1,676

(19 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

I spent four years on an aircraft carrier.  I've been around the world twice, but one stretch of water looks much like another, globally.  smile

Been on every continent except Antarctica, and I plan on fixing that.

1,677

(9 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

So go schedule an appointment with the counselor.

If this is as bad as your life ever gets, you've got it easy.

1,678

(28 replies, posted in Acoustic)

I sing them in the shower with the express purpose of memorization.  I forget the lyrics to songs I write all the time.  Bugs me!

1,679

(16 replies, posted in Songwriting)

I had that bass walk stuck in my head for weeks.  smile

Anyway, couple of notes.  Selso provided two tracks,  one "vocal" and one "bass/guitar."  But because the vocal was recorded with a live mike and the bass track playing, there was serious bleed over from one track to the next.  That is, you could hear the vocals clear as day on the bass track, and you could hear the bass and guitar clear as day on the vocal track.

I did the mix on this using Reaper, which is now my most favorite tool ever.

This is what I did to the mix.   I ran the vocal track through a highpass filter to remove as much of the bass from that track as I could, and then used an EQ to bring out the frequencies of Selso's voice, and then added just a touch of reverb for effect.     I ran the bass track through an EQ to bring out as much bass as possible, and then ran it through a compressor to get a little bit of pop, and give it that "fretless" feel.   The problem is that any time I touched the bass track, it effected the vocals as well, due to the bleed.

Because the track was recorded live, there is just a hair's bit of tempo drift in the song.  It rumbles between 104 and 108 beats per minute.  It's enough to make using a drum machine harder than using a live drummer. I have a live drummer, so he was conscripted for the job.  We recorded him on two microphones using our Fostex MR-8.  We pulled his kick mic out a bit to pick up the entire bottom end, and used a condenser directional mic up high to pick up the high hat and cymbals.  There was a small glitch in the recording, though.  A fault of the MR-8 caused a few microseconds of squeal and pop.  I was able to pull it out and substitute in another section of the track.  I don't think I did a good job of it, though.  If you pay close attention right around the 1:27 mark you can pick it up.    Anyway, we're thinking of doing a couple more drum tracks the next time we get some spare time.

Here's a shot of Jeff, live in Studio A, recording the drum track for this.  smile

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/6436/20090816171013.jpg

As far as the lots of bass/no bass sound goes, I've learned that there is no way to satisfy every speaker system.  I mixed this up using a pair of KRK 5" powered studio monitors, and the bass really comes out on them.  If I plug in my crappy PC speakers, you naturally lose some of that.   

Anyway it was very fun, and I learned a whole lot.  Many thanks to Selso for not only writing this nifty little tune, but for giving me the opportunity to play with it.  If you're ever up Seattle way, we should bring you into the basement and record some good quality tracks.  It really is a good song.

1,680

(179 replies, posted in Recording)

Russell_Harding wrote:

Looking good there Jerome! I see the can of Pabst must be for midicinal needs lol I forgot my yahoo ID and had to wait about three days to change it but I now can upload to flickr nice photo there how bout some of the band members? smile

Oh yeah, we're pretty much a PBR Powered band.  As much of the stuff as we drink, they aught to sponsor a tour or something.  smile

The rest of the mutts...

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/7187/aclosesecond02.jpg

From left to right..

Casey, Alan, Jeff, and me.

1,681

(30 replies, posted in Recording)

Good article about how to record guitar using Record.

http://www.propellerheads.se/substance/ … t=E65279D4

1,682

(105 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Cooked for a church group again last night.   Salmon on a cream dill bed, and seared vegitables.  I bought some fresh figs, too, and that's what I'm really here to talk about.

Take the fresh figs, and cut them in half.  They're absolutely beautiful inside.  Take brown sugar, and but a table spoon or so in the center of a hot pan.  Add butter to that, and let it melt, then stir it into a slurry.   Then drop the figs in it, face down.  Let them heat in the brown sugar/butter mix for a minute or two.   Take them out, and shave your favorite hard cheese on top.    Serve with a good cold white wine for a marvelous aperitif. 

