T3551ER

Thnx to all in this thread for posting thoughts, ideas, etc. Snagged a MKII, arrived this past weekend, spent the last couple of days working through the basics. . . very glad I took the time before it arrived to dig deep into some tutorial videos. For future buyers/users, the videos here are an excellent introduction to the machine - they want you to pay for the course, but you can watch up to 5 videos a day for free - I basically took the last few weeks and just watched a few a day and made some notes. Guy breaks things down in a very straightforward way - plus sounds kind of like Neil DeGrasse Tyson which is an another bonus. Another cool thing (I don't think I saw anyone post this before): https://ticticelectro.com/2017/08/26/octachainer-v1-3/ This is a prog that allows you take files and then create "chains" - i.e., you could do things like put all the samples for a 808 into the prog, and it will spit out a file that is one wav that is slice mapped to each sound with .ot file included. Don't forget the megabreak option ?

.. really enjoyed these two. I always love when an artist can dip their toe into different styles and I feel like, as with any good music, even with two different sets of tracks here that feel very different, there is still a sense of a coherent, singular soul behind them. Picked up tethered as that's more my (general) wavelength, but both are acexcellent. Curious about a couple of things: where did the title AndOrBoth come from? Also, what kind of equipment used on these?

Started watching The Prisoner. Ho-lee crap it's so friggin' good and I'm only a few episodes in. No real clue where this is going (in the best way possible) but it's interesting to see major inspirations for Lost in a show that, I suspect, will have a much better payoff at the end. Most IDM 1967

pretty much this. Grats to all those who have a top shelf PC and Valve Index at home, this will be amazeballs. For the rest of us . . . maybe give us Portal 3 if you can't commit to HL3?

Tracks are up on Spotify too just fyi

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/11/leaked-goldeneye-007-documentary-suggests-it-nearly-launched-on-xbox-after-all/ Makes me die a little every time I hear more about this. In other nostalgia tinged news: Currently playing Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. This was released on games for gold so easily worth the price of admission (i.e. 0). Not so brief review: Ninja Gaiden 3 (NG3) was the first (numbered) NG launched without series creator Itagaki at the helm (NG2 Sigma was technically the first, and was a sign of the times to come - blood replaced by wisps of purple smoke, shoehorned bosses, and technical issues plagued that release). NG3 was a dog turd that had been eaten by a turtle, vomited back up, and placed into the shambling corpse of an excellent game series. The amount of pandering done to try and cater to a western market made this one of most horrifying spectacles of video gaming I have ever played. Ryu becomes cocky generic Ninja #1, he has some sort of weird, M15 like group of sidekicks, there were an assload of QTE's because that was fashionable at the time, there's some shit where a little girl needs Ryu's help because feelings. At any moment, I expected vanilla ice to jump out and Ryu to join in to a synchronized, MC Hammer dance routine while singing "Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!" The sword on bone technique was. . . haphazard, useless, and pointless. The games narrative was idiotic, it was a technical mess, de-limbing was gone and. . . no need to go on. It was awful. NG3:Razor's Edge somehow managed to reach deep into the corpse of the NG3 and deliver just enough juice to jump start things back into the semblance of an actual, living thing, much like Neo did to Trinity in the Matrix part whatever. Like that moment of cinematic forgetableness, it makes no sense whatsoever that it worked, but somehow it did, and after a while you stop to question how. Back are the de-limbed enemies and all the mechanics that accompany them, UT's are now available without bloody rage, the SOB mechanic now works as a risk/reward chain that also has the bonus of increasing health. Gone are the enemies begging for their lives, the kunai climb taking 15 minutes. Basically, it's like someone went through every combat complaint and systematically tweaked or wholesale replaced mechanics to make this a Ninja Gaiden game that actually ... plays like a Ninja Gaiden game? In the end sum, the framing of the game, and all the negatives associated with that portion are still there. I have 0 idea wtf the plot is, because I have made it as far as 10 seconds into any bit and then skipped (and one has to wonder if this ability was added after the fact to RE because someone knew how awful the plot is). Ryu sometimes makes snarky comments sound like they were dialogue leftover from a foreign remake of the american remake of an imitation of the Expendable. Areas are somewhat generic and lifeless, and there is none of Itagaki's design sensibilities at play (some of which are just rehashes of earlier NG games). However, the combat itself is thoroughly enjoyable and accomplishes the herculean task of lifting this game from one of the greatest missteps in franchise history to something that is, in general, a fun game to play. Minor quibbles with combat remain, with input lag in certain scenarios, and a feel that is a little less "crisp" than OG ninja gaiden games. However, some genuinely interesting new mechanics are introduced: the SOB chaining, management of Ki meter, which can be spent on various things such as healing between battles, teleporting, focused arrow shots at the expense of the buildup towards Ninpo release, revised movesets for some weapons, the dash slide that can stagger opponents. In addition, there are a lot of QOL improvement across the board, such as slightly easier weapon and ninpo switching, and an upgrade tree for skills weapons (some may argue only having this available at shops is more traditional Ninja Gaiden design, but I'd argue this isn't actually a Ninja Gaiden game so there). This is a game that I'm glad to boot up after a long day of work, after mom and baby have gone to bed, and I have 30 minutes to kill. In a world where I no longer have hours upon hours to throw at a Death Stranding/GTA/etc., it's a comfort to have something that is immediate and visceral, reasonably challenging but not punitive, and that cost absolutely nothing. It is by no means actually a Ninja Gaiden game (I reserve that for OG NG's, and any Itagaki release), but it's a pretty great imitation of one. And as, perhaps, the most important marker of any game: I genuinely am having fun with it.

