I know SO many people...

The Perfect Stocking Stuffer



Only $9.99 plus $5 S/H on ebay (click the pic).

Rick S. - Soundman - San Diego, CA: “...so then the lead singers girlfriend/manager comes up and tells me her boyfriends voice sounds out of tune. “What’s up with that?” I told her, ”Sorry, the TALENT BOOST wasn’t turned on”. She looked at me with a blank stare and walked away. I didn’t have to deal with her the rest of the night. Thank you TALENT BOOST”.

Check out Jen

Jen Berkley is an RP newbie, who clearly knows her way around music and knows how to put together a lovely website.

I'm trying not to hate her (and Aussies in general) for having nice weather - hers will probably be lousy when ours is good. Anyhow, give her a listen, and also follow her links to my Canadian pal Dave, a fellow keyboardist and a primo songwriter.

Still here

Still here, Just not posting much. New church job taking up a lot of time.

New band is sounding good - I'm planning to put up an original Miles-style jam for you soon. We didn't keep that trumpeter, but have a sax guy now who's really level headed, and is good both inside and outside - hope he stays. Best saxophonist I've ever worked with.

Lotsa gear acquisitions lately, though tending to the cheap side:
Alesis QSR module,
Roland A-30 controller,
Yama BC-3 breath controller,
Yamaha DX-11 synth, and
Yamaha VL-70m physical modeling module.
Nothing over $500. L_O_V_E the VL-70m, though...

This one's just for fun - Jonathon, our tireless engineer, posted the first live-in-the-backyard recording from this year's 4th Annual Jamfest & BBQ (a joint production of the Home Recording BBS and the Recording Project BBS), held in Connecticut in August each year. About 60 of us this year, but I was the only keyboardist. LOTS of guitar players - not sure what that says about home recording demographics in general...

Jamfest '04

Of all the keyboard classics I've ever played, this is definitely one of em, LOL. That's me on QS-8, VTGreen81 on stix, and FMMahoganyrush (our host) on guitar and vox. I believe we had a bass player along for the ride on this - sure sounds that way - but I'm drawing a blank on who it was.

I was really pleased with the QS-8 sound on this. Think I was using the 3BarsFull patch on the Vintage Keys card. Yay for Dave Bryce and the other sound designers from Alesis. These guys are scattered to the 4 corners of the world by now, I'm sure - for example, Dave's working for Dave Smith (of Sequential Circuits fame) Instruments now.

I was telling the guys at RP that this was one of the first rock/pop songs I ever learned, 30+ years ago now. I've never gotten tired of it.

Grrr...

Remember the Scene?

The one in Anchorman, where Christina Applegate (mmm... Christina...) thinks she's being helped by the PBS news guy, and he pushes her into the bear cage?

http://www.folkslikeus.org

Welcome to the modern world of public radio. I have always loved WDET for its eclecticism - and weekend shows like Folks Like Us, Blues From the Lowlands, and Arkansas Traveler were a truly refreshing part of the mix: a nice change from the hipper-than-thou trendy "eclecticism" of the weekday shows.

Well, no more. I have to admit, I love John Penny's show, and I think rebroadcasting all the great live-in-the-studio music that's happened at WDET is a great idea. but not at the expense of the ONLY folk music show on the Detroit airwaves, and the ONLY bluegrass show.

For all the edgy music they play, there's a sort of bland sameness to what's on at DET anymore. Thank the Lord they got rid of Jim Bauer's ridiculous AOR-for-Moderns format. But what's left isn't much better - lots of techno, nu-garage, lounge, and jazz. Rumor is they'll be changing their nickname from "Detroit's Public Radio" to "The River".

Okay, I made that part up. There are still breaths of fresh air - Chris Felcyn's Listening Room, Michael Julien's carribean/afro/pop show, and Kim Heron pushes the jazz envelope some (the rest of it, sorry Ed and Gene, just sounds like WCHD - the 60's version of smooth jazz - all over again. And Ed is fast turning into Bill Kennedy. Grumble). The news programming is still superb, of course.

But I hope they're not counting on my check too much. It may be a year or three before I'm willing to cough up more dough for a station that ignores its listeners like that....

chart update update update

Ah, it's over

A strong showing - another 7 or 8 listens - but "Up for the Count" ran out of time, and is off the charts. Thanks for the listens and the nice comments.

It's still there (link is below) if you missed it, just no more chart action.

chart update update

Make that #2

Wow, you all really responded! 14 hits on my tune in the past few hours moved me up to #2. Very cool. Thank you.

