Archive for ‘January, 2009‘

Microsoft, lords of cheese, have done it again with their latest Microsoft Research baby, Songsmith. With Songsmith, you sing a lyric (existing or original) and the program generates accompanying ‘music’. Cool concept, awful execution. I’ll leave the video to tell the tale, but in short, ‘campy’ and ‘cheap’ are probably the best words to describe Songsmith.

If you’re interested in giving it a whirl, Microsoft’s offering a six-hour demo so you can make your own hot jams. Ugh.

P.S. @1:57 – “Microsoft, huh? So, it’s pretty easy to use?” ROFLCOPTERS. Also, Soulja Boy has never sounded so good.

Move over, Wario Ware; YouTube’s got a new trickster:Patrick Boivin’s Street Fighter.

Introduced as “a YouTube video game in (which) you can control your character by clicking one of the (four) buttons”, I had my doubts. However, once things started, I found things were as they were said to be, fuelled by a series of stop-motion videos tied together by caption links – an impressive feat. Even more impressive, Boivin factored in character damage, which is carried over from video to video.

Gamer or not, Street Fighter deserves a look, if only for the amount of love that went into it.

P.S. This is also awesome.

Big fan of Fender sounds, but can’t afford a new box? GTR Solo, a plugin from Waves that replicates famous guitar amps, cabinets, stomps, and microphones, has dropped from $140.00 USD to free for a year.

Available in VST and AU formats, PC and Mac users can both get their rock on with 10 amps, 13 stomps, and 10 cabinets recreating classic sounds from Gibson to Vox. For those looking for more, Waves also offers a more robust version of GTR Solo called GTR3.

I haven’t had the chance to poke around it yet (I’m a Guitar Rig kind of guy, which just updated to 3.2), but anyone looking to expand their sound for free can’t pass this up. Even if you’re not a guitarist, if GTR Solo functions like Guitar Rig does, you can create a lot of unique bite and atmosphere by running your sounds through the plugin.

Dear Mr. Dan Durban:

Last week, I contacted you, a sales manager for Pioneer Electronics, about a software promotion I missed by a couple of days. Technically my fault, you could have turned me away; instead, you poked around, and even went as far as contacting your Japanese colleagues on my behalf.

Today, I sit with a shiny new copy of Pioneer’s DJS software, all thanks to you. Thank you for going above and beyond to help me with this.

With heartfelt thanks,

Jeremy Lim

The Backstory: In mid-December, I picked up a pair of CDJ-400s from California. Along with the manuals came access codes for a promotion offering free copies of Pioneer’s DJS software. Unfortunately, having read one, I learned that the promotion ended at the end of August 2008. When I arrived home in the new year, I unpacked, and found the second code with an expiry date set for December 31st, 2008. Having missed the promotion due to this misunderstanding, I contacted Pioneer Canada customer support to see what I could do. I was replied to promptly by Mr. Durban, and after a period of a week, I now sit very happy with the software, and more importantly, very impressed with Pioneer.

P.S. Pioneer HR, are you reading this? Mr. Durban deserves a raise. You folks just got a new fanboy.

Bought used, my Canon 30D came wearing an el cheapo screen protector. While it’s left my screen unmarred, reviewing photos has been a blurry mess.

While I can’t comment on the Invisible Shield’s durability just yet, I will say that it is the most transparent protection I’ve ever seen. It’s a bit hard to demonstrate, but I’m seeing details previously exclusive to post-processing. For $15.00 USD, the clarity is easily worth the price.

How about you folks? Have you had a chance to try Zagg’s Invisible Shield? How does it fare in the long run? How are it’s competitors?

P.S. If anyone tells you a 40D protector fits on a 30D screen, they’re lying. Not difficult to cut, but a pain if you have clumsy hands like me.