The Amazing Rolo's old blog (the new one is at theamazingrolo.net)

Freshening up around here

2009-04-10T16:14:00.002+01:00

Today I started implementing a brand-new Amazing Rolo site, designed to integrate all of my various pages more tightly with my blog. Everything will now be based from theamazingrolo.net, and I won't be updated this blog anymore. All the old posts from this blog have been exported there, and I'm in the process of updating the music, sound design, and video pages.

See you there!

Introducing the Chicken Box!

2009-04-07T07:50:00.003+01:00

Here's a little demo video of me playing around with a synth I finished building this weekend. It has just three knobs (whose function I don't really understand) and it sounds crazy cool!

All of this synth building will eventually culminate in an interactive installation called "Don't Talk Back". More on that later...

Hello folks.

2009-03-25T06:40:00.002Z

I don't think I've mentioned it here yet, but I'm currently on a tour of the music industry in Poland, thanks to the British Council. It's been an amazing experience, and last night I played a show using the Wii LoopMachine at Jadlodajnia Filozoficzna, a totally awesome independent venue in Warsaw. The crowd was fantastic, thanks so much for being so supportive!

For those of you who were asking about the music, my Music page is in need of a refresh, I'm afraid, but if you poke around my blog you can find the songs I played last night! Here are two of them right away:

EarthFireWindWaterHeart

Rolled and Tumbled

Enjoy!

Introducing the Jam Jar!

2009-03-18T15:56:00.002Z

I'm working on a project right now that involves building digital synthesizers that react to light. As a first step I made a small synth that I was able to fit inside a jam jar. I creatively named it the Jam Jar, and it totally rocks. Here's a video that explains what it is and shows me jamming out with Ableton Live!

For more pictures check out my Flickr set.

Penalty Shootout

2009-03-02T14:42:00.003Z

On the 28th of January 2009, Dundee United and Glasgow Celtic battled to a 0-0 tie in the semi-final of the CIS Scottish League Cup. The game thus went to penalty kicks.

Celtic won, but not before every player on both teams (including the goalies) took shots in what must have been one of the most epic penalty shootouts in Scottish (if not world) football history.

Watching the coverage I was struck by how the camera angles were always very similar for each penalty. I edited the footage and layered each of these similar camera angles on top of one another to create a composite version of the shootout, compressing the 24 shots into one. The angles were all different lengths, so sometimes you only see one or two layers, and occasionally you see many. I did a similar process with the sound, although I wasn't quite as rigid, as you will hear.

Chasing Geese

2009-02-13T10:22:00.003Z

Here's a track I made the other day...I took a recording of "Wild Goose Chase" played by the incredible fiddler Clyde Davenport and edited two little sections out.

I then imported those samples into Ableton and layered them all together, using follow actions to randomize the way they were layered and played back. This created a sort of Steve Reich phasing effect, except with the added fun of randomness.

Enjoy!

The Amazing Rolo - Goose Chasing

Gol show at the Filmhouse

2009-02-06T12:36:00.004Z

I'll be playing some music tomorrow night at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh. My friends Pete Vilk and Roxana Pope have included me in their Gol project, so I'll be playing some keyboards and doing plenty of live sampling, Max/MSP trickery, and general sonic mayhem! We've been rehearsing a lot lately and it sounds great, a mix of electronic, acoustic, Iranian traditional music, improvisation, and heavy beats. The show is part of the Edinburgh Iranian Festival, which features great films, music, art, and a really nice logo.

We've got some more shows coming up, including one very special one that all of you in the internets will be able to watch, so check back soon for more details.

In the mean time, I'll be headed to London on Monday, for a very exciting interview! Who ever said I was "French-born"? I often find that people assume that your citizen ship is the same as your birthplace...

Darkness in Glasgow

2009-01-15T12:45:00.004Z

It looks like a video of mine will be shown in Glasgow next week...

As we speak is an artists video screening night in Glasgow dedicated to the promotion of new contemporary video works. The next one will take place on January the 20th 2009 in Stereo, Renfield Lane (behind Central Station). Free entry.

See the As We Speak myspace page for more information.

To celebrate, here is the video that will be shown, for those of you who can't make it (including me, unfortunately!). It's called "Darkness", and it's a strange abstract sci-fi short story about what would happen on a planet where sound and light do not act in the same way they do on Earth.

The concept of a planet where light and sound are reversed is an idea I've had for a while...it has some pretty interesting implications, and I find it generally fascinating to think that light is made up of vibrations, just like sound, but that those vibrations are so fast that we can't hear them. That has always seemed rather arbitrary to me, and I love to think about what life would be like if we had evolved to hear the frequency band that we now perceive as light. Even more fascinating, perhaps, is the idea that everything is made of vibrations anyway, as illustrated by string theory.

But I'm getting out of my depth! Back to the video...whilst sketching out the concept for "Darkness" I wrote a short story and made an image to explore the ideas. The short story eventually turned into the narrative for the movie, and you can see that image here:

Trying to get home

2008-12-23T22:22:00.001Z

My brother Cory and I are both at home in Maryland, and we're going to try and make a few more semi-improvised videos like this one over the next few weeks...enjoy!

Wii Music Review

2008-12-02T12:00:00.002Z

As a general rule I am trying to keep my Wii LoopMachine blog and this Amazing Rolo blog from overlapping too much, but this is a topic I feel very strongly about, and so I must apologize for cross-posting! What follows is the review of Nintendo's Wii Music that I just posted on the LoopMachine site. enjoy!

Do you kind of vaguely enjoy music? Do you want an inoffensive way to entertain your family, without the embarrassment and discomfort usually associated with video games? Do you want pretend to give yourself (or your children) a musical education? Do you have £50 to spend? Well, the newly released Wii Music is for you!

I’ll let Nintendo’s official website speak for itself:

“Musicians in your band jam by simply playing their instruments to the beat of a song or by improvising to their heart’s content. Play faster. Play slower. Skip a beat, or throw in 10 more. No matter what you do, Wii Music automatically transforms your improv stylings into great music. There are no mistakes—just playing for the pure joy of playing.”

Creating a system that allows people to easily play music is a noble aim, of course, but this rhetoric turns farcical when compared to the actual gameplay, which revolves around forcing unnatural movements on the user to create something like music, all within an educationally dubious framework. It’s a shame, really, since the Wii is a console that could potentially lend itself to exciting musical software.

There are several ways of playing Wii Music, including Jam Mode, Improv, several mini games, and a “Lessons” section. In Jam Mode you can pick an instrument and play along with a preprogrammed song, either with friends or with an automatic backing band. However, using Jam Mode for the first time is also your introduction to what turns out to be the maddeningly repetitive use of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” throughout the game. In order to unlock any other songs you must play through this song, and the same applies to the minigames. In addition, virtually any time a feature is demonstrated, the demo song is...well, you get the idea.

Putting that to one side, what about making music? Surely you can rock out and play anything you want just by moving the controller about in an intuitive way, taking advantage of the unique capabilities of the Wiimote! Well...no. Playing an instrument, for the most part, involves shaking the controllers just enough to trigger a note, the pitch of which you have no control over. To “play” a piano, for example, you are told to “move your hands up and down as if you were playing a real piano”. This translates as “hold the controller however you want and shake it”. No matter how you hold or move the controller, the notes are preprogrammed and will simply trigger based on when you shake it. So much for creativity. Playing a violin or cello involves an unintuitive series of jerky movements and button presses, all to produce a horrifying General MIDI soundbank string tone. It sounds an awful lot like browsing the internet in 1997.

Of course, many of these faults can be attributed to the inherently inaccurate motion capture data from the Wii remote. Accelerometers are tricky things, and it would be impossible to make a good emulation of a piano with a Wiimote right now. It begs the question - why did they even try? What is the point of a half-assed instrument simulator, particularly when the upcoming Wii Motion Plus promises much finer motion control?

