Inner Light

Travel Photography Retouch, Lightroom 5, On1 Photo 10 - Santa Maria del ...

2016-03-08T20:15:00.001-08:00

I immediately fell in love with this picture. It was taken by my sister in law on her trip to Paris and Italy 2 years ago. Shot with a Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. It's like $200 takes decent pictures.

Canon PowerShot SX150
http://amzn.to/1Q1MIhl

This is the view from her grandfathers house in Santa Maria del Molise, #italy. As you can tell It's been vacant for a long time now.

I decided to have some fun with it and play with it see where I could bring it. I used #Adobe# Lightroom 5 and #on1 Photo 10.

Photo Details:
Jpeg
5mm
1/30 sec
F 3.4
Iso160

As always thanks for watching!

Check out my YouTube: http://goo.gl/pbdyUl
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joepache_co/

Gibson Firebird Photography Retouch, Color & Black & White, Lightroom 5, On1 Photo 10

2016-03-01T12:01:00.001-08:00

Street Photography Retouch, Lightroom 5, On1 Photo 10 - Montreal Alley

2016-03-01T11:25:00.001-08:00

The Path to Reality In Stores

2009-09-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

September is here! The summer has literally flown by. The Path to Reality launch date was looming in the distance, seemed so far away and now it's past. It's in stores here in Montreal. HMV & Archambault. Yet the work that lies ahead is huge. Being an independent artist your work is cut out for you. I really want to make this album work. Let's not kid around here, I'm not expecting to sell millions of copies, but at the very least I'd love to be on the global music map. Someone to take seriously. Maybe collaborate with some cool artists from all 4 corners of this beautiful globe.

www.Innerlightspectrum.com/blog

2009-09-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

I've started a new blog on my own domain. I'll probably maintain this one a little longer maybe copying the new posts here for a while.

Join there to get all the latest info on Inner Light Spectrum

peace
for now.

Les Paul 1915 - 2009

2009-08-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

Les Paul past away August 13th 2009, at 94 years old, due to complications of Pneumonia. A guitar virtuoso, and inventor, his creations are without a doubt responsible for the way we create, produce and music today. Les performed with jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. With his wife Mary Ford singing, and Les playing guitar, using overdubbing and multitracking, a first in those times, they wrote a string of hit songs in the 1940's and 50's. Les played a key role in the birth of rock and roll in the early 1950s when he teamed up with Gibson.

I started playing guitar at the age of 7. I remember going to Steve's music in Montreal for the first time with my brother, some friends and an awesome young couple Benjamin and Elyce Russell. Who volunteered their Saturdays to teach us guitar at Sun Youth & in the Jeanne-Mance Park in the summer. (Thanks Ben and Elyce! You're generosity has made me the person I am today & for giving me the gift that keeps giving) I remember being awestruck to see so many guitars and amplifiers, I remember back then and still to this day Les Paul's, and all the special guitars were hung up on the back wall. Rightly so. Every guitar player young or old, wants a Les Paul eventually. If you are lucky enough to be able to afford one. I personally have always wanted a custom White Les Paul. We've all heard and have seen a Les Paul played by rock legends Jimmy Page, Slash, Pete Townsend, Jeff Beck, and countless others.

I must admit I didn't know Les Paul was real person till later in my teens. I happened to be watching a show on PBS, and it showed this old guy playing a Les Paul, and he sounded absolutely amazing. I'd never seen anything like it. I mean I grew up listening to shredders like Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert etc. To see this guy, who was probably in his late 70's or early 80's play like that just blew me away. I mean even Steve Vai, who is arguably one of the best guitar players in the world period, said he got his ass kicked by Les. Check out what Steve had to say about him in his myspace blog .

A funny and crazy story that shows what an exemplary person Les was. Way back when, maybe in the late 1940s, he was driving around from gig to gig. It was a late night, and he drove over a bridge not knowing the bridge was out. The car tumbled down in a gully. Les badly injured his right arm. The doctors told him that if they set it properly, he might never be able to bend it again. So he told them to set it at the proper guitar-playing angle. That's dedication in my book.

