I was informed recently by http://ffdmag.com about this new magazine and thought I’d pass along the info. It’s really good for the industry and those looking to learn more about Flash and Flex. Check out FLASH & FLEX DEVELOPER'S MAGAZINE for yourself - http://ffdmag.com/
Friday, February 19, 2010
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
My Comprehensive List of Sound Design Videos
12 Videos Featuring Walter Murch and The Sound Design of ‘THX 1138′
"2012" Sound for Film Video Profile
Ableton Live 8 - Creating a Sub-bass layer w/ Corpus
A BUGS LIFE Sound Design part 1
A BUGS LIFE Sound Design part 2
Absynth 5 - Mutator, Simple Sound Design
Alan Howarth Exclusive Interview Part 1
Alan Howarth Exclusive Interview Part 2
A History of Sound Design in Film
A Journey Through the Life of Alan Splet - Part 1
A Journey Through the Life of Alan Splet - Part2
A Seminar in Sound Engineering with Berklee’s Carl Beatty
A Tale of Lucasfilm and Skywalker Ranch
Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures - Developers Diary #2
Amon Tobin and the Music of 'Infamous'
Army of Two: The 40th Day Creating the Sound Trailer [HD]
Artist House Sound Design Video Collection
Assault on Dark Athena : Official Sound Dev Diary
Background Information on Sound Designer Chris Scaraborsio
Battlefield: Bad Company - Frostbite Engine Trailer
Battlefield: Bad Company - Developer Diary: Audio
Ben Burtt and Gunshot Sound Effects for Western Movies
Ben Burtt on Lightsaber Sound Design
Ben Burtt Receives Charles S. Swartz Award from JJ Abrams
Berklee’s Carl Beatty on Great-Sounding Records
Chris Scarabosio, a sound designer at Skywalker Sound
CRASH! BANG! BOOM! The Wild Sounds of Treg Brown part1
CRASH! BANG! BOOM! The Wild Sounds of Treg Brown part2
Creating a dubstep bass sound / wobble in Ableton Live 8
Creating Dubstep drums / beats in Ableton Live 8
Creating Minimal Percussion In Ableton Live 8 using Collision
Creating Sound Effects in “Sound Ideas”
Daily Planet: Prototype sfx/Cory's Carnage
"Dark Knight" Sound for Film Profile
DARK WATER The Sound of Terror
Designing Sounds for “World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade”
Disney's Brother Bear - Making Noise: The Art Of Foley
Dragon Age : Origins – Audio / Sound Design Diary
Drum & bass with Ableton Live 8
drum and bass tutorial:chase and status part1
drum and bass tutorial:chase and status part2
Drum N Bass Tutorial | Making a Drum 'n Bass Reese with Propellerhead Reason 3
dubstep autom8tion video final 2009
Electronic Dance Music Builds in Ableton Live 8 Part 1
Engineering for Every Listening Environment
Essential Sound Design Technology
Eye To Eye: Kevin O'Connell And His Oscar Nods
Featurette: Randy Thom on Forrest Gump
Film Composer and Synth Guru Jeff Rona on His Education and Career
Foley Artist Explains Sound Effects
Foley Documentary - Vancouver Film School (VFS)
Game Audio with Unreal 3 Engine
Gearbox talks about the Foley on the Jace Hall Show
Gears Of War 2: Developer Diary 2: Every Gun Has A Story
Gears of War 2 'Sound Developer Diary
Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix Game Sound FX
"Hawk" Production Diary 25 - The Art of Foley
Heavenly Sword Making of Episode 4
Hybrid sound design - FLYP's interview
"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" Sound for Film Profile
Il-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey - Sound production
INDIANA JONES Sound Design Featurette part1
INDIANA JONES Sound Design Featurette part2
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" Sound for Film Profile with Ben Burtt
Interactive Video Game Scoring
"Iron Man" Sound for Film Profile
Interview with Ren Klyce, Sound Designer of Fight Club
Making The Witches Hammer: Sound Design
Mass Effect 2 Video Game, Exclusive Reveal Dev Diary HD
Mastering Tips for The Home Studio
Medal of Honor Airborne: Recording the Weapons
New Technologies and Producing
Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising The Sounds of War
Procedural Sound in Computer Games
Profile on Gears of War: Sound
Randy Thom: Scarface Game Sound
Randy Thom - Scene Unseen Interview Preview
"Ratatouille" Sound for Film Profile with Randy Thom
Reason 4 Tutorial - BASS REESE (for drum and bass)
REASON 4 TUTORIAL - 'Dubstep-Style' Basslines
Reason 4 Tutorial - Dubstep Production Techniques Vol 1
Reason Tutorials - Subtractor Sound Design
Richard Devine Experiments With Particle Synthesis
Richard Devine - The Electronic Music Manuscript (Part 1 of 2)
Richard Devine - The Electronic Music Manuscript (Part 2 of 2)
Rusko Producer Masterclass Part 1
Rusko Producer Masterclass Part 2
Rusko Producer Masterclass Part 3
Saving Private Ryan - Music & Sound (part 2 - sound)
Shatter PSN Behind The Scenes – Sound
"Sicko" Sound for Film Profile
Sound Design in Ableton Live - Icy Shimmer Effect
Sound Design in Ableton Live - Jungle Bass (Part 1)
Sound Design in Ableton Live - Jungle Bass (Part 2)
Sound Design for King Kong (Post/production) 1 of 7
Sound Design for King Kong (Post/production) 2 of 7
Sound Design for King Kong (Post/production) 3 of 7
Sound Design for King Kong (Post/production) 4 of 7
Sound Design for King Kong (Post/production) 5 of 7
Sound Design for King Kong (Post/production) 6 of 7
Sound Design for King Kong (Post/production) 7 of 7
Sound Design on Luhrmann's 'Australia'
Sound Design with David Sonnenschein
Sound Design in Ableton Live - Two Drums Made From Field Recordings
Sound Design with the Operator Synthesizer in Ableton Live
Stargate Worlds - Dev Profile: Nick LaMartina
Star Wars: Republic Commando – Foley
Star Wars: Republic Commando - Temuera Morriso
Star Trek Production - Below The Line - Sound Design 1 of 2
Star Trek Production - Below The Line - Sound Design 2 of 2
Synthesize a Deep Kick Drum in Ableton Live
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" Sound for Film Profile
The Foley Artist: Los Angeles Times
"The Soloist" Sound for Film Profile
The Sound Design of "Artificial Intelligence: A.I"
The Sound Design of G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra
