Rythmik Love Music - Lee Shaw's Blog

Fallout: Online MMO Concept Art

2010-11-19T22:23:00.001-08:00

Jesus, Check this thing out, The new Fallout MMO is going to be awesome :D

R4 DS - yet another clone, do you recognise these pictures?

2010-11-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered these, R4 cards for the Nintendo DS series, pretty cool idea, especially if you like your homebrew games and software while on the move... Problem is there are so many clones now that you have to be careful what you pay for, I can't even figure out what this model is to fix it. If you recognise it can you email or comment me with what firmware it'd need? From everything I can tell it's an M3i SDHC version but I doubt it's even that clone.

Dance Now FM

2010-11-13T17:29:00.001-08:00

Hi all,
Short post today, if you're a top 40 fan head on over to www.dancenowfm.com <- a new radio shoutcast run by a friend of mine, there'll be live DJ's, top 40 charts and more! should be properly up and running very soon :)

Trout's GIF Optimizer - Create smaller GIF files

2010-11-11T23:57:00.000-08:00

Trout's GIF Optimizer - Create smaller GIF files

I just found this awesome freeware program for optimizing .GIF files for internet usage, I just uploaded a new one at rythmiklove.com thinking it was 700kb, which was pretty big (although with Broadband being what it is nowadays I wasn't too worried) and it turned out to be 4.24 mb! - That's getting a bit too big

This program fixes all that :)

Fallout New Vegas Modding

2010-11-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

Hi All, not music related but I've been playing this game for a little while and thought it'd be cool to post about an awesome website that you can get mods from.
New Vegas Nexus - sign yourself up for an account, it's well worth it and doesn't cost anything, although if you do pay for a subscription which is bloody cheap it'll let you download files much, much faster :)

*** Sorry about some weird formatting issues below.. not sure what happened there, all links have a black background and white writing to make them easier to see :)

A Few Mods I highly recommend:

ACF Darker Nights and Brighter Days V5
This makes night pretty much pitch black and days look a bit cooler.

Hi Res World View Weapon Textures
As the name implies this makes guns lying on the ground etc look better, by using the textures from when you're holding them, a very small mod because of the way it's implemented.

VG0 Preorder Alternative
For those of us who missed out on the DLC for pre-ordering the game this is very cool, there is nothing illegal about this file, the creator has come up with his own stuff, essentially it's the same idea as the special stuff you get at the beginning of the game for buying the pre-order release of Fallout New Vegas.

New Vegas Explosive Knockdown Mod
This one is really cool, now Explosives like mines, grenades (you get the idea) will knock you over. Can be a godsend at winning a difficult fight, on the other hand it gives the Powder Gangers an upperhand too...

zzz- LOC - Lootable Old Cars
This one kinda ties in with the previous Mod, basically you can loot cars now, but you can also blow them up too!, great for freeway fights though watch where you're standing or you're likely to get blown to hell.

No Auto Aim
As the name implies this mod gets rid of auto aim, making the game more like a first person shooter... however, getting shot in the head can be an unpleasant experience.

Repairable With Scrap
This makes weapons repairable with scrap metal, something which makes sense really :)

No Companion Limit
Another obvious one, removes the companion limit :)

IIWR - Intrusive Invisible Wall Remover
This one is important! Removes those annoying invisible walls, careful you don't get stuck on a rock though.

R.A.C.E or Radio Active Channel Extender
This gives you more songs, and a new radio station when you get sick of the stuff that came with the game, I've been using it almost since I played and it fits really well.

Fallout New Vegas HD Texture Installer
This one can be a little complex, basically alot of the textures in Fallout 3 were re-used in Fallout New Vegas, this provides an installer for a Texture Mod to transfer some very high quality Textures into Fallout New Vegas, if you follow the readme carefully and download all the right files it's very easy, you don't actually need fallout 3 installed, and there's a simple edit to one file to point to where you copied your downloaded textures to (if that wasn't clear leave me a comment and I'll help you out)

Nevada Skies - Sandstorms BETA
This mod is awesome, it creates very thick sandstorms in the game, you'll be hard pressed to see more than 15 metres around you while one is going on - Despite it being a beta I haven't had any issues with it yet.

