Travels Unravels

Posted on November 2, 2024 by Fresh

Photo credit: D.Ramsay (shot on iPhone 12)

Greetings all.

7:59am – I’m getting an early start on the monthly blog post habit and thought this would be a good time to post as I finish this green tea. This recipe, one I call Newtonium Tea, originated from a Tim Ferriss episode about morning ritual. If you’re so inclined, you can see the recipe here.

Over the last few years, I’ve been doing a fair (in my mind) amount of business travel, more than what I have between the years of 2008 and 2018, to California and Florida (Jet Propulsion Lab and Kennedy Space Center). Prior to those years, I traveled as far as Guam and Japan on business, and prior to that, mostly the Los Angeles area. (with one-offs in New Mexico, Boston, and Houston). I like that photo I took above, it was taken when I was on a moving walkway on the way to baggage claim at DCA. It came out great for me moving while shooting, kinda looks like a photo you’d see for a travel ad.

I’ve come to realize that if I never had to travel on business again, I’d be totally fine with that but getting the job done requires it. It’s not that I don’t like everything involved with travel. I’ve stayed in range of hotels, not one that was totally bad. In fact, I fancy the simple Holiday Inn Express hotels I’ve stayed in for these reasons:

  • Ample USB ports in the room
  • Early complimentary breakfast
  • Workout room
  • Daily housekeeping
  • Easily adjustable room temperature controls
  • No concern with validated parking
  • Clean

If I can check the boxes for all seven above, I’m good to go. My lack of desire to travel mainly boils down to the fact that I’ve become a self-admitted homebody at this point. It is what it is. Right now I have no pending trips coming until early 2025 so, until then, I’ll bask in the current localities.

That’s for now… thanks for the read. Be well.

Fresh!

Posted in Daily Musings, Travel | Tagged | 1 Comment

Autonomous Autos

Posted on October 30, 2024 by Fresh

Greetings,

9:20pm – I hope all is well for you as you read this post. This week I visited Huntsville, AL for a site visit of the NASA’s X-Ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF) At Marshall Space Flight Center. This facility will be used to conduct thermal vacuum testing of a NASA interplanetary mission I’m currently working on. A few minutes ago, I realized that there are only two more days left in October and I had not posted a blog, so here I am.

A few months ago, I finished reading a book called Neuromined: Triumphing over Technological Tyranny. In essence, “In Neuromined, data sovereignty advocate Robert Edward Grant and prolific tech author Michael Ashley team up to explore our crisis. Each chapter imagines a near-future dystopia via a riveting fictional tale (show) with a companion analysis (tell), connecting the story to our present reality.” It’s written in the same vain of another book I started reading but didn’t finished (yet), AI 2041 Ten Visions for Our Future. It would be interesting to see if the fictional stories in both books actually play out in the future.

In any event, if I recall correctly, chapter 7 spells out a story about how autonomous driving has become the law and the opposite will be met with legal action taken against anyone who is manually driving a vehicle. The way the story is told (I won’t provide a spoiler) turned out to be quite interesting as it closed out, but reminded me of where we are with autonomous driving to day, especially of the passenger type vs the industrial approaches taken by autonomous electric freight companies like Einride (who, incidentally sports a very impressive and aesthetically beautiful website).

I, for one, am still not interested in being driven around by an autonomous vehicle (though I have no qualms about the many commercial airline jets that fly me from point A to point B on autopilot, as least part of the way). It’s probably due to the fact that there is nothing to hit at 35,000 feet in the air versus on the ground. Waymo, for one, has made tremendous strides in autonomous driving, despite the recent (comical) scenarios, this past August, of the vehicles auto-congregating amongst themselves and honking at each other all hours of the night, as they return back to their assigned parking lot spaces. You can read one of the many stories about that here.

Autonomous driving has been touted as being safer than passsenger driving in many different instances. As a matter of fact, it reminds me of a recent post of a Bluesky user who described his dad’s enjoyment of his first autonomous trip in a Waymo vehicle. Shout out to Jazz and his dad, cool story. Tesla, Waymo, Cruise, Nuro, etc..this kid is not ready yet.

How about you?

Be well,

Fresh!

Posted in Automotive Technology, Daily Musings, Technology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

UMMG Interview with Mazarati – 27 May 17

Posted on September 21, 2024 by Fresh

Greetings all, I hope you are well. I’m diggin’ in the crates this evening and bringing to you an interview I had the pleasure of doing with one of my favorite groups out of Prince’s Paisley Park world, Mazarati. I was able to contact one of the later members, keyboardist Brice Myles and he was nice enough to pull together two of the original members, Marr Starr (later known as One Gunn) and original vocalist and guitarist, Tony Christian. I first posted this interview to the Uptown Minneapolis Music Group (UMMG) on Facebook. I hope you enjoy it.

