3/31/06

Bollywood on Beltway

AID - Maryland and AIMS India Foundation presents
An evening of rocking Hindi film music featuring

Rasika...
Tickets:Sadasivam:703-863-5678|Madhav:240-461-1430 |Anjali:703-945-6569
Folks around DC metro area, please attend the above music concert, the proceeds from the show goes for a noble cause. The band for their part is playing for free! Hence please contribute,in return you also get to hear good music. Your participation is required in order to make the event a grand success.

Have a great weekend.

ps:If you walk by the audio mix console area, please drop in to say Hi to me. :)

Game Day
[India vs England - 2nd one day]

India won! Thanks to Suresh Raina and Dhoni, they put their heads down and proved their selection is worth a million. Raina now has chances to get a permanent seat in the team, this is the second time he drove the Indian wagon to victory. This guy has a great potential, Raina’s batting technique resembles David Gower. Just like Gower, Raina’s technique is all about timing and grace. He is not a power hitter but a powerful timer of the ball. He knows his weakness and manages it quite well. Temperament is also growing. Also Dhoni’s temperament needs to be appreciated,. He kept his head down and guided Raina quite well. He also drove him around the park. Scoring 80 runs in this tough wicket is quite a task, only few players I know that could do it, one is currently recouping in London, while we found another who is just 19 - Suresh Raina is a great prospect for India.

The day started with Irfan and Sreesanth bowling some what well, But Sreesanth gave up soon and started to bowl too or [three] Short. Dravid had no choice other than to get his ace bowler, Harbajan - who managed to get the break through. Romesh Powar also bowled a tight line but he dropped a [caught and bowled] sitter, only reason I can say for this pathetic mess - his "Made for Tolly-wood" glasses. An easy dolly went down. Raina also dropped a tough chance for Kevin Pieterson who went on to make runs. It is matter of time Kevin Pieterson runs out of luck.

India batting, Viru seems to get into the groove. But Gautham Gambeer played the worst shot of his entire cricketing carrier.., he was well settled to score 50 or more. His carelessness made it easy for the Fate to take its course. Dravid after wasting [or some call it settling down] about 20 balls to score 5, he was run out on his own accord for nothing.

Kaif, a cat only has 9 lives but Kaif – he is been enough opportunity than many but fails quite frequently, his technique is totally flawed. Last time he scored was when Haley’s comet passed by earth Orbit. So we can see him in action in the year 2020AD Seriously, By all means Gangully is a better bet than Kaif. He deserves a recall.

Finally, Laxman Sivarama Krishnan is back with his superlative expressions, his mojo on using superlatives suddenly shot up like Google Stock. Yesterday he used about 20 or more superlatives to describe standard fielding and bowling effort. The most irritating thing was this Raina reaching manhood; He was repeating ராமாயி Raina வயசுக்கு வந்துட்டான் dialogue about 20 times a minute. What the heck – சிவராம, அடங்குடா :)

Have a great weekend.

3/30/06

A Simple Guide to Learn Sequencers - Part-3



Day 3
Simple Midi Setup
Trust me! Today this is a very easy process, as simple as connecting a cable modem, Windows is pretty sharp; it will make your life easy.
Back in 1993-95 installing midi devices was more or less like learning mathematical tables above 12, complicated. Today, required parts are widely available. However before going into it, let me be clear, I am going talk only from a PC perspective – Even today Apple MAC seems to be a diet pill for my wallet.

Requirements:
A PC with an maximum age limited to 7 years and that runs any version other than the dreaded Windows ME [ME=Must be Extinguished] or later. A sound blaster compatible sound card, PCs born 7 years ago should have a sound card; A GM midi keyboard or a controller, and an over the counter “PC-Midi cable”. This is called Game Port to Midi adapter which can be found in most computer or electronic shops. Finally the sequencer software, though I would be explaining concepts using Generic sequencer terms I suggest having Cakewalk Home studio. [No! Cakewalk does not pay me for this promo].

As explained before in earlier chapters, Midi traffic is one way road, hence in a simple midi setup there would be a Midi in that carries data to the PC, and Midi Out that sends data from the pc. Plug in the 15 pin Midi cable to the Game port, if you are gamer using joy stick, fear not! Most midi cables have adapters to hold both.

In our set up the controller and slave will be same person, what is this controller, an input device to the master, which would be sequencer software running in your pc.

From the picture to you can see how simple is to connect. Now let us get into some complexity, Install your sequencer software, before going deep into this; let me explain some basic terminologies, not found in books.

MIDI DEVICES: Sequencer software needs to know about all your midi devices. You are expected to select Midi devices; this can be found in the preferences or options. There would be 2 columns; Midi input to assign the input device and Midi out to assign the Midi out device. This can also be a Single to Multiple connections. Meaning, a sequencer can receive data from a single midi device and transmit midi data to many number of midi devices. This would make more meaning only if you have multiple midi devices, but in your case there should be only one, which would be your sound card. Cakewalk will automatically profile the midi devices.

PORT NUMBER: In simple terms, Port numbers are special channels through which the master and the slave communicate. Sequencer recognizes midi devices by assigning port numbers. Every slave gets a unique port number to receive data and every input device [the controller] gets a unique port number to transmit data. This is important, if you don’t understand it, take a deep breath and read this paragraph again.

In a midi farm, port numbers are very important. For the above simple midi setup, we would just have single port for the input and single port for the output, both numbers are exclusive but independent. If you are a network buff, this is just like the web server port number that can be closed and opened using a fire wall.

CHANNEL NUMBER: 1-16 MIDI channel numbers. Master can address slaves using these 16 channels on a given port number. There is no particular order here, user can pick channel 16 alone and dump the whole song on it, which never happens though. Something like dumping everything on single soup bowl.
Healthy practice would be to use one instrument per midi channel. Each device can handle 16 Channels only, however today there are keyboards and sound modules with dual or more Midi groups, like 32 midi channels split by 2 port numbers.

