Music Gives Me Superpowers!

Just so ya know

2010-03-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

The first episode of Music Gives Me Superpowers in its new format will be uploaded at some point this week complete with performances by Sons Of Thor, Jill Staveley, Gin And Sparrows and Gagner. There will be reviews of the new Xiu Xiu, Titus Andronicus, Joanna Newsom albums and more! A lot more actually. So stay tuned.

If you should see Gagner or Sons Of Thor by the side of the road, kill them so that they may live forever.

2010-03-14T01:38:00.000-08:00

I am not averse to travelling great distances for my friends. I am not averse to going to Peterborough. I have come down for the B.A. Johnston record release party for Stairway To Hamilton as well as for the filming of Gagnerok last January.

Today was different though. Today was the last show of both Sons Of Thor and Gagner.

Sons Of Thor have gone through a number of line up changes since they started. I remember when Drew and Blair were screaming the vocals while Matt, Pete, Chris and Tom played the drums, bass, guitar and keyboard respectively. Blair's gone off to BC and Matt long left the group. Tom actually came back for this show which was pretty awesome but the real reasons that this is the last SoT show are in my interview video with Drew which is over on my youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/mogwaicub. I'll give it a proper link when I get home. The big surprise was the vocals of Liam who I didn't even recognize, he used to work at the MoHo, has since grown his hair, changed his facial hair and lost a chunk of weight. It was loud and brutal and awesome. Chris is one of the most amazing guitar players I know. This saddened me but the show was awesome.

The Moho show...

It was a benefit for Trent Radio, go them :) Imet up with the illustrious Cin Wicked who had gotten there early and put up with the early celtic st patricks day stuff. He's pretty awesome and a half :)

Jill Stavely started the night, she talked about Trent Radio, about being a new mother, and played some beautiful songs. She is one of the brightest lights this city has ever offered to anyone anywhere.

Following Jill came an act new to me called Gin And Sparrows, a combination of a banjo, a violin and some of the most gorgeous vocal harmonies ever uttered in that space.

Then there was Gagner. I remixed their first album, was there for the recording of the second and have the dvd on my iPod. I'm familiar with the material in an almost carnal sense. I don't think I've danced like that in ages. The interplay between Matt, Drew and Pete is nothing short of glorious and despite what their myspace says, they will be sorely missed. So I heard you say you don't respect someone who's gone and I just said I don't believe in magic.

Tarantula closed the night. We didn't stay. Cin had to get the bus and I wanted to get some food before the Nanohouse party. It was a good party by the way. The arcade cabinet and projector setup is AMAZING.

Still, I suppose it's time to ruminate on getting older and friends and acquaintances having kids and all that. You know what? Honestly, good on 'em. I hope they raise awesome kids. There is, indeed, hope for the future.

Make It Quick part 1

2010-03-06T10:38:00.001-08:00

Make It Quick: Part 1/3 from Steven Curtis on Vimeo.

That said...

2010-03-04T20:28:00.000-08:00

Sometimes an apology is acceptable, sometimes it is not warranted. I still believe this case is one of the latter. When the context is missed, bad things happen.

More news later. I'm going to go watch Serial Experiments Lain.

A response to the drama surrounding Evelyn Evelyn

2010-03-04T15:24:00.000-08:00

Before reading, understand that I do believe in the core ideals of equality between the sexes and that disabled advocacy are important things. What pisses me off here is the hyperbole, proportion and drama presented.

Okay, so in my absence, some drama broke out over the existence of Evelyn Evelyn, an Amanda Palmer project. Now, I am really excited about this album but if there's anything I'm not excited about, it's the drama surrounding it. What drama, you may ask? Well check this out:

http://hoydenabouttown.com/20100302.7291/not-your-punchline-amanda-palmer/

Sheesh, where do I begin?

Now personally, I hate internet drama. I had my fill of it as a younger man and have no real desire for more but you know what? As someone who creates characters if not for a living yet then in general, I'm going to add my two cents to the swear jar here.

