this post ended up being about microphones

my plan was to use this last week of freedom to finish recording "what the future holds".... but it's pretty slow. actually i'm just feeling very uninspired. imminent doom (i.e. school starting next week) tends to do that. that and my source of inspiration might stop being a part of my life in the next few days. that was pretty vague.... but it was supposed to be. lee knows what i'm talking about. aren't the rest of u just dying with envy? if u want to know i'll tell you, but i don't feel like going into it right now. this school year is going to be different from last year. er, i hope so anyway. maybe this year i won't fail three classes. :P it'll be different for a number of reasons. but i hope and pray that most of the changes will have good results.

i'm thinking of buying a microphone. i've wanted ever since the beginning of summer, but never got around to it. thanks to my job on campus (audio/visual techie) i'm just a tad knowledgeable when it comes to mics. and i did quite a bit of research earlier this summer. i would use my mic mostly to record my voice (i still haven't figured out why i do this). but i'd also use it to record piano (now that i found out i can actually play very simple things), and acoustic drums (the school's, and later my own when i get a set.... hopefully next summer). i could just keep recording my electronic drumset and my brother's keyboard, they're certainly more convenient to record than acoustic instruments. but i really like the sound of acoustic instruments much better. sooo, since i don't want to buy a voice mic, a piano mic, and a drum mic kit, i will have to get something very versatile. i did some research and drew from my vast knowledge of all three mics that we use at school. and decided upon the Shure SM-57. (see first picture). cute isn't it? it's a very versatile microphone. it's ideal for instruments (drums especially, yay!) but can also be used for vocals. the second picture shows it being used on a snare drum. anyway, this mic costs about $75 at music store here in town, and about $50-$60 on ebay. not bad as far as mics go, and considering it's professional grade. i'd also get a stand and a windscreen (eliminates popping and hissing sounds from saying p's and s's). so in all i think it would cost me about $100 is i got the mic on ebay. which isn't bad.

now that i've wasted 5 minutes of ur life i think i'll go to bed.

audacitious auditioning

sorry about the retarded title. i decided to not write with capital letters, cuz i'm too lazy. and i decided to say cuz. just cuz. but this post actually does have a point besides telling you about my blogging habits. i downloaded Audacity and tried it out a little. i didn't do any recording with it, but i imported some tracks that i had recorded with Audition and played with them. oh yeah, just so you know, in case you don't already know, Audacity is a free multitrack audio editing/recording software solution. i've never said software solution before..... but i think i've heard it before, and it sounds intelligent enough, so it's ok. anyway, i downloaded it after it was recommended to me by the illustrious uncle bill. it's decent i guess, but if you can get your hands on Audition, definitely do so. Audition is more convenient, just the simple fact that you can add tracks, resize them so they all fit on the screen, and scroll thru tracks with only the mouse wheel makes it way better in my opinion. in Audacity you have to add a new track thru the menu, then when you have too many tracks and they don't all fit on the screen you have to manually resize them all individually. ok so that's not such a big deal, but it certainly could get annoying after a while. i didn't go thru and mess with effects or anything, but i haven't done that with Audition either, so i wouldn't be able to compare them anyway. however, if and when i do start playing around with effects, i will post something about it, as i'm sure you all are just dying to know how Audacity and Audition compare in terms of effects.....

SO
reasons to use Audition:
-it's more convenient
-it probably has more powerful tools
-it's pertty
-it's Adobe
-the start-up logo thingy is really cool

reasons to use Audacity:
-you don't want to pay for Audition.... or get it off you school's less than legal filesharing system, hehe

and then there's Garageband, which comes standard with every Mac. i've never even seen this program used, but i can guarantee it's better than Audition or Audacity simply because it's Mac.

more recording stuff

I use Adobe Audition to for my recording. I used to play around with Goldwave with my brother. It works fine..... if you want to record your voice and speed it up so you sound like a baby..... We couldn't record multiple tracks with it. I downloaded an expansion for it that let me record multiple tracks, but it was nothing compared to Adobe Audition. Goldwave is afterall, freeware, and Adobe..... well it's Adobe. Adobe rocks. And Adobe Audition RAWKS! I haven't messed around much with the effects/editing tools. All I've done so far is change volumes of tracks, change the balance, and move clips around so all tracks are on beat with each other. But I know you can do crazy stuff like change the pitch of tracks, I just haven't taken the time to figure it out. Anyway, Audition is pretty straight forward. The interface is easy to understand and convenient.
Uncle Bill, I'm currently working on a song I wrote. This is the first time I record song in which I play other things besides just the drums. Felipe got a keyboard, so I'm using it to record piano, strings, choir, etc. Nothing complicated, I use all of two fingers. Wait no, there's one part where I use three fingers..... but anyway. It very simple. Very fun though. I'll send you an mp3 of it when I'm finished with it. I will warn you though, it's a sappy love song.

