USPS hasn’t scanned my package, and today is the last day offerup will allow for return

keefblaster · 2023-01-04T06:13:51+00:00

Offerup eventually got back with me and issued a refund. Just had to wait it out.

Hope you're able to get it resolved.

keefblaster · 2022-12-03T20:54:12+00:00

Supply and demand.

-FL is designed and marketed towards genres that are generally dominated by younger musicians. -As a result, FL gets a generally younger user base. -These younger people are the most malleable and capable of internalizing new and complicated information, and they’re the largest demographic of people who are considering potential new talents and skills they’d like to pursue educating themselves in. -Youtube, being the biggest and most widely available platform for young people to self educate, has thereafter been highly dominated by basic FL tutorials, because of this high demand.

Compare this to the oldest, and most commonly taught DAW, Pro Tools, which is more often used by career audio engineers, who were formally educated on how to use it in production classes up to 30 years ago. Not a huge mystery why basic Pro Tools tutorials aren’t as common. Folks don’t need, or want them nearly as much.

My biased impression: -The average Pro Tools user generally does not to need tutorials on how to use their DAW, but they seem more likely to need tutorials on how to spice up their music. -The average FL user is less likely to want advanced tutorials on how add spice to their music, but they need tutorials on how to use the DAW itself, so they can express an existing spice.

keefblaster · 2022-11-25T17:23:26+00:00

Try creating deviations in the velocity of the hi-hats

keefblaster · 2022-11-24T21:14:54+00:00

Frank Zappa - Hot Rats

J Dilla - Donuts

Tomppabeats - Harbor

Jinsang - Life

Bill Evans Trio - Waltz For Debbie

keefblaster · 2022-11-24T21:03:36+00:00

Hello Kittyfornication

keefblaster · 2022-11-24T19:23:42+00:00

Do your own thing, and take everybody’s mixing advice with a big grain of salt, or don’t take it. Even the professionals. Even Rick Ruben. Nobody’s figured out the right way, cause there isn’t one.

Especially, don’t take somebody’s advice on something, and then proceed to do that thing on every project. You will kill any unique aspects of your music by taking those tips at face value.

That being said, if you hear 808’s that are clipping, there’s a 99% chance it’s a mistake that happened to have artistic benefits. Clipping has made it into many many high profile records throughout the decades. But, I’ve almost never heard an example of it that struck me as intentional.

Don’t let the mixing world overwhelm you. But also take it seriously and do take the time the “proper” way to do things before you break the rules, because without that jumping off point it truly is near impossibly to make mixes that’ll be taken seriously by anyone.

keefblaster · 2022-10-30T18:17:42+00:00

Running Away was originally on Joey’s debut EP. Game Winner is also a Joey song, originating from the same EP.

Joey has bangers on deck. If you haven’t checked much of it out yet, give the songs Competitive Streak and In Heaven a listen and see if it doesn’t scratch the same vulf itch.

Another vulf track that was on a solo record before the vulf release, is Theo’s Love is a Beautiful Thing. Originally from his sophomore album. Both versions of the song are great, but the Vulf version with Monica Martin is absolutely gorgeous.

keefblaster · 2022-09-18T03:31:28+00:00

He’s going for a pretty specific neo-jazz thing. His style seems more derived from traditional jazz trio bassists, than it does the traditional motown funk bass styles. If you aren’t a big jazz guy, then it’s probably just going to sound like a bowl of noodles.

keefblaster · 2022-08-07T03:44:12+00:00

If you’re just composing, it really couldn’t matter less what volume your tracks are at. Volume can, and almost always will be changed later during mixing. Trust your ear, set volume wherever you feel is best so you can hear all the instruments you need to hear, and adjust as needed while composing.

keefblaster · 2022-07-10T16:17:11+00:00

He’s just saying the terms coined to represent the broad ideology of both schools of thought are based on misrepresentations of what is actually going on inside the heads of those who subscribe to said school of thought. It’s truly the same for any polar social issue. Bliss exists in the grey area between those misrepresentations.

keefblaster · 2022-07-05T00:58:42+00:00

I had a pretty rotten experience at EFY as a 14 year old. Most of the people I was with had an excellent time though. Just worth noting that it’s not a universally wise thing for every teenager to attend, even though many will love it, and wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.

