Path of Exile

So I got a beta key for path of exile. This is good, I haven't played an RPG that I have particularly enjoyed in a long time. I used to love Diablo 2 and Path of Exile seems to have a similar ambience to it.

This is also good as stated in my last post, I am hoping to create myself some kind of internet based job. One of my main interests is gaming and therefore it will be a good thing to write about / produce related content.

I will speak to the developers and see what kind of stuff I can talk about, and if they will allow me to.

Today one more step in the correct direction, tomorrow WORLD DOMINATION!

Creating Money For Myself

So I have wanted to continue working on this Blog, but economic demands have prevented me from concentrating on it. Yes that is correct I have been trying to get a job, and I must admit I have been less than successful.

After so much time, I have decided to see if I can create myself a job. To do this I am intending on following the create content/get paid by advertisers 'business model'. This, if successful, would potentially be a dream job for me.

Until a week or two ago, I never would have thought that this would be possible to accomplish. My opinion has changed now, I believe it IS possible.

I do not think it will be easy though. I am unsure of the road ahead, but I shall pursue it Ardently. I think that my experiences along the way will form part of the content I create. To serve as useful information for people that wish to pursue a similar path.

So I am starting from a zero position as of now.

All I know is I require content for people to 'consume' and people to consume it... and a website, that would be useful....

Learning WOOOP

Ok, so I want to learn music theory, or at least improve my understanding of it, if that is a more correct way of describing my intention.

I have tried before and always found it difficult. Not in a 'my brain can't handle it kind of way'. Just in a 'there so much where do I start'.

So this post is going to be something for me to base my future learnings off.

So let us start with a definition from Wikipedia :

"Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques, across or within genres, styles, or historical periods. In a grand sense, music theory distills and analyzes the fundamental parameters or elements of music — rhythm, harmony (harmonic function), melody, structure, form, texture, etc.

So essentially, music came first, then music theory came afterwards to explain it. So music theory isn't a set of rules, merely explanations. You don't need to use music theory to create music, but afterwards you could use music theory to analyse why it works.


This is essentially why I am interested in it, I can write music without it, but I would like to understand how it works so that, when i have an idea in my head, I understand how it works and can therefore recreate it in 'real world'

Ok, so I have explained to myself what it is. All that is left is a list of things/aspects to learn and then on to the learning!

So first there will be basic terms and concepts, I have a fairly good understanding of most of these. ie Time signatures, notes, note lengths. Perhaps a good way to describe it would be the language of theory. Seeing as how I understand the majority of these terms, I won't focus on this specifically and just cover it as I go along, when new things pop up.

Then we have the music theory (this bit is going to be short and sweet, because the post is getting long and I am confusing myself):

Chords
Scales/Key Signatures
Rhythm/Meter (time signatures etc)
Chord Progressions

Weirdly when you write it as a few core ideas, it seems simple. Alas it is not, this post shall end now as I want to get on to thinking about how I am going to teach myself and where to start.

People Suck

Today after spending a lot of time reading through news, I can't shake the sad feeling that people aren't that great. Or at least perhaps we have the potential to be great, we just aren't aware/too wrapped up in being the person with the most shiny stuff.

As far as we know, we are the only truly intelligent beings. Hopefully there are more somewhere in the universe, but at the moment there is no evidence.

Now being the only creatures to have the ability to create (as far as we know) we are in a unique position to protect life. The odds in the universe are severely stacked against the continued existence of life. Our ability to manipulate the environment around us means we have the potential for safeguarding life, and fighting against the apparent chaos of the universe.

In science fiction, there is frequently an advanced race whose agenda is that of keeping balance and protecting life.

Could we be that race?

If so perhaps we should start with our own planet, no one else is going to protect it for us now are they?

Attempt at a new start.

Ok, so I am in desperate need of finding some satisfaction in life. I feel that my personal needs to be satisfied with life are a little bit different to the majority, and this makes it difficult to find a good direction.

There are some things I love ie: Music, Computers/Games, Nature/Science and generally creating things.

Now I would like to try and earn my living by doing something that in some way incorporates all of that.... To top that off I very much desire being my own boss and being able to decide when and where I work.