But back to the music - performing a song is mildly entertaining for a minute or so, once you get a hang of the controls for your instrument, but the song choice and styles are so bland it defies logic. It seems outlandish that a game that has skimped on so much (graphics are standard Wii blobs, there are very few levels, sound quality is low, etc) only offers only 52 songs, ranging from “Yankee Doodle” to “Jingle Bell Rock”. Even these are not available all at once - you have to work through endless soft rock muzak renditions of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Daydream Believer” before you get to the good stuff - yes! I can finally do a jazz version of “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”! What’s more, there is an odd insistence on creating “music videos” of every performance. After each Jam you are asked to create album art for your creation, and then you are forced to watch through your performance - in a fit of frustration I started mashing buttons on the controller, only then discovering a hidden way to escape that torture.

Perhaps the most redeeming mode of play is the handbells mini-game, which challenges you to swing your remotes at the correct times in order to play the melody correctly. Playing with several other people is quite fun, like Guitar Hero for church music. It’s challenging and fun, and the Wiimote/Nunchuk system works very well for ringing bells.

“Ah ha!” says Nintendo, “but look at what differentiates our product from those silly Guitar Hero games! In Wii Music you can improvise on any instrument you like!” Sure enough, you can pick from a range of instruments and play your heart away. But once again, you have little to no control over the pitch of the notes you play, so any improvisation quickly turns into random shaking and button pressing. The possible exceptions are the percussion instruments, who of course lend themselves to just that kind of movement. You can even bring a Balance Board into the mix to play a drum set, which more or less works. With a bit of practice you can play some fun beats, although having to press different buttons to trigger the cymbals, tom toms, and snare is rather confusing.

Strangest of all, though, is the choice of instruments. They range from the obvious (guitar, piano) to the “exotic” (sitar), to the absurd. This last category includes Dog and Cat Suits, allowing your character to hop around yapping and meowing, Cheerleader, where you can indulge your strange adolescent fantasties and dress up in pom poms and a miniskirt, and best of hall - hand clap. Yes, video game technology has advanced so far that we are able to clap our hands virtually, simply by swinging Wii remotes! All that is missing is a flying car, and we will have reached the Future!

All of this is harmless, of course, or at least it would be if it wasn’t all placed within a framework of supposed musical education. There is a “lessons” section, where you can develop your musical ability by learning how to play different styles, and miniature games with listening and playing tests. In these sections, of course, the supposed freedom of musical expression that is touted throughout the marketing of Wii Music goes completely out the window, in favor of a subjective and punitive approach. Conduct the orchestra however you want, but of course if you conduct incorrectly you will get a lower score, and your poor little character will sag his head. In Jam Mode you can “improvise to your heart’s content”, but there is an obnoxious ticking metronome coming out of the Wii remote speaker, making sure you don’t deviate too far from the party line. And the hearing test contains such insanely pointless questions as “Which tune fits the feeling of ‘I’ll never get my homework done?’” It’s an ethnomusicologist’s worst nightmare!

This approach truly terrifies me, since I am sure it will do more to discourage potential musicians than anything else. There is very little allowance for creativity in Wii Music, and a truly tenuous link between movement and sound creation. The emulation of the instruments is tacky and the sound quality is shocking, and any attempt to describe it as a musical educational tool is simply disingenuous - at no point in the game is any connection made to the world outside of cheap graphical representations of instruments. Never does Sebastian Von Tutte, the irritating guide that helps you through the game, suggest “you’ve done really well, have you thought about trying a real piano?” No, rather the game is designed to give you incremental rewards such as new songs to play along with, thereby keeping you from actually applying any interest you may have gained in music to an actual instrument.

To be perfectly clear - the concept of Wii Music certainly does not bother me, as it does some gamers. In fact, I think music software for gaming consoles is only going to get bigger. However, Wii Music represents a massive disappointment, and even a step backwards. The future of music games is in creativity, and the motion control of the Wii offers a particularly good way of allowing for that creativity. However, Nintendo has not only put no thought into how motion can and should be used for making music, but also created a “music game” with extremely limited and low quality music, and a hypocritical approach to education and improvisational freedom. What a shame. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back into my Cat Suit.

Wii + Video = Fun

2008-11-27T18:28:00.002Z

Tomorrow night I will be doing a performance at the launch event for the new issue of Yuck n Yum, a publication by a group of pretty hip artists in Dundee.

This show is going to be a bit of a departure for me, as I will be doing some new things that I have not yet tried in public! Hurray! Because of this, I thought it would be fun to give a sneak peek of just what exactly I will be doing. That's what blogs are for, right?

This picture shows most of what I will be using, conveniently labeled for you (click to enlarge).
The equipment list is:

3 Wii remotes with Nunchuk attachments

Laptop

one-stringed guitar, fitted with ultrasonic and light sensors

Arduino microcontroller

mixer, preamps, etc

projector

I've set out a process for creating sound out of all of this mess, with video as the starting point (another first for me).

The first step, then, is the video. I made a patch in Jitter for controlling two video streams independently, and overlaying them. The two videos can be warped, stretched, colored, and mixed together in real time. The output of each manipulated video stream is being analyzed, and sent to a synthesizer which is creating sound based on the visuals. Thus, by manipulating the videos, which are then generating sound, the video manipulation becomes an "instrument" of sorts.

In addition, the audio of each video can also be used independently of the visuals and passed through various effects.

The guitar, meanwhile, is fitted with various sensors that are plugged into an Arduino. These sensors will control sampling and playback of the guitar signal, creating textures underneath all of the sound from the videos.

Finally, the webcam on my laptop will also be activated, using live footage of myself to trigger more synthesis in Jitter.

Where do the Wii remotes fit into all of this? Well, rather than sitting in front of my laptop clicking through my Jitter patch, I will be using several wii remotes to control it all, with the ultimate goal of being able to do the whole performance without touching the computer at all. All of the video manipulation, audio effects, guitar sampling and playback, and synthesis will be controlled with the Wii remotes. The rotation of each video, for example, will be controlled by twisting and turning my left hand, while the playback speed of each video will be mapped to the movements of my right hand. A wii remote will be attached to the guitar, so the angle of the instrument will dictate the pitch of the sample playback.

Does that makes sense? My goal was to try and combine video mixing, Wii remotes, and music. If you're in the Dundee area you should definitely come along. If not, the show will hopefully be recorded and I will definitely post the video as soon as I can.

An audience that cares

2008-11-11T18:53:00.004Z

I'm in a funny situation these days, where I'm working really hard on a bunch of different projects, but have very little to show for it all! It's been frustrating me a bit, so I made an extra effort to make a finished version of a song I've been working on for a while. I will probably continue working on it at some point soon (I would really like my brother to lay a banjo or guitar track down, for example), but I really like how it sounds now too. Give it a listen!

The Amazing Rolo - An audience that cares

I started writing this song while playing in "Jack and the Beanstalk"...the production began with myself and the other musician walking out onstage from the wings playing a (deliberately) cheesy melody, before getting kicked off the stage by the bad guy. It was really fascinating to wait backstage before every show and watch the crowd file in, waiting for the lights to dim and the stage manager to give me my cue.

I started wondering if nature worked the same way, each creature waiting for the right moment to perform. But surely not, I surmised, because they perform every day, despite a total lack of audience most of the time. I'm not sure if I ever came to a conclusion about it, but I did write the lyrics based on those ideas. In fact, this song is a rare instance of me putting a lot of emphasis on lyrics...usually I'm much more concerned with the musical structure.

This recording features the inimitable Pete Vilk on percussion. He and I go way back.

A new home (away from home away from home)

2008-10-16T16:32:00.007+01:00

Hello again from Dundee, the city of Jam, Jute, and Journalism. I recently started a residency at Abertay University, where I am now the New Media Artist in the amazing new Whitespace.

It's a fantastic place, a huge area that used to be the heavy engineering department which is now dedicated to digital media in all it's forms...there are recording studios, media production suites, and creative professionals, all sharing space with students studying video game production, sound, video, you name it. It's a great atmosphere, and I get a workspace amidst it all.

