alionmind News May 2017 - The progress, so far

Yes, it is already June, and I wanted to post this alionmind News blog since a few days. The reason why this didn't happen is, that I hoped to get the alionmind website up and running and also a new AlionLive video uploaded. This issue of the alionmind news would have been far more impressive then. So, before we dive into the things that have been accomplished in May 2017, we get into the things that haven't:

Website(s)?
I had to learn about a lot of things in May, regarding to webdesign. The internet has changed somewhat since I dived into the depths of webdesign, web programming and all that for the last time. Thus my recent websites always looked not just a bit oldschool...in a bad way ;) And also, websites have to be flawlessly viewable on a lot of different devices today. Mobile is a must. Another thing is, that people are used to fancy multimedia elements on websites these days. And these are just the few things I can tell you about, without drifting into the tech details. So I had to learn about new web standards, features of new versions of software frameworks and last but not least, new tools. Aside from the ongoing learning process, I had to come up with a new concept for the website(s) and also re-write all of the text content, as the old content doesn't meet my current standard. A last, but not very unimportant fact is, that I do not just build one website currently, but actually five. The work, I am currently doing, is not just used to create the main alionmind records website. It will be re-used for the sites of alionsonny, Cimelium and Willma Poppen also. So, once the alionmind site is finished, which will happen in a few days, all the other websites will also be finished in about 2 or 3 days. Enough about that ;)

Another AlionLive video?
Yepp, and while having the illusion of getting the website(s) done, I also thought that I might be able to finish the last real part of the 'Spring in Madeira' series. Simply no time for it. The raw cut is done, but I have to write tons of subtitles, do hundreds of transitions. Nope, didn't happen. I'll work on that video, once the main workload of the website(s) is finished. May take a bit of time. After that last part, I'll record a short, but necessary aftermath and then the eternal series will finally end.

The 'Madeira' album by Cimelium is OUT!
If you follow me on Facebook or read the Cimelium blog, you'll already know it: The third album by Cimelium in total and the second alionmind album this year is out in the wild. You can buy it in all well-sorted online shops for music, for example GooglePlay (CLICK!) and iTunes(CLICK!). And if you are stingy and if you don't want me to get rich, you can also stream it on all well known streaming platforms, such as Spotify (CLICK!). So finally, after all the other backlog has shrunken a bit, I'll be able to work at another alionsonny album. So, friends of the weird kind of Reggae, be ready. By the way: did you know, that the alionmind records portfolio now has 14 album releases? Yepp, time for a 15th. :D

AlionLive is alive with a new video!
As I already mentioned, I wanted to get out another one, because it is about time. But I am glad to announce also here, that after over a year of silence, the 'Spring in Madeira' series has finally a new part. It was uploaded about 3 weeks ago, so I suppose, some people will already be grudgy again, because they think I broke my promise of continuing AlionLive again. Folks: Making videos is NOT my main job. If I would get paid properly for it, my output would be larger. But currently, making music is quite more rewarding. Once I get more subscribers and a significant increase of views, I could put more focus on AlionLive. Ok, but here's the new video. It is the next to the last real part of 'Spring in Madeira'and we go hiking again. The sountrack is completely from the 2009 alionsonny album 'Reggae?'. You like the music? You can get the album on GooglePlay, iTunes and everywhere else. Streaming is also possible on Spotify. And here's the video:

What's next?
Well you know already, and EXACTLY in that order:
1. Finishing the website(s)
2. Finishing the 2014 Madeira video series
3. Starting to work at the new alionsonny album 'Phoenix'
4. Starting to work at the 'Bike ride to the North Sea' video series
So, let's work!

alionmind News August 10, 2014

Unfortunately again no new music this time. First this is because of a slight creative block at the house of alionmind and also I have, as already last month, more focused on my activities in creating videos. And here really a lot has happened. So without further ado, let's get right into it:

AlionLive - Spring in Madeira 04 - From Vale Paraiso Parque Ecologico do Funchal
This fourth part is quite short and leads us once again on the trails of my journey in the year 2012. We hiked from Vale Paraiso, near Camacha, to the Parque Ecologico do Funchal. All other information can be read on the AlionLive blog.

AlionLive - Spring in Madeira 05 - Chillax in Funchal
The fifth part of this series was also completed this month. After the partly chaotic events of the previous days, we granted ourselves a day of rest in Funchal. However, we were anything but idle. A detailed description with some images can be found on the AlionLive blog.