I am on a serious mission now to achieve my goals, the internet is looking like the place that may hold the answer.

Blog = my diary/notepad/work book, everything. I got bits and pieces everywhere and would like to centralise the things I do and the information I gain. Since I like the name of this blog, this will be my starting place. This is day 0 of my quest.

Musical Improvements

So another thing I want to improve is my music production/songwriting etc.

I use Logic 9 mainly now but have used Reason, Fruity Loops, Cubase, Sibelius and Guitar Pro to create music previously.

Not really knowing where to start I thought that I should just do something random and then go from there.

I figured a good way to get the ball rolling with posting stuff about music is to set myself a task to create a song using XXXX limitations.

So I shall create a song(some music) using the following limitations and then post a link.

It will be 1m 30s, I will probably keep it at 120 bpm to keep things simple for now. I will not use any synthesised sounds (by this I mean I will use a sampler with samples) and will only set the levels and panning. I will not use any other effects etc. I will create it in Logic 9.

Terratec Axon AX50, Problem with Noise

On my guitar I have a midi pickup (PU100) connected to an Axon AX50 USB interface. I have been having a problem with it causing excess noise when its connected to my computer with guitar etc. I have found that using a usb/midi to connect it instead seems to solve the problem (rather than the normal usb -> usb).

This means that I cannot use the editor, but if I want to change settings I can put up with the noise for a while and adjust it via the standard USB.

This is just a quick post so i don't forget this, I'm currently experimenting with my AX50 to try and get the most out of it. Information I discover on this subject will also end up on this blog.



**EDIT**

After a while of that working the noise came back, I now have my guitar running straight in to my amp and use the AXON AX50 only as a midi control box. Having the USB plugged in rather than the midi/usb converter doesn't seem to make much difference.

First Problem!

Problem with continuing my Audoballs, is that now I have gotten so excited about being able to post it on the internet all working etc, I am determined to get them working on the blog.

Now that doesn't sound that bad, as you will see, so far so good. All the sketches up at the moment are working.

The problem is that, as far as I can tell, I cannot use third party libraries with processingJS. Which means that I cannot use the 'themidibus' library that I am using at the moment.... Midi balls don't work so well if they don't do midi stuff!!

So I am currently looking for a way around this. I am hoping there is a clever way to get the libraries working.

If not then I am wondering if it is possible to accomplish it in another way. Like having the note values output to a separate script that can produce midi notes...

Confused :(

Audoballs: The circle is Bouncing!

So as you can see here we now have a bouncing ball :D Result! The code is:

float xpos, ypos;
int Size = 60;
float xspeed = 3.5;
float yspeed = 3.2;

int xdirection = 1;
int ydirection = 1;

void setup() {
size(320, 240);
background(255);
smooth();
noStroke();
frameRate(30);

xpos = width/2;
ypos = height/2;
}

void draw() {
background(255);

xpos = xpos + (xspeed * xdirection);
ypos = ypos + (yspeed * ydirection);

if (xpos > width-Size || xpos < 0) { xdirection *= -1;} if (ypos > height-Size || ypos < 0) {
ydirection *= -1;
}

fill(144);
ellipse(xpos+Size/2, ypos+Size/2, Size, Size);
}

So as you (We, I) can see we have created a few more float's representing various numbers. (size, xspeed, yspeed, x/ypos)

We have told it the size of the ellipse and the x and y location to draw it: ellipse(xpos+Size/2, ypos+Size/2, Size, Size);

Then we make the xpos and ypos move by making a calculation that changes the value. So each run through the draw() command changes the value of the xpos to xpos + (xspeed * xdirection).

Therefore on initialising the xpos value is the width/2 (320/2 = 160). Then the draw command will run the lines "xpos = xpos + (xspeed * xdirection)

So the first time it runs will be something like xpos(currently 160) = 160(xpos) + (3.5 * 1). The same applies for ypos.

xpos = xpos + (xspeed * xdirection);
ypos = ypos + (yspeed * ydirection);

The other part that has been added in is the "if".

