Siempre La Luna

Build That Shit, Turbohands!

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:34:32 -0800

Here go my fast hands building a Hackme Rockit. Soundtrack is by me, performed on the very same Rockit.

श्रुति-1 (Shruthi-1) Monosynth assembly

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:12:30 -0700

I made this!

Making a sammich

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:52:38 -0700

Assembly of a sammichFM prototype from a couple of months ago. Some of my finest high-speed action.

sammichFM Assembly from Justin on Vimeo.

46 Reasons to Love The Holy Mountain

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:27:03 -0700

Multiplying By Nine

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:43:49 -0800

Why wasn't I told about this when I was in school? It would have been useful. Surely I'm not the first person to notice it.

Nines

Midibox FM VSTi Plugin

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 02:30:21 -0800

I'm getting started on a MidiboxFM project and was curious if there was a VSTi plugin I could use it to control the as yet unbuilt device from my DAW of choice. Turns out that a fellow from Hungary made one a few years ago and it looks to be pretty nice. Sadly, the site he used to host the info and the plugin have been left fallow and all the download links have been broken. It looks like the guy switched to mac a few years ago and stopped development of the project. For those of you that might be interested in this sort of thing, I tracked down a copy of the plugin and I'm happy to mirror all the information here.

MidiBox FM VSTi

Download v1.1 mb_fm_vsti.zip

MB_FM VSTi is a PC-based control surface for your MidiBox FM synthesizer. It
acts like a common VSTi instrument, you can "load" it into your sequencer
apps (like Cubase, Sonar etc.), and you can remote and automate your hardware
FM-synth. This plugin processes midi data only, not audio.

Documentation

Features and Limitations

- Complete midi CC# implemetation for your MidiBox FM synth. See http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_fm/midibox_fm_cc_voice.txt
for details.
- Very useful for DAW users (Cubase, Sonar, etc). You can save patches directly
to your project file. You can also record realtime knob movements (midi automation).
- An ordinary vsti plugin IS a synth. This plugin CONTROLS a real synth. This
is a big difference!
- This plugin has midi input and midi output(!). It has audio output too, but
no audio data processed. It sends only midi messages to your hardware synth.
- Incoming midi data passed to midi out, without any processing. For example:
if you turn volume knob on your master keyboard, it will transferred to your
hardware synth, but the position of the volume knob in your plugin will not
change.
- You can control wavetable related parameters too, but you can not access wavetable
data this way. Wavetable data can be edited via sysex only.
- This plugin made with Synthedit (www.synthedit.com) :-)

How To Install

Unpack the downloaded archive and copy "mb_fm.dll" to your vsti plugin
directory. Usually "C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Vstiplugins" for Cubase
users or "C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Vstiplugins" for Sonar users.

Uninstall

Simply delete the file "mb_fm.dll" and directory "mb_fm".

Patch Management

VSTi plugins has own patch management system. You can load and save patches
and banks via your host application. Some preset patches also included in the
zip file.

Important: After patch change or channel change you should use the "Update
Controllers" button.

Changelog

v1.1 beta

- many bugs fixed
- improved patch management, some presets included
- "Update Controllers" button. You should use it after patch change
or channel change.
- improved compatibility (tested under Cakewalk Sonar, Savihost)
- full midi cc# implementation
- a short documentation

v1.0 beta

- first public release

Star Wars Christmas Special

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:07:17 -0800

Not the shitty one that disappointed the fuck out of you as a kid but the new one from Gamervision.

Prepare to have that ass assimilated

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:39:48 -0800

Prepare to have that ass assimilated, originally uploaded by Siempre_La_Luna.

Just testing out a bit of blogful wizardry by posting from Flickr to here.