Thanks Les Paul for be and amazing person, who helped shaped music to what is it today. As well as inspiring so many people, who inspired me with the gift of guitar and music.

Les Paul at work

Gibson Les Paul Custom White

Les with Sir Paul McCartney

Les Paul and Mary Ford

Jeff Beck

Inner Light Spectrum featured artist on The Sunday Sountrack.

2009-08-09T14:44:00.000-07:00

So these are the wonders of modern technology. One day on Twitter I tweeted looking for podcasters so I can send some music for consideration. That's when Doug from The Sunday Soundtrack hit me up. Funny thing is I had already checked out and really enjoyed his podcasts. I emailed Doug some tracks, after a few email exchanges back and forth he decided to feature Inner Light Spectrum on the Sunday Soundtrack. So if you'd like to listen to and check out some excellent chilled music perfect for Sunday and pretty much any day of the week. Definitely check out The Sunday Soundtrack.

Salman Rushdie - Letter to the 6 billionth person

2009-08-05T21:37:00.000-07:00

I've been on a Dredg kick of late. Their last album The Pariah, the Parrot the Delusion, was inspired by this essay published by Salmon Rushdie.

thought you might enjoy the read.

Dear little Six - Billionth Living Person: As one of the newest members of a notoriously inquisitive species, it probably won't be too long before you start asking the two $64,000 questions with which the other 5,999,999,999 of us have been wrestling for some time.
How did we get here? And, now that we are here, how shall we live?

Oddly - as if six billion of us weren't enough to be going on with - it will almost certainly be suggested to you that the answer to the question of origins requires you to believe in the existence of a further, invisible, ineffable Being "somewhere up there", an omnipotent creature whom we poor limited creatures are unable even to perceive, much less to understand. That is, you will be strongly encouraged to imagine a heaven, with at least one god in residence.

This sky god, it's said, made the universe by churning its matter in a giant pot. Or, he danced. Or, he vomited creation out of himself. Or, he simply called it into being, and lo, it Was. In some of the more interesting creation stories, the singly mighty sky god is subdivided into many lesser forces - junior deities, avatars, gigantic metamorphic "ancestors" whose adventures create the landscape, or the whimsical, wanton, meddling, cruel pantheons of the great polytheism's, whose wild doings will convince you that the real engine of creation was lust; for infinite power, for too easily broken human bodies, for clouds of glory. But it's only fair to add that there are also stories which offer the message that the primary creative impulse was, and is, love.

Many of these stories will strike you extremely beautiful, and therefore seductive. Unfortunately, however, you will not be required to make a purely literary response to them. Only the stories of dead religions can be appreciated for their beauty. Living religions require much more of you. So you will be told that belief in "your" stories, and adherence to the rituals of worship that have grown up around them, must become a vital part of your life in the crowded world. They will be called the heart of your culture, even of your individual identity.

It is possible that they may at some point come to feel inescapable, not in the way that the truth is inescapable, but in the way that a jail is. They may at some point cease to feel like the texts in which human beings have tried to solve a great mystery, and feel, instead, like the pretexts for other properly anointed human beings to order you around. And it's true that human history is full of the public oppression wrought by the charioteers of the gods.
In the opinion of religious people, however, the private comfort that religion brings more than compensates for the evil done in its name.

As human knowledge has grown, it has also become plain that every religious story ever told about how we got here is quite simply wrong. This, finally, is what all religions have in common. They didn't get it right. There was no celestial churning, no maker's dance, no vomiting of galaxies, no snake or kangaroo ancestors, no Valhalla, no Olympus, no six-day conjuring trick followed by a day of rest. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

But here's something genuinely odd. The wrongness of the sacred tales hasn't lessened the zeal of the devout in the least. If anything, the sheer out-of-step zaniness of religion leads the religious to insist ever more stridently on the importance of blind faith.

