And even more pictures from Spring Grove Cemetery and a Happy Halloween! A few special pictures thrown in for fellow bloggers jessyrocco, satyam rastogi and Reiko Chinen!
Every shot is worth taking. Each moment worth saving.
MIDIMike
Archive for October, 2023
More Fall Pictures on Halloween
Posted: October 31, 2023 in Holiday, PhotographyTags: #fallcolors, #Halloween, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #nikon, #personal, #photographer, #photography, #Spring Grove Cemetery, #SpringGroveCemetery
2
Good Enough MSK
Posted: October 31, 2023 in PoetryTags: #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #songwriter
A Thousand Ways
Posted: October 29, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #athousandways, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #singersongwriter, #songwriter
Even the shortest journey
Has A Thousand Ways to stumble.
You fall, you Get Up.
There’s no need to be humble.
Years of effort and planning
Have A Thousand Ways to crumble.
The clues are all there;
Just listen to the rumble.
There’s only one way to build
And A Thousand Ways to fall down.
Lessons, from mistakes.
From cave, village and town.
History has shown us man
Still A Thousand Ways a clown.
You just left her there;
The bride in her wedding gown.
We tell our children all the rules
With A Thousand Ways we ignore.
Terrible choices
Eons and eons before.
Years from now you will find yourself,
Reliving more than A Thousand Ways.
A million decisions from billions of choices
Each one sings a melody, like a line from a song;
There is only one way to do it right
But A thousand Ways to do it wrong.
When you do all that you can
In A Thousand Ways you restore.
You will be happy when you look back
And see so much left to explore.
Fall colors
Posted: October 28, 2023 in PhotographyTags: #Cincinnati, #CincinnatiParks, #fallcolors, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #personal, #photo, #photographer, #photography, #Spring Grove Cemetery
As I traditionally do, I would like to share some pictures I took at my favorite cemetery. It might sound an unlikely candidate for seasonal pictures, but Spring Grove Cemetery has a unique and undisturbed setting.
I will post just a few of the pictures from a week ago so I don’t bore you with a bunch. Some of the trees had not yet turned, but others were brilliant. Each year is a bit different and this year the pumpkin orange and deep reds are currently at their peak.
I hope you get out and enjoy what you can of the seasonal changes wherever you are.
MIDIMike
Mixing in Dolby Atmos
Posted: October 27, 2023 in My TunesTags: #Atmos, #dolby, #DolbyAtmos, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #mixingboard, #music, #musician, #Presonus, #recordingstudio, #Soundengineer, #StudioOne+
Data for spatial panning for each track
Thank you for the response to my mix of “The Dream” using Dolby Atmos. Not to geek out on you again, but this is something cool that you have probably already experienced and can relate to. Many of you are familiar with the amazing sound system upgrades in theaters and home audio during the last few years. Dolby has always been a big name in noise reduction and surround sound for movies and the like, but they have upped their game to take advantage of new tech and to deliver needed changes for next-gen venues or virtual reality applications going forward.
To make the explanation simple, we are all used to stereo sound with two speakers on opposite walls or using ear buds and headphones. A few decades ago the industry tried a quad system for the first try at a surround sound playback. Novel, but it went nowhere for a long time.
Your home surround sound or home theater system has been using multiple speakers for a while and added a sub woofer for the very low sounds – (sounds might not be the right word here. You feel the sub frequencies more than you hear it. This gives you the earthquake-like vibrations for sound effects).
Movies and other applications are using Dolby’s Atmos to reach the next experience level. Dolby Atmos provides programming to create a realistic 360 Atmosphere – as in SPHERE. Instead of two or four speakers and a subwoofer, there are countless individual out-puts for a large number of floor speakers that surround the listener(s) in a precise configuration. Then you add the sub-woofer as before but now we bring in speakers mounted in the ceiling (if room allows) or on stands close to the celing. Now, if they want to make it sound like some one is talking behind you, they play that sound through specific speakers in the back of the ‘listening room’. If there is a helicopter flying over head you are sure to look up expecting to see it there.
I have been using Presonus Studio One+ as my DAW or software recording system for a while. In their most recent update they included a version of Dolby Atmos. I don’t make action movie soundtracks, but the ability to use this tecnology to mix songs and bands gives us a whole new level of mixing.
