MORNING
Happiness is discovering that you do, after all, own an 11/64ths drill bit. A perfect day weatherwise. It has to be remarkable to get mentioned. Because I’m not the type to read the weather report. I’ve got music work to do but man, I would like the day off. Incidentally, I got the last Argus 1610 on eBay, the original digital camera of this blog. The one I’d still be using today if I’d not forgotten it at a restaurant in Coconut Grove. It should arrive any day so watch for an improvement in pictures.
It says a lot about consumerism that after ten years, I finally revert to the camera that started it all. It takes 26 pictures, just like an old roll of Kodak film. And that is as many photos as the thinking person would care to leave on a camera without downloading.
On the up side, we are gaining experience with the Tascam recorder and it is turning out to be a real gem for great sound. Initially I found the best fidelity was recording off the PA system, but I’m finding with practice, it is possible to get much the same quality direct in. But pay attention here because this part isn’t in the book. There is no universal best setting. That means to get the impressive sound, you will still require one trained man at the controls. That means he can’t be playing an instrument.
Now the Tascam cannot record the whole band at once via separate inputs. Here’s the trick to avoid that layered indie sound. I should be charging you a hundred bucks for this lesson. Instead of adding each part to the playback of the previous tracks, record your drum beat. Play that beat back as a metronome and have the entire band play the song over until you get all the instruments one by one. This has the effect of catching the momentary “inspirations” that are missing when you record to a monotonously identical playback. Real music can be a little bit “loose”.
It also prompts the band to rehearse more. And being recorded gets them to pay attention to the weak spots in their delivery. So overall, I’m impressed by the caliber of the Tascam, but don’t rush out and buy one. Because it seems to take about 25 hours of inquisitive tinkering and several late night study sessions with the manual. And after page ten, that is not an easy read.
NOON
Let’s start with a little Tascam trivia. Shown here is a photo of the original recorder, four tracks on ¼ inch tape. This is the unit from the recording studio my pal had when I was a teen. My brother, using my good name, ran up a bill of several thousand dollars to this studio, and skipped town. Tascam was a company that took TEAC products and modified them for use in a recording studio environment. They were first with almost every innovation, I should point out.
Several hours later, I have succeeded in getting the PA sound on the Tascam directly. I’d like to say I could not improve the sound, but I’ve tweaked every setting on the machine already. Still, eliminating the PA is good enough because it eliminates a step and frees up a lot of cables. That PA is a bit complicated anyway, I’ve never used more than half the knobs on that puppy.
It can’t have been this easy, so I’ll likely find out what I’m doing wrong. Ideally, I would like to connect a laptop to the Tascam and use that as my source files. But plugging in the USB transfer cable disables most of the functionality of the Tascam. I’m working on it. Ah, moments later I found the limitation. When the Tascam saves your working copy, the file becomes 11 times larger. This makes sense, as the editable copy must have precise timing points attached to every part of your save. So a 2GB card will therefore hold less than a gig of songs. But that’s a problem for the future.
There is something else not quite right on these recorders either. While I see the logic, most of the effects and processes are real time. For example, if I want to apply an effect, I can’t just click a button and it is done. Same with mastering. You have to sit there and wait for the whole song to play before the process is done. That gets time-consuming. It took me four hours to produce a single 4 part tune and export it. And get a good set of headphones. When overdubbing, the unit is very sensitive to feedback.
And one more thing, Tascam. The transformer plug is located in a position where your official model wiring can get in the way of the USB port. Smarten up.
God, I hate MicroSoft. I had to use their spreadsheet (Excel) again. They’ve taken all the commands used by intelligent people and hidden them. I’m going to assume you noticed that. This time the annoyance is when you set the global command to show the grid lines, it reverts to invisible when you open a new file. So it isn’t really global. May I live long enough to see that company file for bankruptcy.
EVENING
Did I ever tell you about our school field trips when I was in kindergarten? The school loved field trips whenever it snowed. There was a bush north of the school and they’d send some grade nine boys ahead to tramp down a path. Then they’d give us kids a tin cup, glass was “dangerous” and we hiked out to a clearing. The surprise was always the same. The school sleigh had a big vat of scalding hot cocoa. Water, ground chocolate, and a smidgeon of sugar.
Other schools made bus trips to Washington, DC, or Mt. Rushmore. There was talk of how some schools “in the city” got to go to Disneyland. Not us. We knelt in a snowbank at the “Indian Bush” and said grace for cheap foodstuffs.
There was an educational component to this activity. The school counselor, an “outdoorsman” would show us the difference between a birch and an aspen. Because those are the only two trees that grew in the area.
I’ll never be a recording star. I can’t sing effectively unless I am on a stage and can hear my own voice through a set of PA speakers. The Tascam recorder is very clear and I just cannot get into singing dry through a studio mic. Maybe it’s the atmosphere, it’s too artificial an environment for me. But there is a “narrator” setting for making video soundtracks that I come across clear and easy. That is, I can easily speak okay, just not sing it.
The ratio of time to music on the Tascam seems to be four hours to produce each song. The basic recording not included. Also, expect long hours with headphones, as the unit is also sensitive to speakers in the room and any type of sound loop. To date I’ve only made live videos and the native sound often includes the whirring of room fans, a necessity in my place. I will shortly see if I can work the unit with my lapel mics as I’ve always wanted to make a video with professional audio.
I will let you know when they turn up, but I have lost my two most-used tools. My expensive pliers and my fancy awl. I never used it as an awl. Just everything else, including poking air holes in jar lids that would not open any other way.
Elliott, from out west, reports a huge increase in the price of shipping. I know I recoil at the thought of the $24 letter delivery. And he is shipping motor parts. My operation needs a new budget, too. Because I no longer have a gig, I looked in my cupboard to find 178 batteries, mostly AA and AAA. This can happen when you don’t change the budget to match reality.
ADDENDUM
These people were fighting for their own personal agendas, not some noble cause for the benefit of all mankind. That’s why I don’t respect them. This is not be the first time the world has been subjected to disgusting spectacles of self-centered fringe elements declaring victory.
Another favorite Herald is the illegal immigration thing. On they go about how the immigrants take jobs Americans won’t do. Yeah? Cut off welfare and we’ll see about that.
