One year ago today: January 16, 2015, Ken Sanchuk, toilet paper thief.
Five years ago today: January 16, 2011, my first Arduino, awwww . . .
Nine years ago today: January 16, 2007, on the American middleman.
Random years ago today: January 16, 2009, insulting the Duke.
Sadly for my routine, I do believe the bakery is about to be sold. Nobody has said anything, yet those little telltale things are everywhere. Details you only let go if they are going to be passed on to the next guy. If so, it has been an interesting four years. Just you keep in mind that in Florida, somebody has to come along and make things interesting. Most of the time, Florida just kind of plunks down and sits there.
Too bad for the Frenchies, there have been only one or two nice days this season. This week has been on massive windstorm, which explains why so much go recorded. About two years of video music and I’ve finally got a workable system that used the Tascam only for recording. I still have not learned to use the mixing features of that machine, but compared to Audacity, they are very limited.
And recording is most of what I’ll write about today. Try not to forget this blog has roots as a daily journal for recording progress in these matters. I’d say the biggest technical challenge of recording multiple tracks is keeping organized, and that applies to more than the music aspect. Example, last day I mentioned tracks 4 and 5 are bass and drums. Mnemoic: the bass has 4 string and a basic kit has 5 drums.
The Tascam has all the shortcomings of the original “pocket” recorders. Unless you hold up a microphone in front of the band, there is no way to record the entire sound at once. Yet anyone who shells out the big bucks for a concert can tell you that is the only way you’ll ever hear the impact of the music. I have a theory about that, you know. It has to do with the inefficiency of computer code. Normally you cannot take one piece of code and stuff it into another program the way you can swap hard drives or keyboards around.
Plus, I consider the three worst mistakes made in computer history to be
1) The omission of the blank as the 27th letter of the alphabet.
2) The lack of distinction between case and capital letters (making 53 letters in the alphabet).
3) C+ computer code.
This explains in my mind’s eye why there has been so little real innovation in the computer field since the 1980s. No real breakthroughs, and for that matter, I can point to incredible numbers of instances where things have move backwards. Like texting. It takes a special kind of special to even think texting is some kind of improvement. Texting is Stone Ages even if the users could learn to spell.
Nearby you should see a list of what the exported, not mastered, Tascam files look like. You do NOT want the mastered version. You should see one tune with 6 tracks, and two with tracks 4 and 5 only. This is what you work with, not the Tascam controls. Read on.
Only the unthinking or uncaring computer-minded nerd could come up with an “8 track” recorder that only records one track at a time. It would seem a simple matter to install 8 jacks, but the problem is the underlying code. The chips are hardwired to the one track at a time form factor. So what I’ll do is describe for you how I managed to get semi-productive on the setup.
Step 1: record all your instruments at the same level (70% full volume) on the Tascam
Step 2: export the individual tracks, that is, do NOT use the Tascam to do your mixing.
Step 3: import (don’t open) the tracks to a decent mixer such as free, downloadable Audacity.
Step 4: apply your effects and levels from the superior Audacity options.
Step 5: do your final mixdown and export from Audacity.
Yep, thanks to non-standardized programming, the last two generations have shot themselves in the foot. Twenty, thirty years gone by without any innovation or improvements, no breakthroughs, nothing. And an entire population too thick-headed to spot the connection.
Trent & I decided to go out Texas style drinkin’. That means we spent all the cash money we had on us, and then called it quits. Well yes, I do suppose we could have pulled more out of the wall machine, but I told you. We are from Texas. Don’t spend more than you got on you. No raiding the till.
But once again, Texas music wins the show. Even if it was the jukebox. We were approached by people wanting to put money in the jukebox and let us choose the music. That, folks, is proof you can work a room. This is no isolated incident. Then after, we went out to the worse Karaoke in town. In fact, since Laura retired, there are not decent Karaoke shows left in south Broward. None.
Last Laugh
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