"It is only the end of March, and I am already 7 weeks behind on my Thoughtlets for 2009, and have not posted any Thoughtlets from #0741 to #0852. Oh well! Maybe I spend too much time in the now doing things like playing chess, and not enough time in the future, planning things which my great-great-great grandchildren will be interested in. Oh, actually I think this sentence is backwards and I always spend way too much time in the future. However, regarding the present, Roice made 11 chess moves, and Rob and Colby each made 10 moves this week. There were three more of the unintended challenges. They had all deleted their games by the end of the week. Once I did not put Colby's e-mail address in when starting a new game, and so now these folks challenge me to a chess game. I like playing with family, and I'm not interested in playing chess for the game itself.
On Monday the 09th of February, I spent 8 hours at Layton's office working on ranking opportunities from NAPE with some work on the Liberty County prospect. On the way home I stopped and talked with Dick Coons about the East Cameron opportunities he has been working on. Dick presented this as a TCF (Trillion Cubic Feet) opportunity that had been missed because of velocity problems. I got excited, and got several others excited. When I got home Rob had made a chess move and included a note saying Marti had been burglarized. I mentioned this in an e-mail to Melanie, and when I made a chess move in my game with Roice. Thanks to everyone who called and helped. Rob said the door had been left unlocked, and Marti felt very foolish about the whole thing. No one likes to be violated like this. It brings to mind when someone broke into our house when I was in about ninth grade and stole my Gibson guitar, money I'd saved for Christmas, and a bunch of Dad's shirts (see ../0019.html). It tears me up whenever I learn something like this has happened.
There was an e-mail from Ron Diftler at NASA giving me directions to where Robonaut is located. There were also two notes from Bob Savely about the visit scheduled for Tuesday. I invited Ed Rogers to go to NASA with us. He passed as he was in Houston and New York the week before and wanted to stay in the hill country this week.
There was an e-mail from John Mouton about Andy Hildebrand being featured in Time magazine. The header for the music and the text of the article are in the table below:
If you haven't been listening to pop radio in the past few months, you've missed the rise of two seemingly opposing trends. In a medium in which mediocre singing has never been a bar to entry, a lot of pop vocals suddenly sound great. Better than great: note- and pitch-perfect, as if there's been an unspoken tightening of standards at record labels or an evolutionary leap in the development of vocal cords. At the other extreme are a few hip-hop singers who also hit their notes but with a precision so exaggerated that on first listen, their songs sound comically artificial, like a chorus of '50s robots singing Motown. The force behind both trends is an ingenious plug-in called Auto-Tune, a downloadable studio trick that can take a vocal and instantly nudge it onto the proper note or move it to the correct pitch. It's like Photoshop for the human voice. Auto-Tune doesn't make it possible for just anyone to sing like a pro, but used as its creator intended, it can transform a wavering performance into something technically flawless. "Right now, if you listen to pop, everything is in perfect pitch, perfect time and perfect tune," says producer Rick Rubin. "That's how ubiquitous Auto-Tune is." Auto-Tune's inventor is a man named Andy Hildebrand, who worked for years interpreting seismic data for the oil industry. Using a mathematical formula called autocorrelation, Hildebrand would send sound waves into the ground and record their reflections, providing an accurate map of potential drill sites. It's a technique that saves oil companies lots of money and allowed Hildebrand to retire at 40. He was debating the next chapter of his life at a dinner party when a guest challenged him to invent a box that would allow her to sing in tune. After he tinkered with autocorrelation for a few months, Auto-Tune was born in late 1996. Almost immediately, studio engineers adopted it as a trade secret to fix flubbed notes, saving them the expense and hassle of having to redo sessions. The first time common ears heard Auto-Tune was on the immensely irritating 1998 Cher hit "Believe." In the first verse, when Cher sings "I can't break through" as though she's standing behind an electric fan, that's Auto-Tune--but it's not the way Hildebrand meant it to be used. The program's retune speed, which adjusts the singer's voice, can be set from zero to 400. "If you set it to 10, that means that the output pitch will get halfway to the target pitch in 10 milliseconds," says Hildebrand. "But if you let that parameter go to zero, it finds the nearest note and changes the output pitch instantaneously"--eliminating the natural transition between notes and making the singer sound jumpy and automated. "I never figured anyone in their right mind would want to do that," he says. Like other trends spawned by Cher, the creative abuse of Auto-Tune quickly went out of fashion, although it continued to be an indispensable, if inaudible, part of the engineer's toolbox. But in 2003, T-Pain (Faheem Najm), a little-known rapper and singer, accidentally stumbled onto the Cher effect while Auto-Tuning some of his vocals. "It just worked for my voice," says T-Pain in his natural Tallahassee drawl. "And there wasn't anyone else doing it." |
