A Drive Through Work

Two busy days. Singing aside, I spent a lot of time yesterday mixing the album and making little changes. They're getting smaller and smaller; the album is nearly complete. I also made sure I have simple piano tune versions of my songs, of the easy sort I used to play as a child. The music for 'Anyone Can Fall In Love' is particularly fun to play; it fits on one page and includes bass and treble clefs for the lead, and interesting chord changes, yet the rhythm is simple:

Last night was one of intense stomach agony which lasted many hours. I barely slept and awoke in a zombie-like state. I seem to have one good day of charging, one of retreat. Perhaps this is due to charging too much on the busy day, or perhaps this is nature itself. Many things have up then down days, the stock market for example.

I updated Prometheus today, adding a feature to warn me if notes are to be deleted when quantising. Then I started work on the album cover. I had a clear image in my mind of pastel colours and a car coming out of an art-deco style circle. I started by photographing a toy car:

Then a simple background based on the Walk In The Countryside album:

I spent hours on colour combinations of the rays, the car, the spots. Extreme contrast seemed to help to add an illustrative look, and the cat-shaped halo made it look interesting from a distance. If in doubt, I choose the option with the most information in it, the most content and interest. Anything interesting wins:

This has something of the 1950s about it.

Nigel Stonier texted this evening to ask how Deb was and if we'd be at the open mic on Tuesday. I thought this was touching and replied, and he replied with a request to like and re-tweet his Twitter posts to sell tickets to Egan's Words & Music gig. This is the third time he's asked me to do such a favour (excluding the favour to include his music on Snow Business), and it made me feel foolish for considering his first enquiry sincere. I will acquiesce. I feel I'm owed something in return, but this sort of prodding for favours appears to be his personality.

Singing

Singing practice this morning, including to some older songs. I was struck by a few things. First that every album before We Robot isn't sung as well as I can manage now. The Golden Age is close, but I can certainly improve on Secret Electric Sorcery and everything earlier. We Robot was the first CD I had pressed in years for good reason. This was a bit dispiriting, though I embarked on this journey exactly to learn, with the hope that I would improve as I have. The 4 years since The Dusty Mirror is a mere blip in the long expanse of life. Vocal music has been my primary artistic focus for all of that time, and must be thought of as an investment, like learning to paint.

Many of the earlier songs were at completely the wrong key or pitch range. My new recording of 'Incomplete Version Of The Writer' is 4 semitones higher than the old version. 'Norman Bates' sounds 5 or 6 semitones too low for me (ie. exactly the wrong pitch!). I can manage those notes (they're not that low!) but I wouldn't write a song in that range now. I remember that the climactic 'Norman Bates' in the chorus was almost too high before, now it's trivial to reach. I wonder if I'll need to (or should...) pitch it up, when I eventually re-record it.

Lower notes just don't sound as good, and I wondered if this is due to my physical build rather than my voice. I wonder how much the bulk of singers like Pavarotti influence the sound. I wonder how big Scott Walker's chest was, or other famous baritones. There are slight singers with famous voices, like Karen Carpenter, but she sang gently and relaxed at all times. Even for choruses of the more impassioned Carpenter's songs, she remained sleepy in her tone. The also slight Freddie Mercury was a natural baritone, apparently, but I don't think he ever used that range.

This made me think of the physics of sound, that sound reflection must come from a heavy, dense surface. I wonder if a singing jacket could be made, something like a 'body warmer' with a dense wall, like a bullet-proof-vest. This might change the timbre of lower notes.

Self-judgements are important if one is to improve in any skill. I must detect weaknesses and form a plan to fix them, and repeat this process constantly. It's difficult to be objective. Feedback from others can't always help. Even if they were sincere and honest in their assessments, they may be less qualified than you to identify flaws, or not understand the direction of change in the different metrics of a skill; what's been done, what needs to continue, what needs to stop. Comparison with your former self is one aspect, and comparison with a goal or target, but each voice is unique and so a target can be difficult to find.

As I've said many times, the performance and production skills on the new album are good, on par or better than We Robot, so I must continue, and at some point apply these skills to older work. Ultimately, the music I've written so far is an important artistic expression, irrespective of any self-perceived flaws (or self-perceived brilliance!). I've recorded more songs than Salvador Dali or Vermeer. I've painted more than Freddie Mercury or Kate Bush. I feel I'm better than ever in many skills, and I feel I am improving.

Onwards we march, stoic and brave, rolling our Sisyphean rock, towards the great sun.

Scoring Complete, Spiral Hub Suspension, DSLR Webcam

A full day of music scores, and in record time I've scored the album of 14 tracks. I've cut the occasional corner. I've excluded many of the solos, those which were live at the time rather than sequences.

I've also only scored the main theme to 'Thinking About the Cats I Used to Know'. The actual recording is a quasi-improvisational drift of that theme over the course of 3 or 4 minutes. It would be rather torturous to score it exactly, and not particularly useful. I have scored the exact notes many times before, for many of those Fall in Green piano tunes, for example, but in this case it can largely wait. It's part of the spirit of this tune that it IS an improvisational drift, a dream-like melody blown on the wind. If played live, I'd probably do the same; use the theme and improvise it.

