GoldenEye: Source Forums

Global Communications => Development Media => Topic started by: basstronix on October 21, 2011, 02:39:23 am

Title: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on October 21, 2011, 02:39:23 am
I've been working with the Goldeneye Source team for over six years now. When I joined the team, I was a complete noob straight out of high school. I gained many skills at a very young age, and that caught peoples' attention. I had universities offering me scholarships before I even entered high school. But man, the music I made back in 8th grade... was bad. So, so bad.

The first mod I applied to was, ironically, Perfect Dark: Source. I was still in high school at the time, and I was using our AV studio's computer to make music using Reason. I got the job easily and made a couple remixes for them.

Next up was EnigmaComplex. It was a total conversion single player campaign with a suspenseful storyline. This was my first time doing epic, cinematic music. You can tell I didn't know anything about mixing, but the music was still not bad. The mod itself, however, withered away just as quickly as it started. I then applied to Dreamscape: Pin Point Blank. The programmer was brilliant as hell; he hacked new shaders into the engine specifically for the mod. I still, to this day, consider the music I wrote for Dreamscape to be the best I've ever done. Dreamscape would have been my Mona Lisa, but it vanished as well.

In between EnigmaComplex and Dreamscape, I somehow managed to convince Nickster to make me the lead audio developer for GoldenEye: Source. I seriously tear up when I think about him now. He was a great guy that really put a lot of faith in me that, quite honestly, was probably misplaced. I was 17 at the time. I knew nothing of proper production, but I could make a catchy, albeit simple tune in Reason. But hell, look at us now. We have the biggest, coolest soundtrack ANY MOD HAS EVER HAD. And it's not even over yet...

Anyway, I got my first film gig when I finished my first semester of college. I wound up on the set of a movie because my new surf buddy was really into film making. I met the director, told him I do music and I'm interested in trying film score. I said I'd do it for free. My first scoring job was for a feature length film, and I did it for free. Talk about jumping in headfirst. The film won awards at the film festival that year. I made sure to be there with business cards to hand out. I didn't know what I was getting myself into, though. I was about to have the most stressful two years of my life.

Junior year. My friend's film company was starting to take off; their RED ONE camera put them way ahead of the competition. I dabbled with 2D and 3D animation, further delving into the world of film making. I learn how to engineer sound and record foley. My musical abilities exponentially grew with the help of the theory classes I took. I wrote my first movie script. I was officially a one man movie making monster. I'd get paid for graphic design, music, animation, compositing,  voice acting, etc. On average I was making $300-500 per piece of music, typically 30 seconds to a minute in length.

Being a professional composer in addition to an electrical engineering student trying to graduate while maintaining a social life had taken its toll. I was taking 2 credits more than the maximum amount of credits the university allows you to take. That's 21 credits of electrical engineering courses. Electrophysics and electromagnetics, to be precise. Semiconductor physics is the hardest class I've taken in my life. It's too abstract and yet makes so much sense, I hate it. But I love it. Life was not fun. I was sleeping maybe 4 days a week, and my bloodstream had been diluted by Monster and Red Bull. But hey, I built my first autonomous robot.

I continued to compose for money, making a good living doing so. One night I see that I have many missed calls from my colleagues. Not only was my music nominated for Best Musical Score, but it won by a total landslide.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25686183/26486_635220920216_19504170_36002635_3481202_n.jpg)

Boredom got the better of me one day, so I fiddled with circuits. I started to wonder if I could drive an LED using an analog audio signal if it were amplified to the proper voltage. I built a quick three band OpAmp using an IC and your everyday resistors and capacitors. It worked.


http://www.youtube.com/v/TOeiQsmaYCg

After securing a research position to develop home automation software and interactive lighting, I went all out making the brighest, coolest, most configurable light show around. This was the first demo in my office. Buggy audio analysis software, but it's still an awesome milestone.


http://www.youtube.com/v/TR7axhdXvoE

Here's a prototype of the LED panels I built. At this point I had switched from I2C to DMX and had to start over on animation code, so the panel doesn't react as much as I'd like it to in this video.


http://www.youtube.com/v/ICynIESZopc

The owner of tetris saw my efforts and offers me a job. Just like that. I was asked to do the biggest stage at the biggest party in the world. I didn't let him down either:


http://www.youtube.com/v/qjj7afR4lYY

My presence at Burning Man was ultimately a result of the Solar Decathlon, an international, multidisciplinary competition that revolved around universities creating conceptual, solar powered homes. I became the lead electrical engineer of the project. This was the peak of my stress level; I wrote a multiplatform home automation interface that allowed users to control all infrared devices from their phone.

