Cheers.

But making a song out of beeps is, well, not terribly exciting.  We made songs like this, for games that looked about as sophisticated (the end “music” starts around 1:28 or so in):

Tone-based “pianos” suck, but if the only alternative is a real one, and you can’t afford one, you couldn’t beat it.  Legendary jazz guitarist Ryo Kawasaki personally coded some awesome Commodore products back in the day. Long live, SID!  Loved them.  Simple – yet inspirational stuff. Demo groups cropped up everywhere. The game was on.

FM synthesis was the order of the day.  We could use multiple tones, oscillating in various ways to create complex sounds. We used early “tracker” software to write tunes.  Yeah, this was painful.  Fun, but tedious and painful:

We ditched our VIC-20s and C-64s for Amigas – which were incredible at the time. Early PCs were becoming affordable as well, but they sucked for making music.  Because they had no on-board hardware for anything beyond a simple beep over the PC speaker.

And then, a little company named AdLib changed things.  Ooh la la.  Everyone just had to have a PC with an AdLib card. :)

Sound cards evolved quickly, thanks to another little company called Creative Labs and their incredibly innovative 8-Bit GameBlaster card (which beget the now iconic 8-bit SoundBlaster card).  For the sufficiently geeked or nostalgia-seekers, Wikipedia has an awesome page on the history of the PC sound card (riveting reading, for me at least).

With the Creative cards, demo artists and groups could now work in some really cool digital audio elements into their creations.  Oh, and games were able to take advantage of it, too :)  Go, go, Sierra (RIP).

Sounds great, no pun intended.  But by today’s standards, the quality was mega sucky.  How sucky?  Imagine listening to your favorite MP3s on your iPod or other device.  They sound awesome, right?  Now, imagine your friend calling you on a cell phone, and holding their phone up to a crappy alarm clock radio that is playing that same song.  Ugh.  But you know what?  It was delicious at the time.

Hmm.  So we could make these cool little 8-bit audio samples of real-world sounds.  But we still needed a really cool way of stitching all of these little soundbites together to make a song (without having to buy an expensive 1st-gen consumer-grade digital sampler, which would have done the same sucky job anyway).

So the concept of the “MOD tracker” was born.  There were lots of them, but one of the best in my view, was a little program called Composer 669.  It was developed by Thomas Pytel (aka Tran) of the demogroup Renaissance, and was the evolution of Composer 667, an earlier attempt they put out in 1991. It sported eight channels of digital goodness – screenshot below. Nothing gets the creative juices flowing like an all night session of slaving away in a text-based MOD tracker (lol).  It was a painful vehicle, but incredibly rewarding.

For the truly (*truly*) geeky among you, there is an awesome SVG which shows the lineage of the tracker.  You’ll likely need to scroll the mouse wheel a bit to get the full view of this one ….

I was involved in my first demo group back in 1985 or so.  C-64 stuff.  I left the scene when I joined the Army out of high school, but once I discovered Composer 669, I started messing with compositions again.

I found an old archive of some of my old 669 MOD files.  I was able to play them still, in Winamp, using a MOD/669 plugin.  I found an old copy of Composer 669 online, but couldn’t get it to run under DosBox.  EMM issue.  Who knows. I pulled my hair out, but was finally able to convert them to .MP3 format.  They’re a riot to listen to.  You really have to be into retro stuff to endure them.

I’ll try to carve out some more time to throw them up on my music page at some point, but here is a quick one.  A little tribute to Shadow – specifically, a little tune based loosely on one of our old original songs called Halloween.

Oh, for those looking to convert old MODs or 669s to MP3 format:  the formula is DosBox, 6692mod (if need be), then use the service at media.io to convert the MODs to MP3.  The service at media.io couldn’t recognize the 669 files, so I had to convert them first.  When converting, make sure you mod filenames follow the old-school 8.3 convention (“SOMENAME.669″), and don’t use the file extensions on the command line, just use the base filename.

Fast forward to 2012.  I have a fully digital recording studio on my iPad that’s about 1,000 times more powerful than the old-school studio in Germany where we recorded our old LP in 1989.  Insane.

