Author: Charles Céleste Hutchins

Supercolliding since 2003

solving the protools blues

The backstory

I put protools 6.0 on a 10.2.4 system and it only halfways works. It will
edit existing files, but not create new ones. It’s also fairly unstable.

Update

My poor little 40 gigabyte hard disk was near filled up (looking forward
to the day when i can whine that 40 terrabytes is not enough. i remember
my first hard disk held ten megabytes and it was HUGE… anyway), so I
went and got an external firewire drive to hold sound data. It’s fast. I
dig it.

Then the lightbulb went on. I installed Jaguar on the firewire drive. I
installed only the necessary components. No printer drivers or anything
else. Then I disabled smart update and downloaded the 10.2.3 update and
installed it. (10.2.3: http://makeashorterlink.com/?A23D12BD3 )
Then I e-disabled smart update. I installed the drivers for my
midihardware and then installed protools 6.0 on to the drive.

the result

I have a dual boot system, one is 10.2.4 where i can install all the
broken upgrades and lame junk that I want, and the other is 10.2.3 where
nothing is installed but the base system and protools stuff. Protools is
working great for me. I’m able to have a protools only system (where
system = operating system) without buying a new computer.

I’m going to go burn a disk of the 10.2.3 update and the midi drivers so
i’ll always have a hardcopy of the software i need in case anything goes
wrong.

Mario is the bomb for helping out with this.

I’m the bomb

I can be arrogant in my blog, right?
My old music teacher from Mills called me up today and said that the faculty was very excited by my application. Encouraged me to go to Mills. I’ve never had faculty members call me up and encourage me to come to their school before…
Ok, she also wrote letters for me, so it wasn’t completely out of the blue, but still. Many of the ditties that were in my portfolio can be heard at http://www.berkeleynoise.com/celesteh/mp3s/, btw. Every single one of them was written before my mom died. Since then, I’ve written shxt. All I can seem to get out is angry, blaring, obtrusive noise, like hundreds of fingernails on a blackboard in stereo. I don’t beleive that music needs to be beautiful, but the open, airy aesthetic I was aiming for is just not happening for me. I didn’t mention this in my application, though.

timing

Why does Mills, which sent out the admission notice first, have the earliest deadline for saying yes or no? If I say yes and send them the deposit and then don’t go there, does the scholarship go to another student, or is it screwed up for the year?

Yesterday

Got an acceptance letter from Mills College. Worked a tiny bit on music for April 9th. I must start composing at top speed soon. I procrastinate way too much. It’s wonder that I’ve written any music at all since school. Then I went to see my dad to get my thin mints and to write thank you notes for donations made to the Carmelite Nuns in memory of my mother. I guess they’re praying to get her out of purgatory. That takes a lot of weight off my shoulders. Still, the popularity-contests aspect of it is troubling on a spiritual level. The catholic faith is way too complicated. I asked my dad if he wanted to go to Mitch’s party and he said no cuz he didn’t want to be the oldest person there by 30 years. He would have been.
So I went to Mitch’s party and with that conversation, I’m glad my dad wasn’t there. I’ve decided that it’s not the presence of sexy lesbians that makes the het folks talk about sex. I think they just talk about sex all the time. It seems to be much more complicated for them. More negotiations, misunderstanding, disappointments. Or maybe that’s just sex and the single girl of any orientation. Who knows. At least they’re very enthusiastic about it.
Other conversations centered around parodying communion. It made me uncomfortable even though I’m all for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, but they seem to just lampoon the camp aspects. Anyway.
i also downloaded the Camino browser yesterday, because I can never learn the lessons against upgrading. First of all, why did they change the name from “Chimera”? do they not want people to recognize the name? All of Mozilla seems to be deeply confused about brand identity. Why do they have so many redundant projects with so many names? Why not just have it all be Mozilla with some different install options? Then everyone would be using the same words to talk about the same project and they’d have brand-identity and people would care about them. Having fewer projects competing with each other might be smart too. How many macintosh browsers can one group produce? No wonder they’re soliciting donations. AOL is begging me for money. Unsurprising, really. I hope nobody gives them any. Yes, I know they don’t actually pay the developers anymore and stuff. but I’m not sending my cash off to a gigantic corporation as a donation! Um, anyway, back to the point, the arrow keys don’t work in text areas. apparently the new name means new bugs. Yay. Why did they name it after the half-car/half-pickup? Or is it a reference to the minimall hell that is El Camino Real? It doesn’t make sense at all.