Portable Campsite
As the name implies, this gives you a portable "Camp Site" from what I remember, A fire and a bed etc. Check the readme to get details.

ZZZ-Original FO3 Weapon Pack-
Feeling like there's not enough weapons in FNV? how about all the ones from Fallout 3? I'm sure that'll keep you happy for a while :)

The Load Order Sorting Tool
This one will do as the name implies, for those not in the know depending on the order you load your mods some might cancel each other out, basically this will "sort" them into an order that stops that from happening, or at least makes them compliment each other so the game doesn't crash.

Archive Invalidation Invalidated
This one is a godsend, automating all the Archive Invalidated bull that you normally have to go through, the latest update (1.1.1) on steam broke it so I'll supply a fix for you here, though the modder may have already updated it.
SArchiveList=Fallout - Meshes.bsa, Fallout - Voices1.bsa, Fallout - Sound.bsa, Fallout - Misc.bsa, AII-FNV!.bsa, Fallout - Textures.bsa, Fallout - Textures2.bsa <- ok that might look a bit messy but basically move your archiveinvalidationinvalidated!.bsa to the position that is in your fallout_default.ini (Use find in notepad and search for SArchiveList - it'll all make sense when you find it), in the example above the user has renamed the file but apparently that is not necessary.

Drugs are bad Mkay
This mod gives drugs a visual aspect or side effect if you will, very cool and will make the game interesting...

Populated Wasteland
As the name implies it adds more NPC's to the game to make the world feel a little less empty.

** For some reason the two mods above will not turn white**

Military Expansion Program
This mod does the same as populated wasteland but makes the military bases feel a little less empty, I did notice the extra NPC's seem to clutter together though.

Goacbcs Freeplay after MQ
This lets you keep playing after you've finished the game, handy if you don't wanna start again to find all those quests you missed. - I'm not sure how that will work at the moment, but it's still cool to be able to cruise around destroying stuff, or at least tackling Death Claws and Cazadores.

Companion Sandbox Mode
Tired of your Companions standing still all the time? this will make them wander around a little bit, sit in chairs and other cool stuff, check the readme on it, apparently they used to raid the fridge too!

That should keep you busy for a while at least, while you're there at least check out the Gameplay/effects section of the index at newvegasnexus.com - you won't be disappointed.

Short update for October.

2010-10-03T23:37:00.000-07:00

Hi All, it's been a while since I've updated the blog, but for good reason, after much deliberation over the quality of some of the music I'd written for Amie I decided to start working on completing a few songs she had lyrics for (in particular we had 2 songs called Ready or Not and Sugar and Spice that I really wanted to complete)
We are very close to releasing some of these songs now.

On top of this I've been getting alot of advice from some great people at http://www.sectionz.com/ <- if you write Electronica and would like technical advice (reviews) I highly recommend this place, they run remix competitions though the heart and soul of the site is reviewing (And it's all free!)
I've also gotten Show Me Love mastered for the first time, I'll upload the Master soon (As usual, for free :) )
If you'd like to see what we're up to then head over to www.soundcloud.com/rythmiklove where we have a new vocal demo up (For a little while anyway)

Best Regards

Amie & Lee
(Rythmik Love)

July 14th

2010-07-14T02:05:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Well I thought it was about time to write another blog, this one was posted at http://www.rythmiklove.com/ first.
I've been reading a lot lately, on the topic of music, and getting more and more disheartened by all the BS going on.

It seems obvious that the music industry is in a mess, and with PR blogger after blogger pushing the technology aspect nowadays (myspace,twitter,facebook,soundclick,tunecore) everybody seems to be noticing that it's really not as effective as it could be, I can't comment from experience but Live Gigs, and touring are probably still your best bet if you want to "make it"

As far as Rythmik Love is concerned, those two options aren't so easy, Amie is disabled and this places huge pressure on us being able to perform, as much as I'd love to get out there, I don't want to push Amie too hard, her life is way more important than a few Gigs.

This does kind of suck, it means our chances at exposure are significantly decreased, it got me thinking:

Our music is generally suitable for nightclubs, do we really have to perform the songs live? A few DJ's can be playing our songs across any number of countries simultaneously and each version can be as different as they like, we can get a good idea of crowd response on our songs from these DJ's and I can even improve the songs based off feedback on the fly.