Cheers.

These pitches were all of the single sentence (or paragraph form), and all had common “stop” words removed for clarity.  This cloud is the top 150 terms.

Click for a larger view.  That is all.

Cheers.

Congrats by the way to Scott Taylor who now ascends to the role as MFG.com’s VP of Technology! Scott joined at the same time as me, and we were jointly tasked with “kicking it up a notch”, as Emeril would say. There is absolutely no way that we would have accomplished all of our goals without his leadership and knowledge. Scott’s a great dude if you ever get a chance to meet him. And if you’re a fan of jazz, check out his wife Kayla, who is an awesome jazz singer.

Best of luck to Mitch and crew at MFG! I had a wonderful time there, and met some truly dedicated, passionate professionals.

Off to find some more problems to solve and trouble to get into … and not necessarily in that order :) For starters, we’re preparing for the next StartupLounge event on March 20th here in Atlanta.  Hope to see you there!

Cheers.

I’ve always loved rock and roll – but it wasn’t until I joined the Army and went overseas that I would begin really exploring the depths of metal music.  Mind you, this was in the 1980s.  Judas Priest and Iron Maiden were in their prime, and a young band in Los Angeles decided to ditch the name “MetalMania” in lieu of a catchier, less cheesy one – Metallica.

Jason Penner - Brain Damage

Shortly after my arrival to Delta Company, 3/64th Armor in Schweinfurt, Germany, I met Jason Penner.  Jay was a cool cat all-around – knew his shit, whether it was about tanks or rock and roll.  As it turns out, he was the lead singer in an all-soldier band called “Brain Damage.”  Saw them play here and there.  They sounded pretty tight.  I’ve got an old VHS tape around here somewhere of one of their shows.  If I get the courage one day to try and play it (for fear of it being eaten due to age), I’ll try and digitize it and post it here somewhere.

As with all soldiers, the time came for Jason to head back stateside.  Demand for the band was growing, but they now needed a singer.  For some reason, they picked me.  One day, out in the middle of nowhere (REFORGER ’88, if I remember correctly), the drummer, Kirk Strieter, comes up to me out in the bush and says “Hey, I heard you could sing.  We’re looking for a singer, so you’re in, right?”  I chuckled a bit, as I tried to figure out why in the hell anyone would start a rumor that I could actually sing.  I agreed to come hang out with them when we got back from the deployment.

The practice room at the time was a tiny (miniscule, really) room underneath a place called Zapfhahn’s.  Zap’s was an institution in Schweinfurt, a dive bar located on the corner of Frühlingstraße and Niederwerrner Straße. Cozy little place, rock and roll always blaring over the speakers.  It had a reputation of being a great hangout during the week, and a place where GIs would go to beat the snot out of each other on the weekends.  What’s not to love?

That little practice room couldn’t have been more than 10′ x 10′.  And believe me, that space fills up quickly when you add in a drum kit, a bunch of amps, mic stands, and a sound board.  The acoustics were nothing short of, well … non-existent. I walked into the room for the first time and was completely sucker punched by the noise. Deafening.  Beautiful, but ear-shattering.  We used to practically rock the pictures off the wall in the bar above us. We got a lot of complaints from Zap’s, usually when they couldn’t hear their own jukebox because of the noise emanating from the basement. They loved us practicing there, though – we brought them a lot of business.

At any rate, at that first practice session, Tony, the guitarist, asked me if I knew this one particular song by Judas Priest.  I shook my head negatively.  “What about song X from Iron Maiden?”.  Nope.  Never heard of it.  Hmm.  “Well, what about Rock and Roll, by Led Zeppellin?  Everyone the hell knows that song!”  I flashed a wide grin and we rocked it.  The rest is, well history, I suppose. We played that song in every live gig we did after that.

I had some pretty big shoes to fill. Jay was the kind of frontman that every bands wants to have … needs to have. He had a natural “stage swagger” about him. He was confident, inspired. Plus, he had a history with the other guys that I didn’t. It was a little awkward at first, to say the least.