"Up for the Count" will drop from the chart on Sunday, when its two weeks are up. Unlikely we'll catch Wireneck - he's 33 d/l's up (and multiples for the same don't count - no ballot bax stuffing allowed!), and, AFAIK, his tune will be up for a few days beyond mine. But it was a good run, and I got some nice notes from a few of ya.

Thanks! *sniff* You guys are the greatest!!!

chart update

#3 With a Bullet!

Yay! "Up for the Count" is up to #3.

OTOH, "Held By Stone" is off the chart.

The way this works now, a tune has a chart life of two weeks. Once your tune is 15 days old, it's gone, now matter how many listens it's getting. So "Count" moved from 3rd to 5th with few, if any, additional downloads. Keeps the chart fresh, if nothing else.

Number one is not a lock. Lots depends on review traffic at RP. "Count" didn't get a lot, and is getting none now, so I'm looking for a fall soon. 'Saright, it's all for fun anyhow.

Climbin the Ladder

Hey, new tunes: #3 and # 5 on the RP hit parade:

#3 - Held By Stone, by FrederickRM
I'm guest keyboardist on this. Kinda shows the danger of midi collabs: he used patches I wouldn't have used, and DIDN'T use when I was recording these. Really highlighted some loose timing that was okay in my mix. His changes didn't affect the timing of course - they just brought ther keys farther forward and into a new "timekeeper" role which my performance wasn't up to. I was hesitant about sending midi, but decided it ain't my tune, let's see how it goes. He's supposed to edit the timing on the left hand organ part.

BTW, very well written and sung by Frederick. Tasty guitar playing too, though a bit heavy on the Echoplex.

#5 - Up for the Count, by Dafduc
Yeah, that's me. A short instrumental composition, specifically for the upcoming Keyboard Corner compilation CD. Everyone was supposed to contribute a tune that was under 2 minutes, but there wasn't enough interest to fill a CD, so it's now an "anything goes" compilation. My 1:59 track was in the can already, though.

It's a tribute to Ray Charles, and to Count Basie, who would have turned 100 this year. The concept was "what if Brother Ray took the Count's signature line and turned it into a piece of his own?" If you're familiar with Ray's instrumental works, this should sound familiar too. If not, chase down some tunes! Ray's vocal stuff was groundbreaking, but the other side of Ray is worth exploring: Wanna know where James Brown got his ideas? Sure ya do.

That's me on mdaPiano, everything else is loop wrangling. Assembling the horn parts was hours of work - so give it a listen, 'kay?

Thanks to the RP bunch for their help with the EQ issues. Between my bad ear and my half-broken monitors, there was no way I could have gotten a good mix without their input.

Cy

Back from Jamfest '04!!!

Cyrokk wins rock pose of the year:


Largely uneventful, but lots of fun. Counting the days til next year...

UPS Woes

Do you have GAS?

Gear Acquisition Syndrome, that is? I need a damn support group.

My latest venture involves a vintage Arp Odyssey and a UPS crew that apparently used it for dwarf tossing after the dwarf called it quits. $500 for the unit, a good price, but it arrived with a HUGE dent in it, and the keyboard disconnected from the sound generation circuits.

Guy who sold it to me has been very cool about this so far, and will make good if UPS doesn't. But UPS has been receptive too, perhaps because the guy shipped from his company. And perhaps because we were talking repairs rather than replacement.

Got the repair estimate today, $310. Cracked circuit board, and some major disconnecting/reconnecting required as part of making the dent go away. So now we see how UPS follows through. Wish me luck...

A month later

It's been a month, I should post something

I bought Garritan Personal Orchestra a few months ago. It was a dicey buy, because none of the local music stores had a copy for me to demo, and it was recommended for WinXP/2000 only - I'm on WinME. Also wants a faster PC - 1Ghz to my 833mhz.

Got it anyhow - but it wouldn't install right. 2 months later, with continual back-and-forth between me and the Native Instruments (they're the US distributors) rep, I finally got a Garritan rep who knew what was up - it's a dynamic install that gets lost midstream under WME. He gave me the workaround, I got it going...

...but it's really demanding on my system. I can run it in standalone mode, but can't use it inside Acid or Cubase without crashing - can't even use it as an Encore output without forcing a reboot.

Still, great sounds. Piano is excellent, so is the pipe organ. One of the violin patches has an articulation control on some of the out-of-range keys - big fun to improvise orchestrally.

There's a choice between wet and dry instruments: referring, of course, to the amount of reverb. There's a separate reverb control, but if I understand correctly, the wet instruments were recorded in a reverberent space. So is the reverb control a separate piece of processing, or just a mix between wet and dry versions? I suspect the former, but am not sure.

