TAGQ (That's A Good Question)
TAGQ (That's A Good Question)
Noises To Moises
We explore the revolutionary capabilities of Moises music splitting technology and reflect on how childhood entertainment shapes our adult values and dreams.
• neural-net music tools allow musicians to split songs into separate tracks for remixing and practice
• Musicians can now transform simple iPhone recordings into balanced, professional-sounding mixes
• Being a member of multiple bands creates unique social dynamics in local music communities
• Seasonal availability of oranges reflects changes in global food distribution over generations
• Entertainment like Disney and Avatar deeply influences our values and psychological development
• Uncle Iroh from Avatar represents a rare positive male role model who demonstrates ethical leadership
• Video games can infiltrate our dreams, creating experiences similar to classic flying dreams
• Finding contentment means reframing imperfections as gifts rather than problems
I can't say anything until the recording's in progress. What did you say?
Ben:I forget, perfect, I don't remember Now I just switched into podcast brain and it did yeah what was that last thing I was trying to say at the end of the last podcast that got cut off? No one will ever know anymore?
Scott:I don't know. I can go back and study things. If you know, there's listeners you wouldn't.
Ben:You wouldn't know either, because zoom cut off or ai could do it for you.
Scott:ai could read all the transcripts and just ask it, like, what questions hasn't been answered that seem significant or cliffhangers, and it would give you an answer and it would be half right and half made up.
Ben:What answers do you have for me? Hold it.
Scott:Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
Ben:You did it. Wow, that was just like that was the fastest KO in podcast history. Right there, it's okay, orange season.
Scott:I heard um beep in my head for a full measure before I did it like oh, I better say it does that mean you're getting better at drumming or you're coming in too late? No, no, uh, this mean my brain's more wired like a drummer's, or my thought processes got a metronome going all the time yeah, that's what when you hear the result of and the funny thing is, the result of listening to metronomes.
Ben:Okay, just end result of holding yourself accountable to not talking about AI Beep, beep, yeah yeah.
Scott:No, I'm having a. No, I'm using a. I oops, I'm using a musician's tool which uses a neural net that's trained to split out the tracks that we can just start the sponsoring right now, because I just want it, or have we already done that?
Ben:we're not allowed to sponsor it. A high software dad, we can't do that this one, though, it's a tool for musicians.
Scott:What doesn't write music? It just splits music into separate tracks, and then you can remix those tracks any way you want.
Ben:So it's not artificial intelligence, it's just a software tool.
Scott:Well, they haven't trained it on. The training process doesn't end up copying anything more than understanding how to split a song into separate tracks. That's what the eye does, right. It's kind of a commercially, I think. Uh, I think, reasonable effort, and I pay the money to use the tool. I use it like 10 times a day to like tear apart a song and then now let's play it at two-thirds speed. Now let's add a metronome. Now let's export the end result of this mix. You know what else it's good for. See, I'm already in sales Creating a deconstructed apple pie.
Scott:No, you can make an iPhone recording of like a band playing and you don't have to worry about so much whether you pick this perfect spot in the room to get the balance of everything with your phone. Just set it somewhere and if the drums are too loud you just run it through this Moses pipeline and in their player you turn the bass down.
Ben:Yeah, bring up the speaker.
Scott:Bring up the singer if you can't hear him good for garage musicians it makes.
Ben:It makes for a really good sound guy in a in a pinch and you can.
Scott:You can pan the like drums in the center. I pan the bass to the right a little bit. You know the guitars each way so you feel like you're working with real people no, when you listen, you're just working with the when you listen to the end result, it sounds a lot better than an iphone recording yeah yeah yeah, so you can actually like create, you can manipulate the recording so that it's almost like it's built for an iPhone speaker as opposed to like fancy speakers.
Ben:Which I'm assuming what most production styles do For practice purposes.
Scott:you can mute any track and like play the one you're not hearing, or you can listen just to the one you want to learn any song you can like get the drum track, so that's quite a tool that I can go and yeah I, and I think it's a responsible use of ais.
Ben:It's good to know it exists, because I feel like there have been different times when I've wanted that too, or, like I want to, I want an instrumental version of a song, but it doesn't exist in Apple's library.