Since his 2005 debut album, T-Pain has sent a dozen slightly raunchy, mechanically cheery singles into the Top 10. He contributed to four nominated songs at this year's Grammys on Feb. 8 (see page 51), and his influence is still spreading. When Kanye West was looking for an effect to match some heartbroken lyrics, he flew T-Pain to Hawaii to see how many ways they could tweak Auto-Tune. Diddy gave a percentage of his upcoming album's profits to T-Pain in exchange for some lessons. Even Prince is rumored to be experimenting with Auto-Tune on his new record. "I know [Auto-Tune] better than anyone," says T-Pain. "And even I'm just figuring out all the ways you can use it to change the mood of a record." Other sonic tricks have had their moment--notably Peter Frampton's "talk- box," a plastic tube that made his guitar sound as if it were talking--but in skilled hands, Auto-Tune is the rare gimmick that can lead to innovation. On T-Pain's latest album, Thr33 Ringz, tracks like "Karaoke" and "Chopped N Skrewed" literally bounce between notes, giving the record a kids-on--Pop Rocks exuberance. Using the same program, West's 808s & Heartbreak is the complete opposite--angsty, slow and brutally introspective. West sings throughout, and while he couldn't have hit most of the notes without Auto-Tune, he also couldn't have sounded as ghostly and cold, and it's that alienated tone that made 808s one of the best albums of last year. Plenty of critics raved about West's use of Auto-Tune, but T-Pain is often dismissed as a novelty act. (Not that he minds: "I'd rather be known for something than unknown for nothing.") But unlike most singers, he acknowledges the impact Auto-Tune has had on his career. Of the half a dozen engineers and producers interviewed for this story, none could remember a pop recording session in the past few years when Auto-Tune didn't make a cameo--and none could think of a singer who would want that fact known. "There's no shame in fixing a note or two," says Jim Anderson, professor of the Clive Davis department of recorded music at New York University and president of the Audio Engineering Society. "But we've gone far beyond that."
Some Auto-Tuning is almost unavoidable. Most contemporary music is composed on Pro Tools, a program that lets musicians and engineers record into a computer and map out songs on a visual grid. You can cut at one point on the grid and paste at another, just as in word-processing, but making sure the cuts match up requires the even pitch that Auto-Tune provides. "It usually ends up just like plastic surgery," says a Grammy-winning recording engineer. "You haul out Auto-Tune to make one thing better, but then it's very hard to resist the temptation to spruce up the whole vocal, give everything a little nip-tuck." Like plastic surgery, he adds, more people have had it than you think. "Let's just say I've had Auto-Tune save vocals on everything from Britney Spears to Bollywood cast albums. And every singer now presumes that you'll just run their voice through the box." Rubin, who's produced artists as diverse as the Dixie Chicks and Metallica, worries that the safety net of Auto-Tune is making singers lazy. "Sometimes a singer will do lots of takes when they're recording a song, and you really can hear the emotional difference when someone does a great performance vs. an average one," says Rubin. "If you're pitch-correcting, you might not bother to make the effort. You might just get it done and put it through the machine so it's all in tune." Rubin has taken to having an ethical conversation before each new recording session. "I encourage artists to embrace a natural process," he says. |
With the exception of Milli Vanilli's, pop listeners have always been fairly indulgent about performers' ethics. It's hits that matter, and the average person listening to just one pop song on the radio will have a hard time hearing Auto-Tune's impact; it's effectively deceptive. But when track after track has perfect pitch, the songs are harder to differentiate from one another--which explains why pop is in a pretty serious lull at the moment. It also changes the way we hear unaffected voices. "The other day, someone was talking about how Aretha Franklin at the Inauguration was a bit pitchy," says Anderson. "I said, 'Of course! She was singing!' And that was a musician talking. People are getting used to hearing things dead on pitch, and it's changed their expectations." Despite Randy Jackson's stock American Idol critique--"A little pitchy, dawg"--many beloved songs are actually off-pitch or out of tune. There's Ringo Starr on "With a Little Help from My Friends," of course, and just about every blues song slides into notes as opposed to hitting them dead on. Even Norah Jones, the poster girl of pure vocals, isn't perfect. "There's some wonderful imperfections of pitch on 'Don't Know Why' from Come Away with Me," says Anderson, "and most of the other tunes on the album as well. But I wouldn't want to change a single note." Let's hope that pop's fetish for uniform perfect pitch will fade, even if the spread of Auto-Tune shows no signs of slowing. A $99 version for home musicians was released in November 2007, and T-Pain and Auto-Tune's parent company are finishing work on an iPhone app. "It's gonna be real cool," says T-Pain. "Basically, you can add Auto-Tune to your voice and send it to your friends and put it on the Web. You'll be able to sound just like me." Asked if that might render him no longer unique, T-Pain laughs: "I'm not too worried. I got lots of tricks you ain't seen yet. It's everybody else that needs to step up their game." Perfect Pitch? To hear Auto-Tune in action, go to time.com/autotune |
By the time I got home from Layton's office on Monday evening the trees were trimmed and canopy had been raised. More importantly the cement by the greenhouse had been broken up, and the cypress tree roots ground off. We put a lot of money into fixing up the yard, and although the work was definitely needing to be done, the driving force was Rachel and Garrett's reception, which was planned to be in the back yard (see 0911.html). Andrea seemed pleased with the work, and she was definitely worried about the expenses. I kept telling her it would work out, and it did work out just fine.
