Tag Archives: Music - Page 9

The Rules Enforce Mediocrity

Posted by on May 8, 2014 No comments

As part of my “rebuilding”, I’ve been working on my music on keyboards.  I lost a lot of stamina and dexterity, so I need to get that rebuilt.  The best exercises I had are a lot of songs from my past.  Because of my inactivity, I had forgotten how a lot of them were played, so it was a learning experience.  Probably easier for me to learn, since it’s in my personal style.

And it’s the personal style that really threw me.  I never really had formal training, just learned and played by ear.  But much later in my playing, when I learned “the rules”, I started writing with “the rules” in mind.  So when I had to relearn my older music, it didn’t follow “the rules” and was more difficult to figure out.  It made me wonder if breaking the rules is a good or bad thing.

I think my music is pretty unique, probably due to the lack of rule-abiding.  That may make it more inaccessible, but that’s the price you pay.

Killing Creativity

Posted by on October 9, 2009 No comments

I am getting so old.

The pieces are finally coming together to allow me to start recording again.  Windows 7: check.  New Cubase 5: check.  Now we’re ready to configure the recording setup.

Using an Emu 0404 as input, I have two mono inputs for my use.  Outboard, I have a Mackie 1642 that will do mixing duties for traditional gear.  It has 4 mono busses, so I routed two of them to the 0404’s inputs.  That will let me selectively choose what inputs I want to record.  Aside from having a cable plugged into the wrong port in the back, it was a snap.  The physical is simple.  The virtual is a little unknown to me, which is where I felt old.

The request I wanted seemed simple: I did not want to monitor the input.  If I wanted to monitor the input, I would do it through Cubase, which would send it to the main output.  Obviously I want to monitor the main output.  Reading through documentation (ugh), I found some diagrams that seemed to explain what needed to be done.  The 0404 talks to the input and the speakers through physical connections.  Cubase talks to the 0404 (not the input and not the speakers) through virtual connections – ASIO connections.

So after a good hour of tweaking, I got the routing correct and working.  Then, just to prove to myself that I understood what was going on, I reset everything to defaults and started over.  But after resetting everything, it worked without any tweaks.  So now I don’t even know what to think.

Bottom line is, I’m not doing anything musical tonight.  No wonder those that can afford studio time just do it.

What Is This? A New Post?

Posted by on July 19, 2009 No comments

You’ve got to be kidding me.  What’s the occasion for this?  Which freaking song are you still working on?

Well, the impetus for the post is the simplicity of Windows Live Writer.  Having a nice WYSIWYG editor makes for less resistance to creating a new entry.  But there’s other minor things that happened in the last year and a half that might be mentionable as well.

Currently the recording system is running Vista x64.  This was a trial run on 64-bit to see if I could still get by, which I certainly can.  Well, except that the CME UF6 doesn’t have a USB driver for Vista (except through a user patch), and no 64-bit driver at all.  So, although I never used the USB functions of the controller, it seems I never will, either.

I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of Windows 7, at which time I’ll rebuild the system for recording again.  The system has no music software on it yet.  I’ll also invest in a nice hard drive or two for performance and volume, although I don’t expect to do much physical recording, instead sticking to MIDI and VST, having the HD space is never a bad thing.

So, you know I have been working on this song…  as the joke goes, “When’s your album coming out?” I’ve been playing the same songs for over a year.  They haven’t been completed, but I expect when I get the new recording setup, I’ll be ready to put some tracks down and get some momentum.  The plan is still the same, to do another CDD-type release – that is, non-sequence-based, more live-oriented.

Otherwise, musically, there’s not much to say.  Well, my Mackie mixer has been powered on and running 24×7 for at least 5 years and my Event monitors have been doing the same for at least 2.  That makes these devices a great testament to longevity , durability, and ecological irresponsibility.

Sharing Is Fine

Posted by on May 10, 2008 No comments

I’m going to try and scan a lot of my CD covers for albums that aren’t easily found through the general sources.  Not surprisingly, I have a few albums that don’t appear to exist anymore and have been forgotten to time.

A lot of my MCA Master Series CDs are not represented, so those are available.  You can get them in my public SkyDrive folder.  These are now hosted here on the website as a side quest.

Hopefully this helps someone out there who is looking for this album art.