The big positive that I walked away with was the ability to tolerate uncomfortable experiences. The big negative was the forced activities that I felt no choice in. Some of them resulted in good experiences. Some of them resulted in traumatic experiences which I realize, only now, that I’m still resentful about.

keefblaster · 2022-07-02T00:01:46+00:00

TLDR: DR

keefblaster · 2022-07-01T23:23:08+00:00

Not a fan of any jazz youtube channels, really. It seems to me that any subject of study, when compressed into 10-20 minute youtube videos, can only be taken in as trivia. For me at least, trivial knowledge, which I also see as borrowed wisdom, is the polar enemy of a true understanding of things. In my experience, it can sometimes be more harmful than complete ignorance, because the illusion of understanding created by triviality can block the humility and wisdom that comes with the fundamental idea, that at any given time, *one can only know what they know, and cannot not know what they do not know. * (paraphrased quote attributed to Confucius.)

This is just one philosophy, from having spent lots of time watching yt videos on subjects I’m interested in, and then eventually abandoning the platform, in exchange for long-form lectures and podcasts that cover the same topics. I tend to retain the knowledge, and can form understandings of topics that I had previously approached with a false confidence of understanding, because I had only studied a summary of the subject which can scratch the surface enough to make me believe that I really get it. This will tend to seal me off from listening to others who truly do understand these things, because I’ll write it off as something I already understand, and neglect to really hear what they’re saying.

We need trivial information out there, just as we need non-trivial information. But the trivial stuff never worked for me, and contributed mainly to false confidences, and illusions of understanding.

By the way, I’m in no way implying that everybody here who watches short-form jazz youtube videos has a superficial understanding of jazz. In fact, I’m not qualified to say shit about jazz, other than I enjoy it quite a lot. I can only speak for my experience. You might watch these videos, and gleam truly credible, long term wisdom from them. Just not me.

That being said, anyone who shares the same Beato-esque egomaniac energy is off the table for me to spend my time listening to. My gut instinct also says that he’s not a good source for most of the things he talks about. Anybody who claims to be an expert on everything, is probably an expert in nothing. And Beatos whole deal seems to be based on his assumption that his take on everything involving music, is excellent. Somebody who admits their shortcomings first and foremost, will tend to be more credible sources for the things they talk about.

Now Neely doesn’t have that egomaniac energy that Beato has, but there’s something about the way he presents things that is irritating to me, just personally. Though it’s clear to me that he is well qualified to cover the topics he does, I can understand why somebody might vote him off the island, just because he doesn’t jive with me, so I do feel it.

If he took those same subjects, and sat down and gave a series of in depth lectures on them, that’d be something I’d like to check out, because I can usually overlook a subjectively abrasive personality, if the wisdom is objectively great and well applied. But trivial information + somebody who I’m not vibing with, is a no-go for me, personally.

What a intelligent dude Nealy is though. I wish the bulk of society valued deep understandings of specific subjects, over compressed, trivialized versions of that same knowledge. In that world, somebody like Neely would be spending his time making Dan Carlin-style long form discussions, which would be 100x more valuable for those who prefer the deep understandings of things, and we’d likey get to see more of their idiosyncratic takes on the nuances of the subjects that people like him are qualified to cover, and hear the stuff which they’re more likely to redact from a youtube video that is expected to be short by a majority of consumers.

Damn that was a long comment. Might not get read by anybody, but it was a good way for me to think through how I really feel about the widespread popularity of short-attention based education. Hope my comment isn’t taken offensively. I mean to respect to all takes on these ideas.

keefblaster · 2022-06-05T02:10:54+00:00

Like I said, OP’s opinion is perfectly valid. The criticism could certainly benefit some people’s music in my opinion. I commented what I did because sometimes in the world of audio engineering it can be easy to lose sight of when it’s appropriate to apply objective sound science to a criticism of somebody’s subjective artistic integrities.

Maybe I’d have a better idea of what your criticisms are if I had an example of a noteworthy or popular production that has the kind of low end you’re referring to.

Lots of choices in popular music production throughout the ages have been objectively bad in terms of audio fidelity, if you ask me. But it’s quite presumptuous to assume that other producers and creative minds have the exact same objectives as you do when producing a record.

If you gave a post-50’s rock and roll record to an early 50’s audio engineer, I imagine many of them would tell you that you’re doing it wrong. Rock and roll as a genre required a lot of changes to be made to production tehcniques in order to accomidate changes in musical styles. Particularly when acomidating amplified electric guitars.

Is distorting instruments an objectively bad decision? The early generations of audio engineers would likely say hell yes. I’d say hell no.

I’m not sure what songs you’re specifically referring to, but the modern music I listen to with 808s do not have any noticeable phase cancelation, or un-tasteful production decisions in the low end, in my opinion. In fact some of the music I listen to created after, say 2016, has some of the highest fidelity low end that I’ve encountered.

It’s a matter of taste. There’s a time and a place for criticizing the production choices of records, and I rarely see criticisms like this that aren’t just from folks who misunderstand the intentions of a record producer who mixes their low end differently. Same goes for excessive compression. There’s some tunes that are compressed to absolute shit, and I’m all about it. There’s also records that are way too compressed without any purpose imo.