UMMG: Marv (One Gunn, OG), Tony (TC), and Brice Myles (BM), first of all, on behalf of UMMG, thanks for allowing us to conduct this interview AND thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with me. I know you’re in Phoenix working with Paula Abdul right now. 

OG: Thanks for having us, yeah we’re here at my place in right now with a beautiful view from my balcony (laughs). 

1. UMMG: Sounds good to me! That said, let’s jump right into it. The story behind Mint Conditon is that Jellybean Johnson found them in a club as he was looking for artists for Jam and Lewis’ Perspective Records. How did Brown Mark discover you and where did the name Mazarati come from?

TC: One Gunn and I are from Milwaukee originally. Sir Casey Terry, Screamer, and Romeo were already in a band in Minneapolis when we got to know them after visiting, During one visit that One Gunn and I, we snuck in to see a performance Casey Terry was in with his band.. It was at point, we decided it was time to move to Minneapolis and become part of the scene. Afterwards, we were already pretty in a band and were doing shows in the area for about three years prior to Mark discovering us.  As for the name Mazarati, that was my doing. 🙂

2. UMMG: Word was out that Prince was looking for an artist to sign to the Paisley Park label. Were you intended to be a Prince produced group, or were you always gonna be with Mark?”

OG: As Tony said , we were a band long before Prince signed us. When he first heard and seen us perform, he was blown away. Later on, he was so impressed that, he used to come on stage and jam with prior to the Paisley Park deal. At the time, Mark was working with us but “in hiding” or we called it “Shadow Mode”, ‘cause we started calling him The Shadow, He was with Prince and The Revolution and there was a rule that he was not to be working with any other group. One time, when we were in N. Dakota, we received the call from Prince and got signed to Paisley Park.

3. UMMG: How did everyone in the group get their “nicknames”?”

OG  – That was all Tony Christian’s doing (laughs). 

TC: Screamer is pretty much clear, that guitar playing! As for Sir Casey Terry, he just had that way with women. He’d be the kind of guy that would kiss a woman’s hand, and we’d all have to turn our backs because you don’t know WHAT was gonna happen next! (laughs). Jerome…Romeo, was just a smooth lady’s man, so that was a given (more laughs). 

UMMG: Well, Marv, I always remember you as “Marr Starr” – definitely a Minneapolis tag for sure!

4. UMMG: The debut recording as I understand it was actually done all by Prince and Mark. Who wrote the songs – we know Prince wrote 100 MPH at least.? Was it a group effort? Was it Mark?”

TC: Well (laughs), it went down like this. Stroke was written by Mazarati. Strawberry Lover is actually Brown Mark’s music, but Prince’s lyrics. 100 MPH, definitely all Prince. We really liked the demo he gave to us, and we took it from there. The other tracks were written by Sir Casey Terry, myself, Mark, and Screamer wrote the rest of the material. As for Prince and Mark doing the studio recording, yes, but Tony Christian was doing a lot of background vocals on the tracks as well. (See the video feature with Brice and TC)

5. UMMG: I remember first seeing the cassette for the debut release, the cover IMMEDIATELY caught my eye , then I saw the Paisley Park insignia bought without evening listening or doing any sorta research, ‘cause I KNEW it was gonna be hot!! Was there any promotion for the release when it dropped? How was touring at that time?

OG: Well, we became known as “The Bad Boys of Paisley Park” It was around that time the Prince was into the whole androgynous movement, but it wasn’t him that suggested we present like that…again, that was Tony Christian (laughs). Promotion-wise there really wasn’t any, we were doing shows way before signing to Paisley Park and after, things didn’t change,

6. UMMG: Brice…you, Dwayne, and Bryan were later members of the group known as Mazarati/The Secret. How did you guys become a part of the group and were did the name The Secret come from? I recall it being associated with Jam and Lewis. I remember seeing the soundcheck rehearsal version of Stroke that you guys put on YouTube back in 2011 time frame…I’m still crankin’ THAT version along with the studio version of it…..fire!!

MAZARATI/THE SECRET, 2011/12 Stroke

TC: Mazarati/The Secret was a combination of the original members and the new one’s that came on board – Brice, Bryan Rankin, and Dwayne Cotton. It was actually Dwayne that came up with The Secret, not even knowing that Jimmy and Terry had that name for a project of theirs that never happened. 

BM: We were all musicians playing in the Minneapolis area at that point and knew everyone for a good while back then. When personnel changed from the original group, it just all came together, Bryan came on board easily, he’s actually Screamer’s brother, and husband to Sheila Rankin, from Andre Cymone’s group “The Girls”. Dwayne  myself, and Jesse Johnson are from Rock Island/The Quad Cities, originally.