I had the idea of making some sort of roller-skate that used large pneumatic wheels, like a bicycle, primarily as a means of transport. I was trying to think of a good way to add suspension to the system so came up with this design which uses several spiral springs, something like the rotary pendulum in a watch:

The thickness and curve (and quantity!) of the springs can be adjusted to adjust the resistance of the system. One advantage to this system is that the holes can be cut from a disc of steel (with a laser or mill), making it easy to make, if you have a spring-steel disc and a computer controlled steel cutter!

I've also turned my DSLR camera into a webcam, which is interesting. I had the idea of making a TV show, something like a short version ArtsLab, but haven't developed the idea fully. One option might be to live-stream it to Facebook or YouTube, so I wanted to learn how to do this, and with a webcam it's easy. One problem is that my computer is in a different room from the 'studio'... A long cable (very long, 10M?) could fix this, though it may require a technician or two to run it all live.

Deb's cold is getting better at last. We may soon be able to meet without the risk of me catching it - hurray!

A Drive Through The Town Scores

Back to work on A Drive Through The Town in stoic fashion. One problem is that, as I become more accomplished in music creation and publishing, the list of what to do for each release grows. For my early albums, like The Spiral Staircase back in 2002, I'd simply burn a CD, make the cover art (maybe only doing that months later) and perhaps print a few copies. Then I'd call the album 'done' and forget about it, ready to move on to the next one. I can't do that now, it would feel like an insult to the album to move on so soon.

Now I still have to make that cover art, but typically 8 pages at 635dpi, plus rear and on-disc art. I make the sheet music for each track, a Spotify Canvas for each track, and a full-size simple video too for each track, for YouTube. I file the tracks, lyrics, credits, and register the music rights with many authorities before publication. I make a lyrics booklet, list it on my website... and more and more. All of this work is perhaps better in the long term, but it hugely increases the time to create an album, which harms the spontaneity of the art, at very least. For me the benefit is the security of the information. I'm treating my work as a major label might.

I find myself doing some of this work now for the old albums like The Spiral Staircase. Back then there was hardly any music released. I could actually sell albums and get reviews and attention. This is much harder now because, I surmise, of the sheer quantity of music released; but this perhaps make this long-term re-enforcement of the music content important. Who knows, if I'd have done all of this back in 2002, The Spiral Staircase might have been a bigger hit.

Today I've been making the sheet music for the new album. I've managed to transcribe 8 songs, with several variations to make 20 scores. This is good going, partly because these pop-sequences are easier to transcribe, as well as the increase in my skill at this job. I find these scores most useful for live performance; nay, essential. Without them I'd have to listen to the original and try to copy by ear, and do that every time, which would take more time than it takes to score these.

I've enjoyed making a few arrangements. The piano arrangement for 'Incomplete Version Of The Writer' is rather nice.

At this rate I could perhaps finish the scoring tomorrow, but I won't because I've jumped the gun a bit and started before the music is finalised. I might tweak the Mister Moan song a little.

All of these scores eventually go on my itch channel and website, but most have only had one download each (and that might have been me!) but one day these will go into print. When I'm 70 I might be 'discovered' like Havergal Brian, but unlike him I'm working now as fast and as best as I can, every day, anyway.

Turing Test Problem

Assuming there are only two beings in the universe, A and B, separated by a wall. If A applies the Turing Test to B, and it passes, would it be fair for B to then attempt the test on A? In other words, if any test for intelligence, or any test for consciousness, can (or must) be applied by one person/being an another, then how could this work correctly if there are only two beings in the universe?

Consciousness, intelligence, and independent thought, I submit, are social labels and only applicable to others, not ourselves. This is the opposite of Descartes view; to correct his paraphrase: We are because others think we are.

In ourselves, parts of us judge other parts to reach these conclusions to varying degrees. Humans are composite creatures made of independent animals, cells, as well as sub-components on many levels, physical and psychological. In this way it is possible for one 'individual' to be 'social'.

SFXEngine, A Drive Through The Town

Last night I realised that I didn't have to, and indeed could not, translate the components of the SFXEngine plug-ins as the sounds use the name to locate them. I started work on the broad translation work today, adding German text and a manual, but the job grew in workload. One problem is that there are specific terms, like 'Engine' which are used in the program and I expect that a similar specific term would be needed in any translation. I expect I'd encounter similar problems with any other languages too.

The simplest solution is to ignore that and simply translate the English entirely, as if 'Engine', though that word and its meaning can vary in other languages. The best solution would be to translate by, or have the results proofread by, a native language speaker. Both options were overwhelming today. I had aimed to make some simple steps towards translation, and the job grew into something that has taken days and could take weeks. I've sold 7 copies of SFXEngine in the (almost) year since launch, so made less than one-morning's minimum wage to date, so on one level it's not successful enough to warrant the work I'm putting into it. On another level, one could argue that if I put more work in (more languages?) it might become a hit, and that I merely haven't reached that threshold!

This is my life's dilemma.

