[Cs-club] Google speech for next week

[Rene Horn <the.rhorn@gmail.com>]

I'd like to let everyone know that the Google guy, an alumnus of
UW-Oshkosh and former member of the only Oshkosh ACM ICPC team to go
on to the national championships, is going to give a speech next week.
 I'm scheduling the CSClub meeting around him.  It will start at 3:15
PM somewhere in Halsey (I think), and he will likely begin his speech
around 3:30 PM.

The week after that, we will probably have Tyler Goen, also an alumnus
of UW-Oshkosh and former VP/treasurer of CSClub, give a speech on
digital music.  It seems, for now, that the majority of the interest
in this subject surrounds sequencing and recording (option B below),
though he has left it open of what we'd like to hear on the subject (I
will attach his message to the end of this email.)

For this week, however, the meeting is open ended, although it seems
some people would like to have a discussion on FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open
Source Software, not the stuff that goes between your teeth.)  I'd be
happen to do this, and give people unfamiliar with the subject a short
introduction to it and then we could discuss the
philosophical/practicality implications.

Rene Horn, CSClub President

Tyler's email on digital music:

I'm not sure what it'll be about, either. Semi-recently (within the
last year or so) I've tried writing a MIDI sequencer (FrogJam), and
writing/recording/mixing tunes on my computer (most recently for
songfighting). So two topics come to mind, depending on whether you're
feeling geeky or nerdy:

------------------------
A) Explain the MIDI Protocol

If you're feeling geeky, we can look at how MIDI events and files are
structured (when sent/received from a MIDI device, or saved to file),
along with some sample code for Visual C++ on Windows (though the
concepts are similar for other platforms). I learned a bit of this when
writing FrogJam for Windows.

B) Demo a Sequencer

If you're feeling nerdy, I can demonstrate how to record a song using a
sequencer. I'll bring some basic equipment (laptop, mixer, microphone,
musical keyboard, headphone(s), speakers) and we'll record a song.
Depending on the sequencer and hardware (no promises) we'll explore
virtual amps and pitch correction.

I don't know much about the free sequencers these days, but I could
dabble in a few before the meeting and demo the findings. Otherwise,
I've got eMagic Logic on my Mac laptop, and Steinberg Cubasis (an older
version of Cubase) on my XP desktop (hopefully to fit on the laptop).
It'd be a bit of work to disconnect and drag along all my gear, so you
wouldn't get a full show of the capabilities (e.g. Sound Fonts), but
it'd be enough to get started recording a song.

Whether with a free sequencer or a commercial one, we'd record a simple
multi-track song, focusing on how to use sequencing, moreso than what
the program is technically doing behind the scenes. Hopefully the room
will be able to handle any loudness. :)

If someone there is particularly skilled with an instrument (notably
guitar), this could come in very handy so I dont have to run around
much.
------------------------

Personally, I'm leaning toward B, but I'm not sure what y'all are
hoping for. As long as I get at least a week to prepare (especially if
it involves installing/testing software), things should be swell.

If you're curious about the "songfight" thing, check out
http://www.songfight.org/. Each week they post 3 song titles, and
participants (anyone who can make an Mp3, basically) write a song for
that title in a week or less. Song reviews and voting follow, and all
the participants lose... except for one, who wins... an intangibly
happy emotion of a prize.

For example (like it or hate it), one week I wrote a song for the "I'm
With Steve Now" title which talks about Steve Jobs and the "spotlight"
feature in the upcoming version of OS X; you can listen to at:
http://www.songfight.org/music/im_with_steve_now/cowexchange_iwsn.mp3