From anywhere in the world.

The lighting system was the most advanced piece of work. The $22,000 system was top of the line in terms of smart energy savings and aesthetics. I created 400 panels of RGB, DMX controllable LED lights. These were placed inside the walls, shining through a translucent and diffusing layer of aerogel, which also helped insulate the home. I hacked a kinect camera into an occupancy sensor and locator. By tracking where people are in the house, that part of the house would light up. I'm not talking about the room someone was in; I'm talking about that part of the room. Imagine a portion of the wall by your computer lights up your desk, but the rest of the lights are off. Obviously the RGB lights can take any solid color, including white. They also react to music, animating in all sorts of crazy ways. I even made the TV gesture controlled. Ever wanted to turn on a TV by pointing at it? I made that happen.

Well, that house was never built. I created all the prototypes for our system. Then we ran out of money and time and were forced to forfeit the competition.


The spirit of Hale Pilihonua (Our home's name) lives on. Our home was the coolest, most advanced concept in the competition. A little too advanced. We bit off more than we could chew.


They say it's all about who you know. This is absolutely true. Do your best to appease everyone around you, and they'll take care of you. Seriously, I've donated hundreds of hours of work just to have to have the extra mark in my portfolio. My list of works has become so long I often completely forget about certain films or shows I helped out with. I've produced well over 500 pieces of music over the last ten years, and I'm not looking to stop any time soon. It's funny stumbling on an old project and having it sound rather familiar before realizing I freaking made it.





_______________________________________________________________






Switching gears a bit, I want to reflect on my own development as a producer over the years. Let's be honest; the music I made for GES back in 2005 was rubbish. It was still awesome to have custom music, but damn it was pretty bad. I decided to take a look back at some of the older tracks I've done for this game, specifically by examining their spectra. It was pretty shocking to see how far I've come.

These images represent the frequency information in a 10-20 second clip over time. The brighter the image, the louder that frequency is. As you can see, The bottom of every image is very bright. That's why I'm basstronix  8)

Here's an exerpt of Bondage, the first completely original track I contributed to the game back in 2006.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25686183/pics/bondage.jpg)

Any sound engineer will laugh at this picture. Notice that the instruments are clearly defined, and the bass is saturated. I think this song does have a simplistic charm to it, but it's not technically well made. The spectrum is pretty empty and cuts off at 17kHz. This is something that all of my old music is guilty of... and I think it's because I used FL's crappy compression tools. That's what gives people the feeling that FL's rendering engine just doesn't cut it.

Here's an exerpt of the first Silo track I did.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25686183/pics/old%20silo.jpg)

Wow, that looks like crap. You can see that I'm fillling in more of the spectrum, but still getting cut off at 17kHz... hmm... Definitely something wrong with the way I'm producing these tracks. Now the bass is even more saturated. This was done in Reason, and hosts typically have different built in limiters and compressers to work around. FL music seems very flat and devoid of high tones. Granted when Bondage was done, FL was at version 5 I believe. It was still a young DAW.

Here we have the current version of Silo.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25686183/pics/new%20silo.jpg)

17kHz cutoff again. Indicative of over compression.



_______________________________________________________





I owe a lot to the GoldenEye: Source Community.  Thank you all for being supporters and fans of myself, Sole Signal, and Goldenzen. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you.

I want to take the opportunity to say that we all miss you, Nick. Rest in peace. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. I never would have thought my music would end up being heard by thousands of people, let alone being included on a PC Gamer DVD. I miss you buddy. I really wish you could have been around to see how big of a success this game became, and to see the success it brought us developers. Mod communities don't get any closer than this.

You were a bigger influence on our lives than you could have ever imagined, Nick.

Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Jeron [SharpSh00tah] on October 21, 2011, 04:21:08 am
I actually read every word. Pretty inspiring stuff right there. Its funny how you get older, the more you realize the arrogance. Having to redo Caverns, and runway soon, really was humbling. Definitely agree there!