The Sound Design of “The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Two Towers” Part 1
The Sound Design of “The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Two Towers” Part 2
This Is How They Make The Final Fantasy XIII Sounds
"There will be Blood" Sound for Film Profile
Tomb Raider: Anniversary - PS2 - Developer Diary #2
Track Stars - The Unseen Heroes of Movie Sound
Tutorial 2-More Wobble Bass with Reason and Live
WALL∙E “A Space Journey in Sound”
WallE Interview with Ben Burtt
"WALL•E" Sound for Film Profile with Ben Burtt
WALL-E Special Features Animation Sound Design: Building Worlds From The Sound Up (Part 1)
Walter Murch Lecture - Part 1 of 2
Walter Murch Lecture - Part 2 of 2
Walter Murch Special: Apocalypse Now
"Watchmen" Sound for Film Profile
"We Own the Night" Sound for Film Profile
Working with Sound Design Libraries - Skywalker Sound
Worldizing: a sound design concept - by Walter Murch
Saturday, October 31, 2009
My Recent Xbox 360 Achievement Goal and Things I’ve Learned Along the Way
Ok, so let me start out by describing what my goal was with Xbox 360 achievements and why I even set this specific goal for myself. I currently work as a Sound Designer for a company that is building an Xbox 360 game in Atlanta, Georgia and I can’t tell you much about this game we are working on except that it will be on the 360 at some point in the future. Well, when I started with this company I didn’t even own an Xbox 360, I had an original one but that was it. Previously, I played Xbox 360 with my friend Jon who had been playing for years on this system and had a very good understanding of the games released on this platform. So as I soon discovered there was a system in place called “Achievements” that allowed a gamer to get points for doing or achieving certain goals or milestones in a game. These points then allowed you to have a gamer score that was the total of all these achievements. At first I thought who f’in cares about this sh1t? But then I thought to myself, “oh I get it!”, it’s another game all in itself outside the actual games themselves and this system of points let’s gamers have something to show for all the games and long hours they have spent in a game or series of games. You can learn about this concept of games and game design in Jesse Schell’s book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. So here is where it all comes together describing why I even had an achievement goal. I decided to challenge my friend Jon who had been playing for years on the Xbox 360 system that I could beat his gamer score in 8 months. Yes that’s right I can beat Jon’s gamer score in 8 months! I had to beat not just his current score but whatever his score was 8 months from now. A moving target! Jon had 25,000 achievement points at the time and I had none. I was starting from scratch and as you elite self righteous gamers like to call it, I was a “n00b” destined to be “Pwnd”. I knew in advance that the best way to learn something is not to dilly dally around, but instead jump right in head first and take on a challenge oriented, goal based mission on what it is you are trying to learn. In my case, I was learning as much as I could about the Xbox 360 and all of it’s game designs and implementations (Specifically Audio and Sound) in a very short period of time. For me I now had a self imposed goal that gave me a narrowed focus, “Play as many games as I could in a very short period of time”. I could now play lots of games whether they be good, bad or ugly and have something to show for it. On the outside the appearance is that I have just accumulated achievement points to show for it, but what matters most is that I built up a very diverse game experience and history that allowed to accurately judge what is in fact a good game and what is in fact a bad game. Not based on just personally preference but yet instead, based on technical merit and game design mixed with the sound design and audio implementations.
I ended up beating Jon’s gamer score in 8 months, and to be honest it was a lot of fun. I played so many different games and genres that I can now say with certainty I know about a very diverse array of games and game designs on the Xbox 360. Sure I could have played only the “cool” games that everyone else is playing at any given time (Borderlands, cough cough). But for me, I chose to sacrifice through some of the worst games ever. Not just to get achievement points. No, better yet to get a deeper knowledge and understanding of why some games are terrible and conversely why some are great.The achievement points were a byproduct of lots and I repeat “LOTS” of game play. I will say that Microsoft did a good job of creating a game outside of the game and it’s no surprise that other gaming systems copied them. So anyways in short, I now know a lot about Xbox 360 games and anyone who decides to call me an achievement whore might want to think about the statement again. Instead ask yourself, are you a gaming snob? Do you know everything there is to know about gaming? Are you willing to learn more about gaming than you do now? I don’t care how much you might think you know about gaming and game design, there is always room to learn more. Sometimes it’s good to set goals and challenges for ourselves :) I promise that you can learn a lot from playing games like Afro Samurai and then right after that playing SpongeBob's Truth or Square. You see, just because a game might be a kids game doesn’t mean that there isn’t still something to learn. In fact SpongeBob's Truth or Square along with lots of other kids games ended up being far better than some of the big name titles that got released on the Xbox 360 platform. Sometimes it’s all about you buying into a brand and the perception that your game is great because everyone else thinks so. That’s fine, all I’m saying is this, don’t sell yourself short. Learn as much as you can while you can. Apply that mentality to everyday life and you might be surprised!