But, we practiced and practiced, wrote and wrote, played and played.  We rented a practice room just outside of town, in a farm village called Sennfeld – Herr Geyer, proprietor. He was an old guy, and didn’t give a crap about rock and roll, but he gladly took our geld. He once said that American beer looked like “apfelsaft” (apple juice) and tasted like “piss water” – we agreed.

We trolled the strip in Schweinfurt, at the height of 80s metal and American military presence. We shredded places like Maggie’s, The Green Goose, Jackpot, Wellington’s, Eastwood, the River Boat, and about a million other places. We were the kings of the boardwalk. There came a point where we didn’t pay for many of our own beers – a sure sign that you are going down the right path as a band.

We eventually changed our name from Brain Damage to Shadow. Even though we had our military duties to contend with, we were four single American boys living the dream in a rock band … in Europe!  After one particular show in a little town called Oberlauringen, a producer approached us backstage and set more things in motion. We recorded a record – vinyl, no less (the Iron Umbrella LP).  We reaped enough crazy stories to fill a book (which at one point, someone was actually working on.) Buy me a beer and I’ll tell you the story involving the Rajun’ Cajun, some two week old Ox Tail soup, and a strange night time anomaly apparently known as the “Southern Lights.” (*snicker*) No kidding …

I was the baby of the group. At the time, I was 19. Tony (Thornton), Monte (Starling) and Kirk (Strieter) were all 5-7 years older than me. They razzed me, they gave me shit. But they were like big brothers, too. They took care of me, and made sure I didn’t get into any trouble. Well, at least any trouble in which they didn’t get to participate. We became the best of friends. Inseparable, and insufferable to be around if you weren’t part of the “Shadow circle of trust.”

We had some crazy songs.  We wrote about things from a human perspective.  What does it really mean to be a soldier, and to carry those burdens for the rest of your life?  What is stage fright really, truly all about? What would it be like if the world really came to an end?  How would someone truly feel if their lover committed suicide?  We even had a song about a guy simply called “The Missionary” who killed prostitutes in the name of his god.  Stuff that most bands wouldn’t touch, and we did it with an edge.

Scott Burkett, Germany, 1988

We had a built-in fan base, simply given the fact that we were all soldiers.  At the time (height of the cold war), the United States had somewhere around 300,000 troops stationed in Europe. And as for the Germans? They loved us simply because we were an American band.  We had it good.

One by one, we each concluded our military service commitment. Tony had been out for a while, but I got out next. So I moved into an apartment right off the Marktplatz with Tony. Monte and Kirk eventually got out as well, and we made our way back to the States.  We started building up a following here in the U.S. – even had some metal radio airplay with a few of our songs. We were rockers, and we partied like rockers should. Good stuff.

Eventually, however, as most bands do, for one reason or another, we disbanded, and everyone headed their separate ways. Tony continued his music career, and is still playing today.  Monte resurfaced in a new band recently as well.  Kirk went back into the Army, and get this, is currently stationed back where it all started (Grafenwoehr, Germany, not that far from Schweinfurt, where we all met all those years ago). Small world.

About 15 years later, I started getting emails from people around the world, asking me whether or not I was the same Scott Burkett that was the lead singer of Shadow, and if I had any more copies of the old vinyl record.  The frequency of these emails picked up over time – I still get them today. In trying to determine why so many people have emailed me over the years asking about the old Shadow record, I discovered some interesting things.

For starters, the underground heavy metal collector circuit is rather large, and apparently fairly affluent.  A copy of our now vintage, rare metal album, in “excellent” condition, is listed for sale on one collector site for $1,400, and on another for over $1,200. An auction from just a few years ago shows a copy selling for $400. According to some, there is a bit of an underground “cult-like” following of the band all across Germany.  Who knew?

