Warhol's Polaroids

from ABCnews article linked below

Back in the Fall 2009/Winter 2010, the Spencer Art Museum at Kansas University had a special exhibition featuring some of Andy Warhol's Polaroids of famous people.  This was part of a bigger national tour of the photos.  I went to the event (I was at least partially there, although many objects and buildings were melting all around me) and really enjoyed it.  Feb 22 is the day he died.  I saw ABCNews did an article on his photos to mark the anniversary of his death, and it reminded me of the exhibit I (kind of) veiwed.

-Spencer Museum of Art "Big Shots" exhibition main page- 

-Spencer Art Museum Media Release- 

-LJworld Article on event- 

-ABCNews article on Warhol's Death Day- 

Beach Boys and Pet Sound Links

In my recording adventures, I run across albums and bands who have a great influence on the musicians I am recording.  Beach Boys Pet Sounds is a record I use as a reference and for brainstorming purpose.  Below are some links I found while digging a little deeper into this album.  These links aren't just for Pet Sounds, and this post will be my general landing page for all things Beach Boys.

-Pet Sounds Wiki Page-
-Track Notes- This site gives good notes one each track, including some production info.
-GearSlutz Post on Vocal Sound-
-Mike Love's The Making of Pet Sounds-
-Sessions List- A great who did what on what
-A discussion by Steve Hoffman on Mono vs Stereo Reissues-
-A CNN Article on Brian Wilson from Jan 2012-

Frippertronics Links

-wikipedia's take-

-Looper's Delight Take-

-ELOTTRONIX XL - Frippertronics VST Plugin-

Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound Links

-Spector's engineer was Larry Levine

 -A good story about Larry Levine and Herb Albert's Process, including mic set up-

-NPR streaming audio-

-BBC's take- has lists and playback of the original wall of sound songs

-Jeffs Retro Music-

-NY Times take on the documentary-

-Spector B sides-

Stereo mic'ing and 2 Track Recording links-

This post has information I use and have stumbled across that deals with 2 track recordings, live recordings, and stereo mic technique. My go to choice for stereo is an ORTF set up (110 degrees, 17 cm), at least for live show captures.

Usual Suspects-
-Shure's Stereo Mics Basics- touches on all the basics, XY, MS, ORTF, NOS, ect.
-DPA article in PDF- also a good recourse and overview that is more in depth than the Shure article, touches on Blumein and Decca Tree too.
-A Printable ORTF pdf Template-
-SoS Article 1997- Part 01 and Part 02- This is a good theory based article called "Stereo Microphone Techniques Explained"
-SoS Article 2003-"a practical look at the pros and cons of coincident and spaced stereo miking techniques"
-SoS article from 1996- "First Steps In Direct-to-stereo Recording" and it mentions a cassette deck.
-Bruce Bartlett's Stereo Mic Book- You should buy this if your serious about getting the nitty gritty.

PZM- You can do some strange stuff with PZMs and some Plexiglas-
-A super scientist view on the PZM wedge-
-A cool PZM wedge tabla test-
-Some info on Mapleshade Records use of PZM-
-Tape Ops Board PZM post-
-Tapeop PZM article-
-Crown Soundgrabber II pdf-
-Crown PZM Applications pdf-

Forward thinking- Baffled, Vertical, and Dummy Heads

-Jecklin Disk-a baffled stereo pair
      -Wiki-
      - A gearslutz step by step with Pics-
      -Gearslutz- Main article-
      -Stichting Klankschap Tutorial in pdf- very detailed with good pics-

-Schneider Disk- a variation of a baffled spaced pair- with a sphere in the middle of the disc-
-Vertical Microphone Method- Make mono recordings with a stereo pair.
-Binaural head- DPA's DPA4060 and DPA4061, they say that is the jamz-  and on the cheap-

Pure Data Reverb Project/ Experiment- SSR

I am working on a project that will hopefully be a VST  "environment" plug in when it is all said and done that will take an input, add a very peculiar reverb/room with other sound variables, in order to make your sound mimic it's existence in a specific actual or fictional audio environment (think space stations, submarines, drowning with headphones on, inside a whale with a boombox, ect).  I want to be able to create custom GUI's, change numeric values of absorption coefficients at the lowest programing language possible (C, C++, or Java), but also have the majority of the "programing" done in an object oriented application.  After looking into a couple of options, I think I am going to try out Pure Data for the initial prototype.  It is a software made by Miller Puckette who did development for Max/MSP.  These links are here to serve as a ever changing reference and brainstorming landing page for this project- code named SSR.

