tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48936854779745180262024-03-05T06:44:16.992-08:00Hillaby's blogHillaby is a programmer, a guitarist, a composer and a home comedian from Hungary. He shares his thoughts about music, life, politics and all the other things here on his blog.hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-4865515023489278112010-02-16T13:06:00.000-08:002010-02-17T00:36:25.419-08:00Moonshine ReggaeI will start a blog post series about my songs, about the influences they had, their instrumentation and any other useful information. Nowadays, when <span style="font-weight: bold;">music is practically freely available</span>, you can choose any music you like, but it's a challenge to find songs that really match your taste. I started to publish my own songs because they filled the gap between the musical styles that I listen to. They are sort of a synthesis of many influences that I had in my life.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5UWcogtz1183yx6bwkEQ5LvmzbPsSJUeVnYkDwTma5u5Pkr4iEV1-1LdmOmekIxT32Fo-m5aBeCZKb9_bPiQFG0uQj7KflWEBdZwdYOG8kx1QkV-U3ZpDw6T88uvsN9fy6J68Au63MYT/s1600-h/4fba80c5e663165822beed80a3c12d56_desktop.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 216px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5UWcogtz1183yx6bwkEQ5LvmzbPsSJUeVnYkDwTma5u5Pkr4iEV1-1LdmOmekIxT32Fo-m5aBeCZKb9_bPiQFG0uQj7KflWEBdZwdYOG8kx1QkV-U3ZpDw6T88uvsN9fy6J68Au63MYT/s320/4fba80c5e663165822beed80a3c12d56_desktop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438958709015854066" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Moonshine Reggae</span> is, as its title may suggest, a reggae, but that's not that straightforward. It started with me looking out at the January moon, with small clouds floating by, and then a simple melody came to my mind. This circular sequence of notes is the basis for this song. Then I sat down and played that on my guitar... at that time I was listening to many songs of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Antonio Carlos Jobim</span>, so I invented a slowly moving chord progression like his songs have. Jobim is a great composer (just remember <span style="font-style: italic;">The Girl From Ipanema</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Waters Of March</span>) , and what I like the most of his songs is that the melody is often very simple, while the weirdest chords come to give the songs its colours. So there I had the scheme of a bossa song.<br /><br />The sweet melodies and swinging upbeat reggae-ska rhythms of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rico Rodriguez</span> (and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Vin Gordon</span>) gave me the idea to convert this bossa song to an instrumental reggae. That's where the sampled trombone theme came from (both are excellent Jamaican trombonists). At that time I didn't have any means (like a Zoom H2) to record my own trombone sound (I do own a trombone), so I had to use a sample. I added some reverb and delay to bring back those dub sounds (like in the songs of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Yellowman</span> in the 80's). That was the initial version.<br /><br />After many listenings and having listened to some criticism I realized that the song was a little bit "empty", and because the programmed tunes it sounded sterile. By then I had my Zoom H2, so I added an <span style="font-weight: bold;">ashiko</span> (djembe-like hand drum) track (fully improvised!) and a <span style="font-weight: bold;">tres</span> (Cuban guitar with 3 pairs of strings) track to it. My tres sounded a bit like in the songs of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sierra Maestra</span>, maybe because I also use a larger instrument body for my tres. Some notes went off-beat but I left that this way. My son was already sleeping and I didn't want to bother him.<br /><br />Feel free to vote for this song at TheSixtyOne:<br /><br /><object><embed src="http://old.thesixtyone.com/site_media/swf/song_player_embed.swf?song_id=q9vdb8F3Q8n&artist_username=Hillaby" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="310" height="120"></embed></object>hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-29899601515013828942010-02-16T10:00:00.000-08:002010-02-16T10:22:47.916-08:00Classifying my musicLast year I have been working on publishing my music on sites like <a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/hillaby">ReverbNation</a>, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/hillaby">MySpace</a>, <a href="http://www.thesixtyone.com/Hillaby/">TheSixtyOne</a> and <a href="http://cherrypeel.com/Hillaby">CherryPeel</a>. I encountered the most problems when I had to classify my music: is it alternative, jazz, electronica, ska, latin or what? Well, I have listened to a great bunch of musicians from The Stone Age up till now and I'm still not sure which musical style my songs belong to... If I wasn't asked every time to classify the songs I upload, I wouldn't bother. But on many sites I just have to choose a musical style to tag my creations. So some thoughts about them...