[Music] New Synths

Just got some new synth products installed today. Took over 12 hours to install, update, etc. I dialed up some patches and laid this down in about 10 minutes.

Orient Docks

Let the movie soundtracks begin!

[Health] Muscle Activation Technique

So I've had this slight back/neck injury that comes and goes. I say "injury" because that's precisely what it is, although there is no one event or accident that caused it. Basically there's a specific muscle in the lower neck/upper back that gets pulled every so many years. When it happens, I can't turn my head more than 30 degrees or so and everything in the process hurts. Most of my upper back is super tense and locked up when this happens. Fortunately I'm not in the "ow, my disc has herniated and I'm seeing double" kind of pain, and I can usually avoid most pain by not moving much. Allows me to work, etc, without having to lie around in bed all day.

The source of all this, it seems in my brain, is from several knots I've developed in muscles in my back. Mostly in my right side. I constantly rub at one above my shoulder blade. I attribute this to my poor posture in guitar playing over 25 years, possibly paper route for 8 years, and definitely to computers and using a mouse, perhaps incorrectly for 15+ years.

So two weeks ago I was reminded of this problem when I woke up one morning and couldn't move much. It had been 8 years or so since my last episode, and I had seen a chiropractor back then to align my spine back up. Basically my spine is curving to the right, so the theory is that it's pulling some muscle so tight that they're vulnerable and can pull easily. After a few weeks of chiro, I worked out in the gym and basically strengthened the area on my own (so I thought and still believe).

For the past year+ I've forgone most of my upper body workouts and been focused on core workouts. My abs and lower back feel solid, but I forgot about the knots and tension that were building in my upper back and neck. I think that negligence in that area caused the injury to reoccur.

Well, getting to the current day, I knew a guy that is a good Chiropractor in the Polaris area named Dr. Moore and went to him three times last week. Got X-Rays, did the hydrobed massage and electostim, got adjusted... but the pain got a bit worse, not better. Nothing wrong with Dr. Moore, on the contrary, I'd recommend him to anyone. He and his staff really know what they're doing in their field, and are excellent with patient relations.

Down deep, I just felt that the symptoms were not the problem. Going for correction wasn't necessarily going to address the root cause. I feel that my problems lie in the muscles, number 1, and in my posture through my longterm lifestyle, number 2. I wanted someone to work with those in mind, not just the immediate signs (yes I have a curvature to my spine, I forwarded on my X-rays to my brother-in-law who is a spinal surgeon in Seattle -- he says I'm not a spring chicken anymore, but the spine looked clean and good for my age).

So my friend Geoff refers me to a buddy of his in the PT/rehab realm. I think this is perfect. I saw him on Saturday and it was interesting. He is trained and a proponent of a very new technique called "Muscle Activation Technique." I'd never heard of it, but listened to him explain the theory. You can read it on the website, but it basically says that when there's an injury and the muscles are tight, the body is focusing on protecting the injury. The problem isn't so much in the tight muscles, but more in the "weaker" muscles opposite from them. Therefore stretching is counter-productive, as we are taking the body's natural defense away without addressing the true issue of weaker muscles not taking up their end of the deal.

So anyways, it was an excellent session. Felt like he was really "listening" to my body and the current state of affairs. Went through all sorts of very controlled range of motion exercises, pain identification, etc. He even commented on where my shoulders "cracked" through a particular set of motion exercises. Then he surprised me by addressing and "correcting" a muscle or two on my LEFT side. No one had ever bothered about the left, it was perfectly fine. My right side is the one all tight and bothering me.

He recommended I quit going to the chiropractor, because the overlap between the two procedural styles may conflict. I felt pretty good about the whole thing because I felt like for once I was addressing the true issues by going to a PT/rehab specialist. Note: at this point, I still thought I was going to a traditional physical therapist and was going to get weight training specifically. That night I was sore on my left side (I thought "oh no... that's the side that's never bothered me") but knew that all adjustments and work causes a bit of inflammation (even a sign that something is being done!), so iced it and went to bed.

Well, Sunday and today I've felt great. Immediately most of my tension has gone out of my right side. Rick (PT guy) warned me I shouldn't swing my neck around even if I felt good, so I still moved fairly carefully through both days. But this is even through playing bass standing up all morning Sunday and sitting for a few times with the kids at the computer. So I'm thinking this is great, I've made my decision, I'll cut with the Chiro and booked 2 sessions with Rick this week.

Here it is, Tuesday morning, 4:30am (or later at this point). Can't sleep. The Chiro is a friend of mine, and I'm not sure how to break it to him. I have three appointments scheduled this week, including this morning at 8am (3 hours from now). I don't want him to treat me, because I have an appointment with Rick at 10am. So how do I inform my friend not to treat me anymore?

I figured I'd at least research Muscle Activation Technique (M.A.T.) and see the science behind it, find the news and good word about it. Unfortunately, that's why I'm still up. After an hour of Googling those terms and Greg Roskopf, the founder of the technique, I'm left almost as clueless as when I began. There is just about ZERO information on it, other than his personal website, and the websites of all the trainers who have adopted it. I found one or two news websites with a story or two on it, but more from a "here is a new technique on the radar..." type stories, nothing of any scientific or research-oriented study. Nothing official. I say "almost" clueless, because I know from the lack of websites and posts about it that this technique is VERY new and under the radar, as well as not being validated by universities or scientific studies.

