The Golden Rule

Always isolate your speakers from whatever they’re sitting on (be it floor, bookshelf whatever). It’s just the golden rule in life. You must do it. Well, I built this new desk**, and completely forgot the rule, I was just so happy to have somewhere for these puppies to sit on. I happened upon some 8mm strips of rubbery packing foam - night and day difference, event at low volumes it makes a difference. I’m not sure the maple was really adding to music

Just listening to some Ben Harper and it sounds GORGEOUS. No more annoying little bass resonances. Put on some Vivaldi and we get bone chilling clarity. Nice - that’s what studio monitors are about, reproduction (this is a moment of triumph, I bought them 5-6 months ago and haven’t really had a chance to *use* them until now).

Of course a true audiophile might be a little horrified that sound waves are going to reflect off the desk, but you can’t have it all.

** The other golden rule, never try to figure out how Ikea can sell furniture so cheaply.

A long way from Paperboy.. Bioshock

What a busy evening, picked up stuff for my significant other, went out for dinner, did some coding, managed to give the cats some attention, and last but not least sneaked in a few minutes of playing the Bioshock Demo.

Holy sh-t. Games have come a very long way from Paperboy, and even further from “LOAD FROM A:\” “RUN” off a tape drive (yes I’m starting to feel old). What keeps me young is firing up the flat panel, powering up the receiver, turning on the XBox 360 and having a bit of good ole fun.

All I’ve got to say with Bioshock, is I’ll be very suprised if it doesn’t come in a close 2nd, if not 1st with Gears of War for sales this year. It is absolutely spectacular (and this is just the demo). I was blown away from 15mins of play time, the water effects are very nice indeed. An eerie atmosphere pervades each section of gameplay. Well done. There goes my productivity for a few days…