TRACK: - Track is an independent container that holds midi data. Music stored in a track moves from left to right. Technically a track can hold any number of midi channels and its related data. Meaning the entire composition can be dumped on to a single track, something like writing this whole article on single line. In most sequencers a track can address only one port. Meaning it can dump data to particular salve only. The general practice is to use Single Midi channel per track, and more than one track can be used for the same midi Channel + port number combination. Users can also force various parameters on a given track; This is the most Integral part of a sequencer.They are called track parameters which we will learn in next session.

All Rights Reserved (c) Srikanth Devarajan, Unauthorized copying or re-publishing of this article is prohibited, you have license to learn! And pass it on to others with the authors name intact. If you want to syndicate this, kindly contact me at srikanthD at gmail.

3/29/06

American “I-Drool"

American Idol for all its glory finally evolved into a pathetic Fiasco on Fox. Yesterday contestants were asked to pick songs from the 21st century. This proved to be a disaster. Either they sang it really bad or the songs from 21st century sucked right royally what ever, yesterday all most all the vocal performances was well below the word ‘Pathetic’. As if this was not enough the show reached its bottom when the world witnessed irrational behavior from one of the judge Yes, you guessed it, Paula Abdul. - “Paula Strikes again”

American “I” Drool fame Paula Abdul all of a sudden started to drool over a scar on one of the contestant’s chest. He was very happy to show it to the world, while Paula drooled on the Live TV asking about the scratch mark. Poor Simon and Randy remembering last year’s “episode” rushed to stop her chemical imbalances and tried to restore some sanity in the show. Paula needs to behave like an evaluator not a screw loose admirer. And she better remember that this is a live show watched by teens and “little kids”. Frankly this morning I heard a kid in the train comment “yesterday Paula seem to be drunk more than the regular.”

Next Mr.Ryan Secrest - I don’t know how many noted the sudden change in Ryan Secrest yesterday; He would often take cheap pot shots at Simon at regular intervals. Though some looked to be scripted, often Simon would look shocked but would just ignore it. This culture soon spread to the contestant who gained guts to reply back to the judge’s opinion. Now from yesterday audience also started to do the same.
The audience for their part turned this entire show to something very near to the Day time fiasco called Jerry Springer Cat fight show. Booing at the judges is not accepted by any norms, they are the “judges” they are being paid to evaluate the contestant, let them do their job; their opinions should be respected. Only on Fox you see such crap. This whole live thing is not working.

Yesterday too Ryan Secrest went over board with his remarks on Simon. But following this incident, suddenly all of his tantrums were shut down and he just stood there reading the teleprompter without his usual expressions. Wow! Finally someone in Fox had guts to control this guy. I think some one in the fox high command had put the lid on him. Good for the show, he is not there to judge the judges or to speak for the contestants. His is just a Master of ceremony, a host, whose primary job is to read the teleprompter. Period;

Hopefully today we will see some sanity restored back, and or result, for the way they sang yesterday I think all the 10 should go home.

3/27/06

Over the weekend!

We are set of the one day internationals. After the pathetic draw in the test series against the second fiddle English lineup, Dravid and men are under real pressure. Team Indian missing out important players; Sachin out and while Viru seems to be totally unfit resembles a walking Rasagulla. Coach who is supposed to motivate seems to be doing nothing. frankly after the final test, Team India looked pathetic!. I feel, Gangully deserves a recall, a batsmen of his caliber is a need for this hour. Instead of brewing fresh wine – Old wine might help here. I would get back Gangully to redeem some batting sanity in the team. Pathan opening - he is a bowler and his job is to keeping bowling at 135+ kmph. These days Kumble’s flipper seems faster than Pathan’s bowling. Dravid will think about 2000000 times before making a decision on the toss.


Saturday I was at Richmond, Sound mixing a live show for Rasika. The show was fantastic and Rasika musicians played music to its perfection. Really enjoyed working with them. The same show will be held in DC coming Saturday. Apart from the proceeds going to a noble cause, I think it worth paying to watch these musicians in action. Watch out for Ajith singing Ye Jo Mohabat! Please book your tickets now.

Finally, I saw in the comment section about Super Star stunts when compared with Cabton, check this and see how Super-Star feels about it. Thanks to Rags! for finding this gem :)

Good day!.

3/24/06

Cabtan Rulez - கரன்டுகே ஷொக் அடிக்கும்

Watch these clips and dont blame me "for too much laugh syndrome".

Clib one
Clib two
Clib three

Until we make such ill logical stuff to show heroism, in the name of commercial movies we will be 20 or 30 years behind in genuine movie making.

ps:Using the same software Hollywood created King Kong, Lord of rings.

3/22/06

A Simple Guide to Learn Sequencers - Part-2



Day 2
Keyboards, the Paradigm shift

Keyboards, Gift from God - for musicians a spectacular tool; for non Musicians - an attractive novelty; and for me it is also a tax deduction.

An electronic musical keyboard provides variety of choices that inspires musician to create better music. Let me jump straight to the Fundamental anatomy of a keyboard. This is made up of two parts; an Input device, - the keys – that triggers the second part - the internal sound/tone generator. Keyboards can sense pressure, weight and different kinds of other parameters, and will pass this to the tone generator which will react accordingly. There are various types of keyboards available today. How does a keyboard function? It would a discussion similar to Dravid’s patient batting. I will try and keep it simple.

For every sound found in the keyboard, there is a set of data file. The basic sound wav is stored as data which would be manipulated using oscillators, envelops to produce the sounds in different frequencies. These sound data files are called as samples. “Cheaper the keyboards, cheesier the sound”; Samples are mapped to corresponding notes on the keyboards. Just like the PC keyboard, when C is pressed letter C is displayed, like wise, when the Note C is pressed on the keyboard, it will play the wave file for the C sound. The manufactures would sample and provide the sounds for you. Price of the keyboards depends on the quality of these sound samples. Advance workstation/ synthesizers provide elaborate methods to manipulate these sounds. And if you are able to add your own samples and manipulate it, the keyboard get now promoted to a something that is called a Sampler. The First generation keyboard that God sent to the man kind was called Prophet 5 [Yes I am not making it up] followed by few other keyboards from Roland & Yamaha. They sounds they offered were mere sophisticated door bells. The world changes drastically, and today there are various types of keyboards [Controllers, Work Stations, Domestic etc] that are mind boggling.