Sidenote: I know some of you game purists might disagree with me about my goal oriented achievement mission, but really I don’t care wtf you think. Who are you to decide what game is worthy of playing or not, in fact I might even go as far to say I now know what games are good and bad more than you elites now based on the amount of games I’ve played and experienced. It’s all relative and I would recommend to anyone that you go outside your perceived coolness zone and play other games to expand your game experiences. You might just learn something!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
How I Slipstreamed Windows 7 RTM Installer with Raid Drivers on my Alienware m17 Machine
Recently, I was faced with a situation at work were my Vista 32-bit install was corrupted and I needed to reinstall my OS on the M17x Alienware laptop I use. Since Windows 7 RTM was just released I figured I give that a shot, only this time I was going to install the 64-bit version of Windows to get full access to all 4 gigs of RAM on my laptop instead of the 3 gigs max I had on 32-bit Windows. I download the Windows 7 64-bit RTM and burn it to disk and get ready to install. To my dismay, the Windows 7 installer would fail after about 5 minutes of hanging and a disk icon blinking on and off. I continued to try over and over again hoping it was something small, but nope it would fail always the same way and at the same spot. I finally did some research on Google and discovered that the issue might be the fact that the new RTM versions of Windows 7 doesn’t have any Raid Drivers for my machine and the reason it was dying every time is that it can’t find any drives to install the new OS to. So after more research and lots of trial and error I finally concluded that the best way to get my machines Raid driver into the Windows 7 installer was to use the Windows 7 OEM Pre-installation Kit. .
I can just tell you right now, that it took me a while to realize that in order to Slipstream windows 7 you need to use this OPK or Pre-installation kit. I am just letting you know the end result of lots of trying and failing :) So once I got the the Pre-installation kit installed I got down to business and below are the steps I went through to get all latest 64bit drivers for my Alienware machine injected into the Windows 7 installer so that it would work for me and see all my drives using the Raid controller.Also let it be known, I only slipstreamed third-party drivers. Some people think slipstreaming is only for service packs, however I am here to tell you, slipstreaming is for just about anything you want to modify on your Windows installation. Also at the time of this blog post nLite didn’t support Windows 7, so this how I got it to work successfully.
Steps to Slipstream Windows 7 with your Third-Party drivers:
1. Find and download all of your latest drivers for your machine (32-bit or 64-bit) depending on the installer version. Either way gather all of your drivers for your new install organized and ready for slipstreaming. Please note sometimes you can find a dedicated Windows 7 driver already, if so use that one, otherwise the vista driver will also work. However, in the case of a Raid controller I only want to use the windows 7 driver and not the vista one.
2. After installing the Windows 7 OEM Pre-installation Kit you will need to have your Windows 7 installation disk or .iso available. In my case I had the .iso since I used the MSDN download.
3. I chose to extract my .iso using WinRar but there are so many other makers of .iso extractors it will be easy to extract the iso. If all you have is the DVD, then you can use UltaIso to make a duplicate image of your disk into an .iso form. I am only telling you what In used. If you are doing the disk version you can extract the image again after you make your image or you can copy the files of the disk directly, I would recommend making the image and then extracting it.
4. Locate install.wim in your extracted windows 7 files and folders “\sources\install.wim”. The install.wim is the files that you are going to modify and inject drivers into using the Windows 7 OPK / DISM.exe utility. I found it best to copy the install.wim file to another folder. This way I can work on this file and know I have the original install.wim exactly as it was before I started modifying it.
5. Next locate your DISM.exe file. This is what actually mounts the install.wim image and allows you to inject the .wim file with your third-party drivers. It then seals the image back up and let you copy the new install.wim file back to the place you originally took it from on the extracted .iso folder in case you forgot it was ““\sources\install.wim””
6. In order to run DISM.exe you will need to access it from an elevated command prompt. At first I was like ok, sure run cmd. Nope. It’s not exactly like that. I finally found that an elevated command prompt means to run the CMD from the exact location of the file or .exe you are running. in my case I had to run an elevated command prompt from the location or folder that the DISM.exe was in. All I did was hold shift while right clicking the folder that container DISM.exe. after the command prompt was displayer I typed DISM.exe and it opened the command line interface for DISM. FINALLY, I was able to mount the install.wim image and get to work. This is where the actual driver injection took place, right here in the DISM command utility.
Dism Command list here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744382%28WS.10%29.aspx
How to get an elevated command prompt:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/02/09/windows-7-tip-elevated-command-prompt-anywhere/
7. I mounted my copied install.wim image file that I am working with.
Dism /Mount-Wim /WimFile:C:\test\images\install.wim
http://technet.microsoft.com/ja-jp/library/dd772580%28WS.10%29.aspx
8. I added drivers to the install.wim file using:
Dism /image:C:\test\offline /Add-Driver /driver:C:\test\drivers /recurse
Note: This will recurse and add drivers from the organized driver folder we have in step 1.