Over the next nine months or so I hope to spend about three days a week here, where I will be developing some of the artistic projects I haven't had time for recently. These include some video work, some music, some game-based-art, some mechanical noise making devices, and so on. And I'll be blogging about it as much as possible!

Live Wii-mixing in Glasgow this weekend

2008-10-15T13:41:00.004+01:00

This Saturday I will be playing a set at the Buff Club in Glasgow. Electrorock duo Any Color Black will be playing a show and taking tons of pictures in order to create artwork for their upcoming EP, and I will be remixing some of their songs with the LoopMachine! Expect some crazy Wii music action, and a generally wild night overall.

It’s free, starts at 7:30 (doors at 7) and you can get into the dance party that follows for free! Check out the event website for details. See you there!

apologies to those who have already read this on wiiloopmachine.com

another Rolo Remix

2008-09-18T10:39:00.003+01:00

I'm proud to say that I feature on the album "through the mirror: adcBicycle revisioned", a recent release by Netlabel 12rec..

through the mirror is a collection of remixes of songs by Canadian musician adcBicycle, aka Matt Chisholm. I'm in good company, with my remix sandwiched between tracks by map~map, umami, zanf, Fell, and more. I'm also described as "Scotland based Wii wizard The Amazing Rolo", which is nothing short of awesome.

My remix is entitled "Wagon 7 Seat 7", and was created mostly on a train journey to Dundee.

Grab the whole album now, it's a free download!

Mother Courage

2008-09-17T12:47:00.003+01:00

I'm back in Dundee these days, working at the Dundee Rep Theatre again. Everyone here is so professional and friendly, it's always a pleasure to come back.

This time around I'm playing piano, trumpet, guitar, and some electronics for Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Gerry Mulgrew and starring Ann Louise Ross. It's a great production that will be running until September 27th, so do come on by if you're in the area!

Is that a cowboy outfit?

2008-07-17T17:09:00.002+01:00

Here's a cool video art piece by Lucy Keany, with sound design by me:

"Is That a Cowboy Outfit" by Lucy Keany from The Amazing Rolo on Vimeo.

It was shown at the Edinburgh College of Art degree show 2008. Imagine it projected into a totally blackened room.

Doing the sound design was loads of fun - Lucy and I agreed very quickly on the sound aesthetic we were after, which makes everything easier! I found much of the source material on archive.org, which is a fantastic place to look for copyright-free sound and video.

Pour un monde meilleur

2008-06-20T18:06:00.007+01:00

This June, like last June and the June before that, my brother Cory and I met up in Paris to work on a play with our cousin Fabrice Macaux at the Abbaye de Maubuisson.

This year the play was called "Pour un monde meilleur", and it featured a 12 person choir! Cory and I composed all sorts of music and sound design that used the choir together with our trademark electro-acoustic hybrid style.

Cory was a character in the play, whilst I was a shadowy background character, controlling all of the sound from behind a fence behind the stage area. I think the crowd could just see my head. I was doing lots of live sound design, manipulating recordings and live sound in real time to go with the dream-like atmosphere of the play. During one day of rehearsals and performance I took a photo every 10 seconds with the built in camera of my laptop. I've made a medley of the sound design and music from the production to go with it, to give a vague idea of how it sounded:

If you would like to hear what the choir sounded like without my computer trickery, here are two rough recordings we made in the Abbey:
Artemisia
Le capital toujours fondamental

I'm now back in Edinburgh, working hard on the Loop Machine, and enjoying the long summer days!

Rolo + Groanbox in the press

2008-04-30T22:18:00.003+01:00

Today's issue of The Independent features not one but two articles that mention me! I'm very proud.

The first is about Wii development, and discusses the Loop Machine at length. The second is about The Groanbox Boys, otherwise known as my brother Cory's band. I co-produced their first two albums, and we're planning on doing a third at the end of the month. If you're in the UK you should catch one of their shows this month, they're incredible!

Loop Machinen dra til Bergen!

2008-04-28T22:29:00.004+01:00

I'm writing this from Bergen, Norway, where I'm an invited speaker at the Bergen Interactive Music Conference. I'll be giving a talk and demonstration of the Loop Machine on Wednesday morning. If you're in the neighborhood I would love to hear from you!

I've heard some amazing stuff and met some really interesting people already, so I'll write another post about some of that in the near future!

The walls have ears

2008-03-31T15:33:00.004+01:00

It's been a long time since my last post, because I've been working on several projects at once. One of these has finished up, for the moment, and I'm now back in Edinburgh. I spent most of March in Paris working on a play called "Ces murs qui nous écoutent" ("The Walls Have Ears"), which was written and directed by Fabrice Macaux (loosely based on the novel by Spôjmaï Zariâb) and featured Delphine Zucker in the lead role.

I did a little bit of acting, wrote and recorded original music and performed the sound design live onstage. I also wrote some Wii software for some wireless motion-based sound control, which I will post soon on the Loop Machine site. We performed at the Lavoir Moderne Parisien and the Theatre Sylvie Monfort in Saint Brice.

The story revolves around a woman living and working in a totalitarian country, where books and culture are disallowed. I played the part of her colleague, who disappears after warning her to stop reading books. If you speak French you can read this rather positive review!

Here is one of the songs I wrote for the play...the set was a giant rotating steel cube with colored movable panels. At several key points I would turn the cube while this music played, symbolizing the passage of time. This song is built from many of the sound elements that were used in the rest of the play, such as flipping through pages in a book, the sound of the work bell, and her heartbeat.

The Amazing Rolo - Les jours passent avec lenteur

We did a lot of filming, as well, so I hope to post some video here in the near future.

Loop Machine 2.0 released!

2008-02-28T22:56:00.002Z

Today I am happy to announce the release of my Loop Machine 2.0 software! As regular readers of this blog will know, this is the result of five months of very hard work, so this is very exciting for me. Go to the Loop Machine Website at theamazingrolo.net/wii/ to check it out. You can also see the press release here. Thanks to everyone for your continued support!

News on the Loop Machine

2008-01-22T11:44:00.000Z

I've been busy and productive lately! Check out my Wii Loop Machine site for a new video and a free Wii synthesizer. The video is about the sampling capabilities of v2.0 and features some crazy Wii/Piano action, and the synthesizer works on Leopard! The fun never ends.

Wii Loop Machine 2.0 preview

2008-01-15T03:19:00.000Z

As I've mentioned many times on this blog before, I am currently working on version 2.0 of my Wii Loop Machine. I'm happy to announce that I've just launched a brand new website dedicated entirely to my Wii music software. It has all of my previous Wii blog entries, videos, and information, as well as a brand-new forum for questions, comments, and WLM discussion. I will be posted all of my Wii news on there for the most part from now on.

The software is nearly finished, I've started Beta testing and I hope to release it in a few weeks! In the mean time I will be making weekly videos showing off the new and exciting features available in version 2.0. Here is the first video, enjoy!

Wii Loop Machine 2.0 :: an intro on Vimeo or YouTube. Here is a direct link to the video.

Hello from up north

2007-12-21T17:10:00.000Z

It's been a busy month! Since late November I've been in Dundee, Scotland most of the time, playing in the Dundee Rep's production of Jack and the Beanstalk. It's a panto, which for me is a totally new experience. Non-British readers can learn about panto here. It's a rather silly form in some ways, with lots of audience participation and cheesy jokes, but this production has very good acting and amazing sets and great original music by John Harris. I'm playing piano, guitar, bass, trumpet, and controlling samples and such with my laptop.

In my spare time I've been working on the Wii Loop Machine, of course, and I'm happy to report that things are going well. I'm also happy to announce that I am now an EPIS scholar, which means that I have official support from the University of Edinburgh to develop the Wii Loop Machine, and once this show has finished I will be working on my Wii projects full time.