As a result of this faith, by the way, it has proved impossible, in many parts of the world, to prevent the human race's numbers from swelling alarmingly. Blame the overcrowded planet at least partly on the misguidedness of the races spiritual guides. In your own lifetime, you may witness the arrival of the nine billionth world citizen.

(If too many people are being born as a result, in part, of religious strictures against birth control, then too many people are also dying because religious culture, by refusing to face the facts of human sexuality, also refuses to fight against sexually transmitted diseases.)

There are those who say that the great wars of the new century will once again be wars of religion, jihads and crusades, as they were in the Middle Ages. I don't believe them, or not in the way they mean it. Take a look at the Muslim world, or rather the Islamist world, to use the word coined to describe Islam's present day "political arm". The divisions between its great powers (Afghanistan against Iran against Iraq against Saudi Arabia against Syria against Egypt) are what strike you most forcefully. There's very little resembling a common purpose. Even after the non-Islamic NATO fought a war for the Muslim Kosovan Albanians, the Muslim world was slow in coming forward with much needed humanitarian aid.

The real wars of religion are the wars religions unleash against ordinary citizens within their "sphere of influence." They are wars of the godly against the largely defenceless - American fundamentalists against pro-choice doctors, Iranian mullahs against their country's Jewish minority, Hindu fundamentalists in Bombay against that city's increasingly fearful Muslims.

The victors in that war must not be the closed-minded, marching into battle with, as ever, God on their side. To choose unbelief is to choose mind over dogma, to trust in our humanity instead of all these dangerous divinities. So, how did we get here? Don't look for the answer in story books. Imperfect human knowledge may be a bumpy, pot-holed street, but it's the only road to wisdom worth taking. Virgil, who believed that the apiarist Aristaeus could spontaneously generate new bees from the rotting carcases of a cow, was closer to a truth about origins than all the revered old books.

The ancient wisdom's are modern non-senses.

Live in your own time, use what we know and, as you grow up, perhaps the human race will finally grow up with you and put aside childish things. As the song says, "It's easy if you try."

As for mortality, the second great question - how to live? What is right action, and what wrong?- it comes down to your willingness to think for yourself. Only you can decide if you want to be handed down the law by priests, and accept that good and evil are somehow external to ourselves.

To my mind, religion - even at its most sophisticated - essentially infantalizes our ethical selves by setting infallible moral Arbiters and irredeemably immoral Tempters above us; the eternal parents, good and bad, light and dark, of the supernatural realm.

How, then, are we to make ethical choices without a divine rulebook or judge? Is unbelief just the first step on the long slide into the brain death of cultural relativism, according to which many unbearable things - female circumcision, to name just one - can be excused on culturally specific grounds, and the universality of human rights, too can be ignored?
(This last piece of moral unmaking finds supporters in some of the world's most authoritarian regimes, and also, unnervingly, on the editorial page of the Daily Telegraph,UK.)

Well, no, it isn't, but the reasons for saying so aren't clear-cut. Only hard-line ideology is clear-cut. Freedom, which is the word I use for the secular-ethical position, is inevitably fuzzier. Yes, freedom is that space in which contradiction can reign, it is a never-ending debate. It is not in itself the answer to the question of morals, but the conversation about that question. And it is much more than mere relativism, because it is not merely a never-ending talk show, but a place in which choices are made, values defined and defended.

Intellectual freedom, in European history, has mostly meant freedom from the restraints of the Church and not the state.

This is the battle Voltaire was fighting, and it's also what all six billion of us could do for ourselves, the revolution in which each of us could play our small, six-billionth part; once and for all we could refuse to allow priests, and the fictions on whose behalf they claim to speak, to be the policemen of our liberties and behavior. Once and for all we could put the stories back into the books, put the books back on the shelves, and see the world undogmatized and plain.