Essentially this means that if the statements in the brackets are true then the direction is multiplied by -1. This has the effect of reversing the direction. (so rather than it being 160 + (3.5 * 1), which would cause the ball to move along the x axis at a rate of 3.5 pixels per run through (the xpos value increases by 3.5) it is xpos + (3.5 * -1) which causes the xpos value to decrease by 3.5 each run through (xpos + -3.5). This has the effect of making the circle reverse.

A few of the other commands:
smooth() makes the sketch draw shapes with smooth edges.
noStroke() stops the sketch from drawing an outline.
frameRate() specifies the speed of the sketch.

So there we have a moving circle :D

Audoballs: Drawing a circle in the display area.

Now that I have a display area I need a circle, which will eventually become my bouncing ball. This looks like:

float xpos, ypos;

void setup() {
size(320, 200);
smooth();
background(255);
}
void draw() {

xpos = width/2;
ypos = height/2;

fill(144);
ellipse(xpos, ypos, 60, 60);
}

I have added a few extra lines in and as you will see below we now have a nice grey circle in the middle of the display area.

float allows you to assign a floating point number to a value. A floating point number has a decimal place in it and allows 'a greater resolution than integers' as is explained here. So float xpos, ypos; is instructing processing that xpos and ypos are floating point numbers.

the draw() command is used after setup and continuously executes the code within. Explanation here

So within the draw command I am basically doing 4 things. I am saying that "xpos" has the value of the width divided by 2. I am saying that the 'ypos" has the value of the height divided by 2.

I am then saying the colour of the fill of the ellipse is (144), a grayscale colour. (/shade, grey isn't really a colour)

Then I am instructing it to draw an ellipse(x, y, width, height) - the brackets contain the properties of the ellipse.

The result of this is:

ProcessingJS/HTML

Ok so I need to figure out how adding scripts using the HTML works. I know that I can load an external script from another webpage and can therefore load the processing script and run the processing sketches in the blog.

Link to my post with the code I found that allows you to do this.

So....

< script type="application/processing" >

I think you would describe it as a declaration of what script(type?!) to use. Type and name maybe? so its an application called processing?

Useful little explanation of scripts:

"A client-side script is a program that may accompany an HTML document or be embedded directly in it. The program executes on the client's machine when the document loads, or at some other time such as when a link is activated. HTML's support for scripts is independent of the scripting language."

Scripts offer authors a means to extend HTML documents in highly active and interactive ways. For example:

• Scripts may be evaluated as a document loads to modify the contents of the document dynamically.
• Scripts may accompany a form to process input as it is entered. Designers may dynamically fill out parts of a form based on the values of other fields. They may also ensure that input data conforms to predetermined ranges of values, that fields are mutually consistent, etc.
• Scripts may be triggered by events that affect the document, such as loading, unloading, element focus, mouse movement, etc.
• Scripts may be linked to form controls (e.g., buttons) to produce graphical user interface elements.

There are two types of scripts authors may attach to an HTML document:

• Those that are executed one time when the document is loaded by the user agent. Scripts that appear within a SCRIPT element are executed when the document is loaded. For user agents that cannot or will not handle scripts, authors may include alternate content via the NOSCRIPT element.
• Those that are executed every time a specific event occurs. These scripts may be assigned to a number of elements via the intrinsic event attributes.

I am going to assume that canvas width/height is the size of the display area for the moment, although there is a size() command in the processing script also, I shall have to find out.

< canvas width="320" height="240" >

The next line indicates the destination to get the script from

< script src='http://processingjs.org/source/current/pjs-init.js' >

Seems fairly simple, I understand this if my posts have working examples in them! (other than the expanding/contracting blue and white circle once, as that is simply a copy and pasted example/test.

I also learned(put into practice) the tiniest bit of HTML formatting writing this post WOOOP! (for example the bullet point list)

Blogger HTML

1
2
3
4
5

Realised that to use this blog more effectively I am going to have to learn some HTML stuff also, especially if i want to incorporate sketch examples into my posts.

Now I know how to get a sketch working in the post but I do not understand HTML and I do not really like copy and pasting stuff without understanding it. Plus what will I do when something goes wrong?