All of this means that my release date for version 2.0 has been pushed to January. Starting in a few weeks I hope to post videos and screenshots of the software in action! I'm hugely excited to get back at it. Thanks to everyone for your continued support and patience!

The Return of the Wii Loop Machine!

2007-11-01T14:36:00.000Z

Over the past month I have been working like crazy on the long-awaited Wii Loop Machine 2.0. It is well on the way, and I hope to release it in around three weeks or so.

I will be giving a sneak peek of the new version this saturday the 3rd of November at the Glasgow Science Center, as part of the "Meet the Scientist" programme. If you're in Glasgow that day I would love to see you and show off the software...I will be there from 11-4.

During the next few weeks I will be using this space to explain why version 2.0 is so much cooler than version 1.0. A small list of new features includes:

- Completely rebuilt from the ground up, making it far more extendable and ready for updates
- Sample accurate syncing, playback, and tempo adjustment
- Far better and more interesting effects, including a funky modulator, multi-tap delay, and a vastly improved granulator/pitchshifter
- all effects, as well as an EQ, available on every channel
- a movement recorder, which remembers what motions you've made and applies them to any effect
- real-time samplers on each channel, which run through all of the effects
- ultra-hip new look designed by jonbro
- and much, much, more.

Check back here for updates.

(photo by Alec, i think)

Guten Tag!

2007-09-25T08:46:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow I am going to Germany, where I've been invited to speak at the Audio Mostly conference in Ilmenau about my Wii Loop Machine. I will be presenting a paper entitled "The Wii Loop Machine: Musical Software Development for the Nintendo Wii Remote," which you can download and read by clicking here. I will even be giving a short performance of the Wii Loop Machine on Friday night! I'm rather excited. If you happen to be in the area don't hesitate to say hello!

A small show in NYC

2007-09-07T13:30:00.000+01:00

I just finished working on the new Groanbox Boys album, which we recorded entirely at the family farm in Maryland. Details and samples will follow in a few weeks when it's all printed up, but for now I'll say that it's really dark and complex and unlike anything you have heard before.

Now Cory and I are in New York, and we are playing a show on saturday afternoon in Brooklyn. It's a free outdoor block party show at the Jalopy in Red Hook. We'll be on for about an hour at around 1 pm. Hope to see you there!

Done and dusted

2007-08-25T15:19:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I handed in my thesis. I've been working on it since May, and I think it turned out pretty well. It was an interactive sound installation that tracked the location of a listener and changed the sound according to their movement. Check out the website for video, audio, and more.

Tomorrow I'm heading back to the states, and I'll be travelling all around the world for the next month or so. I'll be getting back to serious work on the Wii Loop Machine, so hopefully within the next couple of weeks I'll have some new toys for you.

A show in Edinburgh tonight.

2007-08-07T10:55:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note to say that I'm playing a show tonight, tuesday the 7th, at the Forest Cafe in Edinburgh. The last show was fairly "experimental" (and fairly boring), so I'm going to play some pretty upbeat fun stuff, along with several new songs. It's free and BYOB, and will feature some other great musicians and friends, like Nick Janaway, The Monosynth Korgestra, and Pixelmechanic.

Piano + Computer

2007-07-31T12:33:00.001+01:00

For some reason I don't usually mix my piano playing with my electronic music. I'm quite happy with this new song, though, so I suppose I'll have to do it more often. It's very frenetic and crazy, but that's kind of my mood these days! I'll be playing this song (among others) at the Forest next tuesday night.
The Amazing Rolo - EarthFireWindWaterHeart

Thanks to the University of Edinburgh Physics Department for the use of their MS-20 for the bass. The banjo part is sampled from Lucius Smith.

Another sound toy

2007-07-27T12:56:00.000+01:00

I'm quite busy these days working on my thesis - I'm making an interactive sound installation based on movement. It's very cool but very stressful! So all of my other projects have taken a bit of a backseat for the moment.

Well, almost all of them. I have found the time to make a new little bit of software for you. In audio-geek-speak it's an FM synth where the modulating frequency is generated using subtractive synthesis. The frequency and harmonicity ratio are controlled by seperate step sequencers. In non-geek-speak it's a fun sound toy that generates rhythms and melodies.

Download (mac osx only for the moment), unzip, and play around:
The Amazing Rolo's Filtractive Synth 2.0
Update 7.29.07 :: I just uploaded a new and improved version, so click the link again if you already tried it.

I'll also be playing a gig at the Forest Cafe on August 7th, with some other sound designers. Details to follow.

Mariage Blanc

2007-07-06T18:03:00.000+01:00

Cory and I recently finished the play we were working on in France. We wrote and performed original music at a 13th century abbey outside of Paris, and it all went quite well. We recorded most of the music, here is the main theme:
The Seznec Brothers - Mariage Blanc
For this song Cory would play guitar and sing, and I would sample and loop his playing and singing to build up all of the layers in real time. It was a bit nerve racking but it worked each time!

In other news, you will notice a new link in the upper left corner of this blog, replacing what was previously my "links" page. Instead I have an online resume (or CV, depending where you're from) that lists many of the projects I have been involved in over the past few years. Please take a look at it and email me any thoughts (or job offers).

Finally, there is some interesting movement afoot on the Wii Loop Machine front, stayed tuned for further updates.

Rolo Speaks

2007-06-12T11:57:00.000+01:00

Hello all, sorry for the long delay in posts. I'm currently in Paris with my brother Cory doing original music and sound design for a play written and directed by our cousin Fabrice. It takes place on the grounds of a 13th century abbey in Maubuisson and features some amazing new songs by my brother and some pretty bizarre sonic creations by me! Read more about it here (page in French only).

In other news, I've been interviewed by the website node3000 about my Wii Loop Machine. Go read it! Thanks to Martin for the interview, and thanks to Agata for the photo!

Sound toy!

2007-05-14T15:32:00.000+01:00

The other day I made a slightly silly little sound toy. You can load in a sample (wav, aiff, or sdII) and manipulate the sound by drawing in a box. It's fun!
The Amazing Rolo's Visual Sonicalizer for Mac OS X

Darkness

2007-04-28T13:39:00.000+01:00

Darkness on Vimeo

Above you can watch a short movie I finished this week. It's a strange sci-fi narrative that takes place on another planet, where sounds and lights are perceived differently than on Earth.

You can download an ipod-ready version here:
The Amazing Rolo - Darkness (34 mb)
(right-click, "save as...")

And you can read about what I was trying to do (and how I went about doing it) here.

If you would like a higher resolution version just send me an email or leave a comment on this post.

Tea + Jam

2007-04-22T23:15:00.000+01:00

My friend Pete Vilk and I recently finished a little website about our Tea and Jam project. Check it out!

Tea + Jam

The idea was to build an interface where people could come help us make some sound and music while drinking tea in a relaxing atmosphere. We're going to keep developing it, so this will probably evolve a lot in the near future.
This week I'm working on a short video. It will be done by Friday, I'll upload it here as soon as it's finished. See you then!

Wii Loop Machine 1.1

2007-04-12T23:54:00.000+01:00

The response to my Wii Loop Machine software was truly overwhelming, it took me completely by surprise. It has motivated me to work much harder on it, and today I finished a website dedicated to the Loop Machine where you can download the new version 1.1:
The Official Wii Loop Machine Website

This update only changes a few things (described on that page), but over the next couple of months I hope to keep working on it to incorporate most of the suggestions people have made - bpm/tempo settings, quantization, and audio input, to name just a few. Check back often for news and updates. As always, don't hesitate to get in touch with comments or questions.

Wii Loop Machine

2007-03-19T13:48:00.000Z

This weekend I finished the Wii Loop Machine software that I started a few weeks ago. It's a system for using the wireless Wii remote to sync, control, and manipulate loops in real time.

It's now ready for download as a standalone application...if you have a Mac with OSX (10.4.8 or 10.4.9 recommended) and bluetooth and a Wii controller then you should give it a try:
Download the Wii Loop Machine Version 1.0
[edit] Please go to my new website dedicated to the Wii Loop Machine, there you will find the latest version of the software as well as a FAQ and more: www.theamazingrolo.net/wii.html

It uses the aka.wiimote object for Max/MSP by Masayuki Akamatsu.