Ahh, yeah, the cherry pie moment is great! A lot of joy in the Dougie sections . . . if you let yourself enjoy it ^o^. By the way, if you haven't seen it, Being There w/ Peter Sellers is a good touchstone for the origins of the Dougie character. A great movie in general, but particularly good if you liked Dougie. 4.5 hr video is great - definitely opened me up to seeing things differently, which is hard, because I'm old and stagnant. Don't think it's nearly as definitive as it makes itself out to be, but def some good work/interesting stuff in there!

So, I made it through the whole 4.5 hours or whatever. A high degree of respect for this guy, for doing some very in-depth research, and putting together a very complicated take on the series. It's set forth like a decent academic paper, and I appreciate his approach - like any good academic piece, it has a thesis and then introduces evidence to support it, tries to address points that may be contradictory, and is willing to acknowledge (some) areas that the author is unclear on. However:

Yeah, I understand what you mean. I do wonder if what shapes public discourse these days is less what's "easy" to talk about as much as what is sensational. It's the sort of stuff that Tocqueville warned about (love of novelty, tyranny of the masses, etc.). It's not surprising that things have turned out this way - a culture that is driven by neoliberal economic policies is going to inevitably fall prey to a steadily diminishing capacity for extended focus and rational thought in favor of whatever fires the most dopamine receptors the fastest. I blame Candy Crush. Anyway, "dishonest manipulation of voters by a politician" immediately made me think: sophistry. But, maybe that could be modified to be "political sophistry" and you'd come close (agree, not sure there is a word for this in particular, and there should be, as words crystallize meaning).

@very honest Yeah, this led me down a rabbit hole just now b/c it seems like there should totally be a word for there not being a word for something. Very meta, kind like how hermeneutics is the study of theory. . . anyway, definitely interesting to think on. As to the the political manipulation thing, I wonder if "double-think" fits the bill? Maybe not exactly in definition, but perhaps what you're driving at (could be just living in what sometimes feels like a straight up Orwellian dystopian nightmare).

Infranasal depression: The resulting grooves along the side of the nose from extended periods of wearing night-vision goggles. Colloquially, the emotional state of soldiers forced to operate under these conditions. "Bob's found it impossible to complete COD:MW due to the excessive night vision scenarios triggering his infranasal depression"

yah . . . initially skeptical, trailer gave me all the feels. I'm in...

