Sunday, December 2, 2007

possible Future plans for this blog...

Basically, in the near future, I'm going to try to unravel all of the words and phrases I can from the Annie Coleman mp3s on Librivox and create a sort of virtual actor with these... which I may eventually tie in to animations and/or make available here or on Turbosquid for game designers, or anyone else who has a use for such a thing.

After I do this with all the stuff from Annie, I may try to do some with some other open source stuff from others that post a lot of works on librivox or other public domain type places. I think just doing this with audio for now is what I should be doing since it's a little easier than doing it all with video where the images throw in a whole new level of complexity...

Quickly combined sounds for wav files, where I mix words, phrases or phonemes don't sound totally realistic or authentic... mainly due to timing, and the fact that Annie used various recording setups (maybe her voice is closer to mic, she was on another computer or something?, etc.)... but that's all more or less fixable to a degree, just takes some working over the tempo, timing, sound levels, and various other sound engineering principles. I sort of like this idea of creating an entire library of sounds based on librivox recordings like this since it does create a more or less "voice actor" for you free... since it's public domain... and since it's actually a real person that did the recording, most of it will sound better than old computer software things that try to make text in to speech automatically. At least the sentences and short phrases should sound better.

I used to play around with Voiceany demo and similar type text the speech software long ago, but it just sounded computery more or less. With Anne's voice, even though the recordings aren't perfect, and there needs to be some work done on timing and volume levels and things, there's much more potential for greatness to come out of the remixing. If I add all of that to my own unusual vocal recordings (see grababeat blog by looking at my profile) and maybe, eventually some midi recordings (now that I'm going to eventually start practicing midi keyboard playing more), I see a whole slew of opportunity here... maybe an entire remix based on public domain stuff culture will come in to being (it already does exist somewhat... but not nearly at the level that low level video or imagery swapping does with youtube, flickr and that sort of thing now)..

Once I get good with Annie's stuff on Librivox, I may move on to other folks voices over there that have recorded as much or more than her?!!... future is unlimited.

Happy Day to You.

Monday, November 26, 2007

I would just post this stuff over on youtube, but...

I would just post this stuff over on youtube, but I'm not sure if anyone over there would like it... it would probably get more viewers and commenters... but on the other hand, I'd have to come up with some visuals for these wav files... I can and probably will do that eventually, but need to do some digging to find some that are worthy. I wouldn't mind using this as a springboard for illustration drawing, or just pure visual experimentation with public domain images and other stuff. I probably will do that poem excert several posts down with some Georgia O' Keefe paintings as visuals or something... and/or maybe variations of it with pics of big cats at the zoo... ? Possibilities are endless.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

The Sex is Sprung from Shame and Pride

Excerpt from a Librivox Recording based on Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience:

Here's the recording:
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/sexissprung.WAV

Here's the Words:

The Sex is Sprung
from Shame and Pride

Oh Lovely Pussy...

Excerpt from a Librivox Recording recorded by Annie Coleman:

Here's the recording:
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/ohbeautifulpussy.WAV

Here's the Words:

Oh Lovely Pussy,
Oh Pussy my Love
What a beautiful Pussy you are
You Are.
You Are...
What a beautiful Pussy you are!



This was originally out of a poem and the pussy referred to a cat. I could definitely see this recording being used in reference to some, uh, something else...

The next several things below here are some cuts and an edited remix from this mp3... which I think is called owlpussycat_lear_apc.mp3 on Librivox... It uh, sort of takes this whole remixing thing in a way different direction than I ever thought I'd take it...

Eee..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/eee.WAV


Honey..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/honey.WAV


Money..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/money.WAV


no..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/no.WAV


Oh..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/oh.WAV


Oh..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/oh2.WAV


ohh..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/ohh.WAV


Ohhh..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/ohhh.WAV


Ooo..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/ooo.WAV


ow..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/ow.WAV


up..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/up.WAV


you..
http://mastermesh.quotaless.com/you.WAV

--------------

I've found that I like listening to Annie Coleman's mp3s on Librivox

I've found that I love the sound of Annie Coleman's Voice
on her recordings for Librivox.

She is one of the main people doing a lot of mp3s over there. Since the stuff over there is considered Public Domain, I'm going to use some cuts from those and will probably post them here, and/or just keep the cuts for my own purposes and post a lot of the remixes I make based on those recordings here.