9. I commit and unmount all the new driver changes I made to this wim file:
Dism /Commit-Wim /MountDir:C:\test\offline
10. Copy the new updated install.wim to the extracted Windows 7 iso folder. put it back in the same place you got it from before working with it and updating it. Obviously, in order for the new installation to work you will need to overwrite the install.wim file.
11. Burn a new updated and Slipstreamed Windows 7 DVD that has your new install.wim. What’s funny is this is the part that actually was the hardest. In order for me to do this without just making frisbee. I had to make a bootable disk. Unfortunately just checking bootable in your disk burning software isn’t enough (nero sucks btw). You have to extract the boot file from the original disk or mounted image and then reinject it into your new .iso image at burn time. How did I do this? I used again the UltraIso utility. To be honest, this was far better than any .iso tool I found for this job of boot file extraction and reinjection.
12. Once I was able to burn a DVD with the proper boot file that was extracted from the original disk image, I was able to install windows 7 properly with all boot settings configured in my bios. At this point I have successfully Slipstreamed my Windows 7 64-bit install using DISM.exe and install.wim and UltraIso.
13. Ahh, success. It feels good to finally get a good install of Windows 7 RTM on my Alienware m17x laptop. Of course, the other alternative would have been to install 64-bit Vista and wait until Alienware decided to make a Windows 7 installer. But my experience has been Alienware support sucks. So why wait, just do it yourself :) Also, I’d like to thank my friend Tony for his support in testing frisbee after frisbee for me.
Screen Shots of the Tools Used:
Dism
DISM is installed with Windows® 7, and it is also distributed in the Windows OEM Preinstallation Kit (Windows OPK) and the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK). It can be used to service Windows Vista® with Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Server® 2008, Windows® 7, Windows Server® 2008 R2, or Windows PE images.
DISM.exe is a new command-line tool that is included both in a default install of the Windows 7 operating system and also as part of version 2.0 of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK). It says one can use DISM.exe service Windows images, including both Windows Image (WIM) files and Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files. While DISM.exe is primarily intended for servicing offline (not running) Windows images, some of its functionality can also be utilized to service online (running) Windows operating systems.
UltraIso
Links:
http://www.devx.com/MS_TechNet/Article/41701
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/springboard/archive/2009/07/28/managing-windows-7-with-dism.aspx
http://4sysops.com/archives/windows-7-dism-how-to-mount-manage-and-service-wim-images/
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744382%28WS.10%29.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799258%28WS.10%29.aspx
http://www.wincert.net/forum/index.php?/topic/4939-how-to-use-windows-7-dism-by-muiz/
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=9682
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Flash CS5 / Flash Builder 4 Integration Preview with Richard Galvan
Bryan Wills just sent me this link about Flash CS5/Flash Builder 4 Integration Preview with Richard Galvan on Colin Moock’s blog.
Quote – “Last week at Flash on the Beach 2009 in Brighton, England, Flash authoring product manager Richard Galvan demonstrated some of the improved integration planned for Flash CS5 and Flash Builder 4 (formerly Flex Builder). Like most of the ActionScript developer community, I've been waiting for better integration of the two tools for years, so I tracked Richard down after his presentation and pulled some additional information out of him. If you use Flash Builder as your main programming IDE, but still use Library symbols from a .fla file for graphics, your compiling and debugging process is going to be significantly more convenient in Flash CS5/Flash Builder 4.”
Read More about Flash CS5 and Flash Builder 4 >>
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Aviary Releases Myna Audio Editor - By Alan Queen
I just saw Kenny Bunch’s Tweet and thought I’d check out Myna. Since Kenny said “myna may just be the best online app I've seen.” I had to check it out for myself and it’s insane alright. Really, I am amazed myself at how cool this Flash / Flex app is and after using it, it really just shows the future of Audio Applications and what’s to come. Thanks Kenny for mentioning this and really great work Alan.
http://aviary.com/blog/posts/aviary-release-myna-audio-editor-music-remixer
Here is the description taken right from the Aviary / Myna page:
Since acquiring Digimix in October, our team has been hard at work on releasing Myna, Aviary's audio editor. We're finally ready to share it with the world. :)
Here's an example music remix made in Myna (Click "Open in Audio Editor") to edit the project directly.
Myna, a powerful online audio editor, makes it simple and easy to upload, record, and remix audio clips online. Whether you are new to audio editing or a professional you can get started right away on Aviary.com.
Along with the release of Aviary's online audio editor we are happy to announce a partnership with APM Music and their Quantum Tracks library which contains thousands of professional stems, loops and beats will now be able to accessed by anyone using Myna to try for non-commercial purposes.
Highlights of Myna Features
Powerful Clip Editing
Trim, Loop, Stretch and Reverse your audio clips, width editable loop points, and interactive time stretch capabilities.
Automation
Easily add fade-ins, fade-outs, pan from left to right, and modify gain over time, with editable control points.
Effects
Add non-destructive effects to your audio clips including Pitch Change, Reverb, Delay, Parametric EQ, and more.
Import / Export
Import your own audio files, or search one of our provided libraries. Mix it down and export directly to your desktop or publish back to your account.
Share and learn
Collaborate with other users. Follow step-by-step tutorials to learn new skills.
By providing a powerful audio editor online along with access to a library of professional content online you can have access to powerful tools.
We look forward to see and hear what people create using Aviary's online applications.