I had a realization the other day: Prometheus is a bad good movie, but a good bad movie. If I had gone in to it expecting it to be a shitty horror film from the get-go, I would have been over the moon. Shitty horror films almost require that characters make dumb decisions in the service of bad things happening to them, and things like "plot" tend to fall to the side in favor of whatever nasty thing happens next. Prometheus does a great (bad movie) job of setting up the dominoes to fuck everyone in the film, and then knock them over one by one in the final act. The med-pod scene alone would be amazeballs in any crap horror movie. The movie only turns bad once you start expecting it to be a good movie and you start questioning things like "motivation" and "logic." Alien Covenant, on the other hand is a bad bad movie but also a bad good movie. It's trying to be a bad horror movie while slyly introducing higher concept and utterly fails in both regards. Shoulda made Blomkamp's Aliens sequel instead. . .

Sod it all, just subscribe to a beefy remote PC and ditch the attachment to in-the-room computer requirements (I'm 98% joking, but I know some people are actually using these to do game design work - do wonder if this is the future of computing. . . )

@hijexxlol, sure, why not? I think the term can be expressed in lots of different ways (and across lots of dif genres). I looked back, the one that stuck out to me was indicative of the ars antiqua movement (not ars nova, apologies) it was more stuff like this: Which is reminiscent of this (prepare to gouge your ears out)

Ahhh, not as yet (though this is actually a great idea). It's a "go your own pace" course that I'm squeezing in between full time work + new baby + MBA so... yeah, limited time but when I get a bit farther I'll write something up (would be a good exercise). Just getting into the baroque era which is where, it seems, you start to see a lot of techniques typically associated with "classical" music really being developed (polyphony that is also structured so it seems (personal opinion) cohesive, motives/subjects being developed, pedal points, etc.). Word of the day: melisma - basically singing tones along one syllable of a word in an extended fashion. When this was introduced in the lessons (believe it was around the era of gregorian chant and then ars nova) I was like, holy shit, it's that thing from from 90/2000's RNB where a singer would just, like, take 15 minutes to sing the national anthem going ohhh sayyyAhhhuhhayyyaaahhhhhhhhhhahhahahah. Melisma: Annoying the shit out of audiences since 900CE

I think Candiru probably nailed it - seems like a very transitional album . . .like he's trying out a bunch of different things to see how they feel. Can totally see why it wouldn't be a favorite/not for everyone. For me, I've recently been taking an audio course in analyzing western classical music - it's been fascinating to apply that learning to Aphex's stuff, and this album kind of came along at a good time b/c it features a lot of techniques I'm learning about, so been an interesting case study. Also, the fucking drum programming tight AF. Got dat tracker hyperfocus feel to it. lovely

@StickfiggerWhen Rushup Bank 12 came out I was staunchly in the "def Aphex" category and played it to death, but (for whatever reason) wasn't as compelled to listen to the rest . . . sort of a loss at the time but a gain now 'cause of all the extra tracks and whatnot. Did a bunch of mindless database work today and had it on repeat. . . killer

lol holy WTF how did I miss out on this for so many years? Recently grabbed the tracks from the bleepstore. . . Jesus this is so friggin good. You can hear shades of Analord, Drukqs, CTD and also things that link to Syro (some of the funkier FM bass stuff) and maybe even some stuff on Collapse. Redonkulous.

Yes, this is dope. Please post more!

Yeah, jesus. I watched part of the end and. . . I actually kind of felt back for Maquire. It's like, Schiff keeps on trying to get him to say "as the national security director I think this needs to be investigated" and he's, like, "my job in this system of government is to bring you the information so that your branch of government can decide what to do next." Like, 20 minutes of that shit. . .

FINALLY caught up on (most of) S3 of Mr. Robot. Recovering from (minor) surgery past weekend and binged what I could through a gauzy oxycodone haze - kinda the perfect mindset to watch the show. Not as great as S1 but what is. Rami Malek awesome, as always - certainly some of the best TV out there (IMHOP).

Ta, good to know (might go back and try it out). Cheers!

out of curiosity, y? (i.e., what is it about 2.8.2 that is more favorable to 3.x's)?