Scott:It's an idea that should be spreading like wildfire among musicians.
Ben:Actually, this is a really good tool for me to know, because I well doesn't something like Logic or Ableton or things like that can't. Isn't that sort of software in there too? It's just, this is like a much more accessible version for the average person that doesn't have yeah, you can do all these things, but this is just like an app on your phone right, exactly, instead of having an app on your computer. Yeah, you don't have to put an audio file into some big fancy software like Logic or whatever and then do it.
Scott:You hit the plus button and it loads it from your iTunes or from your file.
Ben:This is really good for me because I've been having I'm performing soon, i'm'm dancing soon and I need to figure out what kind of song I want to dance to. And there have been like it's actually been some kendrick lamar songs that I'm like man, that I mean, the kind of dancing I'm doing is like, you know, super, it's, it's weird, you know it's, it's storytelling. It's like when people think interpretive dance like this, yeah, that's exactly what this is. It's not that, but I won't get into it. I won't pretend like it's more important than it is. Actually it is very important. It's very serious stuff. Everyone should dance more. Anyway, I've been listening to these songs and being like I don't know what I would want to dance more. Anyway, I've been listening to these songs and being like I don't know what I would want to dance to, but I'll listen to certain songs and be like man, I love this, but I don't want the lyrics here and most songs don't have instrumental versions.
Scott:Yeah, this is instrumental for free.
Ben:Yeah, hmm, yeah, cool, cool. I don't would I be able to download it, though, because this is something that I'd have to, like, send a file to and then, in order to get it on someone's yeah, you can export an mp3 or whatever you can, anything you do in their player, you can export it wow, huh, that's how do they get away with licensing. All right, this is our sponsor they aren't licensing anything.
Scott:All they're doing is the ability to listen to a track and say this is drum you can you.
Ben:It's literally not against, it's not against the law to like, manipulate a track like that and then just send it around as its own file. I guess you wouldn't be able to. You wouldn't be able to manipulate the track and then include the drums.
Scott:You have to buy it from iTunes. Before this works, you have to have a copy of the file that you claim is yours.
Ben:Not just an Apple Music file.
Scott:Well, no, apple Music, those don't work.
Ben:You have to first visit iTunes, pay your buck 29 for the file that makes sense okay um okay, so if you pay a dollar, then you can do whatever you want, except you wouldn't be able to put it into like your youtube videos, because you don't own those no, but, but you can play it. Yeah, it's like right I'm so tempted it's like I can dance to it every track.
Scott:So well, maybe I should. Yeah, it's a lot of work, but yeah or is it? Is it just kind of a mental barrier? Where you like, why don't I set up a recording studio? But is that the end of the commercial yet? Yes, you have a new topic to pull well before we got on the podcasting day.
Ben:Um, I'm gonna help you right now. Talk about music. Yeah, four different bands right now. Oh yeah, he said my dad says to me like this is this is, this is our. These are off the record conversations, is there?
Scott:nothing, oh man.
Ben:Well, I'm the editor, I I can podcast oh yeah, you're gonna cut it down, yeah, you never know okay. Well, scott johnston is part of four different bands, so if you're in a band with him and you didn't know that you had seen other bands, oh, communication is good, just saying like your musicality is showing after that whole sponsorship everybody is a fan of everybody else.
Scott:the one band I said you gotta show up, we're going on before you, but you gotta come to the one after because I'm in it, you know, and vice versa.
Ben:Wow, so they hold you hostage to watch all of the people perform.
Scott:Well, wouldn't you be curious If you're part of four?
Ben:bands and everyone has a half hour set.
Scott:Wouldn't you be curious? I always think, well, I guess that, like you be curious and everyone has a half hour set, wouldn't you be curious? I always well, I guess I guess that, like it's part of the religion.
Ben:You know, I guess that's why you would join more bands. Because if people, if you're in one band and you're with someone that's in three bands and they're like look, I'll be in your band if you just sit and watch me before and after also, so you're there for an extra hour or whatever, yeah, it's like well, maybe I'll just join all the bands, and that way I just get to play the whole time yeah, and musicians at a certain level just become the audience.
Scott:It's like it's.