Proud of you mean, really am

Hopefully my break comes soon!

Cheers
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Enzo.Matrix on October 21, 2011, 04:35:13 am
I would make an epic blog, but I don't like to talk about myself.

^ Canadian
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Emilia on October 21, 2011, 05:38:13 am
Thought about getting into writing?

You'd make a great author too. Interesting from beginning to end.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on October 21, 2011, 07:51:46 am
Writing is one of those things that I'm quite good at but don't particularly enjoy doing. Who knows, maybe I'll change my mind in the future.

I am planning on starting a blog based on my devices and music, www.trentrobertson.net

It's blank for now, but eventually...
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on October 21, 2011, 08:27:27 am
Maybe I should consider writing for cracked.com. I think I have their style, haha
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Jeron [SharpSh00tah] on October 21, 2011, 02:20:20 pm
I would make an epic blog, but I don't like to talk about myself.

^ Canadian

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1PnGNW08RL8/TGyyHqfCVDI/AAAAAAAAAPI/4QbPWI2YyIU/s1600/south-park-blame-canada.jpg)

/end offtopic (I dont want to throw this topic into the gutter)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: namajnaG on October 21, 2011, 07:16:18 pm
but don't particularly enjoy doing.

You prove me wrong by writing such blogs, This is great.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on October 22, 2011, 01:55:22 am
I recently made a Facebook Page for my music. Like the shit out of me please!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Trent-Robertson/248033465243132?sk=wall


So I decided to message a guy I haven't talked to in a while as a result of a sudden inspiration to be a better friend to people. I never even knew the guy all that well, but I just felt like saying hey. He owns his own beer brewery, Home of the Brave Brewery.

We shot the shit for a while. I asked him how his business was going, and he did the same. After he found out what I do... he hooked me up with an Oakenfold show here in Hawaii. His stoney friend is running the show.

Karma has a way of doing very interesting things...


Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Emilia on October 22, 2011, 06:15:31 am
Liked  8)

After I read this article, I went and listened to all of the GES music.
Because you are inspirational, like that.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on October 22, 2011, 07:02:46 am
I just thought of the worst pickup line ever. For a modern generation.

"if you were a facebook post, I'd 'like' you".








You inspired a pickup line, Emilia. You should be proud of that. You must be pretty cool.


So all of your inspiration inspired me to actually start working on my website. This is the most productive day I've had since burning man.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: major on October 22, 2011, 07:12:30 am
"How'd you like to get 'tagged' in my bedroom?" ;)

(http://davelm.com/imgs/gotrent.JPG)

Got a kick out of that.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on October 22, 2011, 07:13:10 am
Well done.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Emilia on October 22, 2011, 07:17:35 am
Why thank you Trent. I think everyone needs some inspiration now and then.

I also listened to "Rain" on your Facebook page. It was very sweet.


-----
MaJoR gets so excited when he find outs how to use Facebook as "GoldenEye".
There there.



Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on October 22, 2011, 03:20:06 pm
I want to add that the primary purpose of me writing this brief biography was to make myself realize that I really am worth a damn. I've been pretty down the last month or so, and I needed to see that I'm a good person and need to continue being so.

I actually broke down because I was so amazed after seeing everything I've done in a concise summary. So thanks again everyone for reading. It means a lot to me.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Ruone Delacroix on October 22, 2011, 04:06:42 pm
That's a hell of an accomplishment for being 24, Trent. This, along with your other posting, is really inspiring and a great read. And If your life has been like this so far, I can't imagine where you'll end up with all of your electronic and musical knowledge.

Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on October 22, 2011, 05:03:20 pm
I wanted to share another awesome thing that happened last night. I got a last minute call to throw a surprise birthday party for JuJu. While it was going off, I asked him to listen to my most recent track for this very game. We were in his studio at the time checking out some of his new house music. There was a group of maybe 10 people hanging out on the couches lining the walls of the room, having a conversation of their own. We put on the new GoldenEye theme and chatted while it played in the background, but he suddenly lost focus of what he was saying and interjected "wow, this bassline is... fucking awesome." A girl from the couch yelled out "hey, I like this!"

I think I just recruited Juju.

Later in the night I ended up with a playboy bunny and my best friend in the car. What a night. I decided to be the most epic bro ever and wingmanned it for him. Took them to an exclusive, members only afterhours club on the house, drinks included. These are the kinds of powers I've gained by constantly giving and giving. People give back.

