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Post by essien on Mar 28, 2020 17:53:36 GMT -5
Stay safe, marshers.
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Post by stringypoo on Mar 29, 2020 0:49:24 GMT -5
I finally went out the other day for a haircut. I believe that marks the 5th day I’ve left the home since January 19th. I took the subway twice, once to get to the district where my stylist is, and one to get back home. I was surprised that the first time I went to use the subway they didn’t check my temperature, and there were no new precautions upon boarding the subway. There were much less people on it than before the virus at 1pm, but still a few people in each cabin.
Upon teaching the area, I saw a few people on the streets who weren’t wearing their masks, mostly old men who probably don’t care about their health anymore. But otherwise, mostly everyone was wearing masks. I saw an unusual presence of policemen riding bikes around, probably looking for people who weren’t wearing masks to tell them to do so, as I had seen that happen on the news on tv. The hair salon is usually booming, as it is one of the top spots in Shanghai for a haircut, a cool loft like place with three floors on which they work with customers. This time I was one of three customers. It was unusual but kinda nice in a way. Feel bad for the workers though because they’re not getting much action now.
On the way back, I did have my temperature checked before entering the subway. Other than that, there really wasn’t anything unusual about my trip out in the town. Shanghai is taking form again, and looking a lot like it used to, just with reduced numbers out and about.
It’s pretty exciting to see it somehow, because I love this place. I can’t wait for the day they say we can roam without our masks. Maybe the recent ban on entries for foreigners at the airport will help speed things along, as I’m hearing almost all new cases reported in Shanghai were arrivals from the airport. Holy shit would I hate to work at the airport right now...
What’s worse? Working in the hospitals in the US right now. I’ve seen some medical workers make videos which were shared all over Chinese media and social apps in which they talk about how panicked they are at work, working way overtime, caring for multiple patients with the virus at a time without proper supplies. They convey the horrors which otherwise I struggle to fully picture, although I know it’s there. I know the fear they hold, especially from those videos.
I despise people who take to social media as challengers of the virus, like that young woman who licked a toilet seat. People like that...Hell just isn’t hot enough for them, if only it was a real place. And I really hope that the US will get the equipment and care experts it needs to turn this around. China was able to turn this around because they sent countless doctors and army men from all over China to the heart of the problem. I’m afraid the US won’t have that same aid. The US is now even offering green cards to medical workers who can come and aid. But guess what? Nobody here wants that green card. What was once well sought after, an American green card, is worth nothing to the Chinese people now, it seems. Now that’s interesting.
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Post by Calvinball on Mar 30, 2020 20:51:18 GMT -5
This is my post 1337 on this site, it's funny when I started posting I just wanted to race to 88 and never talk again. Now I'm never in the gated section, I've met three of you IRL and have even talked about an international ski trip with even more of y'all. We may not have the biggest community out there, but thanks for being here guys and gals.
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Post by stringypoo on Apr 3, 2020 7:05:15 GMT -5
On a similar note, I joined TDM back in 2012, I believe. Only thing I know for absolute sure is that by chance poembie and I joined the forum on the same date, despite not knowing each other. My original intention? I just wanted a place to talk music with people and discover more music together. At the time, I was super into Black Metal and started a Black Metal thread that motivated me to post a shit ton of gems. Aside from me being almost completely uninterested in Black Metal now, not much has changed as for my motivations with the site. My tastes here are not commonly shared among the majority, I get that. It’s hard to hope for lots of conversation that will help promote and discover acts in the vein of Pagan Altar, Manilla Road, or even quality death metal at times. But I keep coming back, just like Calvinball was saying, because there are some cool people on here. Some of you I’ve interacted with for more than five years now. That’s pretty cool!
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Post by essien on Apr 7, 2020 15:15:37 GMT -5
Haven't been on here as much as I'd have liked, despite lockdown. I'm spending all day at home behind a computer screen and writing out messages for my work, so I feel like I need a break from it. I'm still lurking and will try to post more
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Post by stringypoo on Apr 13, 2020 21:38:03 GMT -5
I woke up this morning to see that Matt Ries, one of the core members of Traveler, wrote me an email in response to my purchase of the new album and the message to left them. That really made my day. Simple things. I wrote the dude on Facebook later and was surprised he was quick to get back to me. It's really awesome when your current favorite band is this responsive to fans.