<br /><br />They have that sweet upbeat, melodic ska feeling that <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rico Rodriguez</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Vin Gordon</span> have. But still, the melodies tend to be Eastern European, which is not a big surprise, me being Hungarian. However, I cannot call my music "ska", because that is played by a band, not by a computer. So from the instrumentation point of view, these songs are electronic (electronica) songs. So is it electronic ska, some sort of dub, instrumental dubstep like <span style="font-weight: bold;">Skream</span>? Well, my songs are more like music for listening, not for dancing. Some songs of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Plaid</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">RJD2</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lemon Jelly</span> might sound like my songs, too. So, is it <span style="font-style: italic;">nu jazz ska</span>, or something like that?<br /><br />Some ideas:<br /><ul><li>nu latin ska jazz</li><li>electronic latin ska jazz</li><li>...</li></ul>Comments are welcome.hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-47033585149670881192009-11-20T12:52:00.000-08:002009-11-20T13:15:35.420-08:00A "timbre stretching" example in ChucKAs many of us, professional or hobbyist computer music aficionados, I adore Miller Puckette's <a href="http://crca.ucsd.edu/%7Emsp/techniques.htm">freely available book</a> on this science, "The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music". If you are more into the material, you may have noticed that the examples in this book are written (more accurately: "drawn") in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Data">Pd, or Pure Data</a>, which is a graphical computer music synthesis environment.<br /><br />I wanted to try the same concepts in my favourite music language, <a href="http://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/">ChucK</a>, which lead me to the conclusion that it's quite different to create the same concepts in these two environments.<br /><br />So here's my take on "<a href="http://crca.ucsd.edu/%7Emsp/techniques/latest/book-html/node30.html">timbre stretching</a>", which is an interesting approach to radically change a waveform without the use of filters or frequency modulation, whatever.<br /><pre><br />// "timbre stretching" in a ChucKist way<br />// by Hillaby<br /><br />// the sinosc can be replaced by any waveform generator<br />// in this sample it's only used for one period<br />SinOsc osc => LiSa lisa => dac;<br /><br />// modulator will modulate duty cycle<br />SinOsc modulator => blackhole;<br /><br />/* in case you want to record it...<br />lisa => WvOut rec => blackhole;<br />"lisa.wav" => rec.wavFilename;<br />*/<br /><br />// play around with these settings:<br />100.0 => float fr; // the base frequency<br />1.3 => modulator.freq; // modulator frequency (keep it low :))<br />5.0 => float modRate; // modulation rate, the minimum duty cycle will be 1 / (1+2*modRate), maximum: 1<br /><br />// calculate period and set wave generator frequency<br />1::second / fr => dur period;<br />fr => osc.freq;<br /><br />// record one period and unchuck wave generator<br />period => lisa.duration;<br />1 => lisa.record;<br />lisa.duration() => now;<br />0 => lisa.record;<br />osc =< lisa;<br /><br />// play back recorded period<br />while (1) {<br /> 0::samp => lisa.playPos; // start at 0<br /> 1 => lisa.play;<br /> <br /> // set rate, 1.0 when duty cycle is maximum<br /> // and 1.0+modrate*2.0 when minimum<br /> 1.0 + modRate*(1.0+modulator.last()) => lisa.rate;<br /> <br /> // wait until playback terminates (at specified rate)<br /> lisa.duration()/lisa.rate() => now;<br /> 0 => lisa.play;<br /> <br /> // wait until the "empty part" of the duty cycle passes<br /> period - lisa.duration()/lisa.rate() => now;<br />}<br /></pre>hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-13488998802373432462009-11-15T10:17:00.000-08:002009-11-15T10:26:38.291-08:00La Charanga Habanera in Slovenia!OK, I have just come back from Vienna from the concert of Pupy y Los Que Son Son, and now I'm planning to travel to Slovenia at the end of this month, because <span style="font-weight: bold;">David Calzado y La Charanga Habanera</span>, one of my favourite Cuban bands will perform. The concert dates and places follow:<br /><ul><li>Wednesday, 25. November 2009 - Festivalna dvorana, Ljubljana, Slovenia</li><li>Thursday, 26. November 2009 - Festivalna dvorana Lent, Maribor, Slovenia</li><li>Friday, 27. November 2009 - Kresovanje, Sežana, Slovenia</li></ul>Maribor is only 350 kms from Budapest, that seems to be the closest point of their European tour in autumn '09.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(For my Spanish-speaking friends: las fechas y los lugares de los conciertos en Eslovenia de La Charanga Habanera se pueden encontrar aquí arriba en la lista.)</span>hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-81060951185237130212009-07-08T10:10:00.000-07:002009-07-28T14:34:31.802-07:00Concerts (tour) - conciertos (gira)Here's a list of the concerts I may be interested in:<br /><ul><li> 2009-07-29 - Verona, Italy: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Orquesta Revé (Elio "Elito" Revé y su Charangón)</span></li><li> 2009-08-01 - Bled, Slovenia, Okarina Festival: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Orquesta Revé (Elio "Elito" Revé y su Charangón)</span></li><li><span>2009-08-01 - </span>Milano, Italy, Latinoamericando: <span style="font-weight: bold;">David Calzado y La Charanga Habanera</span></li><li> 2009-08-02 - Lonato di Garda, Italy: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Orquesta Revé (Elio "Elito" Revé y su Charangón)</span></li><li>2009-08-03 - Milano, Italy, Latinoamericando: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Orquesta Revé (Elio "Elito" Revé y su Charangón)</span></li><li> 2009-08-05 - Milano, Italy, Latinoamericando: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Calle 13</span></li><li> 2009-08-12 - Roma/Rome, Italy, Fiesta: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Carlos Vives</span></li><li>2009-08-14 - Roma/Rome, Italy, Fiesta: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Orquesta Revé (Elio "Elito" Revé y su Charangón)</span></li><li> 2009-08-16 - Milano, Italy, Latinoamericando: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Carlos Vives</span></li></ul>(Elito Revé = Elio Revé Jr.)hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-14530821327839043042009-06-08T15:00:00.000-07:002009-06-08T15:04:46.535-07:00blowjobbik<br/><br /><img src="http://galeria.index.hu/belfold/2009/06/07/jobbik_szekhaz/535967_d22bfe474fda7d45ff679995aa654ba7_m.jpg" /><br /><br />See also: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_for_a_Better_Hungary">Jobbik</a>.<br /><br/>hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-31502358984549427152009-05-16T05:00:00.000-07:002009-05-16T05:45:37.270-07:00So Long, Unclefucker!Has anybody realized how similar these two songs are?<br /><br />South Park - Uncle Fucka, from 0:37:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nWPYqnSNj74&hl=es&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nWPYqnSNj74&hl=es&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />ABBA - So Long, from 0:40:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lIueevl71cA&hl=es&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lIueevl71cA&hl=es&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-74173037007405967372009-04-25T03:20:00.000-07:002009-04-25T03:28:41.854-07:00AddictophobiaI'm 31 years old, and have been drinking a bottle of wine daily for four years. I have been in constant fear of becoming an alcoholic. Now I realized that what bothered me the most wasn't the need to drink my first glass of wine in the evening, but that I thought I was going to be an alcoholic. I have a strong fear of becoming an addict, which is actually worse than it would be to become an addict. I call that <span style="font-style: italic;">addictophobia</span>.<br /><br />I like to drink, and if I think about my liver getting damaged through the years it's like thinking about four tyres that get worn while driving. If you want your tyres to stay intact, don't drive. If you like driving, then accept that your tyres get worn.<br /><br />The only thing is that it's a lot easier to get four new tyres than getting a new liver.