Controllers are just input devices without sound generators. In other words they are dumb terminals. They don’t provide sounds and they come with the first part of the above discussed anatomy. Workstations are powerful and come with tons of options and mind boggling tools to make the composition and music sound better [a relative term]. There are also these domestic versions from Casio and Yamaha PSR models. It is an ocean out there; you need define your fishing area.

Though the keyboard market today is filled with heterogeneous types, the basics terminology used in every type is almost same. Each sound in a keyboard is called as a patch or a program. General midi suggests 128 slots for patches, meaning. GM compliant keyboards will have standards to address 128 patches. A patch has a various parameters – volume, sound number and many more. First generation GM keyboards provided only 128 sounds max, Yep a serious bottle neck. However God interfered again and sorted this out quickly. , God added one more addressing parameter for the patch called “Bank”, when addressing a patch – a Bank Name/Number + Patch number would be used. In Database terms God changed the Primary key to reach a patch.

Seeing this push from God, Humans got creative, next big change was the arrival of the Multi-Timberal keyboards. This sent the music world towards something spectacular. What is a Multi-Timberal keyboard? A keyboard that can play 16 midi channels simultaneously; and how about this - Each channel can be controlled separately. Yes! 16 channels mean 16 different instruments per keyboard, one person band.

Remember our keyboard companion “Señorita Secuencia” - Using sequencers musicians started to control 16 channels of a Multi-Timberal keyboard directly. This is when the sequencers gained an immense popularity. Sequencers provided interface to select channel number, assign instrument number etc, stored music in different tracks and permitted user editing. This whole setup can also be saved on a floppy disk. All said and done the first generations of Sequencers were crude and complex to use. They were separate unit with dimly lit 1 line LCD display. They came with multi function buttons and edit options. The most popular one I have used is the Roland MC50 series sequencers. This had power to handle 8 midi channels. And frankly when compared to modern day ones, the first generation sequencers were a tough cookie to master.

Seeing musicians struggle, at the end of second day God said “thee humans,” Thy pain will be soon over - world would change”, Birth of MPU 401 silicon chip! Entire scenario changed when Roland gave the MPU401 Chip. Roland MPU 401 is the de-facto standard for MIDI interfaces on Computers. Using this you can connect midi gadgets to a computer. With such a power at disposal, it was matter of time for inspired human beings to create Software based sequencers.

Twelve tone system’s Cakewalk and midi man’s MPU401 card were the popular software hardware combination I owned, [8 bit PC card]. , I had a PC/XT, Around 90’s I was a proud owner of this card and software, at the same period Turtle Beaches [another company] introduced some more serious cards with wav table synthesis and daughter board combinations. It was out of my middle class reach.

To me this was clearly a birth of a new era, a paradigm shift in how I am going to make music in future. Imo, when it comes to sequencing, Cakewalk [Sonar]–would be most powerful and complete midi sequencer. They have come a long way in this industry Their initial versions provided about 128 tracks and supported various others features that is popular even today, which we will discuss soon.

Next Creating a domestic midi setup or I call it the simple midi setup;

All Rights Reserved (c) Srikanth Devarajan, Unauthorized copying or re-publishing of this article is prohibited, you have license to learn! And pass it on to others with the authors name intact. If you want to syndicate this, kindly contact me at srikanthD at gmail.

முதல் கோணல் முற்றும் கோணல்

முதல் கோணல் முற்றும் கோணல் - It all started with Dravid choosing to bowl, it not right to discuss about this now -what if it had clicked? But Dravid took a risk trusting a bowling squad that was born 2 days ago in the esteemed BCCI maternity ward. Not to blame them, this is what you get with fresh O positives, experience is vital in test cricket. This has to be cultivated over period of time. To me, this lack of experience factor looked bright and clear right from day one, but fielding by the Indians was remarkable - mind blowing. We cannot blame the bowlers. Fielders in 1st to 5th street, Slip colony kept dropping at regular intervals, something similar to a bird colony that lives near a political leader statue.

I wish the team think tank retains Sreesanth & Munuf for next few years in order to gain the vital experience. But Mr. Ajith Agony Agarkar has been selected for the one day hence Sreesanth or Munuf might be trained to carry drinks.I also feel we should continue 5+5 combination.

Coming to the batting display, I have no answers [so does Rahul Dravid] for yesterday batting display.

After Dravid and Sachin departed, it was simply விபிஷண சரணாகதி [Surrender]by the rest. No one seemed to have a heart to stay and face the music.
Dhoni – I don’t know what to say, if Sachin was booed out for playing a bad shot in the first innings, what Dhoni would get then? If the plaintiff is from Texas he might claim for an Electric Chair. My verdict - 100 rounds around the Wankade stadium [every time Dhoni plays there].

Rahul Dravid looked really shaken during the presentation ceremony. His face expression and body language spoke million words. He was literally uncomfortable to stand there and deal the booing crowd. Mumbai crowd needs to get a life. It seems Sachin and Dravid had a game plan to keep wickets intact till tea time and then go for an assault. But what happened? A lapse in concentration for Dravid, he departed – doubling the pressure on Sachin, who has already announced he would not be playing in one day games, a blow to Indian squad. Sachin for what was left scored the most runs in the total, no other player crossed 20. Rest of the batsmen took a Nike fashion show parade.

The English bowling was not really devastating but was accurate, 37 old year spinner – Udal proved that age does not matter - experience matters, he never gave up; like wise, Flintoff is an amazing cricketer. He managed to keep his nerves down and controlled his team quite well, the Ashes victory is not a fluke, it has done lot of good, in spite of a secondary squad English team looks better on the field.

One way this is good, a reality check for the Indian team, they now know where they stand. How ever easy the opponents are, it is very hard to win games if there is no heart to win it. This test match is another proof. I have no great hopes for India in the one day. I wish our fielding improves, I prefer Raina to take Sachin’s position, because I feel he is the closest contender who has the technique for this “After Sachin slot”.

finally, an opinion that most will disagree, “Dravid and his coach frankly need a refresher course - they need to read “Desi Captaincy for Desi Dummies by Sourav Gangully”. As a captain do you think Gangully would let go the test in this poor fashion? An Indian win was on cards right from day one but our players did not care to bring the card, left it in their hotel room.