This can even be done by releasing the songs in seperated *.wav files to allow for remixing, with a licencing contract, either similarly to soundclick.com (a flat rate for the song, allowing one remix of the song to be made) or based on revenue (i.e 1% of live performances that include said song)

I'm really trying to mould Rythmik Love into some kind of business model, to take this full-time hobby which dominates my every waking minute and be able to live off it.

To be able to write music that inspires, that evokes emotion, that encompasses all of the things Amie has to say (and more)and write it full-time.

Amie has tonne's of great lyrics just waiting for songs to be written for them, and we have even more songs that are ready for recording, working on an aquaculture farm basically took all of my time from october 2009 till may 2010.

Now I'm struggling to catch up with everything I started last year, and with the weather already picking up here in Victoria, it's only a matter of weeks before I'm back at work full-time again. I feel like I have a tiny window of opportunity to get so much stuff done, and there's only 24 hours in each day, I need 200.5 and to only need sleep every 10 days, but I digress.

I also plan to provide other quality content on this site, like the best music I can find, especially Indie/Self Released bands, there's some artists out there arent as well heard of who are unbelievable, check out some of the people at sectionz.com for starters, my god there's some talent there.

I'd like to review people's music

Offer demo mastering services at ultra affordable rates, with no strings attached.

Offer to collaborate with anyone interested, either commercially or free.

Collect and create useful information/tutorials for artists (including hosting/pointing to great tutorials)

Offer custom music to fans (request a tailored version of any song, whether lyric changes, instrument changes)

Sell the latest/top music on offer without having to leave the site. (I'd like Rythmik love to feel like a real "*home*page") but also give away as much music for free as possible.

Offer great radio services, whether by finding them personally and linking to them on the site, or finding a way to integrate somehow.

Offer live Audio chat right on the website, maybe even with licenced DJ's, you can interact straight with us any time you like, or just kick back and enjoy the music.

Host cool competitions and giveaways.

I'd like to offer to help ANY other artist who's struggling, we all need to stick together and motivate each other, moreso than that we all gain experience from it, the more the better.

I'd like to be able to write a song, and release it as soon as it's finished. and it sound so awesome you'd swear Universal Studio's mastered it. (this could actually be possible through tunecore.com but I'd have to pay for Universal Studio's to Master it, for this to happen we need to start making sales)

I'd like to be able to contribute my music to Film and TV and anywhere else it could find a place, I'd love to write some great, sad ballad for a Drama, or create a boppy 30 second ballad for a TV Ad, or a fast paced Metal song for an action sequence in a videogame, the ability to move people emotionally with sound, or contribute to the visual aspect of it (with sound), is something I've always dreamed I could do professionally.

Mostly I want this to be a comfortable place to be whether as a fan or as an artist, it'd be great to see fans eventually contributing how they feel about our music, and other artists we could get to hang out here too, and develop a closer relationship with the people who listen to our music.

On top of this, it means I can mostly stay home and take care of Amie, which is hard to do with a 9-5, incredibly hard (we work mostly 9-9), her Asthma has been getting worse and worse and the Doctors cannot seem to find cause, how she sings so well (you'll know what I mean when we release Pure Love) yet wakes up every single night unable to breathe is beyond me, she's a little aussie battler, unfortunately no one seems to be able to help her win the battle.

I hope I can bring some of this to fruition, so much time and effort has gone into Rythmik Love.

Regardless of what the future brings. I will not stop climbing and neither will Amie. This cannot fail.

Best Regards

Lee Shaw (Rythmik Love Producer)

26 releases at www.rythmiklove.com

2010-07-06T20:03:00.000-07:00

As the title implies, we now have 26 songs in various forms for all to enjoy at http://www.rythmiklove.com/ there's also a player on the main page to save navigating through the list, hopefully there's something for everyone to listen to, with lots of new music and some videos on the way, I've also uploaded some 3d art that i've created in Carrara 6 Pro on the photo's page. :)

3D Art - as addictive as FL Studio!

2010-06-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

Well, It's been a while since I've posted anything, I'm really trying to learn the "back office" of music which I'd been dreading for a long time, seems like everytime I learn of something new, It's a long and involved process that could take years to learn, I gotta find a good team of people so I can stick to writing new songs!

