Re-amping demystified

Re-amping demystified


Thanks to Ramen!

PowerKor travel guide

PowerKor's travel guide is the funniest thing I've seen all week:

Europe - overrun by muslims
Middle East - ditto
Africa - ditto
East Asia - ditto
South America - overrun by leftists
North America - overrun by rightists
Asia - figuring out capitalism
Russia - cant figure out capitalism
Austrailia - in mourning
Iceland - melting steadily

Here's a link to:


PowerKor the Acidplaneteer


Tell him Daffy sent you. He probably won't care, but tell him anyhow.

Jamfest VI

Jamfest VI is history, hailed by many as the best ever. Lots of fun - we actually had 4 keyboardists this year, to counter the 50+ guitarists on hand. High points included the jam and the food as always, but also the raffle, where I had an amazing lucky streak. Won seven times, including the grand prize, modeled here by the lovely Joe "Joro" Rogers.



I promised them a recording with the guitar - watch this space!

Haha - check out my AcidPlanet stats!

I'm a newbie over at http://www.AcidPlanet.com , the Sony-sponsored site for users of its Acid software. Anyhow, here I am, #2365 with a bullet. Actually, for about half a day, I was #1 on the "Other..." genre chart, #109 overall. But fame is fleeting...

Like Hard Rock?

Like Hard Rock?
No, not the Cafe, LOL.

Check out RP Hard at recordingproject.com. Your host Ramen will give you some hard edged original music to listen at, plus some insight and Ramenisms.

It's a one hour show. Weekly schedule for starters:
Monday 5/8 - 9PM (all times are Mountain Time, adjust accordingly)
Tuesday 5/9 - 7AM, 1PM, 9PM
Thursday 5/11 - 7AM, 1PM, 9PM
Friday 5/12 - 8PM
Saturday 5/13 - 8PM

Listen Up!!!! BTW, chances are none of MY music will show up on this show. But RP is trying to add shows. As soon as there's a rocks-about-as-hard-as-Air-Supply-but-really-can't-sing show, I'll be all over that!

Sony Acid 6.0
































It's finally a REAL sequencer! Yay!

I've been using it that way for a couple of years anyhow - love the workflow and interface - but there were just some things it wouldn't do. NOT ANY MORE!

o Multitrack Audio and MIDI Recording
o Multiple Media Files per Track
o Inline MIDI Editing
o MIDI Filtering and Processing
o VSTi Parameter Automation
o Drum Map Editing
o Project Sections
o External Control Surface Support
o Record Input Monitoring

Guitar Center called today to say they're putting my upgrade in the mail. Can't wait.

Me & Jen

Apologies to Gary Larson, and thanks to Mongo97. This is the upshot of a recent online conversation between me and Jennifah:

Top of the Charts

Katrina is still hanging on at RPMedia . It was #1 briefly, but FrederickRM resurrected one of his old tunes, so they've been knocking each other in and out of first place for the past 3 weeks or so.

Mean time, my "Goin' Down to RP" is holding on at #3. It's a song about folks at recordingproject.com , featuring guitar solos from 11 different guitarists. Big fun, mang, big big fun. Go give a listen.

Not Dead Yet

So, I almost died. Subarachnoid brain hemorrhage, Dec. 23rd. Thanks to some talented doctors and the prayers of thousands of parishioners and internet friends, I pulled through.

Boy, my head sure hurts, though. Another couple of weeks for that, they say. I returned to work and to my parish music job last week.

In the words of Fr. Doc, "Please continue to pray for Jay. We have have Lent and Easter coming up, and he better not pull the same trick again." Ha ha.

Climbing

Up to #2 today, yay!

Although Beez's metal track is 30 DL's ahead, his place expires in a week or so - songs last on the chart for a month(ish) now. So barring another metal hit (they always get more listens), we could go with zero downloads and still have a chance at #1. But please listen anyhow - link is below.

Reviewers so far say that the mix is a bit muddy and muffled, and the lead vocs are too far out front. Also background vocals need fleshing out. So a fix will be coming. Big diff between this and my other stuff - the reviewers actually LIKE my vocals. Another sign of the Apocalypse???

Katrina

The horrror of Hurricane Katrina brought a lot of different responses from folks. Thanks to everyone who contributed somehow - especially to those of you who helped with my little piece - a sale of some of my eequipment, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross. I forgot to post about it here, my bad: but I raised over $500.

Here's my other response, just reaching completion now:

Hey Katrina!

A New Orleans-style song, with little pieces of bayou culture as well, and musical influences from Little Feat, Dr. John, and Preservation Hall. The song paints Katrina as a crazy woman who blew threw town and left misery in her wake, sort of a "Wow, Katrina, are you ever EVIL!!!" approach. Not for everyone, but some nice props from the reviewers at RP. Just click on the "download" or "listen" link on the page - I'm not allowed to direct link, sorry.

Thanks to my pals HevyD, Steev, Buddah, and Hotz for lending their talents. Mix isn't quite final yet, but the elements are all there. Number 4 with a bullet on the latest RP chart, LOL.

Tell em Daf sent you. Not that they'll ask...

RIP, St. Bob

I've never really been a Moog user - my weapons were mostly Arps, Prophets, and Yamahas of varying letter pairs, though I have a couple of "virtual" (i.e., software) Moogs - but there's no doubt that my working environment has benefited strongly from St. Bob's work here among us mortals. As has everyone's musical experience over the past 40 or so years. We all owe him a large debt of gratitude. So, THANKS, BOB!!!!



And HERE is a link to a pretty good obit. A truly great man has left our midst.

Back from Jamfest

Jamfest 2005 was a great time as usual. 40 or so of us, lots of music, food, beer, and camaraderie.

Here's a pic...

Buy our stuff!

On sale now:



Kind of introspective - 20 pieces, about 12 are balladish - but great stuff: well-written, performed, tracked, and mixed. Not a stinker in the bunch. $10 plus s&h.

Podcasting

Podcasting:


Any questions?

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....