Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

Family

The Focusrite 2i2 audio interface and its free plugins

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On 22 October 2013, I purchased a Focusrite 2i2 audio interface.

Seven years later, it is still working great and I use it mainly now to connect my Yamaha HS5 monitor speakers to my iMac using balanced connections. I rarely use it for recording.

One great thing about Focusrite is the set of plugins it comes with and its Plugin Collective programme. In essence (and I quote its website), this is what Plugin Collective offers: “When you register any Focusrite hardware you gain access to the most innovative music software brands on the market. Plug-in Collective keeps you up to date with the latest tools, offering you new free downloads every couple of months, along with generous discounts.”

Over the seven years, I have managed to get all of those for free:

  • Audiority Deleight
  • Audiority Distortion 1
  • AudioThing SR-88 (SoundMaster Memory Rhythm SR-88)
  • D16 Sigmund
  • Eventide EQuivocate
  • Focusrite and sonible Balancer
  • Focusrite Red 2
  • Focusrite Red 3
  • Focusrite Scarlett Compressor
  • Focusrite Scarlett Equaliser
  • Focusrite Scarlett Gate
  • Focusrite Scarlett Reverb
  • Mastering The Mix BASSROOM (for six months though)
  • Mastering The Mix IGNITE
  • Novation B-Station (Novation Bass Station)
  • Positive Grid BIAS AMP 2 LE
  • Softube Drawmer S73 Intelligent Master Processor
  • Softube Saturation Knob
  • Softube TSAR-1R Reverb
  • Softube Tube Delay
  • Sound Radix SurferEQ Boogie
  • Venomode DEEQ
  • Venomode MAXIMAL 2
  • Venomode PIVOT
  • and the quite excellent XLN Audio Addictive Keys

I also have a licence for Ableton Live Lite but I have not installed it because I now use the also quite excellent REAPER.

Deutschland 83 and Deutschland 86

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Deutschland 83 is a television series depicting Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay), code name Kolibri, a border patrol guard from East Germany who, in 1983, is sent to West Germany as an undercover spy for the HVA (Main Directorate for Reconnaissance i.e. foreign intelligence agency) of the Stasi (Ministry for State Security). The series started in June 2015 but we started watching it only last year. We are enjoying it in the original German (with English subtitles of course).

The second season is called Deutschland 86 and is set in 1986. We will watch the first episode of this second season tonight. A third season, Deutschland 89, will air later this year, 1989 being the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I highly recommend Deutschland 83 and 86 to all fans of spy TV shows and movies. It’s also a great psychological and historical drama. Give it a go if you like TV shows like The Americans and you won’t regret it.

Danke sehr.

The Good Place and Life in Pieces

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On 4 February 2020, we watched the last ever episode of The Good Place. The show ran from September 2016 to January 2020. It’s a very nice TV show that we loved watching with the kids because it’s about friendship, philosophy, a bit of science and it’s fun. One thing which is cool is that all the main characters have (more or less) the same importance and the actors performed admirably: Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper), Tahani Al-Jamil (Jameela Jamil), Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto), Michael (Ted Danson) and Janet (D’Arcy Carden). If you don’t know the show, give it a try.

A few months ago, we also finished watching Life in Pieces. The show ran from September 2015 to June 2019 and chronicles the lives of three generations of the Short family as they go about their daily lives in Los Angeles. What is cool is that each episode is told as four short stories, typically one for each of the three Short family branches and one that ties the other three stories together. It’s a cool show but the characters are not very likeable, apart maybe from Dr Tim Hughes (Dan Bakkedahl), Matthew Short (Thomas Sadoski) and Colleen Brandon Ortega Short (Angelique Cabral).