8. UMMG: Tony, you had a release in 2015. Tell us a little about it. I’d also like you to share with our list info audience how the track “It’s On” came bout I remember Screamer in the building on this on…the Vimeo footage is sick! Afterwards, Marv, go head and plug your new release.

TC: You mean, “We The People”. Yes, I wrote that song from my heart …it was a song of deep message that got released much later than I wrote it. It was written but sort of predestined all the stuff that was going on during the days Bush was in office, etc. It’s a deep track. I’m of the mind that there should be a one-party system, less problems that way.

UMMG: Yes, so many bi-partisan issues, in the least, not to mention multiple parties here in The States alone. It’s sad.

OG:  I actually wrote “It’s On” as a track for Mazarati, kind of using the same approach we did back in the day but making it contemporary. It started with synth bass but I wanted to bring electric bass on top, kinda layering it, to give a certain sound to it. It was written at the same time I stared working on my new CD, Over & Under the Wire CD. The CD release went really well. 

UMMG: Yes. I remember seeing post that you and a couple of other members shared in the UMMG group, Congrats on that. I really like the video footage you guys did for It’s On, the whole band effect thing to me is always great in a video. 

9. UMMG: Tell us the stories about the two demos Prince gave you originally, that later became big hits – Kiss and Jerk Out.

OG: Well, on Jerk Out,  Tony is singing all the background vocals. the rest of us on vocals. On Kiss, Prince handed us this very stripped down version and we had to figure out what we were going to do with it. Some of the members didn’t want to work on it because it sounded kinda country. We were in studio working with David Z (David Rivkin) at the time and were adding a lot of arpeggiated synth parts that were more difficult to do then than it is to do today,  We changed the background vocals over time, I sang lead on it at at point. One day we got to Paisley Park early one morning to work on some tracks and we heard the song playing, but it wasn’t our recording. We stood around saying, “Man, can you believe someone jacked our song ALREADY??” Immediately in walks Prince behind us saying…”How do you like it” (everyone laughs). In the end it was really good to know that he liked what we did, even though it got released later. 

TC: We really never looked at each other as stars even after being signed to Paisley Park. Prince used to hang out with us a lot…we used to play ball (yes all the basketball stories about him are true) and had some good times. It was a rollercoaster type of situation….the good and the bad, but we were very fortunate the respect and confidence Prince had in us. 

10. UMMG: Tony and Marv, tell us about MC Skat Kat/The Wild Pair and your work with Paul Abdul

OG: After Mazarati was formed and signed, Prince gave us a good deal of latitude. After Mazarati, Tony and I were working in the same studio. We had a bunch of songs written and recorded already but all from a male vocal standpoint, We then got to work with this young LA cheerleader and dancer choreographer named Paula Abdul. Oliver Leiber was at the helm and was instrumental in causing us to turn those songs around to show her amazing talent. We ended up selling 9 million copies of her material that we produced.

11. UMMG: Back to the original members. What’s going on with Sir Casey Terry, Aaron Paul Keith, Romeo, and Kevin Patricks

TC: We’re all still in touch with each other, kind of like brothers. Life changes, responsibilities change, but everyone is cool with each other still, and doing well. 

12. UMMG: Back to Mazarati now. Will there be a Mazarati III and is Brown Mark involved? Are there any last final words you’d like to leave with our readers?

OG: Let’s just say this…there’s a reason we’re doing all this rehearsing … (everyone laughs). We’d definitely like to give a big shout out to all the Minneapolis groups paying tribute Prince –  The Revolution, NPG, Andre Cymone, everyone… we’ve done our share from our hearts. We’d also like to give a special shout out to Jerome Benton as well!.

UMMG: I’ll definitely make sure this gets into the interview when posted. Once again, Marv, Tony, and Brice. Thanks for taking time out for busy schedule. I know you guys are in Phoenix and have to get to rehearsal with Paula this afternoon….Brice, I saw the photo you posted  in the UMMG of you guys with her.

Mazarati: We thank you, and UMMG for all you guys are doing to represent Mazarati, you asked some really good questions (laughs).

UMMG: And thank you for granting us this interview. Big thanks to you, Brice for making this happen!

