Teft’s Blog

Happy New Year!

Wow, it’s been an amazing year … 07 has been good to us. But: My Blog Died! I got buried in work! I know, I know … it happens to us all (it doesn’t help with Nintendo releasing games like Mario Galaxy!)

BUT! I decided (after seeing an awesome response and hit rate) that “Teft’s Blog” needed the love rekindled. Mimi and I are getting back into mode of doing songs in an hour and want to share them with you guys. Some may be released under “Mimi & Teft“, and some just on this blog. But we promise to share.

So, in other news Mimi & Teft will be releasing our first video soooooooonnn …… sooooooonnnnnnnnn.

YO! It’s been way too long since my last post … but, music business has been kicking up for Mimi & Teft. I’ve got very little free time to write. But, we had time for a tuneback! We did a twist this time around … we video taped it! I made a 2 min edit of the whole hour and posted it to youtube. Check it out:

Here’s the final mp3: (download mp3)

Keep reading →

Today is an exciting day for folks who shoot in the 35mm digital format. Canon announced today the new Mark 3 version of their pro 1Ds series cameras … a 21.1 mega pixel full frame 35mm digital camera!! And it’s retailing for $7,999 (not $22k like the medium format digitals!). Check out the 1ds mark III amazon page.

The best part of all is the new Digic III processing power … I’ve seen some photos of the Canon 1D mark 3, and they look amazing. Butter smooth colors … now in 21.1 mega pixels. This is going to be a hot camera. All the pros are going to want one! Just think of the doors it opens for people who want to travel relatively light into the field, but still want medium format resolution.

Another exciting news release is the new Canon 40D. Again, Digic III! Let’s see … 10.1 megapixles, Digic III, and it’s got that cool highlight preservation feature. But, this camera is only $1,299 instead of the Mark III’s hefty $4500. Sounds like a deal for the image quality. I’m interested to see what Nikon is going to come out with!

So I decided to try out the demo of the new compressor by FabFilter called “Pro-C“. I’d imagine “C” stands for compressor. I’m a huge fan of the FabFilter products … Twin, Timeless, Volcano … there all great! But I’ve always thought of FabFilter tools as synths and funky effects. Not bread and butter tools (like compressors).

I decided to put the Pro-C up against my two favorite software compressors … Logic’s Compressor and the Sonalksis SV-315. Both have distinctive sounds, and both are heavily used in my productions. When I first test out new goodies I start out with a drum beat and then add the sugar (plugins!)
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So you’ve got some guitar amps laying around that don’t get use anymore because your head is always in the computer building beats … use them for the beat creation process! Just like you’d use Amplitube or Trash, REAL guitar amps are the pinnacle of crunchified dirty sounds. And what takes dirty processing in a fabulous fashion? Beats.

First off, we need to make sure some fundamentals are understood when sending signals out to guitar amps. What do you plug into a guitar amp? Keep reading →

Finally! Another 1 hour song! We’ve been trying to find time to do another tuneback for weeks … but we made it happen two days ago! And this time with one of my best friends, Jesse Janzen. Jesse has been known to collaborate with us from time to time, so we thought it’d be perfect (since he’s in town) to bust out a 1 hour song. A little background on Jesse: Actor, Lives in LA, brilliant writer, can be seen in various movies such as Crywolf.

Have a listen to Electric Core: (download mp3)

Our first 1 hour song was a success. So much of a success that we’ve decided to put a remastered version of “Delicious” Keep reading →

Ever wanted to draw on somebody’s web site? Do a little virtual graffiti? Tag a page with your logo? Now you can! Drawhere.com has created a cool, dead simple tool that allows you to draw on any page. Is it Photoshop drawing? No. Windows Paint? More like it. But still, draw on any page?

You can view other people’s drawings and who’s got the top draw. I have no idea how they calculate that ranking, but who cares! Check out my drawing … I tagged my last blog post, oooooh living on the edge! (I did not have my Wacom Tablet hooked up)

For some reason, though, I can’t save my drawings. Keep reading →

I recently took a trip into the Humboldt county redwoods park. Avenue of the Giants! Absolutely incredible visuals. To think, some of these trees were alive while Christ was on earth and while the pyramids were being built. Wow! Naturally, I brought my photo gear for some ancient forest photography.

I made a huge mistake in the beginning … I forgot my tripod! I couldn’t believe it! I had to work with limited options. For landspace shots, you want a small aperture to maximize your depth of field. Anywhere from f8 to f16 would be great for super wide to standard telephoto lenses. Unfortunately, I could barely get above f4.5 (and that’s with ISO800 and 1/60sec shutter speed!)

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It’s the weekend, so I figured an off-topic post would be cool. This has got to be one of the best forum threads I’ve followed in a long time! It’s start off with some rules:

Rules: cut the subject out and put him in another situation.

Sounds fair … 28 pages of photoshop’ed images!!! This passed out guy has been “immortalized”! The funniest page for me is #4. The guy is put into SO MANY situations, it’s incredible! From the Pope, to riding with Bush, to hanging with the Beatles … it’s great!

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Last.FM has created a very cool social network around music. You discover new artists around other poeple’s music compatibility. If you listen to a lot of Daft Punk, then it will recommend what others have listened to after Daft Punk. How cool is that!? Then, they compile a chart based on the number of listens for the week. Is this the future of radio charts?

One problem … Last.FM was acquired by the media giant CBS!!! NO!!! Last.FM didn’t observe the day of silence to revolt against the rate charges for online radio performances. The internet was suppose to be the frontier to free us from radio consolidation!

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