Frankie Loscavio

My Recent Xbox 360 Achievement Goal and Things I’ve Learned Along the Way

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:25:32 PDT

Ok, so let me start out by describing what my goal was with Xbox 360 achievements and why I even set this specific goal for myself. I currently work as a Sound Designer for a company that is building an Xbox 360 game in Atlanta, Georgia and I can’t tell you much about this game we are working on except that it will be on the 360 at some point in the future. Well, when I started with this company I didn’t even own an Xbox 360, I had an original one but that was it. Previously, I played Xbox 360 with my friend Jon who had been playing for years on this system and had a very good understanding of the games released on this platform. So as I soon discovered there was a system in place called “Achievements” that allowed a gamer to get points for doing or achieving certain goals or milestones in a game. These points then allowed you to have a gamer score that was the total of all these achievements. At first I thought who f’in cares about this sh1t? But then I thought to myself, “oh I get it!”, it’s another game all in itself outside the actual games themselves and this system of points let’s gamers have something to show for all the games and long hours they have spent in a game or series of games. You can learn about this concept of games and game design in Jesse Schell’s book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. So here is where it all comes together describing why I even had an achievement goal. I decided to challenge my friend Jon who had been playing for years on the Xbox 360 system that I could beat his gamer score in 8 months. Yes that’s right I can beat Jon’s gamer score in 8 months! I had to beat not just his current score but whatever his score was 8 months from now. A moving target! Jon had 25,000 achievement points at the time and I had none. I was starting from scratch and as you elite self righteous gamers like to call it, I was a “n00b” destined to be “Pwnd”. I knew in advance that the best way to learn something is not to dilly dally around, but instead jump right in head first and take on a challenge oriented, goal based mission on what it is you are trying to learn. In my case, I was learning as much as I could about the Xbox 360 and all of it’s game designs and implementations (Specifically Audio and Sound) in a very short period of time. For me I now had a self imposed goal that gave me a narrowed focus, “Play as many games as I could in a very short period of time”. I could now play lots of games whether they be good, bad or ugly and have something to show for it. On the outside the appearance is that I have just accumulated achievement points to show for it, but what matters most is that I built up a very diverse game experience and history that allowed to accurately judge what is in fact a good game and what is in fact a bad game. Not based on just personally preference but yet instead, based on technical merit and game design mixed with the sound design and audio implementations.

I ended up beating Jon’s gamer score in 8 months, and to be honest it was a lot of fun. I played so many different games and genres that I can now say with certainty I know about a very diverse array of games and game designs on the Xbox 360. Sure I could have played only the “cool” games that everyone else is playing at any given time (Borderlands, cough cough). But for me, I chose to sacrifice through some of the worst games ever. Not just to get achievement points. No, better yet to get a deeper knowledge and understanding of why some games are terrible and conversely why some are great.The achievement points were a byproduct of lots and I repeat “LOTS” of game play. I will say that Microsoft did a good job of creating a game outside of the game and it’s no surprise that other gaming systems copied them. So anyways in short, I now know a lot about Xbox 360 games and anyone who decides to call me an achievement whore might want to think about the statement again. Instead ask yourself, are you a gaming snob? Do you know everything there is to know about gaming? Are you willing to learn more about gaming than you do now? I don’t care how much you might think you know about gaming and game design, there is always room to learn more. Sometimes it’s good to set goals and challenges for ourselves :) I promise that you can learn a lot from playing games like Afro Samurai and then right after that playing SpongeBob's Truth or Square. You see, just because a game might be a kids game doesn’t mean that there isn’t still something to learn. In fact SpongeBob's Truth or Square along with lots of other kids games ended up being far better than some of the big name titles that got released on the Xbox 360 platform. Sometimes it’s all about you buying into a brand and the perception that your game is great because everyone else thinks so. That’s fine, all I’m saying is this, don’t sell yourself short. Learn as much as you can while you can. Apply that mentality to everyday life and you might be surprised!

Sidenote: I know some of you game purists might disagree with me about my goal oriented achievement mission, but really I don’t care wtf you think. Who are you to decide what game is worthy of playing or not, in fact I might even go as far to say I now know what games are good and bad more than you elites now based on the amount of games I’ve played and experienced. It’s all relative and I would recommend to anyone that you go outside your perceived coolness zone and play other games to expand your game experiences. You might just learn something!

How I Slipstreamed Windows 7 RTM Installer with Raid Drivers on my Alienware m17 Machine

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:00:26 PDT

Recently, I was faced with a situation at work were my Vista 32-bit install was corrupted and I needed to reinstall my OS on the M17x Alienware laptop I use. Since Windows 7 RTM was just released I figured I give that a shot, only this time I was going to install the 64-bit version of Windows to get full access to all 4 gigs of RAM on my laptop instead of the 3 gigs max I had on 32-bit Windows. I download the Windows 7 64-bit RTM and burn it to disk and get ready to install. To my dismay, the Windows 7 installer would fail after about 5 minutes of hanging and a disk icon blinking on and off. I continued to try over and over again hoping it was something small, but nope it would fail always the same way and at the same spot. I finally did some research on Google and discovered that the issue might be the fact that the new RTM versions of Windows 7 doesn’t have any Raid Drivers for my machine and the reason it was dying every time is that it can’t find any drives to install the new OS to. So after more research and lots of trial and error I finally concluded that the best way to get my machines Raid driver into the Windows 7 installer was to use the Windows 7 OEM Pre-installation Kit. .

I can just tell you right now, that it took me a while to realize that in order to Slipstream windows 7 you need to use this OPK or Pre-installation kit. I am just letting you know the end result of lots of trying and failing :) So once I got the the Pre-installation kit installed I got down to business and below are the steps I went through to get all latest 64bit drivers for my Alienware machine injected into the Windows 7 installer so that it would work for me and see all my drives using the Raid controller.Also let it be known, I only slipstreamed third-party drivers. Some people think slipstreaming is only for service packs, however I am here to tell you, slipstreaming is for just about anything you want to modify on your Windows installation. Also at the time of this blog post nLite didn’t support Windows 7, so this how I got it to work successfully.

Steps to Slipstream Windows 7 with your Third-Party drivers:

1. Find and download all of your latest drivers for your machine (32-bit or 64-bit) depending on the installer version. Either way gather all of your drivers for your new install organized and ready for slipstreaming. Please note sometimes you can find a dedicated Windows 7 driver already, if so use that one, otherwise the vista driver will also work. However, in the case of a Raid controller I only want to use the windows 7 driver and not the vista one.

2. After installing the Windows 7 OEM Pre-installation Kit you will need to have your Windows 7 installation disk or .iso available. In my case I had the .iso since I used the MSDN download.

3. I chose to extract my .iso using WinRar but there are so many other makers of .iso extractors it will be easy to extract the iso. If all you have is the DVD, then you can use UltaIso to make a duplicate image of your disk into an .iso form. I am only telling you what In used. If you are doing the disk version you can extract the image again after you make your image or you can copy the files of the disk directly, I would recommend making the image and then extracting it.

4. Locate install.wim in your extracted windows 7 files and folders “\sources\install.wim”. The install.wim is the files that you are going to modify and inject drivers into using the Windows 7 OPK / DISM.exe utility. I found it best to copy the install.wim file to another folder. This way I can work on this file and know I have the original install.wim exactly as it was before I started modifying it.

5. Next locate your DISM.exe file. This is what actually mounts the install.wim image and allows you to inject the .wim file with your third-party drivers. It then seals the image back up and let you copy the new install.wim file back to the place you originally took it from on the extracted .iso folder in case you forgot it was ““\sources\install.wim””

6. In order to run DISM.exe you will need to access it from an elevated command prompt. At first I was like ok, sure run cmd. Nope. It’s not exactly like that. I finally found that an elevated command prompt means to run the CMD from the exact location of the file or .exe you are running. in my case I had to run an elevated command prompt from the location or folder that the DISM.exe was in. All I did was hold shift while right clicking the folder that container DISM.exe. after the command prompt was displayer I typed DISM.exe and it opened the command line interface for DISM. FINALLY, I was able to mount the install.wim image and get to work. This is where the actual driver injection took place, right here in the DISM command utility.

Dism Command list here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744382%28WS.10%29.aspx

How to get an elevated command prompt:

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/02/09/windows-7-tip-elevated-command-prompt-anywhere/

7. I mounted my copied install.wim image file that I am working with.

Dism /Mount-Wim /WimFile:C:\test\images\install.wim

http://technet.microsoft.com/ja-jp/library/dd772580%28WS.10%29.aspx

8. I added drivers to the install.wim file using:

Dism /image:C:\test\offline /Add-Driver /driver:C:\test\drivers /recurse

Note: This will recurse and add drivers from the organized driver folder we have in step 1.

9. I commit and unmount all the new driver changes I made to this wim file:

Dism /Commit-Wim /MountDir:C:\test\offline

10. Copy the new updated install.wim to the extracted Windows 7 iso folder. put it back in the same place you got it from before working with it and updating it. Obviously, in order for the new installation to work you will need to overwrite the install.wim file.

11. Burn a new updated and Slipstreamed Windows 7 DVD that has your new install.wim. What’s funny is this is the part that actually was the hardest. In order for me to do this without just making frisbee. I had to make a bootable disk. Unfortunately just checking bootable in your disk burning software isn’t enough (nero sucks btw). You have to extract the boot file from the original disk or mounted image and then reinject it into your new .iso image at burn time. How did I do this? I used again the UltraIso utility. To be honest, this was far better than any .iso tool I found for this job of boot file extraction and reinjection.

12. Once I was able to burn a DVD with the proper boot file that was extracted from the original disk image, I was able to install windows 7 properly with all boot settings configured in my bios. At this point I have successfully Slipstreamed my Windows 7 64-bit install using DISM.exe and install.wim and UltraIso.

13. Ahh, success. It feels good to finally get a good install of Windows 7 RTM on my Alienware m17x laptop. Of course, the other alternative would have been to install 64-bit Vista and wait until Alienware decided to make a Windows 7 installer. But my experience has been Alienware support sucks. So why wait, just do it yourself :) Also, I’d like to thank my friend Tony for his support in testing frisbee after frisbee for me.

Screen Shots of the Tools Used:

Dism

DISM is installed with Windows® 7, and it is also distributed in the Windows OEM Preinstallation Kit (Windows OPK) and the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK). It can be used to service Windows Vista® with Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Server® 2008, Windows® 7, Windows Server® 2008 R2, or Windows PE images.

DISM.exe is a new command-line tool that is included both in a default install of the Windows 7 operating system and also as part of version 2.0 of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK). It says one can use DISM.exe service Windows images, including both Windows Image (WIM) files and Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files. While DISM.exe is primarily intended for servicing offline (not running) Windows images, some of its functionality can also be utilized to service online (running) Windows operating systems.

UltraIso

Links:

http://www.devx.com/MS_TechNet/Article/41701

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/springboard/archive/2009/07/28/managing-windows-7-with-dism.aspx

http://4sysops.com/archives/windows-7-dism-how-to-mount-manage-and-service-wim-images/

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744382%28WS.10%29.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799258%28WS.10%29.aspx

http://www.wincert.net/forum/index.php?/topic/4939-how-to-use-windows-7-dism-by-muiz/

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=9682

Flash CS5 / Flash Builder 4 Integration Preview with Richard Galvan

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:26:47 PDT

Bryan Wills just sent me this link about Flash CS5/Flash Builder 4 Integration Preview with Richard Galvan on Colin Moock’s blog.

Quote – “Last week at Flash on the Beach 2009 in Brighton, England, Flash authoring product manager Richard Galvan demonstrated some of the improved integration planned for Flash CS5 and Flash Builder 4 (formerly Flex Builder). Like most of the ActionScript developer community, I've been waiting for better integration of the two tools for years, so I tracked Richard down after his presentation and pulled some additional information out of him. If you use Flash Builder as your main programming IDE, but still use Library symbols from a .fla file for graphics, your compiling and debugging process is going to be significantly more convenient in Flash CS5/Flash Builder 4.”

Aviary Releases Myna Audio Editor - By Alan Queen

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:01:42 PDT

I just saw Kenny Bunch’s Tweet and thought I’d check out Myna. Since Kenny said “myna may just be the best online app I've seen.” I had to check it out for myself and it’s insane alright. Really, I am amazed myself at how cool this Flash / Flex app is and after using it, it really just shows the future of Audio Applications and what’s to come. Thanks Kenny for mentioning this and really great work Alan.

http://aviary.com/blog/posts/aviary-release-myna-audio-editor-music-remixer

Here is the description taken right from the Aviary / Myna page:

Since acquiring Digimix in October, our team has been hard at work on releasing Myna, Aviary's audio editor. We're finally ready to share it with the world. :)

Here's an example music remix made in Myna (Click "Open in Audio Editor") to edit the project directly.
Myna, a powerful online audio editor, makes it simple and easy to upload, record, and remix audio clips online. Whether you are new to audio editing or a professional you can get started right away on Aviary.com.
Along with the release of Aviary's online audio editor we are happy to announce a partnership with APM Music and their Quantum Tracks library which contains thousands of professional stems, loops and beats will now be able to accessed by anyone using Myna to try for non-commercial purposes.

Highlights of Myna Features

Powerful Clip Editing
Trim, Loop, Stretch and Reverse your audio clips, width editable loop points, and interactive time stretch capabilities.

Automation
Easily add fade-ins, fade-outs, pan from left to right, and modify gain over time, with editable control points.

Effects
Add non-destructive effects to your audio clips including Pitch Change, Reverb, Delay, Parametric EQ, and more.

Import / Export
Import your own audio files, or search one of our provided libraries. Mix it down and export directly to your desktop or publish back to your account.

Share and learn
Collaborate with other users. Follow step-by-step tutorials to learn new skills.
By providing a powerful audio editor online along with access to a library of professional content online you can have access to powerful tools.
We look forward to see and hear what people create using Aviary's online applications.

More About Aviary.com
Aviary (www.aviary.com), based in Hewlett, N.Y., has created a suite of browser-based creation tools, accessible and free for all to use. Whose mission is to "make creation accessible to the world." Aviary's online software offers anyone with internet access the ability to create digital content directly from their favorite browser. Current list of applications can be accessed http://aviary.com/tools
Additional released apps include:
* Phoenix , an online layer-based image editor
* Raven, the world's first online vector editor
* Peacock, an online effects editor
* Toucan, an online color editor
* Talon, a screen capture app
* Falcon, an image markup and simple image editor

More About APM Music:
http://qt.apmmusic.com/pr/apm/qt/about-us.aspx
APM Music (APM), is the largest provider of music for use in film, television, radio, video games and new media production is a joint venture of EMI, the world's largest independent record label, and BMG, the global music division of Bertelsmann AG. APM Music provides the United States and Canada with music selection services and exclusive licensing rights to libraries of music specifically for use in film, television, radio, recording, new media and video games.
http://www.apmmusic.com/

Interview with Adam John Newberg a.k.a Kid Kryptic - Producer / DJ

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:29:40 PDT

Frankie Loscavio - “Here is an interview with Adam John Newberg, a very talented electronic music producer and DJ. I really wanted to get some insight into how Adam works and what some of his techniques are. Along with that I also wanted to see what inspires him and where he is at right now in his music production. Adam was very forthright and willing to share with us his methods of working and how he does what he does. He has been around for a long time and I actually found myself listening to mixes from Coresplittaz and DJ G.I.S way back in the day and hearing tracks I thought were hard as F@K but didn’t know at the time those tracks were actually Adam John’s! Well, lets get to it hear some of what Adam John’s all about :)”

Q: Hey Adam. Can you tell us where you live and how old you are?

