I’m mad busy prepping for a temp mix at the moment & there is one part of the technical process that is only made possible by the genius of Justin at maggot software

What you are looking at are the changes in a reel of a film, in this case going from picture cut version 2 to cut 3. By importing cutlists generated by the AVID picture editor, Conformalizer works out what has changed & then automates the process of moving & recutting your ProTools tracks so you are back in sync with the new cut. We used to have to do this manually & it is both painful & very time consuming, especially if you are dealing with large trackcounts in multiple sessions & when coming down to a fine cut there may be many many single frame changes in the picture cut…

Conformalizer also has this great visual display which illustrates how the picture cut has changed. As you select a line in the changelist above (as highighted) the display below reflects the section of the old cut (the upper blocks) and where it is in the new cut (the lower blocks). This is true genius & makes a complex task intuitive..

You can also use it to conform text databases eg ADR lists or FX cueing databases and it has some built in smarts so you can track updated VFX shots, which considering how much of many big budget films incorporate VFX in some way, is critical. One last feature worthy of a rant before I get back to work is the interface Conformalizer has which lets you import both the old and new Quicktime at the same time & then step through the change list above with both videos in sync – again an inspired feature to quickly verify what has changed in a shot…
If you work on projects where ‘locked picture’ is but a distant dream off then check out Conformalizer

Don’t get me wrong – i LOVE the sound of air moving, and the more extreme examples are sometimes (but not always) the most interesting to appreciate. So why is it that if you go to an air show, you can be sure to have your ears assaulted by banalities more appropriate to daytime television?? Take this example, a friend photographed last weekend at Whenuapai – as awe inspiring as it is to look at, what do you think it sounded like?

We shall never know

If you are reading this after google searching ‘air show, sounds, amazing’ then your next stop is to complain to whoever you are about to buy a ticket from, to otherwise see (& not hear) some amazing aircraft…. A year or two ago I went to Warbirds Over Wanaka which is in all effect the geographically most awesome air show possible.. and here was me, DAT recorder (hey, it was the 90s) & mics ready to go, but after spending a day there I am not sure I even got to cleanly record half a dozen passbys…. if they didnt have music pumping through the lo fi PA system, they had some commentator commentating…
Please note I am not complaining about the enthusiasts, for it is they who fund such fantastic event.. .but they are smart – broadcast the commentary over some FM band & let the rest of us, with ears open to pure experience, have a PURE EXPERIENCE…. please?

i’ve always loved the sound of music boxes & have recorded them attached to different objects – acoustic guitars, pianos, drums… but today in the mail I just got the coolest of all music boxes: a diy music box!

I think it is the same as the one I have seen that fantastic Icelandic band Amiina play. It comes with 3 paper rolls & a hand punch for creating your own music, although one of the rolls is already punched to play Happy Birthday, so buy one for the musician in your life at the Grand Illusion website

Combine the best roots/reggae/dub music with a perfect summer location and you have a good description for 48 hours of bliss – otherwise known as the Raglan Soundsplash…. last week still feels about 2 months ago…. check the location:

sunset on the second night

I have worn out much vinyl created by the Dub Syndicate, since the early 1980s when adrian sherwood first started working with them… and here they were, in Raglan, cranking it up on a wicked sound system… this pic was taken about 1am, and is considerably less blurry than the photographer…

a bit of recovery at a beach, Ruapuke, south by an hours drive, with surf that takes your breath away….

a moment of zen

and another…

That Burt Munro sure gets around!
Worlds Fastest Indian is currently screening in Japan

official japanese site