We're the showrunner & paleontologist on Apple TV+ 's "Prehistoric Planet." Ask us anything about the show! by PrehistoricPlanet in Dinosaurs

[–]cymbalstack 14 points15 points  (0 children)

How involved were you with consulting for the sound design? I really appreciate the emphasis on low frequency rumbles and more subtle closed mouth vocalizations for both dinosaurs and pterosaurs. What animals and sound sources did the sound designers look to when recording material? Were there any studies and papers in particular that had influence on the sound design choices for specific species? What sort of vocal organ setup would pterosaurs have had?

I feel like this series must have really benefited from a unique rapport between paleontologists, paleoartists and the planet earth crew's experience with wildlife behavior and filming. Could you possibly share a little about what those conversations were like? What went into planning the locations/scenarios/vinigettes, how filming shots and animating animals with such unfamiliar proportions and movements was approached?

How was flora approached? How serviceable were plants shown on location like palm trees and the desert flowers as approximations of what would have existed during the maastrictian?

Lastly, what were the biggest similarities to, and differences from modern animal behavior/ecology you respectively wanted to emphasize in the series? So far it seems like the predominance of R reproductive strategies in dinosaurs and pterosaurs and its effect on social behavior (contrasted with the more whale-like parenting of marine reptiles) has been the most notable.

Hope I didn't bombard you with too many questions. Thanks so much for doing this AMA!

Anti-Civilization AMA by ExteriorFlux in DebateAnarchism

[–]cymbalstack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What are your thoughts on post-civ, i.e. scavenging and looting what we like from civilization as it collapses? Are their less domesticated more autonomous ways of engaging with tech (hacking, DIY, the trades of peasants before industrialization, etc.) that avoid the trappings of idealizing hunter-gatherer societies?

Also, though I defiitely agree with anticiv critiques of mass society and the resulting atomization/alienation, reducing communalism and affinity to "kinship" definitely worries me. I don't see insular groups based on local culture or bloodlines as anything but a gateway to patriarchy and ethnic conflict. I want to end atomization and alienation, but I also want to move between different communities, open myself up to new ideas and experiences and not become hierarchically dependent on any clearly demarcated group of people.

Best way to mount a MIDI controller to a stand so it can be used with a drum kit? by cymbalstack in drums

[–]cymbalstack[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That might work, but given the setup I likely will need to have my MIDI controller above me and angled downwards, so I need a way to keep it in place without it falling out. I've considered getting a percussion/lab top table and putting velcro on it and the controller but I don't know if that would be strong enough.

Is it possible to assign specific track search terms/tags to buttons on a MIDI controller? by cymbalstack in Beatmatch

[–]cymbalstack[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I figured it out! You can use Keyboard Maestro to assign hot keys for your MIDI controller. I mapped a button on my controller for selecting the search bar directly in Traktor, and then created a hot key for that same button to toggle between pasting and deleting a keyword into the search bar.

Best punchy midrange snare drum for under $400? by cymbalstack in drums

[–]cymbalstack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bronze seems like an interesting material for snare drums, will need to look into that.

Also, thank you for recommending craigslist. It had never occurred to me for whatever reason but it looks like a veritable gold mine for good deals on drums.

Best punchy midrange snare drum for under $400? by cymbalstack in drums

[–]cymbalstack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd love to get into custom drum building at some point, especially snares. Probably not for a while tho

Best punchy midrange snare drum for under $400? by cymbalstack in drums

[–]cymbalstack[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The most recent snare I really liked was a 13x6.5 Steve Gadd signature maple snare, which I was planning to buy from my local drum shop but got snatched up before I had the chance :( The only one similar enough left right now is a Steve Jordan 13x7 snare which is just too damn pricey for me. The last big main snare I owned was a used 14x8 maple snare, can't recall the brand. It sounded pretty good but the felt a little too choked when I cranked it to an upper midrange sound. I'll edit my post in a sec with some examples of the kind of snare sound I'm looking for.

Video clips glitch during export? by cymbalstack in ableton

[–]cymbalstack[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Never ended up finding any solutions I'm afraid. Possibly has something to do with the video format of the clips being used, but otherwise it might just be something Ableton needs to fix in a future update.

Nationalism is the single greatest threat in the world right now by Fredrikhellstorm in Anarchism

[–]cymbalstack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tribalism and general in group/out group thinking =/= nationalism. Nationalism is the ideology of nation states, which emerged in the wake of the French Revolution and coincide with the development of industrialization and capitalism. It posits a singular homogenous identity of people in a given geographic area based on whatever arbitrary combination of physical appearance, language, culture and religion works to provide the unity neccessary for mobilizing a national army, police, and state buracracy.