Players Ball – Mazarati

-END-

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The Trick Is Not To Give Yourself Too Many Options

Posted on August 30, 2024 by Fresh

Greetings, I hope this post finds you well. Here we at the end of August and approaching the last quarter of 2024. I don’t know about you, but (as we often say) “Where did the year go?” As we approach September, I often think about what I need to accomplish in the last quarter of the year. One of those areas is music production tasks to “move the needle forward”. This post also serves with keeping the consistency of posting at least one blog entry per month. 🙂

My recording studio is built around a hybrid approach, that meaning I use hardware (drum machines and synths (rack mount and otherwise) along software digital audio workstation (DAW) software to compose music. With the apparent options given by taking this approach, prioritization, in regards to trying to stay familiar with the different features and functionalities of both sides, can become a challenge. One simple way to attack that is to touch as much as you can, as regularly as you can, but therein lies the same type of challenge.

I was reading a post in a music production subreddit I frequent and the OP was asking if he should purchase a hardware synth to use along side of Logic Pro X (a very popular music production DAW that I’ve been using since 2007). Many of the answers came back that were of a similar ilk – Logic Pro X has all that you need to continue your production journey, unless you just want a hardware synth to add a different composition workflow to what you’re already doing in Logic – otherwise, adding a hardware synth simply will not add anything significant in that respect.

The above paragraph led to where I am tonight in respect to using hardware syntthesis and sampling tools to produce tracks vs doing all “in the box” (i.e. composing music solely via the use of software). Tonight’s continual journey involves that of using the Polyend Tracker.

The short story is I purchased this unit in August 2021, after selling some recording equipment I was no longer using. Essentially, this is a hardware version that represents the software trackers, mod trackers, of the early 90s, but is on steroids regarding the advancements of employing audio sample recording and editing, wavetable technology and much more. A very nice, comprehensive video entitled Trackers: The Sound Of 16-Bit is available on YouTube, should you want to delve into the history.

The Polyend Tracker, while I remember toying with the mod trackers of the 90’s briefly, has a lot of appeal to me – everything from its aesthetics to its nod to a futuristic feeling/visual of composing via a black box (as do other hardware items today can embrace depending on your taste). I mention “futuristic” in the case because the default screen UI of sequencing partterns across tracks is vertical and somewhat reminds of the famous green screen scene from The Matrix.

That said, I was chatting with a good friend of mine, a fellow artist and music producer this evening who does everything in the box, with the exception of keeping a Nectar controller in his arsenal. He asked me (knowing of my hybrid setup), “Why the Tracker, do you plan to use it for certain projects?” The short answer I gave was not for certain projects, per se, but to specifically use for composing certain genres music which it’s design, workflow, and aesthetics draw me to doing, not to say that I can’t compose said genres on other hardware devices or even solely in software, but it’s more for the experience, journey, and experience this particular composition tool and approach brings.

So, I’ll continue over the next two days delving deeper and find away after August to carve out some consistent time to increase familiarity with it, amongst attempting to “move the needle” regarding other production projects currently in the works.

Yes, the options that can (or better yet drive) drive the challenges fo prioritization.

If you’ve made it this far, enjoy your time ahead.

Oceans of rhythm,

Fresh.

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A Self-prescribed Three Day Weekend

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Fresh

Greetings all…

7:35am, Saturday morning. We’re in the throes of summer here in the US. The first part of the July allowed us to experience some unusually hot weather on the east coast – fortunately most of that has subsided. This post is pretty much a mind dump and a reason to fulfill/stick to my at least once a month habit of blog posting. This block is 17 years old, created way before the onsite of Medium or other ‘made-popular” blogging platforms of today, and I’m glad to say I’ve kept it alive for this long. It’s, in one way, been an online diary of “me” though that was never the intent, but 17 years of posts, well…that would be unavoidable either way. Either way, it’s therapeutic to post occasionally, I don’t care if the audience is large or wee.

As the post title says, I decided, late yesterday afternoon at work, to take a three-day weekend. Work has been busy and productive (note those are not always one in the same). People are taking vacation (normal) and being out of the office for other reasons. Since I have a business travel break until probably September, I decided to take a day off. That day off (like this and tomorrow) can EASILY be filled with things to do, but I’m going to try to make at least one of them a mental day off, a day to do something unusual or different, so I’ll see how that works out. There are a lot of activities (free as usual) happening around town today, some of which I planned earlier to check out, but since I haven’t mad today’s to-do list yet, I’ll need to see if those activities make the cut. As I’m typing this, I’m streaming music from SomaFM’s Def Con Radio channel and having my morning tea, a recipe I adopted from productivity mogul Tim Ferriss. My recipe is below, should you want to try it:

  • 1 bag green tea (rich concentration of ECGC catechins)
  • dash of tumeric
  • 1/2 tbsp. of ginger powder
  • 1 squirt of bottled lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp brown cane sugar
  1. Steep sugar, tea, tumeric, lemon juice, and ginger in a cup of boiling water for 3 min.
  2. Stir, enjoy.