3/21/06

Game Day
[India vs England - 3st Test]

Indians missed vital catches and let go the English. For most of the day the English were pegged down by some fantastic bowling; Number of catches Yuvarj Singh dropped is more the number of coffees I take per day. Seriously what is the coach doing here about the technical flaw? Every commentator or even spectators have spotted this flaw. Mr. Coach was seen sitting there as though he was on a paid vacation to Mumbai. Adding to this Dhoni missed the easiest stumping known to man kind.

The most remarkable performance of the day was from Anil Kumble. He was simply fantastic;gave his heart and soul to the team, he is determined for an Indian victory. the closing in fielders kept dropping catches at will, Kumble took a fantastic catch to get rid of Kevin Peterson. He also played the night watch man roll in perfection to protect Jaffer.Hats of to the big guy;

Sachin was moving with great speed in the outfield however just a while go I saw a head line at Rediff.com - “Sachin out of One day series due to an injury”. This would be a blow to the one day squad; His batting was near perfect in the one day scenario. Sehwag was seen doing baby elephant walks on and off field; he was suffering from back injury etc. Did not field or open, what ever! There is something fishy going on here on fitness etc.

Nasser Hussian was telling that batsmen should do their job instead of asking the bowlers to bat for them; I agree with him here, Dravid should have come in and played some quick shots. But pressure is such that it can break even a concrete Wall.
Yuvraj, Dhoni, and Dravid playing to their potential, I think Indians can pull of a sensational victory here. First hour tomorrow we will know about it. But for now, it is Advantage England;

3/20/06

Game Day
[India vs England - 3st Test]

Indians trying their best to lose this test match. They seem to have taken a proclamation even if England provides with opportunity they WILL lose this test match”

First, Fielding and Catching - about million catches were dropped. Captain by example, Dravid holds a record for most number of catches, but in past few games he seems to compete for most number of catches dropped in slips. He did take one blinder but that does not cover for his dropped catches.

One missed catch is bad luck or mistake, but 7 already in this test is sheer recklessness. Had the catches been taken, Indians could have restricted the English to well below 300. Mr. Yuvraj “the always trying to showoff” Singh dropped a sitter at the end of the 3rd day and raised the number of catches dropped in the series to 16. Coach! What the #### you are doing?

Batting forms: Sachin’s worrying batting form continues, I am a biased Sachin fan rather a devotee, in spite of this, his form worries me a lot. He is making it easy for his haters to make fun of his genuine achievements. Indian crowd, just like they did to Kapil, Gavaskar, Ravi Sastri went on to honor the home town boy. They booed Sachin out as he took a painful walk back to pavilion. Yes, who would not, he played a careless shot and literally donated his wicket. God one day - the reverse the next day; to come out this tight spot, his only option is to play and score runs, else who knows, a voluntary retirement can be on cards.

Dravid’s batting gift, I agree he is greatest technical player with a great average and currently at this best. Wall, Doll everything is ok, but - this very very very very slow batting approach in the name of saving the game cultivates confidence to bowlers. To me Dravid seems to start as though India is on 20/7 and he has to play for next 365 days and draw the game somehow. He has the capacity to push the run rate; I don’t know why he is restricting himself. He needs to increase his strike rate. I wish Dravid maintains a strike rate above 50

Sehwag’s batting weakness Identified – he got out the same way as in Mohali. Just like Sachin, Yuvaraj and Irfan played irresponsible strokes and donated their wickets.

Finally umpiring, Tonight, Darrel Hair would be induced into the fairytale hall of fame. He will be joining the 3 blind mice crew; he would be the 4th blind mice. The fairy god mother has also changed the song “3 blind mice” to “4 blind mice”.
I do not know what the “Hair” - Hair is doing there. Dhoni's decision was a close call, the bails did not dislodge fully, imo this did not have full evidence, but I do not know what Hariharan saw and he simply ruled him out and sealed it for lucky England. Hari or Hair - bottom line Ridiculous umpiring errors;

I think above points are enough to give an upper hand to any team that follows basics. On paper English team when compared to the boasted Indian lineup are just the second fiddle. However their captain who seem to have more brainy matter than ours was right on spot when it came to basics. This pushed India to the back seat.

3 days of cricket gone - English are clear favorites for past 2.5 days, but the last hour we witnessed great bowling from the Indians ,this has rasised our hopes. This game is so crazy anything can happen - Indians can get them out for about 150 by lunch time and go for a killer win or England scores about 250 and let India face their music. In any case, Dravid will land there with a crate of fevicol and Indians will play for a draw, what ever! - I don’t think Indian team deserves to win.

3/16/06

A Simple Guide to Learn Sequencers
by Srikanth [yeh! the h1bees dude]

Introduction:
Musicians today gets to know about sequencers and its advancement very quickly, thanks to Google or other “searching” engines! Plenty of articles can be found online. Some of the articles are really elaborate which warrants decent reading time. I started to sequence music when there was no internet. Yes! Could you believe it, a decade ago we had no Internet or Google to search for free porn or free cricket.

My knowledge in this area comes from reading various books, manual and practical hands on real time experience. I have been sequencing/programming music for about 15 years now; this is a journey that started from the good old Twelve Tone System’s Cakewalk for DOS which now has reached modern day Sonars, Cubases or Logics and the ever popular and powerful Protools.

In this series of articles summing up my experience I shall try and provide some insights, pitfalls, power user modes, tips [10% of the bill] and advanced mode of operations about sequencers. Yes! I hear there are tons out there on this subject. What new I am going to write? Just the same, but my goal here is to share my experience and to teach non-musicians about midi programming, if they really care. Some of “them” though assume Midi and keyboards makes music automatically, as Yoda would say “blame them not - pardon their ignorance”.