Ben:It's only those who want to play music or those who Does that mean people sometimes just stop playing in the middle of the song and just just like nice job, man, Nice?
Scott:No, not when it's the show time.
Ben:Everyone in the audience is a musician.
Scott:That's good I have experienced a band quitting early and then someone saying hey, we're not done, and someone goes one, two, three, four and that was a lot of fun. That was like you know, the mayhem side of my personality was had. It's like that's the most memorable part of that particular jam. So when we stopped dead in the middle, you know, at the wrong spot in the song, it was kind of a logical spot.
Ben:Yeah, man, that is so pop, that is so good, that's good, it's good. It's nice to be able to do something like that and then just have fun with a mistake. Yeah, it's a big lesson, it's important. Good way of saying no, thank you to the German perfectionist mentality. Say no, won't let you do this to me anymore. I'm gonna stop playing in the middle of the song. I'm gonna go punk.
Scott:Well.
Ben:You're talking.
Scott:Elvis Costello did that once on SNL, stopped the song and said, no, there's no need to do this, we're gonna play this song. And then they switched To Peace, love and understanding. No, not that no they switched to radio radio. Why did I get that one? Because you wanted it to be peace, love and understanding no, because I haven't thought about playing that song in a while, because it didn't happen. I only got one of those songs scheduled in the next jam. So now, yeah, not going to do radio radio for a while.
Ben:But you've done it in the past.
Scott:Yeah, but not, not at the jam. Instead it was at Music City. These all sound like just generic places, like I'm making them up yeah, it's like a you're a music city, that's where you have your concerts right.
Ben:It reminds me of Sharkboy and Lava Girl, Sure Music City that's where you have your concerts, right? Yeah, it reminds me of Sharkboy and Lava Girl. That movie was made by some guy that was in show business that was just asking his kids, like what do you want this movie to be? I mean more or less just let his children write and direct a movie, and that is Sharkboy Coin, lava Girl yeah.
Scott:Is that the real story or is that just what you?
Ben:are.
Ben:That's the lore of it at least I, you know, that's what I, I don't know when I was younger. I remember hearing that story from somewhere, but I remember one time I was playing with hot wheels and I was really into that. So raven, I think, uh, raven simone was a singer, I don't really know why, but like I was playing with hot wheels one day and just like driving around and I was, I was telling this whole story about raven and I was being raven Raven Simone for the day you were being Raven Simone.
Ben:I don't know, or I was narrating. I don't really know. You know I don't. What is it that kids do when they're playing Hot Wheels and they're making a story, are they? The narrator or are they the character? I don't really know, maybe both yeah and she was going and she had like a she, she, she, and she had like a she. She must have had like a residency what do you call it? Like Celine Dion in Las Vegas she does a residency, yeah.
Ben:Raven must have had a residency at a place called Singarama and she was. That was the place, you know. And then there was also there was also Blue Bear Music that she would perform at. There was also what color was the car University, I don't remember. That wasn't important, you know. Uh, what was? What was the other place? Music music, street city, music city.
Scott:Yeah, music hotel. It's a music city hotel which is even like a more sounds like a made-up thing the weekends you'd perform on one.
Ben:You know, after Thursday afternoons she'd perform at another.
Scott:We'll have to sponsor them another time because that would be too complex, but it's a great place to practice.
Ben:Do you? Were you around when Grandma MJ first started eating oranges? No, she had been eating oranges before you were born.
Scott:I wasn't around when your grandmother started eating oranges. Once there was trains, they brought in oranges fromia and everyone would get them at least once a year. Okay, that's why they were christmas gifts often yeah, right, gotcha.
Ben:And then they were good, so it sounds like that. But slowly but surely they were able to get oranges year-round. Were oranges available year-round for as long as you were alive?
Scott:Yeah, they're bringing them in.
Ben:Airplanes existed.
Scott:Trains yeah, people don't. No, not trains. Trucks, trucks, yeah, yeah, so no, no, not train or a double trucks, yeah so it was probably. Yeah, the train distribution of produce was probably less flexible, more seasonal. The trucks could like. Oh well, we got one field over here producing. Let's take a truckload to Chicago, yeah Things were. I don't know how they make. How do you make oranges produce fruit year round? Breeding different crops, eating different. Are we just getting? Would we be just getting oranges from different places as the years go on?
