Nige's Nic Nacs

Band In A Box

2011-06-15T13:29:00.000+01:00

If only.... When I was a kid (well, a lot younger than I am now ;o) there came a product on the market called "Band In A Box" which was a PC app. designed to fit together all the parts one normally finds in a band. Coming from a live gigging background with no recording experience it seemed OK at first but I quickly learned of its limitations - and mine. Years later and now we have full recording studios available in our homes by virtue of the plethora of apps and plugins which exist for DAW's (Digital Audio Workstations for the non-musicians).

No longer is it absolutely necessary to book studio time in order to lay down one's tracks. I'm not condoning this - studios have evolved too so it's not like a typical home recording arrangement can match a modern fully equipped studio. It cannot. Then there's the sound engineer...

In conversations I've had with people, often a question pops up, "Where are all the Beethovens, Liszts and Vivaldis?" The questions of course pertain to the fact that there is no longer apparent the masters of music in this modern era. I don't accept this and here's why.

Although every generation has extremely talented musicians, the variety of music which exists in terms of genres is staggering, compared to three hundred years ago when there was classical music and er, classical music (and some folk music). Those who were musical geniuses rose to the top and stood apart from the competent and lower-order musicians. Today, the best of the best are spread around dozens of different styles of music and for the most part, only music industry insiders are aware of them - and possibly those who prefer the masters' chosen genre.

There is however a sub-class which is overlooked by everyone except musicians and artists who are humble enough to recognise talent in others. The mastering and mixing sound engineer. I've heard some of the most talented musicians be made to sound bloody awful by a poor sound engineer and also some extremely mediocre musicians have achieved world domination by the same token. In truth, all recording artists are at the mercy of the sound engineer who sits firmly between the instruments of music and our ears. I assert here and now that there are Beethovens among this group too. They may not necessarily write music or read music (but often do) but they know what sounds good and what doesn't; more importantly, then can engineer it to sound the way it needs to sound - don't relegate this capability, it is undervalued. I have the deepest respect for these guys.

Shocking Realisation About My Son's Asthma

2011-05-29T10:22:00.001+01:00

For a couple of years my oldest son has routinely awakened in the middle of the night, coughing. You could set your watch by it. I was convinced it was asthma related and his coughing was a psychological reaction to try and clear a constricted airway (i.e. asthma). Needless to say, coughing actually made it worse but I couldn't convince him otherwise.

In addition to this, his PC was regularly shutting itself off and this was always due to the CPU cooler being caked with dust, choking the fins. I decided to buy an air filter and found one on Amazon. I bought it new, when it came, checked it over and deployed it. Our house has always been vacuumed with a Dyson every few days, FTR.

Two weeks later, my son no longer coughs at night and his PC hasn't shut down. This was the inside of the filter-head after just two weeks use. FFS... The image shows the RHS having been vacuumed off to illustrate the unthinkable amount of dust trapped. This is not even the filter - this is just the gauze which precedes it! The filter is white and the dust does not show up well in a picture - but it shows very well indeed on this photo of the gauze.

Shocking; he was breathing this crap every night. Now both my boys have one. Yes, there is a noise overhead (not audible from outside the room with the door open, really) but the benefits outweigh any issues, considerably.

2011-05-21T10:34:00.000+01:00

Spent much of the day yesterday, immersed in the wonderful world of hosting, domains, email accounts, band registration and admin. Oh the joys! Not a single hemidemisemiquaver passed my fingers :( Tim and I have now successfully synced our OneNote notebooks so as they say, 'Thunderbirds are go...' we can collaborate until the cows come home.

FTR all my remaining connections to amateur radio have now been severed with my g7cnf.me.uk site now wiped and the hosting removed. Any of my amateur contacts reading this, please note my g7cnf email accounts no longer exist!

