The Master!

Hmm yes well I passed! Now have an Msc...which is nice. I really thought I would be more excited than I was when I found out....don't really get why I wasn't. I think it is because I feel that it was the wrong course, I should have had the courage in my convictions and studied a music based course...which is where my heart lies. Oh well I learnt some stuff and I can go around saying 'I am the master', but that has already worn very thin =@).

But bizzarrely, since finishing things have really picked up. I have done a guitar session, joined a band, done some web work, been on a course audition (and got accepted!), completed a music for the media assignment and a whole bunch of other things.

Wow...yes in a new band called 'Freefall', great bunch of people and it has certainly put the fun back into music. Certainly not Hoggz type stuff, but really funky and with dynamics! It is so great to go to a rehearsal and a)not have to wear ear plugs and b)leave WITHOUT your ears ringing. Watch this space for more info.

I am quite pleased with my last music for the media assignments, starting to crack the old orchestral writing on the computer. Having Sibelius is a god send, it is just fiddly trying to get the right orchestral sounds. I am using Garritan Personal Orchestral and it is pretty great, but there are a few number of orchestral techniques which are missing from the library...well hopefully one day it will be a real orchestra! (Fingers crossed)

Here is a link to the files (the quality is pretty rank, due to having compressed a bit toooo much!)

Wildlife 1
Wildlife 2

So yes I have finished my MSc, so now it is time to get on with my life and follow my dreams...which involves of course more courses....well I need to focus on improving at music. So I have enrolled on the following course Compose and Perform 2 at Goldsmiths (University of London). It was a fantastic day at the audition, to be surrounded by so many people passionate about music...I was in 7th heaven! I can't wait until it starts next week!

I have also enrolled on the only Open University music course I have done yet, which is AA314 Studies in Music 1750-2000: Interpretation and Analysis, once again I can't wait to start (it is a way off in Feb!), but if it is anything like the previous courses, then it is going to be amazing...but hard work no doubt! I have also discovered that I can convert the credits from the Goldsmiths course to the OU, which means that with a couple more OU course I can actually get another degree....so that i probably what I will do! What the hell, 3 degrees a BA, a B.Eng and an MSc. Pretty cool....just hope I can get some payola now!

Peace and good happiness stuff

Neil - aka The Master

Where did it all go?

Time that is! Wow it is the 17th already....and where did it all go? i am supposed to be taking sometime off after the MSc, but there has been none. I have just been trying to catch up with all the stuff that has been put off for the last year.....and there is alot of it!

new copmuter is in a running..well that took two days to load up all the software and apply all the patches! There must be an easier way! The new website is up...and you can see and I am pretty happy with it, bar a few changes (thanks Hal!) and I am porgressing with my Music for the Media assignment 6, which is a wildlife documentary and it is by far the most interesting one I have done and I think my music for it is the best I have done so far...i'll post a link once it is finish. I have also be doing some more indepth learning of some of the tools I have and I have just finished the Reason book, which is awesome. I have learnt so much and I am in awe of how much is possible to be done in Reason. I mainly have been using it as a sound module and a way of creating techno style tracks.....but there is so much more in there!

Also been going through the Sibelius video tutorials, and that too is an awesome tool. I have discovered that I am not so bad at notating music as I thought! (but my reading does lead something to be desired!) but once you learn the ley command in Sibelius...wow you can fly and It is quicker that writting by hand.

And also I have been going through the excellent Absynth 3 new video tutorial DVD which is over 4.5 hours long and it packed full of great stuff....I was even humbled as I learn a couple of great tricks in the introduction section! We are never too clever are we! I have to say that this DVD, plus the videos for Sibelius are much better than all the tutition I have recieved over the last year at Surrey....not that I am bitter!

On the MSc front, well the results were supposed to be out last monday (12th)....but as this is Surrey I have now been told it could be in the next month or two, when the examiners can get together to discuss the results (Even though they were supposed to on the 8th)....but they are busy now with the new intake...so we have to wait! I have nothing but contempt for Surrey University and you can imagine I am pretty pissed off.

Catch you later

Neil

Just a short one

Hmm presentation over....went well. No corrections, so I think I am done! Just got to get my thesis hardbound......and wait for the result!


Been working on the new website....www.spencerbruce.com...still work to be done, and I know it is bad to put up a half finished website....but it is being completed as we speak.

Did the Prodrive competition in SOS this month....can be seen at www.spencerbruce.com/media/prodrive.wmv

So it is all go. Just order a new computer as mine has now died with the stresses of film scoring and recording...but it was in the pipeline for some time. Gone with an Intaaudio AMD system. Dave at Intaaudio is one of the most helpful sales people I have ever dealt with and spent ages divising the system for me and provided me with a system which he knew he wouldn't be making as much profit from....well he has certainly got the return business. Just have to wait until it turns up now, and spend a couple of days installing software!

Sadly now that I have Kontakt 2, Stylus RMX and Stormdrum, my machine can basically run about one VSTi instance before it craps out. I can't even play the demo song on Samplitude! I have been speaking with Samplitude guys in Germany (who were also very helpful....is this a new trend in customer services?) and they ran a remote systems diagnositc on may current machine and well there was 3 pages of problems! Admittedly some of those could be fixed with reinstalling the OS and upgrading bits a pieces (such as a bad RAM chip), but it isn't worth the hassle, when i would probably only prolong life a few more months. What with my new business venture looming, and hopefully a few scoring jobs (unpaid...but at least jobs!) I can't be messing around configuring computers all the time and worrying if they will die.

The system I ordered benchmarked with 120 tracks, 30 VSTi's and 30 reverb plugins at 45-50% CPU usage. That is cool by me! If the worst comes to the worst (Well something I am going to do anyway, is running FXTeleport to use my old machine as a VST host for some of the plugins)

Oh and I failed my Japanese exam! But then again I expected pretty much to!

ANyway, onwards...have to finish my Music for the Media unit 6 asap...(on my slowly dying computer!) and get some business planning together!

Peace

Neil