Tuesday was my big day at NASA with Doug Harless and his two investor friends. Maybe I need to listen to Andrea and to recognize nothing has ever come out of my friendship and discussions with Doug. Whenever she says something like this, I remind her that my contract with Layton Energy came because I did a friend a favor. Luis Viertel asked me to check out a possible investment for him, and even though I didn't have time, I went down there, and it has turned into a very nice consulting job.
I got Chile's on NASA Road 1 about an half an hour early, and read my book, "A Pattern Language," while I waited for Doug and his two investor friends, Steve Trollope and Ron Blessing. They arrived at 11:30. We had a nice lunch, and the conversation was very interesting and upbeat. There seem to be a lot of different overlaps between their interests and backgrounds and mine. After lunch they had another meeting, and so I went over to the Hyatt and continued reading in the car. It was very windy, and I was parked right underneath the flags. I went inside a little while before they were to meet me. They came and I forgot the confidentiality agreement I had signed. When we got to the main gate there was not a card for us to get in, and so we had to wait for Bob Savely to get the paperwork done. Steve took me back to the Hilton and I drove my car over and got the confidentiality. The Robonaut demonstration got off to a rocky start. They could not get the communications ports to connect. Ron Diftler took us in the large test area and showed us the wheels they have built for Robonaut, then upstairs where he showed us several videos until they had the demonstration working well. They showed us some alternative fingers they have been developing, and when I took a digital photo of the fingers, Bob had me delete the photo. The photos I took are at http://www.walden3d.com/Robonaut/090210_Robonaut. I was interested to learn that it takes astronauts 4 hours to adjust to space station pressure of 4 pounds per square inch vs. 10 pounds per square inch on earth. Of course, Robonaut does not have to make this transition. All in all I was pleased with the demonstration. After the demonstration we went and picked up the other cars and met at a seafood place on the Galveston Freeway. Nice dinner, more nice conversation, no commitments, and no statements of no interest. Those statements came in the form of an answer to an e-mail basically saying the technology is not mature enough to be invested in. Oh well! I did my best to present the technology, including redoing a spread-sheet to show how a $25 million investment would work. Maybe there will be a return on my Robonaut work someday. Realistically? Probably not. Oh well!
As I was driving home Luis Viertel called and wanted some help with genealogy so he can switch his citizenship to Germany. By the time I got home it was dark-thirty, and I could still see that the garden beds made and there was new lawn in the back. It is neat how quick professionals like Buddy Laird can do this kind of work. After checking out the work on the yard I found some names for Luis at http://new.familysearch.org and passed them on to him via e-mail.
Wednesday was back to what is becoming a regular schedule. I was at Layton's office from 10:30 to 3:30 working on ranking the NAPE opportunities. I also did some work on Genesis' Copano Bay prospects and some work on the shallow opportunities in Wharton County. Matt Kitterer of the University of Utah called and set up to visit me on Wednesday next week (see 0908.html) to talk about the University of Utah and about funding their alumni programs.