Audio Visualization in Blender 01 - Creating a Level Meter - Tutorial
I did it: My tutorial channel on YouTube has been created. It does not yet get very much attention, which is probably caused by the fact that it only contains one video yet. This will change soon. I also have promoted the channel not very much so far. However, the largest share of the lack of audience may have a different reason: The video is unfortunately blocked in Germany because of completely insubstantial GEMA claims, although the video contains only my own music. The background music is from my project Cimelium. Because by now quite a lot of videos on the AlionLive channel contain just the same music at full volume and are available in Germany without any problems, the whole thing is very strange. In addition, some short parts of a yet unpublished work of the Willma Poppen project are included for demonstration purposes. I recommend to the interested viewers in Germany to use the absolutely legal Browser plugin ProxTube or the even better-functioning plugin Proxmate. Ok, and here is the tutorial, which explains creating a simple level meter in Blender. In the next part we will build a 16 band frequency analyzer!

Let's Play Morrowind - The birth of Chlach Tharr
And there's another new video channel! After one or two people recommended to also to create a so-called. Let's Play channel, I've done it. Also not much happens there. And also the first video on this channel is blocked with the typical GEMA message  in Germany. Here I can maybe understand why this is, because the soundtrack of the game Morrowind was unfortunately released on CD and therefore may fall under the reign of terror of the GEMA ;). Nevertheless, the soundtrack was created specifically for this game. And because the publisher of the game, Bethesda, has agreed with the uploading of Let's Plays and their monetization, everything should really be fine. Anyway: Here also ProxTube or Proxmate helps.

Two REAL music videos on the alionmind records Youtube channel
Yes, in this video channel I have invested most of the work last month. Again, however, the number of viewers is relatively small. This may have to do with the fact that I am currently uploading only ancient sound material. I will indeed, as already mentioned, make my entire repertoire available on this channel. In addition, 5 of the 7 (!!!) freshly uploaded videos consist only of a still image, showing the respective album cover, while the music is playing. I've told you that it is not worthwhile to create a proper video for any old track. But I also created two REAL music videos. I will embed them now and the still image videos can be found at the end of this blog.

alionsonny - Message To Planet Earth Music Video
Since this classic from the debut album sounds a lot like running water, I have decided to cut together the best matching sequences from the videos of my trip to Madeira in 2012. In addition I have added some fun color manipulation and also integrated some of my experiments in the field of Audio Visualization in Blender. And by the way: I'll explain the techniques for creating those visualizations in the future on my tutorial channel :). Here's the video:

alionsonny - Victory Dub Music Video
And for another song from the debut album "XperiMental Reggae WorX" there is a music video now! This time it is a pure audio visualization video. To create it, I have decided to use the ZGame Editor plugin, which is included in FL Studio. This plugin makes creating the pure functionality a lot easier than if you want to achieve the same with Blender. The downside is that this tool holds some unexpected surprises that one needs to circumvent. Anyway: I have created something quite good, I think so, as my first attempt of using that tool. Judge for yourselves:

The still image "videos"
For these I have not done more than to throw the particular album cover of the respective album and the particular piece of music in the video editor. This is a work of just a few minutes. So I can showcase those old tracks again to you all while not spending too much time doing it. In total I made 5 of them. I embed them below:

So, that's it for this month! I will try to focus next month more on the production of new music. Let's see if this works ;). See you next month!

alionmind News February 19. 2014

Blender 3D particle animation from an AlionLive intro.

On the very day a month ago, you got the last alionmind news. This time again I have rather little new to report, and that bit mainly has to do with the alionsonny project. But one of the news is really big news, and you guessed probably already know what it is. The fans of the projects "Willma Poppen" and "Cimelium" will again be disappointed, but they will get something new as the very next task. I promise!

"Continuity" is out now!
Yes, it's done. The album is currently only available on Routenote, but will soon also be available on all major music sites and streaming portals. And now before I write everything again, I rather refer to the detailed post on the alionsonny blog. There everything is explained in detail (CLICK!).

alionsonny.de is up to date again
What? You didn't notice that the homepage of the alionsonny project was not updated for quite a time? Great... or not, because that means that you probably didn't visit the site for quite a long time ;). More details about this can be read also on alionsonny blog (CLICK!).

AlionLive is now a separate project
Some alionsonny fans, who are in no way interested in my videos, have complained regularly that the messages about new videos etc. were over-present on the alionsonny blog. Others were less interested in the music (*gulp*), but only in the videos. Therefore, there is now also a separate AlionLive blog and a Facebook fan page that you can "LIKE" if you want to. I am very happy about each and every "LIKE" this page gets. The separation of the AlionLive project not only enhances the little alionmind "internet empire", but also opens up some new, and  for the fans very useful, possibilities. On these I am currently working. I only mention here the downloadable hiking routes and waypoints in KML format. This collection will be constantly growing. In addition, there will soon be a database of all music played in the videos. So who wants to find out in which videos at which time a particular song of an alionmind music projects is played can do this soon in a very convenient way. Useless? Well, that may be your opinion ;) .