Ben:right, exactly, yeah, I mean, think about the our orange tree, right? Don't you get two crops?
Scott:no, they overlap that's why you think they get two that overlap.
Ben:Well, doesn't that mean, that there are two?
Scott:Yeah, but just once a year. Just one crop a year.
Ben:But it goes through June or July, doesn't it?
Scott:Yeah, the life cycle is in March or something. Pretty soon it blossoms, maybe it has, maybe it already has, and then you know, the oranges ripen by December, right, and they last longer on the tree. They last through September, while the next flowering things are growing.
Ben:Oh yeah. So, that's like a summer. Is it more of a?
Scott:It ripens from spring to fall and then and then hangs there from winter, and then hangs there from winter, almost a year. Nine months it can hang there If they're not being actively eaten by. Wow, you're so in touch with the season. Healthy, healthy, healthy, local fruit eating rats.
Ben:Yes, full of citrus, yes, full of citrus.
Scott:The ones that go to the edge of the fish pond when it looks rough for them what about bagels and peanut butter? We tried peanut butter. You've tried peanut butter or attracting rats to the snapper divisor. Yeah, his current crop, these guys. It's like I'm okay with an outdoor population that you know is imbalanced. You know it's like leave me some oranges.
Ben:Cats, yeah, cats, population that you know is imbalances, you know it's like leave, leave me some oranges cats yeah, cats there's.
Scott:There are quite a bit of cats in the uh neighborhood too, and I'm sure a few of them get eaten by them and and now there's now they're, uh, very key and I mean they're.
Ben:They're owls still around too after.
Scott:After we got the big ones, what's left? They're more focusing on lemons and not the oranges. So it's like, yeah, okay, you like lemons?
Ben:Isn't it the opposite? They eat the rinds of the lemons.
Scott:Yes, the oranges.
Ben:Yeah, yes, complete opposite. It the opposite. They eat the rinds of the lemons. Yes, yes, complete opposite. So you'll end up with lemons that are still hanging on the tree, but don't have a rind. Yeah, you'll end up with oranges that are still hanging on the tree. Is that a fact?
Ben:are lemon rinds sweeter than the lemon inside, and vice versa on the orange I think so yeah, it's interesting yeah, right, yeah, but it's interesting because lemons have a lot of sugar but they also I don't know what makes them taste so darn acidic yeah, yeah, I don't know. Isn't it always malic?
Scott:acid.
Ben:I have no idea.
Scott:That's just the candy world it is. I suppose maybe real fruit might have more tricks up its sleeve.
Ben:Yeah.
Scott:Than candy.
Ben:God acid.
Scott:That would be a good question, but I was instead thinking of a different question, which is to you looking back. What entertainment do you see, as like you know? Do you see, as, like you know, sold you some dreams that you know you kind?
Ben:of think about today.
Scott:Is that an overly complicated question? No, no, okay, gotcha.
Ben:Yeah, no, okay, gratia, no. Disney Channel always got me thinking about Orlando, florida.
Scott:Respect, so you're Disney-fied too. Yeah, I mean yeah, give it up to Walt.
Ben:It's a rare person, that's I feel free.
Scott:Free of Disney. Free of Disney, it's not. Yeah, what is it Brainwashing? Did he brainwash us?
Ben:I don't know, I think he did a lot to us.
Scott:Yeah, but to me that's kind of like Christianity. It's like, well, there are good parts to take away from both Disney and Christianity.
Ben:You know that I don't really mind being exposed to. Sure, yeah, you know there's a lot of yeah, I mean there's a lot of good stuff wrapped up in it all. Yeah, um, yeah, people can easily take the criticism of those things all the way. Instead, it's like, well, there's a reason why they're like as to have such blasting power that they do. Um, I think Disney channel would always have these commercials for, uh, like Orlando Disney, like Disney world, and I remember they had like this giant constructed tree kind of kind of reminds me of that like big grandmother tree and avatar, and I just have this image still in my brain of this giant man-made tree that looks like a real tree. That's just like overlooking, like the, the, you know, the flatlands of florida, and I feel like that, paired with watching Animal Planet, just got me like, wow, I was just like super into Verdant.