Yup.

duxrus wrote:

The best thing thats help me ,,,beside Chordie is being able to leave my guitars out where I can get too them at anytime,,,,I know that maybe hard to do if you have small kids around,,,but my kids are all grown...LOL

I'm going to second this one.   The best thing you can do is practice, and the best way to ensure you practice a lot is to make sure the guitar is easy to access.

Keep it out of the case, on a stand, right next to wherever you sit your butt down at the end of the day.

1,684

(179 replies, posted in Recording)

Studio A...

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/3532/photonks.jpg

1,685

(47 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

topdown wrote:

^ Can you cite a single specific case where hospital care was denied because of the inability to pay?

Certainly.  Walk into an emergency room and ask for a prostrate exam.  Tell them you have no money, and no insurance.

Let us know when the exam is complete.

Emergency room care is not health care.

1,686

(47 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

topdown wrote:
jerome.oneil wrote:

The US system is Pay or Die.   We have very few programs for health care, and those only cover the elderly and the handicapped.

Regular people get bupkis.

That is far from true. In fact, the exact opposite is true. It is illegal for a hospital to deny care. One of the reasons health care is so expensive here is because of the uninsured (many of whom are in the country illegally) who get virtually free care. Well, free to them anyway - the rest of us pay for it.

Roughly half of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. don't have health insurance, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group. Like others who can't afford medical care, illegal immigrants tend to flock to hospital emergency rooms, which, under a 1986 law, can't turn people away, even if they can't pay. Emergency-room visits, where treatment costs are much higher than in clinics, jumped 32% nationally between 1996 and 2006, the latest data available.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1250272 … #printMode

Illegal immigration has nothing to do with it, and my statement is exactly true.

It is against the law for a hospital to deny you life saving care.  If you show up at an emergency room hemorrhaging blood out your bum because your prostate cancer has metastasized into your colon, they'll treat that, stabilize you,  and ensure you don't bleed to death.   You'll die from the cancer in short order after they get you home, but hey, at least you got some medical care.

And if your 17 year old son comes down with testicular cancer, and your insurance caps out at a million dollars lifetime, yet the treatment for it runs upwards of two million dollars, your options are to go bankrupt, or watch your child die.

I've personally seen both of those scenarios here in the states.  Neither would happen in Europe or Canada.  But I defy you to show up to an emergency room and ask for a prostate exam, or a checkup and cancer screen. 

In nations with socialized medicine, they have lower costs, cover more people, and most importantly, they have better health outcomes than we do in the states.

1,687

(47 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

upyerkilt wrote:

I am lol

I dont know how I would have coped if I had to pay for care if I were in the U.S. Would I have paid for minor things like getting cysts cuts out, getting my jaw fixed, dental care when I was in no pain, my nose job to breath better through it. Would I have went to the docs with a chest pain that went away ?

Yes, you'd pay for everything.  Or you'd pay for insurance, which may or may not pay for everything.

The US system is Pay or Die.   We have very few programs for health care, and those only cover the elderly and the handicapped.

Regular people get bupkis.

1,688

(47 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

My girlfriend is Irish born and raised.  She's got her visa to come to the states, but she is really worried about health care.  It's hard for her to comprehend that you pay for everything over here.  She's investigating whether or not she can pay a little extra to have her PRSI continued so it will cover her here.

Health care here can be the best in the world, if you can afford it.  That's not the problem.   The problem is the other end of the scale, where you can't afford it.  Every other westernized nation on Earth provides some measure of health coverage and access for their citizens.  In the States, if you can't afford it, you just go without.

1,689

(12 replies, posted in Songwriting)

We have pretty varied tastes overall, which is why we're all over the map stylistically.   We all write, so whatever someone brings to the table is going to be OK.   We've got straight punk and country songs in our songbook, too.

Al and I have very similar styles and tastes, in that we're both somewhat minimalists, and we like Americana, folk, and bluegrass.   Al likes "story" songs while I prefer to write "vignettes,"  and he's a lot more particular about a song being "done" than I am.  But overall, it works out well.

