Download: The Key Master – A 100 word story by Guy David

Originally published on the 100 Word Stories podcast.

Download: The Staff That Meters - A 100 word story by Guy David

Originally published on the 100 Word Stories podcast.

Download: At The End - A 100 word story by Guy David

Originally published on the 100 Word Stories podcast.

Download: The First – A 100 word story by Guy David

Originally published on the 100 Word Stories podcast.

Download: Memory – A 100 word story by Guy David

Originally published on the 100 Word Stories podcast.

Download: Mustache – A 100 word story by Guy David

Originally published on the 100 Word Stories podcast.

I have recently made another switch. My latest track was written, recorded and produced entirely on my iPhone. There are several full fledged studio recording and sequencing apps for your iPhone or iPad. I use one called MusicStudio and it has a keyboard, a sequencer that sort of doubles as a drum machine and even a way to record vocals. With apps such as this one I can take music writing on the road.

The business of writing music has changed considerably since I started in the mid 80s of the last century (I feel a little like an old relic after writing that…) but the notes involved are still the same 12 familiar notes, the atoms that make up a whole world of sound. It’s just that the process is now much more user friendly and mobile. I’m looking forward to the next development in music composition software. The day when you would only have to think about your music and it would be automatically written, recorded and shipped for on-line sales is not that far away.

Track listing:

1. Pinch

Credits:

• Guy David: MusicStudio app on an iPhone.

Download: Night Guy 115: No More!

• About the history of Night Guy and why I’m letting it go

Playlist:

1. Fantasy
2. Kiss of Death
3. What Do You Know
4. Opening of Doors

All tracks on this episode of Night Guy are by Guy David:
Guy David’s Website

Don’t forget to check out Songs For Jenny (also on MySpace), a project by Tony Puccy all proceeds of which go up to help fight ALS.

All of the Night Guy podcasts are hosted by iCast.
Click here for my Hebrew speaking electronica podcast.
Click here for my Hebrew speaking alternative rock podcast.

Track listing:

1. Fantasy
2. Kiss of Death
3. What Do You Know
4. Opening of Doors

Credits:

• Guy David: Reason software from Propellerhead.

Download: Night Guy 114: Great Hites, Vol. 6

• Iridescent Angel
• Iridescent Angel, Part II: Ebony
• Iridescent Angel, Part III: Abigail
• Iridescent Angel, Part IV: Ezaria (the part that wasn’t written)

Playlist:

1. Stop
2. Small Mind
3. Maybe
4. Follow Me Down

All tracks on this episode of Night Guy are by FeelAbouT:
FeelAbouT’s Website

FeelAbouT on MySpace

Don’t forget to check out Songs For Jenny (also on MySpace), a project by Tony Puccy all proceeds of which go up to help fight ALS.

All of the Night Guy podcasts are hosted by iCast.

2007-09-07 - Digitizing Old Tracks I Did in the 90′s

I’ve been digitizing some old music I did in the 90′s. Many of my 90′s works are stored on floppy disks, compatible with the sequencer I was using then. Many of those floppies where purchased about 15 years ago and the data on them is starting to deteriorate, which is why I’m digitizing. Here is how the digitizing process works:

First I upload the music from the floppies into my sequencer. This sequencer has 8 synthesizer channels and one drum machine channel. If I play all the channels at once, the notes tend to cut off in the middle, so I’m going to play every channel separately. The sequencer is connected to a multi timbral synthesizer, that is, a synthesizer that can play multiple sequencer channels. The synthesizer is connected to my computer through a mixer. First I add a click to the beginning of every track. This click helps me synchronize the tracks after recording them. I then record the tracks into my computer one by one, using Audacity. After recording, I delete the quiet bit before the click, then I delete the small segment between the click and the start of each channel track simultaneously. This way, the tracks are synchronized to each other. Next, I export this to QuickTime Pro and save it as an AIF file. Last step – I listen to hear if it came out right. That’s it

In the next entry I posted an actual article, the first one I wrote for my LiveJournal blog. It was also my last. Being a first attempt at predictive futurism, I think I did pretty well:

2007-12-08 - Mobile, Modular and Smart – The Web of Tomorrow

Web 2.0 changed the way we use computers. It added elements of interaction, social networking and user created contents. The next development is already underway, and it has three distinctive elements – mobility, modularity and web intelligence.

