Beta Release of the GMS this September

Posted on by
7

GMS IconI have decided to release beta version binaries of the GMS for both Mac and Windows sometime next month. There a few bugs I have yet to solve, like the application freezing if you choose the video device more than once. I’ll be including a readme that lists the known issues along with the application files.

One of the reasons for doing this is to get some feedback on the tool, and find out if anyone is interested in continuing development on the project as Open Source. There are some pretty tricky issues with Processing and video that perhaps a more advanced developer than me might be able to optimize easily enough. I am interested in moving on to some other projects, and am fairly satisfied with how the GMS works for my own purposes at the moment.

If anyone is interested in experimenting with this tool (I know of a few interested parties so far), let me know in a comment and I’ll gauge my efforts on getting a beta out soon or over a more extended time period based on your feedback.

GMS Leftovers

Posted on by
Reply

San Francisco Mask ShopIf you have been wondering why ACB is a little bit on the slow side lately, it’s because I have been quite busy doing other things, like my night class at CNMAT and releasing my solo album, Precambrian Resonance. So, after presenting 365 sounds in 365 days, I’ve been having a bit of a rest.

But now I am ready to dive into some new projects, including my duet with Graham O’Brien (drums) that we’re calling Ostraka with Dial System. We recently performed at a club in Minneapolis, but I neglected to record the show. However, I saved my document with the GMS clips I had captured. Here’s a short mix of a few of the remnants from the performance, unfortunately lacking the drums.

GMS Leftovers

 

500 Million Years From Now

Posted on by
3

dotsIt was recently estimated by Edward Guinan at the XXVIIth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union that our lonely planet is nearing the end of its habitability for life as we know. Albeit, on a cosmological timescale. Between .5 and 1 billion years from now, increases in the Sun’s temperature will cause the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere to evaporate.

Shortly after reading this article I opened up my Ableton Live set from Sunday night to listen to some of the loops I had captured with the GMS during the show. After opening the document I pressed play and heard a stark landscape of reverberation. I saw visions of a lifeless, peace 500 million years from now.

What had happened was that when saving the document I had left all my master effects in their last position. I decided to capture these sounds and vary them over time. The effect chain on the master track included a low pass filter, bit reduction, delay, and reverb with nine parameters mapped to knobs on a controller. Here’s what I ended up with on the second take.

500 Million Years From Now

Precambrian Resonance on iTunes

Posted on by
1

PCR on iTunesRecently my solo project, Ostraka, became available on the iTunes Store. Now it’s possible to buy individual tracks. My label partner, Unearthed Music, only sells full albums rather than individual tracks. At such a low volume the transaction fees make individual track sales impractical. That’s why we let Apple handle it for us. Right now the album is floating around in the lonely outskirts of cyberspace, with no ratings or reviews. If anyone is so inclined, please consider visiting the link below to deposit feedback.

Precambrian Resonance on iTunes

Getting Reacquainted with the GMS

Posted on by
1

triquetra_rehearseI have had a number of problems migrating my Processing.org application known as the GMS from my old MacBook Pro running OS X 10.4.11 to my new one running 10.5.7. The first issue was alack of support for the IAC drivers in Java, next were some funky conflicts with the Java class I was using to load and save presets. With the help of Grant Muller I have solved these problems.

While I was at it I took on a couple of other issues as well in preparation for my performance on Sunday. All that’s left is for me to become reacquainted with the application in tandem with Ableton Suite 8.

This is actually the hard part because I have use the application effectively as an instrument and real-time visualizer. One problem is running out of hands and fingers while producing the visuals and capturing the MIDI clips. Another danger is the music becoming repetitive while making adjustments. Here’s a quick recording I made while practicing.

Reacquainting Myself with the GMS