Tag Archives: pro tools

it’s a crime

warning: tech talk ahead.

i upgraded to pro tools 11 a few days ago and it’s been more of a setback than an improvement. first of all, even though my upgrade was free because i’m a student, i had to upgrade mac os x in order to use it, which cost me $20. i’ve been losing money rapidly lately, so $20 isn’t as light a matter as some other times. so now that the program runs, it won’t use any of my wrapped vst plug-ins. a little research seems to show pro tools 11 uses a different plug-in format, so i would need a new vst wrapper, except they’re not allowing people to make them because they want developers to specifically design and distribute plug-ins in their format instead. so in order to keep working on tracks i’ve already started using previously wrapped vst plug-ins, i have to downgrade back to pro tools 10. from the sound of it, that won’t be hard, it’s just annoying and disappointing.

this has really been the nature of pro tools all along, though, all in the name of profit. they finally stopped requiring you to use their brand of physical hardware a couple versions ago, but it seems like for every step toward open compatibility they take another step backward to pain-in-the-ass exclusivity. i don’t know why it’s become so popular in the recording industry. if it wasn’t, i’d probably take this opportunity to shop around for a new daw. except, oh right, i have no money.

new samples are developing slowly, thanks in part to this nonsense. however, taylor shot me her first album art concept and i really like it. you’ll see it soon enough – when the interim album art is ready, this blog will undergo some graphical changes to show it off. i’ve also designed an official logo based on it, which will debut at the same time, and you’ll be able to buy logo t-shirts, too. album art also brings us another step closer to the kickstarter launch.

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this is how it all begins

i conceived of this project a little over a year ago. it could be more like two years now, i’m not quite sure. i was driving home listening to pink floyd’s “hey you” and wondered how it would sound covered by nine inch nails. i listened through my pink floyd catalog a few times to pick out potential tracks, then listened almost exclusively to nine inch nails ever since then in order to really feel out the sound, so i could imagine in an instant how to reconstruct a song in that style. feeble attempts were made now and then at starting one track or another. a few weeks ago i started making real headway on “sheep.” that’s when i decided it was time to start this developer diary.

i can not make any money off the songs, they’re pink floyd’s property. when the album is complete, it will be released on the internet for free. it is purely a labor of love, a dedication to two of my favorite bands. the album’s working title is currently ATOM HATE MOTHER. it has a projected track list of 14, i don’t want to give them all away but you’ll read about some of them here.

the pseudonym REZNOR/WATERS came about in order to make the tracks look like a real collaboration between trent reznor and roger waters, like all the beatles tracks that said “by lennon-mccartney.” but i should be clear that no member of either nine inch nails or pink floyd is in any way involved in this project. by the time it’s done, i’ll feel lucky if any of them have even heard about it. i have not contacted trent or roger and don’t intend to. they have better things to do.

there are a lot of obstacles left, besides all the time and work it takes to record an album. this is just a hobby, a pet project, so it has to take back seat to my bread and butter. because of that i have no idea how long it will take. i also have very minimal equipment at this stage, doing most things virtually with pro tools. i will need at least a couple session musicians, especially a trent reznor sound-alike when it comes time for the vocals, and probably a fair amount of studio time. the annoyance of the moment is trying to attach this blog to the address reznorwaters.com while still getting e-mail forwarding from the folks at namecheap. the blog itself will undergo massive cosmetic changes, especially once the ATOM HATE MOTHER artwork is developed.

stick around for the ride, you’ll get to hear bits and pieces of tracks coming together, see some behind-the-scenes photos and video, and be the first to know when new, big developments are made.

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