Imagine there's no heaven, my dear Six-Billionth, and at once the sky's the limit.

Rx Bandits

2009-08-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

How in the hell have I not heard of this band before. Totally slipped under my radar until now. Well thanks to them opening up for Dredg here in Montreal on August 2nd I know them know. I was totally surprised. The Foufs was packed with people singing along and dancing to their songs. They put on such an energetic performance, at times with 3 of the band members playing some really crazy beats in unison on 3 separate drum setups. I was impressed with every facet of this band. Super solid drummer, smooth and liquid bass lines, vocalist/vocalist, and guitarist/keyboard player. All excellent players.
Meanwhile I'm standing there thinking who the hell are these guys, and why does everyone here but me know them? Regardless, I'm glad discovered them.

For some real detailed 411 on these guys go here

Enjoy

Dredg In Montreal

2009-08-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

It was at times a crappy Sunday in Montreal and at other times really nice. One of my favorite bands was in town last night. Dredg. Relatively unknown in Montreal and by the general public, but that didn't stop the few hundred at the Foufounes Electriques from singing along and rocking out. What appeals to me about Dredg is that thier music sets a unique atmosphere, has a strong message, with intelligent lyrics. None of your run of the mill themes here. During the months leading up to the albums release, fans were treated to some very cool and clever video's, providing a glimpse of life in the studio. Demonstrating all the effort and creativity that went into making the Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion. "Inspired from a Salmon Rushdie essay entitled, A Letter to the 6 Billionth Citizen." according to bassist Drew Roulette.

The Foufs provides a very intimate setting, Gavin commented that he'd never been so close to a drum kit before. He was practically sitting on the kick drum. None the less, his vocal performance and stage presence were stellar. Always intriguing to watch him perform. The lap steel guitar now a Dredg staple, made it through the whole show until Gavin smashed it with a drum stick during a climatic ending rendering the string useless. Speaking of drums it's always inspiring seeing Dino beat that drum kit. Sometimes I wonder if the kit will make it to the end of the show. Mark on guitar is really just something to watch, this guy must have had 2 shoulder replacement surgeries. I've never seen such intensity, and energy. The sounds and tones he creates just captivate you. They hug you and make you feel nice and cozy. Something that must be seen & heard to be understood. Bassist Drew is always the solid backbone of the band, keeping it low and super melodic, and his keyboard technique includes literally playing with his face, while keeping the bass notes pumping.

Seriously if you're looking for something fresh and original you owe it to yourself to check out Dredg.

The Reverse Graffiti Project

2009-07-31T10:50:00.000-07:00

I'm always amazed at what artists, or creative people can do with what has been in front of our eyes. We can stare at it all day long staring back at us but we just don't see it.

I found this cool little page It's a year old, but cool none the less. Paul Curtis reverse graffiti cleans San Francisco's Braodway tunnel.We should have more of these guys around cleaning up the city but in a different way. Maybe even make us snap out of our bubbles and steal a moment of our time to observe something new.

Peace

Check your bags

2009-07-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to work like I always do. Get a lift to the subway, kiss my wife & daughter goodbye, then 40 min subway commute, where i listen to music on my phone/walkman, while reading a book, or the newspaper, and finally a 10 min walk to work. This morning though , it was different. I was going to a concert in town, and I decided not to take my back pack with me, so i don't have to lug it around all day and night. Instantly I noticed something was different, felt better, lighter, and the nice weather certainly didn't hurt. You see my back pack, is full of papers, a book or 2, some magazines, an umbrella, a bottle of water(you never know when you'll get in too a coughing fit and need that bottle) not to mention my lunch.

I came to the realization that the back pack was more than just a back pack, it was also a representation of all the baggage we carry around with us. Be it stress, grudges, jealousy, hatred, regret etc etc. Mine happens to be stress.