There are "multi" sounds, too - combinations of sounds - but I haven't had a chance to evaluate them yet.

I'm trying to figure out a way to add GPO in to one of my sequencing environments so I can swap the piano sound in on some of my completed pieces. The freebie mdaPiano VST Instrument that I use is okay, but GPO's piano is so much better! It would prevent me from playing back in real time, and greatly increase rendering time, but that's fine for finished works. At this point, though, the sequencers blow up when I first load GPO up with the piano. Sigh...

Might be new puter time!

Yahoo! News - Pistons Top Lakers to Win NBA Title

YES!!!



Ultimately, a victory of teamwork over star power. Bless you, boys...

Sisters

Racheloni Reviews

Check her out! great, concise reviews from an always-entertaining blog pal. Her roni ratings are a nice visual touch.

We saw Shrek 2 last night, and I pretty much agree with Rachel (though I found the music mostly annoying, and thought Bette Midler would have made a much better fairy godmother than whoever that was).

Rayos del BS

New Blue Sunrays CD!

Highly recommended - Brer Rats played the prerelease copy for me on our trip to Hamilton a few weeks ago. High energy post-punk mayhem, with hooky hooks and quizzy tones.

Local boys need some props. Give it up, Detroit!!!

uh-oh

Music123...

...sent me the wrong card - see ebay post below. They sent the Classical Instruments card, which I already have. Took forever to explain it to them, cos it was their inventory tag that was wrong.

Grr. Gotta do the UPS return thing. There ain't a UPS within 30 miles if here. Grr.

HB2Me

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday dear me,
Happy birthday to me!

eBay

eBay item 3717942116 - Alesis Stereo Classical Piano QCard Expansion

Yee - HA! I won, I won.

Hope it's better than the internal piano sounds. They're pretty unremarkable.

And the QS is in the shop again, os won't get to try it out for a while. I've decided that My QS-8.1 is probably a lemon, so I'm looking for a QS-R (rackmount version) as a backup.

Where?

Where'd I Go?

New day gig with no web access. And home is dialup - no cable or DSL out here in BFE. And I signed up for fantasy baseball (we're the Monaural Mobsters, heh heh), so that's sucking up what little net time I do have.

So don't worry - although my health's no better, it's not really much worse either. Just got no hookup. :(

RPMedia

Surprisingly,

I'm still holding forth at spots #2 and 4 at The Recording Project Media Services, despite two months on the chart and virtually no spamming on my part:

Top Downloads
M.Brane War Inside Play (192kbps) Download (5.94MB) 139
Dafduc Song 130 Play (128kbps) Download (3.35MB) 102
PapillonIrl My First Wife Left Me Play (96kbps) Download (3.59MB) 82
Dafduc Beautiful Still Play (192kbps) Download (6.62MB) 74
dispelled_myths Put that away Play (128kbps) Download (3.98MB) 71

Stop by, give my stuff a listen. Let's see if we can run those numbers up!!! ;)

Yahoo! News

Study: File-Sharing No Threat to Music Sales

The Harvard-UNC study is not the first to take aim at the assertion that online music piracy is the leading factor hurting music sales. In two studies conducted in 1999 and 2002, Jupiter Research analyst Aram Sinnreich found that persons who downloaded music illegally from the Internet were also active purchasers of music from legitimate sources.

"While some people seemed to buy less after file sharing, more people seemed to buy more," Sinnreich said. "It was more likely to increase somebody's purchasing habits."

The 2002 Jupiter study showed that people who traded files for more than six months were 75 percent more likely than average online music fans to spend more money on music.

RIAA spokesmonkeys, of course, disagree. But for a number of us, these studies just confirm what we already know - CD sales are down because the new releases suck ass.

BOYCOTT RIAA!!!

A public response to Racheloni's Spongebob Post
Only because of the 1000-character limit at HaloScan...

-----------------------------------------------
This is timely! The guys over at my home studio board have spent all week arguing at length about whether Obi-Wan Kenobi or Gandalf had better powers. It goes something like this:

guy 1: My imaginary geezer can beat up your imaginary geezer.

guy 2: No, my imaginary geezer can beat up YOUR imaginary geezer.

guy 1: No way. That light saber is way cooler than those crappy spells. And what's up with that staff? Puh-leaze.

guy 2: Ha. My guy beat a damn Balrog. Your guy would be pissing himself if he ever had to do that. Except, um, oh yeah. YOUR GUY IS DEAD ALREADY. What kinda lame-ass superpower DIES? Especially in a fight with fat old James Earl Jones? Loser.