If you look at the hyper-offended hyperbole (yes, that's what it is), the issue is now that Amanda laughed at off colour jokes. Is it because she compared the blazing internet hatred over a story, granted a story told rather bluntly and indelicately to getting nailed to a chunk of wood, a torturous method of killing someone via slow strangulation? Considering it was once a common practice and Jesus wasn't the only one who happened to die that way, she's not comparing herself to Jesus but stating that it was torture. At least, that's how I saw it. Laughing at shocking things? Laughing at things that are taboo instead of immediately going stonefaced and angry? Oh that's a bloody crime on the internet. Actually no, it's not just a bloody crime on the internet.

I used to volunteer at the GLBT Centre at university. I have met people from many different backgrounds. I have met walking stereotypes, I have met really quiet, timid lesbian furries, I met a couple of neato guys in motorized wheelchairs. Of course, I met very angry feminists who wanted to constantly dominate the conversation, to point out every single detail that offended them. There was no reasoning, there was no placating, there was only their ego and a massive push to be constantly right, I mean correct. Personally, I felt in their quest for putting the world to rights, I couldn't say what was on my mind and have it considered a valid opinion because I am a male, a gay male, but a male. Apparently the penis has no credibility. I heard enough snarky comments about men to know that it had nothing to do with equality or championing those who could not or would not themselves, but with enforcing a specific viewpoint and only that viewpoint. This sort of behaviour is at worst demagogic and at best just being an asshole. It means fear. It's the same shit right wing pundits pull out of their asses.

These days, the words "I'm offended" pretty much get you what you want, whether that's people who agree with you, blog hits, or censorship of art. So you know what? I'm offended that you compare able bodied persons to white supremacists for no other reason that they laughed at a joke that was funny. I'm offended that people have decided to take an artist to task over her creation's existence because she was so blunt about it. Why the flying fuck shouldn't she be? Why can't the story be indelicate and blunt? Why does every disabled female character created by a woman have to be a source of strength and inspiration from the get go instead of actually building to it in a character arc? And why is context ignored?

Because someone said "I'm offended". Of course, the overuse of these words has rendered any very vocal minority an unfunny joke. It's left the current wave of feminism a comedy bit, a 'girl who cried wolf' which demeans the origins and importance of the movement. "You're constantly offended, what else is fucking new?"

If I were to create a lesbian character with a hook for a hand who has a history of sexual abuse, is blunt about it and occasionally reverts to a child when facing stressful situations, does that suddenly make me a terrible person?

No it doesn't. Would it offend people? Probably, and some of the offended can be reasoned with, some of the offended will not bother and go about their daily lives, and some will scream blue bloody murder at the injustice I've committed. It is not my job, nor is it anyone else beyond your parents and even then that's not always the case, to coddle you and make you happy. My job is to make music, to write stories and paint pictures that hopefully cause a reaction, a discussion, and ultimately a connection.

Instead of just brushing it the fuck off, the artists involved posted apologies and explanations and other things (see http://www.jasonwebley.com/weblog/) they shouldn't have had to do because some asshole decided to say "I'm offended" and these are, of course, not bothered with because at this point, "I'm offended" means never having to listen when someone says they are sorry and explains their motives. And now the offended train rolls again because the artist in question laughed first at an off the cuff, middle school joke about the logistics of conjoined twins fucking, by referring to this excessive drama as a means of torture which, by the way, it is, and then laughed at a play on words that was actually kind of funny. Crude? Yes but funny because they were crude, because it was taboo, because it was meant to shock and get a laugh. After the stress this put her under, I don't blame her for laughing but applaud her for it.

I'm no stranger to offensive jokes, by the way. I'm a fat, gay guy. I get the fatty-fall-down-go-boom jokes, as well as every faggot joke under the sun. However, I've learned to distinguish between insider humour and outsider humour. I find John Belushi's physical comedy absolutely hilarious. Remember when GLAAD was all up in Kevin Smith's shit because of Chasing Amy? It was the sudden shock of a hetero filmmaker making insider humour jokes. Guess what? His brother is gay, he had to learn the insider humour somewhere. Amanda Palmer is in a similar position with Evelyn Evelyn because the bluntness comes from insider humour learned from her step brother as was mentioned in her Evelyn Evelyn Drama Drama blog post which you can read at http://blog.amandapalmer.net . My two best friends will refer to themselves as "cripple" and "gimpy" as is their right to do so, and I've learned some pretty awesome jokes from them. I've learned that noone has darker AIDS jokes than people living with HIV and AIDS. Finally, I've learned that sometimes it is quite allright to just fucking laugh. Music is not the only universal language, humour is another one... followed by Python.

