stupid first world problems you're dealing with

  On 6/18/2013 at 3:20 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Testing out album art for three different noise releases I've done over the last few months, and while I like some of it, I don't trust my own instincts when it comes to visual design. Fonts are especially baffling to me. If I like or dislike something to do with music composition/production I know exactly why and can give good reasons for it, but when it comes to visual design that stuff's all kind of vague.

"That looks ugly." "Why does that look ugly?" "Because it looks ugly."

I'd really like to get to a point where I can trust my own sensibilities for visual composition the same way I can for music... or at least closer to that point.

I would love to see what you have in mind for the covers?

Cool, thanks for the interest. I'll get it a bit closer to completion and then send you a preview. My current dilemma is that I used a pretty big image and did all the text etc. with the image at that huge size, and now I'm thinking it should be closer to a CD cover in size. I'm not sure how to reduce the size without it effecting the quality significantly.... know if there's an easy way?

...I'm pretty sure I've got to redo all the text at the very least in order for that aspect not to look completely amateur hour.

Mixing every day with Traktor, two Technics 1200 mk2s, and my roommate's collection of classic garage & dubstep vinyl.

Every day I wish they were CDJs or a digital controller instead.

  On 6/18/2013 at 6:40 AM, autopilot said:

Mixing every day with Traktor, two Technics 1200 mk2s, and my roommate's collection of classic garage & dubstep vinyl.

 

Every day I wish they were CDJs or a digital controller instead.

why? if you don't mind me asking...

I used image size with the "bicubic sharper (best for reduction)" option selected. Intuitively I would think taking a big image and making it smaller wouldn't effect the quality if the program's intelligently designed, but I'm usually mistaken about these things. Anyway, I resized all the images individually and redid the text to minimize quality loss as much as possible. I don't really know what the standard is for digital album "covers" or if there is one... so I've got a version that's 4.75 inches, like a CD, and one that's over 16 inches (the original huge ass version I did). It was a pain in the ass figuring everything out, but worth it for the experience. I need to get more adept with this sort of thing, so fixing my own amateur mistakes is probably a good experience in the end. I'll hopefully learn more by fucking things up.

  On 6/18/2013 at 6:47 AM, yek said:

 

  On 6/18/2013 at 6:40 AM, autopilot said:

Mixing every day with Traktor, two Technics 1200 mk2s, and my roommate's collection of classic garage & dubstep vinyl.

 

Every day I wish they were CDJs or a digital controller instead.

 

why? if you don't mind me asking...

 

Because when spinning digitally, I can line up the tunes and get them in phrase in 8 bars or less, then spend the rest of the mix focusing on doing interesting things blending the songs using EQs and filters, which I find to be the really fun aspect of DJing. When spinning with vinyl, I find it to be about 10% that fun stuff and 90% constantly adjusting the tracks to avoid a trainwreck, which is not fun and actually can be quite stressful.

I'll openly admit that it's because I learned to mix on digital and am not very experienced with vinyl but...I still don't like it. It seems totally ass backwards to me to be using this ancient tech in 2013 to control digital tracks on a computer.

[edit] The FWP aspect of it is that it's all really nice gear and a great record collection that I get to use for free and none of it's mine.

  On 6/18/2013 at 7:30 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

I used image size with the "bicubic sharper (best for reduction)" option selected. Intuitively I would think taking a big image and making it smaller wouldn't effect the quality if the program's intelligently designed, but I'm usually mistaken about these things. Anyway, I resized all the images individually and redid the text to minimize quality loss as much as possible. I don't really know what the standard is for digital album "covers" or if there is one... so I've got a version that's 4.75 inches, like a CD, and one that's over 16 inches (the original huge ass version I did). It was a pain in the ass figuring everything out, but worth it for the experience. I need to get more adept with this sort of thing, so fixing my own amateur mistakes is probably a good experience in the end. I'll hopefully learn more by fucking things up.

If you're using Photoshop, then you shouldn't run into any problems at all if it's a huge file. Just make sure you flatten the layers before resizing. In fact, if you resize down from a large, flattened image the text will probably look better due to the way it's rendered in Photoshop.

Also, it's good to keep the artwork as high-res as possible, in case you ever make a physical copy and need to get it printed. In the image size dialog box you can set the DPI to 300 (for print) or 72 (for screen) and keep the image dimensions the same (I use 121mm square for CD artwork). This will change the pixel dimensions accordingly.

Oh, another thing, if you're getting the artwork ready for Bandcamp, you don't need to resize down, the image uploader has a rather good auto-resize feature.

Really?? That makes life so much easier! If only I had known that before I went through all my trial and error headaches... I'll pretend it was character building. Thanks Modey!

No worries buddy. Any time!

Put too much sugar in my decaffinated tea. throwing it away would be a waste, oh whoa is me, for the abundance of sugar in my tea.

All my evaporated milk expired in March.

oh no. But you have more milk, problem averterted

touché my friend

I need to chill the FUCK out when it comes to girls. Is there some kind of pill I can take that will make me not give a fuck?

A) you could try meditation;

B) the girls who make you nervous, in my experience, are the ones who you're physically attracted to but not really compatible with. I tend to feel really comfortable with the women I end up sleeping with/being with (most of the sex I have is in serious relationships). So, just say hey and be cordial, enjoy the visual experience of hotness, and wait until someone who makes you feel OK with yourself comes along

Hmm, interesting point. I can definitely say that's been why I've lost my shit over girls in the past. In this case though it's because I've managed to actually go on a date with a girl (and made plans for a second date) but something in my mind keeps trying to tell me that I'll fuck it up or that I've already fucked it up; and from there it's just a downward spiral until I end up sabotaging my own happiness.

Hey, just do things you like to do and see if you like what she does. The easiest way to fuck it up is to try to act like something you're not. Don't know what you are? That's ok. You seem like a solid enough dude. Be honest etc. Have the relationship you wanna have and see if it works.

Ok enough babbling..goodnight

  On 6/20/2013 at 3:46 AM, modey said:

Is there some kind of pill I can take that will make me not give a fuck?

Chemical castration?

  On 6/21/2013 at 7:06 AM, baph said:

 

  On 6/20/2013 at 3:46 AM, modey said:

Is there some kind of pill I can take that will make me not give a fuck?

Chemical castration?

 

or valium.

My province is a disaster zone right now....

a bunch of towns are completely flooded, houses are washing away, and over 25 communities and 100000 people are displaced in my city. Downtown is flooded..... it's brutal!

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/20/pictures-and-videos-of-massive-flooding-in-canmore-and-southern-alberta/

stephen that is not a first world problem, that is a problem.

That sucks, Stephen : <

We need a SERIOUS PROBLEMS thread.

Yeah it's REALLY scary... I'm alright but a lot of my friends are displaced... They've called in the military to help.

The Trans Canada highway about 2hrs from here is washed out/destroyed. All the major trade routes from the west coast are destroyed by mud slides and closed.

And this happened pretty much overnight (it seems)... It's been raining on and off for about a month but the last couple days it's been pouring

I got out just in time, i saw them devil clouds in my rear view mirror.

but the evening i got home i read the news and heard about it and it was pretty surreal. also my bestest friends are in edmonton, so first world success?

on a lighter note there was a picture of the flooded town of High River. It was a picture of tiny-town High River completely flooded, cars up to their wind shields. I laughed because it was a picture of a town under water and the caption was "High River". *goes to hell*

  On 6/21/2013 at 3:33 PM, pigster said:

stephen that is not a first world problem, that is a problem.