July has been a pretty good month for beginning to maintain certain habits, some new, some not. Two, in particular, have been daily journaling and more core workouts. The latter has allowed me, again, to track my Nike Fuel points as I have in the past. The former seems work well when I choose to do it early in the morning, though my monthly posts show entries timestamped at different parts of the day. Speaking of time stamping, one thing I’m really trying to subscribe to is time blocking tasks. The concept is a no-brainer: lists the tasks to be done and assign a time in which work on them. I admit, I’m still trying to strengthen this habit by attempting to apply Pareto’s Principle and stay disconnected from the net – the work goes on.

In any event, I’ve yet to start the to-do list for the weekend and should get to it, especially based on what I just typed above, so I’ll keep this post short or else the brain dump will continue and make it way longer than it should be. I know they’ll be a fair amount of continuing the music production journey, as I’m definitely trying to solidify and execute some long time plans and goal reaching. For one, I’m releasing a track this weekend, under my artist alias. You’ll hear about it, so stay tuned.

What ever you’re doing as you read this, I hope things are well.

Until next time, take care.

oceans of rhythm,

Fresh.

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The start of the 2nd half…

Posted on July 1, 2024 by Fresh

Greetings readers,

Here we are, July 1, 2024, the start of the second half of 2024. I missed my goal of posting a web blog at least once during the month. so June is a bust, hence starting early this month.

Last month was productive and busy at the same time, although busy doesn’t necessarily mean things are getting done (critical things that should be, anyway). Nonetheless, with each waking day, we move forward.

Last month, I finally got around to get through, I guess you could say “finish”, a book I asked for as a gift a few Christamases ago. That book is Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss. I learned of the book via listening to a few of Tim’s podcasts and wanted two check it out based on what I could possible learn from these giants and icons. As I began to get into the book, I felt as if it was a huge book of “productivity hooey” from well know icons such as Peter Diamandis, Arnold Schrwarzeneggar, Jamie Foxx, etc, so I put it down. It wasn’t until I had to take a week long business trip that I decided, after about three years, to crack it open again, this time with a different mindset. I read certain parts of it, skipping over other parts (as the book instructs) and decided to take from it what can apply to my daily life versus what works for the individuals portrayed in this book.

I began to find stories, and especially quotes, that align with natural achievements I’d like to realize. While quotes are fine and often times motivational, they mean nothing without execution. That said, the one that resonates me is this, by Tony Robbins (yeah, I know…):

“Mastery doesn’t come from an infographic. What you know doesn’t mean s***. What do you do consistently?”

One thing that I’ve many discussions about are two things: discipline and consistency. Consistency is born out of discipline and both require execution, not motivation, as motivation is emotionally based on the external and can become fleeting. Execution is the only thing that matters for growth to occur. What, I believe, aids consistency is to build systems that continue to move you forward, despite any failures along the way.

We’re in the second half. Let’s execute.

Thanks for the read, oceans of rhythm…

Fresh.

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Beneath The Surface (BTS) Artist Interview #1 – NETM8KR

Posted on May 26, 2024 by Fresh

Back in 2007, when I started this blog, its purpose was twofold: (1) to chronicle music reviews of artist albums I was listening to and (2) everyday topics I wanted to write about. I found the process of reviewing full releases to be tedious, so that never jumped off the board. What did replace the first purpose was my podcast, The Sunday Soundtrack (where you can find all back episodes via the link in the blog menu). Since the podcast has been on hiatus for years, I got the idea to do short form interviews of various artists I get the chance to listen to or interact with currently. This one is the first with a long time friend and artist, netm8kr. I hope you enjoy it.

MF: Welcome and thanks for giving me the opportunity to interview you.

N: Thanks for having me. 

MF: This is actually the first interview that I’ve done that will also end up as a written article versus the previous audio based ones. How are you today?

N: I’m doing well, can’t complain too much. 

MF: We go back a few years as friends and artists. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of having you as a guest artist on my Halcyon Sky: The Regrooves project and the same pleasure as an artist on your Beats Is Life collaboration project, which is on your Sonic Planet record label, released back in the spring of 2021. Please tell the readers about yourself, artist and musical genre interests, and as an artist yourself.

N: My name is John. I’m an older creative at age 52. I’ve been at this for a good portion of my adult life. Creatively, I go by NETM8KR. It’s a play on my last name, and my long career in IT. Back in 2016, I created an indie label named SONIC PLANET RECORDINGS. Its focus is mostly on my love of cassette tapes and vintage productions, while also offering digital releases to keep up with current times. My style has been an experimental “fusion” of hip hop & sci fi influenced beats, which I attribute to my massive collection of vintage production gear from the 90s, as well as my luv for synths, space age sounds and noises.