wow, that was a freaking long post.

recording music, supa fun!

well i seriously doubt anyone will ever read my blog again.... except maybe u lee. which is kinda nice actually cuz that way i can write just about anything i want.... and i don't have to use correct puncuation and all the great stuff. although it is kinda weird typing to myself. or maybe it's more like tyrping to an imaginary audience.... oh well. anyway, i've been recording a song i wrote for dana. she's my girlfriend, for any of you imaginary people who don't know. now you're smarter, happier imaginary people. and that was disturbingly random, so i'm gonna move on. recording music. it's great fun. before this song, i had always just recorded drums and voice. i play drums. yay. i don't sing, but for some reason i record my voice anyway. so i recorded myself singing this song, called "what the future holds". i record songs i write so i can remember the tune later. i can't write music, i'm just a drummer. i'm just a drummer, this is an underlying principle in my life. so whenever you're judging my competence or what value my actions have in the scope of human history, just remember, i'm just a drummer. so anyway, i recorded myself singing "what the future holds". and the next day at work i was thinking about playing piano for it. i think about a lot of things at work. drawing radiators is very monotonous about 97.3% of the time. once in a while u'll have to figure out why one line doesn't line up with another one, but besides that, it's really monotonous. so as i sit there mindlessly drawing red and green lines on the screen, my mind is engaged in various other endeavors. that particular day i was thinking about how the piano would go for "what the future holds". u see, i'm just a drummer, but when i listen to music i can hear in my mind what i would add to a song if i could play other instruments. so, the creativity is not lacking, just the ability. but i came up with something simple for "what the future holds", so when i got home i tried to play. and lo and behold, i got it! MAN! that was exciting. i practiced it a few times and recorded the first part, i think it was just the intro. then i added drums. now, recording with different tracks is nice because you can edit seperate tracks and redo individual instruments and what not, but let me tell you, it is a pain in the apple. i've never said pain in the apple before. i felt very dumb, i don't think i'll ever say it again. so anyway, it takes concentration to get the timing for two tracks to match up. but i am a concentration man after all. if u were one of the engineers at work u'd be laughing, but ur not so u aren't and i'm too lazy to explain it. and explained jokes are not funny, just awkward. so anyway. i finally got a decent drums track down, and stopped for the day cuz i was getting tired of messing with it. the next day, i did some editing, for some reason i have to move every drum track i record back 0.02 seconds. in order for it to sound like it's on beat. i blame it on computer lag, but it could be pilot error, i dunno. i also had to move some individual drum hits into the right place. that's always fun. zooming in til you can see the individual drum hits, then cutting and moving the one you want. awesome fun. remember, i'm just a drummer. oh yeah, i have this cool new hair do, i just happened to touch my hair so i remembered it. just thought i'd tell you. man this is embarassingly random, i hope no one who doesn't know me well ever reads this. then again, if they don't know me well.... why should i care? but anyway, recording music! the next day i decided that just the drums and piano and voice sounded kinda empty. i needed some bass in there. but not bass guitar, that would ruin the mood of the song. it's a slow saddish kinda song. and besides, i like the sound of strings a lot better than that of a bass. so i found a nice sounding strings voice on my brother's keyboard and started figuring out what i'd play on it. it turned out to be pretty much the same as the piano, but two octaves lower. i added a strings track to the song, adjusted volume levels, and was quite pleased with the results. then i started playing around with the other voices on the keyboard and found some cool "choir" voices. there's probably one key on the whole keyboard that sounds like a real human voice, but oh well, it still sounds cool. so i added a "choir" track, and was pleased with the result. it adds to the sad "where'd you go, by fort minor"-esque nature of the song. fort minor is a rockin musical endeavor by the way, and where'd you go is a rockin song. the group is a side project of the rapper/pianist from Linkin Park. anyhoo, what was i saying.... oh yeah, the choir voices. that turned out pretty good. and so far i have the intro, first verse, and part of the chorus done. unless i decide to add other things to those parts. i think what i'll do is just copy and paste tracks for the other verses and choruses. i'm also gonna add an intrumental after the second chorus, i'm excited about figuring that out. oh yeah, it just occured to me that u may be wondering how i laid down piano and keyboard tracks if i don't play piano. well, it one of those tunes and really really simply but sounds nice anyway. simple beauty. i only have to use two or three fingers to play each track. i am still just a drummer. and i'm quickly becoming a sleepy drummer. and i'm bored of writing. and i'm running out of things to say. so i'll end it here. later.

In Christ,

-Diego

MY BAND!!!!!!