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And BTW, don't forget: don't drink and drive!</span>hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-47859659459143495982009-04-17T16:16:00.000-07:002009-04-17T16:26:22.885-07:00First steps towards live-codingAs you might know (e. g. hearing the notes the player on the left-hand side plays), I make music. I mainly use <a href="http://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/">ChucK</a> for this purpose, which is a quite simple but functional and well-designed programming language. However, there has been a big limitation in efficiency: I actually had to write down <span style="font-style: italic;">every single note</span> and volume change, filter frequency sweep by my own hands as <span style="font-weight: bold;">nasty old numbers</span> in Java-like code. I hope that time has finally ended.<br /><br />Today I succeeded to connect a very simple Java UI to ChucK via OSC messages (thanks to <a href="http://www.beanizer.org/site/index.php/en/Articles/Computer-Music-ChucK-Java-MIDI-and-OSC-integration.html">this post</a>). Now I plan to write my own UI's ("instruments") in Java, generate OSC events with them and record them using the accurate timing built into ChucK. Then I'll use Ruby to generate ChucK code again from the events I recorded. So there goes feedback, too. I'll feel like a real pro... and it all cost nothing, only a little coding experience...hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-38793606299385579482009-04-15T01:19:00.000-07:002009-04-15T01:22:43.314-07:00How to win a warLook which side the Hungarians are on, and stand on the other side.hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-63176243239129778802009-04-11T14:43:00.000-07:002009-04-11T14:54:21.939-07:00ReverbNation song statistics revealedOK, I have some songs at <a href="http://reverbnation.com/hillaby">ReverbNation</a>. You might as well listen to them using the player on the left. ReverbNation offers me the possibility to see how many people listened to my songs and what percent of each song they heard. Knowing this and the length of my songs, I can provide a "hall of fame" of Hillaby's songs:<br /><ol><li>Let Me Live - 8,63 points</li><li>Dubbancha - 8,43</li><li>Seven Lives - 7,16</li><li>Aka Cat - 6,85<br /></li><li>Moonshine Reggae - 6,81</li><li>Xmas Dux Ska - 6,55</li><li>At The Edge Of Hope - 5,52</li><li>Skwabisk - 5,5</li></ol>It's quite interesting that the most popular song title is 'Skwabisk', which means that's the title which attracted the most people, however, it couldn't grab people's attention: they switched away quite early.<br /><br />The list above shows that my guitar solos were quite attractive: the first three have solos in them, while the other five haven't. I should practice more...hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-6935446347337793612009-04-11T12:15:00.000-07:002009-04-11T12:19:28.621-07:00On programming languages<p>I read some articles about the dangers that C++ can have for an average programmer, and that we'd better go on and get Java or C# for our projects. Well, I can only agree that it's easier to write code in Java than in C++. But the quality of the product we have to release does not always depend on how easy it was to produce it.<br /></p><p>I am the maintainer and team leader for a 300k+ loc. C++ project. If it works it's not because of the language, it's because of the tests we run. <span style="font-weight: bold;">If it fails, it's not because of the language either, it's because of the tests we haven't run.</span></p> <p>I don't believe that a software product will be more reliable just because it's written in a "higher-level" language. It's reliable and stable because almost all of its functionality has been tried or even stress-tested.</p>hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-68414358820889425982009-04-05T03:30:00.000-07:002009-04-05T03:31:48.522-07:00tic tac toeMenthol-flavoured foot finger.hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-64351201488991427842009-04-05T03:29:00.000-07:002009-04-05T03:32:16.561-07:00alcoholismAn illness that goes away when you drink alcohol.hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893685477974518026.post-74232326214477535282009-04-05T03:27:00.000-07:002009-04-05T03:32:37.237-07:00Logical"How do you know that <span style="font-style: italic;">Punks Not Dead</span>?"<br />"Because <span style="font-style: italic;">Dead Can Dance</span>."hillabyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03375114006519915389noreply@blogger.com0