Waiting for The Last Jedi

I will see The Last Jedi tonight. I bought tickets two months ago and forgot the whole thing. I have stayed away from spoiler and speculations and such. I haven't watched trailers. I don't need to. I already have the tickets. I followed director's and Mark Hamill's advice. They recommended not seeing trailers before the movie. Only thing I did for preraration was watching The Force Awakens. I have no idea what to expect and I am not too hyped before seeing the movie.

I don't understand current culture where people read and watch everything before the movie. Take part in speculation before seeing the movie. Trailers can tell too much. There might not be anything surprising when you see the movie. Seeing Han and Chewie first time in The Force Awakens would have had more impact if we didn't know they were in movie. Now that we are talking about Harrison Ford. Same happened in Blade Runner 2049. There it wouldn't have come as out of the blue as in The Force Awakens but it would have been nice twist to learn they were looking for Deckard.

I am into analyzing movies. I have movie review blog. Sometimes I write longer analyses and I watched Babylon 5 with other Finnish nerds and speculated after episode and then watched episode again to see what others saw. But that was after the episodes and after seeing the movie. Now trailers get reaction videos and deep analyzes. You get spoiler reviews even before any non-reviewer has seen the movie.

We saw Babylon 5 later than others but Finnish Babylon 5 community made sure there were not any spoilers to future episodes we had not seen yet. I miss that safety. Now you can be spoiled by opening social media. Now we are in situation where actors have to do this.

People who disagree w/my politics are NOT my enemies-Never block them-Never block hate tweeters(sometimes"like"them to bewilder the haters)But got 2 tweets RUINING #LastJedi ending for MILLIONS & BLOCKED THEM INSTANTLY! #WhatIsWrongWithTheseAholes? pic.twitter.com/9xX4xcPsTU

— @HamillHimself (@HamillHimself) December 12, 2017

I will see the movie couple days before global premier but I already have to be careful not to see any spoilers. Why people just can't let others enjoy movies spoiler free if they want to. I could understand spoiling older movies which everyone who wanted to see them have been able to see them spoiler free. But some of these big movies will be spoiled even before normal people have been able to see them.

Somebody commented why there weren't Deadpool spoilers when there were Star Wars spoilers. Deadpool wasn't made for kids and spoiling kids didn't see it. Don't be spoiling kid. Let others enjoy the movies the way they want to enjoy them. I hope I can avoid spoilers and it doesn't look like this when I walk to theater. Walking home yesterday felt lot like avoiding Star Wars spoilers.

Helsinki Samba Carnaval 2016

This video is bit strange. It is because there was really bad weather during the parade. I thought it was good idea to boost the look. This was shot from one place because of the weather. I didn't want to search another place to shoot with all umbrellas including mine and bad weather. I am going to shoot another parade with better weather. I have shot stills in previous years. Those have been more colorful. 

Chair and Komplete Kontrol

Chair and Komplete Kontrol. I am not sure about Komplete Kontrol. I will probably get one. Chair I will definitely get. Last weekend went planning my home studio. I played with software instruments I had. Good portion of them are NKS-ready. Not all though. Pre-mapping would be nice to everything but it is not the reason why I want Komplete Kontrol. I can easily get mappings to Push 2 (in picture above) which I am keeping. Lights and scales are reasons I want Komplete Kontrol. Everything else is additional.

I am starting to use Kontakt more which have key switches in many instruments and some instruments use only part of the keyboard. Having lights showing which keys are key switches and which are at audio range of the instruments makes playing easier. Push 2 is good but it isn't very good with key switches when you play with scales and for some instruments old fashion keyboard works better. I have pretty good midi key board which works well as Ableton Live controller. I used it before I got Push and later Push 2. It would work well but it doesn't have the lights.

Komplete Kontrol has scales which makes it better than regular keyboards. I am not keyboard player. I can play keyboards but I am not too familiar with music theories. I'd like to do music in other scales than C major too. Having scales help. It is my favorite feature of Push 2. I would like to have same on keyboard too. I could of course use Push 2 as indicator if note is on scale song is on but that is not as easy as having scale on your keyboard.

