#i know its not synced at all but my editing program likes to fuck shit up in the export phase so

[anonymousmothman]

This is my favorite one of these I've made so far, so here you go non-existent House on Haunted Hill fandom!

[deepnerdblog]

nerd shit redux

Reaper has a looper program called Super8 that basically lets you set midi trigger pads to turn Reaper into a livelooper setup, basically a script to enable looping features. I plan on learning it because I love loops and loop based song writing. So each trigger can set a lane active, or mute a lane, or maybe set a lane to be 4 times longer, or jump to a lane that has fx for lead or drum, or what have you. I have a usb keyboard that used to let you assign midi signals but the software currently stopped working. Old Axiom keyboards had awesome customizing software so each knob could be assigned any midi variable. Be cool if it worked but now I have transport tape style buttons that give Midi instrument change sequences instead of easier to use Midi CC code or some such. Solution? Either find a way to filter those midi codes and turn them into Midi CC, or simply label actual black note keys at a specific octave for my live loop controller. I really am curious if there is a good generic control footpedal pedal that can output ctrl voltage for eurorack, midi CC, on/off, sliding pedal CC, all the bells and whistles in a convenient pedal box. I know there are good utility midi foot pedals, but when you add in voltage out and whatchamacallit, the voltage that sets the amount on pedals/multifx (similar to eurorack CV but not 1 to 1 the same). So yeah, going to tap a keyboard and set it up for looping synths, guitar, drum machines live into reaper with the Super8. *But wait there is more fiddly bits*, there is a secondary recording medium. QSC mixers can have external midi to trigger transport buttons like rewind, record, and goto time, as well as arming and disarming channels- so that with super8 can mean I can have one surface triggering recording on both devices. Also reapers super8 can't record midi if i read that correctly, so maybe i can make a setup that puts midi in the laptop but also syncs the recording/tranport buttons on both devices (which is nice to have regardless of live looping). QSC made the firmware for their entry level digital mixer do a lot of the cool shit the fancier models can do. I love the sound of a SM7b mic recording a acoustic guitar into the QSC mixer/recorder with Kush Omega series vst to give it that teeny bit of mastering. I realized a little bit ago that suddenly I can record guitar and not hate the sound, and it's been a challenge how to make that fit into synths, drum machines, and 'writing music in the box'. Thus I need to learn super8, and also having both recording systems start on one button press is pretty sweet. (ideally sync doesn't shit the bed and i don't have to use LTC/MTC timecode as a master clock or anything).

so that's an ongoing project - meanwhile I also need to learn more songs on guitar and piano and improve my sense of pitch. its coming together nicely but it behooves me to be both playful and architectural in my approach. building a framework to vibe out on, but also improving the application of playing keyboards or multitracking things without having to fuck with it in editing.

multitracking

whats been useful is multitracking without headphones, as well as having vintage headphones with a really warm ear soothing midrange tone. i believe i saw concert footage where J Mayer was wearing vintage headphones. trying different things and the options help prevent ear fatigue. i've been making forays into mixing miced guitar with amped electric guitar. At some point I'm probably going to tackle full tracks with arbitrary limits to instruments, and layer classical, acoustic, electric tracks. Even a doubletrack of the same instrument sounds nice and 'phasey' thicc, but switching up instrument timbres and layering them is just appealing and feels musical. meanwhile i've tried layering piano chords from the triton behind acoustic guitar and it also sounds 'thicc' and charming. it is also finicky as all get out as a skill.

fucking with a odd idea wearing headphones until my ears hurt this morning.

i've been trying to fuck with some crazy not quite chocolate and peanutbutter type mixing elements to loop a particularly swingy classical sample with a improvised beat. i hit an entertaining wall this morning because i was trying to shoehorn a loose recording of this piano genius into a eccentric beat along with snips of riffing on guitar with a chewy bassy guitar humbucker sound. Competing tinny and shiny piano (with a elegant recording from fifty or more years ago) versus Triton drums versus the trimmed out random guitar pulsing experiment. And I kind of liked it, but the piano had been tweaked to fight a accelerating swingy performance, and there were some neat edits, but between the goofy beat and a lot of time stretching and trimming, the whole thing is chaotic af. Will have to return to it after resting my ears. years ago i filtered a movie sound track theme and alternated the filter and the sweeping sound of the chords slowed down and then added a buzzy detuned bassline - which didn't suck, but it didn't not suck enough either. why didn't it not suck? partially because i chopped it up, made three unrelated loops out of it that didnt glue back together as a song, and also because the buzzy detuned bassline was *not in key*. So now I'm fucking with a genius spanish piano sample and in the back of my mind I'm thinking 'should i learn to play a simplified version of this on piano? or do i just run this thing through melodyne and write out the main part of the theme so i can verify how things fit note per note.

