The cosmic mistake and Digital Television

Goodbye T.V. static. You were a good friend. I’ve spent many hours toying with the rabbit ears on my set, trying to bring a good picture. Digital T.V. will be the end of you. Twenty years from now … people will scarcely have a memory of the fuzzy snow that permeated the first 50 or so years of the idiot box.

So here is my reminder {if this site is still up in the year 2028 … awesome}.

~2.5mb
Double click to play (yes … it’s really just static):

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But wait … what were you Mr. T.V. Static??

Most of T.V. static comes from local electro magnetic interference - your fridge, air conditioner and other man-made electric devices.

Some of it comes from our sun. Our local star is constantly blasting us with high energy particles, some of which hit our antennas and create random spots of interference on the screen. Cool.

My favorite part of T.V. static comes from the residual photons left over from the Big Bang. When you are standing in front of the T.V., trying to get “Friends” to come in a little clearer, you are actually tuning out the ultimate broadcast.

When astronomers look out into deep space, they are looking back in time as well. The further out they look, the further back in time they go. They always hit the same wall - it’s called Three Cosmic Background Radiation. We can’t see past it. Behind it, is the big Bang itself.

This radiation blankets the universe in an isotropic soup of photons (space isn’t really empty) and accounts for the average temperature of empty space being ~2.75 Kelvin. The fluctuations in this temperature give us some insight in the original configuration, shape and/or density of the universe. Wayward photons have been scooting around space since the beginning. They bump into our antennas and cause us to get up off of the couch and wrestle with our T.V. reception.

So rock on DTV! Turn off the Universe Channel please. Let’s get perfect and clean signals! Perfect and clean … perfect and clean …

We perceive a forward motion in time due to the process of entropy. The universe is cooling … breaking down … things get old and collapse … stars fade out. Depressing.

But life itself may be working counter to that notion. Through extropy, life may be creating order out of our universes decline into chaos. I guess it depends on how much energy we waste in the process. This gets a little envirometaphysical…

It is our natural inclination to create order and attempt perfection. Pitch correction??? Liposuction??? Digital noise reduction???

But let us not forget that the universe, no matter how you look at it … religion … science … the universe started as an unfathomable thing to our minds. A cosmic conundrum. Unknowable.

Let’s tone down the noise reduction and let some mistakes through. You never know what will happen. That’s the good part.

Bye bye static …

(now go watch T.V.)

Let’s go flying ….

I built my “flying” camera rig today. It will be used in the “Combat” music video.

I’m still trying to get the airplane to hold its position on the wire extension. It was built with some scrap wood, shelf brackets, a gooseneck mic mount and clip, and an old tripod head (pilfered from my animation stand).

I had countless spaceships and airplane toys when I was a kid. Now I’m getting a chance to make one fly. It feels pretty good.

I like the fact that the handles grip like pilot controls. I basically fly the plane VERY SLOWLY and shoot a single frame at a time.

I’ll also try and shoot some video with my HV-20 and see how it looks in 24p.

… timelapse focus wobble script 1.0 …

I wrote a timelapse random focus wobble script today with some help from someone over on the CHDK forum. I was able to create a pseudo-random number sequence using a linear feedback shift register.

You can see a patern develope in the randomness in the way the shots pulse. The script needs more work.

This effect will be used in portions of the video for the song “Combat”.

My code looks like this so far:

@title Macro Focus Wobble
@param b # of pics
@param f divisor

get_focus a

c = 1

for g=0 to b
z=a
gosub “lfsr8″
j=c/f
z=z-256/f+j
if z<0 then let z=c
set_focus z
print "focus= ", z,"mm"
print "pic # ",g
shoot
next g

end

:lfsr8
if (c & 1) = 1 then
c = (c/2) ^ 142
else
c = c / 2
endif

return

The divisor sets how much the random sequence effects the random change in focus.

~2mb

Double click to play:

I also got a special package in the mail today that I’m really excited about!!!

Selections from Spain Polaroids II (2000)

Most of these are from our travels south, in a rental car. Granada, Narja and Tarifa.

Colored filters in front of the lens on a early 1980’s Polaroid camera.

A few of these were thrown into a microwave and cooked on high for about 5 seconds. (I do not endorse microwaving Polaroid film and in no way recommend that anyone do such a thing)

Link to Spain Polaroids Part I

Link to Spain Polaroids Part III

… Combat video Stars …

I picked up these two models at the hobby shop today. They will be starring in my miniature movie for the song “Combat”.

The red color is just a base coat - I got some olive green Testors model paint to give it that “tank green” finish. The treads don’t move - but I’ve got a plan. I might have to pick up another one of these guys as a body double.

I’m going to try and drill a 3.5mm hole in the front, and mount an old ZipZap motor inside the plane to get the prop spinning. I’ll probably destroy the plane in the process. I’m not sure how to power it … maybe a hearing aid battery. Someting less than 2.4V. How will I turn it off?

I’m trying to stay true to the game conceptually, so I’ll need to pick up one more tank and plane. I think I’ll forego the byplanes for now.

I was hoping to get something special in the mail today from a recent online purchase, but I guess I’ll have to wait a few more days and report back on it … it is the “driving force” behind the film.

Toy Piano VTSi Beta Version 1.0

Here is my first attempt at a VST instrument. Toy Piano. I use it in the song “Kaboom!” off of my next record “Bits”.

It was created from very clean samples I found here. It has a simple interface with only ADSR controls. It is velocity sensitive. Each note is individually sampled.

It runs on MIDI notes 60-84 (C5 to C7) to simulate the limited range of a real toy piano. It is wonky and slightly out of tune.

PLEASE COMMENT if you download the file. I would like to get some feedback on how it is working.

This is a BETA so USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. It works fine for me in Sonar 6PE. (Don’t throw it into anything super important…)

File Link (~10mb zip file)

Toy Piano

Bitmo results (Blackheart Mod)

I completed the Bitmo mod today. It was pretty simple. Not too many parts. Like … hardly any parts.

~6mb

Double click to play:
(Shot with a Canon A640 and HV20)

I recorded several samples before and after the mod, playing the same guitar line through the Axetrak isolation cabinet (REALLY DRY). I left the tone controls half way up for all the recordings. The gain was at about 2 o’clock. I could have dialed in each tone quite a bit more, but I wanted to perform a neutral test first.

The Blackheart has a 3 watt/5 watt switch so you can get a wider selection of sounds out of it as well.

Here are all the samples:
{Bridge pickup on an Artcore hollow body, recorded into Sonar 6PE with a SCA N72 preamp into a Black Lion Audio Motu 828mkii}

Blackheart Stock 5 watt->

Blackheart Stock 3 watt->

Bitmo 1st pos. 5 watt->

Bitmo 1st pos. 3 watt->

Bitmo 2nd pos. 5 watt->

Bitmo 2nd pos. 3 watt->

Bitmo 3rd pos. 5 watt->

Bitmo 3rd pos. 3 watt->