I wrote a python script last night for the FBV Shortboard MKII that lets me control live with my FBV.  It is based very heavily on the work of Hanz Petrov who has done so much work documenting the LiveAPI that the code is pretty trivial to write now.  My code draws a red box around the tracks I am working with exactly like the APC40 does, and basically makes the FBV a physical extension of what is going on in Ableton Live.  This basically gives me the ability to create snapshots of all of my virtual instruments, mixer settings, etc. with Kapture, and then I can stomp on a pedal to switch between them.  My hands are free to play instruments, and my feet control Ableton.  Pro tools may be the industry standard, but this flexibility and stability makes it feel like a dinosaur.  I can do almost anything I can think of with this software.  It’s incredible.  Python is kind of a glue language, and that is exactly how I used it.  I glued some hardware to a neat Max/MSP app and have something better than what I was trying to write earlier.  I learned a lot writing my old setup though so it isn’t a total wash.

This functionality has obvious live music implications, but it turns out that it is so efficient that I can probably use it when recording and mixing too.  I barely have to touch my laptop which is awesome.  I am now working on getting my Maschine integrated with everything and I should have a really flexible setup with a pretty minimal effort.

I am cleaning up the code now and I am going to try it out over the next few weeks.  I’ll post the code if anyone wants it, but for now I am going to play with it a bit first to make sure it all works as expected.

Historically I always get hosed on this kind of stuff. I usually don’t hear about the tickets going on sale until they are already sold out. This time though, I watched the band site like a hawk and found out what day the tickets went on pre-sale. I then wrote a little tool in Python that checked the pre-sale ticket site every minute. If the program detected that anything had changed at the site it played metal as loud as my computer could be turned up. This allowed me to sleep and monitor the site at the same time. At around 6am today my computer began blasting metal and I was able to procure some tickets. I’m stoked as hell that I got tickets and completely dorking out on the fact that I wrote software to allow it to happen. That being said I have recently discovered that programs exist for doing this task already and are much cooler and MUCH more flexible than what I wrote. I don’t care though, it was cool as hell.

I’ve gotten to see Radiohead twice in my life and both times were outdoor venues. In both instances I was far enough back that the sound was washed out and I couldn’t see much. I really hope that my determination in getting good tickets pays off and the tickets I bought will let me get close enough for this to be a really good show. Anyway, that is it. I got Radiohead tickets. I’ll let everyone know where the seats are when they actually get assigned. Here is Thom rocking a little Bangers + Mash Phil Collins style.

I have several solid 8 hours days of work to do on the 4 songs we want to have done before Christmas and I have to get those days in before December 15th when Heather and I leave.  Randy and I have been working on this record for over a year and we have 4 songs close to being done, 3 or so on deck, and probably 3 more in the incubator… yet to be inspired.  I would like to work on my own music, but I can’t seem to make the time.  We really need to get Randy’s new record done so I can move on to some other things.  I like working on Randy’s stuff but I am 28 and would like to get some of the ideas I have for songs down before I am 30.

I also have lots of work to do at my actual job.  I’ve become an asset to the company I suppose and I actually really like what I have been doing lately.  I have a sense of pride in my work, as corny as that sounds; however, it is exhausting at the end of the year when everyone wants everything done immediately and right now I just want to go on vacation.

I decided earlier this year that I wanted to learn a programming language.  Programming was directly responsible for the difficulty I had in college and I kind of want to kick its ass now that my mind is a little more agile.    I had originally wanted to learn Java; however, the syntax gets in the way and the whole process just seems kind of clunky.  I spent 3 weeks writing a very simple piece of code that logged into a remote Oracle database, grabbed some data and analyzed it, and then updated some tables in said database based on a csv file provided by another company.  I got it about 90% of the way done but that last 10% was a pain in the ass.  I figured I would try python because everyone rants and raves about it.  I literally did the same project, having no experience with python, in about 4 hours only it worked as a standalone app and was much more robust.  It just proved to me that my logic was good but the language was getting in my way.  I’ve always struggled with foreign languages and programming languages don’t seem to be an exception to that.  I’m not bagging on java.  It has its place in the world for sure; but it was actually fun to write python code and not have to look shit up constantly to be able to do it.  Now that I am done with it, I have all kinds of little parts I want to change; however, the project I wrote it for will be over at the end of next week and I’ll probably dump all the code.  Oh well, it was a good learning experience.  If I get bored I will finish the java version.

Anyway, I just started this page and I want to be able to post about the things that interest me.  It’s probably going to be strange mix of all the little things I like to do but it will be good for me to write down.  Sometime later I will put something up on why I think writing it down is important; however, for now I am going to do something a little more productive.  With that, I leave you with a picture of Scarlett Johansson because she’s hot as hell and I’m down with that.