It continues like that:
battlegeezer thread

Then somebody wrote a song about it:
song for the imaginary geezers

And we had some spin-off threads - Gollum vs. Jar Jar, Ginger vs. Maryann. I borrowed your Elijah Wood link at one point. Thanks.

And yeah, most of us are getting paid for this. Hee hee. ;)

Jay
-----------------------------------------------

In other news, I've also "borrowed" Racheloni's Brains / Joy of Cooking entry. Racheloni Rocks!

And I usually don't.

As you were...

Rock And Roll Confidential - The Hall of Douchebags

HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!

*gasp*

HA HA HA HA!

*snort*

heehee. Click the pic. Funny, funny stuff. OMG, I hope my old band pics aren't in there.

April Fools 1986

Warning: Musician Humor, circa 1986

Ringotrongics Thumper 2000: Tired of drum machines with no personality? You'll change your tune after a session with Thumper 2000, the digital drum machine that not only sounds like a real drummer but acts like one too. The research dept at Ringotronics has gone beyond mere "human feel" to capture the drummer's disposition on a chip, thanks to a breakthrough in artificial intelligence (the only kind of intelligence real drummers possess). Thumper 2000 won't function at all until twenty minutes after the rest of the band has started rehearsal, and once it has started it stops constantly during the following 10 minutes to adjust pedals and stands and retune its snare. It also speeds up in proportion to the number of women in the audience and always uses more cymbals than the song calls for. A built-in voice module allows Thumper 2000 to express its desire to sing, without actually giving it the capability to actually do so.

MEng project: lil2

MIDI Hamster Control

Why didn't **I** think of that?

Next time I get songwriter's block, I'm buying some hamsters.

Levon Helms sez:

article: Diamond Teeth Mary

Our favorite act was 'The Lady with the Million Dollar Smile,' F. S. Walcott's big featured singer, who'd come on in the third quarter of the show. She was an armful. She wore bright dresses and had all her teeth filled with diamonds! She sang on all those real get-down songs like 'Shake a Hand'."

From Levon Helm's "This Wheel's On Fire"

Rode thinks of everything.

Another thing to like about the Rode NTK: a double-duty shockmount!



Thanks to Emeric for the pic...

Magic Bag

Magic Bag:

March 20
THE DIRTBOMBS & DETROIT COBRAS
wsg The Come-Ons
Doors 8 p.m.
$10.00 adv.

Come on down!!! Not sure I'll be there, though - sis-in-law is moving in for a little while (it BETTER be a little while), that's moving day. Blue Sunrays guitarist Brian (uh, uh, ... crap! Forgot his last name) is in the Come-ons, some RP friends are supposed to be there. I'll be there if I can.

UnQualified User - index page - Free MP3 downloads, CDs, Bio Info, Tour Dates, Lyrics and More!"

IUMA: UnQualified User

Check out my pal Paul's music - Paul encouraged me a lot very early in my home recording career, and gave me great amounts of vital information back when I couldn't buy a clue. He even listened to some of my really early stuff, which I now realize took great courage, and even greater restraint. We had a very chummy private Yahoo club, about 6 of us, back in the day (clubs are now merged with groups), that suddenly imploded and left us all wondering what the hell just happened. Still a warm place in my heart for those guys though, Paul especially.

Give him a listen, tell him Daf sent you. He'll remember.

97.5 FM Today's Hit Music

Vote for Jaime!!!

Well, you should really listen to all four of them, then vote for the best. Which would be Jaime. Great voice, especially for a teenager! Daughter of an (extremely talented) friend. Didn't fall far from the tree, it seems...

Yahoo! Groups : 1alesis_qs_series

Yahoo! Groups : 1alesis_qs_series

Apparently you gotta join if you wanna browse - sorry. Alesis QS's are a great value - good sound and feel, for about 1/3 the price of a Triton or Motif. Love my QS-8.1!!!

Group's still active. I've belonged for years, but don't really participate. Still, good to know they're still going strong.

Piltdown Man

I hate Creed, and I've put it to music.

Bwahahahahaha!!!!

"How does a daytime-drama-type become a rock lead singer?
Good god, it's like some evil force has resurrected Winger...

Piltdown Man is a twisted genius - give him a listen. This ain't just funny, it sounds great!!!!

Added a Gear Lust box up top. Hubba hubba...

Welcome to Music Maker Publications

Dave Moulton Lectures --- Playback Platinum Series

Over my head financially for now, and perhaps sonically as well, but still potential value. Way cheaper than one of those hands-on recording schools, too, though I'm sure they have their advantages.

