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On The Job Stories #2
Every now and then, while walking the halls at work, I stumble upon something cool. We produce a lot of original programming here, and given that, we work with a number of local artist (musicians, authors, painters, performers, etc).
Today I came upon the audio setup for “Minnesota Originals” (MNO – for short). The music segments for the show are usually done in bulk – recording and taping 8 (or so) bands over several days. The performances are then edited with accompanying interviews and spread out over the course of a season.
Of course the audio setup caught my eye, and after a brief run through by Joe, I was allowed to take a few pics.
It’s a round-about way to record bands, but the setup offers a high degree of options for post. Eight discreet channels are recorded directly into Final Cut, so the editor has options for a rough mix while cutting. In addition, the audio is mult’ed to a separate system (through a MOTU/DigiMAX combo). Those tracks then get mixed by Joe in Pro Tools after receiving picture-lock from the editor, and that mix is re-synced in FCP for the final line cut.
It’s a round-about way to go, but it ensures that show will sound great for air.
I get to “look over their shoulders” for the next show taping. Now that is cool…
On The Job Stories…
I’ve been shooting a spot for a local pizza shop in the northern suburbs. I did cover shots last week, and stand-ups yesterday. The client couldn’t have been more gracious and accommodating, and the taco pizza they made for me was spectacular – perks of the job.
Our pitch man was running late, and after setup, we kibitzed about all things pizza. The client began recounting the lurid tales of the delivery business – a pizza man confessions of sorts.
While I’m not going to recount them here, I will say, there are all kinds out there. I was amazed by the number of people that answer the door with little or no clothes on. I mean really… Who orders a pizza and doesn’t bother to get dressed when it arrives?
The client was quick to point out that it’s never like you imagine it – your Angelina Jolie types always answer the door fully clothed – so my hopes of becoming a delivery-man-for-a-day were quickly dashed. They didn’t have stats, but it seems to be a guy thing – in that guys are more likely to answer the door in some weird & strange manner. I find this odd, but not surprising.
It did get me thinking though… With all of the reality shows out there, I’d love to see a series on the trials and tribulations of a pizza delivery person.
Hmmmm… Maybe Dominos might let me do a few ride alongs, you know, “Cops” style.
I love what I learn on the job…
Mashed Up…
I was bored and needed a distraction, so I made this…
An original recording mashup of Sheila E.’s “A Love Bizarre” and The Pussycat Dolls’ “When I Grow Up” done Minneapolis style. The version is not yet complete.
Produced & Recorded by Terry Gray
All instruments & Voices by Terry
Studio Upgrade…
I’m a sucker for ergonomics, and I’m constantly trying to improve my comfort level while working.
As my gear has expanded, I found myself outgrowing my workstation. There wasn’t enough room for both computers, mice, controller, drives, keyboards, etc.
So it was off to IKEA, the most magical place on Earth, for a new desk. Because IKEA stuff is modular (and all kinds of awesome), all I had to do was buy a new table top, and use the legs from my current desk.
My work area has expanded and there’s now room for everything. I still have some ergonomic issues to work out – I need a new (bigger) trackball mouse and a chair with arms. There there’s the matter of exact placement, but it’s coming along. Having everything in one place is worth it’s weight in gold.
More Testing…
The 1st rule of Reaper alpha testing is: Do not talk about Reaper alpha testing. Yes, it is indeed a public alpha (that we shouldn’t be discussing), but there are a growing number of sites singing its praises. Count me in as a +1.
It’s funny how at some point on the journey of learning, you go “Ahhhhhhhhhhh… Now I get it…..”.
I’m beginning to have more of these “a-ha” moments with Reaper, and I must say, it’s a pretty slick program. I’ve also realized that some of my early complaints are actually due to bad plug-in coding, and NOT Reaper itself.
I still maintain that Reaper’s learning curve is steeper than it needs to be, but with each new alpha, it gets easier to use. It’s also fun tracking its development, and the two way communication between users and the devs at the forum is second to none. I only wish Apple, Ableton and Avid did the same. I just noticed that all of those companies start with an A.
