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The Fat Man

Biography

Since 1983, the Fat Man, George Alistair Sanger, has loomed larger than life in the mythology of Audio for Games. (See Fatman.com and his book The Fat Man on Game Audio: Tasty Morsels of Sonic Goodness if that interests you.) Perhaps as a result of the game industry’s fascination with technology and profiteering, George has grown weary of all the attention given to the pursuit of those things. And recently, he has come to understand that, while pure philosophy and the study of quality-of-life issues can be beautiful, at their core they are quite simple and even uninteresting. So for purposes of this blog, the Fat Man will be exploring the intersection of the two, which has never ceased to amaze and fascinate him. The theme will be “Where the Metal hits the Meat,” and in the spirit of this website it will be about the relationship between Humans and Machines, exploring how they might together successfully produce the kind of Art that makes living way cool and not such a big fat pain in the ass.

Blog

The Worlds First Comic Book Rock Opera

March 19 2008

This is a weekend experimental project I've been doing with a friend. Jet Age Comics No. 1: The Arch Episode 1: Iconica Wins We'd like to invite [YOU] artists to illustrate it and post their [your] own [better] visuals.... read more

Now You Can Fix (or intentionally screw with) Individual Notes Within a Recorded Chord

March 11 2008

This is something new. The Celemony/Melodyne product is an awesome one, which used to let you fix any notes that were individually recorded. Now you can correct, say, the individual strings of a guitar chord, or the late timing of the tenor in your barbershop quartet. I haven't played with… read more

Ribbon Microphone-HUGE bang for you buck

March 06 2008

The Cascade Fat Head II ribbon mic No, it's not just the name. This is one of those amazing values that happens only very rarely --a pro-level mic for $199. --and a world-class version with Lundahl 2192 Transformers for $349. OK, no, I don't know what a Lundahl transformer is… read more

IASIG UNVEILS WORLD’S FIRST OPEN GAME AUDIO SPECIFICATION

March 06 2008

My most optimistic hope is that IXMF will be to interactive media what MIDI was to keyboard music. read more

Here's some stuff I have to say about game audio

March 06 2008

Alex Brandon wrote this kind article for MIX magazine. It represents well some of the things I'd very much like to pass on to all y'all O'Reilly readers.... read more

Vocalist Live 4: A Gift from the Gods

October 11 2007

Just a quick message to capture my enthusiasm for this new version of the Vocalist Live stomp box. I got mine today, and I feel like I've been given a gift that I've been longing for my whole musical life...... read more

Nerdy Guitar Rig, Part 1

August 18 2007

The Variax is an elegant, functional guitar, whose look is lent a great dignity by its lack of pickups. To play in my wife's Nerd Band, the Captains of the Chess Team, I took a perfectly good, new Variax and... read more

Do You Sing and Play Guitar? YOU MUST BUY THIS.

March 01 2007

You know how I am...I never recommend gear, I just wax all philosophical about theories and such. However. I am currently so stinking excited I can't sit still!!!! Don't tell the other guys, we jam tonight, and I have a--no,... read more

Analog Modular Fever

February 01 2007

The fever I got is of the Analog Modular kind. There's a lot of that going around--a wonderful resurgence in hands-on, knobs-and-patch-cables, Not For Any Reason(R), synthesis.... read more

"Air Guitar Shirt" allows you to create "Real Music"

November 13 2006

Wait...just a sec...the phone is ringing. "Hello? What? What's that? You're calling from where? A Mile Away??? And you saw this COMING???"... read more

The Definition of Insanity is, perhaps, using that quote.

October 16 2006

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. " -Benjamin Franklin --Or Not. I could stand it no more, so I did a little research, using the "World Wide Web," where the... read more

Tired of seeing your old ideas in new products? Get Even!!!

September 27 2006

We're O'Reilly readers. We're smart. And we've all had it happen to us. We're watching TV or browsing through the airline catalog, and then we see it: HEY! I THOUGHT OF THAT TEN YEARS AGO!!!!! (Go ahead, reply to this... read more

Miraculous Paper Digital Clocks on Easy-Bake Ovens: They Work!!

September 12 2006

How were the makers of this Easy-Bake Oven able to make the digital clock, obviously just a paper sticker, actually advance in time?... read more

Mellotron demonstrated for home use.

August 21 2006

We all remember the Mellotron from the Strawberry Fields flute line. "...always know sometimes think it's me..." I had no idea it was such an ambitious, fancy, and musical machine, on top of being dang clever and cool. See it... read more

Origin of the iPod--Shall we have a Geekly Argument?

August 20 2006

Go here and bang around for "appliance." http://www.projectbarbq.com/bbqtopic.htm (thanks for the photo, Dave Battino) http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2032 You'll see that the topic of "PC versus Appliance," especially as relates to audio, was brought up elegantly in 1997 by Van Webster in... read more
The Fat Man