Come to think of it, I don't remember the last time I've ever paid for a drink. Anywhere.


I also added a final conclusion to the bio that I encourage everyone to read.



Edit: I actually added a whole new section covering my role as lead engineer of the Solar Decathlon. Can't believe I never talked about that.

Can someone sticky this? Idk how. From now on I'm going to use this topic for any random ramblings I feel like making public in the future. I also want to keep it up for questions and whatnot.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: major on October 22, 2011, 10:01:29 pm
I'd think you'd be able to make things with sticky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azpFN9n8LY0) with ease...

Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on October 22, 2011, 10:04:57 pm
Epic. Good times.

Wow, My bio is 10 pages without pictures and videos.

Sorry for making you guys read so much lol
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Ruone Delacroix on October 23, 2011, 04:13:13 pm
Hey, how much would it be for one of those LED doodad strips in the second video? Probably out of my price range, but I'm curious regardless.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 01, 2011, 03:11:54 am
A 5 meter reel of RGB LEDs typically costs around $40 if you get it from a Chinese wholesaler. They usually come with a control box and power supply too. I just like to make my own control boxes... because I can.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 01, 2011, 03:21:51 am
So I just brought another musician onto trial. He's a DJ/Producer at a club I work for. He's into minimal tek-house, so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. He'll probably murder it and be our fourth official musician. We'll likely find out by our next media release... hehe.

Here's a recorded stream of the club with him DJing. Note that this club is rated #60 in the world (http://www.djmag.com/top100clubs/?op=detail&start=&page=6&year=2011&id=360)

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18207302
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: mbsurfer on November 01, 2011, 04:48:26 am
But then you need an arduino, transistors, and some other things. I was trying to replicate the same thing in the 2nd video. It ended up being a $96 project including shipping. I just didn't know the whole put it together/soldering part  :-X

EDIT: Here's the link to the doc I made for all the materials. Trent, please correct me if I'm wrong with any of it. (This is from when we talked about it in steam months ago)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Opt0FxBXSiGKckODFw-WdA2br9BQddiKzWLD0swZ5go/edit (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Opt0FxBXSiGKckODFw-WdA2br9BQddiKzWLD0swZ5go/edit)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 01, 2011, 04:55:07 am
That list is spot on. How to use the arduino... well, I'll leave that up to you all to figure out, it's not hard :p
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: mbsurfer on November 01, 2011, 04:57:55 am
How to use the arduino... well, I'll leave that up to you all to figure out, it's not hard :p

I understand the arduino pretty well. The code, loading it, and all that good stuff. Just the wiring, I'm clueless.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Enzo.Matrix on November 01, 2011, 05:17:15 am
60?  I expected better :p
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Ruone Delacroix on November 02, 2011, 12:56:21 am
That list is spot on. How to use the arduino... well, I'll leave that up to you all to figure out, it's not hard :p

Perhaps I'll learn a bit about it and see what I can come up with. I have no experience in coding, or electrical endeavors, however. At any rate, I'm not going to get anywhere until I get a job.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 03, 2011, 04:04:17 am
all you need to know: use the PWM pins (of which there are 9) and FETs to switch from low to high voltage. You'll probably want to use Processing to send FFT information to the arduino to pulse the FETs.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: mbsurfer on November 03, 2011, 05:32:59 am
Would using a would using a ULN2003 be more efficient than using 3 separate transistors like the one in this blog post:
http://genericnerd.blogspot.com/2009/05/arduino-mood-light-controller.html
 (http://genericnerd.blogspot.com/2009/05/arduino-mood-light-controller.html)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 03, 2011, 05:49:00 am
That chip would fry as soon as you turned your light on. These strips pull a lot of current. That's only rated for 500mA. That's about 5 feet of RGB LED tape. For small scale, yeah that chip is awesome. I'll go ahead and buy some :)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: mbsurfer on November 03, 2011, 06:02:08 am
Back to the drawing board.. ::)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 03, 2011, 12:26:33 pm
I just made a realization about those spectral images. The first one looked like crap, but I realized it was because of crappy mp3 compression removing the details that weren't totally necessary. Arrrggh I think my ability to listen to anything under 320kbps just got destroyed. I think I'm officially an audiophile.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: killermonkey on November 03, 2011, 04:24:50 pm
Bass I was going to say, mp3 junks out of audible range noises to aid compression.