YOU CAN HAZ SAMMICH

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 23:01:03 -0700

I built a SID based synth called SammichSID. SammichSID is part of the MIDIbox SID project. The Sammich is amazingly compact, packed with features, fun to make, and easy to use. Read more about it here: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=sammichsid

Summertime Blues

Tue, 6 Apr 2010 03:46:52 -0700

Greatest Rock & Roll song ever written. Hands down, no argument, universally accepted. Guitar, bass, drums, vocals and that's it. No bullshit. It's got the kick on the one and three, snare on the two and four; the foundation of rock music. It swings a little, but not enough to be distracting. The lyrics are about toil and rebellion, but not about real struggle and revolution. It's a perfect anthem for middle class teenage ennui. Or, at least, that's how I felt about it three months ago. Now I'm convinced it serves the roles of thoughtless filler, starting point for psychedelic epics, reminder of simpler times, point of irony, barometer of true talent, and occasional tool of sonic torture.

It all started with a trip into the origins of stoner metal. I'm a big doom/drone/stoner/etc metal fan and, being a bit obsessive when it comes to music (as noted here and here), I started getting acquainted with a couple of Blue Cheer records. I got hooked on the fact that the drums in their version of Summertime Blues features exactly zero hits on the hi-hat. It's all galloping floor toms, weird snare rolls, and big washy cymbals. Knowing I had a copy of The Best of Eddie Cochran laying around in an old CD book, I had a listen and was really surprised by how different the versions were. After that I decided to see how many different versions I had laying around. The Who's version from Live At Leeds, Guitar Wolf's version from Jet Generation, and The Muggers from the Motorhead: All The Aces / The Muggers Tapes album were all kicking around my house in physical or digital form. After hearing the variety of dissimilar details in all those versions I started digging in to youtube to listen to other versions. After that I was, as they say, completely cracked out.

I assumed (accurately) that there must be hundreds of recordings of the song by as many bands. I tried to collect 100 different versions from which to extract some meaningful inferences and statistical data. A couple of days later I had 100 versions. All the following MP3 files were found on music blogs, band websites, archive.org and myspace. I did not use Itunes, Amazon music, or any other subscription sites, pay services, or p2p sites due mostly to the fact that I wasn't sure how serious I would be about actually following through on the project. In the end I ditched a few of the versions due to very low recording quality. I still ended up with 97 versions. Summer is only 91 days long, so it's like you're getting an extra week. They all add up to just about five hours of music. I listened to each version at least twice and many of them five or six times. I used no scripting or advanced wizardry to carry out any of the work and everything was laid out in an Open Office spreadsheet.

The song was written by Eddie Cochran and Jerry Capeheart in 1958 and released as a single soon after. It has since been widely regarded as one the greatest rock and roll songs ever written. You can read more about it on the wikipedia page about the song. You'll notice that the wikipedia page features some very similar information and inferences as detailed in my research. None of this information was on the wiki page when I started this project and I only became aware of it when I was nearing completion. How's that for some Jungian weirdness? In addition to all the things we may be learning about summertime blues, we've also learned that some ideas enter the collective unconscious and are acted upon by unconnected individuals simultaneously... or not, it's probably just a coincidence.

The original lyrics to the song are as follows:
I'm gonna raise a fuss, I'm gonna raise a holler
About a workin' all summer just to try to earn a dollar
Every time I call my baby, and try to get a date
My boss says, "No dice son, you gotta work late"
Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do
But there ain't no cure for the summertime blues

Well my mom and pop told me, "Son you gotta make some money,
If you want to use the car to go ridin' next Sunday"
Well I didn't go to work, told the boss I was sick
"Well you can't use the car 'cause you didn't work a lick"
Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do
But there ain't no cure for the summertime blues

I'm gonna take two weeks, gonna have a fine vacation
I'm gonna take my problem to the United Nations
Well I called my congressman and he said Quote:
"I'd like to help you son but you're too young to vote"
Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do
But there ain't no cure for the summertime blues

Upon first listen these lyrics serve as a quaint reminder of a time when a young man's biggest hassles were having a stickler for a boss, a strict set of parents, and not being old enough to vote. These days most kids would love to even have a job, or a set of parents that are still together, or access to a car, or a girl to take on a date, or the money to fund a two week vacation, or the ability to bend the ear of a congressman for a couple of minutes. While I'm sure this song was about rebellion 50 years ago, these days it's about an ungrateful spoiled kid with low hopes.