Alo, might I add that this whole shitstorm came about as the result of an album? A fucking album. Not just that but a fucking concept album that ends with, I'll assume from other related posts, the characters of Evelyn and Evelyn finding happiness and confidence. It's a throwback to sideshow circus freaks, two part harmonies and Tin Pan Alley style songcraft from what I've heard and I think it's awesome. I think anyone who liked the show Carnivale or the book Geek Love or Todd Browning's Freaks or old vaudeville acts should give it a listen and look at it from that perspective.

And if you still want to be offended, I humbly point you to this:

Hey! Big News!

2010-02-26T10:13:00.001-08:00

Sorry I've been away but I've been busy. Really busy.

Http://kumahouse.bandcamp.com

Go and look and listen and (if you like) buy :D

Holy crap! So this is what I've been doing!

2010-01-26T11:32:00.000-08:00

Presenting the teaser trailer for Make It Quick, my documentary on the RPM challenge process. I'm hoping to get other artists in London involved. In the meantime, this is what I'll be working on in February.

Cheers!

Video Log Episode 1: Lyrics!

2009-12-16T20:41:00.001-08:00

happy holidays :D

2009-12-12T19:16:00.001-08:00

TAL Elec7roII, Stylophone, Uglyverb, LFX-1310 reviews

2009-12-03T12:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this week is a review of 2 synths and 2 effects, ready? Go!

Synth Of The Week

TAL Elec7ro II

I have a special place in my heart for the Togu Audio Line lineup of synths, especially the bass synth however the first Elec7ro never really did all that much for me. This updated version however gave the UI a welcome colour update and improved sound and oscillation. Also, where the original Elec7ro had a few settings but plenty of open patches, the extra patches have been filed up by a variety of new modes for the synth allowing for a greater out-of-the-box as it were experience for newer users. There are some differences between the new synth and the old if you listen to some of the patches that graduated in. The FX Digital Dust patch is much clearer and more responsive. Speaking of which, the built in effects are of the same build as the original Elec7ro but better sounding oscillators means better sounding effects. A+ all around.

Interface:    5/5
Sound:        5/5
Responsiveness:    5/5

Score:        Holy crap! 100%! Party time!

Superwave Stylophone

It's monophonic, it's accurate going by Stylophone use from Brett Domino's videos (they are awesome, check them out) and it looks nice. Sadly, this is more of a novelty. It sounds closer to an actual Stylophone than an older VST called Styrofoam which is in stereo, has the full range of the keyboard itself and sounds like you bought a synth in a junk shop. The limitations surrounding Superwave's Stylophone VST are both its greatest novelty and greatest detractor: There are 20 available keys, it's monophonic and it has its own built in vibrato setting. That's it. That's all.

Interface:    3/5
Sound:        2/5
Responsiveness:    4/5

Score:        60%

Synthgeek Uglyverb

A friend of mine once told me he wanted a guitar that sounded like a dirty old whore. Personally, I like synths that sound dirty, broken and sometimes out and out horrid. This VST effect plugin does an admirable job making the clean sound dirty and echoed to hell. I applied this with the built in "Total Smear" patch to the Stylophone and the difference was incredible, bleeding over to the right hand side and sounding like said dirty old whore. The interface is somewhat difficult to read, but there are plenty of options to choose from and each has a notable effect on the sound.

Interface:    3/5
Sound Effect:    5/5
Responsiveness:    5/5

Score        87%

Luxonix LFX-1310

This effect plugin acts more as an afterthought. While I stand by my dirty old whore preferences in the review of Uglyverb, this plugin can hold its own in that department with almost everything except reverb. This VST effect allows you to pick three different virtual effect options including distortion, reverb, delay, compression and affectations like flange and chorus. Even on high settings, the reverb has a very short release time. The settings are general enough to be effective but there is very little wow factor here. Even when the knobs are turned up to full for any effect, it feels like the LFX 1310 is holding back somehow.

Interface:    3/5
Sound Effect:    4/5
Responsiveness:    3/5
Score:        66%

World AIDS Day

2009-11-30T22:00:00.001-08:00

I know this isn't VST related. I'm cross posting this with my other blogs.

