Prepare audio for YouTube with avconv

How to create a video file from a single image and audio track using avconv:

Thanks to a question/recipe from SuperUser:
superuser.com/questions/571100/avconv-video-from-single-jpg-and-ogg

PostScript: make an A6 broshure (8 pages/sheet)

Had this lovely pdf (Music Marketing Handbook, 2007) and had difficulty reading it on screen and wanted to print it in a small (tiny?) broshure format. So, in Linux, I used this:

first convert PDF to postscript file

now the crazy command-line monster (this will take 8 pages in a block, scale them by 0.5, offset their position on a page and rotate four of them upside down):

convert postscript back to pdf, but make sure that GhostView doesn’t try to figure out the correct rotation!

This process will create pages with four pages on each, which you can print double-sided. It is then very simple to fold each of A4 sheets two times and just cut the top two folds.

bookletmaking2
booklet making

Booklet making

Switch CapsLock and Ctrl using xkb

Using CTRL as a modifier is quite frequent, especially in EMACS. Since it is usually (and definitely on my Thinkpad) placed in a position that can cause “Eamcs Pinky”, one of possibilities is to remap CapsLock to another Ctrl. Following a recipe on Emacs Wiki, this is one possible way:

Bash: download from camera and convert to webm

So, M. works on this piece with students of Duncan Centre and SVŠGL, currently in Prague. Later rehearsals will happen in Ljubljana. Anyway, she’s documenting rehearsals on HD camera, which produces HD h264-encoded clips, that are practically unwatchable on her X200 thinkpad. So I wrote a little script that downloads the clips to an external drive and converts them to WEBM format. I think it’s one of the neatest scripts so far from me, as it even uses little error checking (for existence of folders for example).

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the violation of expectation

I hear a lot of copycat boom-bap from younger players who sneer at “tradition,” as well as old farts who miss the boat by not taking up at least some of the new tools. There’s merit to both and plenty of it, but letting Marketing lead you around by the nose is not a good plan. If you really want to impress, your music needs to say something more than “I has shiny toys.” Part of the problem is that a lot of people stick to their social group music too much and don’t explore other styles. That leads to inbreeding and a lack of really standout virtuoso moments. So its not that this piece is “bad;” its for sure well-crafted. It just lacks enough counterpoint and small risks to define itself. Its basically a percussion track looking for more involved melody and harmony to give it context. Moving outside just 4/4 would also help. Leonard Bernstein once referred to good music as engaging in “the violation of expectation.” Most dance never challenges my expectations. People should think about coloring outside the lines more often.

via New Video Features Controllerism Gone Wild » Synthtopia.

work in progress: Mermaid

Been struggling for quite some time now (2 weeks or 3 months, depends on how you look at it) with an 5-track EP called “Image Snatchers“. However I managed to come to the conclusion of first track. I’m not 100% about the length, and I also feel it needs some more sophisticated ambience in some background, little crafty details here and there, some kind of crackliness on some stretches. I hope I will have time to polish it.