Adriane Lake

Best Albums of 2011

Adriane — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:43:03 +0000

My buddy Fidgital for years has put out his annual list of best albums of 2011. This is the best-of roundup I look forward to most of all each year. Granted, by then he’s already turned me on to most of the releases, but I always find a couple new surprises to cherish.

He usually also makes a great best song DJ mix to mark the new year. This year is possibly his best ever! Listen here:

Be sure to check out his last.fm Journal entry detailing all his picks!

Hoard Dynamite Roll Expansion

Adriane — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:52:50 +0000

For those who haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend the videogame Hoard! Available for PS3 and Steam for both Mac and PC, Big Sandwich Games has just released an expansion for it cleverly titled “Dyanmite Roll” on the Steam platform.

I actually did the score and sound design for this fantastic game. Working with Tyler Sigman was a pleasure and I had fun extensively play-testing this title. I think the thing that impresses me the most, besides the awesome gameplay, is that I never actually got bored of it. I would venture to say 99% of people I know working games will eventually loathe the title they are working on by the end (at least a little) due to sheer repetition. This one never managed to wear thin for me, not ever, and continues to be one of my favourite games to this day.

So if you’re cruising for a fun, quick, addictive game that also works well in groups — be sure to check it out!

Oh yes, and IGN gave it their “Best Quick Fix” award for 2010… Still not convinced? Here are some nice things that Ars Technica had to say about the game.

Percolating

Adriane — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:49:04 +0000

Well, it seems I’ve had my head down and percolating for a while. Not so many posts lately, but if you are ever trying to track me down you’ll often find me on Twitter. For some reason the micro-posting 140 character limitation helps me with the problem of ruminating too much about what to post in a full blog entry. That, and it’s incredibly social. I am an incredibly social person, despite spending an overwhelming amount of time alone in a room mainly populated by equipement (and cats.)

I have indeed been making music in the last while. There’s been a good bit of songwriting actually! You know, that old-fashioned thing occasionally done a clunky piano with a graphite stick and a flat sheet of tree byproduct. Yes, I like to do it that way too, I don’t know why people find that surprising. I suppose they picture an electronic artist with an army of synths and big snakes of patch cords. Yes I have that too! But something about writing with simple tools helps me to really make sure the bones of what I’m writing are decently able to withstand whatever production massage I’ll subject them to later…

In any case, that’s my life in a nutshell lately.

New PSN Videogame Hoard Showing at PAX, Featuring an Original Score by Adriane Lake

Adriane — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:14:48 +0000

Hey fellow game nerds. If you are headed to uber-geek fest PAX, be sure to check out the videogame Hoard from Big Sandwich Games at booth #3012 . Slated for a Fall 2010 release on the Playstation Network, this is a minis/fig inspired tile-style game where you fly around as a little dragon and burn the crap out of things to collect a massive hoard of gold. It’s ridiculously fun! I would know, having played it copiously while composing the score and doing all the sound design. Hope you guys enjoy it as much as I had fun working on it!

Here’s a sneak preview, since the first trailer was just released in honour of PAX:

The Medium Solution

Adriane — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:56:04 +0000

The iPad has so much buzz that my friend likes to call it the ‘iPhad’. Fair enough, given the mass e-gasm it’s caused… Some people think it’s a rather useless gadget. I’d like to propose a few reasons why it’s not:

As a music control surface. If you’ve ever lusted over a Jazzmutant Lemur then you’ve thought about what you could do with a nice multitouch surface. While the iPhone had apps that do music control, the size is limiting. Where the iPad goes, music apps are sure to follow.
As a travel tool. Carrying a bulky laptop will accrue physiotherapy bills pretty fast, which is why a lot of people are switching to small form factor devices. If you only have modest travel computing needs, then an iPad is the perfect inflight companion slash business meeting tool.
As a better netbook. Let’s face it, netbooks are really crowding out cheap laptops in the shops. With netbook sales on the rise, the time is ripe for variety. Most netbooks are rickety mini-laptops that are a bit weak in the multimedia department… The iPad offers a welcome alternative for those who want a tiny portable with a more media-centric experience.
As a library. Ever tried reading a laptop while lying on your side in bed? Do you really think you’d finish a whole book on your iPhone? Enough said. An eBook reader should be the size of a book and accommodate all manner of awkward reading postures. While I’d never buy a unitasker for the job (read: Kindle) I’d give the versatile iPad a go.
As a dayplanner/notebook. That friend you have with a bulky paper dayplanner in her purse? She might like an iPad for that. Taking notes in class? Won’t last long on your iPhone. Sure to be a staple of handbags of the future.
As a gaming platform. Curiously, I mostly clock my gaming hours on an iPhone despite having access to XBOX and PS3… and I’m not alone. What does this mean about iPad? Expect a further boom in casual gaming culture.
As the medium solution. For Apple users, the solutions were small and large. You had your laptop/desktop and your telephone/pod. What if you needed something in between? A small version of one, or a big version of the other? Enter iPad. Because sometimes you need a tool that’s juuuuuust right.

And no, I don’t have one yet. But someday I will.