You shouldn't be upping your MP3 bit rate for no reason. You are an engineer, start thinking like one. The maximum bit rate you should output is limited by the maximum dissernment of the human ear. To say your ear can discern 320 kilobits worth of quantization is pretty impressive. From what I have read in the past, you start to lose dissernment at 192 ish bps which is why thats the gold standard for audio.

This is the same analogy as for TV resolution. Yah you can have 4000p TV's someday, but your eye can't dissern the difference from that or 1080p from the normal viewing distance and with a 50" screen.

Also, your audio perception is extremely limited to the performance of your output device. Most speakers in the consumer market can't render the full spectrum of 320 kilobit songs anyway. All this leads up to WASTED SPACE.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 03, 2011, 04:48:34 pm
Whoa thanks for the insight monkey. I still have much to learn I see :)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Kratos on November 04, 2011, 04:31:51 pm
Whoa thanks for the insight monkey. I still have much to learn I see :)

Hey bass, do you have your own personal website? You could create one!
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 04, 2011, 10:18:07 pm
Yeah, it's empty right now. I's one of my many projects over the next few weeks.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 06, 2011, 08:06:57 pm
I just had the most epic night. We threw a regional Burning Man party over the weekend on a private beach far away from the city. I brought my DJ equipment thinking I might have my own show in a big tent or something. I ended up throwing an hour and a half set as the sun came up. I've never felt so in tune with the crowd.

I recorded the set. I'll be posting it sometime soon.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Jeron [SharpSh00tah] on November 06, 2011, 08:22:34 pm
ftw
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: mbsurfer on November 07, 2011, 07:36:34 am
Alright I hate to keep bringing this up, but my girlfriend is begging me to get it done. I think it would make for a pretty cool christmas present for her apartment too. But I found this link (http://www.ladyada.net/products/rgbledstrip/) that gives a diagram of the breadboard and everything. I understand I need to use tip31 transistors instead, but that tutorial uses code that doesn't listen to any audio. Where would you plug in your sound ouput from your computer/iPod? I've been looking everywhere forever  ???
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 07, 2011, 08:30:58 am
I send audio information to the arduino from a computer using software I wrote in Processing. Processing has an arduino library that lets you control output pins from a computer. Music would be playing in winamp or something and Processing is listens to your audio output. That's the easiest way :)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: mbsurfer on November 07, 2011, 09:40:05 am
I see in your code from the video you imported the libraries:
Code: [Select]
import processing.opengl.*; 
import processing.serial.*;

Then you assigned 'arduino' to communicate with the Firmata process library:
Code: [Select]
Arduino arduino; // Setup an arduino object to communicate with Firmata firmware

...

arduino = new Arduino(this, Arduino.list()[1], 115200);


Then I'm assuming, during the setup it's reading an mp3 from some output pin (that I can't find) at this part:
Code: [Select]
if(mp3) {
song = minim.loadFile("song.mp3", 128);
beat2.detect(song.mix);
song.play();
fft = new FFT(song.bufferSize(), song.sampleRate()); }
else{
in = minim.getLineIn(Minim.STEREO, 1024);
beat2.detect(in.mix);
fft = new FFT(in.bufferSize(), in.sampleRate());
}

So is this process code that you're talking about already implemented? If so, what do you mean by the output pin from the computer is the audio output the arduino would read? Which pin are you talking about? And how would it connect, by just a jumper cable?
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 08, 2011, 09:30:03 am
That is very very old code, haha. Procssing loads an mp3 off the hard drive. It also looks at the Line In with in = minim.getLineIn. Basically I have two audio sources available to the program; the MP3 and the system's audio output (set in windows recording devices to Stereo Out). A fourier transform is then performed, converting the signal to frequency information. The information is stored in a vector in the form of the intensity each frequency band.