Mobility

I live near the city central garden, and lately I’ve been seeing signs there announcing that the garden is now Wi-Fi enabled. You can now go there with your mobile computer and surf the web for free. There are many coffee houses and restaurants that offer the same thing. Computers are getting smaller and the mobile computer is getting cheeper. The day it replaces the desktop computer is near. On top of that, the iPhone introduces real web surfing experience to your mobile phone.

The web had two restrictions that hindered it’s growth somewhat, time and place. You where restricted to surfing from home, and if you’re lucky, from work. Your time on the web was restricted by place, since you had to be near your computer to surf. You couldn’t take it with you. With computers getting smaller and mobile phones getting fully featured web browsers, those restrictions are now gone.

Modularity

If you’re in FaceBook, you’re constantly bombarded with application invites. You select the apps that fit your personality and change your FaceBook experience accordingly.

In the future, instead of surfing multiple websites, you’re going to be able to use one website as a hub, and add needed functionality to it. A website is going to become a modular application hub and change according to your needs.

The Smart Web

The third element in the future of the web is web adaptability. Searching the right apps to add to your web experience takes time and effort, and increasingly, it’s time you don’t have. The web itself is going to come to your aid in this. It’s going to study you, your preferences and suggest the right apps for you, much in the same way that Amazon now recommends products according to your personal taste. This would save you valuable search time and make your experience more your own. It will also impact the sort of advertising you get. Advertising will be tailored to your real needs and the web will be smart enough to offer you the things you actually want instead of random offers.

So – What Do We Get?

We get a smart web we that can take with us and that changes according to our needs in a modular way. They say a dog changes in time and looks more like it’s owner. In some ways, the web is going to become our pet dog. We are going to teach it new tricks, and it’s going to become smarter, adapt to us and become our loyal servant, while we surf it and use it to stay connected to the world around us.

That same month, this article became part of my Night Guy podcast pointing it’s way to future articles (click here to listen to this article for free).

There was one actual entry after that:

2008-08-02 - Going Off the Social Radar

I’ll be going off the social radar for a while. I don’t know if or when I’ll be back, but it’s time I get my real life in order. I have a wife and a son who need me, and things like Plurk and Twitter have been taking too much precious time I should be spending with my family. Time management is something to work on, and priorities change. I’ll still be podcasting because I enjoy this so much, but I’ll be less visible on-line, especially on time consuming applications such as Plurk and Twitter.

I continued posting podcast and CD release entries on LiveJournal until 2009-09-18, when I stopped posting there altogether. That’s it – the Excerpts Of The Past series is over. Nothing to see here. Please move on – you are blocking the traffic…

Gorilla Biker by Guy David (click to enlarge)

2007-02-05 - Advertising On Second Life

I’ve been trying some advertising methods using Second Life. Here is an ad I have on Podcast Island:

Podcast Island Ad (click to enlarge)

If you click this ad, it sends you to my gallery on Podshow Island:

Bluesmoke Hextall's Podshow Gallery (click to enlarge)

Bluesmoke Hextall's Podshow Gallery (click to enlarge)

2007-02-05 - Listening to Gary Numan

I’m listening to some music by Gary Numan. Amazingly, when this album came out I was only one year older then what my son is now.

2007-02-06 - Unemployed, Just Working

I’ve been unemployed now for almost two months, and I spent my time working on my podcasts, trying to build an infrastructure that would let me make a living as a podcaster. I’m almost completely alone in this. No one close to me supports this and I’m tired of fighting for recognition that this is something that might be profitable on the long run. No one can grasp the idea that something that is so much fun could be profitable. On top of that, I don’t know where the money to feed my family next month would come from. I’m feeling so down right now, I’m almost in tears. I’m listening to a comedy podcast I love. Maybe that would cheer me up.

2007-02-07

Alright – a new day. Today I’m working on my Advanced Electronica podcast. I’m also going to take my affiliate program with Amazon.com to a new level by building a CD recommendation store. OK – off to drink some coffee

2007-02-11 - Lucky Star…

There’s nothing like the experience of playing Slingo on Second life while listening to Lucky Number by Lene Lovich…

2007-02-15 - Fun in MagnaTune at Second Life

Bluesmoke Hextall playing the piano at Magnatune, Second Life (click to enlarge)

2007-03-30 - Pickle Of The Day

The 16th is the Podcast Pick of the Day at the Podcast Pickle:

The 16th at it's glorious Pickle Day (click to enlarge)

2007-04-18 - I’m Using Twitter

http://twitter.com/guy_david

There’s not much left. Guess next week would be the last Excerpts Of The Past post.