When talking about sequencers, you will find an alliance similar to NATO, an alliance between PC, MIDI, and Keyboards etc that works pretty well. I would try to provide explanations as simple as possible, some of them might sound really confusing for non musicians and a new comer, for them Yoda says “Fear not – the force is with you”. [Yes you guessed, I saw star wars final part few days ago]

Day 1
When Gods [atheists are welcome to replace Gods with Roland or Korg, Nord etc!] created electronic keyboards, very soon realized - in order to serve efficiently keyboards should have a companion or a buddy – [He thought the same and gave Eve! Duh!;] This made God to create “sequencers”, he then tied the knot between these two entities using something called MIDI and told “thou shall remain the master and other would be a faithful slave”. To put it polity a device that is totally controlled by another. [If you are married I can guess your thoughts]

What is MIDI? [Please! – Do not get creative over female fashion.]
MIDI is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It is a protocol for musical instruments to exchange data. Something similar to TCP/IP for networks; it is a common etiquette between 2 or more midi devises to accept one as their master. Hence using general MIDI it is possible to chain [connect] various type midi supporting devices.

What is this general midi? As soon as the first version of Midi came out, every one started to create/clone their versions of midi protocols; this was clearly against God’s wish of a companion yadayadaYada. Hence for once the entire electronic music instrument manufacturing community teamed together and accepted to follow a common protocol called “GENERAL MIDI” [GM].The low level GM specification is a well composed lullaby. So let me skip it and keep it really simple.

General MIDI establishes unidirectional path between master and the slave on 16 different channels. Both the entities talk the same language. However this is a “one-way” super highway that has 16 lanes. Each lane has numbers 1 to 16 assigned to it. The master always assigns the channel numbers to each datum [singular for data - for ages I have been waiting to use this word] and sends it to the slave, which receives the datum in the same channel and does the needful.

If a keyboard supports general midi - you will find a MIDI-OUT & a MIDI-IN and a MIDI-THRU sockets. MIDI-OUT sends midi data out, while MIDI-IN receives data from other instruments. MIDI-THRU, will get the data - might use it but it also simply passes it on to another chained device. The best thing about midi data is its size; it is really small and condensed. The reason being the actual sound is not transported, the master informs the slave of about its current actions or tasks, and slaves follow it diligently. Say master says “dude” I have a keypress data for the key C4 for n number of seconds, the slave will play the sound C4 using its own internal sound generator for the same ‘n’ number of seconds.

This is midi in a nutshell; there are various midi events to deal which I shall explain later in the article.

In a proper midi setup, generally a Sequencer would be the Master, it captures and store midi events emulated from various salve devices. It will allow users to edit/manipulate the captured data and it can play back to various types of midi salves. Sequencer can also act as a slave; sometimes it does go nutty in Slavery mode, but it works. Next would be check out another important entity. “Keyboards”

All Rights Reserved (c) Srikanth Devarajan, Unauthorized copying or re-publishing of this article is prohibited, you have license to learn! And pass it on to others with the authors name intact. If you want to syndicate this, kindly contact me at srikanthD at gmail.


I am making this more meaningful in a book format, hence i had to remove yesterday's issue.

3/13/06

India Wins! Aussies limed.

Indians Won! Dravid and his team made it happen again. Congratulations! I thoroughly enjoyed this test match, expect for few concerns.

Harbajan – is he still effective? The only wicket he took was “technically” a dubious decision.

Dravid’s strike rate, I hear he was the wall etc, but I feel he has the capacity to push and play more positive cricket than the current over-cautious approach. Score board must be ticking so that batsmen following will face a simpler music.

Sachin critics are all set to open the can of worms again on him.

It is time to check Umpire Hair for Nyctalopia.

Fielding ,
There were lot of dropped catches, even the captain dropped easy dollies. This has to be corrected. Dravid at times losses focus in slips because of his constant communication with the bowler. Next Yuvraj Singh, a great fielder in gully/point area where the body language is entirely different, however he seems to have a technical flaw when standing close [sillypoint/shortforwardleg]. When standing close he has to lie really low to “snatch” the bat/pad catches, if he does the slight upward movement like in gully, it is enough to miss vital catches.Captain and Coach should take care of these 2 issues. We cannot drop catches. And miss direct hit run-outs, yes Indians needs to be trained more to hit stumps directly.

Over all, I have feeling this game must have been won by an innings and some runs. The slow batting the first innings could have been avoided, thanks to tail which made some quick runs. Next Mumbai! here we come.

Finally, South Africa played the best game in one day history yet!, chasing anything more than 300 against Australia is Herculean Task, 435 is something unimaginable. 873 in 100 overs, is subcontinent pitches flat? Who says so?

Ricky pointing has commented that it is kind easy to chase 400! is it? I don’t think so, it is not easy even against Bangladesh. For now he is Ricky the மீசையிலெ மண்னு Ponting.

Smith is a very nice cricketer and he deserves all the praises. As pledged by him, Ricky and his team, were limed to the fullest extent possible without using Calcium Oxide. I feel Aussies are about to go through a downward trend. This game was Live on Direct TV hence DVD should be soon in Mohini palace.

Good day!

3/10/06

What the heck?

This test is another proof that confirms, people responsible for international cricket fixtures in India never went to school. Few months ago they managed and scheduled games in Chennai during monsoons and now they do the same in Mohali, once again blame the snowing in nearby mountains. Something like weather man here, if it is warm and nice Wow! What a bright California weather, if it is cold and rainy at once they blame El nino from Mexico for it.

There is no one to question BCCI; I did not pay the noose bleed charges to watch this night mare. Else I would be singing “கொட்டும் மழை காலம் உப்பு விக்க போனென்”...thanking God for it.

Kumble in the new movie - “Googly in the Darkness”, it works for him and got few wickets, he is now nearing 500 wickets mark. The ball he bowled yesterday to take out Collinwood was termed as a leg spinner classic by few commentators, either they blindly love Kumble or they have not seen Chandra, Warne or Abul Kadhir in action. “Googly in the Darkness”, will continue again today.

