Meeting Alan Parsons

He recorded Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon",  had his own Alan Parsons Project and many other things. A very well known Producer and Recording Engineer.

He was also a Fairlight CMI user, a system I was involved with developing before moving to Japan and working for Roland.

My meeting him wasn't what you might think....

I had been working at Roland in Japan for some time when I went to a Los Angeles Audio Engineering Society (AES) Conference and Exhibition with 3 other Japanese Roland Engineers.

One of them, Mr Serri, was the manager of the E-660 Digital EQ Product. On entering the conference Mr Serri and myself were told we had a brief meeting to attend. We were taken to one of the guests hotel rooms and Alan was waiting.

Mr Serri was introduced as the person responsible for the E-660 and me as "Roland staff" or something like that.... I don't think I got a mention by name..... Alan was in a hurry so we sat around his room's small  coffee table, he talked and asked questions directly to me, I took notes of what he had thought about the E-660 during his evaluation and translated Mr Serri's answers and Alan's questions as required...

Then it was over.

I didn't get to say anything about anything other than the E-660.... or even introduce myself.. he just assumed I was a translator.

I can be contacted at Art & Technology

Sound On Sound Magazine - The Digital Version

The magazine industry, like news papers, is having a tough time as advertising revenue goes online and away from the traditional sources.

Most magazines also have a lot of paid editorial content, or favourable product reviews to advertisers,so  their usefulness is also probably seen to be not what it was.   You maybe better off finding information in forums.

With all that, and that we have also published our own eBook, we have tried an electronic version of something  we still do read, Sound On Sound Magazine.

We have tried their Android App, and purchased a recent issue. on a 10" tablet.

Overall it is a pretty good experience.

The issue we bought for $5, half of the local  news stand price for a 2 month old issue by the time it arrives in Australia from the UK.  If you find an Air freighted copy here, it is more like $22.

So the digital version is cheaper and more up to date.

It was a 151Mbyte download that took about 30 minutes. Not a problem with our cable connection and Studio WiFi.  The time it took isn't a problem either.

The issue I bought only had a couple of samples of sample libraries contained in it, and everything else was a link to a website.  Was pretty cool.

Articles scroll pages vertically, and you go through pages sideways like a normal eBook.  The Table of Contents is also active and you can jump to anywhere in the magazine.

Is it better to have a tablet subscription (your choice of iPad, Android or Kindle Fire )  or just an online subscription?   The improved magazine likeness of the tablet is nice.

I'm thinking maybe just online, it costs the same, and is usable anywhere.  Tablets have a limited life, but the browser will live on... at least it has for all the time I've been online.

I think they need a PC Mac version of thier App, like the Kindle has, then that would sway the choise. That means you would still have access to your magazines when your tablet breaks..... and visa versa.

And this editorial was more interesting than most. Having been involved with the Fairlight development, MIDI and other things.  Most of the time customers don't ask for the next big thing..... and much of the "next big things" that are developed aren't a success EITHER!!!!!!

Illustrated Racing Manual - Cartoons & Diagrams

We were commissioned to do the illustrations for a Go Kart Racing Manual and this is some grabs of the draft book.

The feedback on my illustrations has been, "brilliant, awesome and “sick" which is nice!

It combines 1 and 2 panel cartoons and diagrams. What ever is best to explain the text.

Has been an interesting and fast project. Some 40+ vector illustrations in a bit over a week for the first drafts.

We have done quite a few Go Kart related things over the years, and this expands on that quite a bit, as it also has technically accurate track and grid diagrams.

Fun AND useful.

Contact us at Art & Technology