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How Many Drumkits does A Drummer Need?

2009-02-24T12:30:00.003-07:00

Nearly two years ago, I began a series of entries (quite popular, I might add) with respect to my acquisition of an older Canwood drumkit, and my efforts to restore them.
The entries begin with the first installment: "How Many Drums Does A Drummer Need?", and continues with the article: "Status of the Makeover". I was then contacted by a new Canwood drumkit owner, when I penned the "Response to J.T. Massacre" entry. The fourth entry described my gripes with tuning, aptly titled: "Tuning Lug Annoyances". The fifth entry centered around my desires to purchase a second Canwood kit to ensure I had one kit to gig, while the other kit underwent extensive restoration.

Well, cyberspace is a serendipitous place, and out of the blue, I was contacted by a fellow Canwood owner in my neck of the woods who claimed he had a Canwood kit for sale, and if I was interested in purchasing it. To make the deal even more desirable, the drumkit was in the shell sizes I was desiring. He was kind enough to provide me with photos of the drums, including areas of concern -- the bearing edge on one of the drums has been damaged and repaired with wood filler.

We exchanged further emails, telephone numbers, and we agreed on a price. Last Friday, I jumped in my car and made a three-hour drive to his city to inspect the drums in person. I met the seller, who was friendly, helpful, and easy to get along with. We spent about an hour together, not just talking about drums, but about the music scene in his city, and a great deal about the music our bands play. I guess I don't need to say that I purchased the drums on the spot, and was home in time for dinner.

According to the seller, this is one of the earliest kits Canwood manufactured -- in fact it is likely drumkit number 14. The drums are in a flaming bright red finish, though over the years, the lacquer has cracked due to changes in temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure. The drums are scratched, thus the drumkit will need refinishing. A number of tuning lugs and washers have rusted, and will need replacement.

Most of the issues the drums have are cosmetic, though there will be an order to drumbuilder.com to order some necessary replacement hardware. as I noticed tuning hoops on the 12" and 13" tom are out of round, and the Wood hoop on the bass drum is cracked and will need replacing.

The first matter of business is to get the drums playable as soon as possible, as I plan to gig with them this weekend (approximately 1 week after purchase). So I did a quick cleaning of the shells, and put my trusted Evans G1 coated heads on the shells. As you can see from the attached photo, I began building the kit I plan to gig with this weekend, mixing and matching parts from both drumkits. Since the colors do not match, I'm calling it my "FrankenKit" for the time being.

When my schedule is a little more free, then I will attempt the restoration process, and I will continue to blog about it step-by-step.

So, two years later, I again have to ask myself the question: "How many drumkits does a drummer need?"

And my answer is at least four.

Why Play The Lottery?

2009-02-23T11:40:00.004-07:00

So the big news the last few days seemed to center around the record-breaking $48-million (estimated) dollar jackpot that was won by four recipients this past weekend.

I say this because I generally don't play the lottery. I buy a few tickets here & there, usually when the jackpot gets over 20 million, but it amounts to about twice per year that I get in line and buy a couple tickets, and like everyone else, secretly hope that my numbers are the ones that are drawn that night.

The lottery puzzles me. First of all, it is a legalized form of gambling (and I'm not here to criticize gambling), but my point is that the odds are stacked against the player. It makes little sense to me to take my hard-earned cash and blow it on something that could remotely pay off.

Now I had considered going on this tirade that the government uses the lottery as a means to ensure the working class remains poor, but my arguments would have been speculative at best, and I thought the better of ranting about it here. In a different light, the lottery gives the working class hope, that there is a possibility that we can change the stars before us.

So I began to think about how much people spend on the lottery. Certainly, us Canadians must collectively spend billions per year on lottery tickets if we can enjoy such jackpots as 30-40 million. But how much does the average person spend on the lottery?

I think lottery ticket buyers come in two types: Those who play every week, and those who play from time to time, when the jackpot hits gigantic proportions (like myself). For argument's sake, let's consider the average player who buys tickets every week.

I believe the 6/49 makes two draws per week, and one draw costs $2. The "Extra" costs an additional dollar, though this is for a separate $250,000 jackpot. Thus, if a person plays the lottery twice per week, picks two sets of numbers and the Extra, a person is gambling $10 per week. To look at it another way, the average person spends $520 per year playing the lottery.

Most people play the lottery their entire lives, hoping to win the big prize. Therefore, you could say the average person plays the lottery for about fifty years. Ten dollars per week over the course of fifty years must amount to a fair chunk of change.

So I began to consider what would happen if a person invested the same amount of money into a GIC over the course of their lifetime instead of playing the lottery? Yes, I am talking about compound interest here.

So out came the Excel spreadsheet, and I began to run some numbers. Let's just say for the sake of argument, that you start with an initial investment of $0, and the going interest rate is 3%. Now interest rates change over time, and that is beyond the scope of our argument.

If you invest $10 per week into a GIC at 3 percent, after one year you will have $527.72. You've only made $7 in interest, so it doesn't look very promising. After five years of this practice, your investment has grown to $2804.26. Still, not a lot, but a little savings nonetheless. After ten years, your investment has grown to $6062.20, which might be a few month's worth of work, or perhaps an extravagant vacation. After twenty years, your investment will have grown to $14,244.60. And after fifty years, your investment will have grown to $60,315.68 -- which is more than many of us make in a year.

