Bokeh. We had a nice long nature walk at a nearby wildlife area this afternoon. Lots of birds, and a handful of people. Everyone (birds and humans alike) kept their distance. It was overcast, but warm and overall a nice spring day. Emily brought home a hat full of pine cones and “cool rock.” I couldn’t ask for better people to be isolated with. ♥
I often find that drones after the fact have lost some/most of their magic, which is sad but says something about the act of creation I guess. While this was going I laid on the floor and went to another place for awhile.
Managed to work out the entire alphabet, except the S which looks the same as the 5. Several of them make sense in context, but wouldn’t read well by themselves. Still a fun exercise.
Lots and lots of crafts and games going on here now that Emi’s school is closed “indefinitely.” Most of the time I’m still stuck working in the office while the ladies have all the fun, but I get small windows of time when I break to give Ash some work time. Staying inside, laughing and playing with family, it’s hard to remember there’s a very scary reality out in the world right now. The whole situation is so surreal, and for us in the US right now is just the tip of the iceberg,
(I actually colored these awhile ago, but I never got to post them and they still crack me up every time I see them.)
Another day inside. It doesn’t bother me very much, but the ladies need to stretch their legs.
Top left to bottom right: Neighbor’s house texture; We found a bird’s nest and Emily was concerned about what happened to them ♥; Taro did not enjoy me waking her up during a sun nap; Emily has been saving this balloon she got at a birthday party for weeks. She dropped it in this bowl and I saw some shapes.
Overcast and cold here today, but knowing that we’re supposed to stay inside as much as possible makes it hard not to feel confined. We took a walk around the neighborhood and everything seemed normal — lots of cars on the roads and people out walking around. They must have felt like we do. Signs of spring are starting to pop up everywhere. Hopefully it gets warm again soon.
Emi and I were playing with her Magna-Tiles today making lots of towers and spaceships and pizzas when I started to notice these patterns. Only took a few minutes to work them all out, and then a few more to draw them up in inDesign (because I’m awful at Illustrator). I’m tempted to try all the letters too…
I figure there’s no way someone else hasn’t done a triangle font like this yet, but decided not to look and just go with it. Ignorance is creative bliss.
Random heart cereal found this morning in a public sink. Lots of focus on handwashing these days.
I also received this cassette in the mail today after buying it on impulse last week. (I don’t typically do physical media anymore) I listened to this album a lot when it came out, not long after I discovered Jasper TX/Dag Rosenqvist. I don’t remember exactly how I found him, but at the time it was unlike anything I’d ever heard and threw open the door to the world of ambient and drone music. I’ve never been the same. If you don’t know his work you should definitely check it out. Other favorites: This Quiet Season and Mute Harbor.
I bounced around between 3 different projects tonight, and didn’t make much progress on any one of them. Here’s a clip of something I started working on for last week’s Disquiet Junto project about music for airplane noise. I had a good idea, and this was a good start, but I never went back to it to finish up a few things I wanted to try. It’s that kind of week I guess.
Being on a plane always makes me feel very strange. Something about being outside of time and place. Neither at your origin or your destination. Far away and separate from all the lives passing beneath you. It’s not necessarily a sad feeling, but definitely a very introspective one. I was supposed to go to Seattle this weekend for the first time since I moved back but I canceled it due to the coronavirus. Very sad to not go, and for all the sick people right now. Hopefully things get better soon.
Stopped at the park this morning to try recording with the headphone mic setup. It rained my entire drive but luckily tapered off just before I got there. But — 1. Its very hard to walk and breath quietly with omni mics on your head. 2. Listening back to the recording made me realize that what makes the park so convenient also makes it awful for recording: the road. Tons and tons of cars going by this time of day basically ruined the whole thing. It was nice while I was there and I’m glad I got some fresh air before being stuck in an office all day.
The ear hooks are out. I couldn’t fix the issue with keeping them aligned and they were most definitely not stealthy. This works much better! After all I read about the primo capsules being sensitive to heat I was really worried about all the soldering, but I clamped them as a heatsink and went quick and all works as it should. Going to Ithaca tomorrow so will try to stop by the park and do some recording.
Was thinking today how hard it can be to have so many interests. I mean, it’s wonderful too, but it’s hard to keep momentum on things because my mood/ideas change. Skipping around to follow a whim is fun, but then when I get back to what I was working on I have to relearn again. I want to make music, but I want to learn to code, but I want to work with the cnc, but I… …I don’t know what I should do sometimes.
Hundred! Wow. Pretty crazy that it’s been a hundred days of noticing so far. Not sure if I believed I would be able to keep up. It’s really not been as hard as I anticipated, but there have definitely been days were I really just wanted to go to bed. After the fact I was always glad I stayed up and did something and I’m sure this cycle will continue.