Well, I still feel good about Rick. Results are results. I'm not saying that Dr. Moore and the chiro work he did on me didn't help, because it did. I just know that after a session with Rick, not only did I feel remarkably better, but I also feel that I'm addressing the muscular cause now, and Rick is making a point to take time and really understand where the issues are and getting a good idea on what's really going on with my back. I think I'm ready to take a step into a new and untested field on this issue. A) My back and muscles aren't fundamentally messed up, so the likelyhood of screwing them up is very neglible. B) My pain level is not very bad at all (compared to say, degenerative spine and ruptured discs). C) Everything I have read about M.A.T. has been positive, and the founder (Greg Roskopf) is not uneducated in his field. He's working with members of the Denver Broncos, Utah Jazz and golf professionals seem to have taken to this new technique in fad fashion.

Hopefully I'll have great results to share. I'll try to keep this thread up to date so that anyone who may have tripped across this somehow would see one person's story on it. Maybe this new technique will be a real breakthrough on rehabilitation and healthy active lifestyles. Maybe it'll be a bust.

I'll let you know this person's results at least.

[Culture] Japan care-package

My step-brother is over in Japan currently learning the language and studying to be a teacher. He's also DJ'ing a club from time to time and writing about his travels. We exchanged care packages and his just arrived. I got two shirts and 4 CDs. Shirts first:






Genuine articles :)

The CDs are:

Happy End - Kazemachi Roman: Wow, truly classic. 1971 release which even features a yodeling Japanese guy. Very CSN&Y. Great production. Sounds a lot like the production of everything great going on in early 70's folk rock (Harvest, etc).

Cornelius - Sensuous: New approach to standard instruments and synths. As my step-brother describes it, it's like he took all sorts of musical bits and threw them up in the air and saw how they interacted. It's very fresh and a great listen.

Denki Groove - J-POP: 80's new wave meet the late 2000's. Everything we loved and remembered from Human League, Flock of Seagulls, etc, but in Japanese and updated slightly for 2008. Great songs, good new sound to an old genre. In all fairness it's more modern than I let on, but I'm reminded strongly of new wave.

Perfume - GAME: I have to admit, I thought I was going to listen to this once and forget about it. It is the latest rage (and when I say rage, I mean you can't escape them anywhere in Japan -- much like a Brittney or Paris... but for much better reasons). The production on this album is pretty much incredible. It avoids all the overbearing hip-hop motifs of today's US pop, and keeps it's vocals fairly pure and synths straight up. Heavy on the vocoder, but in a innocent and fun way -- nothing like Madonna or Cher. I may even listen to this more than once.

Anyways, my step-brother rocks (or breaks, more accurately genre-typed).

[Personal] Anime-me

Good friend of mine got a job opportunity in Arkansas. I liked the way his stylist did his hair so I decided to take my friend's place in the barber chair. First of all, the studio is in the Short North. Secondly, all the guys were prettier than me. Thirdly, I fit right in. So when I told them to cut it with style, this is what I got:






What the freak is that?? I might as well put on an Anime T-shirt and go to a ComiCon.

[Music] Remix gates

Found a freebie VST Gate filter plugin that I ran into my Ableton Live setup and applied to one of my ambient pieces "Moonrise." I created a rhythmical dub piece that isn't really complex, but still fun. I just wish I had more time to do stuff like this!

Moonrise (Dance Remix)

The original piece was posted here a while ago, you can compare and contrast the two.

[Personal] Updates

Too many things happening too much this spring and summer. Been in 2 movies, wrote tons of music, climbed mountains in Wyoming, DJ'd a whole youth conference in Michigan, etc. etc.

Maybe more details will be forthcoming, but for now I'll just leave it at that. Lots of music and art and rock climbing in my life. Back for a few weeks to catch my breath, but several music projects loom, so not much of a reprieve.

C'est la vie!

[Music] Film score #1 done!

Three months worth of effort cumulated in a monstrous mixing/engineering project this past weekend to produce a final product. Charles Mallory wrote a film piece for an ASCAP competition over the past three months and it needed to be a finished CD mix by April 1st. We worked about 12-14 hours each day Saturday and Sunday getting all of it mixed and produced.

Moscow (Film Score)

The final mix ended up being more than 60 tracks to deal with. Mostly EQ and compression were already taken care of, so the biggest problem was dynamics. We spent a good deal of time finding appropriate percussion for the piece, and replacing most of the MIDI brass parts with audio from his Yamaha Motif keyboard. Brass is a PAIN on the computer. There's almost nothing you can do to make it sound realistic, but we tried.

Most of the work of the weekend was getting the mix to properly crescendo to the climax at the end. With all parts working away at the end, it became a thick mix very quickly. I started there, mixed it all together, then worked backwards in the piece. Just about every lead melody part was hand-tooled with dynamics and faders to get a more "realistic" feel. It was fine until the part didn't fit in the mix and everything had to be adjusted. All those velocity curves moved up and down to fit... ugh!

Anyways, I didn't listen to it for a good two days after the contest submission had gone out in the mail. I was pleasantly surprised at the results with a fresh ear. Usually after a long marathon mix-down session, you come back to the piece and hear all sorts of things sticking out that need to be fixed. I certainly hear a few items that could move around in the mix, but none that are glaringly obvious. I am very happy with this work and think it's one of my best efforts to date, given that it was 60-some tracks and was all computer-based MIDI.

... but I'm not sure I'll do it again anytime soon! Talk about effort....

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