I can! I live in Arizona, around the Phoenix area and I'm 29 years old.

Q: What go you into electronic music and how old were you etc..?

An old friend of mine by the name of Dave Janossy, hope I spelled his name right. At the time I had just started college and was in and out of bands as a drummer. I was active with DCI (Drum Corps International) for a couple years as well, and during that time my friend had been introducing me to electronic music. He noticed my frustration with not being able to find a stable band - all I wanted to do was write music. So he played me some records from DJ 3D and B Boy 3000 - I was floored! That was the first time I had heard drum and bass. I was about 19 y/o at the time, and prior to then the only electronic music I had heard was really, really cheese cheerleader style music. When I was younger in High School & Jr. High I mostly listened to Hard rock, Grunge, Metal, Ska, Punk Rock and some Hiphop. When Dave introduced me to Jungle and Drum and Bass I was thrilled - I finally found a style of electronic music I liked, and according to him, it was something I'd be able to pick up quickly.

Adam John - Devour (Sample) by Adam John

Q: What inspires you and influence your work?

My inspiration typically comes from life experience and other forms of music. Sometimes I get stuck where I'm just not feeling creative, and I think many artists probably go through the same experience. Typically when that is happening I just try to get out more - go camping, spend more time with friends/family, watch more movies and just listen to new music in all kinds of styles. My friends Noel & Frank, of The Outside Agency, are also pretty influential and inspiring in my work. Both of them are hard working, solid producers who write in various styles - their work helps push me to challenge myself and try new things, whether it's writing music in other genres or working out new techniques to create better sounds.

Q: What tools do you use to produce?

Currently I'm using Ableton Live as my main production environment. I'm in the process of preparing to do some live performances down the road, so be on the look out for that.

Adam John - Tear This Up (Sample) by Adam John

Q: What are your favorite synths, vst's etc..

I love using Massive to create bass sounds. I use it for Bass, Leads and random SFX for the most part. I also use Absynth to create lush sounds and pads, or just strange noises that I can glitch out later. Kontakt is another one I use for a Sampler, but I do find myself using Ableton’s built in sampler often as well. It really depends on what I’m trying to achieve and which tool will give me the best outcome.

Q: I first heard your tracks in some older DJ G.I.S mixes but didn't know it was you at the time. It seems your style has evolved and changed since those days. You seemed to use more processed Amens back then and less of those now instead using cleaner harder hits?

This is true, over time my style has definitely changed and evolved. When I first got into production I was enthralled in the idea of chopping up breaks and trying to glitch them out. I did a lot of my early beat chopping using CoolEdit Pro and SoundForge, before there was a Dr. Rex! After awhile I had been listening to more experimental music and other genres and I just wanted to do something different. So I started trying out new styles of writing, just getting more experimental. Lately I've been making a lot of experimental music and Dubstep under my name, Adam John, as well. I've been tossing around the idea of working on some Drum and Bass / Darkstep along the lines of what I used to make back in 2002-2005. We shall see, anything can happen! Could be fun, it's been awhile since I did a proper amen tune.

Elephant Man vs Ed OG - Haters Wanna War / Just Call My Name (Adam John Remix) 2008 by Adam John

Q. Describe the life of one of your tracks. How dos it begin, how does it evolve roughly and how do you get to the mastered piece that users can purchase? I think some readers will like to hear your mastering process as this is usually the hardest in some peoples minds.

Tough one! Honestly all my tracks tend to start differently. Some of them start with me just messing around creating breaks or keying out long, sustained melodies for a background or even a lead. I'll have moments, which I'm sure many artists have, where and idea just hits me out of nowhere, and I'll quickly key out the drop as I'm hearing it in my head. There were times when I first started where I'd actually sketch out the idea on paper - kind of similar to when I wrote percussion pieces in College and High School. As for mixing, I am working on that progressively while I'm writing it - I like to have my levels and a good range when I'm writing the music because it allows me to easily fit in new sounds as I go. When I think it's ready for mix down, I'll usually take a break from it before I go back and put in the final mix, making sure all the sounds and levels are right where I want them. I'll also go through and A+B the tune with other songs I like.

I keep my over all mix at about -3db before I send it to mastering. My goal is to get the mix, without any compression/limiting on the master fader, to sound as good as I think I can possibly make it. Once I get there, I render out a 32bit wav - sometimes a couple versions, and send those off to someone to be mastered. I don't technically "Master" any of my music - but I do a bit of compression and EQ for the tracks I bounce out just for DJing. Usually I'll run a hi-cut at about 17-18KHz, cutting out all the real high end. I also run a low-cut around 30Hz to get rid of any unnecessary low end.

Currently I lack the tools and the listening environment to do any real mastering - when I need that, I find a professional with the right equipment and space.

Dizzee Rascal VS Neptunes - Fix Up Like This (Adam John Remix) 2008 by Adam John

Q: Any tips on how you get some of those clean hard drums like in "Foreign Skin"

Layering and Eq! I look for and use the best sounds I can get. I layer in other drums as I see fit and use subtractive EQ to get rid of unwanted frequencies. Those are some of the key things - I make sure, for instance, that on my hi-hats I remove all the frequencies below say, 300-400Hz or so, because there is no need to have those low end sounds on a hi-hat. I'm sure other people out there that have those samples where you have all this unwanted low end that just muddies up everything else. I find it in Snare samples sometimes as well. I just try to get my drums to sound as clean as I can, making sure all the levels are nice and using compression when needed. I bus all my drums to one channel and put a compressor and EQ on there - it helps beef 'em up and round out the sound. If the drums sound shitty with the original samples, it's probably going to sound shitty in the tune.

Kid Kryptic – Foreign Skin

Q: Can you tell us about how you got the Nasally synth in "Northbound". It's sick and that in particular was one of the tracks I first heard of yours.

I'm assuming you mean the sound that runs on top of the bass? Actually that wasn't to hard a sound to make :) I just took a couple 808 sounds, one of which I added a TON of distortion and did some extreme EQing to get that sound. At the time, I thought it sounded sweet - and I still like it now. Just one of those days where I was messing around and came across something really quickly that I liked. I was pleasantly surprised to find out other people where digging it as well - it's always a nice feeling when someone tells you they like your music and enjoy listening to it.

Listen to North Bound >>

Q: Adam do you perform live? If so how do you go about your shows and performances?

Currently I don't do a Live PA, but that is something I'm currently working on. At the moment I just DJ when I play out - it's fun, but I want to get into the live show aspect - the possibilities with what you can do seem endless and I'm excited to dive in.

Adam John - Fog by Adam John

Q: Who have you performed with and who or where was your favorite show you played at.

I haven't had the opportunity to play along side many big name artists, but a couple of the best shows I had where out-of-state. I got the opportunity to DJ at a club in Texas with UFO! and Friction. Both of those guys where great to hang out with and very humble people. Another fun show was in California with DJ Hidden. That guy is a great artist and it was nice to finally meet him in person and party a bit. Most recently I've played alongside Danny the Wildchild and E-sassin. A few years ago I got to play a show in Tucson with Stu from C4C, that was definitely a wild time. Out of all the shows though, the most fun I had was when I got brought out to San Diego - those guys know how to party!

Q: Do you make a living making music? If not what else do you do?

I wish I did! No, right now I work in a print shop to pay the bills - I spent my evenings and weekends working on music and DJing. Most of the extra income I’ve made throughout the years has been solely from shows. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much money for me on the sale of tunes.

Q: When did you first hear Dubstep?

First heard Dubstep in 07-08 from a couple local producers, UltraBlack. They are friends of mine and had been sending me these tunes they had been making - when I heard it I was pretty interested. It was something different from what I was writing most of the time, so I started to investigate the genre more. It took me about a year of digging before I had a solid collection of Dubstep I liked and really started working on making it. With anything I write, I have a particular ear for what I'm into and what I create - Dubstep has such a wide selection, it reminds me of the versatility in drum and bass as well. The genre is very open to make just about anything you want. I was attracted to the space in the music and the incredibly deep, evolving bass as well - it just felt so open and the bass on a proper system is amazing. Now when I DJ out I tend to bounce around between Dubstep and Drum and Bass..

Adam John - My Love by Adam John

Q: What got you into Dubstep? Were does Drum & Bass and Dubstep go from here?

That again would be my friends from back home, Ultrablack. First AZ group I heard to really get it going out here and they brought the genre to my attention. As for where the genre goes, who knows! That is the beauty of the music - it can go wherever the artists want to take it. It's already in so many directions now, but honestly I wouldn't mind if some techstep sounds from back in 2003-04 started to come back. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for it, but to me that was some great music. Both styles influence my music, and you can definitely here the DNB influence in my Dubstep. There seems to be some hate out there for producers who are doing that, but I honestly don't care. It's fun, and that is the point of writing music in my book - having fun.

Q: What do you listen to on a daily basis. What tracks or artists get you hyped?

I usually listen to thrash metal/hip hop in the car. Lately I've been listing to this Lazer Sword CD, Nosaj Things new album, Drift, and a bunch of stuff from the members of the Glitch Mob and artist on glitchhopforum.com. I found this great group of artists called Omega Clash and was able to find their latest EP to pick up.

Q: I know you use Propellerheads Reason. Now that they are coming with "Record" that allows you to use reason and record audio together. Do you ever wish they would just add vst support directly instead of making people use rewire?

I do - The new audio functions sound good, but since I've been using Ableton I can't see myself going back to reason until they upgrade the sound engine and add VST support. I can definitely hear a difference in sound quality between Ableton and Reason.

Adam John - Wander (Sample) by Adam John

Q: What advice would you give to kids and aspiring electronic music producers that are serious about making music? If you're like me you learned the hard way. Are there any tips for them that you learned in your journey they need to know?

Practice! Take time to learn your instruments, eqs, compressors, etc. Learn about the art, take recording classes if you have the time and money. I found them to be very useful when I started out - helped me better understand frequency ranges and EQ my tunes better. Study music as well, listen carefully to the styles your into and try to write as much as you can. There are many times when I start a track and then end up rewriting entire sections of drums or bass all over again because I no longer like the way it goes. You don't have to own your original idea, feel free to change things up if you want. Save multiple versions of a tune incase you don't like the changes you made! Always SAVE! It takes time to get good at producing music, so don't get discouraged in the beginning.

Q: Ok, let's take your track "Foreign Skin". It might be one of my favorite tracks you made. Can you tell us about this track and maybe go over how it was made, where you were in your life when you made it and how it was received by other DJ's. How long it took to make, tools used etc.. I personally thinks in clean hard hitting and very well produced structurally. I listen to this track a lot in my car, it just seems to get me hyped.

If I can remember most it! I wrote that track almost 5 years ago, so it's hard to recall exactly what was going through my head. I was in a lot of dark times in my life when I was making most of my drum and bass, especially when I made that tune. I wrote that one with Reason and did the mixing for it in Nuendo, though I don't use that program anymore. That one went through a few changes before I finally finished it - the final was probably the 7th version I made. My goal was just to make something that would work on the dancefloor and hit heavy as hell and to get out some of that frustration and anger I had in me. Most of the DJ's I sent it to gave me a good response, but there are always people who weren't into it. Mostly because of the style, it was better received in the Darkstep / Techstep circles. I made that tune around the same time I wrote "The Way", so they both have a similar feel to them.

Adam John - Holding Hands with Death by Adam John

Q: Do you have any upcoming events people should know about?

I have a show at Earthdance in Phoenix on Sept 25 where I'll be playing Dubstep and glitch, then on Oct. 30th I'll be playing my first show in ATL, which I'm very excited about.

Q: In general where do you think electronic music is headed? I know this is a very general topic but maybe you have some feeling based on how fast technology has changes and even how people use Ableton for live performances etc.. instead of vinyl. Are there things you see in your future that you are trying to achieve we should know about?

Hard to say, it's evolved so much already! I like how Ableton allows people to do more of a live show with their music, and that is a direction I am looking to take my future productions. I'd like to incorporate more live vocals into my sets by working with local artists in my town. I'm excited to take that up and it's just going to take some time on my part to get everything ready. When I first started DJing I used vinyl exclusively, I only moved to CDjs because it was more cost effective and it allowed me to play my newest music out without having to drop $50 on dubplates. Soon I want to just do completely live shows and on-the-spot remixing with Ableton. There are some local crews, like Crusher Sound System, that incorporate live instrumentals & vocals with a DJ on stage - it's a great time when they have a show!

Thanks for the opportunity to have this interview people can find my mixes and free tunes of mine at adamjohnmusic.wordpress.com. I also have a myspace page at myspace.com/kidkrypticaudio where everyone can hear some of my new stuff.

As always, I appreciate all the support from the labels that release my music, and most of all from the fans who support what I’m doing.

Adam John - Winter Screamed Last Night by Adam John

Here are links to Adam’s sites, music and contact info:

Blog
Kid Kryptic @ MySpace Page
Kid Kryptic @ ViRB Page
Adam John @ ReverbNation Page
Adam John on Last.fm
Kid Kryptic on Last.fm
http://soundcloud.com/adam-john

Dreamsocket & TVM Studio Release - Bear On A Wire iPhone Game

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:50:53 PDT

Bear on a Wire Trailer from bearzo on Vimeo.

My 2 Cents

Ok, I normally don’t even remotely consider blogging anything related to Apple but since my friend Kenny Bunch has just released this game I have to support him since he is someone I respect greatly and really everything Kenny makes is top-notch. I haven’t played this game and probably never will since I will never own an Apple product and therefore will never play it on an iPhone I own. Maybe on someone’s iPhone at work but you get the idea. Anyways, I’ve watched the video and talked to Kenny about it and it really does look cool. I’d go so far as to say it’s one of the best games I’ve seen for the iPhone. So if Bear on A Wire seems like a game you’d like and you are Mac / Apple fan (or Cult follower hehehe) then go ahead and support Mr. Kenny Bunch. This guy works hard and I can tell you right now if he worked on it, it’s good!

Below are the descriptions from his website describing the game etc…

The Game

Our first IPhone game, previously code named Poor Bear is officially available in the app store today under the name Bear on a Wire. For those of you who followed the progression of the game on our site (1, 2, 3, 4) know that this game didn’t start with designs, requirements, deadlines, or the promise of gold bars. Instead it was built on the premise that we could make something fun that we molded just how we wanted it. That mold shifted and turned over time. Even at the starting gate, we didn’t even know what type of game we were making. The game really grew organically and took on a life of its own. I’m personally blown away with the outcome, especially considering this was Chad’s (the developer) first game and he went into it not knowing Objective C. The design is a work of art as well. However, for those of you know Trevor (the designer), know that you could expect nothing less. Words can’t do justice to what 1 designer and 1 developer have done with this game. It is simply amazing and even though it is our own game, none of us can stop playing. That was the point though. We built something we loved. We hope you will too!