Things eventually dawn on me, either too late or just in time. Only recently have I been paying attention to certain things. like fatigue, stress, etc. Basically listening to what my body has to say, and accepting my limits. Stress is not something I'm really familiar with. I never really worried to much about anything, I went through school the same way, jobs, same thing. I kind of just go with things, but things are different now. Being a father, owning a house, trying to get 2 music projects off the ground, the car, work, the people and & drama at work. Heck just paying mundane bills is becoming a real bitch. Projects fall behind schedule, trying to keep sites like Myspace, Facebook, Blogger, You tube, Twitter (Man there is to many) up to date. Learning how to use all this amazing stuff, and how to do it right. Trying to book interviews, get reviews, and get people to add your song to their podcast. The internet is a great tool, and great for artists & musicians, but it takes so much of your time to figure stuff out, and learn how to do it well, get friends, get views, get plays, tweets... Meanwhile repairs on the car go undone, work around the house never gets completed, and that's just to name a few. I prefer to play with my daughter than wash the dishes, or pass the vacuum, or install spot lights that never seem to work, or clean out the garage.

The Garage, oh don't get me started on that one. It's only been 3 years we've lived in this house and already the garage is crammed with stuff. I now believe what George Carlin said, 'that's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and buy more... stuff'' It's been a few years that I only go shopping when I need something. Instead of just go shopping,for shopping's sake. I used to get restless at home just itching to go buy something, anything. Clothes, cd's, music gear, whatever. I have shirts I never wore, that still have the price tag on them. That's when I realized I don't need all this stuff. Less truly is more.

Vacations start next week, and guess what I'll be doing. Painting the bathroom, removing all the dead wood from my front yard, cleaning out the garage (OMG I can't wait for this one, oh i said that already). I can't wait to get this virtual baggage off of me.

You Tube

2009-07-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

Yeah YouTube, I'm 3 years late. I've been meaning to make use of this crazy site for the longest time. I just never have time. I tried making a video for Chasing The Clouds, one of the tracks on the Path to Reality album, back in November of 2008. Dedicated an entire Saturday to doing it, but as usual i hated it, and scrapped it. I tired something again in May of 2009, and once again, that ever so familiar feeling of nausea was lingering around, and i quit, totally disgusted with myself.

The weird things is I love what I've seen from other people, and most of the time it's so simple. I've also noticed we (artists) tend to like what other people do automatically, and second guess ourselves.

It seems to take me an eternity to do the the simplest things, and actually enjoy it. It never lives up to the image in my mind's eye. I've narrowed it down to focus and organization. I need time to get the creative juices flowing, and flowing in the right direction. I happen to be one of those happy go lucky types when it comes to creative projects, especially music, but video, photography and graphic design is a totally different ballgame for me.

Anyhow I've managed to through my hangups and post something to You Tube. You can check it out here . Check it out, leave me a comment, and join my channel if you like.

Letter from Moby

2009-03-18T07:10:00.000-07:00

This is my response to a letter from Moby sent to Bob Lefsetz

Hey Bob, thanks for this letter from Moby ! It makes me really happy to hear that someone who has had such success in the recent past, is so humble.
I think along the same lines as Moby, in that I just want to be happy, and tapping into creativity makes me happy.
Even if I sell 1000 copies of my cd. Which is a failure in most eyes. Just knowing that people would slip into my world for and hour or so and enjoy it makes me feel good.

I've had an Ipod, and at work I use I tunes all day for music while working, and I still need to listen to albums. I tried making playlists and when a certain song ends, I need to hear the next one, and am disappointed when it's a random song, kinda kills the flow for me. I grew up in the 80's an 90's an the album was king then, and for me it still is.