One thing that really stood out as i time stretched and trimmed these loops is that when the edits were nudged 'just so' the beat underlaying the loop really would give a 'driving feel' or nudged the other way would be backbeat style off but in a close groovy kind of way.

[sweetnestor]

12 Days | Chapter 7.2

Two guys that lowkey hate each other are forced to walk in each other’s shoes in order to learn a lesson.

***in collaboration with @themarkiplierexperience

lmao soz its not actually x reader we’re just desperate for attention haaaa

previous

bonus: the videos that “tom recorded/edited”: x x

Waking up to texts from the guy you switched lives with was like waking up to texts from a needy girlfriend. Except instead of affectionate “good morning”s, you get things like, “Oh god. Try not to ruin my channel thx 😅” and other things like, “Don’t worry about Sean. He’s a good guy and he’s helped Bella through a lot. They’re friends and nothing more.”  Oh wait, that’s what Tom needed to know. It was vital information about this life. Well, Sean was already gone, so maybe it wasn’t as important to know now, but still.

There were two more. One made his heart ache. “You have the most beautiful dog and I love her.” Tom missed his little Tess more than anything. He was supposed to be one cuddling with her.

The next one read: “Also this time zone difference is insane, I’m never gonna sleep.”

Tom decided to leave him on read, since he had nothing new to report. Then, he thought about what he had to do today, and a bout of nerves formed in his stomach. Today, he had to successfully record a video as Ethan Nestor. Why was this more stressful than being on a movie set? Why did this make him want to shit his pants more than giving a speech at an awards show, or going to a movie premiere?

There was literally no one else in the room, and Tom was anxious about how he would sound and act. How far could binge watching a bunch of videos late at night get him? Would Ethan’s fans figure out what was really going on? Tom’s own fans were frighteningly incredible at playing detective, he could only guess what Ethan’s would be like. He hadn’t even checked how people reacted to the video that was posted today.

After looking through the files on the computer, Tom stumbled across a game titled “Dream Daddy.” What the fuck kind of games was this guy into? He looked into it a little more, and then discovered what exactly this game was and who made it. Wasn’t really helpful, but what choice did he have?

He also had to Google search how to record the computer screen, cursing Sonji under his breath as he did so. Why did she specifically choose Tom and Ethan to switch? Why couldn’t it have been two nobodies with boring office jobs?

A spark of curiosity hit him. Tom typed “swapping lives” in the search engine, only to receive links to a fiction book with that very title. Next, he tried “soul swapping,” and that was when the Internet connection decided to dramatically slow down.

“Sonji,” Tom whispered as he narrowed his eyes. Whatever, he had more important things to do anyway.

Once he turned on the camera and lights, Tom began right away. He opened the game, and was pleasantly surprised at the dreamlike, whimsical music that started playing. He did a little dance to the music, completely bullshitting what he was doing. It works, right?

He got the god awful intro out of the way. “What is up my cranky crew? It’s Ethan from CrankGameplays and today we are here in Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator!”

The game was actually really fun. Good story, good dialogue.Tom made sure to comment on all of it as he played. He almost made himself as a dad before remembering that he was pretending to be somebody else. This daddy had to have blue hair and glasses. Yes, he had discovered how blind Ethan was after driving in his car a couple of times.

Anyway, recording was the easy part. He just had to act extra dorky and say “oh boy!” every now and again. He also made up a story about having a “horse phase.” Editing was where things got tricky. Firstly, the facecam footage was corrupted, and took ages to get it all back. Then, it was out of sync with the gameplay, which was even more confusing because the last video didn’t have this problem. Cutting out footage was harder than it should have been. It was a nightmare, and Tom grew more and more irritated as he went through it. Lastly, timing the ridiculously long outro music with Ethan’s equally god awful outro phrase (“So thank you guys so much for watching! Hope you enjoyed it, if you did make sure to slap that like button right in the face and I will see you guys in the next video! Love you all, stay cranky, bye!”) was a fucking challenge. Tom just didn’t get it. Wasn’t this supposed to be easy?