Download it, unzip it, and follow the directions in the patch (it will probably take a couple of tries to get it working). It will automatically load in the samples that are in that folder, but you can load your own as well. If you don't have any other samples you can download these samples from my song "Hold still for a sec" off my album.

Please let me know what you think, what you would like to see improved. Send me an email if you would like to see the code - I would especially like to hear from you if you would be able to make a Windows version.

And now you can watch a video of me looking ridiculous while playing with this software...

[edit] If you're having trouble with anything, check the comments for this blog for some tips. Next week I'll post some help videos and better directions.

A little Bach

2007-03-18T13:11:00.000Z

Last week I got a new toy at a Car Boot Sale - it's a type of electric harmonium, I think, although it calls itself a "Rosedale Electric Chord Organ". In any event, it sounds gorgeous, and it feels so great to have an acoustic instrument in my room again!

I find the reedy organ sound so poignant, despite (or perhaps due to) the extremely loud motor that pushes the air through the reeds and the complete lack of dynamic range. I hope to use it to make a bunch of recordings of Bach preludes, among other things.

Here's the first recording I've made with it. Let me know what you think!

The Amazing Rolo - Bach, Well Tempered Clavier, Book One, Prelude 8, E flat Minor

Video footage and Tea + Jam

2007-02-28T14:00:00.000Z

Thanks to Anna Seppa, Alex Fong, and others, I have some video footage from my show at the Forest Cafe the other day. The audio is a bit distorted, but it's rather fun to watch.

Before we get to those, if you're interested in my current studio project you can read about it (and listen and watch videos) here. It involved building a tea set that generates music and sound. Very fun stuff.

And here are a couple of songs from the show.
Good For Me:

The Oh Be Gentle Strut click to hear the studio version:

Five More Minutes click to hear the studio version:

Each Possible Conclusion (featuring the Wii controller)

Fixes.

2007-02-14T01:12:00.000Z

I've just updated my Movies page so that the videos now use Vimeo. This means they load nice and fast in a fancy little player, and should never cause any problems ever again. That being said, let me know if you have any problems.

Thank you very much to everyone who came to the show on Sunday, it was loads of fun and we'll have to do it again some time. Eventually I hope to put some video and audio from that show up on this website, I'll keep you posted.

A few wii projects

2007-02-10T15:46:00.000Z

No music this time, but here are a couple of other things for you.

As I mentioned earlier, one of my current school projects entails making "Loop Composer" software that uses a Nintendo Wii wireless controller as an interface.

I've finished a very early prototype, which you can play with if you happen to have Max/MSP, a Wii controller, and a bluetooth enabled computer. Click here to download the Max patch, directions, and a pdf of a short presentation I will be giving on thursday. If anyone does test it I would be grateful for feedback. Right now it is quite skeletal with very few features, but it responds well enough and I'll be using it at my show tomorrow night. [edit: this version is no longer supported! go download the new, much fancier version]

Which reminds me, I'm playing a show with a lot of friends tomorrow night at 8pm in the Forest Cafe here in Edinburgh. It's free and it should be a good time!

Last week I wrote a film sound analysis about silent Soviet film of the 20's. Read it here! It's called "The Sound of War in Silent Soviet Film" and talks mostly about The Battleship Potemkin and The End of St. Petersburg.

One of the scenes (from "The End of St. Petersburg) I talk about can be watched on youtube.

For some reason the other scene (from "The Battleship Potemkin") won't upload to youtube, but the full film is available for free download at archive.org.

Five More Minutes

2007-01-25T23:54:00.000Z

Here's my latest song, right on the heels of my last post. I recorded the guitar part at the farm in Maryland, and added the rest over the past few weeks.

The Amazing Rolo - Five More Minutes

Rolling and tumbling

2007-01-23T10:17:00.000Z

Hello there, I'm back!

First things first, my brother now has his own website, with songs to listen to and news to read:
coryseznec.com

Also, I now have a nice camera and a flickr account where I have been posting my favorite pictures. The 5 newest pictures will come up automatically over on the left of this page. Nifty!

I'm working on all sorts of projects right now, including learning Max/MSP. If you are interested you can see my first patch, which is a slightly souped-up soundfile player, click to download and play around. The player requires Mac OS X and Max/MSP Runtime (which is free). My next project will hopefully be a fun music jam machine using a Nintendo Wii controller.

And finally, to leave you with some music, here's a song I recorded recently, based on an Alan Lomax recording of a guitarist named Rose Hemphill.

The Amazing Rolo - Rolled and Tumbled

New album and more.

2006-12-24T00:27:00.000Z

It's been a very long time since my last post, but I'll make up for it! I promise!

First things first, my brother and I have finished our new album. We've printed up a few hundred initial copies to sell at our shows and such...we're planning on printing up a thousand or so sometime next year. For now you can buy one for $10 at our shows or by emailing me. Here's the title track:
The Seznec Brothers - Sediment

We're playing a big show on New Year's in Brooklyn, check the Seznec Bros website for details.

Just in case any of you are interested in my schoolwork, click here to play a little game that I made for my "Sonic Structures" class. It's designed for visually oriented people, or children, or both.

More music coming soon!

Rolo at the Forest Cafe

2006-11-10T01:39:00.000Z

Tomorrow night (friday the 10th) I will be playing a set at the Forest Cafe right near Bristo Square...click for a flyer. There will be lots of music from other people in (or somehow affiliated with) my course, so it should be lots of fun! On top of all that, it's free!

I'm waiting on the recording of my show in Glasgow last week, because my little machine didn't work too well. In the mean time you can listen to this mp3 I recorded in preparation for that show...it's quite long, and there's white noise at the end (that I rather like, actually), but it will give you an idea of the live set I've prepared:

The Amazing Rolo - Each Possible Conclusion (live)

Rolo show in Glasgow

2006-11-03T12:04:00.000Z

I'll be playing the first Amazing Rolo solo electronic music set in a very long time this sunday. I'm quite excited. It's in Glasgow, check this link for details.

The theme for my set is "old things" - I'll be building songs out of samples from the 20's and old field recordings and such.

So if you're in or around Scotland you should come check it out, it's free and there will be lots of other cool musicians playing as well.

If you can't make it I will (hopefully) be posting some recordings from the show.

New things

2006-10-25T00:18:00.000+01:00

You'll notice lots of design changes around this blog (hit "refresh" a few times if you don't). My goal is to consolidate my websites, which had very little in common with each other and were difficult to navigate. Hopefully this new layout will encourage my blog readers to check out the rest of the site, and vice versa.

Please bear with me while I finish updating the site. I have not yet tested it in Windows, and I know that it takes longer to load. I will fix those problems in the next few days. Please let me know if you find anything that doesn't work, or if you have other comments or suggestions.

In the Dark

2006-10-17T22:52:00.000+01:00

My brother recently showed me a really awesome page full of old appalachian recordings for free download. I took one of the songs and used it as the base sample for a new Rolo song.

The lyrics are inspired by a cool art piece I saw down at the Royal Scottish Academy.

The Amazing Rolo - In the Dark

Field Recordings

2006-10-01T23:13:00.000+01:00

I've made some pretty cool field recordings recently, and I thought I would share the excitement...for starters, this is the sound from my window this afternoon:
Bagpipes in the distance

And 10 days ago I borrowed the binaural microphones from my school and went to a Hibernian FC soccer game with a friend. Here are some of the results:
The game gets started
Just after a goal is scored (the recording of the goal itself is too distorted, sorry).
You'll notice that the stereo image is only really effective on headphones, particularly for those last two recordings.

You'll also notice a nice little change on this blog...I've discovered a very cool little mp3 embedding system made by del.icio.us. Now you can just click the blue arrows to play, or right click (ctrl-click) the name of the song to download.

