Cat doesn't believe such devices have any particular relevance to music and may well detract from it insofar as they may overload the senses and thus reduce the appreciation of the music which, presumably, is why you came in the first place.
The point is fair enough but I don't accept it. Anything can be overdone, even the music. The object is to do it without sensory 'clipping' as that word, in a strictly audio context, means the audio bandwidth is saturated and any part of the waveform which exceeds limits is clipped. This results in destructive distortion.
Toward Cat's thinking, it's possible to get 'clipping' visually when something is so intense as to be just too damn much of it.
My twist on it is there must not be clipping in either context as the lasers or whatever other visual device must complement the music and ultimately become part of it, otherwise it's just a carny trick with no meaning, at least not to me.
The beauty part isn't that I can shoot them at a wall to make images of ducks or whatever but rather it's in using them outside. Placement is crucial as the range is longer than you will dream and you damn sure will target aircraft accidentally if you're not extremely careful. Nevertheless, it can be done and I have done it. With a combination of smoke and mist, the result is staggering ... but ... it's not overwhelming.
Pyrotechnics rely heavily on surprise as one of the staples is a flashpot which makes a big bang and shoots a huge spray of white sparks into the air. Kick those off on the downbeat and that tune will explode like an artillery barrage.
However, we don't want an artillery barrage and, besides, lasers don't so much surprise as envelope you. They become part of the surrealism of the music and what could be more surreal as there's nothing anyone can see from it but everyone believes it's there.
You can see someone playing a piano but there's nothing in someone waving his fingers around that logically results in all these incredible sounds. You can look inside the piano and figure it out but that doesn't happen in the show, you accept that it works and you believe.
When I want a note to sustain, I wiggle my finger on the string because this stretches it just a little bit and draws it. That still has no logical relation to what you hear as it's just one little string on one little guitar and yet the room fills with it. The wiggling of my finger isn't making the sound but rather calling the spirits who can just as sustaining the note is calling to you so the spirits find all of us.
You can see this in videos as my finger will wiggle on a string and that will draw it longer and make it swell, maybe some feedback starts to hover ... but how can my one finger doing that little wiggle do all those things. You can see that's all it does and yet you hear what happens. I submit this is ultimate surrealism as it takes an enormous suspension of disbelief to accept that is possible.
Thus it's a specific purpose to combine the surrealism of light beams which aren't really there with music you can't ever touch but it has to be done without 'clipping' as then it's just a pachinko machine with zillions of little balls bouncing around for no particular reason.
So, it would be a tragedy to abandon that. However, reality comes into it as well as I couldn't move the stuff without roadies here and the same would be true in Germany. The light stand would have to be completely torn down every time it is moved and that would be even worse than being a drummer because at least the drum kit is at floor level.
Most of the lasers were shipped direct from China so the prices were pretty good. It might not be such a terrible beating on unloading them ... but it would still be tragic. It wouldn't be tragic enough to stay here rather than going to Germany but it would still be tragic. The smoke has to go also as a smoke machine is way too heavy to even consider for checked luggage.
This part is difficult as I do require the lasers and I don't want to abandon them. However, there's no need to review the above again. It's impossible.
Whoa, whole different situation ... the Cadillac Man will be retired by then. Maybe he would want to live in Germany for a while. I really can't leave until Yevette can do it as she's going to need help to bail but she definitely wants to do it. I'm thinking bro movie with a Pink Cadillac. I have no idea how long any of us will last and the odds on me, frankly, are not too good but I know one thing for sure the odds are far better over there. In the immortal words of Janis Joplin: Can't sleep, might miss a party, man.
Deutsch ist nicht so hart und sie sind sehr lustig!
(German isn't so hard and they are very funny!)
The point is fair enough but I don't accept it. Anything can be overdone, even the music. The object is to do it without sensory 'clipping' as that word, in a strictly audio context, means the audio bandwidth is saturated and any part of the waveform which exceeds limits is clipped. This results in destructive distortion.
Toward Cat's thinking, it's possible to get 'clipping' visually when something is so intense as to be just too damn much of it.
My twist on it is there must not be clipping in either context as the lasers or whatever other visual device must complement the music and ultimately become part of it, otherwise it's just a carny trick with no meaning, at least not to me.
The beauty part isn't that I can shoot them at a wall to make images of ducks or whatever but rather it's in using them outside. Placement is crucial as the range is longer than you will dream and you damn sure will target aircraft accidentally if you're not extremely careful. Nevertheless, it can be done and I have done it. With a combination of smoke and mist, the result is staggering ... but ... it's not overwhelming.
Pyrotechnics rely heavily on surprise as one of the staples is a flashpot which makes a big bang and shoots a huge spray of white sparks into the air. Kick those off on the downbeat and that tune will explode like an artillery barrage.
However, we don't want an artillery barrage and, besides, lasers don't so much surprise as envelope you. They become part of the surrealism of the music and what could be more surreal as there's nothing anyone can see from it but everyone believes it's there.
You can see someone playing a piano but there's nothing in someone waving his fingers around that logically results in all these incredible sounds. You can look inside the piano and figure it out but that doesn't happen in the show, you accept that it works and you believe.
When I want a note to sustain, I wiggle my finger on the string because this stretches it just a little bit and draws it. That still has no logical relation to what you hear as it's just one little string on one little guitar and yet the room fills with it. The wiggling of my finger isn't making the sound but rather calling the spirits who can just as sustaining the note is calling to you so the spirits find all of us.
You can see this in videos as my finger will wiggle on a string and that will draw it longer and make it swell, maybe some feedback starts to hover ... but how can my one finger doing that little wiggle do all those things. You can see that's all it does and yet you hear what happens. I submit this is ultimate surrealism as it takes an enormous suspension of disbelief to accept that is possible.
Thus it's a specific purpose to combine the surrealism of light beams which aren't really there with music you can't ever touch but it has to be done without 'clipping' as then it's just a pachinko machine with zillions of little balls bouncing around for no particular reason.
So, it would be a tragedy to abandon that. However, reality comes into it as well as I couldn't move the stuff without roadies here and the same would be true in Germany. The light stand would have to be completely torn down every time it is moved and that would be even worse than being a drummer because at least the drum kit is at floor level.
Most of the lasers were shipped direct from China so the prices were pretty good. It might not be such a terrible beating on unloading them ... but it would still be tragic. It wouldn't be tragic enough to stay here rather than going to Germany but it would still be tragic. The smoke has to go also as a smoke machine is way too heavy to even consider for checked luggage.
This part is difficult as I do require the lasers and I don't want to abandon them. However, there's no need to review the above again. It's impossible.
Whoa, whole different situation ... the Cadillac Man will be retired by then. Maybe he would want to live in Germany for a while. I really can't leave until Yevette can do it as she's going to need help to bail but she definitely wants to do it. I'm thinking bro movie with a Pink Cadillac. I have no idea how long any of us will last and the odds on me, frankly, are not too good but I know one thing for sure the odds are far better over there. In the immortal words of Janis Joplin: Can't sleep, might miss a party, man.
Deutsch ist nicht so hart und sie sind sehr lustig!
(German isn't so hard and they are very funny!)
No comments:
Post a Comment