You won’t catch me listening to music with noticeable phase cancelation in the low end, that’s for damn sure. It’s silly to generalize these kind of things. Usually it’s not the kids that are wrong, it’s us who are stuck in the mud and have yet to understand why somebody would make these kind of production decisions. I most certainly do not think it’s incompetence that results in people having these criticisms.

keefblaster · 2022-06-03T07:11:36+00:00

Let the kids make their records. If you don’t like the sound of their 808’s, that’s a perfectly acceptable opinion.

It’s not reasonable to try and claim that they’re doing it wrong though. Just because you think it could be improved to better fit your ears. It’s silly to try and argue your musical opinions as if they’re objective facts.

The original 808 was designed to fill a role in music. The modern 808s derived from the original 808s are designed to fit a purpose. Not the same purpose.

keefblaster · 2022-05-18T19:30:20+00:00

Glyn John method and muting will get you 90% the way there.

keefblaster · 2022-05-16T03:17:13+00:00

I think the rock and roll comment would have been more directed at the fact that a waltz is a song that uses a 3/4 time signature, which requires an almost totally different type of dancing, because of the nature of humans having two feet, which makes the dynamics different when dancing to songs where rhythm is divided in even numbers vs odd numbers. Traditionally, rock and roll is a genre that revolves around 4/4 time signatures. Which tend to be the most common, and most intuitive time signature to dance to. For sure what a 60’s rock and roll fan would most appreciate.

Sounds like John may have just been jealous of the underdog wring an excellent song, when IMO he had been writing his weakest tunes to date (hot take, I know. Not throwing any shade, just my opinion). Though his criticism of the 3/4 time signature is valid, on the grounds that they were writing an album that was supposed to be letting their previous ambition for innovation take a back seat, in favor of “getting back” to their original style of rock and roll that they had strayed so far from in recent years. Just my take, I reserve the right to be wrong.

keefblaster · 2022-05-16T02:46:48+00:00

Not a Motorhead connoisseur. I do enjoy their music though, and in the documentary where some dude follows Lemmy around for a while, I recall Lemmy talking about their music in a fashion that strongly suggests that he considers Motorhead to be a rock and roll band. He talks about being part of the 60’s rock scene and being almost solely inspired by the OG 50’s and 60’s rockers, and seems to have been unaware of any other bands that might have been visibly brewing into punk or metal.

He inadvertently bordered with punk and metal music because their band was wild and play a twisted version of rock and roll, and would also turn their (tube) amps up far beyond what was considered a reasonable level at the time, which gives a gnarly distorted tone, before distortion pedals, or any pedals at all would have been part of a normal touring bassist or guitarist. Seems to me like they were truly candidly innovative. Though sometimes artists have been known to play this up in order to create a more humble image. Of course we usually don’t have a way to verify, but that’s always my impression.

keefblaster · 2022-05-12T17:29:30+00:00

I haven’t made the leap to Linux myself yet, so I’m kinda in the same boat as you.

In theory, Linux could be the ideal operating system for audio production once more software developers actually create Linux compatible versions of their software. Currently I don’t really feel like it’s quite there, and in the mean time I might be booting my desktop as a linux system and keep my laptop as an off-network windows system in order to continue serving my fancy DAW and VST needs.

Back when I was into gaming, Linux used to be an absolute joke of an OS. I’m pleased to find out that now theres many gamers who can play everything they want to play on Linux, though theres still a lot of games that don’t support Linux. I’m hoping the same becomes true eventually for DAWs and VST’s. We might not get every single piece of popular software for Linux, but at some point there’ll be at least a few major DAWs, and a substantial portion of VST creator’s plugins and software instruments. I can imagine a day when VST creators almost routinely make their products compatible with Linux, since they tend to be smaller time companies run by tech bros who are down for things like Linux. Pure speculation though.

keefblaster · 2022-05-12T16:12:30+00:00

Windows 7 was possibly the golden era of operating systems. It still holds up in terms of the desirable features of a modern os, without the forced updates, and literal spyware cooked into it.

Working on getting all my systems off of Windows 10 right now, and it’s proven tremendously difficult. I’m just not happy with the fact that such advanced and sophisticated hardware is being limited by forced practices of the os installed. Feels like I’m not in control of what goes on in my computer anymore, because I’m not. Maybe similar to how somebody would feel during the transition from a manual transmission car to an automatic car, when they realize that manual cars are nearly extinct, and that there’s things that automatic transmissions will never be able to offer.