And now from Mills

Offer of admission with a scholarship. Very surprising given Mills’ economic straights. But still not as generous as Wesleyan. I think I will decline, but not until I visit Cal Arts and Wesleyan just in case.

Advertisement

Since I don’t send a check to the blog company, this is not a commercial-free website. what’s interesting is that when the blog company got bought by Google, what changed right away were the ads. My blog sports ads for cello strings, musical instrument sales, schools at which to learn recording engineering, and videos on how to write counterpoint. Go take a look.
Mitch’s blog is selling car parts and DJ gear. Christi’s blog is advertising record companies, sheet music publishers and mp3s. Chand’s blog is selling dog botties. It must be the puss-in-boots quote.

Psychoanalyze your friends!

It’s fun! It’s annoying! It’s easy!

Exhibit A: Male subject, only one serious relationship. Many non-starter relationships. Tends to favor women who respect him less than carpet lint.
Subject A has been seeing someone whom he has now sucessfully woo-ed. she thinks he’s the latest thing since sliced bread. He’s thinking of going away. Reasons? Is she intellectually incompatible? Nope. Smart, funny. Politically and musically compatible. Is she unattractive? Nope. Good looking. going for the neck has been satisfactory. Is she boring? nope. fun. So what’s the problem? Insufficient emotional responce on the part of subject A.
And why is that? Because she’s not abusing him! Solution 1: Subject A could raise his slef esteem through meditation, affirmations or medication. Solution 2: Sex adds excitement to any relationship. Solution 3: Instead of fighting the problem of emotional non-responce to abusiveness, he could accept it as a given and date someone who is abusive within certain boundaries, for example, a dominatrix who would treat him appropriately in public, but step on him at other times. It may be possible to combine solutions 2 and 3 if the subject’s prospective someone is open to the suggestion.
That concludes this segment of Annoying the fxck out of your Friends. tune in next time when Subject B’s taste in music is anaylized in light of her obviously deficient education.

Homoland Security Update

Tom Midge of Finland today altertered casaninja’s Nun Alert status from Full Habit down to Mini Skirt. The system of warnings is designed to alert Ninja’s of a possible need to access sudio time in the middle of the night. Last night’s Nun Alert level was prompted by sound engineering that went on until past 2:00 AM. Tonight’s reduction to Mini Skirt, a level designated to mean that it would be all right to go ahead and invite the UC Cheerleading tea over for an all-night orgy, came about because the project is basically done and the sound engineer expects to be tired tonight.
The system was recently instated to ensure better warning and communication between Ninjas who wish to use the bed area and Ninjas who wish to use studio space late at night. Critics have blasted the system, calling it overly complicated and claiming that the very name “homoland security” is problematic and possibly biphobic. Tom Midge of Finland defended the system, pointing out that naked women appaear twice in his collected comics, thus demonstrating his committment to bisexual inclusion. He went on to state that he expected to have to raise the Nun Alert to Pantsuit some time within the next two weeks as intelligence indicated that other deadlines are fast approaching and late time studio access may become necessary.
The four levels of Nun Alert are:

  • Full Habit: The studio will be in use past bed time.
  • Pantsuit: The studio may be in use past bedtime. Be alert and on gaurd, but continue to consume and go about your businiess.
  • Miniskirt: The studio will not be in use. Feel free to invite over the UC cheerleading team.
  • Leather Suit: The studio-users expect to be able to use the bed area with you!

The Free-associative Press contributed to this report.

Press Quotes

The folks at Jack Straw asked us for a critic/press quote so they can promote our gig in Seattle. Christi asked Charles Amirkhanian and he said, “…pithy and predatory, yet powerfully pleasurable.”
Apparently, predatory is a good thing.
This is all normal stuff for real composers, but it’s very exciting right now, cuz I’ve never done it bofore.