1,690

(12 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Hey Ken,

I just went and checked and when I bounced the thing to disk, I had the master fader way down low.  I just re-exported it with the fader set higher, so you should be able to hear things now.

Them KRK's rawk!

1,691

(12 replies, posted in Songwriting)

I dunno.  I'm playing it through some pretty beefed up KRK near field monitors, which can be obnoxiously loud, so I'm a bad judge.  big_smile

Try checking the media widget volume on the player, as well as the volume on your PC.  Alternately, you could download it and try it in some other player.

1,692

(12 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Me, Al, a mandolin, and a half box of Pabst Blue Ribbon..

http://www.4shared.com/file/125355975/9 … ckson.html

1,693

(34 replies, posted in Music theory)

mrjay wrote:
jerome.oneil wrote:

Well, diminished chords are weird.  If you consider the inversions, there is really only four of them.  I sat through a workshop with a bunch of freaky jazz guys once and they spent a lot of time on it.   They'd break out some crazy stuff, and noodle all day, because the scale simple doesn't resolve anywhere.

It's just bizzare, but when it's done right, I like it.  big_smile

I've just recently gotten into modes. I find Locrian is a good tension builder until you want to resolve back to the root. It makes the music feel like you're building up to something but not quite getting there.

Yup.  You can noodle all day long in Locrian, you just can't ever find a way to stop it.  big_smile

It is mind boggling to me that in this day and age, they simply don't just check the DNA as part of the investigation.

1,695

(47 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

There is an incredible shortage of general practitioners here in the States as well, primarily because specialists in the medical field (cardiac surgeons, orthopedics, etc...) make a whole lot more money than a family practitioner or GP does.

I know a lot of Canadians and Europeans, and I don't know any that would trade what they have for what we have, which is essentially "Pay or Die."

1,696

(30 replies, posted in Recording)

If for some reason you can't get the ASIO4ALL driver to install (works great on my Vista system) there are other ASIO drivers you can use.

http://www.brothersoft.com/usb-audio-as … 11581.html

This one I've not dealt with before.  You might also try looking up ASIO for your specific sound card, and see what you can find.

1,697

(30 replies, posted in Recording)

You need never provide any justification for going to the beer store.

The means is justified by the end.  big_smile

1,698

(30 replies, posted in Recording)

OK I have this figured out.

So the problem is simply one of audio drivers.  Record is set up to use ASIO drivers, which if you have a Windows box, is probably not installed.

The good news is that there is a really good free ASIO implementation you can install, and never have to worry about again.

http://www.asio4all.com/

Install that.

Once that's done, start up Record.

You'll get a new document.

Click on the Edit menu, then select "Preferences"

In the "Audio Card Driver" selection box, you should see "ASIO ASIO4ALL"

Select that, then close out that dialog.

You should see signal coming in on the transport monitors.

I'm at work right now, so I can't really sing into the thing, but I will when I get home.  smile

1,699

(30 replies, posted in Recording)

There are a number of stereo to USB interfaces available that would plug into a USB interface.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PODStuGX/

It would surprise me if you can't get it hooked up to the internal mic, though.   Reason is a sequencer, so it's heavily USB/MIDI oriented, so it's not surprising that recording analog inputs isn't quite as intuitive.  I'm sure they'll figure it out.

1,700

(30 replies, posted in Recording)

Alrightalright...

I finally had a few minutes last night to play with this thing.  Couple of observations...

1. It absolutely helps to be familiar with Reason.  Reason's patching capabilities are unmatched, but you need to know how a sound board would be wired in a studio in order to understand it.  If you have a moment, hit the TAB key while looking at the effects rack.  It will change the view to the "back" of the rack so you can see the cables connecting everything.    Understanding Reason's autorouting will help immensely.

2.  Still very USB focused.  I could work it with my MIDI keyboard, but no luck with the internal mic.

3.  Access to all the goodness that is Reason's effects bay is going to make you really, really, happy once you figure out how to use it.  big_smile