More About Aviary.com
Aviary (www.aviary.com), based in Hewlett, N.Y., has created a suite of browser-based creation tools, accessible and free for all to use. Whose mission is to "make creation accessible to the world." Aviary's online software offers anyone with internet access the ability to create digital content directly from their favorite browser. Current list of applications can be accessed http://aviary.com/tools
Additional released apps include:
* Phoenix , an online layer-based image editor
* Raven, the world's first online vector editor
* Peacock, an online effects editor
* Toucan, an online color editor
* Talon, a screen capture app
* Falcon, an image markup and simple image editor
More About APM Music:
http://qt.apmmusic.com/pr/apm/qt/about-us.aspx
APM Music (APM), is the largest provider of music for use in film, television, radio, video games and new media production is a joint venture of EMI, the world's largest independent record label, and BMG, the global music division of Bertelsmann AG. APM Music provides the United States and Canada with music selection services and exclusive licensing rights to libraries of music specifically for use in film, television, radio, recording, new media and video games.
http://www.apmmusic.com/
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Interview with Adam John Newberg a.k.a Kid Kryptic - Producer / DJ
Frankie Loscavio - “Here is an interview with Adam John Newberg, a very talented electronic music producer and DJ. I really wanted to get some insight into how Adam works and what some of his techniques are. Along with that I also wanted to see what inspires him and where he is at right now in his music production. Adam was very forthright and willing to share with us his methods of working and how he does what he does. He has been around for a long time and I actually found myself listening to mixes from Coresplittaz and DJ G.I.S way back in the day and hearing tracks I thought were hard as F@K but didn’t know at the time those tracks were actually Adam John’s! Well, lets get to it hear some of what Adam John’s all about :)”
Q: Hey Adam. Can you tell us where you live and how old you are?
I can! I live in Arizona, around the Phoenix area and I'm 29 years old.
Q: What go you into electronic music and how old were you etc..?
An old friend of mine by the name of Dave Janossy, hope I spelled his name right. At the time I had just started college and was in and out of bands as a drummer. I was active with DCI (Drum Corps International) for a couple years as well, and during that time my friend had been introducing me to electronic music. He noticed my frustration with not being able to find a stable band - all I wanted to do was write music. So he played me some records from DJ 3D and B Boy 3000 - I was floored! That was the first time I had heard drum and bass. I was about 19 y/o at the time, and prior to then the only electronic music I had heard was really, really cheese cheerleader style music. When I was younger in High School & Jr. High I mostly listened to Hard rock, Grunge, Metal, Ska, Punk Rock and some Hiphop. When Dave introduced me to Jungle and Drum and Bass I was thrilled - I finally found a style of electronic music I liked, and according to him, it was something I'd be able to pick up quickly.
Adam John - Devour (Sample) by Adam John
Q: What inspires you and influence your work?
My inspiration typically comes from life experience and other forms of music. Sometimes I get stuck where I'm just not feeling creative, and I think many artists probably go through the same experience. Typically when that is happening I just try to get out more - go camping, spend more time with friends/family, watch more movies and just listen to new music in all kinds of styles. My friends Noel & Frank, of The Outside Agency, are also pretty influential and inspiring in my work. Both of them are hard working, solid producers who write in various styles - their work helps push me to challenge myself and try new things, whether it's writing music in other genres or working out new techniques to create better sounds.
Q: What tools do you use to produce?
Currently I'm using Ableton Live as my main production environment. I'm in the process of preparing to do some live performances down the road, so be on the look out for that.
Adam John - Tear This Up (Sample) by Adam John
Q: What are your favorite synths, vst's etc..
I love using Massive to create bass sounds. I use it for Bass, Leads and random SFX for the most part. I also use Absynth to create lush sounds and pads, or just strange noises that I can glitch out later. Kontakt is another one I use for a Sampler, but I do find myself using Ableton’s built in sampler often as well. It really depends on what I’m trying to achieve and which tool will give me the best outcome.
Q: I first heard your tracks in some older DJ G.I.S mixes but didn't know it was you at the time. It seems your style has evolved and changed since those days. You seemed to use more processed Amens back then and less of those now instead using cleaner harder hits?
This is true, over time my style has definitely changed and evolved. When I first got into production I was enthralled in the idea of chopping up breaks and trying to glitch them out. I did a lot of my early beat chopping using CoolEdit Pro and SoundForge, before there was a Dr. Rex! After awhile I had been listening to more experimental music and other genres and I just wanted to do something different. So I started trying out new styles of writing, just getting more experimental. Lately I've been making a lot of experimental music and Dubstep under my name, Adam John, as well. I've been tossing around the idea of working on some Drum and Bass / Darkstep along the lines of what I used to make back in 2002-2005. We shall see, anything can happen! Could be fun, it's been awhile since I did a proper amen tune.
Elephant Man vs Ed OG - Haters Wanna War / Just Call My Name (Adam John Remix) 2008 by Adam John
Q. Describe the life of one of your tracks. How dos it begin, how does it evolve roughly and how do you get to the mastered piece that users can purchase? I think some readers will like to hear your mastering process as this is usually the hardest in some peoples minds.
Tough one! Honestly all my tracks tend to start differently. Some of them start with me just messing around creating breaks or keying out long, sustained melodies for a background or even a lead. I'll have moments, which I'm sure many artists have, where and idea just hits me out of nowhere, and I'll quickly key out the drop as I'm hearing it in my head. There were times when I first started where I'd actually sketch out the idea on paper - kind of similar to when I wrote percussion pieces in College and High School. As for mixing, I am working on that progressively while I'm writing it - I like to have my levels and a good range when I'm writing the music because it allows me to easily fit in new sounds as I go. When I think it's ready for mix down, I'll usually take a break from it before I go back and put in the final mix, making sure all the sounds and levels are right where I want them. I'll also go through and A+B the tune with other songs I like.