Firmata gives you direct control of the arduino live from your computer. arduino.analogWrite(pin, value) will give a pin a value.

r = 9;  //stores the value of our Red output pin (must be PWM!)

bass = in.getfft(0);  //not actual command, forgot what it is

arduino.analogWrite(r, bass);

This outputs red light according the first stored frequency band, which is of course very low bass. This usually needs to be amplified. I generally multiply my frequency variables by an exponential function to expand the lows and condense the highs for a more reactive light show. You may also want to apply a low pass filter so that you don't end up with seizure inducing light shows.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 11, 2011, 08:30:21 am
I'm getting a ridiculous amount of requests from big DJs and producers that want to be a part of this game. I think our soundtrack is going to break records...


:)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Jonathon [SSL] on November 11, 2011, 02:12:33 pm
That's great, because one of the most awesome aspects of GE64 was the music. For most mods, custom music is either fairly poor or nonexistent... by comparison we have a multiple hour soundtrack by a bunch of extremely talented composers and can always use more.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Emilia on November 11, 2011, 11:40:07 pm
I would really love for the GES soundtrack to grow. If we could have some awesome remixes, that would be great too.

But your music will always be my favourite, Bass

:P
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: CCsaint10 on November 14, 2011, 06:51:33 am
Bass I was going to say, mp3 junks out of audible range noises to aid compression.

You shouldn't be upping your MP3 bit rate for no reason. You are an engineer, start thinking like one. The maximum bit rate you should output is limited by the maximum dissernment of the human ear. To say your ear can discern 320 kilobits worth of quantization is pretty impressive. From what I have read in the past, you start to lose dissernment at 192 ish bps which is why thats the gold standard for audio.

This is the same analogy as for TV resolution. Yah you can have 4000p TV's someday, but your eye can't dissern the difference from that or 1080p from the normal viewing distance and with a 50" screen.

Also, your audio perception is extremely limited to the performance of your output device. Most speakers in the consumer market can't render the full spectrum of 320 kilobit songs anyway. All this leads up to WASTED SPACE.

Km, I am sorry but you are full of shit. Listen to a score from a big name movie (such as star wars) in 192 and then listen to it in FLAC. If you can't notice the difference, then you need to get your ears checked. The problem is people don't realize how much they are missing when they get shitty mp3s. I dread the fact that I have to listen to GES music in anything BUT flac or lossless. Some of it isn't high enough quality to really make a huge difference for goldeneye, but just the thought of hearing mp3 again makes me shiver. All scores and audio I download are NEVER mp3. Mp3 is only good for the generic audio listener who doesn't have a very strong ear for all ranges (more than 3/4 the population). I have a decent stereo in my car and decent headphones that I didn't pay a lot for, and I can easily notice the difference. Take a listen for cymbals and bass especially. Those usually are what get distorted first in mp3s.....

Granted...all this is invalid if the original source isn't made with high fidelity...which a lot of recent day music doesn't have. Therefore, it wouldn't matter as much. Some artists still produce very high quality music, and its easily noticable in them in modern day stuff.

/rant..sorry, but audio arguments always get me fired up. I get upset a little cause I only wish people could really hear what the difference is. Sadly, one of my roommates can not tell a difference. The others can though. I can listen to a blind recording of two songs and pick out the lossless one everytime...:/ Anything less causes my ears to cringe.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 14, 2011, 06:53:20 am
Yeah I was hesitant to tell him the same story. Engineers and sound engineers... are not the same. I happen to be both :/


While his comment is accurate, what he derived from it is not.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: killermonkey on November 14, 2011, 10:40:28 am
Saint, you call me out on not knowing what I'm talking about, then you go on a serious diatribe about how lawless and mp3 are extremely different.

Not to be rude, but DUH.

My commentary was clearly only talking about the bitrate differences between the same method of compression. Regardless of how many bits you cram into an mp3, you are still doing a tremendous amount of compression aside from the bitrate. This includes low pass filtering to about 16 khz, which is why you lose a lot of the cymbols and stuff.

Please don't go on rants until you've taken a signals processing class. Thanks :-)

I'm just going to drop this here (Not scientific): http://www.maximumpc.com/article/do_higher_mp3_bit_rates_pay_off?page=0,0
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: CCsaint10 on November 15, 2011, 04:40:24 am
ah, sorry KM. I guess I didn't interpret that correctly. Usually I hear people talk about the difference between a 192mp3 and a flac as unnoticable, but what you were talking about was between mp3 compressions. My bad. I take back my shit talk I through at you. I agree with you fully. It is very difficult to determine a 320 and a 192 as they both filter out similar frequencies and sounds. Now if only everyone would realize that flac and mp3 are vastly different....that will take some time. :)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on November 15, 2011, 10:23:36 am
While I was surprised to see the difference between a good mix and a bad mix spectrally, compression did affect this judgement. However, compression generally removes parts you wouldn't notice anyway. That said... everything I stated still stands (I think?).
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on December 07, 2011, 03:39:27 pm
Today was quite possibly the best day I've ever had.