Annie, if you read this, sorry if some of this stuff offends you in some way. That's one of the risks you take in releasing your voice on recordings in to the Public Domain.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

PUBLIC DOMAIN SOURCE FOOTAGE: Steamed Kerosene

Source file name in Prelinger Archives: farm_petroleum_safety.mpeg This excerpt is about another cut out of the experiment with Kerosene but focuses just on the steam in the first hot plate pour.. very interesting steam particles coming up.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1175622751080969099

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

PUBLIC DOMAIN SOURCE FOOTAGE: Kerosene Experiment

Source: Prelinger Archive movie: farm_petroleum_safety.mpeg
This exerpt from the movie is a little science experiment showing what happens when kerosene is put on a hot plate. I really love the sound of the crowd reaction after the boom. I'm not sure if that was a live recording or a sound prop. I may use it and the boom eventually in a remix.



http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2281965688256425151

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

PUBLIC DOMAIN SOURCE FOOTAGE: Baby Crying

Source file name in Prelinger Archives: farm_petroleum_safety.mpeg This excerpt is about a baby crying and being put to sleep. In source material, this is used to sort of set a mood of family before there's a fire as they are trying to explain how to be safe with petroleum products. I like this little mood setter and may use it in some remix eventually...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7865519766827994284

Midnight Moonrunner..

This blog is NOT the same as the Midnight Moonrunner © Blog .. but that's run by me too. This blog is more or less a place for me to remix public domain works. That's more for my original and absurd works. Sometimes, it may be possible that the two will cross over a bit, in which case I might post to both... but I'm running both blogs to sort of keep each Blog seperate and sort of "clean" in that it doesn't get too far off topic and is more focused. I usually have at least 16 hours or so by myself on weekends since my wife works on weekends, so I spend that time working on these or my other blogs, or working on some other artsy project like my digital photo archives over on turbosquid. Happy viewing.

This blog is all about re-envisioning stuff...

This blog is all about re-envisioning stuff. I plan to use a lot of public domain videos and upload them here in either their base format, cut down to important parts, or as remixes with my own videos and stuff or with some combination of multiple videos to get to new theme, story, or message that the videos, images, text, or other things can give...

It's all about re-envisioning this stuff and its uses in creative ways. I've always loved directing, and thought some day I wouldn't mind doing that sort of stuff for movies or commercials... this is sort of a first step for me in that direction, but with a major amount of artistic freedom since I'm making this stuff for myself, for you, or just for art's sake rather than for some company trying to sell a certain amount of goods or whatever... it's all about artistic freedom, and re-envisioning stuff rather than re-inventing the wheel. I can't promise this stuff will all be excellent, but I will try to make it fun, or in some cases serious but with an important message... or at least worth your time to view.

All sounds, soundclips, videos and images posted here can be considered copyright Jeff Thomann. I will sometimes allow you to reuse some of this stuff for your own purposes, but you need to ask permission first. Even though some of the source material I use is Public Domain, the works that I'm creating with this stuff is NOT public domain unless otherwise stated...

The ONE EXCEPTION to this is when I post here with a Title that has the words: PUBLIC DOMAIN SOURCE FOOTAGE: - in that case the ONE scene that's posted can be considered Public Domain since it's just a cut out of a larger Public Domain Work that I re-saved. Technically, I have copyright over that since I created the cut by using my editorial powers... However, you can consider that public domain since I don't want to be a stogey old Copyright Fool and hound you about just uploading my cuts to your websites or wherever you put them when all that I did was chop out a chunk of video from a bigger public domain video.

I'm posting those to sort of break up the footage on Prelinger Archives, and from other places like Librivox, in to smaller chunks, based on individual scenes or message(s) being delivered...

These will be sort of similar to the way that a lot of companies creating commercials start with 1 minute spots and then eventually cut them down to the bare essentials for 30 second spots... which sometimes gets reused in other ads later, etc.

The stuff in Prelinger Archives, and other public domain sources that I'm looking to are sometimes long. I'm just cutting them down to their bare essentials and resaving them in a smaller format so that I can reuse them later or so that you can do so too... and the new meanings that we bring to these scenes may or may not have anything to do with the original context or message that the original work that is now in the Public Domain originally had.

Just remember, this is the ONE EXCEPTION and the stuff that isn't specifically titled: PUBLIC DOMAIN SOURCE FOOTAGE: IS Copyrighted by me, and if you use the other stuff without my permission, you are asking for a lot of trouble.

I have a sister-in-law that's a soon to be lawyer (she just took the bar exam). Her dad is one too, and my brother is planning on maybe eventually studying to be one. Besides all of that, I study law on my own as a hobby, and have a coworker that I'm good friends with that has two lawyer siblings as well...

Happy viewing.