You're probably thinking, wtf does this have to do with 3d art?

Well I stumbled across it out of necessity really, I asked a lot of 3d artists for band artwork, and they all told me the same thing, it shouldn't take you too long to come up with pretty damn good quality artwork with todays software on your own, for free (or relatively cheap anyway) in a reasonable timeframe.

Amie is normally the creative one, drawing most artwork by hand, I ended up designing our logo in google sketchup off her initial design, little did I know what this would lead to.

A few months later I stumbled acros Daz Studio, a great program! I highly recommend you at least try it, I don't own advanced yet, but I found a workaround (thanks to the helpful people at the daz forums) that I think really pays off.

That workaround is Figures, Characters and Avatars by Les Pardew - A great book to say the least, If you're new to 3d programs and you want something simpler than Blender to start out with, I can't recommend this book more, I haven't even finished reading it yet but the quality of the material I've read so far is excellent, this is besides the point, I'm aiming at people who want a fast way into powerful 3d programs, and this book comes with exactly that.

On disk it includes an older version of Daz Studio, Carrara 6 Pro and Hexagon, you don't get an advanced copy of Daz Studio, but you get Carrara 6 Pro! and even if this book came without Hexagon (awesome, but a buggy 3d modelling program) you can still essentially do anything your imagination could come up with (I won't go into complications like CPU power etc).

You also get extra 3d content on the disc but if your not sold on getting Carrara 6 Pro + Hexagon then that probably won't matter.

If you want to step into 3d art, I can't recommend this company more, the price of these products is reasonable, but getting them all bundled on a disc free with a book that'll really help your learning curve, unfortunately the book focuses on Daz Studio, but if you want a great tutorial to go along with Carrara 6 Pro I suggest the Carrara 6 Pro VTC Training CD by Mark Bremmer, He also has some downloadable stuff at his webpage (the nuclear explosion is quite impressive) at http://www.markbremmer.com/ (go to Carrara 6 pro tutorials, dark arts, free scenes).

Modelled and rendered in Carrara 6 Pro

The amount of free content available if you don't want to build your own is just amazing!

Built brick by brick :) in Carrara 6 Pro.

The apartment here comes on the Disc too, Some ofthe scene props used were freebies from http://www.sharecg.com/ (you'll find tonnes of cool, well designed 3d content here)

My First Render in Carrara 6 Pro, A little bit of post-work in GIMP (Photoshop alternative).

You can really have fun with things like the hair shader in Carrara, I made this carpet really quickly and it doesn't look half bad :)

The Best Budget Studio Monitors

2010-05-09T23:38:00.000-07:00

While I can't definitively answer that title, I can provide you with my person opinion, but first let me start by saying that I grew up listening to Rock and Roll and heavy metal, to you this means that I tended to like music that didn't necessarily have the deep, heavy bass vibe that Electronic Music has and would choose speakers to suit, now that I write Electronica I needed speakers with some Club feeling "Oomph".

It turns out for around $200 I could get myself a set of Behringer MS-40's, after hearing them, and with my price range I had to say yes! (I see here they are now absolute bargain prices!)

They have just what I needed, Flat frequency response, with knobs for adjusting both Bass and Treble volumes, it also comes with two inputs, and two volumes allowing you to have two seperate inputs of music playing at "24-bit - 192khz" Glory. (they also have an optical input)

I highly recommend these speakers to those on a budget, they have excellent dynamics but with the turn of a knob you can change bass or treble if necessary and with a maximum output of -89 DB (Bloody loud!) they're assured to be great at working on your latest musical composition, or even just listening to your favourite music with beautiful, crystal clear amplification.

The Venerable Rode NT1-A

2010-05-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

What an Impressive Microphone, I don't think I need to review this one as much as I do tell you that while it might be a little pricey, you won't be disappointed. if you already own a shure SM57 and are looking to upgrade your arsenal then this is a perfect choice!
To be honest - Finding it here at $185 is incredibly cheap If I were you I'd be buying it right now!

microphone Preamp - A surprisingly affordable solution.