Support Us

We appreciate any support you can give us. For those with an IPhone grab the game now, rate it, and review it!
APP STORE: http://itunes.com/app/bearonawire

For those wanting to get the word out. Here are some links to blog, twitter, AIM, tell someone on a subway, etc. We will have flyers too that you can print and post on bathroom walls, telephone polls, and anywhere in eyes view.
SHARE THE BEAR!

APP STORE: http://itunes.com/app/bearonawire
SITE: http://bearonawire.com
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/bearonawire
VIMEO: http://www.vimeo.com/6367707
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/dreamsocket

Press Release

Dreamsocket & TVM Studio are excited to announce they have just released Bear On A Wire.

URL: http://bearonawire.com/

Apple app store link: http://itunes.com/app/bearonawire

About the game:
Our green hero, Bearzo, has had it! No more performing for “THE MAN” day in and day out. What! Do you think he is some kind of dancing bear? NO… he is a high wire bear, and it’s time for him to make his great escape from the Big Top. He loves his fans and his work, but he just wants to be free and feel his scarf blow in the wind as he shreds wire with the most insane moves ever attempted … on a Moped… on top of high voltage power lines. Get ready to feel the power of the 49cc, two stroke, and single cylinder stallion!

As you tear off on the wire, try to balance Bearzo and keep him from fallingdown into the 1.21 gigawatts that alternate through the wires below him (Ah, the smell of burnt bear hair). While balancing on the wire, acquire crazy mad points by using the different stunt key combinations to generate some MOPED MAYHEM (ECO..ECo..eco) Bearzo’s stunts include no hands, half twist, full twist, bear buck, back roll, front roll, jump roll, grinder, spin roll, spin buck, spin buck grinder, coat tail, coat tail kick, and the next to impossible coat tail kick spin grinder. Combine these stunts with full flips, double flips… triple flips…? Now you are just being crazy! Collect coins and rack up even more points. I know…you never saw collectable coins coming. Don’t get caught hibernating b/c it’s about to get all GRIZZLY up in here!

Get pumped for BEAR ON A WIRE.

New ColoRotate Beta Online Now + CS4 3D Color Plugin Coming Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Sun, 17 May 2009 17:48:27 PDT

Like taste and smell, color is a sense that is processed by our brains in multiple dimensions. (Visit our ”Learn about color” section for more information.) Yet traditional methods of choosing colors on computers are limited to obscure sliders and flattened two-dimensional viewers. With ColoRotate, you can work with colors in 3D, in real time, and in a way that matches how our minds process color.

A rainbow of benefits

ColoRotate gives you the freedom to let your imagination fly.

Intuitive: In 3D, you can quickly see the multidimensional nature of your colors and the relationships between colors in a way that matches how your eye and brain perceive color.
Agile: Change your colors one at a time, blend two colors together, or transform a full palette of colors all at once with contrast and color joysticks — adjustments that previously have been beyond your reach.
Reliable: Take the guesswork out of setting up color harmonies or color contrasts by adjusting the distances between colors in 3D.
Efficient: Use ColoRotate’s quick drag-and-drop to adjust hue, brightness, and saturation. Import and export in Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE). Soon, you’ll be able to save even more time with our Photoshop Plugin.
Piggyback: Browse themes created by the community, or search by tag, title, or creator to discover new color ideas.
Community: Post your palettes, and tag palettes to engage with the ColoRotate community, or discussions. In the future, look for features like comments and ratings.

ColoRotate has an intuitive interface that eliminates the need to memorize or jot down color combinations or numbers. Indeed, you can traverse across an open three-dimensional color space and choose (or design) the color palette that fits your needs. In the process, you can uncover color relationships that give your designs an aesthetic balance that will please the most discriminating eye.

The members of the ColoRotate team have always drawn outside of the proverbial lines. Their rainbow of talent, creativity, and innovation reflects their dedication to creating new technologies that are both useful and cool. http://about.colorotate.org/our-team.html

ColoRotate was born at the Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA), which researches, designs and implements technology to facilitate and broaden the learning process.

Since color is inherently three dimensional, it's always bothered us that all color pickers are flat. That led to the design ColoRotate, a 3D editor that aligns with the way our minds process color. We've also put together some background information about the nature of color, perception, and color models -- http://learn.colorotate.org/

Career Day at Marietta Center for Advanced Academics on May 8th 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:21:47 PDT

This was my second year attending the Career Day at Marietta Center for Advanced Academics and it was just as much fun. This year I attended as a Senior Sound Designer since I am working on a XBox 360 game for Xaviant a game developer from Alpharetta, GA. Although I could have gone over much more than sound for this career day I wanted to show the kids something they could interactively participate in on the spot without running out of time, so I ended up showing them how to record audio, process and clean up the audio recording and then use FaceFX to analyze the audio and generate facial animations based off the preconfigured node setups for facial movements. The technology is very advanced but visually for the kids it showed them instant feedback and was easy to explain and show them in literally just a few minutes. Well, I want to thank everyone at the Marietta Center for Advanced Academics for having me. You have to be a very smart kid to be in this school and for me to show them what I do is truly an honor, since I just might be working for one of these kids one day!

I Finally Figured Out How To Backup My Kontakt 2 Training DVD that Has SecuROM Encryption For My Laptop – Use Alcohol 120%

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:04:41 PDT

Yes it’s true, it really is a backup copy. A few years ago I purchased the Native Instruments Kontakt 2 Training DVD and watched it maybe once. Well, I actually had a need to watch it often as I am doing Sound Design on a daily basis for an Xbox 360 game. I need to refer to this DVD often as Kontakt is a great tool for Sound Design. Well, it just so happens that my laptop is built in such a way that I can’t have my data drive and DVD drive in at the same time since they both are using the same Drive slot. It’s a weird setup and it can be a real pain in the ass to take out my D: drive and put in a DVD drive and vice versa. Especially when I need to access the data from my D: drive and play the DVD at the same time. I mean come on, this s a training DVD. External DVD drives are ok but again I am on a laptop and I need to be mobile.

“I paid For this DVD and I want to watch it”

from my hard drive while I am on the go. Well, after copying my files to an external drive and then putting them on the D: drive after I took out the DVD I realized that this training DVD won’t play unless the actual DVD disk is in the drive physically. Why? Why? Why? I’m sure that Native Instruments is just trying to make sure that the DVD get’s pirated. I can understand that, but when your paying customers suffer then you have a problem.

Well, the “Start.exe” on this training DVD must have either had the encryption key built in or something because I could not get it to play from a hard drive unless the DVD disk was in. For me this was really frustrating since I paid for this DVD and had issues having a hard drive and DVD in at the same time. Well, I figured I guess I’ll just play the DVD and record the screen and save it as an MPEG-2 file. This at first seemed to work until the DVD glitches occurred every few minutes. YEAY! I have a DVD that won’t even play right when in the DVD drive and I can’t play it from the hard drive and when my DVD is in I have no D: drive. Not the best situation since this was no regular DVD. It’s not the kind of disk that plays in your DVD player on your TV, so having a TV next to me wouldn’t work either. Not to mention I have a laptop which is meant to be portable.

Anyways, I could go on and on about this and how I as a paying customer I am the one who gets to suffer from all the disk encryptions and copyright protections. I could even write and entire blog post about how insanely retarded companies are for making dongles. They can suck my dongle! LOL! Moving right along, screen recording had the glitch that the DVD had and even the screen recording was shitty. So that kind of worked out but man, come on Native Instruments! I paid for this DVD and I can’t watch it from my hard drive without the disk being inserted? Well, I had another idea!!!! What If I made a drive image like an .ISO and mounted it to Virtual Drive? Ok, I thought this will work. Well, to my dismay it did not. In fact many Disk drive copy protection systems check for this. The copyright protection on the disk say

“Emulator Detected!”

. Ahh wow, now I know they are bending over backwards to suck their own dongle. Well, I must be shit out of luck right? I should just quit now right?

Nope. No Way. I am very persistent and usually will not stop until I find a solution. After some research and many attempts to make a working backup copy I found a real working solution. I found that you can’t just make any disk image and mount it to a virtual drive. You have to actually detect the security encryption (SafeDisk, SecuROM, etc.. etc...) and insert it into the DVD image while it creates the image. What this does is it still retains the security encryption but it embeds it right into the disk image itself. One application that will do this for you is Alcohol 120% and it worked well. I was very excited that I finally got it to work. It’s not really that significant except that I solved a major problem that should not have been a problem in the first place. I personally think that paying customers are the ones who get the shaft. It happens all the time, for instance the WAVES VST plug-ins. They really like to make their paying customers suffer. Or how about Steinberg? Even worse, their dongles keys break the first week. And if you lose your key, well you basically lost the app and can never get it back again. That’s seriously retarded! I know this because we actually use legit versions of these programs and because of their security encryption it takes 5++ minutes to load them as they check to see if the Syncrosoft and iLok devices have the correct licensing. Are you kidding me? 5++ minutes to load an application! These people should realize they are only hurting their paying customers. I have learned of some things to make them load faster but come on.

Why don’t they think about those who keep them in business – THE CUSTOMERS!

Here are my steps to get the Native Instruments Kontakt 2 Training DVD to play from my D: drive that again I did paid for:

Remember this is strictly for backup purposes only!

1. Insert Native Instruments Kontakt 2 Training DVD Training DVD

2. Open Alcohol 120%

3. Choose “Image Burning Wizard”

4. Choose “SecuROM” or whatever the disk encryption is from the “Datatype” drop down menu in the bottom left.

5. Choose output destination

6. Click “Start” to burn image ( This will create two files a .mds and a .mdf )

7. Right click the image and “Mount Image”

8. Access your files and movies as if the real disk was there ONLY IT ACTUALLY WORKS WITH ENCRYPTED DISKS!!!!!

Now after I mount the .mds image it shows up like a DVD drive and I can run my Native Instruments Kontakt 2 Training DVD and the copy protection thinks it is actually the real DVD disk. I never have to remove and swap out hard drives to watch and save etc.. etc.. as I can now have my paid version of the DVD play from the hard drive and I can also access my data files at the same time. Oh yeah, what good is an Audio Training DVD if the drive your swapping out has all your sounds and Data? Now it all works and I am happy. But this would not have been possible without Alcohol 120%. I never realized the difference in Disk Image Makers and Virtual Drive Emulators until now. Alcohol 120% actually burned the disk encryption right into the Image file.

“Data Position Measurement: New protections like SecuROM 4.8x work by positioning the data irregularly on the spiral track of the CD. This irregular positioning is measured, and emulated while the image is mounted.

Please Note: Data Position Measurement is only used with the "Securom *NEW (4.x/5.x)", "StarForce 1/2/3" and "VOB ProtectCD V5" datatypes. The best results are obtained when the DPM reading speed is kept as low as possible.

Datatype: You have to make sure what kind of datatype the source CD is, and select the correct datatype. If you are not sure which datatype your source CD is, you can find detection software on the Internet. Another powerful source of information is our Support Forum at: http://forum.alcohol-soft.com.”

Alcohol 120%

Alcohol 120% is an optical disc authoring program and disk image emulator created by Alcohol Soft. Alcohol 120% began as a direct continuation of the defunct Fantom CD CD-ROM drive emulation software.[citation needed]

Alcohol 120% can also mount disc images, with support for their proprietary Media Descriptor Image (.mds/.mdf) disc image format.

http://www.alcohol-soft.com/

http://support.alcohol-soft.com/en/documentation/english/index.html?ibw.htm

Problem Solved!

Adam John / Kid Kryptic Releases 4 New Tracks

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:35:11 PDT

Adam Newberg also known as Adam John or Kid Kryptic is a very talented electronic music producer that I really listen to and keep up with alot. He and Coresplittaz are the two that I have been following and talking to alot. Well, Adam is also a really cool person to talk to and is someone I will be interviewing in the next few weeks. He is more than worthy of an interview and you will get a chance to hear more about Adam soon. If you are as into electronic music as much or more than i am you will want to read this interview.

Adam has uploaded three dubstep tunes and one experimental drum and bass tune for us.

Everything Lost - Experimental DNB
Prophecy - Dubstep (coming soon on Filthy Digital)
Undecided - Dubstep (coming soon on Filthy Digital)
Devour - Dubstep (unsigned as of now, might use on a future EP)

Music: http://www.myspace.com/kidkrypticaudio

Blog: http://adamjohnmusic.wordpress.com/

Fixing Adobe Media Encoder Export Failure in Premiere Pro CS4 on Windows

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:24:53 PDT

I had been struggling to find a solution to the problem in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 were the Media Encoder fails to export any video. I read lots of forums and posts to fix this issue with no luck until today. I found an adobe forum that had the solution. Apparently the issue occurs when you have already had a previous install of Premiere Pro CS3 and then install Premiere Pro CS4. Then Uninstalling the CS3 version messes up the CS4 install. I was really frustrated since we had just paid a lot of money for this supposedly better version of the application. Well, after doing much research I finally found the answer here http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b6d73a and it’s down a ways on the page but basically here are the instructions to fixing this really stupid but frustrating problem.

Steps to fixing the Premiere Pro CS4 and Media Encoder issues:

1. Open a Windows Explorer window and navigate to the folder that contains "dynamiclinkmanager.exe" – (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\dynamiclink)
2. Open a second Windows Explorer window and navigate to the folder that contains "Premiere.exe" - (C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS4\Adobe Premiere Pro.exe)
3. Arrange the windows side by side.
4. Right-click on "Premiere.exe" and drag to the first explorer window, targeting between the files so as to avoid any specific file.
5. Release the right-hand mouse button.
6. Select "create shortcut here" from the pop-up menu.

P.S. Make sure to rename the “Adobe Premiere Pro” shortcut to “Premiere” in the folder you are copying the shortcut to.

Hopefully after you have performed the shortcut fixes to the that contains "dynamiclinkmanager.exe" you will have a working exporter. Please note this does not fix the amount of time it takes for Premiere to load your files. That unfortunately still sucks as it seems Adobe made the export process actually slower as it loads everything into memory!

Hope this was helpful to someone :)

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b6d73a

Dreamsocket Media Framework

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:27:58 PST

My friend and very talented developer Kenny Bunch released a new framework today called the Dreamsocket Media Framework for the Adobe Flash Player. The framework consist of a suite of native components and source code for Flash and Flex written in both Actionscript 2 and 3. That equates to 3 code bases, 3 suites of components, all wrapped into 1 product. I respect and look up to Kenny as he is someone who is smarter than most humans but he extremely humble. I am more than glad to help spread the word about this new release he has put forth and wish him the best.

