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TAXI Road Rally 2010 Day -1 part 2

Published at: 01:11 am - Thursday November 04 2010

Earlier today as I was helping stuff goodie bags I overheard one of the workers state there were 2,192 registered attendees this year.

I knew that the Rally was big, I just didn’t realize _how_ big. 120 business cards may not be enough. :)

I was a bit surprised this afternoon when I ordered a chicken pot pie for dinner and was served something roughly the size of a beret. I’m used to pot pies being small, dainty things. And it was delicious, too. Sadly, there’s no refrigerator nor a microwave in the suite.

Time for some reading before turning in. Tomorrow: assist with the load in, registration and the first open mic.

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TAXI Road Rally 2010 Day -1

Published at: 10:11 am - Wednesday November 03 2010

UPDATE: Took just 20 minutes to get through security, so now I’ve got an hour wait until boarding.

Typing on an iPad is…interesting. I can almost touch-type, but things are just wrong enough to limit utility. But all in all, it works pretty well. I guess I just need more practice.

Over the weekend I’ll be attending TAXI’s Road Rally 2010, an annual convention of fellow musicians, songwriters and composers for education and networking. Registration begins tomorrow afternoon. Today is my travel day.

I’ll do my best to write about my experiences at the end of each night, if for no other reason than as a personal journal. It should be a good thing, especially when it comes to networking. My plan is simple: network, network, network. I’ve got a grip of business cards made up and am burning CDs as I type.

Next up: packing.

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One Take 09-16-2010

Published at: 11:09 am - Thursday September 16 2010

Maybe I should start making a series of these like I’ve done in the past…

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Posted in: Music by Ostin 2 Comments

Tools are not the issue

Published at: 02:08 pm - Monday August 30 2010

One thing which is now quite evident is I no longer have any excuses. For a long time I’ve been of the mindset that the audio tools I had were “not good enough” to produce high-quality audio and/or music. Sounding near-real wasn’t good enough, I wanted it to be as good as I could get. Well, now I have those tools. I can produce the high-quality stuff that I’ve been “hearing” all this time.

But there’s a learning curve.

I have to get on that curve. Over the weekend I created a demo track for a possible writing gig. It sounds good, but… there’s something not quite “right.” I’m on that curve and need to fully go down it to get the skills and confidence I need. This will take some time. I realize this, but it doesn’t make it any easier.

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Prepping for audio post work

Published at: 02:08 pm - Tuesday August 24 2010

So over the next few months I’ll be doing audio post on two movies, in addition to writing music for Zetaman and getting ready for TAXI’s Road Rally in early November. I thought it would be instructive on my own part to go back to Spidertron, the first film I did post for, and see what I would change flow-wise now that I’ve “done” one.

The first of any thing done is where the bugs get worked out, and I can certainly tell where there were bugs. The Pro Tools (M-Powered) project is rather loosely organized. Due to the M-Powered edition’s track limitations (48 stereo), I doubled up on a lot of the FX elements: one individual track has multiple fx clips strewn throughout the timeline, which makes control a bit harder. Sub-mix tracks are interleaved with the source audio tracks, and the effects are not as well organized as it could be.

Granted, the entire project was one large learning laboratory. Now I feel I’m better prepared for the job(s) at hand, especially after not only completing one entire project but also reading up a bit on some of the tools of the trade and how they’re used.

I will probably do the audio mixes for these two films using a bunch of tools: Apple’s SoundTrack Pro & Logic Pro, Bias’ Peak XT and Avid’s Pro Tools M-Powered. A lot of tools to use, but they each have a purpose.

Here’s hoping the source audio is clean and plentiful.

Posted in: Film by Ostin 1 Comment

One Take August 18, 2010

Published at: 03:08 pm - Wednesday August 18 2010

Hmm, maybe I’ll make this a weekly thing. This one is in C Major, the simplest (but not the saddest) key.

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One Take, Again

Published at: 11:08 am - Wednesday August 11 2010

Another one-er done this morning.

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Seeking WordPress/UI Designer

Published at: 07:08 am - Wednesday August 11 2010

In the interest of furthering my career, I realize this site needs a little TLC. Unfortunately, while Web programming is a core competency of mine, it’s not my primary life goal. In short, I want to concentrate on other things instead of designing a fun, interesting and well-maintained web site.

So if any of my friends know of a good, reliable, specifically media-centric Web designer who has a good grasp of WordPress theming, I’d like to hear about them.

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And now the rest of the year, in short

Published at: 03:08 pm - Wednesday August 04 2010

The rest of 2010 looks to be a busy one.

Zetaman (http://www.zetaman.tv) will continue to be part of the schedule. It will keep me busy for the rest of this month at least, spilling into September and beyond.

In the next month or thereabouts, I’ll start working on post audio for a science-fiction dramatic feature film. This will be a chance for me to explore my sound design chops.

I’m going to the Taxi Road Rally, a mass gathering of like-minded independent musicians for networking & education, in early November, so I’ll be preparing some example pieces to take with me. Stories abound of networking opportunities which have paid dividends down the line. I figure if I don’t take advantage of this, I’ll be costing myself the chances I missed.

November & December I’ll be working on audio for Fleem! Productions’ newest film. Fleem! is the folks who did Spidertron, the first film I ever did post for. It’s a continuation of the working relationship. I’ve considered mixing this one in 5.1 (surround), but I think that would be a bit too much for me right now. Once I have at least one more film in my hat, I’ll probably be ready to step up.

Then again, I did a lot of things before I thought I was “ready” and seemed to do just fine.

Posted in: Film, Film Music, Life by Ostin No Comments

One Take

Published at: 03:07 pm - Saturday July 31 2010

Done in one take early this morning.

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