Good day

3/8/06

Thee [தீ] by Encore

Yesterday afternoon, I got an email from Bharat , a musician , I have never met him or spoken to him before, He introduced himself as a part of Tamil music band called Encore. He requested me to comment on their new Tamil album Thee [தீ], which had good press coverage in Tamil magazines.

I wasted no time; I went to their website and heard samples which they call it as music teasers. Honestly I was spellbound by the title song “Thee” [Fire] - title track - which was clearly a class apart from all other songs in the album. The genre is established right away. Rock! Good old Classic Rock! “"There is great drummer behind every great rock track”. Yes Drummer! is often the very important person in a rock track, simply he has to be good if not the best. These guys have got this part right. The drumming was simply mind blowing, Right from bar one, it reminded me the class often found in songs like Highway Star [Deep Purple]. I
checked the credits and found the reason, Yes this was a performance by “Lord of the Drums” One Mr. Sivamani. I saw his name in the credits, it must be none other him. The cracking! enthusiastic hits were similar to Viru or Sachin in one day mood. The snare hits are still ringing around my ears. I was able to feel the pleasurable pain the snare and toms took to deal Sivamani and his magic hands. Basically I think no Tamil song till date has let Sivamani play freely in this fashion. This is what I often refer to as Tightness in music. As if this was not enough, the flow and placements of guitar parts were clever. The 1st interlude cleverly plays a famous sloka , during which Sivamani rolls his famous bells sounds etc that has l/r panning. Finally vocals by Ranjit, a power house of energy he flows with the track and enjoys the song.

Few things I felt in the “Thee” song. The guitar sounds [lead, power chords etc] can be more in the front, kind of parallel to the vocals and drumming, the song format - I expected more of verse and chorus, but was slightly tilted towards Tamil format of Pallavi/1stBG/Saranam/Pallavi, no big deal though.

I also heard others songs clips, the genre seemed to have changed after the first track. I felt they got themselves trapped a little towards Tamil cinema music, felt very usual. I wish they had maintained the rock genre all through. There were also other play back singers in the album. Chinmayee sings - Thaai Polavae and Prasanna sings Endhan Uyirae.

I think after the Indian Band called Om, I am impressed with the Thee track, I would buy the CD for this track alone, a banging opening to the Tamil Rock Arena. We have wonderful talent out there!, we need to encourage such talents, it is not always a movie song!, time to break the ice and get out more private albums out.

Record Label is Saregama, I have asked them where to get this; will post it once I get some news on this album.I wish them good luck and expect them to maintain genre consistency in their future albums.

Finally,
Few days [Blogs] ago I had mentioned about the kathakali dance by Sreesanth for every wicket, here is the reason,

Good day!...

3/7/06

Technically a Nose cry

For what it is worth, I sent an email [technically tried an outbursts but ended up as a nose cry] to Dish Network and they answered me, Thanks to them.
-------- My nose cry ----------------------------------------------------
This is in regard to cricket matches between India and England. I see that Dish net work has fixed a very high pay per view rate. $169.99. This is really painful. I have been paying and watching cricket for about past 7 years using Dish network, been a loyal customer. Today there are plenty of website offering the games live via broad band connection, for a very meager sum of $20 for entire series, I clearly understand the quality offered by Dish network is no where near these site, however technology is such today, good viewing quality can be offered using a streaming strength of 250kbs, mind it! If saves about $150, hey! Tell me who would not go in search of such sites. Being a long time loyal customer and avid cricket follower, I expected Dish network to provide these games for lesser amount. For next 3 years, there are plenty of games involving India. I am sure you can break even costs. I guess you are going to pass the blame on to the provider [Nimbus communication], having sold rights for lucrative profit all over the world, and it is voracious of them to charge such high amount to US customers. After all Cricket fans in US sacrifice their sleep to follow these games.
Kindly reduce your rates and please give the regular customer a good deal.
[I don’t mind paying $20 per month for a full fledged cricket channel],
Seriously don’t you think $17 per game is ruthless? I don’t think it is really going to keep loyal customers like me; simply ridiculous

Reply from Dish Network

Dear Mr. Devarajan,
Thank you for your e-mail. We understand that you are frustrated about the high price of the Cricket Package. DISH Network would like to provide programming and pay-per-views at the lowest possible cost to pleased our customers, however, there are other factors that are considered when determining the prices of the packages that we offer. As what you have mentioned, the price passed on to DISH Network by the provider would be the major factor. We thank you for your input and rest assured that we are continually reviewing our options in order to provide a compelling programming for our viewers. If you have any further questions or concerns, please reply to this e-mail or call our Customer Service hotline at 1-800-333-3474. Your business is greatly appreciated and we thank you for allowing us to be of assistance to you.
Sincerely,
Kathleen B.
DISH Network eCare

Ok, so as expected they played the same ball game, “We have no control over the pay per view price”; it is Nimbus & co which is greedy. Damn! Now does anyone know how to contact Nimbus communications? mostly I might end up talking to BCCI. I am sure Nimbus will pass the parcel to BCCI, Nimbus or NEEMBus!? Just for a second assuming if I get to talk to someone in BCCI, it would a mere talking to the Namitha-Wall [குட்டிச்சுவர் Sir– ok! That was crude!] Just one question why can’t dish Network get a cricket channel? Seriously I am sure this channel will have more viewers than the truncated McEnroe Talk show on CNBC [a rating of 0.1%, yes .1 for the camera man who had to watch the crap.] or better worth than the money I spend on watching the Divine elephant trash a loud mouth so called business thug for past few years.

Ok! I hear $0 to $30 you get fantastic streaming over various p2p...go get it dude.

Finally,
When I opened the editorial section of the post this morning for a second I thought the cold war between Dada Gangully & Greg “show ‘m the middle finger” Chappel has reached the post!

Good day,

3/6/06

The Weekend Wastage

Match drawn against my will and prediction, I always felt India can chase up to 350; I wish Dravid had stepped up his game some time after lunch. Who in the world asked him to mimic Ravi Sashtri?. This slow dull batting reached an extreme, I secretly prayed for umpire to given him out he did in the first innings. He could have kept a healthy run rate for other Indian batsmen to carry on the so called shock treatment. When Irfan and Sachin could start kicking runs on short notice, I really don’t understand why a well settled batsmen struggled to push for singles. The amount of dot balls Dravid left was more than the number of babies born in India during the month.

