VideoLAN Client (VLC) media player has a nifty feature built in: it can play movies (and still pictures!) as color ASCII. This means visuals appear reminiscent of old BBS and terminal art. Since it's automated, it's not the most precise conversion, but I put some concert footage through it and was all grins. Here's how you do it, at least on the Mac side (since VLC is multi-platform):
Go to VLC menu > Preferences.
Click Video tab.
Change Output module to Color ASCII art video output.
BEFORE
AFTER
Play a movie and get out the bitcrushed popcorn. To screengrab a still shot like this with Skitch, I had to drag it into the VLC playlist, play it for a sec, then quickly pause it.
A brief google shows me not many know about this, so spread the lofi word! Previously related is my "8 Inspiring Stories of ASCII Art" for Smashing Magazine.
I'm continuing to build my flock of excellent audio tools I know intimately, and Audio Ease Speakerphone is my latest PRICE and JOY. Typically priced at US$450 (I got a better deal via eBay, remember what I said about making offers?), Speakerphone does multiple effects within one cohesive package — not just thrown in without care, but because such an elaborate sequence is necessary to achieve the vast variety of ambient spaces and both analogue and digital flavors of grit which it offers. The official blurb goes:
A bad GSM connection on a busy sidewalk, a bullhorn with feedback and a helicopter overhead, or a 1952 rockabilly guitar amp in a recording studio live room: The Speakerphone audio plug-in gives you authentic speakers of any size together with their natural environments.
Yeh, pretty versatile. That's somewhat justification for the "pro price", but I did think carefully before plunking my bucks down, and strove to understand all I could! Now, here's my "out-of-the-virtual-box" firsthand impressions as spread across 6 videos; YES, this thang does a super-warm "Giallo" sound too! And check out my heavy piano distorto amping. Schweet.
(Click and drag the position circle to track ahead after it's buffered, I wish it worked with a single click like YouTube's native control.)
In my mind, I voyage to places, travel to both realistic and unrealistic worlds (and many in-between). Since actual human teleportation hasn't happened yet and it's costly to add rooms with various acoustic characteristics to my hizzouse, here's the proverbial "next best thing": just pump the sounds through a Speakerphone preset, tweak-as-needed, and close your eyes. Feels like you're there!
Clearly, Speakerphone has many timesaving uses to place noises within contexts.
And even tho CPU usage ramps up noticeably as you stack on the effects, it still appears reasonable. It's really convenient to have all these effects in a single, well-designed plug — I was using the free iZotope Vinyl for ol' turntable simulation, but Speakerphone goes beyond having a "Gramophone" module and it allows you to sound like a gearluster's list of turntables throughout the ages:
Plus, its pitch-detuned wow sounds more characteristic. Which means one of my lateral goals is to come up with a nostalgic VHS preset.
But I've naive on Day One and need to gain experience. I can already say Speakerphone's usability makes it very rewarding to use. I first heard about it from Ugress, who's a fantastic purveyor of tracks which possess character from ages begone. And ProToolerBlog has a more blow-by-blow review. Apparently, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails uses Speakerphone too, which is why creator Arjen included Trent's voice on the site tour. Arjen has some pretty nifty video tutorials showing his face on webcam too, so check them out if you want to learn more.
Imagine the possibilities!
And then do them. There are plenty of opportunities here for spicing up stock ambiences and foleys — while I haven't heard of Speakerphone being used a lot in machinima, that looks like a likely consequence for those who can afford it with their dedication to the craft. If you've got multitracks of sounds that need cohesive gelling to sound like they all happened in close proximity, this is a much more convincing approach than a generic reverb wash.
As a tool, Speakerphone flows with creativity: you don't have to think "band-pass EQ" to get a phone-like sound, as a cabinet full of models are already labeled for consumption. Those who know better can buck the names and explore stranger domains, but the point is: plenty of solid starting points have already made me happy in targeting the kinds of sounds I'm going for.
What could be awesomer?
