Just a quick blog post to mention that one of the tools I use in language documentation and description, Transcriber, is newly repackaged for use with OS X El Capitan! This is a big deal because previous versions (from 2013) failed to work, then the program was supposedly 'updated' (and didn't work), so I've been using the 2005 Windows version in a virtual box. But I just tested the new release (new as of 4 hours ago) and it works great on my Mac (just have to update the settings to default to UTF-8 for character encoding) and also with my trs2txt converter for Toolbox! Happy transcribing!
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This website is newly updated! I just redesigned the layout and will be making it a bit more writing-oriented over the coming days and weeks. The reason for this is because of a realization that while I still enjoy writing and producing music (and you can still link to all my music-related content via the navigation menu), my focus and life/work trajectory has really shifted.
Another reason I haven’t updated this site more regularly and done more blogging is that at the end of 2015 I thought the AI website builder of the future was right around the corner (thegrid.ai). As you can read from this post, I (and so many other people) were wrong. I can’t really complain though - I think I got quite a lot from what I spent on the product, including a curiosity about A.I. and an understanding of how far we have to go before computers defeat humans and run our lives. I also got a website that I’m too embarrassed to link here because it basically looks like a really bad Tumblr account... like my old (now essentially defunct) Tumblr. Anyway, I’ll keep checking my AI website periodically, and maybe I’ll be able to finally move everything from here to that site and my life will achieve some semblance of integration. ![]() The new album 'Home' is almost here! I'm still working on the artwork with my friend Janina, so it's not completely done yet, but for now you can pre-order the digital version on Bandcamp: http://hiramring.bandcamp.com The pre-order includes 6 songs for immediate download and is at the discounted price of $7 for 12 tracks. Of course you are always welcome to donate more. When the full album is released, you will be emailed and can then download the rest of the album and the PDF artwork. I hope you're getting as excited as I am! I'm really looking forward to sharing this album with you! It's been a really long time coming, and some of these songs are the best I've written to date. I'll be continuing to post here over the coming weeks with thoughts about the album before it officially releases and becomes available on iTunes, AmazonMP3 and wherever else digital music is sold. Keep in mind that what you hear on the site is a stream, and therefore lower quality than the download. They sound even better once they're yours! I've thought about this album for awhile as a collection of songs, and of course one of the big questions is "what do I call it?". For a variety if reasons that I hope will become apparent, I've decided to name the new album Home. More on that later, but for now, below is the track list:
1. All I Want 2. Hold Me 3. Virginia 4. How Far 5. I've Got a Girl 6. If I Held You 7. Greet the Dawn 8. This Lamp 9. My Lord 10. Life 11. Two Trees 12. Zion's Walls Some really great news - the album is being authored now! For those who don't know, the process of authoring is the final stage which music goes through before before it is ready to be pressed or replicated onto a CD.
My friend Mark at Working Man's Productions is who I've been working with for mastering, and now that mastering is done and authoring is almost done, the next step is to upload the album to digital distributors and finish the artwork in time for a late February release. Super exciting! I plan to post in the next few days with more album details, so stay tuned! So this is my first official post of the new year, and also my first post on the new blog which is integrated with my website. I like the idea of having everything in one location, so everyone who wants to can just come to hiramring.com to learn more about my life and my music. Over the next month or two I hope to figure out how to either migrate my old posts over to here, or maybe just link to it from here. And I also hope to start blogging more regularly. I think it's something I need to schedule, since I'm already busy with other things and this is just one more thing to do. Case in point: it's taken me a lot longer to release this new album than I thought it would. That being said, though, I'm happy to say that the album is being mastered and the artwork is being worked on as I write this, which is super exciting! Stay posted for more details! I'm also writing a bit of new music, and here's a song that I wrote a few months ago and recorded a couple weeks ago. Enjoy! |
About meI'm a linguist and singer-songwriter. I write about life, travel, language and technology. Archives
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