Intro
-Extended PD tutorial-
-Digital Artist Handbook's "Diving into PD"-
-SoS Intro to Pure Data article-

Deep Shit
-C++ Objects How To in PD- Article 01 and Article 02
-Pure Data as a VST-
-impulse response (IR) convolution PD object from william brent- convolve~
-EEtimes Article "Building Good Audio Software"-
-Pure Data Hardware- hot damn!

General Info on DIY VSTs
-Super Collider- Programing Language and Environment- an open source project
-Synth Maker and Synth Edit-
-Sound on Sound Article about DIY VST creations- a good intro article.

Reverb Tangent
-SoS article "Advanced Reverberation"-
-Jeremy Wakefield's "Thoughts on Reverb"-
-Ursa Major Hardware Reverb-
-Eventide SST-282 Space Station Plug In-

Joe Meek Links

Joe Meek was a wild, tragic, and interesting musical figure from the 60's.  Read more on him below.  I aint going to tell you shit that other people can tell you better.
-Wikipedia Link-
-The Joe Meek Society- This is a good site, with lots of info an links, and has Joe's Juke Box
-"A Life in the Death of Joe Meek" IMDb page- from 2008
-An article from recordsbymail.com- a shorten version of the wiki post- best quote- "If it sounds good, it is good." - Joe Meek
-Below video- Part 01 and Part 02-  "Originally broadcast in 1991 as part of the Arena series of programs and reshown on BBC4"

Watch The Strange Story Of Joe Meek [Part 1] in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch The Strange Story Of Joe Meek [Part 2] in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

lo fi Links

I have tried too much lo fi in the electronic/ambient music realm, but below are some links I found helpful for using that term in the actually played music world (aka bands?). 

-Top 10 lo fi Records- don't know if I agree, but it is about.com for god's sake
-Mike Bennett Talks lo fi- its gotta video!
-Music Radar 9 Quick Tips for lo fi-
-Bruce Bartlett Article Link from EQ Mag- Pretty much the same as the embed below.

Below is from Practical Recording Techniques by By Bruce Bartlett, Jenny Bartlett

RATM Recording Links and Thoughts

"Evil Empire" studio photo taken in Cole's Rehersal- "The pic in the cover makes the room look big" paraphrasing engineer Nick Didia

 I did a recording session the other day and the band wanted to cut everything, vocals, drums, and guitars with no over dubs.  I never got the vocals to sound correct, but the following links give some good info on how Evil Empire was recorded in the same manner.  These links

Mario Caldato Jr, i mean Mario C LINKS

-Lecture with Mario C- video and transcript- 

-1998 Interview with mad Beastie References-

-A pdf of a Mario C TapeOp interview in 2001

I was doing a little research on some lo-fi (see Check your head) mixing techniques, so I read some interviews and such by THE Mario C (likes to keep it clean).  This is just list will probably be updated.  Note, the Beastie Boys Site has tons of session notes and stories from various albums.

Photoshop Tutorial Links

Most of the time I screw with photoshop, I just fix photos I screwed up, cropping and contrast and such.  But after looking around at some of these sites, I now have ideas for photo manipulation that I didn't even think existed.

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/ - this site has tons and tons of various tutorials, ranging from beginner to hard.  This tutorial shows a cool long exposure imitation.
The Photoshop Lady-  pages of random tutorials that you didn't even think of to do
psd tuts- again, pages of random tutorials that you didn't even think of to do
PSLover- I like this one cause it has category lists-
The Andy Warhol PS rip off technique- I really like this one cause Andy Warhol had Ali, we have Tyson.
This Post I did has mad links to HDR photography and how a simpleton like me can get started in it.
and per "Who is Dis, Dis is Alex's" recommendation, a lens flair tutorial and one with a video.

Cassette Decks I Have and Cassette Links

-Teac A-303- I bought the TEAC cause it had needle meters.
It kinda works, and looks cool and is in wood.

Pioneer CT-W430- This was a gift for helping some people out

Kenwood KX 41B- This one is in need of a repair, but has a huge volume knob.