Sehwag - how long he is going to escape by "That's how he plays" theory - let us wait and watch.

Sachin slammed one gem of an innings, seriously he took the charge quite well, and only if Dhoni had an edge of luck and stayed on, we would be talking something else today. The sudden surge made sure that England did not walk away with an upper hand. I also feel they survived some parts of the game due to poor umpiring decisions. Kevin Pietersen's decision was a night mare. And the first ball Collionwood faced was plumb however umpire just said no. Such umpiring blunders are enough to change the morale in the team. Indian dropped too many and their body language was as dull as yesterday’s Oscars.

Next Test in Mohali, Yuvraj would be in for Kaif. Kaif I feel is lucky to be in the team. The rule of youngsters applied for Gangully is now in the freezer. Suresh Raina was shown the door. For all means Raina is a better bet than Kaif. Kaif technique is really poor. Munuf Patel might play but instead of whom?. Here is short story, a night watchmen in a factory dreams one night about the factory being to burned, he calls his superiors and warns them right away, Yes his dream vision was right on dot, he saved the factory, everyone praised him etc, however next day management fired him. Reason a person recruited as Night Watchmen, cannot sleep in his job. Story of Irfan Pathan is similar, he came in as a bowler, better be one, if not he has to sit out.

Oscars:John Stewart was given five months to come up with a funny script, what he had yesterday was mediocre, Except for the VP joke, nothing seemed really funny. But for the grumpy same old first rows of Oscar this is enough. What people wear to the Oscars seem to a big deal on TV. Often a dress that is nearly close to undress! Wins the race; With boring Oscars on the other end, I kept channel surfing.

SunTV, until Vaiko was in their party he was not given any air time, after his shift to the other side, he gets about 20,000 hrs of free Air Time, all of his speeches right from 900bc were dusted, cleaned and played back with action replays and உங்கள் நண்பன் L.R.Narayanan's style echo repeats. People in Chennai tell me, the TV Station located at Brother Sense-Temple had an stomach burning aroma all round. In all this Sun Tv did not mention about counter offer from the Other side which was about 5 times than what their side offered. For next 3 months - super தாமாஷ் தான் போங்க.

Finally, Instead of Crash getting the best feature film award, the selection Committee should have considered giving it to "Ramachandra" that was playing on the other end [SunTV] during Oscars. Satyaraj Raj’s inferno dialogues coupled with nose crying sentimental lectures seem perfectly made for an Oscar. When making spoof movies next time, SatyamJi should check his godown first, his godown seems to have plenty of scripts that work best for Spoof. SunTV style sonna: Ramachandra – Mookasindra.

Good day!

3/3/06

Weekly Look Alike - A coincidence

As you can see on the right column I have been collecting pictures of famous people who look similar; I have started a new series – “Weekly Look Alike”, Just sharing my observation, I will post them weekly once every Friday.

Starting with
M N Nambiar (Actor): M N Nambiar has been in the film industry for more than 70 years now have seen 3 to 4 generations; I always felt Charles Krauthammer a syndicated columnist who appears in the Washington Post, Time Magazine as well as other publications looks like M N Nambiar.

Game Day
[India vs England - 1st Test -3rd day]

All Right! As feared or predicted or guessed or ------------ by me yesterday, Indian batting collapsed. By all fairness, Dravid got a poor decision, similar to what Flintoff got in the first innings. Dravid and Jaffer departed leaving behind huge debts for Sachin, VVS and rest of the Blue pack to negotiate. In form Jaffer survived a close LBW call and soon was caught at the slips he quickly followed Dravid to the hut.

VVS walked in and walked out, out first ball, seemed bat/pad to me. Kaif joined the party. Sachin was playing a patient knock , once again L.Siva was giving advices and told "one more opportunity for Sachin to prove his class"; What the heck, even Ian Bothom seemed offended and defended Sachin.

Soon Sachin also perished to the new spinner Paneser, a “foxy” one from him to trap the little master – LBW, a good decision by the umpire. Paneser’s first scalp in Test cricket – Sachin Tendulkar; he has a worth while story to say to his grand sons/daughters in later part of his life. This spinner has a natural arc and reminds Bishen Singh Bedi.

Dravid, Jaffer, VVS , Sachin gone in quick succession, Damage was done; Indians were already in the back seat, thanks to slowest Ravistrified batting approach by Dravid. Now Team Indian went into the trunk. Sitting in the trunk Dhoni played a careless one day shot [- Bad side one day games] and gave his wicket. Agreed, offense is best form of defense; however before going free he must settle down and read the line etc. This is what Test cricket all about. Pathan did not do well, just walked back as he came in.

Now, it was left to Kaif, a layoff round in the corner he had no other choice other than to get some runs. He played a patient knock, definitely a good and a very import innings in such conditions, but I still feel his batting technique seemed rickety. Kumble inning was more powerful and authentic and comical than Kaif, in fact Kumble square drives were simply top class. Both rescued India, just before the close both gave up.Kaif deserved to get a century, however with Kumble gone and unpredictable Harbajan at the other end, better get the 100th run quickly, he tried to push his score but lost his off stump to a beauty from Paneser.

Finally, I feel we are missing a left hander, Yuvraj; I think the next choice should have been Raina or yes! Gangully he is better player of spin and a tough customer. Things could be different,. Having said this, Dravid and the Coach should be thanking Kaif and Kumble tonight; Kaif not only saved his ass, he saved theirs too. Indians 75 runs behind, we need to restrict the English some where around 150. Kumble, Harbajan, Sreesanth and Irfan should bowl real tight line, so that India’s target in the fourth innings is less than 300 runs. Anything more will change the equation = "save the game" instead. Dravid’s Captaincy is once again out for an Acid test. But frankly, Dravid is quick learner, I am seeing an Indian victory by the Tea time on the last day. Yes! I am kind of sure!