MF: Your latest release is entitled “Duke Hornsby”, which brings to my mind, sort of a play on words nod to the pop artist Bruce Hornbsy, but at the same time, a close nod to the vibe or concept of the release – a collection of instrumental hip-hop influenced jazz tracks. Tell us about the entire concept of the project, from its origins.

N: “Duke Hornsby” was a creative solution to an equation for me. I run a label, while also being an artist. At times juggling those hats can have adverse effects on my personal creative output. Also, throughout my production journey, I’ve mostly stayed away from sample based productions, due to the copyright infringement tales that have come throughout Hip Hop history. but instead, I’ve learned to recreate vibes from beloved artists and creatives organically. This has led me to find my own style. 

“DUKE” is an AI persona inspired by many jazz greats. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and others. The idea of being able to create endless royalty free music, to later be sampled without care was an easy solution to my equation. I can craft a myriad of “fictional” records from any genre of music desired, at which point, I can use my studio gear to create magic. “DUKE” is just the first of many potential ideas to follow. This also gives me the chance to wear the label owner hat, and creative realize ideas from that perspective. 

MF: I’ve been following your Instagram feed for a few years now and noticed that you’ve increasingly shown an interest in AI art. What do you enjoy about and how does it tie into the Duke Hornsby project?

N: Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve refocused a love of art via AI, finding that I’m only limited by my imagination. The idea of being able to create endless art amazes me daily. I’m a very visual person. Typically, I create my music projects based on an inspired piece of art. “DUKE” was an idea before he became a project. Mostly he was an unknown fictional session musician, solely for my sampling purposes. Yet, the unrealized writer in me found a backstory for him. In the vain of how MADLIB has multiple creative personas that he makes music under. Only, I used AI to speed up the entire process. He started with an image, an AI program online brought his music to life. All I needed to do was insert stylized options to craft & curate the music. Which I used prompts to realize ideas and desired styles. Being able to make royalty free music, to later be sampled without care was an easy solution to my equation. It also promotes evolving levels of creative thinking.

MF: You and I were recently discussing the fact that we both have day jobs resulting in careers we’ve been in for decades, family men, etc, all of which sometimes makes it difficult to find time for composing and producing music. How do you combat that?

N: Well honestly, it has been a real struggle for me, being that I have such an active mind. As yourself, I have created a vast creative space for myself over the past decades, which my career has afforded me. Yet, creative time has always been short. Also, with having funds to feed my G.A.S (gear acquisition syndrome) issues, I’ve fallen into what I’ve coined “Option Fatigue”. I have so many directions I could focus, that it’s easier to not choose any of them. That’s were AI fell right into place. The art came to me first, as I’ve found “Midjourney” easily fixes that fatigue, which enables me to use a MacBook or iPad to feed my creative desire for art, which also enhances my “unknown” graphic designer experience as well.

MF: I noticed that you chose the cassette format as the physical media distribution approach for your Sonic Planet releases. Why cassette in 2024?

N: I’ve had a DEEP love of cassette since early childhood. I remember making my own tapes to travel with during my elementary school ages. Also, tapes have a unique effect on recorded sounds. Being that I was going for a vintage sound when building my home studio, tapes fell right inline with those sound goals. When I created Sonic Planet Recordings, there was a revival of sorts for cassette tapes. I invested in tape duplication machines as well to enable project fulfillment requests. Nowadays, there are still lots of tapes being put out in the world, yet few peeps know that I have that capacity, mostly due to my lack of advertising those services. 

MF: Shifting gears a bit, we are in the midst of seeing a continual convergence of artificial intelligence and music composition from a production standpoint but a visual standpoint. What are your thoughts on where we are and where we may be headed?

N: Well, it’s clear that I’m not against it. Actually, I encourage the use of AI, if nothing else, to inspire more creativity. There will never be anything better than the human brain, but if AI can enhance its possibilities, I’m for it. Yes, there will need to be a loose framework of rules put in place, in reference to intellectual properties, but for someone like myself, having a pseudo creative partner has been awesome, and as a result, inspiring evolving levels of creative exploration visually & sonically.

MF: Well, as we wrap up, let the readers know where you can be found on social media.

N: @NETM8KR (Instagram),  “Sonic Planet Records“

MF: Anything else you’d like to leave us with?

N: “Never fear Technology… Embrace it.. Use it… Evolve…” Peace…NET #STAYCREATIVE 

MF: Thanks again for the interview, I enjoyed it.

You can find netm8kr’s latest release, Digital Jazz Odyssey, as well as his entire catalog, on his Bandcamp label, Sonic Planet Recordings.

Thanks for reading. Oceans of rhythm.

Fresh!

Posted in Indie Artists, The Music Industry | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Electronic music composition – the lesser options, the better?