I keep my over all mix at about -3db before I send it to mastering. My goal is to get the mix, without any compression/limiting on the master fader, to sound as good as I think I can possibly make it. Once I get there, I render out a 32bit wav - sometimes a couple versions, and send those off to someone to be mastered. I don't technically "Master" any of my music - but I do a bit of compression and EQ for the tracks I bounce out just for DJing. Usually I'll run a hi-cut at about 17-18KHz, cutting out all the real high end. I also run a low-cut around 30Hz to get rid of any unnecessary low end.
Currently I lack the tools and the listening environment to do any real mastering - when I need that, I find a professional with the right equipment and space.
Dizzee Rascal VS Neptunes - Fix Up Like This (Adam John Remix) 2008 by Adam John
Q: Any tips on how you get some of those clean hard drums like in "Foreign Skin"
Layering and Eq! I look for and use the best sounds I can get. I layer in other drums as I see fit and use subtractive EQ to get rid of unwanted frequencies. Those are some of the key things - I make sure, for instance, that on my hi-hats I remove all the frequencies below say, 300-400Hz or so, because there is no need to have those low end sounds on a hi-hat. I'm sure other people out there that have those samples where you have all this unwanted low end that just muddies up everything else. I find it in Snare samples sometimes as well. I just try to get my drums to sound as clean as I can, making sure all the levels are nice and using compression when needed. I bus all my drums to one channel and put a compressor and EQ on there - it helps beef 'em up and round out the sound. If the drums sound shitty with the original samples, it's probably going to sound shitty in the tune.
Kid Kryptic – Foreign Skin
Q: Can you tell us about how you got the Nasally synth in "Northbound". It's sick and that in particular was one of the tracks I first heard of yours.
I'm assuming you mean the sound that runs on top of the bass? Actually that wasn't to hard a sound to make :) I just took a couple 808 sounds, one of which I added a TON of distortion and did some extreme EQing to get that sound. At the time, I thought it sounded sweet - and I still like it now. Just one of those days where I was messing around and came across something really quickly that I liked. I was pleasantly surprised to find out other people where digging it as well - it's always a nice feeling when someone tells you they like your music and enjoy listening to it.
Q: Adam do you perform live? If so how do you go about your shows and performances?
Currently I don't do a Live PA, but that is something I'm currently working on. At the moment I just DJ when I play out - it's fun, but I want to get into the live show aspect - the possibilities with what you can do seem endless and I'm excited to dive in.
Q: Who have you performed with and who or where was your favorite show you played at.
I haven't had the opportunity to play along side many big name artists, but a couple of the best shows I had where out-of-state. I got the opportunity to DJ at a club in Texas with UFO! and Friction. Both of those guys where great to hang out with and very humble people. Another fun show was in California with DJ Hidden. That guy is a great artist and it was nice to finally meet him in person and party a bit. Most recently I've played alongside Danny the Wildchild and E-sassin. A few years ago I got to play a show in Tucson with Stu from C4C, that was definitely a wild time. Out of all the shows though, the most fun I had was when I got brought out to San Diego - those guys know how to party!
Q: Do you make a living making music? If not what else do you do?
I wish I did! No, right now I work in a print shop to pay the bills - I spent my evenings and weekends working on music and DJing. Most of the extra income I’ve made throughout the years has been solely from shows. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much money for me on the sale of tunes.
Q: When did you first hear Dubstep?
First heard Dubstep in 07-08 from a couple local producers, UltraBlack. They are friends of mine and had been sending me these tunes they had been making - when I heard it I was pretty interested. It was something different from what I was writing most of the time, so I started to investigate the genre more. It took me about a year of digging before I had a solid collection of Dubstep I liked and really started working on making it. With anything I write, I have a particular ear for what I'm into and what I create - Dubstep has such a wide selection, it reminds me of the versatility in drum and bass as well. The genre is very open to make just about anything you want. I was attracted to the space in the music and the incredibly deep, evolving bass as well - it just felt so open and the bass on a proper system is amazing. Now when I DJ out I tend to bounce around between Dubstep and Drum and Bass..
Adam John - My Love by Adam John
Q: What got you into Dubstep? Were does Drum & Bass and Dubstep go from here?
That again would be my friends from back home, Ultrablack. First AZ group I heard to really get it going out here and they brought the genre to my attention. As for where the genre goes, who knows! That is the beauty of the music - it can go wherever the artists want to take it. It's already in so many directions now, but honestly I wouldn't mind if some techstep sounds from back in 2003-04 started to come back. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for it, but to me that was some great music. Both styles influence my music, and you can definitely here the DNB influence in my Dubstep. There seems to be some hate out there for producers who are doing that, but I honestly don't care. It's fun, and that is the point of writing music in my book - having fun.
Q: What do you listen to on a daily basis. What tracks or artists get you hyped?
I usually listen to thrash metal/hip hop in the car. Lately I've been listing to this Lazer Sword CD, Nosaj Things new album, Drift, and a bunch of stuff from the members of the Glitch Mob and artist on glitchhopforum.com. I found this great group of artists called Omega Clash and was able to find their latest EP to pick up.