You can read more about the Dreamsocket Media Framework for the Adobe Flash Player here:

http://dreamsocket.com/news/product-release/introducing-dreamsocket-media-framework

Coresplittaz Interview 2009 - Introspection Into Kai Andresen

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:40:41 PST

Well, Kai Andresen A.K.A Coresplittaz. I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer questions about you and your Drum & Bass productions. We here in Atlanta, Georgia - United States are huge fans of your work and keep up with everything you do on a very regular basis so this is very much an honor to be interviewing you today. For those of you who are into the hard, Synthetic, Dark form of Drum & Bass then you probably know Coresplittaz signature sounds. those very hard breathing and rolling twisting synths and basses and very clean and powerful breaks and drum edits. If you have never heard of or listened to Coresplittaz tunes then you are in for a real treat as his tunes are really well produced and will probably make you check his website for new tunes often. My friend Jon Kirst (who actually introduced me to Coresplittaz tracks a long time ago) and I have a few things we'd like to ask Kai about his music production in hopes of not only giving Kai some very much deserved recognition for his hard production work but also blessing your ears with some of our most favorite tracks in Drum & Bass. This is truly an honor Kai.

Below are some of Coreplittaz Tracks:

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First, I would like to start by asking you to tell about yourself Kai.

How old are you? Where do you live? What events in your life made you who you are today?

What attracted you to D&B? Who are your influences? For example did tech Itch or anyone for that matter really influence you?

Anything we as readers should know about you that is not already on your website before we get to some in depth questions about your music? I'm sure most people interested in you have already read your bio on your website so anything beyond that is just awesome!

First of all, I have to thank you for the nice words you said in the introduction. Feedback like this is the best thing on earth you can give me and that alone makes it worth all the time and work.

I am actually 33 years old, I live and work in Cologne, Germany. I moved to Cologne, about 10 years ago and I am really happy to live here. It is a great city with a quite big dnb scene, very friendly people and many nice clubs and locations. As you might have read on my webpage, I started my experiences as a musician as guitar player in a hardcore band. This is the root of all my work. The energy of this kind of music always was and still is one of the the most influencing things to me. I want to create the same feeling with my tracks as a fat halftime double bass mosh part, or a fast part in a hardcore tune would do. They are using the same options to create a heavy tune as we do in Drum n Bass. For example they use the same notes as we do often to create a dark atmosphere in the main melody of a certain part or the use of double bass patterns in the drums. When I first heard a break beat tune, we still played with our band but we all directly loved the energy of those beats. It all started with a copy of a happy break beat tape that somehow found its way to me. This was somewhere about 1991. In those days the feeling that was transported by this sound was the complete opposite of our hardcore sound. But that was also why I loved it. The break beats and sub basses really kicked me. So, I de-dusted my old Amiga 500 and started to program some beats and melodies. For me it changed quite fast from just happy piano and synth parts to a combination of the happy melodies with dark parts. That was about the time when I got my first release. It was a 7" with 2 tracks on a Noise Core label called AIPR, released in 1996. Some years later the happy parts completely disappeared. I produced many tunes over the years and mostly did it just for me and my friends for several years. I was working for the synthesizer company Waldorf those years and so I had a good connection to get equipment for quite nice prices, what helped me a lot building up my studio. I was dreaming of releasing records, but i produced my tunes because because I loved doin it.

You asked for Technical Itch as a possible influence: Technical Itch was definitely inspiring me, but I mean I don't want to be a copy of tech itch. It is mostly the techniques he uses and the results he got which were inspiring me to research that of my own to find new ways of sound shaping. He was and still is my producer god. I was always looking up to the level of production he has and I am a nobody compared to him or others I am looking up to.

There a lot of guys I really respect for their productions, as for example (alphabetical order) Currrent Value, Evol Intent, G-I-S, Limewax, Mumblz, Nanotek, Norman Wax, Of god, SPL, the Panacea, TZA, and many others whose tunes give me the same feeling I want to have in my own tunes.

I always wanted to have my tunes sound as clean and powerful as possible. Sounding like HiFi sound at home and fuckin fat in the clubs. I was never completely satisfied with my tunes, but that is also what kept me goin on. It is a little like a computer game where you play with sounds, but you can never reach the final enemy as the game is always developing itself. The more you learn, the more new things come up to be explored.
From the first time I heard break beats and started to program my own, I always wanted to combine break beats with dirty acid 303 sounds. Some years ago I bought Subwave´s “the Visions” on TI037 and this tune just blow me away as it exactly sounds like I always wanted it to sound. Deff one of my favorite records.

For me it is sometimes a strange (but great) feeling to hear that there are people outside who think about me like a "big name dnb producer". I don´t feel at all to be somebody like this, I am just a very small player on the dnb playground. I mean the release situation gets better but it is not easy to get everything new signed. I think that´s normal, but as in your home city everybody knows you as a friend you never have the same importance than elsewhere, where people just know you from a record they found in their record shop. Here in Cologne I don´t play very often and the local heroes in the clubs here are definitely others than me because the main party crowd is not so much into the very hard sound. But that´s ok, I am no main stream and I never wanted to be. That´s why it is so crazy to speak with people from foreign countries who love my music.

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What Software do you use? This seems to be an issue among some producers out there. But if you would like to share with us what tools you use and why it would be sick. I personally would love to hear what you use and how you use these tools. For instance do you spend a lot of time on synth sounds in one tool and drums in another? How do you process your drums?

I started producing on tracker styled sequencers. The last I used was Octamed on my old Amiga 1200. Then I switched to Cubase when the first SX version was released. Actually I am working on Sx3. I love this program for all the possibilities it gives to me. I use to start to work with short loops of 4-8 bars. Sometimes I just take a 1/8 hihat as a click and start to arrange a melody I got in my head. Or I start to build a beat and then look which synth I will use to build me a new sound. But this is just for the first 30 minutes or so. Once I got the first synth sound and rhythm structure, I use to work on both ping pong wise until I have the feeling that one of both is ok for this phase of production. The way I place and shape the synths is influencing the patterns and sound of the beats and vice versa. I use to work a lot on a synth until I got the sound I want. I love to develop new sounds that haven't been heard before. Sometimes it is really easy and fast and sometimes I spend hours or days with turning knobs in several synths to find what I want. Same for the beats. I dont use any loops or parts of loops as layers or something like that anymore. I start building a new drum kit each time I start a new tune. For me it is really great when I got a new drum kit and beat which is rolling and going forward as a 70s funk loop would do, but it sounds much cleaner and I can use much sicker drums. This also takes a lot of time usually until I am completely happy with the sound of the beats. But at the end I am quite satisfied with the result normally, so it is worth the time. I use compressors and tube emulations to get my beats shaped. I usually have all the kicks, snares, hihats, rides and percussions on separate audio outputs in the sampler to be able to EQ and compress them all separately. then I use a group bus to process the complete beat. I have my drum sounds in Halion and the synths are many plug-ins that are often changing. I am searching through all the freeware synths a lot and found many nice tools I used for a certain sound in a specific tune. I don't have a special super plug-ins that creates all my bass lines ;) I also export a lot of sounds I shaped when I was working on a new tune but didn't use that sound. So I also got those sounds I processed and then use them to process them once again in my sampler. Additionally I shape sounds with the hardware synths I still got and resample those to use them in Halion.

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How do you master your tracks? Is this something you take a lot of time doing or do you get someone with unbiased ears to perform your masters? How long does a track usually take for you?

I spend a lot of time for the mastering too, yes. For me this starts with the first 4-8 bar loop. I always try to have the mix as good as possible before I start arranging. For me it is easier to EQ and level everything when I am still got short loops that I’ll use to build the arrangement. When I have the loop sounding like I want it, I start arranging the tune, which usually takes about 1-4 days. When the arranging is finished I normally wait a week and then load the tune once again to hear if the arrangement is feeling good. Then it normally takes another 2-4 days just sitting in front of the monitors, switching through every track of the tune and try to get the them all sound as clean as possible and have the best possible leveling. Then I reload it again some days later to hear if it sounds good.
Building a tune can take 1 day + some days of finaly mastering. But it also can take some months. It depends on how many time I got to be creative and how the work flows.

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There are lots of aspiring Drum and Bass producers out there who are constantly looking for any advice or tips they can get. I being one of them have some questions regarding your initial process of production. Do you have a predefined song structure you go by for your tracks. What I mean by this is do you open a default project that has say a 64 bar intro/build up and then drop etc... every time and the tweak it or do you always make sure something is playing in 16 bar increments? If you could clarify for any readers D&B headz and faithful Coresplittaz fans out there what a typical dj friendly format is for a track. How do the bars usually read out in your sequencer? What BPM do you produce with? Fav Synths? Automation Techniques?

I start each time with a totally empty project. I just know how most of the tunes work and how I use to play them.
Most tunes have intros between 45 seconds and 1m25sec. Then there is a break or the tune directly drops into the main part. Mostly there is a middle break and a second part with an outro. For example a standard arrangement would be 65 bars intro (or 32 bars), 16 bars break, 96 bars main part (or 64 bars), 16 bars break, 96 parts main part (or 64 bars) including outro. But nothing is predefined, I mean you can build tunes without a middle break or with several breaks or how ever it feels good. For me the main reason for the breaks is to have the tension built up again and let it drop more than just one/two times. Additionally for me as a DJ I know that I want to mix the tunes quite fast before it gets boring. So a break is always a good point to mix into the next tune. I mostly play the tracks about 2-3 minutes and then switch to the next record. So I try to have my middle breaks as nice as possible to make it worth to let the record play longer than just to the middle. Little breaks and edits at the end of all 8-16 bars are also a nice tool for DJ’s to play with. Some years ago my tunes were about 6-7 minutes, now they are about 5-6 minutes long as I wanted to have the arrangement more compact.

My sequencer displays the bars and the time. I need both to arrange the tunes. Most of my tunes are produced on 180 bpm. I feel quite happy at this speed, but I use to play them a little faster. I use automations manly for the filters and effects or the shape of my synths. So, when I start building a tune, I am setting the automations for the synths within the main loop I am working on, which will be copied and edited for each time this part will play. In the arrangement most of the automation is for filters and effects in all the breaks and edits. My favorite synths are still my hardware synths, for example the access virus, the Waldorf microwaves I & II and the old OSCar and the Prophet 600. I use to sample those, but I manly use software synths as it is more comfortable to work with them. I like for example the Komplexer, as it a kind of software enhancement of the Waldorf micro Q, the NI synths and the software version of my OSCar. But as I said, I try out a lot of freeware stuff and found many sick tools. Unfortunately I don’t have a hardware 303, but there are lots of quite nice software emulations.

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In your mind Kai what characteristics define a good D&B track to you personally.What is it in a track that makes you want to play a track over and over again. I know this is a matter of opinion but that's exactly what we want is your honest opinion.

It is the feeling that the track produces in me when I hear it. I needs to kick me in the ass, shout in my face, make my hands rise and let me jump on the dance floor. Or it is just such a nice melody that it sends shivers down your spine. I need to feel the track, for me it is not a good tune if it doesn't´t move me somehow.

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It seems Drum & Bass is a pretty generic term. We all know people like to put things into categories and define things but really when we talk about your music specifically it is definitely on the darker side and is very different than the majority of most peoples view of drum and bass. What is your are trying to express? How would you describe your sound in your own words.

For me, my sound is kind of a translation of the feeling of the Hardcore / Metalcore / Death Metal whatever tracks I like to an electronical level. With other instruments and rhythm structures. That's why I call it "hardcore visionz of dnb".

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It seems like you live in an area in Germany with quite a few DJ's and Producers but for me you are the one that stands out the most in my opinion. But I know Norman Wax, DJ G-I-S, etc.. live out there. What is it like being in an area so rich with musical talent and diversity? Does this affect you in any way? Do you collaborate with other D&B artists?

We have a lot of talented producers directly here in Cologne or the surrounding cites. For example Dizplay, Phace, Henree, Norman Wax, the Green Man, Xplorer. Just to name a few who are releasing records. G-I-S lives about 200km from here but that´s not so far either. It is great to have so many people around which are working on the same problems and trying to find solutions. But I also share my ideas and problems with friends all over the globe via aim (hello darren ;]). Some are real friends for me and we use to exchange experiences with tools and processing or new tunes. For me it is always exiting to hear what their creativity brings up and to understand
how they work on it. I did some collabs and I like doin that, it is mostly the time we need to have together that complicates collabs for me. That s why I didn't do more collabs so far. I mean ok, in times of internet i could do much more collabs also with artist from other side of the world, but the problem is that i even don't have enough time for my own tunes. So i concentrated on my own stuff first and that is already problematic in the last years.
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Do you have any other passions beside music? What do you do with most of your days?

I loved skateboarding and did that for about 15 years, but my bones are wrecked and I can t go on. I don't have much time during the week, so I just hang in a little or play games sometimes. On the university, I used to make music and then play games for some hours just to relax and then return to producing. Like this I keep my ears fresh and my mind relaxed. Since I am working full time, I don't have the time anymore, so I just concentrate on music most of the weekends, but sometimes I just need to relax and watch movies or play some rounds. My time is really rare in the last years. I also love to go to the dnb parties here and just celebrate the music, have a great time with all the party people you meet on each party. It is exhausting, but good for my soul. It is also important for me to hear the tunes I like in the clubs, because you can hear how it sounds on a big system and see how the crowd reacts and at what points they freak out or if the tune doesn't transport the feeling it should have done and why it is like that.

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Just so you know Dark Storm is my all time fav track. Really I'm dead serious. I absolutely love this track Kai. Can you explain your process for Dark Storm?

Well .. I wanted a dark tune with a great melody element and a "coulourfull" pad that perhaps wouldn’t be heard in many just hard and dark tunes. So I turned on my Microwave II cause I knew there is the perfect pad sound, loaded it into my sampler and made me a bass line with a plug-in. I used a combination of completely own beats and parts of drum loops to switch between. I found the vocal samples and for me they fitted perfectly to the atmosphere of the tune so I processed and used them and spoke the distorted dark storm vocal of my own to have something for the main part. I use a lot of own voice samples in many of my tunes. I remember that the melody of the pad had some more
notes in the first versions of the tune. I deleted some until the feeling was perfect for me. It was nice before,
but the atmosphere wasn’t that dark when the melody played more notes. When I am working on a tune and I finished working a part of some bars and i don´t know how it will go on, I use to chill on my couch and listen to the arrangement that is done already. Normally I will jump up at after some times of listening and head to the computer to add what i feel to be the next bars in the arrangement. Dark storm was one of the tunes that had a quite good workflow, it developed itself.

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What advice would you give new upcoming D&B producers? Is there anything you have learned through your experiences that you could share with us that would help new D&B headz?

Separate the frequencies, avoid clippings, use compressors to shape the sounds, develop your own sounds and beats, experiment with freaky tools to get new interesting sounds, but keep the overall sound of the tune as clean as possible. Presets usually don´t have to sounds we need, so play around with the synths and all kinds of effects
and hear what comes out. If it feels good, keep it and try it out. Sometimes you will hear, that it sounds great alone but doesn't work in a tune with a beat and other sounds,like this you will learn how to use them.
Bounce your sounds and collect those to use and process them again.

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Do you often play at parties and shows? If so which ones are your favorites and why? Anything new and upcoming our readers should know about?

I don't play too often, mostly I get booked from far away or from foreign countries. The really hard sound has an audience but it is not everywhere easy to play it if you are not a really big name. Last year in November I was in Jena, that was really nice. I played in Berlin once, that was also great, but there were 5 other dnb parties that night and the club wasn't completely full...well. But it was funny night. I played on some illegal outdoor parties here in Cologne this summer, that was really fun too. I don´t have a favorite show, I enjoyed them all. It is nice to play in foreign countries or cities but it is also nice to play at home and celebrate the night with all your friends.

