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| 02/04/2003
ah, a small update.
just to say that I'm not dead! actually, you could say exactly
the opposite - i'm run off my feet again! got another 7
minute track pretty much finished, and am working on another
two (five, technically) at the moment. more on that in the
very near future.
other than that, work
has kept me 'fairly' busy (tho' it's a joyous job at heart),
as have some rather random trips to various parts of the
country. but that's fun, so i won't complain! anyway, will
update the weblog soon, and the main site soon after.
oh yeah - sorry to all
those on msn/icq/irc. i'm just being deeply blond at the
moment. catch up with y'all soon! |
| 19/03/2003
a big weblog update.
nothing serious really, just fancied it.
currently, that 'exciting'
project track is pretty much done (weighing in at nearly
8 minutes), and although it needs some final tweaking, and
a bit of detailing, it's sounding good. i need to get vocalist
access (ha!) for another track i'm working on as well, so
there may be some more interesting stuff popping up soon.
update: there's a news
archive page as well now. see bottom of page for a link |
| 12/03/2003
another full free
track graces the music page at the moment. this one always
made me chuckle for some obscure reason. it's not exactly
meant to be serious, but head on over and find out if
clowns scare you :-) |
| 11/03/2003
well, the choral job
over the weekend went very well, and since then, i've
been damn busy. in fact, stupidly busy (but more on that
in the weblog). the
new music is coming along very nicely, if a touch slowly,
the lofee
website has reached a beta stage (at which it will probably
see first light, then much like this site, be tweaked,
fixed and finished over a week or so), though it's still
closed to the public!
meanwhile, it's still
nice to see such a variety of people from all over the
world popping into the site. keep coming, keep downloading,
keep listening. |
| 04/03/2003
before anyone says
anything about 'not updating the site', it's not strictly
true! I've been keeping the weblog
pretty much up to date recently, and that's usually the
best place to head for 'daily' updates.
of course, thing's
don't stand still here either! i've pretty much finished
another new track (well, that was two weeks ago), and
i'm currently working on something i'm truly excited about.
it actually has a proper vocal line! actually, it even
has proper lyrics, which is a serious step in a strange
direction for me. don't worry, i 'employed' someone else
to sing them (i know my weaknesses!), and it's sounding
really rather excellent right now.
alongside that, i've
been working on quite a few things for the site as well,
all of which will be uploaded in time, and i have a lofee
track to re-edit. then there are the two choral pieces
which have to learned (i've been 'hired'!), and a bunch
of real life things which are just a pain...
so, a busy few weeks
past, and some very busy weeks coming up. you know i love
it! |
| 14/02/2003
another new track
for your delictation! it's an old one called interesting,
tho' whether it is or isn't i shall leave up to you. check
the music page for more details. there should be more
full and sample tracks up in the next few days as well,
so check back.
also, the weblog
page is getting updated fairly frequently, so check back
if you fancy a random morning read (or a random morning
rant instead).
finally, if there
are any good flash artists out there who fancy doing an
animation to music (potentially fairly moody to boot),
you might like to give me a shout. i might run it as a
competition, but i've yet to make my mind up on that...
enough! have a good
evening y'all... |
| 04/02/2003
there is now a news
feed for rdf / rss / xml enabled news readers
available from this site.
ok, that sounds complicated,
but it's just the jargon! there are a vast number of programs
which support rdf feeds, covering every common operating
system available today (even down to hand helds such as
the newton, palm and pocketpc).
you may well already
have software on your computer that can read these feeds
- if you have software that provides headlines from sources
such as the bbc, reuters, slashdot,
wired, especially if it isn't 'propreitarty'
software, then you can set it up for this website as well.
check out the news feed
page for more details. |
| 03/02/2003
there's a new sample
track up on the music page, and it's one of my favourites;
a track called panic room. head over there for more.
also one the progress
side is the website mentioned two days ago. problem nearly
solved :) just need to get going with the images for it. |
| 01/02/2003
(hehe - 01/02/03)
Whoops. i've overdone
it this week.
usually, i'm pretty
good about keeping fairly concentrated on what i'm working
on, but this week i've managed to spread it out over 6 tracks
(4 new, 1 remix). bit of an error on my part, since although
their all started, they really have stayed in that state
- topping 1 minute max. it's a bit annoying, since each
time i start on a new one, the inspiration of the previous
dies back a bit, making it harder to work on. so the coming
week is gonna be spent on the remix, the finishing work
on another, and one new tune. annoying...
