Dates and Times – been a struggle since before time began

Scripting News: Saturday, June 9, 2018

One of the things I’m learning is that there is are problems with date-time values. The question is whether or not the date part of the date-time should have hyphens. The Frontier implementation does not. The XML-RPC spec says not. But ISO 8601 seems to say they must be present. The built-in JavaScript function includes the hyphens. I don’t have any other implementations that I can easily check against, so I don’t know what offers the most interop with other XML-RPCs. For now I’m documenting the issue, and leaving the JavaScript implementation as it is, for now. This means in this area it does not interop with Frontier, in that Frontier will not understand the JavaScript date-time values. Going in the other direction there is no problem, because I’ve included a workaround.

 

Unreal. Fourteen years ago a standard was published (ISO 8601:2004) which clearly defined how things should be. Problem is that software developers do not spend their lives re-implementing “standard” software for the rest of their lives.

ISO gave us (back in 2004) this format 20180609T221145Z

What the world wants now is this format 2018-06-09T22:11:45+00:00 (we avoid timezone abbreviations and geo-political nonsense)

I retired from the big data world in 2004, so I never would have had cause to change my preferred world – 20180609T221145Z. To tell the truth, since just before 2000-01-01 I actually preferred the “Astronomical (Julian) day number (at noon UTC): 2458279.5” which for my machines this morning worked out to 2458279.03405093.

From the wikipedia we see

November 17, 1858, 00:00:00 UT is the zero of the Modified Julian Day (MJD) equivalent to Julian day 2400000.5[23] 

and we all basically know that the VMS clock started there 😉 In earlier times (snicker) I discovered the “bad things” that would happen if one entered a proper geocentric clock offset in a TOPS-10 system – I mean, c’mon, I had it right within 200 yards. All hell broke loose in all time-based things. Wonder why it required an OS rebuild to set/change that value.

As a reminder to anyone who uses a database that I have built – 20180609 – is not a date, nor is 2018060915270001 – but it is a very fast integer index 😉 I can’t insert things in my databases faster than 10,000 per second. I learned the hard way that telescope telemetry databases surely can 😉

Ahhh, dates. I would rather slip the bass DI track by 87 samples so it lines up with the bass amp track these days.

Categories
Tools

test

20171020 258 artzy17

Categories
sound

Why restaurants became so loud — and how to fight back – Vox

Why restaurants became so loud — and how to fight back – Vox: “This experience is by no means unique; it’s become a fixture of dining out in America. ‘What did you say?’ ‘Can you repeat that?’ and ‘It’s so loud in here’ are now phrases as common as ‘Can I take your order?’”

I carry a sound meter. I check. I have earplugs in my pocket (-12 dB flat)

Categories
Practice

Why I (try to) Use Multiple DAWs (poorly)

Why I (try to) Use Multiple DAWs (poorly)

I don’t really know what I am doing.

I played music in bands and orchestras back in the late 1960s. I got paid to do it. It was going to be my career. I went to recording studios. Sat in on some really nice sessions. Couldn’t stay where I lived, moved away, work as a musician dried up.

One thing that I learned is that I could always learn a new trick or technique. A lesson with a master was always welcome.

I wound up working with computers and software (yes, in the 1970s, before you were born). I could always learn a new trick or technique. Wrote software, tried software, helped make software work.

I learned that there were always multiple tools that could get the job done. Some were easier than others, depending on the task, but there were always choices.

When it was time to learn a new tool I always tried to find a new project or task and use that as the benchmark for learning a new tool. Maybe it would be harder, maybe it would be easier. Never knew until I tried.

I have been learning to use new tools for more than 45 years. It’s still fun. I still learn.

DAWs and the “Path to Glory”

ProTools is the DAW you must use if you are a professional! Logic Pro is the DAW you must use if you are a composer. Fruity Loops is used by “people who fiddle PCs”. Ableton Live? A lot like Opcode Vision from the late 1980s in lots of ways. Think sequencers. There’s this DAW called Studio One that gets praise from people who do lots of music. Reaper is the true path.

It’s all just tools. The same tools for the most part. The interface changes. The tasks generally do not.

I tried ProTools (version 8LE – oops). Not happening. Finally switched out and realised that GarageBand fit my needs better. Really, I wanted to play the instruments. Mainstage with all of the sounds and tools was what I wanted to use. That was where my 20+ year old understanding of computers and music was. PC + Sounds + programs = music in some ways.

Live Sound Is Where I Grew Up

Play Music. Record It. Listen To What You Did. Make It Better Next Time. That’s it. Simple.

Live Sound

If I was able to stay exclusively in the thrall of one band I might get by with learning “one thing”. Nope. The cover band that does bluegrass, country swing, and a little jazz uses a Mackie board. The “Pulk Fonk” (think punk folk) band uses a Line6 weird thing. The bar where the band is playing has an old PA system that you need to use. It’s all the same, basically, but it really is different. If I want to “play” I have to adapt to all of the things that are the same, but not. A lot like how I spent my career in software.