Here in Cologne, the best party crowd is celebrating on harder neuro / technoid style sounds (for example from Seba tunes, over axiom, Rregula, Optiv, Spor to Audio) and I also like that stuff (how ever it may be called). I understand that not everyone understands the patterns of the beats that are used in hard drum n bass, i like both. Production wise just concerning the beats, i prefer the sick rhythms to play with it. But I like to work on technoid sounds. For me neuro / techniod stuff just could be a little "dirtier" and darker sometimes and that´s why I started a project with one of my best friends, Stefan aka 4802. It is called "code4" and I hope that name will be heard often too in the future. 4802 is a member of the Quake crew which is organizing a regular party called "Quake!", here in Cologne. They have a great team behind the scenes and on the decks, with much love for the whole thing and I think that´s why the atmosphere on their parties made them famous here. If you want an impression of the parties here you should visit www.quake-inc.com. They have a great video online. I love it there and that made it easy for me to decide to work on such tunes too and thats what we are doin with code4. I add a little dirt and darkness to the basslines and sounds and the combination of 4802's and my output works fine. We have 3 tunes finished and some more to come. We ll see what lable might be intrested in our output. We will finish some more tunes and then make the round and see what happens. But this is completely independent of my work as Coresplittaz.

The work on new stuff from myself is also in progress. I am working on some new tunes and actually on a remix for a death metal band phlatcat. This is really fun, i can play with their sounds and replace them by my own .. I’m looking forward to the finished remix.

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I think this is the final question Kai, I am already grateful for you taking the time to answer these questions so I'll let you be after this, But in conclusion, my last question is this: Do you make a living from Drum and Bass? I ask this because Jon Kirst and I love your music so much that we sure as hell hope you get paid for all your hard work. Supporting you and others like you is something I really feel strongly about and would like to know how you are able to keep making music. You are an inspiration to so many (Probably more than you know) and your time today has been greatly appreciated Kai :)

I am working from Monday to Friday, 48 hours a week and only have time for serious work on my music on Saturdays or Friday nights.I earn money to be able to make music on Saturdays, buying records and go out on parties or play in clubs when I m booked. The releases don´t pay my life, not at all. But I also don´t do it for the money. This is the less important thing for me about being an artist. I am just fuckin proud each time I got a new release in my hands and extremely happy when I play in clubs and people celebrate my tunes or people writing comments on MySpace or elsewhere.

I just do it, because I love the music and producing it, for the feeling I get when I got a new tune finished, for the feedback of the audience ... and because I wanted to leave some traces for the time I’ll be gone. It is my passion to make music and feel the feedback of the audience. I mean sure it would be so great to be able to live from the music and just be creative, but i am also happy to have this possibility during the weekends. Not everything is just fun, but the result is what keeps me working on each level of the production. The final mastering for example is not really funny. It is hard work to get the tunes sound as good as I want it and I can´t stop until it is nearly perfect for me. (I never get a result which is perfect for me.) But I love it having a tune finished, so I do it.

I think I will never stop making music, it just depends on how much time I have, how much output I will have.
Styles may change in music, but it will always be my love to play with sounds and rhythms.
Music is my soul food and one of the most important things in my life, so I won´t stop.

To conclude, I have to thank everybody out there who is supporting me and especially the labels
which are releasing my tunes for believing in me and my tunes. I am really happy to have the possibility to
release records and spread my music over the globe, thank you all very much.
Intransigent Recordings, Pressure-Chamber Recordings, Manticore, Section 8, DRKLND, Order in Kaos Recordings and VGBR.

http://www.myspace.com/coresplittaz

Propellerhead’s Reason 4 – Create Device With No Initial Patches or Samples

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:09:44 PST

The other day I installed my new copy of Propellerhead’s Reason 4 and began working on a preliminary score for a project we are doing at work for our new game. Well, since I knew how to use reason already I loaded up my custom template and began adding devices to get the track underway. I noticed that each and every device within my newly installed version of reason were all populated with existing patches and samples. I thought this to be very weird and something I would never use, so after a quick look my boss Britt LaReau found the culprit. It was the setting you see in the image to the left. Basically for some “Reason”, it defaults to Loading Default Sounds into new devices. This is garbage and thought it best to share this with anyone else who is interested in not ever using their default sounds per device. This should be unchecked by default since you will spend more time trying to remove these sounds and adding your own. Maybe it’s a Swedish thing and meatballs get served with every meal no matter what you order from the menu and they added that into their software. I want none. And now you know how to turn this useless feature off so you can go about your usual reason projects as you used to. You can see the difference by looking at the NN-XT screen shot provided below. Ok, carry on soldiers and make your tracks sound as good as they can, I highly doubt you will want the default sounds for every load out.

Incorrect And Waste of Time Default Device Load:

(Note: This would be correct NN-XT setup if you chose or created this patch yourself. Not good to use the default. )

Correct Device Default Load:

Immature Gamer JUUFRO93 Admits to Cheating on XBox 360 COD5 World at War

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:54:08 PST

While playing Call of Duty 5 World at War on the XBox 360 last night I noticed that one of the gamers on the enemy team was taking advantage of a by now well known glitch on the Japanese based level “CASTLE”. Now it's one thing to know about a bug or glitch in a game by accident and then not exploit it again, but to repeatedly use it against other gamers on Xbox 360 is wrong and I felt the need to directly text this gamer by saying "Stop Cheating...". Well, The video you see here is his response to him using the COD5 exploit to his advantage but thinking it's ok. Now the whole world knows how stupid and immature this little kid who goes by the "Gaymer Tag" of JUUFRO93 really is. He basically admits to using this Exploit / Glitch to advance his points and stats for all the world to hear and says it’s ok because he didn’t mod it himself. Let me just say that if you are an XBox 360 gamer and you are taking advantage of the bug in Call of Duty World at War you will soon find that everyone you are playing with will drop out and stop playing. No one wants to play with someone who gets all his kills from underneath the level. You will soon find yourself not being able to get any points because you’ll be playing with yourself. Ha, playing with yourself that sounds about right little kid :)

Best Batch .DDS File Converter

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:15:00 PST

Well, finally I am getting back to blogging again and a lot has happened since my last post. I have a new job helping design an Xbox 360 game / Audio Engineering and I have to admit it has been amazing. It is a dream job and feel like I am the most fortunate person in the world to participate in it. For the last couple of months I have not only been busy doing lots of R&D for the game engine and asset creation etc…, but also getting used to being a dad :) also I wanted to wait to blog about something that pertains to my new job and 3d too. Well, one thing I have been doing lots of is UV Mapping and texturing for our game prototypes and using 3ds max 2009 to do it. In order to get the most optimized texture file that includes an Alpha Channel and MIP Map Settings embedded in it you will quickly see the benefit of the .dds file, not to mention you can have a 5 mb file be compressed to 600k roughly. That is a big difference and that means you have store more files in a limited storage space. What is a .dds file you ask? Well I found a good definition that might help clarify it for you:

QUOTE - “The DirectX Texture tool-DxTex's native file format is called "DDS" file format because it encapsulates the information in a DirectDrawSurface.
This format is easy to read and write and supports features such as alpha (Pixel opacity info) and multiple mipmap levels, as well as DXTn compression.
The DDS file format is used to store textures and cubic environment maps, both with and without mipmap levels. This format can store uncompressed and compressed pixel formats, and is the preferred file format for storing DXTn compressed data. Other than DxTex, this file format is supported by some third party tools, and by the Direct3D extensions (D3DX) library.”

Also read this definition: http://www.modwiki.net/wiki/DDS_(file_format)

Well, I have been using Ghost Painter and C4D Bodypaint R4 to paint over seams from the finished UV sets. It just so happens that currently in order to paint a texture in 3d you can use most every format except the .dds texture format. This results in the need for a conversion from say a .tga file to .dds. Not a big problem for small work but in a real game and a production pipeline .dds is what the file needs to be in. Also you might find yourself doing a .tga sequence for say a water ripple or anything that moves and you will also need to convert these .tga files into .dds. Doing this one by one is a massive loss of time and the need for a batch .dds converter comes in. I have done quite a bit of research into what apps allow batch .dds conversion and there are some that are good and some that are not. I will spare you the time and just mention the one that is best - The Compressonator

ATI - The Compressonator - http://developer.amd.com/gpu/compressonator/Pages/default.aspx

I found this ATI batch conversion tool to be by far better and more stable than the other .dds file converters. You can find others by doing a Google Search but they are unstable and sometimes result in weird conversions. Also the NVidia Photoshop is ok but it makes Photoshop behave weirdly and has some latency issues not to mention it is only one at a time conversion so I try not to use it.

Overview

What's New in Version 1.41

Maintenance release.
Fixes to Microsoft D3D10 BCn compression.

What's New in Version 1.40

New D3D10Compressor plugin for compression to D3D10 BC1-BC5 compressed texture formats.
Support for the D3D10 texture formats.
Improved compatibility with plugins build with old versions of Plugin SDK.
Added command line options for setting MinMipSize & MaxMipLevels.
Various bug fixes.

Important Notes

A tool for compressing textures and creating mip-map levels.
The results of compression can be visualized by comparing the original and the compressed textures.
Textures (and directories containing textures) can be explicitly compared to other textures or directories.
Also, you can batch compress any number of textures.
There are several types of compression available: DirectX and Grayscale texture compression in addition to palletized texture decoding.
The options for these methods can be set from dialogs.
When comparing textures, the intensity of difference can be increased by as much as 3200%.

» Reference ATI_Compress
» Download

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html

http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/file/DDS_Converter;29412

http://files.filefront.com/DDS+Converter+2+10/;3577988;/fileinfo.html

Flex 3 Regular Expression Explorer – By: Ryan Swanson

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:07:29 PDT

Just the other day my friend and super Flex Developer Ryan Swanson released an online Regular Expression Explorer for Flex 3. He has done an excellent job in developing this application and find it to be a very useful tool for doing RegEx in Flex. If you are doing RegEx in your ActionScript code then this tool Ryan built will prove to be extremely helpful.

Check it out: http://blog.ryanswanson.com/2008/10/introducing-flex-3-regular-expression.html

Google Chrome and Flex Deep Linking Don’t Work Well Together

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:22:07 PDT

Of course I installed the new Google Chrome browser and tested all my web pages in it. For the most part all my sites worked but I did see lots of other people’s site break. Whatever, that’s not important really, what is important is that if you use any Flex Component that uses the Deep Linking built in Like the Tab Navigator you will immediately notice that the tab acts all weird and doesn’t really seem to work right. Yeah that’s probably because the JavaScript being used from the Flex BrowserManager and HistoryManager objects is not compatible going out to the external interface. Anyway’s now you now that currently there is weirdness between Google Chrome and the Flex Deep Linking functionality.

http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-16697

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/communityengine/index.cfm?event=showdetails&postId=9563&productId=2

http://blog.everythingflex.com/2008/09/03/google-chrome-initial-experience/

Adobe AIR Installer Seen As Trojan Horse By Free AVG Anti-Virus

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:35:22 PDT

I just installed the new Adobe Acrobat Reader 9 from the official Adobe website and sure enough during the install my anti-virus program which is AVG saw it as a Trojan Horse Threat. This can only mean a few things really. Either AVG just got it all wrong and mis-detects the AIR executable or It really is a Trojan. All I can say is if they keep making programs like the Adobe Updater service, then chances are Adobe AIR Installer.exe really is a Trojan. Some of Adobe’s installs are ok, but you just might get an Adobe app that could bog down your system.

Need a Good Browser Proxy? Use HttpFox.

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:59:54 PDT

The other day while developing our Flex app at work I needed to do some detective work to see what was coming through during the service calls. Normally I just use Charles which is a great app all on its own. However I kept having certificate issues all over the place and things didn’t exactly work as I needed on this particular occasion. So I did some research and found a really handy add-on for Firefox called HttpFox by Martin Theimer. I installed it, restarted my browser and used it immediately without any issues. It worked nicely and just thought I’d pass along the info to any of you looking for good Web / Http Analyzers. This great thing about HttpFox is it’s free. It works works well and works right in your browser. So if you all you need is a browser proxy for your Flex Development or any web development for that matter, then this might work well for you. Below is a description of what HttpFox does for you:

Description:

HttpFox monitors and analyzes all incoming and outgoing HTTP traffic between the browser and the web servers.

It aims to bring the functionality known from tools like HttpWatch or IEInspector to the Firefox browser.
Information available per request includes:
- Request and response headers
- Sent and received cookies
- Querystring parameters
- POST parameters
- Response body

Add-On Download: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6647

Homepage: http://code.google.com/p/httpfox/

Interview with Diode A.K.A ( Alex Alejandro ) – Drum and Bass Producer

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:04:14 PDT

I recently had the pleasure of do a really fun interview / chat with Alex Alejandro A.K.A Diode and Dominic Sagona. Dominic and I basically had the opportunity to ask Alex all about his music production and his thoughts on music right now and what he’s been up to. This happened to be a pretty informal interview but I think anyone really into Drum and Bass and his music will like to read this. Alex is a really nice person to talk to and is really forthright in his techniques. He was more than willing to talk and I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more from him in the future because this dude is one sick producer. Well, if you into the goods on hearing how people make their Drum and Bass and you like Diode’s music style then keep readin cuz there some good information here.