in other news... i've
been playing around with the idea of having a news 'feed'
for rdf enabled readers (for example, the rather excellent
messaging software trillian
pro, which supports AIM, Microsoft Messanger, ICQ and
IRC all in one). The software automatically checks for updates
every 1/2 hour or so, meaning that the user will know when
there's something going on over here. anyways, it's something
i'm playing with, and may implement it since it's very little
extra work at this end.
and for those in the
know - the lofee site is coming along, if a bit slowly.
it's suprisingly tough working from other peoples ideas,
especially when their diagrams don't match the source material...
grrrrr ;-) |
| 29/01/2003
woah! big up to big
rux and jon sandys for the banner at moviemistakes.com
- rux for the idea, and jon for permission - you guys' the
daddies...
for those who don't
know - moviemistakes
(of 'just-about-every-decent-tv/radio-show-in-the-world'
fame) is one of the most dangerous sites on the net. it's
far too easy to lose whole mornings there just reading thru
the massive lists of mistakes for your favourite films.
well worth a good investigation.
|
| 24/01/2003
right - i've started
a weblog, mostly to keep my ramblings off the news page!
should keep this nice and tidy, and hopefully, relevant.
there is a link on this page, and the main page if you fancy
a read... there are still a few things to sort out about
the template (as you can see with the repeating background
image), but it's nearly done!
also, i'm gonna get
the news archive sorted out, and hopefully improve the way
the news page works, over the next day or so. that should
help to keep this page loading nice and fast, and should
help it look neater as well :) |
| 23/01/2003
the bitch is back...
after 6 months of living
in a drunken larger-soaked hell, the vk7 is home again,
thanks to the rather excellent (and stupidly fast) work
of delatronics.
time to get her busting out some grooves again... |
| 20/01/2003
the first new track
of 2003 is here! it also happens to be the first 'web mix'
available here, so head on over to the music page and have
a listen to the latest track... as for exactly what a web
mix is, expect an explanation shortly!
there are still strange
problems with the ftp server, making uploads a bit of a
pain. however, heath robinson would still be proud, and
updates are still possible (well, they are if you can read
this anyway).
finally, since a lot
of people don't actually know what ogg vorbis is,
there is a small document available in the technology section
explaining this file format, and how to use it - it's very
easy, so take a look. this isn't actually the first tech
document (which has been put back due to the server problems)
- that will be released in the near future. |
| 17/01/2003
the full tracks are
now also available as ogg vorbis format audio files.
these are available as 92kbps files, which despite being
of a lower bitrate than the mp3's, are of the same quality,
and are a smaller download. most up to date software media
players, and some decent hardware mp3 players support ogg
vorbis ootb, so give them a go!
update:
lordy.
you get some time to
do a little update to your website, adding a few more audio
files before delving back into Cubase for a bit more h/c
editing, and everything goes tits up! Apparently, my webserver
crashed, and is currently (as I'm writing) in an auto-reboot
state. ok - this is actually a very good thing, but i've
gotta re-upload a hell of a lot of stuff. Expect another
update tonight (if I'm not drunk by then anyway!).
update:
ah, at last. it now looks as if all of the files, both mp3
and ogg, are fully functional. it looks like my
server was 'rebooting' for about 3 hours. it's still not
fully reliable, but i've worked out a heath robinson method
for getting the files up. at least that's the end of that
particular 'unofficial outage' ;)
so get downloading people! |
| 16/01/2003
a little update - i
just found this
quite amusing, especially considering the description is
the yahoo editor's own. not that i'm complaining in any
way! i'm just amused :) |
| 15/01/2003
i have just updated
the music page (again!), and you'll now find another free
track there.
this is one that no-one
will have heard to date, since it's been sitting quietly
on my hard drive for a month or so. i had put it aside for
a while, since i wrote it whilst i was feeling pretty damn
ill, and somehow that feeling had transfered iteself onto
the track. however, on re-listening a couple of days ago,
those feelings had gone, and i really enjoyed it again.
so, it's now there for your listening pleasure!