Even having worked on my album on and off for over 2 years, writing, editing, mixing. You can lose sight of the album's cohesiveness, and you have this feeling that the songs are separate entities and don't really sound like an album. Then it came back from mastering, and I listened to it from beginning to end, all of a sudden it sounded like an album, all the parts where there as a whole, glued together sort of.

anyhow I hope artists continue to make albums, cause that's the way uh huh uh huh I like it!

peace

Joe

www.myspace.com/innerlightmusic
www.reverbnation.com/innerlightspectrum

Inner Light Spectrum

2008-11-19T20:18:00.001-08:00

Abraham de Moivre

2008-08-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

Food for Thought !

A cool story I thought was interesting.

Abraham de Moivre , a French mathematician, predicted the precise date of his own death.

He noted that he was sleeping 15 minutes longer each day and surmised that he would die on the day he slept for 24 hours. That date, he calculated, would be Nov. 27, 1754.

He was right.

www.myspace.com/innerlightmusic
www.reverbnation.com/innerlightspectrum

Bob Moog

2008-08-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

Dr Moog (1934-2005)

If you've ever listened to Techno, Dance, Electronica, Prog Rock, Fusion, Jazz, Metal, Rock, Pop, basically almost any style of music ever written. Then you've heard a Moog Synthesizer.

Invented by Dr Robert Moog (rhymes with rogue) . The 1st synthesizer ever made, all analog, and after 50 years it's still being made, all analog, with some digital help (storing the presets, modern PC boards etc). He designed and built them for over half a century. 1st popularized by Wendy Carlos in 1968's Switched on Bach

From meager beginnings to legend, a self admitted non businessman, nor musician. A tool maker he likens himself. He understands that there is more going on than just someone playing a keyboard. He often speaks of a connection, that the musician connects with the instrument in way we can't describe.

I recently took the time to sit down and watch the documentary by Hans Fjellestad, on his life, and I must say I was impressed how humble this man was. So in touch with nature, and the universe. He doesn't even take credit for creating the instrument that literally revolutionized the face of modern music. ¨I opened my mind up, and the idea came through me¨he says. Check out the website here.

Great film, simple, inspiring, enlightening. Check out a trailer here.

I unfortunately can't afford a real one, one day I hope , but I just wanted to share and thank Dr Bob Moog for giving us the fattest basses, and arpegiated sounds, for creating an instrument, a way of life basically, and all the excellent music made possible by his genius, simpleness, openness.

Moog that belonged to Wendy Carlos.

www.myspace.com/innerlightmusic
www.reverbnation.com/innerlightspectrum

Christian Scott - Anthem

2008-06-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

This was a funny happening. A simple moment, where you take a chance, and it works out pretty well. I used to do it often with my cd purchasing in the past. Go in a section at the record store, new or used, and take a chance on a cd after a preview listening at the listening post. It's been a long time since I've done that due to lack of time, and I hate most record stores well (HMV) but that's for another blog.

I took a chance with Christian Scott, never even heard of the guy. I previewed it, and thought it was cool. So i picked it up. Check out His Myspace for a taste.

A week or 2 later, I caught myself always wanting to play it in the background in I tunes at work,or on th subway on the way home. Then one day I decided to look him up on the net and was surprised to find quite a bit of info on him.

Touted as one of the brightest new stars in Jazz , being only 22 years old.
I don't like trumpet that much, either in classical, or jazz, even most pop. Don't get me wrong I love Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong and company, but I don't like wailing and annoying, harsh trumpets.

This is a nice soft trumpet, with great warm tone, wrapped around some nice soft jazz, with a great blend of hip hop, and a little fusion. Matt Stevens' guitar tone reminds me at times of Alan Holdsworth and some Metheny. Simple but poignant.

There are 2 versions of the track Anthem on instrumental and the other track with Brother J of X clan. whose lyrics are wicked, for lack of a better word. They will make you sit up and listen. very appropriate.