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Post by stringypoo on Apr 14, 2020 21:46:40 GMT -5
I woke up this morning to see that Matt Ries, one of the core members of Traveler, wrote me an email in response to my purchase of the new album and the message to left them. That really made my day. Simple things. I wrote the dude on Facebook later and was surprised he was quick to get back to me. It's really awesome when your current favorite band is this responsive to fans. Not that it matters much, since I'm possibly the only Traveler fan on here, but this is still a really cool development in my story. I had told Matt yesterday morning at work over facebook about my favorite moment on the whole first album, which was this dueling guitar leads section at the middle and end of "Mindless Maze." Somehow, I got motivated again during the day to try my hand at recording myself doing a cover. I had previous mentioned on here wanting to do some Black Sabbath songs. But I took that 8 bar riff and harmony section that I love so much (which repeats), and I did a violin cover of just that segment in three layered takes, using no headphones or anything. Just recording through my iPad Pro on Garageband because I don't have anything else to use. I actually really liked the result, and although I felt like Matt might be tired of my messaging, I sent him a video of it. hahaha He just got back to me this morning and told me it was really awesome, and that he showed it with the band, and their singer really hopes I can finish the song and he would like to record vocals over it and do a track with me. That song is like, around 6 minutes long I think. But it has its repetitions, which makes it not too bad because I could definitely copy and paste parts I think. I'm learning how to use recording programs now, and looking for what equipment would be worth buying. Haha, I've never done violin tracking for a metal band before, let alone my favorite metal band. I always entered studios in the past to do violin tracking for pop albums, Christian albums, and movie and TV soundtracks. So this could be really cool, and hopefully a fun way to connect myself more to the music I love.
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Post by v9733xa on Apr 15, 2020 12:23:40 GMT -5
I woke up this morning to see that Matt Ries, one of the core members of Traveler, wrote me an email in response to my purchase of the new album and the message to left them. That really made my day. Simple things. I wrote the dude on Facebook later and was surprised he was quick to get back to me. It's really awesome when your current favorite band is this responsive to fans. Not that it matters much, since I'm possibly the only Traveler fan on here, but this is still a really cool development in my story. I had told Matt yesterday morning at work over facebook about my favorite moment on the whole first album, which was this dueling guitar leads section at the middle and end of "Mindless Maze." Somehow, I got motivated again during the day to try my hand at recording myself doing a cover. I had previous mentioned on here wanting to do some Black Sabbath songs. But I took that 8 bar riff and harmony section that I love so much (which repeats), and I did a violin cover of just that segment in three layered takes, using no headphones or anything. Just recording through my iPad Pro on Garageband because I don't have anything else to use. I actually really liked the result, and although I felt like Matt might be tired of my messaging, I sent him a video of it. hahaha He just got back to me this morning and told me it was really awesome, and that he showed it with the band, and their singer really hopes I can finish the song and he would like to record vocals over it and do a track with me. That song is like, around 6 minutes long I think. But it has its repetitions, which makes it not too bad because I could definitely copy and paste parts I think. I'm learning how to use recording programs now, and looking for what equipment would be worth buying. Haha, I've never done violin tracking for a metal band before, let alone my favorite metal band. I always entered studios in the past to do violin tracking for pop albums, Christian albums, and movie and TV soundtracks. So this could be really cool, and hopefully a fun way to connect myself more to the music I love. This is one of the coolest things I've read on this board. I wanna know what happens next!!
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Post by stringypoo on Apr 15, 2020 17:41:50 GMT -5
Not that it matters much, since I'm possibly the only Traveler fan on here, but this is still a really cool development in my story. I had told Matt yesterday morning at work over facebook about my favorite moment on the whole first album, which was this dueling guitar leads section at the middle and end of "Mindless Maze." Somehow, I got motivated again during the day to try my hand at recording myself doing a cover. I had previous mentioned on here wanting to do some Black Sabbath songs. But I took that 8 bar riff and harmony section that I love so much (which repeats), and I did a violin cover of just that segment in three layered takes, using no headphones or anything. Just recording through my iPad Pro on Garageband because I don't have anything else to use. I actually really liked the result, and although I felt like Matt might be tired of my messaging, I sent him a video of it. hahaha He just got back to me this morning and told me it was really awesome, and that he showed it with the band, and their singer really hopes I can finish the song and he would like to record vocals over it and do a track with me. That song is like, around 6 minutes long I think. But it has its repetitions, which makes it not too bad because I could definitely copy and paste parts I think. I'm learning how to use recording programs now, and looking for what equipment would be worth buying. Haha, I've never done violin tracking for a metal band before, let alone my favorite metal band. I always entered studios in the past to do violin tracking for pop albums, Christian albums, and movie and TV soundtracks. So this could be really cool, and hopefully a fun way to connect myself more to the music I love. This is one of the coolest things I've read on this board. I wanna know what happens next!! Yesterday I spent every ounce of free time at school researching DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation) would be ideal for me to download and work with. The high school music teacher is really tech savvy, unlike me, and set me up with a basic home recording kit of microphone, mic head cover, lots of cables, a USB digital audio mixer, and a mic stand. So yesterday when I got home, I totally just got to work plugging things in and trying to test out the microphone. It works! To do this song will take some time, but I know I’ll do it and finish it, now that I’ve got the setup as well as so much motivation right now. Just need to bring my own violin here from Shanghai on Sunday. And also in order to play this song, I have to tune my lowest string down a half step, which messes with my brain and requires a lot of practice. But yeah! This is a really cool occurrence that I didn’t expect! A big part of me hopes it can open some doors for me to potentially become a collaborative partner to many metal bands out there. Who knows.