Groanbox Remix #2

2006-09-24T17:33:00.000+01:00

I just got an email from my brother Cory saying that his group The Groanbox Boys now have their mp3's (ahem...that I engineered and co-produced...) up on iTunes!

In celebration, we created a new page for the three Groanbox Boys remix tracks I recently did, one of which I've already released on this blog. Here's another one for you podcast subscribers:

The Groanbox Boys - Wham Bam (Rolo Remix)

The Train of Thought Drag

2006-09-15T15:44:00.000+01:00

Just before I left for Edinburgh I made some recordings on the piano at my parent's house. This is a song I had been working on for a few weeks. Very old fashioned (in a good way, I hope).

The Amazing Rolo - The Train of Thought Drag

Louis Armstrong remix

2006-09-12T14:06:00.000+01:00

The other night I was listening to some early Louis Armstrong recordings...the old Hot Five and Hot Seven stuff is completely amazing.

The song "Oriental Strut" caught my ear and I absolutely had to remix it right then and there:

The Amazing Rolo - The Oh Be Gentle Strut

(I also put in some samples from Alban Berg's Wozzeck)

In other news, I'm now in Edinburgh. So far I love it, I think I will be very happy here! I should be posting lots of projects here, so check back often.

Seznec Brothers Show!

2006-08-21T01:36:00.000+01:00

I'll be playing a show with my brother Cory at Andy's in Chestertown, Maryland this Friday August 25th. Click here for a poster!

To whet your appetite, here's a Seznec Brothers song from a few months ago: Seznec Brothers - Sez Bone Howl

(you all may recognize this song as our version of the Groanbox Boys song "Sea Bone Howl")

Groanbox Remix #1

2006-08-01T02:58:00.000+01:00

I've often mentioned my brother's band The Groanbox Boys, and their album that I was lucky enough to record and co-produce.

In my free time over the past few months I've done a few remixes of their songs. I even performed a few of them at the last show in London a few weeks ago! Here's the first one I did, hopefully more will follow soon (you can listen to a sample of the original on their website):

The Groanbox Boys - Sea Bone Howl (Rolo Remix)

Newish oldish music

2006-07-15T22:24:00.000+01:00

I'm back! It's been a pretty crazy couple of weeks, what with the musicking and the travelling and the recording and all. But now I've got a whole boatload of music for you.

I'll start with a song I recorded with Rebecca a long time ago. I was unhappy with it and I put it away, until a few days ago when I felt like making some electronic music again. I pulled this one out and polished it up and now I quite like it!

Enjoy:

The Amazing Rolo + Rebecca - Mansuit

My Boat (is finished)

2006-06-12T23:52:00.000+01:00

Here's another Seznec Brothers song, one of two we recorded today:

Seznec Brothers - My Boat
[edit: that link works now, sorry about that]

Some of you may remember the "original" version I recorded on my own in March...this new and improved version has vocal harmonies and a gourd banjo (and we sped it up a bit). I think it's much better, but you can compare and see for yourselves, if you like!

Search the Ocean

2006-05-28T19:09:00.000+01:00

I bought a microphone stand the other day...I decided to test it out by getting my brother to play in front of my microphones. Here's one of the songs that came out, some good old fingerpickin' blues:

Cory Seznec - Search the Ocean
(this is also available on the Seznec Bros site)

Also, you may have noticed that I've redesigned this blog a bit. I found the old design a bit hard to read...please let me know what you think! Does it work in Windows? Does the header font look cool?

Wind

2006-05-18T12:26:00.000+01:00

Here's a new Seznec Brothers tune for you, recorded yesterday in our bedroom. We're not sure if it's finished yet, I might add a piano track one day. More is coming soon!

Seznec Brothers - Wind

One more new website

2006-05-12T07:09:00.000+01:00

The Seznec Brothers website has been completely overhauled. The old one looked nice, but was hard to update, slow to load, and didn't really make much sense. The new one looks nice and trendy.

Cory and Michael and I are going off to a mastering studio today to finish up the Groanbox Boys album. I'm excited.

A few changes

2006-05-10T12:16:00.000+01:00

Cory and I just got back from a quick trip to France. More on that later...

I took advantage of our time on the train to finish a brand-new Sound Design portfolio/services site, and otherwise rearrange my websites a bit. The new portfolio is organized into four sections - music, production, sound design, and video. There are examples of each, explanations, and an implicit invitation to hire me to do these things for you.

The Amazing Rolo Sound Design (and more)

It's remix time

2006-05-03T18:32:00.000+01:00

As you can see from the picture, my page hits have multiplied in the past few days (possibly after being linked by AudioMastermind).

To give my newfound audience something new to listen to, here's a remix I recently made of a Beastie Boys song:

Beastie Boys - Stop That Train (Rolo Remix)

I've been on a bit of a hip hop kick lately, and fellow electronic musician Deltasleep recently posted some mp3's from a great synth demo record on his blog that I just had to use...

Audio production in a nutshell

2006-04-29T17:00:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I made a web tutorial/explanation about the work that goes into making an album - in particular, the forthcoming Groanbox Boys album. It has pictures, sound clips, and short discussions about the various stages involved:

http://www.theamazingrolo.net/groanbox/

An award! (sort of)

2006-04-27T13:26:00.000+01:00

I just learned that Don on the Farm, a short animated piece that I wrote original music for as a freelance job in February, has won a Telly Award! I don't get credit on the news release...grrr...but I feel really cool to have been a part of it.

One from the vault.

2006-04-13T23:00:00.000+01:00

Occasionally, while looking for something on my hard drive or in a closet or in a pile of old tapes, I will run across something I recorded a long time ago and be pleasantly surprised. This happened to me yesterday, and I thought I would share it with you all.

When I'm working on a song I tend to listen to it obsessively (like most composers, I imagine). I listen over and over, partially as a way to figure out how to make the song better, but also because it helps me understand myself. Even when a song is totally finished I like to listen to it nearly every day for a month or so...the birthing process of the song is still fresh in my head, so I feel a special connection to the sounds coming out of the speakers - I can still remember recording that guitar track, or programming that drum beat, and I can still remember everything I did to produce and mix the song.

There's a certain point, though, where that new song will get pushed off to one side and forgotten, stuck in a folder or on a CD and filed away. Usually by that time I've decided that I don't like the song after all, that what I'm working on now is way cooler and better and this one will take me to the top.

And then, as I already explained, I will rediscover it. I'm usually disappointed that it's not as good as I remember it being, but sometimes I end up thoroughly enjoying it...most often it's the songs that I paid the least attention to at the time that age the best! This one is a perfect example. I don't really remember recording it at all...I don't know if that's me playing the piano, or if it's something I sampled. I vaguely remember calling it "Street Robots" because it contained samples of a street band in Avignon as well as a robot fighting club I went to in Pittsburgh. The "file info" tells me that I started this song on June 29 2003 and finished it on August 2nd 2003 at 4:25 am. That means I wrote it in Avignon, in the little studio apartment I was renting for $200 a month in an 18th century mansion in the middle of the old town. What was I doing up at 4:25 am?

I guess I was writing weird dark electronic music, that's what! It's funny to hear something that I have a hard time believing I wrote. It's like looking at an old photograph and not recognizing yourself.

The Amazing Rolo - Street Robots

2006-04-12T18:28:00.000+01:00

I took a lot of pictures today. Click here to see them. It's not the most exciting series in the world, but it will give you an idea of what I'm doing and what my surroundings are like!

Willow Garden: the remix

2006-04-09T18:19:00.000+01:00

Today my brother Cory recorded a charango track, as well as some backup vocals, for the version of "Down in the Willow Garden" that I recorded in January. Give it a listen, and you can compare it to the old version if you like!

The Seznec Brothers - Down in the Willow Garden

My new abode.

2006-04-08T00:05:00.000+01:00

The house in Tooting.

Starting over.