Instead of placing the performer somewhere between the left and the right speaker as our only option, we can now make the sound feel like you are sitting ON the stage. You will be able to hear the drummer sitting on a riser ABOVE you in front, the guitar player on one side, the brass section on the other. As the singer walks around the ‘room’ they can literally walk behind you.
Now, if you are like me and don’t have a bunch of powered speakers and unlimited out-put ability …… you can get a lot of the effect using good headphones. The serious number crunching of the Atmos program gives you the illusion of three dimensional space in the headphones and for virtual reality sets.
The above is a screen shot from a simple song I have written. It shows the different tracks below, and above panel shows the Spatial Panning data used on each track to give placement info to the speakers.
I will also post one of my songs below now, so you can hear a bit of what Atmos has to offer. Please keep in mind that using headphones is obviously a bit limited when it is compared to the massive speaker system in a theater, but, you will hear a difference. For music mixes, you may not hear a lot of movement. Try closing your eyes while listening through good headphones and with the speakers OFF. You will soon be able to point at where the performer or instrument is coming from – not just left or right – but literally point to it, up – down – left -right – in front and inside your head if desired lol.
….this screen gives you an idea of the ‘room interface’ you work in. Each dot represents a sound or instrument and can be sonicly ‘placed’ anywhere by moving the dot as needed.
Below is my Atmos mix of a new song I wrote and recorded, called “Still Your Choice”. I hope you get to hear the effects Atmos has to offer in this mix. While it may not be your type of music as I claim not to be commercial to begin with, the song shows how ‘open’ or deep a two track recording can be!
MIDIMike
Glass of Tears MSK 1981
Posted: October 24, 2023 in PoetryTags: #12string, #audio, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #ovationguitars, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #recording, #recordingstudio, #reeltoreel, #singersongwriter, #songwriter, #sound
Another set of lyrics that started out more of a poem. Stating the obvious again, it appeared to me many people search for the perfect one overlook the very person they are seeking. Even in 1981 I knew how easy it was to underestimate the importance of relationships and great friends. We will all find out eventually that we were just a bit too late. The commercials of the day are responsible for the rest of the lyrics and I am not sure if they mean anything at all, but I like the idea of a glass of tears.
“The Dream” Dolby Atmos Mix
Posted: October 22, 2023 in #poetry, music technology, My Tunes, technologyTags: #audio, #dolby, #DolbyAtmos, #lyrics, #Martinguitars, #michaelskennedy, #midicontroller, #mididrums, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #poetry, #Presonus, #recordingstudio, #singersongwriter, #songwriter, #spatialpanning, #Studio1+, #studioOne, #StudioOne+, #thedream, #vocalist
Again using Dolby Atmos for the spatial audio mix, I have another song for you to listen to. Using headphones will give you the best dimensional effect, though the speakers will also reflect some clarity and each instrument or vocalist will be heard a bit easier and clearer – more distinct.
I imagine this to be similar to being in a small crowded room with lots of people talking. It is hard to make out any of the conversations going on around you. Now, Imagine the room much bigger and everyone spaced further away from each other and you. Now you can hear conversations and know who is laughing or singing. Something like that. Instead of mixing so all the instruments are ‘sitting on top of each other’ in the stereo field, the listener can be part of – or completely removed from the sound scape. We can now give the listener the illusion of sound coming from anywhere in the ‘room’ we create.
Here is another song I wrote and recorded recently called “The Dream”. The spatial effects in Atmos do indeed, give a new dreamy sound to the mix.
MIDIMike
Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive?
I’ve been retired for 3 years now. I’ll let you know when I see a lazy day lol.
Get Up MSK 2014
Posted: October 17, 2023 in PoetryTags: #audio, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #personal, #poem, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #songwriter, #sound
A combination of being tired of people close to me complaining all the time. Like they have to work so hard to do what everyone else clearly does (without complaining, I might add). The verses are about the mechanics of it: you have to get up. No one will do it for you. It does not come easy. I get teased about everything going in my favor or how lucky I am or how amazing it is that things go my way all the time. I prepare. I plan. I gather tools and energy IN CASE an opportunity opens up. When it does I will be ready and start planning for the next opportunity, not knowing what it is. I save. Maintain my tools and equipment. Label files and folders. Back up my drives. To them this is wasting time. OCD. Nerdy. Geek stuff. To all I say again, “the geek shall inherit the Earth”.
What principles define how you live?
I just tried to be a decent human being. Everything else flows after that.
MidiMike 