Writer, musician, wizardly guide to platform independence
Nearing 10pm at night and I’m just now getting up this Daily Loop. I figure since it’ll be months until thing ever get back to even 10% of normal, and since I spend so much time in front of my computer anyways, there’s really no reason why I can’t keep getting these posted.
Lost some audio in Abelton today, which is a bummer. A minor file management snafu, just being too quick and careless. It’s okay, since I wanted to redo it at some point. Lesson learned.
Tape video via Pixabay.
Daryl Murphy has ran a 5K every day for over 265 days in honor, and silent protest to the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain and way too many others who’ve been killed by police. Now he’s onto his third fundraiser, using his running for another great cause:
The goal of Miles For Justice III is to raise $10,000 to bring 10 Little Free Libraries filled with books that feature POC authors and POC characters into communities with limited book access. Each library will be placed in a highly visible location with ample foot traffic that’s easily accessible for all members of the community.
Right now he’s at about $1,000, so if you can contribute, do it. If you can’t just share the link: https://pledgeit.org/milesforjustice/
I posted a few of these clips to Twitter in the last week or so, and didn’t really get the idea to put them on my blog, so I’m fixing that now (1/7).
My brain exploded when I figured out how to do sampling with Abelton Live. Sure, I’ve messed around with a TASCAM Porta-4 about 30 years ago, and who hasn’t spent some time with Garage Band?
But Live is a special beast.
For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to just make something each day. The drum beats, the bass lines, and the samples. Usually I’ll go on YouTube and sample old TV commercials, but lately I’ve been capturing the audio from Instagram Stories.
As I thumb through the never ending videos, every so often a few audio clips collide and make for something interesting. That’s where the beeps and boops above come from.
As a bass player I always enjoy getting these bass lines to pop out. I mean, I’m still a total novice with Abelton Live, but I’m having fun, which is the point.
Stef from @pexels
Photo via @DrDenaGrayson
Can America sink any lower? It seems the depths that this country will fucking sink is without limits.
For years, Mr. Trump had built his influence with rapid-fire tweets and by reaching out to millions of people on Facebook. Since losing November’s election, he had used the platforms to challenge the election results and call them fraudulent.
NYTimes
From Seth Godin, who I’ve been reading and following since about 2003.
“The blog you write each day is the blog you need the most. It’s a compass and a mirror, a chance to put a stake in the ground and refine your thoughts.”
That Tweet or Instagram post might get 10 likes, but will it even exist in 10 years? You can read Seth Godin’s first post from 2002 on his blog right here.
Social media is the the box of sugary cereal, being that you have to eat a whole box to feel full, but it just leaves you feeling like garbage 20 minutes later.
Vibrant and upbeat. Some weird little samples in there that you can hear in between the percussion. Also I think this is one of my first dives into audio to MIDI, which you can hear with the melody line.
Video by Edward Jenner from @pexels.
A friend looking to possibly maybe starting down the path of a new gig. They’ve got this experience, but how do they really show it off?
“A website,” I exclaim!
“But how will people know it’s stuff I really did?
“Because your reputation precedes you. You’re a good person, you’re not a crook. If it’s on your website, it happened.”
Of course, that takes a few decades of building trust, establishing character. Day after day of trying to do the right thing, with the right people. But that’s the work.
Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels
Usually a Christmas holiday break means spending time with family, dinner with friends, ice skating, nice conversations in cute coffee shops… but not this year.
That’s what makes getting “back to work” that much more difficult. There was no unwinding, no reprieve. No break from the tragedy. No break from being vigilant. No break.
So we start January with a Slack outage, which is about as on-brand as you can get for the state of the world we’re living in now.
Playing around with keyboard and synth “patches.” I’m not really well versed with piano-type instruments. Usually I just throw a few lines together, then edit the MIDI notes later.
Video by Stef from @Pexels