Have a great weekend!

3/2/06

Game Day
[India vs England - 1st Test -2nd day]

All right I did watch the game, how and where!! No comments.

About 15 years ago Test matches were considered to be nothing but a prolonged bore; 8 out of 10 times end result would be a domesticated draw. This really made cricket uninteresting for many, however cricket was saved by the one day games, and one day games got back people to watch the game ever than before. One day games also made test cricket interesting, its positive sides are batsmen started to be more aggressive, captains and coaches got in to strategy plays, over all momentum in the game improved. However yesterday watching India bat, I started to feel we are dipping back into the old era of Sloth bear cricket, dull batting by the Indians. At close, Dravid was standing there like a wall with a strike rate around 35. Indians were 136-1 at close with a microscopic scoring rate of around 2. Halo! What is the game plan? Kill time? Or help insomniacs to sleep tight?

Though I have to agree that English bowlers bowled a well planned line, but it was not devastating, Players like Dravid can change their strategy to tackle such line and keep the score board ticking. Wasim Jaffer played well. His batting approach is apt for test cricket, his batting style resembles Sanjay “the technique” Manjrejar. This guy seems to have better temperament than many recent Indian openers. Jaffer has the potential to take the number 1 position, the 3 year musical chair league for this post might come to an end.

My Concern, what if few quick wickets tomorrow morning? Dravid need not slash and play out of the way, just give work to the scorers; there were mere part time employees.

Next, Story of “Mr. That’s how he plays.” Damn! Sehwag; Pakistanis discovered his weakness, bringing the ball into him from outside off keeps Viru pegged. English did their home work well. Flintoff captaincy needs to be applauded, his bowlers moved the ball right into middle & leg, and did not give him any width or room. Then they forced him to drive on the off, placed a man in close cover area to catch it, it took about 30minutes to nail Viru down Hoggard did the needful. A powerful stroke came from middle of the Bat but was caught by Kevin Pietersen positioned specially for this purpose; at once Indian commentators switched on their recorded message, “that’s how he plays!” Sehwag always tends to hit the ball in air around that area. Coach! What is he doing?

He is busy talking about Gangully; once again Chappel stirred up unwanted controversy on disposed Indian captain Gangully. He mentioned in a recent interview that Gangully did not want to give up his captaincy for financial purpose. What the heck, the poor guy was dropped and sent to confinement, I think it is time to shut the ** up and focus on the game Mr. Greg “Roll the ball my Brother” Chappel. BCCI for a once behaved sane and has warned the coach. Or at least it says so in public.

during the morning session, English batsmen played well and took over the mediocre bowling. Why Dravid did not try Sachin? He kept on giving it to Kumble, imo, Kumble was totally ineffective and predictable. Sreesanth did get four wickets agreed still I feel he has a long way to go, and I wish he stops doing a kathakali-dance solo for every wicket. Irfan, from being called “Tofhan” etc has become a hand fan. He is well under “construction” area speed limits. India has to score about 600 runs in next 1.5 days to stay in the winning race

Commentary team! It was a pleasure to listen to Dean Jones, Botham, Gower and Nasser Hussein. Their language never sounded hurting even when criticizing.
A rumor down the grape wine:The sound engineer for Nimbus made LSiva sit 20 feet away from the microphone in order to curb his involuntary and voluntary randomatic sound spikes. Srinath still seemed to be “evil-eye-protective pumpkin” in the gang.

Good day.

3/1/06

Game Day
[India vs England - 1st Test]

A flat track that has lots of runs, Dish network like every other game offered the first days play FREE. The person in charge of live feeds was busy taking a quick nap, thank god, his alarm woke him up, and we went live after the first over.

Indian bowlers kept breaking coconuts than the usual numbers. May be around Green park oval there are many Ganesh temples than the usual. Anyways, with a non stop spree of short balls and bad line, English openers did not miss the opportunity, cooked a load of “thenga barbi” [Coconut Cake] and its count touched 50 in about 5 overs.

It was simply lack of experience in the English side, by close of play they were 7 wickets down, I would never agree that Indian bowling was devastating etc. Indians spin duo kept the batsmen pinned, however to my surprise the English ran out of patience. If they had taken the good old Gooch approach the score card would read 300+ for no loss at close. However Collingwood made sure he followed Boycott, he played a real slow innings with an strike rate of around 33.x , , in fact extras had a better strike rate.

VVS and Dravid took great slip catches. The response time for both the catches was less than a second.

Kumble was lucky to get a wicket, first he appealed screaming at 102db for a bat/pad catch for Flintoff, “bat was clearly away from the pad”, next ball Flint off was wrapped on the pad, and Kumble increased his appealing to 500db and almost threatened the umpire, who in turn raised his finger for a ball that was clearly leaving the leg stump. Flintoff was totally disappointed, who would not be - he was well set to score about 300 runs.

Kaif is another lucky dude, on what basis he is inside the eleven, Only Mr. More has to explain it in his golden words. Dada Bhai Gangully must be wondering the same;

Indians would play tomorrow, sure good "Gajju" ensured, Sachin Averages about 105 in this arena, while Viru is fit and raring to go, with power of Pathan & Dhoni, strength of Dravid and VVS, hope our formidable batting lineup bats just once. Currently bookies are taking bets on how much Kaif would score here.

Commentary team, Wow! It was totally unbiased and very professional; Ian Botham, David Gower, Nasser Hussein, Dean Jones, Srinath and L.Siva. Nasser Hussein’s expert comments in particular, he knows what he is talking and does not mince words, in fact the entire commentating crew was shrewd, and their experience on the field and in front of the microphone was visible.
L.Siva needs a limiter, he suddenly screams without any warning for nothing. The producer should stuff him with pacifier to clam him down. TV coverage in general was fantastic. Close up shorts in particular. A welcome relief from what we had in Pakistan.

Finally, however I don’t think I would be watching this series in full, because price fixed by Dish Network is absolute Day-Time, Night-Time, Full-Time, Part-time Robbery.
This habit of watching Cricket for money is slowly turning to be a greator evil than going to “Guindy” .

Good day