Scott:Do you remember going to the Robinson family tree in Disneyland?
Ben:No, I don't. That's not where the bug life was, was it?
Scott:Maybe they probably converted, they probably updated it to a new intellectual property. I think they have, because nobody goes. Who's the Robinson family Caruso? I can't even remember the name of it anymore. Yeah, Swiss family. I'm getting confused. I don't remember that my, my, my neural net is is just trying to come out with words and you know, doesn't always work.
Ben:Well, that's. The other thing is that I'm not like there's so much that entertainment probably instilled in me growing up that I just I don't have access to those levels of consciousness, but the amount that television and video games has infiltrated into my psyche is probably pretty wild, and I would just really never quite know to what extent, or really how, my behaviors influenced by ever?
Scott:do you ever have a dream that feels like you're in a video game?
Ben:yes, but also like not. It's never been like oh, or at least nothing jumped out at me in terms of like, feeling like. Oh, I am in a video game, but they feel like it.
Scott:Yeah, but there's always an element of like um real life you mean you've been on on urban sidewalks where there's some shootout going across the way or something.
Ben:I have had dreams where I'm actively playing video games. When I played a lot of RuneScape, I remember having dreams about having my bank and my inventory full of just the most valuable items.
Scott:That's like a, that's like a dream of flying.
Ben:Billions of gold.
Scott:It's just like okay, I just became rich.
Ben:Yeah, exactly yeah. And I remember waking up from those dreams feeling like such a sinking feeling. No, I don't have that third generation plate of armor I.
Scott:I guess that's literally the feeling you get when you wake up from a dream about flying yeah it's the sinking feeling as I go on the ground wow, so interesting.
Ben:How, just like this psychological physics, being human is just sometimes so fascinating. Yeah, I also think, like other entertainment, Is there books? Avatar the Last Airbender was a big one.
Scott:Books.
Ben:Right, I knew about the avatar thing I wasn't gonna yeah yeah, yeah hugely important piece of that is a hugely important cultural um. Yeah, I don't know if artifact is the right term, but just like I think.
Scott:I think he's probably come up on the podcast before. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Ben:Yeah which is interesting because it's just there are so few shows, it seems like that paint really healthy pictures of like what are my values and what kind of person do I want to become, um, and I feel like avatar was really, really subversive in that way and that most other shows just did not have the same sort of robust set of just like. Aren't? Most other shows just did not have the same sort of robust set of just like?
Scott:aren't most other shows like?
Ben:I am going to become the leader yeah, totally like hannah montana, you know, you know is also something that comes to mind, where it's just like, yeah, it's just like shenanigans and fame and yeah, your problems are nothing like what like, come on, yeah where?
Scott:where is the avatar? Is more the person thrust into being the leader? But doesn't really want it yeah, trying to like well okay yeah can I do?
Ben:yeah, and the people that are actively ready to be leaders, right are, are like very humble and they're or, if they're not, they're the most unlikable characters in the whole show which isn't that far off from like mainstream media in a lot of ways, but it is even more in your face in terms of like you don't want to be the person. That's just like looking for fame and attention.
Scott:Like you don't want to be Zuko.
Ben:You want to be Uncle Iroh, you know, and yeah, uncle Iroh, just as like a, as a male figure I feel like I can't think of. I was actually thinking about this recently. It's like what, what? What really great male figures were out there and, in terms of pop culture, uncle iroh was one that was always popping up and he was he. He was part of the Fire Nation and the Fire Nation was out there trying to eradicate airbenders, and they were essentially committing genocide and there was one airbender left.
Ben:If you know the story, this is all a repeat, but there's one airbender left and there's this disgraced young fire prince that is trying to like make his angry dad proud and he's out there looking for this last airbender to go kill him, and then uncle iroh is this prince's uncle and he's along on the adventure and everything. But if you actually know the dynamics, you can see that in every episode, in every step along the way, Uncle Iroh is like I'm part of this larger system. This is super fucked up, but I'm going to subvert within the system, and so they have this giant clunky fire.
Scott:You get the jokes out of that right.
Ben:Oh, so many Amazing.
Scott:Yeah.
