Thursday, March 19, 2009

DJDM.com is Live

I've been talking about it for years telling friends that "a new version was on the way". I've put it off and off and off but the content could get no more outdated or irrelevant, the design no more passe. And since I'm headed off to GDC next week I figured that it was finally time to pull the trigger.

Now, thanks to friend and web guru Drew Rothman, I have a new website!

A website that you can actually find things on and once found they are worth looking over! Who would have thunk it?

Head over to djdm.com for your very own look see.

Cheers!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

GDC Demos & Twitter Widget


I finished my GDC demos last night and I have to say I think they turned out pretty well. It's an unconventional design but I believe that works in it's favor.

Basically it's a USB drive with my audio/video demos along with bios and client lists attached via a small lanyard hook to a business card in a badge holder. The layout is simple and yet surprisingly intuitive. And you don't have to look around for a CD or DVD player to run it on!

While it remains to be seen how they're accepted I'm feeling confident that they'll do the trick. Besides if you don't like what you hear you can always erase and recycle them so at least they may not be as likely to get tossed in the round file.

Only a couple of days left before the trip. I have a lot to do but at least this is one important step is finished.

Also note that I've added a widget that allows you to post your Twitter updates here on blogger. Mine are on the right side of this page so look for more immediate updates there if you're interested.

Cheers!

Friday, March 13, 2009

The Game Developer's Conference




I'm GDC bound


I'll be there this year for the first time since 2006. I look forward to seeing all of the people that I chat with regularly via email in person. Good times!

I'm currently working on setting up my demos on USB flash drives. It seems like it still retains a little bit of that "novel idea" sheen as they are still not that common. I just hope it doesn't backfire. Nothing worse than having someone say that they can't
play your demo because of some incompatibility.



I'm also a little frustrated. It looks like Microsoft pushed back it's announcement of the title I'm working on till later in the year. Man is it hard to say : "what am I working on? I’m working on an 11 month contract scoring an Xbox title for Microsoft. It’s a 90 min soundtrack for their next big racing title. It's being created by Turn 10 studios who, if you have a 360, you may know created Forza 1 and 2."


I can say that in my sleep now.




In my spare time I've been doing software updates.

Sonar 8.3.1, PLAY Software Update v1.2.0, Komplete 5 updates, V Collection updates and even more

than that.

The only one that was problematic was the Sonar update. In it's original incarnation (V8.3.0) it offered some great new features including much faster saving with the Quantum Leap Play VST which was of particular interest to me.

Turns out that the update had a little problem. It was a little thing in theory but it was a mess in actual application.

I'll let them describe it.





"WARNING Please Read: Cakewalk has recently discovered that an error was introduced in the SONAR 8.3 update that affected the "Move To" snap mode in the Clips View. Under some circumstances this can move clips into a position with a small error of several ticks. We have addressed the issue internally and are working hard to deliver a hotfix for this issue very quickly.


In the meantime, use caution when dragging clips with Move To snapping enabled. Fortunatley the error tends to be small or non-existant when zoomed in for editing. It may be wise to double check the position of dragged clips with the Clips Properties window. To see this, right-click on the clip and choose "Clip Properties..."

We apologize for the inconvenience and we'll be posting an update in the near future.
"


Problem was that it was not a small amount as indicated in their warning. It was a noticeable amount and was very problematic in application. If you have ever tried to copy parts between instruments or affect changes to an arrangement in total you can guess this was a pretty messy issue. I was unable to work with Sonar for any elaborate arranging about a week. And if you're familiar with my work you would know that I do pretty intricate work in my sequencers.


Imagine trying to parallel park your car but the breaks don't work so

every time you move you bump the cars around you. In the end you would not try to park or drive. It was a little like that.


Thankfully with the new update this issue was addressed and remedied. I have to hand it to Cakewalk they kept their cools despite the calls for their collective deaths from some less stable members of their user pool on their own forum. They even offered up some new features with the update. Not a bad save Cakewalk, I salute you.


And finally; M-Audio has recently released their Delta 64 bit drivers for Vista. So now I can move forward with my long planned studio upgrade to 64 bit Windows. I have all the hardware RAM and software for this process and have simply been waiting for these drivers so I can avoid buying new sound cards.


Basically this means that this whole process can all start all over again. Wish me luck.


Most soon...


Cheers!

- L