Ethernet on everything

Ethernet Electric Guitar

I've wanted this to happen for a long time. Hopefully the protocol will be somewhat non-proprietary. It would be so utterly sexy to have all my gear talking over ethernet. The sampler needs to read from the guitar? The sampler contacts the guitar right over UDP. If this isn't fucked up somehow this could be as useful as MIDI, infact it could be what MIDI should have been: sending the actual audio data along with the timing data.

Fascinating.

Today's realization about people

I spend a good majority of my idle time trying to grasp the psychology of others. Today I realized that's probably what everyone else is doing, at varying capacities.

Learning the hard way:

Here's some guidelines I've established for myself about mixing records:

1. Know your songs. You gotta memorize them like the 9-page concerto you're playing for that audition. You gotta know where the verses, choruses, recaps etc are so you know to expect while you mix.
2. Keep a consistent number of bpm. It takes some crazy skills to get Drum&Bass to records sync up with House without screwing up the pitches too much.
3. The bass drum is really important, don't drop it unless you really feel you need to (for instance in a breakdown).
4. Breakdowns are a good thing. There's lots of downtempo material out there. Give people time to breathe before barraging them with another beat-fest
5. IDM records are REALLY hard to mix because they can be arhythmic by nature. BUT it can be done with some careful planning and track selection.
6. House music is easy. No really, it's really easy to mix and it comes with all sorts of variations like electro, jazz, latin, eastern/indian etc ad infinitum. If it were a flavour it'd be the chocolate of dance music.
   
   Mmmmm, chocolate. Everyone loves chocolate, except that person who's bound to comment telling me why they're a freak and they don't like chocolate. Freak.
7. A bass cutoff (not EQ, that's different) is indispensible to prevent trainwrecks.
8. Just like any other form of music the best tool for creating it is your ears and mind.
9. Never keep the mix in the red. It may be exciting to crank it but upon a second listening it will sound like CRAP with a total loss of definition.
10. Despite what detractors may claim mixing records is performance music. I've played classical for nearly half my life and have played with professionals. I'm qualified to comment on this.
    
    How good you are depends completely on how hard you work.

(no subject)

( Hilarious T-shirt ideas for the been there, seen it, done it crowd! )