/rant
It's a sad state of affairs when a Ham Radio enthusiast is forced to quit because the communications Regulator Ofcom fails to undertake its Statutory Duty, rendering it not fit for purpose. This is evidenced by the recent revelation that Ofcom intentionally buried its own report stating that the Comtrend PLT adapters used by BT with BT Vision failed to meet the Essential Requirements of the EMC Directive. In my own case, interference which clearly breached the Essential Requirements and warranted action by the Regulator was dismissed. The BBC who also had responsibility for some of my problems also refused to act despite being mandated to do so by the Communications Act (2003)
/end rant

Still, the situation with Ofcom and the BBC has resulted in my returning to music, so it's not all bad!

Return of the Penny - but with a gasp....

2011-05-20T10:44:00.001+01:00

During the final years of the latter century (gosh that makes it sound a long time ago!) I had the privilege of playing in a number of local bands and being head-hunted by yet others - principally for my bass playing skills. When I left the local band, "Hydrophobia" due to conflicts with my musical aspirations, unexpectedly the guitarist, Tim Redgewell came with me. This was to be the beginning of a prolific writing period for both of us and the establishment of a solid and unfaltering friendship - and the 'band' "Penny". Tim's private life took an unexpected turn and he left England for California and this naturally nailed the coffin shut for our collaboration due to our respective careers outside of music.

Thanks to a much improved internet, better equipment and processing power - and a large helping of will power, it is now possible for us to once again join forces to collaborate and explore our musical souls. Furthermore, due to the direction on-line music has taken, we are now in a position to directly market our efforts, commercially without the necessity to rely on a label for distribution.

The 'band' will re-form under the name of "Sharp Intake of Breath", aka SIB, aka "Sharp Intake" and will continue with its eclectic genres and, as Tim put it, "reworking of folkie rock for the 21^st century mixing up relatable lyrics (like folk has) with music that can push the emotional emphasis.. Oh, and there will be some Metal too... ;o)

We'll be blogging along the way, to keep in touch. sharpintake.blogspot.com

Better late than never! Tyler Variax

2011-05-16T20:02:00.000+01:00

So, in the spring of 2010, at music technology shows around the globe, Line6 paraded its latest innovation in modelling guitars: the Tyler Variax. For those not already familiar with the concept of modelling guitars, put simply, take a sample-feed directly from each string on a guitar (typically with piezoelectric pickups) and run it through some electronics processing hardware to modify the original waveform to sound like something else.

The first generation Variax guitars were marketed with 26 emulations, covering all the popular guitar models from 1952 Gibson Goldtops to 1959/60 Fender Strats and Tele's, Gretsch Silver Jet to a 1959 Martin D-28 acoustic. Needless to say like any product the response ranged from fanboys to haters and everything in between. Some cannot tell the difference in a blind test to the originals, others claim to know instantly. What is certain is that there is usually one or more of these instruments laying around a recording studio - you have to hand it to Line6 for innovation, the Variax is a diverse and useful tool.

For my part, prior to the arrival of the Tyler Variax, I had a Variax 600 electric (cream), Variax 700 Acoustic (natural) and a most rare of beasts, the Variax 705 5-string bass (a unique instrument which, amongst its other virtues provides one with the opportunity to play a 5-string version of many of the most renowned 4-string instruments - and a 5-string double-bass if you can believe it!) I find the instruments to be believable with minimal processing and with a little more effort, better results still.

The Tyler Variax was marketed as the next generation Variax - designed by James Tyler a Luthier of considerable reputation in conjunction with Line6, three body-styles were made with identical modelling capability but with the new addition of magnetic pickups, a common gripe fired at the previous generation Variaxes. The styles are a typical Les Paul style half-cutaway, 22 fret, HH, one-piece, a 'Strat' style HSS with tremolo and a 'shredder' style HH with a very fast neck but oddly no trem. Incidentally I opted for the latter as I really loved the appearance.

The Tyler Variax JTV's went on sale early in the summer of 2010 but due to a number of production-related issued with their chosen manufacturing partners, the instruments didn't start appearing in any number until March 2011, by which time some had been waiting for nine months - and many more cancelled out of frustration. I'm glad I persisted and more of that in later blogs.

In coming blogs, I will report my experiences with this instrument, along with any supporting audio or video clips I can muster.