Cassette Wisdom and Links
-Use Everclear to clean yo tape heads- tip from the Good Doctor.
-This is a great Sound on Sound Article called  "Zen And The Art Of Cassette Deck Maintenance"
-Vintage Cassette dot com- a great vintage tape player archive
-TapeDeck.Org- "analog audio tape cassette nostalgia"
-Stereo 80's- BoomBoxes and Ghetto Blasters acrchive
-Audio Cassette Deck Demagnetizing & Maintenance Methodologies- Fix yo shit

Dented Mic Grill, dented tweeter, and a DIY spy mic Links

 

Fixing an SM-58- and other random Shure fixes

Fixing a dented tweeter in a monitor- it says don't use tape, use your mouth, or a vaccuum cleaner (from the always legit Sound on Sound)

DIY directional spy mic- this is a video jug jam, but you do it with a wok lid, it could come in handy for field recording at some point, aka a Parabolic Microphone as seen above from freecircuitdiagram.net

A GearSlutz post on the purpose and effects of grills on condenser mics.

Noise Circuits and links from the Good Doc

A video and a link from the good doctor

Richard Devine Interviews and Articles

Percussa.com Interview- it talks a bit about audio cubes, and other general interview questions, from Early 2008.

Electronic Musicians Interview- from Dec 09.- and the EM Studio photo gallery from Oct 09.
Electronic Musicians Interview- 2006- has some gear tips
Electronic Musicians Interview- 2003
Devine's Jazzmutant Lemur Master Class on EM- videos
Audiohead Interview-
Lunar Mag-
Synthtopia- June 08

HDR Photography

the photo above is from nanothoughts 1.0, and a full res version can be found here

My boy Nauseous Youth Future (buy his album) was telling me about this photography method this weekend called High Dynamic Range Photography. You take multiple pictures with different exposure speeds and then put them all together (via a Merge to HDR type of function) to give you a high contrast between the darkest and brightest parts of the view. You can take your photo with a RAW file and manipulate that in a photoshop type program with a HDR plugin. Below will be some links:

-Da Wiki
-85 Examples of this technique
-Vanilla Days Tutorial- Seems like a good starting place, it even has the luminosity/white clip/appertunre values listed too/
-A good Photoshop HDR site-
-Stuck In Customs HDR site- this one may be the best one, very indepth, and it show how to make an HDR photo out of a single RAW file.

The Dumbek and Middle Eastern Hand Drum Links

The dumbek, (aka tablah, darabukka , derbocka, and dumbelek among many others) is a Middle Eastern/North African goblet drum whose name varies depending on the location. It is also the lead percussion instrument in most traditional middle eastern genres. I would like to start focusing some of my musical time on brushing up on my hand drumming skills, and I hopefully we begin post rythmic breaks downs of various beats I work on from week to week.

http://outofthedarj.com/rhythms/ - With Musical notation and youtube videos

http://www.therotunda.net/drum/index.html- Kamuran's Dumbeck Guide- has a 32 rhythm pdf

http://www.joyofbellydancing.com/drum2.htm#Rhythms - from the Joy of BellyDancing

http://www.khafif.com/rhy/- lots of rhythms, but I don't like the notation on the site

http://www.darkwaters.org/drumming/middle-eastern_rhythms.php- this one has audio samples as well with the notations

http://www.aletadances.com/rhythms.html- Middle Eastern Rhythms Article by Aleta Quinn, another good site for reference. I like the text notation of this the best, and any notation posting I do will mimic this.

Random Drum links

http://snaredrumz.blogspot.com/ - snare drumz . . .

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/tutorial5.htm - has a ton of refinishing projects for guitar

http://www.vaughncraft.com/index.php?id=2 - fancy steambent shells- got birdseye and some crazy purple and zebra types

http://www.drumjunction.com/drum_shells.html - has a really indepth explination of drum shells

http://www.wikirecording.org/Mid-Side_Microphone_Technique - ms technique explained

Ayotte Drums- pretty things with wood hoops

Wiring guide

Links

http://www.recordtech.com/prodsounds.htm - Great article on Mixing for Vinyl

http://tap-tempo.en.softonic.com/ - tap tempo download-

http://www.ehow.com/video_4971320_soundproof-room-cheaply.html - Sound Proofing from e-how-

http://googlebookdownloader.codeplex.com/ - google reader download hack

Music Contract Links

http://law.freeadvice.com/intellectual_property/music_law/calculation_royalties.htm - this gives a good overview of how royalties work (and explains how BMI and ASCAP collect)

http://www.karemar.com/category/free-music-contracts-and-legal-agreements - good set of free music contracts