Group Chat with Alex Alejandro – Diode

diodednb = Alex Alejandro

lizardkingunseen = Dominic Sagona

frankiemilkshoes = Frankie Loscavio

lizardkingunseen (9:21:00 PM): aight so alex
frankiemilkshoes (9:21:00 PM): hehe
lizardkingunseen (9:21:02 PM): you're from
lizardkingunseen (9:21:04 PM): where is it
lizardkingunseen (9:21:06 PM): Massachusetts?
diodednb (9:21:19 PM): good ol gray MASSASSASSSASSS
diodednb (9:21:30 PM): yeah Worcester, Massachusetts
frankiemilkshoes (9:21:43 PM): go sox
lizardkingunseen (9:21:49 PM): i think I've been to Boston for over a night, but never enough time to really get the feel of it. So i mean, what's it like out there?
diodednb (9:22:01 PM): yeah bye bye Manny you guys can have him
diodednb (9:22:44 PM): well... life.. its kinda hectic.. everybody is stressed. more bills less money idea I guess..
diodednb (9:22:51 PM): dnb its kinda slow..
diodednb (9:23:05 PM): I mean. there's a scene. just not super active.
diodednb (9:23:14 PM): Worcester has NO scene what so ever.. just me.
frankiemilkshoes (9:23:26 PM): it seems like it's kinda tough to make a living being a D&B producer
diodednb (9:24:15 PM): well yeah it is.. there really isn't much money in production.. you can get tracks signed but its not like you're gonna go platinum.. That goes for Any scene really. Money is in the shows you do.
lizardkingunseen (9:24:40 PM): ya man its seems like its a struggle even you have to work part time don’t you?
frankiemilkshoes (9:25:07 PM): where do you find the time to make all these tracks I've heard
lizardkingunseen (9:25:12 PM): ya man
lizardkingunseen (9:25:14 PM): he's even bgot
lizardkingunseen (9:25:23 PM): some electro ones
frankiemilkshoes (9:25:28 PM): all of them top notch too
lizardkingunseen (9:25:29 PM): he does his design work on the side
frankiemilkshoes (9:25:42 PM): ahhh i see
lizardkingunseen (9:25:43 PM): pretty crazy seems like you got a full plate!
lizardkingunseen (9:25:56 PM): and you work at Lowe's too right?
lizardkingunseen (9:26:07 PM): and have a little girl?
diodednb (9:26:09 PM): yeah
diodednb (9:26:13 PM): man. don't remind me.
lizardkingunseen (9:26:19 PM): nah man that's tough to do
frankiemilkshoes (9:26:23 PM): amazing you do all of this
lizardkingunseen (9:26:26 PM): i don’t know how you juggle it all its impressive bro
diodednb (9:26:30 PM): I work full time as a manager with Lowe's.
lizardkingunseen (9:26:48 PM): seriously, do you sleep
lizardkingunseen (9:26:49 PM): lol
diodednb (9:26:55 PM): 4 hours a day.
lizardkingunseen (9:26:58 PM): ahahah
lizardkingunseen (9:27:04 PM): ok so lets get down to some of your music
diodednb (9:27:13 PM): fall asleep at 11 and wake up at 3:30
diodednb (9:27:16 PM): k
lizardkingunseen (9:27:17 PM): what releases have you got on the way?
diodednb (9:27:58 PM): Currently, Close 2 Death Records from England are to release "Krion" backed by "The Skull"
lizardkingunseen (9:28:27 PM): that skull tune is the newer one right. definitely some heat.
diodednb (9:28:29 PM): Axis Audio from LA picked up "Bit Rusher" for an MP3 Release.
frankiemilkshoes (9:28:37 PM): sick
diodednb (9:28:42 PM): yeah the skull rocks man. first tune on fruity loops
lizardkingunseen (9:28:53 PM): ya you seemed to bounce to that just recently
frankiemilkshoes (9:28:57 PM): ahhh I'm glad you mentioned what you are using
lizardkingunseen (9:28:57 PM): i think you did to right Frankie?
diodednb (9:28:57 PM): yeah man
lizardkingunseen (9:29:07 PM): i cant get the gist of it
diodednb (9:29:08 PM): its so much better than reason
lizardkingunseen (9:29:11 PM): I'm all reason logic'ed out
diodednb (9:29:17 PM): yeah..
diodednb (9:29:19 PM): logic too
frankiemilkshoes (9:29:26 PM): Alex do you find FL Studio to be a useful tool for you
lizardkingunseen (9:29:27 PM): you'll have to show me a couple things been interested in it
diodednb (9:29:33 PM): reason is an amazing sequencer.. but I can't get my sound "clean"
frankiemilkshoes (9:29:45 PM): yeah kind "reasony"?
diodednb (9:29:53 PM): yeah
lizardkingunseen (9:29:59 PM): i think a lot of reason producers have this issue
diodednb (9:30:02 PM): their sound engine isn't the greatest.
lizardkingunseen (9:30:06 PM): and i think a lot of the time you can almost spot a reason track
frankiemilkshoes (9:30:09 PM): i have talked to a lot who say this
diodednb (9:30:10 PM): that's why ALLLLLLl jump up sounds the same..
diodednb (9:30:15 PM): they all use reason
frankiemilkshoes (9:30:34 PM): I think it's important for people to know how you work. people love to know
diodednb (9:30:46 PM): you're right Dom. you can tell when a tune was made in reason.
diodednb (9:30:48 PM): yeah man
frankiemilkshoes (9:30:59 PM): you have a very clean sound with twisted synths
diodednb (9:31:16 PM): most people are surprised when I say I write in reason.
lizardkingunseen (9:31:19 PM): ya man
lizardkingunseen (9:31:22 PM): i was definitely blown away
lizardkingunseen (9:31:26 PM): when i found that out
diodednb (9:31:29 PM): but I think I've pushed it as far as I can.
lizardkingunseen (9:31:43 PM): I can’t believe you make some of the stuff sound the way it does
lizardkingunseen (9:31:43 PM): in that
frankiemilkshoes (9:32:11 PM): yeah it's super fresh and very clean
lizardkingunseen (9:32:11 PM): what is it in fruity loops that makes it sound better than Reason eh engine or devices?
diodednb (9:32:11 PM): thx
diodednb (9:32:20 PM): the engine
lizardkingunseen (9:32:24 PM): ah ok
frankiemilkshoes (9:32:25 PM): totally i agree 100%
diodednb (9:32:27 PM): and the vst capabilities
frankiemilkshoes (9:32:30 PM): their engine is very good
diodednb (9:32:52 PM): the Maximus Soundgoodizer
diodednb (9:32:54 PM): love it
frankiemilkshoes (9:32:58 PM): I think alot of people might ask how you do your automation in Fl Studio compared to how you used to work in Reason
diodednb (9:33:06 PM): oh man...
diodednb (9:33:10 PM): Its so much harder
lizardkingunseen (9:33:26 PM): ya
lizardkingunseen (9:33:29 PM): when i got into fruity loops
diodednb (9:33:34 PM): you see. Reason is created for EASE OF USE... Fruity is just a regular DAW.
lizardkingunseen (9:33:37 PM): i couldn’t get all my sequencing and automation
lizardkingunseen (9:33:39 PM): down i gave up
frankiemilkshoes (9:33:40 PM): that seems to be the major diff in editing
frankiemilkshoes (9:33:53 PM): and i am so curious how you achieve it in FL Studio
lizardkingunseen (9:34:15 PM): ya any particular tips
lizardkingunseen (9:34:26 PM): or pointers you want to share as far as the fruity loops thing goes?
diodednb (9:34:26 PM): well what has helped is that in FL Studio 8. They have a sequencer now that is similar to reason..
lizardkingunseen (9:34:32 PM): really?
diodednb (9:34:32 PM): hmm..
diodednb (9:34:38 PM): yeah its great!
lizardkingunseen (9:34:42 PM): ill have to try it again
lizardkingunseen (9:34:45 PM): but i mean
diodednb (9:34:46 PM): event for automation
lizardkingunseen (9:34:50 PM): was it a seamless transition
diodednb (9:34:50 PM): even*
lizardkingunseen (9:34:53 PM): for you to go from
lizardkingunseen (9:34:54 PM): reason
lizardkingunseen (9:34:56 PM): to fruity loops
diodednb (9:34:58 PM): NO!
diodednb (9:35:03 PM): man..
lizardkingunseen (9:35:03 PM): i mean can you really get around and do everything like you could in reason
lizardkingunseen (9:35:04 PM): now?
diodednb (9:35:06 PM): its the vsts
diodednb (9:35:15 PM): nah I can't...
lizardkingunseen (9:35:19 PM): are you using lots of third party vsts?
diodednb (9:35:23 PM): There isn't a Malstrom in fruity haha
lizardkingunseen (9:35:27 PM): hahaha
frankiemilkshoes (9:35:29 PM): yeah but Sytrus?
diodednb (9:35:37 PM): too hard for me to get
lizardkingunseen (9:35:43 PM): takes time
diodednb (9:35:51 PM): I have a better chance with Absynth, Albino, and Virus
frankiemilkshoes (9:36:05 PM): i mean for me after reason I was kinda like wtf I have to make a new layer for every switch
frankiemilkshoes (9:36:14 PM): or a huge piano roll
lizardkingunseen (9:36:18 PM): do you use those for most your sounds?
diodednb (9:36:30 PM): yeah over course..
diodednb (9:36:35 PM): short piano rolls..
lizardkingunseen (9:36:36 PM): ya that's what Frankie tells me about fruity loops a new layer for a switch up?
lizardkingunseen (9:36:39 PM): lame
diodednb (9:36:45 PM): well..
diodednb (9:36:54 PM): its like reason now....
lizardkingunseen (9:37:05 PM): and you've only been on it
lizardkingunseen (9:37:08 PM): for id say maybe a month now
lizardkingunseen (9:37:12 PM): so that's a pretty quick turn around time
frankiemilkshoes (9:37:28 PM): wow
diodednb (9:37:37 PM): in the sense that you have your drums. Which is a layer.. then the bass. and you know how you have your color boxes in reason? with the midi?
diodednb (9:37:40 PM): its the same deal
diodednb (9:37:54 PM): except with out the color.
lizardkingunseen (9:37:57 PM): but what about
lizardkingunseen (9:38:01 PM): all the wiring and stuff like that
lizardkingunseen (9:38:12 PM): like in reason. you can really manipulate
diodednb (9:38:22 PM): yeah.. in Fruit you can as well.
lizardkingunseen (9:38:23 PM): what you want to do with signal flow and all that. how does that compare in fruity loops?
lizardkingunseen (9:38:32 PM): was that easy to pick up?
diodednb (9:38:54 PM): they have the option to make a "patter" unique.. so it clones your pervious pattern so you can edit easier.
frankiemilkshoes (9:39:01 PM): ahhh nice
diodednb (9:39:08 PM): signal flow?
diodednb (9:39:10 PM): what do you mean
frankiemilkshoes (9:39:16 PM): ahhh like the rack device chain?
diodednb (9:39:24 PM): AH
lizardkingunseen (9:39:28 PM): well you know like how you open your compressor for instance first, then like your EQ or whatever
lizardkingunseen (9:39:44 PM): but you can switch the order they run though just buy moving them up or down
lizardkingunseen (9:40:00 PM): or split them up to run to other stuff with the spider
lizardkingunseen (9:40:01 PM): etc
frankiemilkshoes (9:40:01 PM): oh in the effect chain you mean?
lizardkingunseen (9:40:06 PM): ya
diodednb (9:40:28 PM): its easier in fruity
diodednb (9:40:37 PM): makes less, "visual" mess
diodednb (9:41:06 PM): the only thing that sucks is the Auxiliary Sends.. I don't think they help at all in FL8
frankiemilkshoes (9:41:18 PM): i am curious alex how you automate your third party vst's. it seems like you use a lot of fatty synth tweaks a lot
diodednb (9:41:27 PM): no no no
diodednb (9:41:28 PM): I don't
lizardkingunseen (9:41:34 PM): resample?
diodednb (9:41:36 PM): I can't figure it out tbh.
diodednb (9:41:38 PM): yeah
frankiemilkshoes (9:41:47 PM): ahhh gotcha
lizardkingunseen (9:41:49 PM): it takes tons more CPU to leave them open
diodednb (9:41:49 PM): I edit resample. edit resample
diodednb (9:41:55 PM): oh my god
lizardkingunseen (9:41:57 PM): geeez
frankiemilkshoes (9:41:59 PM): oh so you bounce back and forth?
lizardkingunseen (9:42:00 PM): that's so much work
lizardkingunseen (9:42:05 PM): i cant be bothered to do that
diodednb (9:42:07 PM): CPU. I'm actually gonna buy a new pc soon cuz of fruity alone
frankiemilkshoes (9:42:14 PM): WOW
frankiemilkshoes (9:42:25 PM): I'm personally glad to see your on pc hehehe
lizardkingunseen (9:42:33 PM): ya i over heard Ketek from different breed saying something about that. what are you thinking about getting?
diodednb (9:42:33 PM): its cheaper
lizardkingunseen (9:42:36 PM): i was about to say
lizardkingunseen (9:42:40 PM): you're a pc guy frank
diodednb (9:42:42 PM): not all of use are loaded like Sagona here
frankiemilkshoes (9:42:47 PM): hehehe
lizardkingunseen (9:42:50 PM): fuck off!
frankiemilkshoes (9:42:53 PM): LOL
diodednb (9:42:58 PM): hah
lizardkingunseen (9:42:59 PM): i wish i was loaded i Rollerblade for a living
lizardkingunseen (9:43:00 PM): remember
lizardkingunseen (9:43:01 PM): lol
lizardkingunseen (9:43:14 PM): id make more money selling oranges on the corner like alex
diodednb (9:43:16 PM): you get loaded for sure tho
frankiemilkshoes (9:43:22 PM): hehehe
lizardkingunseen (9:43:33 PM): ahha ya you went complaining for weeks talking like you needed to see the doctor!!
lizardkingunseen (9:43:34 PM): ahahahah
diodednb (9:43:43 PM): its true
frankiemilkshoes (9:43:43 PM): i heard Noisia used albino for a synth sound that almost overloaded their machine
diodednb (9:43:57 PM): ha
lizardkingunseen (9:44:01 PM): lol
diodednb (9:44:03 PM): i have some Noisia presets
frankiemilkshoes (9:44:09 PM): just that one sound
diodednb (9:44:12 PM): their pc must suck
frankiemilkshoes (9:44:14 PM): alone took all the CPU
lizardkingunseen (9:44:16 PM): yar they're cool there's a lot of good presets in there
diodednb (9:44:26 PM): with was the effects.. reverb does that
frankiemilkshoes (9:44:44 PM): have you ever used rewire with FL Studio
diodednb (9:44:44 PM): it was*
diodednb (9:44:48 PM): nah
diodednb (9:44:52 PM): I'm thinkin about it
diodednb (9:44:57 PM): but I don't know if I'll like it
lizardkingunseen (9:44:59 PM): man when you get your new PC
diodednb (9:45:05 PM): Cubase with reason is AWESOME
lizardkingunseen (9:45:06 PM): you might dig it, but i dont know
lizardkingunseen (9:45:11 PM): if you even need to
lizardkingunseen (9:45:15 PM): since fruity runs vst
lizardkingunseen (9:45:22 PM): that's kind of the whole point with rewiring with reason
frankiemilkshoes (9:45:24 PM): yeah man we just got Cubase here and we use it fl studio rewired
diodednb (9:45:25 PM): I'd rather use Cubase with reason.
frankiemilkshoes (9:46:03 PM): have you ever done any releases with artist that you totally look up to?
diodednb (9:46:51 PM): nope
diodednb (9:46:54 PM): not yet
lizardkingunseen (9:47:07 PM): how about Spor? don’t you really want to work with him?
frankiemilkshoes (9:47:12 PM): i think it's safe to say that could happen soon
diodednb (9:47:20 PM): I mean.. I respect the ones I have released with
frankiemilkshoes (9:47:27 PM): yeah yeah
diodednb (9:47:28 PM): Cooh is my buddy and an AMAZING producer..
frankiemilkshoes (9:47:36 PM): yeah he's sick
diodednb (9:47:45 PM): but you know.. I'd love to work with "the upbeats"
frankiemilkshoes (9:47:51 PM): awesome!
lizardkingunseen (9:48:00 PM): that’d be an interesting combo
diodednb (9:48:01 PM): I've always been into their stuff
diodednb (9:48:05 PM): yeah
lizardkingunseen (9:48:10 PM): what other artists are you keen on?
frankiemilkshoes (9:48:17 PM): would be cool to hear that come together
diodednb (9:48:20 PM): probably wouldn't work but would be great to learn
diodednb (9:48:27 PM): APEX
lizardkingunseen (9:48:29 PM): way different styles
lizardkingunseen (9:48:36 PM): ya you and apex would work well
diodednb (9:48:40 PM): yeah
diodednb (9:48:46 PM): Spor maybe..
diodednb (9:48:52 PM): Noisia.. Phace...
diodednb (9:49:03 PM): remix a pendulum tune
lizardkingunseen (9:49:10 PM): eheh that would be a fun one
diodednb (9:49:16 PM): hazard...
lizardkingunseen (9:49:18 PM): have you done lots of rmxs?
frankiemilkshoes (9:49:21 PM): I'm curious. if you where to work with someone on a project and they used a totally diff tool than you. would you learn what they use and rock it?
diodednb (9:49:26 PM): I know that's jump up but I like it
diodednb (9:49:36 PM): yeah
frankiemilkshoes (9:49:38 PM): how does that work
diodednb (9:49:39 PM): man I'm a quick study
diodednb (9:50:00 PM): and like "Edgey" once told me. they're all tools man. just gotta learn em and use em.
