benjarvis.org

Collecting Zendikar.

Last September Wizards of the Coast kicked off a new Magic: The Gathering block called Zendikar. It reminds me of classic magic sets like the Urza block. I bought a few packs and looked at them, but never really made any decks nor did I collect any more cards. Since then, they’ve released Worldwake and just yesterday they released Rise of the Eldrazi. On a whim, I asked Corin to pick me up a couple packs of Worldwake while she was at Wal*Mart. I opened them and since have been bitten by the bug.

But this time it’s different. I decided to stop buying booster packs like a sucker. No, I’m not going to pay collectible store prices either. I did some research and saw on eBay you can get complete common and uncommon player’s sets (4 copies of the same cards) for $0.99-$30. Commons and uncommons make up 75% of the set and though rares make up the other 25%, not all rares are created equal and most are useless (unless you specifically build a deck to use them). After some research, many of the rares I wanted to play with only cost one or two dollars for four copies. The most versatile (and thus most powerful) cards cost more, but even the $10-$20 cards don’t seem so expensive after I did the math.

Most serious players buy discounted booster boxes and get their cards from those. A booster box has thirty-six packs in it. A booster pack will typically contain fifteen cards: one rare, three uncommons, ten commons, and one basic land. Since the booster box costs $90, it brings the cost of the packs down to $2.50 per pack. If you take out the basic land, you only get fourteen cards per pack or 504 cards per booster box. Subtract the rares and it’s only 468. Since a player’s set of uncommons and commons in Zendikar is 644 cards, you’re definitely not getting a complete set in one booster box. You get thirty-six rares, but there are 53 in the set and my experience is that the really great cards are truly rare and you are lucky to get one in a whole booster box. By getting my commons and uncommons in one complete player’s set for a third of what I payed for a booster box, I can spend the remaining $60 on just the rares I need for the decks I want. Even if I occasionally buy booster packs, I can still keep the rares and resell superfluous cards.

I think this plan will help me collect what I want without spending more than I have to. The funny thing is that since I put my cards in binders, I spend almost as much on the storage supplies as I do on the cards themselves! They always get ya, coming or going.

Posted in Gaming | No Comments »

Spring Cleaning.

I just finished clearing out some four thousand old comments that came along with the LiveJournal posts I imported. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the comments that people left me over the years, but they are all heavily dependent on LiveJournal technology such as user names and post IDs. I culled them all and now I begin (again) the task of editing old posts to publish here. Many of them are just junk: post to show off a new icon, totally out of date memes, YouTube videos that have been removed, eBay auctions that are no longer accessible, etc. Even so, there are some eighteen hundred posts to look at. The survivors have to be spell checked and proofread. Then the formating need to be cleaned up. It’s a big job, but I plan on tackling it each day, a few posts at a time.

The theme of this site has been wearing on me too, so I’ve been learning how to code a WordPress theme in my spare time. It’s coming along slowly, but even if I pick a pre-made one have learned quite a bit to modify and personalize it. It’s time this site had a face-lift.

Posted in Life | 2 Comments »

The Grand Wazir.

Earlier this week I finished wiring up my bedroom studio and I’m now able to record from my external hardware. After I was done, I realized my first mistake. All of my external gear is routed into a Behringer mixer and the mixer outputs to the line-in on my PC and the mains on the studio monitors. I can play my gear over the speakers with or without the PC on. This is great for live setups and practice, but there is one catch. Since each piece of gear is patched in to one mixer, they all feed in to the same stereo input. If I want to record a piece of gear, I have to record each one separately. If I don’t, then all of the gear ends up on one audio track in Ableton and I can’t apply effects to the individual instruments. I could run Y-cables from each of the synths to the various ports on the back (configuring them all for stereo input), but the ports have pretty lousy A/D converters. The ideal solution is an audio interface like one of the ones M-Audio makes and give each synth its one digital channel. Then I do all the mixing in Ableton, and screw the external mixer. Oh well. I’ll get one eventually.

In the meantime, I’ve been learning to mix samples, softsynths, and external gear together. It’s working. I got the recording latency down to playable levels and I can even do live monitoring without any noticeable latency. The end result is a little sketch I call “The Grand Wazir”. It’s a down-tempo droning affair that started with a patch I made on the CZ-101 (the first sound you hear). Enjoy!