I'm having occasional crash problems using Speakerphone with Ableton Live 8 and there appear to be preset saving issues too — I've sent bug reports to Arjen, and he was already quick today to help me get the app authorized.
KOMPLETE 5 is the high-end collection of 11 ground-breaking synthesizers, samplers, emulations, and a virtual guitar studio. Perfect for both studio and stage - this is the industry-standard bundle for serious musicians, producers and sound designers. KOMPLETE 5's instruments can be heard on platinum-selling records and in underground clubs alike, all over the world.
Among many in the collection, I'm a big fan of the Akoustik piano samples, as demonstrated in this video I did awhile ago:
You can spend ages on one of the instruments, like the Pro-53 soft synth which is one of the oldest in the batch:
At first I only saw the price drop at Guitar Center, but other stores like audioMIDI and zZounds have followed suit, so it looks like this deal is spreading. I haven't ordered from most of these places but consider this: Komplete 5's non-marked-up price is something like $1,000, and I got the Kore 2 + Komplete 5 bundle last year for about $650 from Nova Musik with eBay-Live (now Bing) cashback. Worth looking on eBay if anyone's offering this for $399 with free shipping.
(Yeah, Komplete 5's box is heavy because it consists of 12 DVDs and comes with lots of heavy reading. Dandy to curl up with while you dream of oscillators.)
So if you don't care about Kore, which makes it really easy to browse through those 1,000s of sounds but has some instability (odd crashing with my Ableton Live when the Kore controller is turned on it seems… needs more diagnosin') problems, and have been looking to save big on over a decade's worth of leading software instruments, this may be your ticket. Especially if you were looking to get a couple of NI software instruments in the first place, heck, this is likely the same price. And makes me wish there was a pro audio equivalent to Slickdeals.net!
I wonder if this price plunge comes in time for Komplete 6 — I took a survey on May 12 on that very topic.
Preemptive: I'm not officially sponsored by Native Instruments, all the above is because I love sharing great deals and love making music. However, support is a notion I wouldn't be opposed to.
If you've ever read an online magazine, after PDF, it's likely you leafed through one powered by Texterity. Coverleaf has a bunch of examples and one I checked out recently is the Costco Connection. I've found Texterity mags pretty straightforward and don't have any insidious quibbles with the format, but how to link to a page is unobvious. Turns out the answer is quite simple; just head for the Share button, as shown here:
Interestingly, the same principle works on other formats too, like transhumanist h+ magazine's Flash format, where the option is represented by a Digg icon and called "Social bookmark this page". From there, if you click the Google icon, it'll show you the page URL.
The Zoom H4n "Handy Recorder" is very versatile. Not only does it function well as a mobile field recorder, it also doubles as a USB computer interface. What's the point of that? Well, since it has built-in condenser mics (and you can also attach external mics via XLR), it's very convenient to record your voice, as I've done across many videos with my Mac.
What's even better is that it has built-in effects which are quite usable. For instance, there's a limiter which prevents digital clipping, and while I wouldn't put it in the same "creamy analogue" class as some of my fave DAW software limiters, it can still protect you from overloads. There's also an amp simulator which can colorize instruments you record, or in my preferred case, my voice. I took some time to tweak that today and came up with an effects setting which has deeper bass and greater presence. No doubt I'll continue to adjust it as I find more room for improvement, but as this video makes clear, it's sounding very broadcast-friendly already.
If you have a Zoom H4n and want to try out the settings, here they are. Keep in mind my male voice is fairly low, so you should adjust to fit yourself (and your environment) better.
Start the H4n while it's plugged to your computer via USB and connect as AUDIO I/F. (I presume you've done this before; if not, consult the manual.)
Press MENU button.
Select EFFECT (click the wheel).
Go to a blank effect (like No.50) and click EDIT.