From this original song there arose four primary derivative veins. The Blue Cheer vein: characterized by an extended instrumental intro, a galloping 8th note; 16th note pattern on the drums, instrumental lines in place of the spoken authority figure , an instrumental break in the song, a repeated third verse, and an extended instrumental outro.
The Who vein: characterized by a whole step drop on the guitar and bass prior to each verse, spoken authority figures, and a modulation of a whole step up in pitch prior to the third verse.
The Owens: characterized by a deep tremolo dip or wandering guitar lead in the intro, a lilting or boogie rhythm, and spoken authority figures.
The Blue Cheer and The Who versions are also easily identifiable by the manner in which the bass lines are phrased. I don't really know the correct terminology to describe them so I put together a video of me playing each one. I'm not a bass player, it was late at night, I'm no good at playing with a click track, I had a large dinner, etc.

Also of interest are the frequency with which people mess up the lyrics, the use of the song as a jumping off point for pure psychedelia, and the infrequency with which artists mix characteristics from the separate veins. The most frequently misspoken word comes at the end of the Boss authority figure's line "Well you can't use the car 'cause you didn't work a lick". Frequently this line is sung as "... 'cause you didn't work late". Surprisingly it happens almost as frequently with native English speakers as it does non-native speakers. In the realm of epic or psychedelic music, Terry Reid and Dionysos both use the song as a starting point and loose framework for extended musical and technical workouts the end result of which bear little resemblance to the original. With the Exception of Rush's intentional combination of elements from Blue Cheer and the Who's versions of the song, there is almost no intermingling of those two veins.

So go ahead and have a look at all the info, listen to each version, and tell me where I got it all wrong. (pops)

If you've got additions or you'd like to have my raw data and make some nice charts and graphs with it, let me know. I'm sure there is quite a bit more information that can be extracted from all of this, but after three months of having this song stuck in my head every day I'm ready to let it go.

Bands and solo artists included are:
Eddie Cochran
Blue Cheer
The Who
Buck Owens
Jimmy Barnes & Joe Camilleri
Rockapella
Eddie Meduza
Dionysos
Deborah Harry
Hanson
The Radiators
Dream Syndicate
David Nelson Band
psychedelic breakfast
Ekoostik Hookah
Los Repetidores
Succubus
Surf Coasters
Gary Allan
Pfuri, Gorps, & Kniri
Terry Reid
Jussi & The Boys
Moe.
Little River Band
Virginia Tech Fighting Virginians
Browny & The Shubees
La Muerte
Marcel Cagnon
The Esquires
The Muggers
Ritchie Valens
Larry Foster
Pekamor
Sydney Devine
The Rockhouse Brothers
Little Tony
Sandy Nelson
The Reactors
Teacher's Pet
Brian Setzer
Chris Spedding
John Hardy
Dion
The Strangers
Orange County Choppers Band
The New Jordal Swingers
Levon Helm
The Mudgang
Joey Welz
Rush
Christos Dantis
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Duendes
Jerry Wilson
Ordinary Boys
Olivia Newton John
The Black Keys
G.O.D.
Bruce Springsteen
BAP
Alan Jackson
The Tomcats
Flaming Lips
Bobby Vee
The Gants
The Hep Stars
Big Frozen Cats
Rolling Stones
Clarke Barre
The Adels
Bon Jovi
Beach Boys
T-Rex
Bobby Fuller
Heinz
KISS
Lolita No.18
The Guess Who
Sweet Thunder Found Sound
Meatloaf
Flying Lizards
James Taylor
Villa Mad
Bob Walkenhorst
West 34
Mick Farren
Scott Chapin
The Resistors
Guitar Wolf
Warren Zevon
The Arcs
Robert Gordon & Link Wray
Dry Rot
Van Halen
Attitude (attitude adjustment)
CAPRiS
Bow Wow