December 1st is also known as World AIDS Day. Whether it be through our behaviour, our friends, loved ones, heroes, even just images from half a world away, we are all affected by this.

I am HIV Negative and I understand that I am lucky.

I have entirely too many friends who are positive, I think of people I used to know in Ottawa and Peterborough and wonder if they're still alive. I hope so. I spent the first 25 years of my life scared shitless that this was going to kill me, especially when I came to the realization that I was gay. It's the second thing my parents thought of when I came out to them (the first thing was whether my brother is as well... he isn't).

I think of a friend down in DC who is bound and determined, despite living with full blown AIDS and KS that he is going to live every day he has to in order to see his grandson graduate from college. He told me that the grimmest jokes come from PWAs themselves. He then told me one:

What's the hardest part about having AIDS? Convincing your mother that you're Haitian.

I spent the afternoon folding papers for the local needle exchange run by the AIDS Committee Of London to do even a small part to help prevent the spread of HIV, Hepatitis and AIDS amongst intravenous drug users. I'll be getting more involved with them in the future and am helping with the sound setup for the vigil tomorrow, 138 Wellington, the Christ Anglican Church there if anyone local to London can make it. I believe it starts at 7PM and goes to 9PM. If there is a vigil close to you, I implore you to go there. If you're not comfortable going to one if it's in a church, well, do what you need to do but take some time and think about it.

And as I tell all of my friends who happen to tell me they're going on a date: Play safely. Please.

This week's reviews

2009-11-22T21:41:00.001-08:00

KXStep

Not being anything remotely close a musical prodigy has its rewards, specifically: step sequencers. Now this is a pretty technical one so don't think it's all click and be done with it. What is pretty hell of awesome about this one though is that you can create a 16 step sequence and, when pressing the transpose to CV option, it will modulate your appregiation brilliance! This also has a gate option so you can incur some regular silence. The synth itself sounds allright, a good oscilator however the controls for the sound itself are more for advanced users. While most of the labels will be familiar, determining any major change to the sound itself will be the difficult part when using this particular synth. There are over 20 interesting built in patches and plenty of room to create your own.

Interface: 3/5
Sound: 4/5
Responsiveness: 3/5
Score: 66%

Modcat

I really wanted to like this one more than I did. I love the presentation, I love the fact that you can switch between monophonic and polyphonic keyboard use. There are 20 out of a possible 50 slots that have synth patches and while they have a great retro sheen to them, especially the 5th and Rnd Fil patches, this synth leaves a few things to be desired sound wise, such as the idea of returning to any key held down in monophonic setting. Of course, that's just me. Design wise this is a very simple, easy to see and read design. The issue the KxStep had with its synthesizer is present here as well, experimenting with the open initial patch did not lead to satisfactory results, simply the discoveries that some commands needed to be at full throttle to be worth a damn (the release) and some were on a hair trigger (the LFO Frequency).

Interface: 4/5
Sound: 3/5
Responsiveness: 2/5
Score 60%

Inorganic

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to present this week's Synth Of The Week. This even comes with its own standalone application that can work with a PC USB keyboard. The controls are as cleatly labelled as they are interesting to see. There are only eleven patches but there is plenty of room to work with in this particular synthesizer. Between 2 oscillators, easy to select filters, built in delay and reverb, with this synth even a beginner will be making some sweet, switched on music very very quickly.

Interface: 5/5
Sound: 4/5
Responsiveness: 5/5
Score: 93%

The Rebuild Of Music Gives Me Superpowers

2009-11-10T19:51:00.000-08:00

First, for those of you who came in on this with me, sorry.
Second, I want to apologize to the character of Disc. I've been trying to get him into a story since high school but it's still not the right time.
Third (and most important) I want to introduce you to the new Music Gives Me Superpowers.

There are plenty of sites that talk about and offer VST plugins but I've yet to find any reviews of VST Plugins available on the internet. So, since as a musician I tend to use VSTs on a regular basis, I've decided to pick and choose VST Plugins at random, testing them out and reviewing them for your edification. I review them based on three criteria:

Interface: The overall look and design of the VST.

Sound: How the VST sounds, its variety of possible sounds

Responsiveness: How well the synth responds to its built in effects, velocity

So with that in mind, I want to state this right here, right now:

I have absolute respect for all VST programmers. You do amazing work. I write what I write in an effort to be constructive.