On EDIT:EMPTY screen, edit each of these sections:
PRE AMP EDIT
OFF/ON: ON
TYPE: AG MPRE (short for Acoustic Guitar mic preamp, I find it sounds thicker than the VOX MPRE which is supposedly for vocals)
COMP: 1
DE-ESSER: OFF
LOW CUT: OFF
BASS: 0dB
MIDDLE: 0dB
TREBLE: 3dB (boost of sharpness — note this isn't in the video I did above, I changed it after, it's subtle)
LEVEL: 80 (I find going higher starts to result in unpleasant distortion)
ZNR: 3 (raise this to reduce noise in noisy surroundings, like a computer with a loud fan)
EFX
OFF/ON: ON
TYPE: LIMITER
THRSHOLD: 10
RATIO: 7
RELEASE: 10
LEVEL: 90 (I'm experimenting with this; if I notice too much distortion I'll drop back to 80.)
LEVEL: 80
Then…
Choose RENAME from the EDIT:EMPTY screen and give your setup a fitting title, like "AWESOME". I named mine "LIMIT3" for the time being, after an earlier revision.
Make sure to click STORE and click EXECUTE to save it into No.50 or another empty slot.
Now try auditioning before/after to compare the difference.
What about using those effects on the road?
Good question! I haven't yet checked this in-depth, but I know the H4n has a somewhat different effects config when it's acting as a truly mobile recorder, so try adapting the above if you're on the go and want to record with such effects.
I find setting up these effects is a great timesaver…
so I sound pro voiceover-ready directly into the computer, and I don't have to mess around with an app's audio tools. (Nor does Screenflow, the most common prog I record Mac videos into, have such a way to do this.) And of course, if you plug your H4n into another computer, you can also access these same settings, making it even more convenient.
Until June 30th, Antares Mutator can be bought from audioMIDI.com for US$10. It's an attraction to get you to buy the whole AVOX 2 bundle. I found Mutator fun but don't have a burning need for it — still, I hope you enjoy this video showing a bizarre range of what it can do:
Some people remarked I started sounding Asgard at the end, and I've done Goa'uld voices in the past. So as a tip of the hat to Stargate SG-1 and knowing the question comes up a fair bit, here's my tutorial on how to use a flanger + pitch-shifting in Ableton Live to sound like those parasitic System Lords. There's also a gate + limiter effect, but as I explain, those are optional.
The really awesome thing is after you have an effects chain setup, you can easily drop in just about any voice clip and Goauldize it. Easier than having to run one process after another in a sound editor that doesn't allow live chaining like this.
Add Joel Goldsmith's original score for the final authentic touch!
When I was younger (aka FREAKIN' NAIVE), I wanted to have as many control surfaces as possible. I was utterly obsessed with having stacks of sound modules and so many knobs and sliders to control them with. As time went on and the soft synth revolution (it really is) demonstrated how much power you could get out of a computer, I became more concerned with WHAT I WOULD ACTUALLY USE and being able to control MANY things with a FEW tweakers. (Side story of this is, with so much stuff, you never have enough time or patience to get around and try it all out… that's why I no longer collect free audio plugins voraciously, I tried so many and go to know a few very, very well. But I do look at everything I can on the market.)
I think that's to say something about growing wiser, not necessary feeling older, but MORE REFINED about how I choose the tools I use to be creative, and WHY? FOR WHAT REASONS?? The above video is mostly related. If you've ever lived through the same processes, you can resonate.
Gosh, this short hair takes time getting used to and my keyboard's batteries are dying out!
Ahh, beautiful opticks. I took my little point-and-shoot and turned off the lights, then proceeded to get this series. They're actually screengrabs from a video, but have this evocative feel that reminds me simultaneously of the new Star Trek, Xmas morning, an alien abduction, and unsettling surveillance footage.
Taking still pictures didn't capture the vertical blue lines. I suspect the bokeh-ish circles are actually dust spots. I'm almost getting a "potential album art" vibe from this; we'll see.
This was preceded by playing around with a mini-flashlight.
I named mine "LIMIT3" for the time being, after an earlier revision. 