I thought it would be cool to create remastered digital versions of the songs, and make them freely available to people who wanted to download them for personal use.  Maybe even have a charitable tie-in to a non-profit organization to help veterans.  Unfortunately, the only digitized copies of our songs that I have are ripped from the vinyl, and the quality simply isn’t that great. If you happen to have any decent vinyl rips from that original LP, please send them to me :)

As a next step, I decided to try and obtain the master recordings from the studio in Maßbach, Germany where we recorded the album.  Unfortunately, the studio had changed hands over the years, and it seemed no one knew what had happened to those original reels.  I tried contacting GEMA (the German version of our ASCAP), but again, no one could seem to find the mastered recordings that we filed as part of our copyright process. Sigh. So the hunt continues.  There is a bounty available if someone in the world can produce those original reels.

Over the years, I had been toying around with acoustic arrangements for some of our old songs. In 2003, Tony and I reunited for a series of acoustic sessions to produce some new music.  We re-arranged and recorded 5 songs from the original album, as well as 3 previously unreleased Shadow songs, all in an edgy acoustic format.  As we hadn’t yet reconnected with Monte and Kirk, we brought in some pretty darn good musicians to provide some tracks for a few of the tunes.  On drums, we had Ron Wikso (Foreigner, Richie Sambora/Bon Jovi, David Lee Roth, Cher), and pulling the bass strings was Lance Morrison (Alanis Morrissete, Rod Stewart, Simple Minds).  It was a blast!

At any rate, I decided to at least put together a little Shadow tribute section on the site here.  It turned into something larger, with photos, tunes, road stories, and more.  All of the tracks from the original LP are there, as well as the tracks from the acoustic sessions. If you are so inclined, you can go explore the world of Shadow.  Or, at least what was. It truly was the time of our lives.

Cheers.

I’ll be helping out again with the Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition, which is always a rewarding experience.  And yes, the good Mr. Blake and I are in the process of giving StartupLounge a fresh kick in the pants.  Stay tuned for more on that.

I’m also sifting through over 200 draft blog posts that I’ve started over the years, in an attempt to locate any that deserve finishing.  The vast majority of them will be deleted, as they are no longer timely or relevant.  But there are a few gems I’ve found already.

At any rate, see you on the bitstream …

Cheers.

As a more “official” announcement (I suppose), I have joined the MFG.com global leadership team to focus on evolving the team, processes, and the technology platform. However, the thing that I am most excited about is the opportunity to also participate in evolving the MFG.com business model itself.

Since I’ve already been there for a few months, we’re knee-deep in a ton of different initiatives already, with undoubtedly plenty more to follow. As time permits, I’ll try to share some of the cooler things we’re doing here in my blog.

In particular, though, we are undertaking some things that will fundamentally shift the landscape of our sector. That’s the kind of stuff that gets me jazzed.

Cheers.

After three years of blood, sweat, and tears at StarPound, I’ve decided that it’s time to move on.

We achieved a great number of successes over the past few years, and I’m incredibly proud of the entire team. When I joined the company, it was a 3 person company (that had been whittled back from 80 or so at one point) Our initial VC had long written off their original $4M investment, with that particular fund approaching sunset. The product wasn’t really complete, and subsequently, there were no customers.

Since then, we:

• Got the product stable and out the door – the world’s most advanced open source BPM and call center platform


• Secured our first customers, including a Fortune Global 100 company, the largest in its industry


• Designed, built and launched another incredible product in Teledini, a mashable VOIP/SIP phone for the browser


• Received a lot of really awesome recognition by the community, including TechAmerica’s Spirit of Endeavor Awards, TAG Top 40 Innovative Company (twice), and named to VARGUY’s Open Source 50 list for 2 straight years (alongside Red Hat, MYSQL, Drupal, SugarCRM, and others).


• Brought in another round of investment, and provided a financial exit for our initial venture capital investor

Even more importantly, we came together as a team and overcame an almost unimaginable collection of obstacles. We truly became friends for life and created an amazing company culture. When you see each other more than you see your own families, suffice it to say you tend to form very strong bonds. This is largely why this decision was incredibly difficult for me to make.

