This one is billed as Alien Attack 2. Pretty funny stuff.

This is the Alien vs. Predator 2 (AvP 2) trailer that is causing a bit of buzz. Looks much better than the first AvP movie. Yeah. Enjoy.

The Aphex Face, the legendary electronic representation of the creepy looking face that Richard James likes to put all over his Aphex Twin albums:

This face was supposed to be viewable with a spectrograph program, so I decided to try it myself. A spectrograph basically visualizes the sound spectrum.

First I needed to extract the track from the Windowlicker CD, which was easy with CDex. The extraction of the whole track was not really necessary because the “face” is situated at the very end of the track, starting from the 5:27 mark and lasting for about 10 seconds. There are other “audio images” on this particular track as well (and one at the end of the first track), but the face is certainly the most exciting of them all.\

Read the page and view the spectrograph images here.

More Productive Music Production. Say that ten times quick. Never mind, it’s actually not that much of a tongue twister if you actually try to say it quick.

A Quick Setup

I like to compose electronic music. Beat driven stuff, influenced by a lot of listening to hip-hop, drum n bass, and heavy metal.

I typically use Propellerheads Reason, Ableton Live, and Steinberg Wavelab. I also use a hard disk recorder and a turntable with lots of weird vinyl. Mix all those together, with all the other random bits of gear I have around, and it’s a pretty good arsenal for making some interesting electronic music.

Listen to some of my music here at my em411.com page, if you feel inclined to check it out.

Enough of the setup, now to the point.

Back on Track.. More Productive Music Production

I’ve found that when I sit and don’t churn out any good music, I am typically thinking too hard. I might sit and try to work out a beat or part of a track, and not like anything I’m hearing. The best stuff is the more random stuff that kinda came outta nowhere.

To let the more creative stuff that I end up liking come to fruition more often, I do the following.

If I don’t like something I delete it right away and don’t make a back-up or version of it. If a certain new loop I added over the top of a track doesn’t sound quite right, I maybe mess with it for a few minutes to give it a chance to work. After that, if it still isn’t sounding intriguing, I’ll just delete it and move on. Try something else. If I was to sit and dwell on that loop and try to force it, chances are I wouldn’t like what I was trying to force, and just waste a bunch of time.

By deleting the thing I don’t like I force myself to get over it and try something different. Trying many different loops or parts eventually yields something that just clicks. At that point I leave the newly added part alone and move on to a different part of the track.

Also, don’t force yourself to write the music. Just go with it. If you’re sittin at your workstation or standing at the turntables and you’re just not feeling it or coming up with anything good, don’t force it for too long. Just go do something else and come back later. This will keep stuff fresh. If you do get on a roll, run with it and don’t take any breaks until you start to slow down or get distracted.

That’s what works for me, might not work for everybody. I’ve been having fun making weird electronic music for a few years now and basically I can’t approach it seriously, or I stop making music for long periods of time. I’ve found that you just gotta have the studio there and available, and when you get the urge, hit it up and make some music.

Yeah, this looks crazy, more Alien vs. Predator, and not as lame this time around!

The new Alien vs. Predatormovie looks pretty gory, action packed, and not cheesy. At least based on the trailer. The trailer is available on the web site I linked to, by the way.

And for those of you that are wondering what a red band trailer is, here’s a quote from Wikipedia:

A green band is an all-green graphic at the beginning of the trailer, usually reading “The following PREVIEW has been approved for ALL AUDIENCES by the Motion Picture Association of America,” and sometimes including the movie’s MPAA rating. This signifies that the trailer adheres to the standards for motion picture advertising outlined by the MPAA, which includes limitations on foul language and violent, sexual, or otherwise objectionable imagery. Trailers that do not adhere to these guidelines may be issued a red band, (which used to be blood red) which reads “The following PREVIEW has been approved for RESTRICTED AUDIENCES ONLY by the Motion Picture Association of America,” and may only be shown before an R-rated, NC-17-rated, or unrated movie. (The Amityville Horror (1979 film) carried this banner^[1]). A yellow band is a yellow graphic that reads “The following PREVIEW has been approved ONLY for AGE-APPROPRIATE internet users by the Motion Picture Association of America” (for example, the trailer for Halloween). The MPAA also mandates that trailers not exceed two minutes and thirty seconds in length, and each major studio is given one exception to this rule per year.

So that means you’ll not see a cable TV worthy version of the ad. It’s a gory ad.

I just found out that Clutch is going to be coming to a nice local venue in August. Yeah! Because of my excitement to once again see these guys, here’s a video.