Growing.

neoretro: Tim Robison

Wed, 11 May 2011 13:57:04 -0400

neoretro:

Tim Robison

Drool.

Wed, 11 May 2011 13:56:18 -0400

Drool.

:) :)

Tue, 10 May 2011 13:05:49 -0400

:) :)

The original 1963 recording of the Doctor Who theme music is...

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:33:44 -0500

The original 1963 recording of the Doctor Who theme music is widely regarded as a significant and innovative piece of electronic music, recorded well before the availability of commercialsynthesisers. Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop used musique concrète techniques to realise a score written by composer Ron Grainer. Each and every note was individually created by cutting, splicing, speeding up and slowing down segments of analogue tape containing recordings of a single plucked string, white noise, and the simple harmonic waveforms of test-tone oscillators which were used for calibrating equipment and rooms, not creating music. The swooping melody and pulsating bass rhythm was created by manually adjusting the pitch of oscillator banks to a carefully-timed pattern. The rhythmic hissing sounds, “bubbles” and “clouds”, were created by cutting tape recordings of filtered white noise.^[1]

Once each sound had been created, it was modified. Some sounds were created at all the required pitches direct from the oscillators, others had to be repitched later by adjusting the tape playback speed and re-recording the sound onto another tape player. This process continued until every sound was available at all the required pitches. To create dynamics, the notes were re-recorded at slightly different levels.

Each individual note was then trimmed to length by cutting the tape, and stuck together in the right order. This was done for each “line” in the music - the main plucked bass, the bass slides (an organ-like tone emphasising the grace notes), the hisses, the swoops, the melody, a second melody line (a high organ-like tone used for emphasis), and the bubbles and clouds. Most of these individual bits of tape making up lines of music, complete with edits every inch, still survive.

This done, the music had to be “mixed”. There were no multitrack tape machines, so rudimentary multitrack techniques were invented: each length of tape was placed on a separate tape machine and all the machines were started simultaneously and the outputs mixed together. If the machines didn’t stay in sync, they started again, maybe cutting tapes slightly here and there to help. In fact, a number of “submixes” were made to ease the process - a combined bass track, combined melody track, bubble track, and hisses. Eventually, the piece was finished.

Yay!

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:03:57 -0500

Yay!

Please watch this. Please.

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:14:05 -0500

Please watch this. Please.

Stuff hitting stuff. Sold.

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:11:20 -0500

Stuff hitting stuff. Sold.

Awesome Stop Motion

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 21:39:00 -0500

Awesome Stop Motion:

It’s awesome!

True Statement!

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 15:55:53 -0500

True Statement!

iwdrm: “You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my...

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:16:28 -0500

iwdrm:

“You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.”

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

The True Size of Africa.

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 22:53:07 -0500

The True Size of Africa.

By far my favorite solo. Ever.

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 22:07:00 -0400

By far my favorite solo. Ever.

Can’t remember where I saw this; hopefully it’s a...

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:10:57 -0400

Can’t remember where I saw this; hopefully it’s a peek into my future!

Thanks Shel, for bringing me back; Full circle.

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:22:20 -0400

Thanks Shel, for bringing me back; Full circle.

Exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you iTunes and your grand...

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:05:42 -0400

Exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you iTunes and your grand shuffle abilities.

I don't know why, but I've never seen much shadow art. Perhaps I just haven't been looking. I love it!

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 23:09:54 -0400

I don't know why, but I've never seen much shadow art. Perhaps I just haven't been looking. I love it!

Thanks for the compliment! Your nerd-and-etc-blog looks awesome! :DD

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 15:18:07 -0400

I just now saw that you sent me a message. Thanks! :) :)

This is how I feel right now. Please. Slow it down.

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:48:00 -0400

This is how I feel right now. Please. Slow it down.

So entertaining. Make sure to reload the page!

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:55:00 -0400

So entertaining. Make sure to reload the page!

I always do this at the movies. ALWAYS. BTW: Photo came from...

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:44:20 -0400

I always do this at the movies. ALWAYS.

BTW: Photo came from theoutmeal.com, a great website for funny comics. :)