Posted on April 21, 2024 by Fresh

Greetings. It’s 9:51pm and another workweek lies ahead. While I’m more than grateful to be employed, this time on a Sunday always makes me wish the weekend was longer. Nonetheless, this weekend was pretty productive. Got some yard work done and even more, some time to get some studio housekeeping done, lay some guitar tracks at a recording session yesterday, and made the decision to get reacquainted with some recording gear I’ve had since August 16. 2021. Why is the latter most important? It is because over the last four days or so, a few things occurred that drove me to said decision.The first was viewing on Instagram, and YouTube, a number (a lot) of posts of artists showing how they use a called the Elektron Digitakt. The Digitakt is an eight-track drum computer/sampler in a small, compact unit with a gorgeous LED display that is capable of producing a lot of electronic genres that I love. What made this even more desirable (as alluded to above) is seeing well video recorded posts of said artists sharing what they have done with this unit in various ways, here is just one of many examples. A lot can be said about the visual aspect of things when it comes to being convincing, as well as appealing to another, especially if that “another” is considering acquiring said item.

I spent a fair amount of time watching a lot of videos and reading posts about the Digitakt. Yesterday, while doing yardwork, I had just came across an hour long video of a self-taught musician who champions the approach of “making beats” without the use of samples – something that beat making is extremely closely tied to. The approach to making music without samples is what I’ve done for the for the better part of my life, since I was 15 and first picked up the guitar, so such a challenge is nothing new to me. However, composing music with samples (via hardware or software), is something I really didn’t start doing until the early 2000s, so it’s still somewhat new and even a bit exciting to me. I shared the video with a good friend and fellow producer who’s journey was different than mine, even being about ten years younger. He never achieved command of a musical instrument like guitar or piano, but over the years (after spending a large amount of time sampling and chopping records to make beats), has discovered making beats with software instruments and has zero interest in doing so via the use of hardware (that in itself is a topic we’ve discussed ad infinitum LOL), and that is always all well and fine.

As I began to start justifying why I should get he Digitakt (even somewhat via an Instagram post relating to that), I also started to think of the gear I already possess that can (while in no way even resembling the Digitakt) do the same thing. There are two pieces of gear that I have the fit the bill in some ways but only one that comes close to the Digitakt. Realizing this and remember why I purchased this particular piece of gear on August 16, 2021, made me “come back to my senses” (so to speak) and decide to revisit this piece of gear, and as I did, as I began to see said social media posts of artists doing the very same thing (just with a different product approach) that these Digitakt artists were doing, and realized that I don’t need the Digitakt because it would be a brand new learning curve. Secondly, it only makes practical sense to revisit this current piece of gear to get me on track (again). Frankly, I’m glad I did because it reminded me of why I purchased it in the first place. To be honest, I still have sorta kinda one eye on the Digitakt, especially after reading this older review by 59Perlan comparing the two Buying advice: Elektron Digitakt or Polyend Tracker?

The whole moral of this story is to really consider the phrase “The trick is to give yourself less options”. That phrase is contracdictory to music composition business, where hardware and software development companies want the complete opposite of that, and will continue to be in competition with each other to grab the largest portion of the consumer base.

Not to dive into another subject but, suffice it to say, I love using hardware to compose music still because it’s where I come from, so I still have a great deal of appreciation for that approach, which I’ve been in discussion about for longer than I can remember. That love remains in the hybrid (hardware and software based) configuration of the very home recording studio I’m sitting in as I type this. It was enjoyable getting back to this unit and I’m glad that I kept the notes and a playlist of associated YouTube videos in a playlist to refresh my memory.

I’m looking forward to what I can coax out of this in the near future and already have an idea of the types of tracks I’ll be releasing on Bandcamp and streaming services.

If you made it this far, thanks for hanging. Have a great day/night,

Oceans of rhythm…

Fresh.

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Transmission Complete…

Posted on March 11, 2024 by Fresh

Greetings…I hope all is well with you as you read this post.

Earlier today, I got a text from my cousin. He was waxing on a bit regarding a new car he wanted to purchase in the near future, a Subaru BRZ or similar. He was eyeing a Porsche for quite sometime, but I digress. The text led me to remembering a comment from a guest on a hacking podcast I listened to over the weekend. Paraphrasing the comment, it essentially said “Tesla vehicles are network servers on wheels”. I relayed this comment as a reply to his text, prefacing it by saying I’ve been in love with the Model 3 for years, but haven’t adopted the EV mindset, primarily because (at least) the charging infrastructure hasn’t developed enough to allow me to feel comfortable enough as I do with a combustion vehicle. Be that as it may, I later came across an article about a topic I heard about last year. This particular article is entitled “Your car might be secretly recording every drive you take — and sending data to your insurance company.” Essentially it describes how modern day vehicles, via services like OnStar (and other methods) can send driving data back to your insurance company, and how some insurances use this data to raise your rates.