Q: I know you use Propellerheads Reason. Now that they are coming with "Record" that allows you to use reason and record audio together. Do you ever wish they would just add vst support directly instead of making people use rewire?
I do - The new audio functions sound good, but since I've been using Ableton I can't see myself going back to reason until they upgrade the sound engine and add VST support. I can definitely hear a difference in sound quality between Ableton and Reason.
Adam John - Wander (Sample) by Adam John
Q: What advice would you give to kids and aspiring electronic music producers that are serious about making music? If you're like me you learned the hard way. Are there any tips for them that you learned in your journey they need to know?
Practice! Take time to learn your instruments, eqs, compressors, etc. Learn about the art, take recording classes if you have the time and money. I found them to be very useful when I started out - helped me better understand frequency ranges and EQ my tunes better. Study music as well, listen carefully to the styles your into and try to write as much as you can. There are many times when I start a track and then end up rewriting entire sections of drums or bass all over again because I no longer like the way it goes. You don't have to own your original idea, feel free to change things up if you want. Save multiple versions of a tune incase you don't like the changes you made! Always SAVE! It takes time to get good at producing music, so don't get discouraged in the beginning.
Q: Ok, let's take your track "Foreign Skin". It might be one of my favorite tracks you made. Can you tell us about this track and maybe go over how it was made, where you were in your life when you made it and how it was received by other DJ's. How long it took to make, tools used etc.. I personally thinks in clean hard hitting and very well produced structurally. I listen to this track a lot in my car, it just seems to get me hyped.
If I can remember most it! I wrote that track almost 5 years ago, so it's hard to recall exactly what was going through my head. I was in a lot of dark times in my life when I was making most of my drum and bass, especially when I made that tune. I wrote that one with Reason and did the mixing for it in Nuendo, though I don't use that program anymore. That one went through a few changes before I finally finished it - the final was probably the 7th version I made. My goal was just to make something that would work on the dancefloor and hit heavy as hell and to get out some of that frustration and anger I had in me. Most of the DJ's I sent it to gave me a good response, but there are always people who weren't into it. Mostly because of the style, it was better received in the Darkstep / Techstep circles. I made that tune around the same time I wrote "The Way", so they both have a similar feel to them.
Adam John - Holding Hands with Death by Adam John
Q: Do you have any upcoming events people should know about?
I have a show at Earthdance in Phoenix on Sept 25 where I'll be playing Dubstep and glitch, then on Oct. 30th I'll be playing my first show in ATL, which I'm very excited about.
Q: In general where do you think electronic music is headed? I know this is a very general topic but maybe you have some feeling based on how fast technology has changes and even how people use Ableton for live performances etc.. instead of vinyl. Are there things you see in your future that you are trying to achieve we should know about?
Hard to say, it's evolved so much already! I like how Ableton allows people to do more of a live show with their music, and that is a direction I am looking to take my future productions. I'd like to incorporate more live vocals into my sets by working with local artists in my town. I'm excited to take that up and it's just going to take some time on my part to get everything ready. When I first started DJing I used vinyl exclusively, I only moved to CDjs because it was more cost effective and it allowed me to play my newest music out without having to drop $50 on dubplates. Soon I want to just do completely live shows and on-the-spot remixing with Ableton. There are some local crews, like Crusher Sound System, that incorporate live instrumentals & vocals with a DJ on stage - it's a great time when they have a show!
Thanks for the opportunity to have this interview people can find my mixes and free tunes of mine at adamjohnmusic.wordpress.com. I also have a myspace page at myspace.com/kidkrypticaudio where everyone can hear some of my new stuff.
As always, I appreciate all the support from the labels that release my music, and most of all from the fans who support what I’m doing.
Adam John - Winter Screamed Last Night by Adam John
Here are links to Adam’s sites, music and contact info:
Blog
Kid Kryptic @ MySpace Page
Kid Kryptic @ ViRB Page
Adam John @ ReverbNation Page
Adam John on Last.fm
Kid Kryptic on Last.fm
http://soundcloud.com/adam-john
All music Copyright 2002-2009 Adam John Newberg
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Dreamsocket & TVM Studio Release - Bear On A Wire iPhone Game
Bear on a Wire Trailer from bearzo on Vimeo.
My 2 Cents
Ok, I normally don’t even remotely consider blogging anything related to Apple but since my friend Kenny Bunch has just released this game I have to support him since he is someone I respect greatly and really everything Kenny makes is top-notch. I haven’t played this game and probably never will since I will never own an Apple product and therefore will never play it on an iPhone I own. Maybe on someone’s iPhone at work but you get the idea. Anyways, I’ve watched the video and talked to Kenny about it and it really does look cool. I’d go so far as to say it’s one of the best games I’ve seen for the iPhone. So if Bear on A Wire seems like a game you’d like and you are Mac / Apple fan (or Cult follower hehehe) then go ahead and support Mr. Kenny Bunch. This guy works hard and I can tell you right now if he worked on it, it’s good!
Below are the descriptions from his website describing the game etc…
The Game
Our first IPhone game, previously code named Poor Bear is officially available in the app store today under the name Bear on a Wire. For those of you who followed the progression of the game on our site (1, 2, 3, 4) know that this game didn’t start with designs, requirements, deadlines, or the promise of gold bars. Instead it was built on the premise that we could make something fun that we molded just how we wanted it. That mold shifted and turned over time. Even at the starting gate, we didn’t even know what type of game we were making. The game really grew organically and took on a life of its own. I’m personally blown away with the outcome, especially considering this was Chad’s (the developer) first game and he went into it not knowing Objective C. The design is a work of art as well. However, for those of you know Trevor (the designer), know that you could expect nothing less. Words can’t do justice to what 1 designer and 1 developer have done with this game. It is simply amazing and even though it is our own game, none of us can stop playing. That was the point though. We built something we loved. We hope you will too!