MassTurboTar (by Morfiki)

Behind the clever (not really) name and the green exterior lies a very capable, if noisy synth. It benefits from having a particularly large set of individual patches, each with its own set of presets that alter each one just enough to be noticeable and useful. While MassTurbotar has patches for Bass, Pad, Lead, Key and Sound Effects, its strength is thoroughly rooted in its bass capacity to the point where I thought I was still in the bass section while I was halfway through the leads.

Aesthetically, the green works for the synth however the thin, circuitboard style lines connecting each knob are thin and confusing and if you play your cards wrong, you will end up with no sound at all. On the plus side, the VST comes with a very well done PDF explaining what each knob and line represent. That being said, the documentation also assumes that you know the know the language like an old pro. If you are new to VSTs and couldn't tell a sine from a square, that's quite allright... but you should probably read more.

Overall, MassTurboTar is a robust bass synth that is easily used by beginners but probably best used by the intermediate or advanced set of VST aficionados.

Interface 3/5

Sound 4/5

Responsiveness 5/5

Score 75%

Antopya (by L-Day)

From the loud, we go to the quiet one. Antopya is designed to to be an ambient synth with adjustable oscillations, built in chorus, delay and a neat placement system between the moon and the earth to determine pitch. It comes with a relatively small group of patches and no Initial patch to build from. What it does, however, is retain your settings for a patch should you switch to another, specifically the BPM setting. planet alignment and synth settings. Aesthetically it is one of the prettier synths I've had the fortune to review.

The downside of this synth is that because it is designed for ambient use, to really get sound out of it, you either need to turn the velocity up manually in order to play lightly and even then there is no guarantee you won't crack the red on the volume. By all means, Antopya has the ability to sound gorgeous and spare, its bright piano and hypercube patches are a testament to this ability, but the few offered patches and tempermental velocity readings on this synth put it at a something of a disadvantage.

Interface 4/5

Sound 4/5

responsiveness 3/5

Score 73%

FMMF (By De La Mancha)

Designed initially to be an "FM synth anyone could use", the deveoper at delamancha certainly succeeded. Ease OF Use should be somewhere in the title of this thing. The problem, and maybe this is my own bias coming through, is that there are too many noise patches. However, there are quite a few very nice lead and Arp patches and an Initial patch that a user can use to design their own shape with a few clicks of a mouse. There is a built in appregiator with a discernable beat counter. There are four oscillators available, each with an octave and semi tone knob, an amplifier knob and clear numbers and symbols to determine what whomever uses this synth wants to use it for.

While during testing, I did break into the red zone, I only did so by 0.3db. There's a fair amount of power under this synth making it one I will definitely come back to.

Interface 5/5

Sound 4/5

Responsiveness 4/5

Score 86%

Metatron (By Psychic Modulation)

Metatron is the name of the Voice of God, it's also the name of an allright virtual synth whose arp and gate patches have an odd but not unwelcome staccato quality. The itnerface is clean though the text is a touch difficult to read. There are a number of patches with simple names, the type of patch and the number where it fits in sequence although while going through each, the patches did end up feeling very similar and repetative.

While the gate sequencer is fun to play with and can lead to some interesting combinations with an additional delay effect as the included one does not seem particularly effective. On the plus side, inverting the filter can open up an expansion on the sound itself.

That being said, Metatron is a noble effort but honestly it would not be my first choice. It has a great interface but its overall lack of variety hurts it in the end.

Interface 5/5

Sound 2/5

Responsiveness 3/5

Score 66%

That concludes the VST reviews this week, if you would like to download and try these yourself, you can find them and many more at : http://www.kvraudio.com/developer_challenge_2009.php#09_35

Where did the stories go?

2009-11-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

You ever have one of those ideas that you think is hell of awesome and you'll have so much breadth of material and no matter what you'll be able to update regularly?

Yeah.

Didn't happen.

So where are the two posts that were here? Lost in internet caches of the few people who looked upon this site. The fact is they are gone, not coming back and something better, more human, will be here in their stead. This blog needs a redesign, a shift in focus and will be on a regular track as of next week. In the meantime, might I suggest looking up the meaning of the VST? That should be a hint right there.

Also, I expect a new logo next week as well.