2006-04-05T22:26:00.000+01:00

I've arrived in London, and I'm starting to get settled. It will probably be a little while before I'm able to post any new music or sound stuff, but in the mean time I'll try and take a lot of pictures! More soon.

I'm still here!

2006-03-27T01:05:00.000+01:00

I haven't gone anywhere, I've just become very very busy. In a week or so I'll have a few more minutes to spare, and I'll report in from Europe. See you then!

Rolo on WPTS

2006-03-16T22:48:00.000Z

Today I was on the radio here in Pittsburgh...I got to hang out in the WPTS 92.1 studios, play some tracks, and talk about my music. It was quite fun altogether!

You can listen to the show by clicking here. It's a pretty big file, so be patient!

It's full of moments of grammatical brilliance like this:

"What I try to do is make styles, that are is to make music that's hard to describe."

My boat.

2006-03-12T22:02:00.000Z

This song isn't finished, by any means. My brother and I are going to work on it a lot, probably add a banjo part, some more verses, and plenty of vocal harmonies. But I thought you might enjoy it!

Click to listen or download.

In other news, I'm now working on three freelance sound design projects, and a fourth may be starting up this week. It's a great feeling, and if I get my clients' permission I may be able to post a couple samples up on this blog.

Blessing in disguise.

2006-02-24T23:44:00.000Z

This is a new song for you all, this time with extra vocals by my good friend Rebecca Bortman.

It's called Blessing in Disguise, click to listen.

Rolo on NPR

2006-02-23T22:08:00.000Z

well, sort of. The Amazing Rolo is now a featured artist on NPR's Open Mic, a "Web-only showcase for independent, unsigned or self-produced artists". I'm pretty excited about it, it's fun to see my picture next to the NPR logo.

This is the Open Mic page.

And this is the Rolo page, in case the other link stops working.

Otherwise, I'll be posting new music and stories soon!

Submissions.

2006-02-11T05:32:00.000Z

Here's a new song for you:

The Amazing Rolo - Submission

The lyrics are mostly about submitting material to radio stations and record labels.

I've got a whole folder of half-finished songs on my computer, so hopefully more will follow soon. For the past week I've been quite busy on various projects, and soon I'll be back in Maryland getting ready for a show in Chestertown with my brother.

Taking a break.

2006-02-06T16:24:00.000Z

I will, in all likelihood, be taking a break from blogging this week. I've been asked by the Carnegie Mellon ETC to write original music for a six minute animated segment of a TV show pilot. And it needs to be done by this Friday! So that, as well as the movie project with Aurelia, will keep me very busy.

Otherwise, go Steelers! This town went completely crazy last night. Here in Bloomfield there was spontaneous dancing and embracing in the streets (photo by jonbro). Down in Oakland I saw cops on horses and in riot gear, a car flipped over, and helicopters hovering. It made me remember why I like Bloomfield more than Oakland.

Down in the willow garden

2006-01-30T16:11:00.000Z

Here's a little song I recorded yesterday morning:

Down in the willow garden.
(I didn't write it, it's an old traditional song, played by everyone from the Kossoy Sisters to Simon and Garfunkel).

It's just a live take of me with my guitar in my room. Nothing fancy, but I thought it would be interesting to make such a sparse recording, since I usually add so much.

Also, Aurelia came over yesterday to build the set for our short film. It already looks really cool! It has telephone poles and a road and a sky, and the car is nearly finished. Pictures soon.

Everything is new again.

2006-01-27T14:34:00.000Z

I'm just finishing up a massive redesign and reorganization of all of my websites. Here's what I've done:

The theamazingrolo.net site is now a "hub", with links to all of my other sites.

There are several new pages, including a page dedicated to my movies, a FAQ page, and more.

Today I'll be reorganizing all the links on all of the old pages to make them all better connected.

So there! It's all very exciting, I'm pretty happy with how it's all turning out. Let me know if you find any broken links or if any of the design is really bad.

Exhale solutions.

2006-01-25T18:26:00.000Z

This is a little anecdote about playing underground hip hop for high school students at a vocational school in France.

Click to listen or download.

It's quite short and simple, I did it all this morning using music by Aesop Rock and an old NPR recording from last November.

In other news, I'm back in Pittsburgh. My trip to the UK was everything I was hoping it to be, and more. Now I'm looking forward to getting back to work on my Projects with a capital P.

[edit: whoops! That mp3 cut off before the end. I'm fixing it now, it should be fixed in a few minutes]

I'm taking a little trip.

2006-01-16T17:26:00.000Z

Tonight I'm leaving for the UK for a week. I'll be stopping in London and Edinburgh on a fact-finding expedition. Hopefully in about ten days I'll get back to posting mp3s and movies (and probably a few pictures from the british isles). I'm particularly excited about a large-scale stop motion animation that Aurelia and I will be working on...more on that when I get back.

In other news, my "podcast", if you can call it that, is now available on iTunes! If you have iTunes on your computer then click here.

If you have gotten to this blog through iTunes - welcome! Be sure to check out the archives and links for all sorts of original music and movies and more. And I would love to hear from you.

Yet another website.

2006-01-09T20:06:00.000Z

Just a quick post to tell you about my newest web page. This one is dedicated to my sound documentaries:

www.theamazingrolo.net/stories

This is step one in my campaign to get these on the radio!

A car breaks down.

2006-01-08T16:52:00.000Z

I'm not really sure how to describe this...I've been saying "sound documentary" but it's really more of a story than a documentary. It's the story of my car breaking down on the highway a few weeks ago.

In any event, I've been working on this for the past week or so. I wrote all of the text and music (except the Gillian Welch song, as you'll see). The sound effects are a mix between stuff I recorded in my house and tracks from the BBC Sound Effects Library.

It's long - about 15 minutes - and the file is about 16 mb, so be patient!

Click to listen.

Oh, and the song that I talk about at the end can be listened to in its entirety here.

Going for a walk.

2006-01-06T21:16:00.000Z

Here's another music video for you! I took all the pictures the last few times I went home to the Farm...I compiled them all in After Effects and then wrote a short song that sort of matches the theme and mood.

Click to watch (16 mb quicktime movie)

Thanks to jonbro, as usual, for all the help.

And, as usual, let me know what you think!

Keep to Myself

2006-01-04T20:37:00.000Z

I'm back in Pittsburgh after a pleasant trip to the Farm, where I hung out with my family, split and sold some firewood, and played a fun show in Chestertown with my brother.

Speaking of my brother, he recorded a really cool gourd banjo track for a new song I've been working on. I finished it up yesterday, and I think it's pretty nice. I'm going to use it in my next sound documentary, which I hope to finish before my trip to the UK in a couple of weeks.

Click here to listen or download.

Beautiful music.

2005-12-17T18:19:00.000Z

Although the posts on the blog are generally all about me and my projects, I thought I should mention the CD I just bought.

It's called In the Heart of the Moon by Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate. It's fantastic. Straight up improvisational Malian music recorded in a mobile studio in the middle of Bamako by the Niger river.

The liner notes are amazing as well. Ali Farka Toure has this to say:

"If you know something and don't want to share it, then you are selfish. You came after someone, and someone else will come after you. You can't learn the entire sea by heart. No. That is why god created waves in the river and in the sea. Some leave, and some come."

I had the nicest dream.

2005-12-15T03:39:00.000Z

Thanks to a little encouragement (and a lot of help) from my friend Jonathon I recently started learning how to use After Effects - the software that I'm now realizing is used to make every car commercial that you see on TV. I picked it up fairly quickly, probably because of the similarities with audio software. I think I'm only barely scratching the surface, but it's a useful skill to have, and I thoroughly enjoy it, even though waiting for video to render is the most mind numbing activity ever.

In any event I used After Effects to compile a lot of footage that I took at the Farm one day over the summer, and I lengthened and remixed an old song of mine to create a music video! I'm fairly happy with it. I think it's a good initial foray into the world of video.