My reasons for leaving are varied. Some are personal, some are professional. Nevertheless, my departure is very amicable, and I feel that I am leaving the company in significantly better shape than it was when I joined. I may remain involved on the board, or as an adviser, which is cool. I’ll be working with the team over the next month or so to transition everything and to reach our next development milestone.

So, what’s next for me? Well, the first thing on the agenda is our first family vacation in almost seven years. Definitely way past due.

One of the side effects of becoming completely immersed in any effort is that it can become an incredible time sink. If you know me at all, you know that I really enjoy working with the larger startup community on various things (StartupLounge, TI:GER, various business plan competitions, lecturing/speaking, mentoring, coaching, etc.) Unfortunately, a lot of those activities had to take a back seat for a while. I’m definitely looking forward to re-engaging with the community that I loved so dearly.

Beyond that, I have a few ideas I’m tossing around, and a few other irons in the fire, as it were – so we’ll see.

Thanks to everyone on the StarPound team for all of your hard work and sacrifices over the past few years. I wish you all the very best!

Cheers.

I agree, in principle, with Matt Ingram’s view that new media entities should be treated as traditional media. Clearly the world has evolved beyond newspapers, radio, and TV.  I would venture to say that more news breaks over new media than traditional media these days.

But with that respect and treatment comes a responsibility. There have been plenty of times where traditional media outlets such as the New York Times have refused to publish certain things, often on the basis of national security.

Publishing hundreds of thousands of classified documents is not journalism.  It’s treason against humanity.  And the soldier that gave them to WikiLeaks is, in my opinion, guilty of treason against the United States.

This isn’t the same as “exposing” a story. That’s something real journalists do. This isn’t a case of Jeffrey Wigand or Erin Brockovich dong the right thing.  In this case, sans any real journalistic purpose, WikiLeaks’ actions were wholly irresponsible and unjustified. Quite frankly, given the absence of any real journalistic purpose, it borders on electronic terrorism.

Why were they published? To what end? If the documents had shed light on some deep-rooted conspiracy, such as our government knowingly invading another country for oil, or to boost some politician’s ratings, then I’d be all for it.  That would be responsible whistle blowing. But even in that case, one wouldn’t have to publish hundreds of thousands of unrelated classified documents to serve the cause.

Wikileaks has described itself as follows:

WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.

Publishing all of these classified documents is counter to their own mantra.  In my view, the  documents they chose to publish are not “important news and information.”  Exactly what “suppressed and censored injustice” is being spotlighted here?  War?  It’s a dirty business.  Deal with it.  Wars are not fought with pillows. Putting the spotlight on how dirty war exposes absolutely nothing.

Again, if in these documents, there were cases of groups or individuals ignoring orders, violating laws, etc., then those individual documents deserve to be brought forward. The New York Times would publish them, as well they should.  But they wouldn’t run a mountain of classified documents, many unrelated, through their printing presses. The last time I checked, it wasn’t a crime to call the Prime Minister of Xanadu a bumbling idiot.

I’m actually fairly liberal in some of my views these days.  But I do not define “liberalism” as “hey, let’s be completely transparent, open and free, and publish classified documents online.”

If someone gave me their sister’s diary, irrespective of what it contained, and I published it word-for-word on the Internet, is that responsible? No. It’s juvenile at best.

Cheers.

Thanks to participation from all of you, we were able to raise enough money to move the Roberts’ into their new home!  Due to the hard work, financial contributions, and desire to truly make a meaningful difference in the world shown by all of you, the family is moving into their new Atlanta home this week.  The home is big enough to keep the family together, and little Jamaal has started at his new school.

On behalf of myself and the Roberts’ family, I’d like to publicly thank to all of the entrepreneurs, investors, community leaders, and friends who helped with this.  A special thanks to Bo Emerson at the AJC for initially making the community aware of the story, and to Doris Benit for getting the initial fund set up.  As a veteran myself, I took a deep personal interest in this story when it broke.  It just really hit me personally.  Your collective willingness to help me with this cause speaks volumes about you all.   A deep heartfelt thanks to you all from this old Marne Dog :)

Cheers.