2010-05-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

Hi to all,

One of the first major problems I came across when first recording Amie was having cheap equipment, we had a $20 Microphone, and no kind of amplification really.. (Software compressors just the same)
After a bit of searhing around on the internet, I realised a decent preamp for a microphone can be an expensive ordeal!
I was lucky, I searched Ebay and stumbled upon the tiny little "Blue Icicle XLR to Usb Preamplifier" and to be honest, it's great!

It feels a little light, but don't let that fool you, it has an incredible sensitivity and very little self noise, the "volume/gain" knob does exactly that and using it to run a Rode NT1-A had no problems at all, supplying Phantom Power and a glowing blue ring of light to inform you that it's alive.

All in all this tiny little piece of audio hardware is a great addition to any Indie Musician / Home Producer (or Podcaster's) kit and with such a tiny price to suit it's frame, it's hardly going to break the bank.

Rythmik Love - Video - Where are we going? (Music R3M1X)

2010-04-10T17:35:00.000-07:00

Rythmik Love - Video - Where are we going? (Music R3M1X)

Another Link for you :)

Rythmiklove.com - New sneak preview of Where are we going video release!

2010-04-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
Even more good news

As the title suggests, we've released a sneak preview of the new Musical Remix of Where are we going?, on the video page.
It's a big step up, and every song will be going through the same as I find the time to do so, with nearly 6 new songs coming and a new domain name Rythmik Love.com I've been working flat out on an awesome website design and Amie's melodies are really starting to get to perfection (that means it's almost recording time!) at time of writing she's designing more artwork for the Where are we going video, and coming along really well.

I'll post some more as I think of it

Rythmiklove.com officially live!

2010-04-07T03:30:00.000-07:00

Hi all , been a while since I had the time to post anything, we have heaps of cool news though, firstly http://www.rythmiklove.com is finally here! check it out for yourself, new site design, including our youtube dance music favourites.

We have nearly 6 songs in the works, and lyrics for at least 3 of them, we may release a sneak preview of the latest one to celebrate the Official site going live but we'll see what the fan response is like first :)

Keep your eyes and ears peeled, it's just gettin' better and better!

2010-03-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

Well I started working on an aquaculture farm to try and generate more income to further us quicker, hasn't worked as well as I hoped but we're getting there, essentially I still earn more than most musicians haha!

We nearly have another EP in the works, and it shouldn't be too long before the first releases start creeping out! keep an eye on mymusicstream.rythmiklove.com (soon to be just rythmiklove.com, may be paying for a new website design too!)

Hope all is going well

Best Regards

Amie and Lee

Chart topping Mymusicstream in Australia & Oceania

2009-10-07T01:38:00.000-07:00

Click the images for a fullscreen view, we've taken the first 3 positions in the Pop Genre for Australia and Oceania
http://mymusicstream.com/music/charts.php?page=1 check it out for yourself! :)

We've also taken the top 4 for Techno!

And Club Charts

Soundclick Charts position after releasing reworks

2009-10-07T01:19:00.000-07:00

Checked back into the statistics page for soundclick today and found that we'd actually done quite well with recent promotions, I'll post our best charts positions for soundclick.com below:

Accoustic or something (untitled Demo)

# 40 in Alternative. Total songs: 153,719
# 10 in Alternative General. Total songs: 36,827

Could Have Been Heaven (Demo)

# 107 in Electronica. Total songs: 270,605
# 18 in Electronica. Total songs: 45,809

Get enough (Vocal Demo)

# 96 in Pop. Total songs: 103,737
# 39 in Pop General. Total songs: 29,823

Show Me Love

# 45 in Electronica. Total songs: 270,605
# 5 in Techno. Total songs: 16,714

Waiting

# 137 in Electronica. Total songs: 270,605
# 7 in Electro. Total songs: 3,693

Pretty Cool Huh :D

Thanks to all mymusicstream fans, Rythmik Love Update for Ocobter

2009-10-05T15:14:00.000-07:00

Hi, Lee here!

Well, since uploading the reworks our radio play to download ratio is nearly 2:1 and it wouldn't happen if you didn't listen! I'd like to say thanks for listening to us, I really hope you like what you hear, and judging by the downloads most of you that hear us do, there will likely be one more release of each of our songs, a professionally recorded version.

