-release Soundbooth made quite a splash with the NAB crowd, and Adobe hit the mark with the demand from video professionals for a simple application to add and customize music to their video projects. (Just maybe the music content itself had a little to do with that? ;)

There is still time to join the public beta for Adobe Soundbooth if you'd like to check it out before release in June.

NAB 2007 News

2007-04-17T09:41:00.000-05:00

The NAB 2007 show is under way this week in Las Vegas. If you're looking for the breaking news then a good site is the NAB Daily News. At least not all of these happenings will stay in Vegas!

What the Heck is Adaptive Music?

2007-04-17T08:52:00.000-05:00

One music trend I find extremely interesting is that of "Adaptive Music", which is really being driven by game music soundtracks. This term, "Adaptive Music" seems to have been coined by some folks in the game audio realm (sorry, I've never found a single person to credit with coming up with this term) in he last decade, and it is indeed a more descriptive term than "Interactive Music". So what exactly is Adaptive Music? I recently read the excellent article by composer/audio programmer Andrew Clark on the Gamasutra site titled Defining Adaptive Muisc.

In this article, Mr. Clark offers up the following defining points, which I think sum it up nicely:

Adaptive music incorporates a system for generating significantly different performance versions of the piece
The generation system is driven by pre-specified input parameters
The actual performance-specific events are expected to have a significant degree of indeterminacy
Traditional musical coherency and organization is a priority

Adaptive music incorporates a system for generating significantly different performance versions of the piece.

I think this makes it a bit easier to understand what Adaptive Music is and how it can be very useful, especially in something like games, where the goal is to provide the player a non-static but compeling music soundtrack that adds to the experience. It is great to see that game audio engines are evolving to allow music to be even more "adaptive".

But the uses for Adaptive Music are not limited to games. Indeed you can start thinking of some cool "futurustic" uses for this - like a dance club where the music evolves from dancer interaction, or maybe even by picking up on subtle emotional cues from attendees. Or how about a subscription radio station that "learns" your tastes and/or responds to the area you are driving through, providing your trip with a tailored "soundtrack"? I hate to think of the consequences of clever marketers getting hold of this idea though - think of the inevitable bombardment of ads tailored to your specific actions or even emotional state!

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