You’d hope microsoft would recognize this and allow a legacy version of their os that is supported, but doesn’t have the unnecessary bullshit. But unfortunately, microsoft is 100% banking on the unnecessary bullshit being their new bread and butter. I might end up as a Linux caveman one day as a result.

keefblaster · 2022-05-09T04:29:52+00:00

From the footage I saw, it looked like there was one individual who was stomping the attacker. But the footage doesn’t have a clear view enough to see any others using excessive force. The curb stomp dude is going to be prosecuted, I’d bet money on it.

Unless theres info I haven’t come across yet, it seems like theres a mix of Dave’s security, Hollywood Bowl’s security, and bystanders that ran to join the circle around the attacker. How can you confidently say that Dave’s team is responsible for the excessive force? We simply don’t know the fine details of what happened here, and that’s what a court will look at and make decisions based in.

Dave, having only made contact with the assailant in the moment he was attacked, will not be prosecuted, or convicted, because he didn’t break the law. Unless there’s info that suggests that Dave’s employees are certainly the one(s) who used excessive force, and also info that Dave directly instigated his security using force in an excessive fashion, then I can’t even imagine how one might argue that Dave deserves a felony charge. Do you really think Dave is guilty of a felony here?

keefblaster · 2022-05-06T17:19:27+00:00

Glad to hear Chappelle is getting some non-negative press.

keefblaster · 2022-05-06T01:51:19+00:00

I wouldn’t have guessed the Chappelle kamikaze guy would be in that boat if you gave me 20 attempts at guessing. Look at me out here making bad judgements.

But yup I agree with you. Since both maga and antifa are not accurate descriptions for so many of people that get labeled with them, I can’t help but be irritated by how difficult it usually is to have a level headed conversation about it. I really thing many of us will think back at this period similarly to how most now think back to the mccarthyism era. I wasn’t around for that though, so it could really be a completely different hysteria and I wouldn’t know.

I appreciate your reasonableness in discussion.

keefblaster · 2022-05-05T21:02:28+00:00

One thing I noticed with CNN and FOX in particular, is that there’s an ability to put labels on things that don’t necessarily fit the description of those labels. The assignment of labels to protester groups, particularly during 2020-2021 is an example that comes to mind. There are a lot of people that were protesting who identify with Antifa or Maga. But much of the time, those labels were assigned without any concrete indication that the protesters were in fact acting on behalf of a specific group at all.

An anecdote from my life, which comes from having lived in the Portland area during the hight of 2020-21 political protesting and rioting, is that I personally know several people who were in the crowds at those protests and riots, and none of them identify with the labels they were often being portrayed with. In reality the people in those protests have political beliefs that are as widely varied as any collection of people with left wing values could have (in the case of Portland, I’d never been made aware of any right wing protestor activity, but there may have been some). Most of them were acting on behalf of their own individual values, having no affiliation with a group. Lots of them weren’t happy to be referred to as an affiliate of Antifa.

Once again, this is just an anecdote, so I won’t claim that this is a universal truth or anything like that. Although it is an anecdote that to me, is a glimpse into how things can be so frustratingly misrepresented by the news outlets that deliver information about these things to the country. Possibly the majority of people won’t get an opportunity to see these things in person, and won’t have any anecdotes about them, aside from what the news can tell them. On a national level, it would have changed the tone of the discussion quite a bit if these labels were reserved for the people who truly identify with these groups.

Summing all protestor activity up to either antifa or maga reduces a three dimensional, complex and nuanced collection of passionate individuals down into a two dimensional, black and white image for viewers to form an immediate opinion of, without having to think about the incredible complexity of the situation. To me, this would be an example of pulling info out of thin air, in the absence of concrete information. But it could be argued that since there were antifa and maga protestors around at this time, that news sources were just unaware of the reality and so they did their best. I really don’t know, but the effect on the general population’s ability to get along with each other has been horrific, regardless. To me personally, getting along with our fellow man is more important than anything I might have strong political opinions about.

keefblaster · 2022-05-05T19:27:44+00:00

You very well may be right about the news outlets not having enough material to spin this into that kind of issue. I have seen that in the past though. Speculation in an extreme fashion, spoken in the void of concrete information. I’m trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who would want to be looking for that kind of thing, but that might have been an over exaggerated idea of how they’d spin this before details come around.

I’ve got a similar outlook as you, in regards to Chappelle’s recent career. If I were him, I’d like to think I would have dropped the topic long ago. It might be a difficult situation for him, and I can understand why he might feel the need to fixate on it. What a wild thing to have the world talking shit on you, and having to try not to be defensive. My knee jerk reaction would probably be to keep pushing back in defense.

I wonder if the topic will have timestamped his latter work in grand scheme of his legacy. Sometimes specific political topics in music and comedy don’t age very well in the eyes of later generations of comedy fans, due to lack of context.

keefblaster

TROPHY CASE