I'm not going to a studio to do it, I'm going to do it from home, which means building a soundproof booth or room (most likely a booth) recording several different takes (hype tracks, backing vocals etc) and then spending maybe a week or more on the songs to really get that finishing touch the gets the professional artists so well known.

We're focusing hard on writing new material as well, we have at least 6 songs with lyrics that aren't ready yet, we haven't had enough time to record as often as we'd like, and are still nutting out bits and pieces of melody, breaks and some instrument settings, I will say they all sound alot more similair to each other than our current releases, and will probably undergo massive changes before I publicly release them!

We also have a Rock demo available, though majorly incomplete, we may upload it depending on feedback from you all, for those of you that enjoy pink floyd, it would be easiest to say this is our "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces" or "Careful with that axe, Eugene".

If you haven't yet check out our "Exclusive Demo" It's still untitled but essentially it's a song about getting off your ass and making a move if you ever want to make it

We've also reworked our homepage, I spent most of the weekend redesigning our "image" including finally getting a copy of our logo officially onto my PC (it was hand drawn) using Google Sketchup, I may soon release some music clips based out of Google Sketchup and Blender (when I learn to use blender that is, not a very user intuitive program that one)

As for the homepage, check it out, tell me what you think? still a long way to go I reckon, but until I get a 35mm SLR Camera I can't improve the picture quality to the level I want so I'm really pushing to get the music quality good enough to make people wanna stick around .

Unfortunately we can't dedicate as much time to music as we'd like, with Summer around the corner here in Australia our imperative has been clearing the property we live on to minimise risk of bushfire, and with the drought always a problem in this state, we're also setting up better water storage facilities (we have drinking water via mains but can't water the garden - 3/4 acre property....) so I bought some plastic lined 44 gallon drums and linked them to the downpipes on the house!

For anyone with a low budget, google 44 gallon drums, ring your local factories, I get 4 for 30 dollars and that holds 205 litres x 4 = 820 litres water storage, they'll need taps installed in the bottoms, or a good hand winding pump to get the water back out (i use a plastic Syphon pump that I got for 2 bucks, not the fastest way but it works and no effort) and they're extremely heavy when full (around 280 kilo's) but it'll cost you at least $120 for a 900 litre "water tank" that is a white / transparent colour (will grow bacteria easily unless painted etc) however if you keep the drums clean / filter rain water and they're plastic lined this shouldn't happen.

I've also been looking up home made foundrys (extreme fire hazard haha) to make some Rythmik Love metal keychains etc, check out the artful bodgers home foundry (google)

Regards

Lee

http://rythmiklove.mymusicstream.com/

Official Site updated! New Graphics!

2009-10-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

Hi all, check out our official homepage if you haven't yet, I've just updated the graphic to be neater and with more artwork from Amie included, we'll soon be uploading quite a few Photo's of her various works of art, related to Rythmik Love and maybe some more after that.

http://wwww.rythmiklove.mymusicstream.com

This is my U.S.A.: Homemade wind turbine built using 55-gallon plastic drums and PVC

2009-10-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

Homemade wind turbine built using 55-gallon plastic drums and PVC - 2 Parter youtube vids that actually generate electricity!

Free Boat Design Resources

2009-10-01T19:47:00.001-07:00

For any avid fishermen, or even casuals, there is nothing better than being able to "get out there".
For those that can't afford a Boat but have a bit of DIY knowledge I recommend this site, free designs, ebooks and essays. heaps of stuff to get you started!

in reference to: http://home.clara.net/gmatkin/design.htm (view on Google Sidewiki)

Quality Music Based on Listeners Feedback

2009-10-01T19:25:00.001-07:00

Quality Music Based on Listeners Feedback

Posted using ShareThis

Rythmik Love @ Songvault.fm

2009-10-01T19:18:00.001-07:00

Hi all, just joined Songvault.fm, for anyone who is there already come check us out, tell me what you think of the Bio etc? as always the songs are for sale there for /25c each but you can download them all for free at http://www.rythmiklove.mymusicstream.com/

Link to songvault.fm profile:

Forgive me Guitar God, for I have sinned…

2009-09-30T18:28:00.001-07:00

Forgive me Guitar God, for I have sinned…

Posted using ShareThis