About a month ago I was invited to play for a band: IRP (Instrument Rated Pilots). At first we were just going to play in the Battle of the Bands, but all of a sudden there were three events we were practicing for. Acousticafe: a campus event where various bands from on campus play while people watch and eat and talk. Chapel in Dallas: I don't know much about this, except that we're going to lead Monday morning worship for a private highschool in Dallas, and that LeTourneau is paying for room and board for us (we're going to spend Sunday night there because Dallas is two hours away). Battle of the Bands: the main event, and the one we will be practicing for the most.

Anyway, last night we played at Acousticafe, and I got a friend to get some pictures. He decided to also take some videos, which was pretty cool. The sound quality is terrible, but it makes the whole place a lot more real when you see a movie.

The first one is of our first song, "Enough", which we raced though because we were a little nervous. The second video is of my favorite song of the ones we played last night. Actually, it's more like they were recording themselves goofing off and then they happened to point the camera towards us near the end.... but oh well. Atleast you can hear a little part of the song, even though the sound quality is teeeeeerrible. Once we get the songs practiced to perfection, we're going to record them, then I'll put them on here so you can hear what they actually sound like. Enjoy the videos, I certainly enjoyed playing.

DartBot 2020

Here's our second LEGOs project. The objective was to make a robot that could receive x and y coordinates which corresponded to a target, and then shoot the target with a dart.

Part of the assignment for this project was to make an AIM (Action Item Matrix) before building or anything like that. AIM is basically a fancy name for a to-do list. Well, after spending hours deciding what had to be done, who was to do it, and by when it was to be done, we decided it really wasn't worth it. If we were designing something more complex, say a space station, the perhaps an AIM would be useful. But for just building a little LEGO robot, it's really not necessary, but is in fact hindersome.

Anyway, I was given the task of building the robot. So I did, but it had to be almost completely rebuilt by Eric because my design didn't work properly. Eric's did though, because he's pretty much a genius.

But enough talking, and onto the videos. The first one is of us testing it, and the second one is of the actual demonstration in class. For the demonstration, we had to make three shots. For each shot, the target was in a different location. The instructor gave us the coordinates for the position of the target for each shot, we didn't have to figure it out for ourselves. We transmitted coordinates to the robot using the beeps from the little thing with the blinking lights, which you will see if you watch the video. The robot would then use the coordinates to calculate how far it had to move right or left, and at what angle to launch the dart. The first two targets were just straight ahead, so it didn't have to move at all, just aim. The third target has off to the side, so it had to move. The class average was to hit one of the targets... we hit all three. :D

The test run.
The class demonstration.

CATABOT 2020: The Future of Medieval Warfare

One of the classes I'm taking this semester is Fundamentals of Engineering Design. It's a pretty cool class. Most of what we do is build robots with the LEGO NXT kits and present them to the class.

Our first NXT assignment was to build a robot that would demonstrate the capabilities of the NXT and impress the instructor and the class. After some discussion, my teammates (two guys from my dorm, Eric McLaughlin and Elijah Lofgren) and I decided to build a catapult that would shoot one of three targets.

We would set up three targets: one directly in front of it, one 90 degrees to it's left, and one 90 degrees to it's right. Using the MLT (machine language trainer) or Computer Detective, we would tell the NXT which target to shoot. We would press a certain button on the MLT and it would blink a sequence of lights. The NXT would know which target to aim for by counting the number of blinks. It would then move into range and shoot.

Building and programming the robot took less time than we thought it would... but working out the bugs took quite a while. We worked a total of 27 hours on this project, that's including preparing and practicing the presentation. The day before the presentation, we stayed up until about 2:00 in the morning practicing our presentation in the room we would present it in the next day. It payed off though, our presentation was about as smooth as it could've been. Here's a recording of one of our practice runs. I know, I need to look up more.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8139264485517879470

And here's some pictures.

Here's a cool shot of the MLT and the NXT's light sensor, which we used for counting the number of blinks.

Here's the NXT launching the ball. It launched the ball into boxes, as opposed to simply hitting a target.

Not the most compact robot... but it worked flawlessly... almost.

I just now realized how it kinda looks like a bunch of junk on tank tracks...

The useless but still very awesome floating gear. (i.e. it's only held up by the chain and really serves no purpose.)

42

The answer to this blog is 42, just in case you were wondering.

(If this makes absolutely no sense, well, to bad for you. Go read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and become culturalized.)

Brian Blair

Today I heard about the most amazing person I have ever heard of. We had Mr. and Mrs. Eldridge, a missionary couple from Alaska, come and give our floor devos tonight, and they told us about one of their fellow missionaries: a man by the name of Brian Blair. Brian and his family are missionaries with the Voice For Christ Mission in Alaska, which runs a radio station, the only radio station that countless Alaskan families can listen to because they live so far from any town.