I am planning to add more software instruments to my music. Komplete Kontrol would help that. But new chair would help more. My current chair is not that good. I need something I could sit for hours without problems. Little reorganization of home studio is needed too. That is probably best thing I could do for my music. I am starting to think I already have too many synths. Both software and hardware. Having ergonomic studio with instruments I use most easily available would help me more than new instruments.

I am really bad selling anything. I need to find some place for everything after I decide what I will have easily available.

Is West Coast synthesis becoming main stream?

East Coast/West Coast thing doesn't limit itself to hip hop. In synth world it is lot less violent and doesn't have as much harsh language. In synth world it is about philosophy of what synthesizer should be. East Coast is about creating instrument suiting regular western music. I am not talking about country. I am talking about all western music where octave is divided into 12 steps. West Coast was about revolutionizing the music by throwing all the rules away starting from regular scales. On east Bob Moog was figure head and on west it was Don Buchla. It might be needless to say East Coast became popular while West Coast stayed in obscurity.

You really have to like synths to know West Coast even exists. It has mostly lived on modular side. I don't remember seeing West Coast hardware that isn't able to connect any modular format or was in some modular format. That is part of the philosophy. Make Noise 0-Coast (in picture above) is one of those synths. It is not completely West Coast. It is something in between East Coast and West Coast. I would say it is West Coast synth made for people familiar with East Coast. It is easy gateway to West Coast synthesis.

0-Coast is one of those instruments bridging cap between East Coast and West Coast. It is coming from West Coast side. But East Coast side is also taking steps towards West Coast. Arturia's Brutes and Korg's Minilogue and Monologue take little steps towards complex oscillators of West Coast with their wave shaping capabilities. They do more than just extending pulse width modulation which has been standard in East Coast.

This is not only hardware thing. Native Instruments have West Coast Blocks in Reaktor 6. Softube added emulation of Buchla 259e into their Modular software couple months ago. Arturia just upgraded their V Collection to 6th version. It includes virtual version Buchla's Music Easel. This makes two virtual versions of Buchla hardware in short time. V Collection is collection of classic instruments in virtual form. Music Easel is first West Coast synth in it.

I hope this this gives more West Coast for us after West Coast becomes more familiar to musicians. I don't need things throwing away western musical scales. I like to have more instruments like 0-Coast which are reasonably priced and easy to use for people more familiar with East Coast. It is time for something new and fresh. Mix of East Coast and West Coast could be it.

Fun with Dreadbox Nyx

Here is short demo of Dreadbox Nyx. I am not yet too familiar with the instrument. There is one time I change something and nothing happens. I realized that only after editing the video. I am not sure if my Dreadbox Nyx is broken or not. Pulse width control works weirdly. I don't remember seeing that behavior.

I didn't add any other effect than mixing and mastering effects. Reverb is from instrument.

100 years old Finland

It is our independence day today. I wouldn't mention it unless it was 100th independence day. I am not those guys who makes big deal about where I am from. I like Finland. I just don't like the narrative of our independence we have during this time of the year. It is always about war and how we kept our independence. This year has been little different since it is 100th independence day. People have looked our history more than just those moments of when our country had to fight for its independence.

Usually independence day contains showing of Tuntematon Sotilas and President's independence day party. Both are quite opposite what is good in Finland at the moment. Tuntematon Sotilas is war movie which tells how we fought to keep our indepence. President's independence day party is showing important people to common people. To me safety, equality and social mobility are best things in Finland. We forget those to have this sacred ritual of remembering war and showing who are above everyone else. It doesn't help that other times Finland's symbols are taken by people who want us to turn our backs to rest of the world and discriminate minorities.

This campaign video from last presidential elections. It is too good to be forgotten as only a political campaign video. Story behind it shows what is good in Finland. Video was made for openly gay candidate who has foreign partner. He made it to second round of election. We always have more than one or two serious candidates in election. If nobody get over half of the votes there will be second round for two who got most of the votes in first round. It is not two party system where you have to vote for lesser evil. This candidate Pekka Haavisto got reasonable amount of votes in second round too. Finland wasn't ready for him that time but it was positive to see how much support he got.

I am not going to watch Tuntematon Sotilas or President's independence day party. I will enjoy fruits of social mobility our education system have given me in one of the safest and best functioning countries in the world. I think that is the important thing in our independence and we shouldn't be looking backwards or upwards.