OCR Membership Cards

[The Pezman]

I suppose that does technically make you a DJ but the turntables would still be absolutely irrelevant to you unless you can actually use them.

I'm thinking about getting one of these, which I discovered in the 14th Street Guitar Center during the OCR NY meetup last year.

So long as you're not a vinyl elitist, I might just become a DJ by your standards as well.

People who host a radio show are also called DJs, at least here at Dickinson. That irks me to no end, because while they do jockey CDs back and forth, the term is completely irrelevant to what they actually do in there (and I personally usually play music from my laptop). As such, I call myself a "radio showhost," not a "radio DJ."

But if I do purchase this bad boy and bring it in for a show, the situation may change.

[Ramaniscence]

Well hell...what do you want? I'd need specifics.

lol, ideas? Generally just draw up card designs. Watermarks. Text placement. Ideas for the icons for server things. Where avatars go. What things (forum title, post count, year, join date) to use, and what not.

Obviously I already have a lot of ideas myself, but the more pre-pro the better for this kind of thing.

[Less Ashamed Of Self]

I post without content but with support. If you build it I will print one & carry it... probably.

[Global-Trance]

I'm thinking about getting one of these, which I discovered in the 14th Street Guitar Center during the OCR NY meetup last year.

So long as you're not a vinyl elitist, I might just become a DJ by your standards as well.

People who host a radio show are also called DJs, at least here at Dickinson. That irks me to no end, because while they do jockey CDs back and forth, the term is completely irrelevant to what they actually do in there (and I personally usually play music from my laptop). As such, I call myself a "radio showhost," not a "radio DJ."

But if I do purchase this bad boy and bring it in for a show, the situation may change.

I prefer vinyl. It's way more fun than spinning digital but moving the crate around is annoying when it's like 75 lbs. or something. For the price of this Vestax VCI-100 you get quite a bit but I do not like the lack of good EQing ability on the fly on its mixer. I'm all about seamless transitioning when I mix club style sets so volume and cross-fader alone is not sufficient for me. So if I ever wanted to play live on digital, I'd want a pair of Pioneer CDJ1000s or at least Serato from Rane (both requiring a stand-alone mixer; Serato requires vinyl turntables... which I have). I have access to a lot of club tunes in .wav or 320 kbps CBR encoded from the source so I could play them at a club or some big event if I got the chance. If you're doing just radio play, I suppose that Vestax thing is okay and you'd be able to play 192 kbps stuff. I guess I'm going off topic about this Membership Card thing but if you (or anyone else) have questions about actual DJing (and how it can potentially relate to OCR) feel free to ask me via PM or AIM or anything.

Onwards with the topic.

[Abadoss]

I think I would be satisfied with:

*Forum name

*Real name

*Join date

*Special markings (i.e. remixer, judge, project coordinator, etc.)

*Real picture

*and the Barcode (just for fun)

[Bahamut]

Offtopic, but I do recall q-pa doing a video game music set at MAGFest.

[Jandalf]

I would totally carry one of these cards, even if I'm just one of those forum lurkers... ;-P

I like being (white and) nerdy!

But I have one suggestion:

No barcodes please! These are really outdated and one needs a special scanner to actually read them.

Does anyone here know 2D barcodes, aka Data Matrix?

These can contain much more information (I think up to 50 characters) and there are applications for camera cell phones to read them.

As an example, here's the (nonexistant) URL "http://www.ocremix.org/remixer/ninjan" encoded as a data matrix:

These images can be quite small, so there shouldn't be a problem fitting these on the card...

There're GPL'ed editors, I've used an online application available here

Personally, I think these look better (and more official) than regular barcodes...

Your friendly forum lurker;

NinjaN

[suzumebachi]

Seriously, Darke, sometimes I wonder where you get these crazy ideas.

hammerspace

[DJ Tempora]

No. Anyone with DJ in their name here is most certainly not a DJ.

You called?

Darke: dude, this is like the nerdiest idea ever. But I'm interested in seeing the results, especially if the pencil-and-paper artists contribute. Also, I'm down with NinjaN's barcode deal thing. I like the original thought, but something like what he showed seems more practical.

[José the Bronx Rican]

Good thing I saved Rama's hi-res logos. Here my original layout, with print border guides and a few notes (can't display it, so clickylinky).

http://bronxrican.com/stuff/misc/OCR Badge.png

Includes:

a. Real Name - Surname, then first.

b. "Rank" - Not really, but us members fit neatly into four groups: Community, for all of us; Musician, for the ReMixers; Staff, self-explanatory; Administrator, for guess who. Each group has a different color overlay.

c. Titles - Include "Forum Member", "Contributing ReMixer", "Forum Moderator", "Project Director", "Judges Panelist", and so on. "Official" unofficial titles only, please.

d. Membername - Of course. Text may be larger, but some long-ass names require the current size.

e. Optional Items - maybe a "rank" icon, though I don't think it's necessary; perhaps a member photo (serious pics only... sorry); a barcode, if you really think it's worth it.

Four examples:

[The Pezman]

OMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGOD He picked ME (out of all the non-remixing forumgoers) to use as an example! Oh, I'm faint!

As soon as I can figure out how to save a vcf I'm yoinking that to use as my vCard.

I don't feel guilty about going off-topic, particularly when the on-topic ideas I put forth (vCard) aren't even responded to.

Offtopic, but I do recall q-pa doing a video game music set at MAGFest.

That's true, and it was good, but he only actually scratched for a second at the end.