Any way I hope to see him in Montreal, for the Jazz fest on July 4th.

and I'm glad I took a chance on Christian Scott that day.

www.myspace.com/innerlightmusic
www.reverbnation.com/innerlightspectrum

Amon Tobin

2008-05-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

Amon Tobin, A Brazilian born, UK raised, Montreal dwelling Mastermind. I've always liked some of his stuff, but it took me a while to really get into all of his stuff. But the last 2 or 3 years or so, I've just can't get enough. What this guy does with samples, and sonic manipulation is always amazing, always fresh. He's not doing it to be cool, or because everyone else is doing it. It's what he does, it's always cool, dark, and groovy, and intense.

I'd recommend any of his records really, hard to choose just one.

Open your minds and you just might like what it picks up.
peace

www.myspace.com/innerlightmusic
www.reverbnation.com/innerlightspectrum

Meditation

2008-05-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I've heard about it pretty much all my life. Always wanted to do it, never found the right moment to do so. Ironic I know, but it's a lesson learned, that we have to take the time to do it, or to get anything done these days.

Just before Christmas 2007, I picked up a book by the Dalai Lama How to see yourself as you really are . It's a very comprehensive guide to Buddhist meditation practices.

Well I finally tried it, early one morning before leaving for work. As always in my non traditional ways, no special technique, no sitting with my legs crossed, no new age music with pan flutes etc I just sat on the couch, and closed my eyes... boy was I in for a surprise, I got my ass (mind) kicked, about a billion thoughts raced through my mind at that moment. I felt overwhelmed. So I decided to just focus on an object etc, and for no particular reason I decided to focus on a blue light. Well after about 10 min, I was able to clear my mind, and just focus on that one blue light. I was astounded, I had done it, I had stemmed the flow thoughts for at least a few minutes. I felt really good the rest of the day.

It proved to me that if I can truly focus on one thing, and accomplish that one thing I'd feel accomplished, and lighter. I'm not looking to transcend any barriers here, what so ever. I'm just looking for some focus, and that feeling of peace I had when I was a kid.

www.myspace.com/innerlightmusic
www.reverbnation.com/innerlightspectrum

Andie's Music Server

2008-05-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting one Location to place all my Music, Mp3's etc. So that I can listen to them anywhere in the house or outside of the house. And with the birth of my Daughter Andie Laurana, I wanted to give her the experience of music anytime, all the time.

Hardware
I've found a simple and relatively cheap way to do it. If you have a spare pc with Windows Xp, as most of us probably do. Well then you can put it to use as a music server. Mine is a PentiumIII 500mhz. with 256megs Ram. It's a noisy old pc, so you may want to store the computer in a remote location as to not hear the constant noise. Mine is in my garage.

So all you need is a decently large hard drive. I'd say anything over 40 gigs, is cool. Although today a 500 gigabite hard disk is stupid cheep. Just get something reliable , like Seagate or Western Digital. I leave mine on always.

Software
I tunes is free (I love Free), and perfect for this sort of thing. Download it. It can extract your music in many file formats and bit rates etc etc, keeps your music nice and neat, and lets you make nice play lists and stream through a network(this is cool). There are other programs that do this as well. but I had I Tunes and ran with it. Did you download it yet?

Setup your Music server so that it's available on your network (you'll need a router for this). I won't go into details here, but tell your self this, If I can do it , it's easy.

So now comes the long and boring part of extracting all your Audio cd's to the database, or importing your mp3 files.

I created a play list of Classical, Soft Jazz, some pop stuff, and a bunch of children songs, and I play that play list through the sound card out, across my garage and into the baby room, plugged into and old Home stereo. Voila! instant music round the clock for the baby. Not to loud either.

But the cool trick is that any other computer in the house using I tunes can have access to the music server and stream whatever they want locally though the network, or wireless network. It all depends on your network speed of course. but if the kids listen to rock, hip hop, on the computers in their room, you can listen to a podcast, or even stream a radio broadcast, in yours. All with on centralized location for your files.

Hope this was helpful

www.myspace.com/innerlightmusic
www.reverbnation.com/innerlightspectrum