there have been a few
quiet updates to the site over the last week or so, mostly
involving more sample tracks for download. head on over
to the music page to get hold of these tracks.
finally, i'm working
on two things. one is the first technique guide, and the
other is the possibility for 'web mixes' of tracks - check
back for more details on these. |
| 03/01/2003
i think it's time we
had an upgrade, so...
welcome to the
website, version 1.0!
there is still more
work to do on the site, but you'll find a fair bit of material
up here (including 1 full track, 5 sample tracks, and 14
images). there is plenty more to come, so keep checking
back.
anyway, another busy
day, and a few more tracks uploaded. all samples today,
but i've got a few more full tracks to go up here in the
near future. hope you enjoy! feel free to e-mail any comments
you have! |
| 01/01/2003
happy new year to y'all.
despite being absolutely knackered, i've spent the last
few hours collating a few tracks together, and have now
uploaded 3 new sample tracks to the music page. go on, check
them out! there's over 5 minutes of new music, and i'll
be uploading more material in the next day or so. |
| 31/12/2002
ah, new years eve, and
another year is over already. wicked!
the site is getting
closer and closer to v1.0. i'm currently uploading the first
full track, in search of
mr purdey, as a 'high' quality mp3. pop on
over to the music page to have a look. i am also looking
at getting a bit more content onto the site over the next
week, though just getting this first track up proved a bit
of a nightmare; hopefully those kind of gremlins have been
ironed out.
well, i'm getting ready
to go out, so have a good one y'all! |
| 26/12/2002
ok, so this is a little
late (it's 2am boxing day :) ). merry christmas to y'all!
been really busy the
last two days (who isn't round christmas?), and have been
neglecting far too many 'duties'. felt rough as hell this
morning (teaches me for getting 3 hours sleep a night for
a week then going out on christmas eve... ugh).
anyways - a very good
day has been had, and I'm planning on sleeping the next
few days off in preparation for new year. what does that
mean? well, other than some time available to get some tracks
up here (been deliberating exactly how to do this for days),
it means I can get on with a few new ideas. looking at a
simple groove d&b styled track, and maybe something
a little bit different.
the current suggestion
is a bit of skate punk :) |
| 19/12/2002
argh - running behind.
have had five days with virtually no time to actually sort
out the tracks. this weekend's a gonner too, so it looks
like the tracks will be a christmas present! if i'm about
that is!
nightmare... |
| 12/12/2002
ok, i'm officially raising
the 'status' of the website to v0.9. the basic structure
has been in place for a while now, as have the graphics,
and about 90% of the basic text. the graphic placeholders
have all been replaced, the flash work is done (as far as
I'm taking it for the moment), and the 'backend' of the
site is set up (so I can simply upload the site, and it
will work).
Currently missing/incomplete
-
| images
page - there are plenty more to come, but i'm
having to dig them out of backups and from friends at
the moment |
| links page
- mostly complete, but not exactly a priority right
now |
| music page
- requires a load of mp3/wav cutting and sorting. it's
about a days work, so when I get the time (probably
wednesday), i'll get this sorted |
| tech page
- i have a few things to go on here, but they need sorting
out and typing up. this will come in time! |
|
| 10/12/2002
it may have taken me
6 months of various levels of inactivity, but I've at last
got the hosting and domain name sorted out! Just spent an
hour sorting out e-mail addresses, which was fun.
Nearly finished another
track (Shadow, a snippet of which can be heard in the intro).
I'm stupidly pleased with it so far, which is nice! Expect
to have a sample of this on the website fairly soon. |
| 4/12/2002
well, the new site is
coming along well. it's a massive improvement on the old
site, and is certainly much easier to update. it's still
not perfect, but I'm still aiming to go live pre-christmas,
depending on hosting. spent yesterday doing the flash intro,
which is basically done, though it needs a pre-loader. today
was spent working out how to do the images page, and sorting
out the contact details. i still need to dig through the
hard drives to find all the images, but it's something that
can be done over time.
of course, all of this
has left slightly less time (!) for music this week, and
i'm falling behind on my targets. got a few new tracks that
have some promise, and one that's annoying the hell out
of me. i can't stop trying to work on it, despite the fact
I really need to leave it for a few weeks, and come back
to it clean. help!
right - time to get
some sleep. night y'all! |
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all
original material copyright © 2002 the phonic monkeys |
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