Support Us
We appreciate any support you can give us. For those with an IPhone grab the game now, rate it, and review it!
APP STORE: http://itunes.com/app/bearonawire
For those wanting to get the word out. Here are some links to blog, twitter, AIM, tell someone on a subway, etc. We will have flyers too that you can print and post on bathroom walls, telephone polls, and anywhere in eyes view.
SHARE THE BEAR!
APP STORE: http://itunes.com/app/bearonawire
SITE: http://bearonawire.com
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/bearonawire
VIMEO: http://www.vimeo.com/6367707
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/dreamsocket
Press Release
Dreamsocket & TVM Studio are excited to announce they have just released Bear On A Wire.
Apple app store link: http://itunes.com/app/bearonawire
About the game:
Our green hero, Bearzo, has had it! No more performing for “THE MAN” day in and day out. What! Do you think he is some kind of dancing bear? NO… he is a high wire bear, and it’s time for him to make his great escape from the Big Top. He loves his fans and his work, but he just wants to be free and feel his scarf blow in the wind as he shreds wire with the most insane moves ever attempted … on a Moped… on top of high voltage power lines. Get ready to feel the power of the 49cc, two stroke, and single cylinder stallion!
As you tear off on the wire, try to balance Bearzo and keep him from fallingdown into the 1.21 gigawatts that alternate through the wires below him (Ah, the smell of burnt bear hair). While balancing on the wire, acquire crazy mad points by using the different stunt key combinations to generate some MOPED MAYHEM (ECO..ECo..eco) Bearzo’s stunts include no hands, half twist, full twist, bear buck, back roll, front roll, jump roll, grinder, spin roll, spin buck, spin buck grinder, coat tail, coat tail kick, and the next to impossible coat tail kick spin grinder. Combine these stunts with full flips, double flips… triple flips…? Now you are just being crazy! Collect coins and rack up even more points. I know…you never saw collectable coins coming. Don’t get caught hibernating b/c it’s about to get all GRIZZLY up in here!
Get pumped for BEAR ON A WIRE.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
New ColoRotate Beta Online Now + CS4 3D Color Plugin Coming Soon
Like taste and smell, color is a sense that is processed by our brains in multiple dimensions. (Visit our ”Learn about color” section for more information.) Yet traditional methods of choosing colors on computers are limited to obscure sliders and flattened two-dimensional viewers. With ColoRotate, you can work with colors in 3D, in real time, and in a way that matches how our minds process color.
A rainbow of benefits
ColoRotate gives you the freedom to let your imagination fly.
- Intuitive: In 3D, you can quickly see the multidimensional nature of your colors and the relationships between colors in a way that matches how your eye and brain perceive color.
- Agile: Change your colors one at a time, blend two colors together, or transform a full palette of colors all at once with contrast and color joysticks — adjustments that previously have been beyond your reach.
- Reliable: Take the guesswork out of setting up color harmonies or color contrasts by adjusting the distances between colors in 3D.
- Efficient: Use ColoRotate’s quick drag-and-drop to adjust hue, brightness, and saturation. Import and export in Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE). Soon, you’ll be able to save even more time with our Photoshop Plugin.
- Piggyback: Browse themes created by the community, or search by tag, title, or creator to discover new color ideas.
- Community: Post your palettes, and tag palettes to engage with the ColoRotate community, or discussions. In the future, look for features like comments and ratings.
ColoRotate has an intuitive interface that eliminates the need to memorize or jot down color combinations or numbers. Indeed, you can traverse across an open three-dimensional color space and choose (or design) the color palette that fits your needs. In the process, you can uncover color relationships that give your designs an aesthetic balance that will please the most discriminating eye.
The members of the ColoRotate team have always drawn outside of the proverbial lines. Their rainbow of talent, creativity, and innovation reflects their dedication to creating new technologies that are both useful and cool. http://about.colorotate.org/our-team.html
ColoRotate was born at the Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA), which researches, designs and implements technology to facilitate and broaden the learning process.
Since color is inherently three dimensional, it's always bothered us that all color pickers are flat. That led to the design ColoRotate, a 3D editor that aligns with the way our minds process color. We've also put together some background information about the nature of color, perception, and color models -- http://learn.colorotate.org/
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Career Day at Marietta Center for Advanced Academics on May 8th 2009
This was my second year attending the Career Day at Marietta Center for Advanced Academics and it was just as much fun. This year I attended as a Senior Sound Designer since I am working on a XBox 360 game for Xaviant a game developer from Alpharetta, GA. Although I could have gone over much more than sound for this career day I wanted to show the kids something they could interactively participate in on the spot without running out of time, so I ended up showing them how to record audio, process and clean up the audio recording and then use FaceFX to analyze the audio and generate facial animations based off the preconfigured node setups for facial movements. The technology is very advanced but visually for the kids it showed them instant feedback and was easy to explain and show them in literally just a few minutes. Well, I want to thank everyone at the Marietta Center for Advanced Academics for having me. You have to be a very smart kid to be in this school and for me to show them what I do is truly an honor, since I just might be working for one of these kids one day!
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