I've decided to update the code, and ignore the text translations for now. The next update is ready for translation if I deem it worthwhile.

I've listened to my new album, A Drive Through The Town, in proof and need to make a few mixing changes. It's generally good. It's one of my most mainstream albums, with less of a theme than We Robot and several short and snappy songs which could be cult hits, or actual smash hits if the album were to be published by a major label. I've pushed myself in a different area in each one, and it's perhaps my most technically accomplished in production and performance terms. I'll probably release a single or two, and not tour or perform many. I'll make the sheet music. I'll file the album and enjoy it and feel proud of it (or perhaps not-enjoy it and cringe) while nobody but myself pays any attention to it. I've certainly grown as a performer and singer during its creation; this is perhaps my greatest benefit.

What next?

SFXEngine Updates, Anniversary, Bogi

Spent much of yesterday creating videos and sample sounds for the SFXEngine Bolt-on DLC, and the admin of the launch of Gunstorm II in the evening. It was a tedious and unhappy day of endless menial admin jobs; so what is increasingly a typical day.

Today has also been working on SFXEngine, with an aim of adding multiple languages to the program, but this is difficult. Five things need translating: icon text, error text, main menu text, the manual, and the text in the plug-ins/engines. Each presents its own problems, and I've spent today working on the main menus, integrating those with a single text file.

The text in the plug-ins may be the most difficult. The text strings are part of the plug-in files, and I've never needed to translate these before. I did program in some simple multi-language support to prepare for it, but that too is hard-coded, meaning that if and when I add another language, I need to put it into the plug-in and recompile it. This not ideal. Ideally, I think, each plug-in would simply link its text (name, names of the parameters) to text in an external file, making translation a matter of changing that file.

Either way, I'm faced with a lot of work. Translation to just one other language would require a lot of re-coding, and re-compiling each of the 100 plug-ins, at bare minimum. This is possible. Is it worth it? Who can say. Perhaps auto-translation by Windows will soon eclipse this sort of manual translation, and perhaps do a better job than I. Of course, I can't speak (or can barely speak) other languages anyway, so any translation of the bulk text would largely be automated.

For such complex and unqiue software though, it may find a niche in a non-English area.

I will muse on the best way to proceed.

Deb is still ill with a cold-like virus. It's been over 10 days since she fell ill with it, and the doctor seems to think it will take 28 days for her to recover. Eight years ago today we first met when I interviewed her on ArtsLab on RedShift radio, an encounter which is happily preserved forever in the radio archive (which is on Mixcloud at time of writing).

I saw her today for a rare time (we've only met up once in the last 10 days) and we had an nice walk in the sun and shop visit. I returned home to find the house empty, my mother at the hospital with her sister. Bogi has apparently hit her head while parking her bicycle, fell backwards and became unconscious. She apparently feels fine, but head injuries are tricky things at the best of times.

Tic-Tac-Two

Had a nice night at Mark's art preview last night. I miss painting. I miss visual art and artists. My life feels like a treadmill of hope and isolation at times, but I am creating something with my treadmill.

Today's creation is an idea for a 'sequel' of sorts to the simple game of Noughts and Crosses, known as Tic-Tac-Toe in the US. This thought was probably inspired by my mural, and my recent work on games. How it plays I don't know, but here is an outline of Tic-Tac-Two:

As in the normal game, the game is played on a 3x3 grid. Players choose X or O as their side, and the aim of the game is to make a line of 3 symbols either or orthogonally or diagonally.

The game would be best played with tiles (perhaps with X on one side and O on the other) rather than pencil and paper, as the grid is more dynamic.

Players take turns, but this time a 6-sided dice is rolled first. The sides determine the player actions and are as follows:
1. Place. The player must place their symbol in an empty space on the grid. This is the normal play for the classic game.
2. Move. The player can move any existing symbol on the grid to an adjacent square (orthogonally or diagonally). The symbol moved can be the player's or their opponents. Moving into the same square as another symbol will destroy/subsume it.
3. Remove. The player must remove one symbol (of any sort) from the grid.
4. Flip. The player must swap a symbol for its opposite; an X becomes O, an O becomes X.
5. Skip Turn. The turn is skipped to the other player without action.
6. Change Side. The players swap sides, the X player now becomes O, and the O player now becomes X.

For these actions, if a play is not possible (eg. if the grid is empty on a Move, Remove, or Flip action, or is full on a Place action) then no action is taken and the turn is skipped. Action must be taken if an action is possible.

Notes:

Rule 6 is the most interesting, as it could upset any strategy and would require some empathy with the opponent (if it's disruptive, this roll could be Roll Again instead). The game may play better on a larger grid for reasons of strategy; 4x4, 5x5, or larger. It could also either win with a longer line (line-of-4 or line-of-5) or use shorter lines, eg. 3, which score points rather than end the game. Play could continue until the entire grid was full. It could also be used for 3, 4, or more players, with some rules to govern the symbol-flip and change-side rolls (a second die-roll could indicate the destination symbols perhaps).

I thought last night that this might make for a fun game called Battle of the Sexes where the male and female symbols were used. It would make the Change Side roll particularly amusing, if not overtly topical.