Somehow, he got the video done by the noon. Even after that, he had to make a thumbnail on Photoshop after noticing all the ones on the other videos. So Tom had to learn how to use another program as well. He needed a nap after getting through all of it.

Just as he started to come down from the stress, his phone started to blow up. Tom snatched the device from the desk and unlocked it, hoping to hear from Ethan. Instead, it was three different texts from Bella, Mark, and Amy.

Bella: “Good video today!! Are you coming over?”

Mark: “Oh so you decided to keep your channel going. Feel up to coming back to work yet? No rush.”

Amy: “We still on for tomorrow?”

That last message would have been very concerning, had Tom not remembered that Amy was Mark’s girlfriend. The only person he responded to was Bella. After that, he got ready to go.

~

There are plenty of things you don’t really think about when you switch lives with another person. Well, you think of the main things like, general personality, the person’s friends and significant others, their job. You don’t really think about things like how this person responds and reacts to their fans. You don’t think about their attention span, the way they fidget, or which leg they put into their jeans first. You don’t think about how they act with their friends versus how they act with their significant other. You really don’t think about what kind of gift he would get for his girlfriend on their six month anniversary.

Tom was bloody lucky that Bella hadn’t heard him enter her apartment that afternoon. He overheard her making a video in her bedroom, where he heard the words “get ready with me,” “date night,” and “anniversary.” Panicked, Tom bolted out of the building, hopped back in the car, and drove off to the closest mall. Part of him wanted to call Ethan and yell at him for not telling him about this, he had the chance to when his phone dinged four times on the ride to the mall. Tom was just trying hard to think up a decent gift on his own. They couldn't help each other, correct?

Eventually, he found something. It wasn’t much, but he could only hope that she wouldn’t mind. Tom had already fucked up with her once, he couldn’t do it again. Apparently, not only was a Pop Funko Spider-Man keychain a decent gift, it was sentimental and perfect for Bella. She nearly teared up when Tom brought it to her later on.

This anxiety thing she had must have been really serious. Bella told him all about how she hadn’t been to the cinema in years because of her panic attacks, and that Homecoming was the first movie she had seen from start to finish without any anxious interruptions. She was very proud of that, and she was happy that she experienced it with Ethan.

If only Ethan were here to see this moment… Actually, he could.

Bella fell asleep later in the afternoon. She was squashed between Tom and the back of the sofa, sleeping somewhat soundly on his chest, or practically on top of him. The physical affection was nice, but Tom wished it was someone else. Thankfully, he had his phone in his hand, so he was able to open the new messages he got literally behind his girlfriend’s back.

He had five new messages, four were the ones from Ethan earlier today, and the last one was from someone called Parker.

“Signed a billion posters, pls work on your signature it’s so much longer than it has to be dude.” Oh please, at least Tom signs his actual name as opposed to Ethan, who apparently signs things with his YouTube name.

“You’ve got a great family dude. Really, they’re all great.” Tom missed his family too. His missed his mother's pancakes.

“On my way to Montreal now for Chaos Walking pre shooting stuff i don’t really know.” That's going to be an adventure.

“I swear if I have to work out I’ll die alright gn?”

Tom rolled his eyes and sent something back. “Thought I completely fucked up your relationship, but it’s all good now!” As a follow up, he added: “Now I’ll be spending my six month anniversary with the missus! Night mate x”

He attached a photo of his current position, giving a smug expression to the camera. Ethan will get a kick out of that, that’s for sure.

“Who ya texting?” asked the sleepy girl lying on him, who could hear the ticking of the keyboard.

Tom was busy reading the next message, it was a little confusing. First of all, who the hell is Parker? Second of all, what the hell did Tom have to do with him tomorrow? And why did it involve Amy? What was with all these “don’t forget tomorrow”s? Why couldn’t anyone be straight up anymore?

I’m looking at you, Sonji, Tom thought just as his phone dinged, indicating that an email had arrived.

From: psychiclady420@fuckyou.net

I told you you gotta learn a lesson now leave me alone you asswipe!!

Tom, wide eyed, silently locked his phone and put it down for the rest of the day.