The Grand Wazir.flac (Lossless)
The Grand Wazir.oga (OGG Vorbis)

 

 The Grand Wazir [3:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted in Music, Podcasts, Tech | 1 Comment »

It’s Just Like Starting Over Again.

I’ve been deeply involved with my new Korg ER-1 drum machine. I bought a Behringer Xenyx 1202FX mixer to plug all my toys together and I’ve been having a great time learning how to program the Korg ER-1. Without a sequencer, it’s difficult to put together an actual song, but I’ve been noodling about with the two synths and the drum machine. I really need a stand to hold all this gear, but that’s down the line from here.

While practicing 32 step programming on the ER-1, I came up with a rather complicated beat. I recorded a demo of it, muting parts and bringing them in. It’s so much fun manipulating hardware. I’ve been using software so long I forgot how great it is to just reach over an tweak a knob. So here is the demo I recorded. I designed the kick, snare, and tom drums from scratch. I also did all the programming and all the live performance.

 

 Drumber [2:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted in Music, Tech | 4 Comments »

One Down (and I Mean Down…), One to Go.

The Korg EA-1 arrived first today. Overall the cosmetic condition was good, but a few of the pots were glitchy and the selection jog wheel skipped around. That’s no good. One of the glitchy pots was the main volume knob. It would cut out one of the voices intermittently. Also the decay pot didn’t have full range of motion and intermittently stopped transmitting data. So I gotta return it.

But! There is a silver lining. I found a store called Daddy’s Junky Music. They sell used gear in stores and online. They have a unit that sounds like its in better shape and they want $30 less. I have to return the one I got, but at least I can get a pretty good replacement. I emailed them to get an idea of its condition and if everything sounds cool then when I get my refund money I’ll order it.

I hope the Korg ER-1 is in better shape.

Posted in Music, Tech | No Comments »

Countdown to Fat Beats.

Tomorrow my ER-1 and EA-1 synthesizers arrive. I would have had them today but, it’s MLK’s Birthday so no deliveries. It’s not been so bad waiting as I had my Casio CZ-101 to play with.

Yeah, I got it after all. It was totally worth the wait. I met up with the seller in the driving rain. Because of a few loose keys the seller dropped the price. He was awesome. Turns out he does scores for student films and such. Slowly, but surely I’m getting in touch with the synth guys of Austin.

The CZ-101 is truly unique. The only way I can describe it is that it sounds like an FM synth, but is programmed more like an analog synth. It has two voices and each voice has an 8(!) stage envelope for each of the DCO, DCF (called DCW), and the DCA. They can be used separately, together or one can be doubled. One voice can ring modulate the other and there is a noise generator to add grit. It has MIDI (up to 4 parts monophonic/multi-timbral), vibrato, and portamento. It’s very versatile. I can’t wait to use it in a mix. Oh, yeah! I almost forgot, it has pegs for a strap to wear it like a keytar! sweet.

Posted in Music, Tech | No Comments »

“Style 2 Sell”, My 1997 Hip Hop Hit.

Today I went to the thrift shop to find a tape deck so I could start digitizing my shoe box full of demo tapes. I lucked out and found a pristine Technics deck and it sounds great. I have roughly 30-40 tapes with various musical pieces. Well they were attempts at music. At any rate, they all need to be digitized, remastered and archived. I plan on releasing the best (or worst) of it here as I go through the pile.

The first song was a no brainer. In 1997, I was spending a lot of time slacking around with my buddy Josh, making music with whatever device we could get our hands on. I had bought a Roland MC-303 and we decided to try our hand at making a hip hop song. We didn’t have proper recording equipment, so we patched the mono output of the MC-303 into the left mic input on a tape deck I had and a mic in to the right input. This totally separated the vocals from the music. When it played back it was like listening to one of the first stereo albums with wacky extreme stereo effects, before they calmed down and put the vocals in the middle. It was fun but always kind of disappointing. The other problem was that we used a shitty mic without a pop filter so the vocals were really muddy. Most of the words were unintelligible.

Now, 13 years later, I’ve digitized the two tracks, cleaned them up (the best I could), mixed it to center and equalized it. It’s no Phil Specter Wall-of-Sound classic, but it sounds a lot better than it did and I’m happy to release it. Since I have the music and vocals separated, I think there might be a 2010 remix in the future.