2006-09-28 - I have a new gallery at Second Life

I have a new gallery at Second Life. It’s not much since I cant afford to spend much, but it’s a start

Guy David aka Bluesmoke Hextall's first art gallery in Second Life (click to enlarge)

2006-10-08 - Bluesmoke’s Secret Place

I’ve created a secret place above the Bluesmoke Gallery on Second Life, where I can work in peace creating my musical instruments. I’m almost finished with the first one and I already started with the second one. Here I am, sitting in my secret place:

Bluesmoke Hextall's secret place above his first Second Life gallery (click to enlarge)

I also created the plastic chairs

2006-10-09 - Too Busy To Post

I’ll probably be too busy to post for some time now. I have so many projects going on at the same time that I sometimes thing I should split into three or four people

2006-10-11 - Advanced Electronica AAC

I’m working on a second feed for my Advanced Electronica podcast. This would be an enhanced version that would include chapters that would enable listeners to go from one song to another, pictures of the artists and links to artist websites. This version would work best on iTunes and on an iPod. I finished adding chapters, pictures and links to the first five chapters today and I’m going to do the other five tomorrow.

About that time I became more engrossed in podcasting and Second Life and my posts became more promotional, promoting various podcast releases and my new music releases. In fact, my next post was on February, 2007, but I’ll leave that for next time, or… in other words… to be continued…

2006-09-08 - The 16th and Some Old Recordings

I’ve been moving some of my old recordings from the 90′s to digital format. Those are recordings I did using a 4-track recorder. I used an old Roland synthesizer and a sequencer on those, and the style of the music is very different from what I do today. While the 4-track recordings themselves didn’t survive the ravages of time, I do have some of those on cassettes and I was able to transfer them to AIFF files. I’m going to include three of them I did back in 1997 on the next episode of The 16th.

2006-09-09 - I felt the earth move under my feet…

I was going to sleep late today, but we had a little earthquake and I woke up early. Oh well – let’s start working on my podcast

2006-09-11 - Taking It Wasy Week

This week I’ll be taking things easy, doing less work during the week. The weekend though, holds the creation of two podcast, both are to be published on the 16th.

2006-09-15 - The 16th #007 Is Finished

The 16th #007 Is Finished. I can’t wait for tomorrow to publish it. Most of it is music I wrote for my son or about my son. There are some recordings in it I did some 9 years ago. I’m really exited about this one

2006-09-18 - Fun in Second Life

Spent most of the evening in Second Life. Had fun, visited a few galleries then I decided it was time I learned how to program in the LSL language, so I found a sandbox and started playing around with some SL prims. I succeeded in causing a cube to play music, but I couldn’t make it stop, then I animated the texture in one of my statues and caused a part of it to rotate but again, I couldn’t make it stop. I’m going to continue tomorrow. It’s too hard for me to concentrate this late

2006-09-21 - A New Day and Fun on Second Life

Had so much fun yesterday on Second Life I didn’t even have time to post on LJ. I’m building a virtual musical instrument that plays my Memory track from my last 16th podcast. I connected 8 cubes, each one plays a part of the music. Problem is – I haven’t figured out how to make them stop playing yet, but it’s a start

OK – it’s time to go to work, and afterwards, I’m celebrating 14 years of marriage with my wife

2006-09-25 - Working on Musical Instruments in Second Life

‘m just about to log into Second Life and work on a musical instrument I’ve been working on for about a week. This musical instrument is the first of a series of musical instruments I’m building for use on live shows at Second Life. Each instrument would play one of my tracks exclusively in Second Life using sound loops. There are some visual effects I plan on using with those, including exclusive avatar animations for my Bluesmoke Hextall character.

2006-09-26 - Musical Instruments in Second Life

I’ve been building a musical instrument that plays the track “Memory” from episode 7 of my podcast on Second Life.

Here is what it looks like:

Memory - a virtual musical statue created by Guy David aka Bluesmoke Hextall (click to enlarge)

And here is what it looks like while being played:

Memory - a virtual musical statue created by Guy David aka Bluesmoke Hextall (click to enlarge)

To be continued…

2006-08-25 - The Hunger – A New CD

The Hunger - A New CD by Guy David (August, 2006) (click to enlarge)

The music on this CD was created for my podcast, The 16th. This CD contains edited versions on the tracks Waves of Steel, The Hunger and Reflections.