I sent a note to Doug Harless to see how serious he was about his statement he wants to invest in the DML technology. Turns out he is not serious. Maybe the deal I offered him was just too good of a deal. The e-mail copy to Ron Blessing was returned as not being a valid address. I felt like my Tuesday was one more sham. I wonder how many people feel that about me and the ideas I have attempted to put before them without the resources to implement the ideas. Oh well! On the way home Joe Roberts called and suggested we approach Geotrace to fund DML. This doesn't feel right, and so I delayed him.
By the time I got back home Buddy Laird and his team of Hispanics (all legal according to Buddy) had finished the work in back yard. However, there was a pretty nasty pool leak when the circulation was turned on. It took a couple of days, and they were able to get this fixed.
Sara Ellyn sent a note asking if I only take aspirin because of Grandma's stroke. I told her I would ask Dr. Solis when I go in for a follow-up appointment in a couple of weeks. After my appointment with Dr. Solis I passed on what he said. He said you kids should not need to be on an aspirin regimen until you are at least 40, and then it should be discussed with your doctor. At least that is one thing you don't have to worry about me having passed on for a few years, and 4 of you never have to worry about that.
Thursday morning Jeff Johnson came by and from 8-9:30 we talked about his plans and progress and lack of progress in looking for a new job. Then I met Wulf and we talked and had lunch from 10:30 to 12:00. When I got back to the office I took a nap, and then worked on ranking NAPE prospects. I definitely did not do the ranking in an automated way. I need to set up an automated way of comparing prospects with each other.
There was an e-mail note that came in from Quentin Reed with the photo to the left showing the Dubai Skyline taken from the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai at 2,630 feet or 801 meters. Quentin also sent me a cute card called the singing goundhog. I wish I was as good of a friend as some of my friends are to me. Seems like I never take time to do something for my friends.
Friday the 13th of February I was at Layton's office from 9:30 to 3:30 and did not charge any of the time to Dan. The first several hours were spent with Dick Coons presenting the East Cameron opportunity he had been working on. There was lot of interest, and the discussions kept going and going. At noon Zhou Jinming, the President and founder of SinoGeo arrived. We had a nice discussion. I showed him around the office. Then we went to lunch. I drove and he bought. We went to a Chinese buffet that he knew. My fortune cookie read: "Your be happy socially and in your work." Jinming's fortune cookie read: "Challenges ahead." It was a very interesting discussion, and he became 100% Chinese as he ate his chicken bones and squid and chicken feet. He suggested several ways we could work together. I have not followed up on this conversation several weeks later. Oh well! When I got home there was a nice Valentine's Day card from Rachel, which said:
"Happy Valentines Day Roice (aka Dad2). Thanks for everything.
For being there for me & loving me even though I push you away. You're a good man.
Love you!
XOXOXO
Rachel"
There was also a note from Russell Shirts pointing out the words from the 1909 Hymn Book for "Praise to the Man" including talking about a stain on Illinois for the blood shed by assassins and the 1940 Hymnal which says "Plead unto heav'n" for the same line. He had not heard of it, and I already knew this factoid for some reason. As mentioned above Steve Trollope sent a nice note with thanks for the NASA demonstration on Tuesday, and the review of the Robonaut technology. He is obviously not going to do anything right away. Oh well! Doug Harless also sent a note saying he would be back next week with a summary of thoughts and next actions. Of course, it he was not interested in doing anything. At times like this phone call, and as stated above, I feel like I should listen to Andrea more.
In the evening I was working on the previous week's thoughtlet, when there was a message from Roice saying that he remembered me talking to him about wirelss electricity and with a link to the following words: Photo Caption: Ryan Tseng holds his wirelessly lit lightbulb 3 inches above its power source. Photograph by Phillip Toledano.
Saturday morning I sent a note to Melanie saying we were going to come over to Taylor's birthday. The immediate response was how excited Taylor will be. Jialin sent me a long note about payment of the Tarim bill. Andrea and I spent most of the day working in the yard and getting ready for the wedding reception 0911.html
My only note for the church part of Sunday is the following possible stanza for Prime Words from a Sacrament Meeting talk:
After sacrament we drove over to Vidor for Taylor's birthday. I wrote the chorus for a birthday song for Taylor, which I like. I wrote out four verses on the 27th of March. The name and age can be changed and this can become a family birthday song. The words are:
I ended up playing the guitar too much and distracting the focus from Taylor. I enjoyed the Wright's reactions to my songs, to having songs requested, singing "Spring" for Melanie since she did not remember hearing it before, and the evening. However I don't think Taylor liked the redirection of attention and I feel very bad about taking away from her moment. Maybe it was one of those moments like described above when the lightbulb turned on with wireless electricity."