Piano Recital

Saturday, May 10 2008 - , , - 2 comments

Today I participated in my second piano recital. My first recital was last year and it was shortly after I started taking lessons. This recital marks a little over a year since I started taking lessons with my current piano teacher. I will say this, I don't think it ever gets easy to perform in front of people. I was really well prepared, but still, when I sat behind the piano in the quiet building my heart was pounding and I was very nervous. After about the first measure my nerves calmed down and I made it through with only a little mistake that I don't think anyone noticed :) Here is a recording...

Silverlight Video Upload Application

Sunday, March 30 2008 - 0 comments

After doing a lot of digging around on the Internet about Microsoft's free silverlight hosting service I realized that it was quite complicated to use if you just wanted to host a video. It took me a long time to figure out that in fact it does support just hosting videos without the need for all the .js files and xaml. Here is a post from Tim Sneath with instructions on uploading a video. The method of video/application uploading described in Tim's post is used by Microsoft so that with every video you can embed some .js and xaml and then reference the hosting service in say an iFrame and it will...

Graffiti Silverlight Video Plug-In

Sunday, March 30 2008 - 0 comments

I decided to create a plug-in for graffiti to allow for silverlight videos within graffiti posts. ( download here ) This plug-in supports Microsoft's free streaming service as well as just placing the .wmv on your own server. It is one graffiti.silverlight.video.dll and you just drop it in the bin of your graffiti web site. Here is how it works: Drop the graffiti.silverlight.video.dll into your bin and you will then see in your plug-in's location the option to enable or disable the plug. Once you enable the plug-in it will automatically create 4 custom fields that you will use to configure video...

ipMIDI Sending MIDI over LAN

Monday, March 24 2008 - , , - 1 comments

MIDI was first proposed in 1981 out of the need to standardize a form of communication between electronic instruments. 1983 saw the publishing of the MIDI specification 1.0. Today MIDI plays an important role in all musical applications and is used every day as the conduit between electronic instruments and music production systems. Up until fairly recently the only way to send and receive MIDI data between instruments and the PC was through an audio interface with MIDI or a dedicated MIDI interface. Most electronic keyboards still require MIDI cables to send and receive MIDI but I suspect we will...

Now With Photos

Friday, March 21 2008 - - 1 comments

Click here to view some pictures of my play room aka home studio.

I finally got around to setting up some photo galleries in flickr so I decided to add them to my blog.  I'm using the silverlight graffiti plug-in that Kevin talks about in his post here.  I'm also using Rich's flickr side bar widget.

VIDEO: Let It Be

Thursday, March 13 2008 - , , , , - 2 comments

This is another quick little sample video using EastWest Quantum Leap Pianos.  In this video I'm playing "Let It Be" on my Yamaha S90ES triggering the samples of the Bechstein in Quantum Leap Pianos.

[VIDEO]

VIDEO: Playing EWQL Piano

Thursday, March 13 2008 - , , , , - 2 comments

Well the much anticipated piano sample library of 2008 EastWest Quantum Leap Pianos shipped last week. This library is absolutely amazing! This sample library consists of 35 DVDs of samples from 4 different high dollar pianos. You can read more about it here . I created a quick demo video where I'm improvising using this library. The specific piano samples in this video are from the Steinway. Enjoy! [VIDEO]...

Connecting Multiple Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs)

Thursday, March 13 2008 - , , , , , - 1 comments

The term DAW , or Digital Audio Workstation , is just a fancy name for a computer that is optimized in both software and hardware to be used in the production of music/audio. There really isn't that big of a difference between a DAW and the standard home computer. The differences usually come down to configuration and hardware choices. In my home studio I have two DAWs both of which I built custom so that I could have the utmost control over all the critical components. I found that while today you don't save much by building computers from scratch you do still save a little. For me the reason...

Help a fallen soldier

Thursday, March 13 2008 - 0 comments

I recieved an email from my Sister-in-law this morning about the son of a friend of hers and I wanted to post it here in hopes of reaching others that might be able to help. Here is the email: Hi Everyone, I wanted to reach out to you regarding my realtor’s son that was killed in Iraq just before Thanksgiving. He was a 2 nd Lt. in the Army and felt called to leave his corporate job to serve his country. He left behind his parents, a fiancé and 3 siblings. In tribute to him, his mother is sending packages over to his unit for the holidays, a wish that Peter had asked her to do just days before he...

VIDEO: Linus & Lucy

Thursday, March 13 2008 - , - 0 comments

Here is a little video clip of me playing the holiday classic Linus & Lucy. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and don't forget to give thanks to our troops!

[VIDEO]