I woke up today and decided to take action against that film company. I told them straight up "Pay me the agreed and documented account by tomorrow or I'm going to sue."

The boss of the group called me, completely in the dark about the situation. Turns out one person in the company held a personal vendetta against me over something retarded. I'm forgiving them for this, because I can take them further than they could have ever hoped to go. I've met so many influential people and made so many connections, I really can help them succeed. I was willing to look past how horribly this individual treated me, and the fact that he stole money from me. He's a talented guy, and he'd better not fuck up again.

Basically, my role in the film industry is restored. On another note;

I've been trying for ages to get together with SoundSex to collaborate on some music. He's one of the most recognized tech-house DJs in Hawaii. His brother, Superstar DJ Keoki was one of the few that gave birth to the underground party scene as we know it today. Tonight was the first time either of us actually followed through. I showed up at his Waikiki condo and played some of my music for him and his hottie girlfriend. She was in tears because she loved it so much.

Miko (soundsex) told me that producers would kill to be in my position right now. Then he told me to give him my five best tracks. He flew out to LA this morning to do a show. He's going to spin my tracks at a massive, then show them to his label.

I've already got the backing of two record labels. Miko is about to put my music on iTunes and Spotify.




Trent's not going to be broke for much longer.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Jeron [SharpSh00tah] on December 07, 2011, 04:36:22 pm
Bro thats amazing man! Im so happy to hear this!
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: mbsurfer on December 08, 2011, 04:54:51 am
That is amazing to hear! I'm so freaking stoked to hear that! Congrats!!
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Rick Astley on December 08, 2011, 09:40:48 am
Trent, you are my hero :D

Congrads
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on December 09, 2011, 04:17:32 pm
I got a call yesterday from a friend I haven't heard from in over four years. He was the producer of the first film I'd ever scored. He's the reason I ended up making any money at all in the film industry. After a year of working with him, he went to China for a few years to teach English. Deciding to answer the call despite the retarded early time of 9:00 AM was the smartest decision I've made in a while.

He hooked me up with a gig to do sound design for a Chinese documentary that he flew to Hawaii to shoot. It's paying ridiculously well. I'm financially secure for quite a while now, so I'm thinking of undertaking a hell of a project: learning the Unreal Engine.

Hell, maybe if I get good enough I can rally people to make a port of GoldenEye: Source over to Unreal 3. Wouldn't that be sexy as shit? GoldenEye shall never die!
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: killermonkey on December 09, 2011, 06:03:50 pm
From what I understand, unreal doesn't let you do any hardcore coding, only scripting.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on December 09, 2011, 07:07:04 pm
Well I'll spend the next week or so fiddling with it. I'll report back when I've learned a bit about it.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Jonathon [SSL] on December 09, 2011, 09:20:31 pm
From what I understand, unreal doesn't let you do any hardcore coding, only scripting.

Well from what I've seen people do in the Unreal Engine, the scripting language must be ridiculously powerful.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: namajnaG on December 09, 2011, 09:23:59 pm
The original Unreal 1's engine from the first Unreal game is really complete, Unfortunately, Almost everyone forgot about it. The engine and game is still being updated by the community up to this very day, Surprisingly enough. I've heard possibilities with this engine are unlimited, However, It is indeed a bit old for GE:S to run on, But it has a lot of potential. Just letting you guys know. ;)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Proxie on December 09, 2011, 09:45:31 pm
Doesn't Killing Floor run on one of the UT engines?
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Jonathon [SSL] on December 09, 2011, 10:16:17 pm
Doesn't Killing Floor run on one of the UT engines?

