Tribal Sounds

I've come up with two beats that have three layers:
Layer 1: Four-on-the-floor quarter note bass drum pattern
Layer 2: Rhythm that has a 5 sixteenth-note phrase
Layer 3: Rhythm that has a 7 sixteenth-note phrase (The first track's pattern is a 7 eighth-note phrase)


When you put it all together you end up looping every 35th quarter note which sounds crazy!
Below are two examples (if you get lost, just focus on one hand and the kick):

        
These rhythms may just sound to you like a bunch of random hits, not very musical. I made them up and spent time training myself to play those rhythms because conceptually I find them interesting, and I find learning challenging beats pleasurable - its like learning to ride a bike - at first I can only go a few notes before I mess up, but after a while of intense practice I can play the whole pattern as long as I'd like, and I can even start exploring different aspects, for example a shuffle feel or adding ghost notes. The consequence is that I'm now comfortable with phrases of 5 and 7 over 4 (note that I'm not playing in 5/4 or 7/8, I'm just playing phrases, repeated patterns of eighth or sixteenth notes over 4/4 time), so time to time I find myself naturally tapping rhythms that have this odd feel; for example, I think it does sound musical to put this phrase of 7 eighth notes over a 4/4 baiao pattern with my feet (both videos are the same, just from different angles):

Mac OSX Tips and Tricks

Aero for Mac

I missed the Windows 7 feature that allows you to snap two documents or programs side by side, or to maximize/minimize a document when I switched over to a Mac, but I found a great replacement in ShifIt - it's free, tiny, and efficient.

With the press of a button it puts windows exactly side by side:

Alternatively, it lets you put one on top and one on bottom:

How to make a hamburger-making machine from bicycle parts

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Video taken at 111 BSC lab: 

Lab report:

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Latex Tips and Tricks

Latex format for a lab report

Want to make a lab report look really good using Latex?
Step 1) Download either TexMaker or TexWorks, or my new favorite compiler is Lyx
Step 2) Download this zipped folder and open Sample.tex using your program: Sample Latex Documents (see PDFs below).
Step 3) Press the "typeset" button, and voila! The document is written so that you can see how tables, equations, images, etc. are expressed in Latex, by comparing the PDF to the .tex file.
Note that the magic formatting is done by having the aastex.cls file in the same directory as the sample.tex file.


                        This document                                                         is made by this code




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Creating Subfigures: Figure 1a, figure 1b
Step 1) In the preamble add to \usepackage the term "subfigure"
example: \usepackage{amsmath, amsfonts, amssymb, url, subfigure}

Step 2) Write:

\begin{figure}[h!]\centering
\subfigure[caption for figure 1a]{\includegraphics[width=.5\textwidth] {ImageAName.ps}} \label{ImageA}
\subfigure[caption for figure 1b]{\includegraphics[width=.5\textwidth] {ImageBName.ps}}\label{ImageB}
\caption{blah blah}\label{Image A+B}
\end{figure}

To make:

(A) Caption for figure 1A

(B) Caption for figure 1B

Figure 1 -- blah blah

If instead you want the images to be side by side, you must make the images smaller so that they can fit (try .25\textwidth), and then they are placed side-by-side automatically.


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