My “wow moment” so far has been the sheer number of plug-ins that can be loaded. Native Instrument’s new Reaktor Prism is an insane processor hog that taxes Ableton Live and brings Pro Tools and Logic to their collective knees (with buffer settings 128 and lower).
Reaper doesn’t break a sweat with Reaktor 5, and I was able to load that with Battery, Sampletank and several KORE Player instances. All played nicely together with Reaper, reporting only 7 to 12% CPU usage. That’s stupefyingly cool.
I’m still very much at home with Logic, but grow more attached to Reaper with each update. I keep telling myself that it’s still in Alpha (with several bugs), but the final product could shake the DAW industry. That’s not hype.
I’ve said it before – Logic remains the best bang for the buck out there for what you get, but consider that Reaper 4 + Native Instruments Komplete 7 (virtual instruments) and Waves Gold (processing effects) would be a power house setup and all you’d ever need.
The total cost of that package would be around $1100 retail, and you could certainly go without the Waves package – it’s just nice to have. Taking that into account, Reaper and Komplete 7 are roughly the same price as Logic Pro 9, and at this point, offers more flexibility.
Exciting times indeed…
2011…
I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions. I personally think they’re a waste of time, effort and resources. I prefer the Nike slogan – “Just Do It…”.
So, with that said, I’m hitting the ground running in 2011. My album, “Love and Acrimony” is complete, and I’m currently running through the administrative process – copyrighting, ASCAP and ISRC registrations, CD Baby and iTunes distribution, etc. These tasks are boring and time consuming, but I’m an advocate of protecting one’s work as much as one can in our “New Media” age.
I’m also going to begin cutting “When I’m Not With You” that was shot between Christmas and New Years in Chicago. I’m extremely proud of what we did. I’m almost afraid to work on it, because the edit has to do the project (and the song) justice. I’ve organized and grouped all of the shots, and all that remains is to sit down and cut it.
This also marks the 1st time that I shot a music video with assistance. I’m used to working alone, but it was so much easier having the extra help. The shoot was not without some mild difficulty, as my help was also a principle in the video, but we got through it. This was due to excellent pre production and scripting. We developed a shot sheet prior to shooting, and stuck to it faithfully. This opened us up creatively after we had all of our shots. I can’t say enough for pre-planning and production. Total production time was about 4.5 hours over two days.
On the tech end of things, I’m really in love with my Canon 50mm 1.4. It’s taken a while to warm up to it, but now I can’t imagine shooting video without it. I love my Tamron for stills, but the 50 is where it’s at for capturing moving images.
I said that I wasn’t into resolutions, but I guess I will resolve to get one Canon “L” series lens this year. Oh hell, I’m on a roll now – another resolution is to continue to push the bounds of what is possible with a DSLR (or an iPod for that matter, as the video these babies is incredible).
Here’s to 2011…
2010 in review…
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 5,000 times in 2010. That’s about 12 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 53 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 70 posts. There were 345 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2gb. That’s about 7 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was August 24th with 159 views. The most popular post that day was Video.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, cheesycam.com, vimeo.com, mail.live.com, and youtube.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for canon 50mm 1.4, indimatte, canon t2i 50mm 1.4, 50mm 1.4, and indisystem ultracompact.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Video May 2009
T2i/Canon 50mm 1.4 USM Test June 2010
1 comment
Gravity Video Pics… February 2010
The LCDVF 3/2… July 2010
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About May 2009
Want U 2 Know – A Deconstruction
On Thursday (and seemingly out of nowhere), I decided to shoot a music video. Ok… I tend to do that when I’m full of nervous energy, and since I cannot control, or make the holiday’s go away, I had it in abundance.
Rather than give in to Scrooge-like behavior, I opted for a more positive outlet.
I didn’t really have a concept. I just wanted to keep it simple. I’ve been way into David Fincher’s work lately – dark, moody, with hints of planned randomness. It also gave me the chance to play with my Canon 50mm 1.4 fast prime. I keep falling back on the Tamron 2.8 zoom because of it’s flexibility and my own laziness. You have to plan your shots with the Canon, and it’s focus can be unwieldy in low light.