Please understand that we’re not rappers. This was just for fun. Two dumb slackers playing around. I produced the beat and melody, Josh wrote and rapped the first half, I wrote and rapped the second half.

Style 2 Sell.flac (Lossless)
Style 2 Sell.oga (OGG Vorbis)

 

 Silverlake Crew - Style 2 Sell [4:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted in Humor, Music, Podcasts | 8 Comments »

An Open Letter to the Makers of Shamwow.

I had a $20 rebate card to Pep Boys so I went to see what I could get. Not much really. I was hoping for a Leatherman or a Mag-Light, but no such luck. I finally settled on a $19.99 box of Shamwow. Is it as good as they say? In a word: no. I tried to use it. I’ve given it over a week of usage to try and find away to make it work like they advertised. No such luck, it’s just a crappy product. By the way, I think its the same material as the Snuggie. So basically Shamwow is just an unassembled Snuggie. I never write letters to companies, but today I did. You can too! Send your complaints to: ronny@squareoneent.com

Here is the email I sent them.

“Dear Scheisters,

Sincerely,
Ben Jarvis”

Posted in Humor, Life | 2 Comments »

Synth-O-Rama!

Just a few steps closer to a full production studio. I purchased a Korg ER-1 and Korg EA-1. These two stand alone machines fill the same role as a Roland TR-808/909/606 and the Roland TB-303. Of course they aren’t REALLY analog and nothing can really replace the Roland units, but to get the honest to god machines would cost about $6500.

The ER-1 is a percussion synthesizer (fancy talk for drum machine). It has 4 virtual analog synths you can program to make bass drums, zaps, glitchy clicks, etc. and 4 sampled drums (open hi hat, closed hi hat, crash cymbal and hand clap). The samples are similar the 606 or 808 sounds, but the 4 perc synths are TOTALLY customizable. Lots of creative potential. It has a built in sequencer like the 606/808. Unlike those, the ER-1 has MIDI and when you tweak a knob in real-time, it can save the performance as part of the loop. Also it looks dope. For $150, you can’t go wrong.

The EA-1 is a monophonic virtual analog synthesizer that tries its best to pretend to be a TB-303. Like the TB-303, it has a built in sequencer and a monophonic voice. Unlike the TB-303, it has MIDI, built in effects, and is 2 part multitimbral (plays two separate bass/lead lines and sounds per pattern). It also has an audio input jack that passes through the filter. It can use the audio in to modulate OSC 2. Like the ER-1, it can remember the tweaks you do. For instance I can rhythmically tweak the cut off of the filter, save the rhythm, and apply that to my guitar playing.

Only downside is that I had to buy them off eBay as they are out of production. Hopefully there are no issues, but baring that, I should have them by the end of next week. Like Tom Petty said, “waiting is the hardest part”. If I can get this CZ-101 today, then I’ll have my toy to play with until they arrive.

Posted in Music, Tech | 1 Comment »

Oh Shit, a Blue Turtle Shell!

Yesterday I bought Mario Kart Wii. Needless to say, we’ve been racing each other and trying to unlock characters and tracks ever since. I love the “Mushroom Kingdom” universe so much that I’ve decided to try to collect as many games featuring Mario and friends on as many systems as possible. What Nintendo and the Wii lack in graphics, they make up for in style and fun. I’ve played many of the next generation games and there are some good ones, but nothing seems to come close the the fun I have with Nintendo “first-party” games.

I have an original SNES, a DSi, and a Wii. I also have a knock off Yobo NES. I would love to get a restored original NES and an Advance SP (to play OG Game Goy games with a backlight). Tracking down the individual games will be a little hard, but thats part of the fun, I guess. There are easier and cheaper ways to play these games (emulators, anyone?), but I want the real thing.

Speaking of the real thing, I might be getting a Casio CZ-101! This is identical to the CZ-1000, but has smaller keys and regular buttons. This is Casio’s “Phase Distortion” synth. Digital and totally different in tone and character from my Nord Lead 2. For a while I was using the VST version of the CZ-101 called “PlastiCZ”, but I love hands on gear. I really look forward to setting up my studio as I piece it together.

Posted in Gaming, Life, Music, Tech | 2 Comments »