frankiemilkshoes (9:50:15 PM): WAIT YOU KNOW EDGEY?
diodednb (9:50:25 PM): I use to talk to him a LONG time ago
diodednb (9:50:32 PM): was a cool cat. dunno what he's doin
frankiemilkshoes (9:50:32 PM): oh man i loved his tracks
diodednb (9:50:44 PM): I think he went more gabber style..
lizardkingunseen (9:50:50 PM): wow am i out of the loop whos Edgey?
diodednb (9:50:56 PM): yeah his drum'n'bass was nasty
diodednb (9:51:04 PM): Edgey is a cat from NY
diodednb (9:51:08 PM): Edgey.net
lizardkingunseen (9:51:13 PM): nice!
diodednb (9:51:16 PM): if he still has it up
frankiemilkshoes (9:51:21 PM): yeah he was ahead of his time
frankiemilkshoes (9:51:47 PM): and really you are too in the kind of D&B we listen to
frankiemilkshoes (9:52:05 PM): i listened to your mixes and tracks and really you do make some great tunes
frankiemilkshoes (9:52:24 PM): how has music played a role in your life up to now?
diodednb (9:52:49 PM): its my pass time man.
diodednb (9:52:52 PM): i love it
frankiemilkshoes (9:53:03 PM): did you grow up on the computer?
diodednb (9:53:08 PM): I wish I could do it full time and travel the world
frankiemilkshoes (9:53:09 PM): or in traditional music?
diodednb (9:53:12 PM): ummm
diodednb (9:53:16 PM): not at all man
lizardkingunseen (9:53:24 PM): how long have you been writing for?
diodednb (9:53:24 PM): I was a into graffiti and breakdancing
frankiemilkshoes (9:53:29 PM): nice
diodednb (9:53:31 PM): no musical talent in my family
frankiemilkshoes (9:53:47 PM): well you play a mean computer
diodednb (9:53:50 PM): I started in ... .2000 for fun on the mtv music generator.
lizardkingunseen (9:53:51 PM): ahha
lizardkingunseen (9:53:58 PM): wasn’t that a Playstation thing?
frankiemilkshoes (9:54:03 PM): hahahahaha
frankiemilkshoes (9:54:58 PM): when you make your drum sequences do you have any tips for peeps trying to make their music sound better?
frankiemilkshoes (9:55:14 PM): your hits are hard and clean
diodednb (9:55:20 PM): um.
diodednb (9:55:27 PM): don't be a pussy
lizardkingunseen (9:55:30 PM): ahahah
frankiemilkshoes (9:55:33 PM): HAHAHAHAHAHA
lizardkingunseen (9:55:36 PM): well when you were here
diodednb (9:55:36 PM): don't be an asshole either
lizardkingunseen (9:55:38 PM): you were telling me
diodednb (9:55:38 PM): you know
lizardkingunseen (9:55:41 PM): don’t over process
diodednb (9:55:45 PM): right
lizardkingunseen (9:55:47 PM): and you were doing very minimal processing?
diodednb (9:55:57 PM): you need to keep it simple..
diodednb (9:56:04 PM): if you're sample sucks... don't use it
frankiemilkshoes (9:56:16 PM): right. like a low res picture
diodednb (9:56:23 PM): exactly
frankiemilkshoes (9:56:25 PM): trying to use it for a poster
lizardkingunseen (9:56:27 PM): cant polish a turd
diodednb (9:56:44 PM): you can but it'll still be a turd
frankiemilkshoes (9:56:52 PM): actually Dom i bet it is possible to actually polish a turd
lizardkingunseen (9:57:00 PM): lol
lizardkingunseen (9:57:09 PM): alex is mexican he can clean anything
frankiemilkshoes (9:57:15 PM): omg
lizardkingunseen (9:57:16 PM):
diodednb (9:57:32 PM): I'm not Mexican saggy chin nuts
lizardkingunseen (9:57:36 PM): ahahaahhaah
frankiemilkshoes (9:57:45 PM): Dom how did you meet Alex?
lizardkingunseen (9:57:58 PM): ok well lets set the records straight you're Puerto Rican right
lizardkingunseen (9:58:05 PM): umm
lizardkingunseen (9:58:21 PM): well he was just flow out here
lizardkingunseen (9:58:33 PM): not too long ago to play a drum and bass monthly our mutual friend ketek throws
lizardkingunseen (9:58:58 PM): he stayed for almost a week and we took him to a couple parties out here
frankiemilkshoes (9:59:14 PM): ha nice
diodednb (9:59:30 PM): yeah
diodednb (9:59:33 PM): that was nice man
diodednb (9:59:36 PM): culture shock
frankiemilkshoes (9:59:39 PM): so you showed him esco dom?
lizardkingunseen (9:59:41 PM): nar
lizardkingunseen (9:59:45 PM): we stayed more inland
diodednb (9:59:47 PM): you know that's the life I should be livin
frankiemilkshoes (9:59:47 PM): ahh
lizardkingunseen (9:59:47 PM): and went to la a bit
lizardkingunseen (9:59:50 PM): ya man
lizardkingunseen (9:59:54 PM): you would get so much more play out here
diodednb (10:00:03 PM): yeah
lizardkingunseen (10:00:04 PM): but you seem to be doing better as far as the gig thing goes
lizardkingunseen (10:00:12 PM): arent you opening for telemetric soon?
diodednb (10:00:14 PM): right now its ok
diodednb (10:00:18 PM): yeah
lizardkingunseen (10:00:21 PM): how did that come about?
diodednb (10:00:23 PM): I hope it falls through
diodednb (10:00:26 PM): some local..
diodednb (10:00:38 PM): this kid is from the worcester area and does a TON of big shows
diodednb (10:00:55 PM): I played for him a long as time ago then I fell out the scene..
lizardkingunseen (10:00:55 PM): to be honest i don't know how you don't get more gigs or play out so much. tons of artists play out a lot and have minimal releases or shitty tunes
diodednb (10:01:03 PM): he got my number from a friend and called me up
frankiemilkshoes (10:01:04 PM): yeah exactly
lizardkingunseen (10:01:07 PM): you should be booked much more with the quality of work you have
frankiemilkshoes (10:01:11 PM): i agree
diodednb (10:01:17 PM): yeah well..
lizardkingunseen (10:01:18 PM): which i think is why Ketek wanted to bring you out so bad
diodednb (10:01:20 PM): like i said
lizardkingunseen (10:01:21 PM): to support that
diodednb (10:01:23 PM): its just me here
frankiemilkshoes (10:01:25 PM): i mean man you should hook up with Evol
diodednb (10:01:29 PM): I don't know many people
frankiemilkshoes (10:01:37 PM): down here in ATL
diodednb (10:01:43 PM): I've talked to em
diodednb (10:01:46 PM): they like my house
lizardkingunseen (10:01:52 PM): i think you spend a lot of time focusing on your work which is why it comes out the way it does
lizardkingunseen (10:01:53 PM): ahha
lizardkingunseen (10:01:54 PM): sick
diodednb (10:01:56 PM): but they never were like "dude that’s a sick tune"
lizardkingunseen (10:02:05 PM): you guys sound completely different
frankiemilkshoes (10:02:16 PM): yeah it's diff for sure
lizardkingunseen (10:02:37 PM): soo what's up with your
lizardkingunseen (10:02:38 PM): electro stuff
lizardkingunseen (10:02:58 PM): i think i have heard most of them and they're just as good as your dnb.
diodednb (10:02:59 PM): haven't worked it much
lizardkingunseen (10:03:10 PM): ever thought about pushing it to some electro labels?
diodednb (10:03:15 PM): fruity has taken a lot of time and I can't seem to write house in it
diodednb (10:03:20 PM): yeah i have
frankiemilkshoes (10:03:23 PM): ha have you heard Dom’s electro track?
diodednb (10:03:24 PM): just don't know any
diodednb (10:03:28 PM): Dom sucks
diodednb (10:03:32 PM): ha
diodednb (10:03:36 PM): jk yeah its good
frankiemilkshoes (10:03:37 PM): i was rockin it today in the car
lizardkingunseen (10:03:42 PM): i was actually inspired to start writing the electro stuff
lizardkingunseen (10:03:44 PM): after alex came out
lizardkingunseen (10:03:47 PM): to cali for a bit
frankiemilkshoes (10:03:48 PM): ahhhh rad
diodednb (10:03:51 PM): right on
diodednb (10:03:54 PM): its fun innit
diodednb (10:04:02 PM): you know. Terravita?
frankiemilkshoes (10:04:11 PM): Yeah man their good
lizardkingunseen (10:04:13 PM): he showed me a couple things in reason then i just kinda listened to his electro and i was into it a lot at the time so i just used that as a starting point sort of
diodednb (10:04:19 PM): they're from here and started hot pink Delorean
frankiemilkshoes (10:04:21 PM): they where on spors podcast also
lizardkingunseen (10:04:23 PM): ya they're doin their thing too
diodednb (10:04:28 PM): they are getting BIG BIG shows
frankiemilkshoes (10:04:32 PM): really?
diodednb (10:04:36 PM): yeah man
lizardkingunseen (10:04:38 PM): ya you were saying that
lizardkingunseen (10:04:41 PM): and making some loot too
lizardkingunseen (10:04:44 PM): there is a lot more money
lizardkingunseen (10:04:47 PM): in other music genres
diodednb (10:04:52 PM): oh yeah
lizardkingunseen (10:05:01 PM): and for artists that aren’t even that big as well
diodednb (10:05:02 PM): dnb sucks for the money
frankiemilkshoes (10:05:07 PM): what are your feelings on stuff like Dubstep now
diodednb (10:05:25 PM): Dubstep is sick
diodednb (10:05:42 PM): but it has to but fuckin absolutely disgusting for me to like it
frankiemilkshoes (10:05:51 PM): do you like Eskmo?
diodednb (10:05:53 PM): I just don't like that.. its Dubstep/Drum'n'bass
diodednb (10:06:10 PM): dunno
lizardkingunseen (10:06:12 PM): its crazy to think because that genre was almost non existent a couple years ago
diodednb (10:06:12 PM): who's that
lizardkingunseen (10:06:15 PM): ya you'd dig him alex
lizardkingunseen (10:06:18 PM): you're styles
lizardkingunseen (10:06:28 PM): writes bad ass breaks and Dubstep
frankiemilkshoes (10:06:44 PM): i think SPL is doin dubstep a bit too now
lizardkingunseen (10:06:50 PM): ya hes got a couple on his page are wicked
diodednb (10:06:54 PM): cooh makes some sick shit.. Noisia has a new house track that has a switch to something similar to dub step
lizardkingunseen (10:07:02 PM): i think a lot of artists are branching out a lot
lizardkingunseen (10:07:08 PM): everyone seems to have side projects
lizardkingunseen (10:07:18 PM): its just a natural process i think once you develop a skill
diodednb (10:07:25 PM): yeah man. you have to..
diodednb (10:07:29 PM): exactly
frankiemilkshoes (10:07:32 PM): ha I'd love to hear current value do Dubstep
lizardkingunseen (10:07:33 PM): i mean your'e even going to be doing all the audio for an XBox video game now aren’t you Frankie?
diodednb (10:07:43 PM): maybe you'll find your calling elsewhere
lizardkingunseen (10:07:46 PM): agreed
frankiemilkshoes (10:08:03 PM): yeah
lizardkingunseen (10:08:05 PM): so then does dnb feel the most natural
lizardkingunseen (10:08:08 PM): for you to write alex?
diodednb (10:08:13 PM): that's sick.. a friend of mine in FL did the sound track to the matrix video game. .
lizardkingunseen (10:08:17 PM): whaat
lizardkingunseen (10:08:20 PM): that's dope
frankiemilkshoes (10:08:21 PM): wow
lizardkingunseen (10:08:24 PM): i want to get into more stuff like that
lizardkingunseen (10:08:26 PM): scoring movies
frankiemilkshoes (10:08:29 PM): and you can
diodednb (10:08:31 PM): yeah he use to write dnb now he just scores.
frankiemilkshoes (10:08:32 PM): it's out there
frankiemilkshoes (10:08:34 PM): waiting
diodednb (10:08:46 PM): just gotta mingle with the right folks
lizardkingunseen (10:08:58 PM): what about live performance alex?
diodednb (10:09:02 PM): that's why LA I liked... everyone seemed like me some what
diodednb (10:09:04 PM): NO!
lizardkingunseen (10:09:06 PM): ever thought about branching out into that?
diodednb (10:09:07 PM): no live shows
lizardkingunseen (10:09:16 PM): why not?
diodednb (10:09:17 PM): wouldn't even know how
diodednb (10:09:23 PM): I don't even know how
lizardkingunseen (10:09:24 PM): oh just cus you don’t know how or cus
lizardkingunseen (10:09:27 PM): you don’t want to?
diodednb (10:09:33 PM): I would if I knew
diodednb (10:09:37 PM): but I don't get it
lizardkingunseen (10:09:39 PM): i think you could destroy it
lizardkingunseen (10:09:46 PM): because you need to have a catalog
lizardkingunseen (10:09:51 PM): of your own music to do that first
lizardkingunseen (10:09:57 PM): and you have more than enough to work with
frankiemilkshoes (10:10:05 PM): omg how many tunes do you have now?
diodednb (10:10:13 PM): I'm sure I'd be a better producer for it but i just haven't had the chance to get the things I need for it.
lizardkingunseen (10:10:14 PM): i think what Knick from Evol does is they just chop everything up
lizardkingunseen (10:10:17 PM): then load it all up into Abelton
lizardkingunseen (10:10:22 PM): freestyle steez
diodednb (10:10:30 PM): weird..
diodednb (10:10:33 PM): I don't know
lizardkingunseen (10:10:39 PM): man
lizardkingunseen (10:10:41 PM): i think once you did that
diodednb (10:10:43 PM): I'll look into it when I get a midi board
lizardkingunseen (10:10:47 PM): you'd seriously just fly
lizardkingunseen (10:10:55 PM): ya you don’t even have a keyboard do you?
diodednb (10:11:02 PM): nope
lizardkingunseen (10:11:03 PM): wow
diodednb (10:11:07 PM): just the good old mouse
frankiemilkshoes (10:11:14 PM): hahahaha rad++
frankiemilkshoes (10:11:32 PM): do you mix with monitors?
diodednb (10:11:39 PM): oh yeah. EVENTS
diodednb (10:11:45 PM): I love em so much
lizardkingunseen (10:11:45 PM): ya those are nice
lizardkingunseen (10:11:49 PM): you're baby's aren’t they
diodednb (10:11:55 PM): but me back about $1500 but they are nasty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lizardkingunseen (10:12:05 PM): now who's loaded!!!
frankiemilkshoes (10:12:22 PM): what volume do you produce at?
diodednb (10:12:29 PM): low and loud
lizardkingunseen (10:12:30 PM): do you think you could write your stuff without them
diodednb (10:12:35 PM): yeah
lizardkingunseen (10:12:38 PM): or are they that essential?
diodednb (10:12:42 PM): nope
diodednb (10:12:51 PM): I could get some Yamaha's and be ok
lizardkingunseen (10:12:54 PM): just another reference but the perfect one
diodednb (10:12:57 PM): these just sound rich
lizardkingunseen (10:12:59 PM): what about not having
lizardkingunseen (10:13:03 PM): any monitors at all?
diodednb (10:13:06 PM): nope
diodednb (10:13:07 PM): can't
lizardkingunseen (10:13:09 PM): like i don’t have any
lizardkingunseen (10:13:11 PM): and it sucks
lizardkingunseen (10:13:12 PM): lol
diodednb (10:13:14 PM): can't mix down in em
diodednb (10:13:22 PM): well
diodednb (10:13:27 PM): your cans aren't bad
lizardkingunseen (10:13:28 PM): i think this is part of why
diodednb (10:13:38 PM): yeah
lizardkingunseen (10:13:38 PM): you're tracks sound so full like that
lizardkingunseen (10:13:45 PM): with the minimal processing and all that too
diodednb (10:13:47 PM): you need to here your tune in actual space
lizardkingunseen (10:13:52 PM): yessss
diodednb (10:14:02 PM): yo guys I've gotta go
lizardkingunseen (10:14:07 PM): alright player
diodednb (10:14:09 PM): its late and I gotta work tomorrow
frankiemilkshoes (10:14:12 PM): hey Alex thanks for taking the time to do this
diodednb (10:14:24 PM): dude I'll do this every day if you want
lizardkingunseen (10:14:24 PM): ez
diodednb (10:14:25 PM): haha
frankiemilkshoes (10:14:30 PM): is it ok to use this for my blog post
lizardkingunseen (10:14:31 PM): haahah
diodednb (10:14:34 PM): " a day in the life of Diode"
lizardkingunseen (10:14:42 PM): podcast!
lizardkingunseen (10:14:42 PM): hahaah
diodednb (10:14:44 PM): lol
diodednb (10:14:46 PM): you know
lizardkingunseen (10:14:49 PM): complete with sound
lizardkingunseen (10:14:53 PM):
diodednb (10:14:59 PM): and fart smell o vision
frankiemilkshoes (10:15:02 PM): yeah man you are super good and it's great to hear how you do it
lizardkingunseen (10:15:02 PM): not a bad idea
lizardkingunseen (10:15:06 PM): smell like carne
diodednb (10:15:10 PM): lol
frankiemilkshoes (10:15:10 PM): ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
diodednb (10:15:17 PM): yo I'm out
lizardkingunseen (10:15:19 PM): alirhg tplayer
lizardkingunseen (10:15:23 PM): get some zzs
lizardkingunseen (10:15:24 PM): one
diodednb (10:15:25 PM): we'll catch up soon! Ezzzzzzzzzz
frankiemilkshoes (10:15:32 PM): night Alex. thanks mang