Some links to some HTML info at the top for me to trawl through (or you, if you aren't me reading this)

First step will be to get links working, so if you see clickable links in my posts then I have achieved this at least :D

Audoballs: Creating a display area

so the first thing i want to do is create a display area in Processing. This is very easy and is accomplished simply by writing.

void setup() {
size(320, 200);
background(255);
}

That does nothing other than create a white area that is 320 pixels by 200 pixels.

void means it returns no result. Its kind of a funny concept. Best understanding of it I have so far is that it just means do this but don't return a value.

http://processing.org/discourse/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1114658331/5

Some people discussing it in that forum post, some links to help understand it in there.

setup() is called only once when the program is started and it defines initial properties for the sketch such as the screen size(display area), background colour etc.

size() is pretty self explanatory, it defines the dimensions of the display area in pixels.

background() is the colour of the background, I set it to white so that the blank area is clearly seen.

So I have accomplished my first step, I have an area in which to make my balls bounce!

Result:

Project X: Audoballs - Bouncing balls with sound!

So my first quest is trying to get something I want to make working in processing. I decided I wanted to make some bouncing balls that play musical notes as they bounce. I figure if I get it working correctly then I might try and make it output something interesting also! (like make it generate a random ambient song or something).

My first port of call is trying to separate the elements of what will be in the sketch. Hopefully this will help to make it easier to create it. For this I just got a piece of paper and jotted down the occasionally random thoughts I had on it.

So I figured the basic elements I want are:

A display area for the ball to bounce around.

A ball/ Multiple balls.

A way of deciding where the ball is and converting that into a range of values. (range of values would probably be the pitch values that correspond to a scale)

I then need a function (not sure what the correct description would be) that moves the ball around.

A function that tells the ball to reverse direction (bounce) when it hits the sides of the display area. This would probably incorporate the midi note on also.

I believe the correct way for me to make the balls is to create a class that describes it and then I can, I believe, create as many balls as I want from that template.

Blogger and Processing

I have found that i can create stuff in processing and post them on to the blog, this is good, it means I will be able to post examples with my notes etc XD.

You do it using processingjs wich can be found at processingjs.org.

You can either have the processing.js file on your server or you can load it from the application website. I got the example moving circle below along with the code/script used.

The script I used (copy and pasted from Link) is as follows:

< script type="application/processing" >
float radius = 50.0;
int X, Y;
int nX, nY;
int delay = 16;

void setup(){
size( 200, 200 );
strokeWeight( 10 );
frameRate( 15 );
X = width / 2;
Y = width / 2;
nX = X;
nY = Y;
}

void draw(){
radius = radius + sin( frameCount / 4 );
X+=(nX-X)/delay;
Y+=(nY-Y)/delay;
background( 100 );
fill( 0, 121, 184 );
stroke(255);
ellipse( X, Y, radius, radius );
}

void mouseMoved(){
nX = mouseX;
nY = mouseY;
}

< canvas width="320" height="240">
< script src='http://processingjs.org/source/current/pjs-init.js'>
"

Processing: Bouncing Sound Ball

So I decided that the first thing I wanted to make in processing (after mucking around a bit) was a musical bouncing ball.

The first problem that I came across was that processing doesn't support midi. Not as standard anyway. After feeling sad for a little while, I did a bit of research and found out that you can extend the functionality (dunno if thats the correct way of describing it) of the core programme with user created and shared libraries.

There are several midi libraries available, but so far the one I have had most success with is The midi bus. Which, if you are interested, can be found here:
Smallbutdigital.com

All you have to do (for MAC OSX anyway, as that is what I use) is create a folder called libraries in your processing sketchbook, and extract the files to that location. (USER/DOCUMENTS/PROCESSING is the default folder, although you can check it/change it under processing>preferences)

Processing

Processing is a program I have started to use recently. It is 'an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions.' I started using it because I am interested in learning to program and I was informed this would be a good place to start learning about it.

