News:
Surf’s Up’s trailer is now online. As I mentioned before, I’m currently doing some work on Surf’s Up, so it’s extra exciting to see the trailer for it. I like how they set the mood right away with a sense of history, leading up to the premise. All the surfers will love this film, I’m sure. They should probably do the premiere in Hawaii, with guys in penguin suits walking around with surfboards. That’d be really something, eh?
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Due to my current busy schedule with freelance work, I had to stop teaching at the Academy of Art University. I was just spreading myself too thin; I’m a perfectionist and want to do a kickass job, I tend to spend too much time preparing class material–time that I don’t have. I hate doing things half-assed, and since teaching isn’t my bread and butter gig, I had to let it go (at least for now). I do enjoy teaching though–it’s a great feeling to give back to the next generation of upcoming talents.
weblog:
Someone was selling a used Novation ReMOTE 25 SL on ebay, and the price was so good that I just had to do it. The unit itself is very nice–the semi-weighted key-action is by far the best I’ve ever seen on the market. Makes me wish Novation would release 88 or 76-key versions too (now they only have 25, 37, and 61, and one without any keys). I’m bummed that it doesn’t support automap for Sonar though (because Cakewalk has developed their own automap technology called A.C.T., and refused to cooperate with Novation). The included templates do work, but how well varies. The templates for the Novation softsynths are great, as are the ones for Korg Legacy Collection (one of my favorite softsynths), and the rest either varies in coverage or I haven’t tried much. Anyway, I’m not going to write a detailed review or anything–there are plenty on the internet you can google for, and I agree with most of them. Here’s what the ReMOTE 25 SL looks like:
I took yesterday off to relax after finishing another deadline, and I spent it trying out some synths/workstations at Guitar Center (I really don’t do this very often, and it only seems I’ve been doing it a lot recently because I’m in the market for some new equipment, and I must do research). This time, I gave some fair play time to the Yamaha MO6/8, Roland Fantom X series, Korg Triton TR-88, Triton Extreme, Alesis Fusion HD-6, Casio Privia series, Yamaha CP-300, P-70..etc. To make a long story short, I think Roland and Korg should both up their game, as Yamaha’s new entry level MO series is extremely good, with a huge set of sounds that are excellent. It makes Korg’s Triton Le and its replacement, the Triton TR series, look dated and underwhelming. Roland doesn’t even have an entry level workstation–and I think they’re missing the boat on an entire market segment. The Casio Privia series are quite amazing for the price point–great piano-action and sounds (for the price). The best piano action I’ve played up till now is probably the Yamaha CP-300 and P-70–absolutely beautiful to play on. I’m not sure if the piano-action alone is worth the price of the CP-300, or the lack of modwheel/pitch-bend/aftertouch of the P-70 though. At this point, I’m more likely to get the CME UF7 for my semi-weighted master controller (it’s got breath-controller input!), and Kurzweil PC1X for my weighted piano-action 88-key controller (with the ribbon controller option). I wish I could find an 88-key semi-weighted controller with aftertouch, but no such thing exists in the market.
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Watched V For Vendetta recently, and since I’ve never read the original Alan Moore graphic novel, I don’t have any point of reference for it. Overall, I thought the film was enjoyable, but it’s not nearly as profound as what I had expected. I do feel that the film’s a bit too mainstream in its execution style, and if they had taken a less commercial approach, the film would’ve hit a lot harder emotionally and intellectually. But as it is, the approach is a bit too heavy-handed and lacks complexity. I’m sure Alan Moore asked to have his name removed from the credits for similar reasons.
