I’m so giddy right now… my Henceforth I will be referring to this project as a “Segue” rather than a “Segway”. The later is simply a play on words used by Segway Inc. I’m choosing to abandon this pun and label my home-built-two-wheeled-self-balancing-personal-mover a “Segue”.segue motors arrived in the mail yesterday and they have got to be some of the most amazing examples of precision mechanical engineering I’ve every worked with. Here are the specs… prepare to be amazed:

• 24-36V Operation
• 1.6 HP
• 825 in/lbs Torque

Want to run Ubuntu on your EeePC? I did, and here’s how I did it.

1) Create a bootable Ubuntu USB drive with UNetbootin. (mirror)

2) Run the RiceeeyTweak utility to customize Ubunutu for the EeePC. (mirror)

That’s it, all your hardware should now be configured and your system optimized.

So, I’ve always been very oppose to Apples emulation of the OS X interface in their Windows version of iTunes. It’s poorly implemented, slows down iTunes, hogs system resources, and is just buggy. So rather than continue to complain, I’m doing something about it. I’ve started a new programming project I’m dubbing kTunes. Essentially, I’m attempting to clone the iTunes interface using entirely windows GUI elements, while keeping the core iTunes system under the hood. The end result will hopefully be a custom, Windows-friendly frontend to the iTunes backend which should provide quicker response time and a more unified system environment.

As an example, here are two screenshots. The first is Apple iTunes in Windows Vista upon just being launched (the black regions will clear up as I start playing music, but represents a MAJOR bug). The second image is an early version of kTunes. I’ll post more as I continue development.

The Segway project I started nearly two years ago has officially been resurrected! This includes a complete overhaul of the entire control system. Here are the block level diagrams outlining the sensor data acquisition, processing IO, and motor driver management. I should have updated components coming in early next week, so hopefully this whole thing will be integrated before too long.

I’ve had a lot of people asking me how they can get a copy of The Receipt film and/or soundtrack. My recommendation is to purchase it straight from the source here. Sure, you could get the soundtrack from iTunes, but it’s cheaper from the RiverBend Films store… so take that leftover money and treat yourself to a gallon of gas.

Print the following barcode… bring it to any major music retailer… ask them to scan it… see what comes up in their system.

Hint: It’ll be “The Receipt Soundtrack”… and yes, the store can special order it that way.

The “C-Ville Weekly“, a Charlottesville News and Arts Magazine, wrote an article about “The Receipt”. The following is a quote from their coverage, check out the whole thing through the link below:

As promised a few days ago, here’s a link to the NBC 29 coverage of “The Receipt”… they use a *.wmv stream, so the file quality is pretty bad. Plus, they won’t let you watch it on Firefox (again, stupid, I know). But, if you’re willing to deal with it, here’s the video clip.

Also, here’s a screen capture of the news story they ran. It’s essentially a transcript of the report they ran on air. Enjoy!

As I started working on the score for “The Receipt”, I came to realize that assembling an orchestra large enough to cover all the parts I wanted to write for would be an impossibility. Rehearsal time was limited, booking a room is expensive, finding large numbers of quality volunteer musicians is difficult, etc. Given these limitations, I began exploring music production techniques other than live recording. Midi was absolutely unacceptable, not to mention just plain painful to work with. Thankfully, I stumbled upon the world of “Virtual Orchestras”.

A virtual orchestra is essentially a large library of instrumental recordings that are assembled into a cohesive piece. As you can imagine, to create a realistic sounding mix, one needs access to thousands of samples for each instrument that is to make an appearance. At their simplest, these samples represent every possible note playable on a given instrument. However, there is far more to a musical instrument than just notes. Each of these notes is performed across a wide range of styles (legato, staccato, detache, sustain, etc). Plus, each of these samples is recorded multiple times to simulate the fact that a live musician will never play the exact same thing twice. (Think “da-da-da-duh” from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony… every “da” should be slightly different from every other.) The points I’ve addressed thus far barely begin to scratch the surface of the complexities involved in quality virtual orchestras. If you’d like to read more about this subject, this Wikipedia article is a good place to start.

While there are several high-quality virtual orchestra libraries available, none come close to touching the size, quality, and attention to detail as the “Vienna Symphonic Library” (VSL). You can read a bit about this amazing tool’s history here. Currently, the complete Vienna Symphonic Library consists of over one-million individual samples and covers all mainstream strings, woodwinds, brass, keyboards, percussion along with a number of more exotic instrumental varieties. I really can’t say enough about just how amazing the VSL is, the best way for you to truly grasp the passion that these people have for music is to explore their website.

Vienna Instruments provided me with the means to create a fully orchestrated musical score with the same emotional inflection as a live ensemble. Not only that, but the closed ecosystem allowed for the creation of a professional-quality “recording” that is leaps and bounds ahead of anything that would have been possible short of securing a full recording stage. I was skeptical at the start, afraid that this virtual orchestra would be nothing more than a glorified midi… I couldn’t have have been more wrong. The following two music files are an excerpt from the piece “In Any Way I Can” (track 17 of The Receipt soundtrack). The first is a rendered midi file… identical to what I was hearing as I composed the piece. The second is the final Vienna Symphonic Library mix of the exact same clip.

 In Any Way I Can - MIDI
 In Any Way I Can - VSL

I can’t speak for you, but I was blown away by just how realistic my compositions could sound without needing to hire physical musicians to perform my work. Herein lies the power of virtual instruments (and VSL in particular)… I, as an individual interested in composition but with very limited resources, will likely never have a live orchestra at my disposal. Despite this, I can still enjoy a lifelike performance with very little overhead. Virtual orchestras will never replace the real thing… live music is a irreproducible art and must never fade into the annals of history. But now the tools of orchestral power are attainable by more than just the greatest of composers.

Now that you know a few facts about the Vienna Symphonic Library, I want to show you just how powerful it truly is. Just below this paragraph, you’ll find two pieces of music. Each has been “recorded” by both a professional orchestra as well as the VSL. Listen to takes A & B and see if you can determine which is the live recording and which is built by a virtual orchestra. Just hover your mouse over the appropriate “mouseover” link to see if you were correct. I bet you’ll be amazed at just how realistic the music that the VSL generates is.

 A: Holberg Suite - Praelude

 B: Holberg Suite - Praelude

Mouseover hereA: United States Marine Band
B: Vienna Symphonic Library for the performers of this Holberg piece.

 A: Fanfare for the Common Man

 B: Fanfare for the Comman Man

Mouseover hereA: St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra
B: Vienna Symphonic Library for the performers of this Copland piece.

Want to hear more examples of the Vienna Symphonic Library at work? Visit their demo zone here. Want to see what kinds of projects the VSL is used in? The short list is kept here, with many more that choose to not publicize their use of a virtual orchestra (ie: music cues in various Hollywood films & numerous television shows).

As a reference to anyone who might be interested in a project similar to mine, I completed “The Receipt” soundtrack with the VSL Special Edition. I utilized Finale 2008 to compose all of the score (sheet music will be freely available online shortly). Finally, since VSL is essentially a VST plugin, I used Cubase Studio 4 as my sequencer and mixer. If you have any specific questions, I’d love to discuss these topics further, just leave a comment on this post.