Noulakaz

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

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Ma’am and David Budd in Bodyguard

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Anya insisted that we all watch Bodyguard and we are so glad we did.

From Wikipedia, “Bodyguard is a British police political-thriller television series […] set around the fictional character of Police Sergeant David Budd, a British Army war veteran suffering from PTSD, who is now working for the Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. He is assigned as the principal protection officer (PPO) for the ambitious Home Secretary Julia Montague, whose politics he despises. As the series unravels, the series comments on many issues regarding the controversy around government monitoring of private information and its regulation, and also on PTSD.”

Richard Madden as David Budd and Keeley Hawes as Julia Montague are fantastic. And I liked Sophie Rundle as Vicky Budd, Ash Tandon as DCI Deepak Sharma and Anjli Mohindra as Nadia Ali. (A side comment: I liked how they realistically portray London as being very cosmopolite — I laugh a bit when I saw Chike Chan as Daniel Chung at the end as to complete the loop).

The TV series is only six (long) episodes and I have to say that I really loved the first 3 episodes until THAT catastrophic event. The remaining episodes were good but not as good as the beginning. And I have to confess that I am a bit disappointed with the ending. It felt a bit rushed to me.

But, I am just nitpicking. Bodyguard is really a great TV show. Thanks Anya.

Give it a go. It’s on Netflix.

Nuggets of (mixing) wisdom from Chris Lord-Alge

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I have just finished watching an Open Mix Session with Chris Lord-Alge with Michael Pearson-Adams of Waves as interviewer.  I made some notes during the 1 hour long video which I would like to share with you:

  1. During COVID-19, rekindle relationships with people
  2. Clean list of plugins (and get rid of those which are not used)
  3. Multitracks (the Master) -> Mix (a mix is your opinion) -> Stems (different renders of the mix e.g. only vocals, only instruments, etc. for flexibility later)
  4. No need to “make space” for different instruments… there is space for everyone.
  5. On vocals (and synth), remove the low frequencies which contain rumble (up to say 150Hz)
  6. Drums: some in the middle, some on the hard right, some on the hard left (and the overheads will bring these to the middle anyway -> use overheads)
  7. Add samples to acoustic drums to increase excitement and punch
  8. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Use +15dB of EQ if it sounds good.
  9. Make it sound like a record.
  10. Be a painter. Use a bit of this analogue paint. Use a bit of that digital paint.
  11. Use free time to improve your setup, your choice of plugins, etc.
  12. The most important thing is your two ears (and your brain of course).
  13. Have a limited amount of things (plugins…)
  14. Engineer! (Me: Try. Build. Fail. Learn.)
  15. I know that a mix is finished when the client approves it (When I auto produce, who is the client?)
  16. There are no rules!
  17. Recording others: be well mannered and make people comfortable.
  18. Listen quietly (and the room will not matter).
  19. Take the records you like and use them as templates (reference tracks).
  20. Consider every tool that you buy as an investment in your future.
  21. It’s not a hobby. It’s your life.

Phew. There are some real nuggets of wisdom there.

Series (TV Shows) we watch on Netflix

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Here are the series (TV shows) that we have watched on Netflix since subscribing in 2016:

Series Episodes watched Stopped watching
House M.D. 177
Suits 61 Yes
Orange Is the New Black 52
Jane The Virgin 47 Yes
Money Heist 33
The Crown 30
Twin Peaks 30
The Blacklist 26
Stranger Things 25
Sense8 24
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt 23 Yes
That ’70s Show 14
The IT Crowd 12
Video Game High School 11 Yes
The Expanse 10 Yes
The Get Down 9
13 Reasons Why 8
Friends from College 8 Yes
Cuckoo 7
Alias Grace 6
Everything Sucks! 6
iZombie 5
Lucifer 5
Master of None 5 Yes
Black Mirror 4
Kim’s Convenience 4
Marvel’s Daredevil 4
On My Block 4
Brooklyn Nine-Nine 3
Friends 3
How I Met Your Mother 3
Star Trek 3
Yunus Emre 3
The Good Place 2
Unorthodox 2
Altered Carbon 1
Sherlock 1
South Park 1
The Flash 1

Mind you, we also use Plex to watch series and movies at home. So, dont’t take the episode counts too seriously. There are some series which we have watched a lot on Plex but not on Netflix.