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Post by v9733xa on Apr 15, 2020 18:28:12 GMT -5
We want a livestream.
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Post by Calvinball on Apr 15, 2020 20:37:21 GMT -5
Paper towel shortages and puppy ownership are a terrible combination.
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Post by stringypoo on Apr 15, 2020 23:06:05 GMT -5
Lol I don't know how to do this. Got Zoom? Hahaha! But seriously, I do hope I soon have something cool to share with you guys. For now, I am not officially recording it because I made my first little take of a section on a really lousy school violin, and the sound on the low string cracks a lot when I play it fast (which is a deal breaker for a full recording). I'm also still experimenting with the free DAW I downloaded. It's a fairly simple software, Cakewalk, but I want something a bit more premium. And I also need to practice working with one a lot so I can make my best work soon. Cool thing about being here in China is that the Chinese version of Amazon, Taobao, is kind of awesome. I really want Presonus Studio One 4.5 software for recording and editing for my project(s), and it's upwards to like, you know, $200-400-ish, depending on the package you buy. But on Taobao, there are people who bought the software, which comes with multiple keys, and they sell the extra keys for dirt cheap. We found a product key for 250RMB, which is like, between $30 and $40. So what was previously a money barrier is now not an issue. I also managed to get Microsoft 365 through Taobao in a way which is a pay once deal and never pay again. Got the whole Microsoft Office Suite for like $10 a few years ago on Taobao and never paid again. I'm still trying to understand how my wife and I managed that situation. lol
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Post by Calvinball on Apr 17, 2020 18:18:15 GMT -5
And they say the perfect shirt doesn't exist... Shoutout to tao who found this shirt and felt compelled to buy it and have it shipped to me. Thanks again you crazy bastard.
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Post by stringypoo on Apr 22, 2020 2:08:41 GMT -5
So a little update on my violin cover of Traveler. This is going to take me a long while, I feel, because I'm starting from ground zero on recording and using digital audio workstations. I spent hours and hours just watching youtube videos of reviews of DAWs and what they're good for and how to use them, and I still feel like an idiot now that I have begun trying to work with one. I'm good with a computer in most cases, but working with digital recording and mixing is something that involves a massive and daunting up front learning curve. I'm trying to set aside at least an hour each night after work and dinner during the work week to toy around with the program I downloaded (Reaper), and it feels like I'm not going anywhere fast.
Setup of the equipment and drivers is the first challenge which I settled last night after a couple days of messing around with settings. Now I've got a new issue to solve, which is the extreme latency I'm facing when recording tracks. You play into the mic, and you hear the audio you're playing in your headphones, but everything you hear is almost a whole second later than you playing it. It's completely disorienting and not user-friendly in this state. I am not sure if it is due to limitations of my laptop or not, so I am going to try to spend tonight going through settings with a guide to reduce this latency. Afterall, I have a really great audio interface by Presonus to work with that my buddy gifted me the other day, so I should be able to manage and find a setting that will provide me an optimal recording experience.
While this is all kind of frustrating to be honest, it's also kind of exciting to be learning something completely alien to me that is related to my field of work. I'm hoping to do a lot more with it. I'd even hope that someday people can request me to cover a song and I can whip out a cover in a week's time. Now that would be cool. Anyway, just updating so those of you who may have actually been wanting to see productivity from my project I had mentioned above in this thread will know that I've got a long way to go before I will be producing audio to release. If this turns out good, I should figure out what I'll name my future-running project. Hmm...
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Post by stringypoo on Apr 23, 2020 21:43:45 GMT -5
A lot of uncertainty hangs in the air for me right now. The virus did a big number on our school, since most of our teachers went back home to US, Canada, UK, New Zealand, and more during Chinese New Year and are unable to return due to travel restrictions. Apparently, of all the international schools around, it hit ours the worst. Imagine working at an international school which hosts about 40 foreign teachers who run the classes, but only about 8 of them stayed and are in China. Classes are largely being taught via Zoom by teachers in their home country as they are now working odd hours to stay with the Chinese time zone work day. And imagine this: we have three principals, all of which are not here.
I knew parents weren’t content, and things were going down the shitter, but today we woke up and a Chinese article was floating around in WeChat with pictures taken from within our school attached to the announcement that our school was bought by another school with this dumbass name “Andante.” There’s a lot of uncertainty, and I’m especially concerned if my contract I signed for next year is going to be honored or voided by this purchase. I’m hoping to learn more soon. If I don’t have a job for next year, I might be forced out of the country due to lack of working visa solution, which would separate me from my wife and kid for an unknown amount of time. And with how things are going in US, I don’t really want to be sent back there when travel restrictions lift due to a timed out work visa... ugh
Edit: although that’s a lot of negative worry thoughts, I have no idea what implications this buyout has for my future here. It actually could be an upgrade for all I know. I’m hoping for that to be the real outcome.
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