Martin Bird
www.martin-bird.co.uk

Synctracks Production Music Library

February 1st, 2012

Very pleased to be a new composer with Synctracks Production Music Library a very good company with very nice people indeed at the helm.

At the moment I have five tracks available, here is a link to my playlist:

Virgina Doesn’t

January 25th, 2012

Many years ago I played in a band called Virginia Doesn’t we were lucky enough to get a session with the great John Peel, recorded at Maida Vale 4 we did four tracks (listed below). Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of this event but we were in great company.

This is a photo of me taken around the time, playing my trusty old Explorer affectionately called “The Bullworker” due to its weight guitar made for me by Melvyn Hiscock who is the author of the fine book “Make Your Own Electric Guitar

Martin Bird Virginia Doesn't

Martin Bird Virginia Doesn't

Track list:

Nursey Bang Bang

January 25th, 2012
Miss Cream Tease (pictue by Nursey Bang Bang)

Miss Cream Tease (pictue by Nursey Bang Bang)

Thanks to Nursey for the kind mention and link for the track “I Don’t Need No Microphone” I did with Miss Cream Tease

Free AU Delay Plugin

May 29th, 2010

I ,m constantly amazed by the vast range of excellent freeware AU plug-ins so I thought I’d star listing my favourite ones.

Here is a very interesting delay from VanhallaDSP , they say: “Bode-style frequency shifter + analog echo emulation = skull melting chaos. Perfect for dub, Dr. Who and all of your psychedelic needs.”

Set Phasers for stun and engage warp drive! (also available as VST for PC)

Mac Startup Sound

May 29th, 2010

I was wondering who composed the Mac startup sound and after a little ‘Google’ I discovered that the Mac startup sound was a hack that was quietly dropped into the machine by an engineer with a home studio .

This [mp3] famous Mac startup sound (still installed in every new Mac) was recorded Jim Reekes, and first used on the Quadra 700, which launched in 1991 costing $7,000.which had these staggering specs:

  • introduced 1991.10.21 at around $6,000; discontinued 1993.03.15
  • requires System 7.0.1 or later; highest version supported without a PPC upgrade is Mac OS 8.1.
  • CPU: 25 MHz 68040
  • performance: 11.9, relative to SE; 7.61, MacBench 2.0 CPU; 16.2, Speedometer 3.06; 0.89, Speedometer 4; 22 MIPS

    see Benchmarks: Quadra 700

  • ROM: 1 MB
  • RAM: 4 MB on motherboard, expandable to 68 MB using a single bank of 4 80ns 30-pin SIMMs; can use 1 MB, 4 MB, 8 MB, or 16 MB SIMMs (can only recognize 64 MB of memory)
  • video: 512 KB VRAM, expandable to 1 MB or 2 MB; internal video does not support 16-bit mode
    • 512 x 384: 16-bit @ 512 KB, 24-bit @ 1 MB
    • 640 x 480, 832 x 624: 8-bit @ 512 KB, 24-bit @ 2 MB
    • 1152 x 870: 4-bit @ 512 KB, 8-bit @ 1 MB
  • L2 cache: optional, PDS
  • ADB: 2 ports for keyboard and mouse
  • serial: 2 DIN-8 RS-422 ports on back of computer
  • SCSI: DB-25 connector on back of computer
  • hard drive: 80, 160, or 400 MB
  • two NuBus 90 slots (one is aligned with PDS)
  • one PDS slot (one is aligned with a NuBus slot)
  • size (HxWxD): 11.9″ x 5.5″ x 14.4″ in vertical orienttion
  • weight: 13.6 lbs.
  • PRAM battery: 3.6V half-AA
  • Gestalt ID: 22
  • addressing: 24-bit, 32-bit
  • upgrade path: Power Mac PDS card

Anyway gertting back to Jim Reekes, his most famous pop-culture moment was the scene in Jurassic Park where the park’s computers are all rebooted with his sound. But it’s most awesome musical use is as the bassline in Transformer di Roboter’s ace cover of ‘Stranger in Moscow’ - here [mp3]

Slash Shreds

May 25th, 2010

I know these have been about for a while, but these ’shred’ Youtubes are hilarious here’s Slash

The Snowflake Man

January 7th, 2010

The UK is under the grips of severe winter and snow, during this cold climate it is easy to forget the beauty of snowflakes. Wilson Alwyn “Snowflake” Bentley didn’t, he is the  is the first known photographer of snowflakes. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they melted or sublimated.

“Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind.”

image: snowflakebentley.com

Spam

January 5th, 2010

Every day I have to deal with spam comments to my blogs!

Here are a few ‘prime cut’ examples:

‘I consider, that you are mistaken. Let’s discuss it. Write to me in PM’

‘I need an real working automated forex robots’

‘It is a pity, that now I can not express - it is very occupied. I will be released’

‘In my opinion you commit an error’

‘What magazine do cats like to read? Good Mousekeeping’

‘It agree, very useful idea’

Hmnnn, So it goes on day in and day out, indecently can anyone inform me what a ‘forex robot’ is?

So for all you spammers here is a real spam recipe for you from the official ‘SPAM®’ website, careful you don’t over do the ‘Marmite’

Spam Curry

Or how about this spam guitar rig from Cigar Box Nation?

Frankenstein (1910 film)

January 4th, 2010

A friend of mine received the book ‘1000 Films To Change Your Life’ book for Christmas,

Whilst reading the horror section I was interested to learn of the Frankenstein (1910 film) version.

A quick look on Wikipedia gave me this information:

Made by Edison Studios that was written and directed by J. Searle Dawley. It was the first motion picture adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The unbilled cast included Augustus Phillips as Dr. Frankenstein, Charles Ogle as the Monster, and Mary Fuller as the doctor’s fiancée.

Shot in three days, it was filmed at the Edison Studios in the Bronx, New York City. Although some sources credit Thomas Edison as the producer, he in fact played no direct part in the activities of the motion picture company that bore his name.

You can download it at ‘The Internet Archive’

Frankenstein 1910

I’m off to see Avatar later with all its massive expense and CGI quite a contrast!

Phillip Sayce

January 3rd, 2010

I have been listening and really enjoying the album ‘Peace Machine’ by Phillip Sayce, some great guitar tracks featuring a great rendition of Niel Young’s ‘Cinnamon Girl’  with brilliant playing throughout and soaring Strat tones. If you like Hendrix, Cream, Lenny Kravitz and psychedelic guitar in general check it out. A particular favourite is track 11  the slightly more laid back ‘Alchemy’ which I do a version of in my solo set.