#Synthesizer V script

[synthsatellite]

As part of their 4th Anniversary, Eclipsed Sounds is distributing their Bonus Files to everyone!

Get them here!

[centrally-unplanned]

Let's see if I have one more election take in me:

I am deeply sympathetic to Sam Kriss's rage against the Democratic corpo-political shibboleth, and not just because we are both deeply enmeshed in the grand tradition of dissident Oxbridge-style cantankerous internet rants. He is right that Kamala was a weak candidate, for one. But more importantly, I still feel what he feels deep down. I remember the starry idealism of my halcyon youth, of believing that conviction, that vision, that the zeal only a platform birthed from authentic principles, tempered by struggle and sweat, would carry the day over crass, paint-by-polling-numbers incrementalism. When he describes Harris thusly:

"She’s a machine politician. She wants power, but not for any particular reason. It’s just that life is a game, and the point is to reach the highest level."

I see my own reaction to her when she first stepped into the 2020 limelight, and low-key hating her for it. I feel his heart, for it is my heart.

But it is not my brain. Because I am not a teenager anymore, and his critique is fucking bullshit.

He says all this stuff like:

The reason Kamala Harris lost is the same as the reason she was the candidate to begin with: the Democratic Party is allergic to democracy.

And how the electorate is seen as but ants from inside the towers of the Machine, like the Dems just invented "not running a primary" this time as a lark. As opposed to neither party in America ever having primaries against incumbent presidents! Because they are normally popular, and it would be a waste of everyone's time to do that! Could you imagine, launching a real primary against Obama in 2012? And possibly sabotaging his brand a bit for absolutely nothing? It is a reasonable policy, particularly when incumbents used to have an advantage for being so. Now they clearly don't, Biden was unpopular and too old, and the Dems took too long to realize it. A costly mistake, but it is a purely strategic error. Big orgs have inertia, and the Dems fucked up. It has nothing to do with an "allergy to democracy".

And Kriss can go off summarizing how the Harris campaign was offering voters nothing:

But for some unaccountable reason, among the general public, ‘Kamala: You Already Like Her!’ was not the brilliant pitch it seemed to be. [...] Another option would be to actually offer something to the voters.

Which sounds neat, but he made it up! I remember Kamala's actual campaign speeches, ads, and platforms, which she repeated so monotonically in her tightly-scripted campaign appearances: protect abortion rights, expand the welfare state, provide better child care support, lower the cost of housing. And most importantly, she ran on Biden's record of a strong economy and promised to deliver more of it. What does even mean for this to not be a real platform? Beyond not having some synthesized, totalizing "Critique" of modernity that packages it all into a beautiful, systematizing little box.

Because I promise you, voters synthesize jack shit. None of this is why Harris lost - voters have made that pretty clear:

You can find other data ofc, this or that point varies, but the story is not opaque. They didn't like Biden! They didn't like his inflation. They didn't like immigration, or they didn't like his liberalism, and they thought Kamala was too similar. She had too much policy baggage. And she wasn't charismatic enough to dig herself out of that hole - no disagreement from me on that front.

Though even then, by that we mean she lost an election by ~3-4% margins after getting subbed in at the 4th quarter while down by ~8% in the polls. That ain't bad!

None of the voters who matter share Kriss's sensibilities, and he cannot hide his disappointment in that. So he pretends that Donald Trump, the guy who promised 20% tariffs on everything to fight inflation, is giving them a real vision:

That’s what Trump did: he offered an enemy to blame and the prospect of doing violence to them

I don't know man, I think swing voters just don't like the last four years and think 2019 was better. I don't think the promises of orgastic violence against democrats are why Trump won! Actually a bit of an unforced error on his part.

But since Kriss presumes to value democracy, that thesis can't hold - so the lack of reality delivering on what his vision for democracy should be is displaced onto Harris's mistakes. The voters can never fail you. You can only fail to elevate them with the right candidate. Which, tactically? Sure, why not. But you can leave the moralism at the classroom door.

This ties into our dreaded media discourse debate, so it is time to bring in another explainer, by Michael Tomasky:

The line-by-line isn't interesting here; instead I want to focus on this quote:

Weren’t they bothered that Trump is a convicted felon? An adjudicated rapist? Didn’t his invocation of violence against Liz Cheney, or 50 other examples of his disgusting imprecations, obviously disqualify him? And couldn’t they see that Harris, whatever her shortcomings, was a fundamentally smart, honest, well-meaning person who would show basic respect for the Constitution and wouldn’t do anything weird as president? The answer is obviously no—not enough people were able to see any of those things. At which point people throw up their hands and say, “I give up.”

To which the immediate reply is: my dude, what are you talking about??

A 56 percent majority of Americans say Trump is probably guilty of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results through false claims of voter fraud, including 40 percent who believe he is “definitely guilty.” Republicans are less united than Democrats. Nearly 9 in 10 Democrats believe Trump is guilty, while nearly 7 in 10 Republicans think he is innocent. Among independents, nearly twice as many think Trump is guilty as think he is innocent.

You know how when you ~13 years old, and you have that friend who is just old enough to start taking Dungeons & Dragons books filled with splash art of succubi into the bathroom with him, but not yet old enough to get that "talking to girls" is an acquired skill? And they are blatantly, openly salivating over the first chick in the 7th grade class who discovered what power the combination of a camisole and a push-up bra holds over the male gaze? And she just completely ignores his faltering attempts at ~casual conversation~, so his brain script-cycles through its backlog of tween sitcom plots until it lands on, "Hey, what if I confess to her? Then she will know about my feelings!"

And you have to pull him aside and gently explain that, bro. She knows. That is not your problem.

Kriss is too intelligent a thinker to not understand this, but our dear Tomasky - and so many like him - has stuck his 14-year-old head in the sand over this. Swing voters know Trump is a scumbag! They know he lost the election, they know he raped a few women in his day, they know he is a serial fraudster. Even a bunch of those Republicans who, in polls, go "oh it's all a Dem conspiracy"? They know too; they just have the decency to lie about it. How could they not? Every media outlet in the country has been repeating it for a fucking decade! I might think voters are morons but even I won't stoop this low; they have eyes and ears, they aren't illiterate.

They just don't care.

Not enough at least, not enough to make it the only thing they consider. And here is the rub, here is the grand mistake Kriss & Tomasky are making - they are at least somewhat right to not care. The height of the Democratic privilege is that they get to play this card because they don't have to deal with it being turned against them. Kamala is a political chameleon but she is a decent person. She would never take a bribe from a foreign government, she would never assault a coworker, she would never, ever, deny a free and fair election.

Which means you don't have to choose between voting for a rapist and voting for someone who is going to shove a bullshit interpretation of the 14th amendment down your throat via a stacked court to ban abortion nationwide, forever. Pro-life people think abortion is genocide against babies! Why are you surprised they aren't voting for the pro-baby-genocide person because she is nice? How sure are you that you would do the same when that is reversed? I guess those boycott-Harris-because-of-Gaza people got some cred, but I think we all agreed they were dumb, right?

This is the rub of why outsiders always have so much difficulty understanding how people like Berlusconi, Trump, Le Pen, etc, get so much vote share - they have no stake in the political struggle beyond the vague idea of democratic norms. It is easy to say "Italy, choose a non-crook!" when you don't have to live with the policy programme of the other guy. From the inside the price of those principles is far, far harder. It isn't shocking that most choose not to pay it.