Ben:Sense of humor is unreal. Well, here's the. He's like in one of the first episodes, zuko and Iroh. Zuko, the Prince and Iroh are out there like with their giant fleet of, or a couple of boats of, like these giant, like warships, and so Iroh has a lot of power because he's the uncle of the prince, he's the brother of the king and he's like I lost one of my pie show tiles. I need this pie show tile to play my game, and so Zuko's like what are you talking about?
Ben:it's like look, we're just gonna go to the port. It's nearby. You can ask some questions, find the avatar over there. But he completely just like subverts all of these expeditions to just go try this to, to try and kill this airbending child. But like does it in such a way, without like really giving up his true motives, which is to like eventually convert zuko to the light side and be like. This isn't really what you want, zuko. What you really are looking for is just like love and belonging, and you're going about this all wrong. But I can't force you into it, you know. You know I love you and I gotta redirect a lot of the time oh, he's his uncle.
Ben:Yeah uh uncle iroh is zuko's uncle oh yeah yeah, yeah. And then by the end of it, you know, Zuko becomes like the Avatar, the last airbenders like right hand man. They're like fighting people together.
Scott:So how do you like my? You know my everybody in the podcasting world has like a wall on the back right.
Ben:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Uh huh yeah right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, uh-huh, yeah, uh. Someone in my forestry program has a wall and it's like this beautiful, clean, like he's got his snow skis, his snowboard, his kayaking gear, you know he's just like ready to go like just grab his backpack and like get out there and hit the trail.
Scott:But it doesn't tell a story like this. Does you know? This is what I realized about this garage Complex of a story.
Ben:Pardon, it does not tell nearly as complex of a story as your background does, that's for sure.
Scott:Yeah, it's like this is multiple people.
Ben:That's a lot of history there.
Scott:Yeah.
Ben:That's a lot of history there. Yeah, yeah, that's a lot of history. Yeah, boxes, tupperware, giant Tupperware.
Scott:Yeah, I sort of converted my thinking and when I put it into that, it's like this place becomes, you know, a gift, finally, instead of all the other emotions. The garage not being perfect for some.
Ben:What are you feeling? I am feeling a gift.
Scott:Yeah, yep.
Ben:A gift. It's a gift. As I look around, I live in a gift, that's nice, that sounds like a quote from me or something. I need to practice as I look around, I decide I live in a gift yeah, inspiration.
Scott:This is not an inspirational podcast, is it uh?
Ben:now yes or no question. That's like you're breaking one of the first rules of interview it's comedy it.
Scott:It's about comedy.
Ben:What does inspiration mean to you? Could you say more about how your podcast?
Scott:I meant that in the sense of like a minister who like blathers on just to make people feel excited about some perspective on the universe.
Ben:It's not that.
Scott:So I was using that's kind of a negative Not ever since we implemented the Jojo alert, that's for sure. I guess that's a new, the new version of it, huh.
Ben:Did you see that? I recently saw this headline that McDonald's is no longer the like biggest restaurant chain and the biggest restaurant chain. I don't know what it is that replaced it, but it's not American. There's not a single one of the restaurants in the United States. There's not a single one of the restaurants in the United States. I just thought that was interesting, that that's like I don't know. I think that comes as a surprise to Americans, but I think a big part of that is because Americans don't really Well.
Scott:They exported the business model. They actively exported the business model. They actively exported the business model. Right and the fact that mcdonald's, as a corporation, isn't someone's doing it better, isn't a global behemoth that wanted to become. It's like I don't care yeah right like.
Ben:So what yeah like?
Scott:who's gonna mourn the fact that someone's bigger than them?
Ben:Well, just such an interesting headline. It's like this will catch your eye. America is not the center of the universe.
Scott:I'm not sure that's true actually. Well, I don't know other, at least no other. You know, global behemoth is like opening stores in California, as far as I know.
Ben:Yeah right, well, that's because Americans are xenophobic and we wouldn't want to eat their shit Because we're no Resist.
Scott:Thank you everyone, so what Got to go? Stone's Town, though, is very interesting. It has a lot of the Japanese Pardon.
Ben:Go to Stone's Town, thank you.
Scott:These outlets that are like oh, this is cool, I feel like I'm in Japan.