It runs on the UT 2004 engine, so it's fairly old. But GES on UE3 would be a massive step up from the now fairly ancient Source engine. Plus then we could break off from being Steam dependent (a pro or con)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on January 02, 2012, 01:34:20 am
I got a job at a new club that just opened this weekend. This guys are high rollers; they spent $200,000 on their lighting system. Guess who's in charge of it.

http://www.youtube.com/v/XdI-htZ6IIk
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Enzo.Matrix on January 03, 2012, 06:41:26 am
I couldn't work in a place like that.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on January 04, 2012, 07:53:41 am
I think its great. My job consists of listening to music and giving people seizures. All under the table too...
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: mbsurfer on January 04, 2012, 05:19:44 pm
All under the table too...

Can't complain there. I miss those days when I was too young to get a check, and they were forced to pay me under the table. Now I get paid by checks, and I'll end up having to pay the government money, like last year. Being a server, and getting paid $2.13/hr SUCKS -_- Glad you got the job though, I'm sure there are a lot of people who would kill to be in your shoes.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on January 05, 2012, 08:24:54 am
You guys remember the thanksgiving post I made about discovering my body wasn't quite right, and that I just sort of popped everything into their proper places? Here's my condition:

http://www.ihealthdirectory.com/scapulothoracic-bursitis/

I'm 99% sure the original displacement was caused by a kid jumping on my head while we were playing tag. Even though I was only around 5 I remember the terrifying cracks my body made. Oddly, nothing hurt.

Twenty years later I see it. Pfft.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on January 06, 2012, 01:56:16 pm
Man, my roommate took such a loud shit last night that the neighbor's dog started whimpering.


I should add that she is a small japanese girl.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Gabbo on January 06, 2012, 05:54:14 pm
Man, my roommate took such a loud shit last night that the neighbor's dog started whimpering.


I should add that she is a small japanese girl.
So many crude and contradictory thoughts running through my mind because of this.
This almost falls into 'pics or shens' territory. Almost
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Jeron [SharpSh00tah] on January 06, 2012, 11:51:48 pm
Man, my roommate took such a loud shit last night that the neighbor's dog started whimpering.


Hey at least your roommate didn't steal all your shit and money! ;) Be happy it was a pleasant, shit :P
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: V!NCENT on January 09, 2012, 09:04:49 pm
Dude, you deserve to feel awesome because you are awesome!

And if you feel bad after non-existant rave parties that you never had, take vitamin C and antioxidants before, during and after.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on January 13, 2012, 01:23:55 pm
I've been talking about writing a script for a film about the underground. In preparation for it (and perhaps as a motivating factor) I'm thinking about starting up another regular blog. Tales from the Underground. Basically it's going to be a collection of stories that depict the unique relationships that form in a party scene where anything goes.

Many of these stories will not be for the faint of heart. I will be sharing stories based on real events covering themes such as drug abuse, depression, and even murder.

These stories, however, do not involve myself; rather, those that I've chosen to associate with.

I may very well be on my way to being a rockstar, and it's been a hell of a ride thus far.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on January 20, 2012, 10:17:43 am
I got an incredible offer tonight; to become part of a crew touring the world. I don't want to reveal too much prematurely, but this could be my break.


I'm thinking about streaming my downtempo DJ sessions when we have our happy hour every wednesday/thursday. I'm going to focus on producing downtempo rather than techno for now... probably not a bad thing, considering this mod could use some more awesome music right?  8)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: The Cy on January 20, 2012, 12:52:12 pm
yes, I don't like techno anyway!
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on January 22, 2012, 05:32:26 am
I'm DJing for an official Playboy party tonight :P
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: killermonkey on January 22, 2012, 02:53:10 pm
ZOMG, pics!
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Gabbo on January 22, 2012, 04:22:47 pm
I'm DJing for an official Playboy party tonight :P
F pics, can I be your +1?
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: basstronix on January 23, 2012, 05:54:57 am
This is the only good pic I could find from last night's party. Her name is Asia  8)


(http://www.honolulupulse.com/wp-content/gallery/20120122_standard/pul-playmates-23_.jpg)
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Jeron [SharpSh00tah] on January 23, 2012, 02:46:25 pm
Sounds like a strippers name
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: Emilia on January 24, 2012, 01:43:32 am
Just a little bit insane.
Title: Re: Trent's Bio and Reflection
Post by: V!NCENT on January 24, 2012, 12:10:13 pm
Insane, like everything else in life. Awesome? Hells yeah!

Would you have acted different if it was a male model show with Brad Pitt or <insert chickmagnet here>?