Diode - Drum and Bass

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:22:17 PDT

Lately I have been trying help get the super fresh Drum and Bass producers some exposure by blogging about their work in a time when it’s never been easier to do so. I do this because I absolutely love Drum and Bass and in particular the darker / cleaner production styles. I think that the artists that make killer tracks deserve the recognition and really work their asses off to make them sound good. So with that said I wanted to mention a newer producer some of you may have not heard of called Diode. My good friend Dominic Sagona let me know about Diode a.k.a Alex Alejandro who is a Graphic Designer as well as D&B producer from Worcester, Massachusetts. After listening to his tunes and mix definitely think his tracks are worth bringing to your attention. He has a very fresh and high quality sound that also hits hard with great sequences, so if you like quality drum and bass then you will certainly find Diode’s music appealing. If I was asked to compare his style with another D&B artist I would say he is a lot like Spor in the way he sequences and his use of sounds. He has a very clean production technique that really sounds good. I hope to get a hold of him soon through Dominic to do a complete interview so anyone interested in knowing more about Diode can get that chance. There are a lot of people out there who want to know the goods and hear about who the artist is and what makes them tick. In the next few months I hope to do that so stay tunes for that.

Stay tuned because I’ll hopefully be interviewing Coresplittaz soon too and he is definitely a producer you want to read about as well in the upcoming weeks. He’s a badass as well. If you like it then support these dudes by buying their tracks.

http://www.myspace.com/diodednb

Using Regex and the Change Event to Filter Text Input on Flex Text Controls

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:47:19 PDT

Today I had an issue where I needed to make sure no new lines “\n” or carriage returns “\r” when entered into the Flex TextArea components representing a Subject field. The Subject field always needed to be one line even if you try and Copy and Paste multi-line text values into it. Also it had to be a TextArea control in this case since it also need to show a wrapping single line value in the view. Otherwise a single TextInput control would have been appropriate here. Anyway’s, the reason for all of this is usually a Subject field is always just one line of text and to ensure the data is displayed and sent correctly we need to handle a user trying to enter multi-line text. One very important thing to note here and it was brought to my attention by co-worker Ryan Swanson is that the TextEvent.TEXT_INPUT gets called before the Change event, so you should be aware of the order for these events. I ran into some problems trying to do the Regex stuff in the TextEvent.TEXT_INPUT rather than actually doing it in the Event.Change because of the order of the Events.

I couldn’t show you the exact app I was working on but I have de-natured it and show you a working example of this below the code.

The ActionScript 3 code used to filter the line breaks and prevent multi-lines in a TextArea is below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="vertical" horizontalAlign="left" creationComplete="onCreationComplete()" width="630">
<mx:Script>
    <![CDATA[
        private function onCreationComplete():void{
            testSubject.addEventListener(TextEvent.TEXT_INPUT, onTextSubjectInput);
            testSubject.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, onTextSubjectChange);
        }
        private function onTextSubjectInput(event:TextEvent):void{
            if (event.text == "\n"){
                fieldPreventionLabel.visible = true;
                fieldPreventionLabel.text = "Sorry Line Breaks are not valid in this field";
                event.preventDefault();
            }else{
                fieldPreventionLabel.text = "";
                fieldPreventionLabel.visible = false;
            }
        }
        private function onTextSubjectChange(event:Event):void {
            (event.currentTarget as TextArea).text = replaceSubjectTextChars((event.currentTarget as TextArea).text);
        }
        private function replaceSubjectTextChars(s:String):String{
            var newString:String = s.replace( new RegExp("(\\r|\\n)","g"),"");
                return newString;
        }
    ]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:Label text="Paste or Enter Text Into TextArea showing the Prevention and Removal Line Breaks." width="100%" fontStyle="italic" fontWeight="bold"/>
<mx:Label text="Notice that all line breaks \n and \r are removed making it one long single line for a subject field." width="100%" fontStyle="italic"/>
<mx:Label id="fieldPreventionLabel" text="" width="100%" fontWeight="bold" color="red" visible="false" />
<mx:TextArea id="testSubject" width="100%" height="200" color="#000000" fontSize="22" fontWeight="bold" maxChars="300" verticalScrollPolicy="off" />
<mx:Spacer height="20" />
<mx:Button label="Click to Copy Text To Clipboard" width="100%" textAlign="center" click="{System.setClipboard(exampleText.text);}"/>
<mx:TextArea id="exampleText" width="100%" backgroundAlpha="0" height="270">
    <mx:text>
<![CDATA[A few familiar examples of progressive disclosure

An example of progressive disclosure is an online news article that is spread across four screens (with a Next Page link at the bottom). This use of progressive disclosure serves advertising objectives (showing banners on each page) and not the user's task. Another example would be a site that explains a product by making the user click through 4-5 pages of overview/benefits information before revealing the price of the product. The idea here is that if the user reads the product information, they will accept the price more easily. The problem with that approach is that it does not accommodate free-form exploration, a typical behavior on the web.

In its purest format, progressive disclosure is about offering a good teaser. A good teaser can include the following:

* A sample of what is next
* An introductory task that is most common
* A high level view of what is expected
* A wizard that walks the user through the task
* A button that leads to more advanced functions (such as editing)

Progressive disclosure says: "Make more information available within reach, but don't overwhelm the user with all the features and possibilities".

Short History of Progressive Disclosure

Progressive disclosure is a concept that has been around since at least the early 1980's.  The technique caught the attention of user interface specialists with Jack Carroll's lab work at IBM (1983), where he found that hiding advanced functionality early on led to an increased success of its use later on. The approach dubbed "training wheels" is one of the only references validating the technique. Carroll and Rosson (1997) pointed out that no empirical evidence exists regarding the effectiveness of progressive disclosure and that the training wheels approach only studied a "single computer application (word processor) and a single interface style (menu based control)". While independent usability studies and consultancy research (including our own) has shown that appropriate usage of the technique is valuable, more empirical research is clearly required.

The software vs. web design environment

Historically, progressive disclosure is a concept that came from the software usability experience. It is clearly easier to apply to software than it is on the web, which is probably why you don't hear all that much about how to do it effectively on the web. In software, the interaction is between dialogues and 'fixed state' interactions. On the web, interactions are chaotic, randomized and dynamic due to the fact that hypertext is a non-linear media.

In the software world the audience is predictable and targeted, making learning styles more predictable. On the web, it's anybody's guess who might be using the site. The website visitor might be a particle physicist, a teen or a grandma. Learning styles, comfort levels and expectations differ greatly. This is perhaps why you hear a lot of references to progressive disclosure in conversations and interviews, but rarely any ideas about how to apply it effectively.

]]>
     </mx:text>
</mx:TextArea>
</mx:Application>

To see how this filtering works in action click the Copy Text Button and paste into TextArea:

If your MXML Code Coloring Disappears in Flex

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:24:37 PDT

Today I was working with super Flexer and coworker Ryan Swanson and I noticed one of my MXML components stopped displaying the code coloring for this specific file. I’m not sure exactly what happened in this specific situation today but I tried everything from closing my Flex project to updating my file in SVN again to closing Flex all together. Nothing made the code coloring for MXML reappear. I have seen code coloring disappear when the default namespace wasn’t included in the file so I quickly made sure that wasn’t the issue in case you’re reading this and thought that. No, it just didn’t work.

So what the solution to this problem today was me deleting the current project and then re-importing that very same project into the existing workspace. It was Ryan’s suggestion as he had similar issue with this before and he thought this might work for me too. After Importing my project all my workspace variables matched up to the linked resources for this project so this wasn’t bad at all to get going again. The only thing I had to fix was the Run/Debug settings for the project properties and that was an easy fix too. But really, if you find yourself in a situation where the MXML code and tag formatting is gone and won’t reappear after you have tried everything. You might want to try what we did by removing your workspace project and then re-importing it.

Remember NOT to delete your file when you remove the project from your workspace! Just remove the project reference and then re-import it. Something in the project metadata must be messed up somewhere and when you make a new project it clears all that out and reapplies the coloring for your code.

OvernightPrints.com is the Worst Print Service Ever. Don’t Use them!

noreply@blogger.com (Frankie Loscavio) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:33:33 PDT

As a Graphic Designer here in Atlanta, Georgia, I design quite a bit of business cards for clients. For a long time I have used OvernightPrints.com because of their relatively cheap prices and their thick cardstocks with rounded corners and Spot UV printing. I have had many cards printed that they have messed up repeatedly and had to go through many hoops to even get a human to respond long after I contacted them. These where huge print mistakes that where all unacceptable. Well, I have finally had enough this time and I am no longer going to use them for printing anything. Overnight prints is one of those bad relationships I should have broken a long long time ago. Time after time they cut the cards wrong or have the colors set so dark they the card looks horrible. I don’t just mean bad, OvernightPrints.com’s colors and service are HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE.

DO NOT USE OVERNIGHTPRINTS.COM! GET YOUR BUSINESS CARDS PRINTED SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!!!!

What they do is gang the prints together with any or all of the clients being printed at that time and they calibrate the colors for one specific client and then anyone else who is ganged into that batch is at the mercy of the initial color calibration. It makes for cards and prints that look nothing like what you designed for in CMYK. The color was all wrong and I had to throw them all away. I have had a clients card get redone multiple times because the blues in their card kept getting calibrated wrong and turned out purple etc.. I sent the cards back to OvernightPrints.com and they gave me a reprint. The only problem was the next batch of cards where brown. W…T…F! One time I got a batch of 1000 cards for client and the cards where ALL cut poorly. I mean it was really bad, probably the worst card print and cut I’ve ever seen.Totally unusable! This leads me to another poor quality about OvernightPrints.com, the fact that they never look at what they print. They obviously just print anything blindly and never check to see if they put the paper in correctly or wether or not their blades are dull. Why would they? Their cards are so cheap that’s how they save money. They save money and never ever achieve quality.

DO NOT USE OVERNIGHTPRINTS.COM! GET YOUR BUSINESS CARDS PRINTED SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!!!!

So I have finally had enough of them and I will be using a local print shop down the street so I can actually see these cards in person and build a strong relationship with them. It’s one thing to get cards for cheap, but it’s another to get cheap cards and repeatedly get back bad prints costing more oney in the long run dealing with reprints or trying to get their customer service. It’s just not worth it anymore.

So in conclusion I would recommend NO ONE ever use Overnight Prints. They are the worst card printing service ever and just because they are cheap means nothing. They offer no quality printing service and you’ll be lucky to ever speak to someone in person, and it’s a “not if"" ... "but when" you encounter a problem that you'll have to try an contact someone to fix a print error on their part. I just hope this reaches everyone who ever thought of using them and helps you change your mind quickly. OvernightPrints.com in my book gets a bad review and I am so happy to say I will never use them again.

DO NOT USE OVERNIGHTPRINTS.COM! GET YOUR BUSINESS CARDS PRINTED SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!!!!

Related Overnight Prints Horror Stories:

Beware of OvernightPrints.com

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/220/RipOff0220961.htm

Overnight Prints Complaints - Totally dissatisfied with the service!

Overnight Prints Complaints - Save yourself the nightmare!

Overnight prints fucking sucks it!

http://virb.com/dragulescuboy/blog/59323

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=24523

Small Biz Warning: OvernightPrints.com

Overnight Prints Complaints - Horrible quality & customer service!

Where to Print?

If you think you’re gonna get screwed…. you will

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Overnight_Prints

http://overnightprintssucks.ning.com/

DO NOT USE OVERNIGHTPRINTS.COM! GET YOUR BUSINESS CARDS PRINTED SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!!!!