So, that's it again. Yes, very little news, but I can promise with some certainty that there will be very extensive news in about a month. Here at the alionmind labs incredibly much is happening currently .

Loads of work going on at the project websites!

Since the summer heat turns each task which involves heavy computing into a hazard for the studio hardware, the decision has been made to do some long due work at the project homepages. There has been some troubles with a little security leak in the homebrewn alionmind content management system. For that reason, the alionmind records homepage has been currently taken offline completely. But with the new shiny version of the content management system, a new security paradigm is ready, which allows me to get all homepages up and running in quite a short time.

And so it allready happened, that the homepages of the 3 main projects are available again in better shape than ever. And not just that: All homepages are now also available in German language. I know about some people who will be really happy about that. Look for yourself:

alionsonny's Homepage
Cimelium's Homepage
Willma Poppen's Homepage

If you did not allready recognize it: You can switch languages from the top menu. Just look at the right and you will see a flag and the name of the language you can change to. Just click there -> voila: Different language! ;)

So that was a bunch of work. What's next? As I said, the alionmind records homepage is currently offline. This is not just because of the security leak, but also, because the page will get a completely new layout. Because of the fact, that this page will be not just a bit different from the project pages, I will have to do some real coding work to get it up and running again. But I think, the alionmind nucleus will be online during this week.

By the way... we have no alionmind blog in German language -> on the to-do list ;)

Long time no news...

Yes, this whole website has been somewhat... errm.. abandonned for some time. The whole idea regarding the alionmind webshop has been not cancelled completely but stopped, because there were and are  a lot of more important things to be done. So I deleted the postings regarding the webshop and want to focus this Website/Blog a bit more on... well... more important things.

So what has happened at the alionmind tower of power high above the roofs of north-east Hamburg? A LOT! So here we go:

1. In October the album "Mesopotamia" of Cimelium has been released.
2. Also in October the album "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" by Willma Poppen has been released.
3. Songs for other projects have been finnished. Some of them have been showcased of Soundclous allready, many not ;)
4. AlionLive Madeira, my video series about my 2011 trip to Madeira, showcasing the (up to that date) complete catalogue of alionmind records has been finnished in October.
5. Sonny has visited the beautiful island of Madeira once again, brought back loads of raw video material. So it is time for "AlionLive Return 2 Madeira".

I want to highlight a special song release, which took place about 3 days ago. You remember the project TUBENWURST of the alionmind family? Yeah, maybe you thought that this would be just one more short living project by me, which I ditch after having some fun with it. But, no, despite the fact, that TUBENWURST released just 3 songs, of which one was originally still released under the name alionsonny, it is an important element of the alionmind projects structure.

That song released 3 days ago is titled Beatrice. And those of you who know me, will now wonder: Sonny does NEVER name songs after women, Sonny does not write love songs, Sonny is our well known robot-like authist from the neighborhood who doesn't show any feelings, eh? ;) Well, I will in fact not tell much about it, but the song Beatrice is in fact dedicated to a beautiful and very lovely person I met in Madeira. Yes, one could say, I fell somewhat in love. May the gossip spread like wildfire...
Ahh, nearly forgot: There's a little sweepstakes/contest going on and YOU can win 1 of 5 free downloads of the first album "Mesopotamia" by Cimelium. The contest finnishes on December 24th. So you still have a chance to win. For those who rather would like to win 1 of 5 free copies of Willma Poppen's "Heroes of the Popp-Culture": Wait until christmas. betweens the 24th of December and 1rst of January, you'll also get a chance to win what you desire.

Ok, what is happening now and in the near future:

1. With this blogpost, I am starting the alionmind records blog in german language also. For the near future a german version of the alionmind website will be here. This will take place in the course of a complete overhaul of all websites in my little empire. Be prepared for some serious changes.
2. AlionLive Return 2 Madeira will start as soon as possible.
3. More songs by the TUBENWURST project will be released so we can release an album called "Iss doch E-Wurst".
4. A new album of Cimelium is on it's way. Again it is a themed album. This time the title will be "Madeira"... and guess what is the theme of the album ;)
5. A new album of Willma Poppen is also on it's way. I have loads of wacky working titles for it, but... gimme some time.

Ok, that's so far everything comming to my mind. If I forgot something... well, who cares? ;)