______

tag list: @marie-is-in-the-dark @beardedsteveslut @ohsnapitzmoony [idk why it wont let me tag you asdhlk]

______

next

[gerardwayisarchive]

MSI’S JIMMY URINE ANNOUNCES SOLO LP FEATURING GERARD WAY AND…ROBOTS?

https://gerardwayisalive.tumblr.com/post/176963498454

https://www.altpress.com/features/jimmy-urine-james-euringer-solo-record/

Jason Pettigrew  August 13, 2018

“I wanted it to sound as if Depeche Mode hired J Dilla and DJ Premier to drop loops while Frank Zappa produced—and then I came in and shit all over it.” So says James Euringeraka Little Jimmy Urine of ADD-addled electro-rockers Mindless Self Indulgence when asked to describe his new solo album under the handle Euringer, featuring cameos from folks such as Gerard Way, System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian, Grimes and Chantal Claret.

(Read more: Jimmy Urine talks MSI, Guardians Of The Galaxy role and new album.)

The album—slated for release Oct. 19 by Metropolis Records—is the beginning of a whole new chapter for the multi-instrumentalist and programmer. After visiting New Zealand a few times in the past, Euringer and his wife, Claret, decided to leave their Los Angeles home and move to the other side of the world.

“I totally think New Zealand is the most awesome place in the world,” he says. “It’s like a combination of San Francisco, New York City and Middle Earth. And I’ve always wanted to live in Middle Earth.”  

“We loved [New Zealand] when Obama was president, but now we love it more since it synced up with the world turning to shit!,” he continues. “Awesome! We’re ahead of the curve!’”

Moving is one big step for a whole new reboot. While his previous album The Secret Cinematic Sounds Of Jimmy Urine was primarily an instrumental dive into various synth-laden idioms inspired by such classic electronic composers as Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre, Euringer is a whole new pint glass of piss altogether.

The album’s audio verité vibe is best described as sneaking through Urine’s diary, with diversions of everything from metaphorical politics to wild-assed cover versions to having his buddies and parents (Ma Euringer counts in Spanish on “That’s How Jimmy Gets Down” while Dad assumes the role of disappointed parent on “Two And A Half Years” and a bitter old record producer on the cover of the Doobie Brothers’ “What A Fool Believes”) helping him out on the record.

“This album is kind of a psychedelic, counterculture, avant-garde record with vocals,” he opines. “I’m calling it Euringer because I didn’t want to corrupt any of the other stuff. It’s not Cinematic Sounds. It’s not MSI, which have always been a provocative in-your-face kind of band. [The solo album] allows me to experiment with various BPM speeds, lyrics and tones and try some other avenues.

“It is very personal,” he agrees. “As much as I like being in a crazy shock-rock band, the one thing that gets lost is that people focus on the shock rock and don’t really focus on the fact that I’m a really fucking great programmer, and I’m a deconstructionist and an audio collagist.”

“I sculpt audio and make songs around it,” he continues.“And that’s the first thing that gets lost. [imitates fast-talking industry type.] ‘Awww, Jimmy! You’re crazy and the band’s crazy and they’re great and they do all this provocative amazing stuff,’ and that’s fine—that’s what Mindless are supposed to be. But nobody ever says, ‘I like how you programmed that beat and sampled that stuff backwards.’ [Laughs.] That area is what I went full hog into.”

Urine is thrilled with what his collaborators brought to the proceedings. On “If It Ain’t You Today It’ll Be You Tomorrow,” Urine and Tankian updated Rev. Martin Niemöller’s famous anti-Nazi sermon, “First They Came For The Socialists…” “I always thought that quote was really great,” Urine says. “I wanted to write something a little bit political considering the climate, but not a whole record. Serj was in one of the most amazing politically charged bands of the last 20 years. He went through a whole bunch of lyrics and poetry that he had and screamed stuff for an hour. We had coffee, and I went home and edited [the parts] I liked. The point I’m trying to make [on the song] is that we should all stand up for fringe causes because once they’re gone, you’re next.”

Urine teams up with Claret on “Fuck Everything,” describing it as “our ex-pat song. We kind of wrote it while we were packing up our house and leaving, and then we recorded it in Wellington. She’s a really great songwriter: I’ll be sculpting a song for two months, and she’ll write one in a day. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, that was so quick! No wonder I married you!’” [Laughs.]