Brian is the announcer and newsman for the radio station. He runs around the building taking care of everything himself. He runs the computers and the soundboard and somehow manages to be the announcer all at once. In addition to his radio station-running skills, Brian is also handy with a table saw.

Now, your're probably thinking, "This isn't so amazing. The guy can run a tiny little radio shack all by himself, so what? I mean, how hard can it be?" Well, it may not be such an amazing feat, for somehow who can see. Brian was born blind. He can't see the soundboard, or the hallways of the radio building, or the computer screen. In fact, Brian doesn't even use a monitor, but he knows how to use a computer a lot better than many others. He knows his 12-channel soundboard like the back of his hand, and he'll operate it so fast you'd get lost if you tried to follow him. Mr. Eldridge said that when he visits the radio building, he'll stumble all over the place before he finally finds the light switch.
"Oh, sorry, I should remember to turn on the lights," says Brian. He works in the dark, and why shouldn't he? After all, it saves electricity, which means saving money. Electricity costs 75 cents per kilowatt hour in Alaska, as opposed to about 7 cents around here.

Brian was actually able to see very bright light until shortly after he arrived on the mission field. He started having a lot of pain in his eyes, and eventually, he became totally blind. He couldn't even see the sun anymore. As he was telling Mrs. Eldridge about it, she didn't know what to say, she felt so terrible. Before she could say anything, he said, "But I can still feel the warmth of the sun on my face."

Oh, I almost forgot: Brian is also an accomplished pianist.

I dare you to tell me God can't use you. I dare you.


The Voices For Christian Ministries webpage: http://www.vfcm.org/
Some of the staff, including Brian and his family, whose faces he has not yet seen: http://www.vfcm.org/vfcmpp.htm

The Good 'Ol Days

Having a blog is pretty fun, but it has the potential to make one's life miserable. I'll be living my simple life, minding my own business, when out of nowhere comes an amazing idea for a blog entry. I won't write it down of course, because it is such a good idea that there is no possible way that I could forget it. I do, however, usually within the hour. It's really quite annoying. If you are a person who has no writing ability whatsoever, and your life is about as boring as playing UNO with a rubber chicken, then you will never have the problem I just described. However, if you have an amazing talent for spinning tales, a superior mastery of the English language, and a life more exciting than playing UNO with a pack of starving, crazed weasels, then you know what I am talking about, maybe. I don't fall into either of the two categories, but I somehow manage to come up with amazing blog entry topics during the day, and then forget them before I can write about them at night. I suppose I could jot down ideas for blog entries as they generate, but that sounds too much like English class.

Anyway, this entry does actually have a topic. Part of my homework today was to write about my "creative experience", which they explained to be all the times you ever designed or created something. Basically, I had to write about how I have created or designed things throughout my life. One of the things I wrote about was playing with LEGO's with my brother. We would spend hours and hours with the LEGO's spread out on the floor of our room building things and then making up stories as we played with what we built. Writing about it made me realize how much I miss it. Back when life was simple. When girls were to be only secretly adored, when homework consisted of a geography worksheet and a handful of math problems, when money was only something that adults had and that you would recieve occasionally for your birthday, and when scheduling your day meant remembering when Pokemon was on. I really miss it. And I'm very tempted to feel sorry for myself. Why? I don't know, for having grown up I guess. But that is exactly what I shouldn't do. I mean the feeling sorry, not the growing up, we should all grow up. In looking back at "better" times, I completely miss all the blessings God has given me for now. He's given me the chance to get an excellent education at a top-notch school. He's surrounded me with friends who love him, and who love each other. He has provided for all my material needs, and many wants. And he's given me loving, humble parents, whose love for me is about as unconditional as human love can be.

I have nothing to complain about, and I certainly have no right to be dwelling in the past and wishing I could go back to the good old days.

So, enjoy the present while you have it, and let the past be a fond memory.

Honesty or coolness?

I spent the day today thinking about what I should write for my first blog entry ever. I wanted to write something that almost everyone would enjoy reading: something that was interesting, personal, funny, and ended with a good message. Well, I didn't come up with anything, as you may have expected. To write something like I was wanting to would require a large amount of inspiration, superior mastery of the english language, an enormous amount of time, and sprinkling of fairy dust; none of which were in my possesion at any point throughout the day. I did, however, realize something about myself.
I often find myself trying to act or speak according to what the people around me think. I don't mean that I should completely disregard all those around, and simply do whatever I feel like doing. But I often find myself trying too hard to make people like me. For example, sometimes when I meet newe people I try to be calm and cool and I probably come across more as boring than cool. As corny as it may sound, I need to be myself. Or even better, I need to be the person God made me to be. Instead of trying to act according to what will make people like me, I need to act according to what will make God happy. In the end, an person with an honest and authentic personality attracts more people than does a person who is trying to be cool.