I have a few ideas to try and create in it and i shall write about them and post on here as I do them and encounter problems. That way, if I forget my own solutions, I can come back here and teach myself again :D

The first thing I am going to try and create is an animation of a bouncing ball that plays a musical note when it bounces.

Link for Processing

Newgrounds: Audio/Flash

Newgrounds is a website that was originally dedicated to flash games/animations. they now have added a portal for audio submissions and art.

At the moment it is pretty much the only place I have posted any examples of my music so if you are interested to hear some head to catboi.newgrounds.com.

It will probably be the place I post any example audio that I may want to share with stuff posted on this blog. That is until I sort out something better.

Metal Music

To better my chances of actually using this blog, I have decided to post something I wrote a long time ago. it was for another idea similar to this, which never happened really. So it gets the airing it deserves and makes me feel like I have done more work on this, which in turn means I am MORE likely to do MORE work on it (in an attempt to not waste previously used energy, in accordance with the laws o laziness and preserving energy) Here we go :S... and due to this being crazy it will be in a seperate post!

Metal music (cont)

I love metal music and have found that a lot of people do not seem to understand why. I often hear people trashing the style and frequently end up in discussions with people who want to know what I like about it, what I see in it. People have a lot of misconceptions about it and about the people who listen to it. So i decided to attempt to write about it and hopefully inform ;-). Please note that I am using the term metal loosely, not as a very specific sub genre. (So I am talking about its variations as well... You know what I mean!)

I have thought about the reasons why I (*People*) listen to metal a lot. Mostly because I can understand why somebody wouldn't like it. Even though I love it, I realise that it is not exactly an easy style of music to get into and I can imagine that from the outside looking in it could easily seem like a whole lot of noise. I remember when I used to hear metal music when I was younger I couldn’t imagine

I would say that metal music is very much a form of escapism. It is all about larger than life expression. It takes a normal everyday experience or emotion and makes something bigger out of it. Think back to when you were a kid, all you wanted were excitement and adventure. When you looked to the future you assumed that it was going to be full of amazing things, you thought you were going to make an impression on the world. As you get older you start to realise that this isn't necessarily true. After all between your 9-5, paying your taxes and feeding yourself there isn't much time left over to be adventurous.

This is where metal comes in. It almost a world of its own. A world where people scream and shout, where weird things happen. Its full of strong characters and stronger emotions. It is accepting of anybody that is being truthful. It allows you to indulge your broken heart without somebody telling you to stop feeling sorry for yourself and you can release your anger without ever actually ever hurting somebody. I would liken listening to music like this to reading a fantasy novel or playing a computer game.

Other reasons for enjoying it would be for the virtuosity of the musicians themselves. Many people that play within this style have developed their skills on their chosen instrument to amazing standards and sometimes the sheer difficulty of the individual parts can be a wonder to behold. Especially if it is on an instrument you yourself play.

The metal world (or culture if you will) is also a place where unlike the real world, odd things are often celebrated. So I believe that it attracts people that perhaps aren’t accepted, or at least do not feel a part of, mainstream culture.

Lastly, I think that I should mention that the type of music you listen to is not really a conscious decision, you do not weigh up the pro's and cons of a genre of music and then decide whether you want to listen to it. Rather I guess you could call it an evolution of your thoughts and feelings. A montage of your experiences. Everyone has songs that remind them of specific times, feelings and even other people. Some people grew up and experienced things with metal music around them and so some people are obviously going to associate a lot of good experiences with the sounds associated with it.

On that note I shall end, I hope I have made some sense and that it hasn’t been too much of a chore to read through this.

The point for this blog!

I intend to use this blog as a tool for learning. I have a large number of things I am interested in and would like to improve my abilities/knowledge. I intend on posting thoughts etc and also for different things I am learning I intend on undertaking projects etc and posting progress/ final result/ information gained to here.

I am hoping this will help keep me organised, and possibly make me more motivated to try hard. I also hope that I will occasionally post stuff of interest/help to people, and that I will receive feedback and extra knowledge from interacting with people who see this blog.]

Blogs are weird and scary and I am socially awkward. (And completely aware that this post will almost definitely not be read by any body!) This is going to be a rough trip!