DaVinci Resolve: a beginner’s (exceedingly grumpy) review

Comments

I’ve recently joined the video editing team at Trans Academy, and that team has standardized on DaVinci Resolve for all editing. Since I’ve been coming up on the limitations of Final Cut Pro for quite some time I figured I’d finally give it a try, and since I’m working on finishing up an album I figured I’d use it for making the YouTube assembled version.

So, I have some thoughts about it so far, speaking as someone who’s mostly used Premiere and Final Cut and am used to their UIs and quirks. I’m just evaluating the free version for now, although I’ll eventually be getting access to the paid version as part of my Trans Academy duties.

Read more…

Song Fight! #1000

Comments

Song Fight! has been going for a long-ass time, and we’re hitting a big milestone, our 1000th title1. The due date for “A Grand Parade” is in a few days and I’d love to see a bunch more people submitting songs for it. Help us celebrate this event!

So far I’ve submitted three tracks, all from unused older alter-egos of mine, and I’m also thinking of a couple more songs. But the more the merrier! Especially if you’ve ever participated in Song Fight! in the past, or have thought about it but never got around to doing it.

Acoustic panels

Comments

I’ve been building some simple acoustic panels to improve the acoustics and aesthetics in my recording studio. Mostly the aesthetics, really, but still.

I have a pretty good process for something that’s easy and cheap to build. And it doesn’t hurt the sound, at least.

Read more…

Today’s accomplishments

Comments

I managed to actually get a lot of stuff done today, and I’m feeling quite tired, but in a good way.

  • Assembled three of my acoustic panels for the studio (and then ran out of adhesive, oops)
  • Assembled my new fire pit ring (still need the brick surrounds and probably some gravel for the bottom)
  • Set up a photo shoot for album cover art (pending the completion of the acoustic panels and some general tidying up of the studio space)
  • Got caught up on a week’s worth of dirty dishes (oops)
  • Made some more tiny tweaks to the album track ordering, and got a couple folks signed up for the listening beta (but I could still use more!)
  • Glazed my two pots
  • Also somehow managed to get some piano practice in, too???

Read more…

Album almost done — test listeners needed!

Comments

Several years ago I started an album called “Instrumental,” which was meant to be a showcase of my game and video music production skills, and a place for all of the little leftovers from canceled projects and one-off tunes to live. I’d been considering this to be “on the backburner” for years, but a few days ago a thing made me realize that I actually had a lot of music ready to go for it, and a reason to finally get it completed.

So, that lit a fire under my ass and I’ve been working hard for the last few days on finishing up the songs that needed finishing, and pulling in a bunch more music that’s suitable for inclusion too.

Anyway, I’m looking for a few test listeners to give it a once-over to get feedback.

Read more…

Initial slipcast success!

Comments

Today my first two slip-cast pots were unloaded from the kiln and I picked ‘em up. They came out great!

IMG_6843.jpeg

My mold positives are 60mm across, and the bisqueware measures just under 54mm after firing, which tells me exactly what I need to know going forward. Basically anything I model needs to be 1.11x the intended final size. Easy enough to remember.

I’ll be glazing these, of course, although I’m not quite sure what to use them for. I’d only intended them for calibrating my shrink factor and they’re not really a useful size for anything. Maybe they’ll become the world’s worst cortado cups.