For “The Medicine Does Not Control Me,” Urine was trying to write a song about alcohol that wasn’t about partying or rehab. “I don’t have an addictive personality. I’m not trying to use alcohol to escape; I use it for time travel,” he explains. “I can pull myself a glass of scotch and then go watch a ton of movies that are based in New York. I can find a movie that was shot in the neighborhood I grew up—‘Oh, there’s the place I went to school. There’s the place where I used to play pinball’—immerse myself in it and then fall asleep. I don’t drink to get crazy. I think there’s a middle ground where people use liquor to get creative, but you never hear songs about it. You only hear the ones where people ‘went too far’ or they’re ‘gonna party!’”

He wanted to work with electronic/hip-hop maven Grimes because of her hands-on work ethic. “She’s DIY like a motherfucker. There aren’t a lot of ladies doing synth work, producing, mastering, editing their own videos, everything. Because she’s so talented, I wanted her to write the track and to produce me singing it, like a reverse Britney Spears thing: I’m the ingenue, and Grimes is the mastermind. We didn’t have enough time to do it that way, so I gave her some tracks and ["Medicine”] was the one she chose.”

Urine has been friends with Way back in the days when My Chemical Romance were opening for MSI in NYC. So having the 21st century polymath appear on the fast-paced “Sailor In A Life Boat” was a complete no-brainer.

“First of all,” he begins to laugh, “Gerard could have sang every song on the record! MCR did a B-side from something off Danger Days [�["Zero Percent”]here the programming was drum-and-bassy, very weird and hard at the same time, like MCR being MSI.”

“This time, I figured we’d go the other way and leave it up to Gerard,” he continues.“I sent him the song, and he obviously knocked it out. The lyrics—“you’re a dogface on the frontline,” “a pilot on a ship that’s going down,” convey that you used to be a sailor in the Navy, but now you’re just some dude sitting in the middle of the fucking ocean. His vocal and lyrical style comes across to me like a Frank Miller comic book from 1981, like Sin Cityand stuff.”

As usual, Urine can’t resist taking a swipe at the scene. And here he is with “Random EMO Top Line Generator,” one of the most heartfelt songs he’s ever written. And the joke is on all of us: Much like the net’s random name generators for everything from porn star names to Wu-Tang handles and other monikers, Urine had the net write lyrics.

“I loaded up, like, a thousand random generators that gave me words,” he explains. “I put in a word, then a random generator would give me a sentence. Than I’d put that sentence into a different random generator, and it would give me a phrase. I wrote this song based on what I’d get out of these random generators, and I made it a very emotional and heartfelt song.”

“So the schtick is people will say, ‘Wow, it’s so deep, look how mature Jimmy is,’” he continues.“Motherfuckers, a robot wrote that song. The robot wrote the lyrics, and you’re lovin’ it! A robot wrote a song that’s so emotionally empowering it could have been written in the last 10 years. And random generators are all over the internet, you could write a whole album that way! We’re really living in a William Gibson cyberpunk reality these days.”

With all the cool collabs with women, men and machines happening on Euringer, it might be easy to ignore the elephant in the room. You know, the one with “MSI” painted in 4-foot DayGlo letters and festooned with crudely rendered drawings of penises. Urine swears that everything is good with his homies in Mindless, and the door is always open.

“That’s not the reason I made a solo album or why I moved to New Zealand. We were all on different coasts. These days, the technology exists so you don’t even have to be in the same room to make a record. MSI are a wonderful art project that never stops.”

And you’re not going to see Euringer on tour to support the new album, either. “I’m not going to tour for it because I’m gonna chill here in New Zealand for a while,” he says. “I’ll make some videos, do press and work on some top secret projects—maybe a Mindless record—down here. Incorporating New Zealand in all the stuff I’m doing is really cool and fun. I like touring with Mindless; I don’t need to put a whole new band together.”

Right now though, he’s enjoying his time in Middle Earth and keeping busy. He’s also working alongside Tankian and the animation house ShadowMachine for an English gangster cartoon called Fuktronic. Expect more, but on his terms, as he steadfastly refuses to reveal if the other projects he’s got rolling are for film, video games or elevators.

“Oh man, I wanna do stuff for elevators really bad!” he beams excitedly, in the same perverse glee that has marked every creative avenue he’s cartwheeled and silly-walked on for decades. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve gotten into an elevator that had music playing in it.” He pauses for a moment. “Damn, we gotta bring Muzak back into elevators. I’m gonna change all the Mindless songs into Muzak. The future is elevators.”

You can preorder Euringer here prior to its mid-October release date. Check out “Problematic” from the LP and the record’s artwork below.