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....
Friday, October 08, 2004
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
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.
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.
Friday, September 24, 2004
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!!!
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
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.
#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.
Monday, August 16, 2004
Cy
Back from Jamfest '04!!!
Cyrokk wins rock pose of the year:
Largely uneventful, but lots of fun. Counting the days til next year...
Cyrokk wins rock pose of the year:
Largely uneventful, but lots of fun. Counting the days til next year...
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
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...
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...
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
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!
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!
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Monday, May 31, 2004
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).
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).
Friday, May 28, 2004
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!!!
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!!!
Friday, April 23, 2004
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.
...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.
Monday, April 19, 2004
Sunday, April 18, 2004
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.
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.
Monday, April 05, 2004
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. :(
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. :(
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
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!!! ;)
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!!!
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!!!
Friday, March 26, 2004
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...
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...
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
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.
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.
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