I shot a bunch of stuff around my apartment, and enjoyed the DOF orgasm that I get whenever the 50mm is mounted. Knowing that none of these items would mean anything directly to the song, I went with things that were “kinda” related, or that meant something to me.
The performance takes were tricky. It’s hard as hell shooting a music video by yourself with a regular video camera, and even harder when using a DSLR with fast glass. Lucky for me, I invested in some tools that proved to be indispensable.
My 7″ Lilliput LCD monitor saved my ass big time. With an extended HDMI cable, I tethered it to the T2i, and could hold it for adjustments. It was a pain working like this, but it allowed me to stand in the lit shot for focus checks.
I did 6 takes – 2 wide and 4 close ups. I switched to the Tamron once for the shot of me at the keys. I tried a few other shots with the Tamron, but ended up not liking them. The 50mm was giving me what I wanted, so I stayed with it.
The guitar solo was also difficult. It’s funny (and not that uncommon) for guitar players to struggle with recreating a solo note-for-note on video. A considerable about of time has passed since I recorded the song, and it took more than a few minutes to remember how I played it. My natural instinct was to play it differently than what you hear on the track. *sigh* We had the same problem when I shot “Gravity”.
I cut it in FCP, and attempted to do a 4 angle multi-cam edit, but my MBP wasn’t going for it. So, I took the best wide and close up shots and multi-cam’ed those. I then cut in the other angles and the random shots over the top.
I was too lazy to send everything over to Color for grading, so I did a quick and dirty grade with plugins and FCP’s native effects.
I really like the crushed blacks and smooth filter look I achieved. I pushed the green/blue cast that was already present from shooting with fluorescent lighting. I have a lens filter to prevent this, but again – quick, dirty, lazy…
All in all, not bad for something I did at the spur of the moment in between work, Christmas shopping, and drinks with a friend…
Logical Gold Star…
I just received my certificate of completion, and my 1st step towards a full Logic Pro certification. The courses at Lynda.com are decent, and the new Logic 9 course in particular, was well presented. I picked up several new tricks over the 6 hour course.
Who says online learning isn’t fun?
Reaper 4.0 Alpha…
In the midst of a Twitter conversation over the weekend, I was reminded that I was hyping Reaper a few weeks ago. I’ve tried to like it. I mean, I really have. I even purchased training videos, but to me, Reaper is so convoluted to use.
The reason for the frustration is the program is so highly customizable, that the sheer number of options can be daunting to a new user. When the creative juices are flowing and there are 14 ways to setup the metronome it can kill the mood.
The flip side is once you get your head around it, it’s an incredible piece of software. It’s truly a different way to work, and coming from Logic, you have to unlearn a number of things. I remember saying the same thing about Logic when I switched from Sonar back in 1999, and it took me a year to figure it out. I think if I had stayed with Sonar, Reaper would be easier to get into.
What I do like about Reaper is that it’s a light weight program. The new alpha version is less than 8 meg. Logic weighs a ton – with it’s 8 DVD/4 hour install, while Reaper can be carried and run from a thumb drive. That’s awesome.
So I’m playing with the new 4.0 alpha release, and I’m really liking it. They’ve obviously been listening to users, as the whole thing has been streamlined. The menus have been improved, and so far, the workflow is better.
There are still some troubling bugs – particularly on the Mac side of things:
– AU plugin GUI’s are still buggy and you can’t scroll through patch lists with the Native Instrument stuff.
– They haven’t fixed MIDI scanning with keyboard controllers. If your controller isn’t on when Reaper is launched, you have to manually run a scan. That’s super annoying, as I almost never turn my controller on first. All other DAW’s have some sort of active polling of the MIDI/USB ports.
Those are the biggest so far, but I’m starting to wrap my head around Reaper. I’ve been reading that composers in LA are starting to use it in conjunction with Pro Tools to score films.
I’m warming up to it, but not quite ready to leave Logic…
Local Tv Hero 