Geert's Place

Watching Miami Vice again, made me think of all the great tunes that arose in the 80’s.  Some of them were completely synthesizer based, and they will forever have a special place in my heart and memories. For example this one :

But the list is way too long to even start writing it .. Some guys were true pioneers, like Jan Hammer, Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Harold Faltermeyer, Kraftwerk, Mike Oldfield etc etc..  Some of my personal favorites :

• Jan Hammer – Crockett’s Theme
• Harold Faltermeyer – Axel F.
• Jean-Michel Jarre – Magnetic Fields Pt 2
• Vangelis – To The Unknown Man
• …….

I recently started watching Miami Vice again (no, not the movie, but the series from the 80’s) – and I came to realize that I LOVE those 80’s and 90’s TV series 🙂

Miami Vice is just one example.. There are plenty of others; some more famous than others. Like for instance Married With Children, Allo Allo, The A-Team, MacGuyver, Knight Rider, Magnum PI, Friends, Happy Days, ALF, Battlestar Galactica, V, etc etc …

For some strange reason I still find them a lot more appealing than the full-of-FX, modern type of series. With one exception maybe… I love The Walking Dead 😀
Can’t wait for the 3rd season to finally become available on Blu-Ray !

Whenever I go for lunch with Mr. Verwulgen, it’s definitely #likeaboss

Like any self-respecting bon-vivant, we don’t like to rush having lunch. “Powerlunches” are for gaylords. We go for the full package 🙂

Venue of today was Testa Rossi, in Machelen… Highly recommended !

A year and a half ago, I started following Spanish evening classes, and ever since, I take every chance I get to learn new words, expressions, etc etc.. Learning Spanish of course means learning how to write it, read it AND it involves developing listening skills as well.

So therefore I listen to Spanish songs regularly, and I try to follow the news on TVE, amongst other broadcasts. Last night in class we stumbled upon a nice 80’s song from a band everybody still remembers, but most people only know their biggest hit – Hijo De La Luna. However, they made quite a few nice songs, and the one I heard last night is called “Hoy No Me Puedo Levantar” – which translates as “Today I can’t get up”.

Basically it’s about a girl who had a rough weekend, drank too much, smoked too much etc etc.. Sounds a bit like me 😀
Anyway – it’s a nice one to end the work week with, or to start off the weekend with !

Hi ladies & gents,

I would like to wish all of you a very happy New Year, may all your dreams, wishes and aspirations come true. All the best to you, your family and loved ones.

Well folks it’s almost there.. the end of the year 🙂 And if we’re a bit unlucky, it will be the end of the world. That’s supposed to happen on 21st December 2012, according to ancient Maya beliefs.

But let’s assume that won’t happen. It has been a moving year though – a year full of ups and downs, as well on professional as on personal level. I should have posted a lot more here, and I promise to start doing that again starting from 2013 😀

Finally I arrived in Austin, after a LONG day of travelling.. Started by getting up at 6, off to the airport in Brussels, took the 10:50am flight from Brussels to Chicago, then had to wait 3 hours, and then another 2,5 hours to fly to Austin.. Currently waiting in the airport for a few colleagues to arrive.

Hope they land soon, because a day of travelling is more than enough!

iPhone security expert and hacker Stefan Esser has just posted a new video on YouTube, showing untethered iOS 4.3.1 jailbreak running on his iPod touch 4th-gen. He has used the same exploit which he earlier used to jailbreak iOS 4.3.

A clip that shows the jailbroken device: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOz2tQH9iEA

The tethered jailbreak approach for iOS 4.3.1 was already available, but of course this requires the device to be returned to a jailbroken state every time you reboot it. The jailbreak will be available initially for iPod 3 & 4G, iPhone 4 and iPad 1. The iPad 2 jailbreak will be released later. More info to follow very shortly !

A picture of my “playroom”, as it is right now.. Still on the wishlist : Nord Rack 2X

Finally my new little beastie has arrived – a Virus TI ! 🙂

An overview of the Virus family of synths can be on the website of Access Music

Its specs :
Polyphony – Over 80 voices
Multitimbral – 16 parts
Oscillators – 3 osc + subosc + noise, FM, Sync
Waveforms – Sine / pulse / saw / supersaw / wavetable / granular / formant
Filter – dual LP/HP/BP/BR with envelopes and addtional multi-pole analog emulations (includes Minimoog 4-pole emulation)
LFO – 3 LFOs, multiple options plus mod matrix 18 slots
Envelope – Amp / Filter / ‘LFO as envelope’ option
Sequencer – none onboard
Arpeggiator – Up / Down / Random / Chord / Multiple additions, editable in software to any variation
Effects – Reverbs, Delays, EQs with Q and freq control, Tape Delays, Distortions (multiple), Phasers, Flangers, Chorus, Analog EQs, Vocoder.
Keyboard – 3-oct (37 key) or 5-oct (61 key) models
Memory – 128 patches in each of 30 banks plus USB storage / Librarian with additional free patchbanks provided regularly by Access
Control – MIDI, USB, 16-part multitimbral in Multi or sequencer modes