Waves of Steel was originally a three parts piece and it was released on episode #003 of The 16th. It is highly influenced by Act 4 of the opera Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass.

The Hunger is probably my most personal piece of music. The short version of this piece was originally released on episode #004 of The 16th. It is a mixture of modern classical music, Techno and experimental electronica. I poured all of my emotional hunger and distress into this piece, and it is one of my hardest musical pieces. This is not an ordinary piece of music, and it’s not for everyone.

Reflections is an Ambient piece in the classical sense of the word. There is no rhythm section in this piece. It can be listened to in a contemplative manner, or it can be left in the background, much like a piece of decorative furniture. This piece was originally part of episode #002 of The 16th. This CD is available from my CafePress shop. CD length: 57:59.

2006-08-26 - About to Start

Woke up late today. I’m about to start working on my Advanced Electronica podcast, but first – my mythological cup of coffee

2006-08-27 - Another Sleepy Post

Yesterday was a nightmare. Switchpod, where I host my Advanced Electronica podcast was going through an update and it was down half the time. As a result it took me most of the day to publish my podcast and I’m still tired from the ordeal. On the up side – there are loads of new features on Switchpod, so it will benefit us podcasters on the long run, but yesterday was a real nightmare.

Now for some coffee

2006-09-03 - eMusic

I’ve been looking for a legal music download site that also works in Israel – and I found it. eMusic gives you a free trial version with 50 free downloads to get you started. They have a really good deal and I would probably subscribe when the trial period is over. The also have one of my CDs for download sale

2006-09-06 - A Successful Meeting About My Podcast

I had a very successful meeting concerning my Advanced Electronica podcast today. I can’t post too much about it yet, but I can say that my podcast is about to move to a new website and that I’m going to work with the most important podcasting network in Israel.

To be continued…

Ice Mountain by Guy David (click to enlarge)

A cloud gathers over his head. At first, it’s a small cloud unloading a small dribble. The man smiles, loving it. The cloud responds, encouraged. He turns a shade of gray, spaying the man with angry drops of water. The man dances around, laughing. Sower after shower pores on the man, drenching him to the bone. Finally, the sun has enough. She taps the cloud with ray after ray of angry sunlight, unraveling it like a weave of tangled drops. The man, still smiling, opens an umbrella, shading himself from the angry sun. Not as happy anymore, he moves on.

The Pocket and the Pendant book cover (click to enlarge)

The tyranny of the page is absolute. That is one of the threads, woven into this book. Anything that is supposed to happen, will happen. You can’t change that. Events are written in advance and you just stumble into them as you go. Into that thread, Jeffrey weaves another thread, the thread of free will, seemingly the opposite of the first thread. Free will is something that can’t be taken from you against your will. You decide on your own course, your own trajectory. Those two threads are only two pieces of a larger puzzle that fits in perfectly. On those puzzle pieces a story is woven. It starts with the stopping of time. Time stops for everyone except Max Quick and a few other children, though one of those might not be a child at all. Those kids go through adventure after adventure trying to find out why time has stopped, run into aliens, fly spaceships that are not spaceships and save the world as kids often do.

This book is a riddle within a riddle. Not too hard of a riddle mind you, it is supposed to be a young adult novel after all, but it does make you think. First and foremost, this book is fun. It’s an adventure the way the books you read as a child where, full of appeal for that young adult still lurking inside you. What drives the book though are the characters. They come to life as if they traveled from within the pages into your heart, even those who casually pass through the pages seemingly on their way to another book altogether. Even though I already heard the sequel as a podcast, I’m looking forward to reading it as a book. Hopefully it would come up somewhen. Have you read this book? Tell me about it…

Download: Night Guy 113: 100 Word Stories, Vol. 14

• Vacation Time is Over
• Wild Card
• Vase
• Bill
• Rebirth
• The Message
• Elephant
• Rent
• Golbins
• Mensa
• Make a run for it
• Marbles

100 Words Stories

You can find my blog at fixwaffle.com

Don’t forget to check out Songs For Jenny (also on MySpace), a project by Tony Puccy all proceeds of which go up to help fight ALS.

All of the Night Guy podcasts are hosted by iCast.