Click here to watch or download. It's a 20 mb quicktime file, so be patient! Make sure your volume is turned up or else it gets kinda boring.

Tony the night guard

2005-12-09T17:44:00.000Z

As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been working on a short sound documentary. I originally wanted to use it as part of my Handface documentary, but now I'm not so sure. In any event it was a very good exercise for me, and I hope you enjoy it. Click here to listen or download.

As usual, it will be much more enjoyable if you are able to listen on real speakers or headphones...laptop speakers are not so great.

Please let me know what you think! This was definitely an experiment so I would like to hear some opinions.

Wintertime

2005-12-09T17:28:00.000Z

It's been a little while since my last post, so today I've got all sorts of stuff for you!

It's finally wintertime here in southwestern PA. Pittsburghers spent yesterday getting ready for the first big snowstorm of the year - getting all the shovels and salt and Christmas decorations ready.

I went to the Strip District to stock up on provisions. For those of you who don't know, the Strip is the place to get good quality food in Pittsburgh. There are five or six blocks of locally owned supermarkets selling food from all over the world. My favorite place is Penn Mac.

They have the best cheese and bread in Pittsburgh...in fact - and I say this with complete authority - they have the best goat cheese outside of France.

In any event, it started snowing last night around 8, and it is still snowing a bit now.

I don't think I'll be driving anywhere for a few days. It's kind of relaxing to know that I can't go too far. I'm glad I bought two pounds of bacon in the Strip.

I have been doing some work despite all of these adventures. I've more or less finished a little sound documentary that I will post in a few minutes, I've been writing lots of sketches for a future album, and I'm doing all sorts of secretive Christmas-present projects. As usual, check back soon for updates.

Rolo Returns.

2005-11-25T19:04:00.000Z

I'm back at home for thanksgiving, so things will be quiet for a few days. In the mean time you can listen to a new Amazing Rolo song! It's a big medley of different styles that I started in March and have been working on sporadically ever since.

I posted it to em411, and it surprised me by generating a lot of positive (and sometimes odd) feedback. You can read the discussion here. They seem to particularly like the French rapping and the silly picture of me.

You can listen to the song by clicking this link or by clicking "listen" on the em411 page linked above.

musicmusicmusicmusic

2005-11-19T16:26:00.000Z

It never stops, does it? More and more and more yannmusic to download.

Well, in this case it's coryandyannmusic. I've made a page for old Seznec Brothers stuff. Click here to check it out.

One of the problems that Cory and I have had is that we have recorded so many different styles of music, and in concert we play something completely different altogether. So this new page is an attempt to show a bit of everything we do.

Hire me! Sign me!

2005-11-18T18:17:00.000Z

I have posted my portfolio online. It's not really internet-friendly yet - lots of big files and images - but I'll take care of all of that later.

I've also updated the Seznec Brothers website with another song from the new album! I'm quite proud of it, I must say.

That's all for now. I'm off to the library!

Handface Episode 1

2005-11-15T17:16:00.000Z

The past few days have been spent working on the Seznec Brothers recordings, which are turning out well, a little bit of Rolo music, and my Handface documentary.

For those of you who don't know, Handface is my band. Well, I suppose it was, since the drummer is now off in Chile for six months.

In any event, a few months ago I realized that the Handface story is compelling, funny, and in a way is an analogy for (among other thing) Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, techies vs luddites, America vs TheRestOfTheWorld, etc etc etc

So I decided to make a documentary that would show all of these things. I finally settled on making a series of short audio-only pieces that would then be animated by my friends (and me).

Handface was composed of three people, who I will call Alberto, Jon, and Yann. Handface theorists often point out that Alberto represents the acoustic, Jon the electronic, and Yann (me) the electro-acoustic...therefore I figured that a good way to start the project would be by making short vignettes about each of the three members that somehow epitomize their characters.

All this is to say that I have finished the outline of chapter one, and you can listen to it here:
A Story About Techno

I would strongly suggest listening to it on headphones or real speakers. Laptop speakers won't cut it for this one...

This episode is about Jon. He wrote the story, which can be found on his blog. When I read it I was struck by the stark imagery and poetic quality of the text - I found it reflected his personality quite well. I wrote the music, which is a remix of a Handface song.

It looks like my friend Aurelia will be helping me with the animation for this episode. I will probably add a lot to the soundtrack once the animation is finished, but I thought you all would be interested! Questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome.

The bros dot com

2005-11-12T19:35:00.000Z

Finally! My brother and I have a website for our music!

www.seznecbros.com

Go check it out! There's some new music on there.

The past few days have been spent working on the rest of the tracks that we recorded in October, so check back soon for more Seznec Brothers music.

Project #1.

2005-11-07T18:58:00.000Z

I've more or less finished my first project...it's a short music video featuring my little baby niece. Let me know if you would like to see it - just leave a comment or email me (rolo at theamazingrolo.net).

A big opportunity.

2005-10-31T22:01:00.000Z

I've arrived in Pittsburgh, and I've unpacked most of the stuff from my car. That's my new house in the middle. The blue one.

My room in miniscule, and I will henceforth refer to it as my cabin, since I feel like I'm living on a boat. I think my room will be the subject of another post entirely.

For now my plan is to get as many projects done as possible. Among my projects:

- An audio documentary about Handface
- The album my brother and I recorded in the last month
- Two (very) short movies
- Play lots of piano
- Learn to play the accordian

And that's the short list. So I'll be keeping myself busy. This blog will become the public diary for my endeavors, and I hope to update it every couple of days, so check back soon.

Globe-Trotting Rolo

2005-10-04T18:21:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I had one of those big adventures that come along only a few times in life! It was Fun with a capital F. To read all about it (it was a big road trip across the country with Cynthia) go to her blog!

what I've been up to.

2005-09-11T19:26:00.000+01:00

I've been working on all sorts of projects lately...I've made a lot of test recordings of new songs, for one thing. I bought some new microphones that let me do great quality recordings of acoustic instruments, so I've been going wild. Here are a couple of samples for you:

A Ray Charles song
An original rag

Let me know what you think!

A fun little project.

2005-08-12T03:53:00.000+01:00

It was really rainy here on tuesday, and I really liked the sound of the rain on the shed where we keep the Truck with a capital T. So I made a little movie about it. Let me know what you think!

A good idea.

2005-08-07T20:53:00.000+01:00

Car horns have not really changed for a hundred years. Other than those novelty horns that play "Bolero" or the like, car horns have always made the same obnoxiously loud noise - whether you are beeping hello to your friends, telling someone to hurry up, or honking simply as retribution.

In addition, there are tons of situations when a honk simply doesn't convey your emotion. How do you honk "I'm sorry" or "Thank you"? It's virtually impossible with the standard hardware. I was discussing this problem with my friend Dan, and his original idea was to have a dedicated "thank you" horn, which could potentially double as an apology horn. From a sound design perspective, this wouldn't be particularly difficult...two short 'beep' or 'boop' sounds, the first at a higher pitch, would probably do the job quite well.

This got us thinking, however, and we tried to figure out how one could convey a whole range of emotions through a car horn. Our solution, as the picture suggests, entails a touch pad with an x and y axis, the extremes of which would correspond to a pure emotion. I labeled these as Anger/Happiness and Grateful/Apologetic, but those could certainly be improved and refined.

The difficult part of this project, of course, would be the sound design, particularly since the sounds should probably be as simple as possible. What does monophonic anger sound like? And is it be possible to make a smoothly variable sound that can shift between anger and happiness, and nail every nuanced emotion in between? More philosophically, if it is possible to find an anger sound, could one find a happiness coefficient?

Another aspect of this, that my designer friends would understand better than I, would be the effect on the user. Would someone be able to eventually become familiar with the interface enough to instantly be able to pick the precise spot that reflects how they are feeling? Righteous indignation, or embarassment, or pride... what would that sound like?

Maybe eventually people could use a device like this to communicate without words. Maybe.

In other words, it's interesting to think about the possibilities of sound design, and its limits.