This isn't to give voters like a moral pass - Trump's conduct is truly disqualifying, I would vote Republican if the shoe was on the other foot in this case. My point instead is that they generally won't as a simple fact of life, and blaming them is futile. If you have wound up in a situation where the political system has taken its pool of hundreds of millions of potential candidates and narrowed it down to two for the voters, and one of them has "launched a coup but will say go to hell to the inflation guy" as a bundled package, someone fucked up and it isn't the voters.

You need political elites to do their part in the system - Republicans never should have let Trump be their candidate in 2016. Open primaries with no organizational thumbs on the scale are a mistake, actually, allowing arbitrary minorities to generate subpar candidates. The decision to let Biden run again was, fundamentally, born from the same impulse - the Democratic Party had no leadership capable of telling him no, because they outsourced that job to "primaries". The Dems are not "allergic" to democracy; democracy is allergic to too much of itself.

But the cat is out of the bag now! These changes happened for a reason after all. Which I won't dig into here - I will keep my point as focused as something as sprawling as this can be. Voters will not save you, and you should not be disappointed when they don't. It was never their job.

[synthvnews]

From @eclipsedsounds:

We have been notified by users that our existing Synthesizer V Studio scripts distributed as bonus files with SOLARIA & ASTERIAN are not compatible with macOS Ventura (version 13+). We will be investigating a replacement for these scripts as soon as possible.

Additionally, with the inclusion of track colors as a base editor feature beginning in Synthesizer V Studio 1.10.0b1, we will be discontinuing our track color script and removing it from the download once the release version of 1.10.0 is available.

New bonus files are in progress for distribution with Synthesizer V SAROS, which will be added to the distribution for SOLARIA & ASTERIAN upon SAROS' release. Please feel free to request new scripts or changes to existing ones via our contact form.

[jackmaclenfypblog]

IEM (In Ear Monitoring) Research

As mentioned previously, I was tasked with finding a wireless monitoring system that could connect the MixPre10 to two wireless receivers with headphones, as we had two directors. This quickly developed into needing three as we needed live feed for our script supervisor Sophie, but I bought a headphone splitter so Ariel and Luca could listen through the same device. They work closely anyway!

I’m getting a little too far ahead of myself. When I was first tasked with this challenge, I began researching, and quickly found something called Comtek. Comtek is a system that does what I was requiring, defined as “The name COMTEK has become synonymous with live audio program monitoring in the world of film production. Digitally synthesized transmitters and receivers let directors and crew members clearly hear all the action without missing a sound”.

However, I only found out, after many confusing and frustrating hours of research, and then talking to Rowan Henderson about my troubles, that Comtek is the American version of what we call IEMs in the UK. IEMs stand for In Ear Monitoring. This made complete sense, as I can remember trying to rent Comtek systems but not understanding why I could only find systems available for rent in Los Angeles.

I thought it best, for want to reflect and consider my learning to include some of the research I did into Comteks, before I found out about IEMs. There seems to be some exciting Contact Microphone research included. What a day!

Research into Contact Microphones and Comtek System: Pickled Fish

Contact Microphones:

I have listed potential options below.

What I am going to do is buy a very cheap contact microphone, and XLR adapter, to test out – and in the meantime I will contact people and ask for their opinions/ if they have any better microphones I can borrow.

Options for buying Contact Microphones:

Flanger FA-01 Clip On Contact Microphone For Tuners: £20 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00D66WD3W?tag=freetousesoun-20&keywords=Flanger%20FA-01%20Clip%20On%20Contact%20Microphone%20For%20Tuners&geniuslink=true&ref_=nav_youraccount_switchacct (Need a headphone jack to XLR adapter)

Korg - CM-300-BK Improved Design Contact Microphone for Clip-Type Tuners – Black: £13 (£10 currently) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07DZRDCMB?tag=freetousesoun-20&th=1&psc=1&geniuslink=true (Need a headphone jack to XLR adapter)

Cortado MkIII Contact Microphone: $159.00 https://zeppelindesignlabs.com/product/cortado-mkiii-contact-microphone/

Comtek System:

The FPM-216 Field Program Monitoring Kit would allow for both directors to have feed

In terms of price: buying a Comtek kit would be too expensive, we’re talking about £1,500

I can’t find anywhere to rent a Comtek system (specifically the FPM-216) in Edinburgh. So, I will contact a few people I know and ask around for help. So currently, its looking like it won’t be possible to get this system for the shoot.

General Information on Contact Microphones and the Comtek System:

Contact Microphones:

Could be a cool way to pick up some vibrations: some closer, more tinny, removed and textured sounds of objects and sound events: the running motor of the boat.

Here are a couple videos showing the basic functions of a contact microphone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg-br8pndlU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy_RZyg469g

Comtek System:

The answer to the question, can we get a sound feed to the directors on set, is Comteks.

What are Comteks: Live audio monitoring system for film production

Comtek is a brand of live audio monitoring systems that use transmitters and receivers to allow directors and crew to hear all the action on set. Comtek systems are built to withstand tough environments and can be used to send time code.

Good News: A Comtek can connect to a MixPre10. It connects to an X3/X4 Out, but if the MixPre10 doesn’t have this there are adapters into XLR.

The YouTube video below has all the information we need:

Comtek Research: Pickled Fish

The answer to the question, can we get a sound feed to the directors on set, is Comteks.

What are Comteks: Live audio monitoring system for film production

Comtek is a brand of live audio monitoring systems that use transmitters and receivers to allow directors and crew to hear all the action on set. Comtek systems are built to withstand tough environments and can be used to send time code. 

Good News: A Comtek can connect to a MixPre10. It connects to an X3/X4 Out, but if the MixPre10 doesn’t have this there are adapters into XLR.

In terms of price: buying a Comtek kit would be too expensive, we’re talking about £1,500. However, I will put time into researching costs, and availability, of renting a Comtek kit out for a weeklong period.

The FPM-216 Field Program Monitoring Kit would allow for both directors to have feed.

Wales: £200 for 7 days

Comtek PR-216 Personal Receiver (4) + Comtek M-216P7 (1) Comtek Wireless IFB Kit + Headphones

I eventually found a place that offered a Comtek system to rent in London, so I sent them this email:

Hi there,

My name is Jack MacLean, and I am the Production Sound Mixer on a short film, based in Edinburgh, shooting in mid-February.

I am looking for a Comtek system, that will allow me to send live audio feed from my mixer, wirelessly, to both my director, and script supervisor. I have been looking specifically for the FPM-216 Field Program Monitoring Kit; however, I have had no luck in finding this kit to rent.

Do you offer any equipment to rent that would allow me to do this?

The mixer I am using is the MIXPRE10T Audio Recorder & Mixer.

One of our crew is based in London so would be able to pick something up if its is available.

Please let me know if this is something you can help with.

All the best,

Jack MacLean

After talking to Rowan, I was set on the correct path to find my directors the feed they wanted! A crew member, Stuart, had a Rode Wireless Go system, but I wasn’t sure if that would work – so I did the research:

Director’s Feed: Research

Stuart has a Rode Wireless Go system that we could potentially use as a makeshift Comtek system for cheap.

Check what version of Rode Wireless Go system this is: is it a Rode Wireless Go II? That seems to be the one to use.

Reddit answer (not specific to the MixPre10):

Cheapest way I’ve discovered is to plug a Rode Wireless Go II transmitter into the stereo out on your MixPre ii, and give the director headphones attached to the Wireless Go receiver

Obviously, this isn’t a professional solution, but it is a solution, they will hear what you’re recording.

We can connect the transmitter to the MixPre, and have the receivers with Directors.

So, can we use the output of the MixPre10 for this purpose? As well as using it for Boom Ops.

I eventually combined my research, and found an option, in Musselburgh for £10 a day:

IEM Final Research: Pickled Fish

Summary:

If we want Luca and Ariel to be able to hear the mix, we need to rent out a Sennheiser IEM receiver for each person listening wirelessly. We have the ability for more people to listen, maybe Sophie the script supervisor would want one, then we can do that – but we would need to rent another receiver.

The cheapest Sennheiser IEM receiver I can find is for £10 a day (they don’t have a weekly rate on their website). I am going to call them tomorrow to find out if they reduce the price for a week rental. We would need to rent two of these receivers minimum.

I have linked this rental option at the bottom of the doc.

Anything in blue is technical: good to know and have written down, but more sound based than producing based.

Approach:

The overview of how we attach the IEM system is we use a kit store Sennheiser Portable Wireless Radio Mic transmitter – and then we set the rented Sennheiser IEM receivers to the same frequency.

The Sennheiser IEM receivers have an adjustable volume and amp – which will mean the signal can be catered to the ear. The Rode Wireless Go system lacks this – and I have been told will most likely be very quiet or very loud, and unchangeable.

This will mean we have to rent two IEM receivers for the shooting days.

Rowan details this in his email:

You don't need to use a big transmitter, you can also just use the small pack transmitters you are used to using and that the uni have, as long as they share the same frequency range (and decoding capabilities but don't worry about that as sennheisers are uniform for this case)

So aslong as the transmitter has the same frequency on it say 606.500 for example and the reciever IEM is set to this too they will work together.

You can plug the transmitter or transmitters into the outputs or the mixer, which can be configured in the mixer for what channels/mixes to send. Just make sure you have the right cables for this.

So all you'd need is an IEM pack with the same frequency range as the transmitter pack as the uni and any cables you need to connect it to the mixer.

We do have the problem that Yat and Michael will not be able to hear their individual booms: rather the main mix. However, if we were to attach two transmitters to both the L/R and X1/X2 stereo outputs and send one transmitter (routed to one boom) to one receiver, and then another transmitter (routed to the other boom) to a second receiver – our boom ops could hear themselves absent of the other boom.

However, this would mean our directors choosing which boom to listen to: they wouldn’t be able to listen to the whole mix.

This would also cost to hire 2 more Sennheiser IEM receivers!

However, if the boom ops are connected via headphone splitter, and are happy to listen to the main mix with the mixer, the directors could also listen to this full mix.

Also if the script supervisor were to want one: we would need another receiver.

So, the options are:

Sound recordist, and two boom operators, connected to mixer via a triple headphone splitter – listening to main mix (booms, and LAVs). Directors connected to transmitter via wireless IEM receiver - listening to whatever they would like (main mix, individual booms etc.) Means: Rent 2 IEM receivers.

Sound recordist connected to mixer via headphones. Boom operators connected to individual transmitter via wireless IEM receiver – listening to their respective channels. Directors connected to transmitter via wireless IEM receiver - listening to either boom channel (need to choose which – no main mix). Means: Rent 4 IEM receivers. Double the price.

Do we need extra cables:

We will need a 3.5mm Jack to 3.5mm Jack cable.

Picture for reference:

Changes to Kit:

We will need one more Sennheiser Portable Wireless Radio Mic kit if we go with option 1.

We will need two more … if we go with option 2.

Regardless, we will need to contact the guys at the kit store and ask for our booking to updated. I am more than happy to do this/talk to them about it, if that helps.  I’ll be there in person both Tuesday (4th) and Wednesday (5th). But also I know that going through one channel of communication is probably best!

Rental Options:

Sennheiser EK 300 IEM G3 in-ear monitor wireless receiver

£10.00 plus VAT per day

This is the best price, and closest I can find.

Here was the final quote we got:

[maximuswolf]

How to make a custom vocaloid model using custom voice?

How to make a custom vocaloid model using custom voice? Hello guys! I have seen some Vocaloid apps, where you can write the lyrics and it makes TTS sing somehow (like the Vocaloid 5 or Synthesizer V). So, I'm wondering if it is possible to create a custom voice? Because, I don't want to use that stuff, and I have a huge amount of labeled voice datasets. So:How does it even work? I mean, how is the TTS able to sing? (Not Miku, the normal ones)How to make a custom one and use it (inside the Synthesizer V for example)?Do I need to phoneme-split the audio and do I explicitly the singing data and how much of it I need (in minutes)?Is it an AI or this whole stuff is pre-scripted? Submitted August 17, 2024 at 07:32AM by yukiarimo https://ift.tt/X6cJytn via /r/Music

[alanlechuszaauthor]

“Hey Mr.!...Mister!  What’s that song?” – An apologetic deconstruction of Broken Wings by Mr. Mister

Mr. Mister. Broken Wings. Welcome to the Real World, June 1985, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKhN1t_7PEY.

It all started in the 1980s with a sense of trying to feel good

The year was 1985. It’s the middle of the proverbial, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” era (Bobby McFerrin, Don’t Worry Be Happy (1988), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU).

Primetime comedy shows are all the rage. Mullet haircuts are everywhere (you remember, “business in the front, party in the back!”). The music scene was filled with the sweet sounds of the progressive synthesizers of the time. Yes, it was a time where most believed that pop culture (read: American popular culture) was a thriving vessel of security, teen-age enjoyment, and adulthood luxury. And, when that famed FM radio was clicked on, the subtle thumping of the opening bass lines of the song, Broken Wings (Mr. Mister. Broken Wings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKhN1t_7PEY) by the then chart-topping band Mr. Mister slowly flowed through the not-so-surround sound in that overly priced car. Still, that song caught the breath of the listener, at least, for a short while.

Bobby McFerrin, Don’t Worry Be Happy, 1988, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6782586/

Primetime comedy shows are all the rage.  Mullet haircuts are everywhere (you remember, “business in the front, party in the back!”).  The music scene was filled with the sweet sounds of the progressive synthesizers of the time.  Yes, it was a time where most believed that pop culture (read: American popular culture) was a thriving vessel of security, teen-age enjoyment, and adulthood luxury.  And, when that famed FM radio was clicked on, the subtle thumping of the opening bass lines of the song, Broken Wings (Mr. Mister. Broken Wings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKhN1t_7PEY) by the then chart-topping band Mr. Mister slowly flowed through the not-so-surround sound in that overly priced car.  Still, that song caught the breath of the listener, at least, for a short while. 

Mr. Mister, Broken Wings, 1985, https://www.stereogum.com/2106886/the-number-ones-mr-misters-broken-wings/columns/the-number-ones/

Recently, that song, Broken Wings played on the radio. After checking my clock to be sure that I was still in the 21st century, I started to mentally deconstruct the song. Yes, once I regained my held breath, I reviewed the lyrics to that song, the purpose of it from that pop-synth-rock band, and how the song could be read through an apologetic lens. Taking my punky style of apologetic deconstruction to task, I listened to that track again, and again, and again, …

Inspired by a Lebanese poet-philosopher Kahlil Gibran from the book, The Broken Wings (1912) (https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500551h.html), the band lyricist John Lang penned this classic pop song for that age.

Gibran, Kahlil, The Broken Wings, 1912, https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31527140416&ref_=ps_ggl_18382194370&cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade0to10-_-product_id=COM9781979253185USED-_-keyword=&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgqGrBhDtARIsAM5s0_mC1MRzcPycv7I8pLcrjTUqUviC9_OIp16ZGgSlYqdWT1Grx6eIeHAaAjLlEALw_wcB

Though the song by Mr. Mister deals with a love affair vis-à-vis a broken relationship and the attempt to reconcile the defeated relationship or move-on, with an apologetic deconstructive reading of the track, there’s more that can be deduced. Applying a faith-based center analysis — that my punky style of apologetic deconstruction thrives upon — the love affair can be re-scripted to be read how one has lost their faith, challenged their faith through doubt, selfishness, and insecurity. The loss of faith is the core, then, of what is broken, the wing(s) of faith, the foundations of one’s belief system, the necessity to live by, develop, practice, enhance, and mature one’s faith has — for whatever reason — been lost, or, in this case, broken. How many of us can identify with this sense of self-defeat? It is this point of departure where the apologetic deconstruction of the song, Broken Wings, begins to employ how one can regain, or at the bare minimum work toward recapturing the meaning of faith within their life.

The Lyrics, Deconstructed, Analyzed and Apologetically Scored

With an apologetic critique of the lyrics to Broken Wings we can begin to see, right from the start that there’s a problem between the fictional self and their faith, …I don’t understand/why we can’t just hold on/to each other’s hands…

We’re not told how faith was lost, but this opening verse points to a tone of desperation steaming from this action. The remainder of the verse solidifies my argument, …This time might be the last/I fear, unless I make it all too clear/I need you so…

This is the cry for help, the self-realization that the end is either present or quickly approaching. The chorus identifies the action to release the tension, the self-defeat, the acceptance that help is needed to rebuild one’s faith and the acknowledgment that this regaining of faith cannot be done alone but can only be accomplished with help. Take these broken wings/and learn to fly again/learn to live so free…

Embedded within the chorus is the realization that once faith has been restored, or heard as lyrics state, then, the book of love will open up/and let us [read: me] in… Advancing this apologetic hermeneutical reading, it becomes clear that, even at this early stage in the song, the fictious character is seeking to restore their faith, to know the love that they once had and the need to abandon their present state, condition, and thinking.

Within the second verse, the fictional character starts to make their personal advancement toward regaining their faith, …I think tonight/we [read: I] can take what was wrong/and make it right… Clearly this is a point of personal reflection and a juncture in the character’s desire to move toward what they once knew about their faith.

The next few lines of this verse are the character’s testimony, it’s all I know/that you’re half of the flesh/and blood [that] makes me whole/I need you so…

The character starts to align themselves with a trajectory, a reckoning, a motive, a belief center action to better their position, and witness — or as I stated, testify — that they lost their faith, but in the act of calling to, learn to fly again, they can surpass this trauma in their life; faith can be restored anew.

The fact that the main points of the second verse are repeated once again is not an accident, nor a reprise of the lyrics to complete a musical marker following pop music structure. I read this reprise of the second verse taking note of the words that are restated, placing an emphasis on their faith building value and personal cry for help from this fictional main character. The repeated definition that, …you’re half of the flesh/and blood that makes me whole… is the testimony. This is the self-abjection from the main character; a point of humbling, recognizing that they are wretched and have lost not only their core faith, but the love central to the meaning of their faith.

The lyricist is careful not to allow this fictional character to lose their worldly position, yet the character still strives to be released from the tensions and burdens of the world that they recognize as being possible through a reformation of their core faith. Applying the term abjection, as used by Julia Kristeva, the norms, rules, and social moralities of the world need be cast off for the character to transcend the defeat they are experiencing from the loss of faith. As Kristeva notes, the repressions of “corporeal reality,” (read: worldly limitations) are confronted, challenged and narrated — as I argue — through the necessity for the individual to harness their experience of loss of faith into one that is repositioned as a movement toward their faith, but with a renewed sense of urgency (read: fly again, live so free) that the character is, then, able to, love so free, as the chorus later develops.

Julia Kristeva, AZ Quotes, https://www.azquotes.com/author/17749-Julia_Kristeva

Does the Proverbial Book of Love Ever Open?

The song simply ends with the vocalist acknowledging a rhetorical “yes” to the developed process. But is the, yeah/yeah/yeah… that simple of a recovery from this lost position into one where the fictional character has found their faith? Or is this a tribute back to the 1980s era of being happy about whatever comes. Is this closing retort a gentle nod to the listener that the story does conclude with a happy ending? What a cliché; a fallacy of resolution as one ventures on an unstable path to find their faith, collect their place within their desire to renew their belief, a desire to script a new life in the “book of love.” But what can one expect from a chart-topping song from the late 1980s.

My punky deconstructive apologetic argument cashes in on the invitation from the lyricist to, …take what was wrong/and make it right… It’s not that this critical reading is right, but rather far from it. What is does make this critique valuable is the need to not limit this pop song to one of a lost love between a man and woman. The apologetic deconstruction of Broken Wings, I argue, can unveil a blueprint for how one can examine their current state of faith, build upon that honest testimony, and let themselves in to the omnipotent book of love.

Alan Lechusza

November 30, 2023

alanlechusza.com

alanlechuszaauthor.com

[apn-music]

UVI synthesizer ‘Falcon’ version 3 released

UVI has released the latest version 3 of its Falcon synthesizer. - 20 oscillator types, 100+ fx, modulators, MIDI processing, and scripting in a semi-modular environment - Advanced sample engines with time-stretching, pitch-shifting, slicing, and granular processing - Deep synthesis capabilities including subtractive, PM, FM, wavetable, additive, physical modeling, formant, and more

INFINITE SOUND

Falcon gives you everything you need to create the sound of your dreams, delivering an extensive collection of cutting-edge tools in an open-ended semi-modular environment. A powerful instrument for seasoned pros and beginners alike, Falcon can be easily adapted to serve many needs. Whether you're looking for inspiring sounds for a new song, or are deep-diving into creative sound design, Falcon can be as nimble or calculating as the task requires. Explore sound with precision and finesse, from basic sample slicing and synth design to modulated multitimbral hybrids, create incredible layered synths, expressive MPE instruments, powerful drums, intricately chopped breaks, multi-channel surround sound, imaginative sound design, generative sequences, wild effects and much more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxyt1qt5Lyk

UNLIMITED SOUND SOURCES

Falcon includes 20 oscillators providing a wide range of synthesis and sample-based sound generation including virtual analog, wavetable, phase distortion, FM, additive, drum, noise, formant, pluck, harmonic resonators, bowed string, sample, stretch, granular, and more. Layer them, map them, modulate them, make them yours.

POWERFUL, INSPIRING EFFECTS

Over 100 high-quality effects are included, giving you numerous flavors of delay, reverb, modulation, filtering, EQ, amps, distortion, dynamics, analyzers and more. Effects can be instanced throughout your patch, used in parallel, and deeply modulated. UVI's proprietary DSP ensures pristine quality, from lush modulated reverbs to incredibly accurate physically-modeled compressors, and beyond.

MODULATION

Add movement and dynamics to any part of your sound with envelopes, MSEGs, LFOs, drunk and random generators, and more. Modulate your oscillators, your effects, even modulate your modulators! Remap and quantize them with Mappers, or make it physical with extensive support for MIDI CC, OSC, and host automation sources.

EVENTS AND SCRIPTING

Manipulate incoming MIDI or generate it algorithmically using a wide variety of included scripts to enhance, augment, and modulate your performances – then pipe that data to the rest of your studio, all without needing to know how to program. And for those comfortable with Lua, Falcon offers a powerful way to extend its functionality, and create unique processors and instruments of your own design.

WORKFLOW

Falcon's interface is adaptable to your needs, from exploring presets and editing sounds, to creating instruments, mixing multichannel performances, and more. Features like UI Snapshots, program templates, extensive preset implementation, and tree view make realizing your inspirations all that much faster.

WHAT'S NEW IN FALCON 3?

Since Falcon's initial release we have been committed to refining and expanding its creative potential. With one ear to R&D, and the other to user feedback, we regularly add new features, content, and optimizations, all at no cost to our existing users. Registered users of Falcon and SonicPass can download Falcon 3 immediately with UVI Portal. Version 3 sees the addition of 3 new oscillators including VOSIM (formant), Bowed String, and Harmonic Resonator, 4 new effects including Opal, Ladder Filter, Dispersor, and Harmonic Resonator FX, MIDI Out support, new scripts, numerous workflow improvements including UI snapshots, launch screen, and more, and an updated and refreshed factory library. For more information and to purchase the Falcon, check out the UVI homepage Read the full article

[synthvhelp]

I tried using some scripts but I have no idea how to get them to work. I specifically want to use the Real Voice Growl script, but it just gives me a scripting error no matter what I try to do :/

Try uninstalling and reinstalling the script.

Make sure you installed it in the correct location.

If the above fails, I suggest you contact the script creator as it's most likely an issue with the script. If it's not an issue with the script, you should submit a bug report on the Synthesizer V forum.

[synthsatellite]

Synthesizer V Language Phoneme Converter Plugin by Giuseppe Andrea Ferraro

Script to allow customization of the current dictionary system. Currently only Italian output is supported!

Input:

Output:

🔗On GitHub 🔗DT Forum Thread

Preview:

[nine-aetharia]

Hi I've been meaning to ask, synthv/vsynth is like vocaloid roght?

Yes, it is! But Vsynth and Synth V are two different things.

If you're familiar with Vocaloid, then Synthesizer V (sometimes shortened to Synth V or SVS) is software similar to that. You input notes and lyrics and tune everything so the little robot singer sings.

Vsynth (short for virtual synthesizer or vocal synthesizer) is the catch-all term for these types of software, and the vsynth community uses it to refer to these programs, because there's a lot of them! Since the rise and popularity of Vocaloid, there's been a lot of competitors that have popped up in recent years, and they're all from different companies, so we can't refer to all of them as just Vocaloid (just like how we can't refer to every vsinger out there as Hatsune Miku - also fun fact! Miku hasn't been a Vocaloid in YEARS PIAPRO TOOK HER)

Here's a crash course:

VOCALOID is a vocal synth software by YAMAHA. It's the most popular one out there but sadly, it's fallen behind lately. It's not the thing that sings, it's the thing that makes the little singbots sing. It's the engine. Most of Vocaloid's voicebanks are provided by other companies - Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Len, and Megurine Luka are from Crypton (and they yoinked them back); Kaito and Meiko are native from Yamaha, Gumi is from Internet Co, etc, etc. You get it. The old versions of Vocaloid have been discontinued and are stupid hard to find. Their latest release is V6.

PIAPRO STUDIO is the engine Miku and the other Cryptonloids are now on.

CEVIO is another vsynth software out there. If you remember IA (you know, Miss KagePro herself?), she was pulled out of Vocaloid and moved to Cevio, and her sister ONE was released there too. CEVIO has come a long way since the IA days. We got shit like ROSE and POPY now.

ACE STUDIO is also another vsynth engine. I've never used it myself, but I know people who have. IIRC they're planning to use a subscription model (most software including Vocaloid are one-time purchases - you get the engine and the vb separately but you only have to get them once), so you get the engine and the voices but you pay a monthly fee. The English UI is still in development but there are community-made guides out there for those who want to use it. It's still in beta I think so you can test it out. It is SO GOOD.

And then there's SYNTHESIZER V STUDIO (which I personally, along with most of the community, think is THEE leading vsynth program currently). You still have to get the engine and vbs separately for this one but there's a Synth V Basic which is free (it just doesn't have a couple of features like crosslang, scripts, etc). Vocaloid Xingchen (Stardust) was moved here, and LORD. Listen to her

Synth V also has the most English vbs amongst all modern vsynths, I think, and the Pro version has crosslang so the vbs can sing in English, Chinese, Japanese (or another language if you get a dictionary - the community has made a lot of them and they've got them up on github). And they all sound FANTASTIC

(looks at smudged writing on hand) emvoice...

Anyway, isn't it funky how far we've come since the first Vsynth sang Bicycle Built For Two?! :D

[squidhominid]

'Localization as an artform' Twitter thread, 7/10/2021

Hey, heads-up to any aspiring creators out there. This is from personal experience as a YouTube ghostwriter, so listen up.

Translation is a creative effort. There is no 'correct' way to translate something, any translation involves interpretation of meaning and some degree of localization and original writing.

In the past I wrote content for Lockstin, analyzing the Splatoon franchise and its lore. And, I didn't realize the above. I thought, translation is translation, the text is what it is, no matter the language.

In the course of my research, I came across what I think was some translated passages from one of the art books. I did what I usually did: I took what I needed, wrote it into the script, and put the source into parenthetical notes for whoever edited the video.

Up to that point, I was mainly using translations from places like Inkipedia, and I did credit my sources, but due to this specific translation being from social media, I put a lower value cost on it; after all, it was 'just a fan translating stuff for other fans'.

I saw it as a public good and a service. I overlooked the creative effort of translation. Ironically, even though I was active in communities like Legends of Localization, I had not fully internalized the understanding of how much creative effort goes into translation.

Since then, I have learned. I have made friends in more places, talked with people more in-depth about this sort of work, and consumed content on the subject. Of note, I can credit obskyr for opening my eyes to the fact that translation is, itself, art and creation of art.

I feel like this idea, this belief that translation is a 'service' and not a 'creative effort', is also why we have seen a groundswell, especially lately, of people criticizing official translations for the use of terms like 'sus' or 'cancel' or other terms deemed 'incorrect'.

People think there is one, objective, unitary translation of a text, and the translator's job is to achieve that as a platonic ideal, an endpoint. This is nowhere near the truth. A thousand translators can look at a piece of text and come to a thousand different, valid results.

The translation achieved is the result of that person's worldview, their understanding of the origin culture, their understanding of the target culture, and most importantly I feel, their ability to recognize when things don't translate. And so, they synthesize.

They take things from one culture and seek out analogues. Things that 'feel' the same as the original intent, even though they are not the same. Think of translating Pokemon names, for instance.

In Japan, 'Torchic' is called 'Achamo'. Of course, nobody in the English-speaking world would be able to figure out that 'Achamo' is 'akachan', or baby, + 'shamo', a breed of chicken raised for Japanese cockfighting. But they understand 'torchic' is 'torch' + 'chick'.

Think of the effort that went into coming up with that name. It wasn't in literal text. Someone created that. Someone spent time thinking of that. That was creative work. Translation is creative work.

Treat translators as artists. If you're creating a video or an essay, credit them as if they're artists. For that matter, credit artists too if you don't! And ask both for permission! Translation is not a service with a correct or incorrect outcome. It never has been.

At this stage in my career I have nowhere near the reach I used to, and the person I wronged is possibly one of the biggest names in the fandom, so I can't achieve much by doing this, but if you have any interest in Splatoon lore, you need to be following Rassicas.

I also want to thank MarzGurl, whose tweets about anime and manga localization helped crystalize some of the ideas I've gone over here.

I know this is...incredibly off-script for a V-tuber Twitter, but, cut me some slack, I've always been a pretty forward and opinionated person. I just wanted to put this out into the world because since finding out about my error it's been on my mind.

Now, if you don't mind, I feel incredibly ill and I need to find the person responsible so I can tell them to make the room stop spinning.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

20 years a blogger

It's been twenty years, to the day, since I published my first blog-post.

I'm a blogger.

Blogging - publicly breaking down the things that seem significant, then synthesizing them in longer pieces - is the defining activity of my days.

https://boingboing.net/2001/01/13/hey-mark-made-me-a.html

Over the years, I've been lauded, threatened, sued (more than once). I've met many people who read my work and have made connections with many more whose work  I wrote about. Combing through my old posts every morning is a journey through my intellectual development.

It's been almost exactly a year I left Boing Boing, after 19 years. It wasn't planned, and it wasn't fun, but it was definitely time. I still own a chunk of the business and wish them well. But after 19 years, it was time for a change.

A few weeks after I quit Boing Boing, I started a solo project. It's called Pluralistic: it's a blog that is published simultaneously on Twitter, Mastodon, Tumblr, a newsletter and the web. It's got no tracking or ads. Here's the very first edition:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/19/pluralist-19-feb-2020/

I don't often do "process posts" but this merits it. Here's how I built Pluralistic and here's how it works today, after nearly a year.

I get up at 5AM and make coffee. Then I sit down on the sofa and open a huge tab-group, and scroll through my RSS feeds using Newsblur.

I spend the next 1-2 hours winnowing through all the stuff that seems important. I have a chronic pain problem and I really shouldn't sit on the sofa for more than 10 minutes, so I use a timer and get up every 10 minutes and do one minute of physio.

After a couple hours, I'm left with 3-4 tabs that I want to write articles about that day. When I started writing Pluralistic, I had a text file on my desktop with some blank HTML I'd tinkered with to generate a layout; now I have an XML file (more on that later).

First I go through these tabs and think up metadata tags I want to use for each; I type these into the template using my text-editor (gedit), like this:

   <xtags>

process, blogging, pluralistic, recursion, navel-gazing

   </xtags>

Each post has its own little template. It needs an anchor tag (for this post, that's "hfbd"), a title ("20 years a blogger") and a slug ("Reflections on a lifetime of reflecting"). I fill these in for each post.

Then I come up with a graphic for each post: I've got a giant folder of public domain clip-art, and I'm good at using all the search tools for open-licensed art: the Library of Congress, Wikimedia, Creative Commons, Flickr Commons, and, ofc, Google Image Search.

I am neither an artist nor a shooper, but I've been editing clip art since I created pixel-art versions of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood glyphs using Bannermaker for the Apple //c in 1985 and printed them out on enough fan-fold paper to form a border around my bedroom.

As I create the graphics, I pre-compose Creative Commons attribution strings to go in the post; there's two versions, one for the blog/newsletter and one for Mastodon/Twitter/Tumblr. I compose these manually.

Here's a recent one:

Blog/Newsletter:

(<i>Image: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QAnon_in_red_shirt_(48555421111).jpg">Marc Nozell</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en">CC BY</a>, modified</i>)

Twitter/Masto/Tumblr:

Image: Marc Nozell (modified)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QAnon_in_red_shirt_(48555421111).jpg

CC BY

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

This is purely manual work, but I've been composing these CC attribution strings since CC launched in 2003, and they're just muscle-memory now. Reflex.

These attribution strings, as well as anything else I'll need to go from Twitter to the web (for example, the names of people whose Twitter handles I use in posts, or images I drop in, go into the text file). Here's how the post looks at this point in the composition.

<hr>

<a name="hfbd"></a>

<img src="https://craphound.com/images/20yrs.jpg">

<h1>20 years a blogger</h1><xtagline>Reflections on a lifetime of reflecting.</xtagline>

<img src="https://craphound.com/images/frnklogo.jpg">

See that <img> tag in there for frnklogo.jpg? I snuck that in while I was composing this in Twitter. When I locate an image on the web I want to use in a post, I save it to a dir on my desktop that syncs every 60 seconds to the /images/ dir on my webserver.

As I save it, I copy the filename to my clipboard, flip over to gedit, and type in the <img> tag, pasting the filename. I've typed <img src="https://craphound.com/images/ CTRL-V"> tens of thousands of times - muscle memory.

Once the thread is complete, I copy each tweet back into gedit, tabbing back and forth, replacing Twitter handles and hashtags with non-Twitter versions, changing the ALL CAPS EMPHASIS to the extra-character-consuming *asterisk-bracketed emphasis*.

My composition is greatly aided both 20 years' worth of mnemonic slurry of semi-remembered posts and the ability to search memex.craphound.com (the site where I've mirrored all my Boing Boing posts) easily.

A huge, searchable database of decades of thoughts really simplifies the process of synthesis.

Next I port the posts to other media. I copy the headline and paste it into a new Tumblr compose tab, then import the image and tag the post "pluralistic."

Then I paste the text of the post into Tumblr and manually select, cut, and re-paste every URL in the post (because Tumblr's automatic URL-to-clickable-link tool's been broken for 10+ months).

Next I past the whole post into a Mastodon compose field. Working by trial and error, I cut it down to <500 characters, breaking at a para-break and putting the rest on my clipboard. I post, reply, and add the next item in the thread until it's all done.

*Then* I hit publish on my Twitter thread. Composing in Twitter is the most unforgiving medium I've ever worked in. You have to keep each stanza below 280 chars. You can't save a thread as a draft, so as you edit it, you have to pray your browser doesn't crash.

And once you hit publish, you can't edit it. Forever. So you want to publish Twitter threads LAST, because the process of mirroring them to Tumblr and Mastodon reveals typos and mistakes (but there's no way to save the thread while you work!).

Now I create a draft Wordpress post on pluralistic.net, and create a custom slug for the page (today's is "two-decades"). Saving the draft generates the URL for the page, which I add to the XML file.

Once all the day's posts are done, I make sure to credit all my sources in another part of that master XML file, and then I flip to the command line and run a bunch of python scripts that do MAGIC: formatting the master file as a newsletter, a blog post, and a master thread.

Those python scripts saved my ASS. For the first two months of Pluralistic, i did all the reformatting by hand. It was a lot of search-replace (I used a checklist) and I ALWAYS screwed it up and had to debug, sometimes taking hours.

Then, out of the blue, a reader - Loren Kohnfelder - wrote to me to point out bugs in the site's RSS. He offered to help with text automation and we embarked on a month of intensive back-and-forth as he wrote a custom suite for me.

Those programs take my XML file and spit out all the files I need to publish my site, newsletter and master thread (which I pin to my profile). They've saved me more time than I can say. I probably couldn't kept this up without Loren's generous help (thank you, Loren!).

I open up the output from the scripts in gedit. I paste the blog post into the Wordpress draft and copy-paste the metadata tags into WP's "tags" field. I preview the post, tweak as necessary, and publish.

(And now I write this, I realize I forgot to mention that while I'm doing the graphics, I also create a square header image that makes a grid-collage out of the day's post images, using the Gimp's "alignment" tool)

(because I'm composing this in Twitter, it would be a LOT of work to insert that information further up in the post, where it would make sense to have it - see what I mean about an unforgiving medium?)

(While I'm on the subject: putting the "add tweet to thread" and "publish the whole thread" buttons next to each other is a cruel joke that has caused me to repeatedly publish before I was done, and deleting a thread after you publish it is a nightmare)

Now I paste the newsletter file into a new mail message, address it to my Mailman server, and create a custom subject for the day, send it, open the Mailman admin interface in a browser, and approve the message.

Now it's time to create that anthology post you can see pinned to my Mastodon and Twitter accounts. Loren's script uses a template to produce all the tweets for the day, but it's not easy to get that pre-written thread into Twitter and Mastodon.

Part of the problem is that each day's Twitter master thread has a tweet with a link to the day's Mastodon master thread ("Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? Follow these threads on the #fediverse at @pluralistic@mamot.fr. Here's today's edition: LINK").

So the first order of business is to create the Mastodon thread, pin it, copy the link to it, and paste it into the template for the Twitter thread, then create and pin the Twitter thread.

Now it's time to get ready for tomorrow. I open up the master XML template file and overwrite my daily working file with its contents. I edit the file's header with tomorrow's date, trim away any "Upcoming appearances" that have gone by, etc.

Then I compose tomorrow's retrospective links. I open tabs for this day a year ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and (now) 20 years ago:

http://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2016/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2011/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2006/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2001/01/14

I go through each day, and open anything I want to republish in its own tab, then open the OP link in the next tab (finding it in the @internetarchive if necessary). Then I copy my original headline and the link to the article into tomorrow's XML file, like so:

#10yrsago Disney World’s awful Tiki Room catches fire <a href="https://thedisneyblog.com/2011/01/12/fire-reported-at-magic-kingdom-tiki-room/">https://thedisneyblog.com/2011/01/12/fire-reported-at-magic-kingdom-tiki-room/</a>

And NOW my day is done.

So, why do I do all this?

First and foremost, I do it for ME. The memex I've created by thinking about and then describing every interesting thing I've encountered is hugely important for how I understand the world. It's the raw material of every novel, article, story and speech I write.

And I do it for the causes I believe in. There's stuff in this world I want to change for the better. Explaining what I think is wrong, and how it can be improved, is the best way I know for nudging it in a direction I want to see it move.

The more people I reach, the more it moves.

When I left Boing Boing, I lost access to a freestanding way of communicating. Though I had popular Twitter and Tumblr accounts, they are at the mercy of giant companies with itchy banhammers and arbitrary moderation policies.

I'd long been a fan of the POSSE - Post Own Site, Share Everywhere - ethic, the idea that your work lives on platforms you control, but that it travels to meet your readers wherever they are.

Pluralistic posts start out as Twitter threads because that's the most constrained medium I work in, but their permalinks (each with multiple hidden messages in their slugs) are anchored to a server I control.

When my threads get popular, I make a point of appending the pluralistic.net permalink to them.

When I started blogging, 20 years ago, blogger.com had few amenities. None of the familiar utilities of today's media came with the package.

Back then, I'd manually create my headlines with <h2> tags. I'd manually create discussion links for each post on Quicktopic. I'd manually paste each post into a Yahoo Groups email. All the guff I do today to publish Pluralistic is, in some way, nothing new.

20 years in, blogging is still a curious mix of both technical, literary and graphic bodgery, with each day's work demanding the kind of technical minutuae we were told would disappear with WYSIWYG desktop publishing.

I grew up in the back-rooms of print shops where my dad and his friends published radical newspapers, laying out editions with a razor-blade and rubber cement on a light table. Today, I spend hours slicing up ASCII with a cursor.

I go through my old posts every day. I know that much - most? - of them are not for the ages. But some of them are good. Some, I think, are great. They define who I am. They're my outboard brain.

[chicago-geniza]

ok you literally have 2 Tasks today:

- interview prep (write Script; rehearse; reference A's notes-->outline Skills broadly & "zoom in" on specifics; what you lack in ~publishing experience you make up for in academic editing expertise; foreign language proficiency, professional network, also Why you want to do this job, i.e., be in a position to publish marginalized, often multiply marginalized, scholars who are pushed out of academia by a convergence of implicit structural forces often compounded by explicit discrimination or pressured into making their work more 'palatable' or 'politically neutral' as a condition/stipulation/prerequisite to publication; also mention literary translation, experience as a translator but also connections 2 many ~promising early-career translators as well as established people like [redacted]; 5 yrs of a phd program also gave you ~expertise [choose another word] in slavic studies, jewish studies, comp lit, & modern history, esp the central/eastern european region; you haven't written reader's reports in a publishing context but you have written MANY academic book reviews that require you to summarize contents & synthesize a book's Main Ideas very succinctly, so the skill set is transferrable; brainstorm answers to Workplace Conflict Q, How Would Coworkers Describe You Q, Time Management/Deadline Q (what A said abt excel & "workflow" lol), research more about what an editorial assistant Does, come up with 5-10 Qs for the interviewer, figure out how 2 demonstrate familiarity w/ the press!)

- cover letter / submit other press job

- oh also text AT back, text AF back

IF you finish these Tasks, then:

- invoice for V

- edit J's paper

- edit op-ed

[noctswife]

How would you rank these vocal synthesis engines? Vocaloid 5, Piapro, Alter/Ego, Synthesizer V, and UTAU.

Ok note that since I have never actually used the engines and havent even seen the full UI for them I cannot rank them as well as someone who has, however I will be going by what I know most about them.

1. Synthesizer V

Given its AI self-tuning feature, even a beginner can make a well-tuned cover -- I checked. Of course, this doesn't mean it’s impossible to make something that doesn't sound clunky: I’ve seen a few covers using GENBU (who is described as “may appear a bit unpolished on the outside”) but overall the voicebanks appear extensive, allowing a clear voice and the scripting option seems very interesting. Even without the AI tuning, making the voice sound realistic seems very achievable: I’ve seen enough hand-tuned covers that sound smooth as silk. Downsides is that the voices so far all kind of seem same-y to me, and that the current voicebanks aren’t many. 

2. UTAU

Yeah, we’ve all seen clunky UTAU covers and from what i’ve seen a lot of them are like that, but I believe that being able to make your own voicebank -- for FREE is a big deal. The infinite possibilities of voicebanks means that you’ll most likely be able to find a voicebank that fits your every need. The UI itself feels very basic and flat, which makes sense since it’s a very old program, but 

3. Vocaloid/Piapro

Ah, the one I’m most famiiar with. Given that they share voicebanks and are kinda different engines (That I have not used) I lumped them in together. Note that the amount of it I’ve consumed will probably affect the review and my perception of it. I think vocaloid is better at expressing emotion, but not by a huge margin -- i’ve yet to hear a vocaloid singing with a tone of voice that says “i will strangle you”, but I have heard vocaloid like with slight warbling that makes them sound like they’re holding back tears. Though I’m tenative as I don’t know much about the difference between Piapro studio and VOCALOID editor, I’d rate Vocaloid studio a bit higher as it has more voicebanks from ehat I can tell.

4. Alter/Ego

The only one on this list that I have not heard of before. From what I’ve seen from quick searching, the UI looks annoying to work with, and it operates on a text to speech system, which I think would get annoying real quick, given that the results feel a bit randomized. I feel like making a well tuned cover out of this would be the most difficult. 

[brokehorrorfan]

Blu-ray Review: Scare Package

One should never judge a book by its cover, but first impressions can make or break a film, particularly an indie horror effort. Scare Package came out swinging with clever artwork by Marc Schoenbach that all at once plays on '80s nostalgia, is indicative of the plot, incorporates all of the anthology's segments, and pays homage to the House poster. It's the first of many cleverly meta and well-executed aspects of the film, making it the most satisfying horror anthology since V/H/S.

Writer-director Emily Hagins (Coin Heist) is tasked with setting the absurd and self-aware tone with the first segment, and does she ever with the appropriately titled "Cold Open." It centers on Mike (Jon Michael Simpson), an unsung character that sets horror movie plots in motion with menial tasks - from selling a haunted house to cursing a doll - who aspires to be a fully fleshed-out role.

It elegantly dovetails right into the wraparound, "Rad Chad's Horror Emporium," directed by Aaron B. Koontz (The Pale Door) and written by Koontz and frequent collaborator Cameron Burns, who together produced Scare Package. Set at a niche video store, horror aficionado proprietor Chad (Jeremy King), new employee Hawn (Hawn Tran), and overzealous employee Sam (Byron Brown) watch tapes and trade stories.

"One Time in The Woods," written and directed by Chris McInroy, plays like an uproarious, splatstick descendant of Street Trash that also throws in a ridiculous head explosion in the vein of Deadly Friend. Actor Noah Segan (Knives Out) makes his directorial debut with "M.I.S.T.E.R.," in which he also stars. The script, penned by Segan and Frank Garcia-Hejl, pokes fun at the folly of men's rights activists before transforming into a creature feature.

"Girls' Night Out Of Body" is categorized as "post-modern feminist slasher body horror" on the video store shelf, which sets it up to be something more than the end result. But writer-director sisters Courtney and Hillary Andujar put their background in production design to good use; their design coupled with the colorful, Italian giallo-inspired lighting make it a visual highlight.

"The Night He Came Back Again! Part IV: The Final Kill," directed by Anthony Cousins and written by Cousins and John Karsko, finds would-be victims trying increasingly extreme methods to kill a perennial slasher for good. Actor Baron Vaughn (Grace and Frankie) makes his directorial debut with the Edgar Wright-inspired "So Much to Do," which he also wrote. In it, the victim of an occult possession (Toni Trucks, SEAL Team) quite literally fights back against her possessor, all in the name of avoiding spoilers.

Most anthology wraparounds do little more than serve their purpose to connect segments, but Koontz and Burns crafted a rare one that is just as enjoyable as, if not better than, the shorts. It culminates in a Cabin in the Woods-esque deconstruction of genre conventions featuring horror host Joe Bob Briggs in a hilarious role as himself, former WWE wrestler Dustin "Goldust" Rhodes as a merciless slasher, and genre darling Chase Williamson (John Dies at the End) as the prototypical stoner.

Beyond all the fun Easter eggs - from A Nightmare on Elm Street and Aliens to the most brazenly absurd Friday the 13th reference ever committed to film - each segment cleverly twists genre conventions, so even the less entertaining offerings subvert expectations. The filmmakers each bring a unique style, but they're unified by a synthesizer score by Alex Cuervo (who releases electronic music under the name Espectrostatic). Tate Steinsiek (Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, Dragged Across Concrete) serves as special effects makeup supervisor for most segments.

Scare Package premiered on Shudder in June and is now available on Blu-ray via RLJE Films. For the first time, the physical release includes the entire episode of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs. As comforting as it is to see Briggs host classic genre films, there's a particular electricity when he debuts something new, and the Scare Package episode finds him in top form.

If Briggs' analysis isn't enough, Koontz and Burns provide an audio commentary. Although flippantly advertised as "Creators commentary on the film, commenting on other films that have better commentary tracks," it's a fairly straightforward chat in which they share anecdotes, fun facts, and praise for each segment.

The disc also includes a deleted segment, "Locker Room Z," directed by executive producer Mali Elfman, which takes down diet culture, creepy dudes, and zombies; a faux ad for Rad Chad's video store, which carries over the film's meta humor; an alternate ending, dubbed "original not-as-good ending," which indeed isn’t as strong as the final version but would not have been disappointing; and a blooper reel.

Scare Package is available now on Blu-ray and DVD via RLJE FIlms.

[semifistories]

Soul Space - Ep01

soundcloud.com/semifi-stories/ep01

story, script, voice 1, music and sound by Carly Wood (she/her) semifistories.com

| - : { S } : - | - : { S } : - | - : { V } : - | - : { M } : - |

[synthesizer thunders as the ship’s engine hums]

WARNING. IMPACT IMPENDING.

[sirens and buzzers grate against the ears]

WARNING. IMPACT IMPENDING.

[warning indicators increase intensity]

WARNING. IMPACT IMPENDING.

[distorted static rises chaotically]

WARNING. WARNING. WARNING. WARNING. WARNING. WARNING.

[the engine stutters]

WARNING. IMPACT INEVITABLE.

[explosion, then silence]

[synthesizer thunders one last time]

[silence]

[gentle space bells begin sustained embrace]

where do i even begin?

i’ve been searching these salty stars for something sacred for sometime.  something of substance to seal this subterranean sorrow somewhere super far away.  i’m just a jaded traveller, traversing this soul space solo - untethered spacewalk, unscented face wash, i shower and drift through the cosmic abyss, just wandering.  just wondering -

..is this fine?

i’m just a jaded traveller and i’m afraid to say it, that sentence-sentiment whatever-you-call-it implies i have no home, and that i don’t know.  but, i’m afraid... so

whatever happens, let it be, i mean my solo craft was cramped anyway, i mean i almost don’t mind not breathing, i mean these glowing green stars fill my vision, i almost don’t mind the collision

[space bells repeat embrace]

so here i am, drifting, but this time more helplessly.  i was already just a jaded traveller but now i have no agency.  woe is me?  sure.  woe is me.

apathy.  that’s the best i can muster when facing tragedy?  my ending, my expiration - not anguish?  frustration?  just asphyxiation?  weak imagination..  in the most pathetic fizzle will i silently fade away?

each second stretches toward infinity.  i still don’t know how i got here, not by a long shot.  how did i crash and how the fuck did i get into space?  is this my life now - somewhere somehow i smashed my ship into who-knows-what at whoever-knows-how-fast and all i have left are seconds to last?  i guess so.

[bells ring out to silence, then return softly]

...the stars are real pretty though.

...and i’m drifting pretty slow.

...it’s almost peaceful.

if there were air here i would stop and smell the roses, or wake up and smell the coffee.  

if this is it, i may as well enjoy it.

[bells fade to silence]

if i sit and listen, there are so many pretty things in this drifty place.  

so many travellers in this soul space.  

so many jade green giants glistening, listening, and drifting on their own journeys.  we’re all suspended in place, this vacuum hugs us from all sides.

[thundering synth returns and punctuates each line]

if i die, i suppose it’s fine, i mean i can’t say i chose this, right? i mean, i can’t say i’m going out alone, i mean, i almost can’t say this isn’t home,

these glowing green stars fill my vision, i almost don’t mind the collision.

time to let go.

[cosmic whirring]

[distorted static rises chaotically, alarm returns]

WARNING. IMPACT INEVITABLE.

[traveller awakes in bed, gasping, collects self and shuts off alarm]

okay, so like, that was the weirdest dream.  i have no idea why or what it means, where did my brain get something so strange?  but like maybe, if i’m honest, i feel kind of… changed?

[space bells return for embrace]

i’m confused, yet relieved.  but did it really happen?  will i be believed?

[thundering synth returns reclaimed, and harmonizes with the space bells]

let’s write about it.  yeah!  document this strange phenomenon - how else am i to figure out what’s going on?  maybe there are other soul space travellers out there who can help me sort it out!  let’s create a podcast to explore what this experience is all about!  

because we’re all just jaded travellers trying to get through this life alive, drifting vibrant minds journeying through space and time.  as scary as the soul space crash may be, maybe we’re doing just fine.

[thundering synth punctuates each line]

this is fine.

[distorted static rises]

this is fine.

this is fine.

this is fine.

this is fine.

you are fine.

[thundering synth plays out]