so it took almost exactly a year to write and record and now my next album "with the moon alongside racing us home" is mixed! complete! done! finito! pung! bahoogled! i made a lot of those words up, feel free to use them (CC non-profit, attribution, share-alike). now all this mixing's done i'm focusing on my live show and getting axis out into the world. i'm also enjoying playing with max for live as an audio visual environment. getting sensors to the party is the next step i think... like some sort of reactive audio-visual "thingy".

that's the name of my new album! apparently not "with the moon along side racing us home" as is written on... THIS PROMO CD!

upped another vid demoing the Guitar Hero to MIDI app AXIS that i'll be releasing soon. tilt sensors should be on everything! they make the world so much more fun.

this was originally posted at zealousy.com

The Agnes Kain clip is finished! Took about 7 weeks and I'm very happy with the end result. There are no effects in post, everything was shot in camera... which is probably obvious right up until the end. You can check out my previous posts to see how it was made from conception to birth. Big thanks to Chanelle and Stef and ultra-mega-big thanks to Ryan for wearing ridiculous things, standing in uncomfortable poses for extended periods of time and just being generally rad.

this was originally posted at zealousy.com

i know i haven't been gigging very much this year. and i could forgive you for thinking i've not been doing much on the live music front but you'd be wrong. so very wrong. i don't want to make you feel bad or anything, it's just the truth. this is my new guitar hero to midi max app i've been working on. it turns the guitar into a playable instrument while keeping all the control functionality of my previous patch. here's the hastily thrown together blurb i slapped up on my youtube.

An app i'm working on called AXIS. it enables an xbox usb guitar hero controller to output midi to control ableton or any other software or hardware that eats midi.

it has two modes - play and control.

in control mode the buttons, whammy and 3 tilt sensors send out midi messages. this is intended for interfacing with software.

in play mode any musical scale can be superimposed over a guitar hero scale built on the first four buttons. the up pick can be offset to allow rapid playing of fifths or whatnot. the orange button acts as a modifier key allowing change of key and offset on the fly. the D-pad changes scale and the back and start keys change volume (velocity). the three tilt sensors and whammy send out MIDI CCs to control what ever. the tilt sensors on this guitar are particularly awesome, they sit on three different axes and you can make the guitar really expressive.

there's a little HUD you can sit on top of what ever you're controlling to monitor mode, key, volume, offset and scale.

i'm sorting out some documentation and then i'll release it as a stand alone mac app. if a max-head out there want's to help me port it over to windows that'd be ace. mac and windows interpret the guitar controller differently. once finished, i'll release the source so people can modify it for other system's guitars too. I went for an xbox guitar because it's usb and the tilt sensors and whammy work which is a problem for ps2 guitars/adapters.

at the moment i'm building up my new live show utilizing the guitar to simultaneously shred, trigger samples and effects, control the rest of the track and control the accompanying video. see, i have been busy! and not just on this. i've got a whole album of new material which i'll be relentlessly plugging through out the near future.

this post is a bit of a tease now i think of it. perhaps this video might make it appear more substantial.


...perhaps not.

this was originally posted at zealousy.com

i threw together a little max patch to convert a cheapo keypad into a midi controller (a bit like this one i made a little while back). these little things are great. got me thinking, what the hell did we do before usb?

in other news, the Agnes Kain clip is finished! i'll send it live in the next few days. now that's done i'm back into music mode gluing together bits and pieces to finish my NEW ALBUM. some gigs lined up too... zeal reemerges from the makey-cave to obliterate your senses!

this was original posted at zealousy.com

not many sleeps now until the spectacular will occur! it will be occurring at this particular point in space time: Thursday, 8:30 at The Jade Monkey.



it is, of course, the Aleks and the Ramps album launch with Mixylodian and Zeal. oh it is very exciting. I've been razzing up my sparkling new live set, complete with a brand-sparkling-new guitar hero max patch! my old patch allowed me to trigger clips and effects. this new one lets me do that PLUS play the thing as an instrument (over three octaves!) and control fx with the whammy bar and three axes of tilt detection. i've spent more time getting the guitar up and running than actually prepping my set(!) but i'm glad i've done it because it's going to have a big effect on the live show. The next step will be getting video controlled by the same midi signals and creating a whole solo live AV thang. it's a mountain of work but i'm wearing my hiking shoes.

and speaking of vj guitars and hiking shoes!
michel gondry + flight of the conchords = yes! :0





they go together like pop rocks and pepsi. i've been seeing a lot awesome music video work recently. the new qua clip is freaking amazing but i can't find it on youtube. it's up on the qua site though. best clip i've seen in while. really great idea and execution. aaaand - sbs station I.D.s! oh yeah!



showing abc how it's done. come to the show and see what the future of the live zeal show's looking like.
bob (:b

thought i'd share this with myspace world. i discovered a little exploit in the PS2 game Music Generator 2 which lets you sample with a singstar mic and sequence.



there's a write up on what else you can do with this game on my website. check it!

bobob.

As it happens, Zeal is appearing around on strangers phones and portable media devices courtesy of The Portable Film Festival. I could even be appearing on your computer this very instant! well i sort of am right now... LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH! ahem... well my clip's right here. It's a song about salt. The clip's about salt. and the whole thing is made out of salt. It's also the highest resolution it's ever been on the internet so it's sort of like a high res internet debut.

in other news - if you're in sydney between the 23rd and 28th you can see (or even buy!) a collage of mine @ the Tap Gallery as part of ART GROUPIE. It's called "Space Katts: Attakk Formation!!" and It's created from the remains of the last clip i made... which i could tell you about but then i'd have to hunt you down and steal you kittens and then launch them into orbit... i've said too much. not until the tectonic plates are properly aligned... but right now, this:

Gigs coming up. New songs and *VISUALS* oh yes.

w/ Brother Sister
October 18
Ed Castle

w/ Bird Lantern
October 31st
Rhino Room

more ahead. keep it dialed.
bobob.

*** POPSICLE TONITE *** 9 LIGHT SQUARE ***