Learning How to Do it

Joe Gilder shows us how to do things in Studio One. Graham Cochrane shows us how to do things in ProTools (some variant). Graham English tells me how to do things in Logic. We get to see things done with Reaper, ProTools, Logic, Studio One, etc., etc., and so forth (that’s a reference).

I want to do these things. They tell me I can do it in my DAW. But how? They don’t tell me that. I have to go find a translation of what they have said and convert it to my DAW. Fortunately it’s fairly simple to translate, and all things come to those who wait.

Here’s the Neat Thing

All the tricks and techniques are really helpful. If I learn to do them (in any tool) I will get a better result. I can translate between the DAWs! There is enough common ground that I can learn how to do things in the best tool for the task. MIDI thingies in Logic, comps in ProTools, mixing in Reaper, master in WaveLab. Doesn’t matter which I use. They all get the job done. In many cases they get the job done a whole lot faster with one tool chosen over another.

Getting Back to Simple

Me? Harrison MixBus is my challenge. I listen better when I use MixBus. It’s harder for me to set up, but I get to use my faders and pans to balance things once I get it all put into play. If I do it in Logic I get tempted to try X, Y, or Z. If I try to work in Studio One I get “side-chained” by all of the things that work so well in that DAW.

Is using multiple DAWs simple? Maybe.

If I record in Auria on an iPad, rough mix in Logic Pro, final mix in MixBus, and “master” in Studio One (or T-Racks) is that a bad thing? I don’t think so.

Yes, I might spend more time getting it done, but it gets done. I learn a bit on all the fronts. Next time it gets done faster.

This Week’s Challenge

This week I get to work on 15+ tunes recorded live on a Midas M32 board. Two-track recording plus multi-track for 11 instruments and vocals. Saw a Midas M32 for the first time 48 hours before the gig. I was stressed. I applied my knowledge of things “mixer”, read some manuals, and went forth. I am used to doing this kind of stuff with a Mackie board, but enough “spills” over to let me go forward and “Just Do It”.

Let me think about this for a while. Maybe send it out for a mix critique or some mastering…

written to “Miles Davis — Tutu” – hell of a kick drum for 30 years ago…

Categories
Uncategorized

5 Things I Love About ChromaVerb – Logic Pro Expert

Chromaverb, introduced in Logic Pro X 10.4, sounds fantastic and has several unique features that make it really stand out. Take some time to explore it!
— Read on logic-pro-expert.com/logic-pro-blog/2018/03/07/things-i-love-about-chromaverb.html

Testing the plugins.

Categories
Practice

Script Debugger Lite – What a deal

Currently playing in iTunes: 910- North Mississippi Allstars, Paul Thorn, Bonnie Bishop and Declan O’Rourke by West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Categories
Practice

Dead Links

Unfortunately links on the web go dark|silent|missing – effectively dead.

I found 4 posts here with deadlinks. Added a new tag “deadlink”. Trying to locate things as I find them useful.

14 years ago the thought didn’t occur to me. Today it does. I will be saving things to PDF formats at the minimum.

Le sigh.

Categories
Practice

Principles of Adult Behavior – John Perry Barlow

 

1. Be patient. No matter what.
2. Don’t badmouth: Assign responsibility, not blame. Say nothing of another you wouldn’t say to him.
3. Never assume the motives of others are, to them, less noble than yours are to you.
4. Expand your sense of the possible.
5. Don’t trouble yourself with matters you truly cannot change.
6. Expect no more of anyone than you can deliver yourself.
7. Tolerate ambiguity.
8. Laugh at yourself frequently.
9. Concern yourself with what is right rather than who is right.
10. Never forget that, no matter how certain, you might be wrong.
11. Give up blood sports.
12. Remember that your life belongs to others as well. Don’t risk it frivolously.
13. Never lie to anyone for any reason. (Lies of omission are sometimes exempt.)
14. Learn the needs of those around you and respect them.
15. Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that.
16. Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun.
17. Praise at least as often as you disparage.
18. Admit your errors freely and soon.
19. Become less suspicious of joy.
20. Understand humility.
21. Remember that love forgives everything.
22. Foster dignity.
23. Live memorably.
24. Love yourself.
25. Endure.

 

R.I.P.

Categories
Practice

Marilyn says “It’s about time”

I’m always amused when someone in a film or TV program says something like, “We’re going to blow up in thirty seconds”, then the characters proceed to talk, argue, vow undying love, or whatever for a full minute before the bomb is defused in the last seconds. I’m waiting for someone to put a stop watch on one of these encounters and blow them up in the predicted thirty seconds while they are in mid sentence. I always feel a little cheated that their thirty seconds are longer than mine.

via About Time – Marilyn J Evans’ Blog

Categories
microBlog

I don’t have a subway – how about a streetcar?

My quest for the perfect “subway read”

via Transportive Reading for Underground Transportation – The New York Times