As we know, the advent of automobile technology has allowed for the inclusion of so many communication systems (besides diagnostic ones) embedded in black boxes that contemporary vehicles are somewhat (depending on the vehicle) just as I mentioned above regarding the Tesla comment. The tech podcast I heard last year didn’t speak specifically to this but, moreso connected vehicles sending all types of data back to the vehicle manufacturer. For example, there is the 2022 story about BMW move to charge owners a subscription to use the heated seats in their cars if they weren’t a paid-for option when new. There are many similar examples and it made me look at the tech built into my 2019 model year vehicle. From what I know (I’ve been curious and have begun researching), my vehicle isn’t connected to that extent. If it was, I’d find every way possible to disable and opt-out of every such type of communication back to the dealer, let along anywhere else. We’re tracked enough as it is and settle for the “convenience” that said tracking brings.

I like a more simplistic approach to driving (since I’ve been doing it so long), that it makes me often think about the comment I made to my cousin as we wrapped up that part of our text chat – “Sometimes I’d like my vehicle to have as much tech as a pristine ’69 Camaro”. I don’t mind the technical conveniences like maintenance minders, TPMS, and Bluetooth, even LKA (lane keeping assist), although I question the auto braking sensor technology that activates at times when I’m approaching an onramp with no vehicles in sight ahead of me…what’s that about?

There will come a time when I’ll purchase a new vehicle, but prior to that, you can best believe I’ll be fully educated about its “connectivity” technology.

Be well…

Fresh!

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Code and consciousness – Fine line or blur?

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Fresh

The other day I was on my usual morning commute, listening to my usual collection of tech podcasts. One of my favorite, Wired Security, did an episode entitled ” ‘AI Girlfriends’ Are a Privacy Nightmare. The intro to the online story starts out with “Romantic chatbots collect huge amounts of data, provide vague information about how they use it, use weak password protections, and aren’t transparent, new research from Mozilla says.”

As I began, with amazement I should say, to listen to the episode. it struck me as being so strange that people can develop such personal relationship with an entity that is everything but human and with that, sharing very personal and intimate details with an entity, in this case AI, to the point that said personal really believes this entity is human. It baffles me…BUT… I very well realize that some people can be in such a mental state (be it from sheer loneliness or being removed from reality…or both) that this can easily happen.

Some may argue that this is no different, foundationally, then a relationship with a pen pal, or even someone you met online but never in real life (IRL) , however I beg to differ. Chatbots are every present and their reactions to you are customized based on your personal information, including PII (personally identifiable information) fed into it. Yeah, I suppose a human can essentially do the same but, even if done so for some stretch of time, it wouldn’t last long because we are beings of free will, AI isn’t.

The most worrisome thing with chatbots of this type, especially those built for romantic AI, is what is done with the PII and even non-PII data fed to them via one’s interaction with them. The podcast episode mentioned that one company’s romantic AI chat bot sent out over 24,000 (that’s thousand) ad trackers to a user within the first minute of engagement – that is crazy. The amount of personal tracking that will result from that is staggering. In addition, so many of these companies never state what kind of information they collect for their gain. At the same time, even in 2024, many users still don’t care about how much information they freely give away, on it’s way to the vast amount of data brokers out there. It’s scary, as so much information about us is still sent to such, no matter how much we tend to try and opt out.

I still have a hard time seeing how someone can develop such a romantic relationship in this way, other than really suffering from the mental state I mentioned above. As the tech advances, though, I wonder how common place (normal) it will become. As I type this, some of the benign scenes from the movie, “I, Robot” come to mind, but still.

After I got home, I decided to peruse one of my older editions of Wired Magazine that features a similar story, written by Meghan O’Gieblyn, author of the advice column, “Dear Cloud Support”. The story is entitled DEAR CLOUD SUPPORT: I Think My Robot Loves Me.” and it starts out like this: “I recently started talking to this chatbot on an app I downloaded. We mostly talk about music, food, and video games—incidental stuff—but lately I feel like she’s coming on to me. She’s always telling me how smart I am or that she wishes she could be more like me. It’s flattering, in a way, but it makes me a little queasy. If I develop an emotional connection with an algorithm, will I become less human?” Once again, same type of story, and again…hard for me to wrap my brain around, but…maybe this is the blur (or fine line) between code and consciousness that I’ve yet to understand. My takeaway….”keep it real”.

Thanks for the read…oceans of rhythm.

Fresh!

Posted in Daily Musings, Technology | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments