Outer Limits Review

So, I just bought Outer Limits by Native Instruments and Zero G and for the one hour that I was messing with it, I am bum over noggin for this thing. Every sound is so haunting that it delights me. I could create dozens and dozens of horror soundtracks with this. I've run into one issue though and that is with registration, it said my key was invalid so I have to get that dealt with. So for those of you that don't know what Outer Limits is (I'm guessing all of you) it is a virtual instrument full of dark ambience sounds that is just down right awesome. I don't think I've ever been happier with a purchase to be honest. With this I could definitely make the next greatest horror game soundtrack. I don't see this being used with movies or TV shows like I do with games. Maybe it's just that video games influence my music, but whatever, I definitely want to start doing some video game soundtracks now! Heck, maybe I'll actually make a video game, psh, yeah, and David Lynch will make a movie that won't have weirdness in it. For a virtual instrument the price is pretty cheap, I got this at Sam Ash for $160, that's $40 cheaper than MSRP. The patches seem to be very pressure sensitive, unless my MIDI controller is just very flimsy (I have a KORG NanoKey). I realize that most of this review is very fractured because I keep breaking to rave about this thing, but it's true, it is the coolest virtual instrument you can buy... if you're into dark ambience or something like that. While going through the patches I realized how each patch is so unique. I feel like the people that made this slaved over making these patches, even the patches under the group Minimalist seem that way. Oh yeah, groups, there are many different patch groups that come with this software. The patch groups are all labeled by what they sound like, I guess, I mean, some of these patches are just so different that I couldn't even put them in a specific category or group. I don't know what else to say about this other than excited gibberish, so I'll close by saying if you are into dark ambience or are looking for something different than your typical virtual instrument get this.

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Wow, my first review in like forever, and for a virtual instrument no less, and it sucks... well... deal with it.

I Should Get Back To This, Yeah?

So I realize that I've left all of you, now let's be honest, I bet two or three people read this blog, and I decided that with summer here I should probably return with a vengence... so I will. I'll try to make at least one post a week, ok?
Right now I've been playing Warhammer Online and I've been getting into it. I don't think I'll actually buy a subscription though because once I get to college I'll probably stop playing and play some other game(s) because I just won't have the time for an MMO. Aside from WO I will get Martian Gothic, Bushido Blade, and Crime Killer for PS1 just for some old time fun. I love old games.
Other than that I got a job, graduation is thursday, and I go to San Francisco at the end of June so.... not much to talk about. Hopefully you guys stand by my side.

ACEN

ACEN was amazing, I bought a Dante (DMC 3) costume, a two bladed sword, Parasite Eve, and an Aural Vampire CD and Shirt. AV signed the CD, but I couldn't get both signed. Listening to the CD right now and it's awesome, the concert was awesome. I documented the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9_N5R4Obx4
The video is kind of short, so I might compile a part 2 and upload it later. I saw That Guy With The Glasses (aka Nostolgia Critic) there, I got a signed picture along with a photo of my friends and I with him. Spike (creator of Templar Arizona) did a portrait of myself, which makes me look devastatingly handsome.

A Comparison

So I decided to return to make this wee comparison.
I was at a comic book store in St. Louis this weekend and I saw a lot of Sandman stuff and I decided to get Sandman: Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman & Yoshitaka Amano. Now right now you're all thinking holy shit, Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano (THE ARTIST FOR FF!!!), two wicked sick dudes making one comic, and yes I agree with you, it is the shit. What I am going to do is compare the normal Sandman we're used to and the Yoshitaka Amano Sandman and I'll keep it brief.
The original Sandman looks a lot creepier - more menacing, like someone you would not want to cross. His black cloak fades into red skulls, which is kinda creepy too. You don't see his eyes except for the dotted pupils, which, again, make him creepier. WHen he's wearing street clothes he's simply black and white.
The Yoshitaka Amano Sandman looks... well... beautiful, like something out of traditional Japanese art. His usually wild thick hair, looks rather thin. His black-red skull cloak is purple. He honestly reminds me of someone out of Dynasty Warriors, not in a bad way.
Now I know there are two different art styles here, but it's just something I wanted to note/compare.
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I don't really know what the point of this was, but... there you go. Maybe I'll post more stuff before the ACEN blog.

The Burps/Why None?

I don't know if I posted that I have a twitter, but... I do. Here's the URL: https://twitter.com/connor_eck so if you happened to be on the net and want to read my little burps of what-not then follow me if you have a twitter and if not... well.... get a job then. Oh and now that I have a flip cam I may post my burps on here for little interesting updates or whatevers.

I noticed a lot of people, including myself, have not updated in forever, I wonder why that is... hm.

Back from Florida

SO I was in FLorida and that was fun and I am home which is even better aside from the fact that my skin is peeling because I got sunburned to shit. Anyways I made a couple patches for my synth and another song is in the works... actually two songs are in the works, but that first one is just kind of sitting there collecting dust on my hard drive.
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Man I have no idea what to talk about... my Florida trip I guess.... I caught a massive Grouper (3 feet and 30 pounds), sat on the beach for a few hours reading and cooking... I dunno, that's pretty much it, nothing eventful really. I was surprised by the amount of porn shops in Florida though... well... within the St. Pete's Beach area there were two shops and one strip club, I was rather surprised considering in my area we HAD one and now it's turned into a cash for gold place. Started reading Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, so far it's just what I expected, messed up and funny.
I did download Cave Story for mac, played a little bit of it and stopped because I had to go to the beach, BUT I am wondering if this game will turn out to be the jewel covered golden game from the treasure vaults of Xerxes or just a piece of crap which would fortify my position on everything mainstream sucks.
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Well I'm spent on words.

Peace, Love, and Destruction,
~Connor

Everybody's Updating For the Weekend

So two of my songs got put onto my high school's CD, "Euphonics of Hydroponics" and "Der Blau Haus Auf Das Land" now go listen to those. One is on the album Final Phoenix and the other is on Black Blizzard. In case you forgot my last.fm page here it is:
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Neurotic+Neuromancer%27s+Nefarious+Nightmares

Spring break is here and I realized that I need some old games to play. I got stuck in Heretic 2 and being a nomadic gamer just kind of stopped. I'll probably pick up Star Wars Dark Forces for the 1000th time and play that again because I love that game so much. I could try playing Crusader again, but..... yeah maybe I'll pick that one up... who knows...

Started messing around with the Jupiter-8 virtual synth and I love some of the sounds contained in this thing. I can make an old school sci-fi soundtrack no problem and if I make a scifi game or movie I will do so.

Tomorrow my friend Andrew and I work on our music project known as Suzy LaRue and the Roothless Ooze. We are planning to have a concert for this project too. We will film it too. Can't wait for all this to happen!

Peace, Love, and Destruction,
~Connor~

Recieve and you Shall Live

Got a new work schedule, I work Mondays and Wednesdays now! Hooray! I also got my Sandman shirt and a haircut! Hooray more clothing! I completed two song yesterday as well and uploaded them to the new album on my last.fm page:

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Neurotic+Neuromancer%27s+Nefarious+Nightmares

So I got below average on the math PSAE and so they want me to take this online test and course that'll take like two hours, but when I tried to do this my username and password didn't work... what the hell? SO tomorrow morning I'm going to talk to someone in the math department at the resource center (I refuse to call it learning center) about it and see if they can explain it.

Parents are Crazy (caution, heavy swearing)

So some parents at my high school want to shut down GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) and they are going to protest the day of silence by keeping their kids home. Seriously, you parents are (excuse my language here, this'll get brutal) fucking retarded. I don't really know what to say other than that. Why do they care so much about the GSA to shut it down, who gives a fuck whether there is a club supporting gays or not, there's nothing wrong with gays, they are just different and they can't help it and shutting down organizations, sending them to "straight camps", etc. isn't going to help the situation because being gay is an issue with the brain where the person is receiving different signals than a straight person, so seriously, shut the fuck up and get the sand out of your fucking vagina because being hateful towards those that are different won't help your case or theirs. Who gives a fuck if they're going to hell because the bible says so, well you know what, the bible also says to not cut your hair, but what the fuck do you do? CUT YOUR FUCKING HAIR!!!! Sometimes I wonder if I'm the last sane person on this planet.

Wow, Nostolgia

Two things on this topic. I started watching Nostolgia Critic the other day, I must say, he's great. The first one I watched was Battlefield Earth, what I loved about it was how he pointed out that almost every shot was on an angle and when he made some jokes like, "If only our planet wasn't slanted we could shoot straight!" I laughed pretty hard. Then he had Spoony dress up and imitate John Travolta's character which was hilarious. I watched a ton of them when I got off work Friday. I'd recommend him to film fans who want to watch reviews on bad movies.

On the same topic of Nostolgia, my friend John and I played Vigilante 8 today. This brought me back to when I first played it... wow... I was so young back then.... *sigh*. Anyways, the game has a great soundtrack: disco, heavy metal, and trance. Some of the AI is ridiculous like, why the hell can Bee's Wax use his special like 20 times, but I can only use it 5 times? Why are there limited amounts of wrenches? Sure it creates a challenge, but there are some levels that only place like three and then that's it. The last level (the fourth because for each character campaign there are four levels) is always a bitch, like every game, but the difficulty curve ramps way the hell up for that level. I cannot beat the last level at all, but I had no problem with the first three. To sum up Vigilante 8, it's fun for the nostolgia factor, but doesn't really have a lasting impact. With super short campaigns and an extreme increase in difficulty at the last level there's not much to come back to. Sure you have multiplayer (one on one and coop), but it wouldn't really last in the end. I guess I'll have to compare this to the old Twisted Metal games too to see if I have the came feeling on those.

So, staying on games, I'm still playing Heretic 2, haven't gotten very far in it, though it kicks ass. I got Diablo 2 to work on Sheepshaver (A Mac OS emulator), but it lags... oh the lag. I tried to do bootcamp, but was unsuccessful with the Windows XP that I have, so I'll go out and buy a different Windows OS.

I've pretty much decided that I'm going to make a game now. It will be a dungeon crawler using low bit sprites. I am going to use Diablo 2 as a guide to my game creation. I'm going to definitely start making this thing in summer so that I have some time to play Diablo 2 and get a story going in my mind.

Oh and before I forget, I am eating solids now with no troubles. I am very happy about that. Still taking my pills though and I have 6 weeks with a syringe and the perscription mouth wash.