More Flash

Flash training CDRom

Linked from a timely little piece of semi-spam. Price is a bit higher than I'm willing to fork over in these economic times - pay cuts and uncertain future at work - but man, if this was two years ago, I'd be all over it.

Huh - Blogger lost half my template AGAIN...

So I rebuilt, a little different - what WERE those links I had off to the right? Backed it up this time, though. Fool me twice, shame on me.

This is actually about #4. But who's counting?

Found a blog...

Guitar Talk

Ah, serendipity...

If'n he keeps posting wavs instead of mp3s, good bet I won't be able to listen. Dial-up only here in the beanfields, can't even get DSL. Satellite, I s'pose, but I don't see bang for the buck.

Online resource for Macromedia Flash Tutorials SWF FLA images clip art Sounds WAVS Animations Help and Support

Flash Kit, A Flash Developer Resource

THIS is what my site needs. Better start studying...

Ha Ha Ha

Hee Hee

...snort


bjork bjork bjork!

Taking the plunge again

Here comes a new template, this time from blogskins.com. If the site's all hosed for a while, you'll know why. Unless it's hosed so badly you don't see this post...

Ear Infection - Treatment and Information

When All Else Fails...

...go see what the health-food bunch says.

Hear's what the ear surgeon said:

My best bet up front would have been a high level of steroids. But (1) I waited 10 days, (2) the steroid pack they prescribed in ER wasn't strong enough, and (c) I discontinued the steroids after they were completed. My internist actually suggested that the steroids were just a sign they were throwing the "kitchen sink" at my ear troubles.

NOW, he (ear surgeon) has me on 60 mg of prednisone for the next 7 days, but it may well be too late. There's also a VERY good chance that this wouldn't have worked up front either, but since I was treated with steroids and did recover my high frequencies (only), there's some evidence that I'm in the part of the population for which the steroids are effective. Sadly, the longer the waiting in applying the treatment, the more they lose their efficacy. So the steroids NOW are kind of a Hail Mary thing.

Stay tuned...

OddTodd Interviews Sauron

Lord of the Rings

This is great! What a riot:

Sauron: ...But who would have ever thought someone would actually want to destroy the ring!? I didn't see that coming. That ring is so cool!

Me (Todd): Totally! I probably but have been sporting it around town first day all blinging!

Sauron: Uh huh.

It goes on like that. Funny stuff.

Improv Message Boards - True Porn Clerk Stories

Ali's Journal

This remains one of the best things I have ever read on the net. I started reading before the saga ended, but it's over now. This would make a great stage play or movie, ISTM.

I think the attraction is more than just "ooh it's about porn". There's a lot of life in this, and some great funny/sad moments. Ali's observations are never wordy, but rarely terse either - a cozy read. Probably not for the prudish or highly judgmental, or kids under 16. But I do think I speak for most of the rest of us: Yay Ali!!!

Introducing: The Recording Project Media Services

With a Bullet!!!

TOP 5 RPMEDIA TUNES

1. M.Brane - War Inside
2. Dafduc - Song 130
3. dispelled_myths - Put that away
4. dispelled_myths - Take Time
5. PapillonIrl - My First Wife Left Me

Short-lived, I'm sure. Song 42's holding forth at number 9, but likely to drop quickly as more songs are added.

Here's the RPMedia radio link - better have broadband!!!

Not Quite So Incommunicado

I'm still here. Thanks to the faithful readers (both of ya!!!) who sent get well notes.

Still have the vertigo, still have the hearing loss. Vertigo seems to be dissipating though. Hearing loss is a little stickier. Prayers and/or good vibes (depending on your cosmology) cheerfully accepted!

Here's a link to My New Recording Project Page. Visit me and play my stuff! No money in it or anything, but nothing looks worse than a "Plays: 0" entry. There's a streaming radio link at the main site, too - 64kbps, so we dial-up users are out of luck.

Currently on the site:
Song 130 - a rock-n-roll setting of the Lenten Psalm;
Beautiful Still - My anniversary song for Kim; and
Song 42 - a delta/bayou setting of one of my favorite Easter Vigil and Funeral Psalms.

Check out the other guys there, too - some excellent songwriters and musicians there.

Incommunicado

Been out sick for a couple of weeks - bad ear kicked off vertigo, spent Sunday night in the emergency room. Off to the ENT guy today, hope he's got the magic cure!!!

Yeeha!

Finally got my own domain: www.graytail.com. Nothin there yet, but watch out!!!