Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Korg Triton

This is remarkably still as great Synth. Exclusively for the people who grew up in 90s and early 2000s, this is synonymous with the name 'quality sound', 'karma'. I often look back from Korg Krome to check if Triton is still the one, "the one". Yes it is.

One high level reason is, it’s not buttery. It’s tough, its synth hammer action, 64MB RAM, which is way too incredible for a dot-matrix display.

The special Korg Triton LE sounds that’s still used in most VSTs are the atmospherics sounds and the clean pads, though a sampled version from NX4, still its all the same family.
Before you switch try Triton.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Surrendering to the Beauty of Niagara

Niagara Trip
It was the most planned trip in my mind, specifically because of the driving thing. last trip to niagara was in 2008, with a bunch of colleagues and i found it to be a romantic place to be, thus my plans were high this time.
Getting to goat island was a trouble with parking and all logistics, but I enjoyed the time on the falls, the vast beauty of the the Niagara river flowing in to either sides of Grand Island and Goat Island, it was a magical place to be. 

Question to all travellers
I learnt a key of misdoing there, people around me and sometimes including me and my family were taken away by the process of getting tickets and strolling into some place before a specific time. In the end, I was always asking, did we felt the moments to the truest beauty of the place. 
The first day was on the rush and gush, so when I got back to Tonawanda for the night stay (budget hotel - Centerway, good for small family, homely, tidy and qualitative), i told myself, 'hey what are you doing, rushing so much, surrender!'

Surrendering to the Beauty
Next morning was our planned Maid of the Mist. I switched off my cameras and online updates, started reading the history bites on the falls park. when we got on the cruise boat, all I focused was the presence of the gigantic beauty of the falls. it looked like a monster as first, then the glass top of the falls shined like a massive transparent surface in the morning sun light, looked miraculous, more we got close, the only words you have in your mind is... though there are 50 odd people on the vessel shouting different words like 'amazing', 'wow', and a lot of mechanical shutter sounds, and pseudo shutter sounds generated by smart phones or point-and-shoot. when i was so close, i thought of a lot of words to shout out. few pals did the victory screams, I just wondered how do I put this in words. Can there be words? if so, whats the emotion of the expression? I only think of one thing 'Surrender', and as a human i don't have to say that to Nature. We have always surrendered to nature time and again. and this is just one such condition where you can enjoy a close encounter from a controlled environment and feel the power of nature.
When we finished the ride, i wanted to walk on the steps towards the American falls. It was the moment of ultimately surrendering. when i reached the top podium, i stood there few minutes just trying to get rid of all thinking, and just surrendering. 
When you get to Niagara, try these  
1) Walk to the mid-top of American falls using the step access from Maid of the Mist Dock
2) Cave of the Winds  - that takes you to the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls, with Hurricane Deck
3) Brisk walk or jog on the Goat Island, including the Bridge
4) Walk down to Luna Island, thats takes to the place between South of American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls

Friday, January 2, 2015

Did you say your name is 'Happy' ?? Are you Serious...

McDonald's in their new pursuit to connect to families with kids, introduced their all new mascot "Happy". The moments after its introduced to the world, all went wrong. Really? Are you calling him 'Happy'. He is Scary. Whoever came up with this design hasn't felt how odd it will look when you convert the McDonald's Trademark Yellow Arch as a devilish eye-brows for a Happy Meal Box, that came to life all of a sudden.

You really don't feel the connection. McDonald's idea of attracting children is never going to work, with those boomer hands and legs sticking out of the box, and that 'big mouth'... Wow, McDonald's had done a big favor to the society, by threatening children away from fast food.

And the 30 minutes commercial where more than 3 'Happy's jump and dance, is just reaching out to the threshold of 'will you switch the channel or I break the TV'.