It’s very sunny and warm day here today. Emi and I made some paper apples. My slow leak became a fast leak, and since I was overdue I got 4 new tires. Weekends always go by so fast.
(also really looking forward to refinishing the deck this spring…)
Got these wired up and put together today, but only had a few minutes to actually record with them. The mics themselves sound very good and are WAY more sensitive than the h4n pro built-in mics. I’m typically setting input level around 70 with those and these capsules were set around 30 for my quick test. Overall pretty happy with them, but need to figure out a way to keep the mic alignment even. The ear hook material is softer (for comfort) so is a little bendable and the mics move with them. It’s not a dramatic amount and will need to test further to hear how much difference it makes. They are also not as stealthy as I was hoping, but in the woods or on a normal walk it won’t matter. Going to have to keep scheming on it.
Sorry for no build pics. Time was tight so I was working too fast and forgot to take any along the way.
Emi and I spent a few hours hopping from dollar stores to junk shops in hopes of finding hackable headphones and/or “fluffy" stuff” that could be used to house my diy mics/become wind protection. Ended up bringing home 5 pairs of headphones (bottom right is a 3 pack) in varying levels of workability and ridiculousness. I got the everything in the picture for $12.
I think the green and white thing is some sort of dishwasher safe cleaning cage. It has hinges on one side to open and close — just add some nylon and fur and you’ve got a $.99 mic blimp.
The kitty cat headphones are almost perfect functionally, but I’m pretty sure the fur is glued so that I won’t be able to cut a hole in the cup without destroying it. Aesthetically they leave something to be desired haha. The other cool thing about it is the furry headband can now become windjammers for a whole bunch of mics.
The earbuds which go with the over the ear hooks are actually perfect. I managed to get them open without destroying them and the grommet which holds the mic capsule fits in there exactly. They are also detachable from the ear hook so they can be used for other applications without any trouble. Going to get them all rigged up tomorrow and hopefully go try them out, but we got a few more inches of snow today so I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring.
Have been too wrapped up in project ideas lately and haven’t done much music. Have to admit I’m a bit disheartened that the Jag needs a setup and I can’t play guitar when I want. Really need to get that scheduled. Small tonight sounds, recorded from the room with H4N for creaks and breathing.
Not a lot to show for all my hemming and hawing tonight. Mostly just looked at all the mic parts and headphones from every possible angle and rubbed my chin. Did this quick sketch as an idea for putting the capsule inside the body of the headphone, but I’m not sure that this won’t produce feedback. I should test, but I might have to give up being able to record and monitor at the same time. Im also trying to make the whole setup as adaptable as possible. Putting the mics inside there is fine, but then I can’t use them for other recording configurations. The chin rubbing continues.
I’m (tentatively…) headed to Seattle in a few weeks and it will be the first time I’ve made the trip since I moved back to the east coast. Got the idea in my head that I wanted to do some urban walks with a stealth recording setup so I ordered a the parts to make my own stereo binaural-ish setup based on the Primo EM172 capsules. Everything arrived today (only 6 days after ordering from the UK) so now the planning can really begin. My initial thought is to attach the capsules to the earpiece, but adding windscreens really blows the stealth aspect. I’m have tempted to see if I can fit the capsules inside the earpiece…
Stopped at the park this morning after not having gone for quite a few weeks. It was still cold, but definite signs that spring is trying to break through. I sat and stared at the choppy lake and listened to the birds for awhile before having to admit that I was going to be late to work.
Didn’t come up with any earth-shattering ideas for the 360 camera, but figured since I did a bunch of cleaning and organizing today it would be acceptable to share my studios. I am very very very lucky to have these spaces to work. Many thanks to my family for enduring the noise. These work best in full screen view.
This morning I also finally finished the norns studies. It was not surprising to find that after only a week I had lost a lot of the momentum in comprehension that I had built. Streams is essentially an audio to pitch converter, used as something like a 16-channel freeze pedal. I tried to patch something like this on Axoloti a few months ago and although it worked, I couldn’t get the pitch detection stable enough. I have lots of ideas of things I would like to add to this if my coding skills ever let me make them happen.
We took Emily to Build-A-Bear at the mall tonight and I brought the recorder. The giant center fountain never seems to be on anymore, though I don’t go there very often. Growing up it was always “the place” and we would all pile in the car to road trip up here to buy music and comics. I did record at a smaller fountain but there’s no cleaning the noise out of it. A giant reverberant room full of people with splashing water in the center makes for a wall of sound. Decided to post the recording anyway.
Besides the long wait in line, Emily had a great time. Afterwards we all got veggie burgers and took a ride on the carousel.