I prefer vinyl. It's way more fun than spinning digital but moving the crate around is annoying when it's like 75 lbs. or something. For the price of this Vestax VCI-100 you get quite a bit but I do not like the lack of good EQing ability on the fly on its mixer. I'm all about seamless transitioning when I mix club style sets so volume and cross-fader alone is not sufficient for me.

That's why it comes with Traktor. You might be remiss to be mucking about with software EQs live, but if it works for Ableton users it can work for me. I can believe the tactile tradeoffs, but in this day and age starting with vinyl NOW is too much for me.

So if I ever wanted to play live on digital, I'd want a pair of Pioneer CDJ1000s or at least Serato from Rane (both requiring a stand-alone mixer; Serato requires vinyl turntables... which I have).

The less physical stuff I have to worry about, the better. I always knew that if I DJed, I would do it off my computer. I don't have to make the playlist in advance and, accordingly, there's more room for on-the-fly manipulations.

I have access to a lot of club tunes in .wav or 320 kbps CBR encoded from the source so I could play them at a club or some big event if I got the chance. If you're doing just radio play, I suppose that Vestax thing is okay and you'd be able to play 192 kbps stuff.

It wouldn't just be radio. That'd be where I'd start, perhaps, but I would move on. As for quality, I've gotten a good amount of electro from the radio station, and I store everything losslessly (the 750 GB hard drive I got has qualitatively paid for itself many times over).

[Gollgagh]

Maybe for the "rank picture" you could have your forum avatar.

[Jandalf]

These cards are looking good! Albeit, I'd rather have the blue one for me, gray just is not my color...

For the curious:

I still stick to the idea of the 2D barcode. I just installed a reader for these codes on my cell phone (Nokia 6600, reader application available here) and it works great!

You just have to point the camera in the right direction, so it "sees" the data matrix, which is then automatically translated...

This way, everybody could have the link to his forum profile encoded on his card... Of course other persons will have to have compatible cell phones, but I think there're even readers for digital images, so one could just take a photograph of the matrix and "read" it later on his PC...

Anyway, is there some way to really manufacture these cards?

I mean, printing and laminating, then cutting it would do the trick but I think it would feel... cheap. Are there shops which actually print these cards in low quantities?

NinjaN

[DarkeSword]

José man, I'm totally feelin' that design. As for the Data Matrix, I'm cool with that too.

Let's not forget about the back of the card though. That's where the signature field will be (because you HAVE to sign it), and the barcode, and maybe some other info about OCR.

Oh, also: stop derailing the thread.

[Sindra]

lol, ideas? Generally just draw up card designs. Watermarks. Text placement. Ideas for the icons for server things. Where avatars go. What things (forum title, post count, year, join date) to use, and what not.

Obviously I already have a lot of ideas myself, but the more pre-pro the better for this kind of thing.

Well, with a few already exemplified, I can try my own hand at some. Maybe this evening after work.

[Fishy]

I'm loving these Jose. The different colours idea is sweet. I want one :3!

[Gollgagh]

Is this the new :darkesword: ?

I think the datamatrix would be pretty sweet.

djp should have an ultra special owner and founder card, though.

[Ramaniscence]

Good thing I saved Rama's hi-res logos.

PRECISELY why I couldn't finish mine last night. Because I didn't have those on my hard drive anymore, but they're still on the server >_>.

[The Mutericator]

You could easily stack the rows from that data matrix one after another to create a string of blocks, then simply stretch them appropriately to create the barcode (I like the barcode idea).

Also how about not basing colors off status? I much prefer the blue one, but obviously as a normal member (read: leech) I would be stuck with the boring gray one. How about changing the symbol or something for each status level?

[Abadoss]

Good thing I saved Rama's hi-res logos. Here my original layout, with print border guides and a few notes (can't display it, so clickylinky).

http://bronxrican.com/stuff/misc/OCR Badge.png

Includes:

a. Real Name - Surname, then first.

b. "Rank" - Not really, but us members fit neatly into four groups: Community, for all of us; Musician, for the ReMixers; Staff, self-explanatory; Administrator, for guess who. Each group has a different color overlay.

c. Titles - Include "Forum Member", "Contributing ReMixer", "Forum Moderator", "Project Director", "Judges Panelist", and so on. "Official" unofficial titles only, please.

d. Membername - Of course. Text may be larger, but some long-ass names require the current size.

e. Optional Items - maybe a "rank" icon, though I don't think it's necessary; perhaps a member photo (serious pics only... sorry); a barcode, if you really think it's worth it.

Four examples:

I'm content with that... almost as is, actually...

As a side note, should Competition Director be a valid title for use on the cards? (Obviously, there's some personal interest behind this question.)

Also, with images of this quality, we should see if there's a way to put them on plastic... hell, I'd pay for it! Well, I'd pay for my own, anyway...

{edit} - Why not put the barcode/matrix on the back of the card?

[Arek the Absolute]

Pretty as those are, I would still like to see what other artists come up with.

Options are always an awesome thing

[DarkeSword]

Yeah, as much as I like José's mockups, it's always good to see what other people come up with.

As for titles, I don't like "Competition Director," as that implies a staff position. "Competition Organizer" would be better; but to be fair, I'd prefer only "official" titles, as anyone can go ahead and start a competition these days.

[Abadoss]

True, but you could limit those that can use the title by competitions that have lasted for a while (either by minimum number of rounds or length of time). Established competitions, so to speak.

[DarkeSword]

Also true, which means we might want to think about putting that title in our forum profiles alongside the "Real Name" label.

[Ramaniscence]