BlogSplat

My post about Robert Rauschenberg’s passing contained a typo - I mis-spelled his name Rauschemberg (since fixed).

Last week, this blog started getting a rash of traffic generated by search engines resulting from multiple phrases containing “Rauschemberg”. Some of the phrases (”combines de rauschemberg”) make it clear that these are folks searching on information about Robert Rauschenberg’s collage pieces.

If you Google “Rauschemberg”, there is my typo in the top spot. Along with about 6000 other hits. Google asks you if you really meant “Rauschenberg” as well.

They sound a lot alike, so if you’ve never seen it written down, it’s an understandable mistake. But this is where people who put too much trust in the veracity of what they find on the Internet can get in trouble. Hey, there’s nearly six thousand web sites that spell it “Rauschemberg” so that must be right.

The sad thing is, some of the folks who are searching on “Rauchemberg” also appear to be translating the posts to other languages. There may well be folks who are interested in reading what I have to say (although mine are tangential musings for anyone looking for specific information). I decided to tag all posts relating to Robert Rauschenberg with “Rauchemberg” - just as companies register mis-spelled versions of their domains in order to get their typo traffic as well.

Sorry, Mr. Rauschenberg.

The Korg DS-10 is quickly becoming my new favorite toy. There are layers upon layers to it that I am still discovering. One of the advantages of poor documentation, I suppose.

The developer has put some video tutorials on line. A couple new ones show up each week. I still need to view the lesson on Patch Mode, which I find a bit confusing, though the patch cord interface is quite slick and wonderfully intuitive.

I took the DS-10 to Big Bear this weekend. I had some down time to play with it while the rest of Southern California burned.

We get wildfires on a regular basis in Southern California. It’s Nature’s version of housekeeping. We humans tend to screw with the process by putting these fires out because we don’t like it when our stuff burns up. Usually, these fires happen in out of the way places, where relatively few people live.

With record high temperatures, single-digit humidity, and gale force Santa Ana winds, it’s no surprise that multiple wildfires broke out and quickly spread. This week’s three fires, in Montecito, Sylmar, and Corona, all broke out in populated areas. Hundreds of houses, apartments, and other dwellings have been destroyed. You start thinking thoughts of what if that was my neighborhood?

It makes for dramatic, if not terribly relaxing, television.

The other problem when these big fires happen is the smoke and soot in the air becomes awful. We saw that they had canceled the Pasadena Marathon due to air quality problems. (First reaction - Pasadena had a marathon?) Driving down the mountain, we were grateful for our two days in the clean, soot-free air. The usual light haze was instead a double-thick layer of cotton batting. I had to turn on the air conditioner to (mostly) keep it out of the car.

Tomorrow the air quality will doubtless be quite poor - not a day for a long lunch-time walk, which will give me time to review the latest DS-10 tutorials. One of the advantages of a portable synthesizer.

The missus is on a trip so I’m in charge of the pooches. Which means - at least in theory - not staying at work late.

Of course, it’s days like this when the crises happen after close of business.

So it was not good when, a block and a half from my house, a police car was parked blocking the street. I tried driving around the block but that street was blocked as well. The officers told me they had dogs looking for someone in the area. These things don’t operate on a schedule, so they had no idea how long it would take.

Not wanting to sit in my car, worrying about the pooches, a couple blocks from a police manhunt, I decided to give them an hour to finish their house-to-house and drove to get some tacos and take a peek at Best Buy.

I now own the new Electric Six and Cure albums.

The police still had my street blocked when I got back, and the helicopter was still circling overhead. So I listened to the new Electric Six album while parked several blocks away, watching the police helicopter. The album was less engaging than the first, so my paranoid mind envisioned a one-armed man breaking in to the house, letting the dogs out, just to get eaten by a police dog.

Finally, around 10 pm, the helicopter flew off, and the police started rolling up their yellow tape.

The pooches were fine, just hungry. And Clancy, being housebroken, really needed to go outside. But no perps barricading themselves in my house.

The doors are, of course, locked.

I got the Korg DS-10 Synthesizer today.

In case you haven’t seen the demos, the DS-10 is a software synthesizer for the Nintendo DS, based (loosely) on the Korg MS-20.

Ignoring the cost of the DS itself, it’s a $40 analogue modeling synthesizer. Which is pretty amazing, given that quality software synthesizers can cost hundreds of dollars and require a computer. And vintage synthesizer gear can cost thousands.

I have just started playing with it, and don’t fully understand all the features yet, but it is obviously a very powerful and full-featured synthesizer. You can Definitely make some wacky noises with it.

The interface is complex, with a bunch of individual screens hidden away in the interface. I especially like the patch panel, where you can draw virtual patch cords to control the modulators.

The virtual keyboard is the only weak feature. With no MIDI interface, no one is going to use the DS-10 as a performance synth. It’s not important, though, because the DS-10 includes pattern sequencers to control the synthesizers and drums. A number of patterns can be saved to allow for dynamic performances without real-time programming.

Korg has a much better MIDI controller for small form-factor devices, however, called the Kaoss Pad, and there are two in the DS-10. Using the touchscreen of the DS, you can control a large number of aspects of the synths, two at a time (one for each axis). The default Kaoss mode, pitch/gate, allows you to play notes in a very intuitive manner, similar to the Kaossilator on Wayne Coyne’s Guitar Hero guitar.

The Kaoss Pad can be tuned to different scales, and the variety of sounds that can be used as “notes” is nearly infinite.

The DS-10 supports the DS’s Wi-Fi feature to allow transfer of songs between units, or to link up to eight units for ensemble performances. I look forward to seeing DS-10 orchestras.

The Korg DS-10 is a full-featured synth, and with the right settings, can substitute for the chip music mainstay, LSDJ, only with a more intuitive interface. But it can also do so much more. I love Electroplankton, but it is comparatively simple. I’m going to have fun with the DS-10 for quite some time.

NBC got the Flaming Lips (among others) to do their interpretation of the NBC chimes. There’s a video that shows Wayne’s double-neck guitar hack - he’s replaced one of the necks with a Guitar Hero controller. He even says, “there are a lot of kids who think this is how you play guitar now.”

I don’t think the GH controller is functional, as he’s put a Korg Kaossilator pad where one would normally play the strings, and that seems to be how he’s playing the Guitar Hero neck. It’s kind of a version 2.0 of his Alesis airFX acoustic guitar.

Yes, this is the most awesome Guitar Hero hack ever.

And yes, I want a Kaossilator.