This essentially means if you start investing your lottery money when you are 20, by the time you are 70, you will have a sizable nestegg in the bank -- and this is on 10 dollars per week. Most of us spend more than that on frivolous things such as tobacco, alcohol, and entertainment. It is likely the average smoker spends $50 or more per week on tobacco. Us average drinkers spend anywhere between $20 and $50 per week on our vices.

So what if the smokers quit cold turkey and took the $50 per week spent on tobacco and invested it similarly?

At the end of one year, $50 per week invested into a GIC will grow to $2638.62. After five years, your investment will have grown to $14021.28. After ten years, your investment will have grown to $30,310.98. After twenty years, your investment will have grown to $71,222.98, and after fifty years, your investment will have grown to $301, 578.42. This isn't a bad deal considering you are getting only 3 percent on your investment, and you can enjoy the fact that you will live longer because since you won't be smoking.

When you consider the possibility of variable interest rates, investing in more lucrative investments (though riskier), such as mutual funds, the stock market, real estate, you could be a wealthy person by the time you retire.

Perhaps you should think about that the next time you are buying your weekly, lottery ticket, a bottle of booze for the weekend, or your next deck of cigarettes.

2008: The Year of Unemployment

2009-01-01T23:31:00.003-07:00

Well, here I am. Another year has gone by, and I take the first day of the year to reflect on all the wonders of the year past, and try to surmise that I am indeed better off this year, than I was the year prior. Well, in a lot of ways, this year felt like a giant step backward. In another light, I had to break free of molds that kept me trapped in the circles I had been driving in for more than five years of my life.

So what was the biggest news in my life of 2008?

1. I quit my job of six and a half years. For many reasons I wish to remain private, but in its' most literal sense, it was killing me slowly. I wasn't earning as much as I should have. I simply had enough, and I needed to explore new avenues and learn new skills.

2. I became a simple farmer. And no, you won't see me wearing cowboy boots, belt buckles, funny shirts, or cowboy hats. And you won't find me listening to Country music either. But this year, you found me outdoors for more than 12 hours per day, driving heavy equipment, pushing, pulling, lifting, and working my butt off. Yes it was a nice change from the drudgery of being at the same desk, doing the same things over and over again.

3. The rock band I play in, Tung N' Groove, managed to play a number of successful shows in the area. As the band gained momentum, we managed to play to some very busy establishments, build a growing fanbase on Facebook, and record a full-length demo CD, which we supply to prospective clients. The band even played our first out-of-town gig to a packed house in Brooks.

4. My blues band, The Savoys, had nothing but trouble securing work over the course of the year. In fact, we played a total of three gigs the entire year. I'm sure the whole band found it frustrarting, since we had to recruit a new member, and learn a pile of new material. I really would like to say otherwise, but I have a bad feeling that if we can't find any gigs soon -- and I mean really soon -- the future of the band will be in question.

5. I was fortunate to hone my skills at recording to the point where I have managed to garner some attention from prospective clients. With assistance from select bandmates, I managed to record both the Savoys and Tung N Groove, as well as a few other clients -- for money. I really would wish that this mobile recording thing could grow into something I could do once or twice a month -- if I could make five hundred bucks a month recording, I'd be one happy camper. That would be a considerable raise, as I think my little studio earned something like 500 bucks this entire year.

6. I continue to teach my pupils. It appears that I am getting a few more phone calls as of late, which doesn't even pay the bills, but hey, something's better than nothing at all.

So that's been it, really for the year. I can't say I'm desperate yet, but I would sure like to earn more than I'm earning right now. Ideally, I'd love it if I could make music (and when I say that, I mean, bands, students, and recording) a full-time endeavor. I don't think that's going to happen this year, though.

On The Impending "Coalition Government"

2008-12-02T15:45:00.006-07:00

Well, it didn't take long for they boys in Ottawa to send things to Hell in a handbasket after spending some 300-million dollars on a an election campaign which resulted -- more or less -- in the same government in the House.

What has developed in the House of Commons in the last week or so is nothing short of amazing.

As for my thoughts on this "three-party coalition" set to topple the Harper government, I am unsure of what is the best alternative. It is clear to me that the democratic process in the House will be roadblocked until a majority is elected -- which could be 2 3, or 4 elections from now -- nobody knows. The Liberals, the Bloc, and the NDP are thwarting to usurp the conservative party by 'joining forces' with one another -- these three parties in the past couldn't agree on a single thing. Even if they manage to obtain power in the house, infighting between the parties will ensure the 40th Parliament will be dead -- and we will be heading to the polls sooner, rather than later -- like the 2011 date proposed by the coalition.

This whole mess has left Canadians enraged, while our Governor General is decidedly out of the country. At least Her Excellency returns tomorrow to deal with the crisis. Sadly, come Monday, she's going to have to make a difficult choice: either accept the three-party coalition as the governing party, or dissolve Parliament and we head into another election campaign -- the second in almost as many months.

Following this story, I have read hundreds of comments from enraged Canadians, and many of them spouting nonsense, which, more or less, is why I felt compelled to write about this subject. Here are two of the most idiotic statements I have read -- and my editorial as to why these are so ridiculous.

Quote #1 (paraphrased): What's been happening this week in the House of Commons is appalling. The Members of Parliament are acting like kids in a schoolyard. We should send them another message as disgruntled citizens by NOT voting in the next election.

This is utter madness. The reason why we have this lousy excuse for a government this term is because of voter apathy -- the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history! If you vote or don't vote, the end result is the same: the votes are counted, and the ones with the most votes win. How is not voting going to make a difference? That's like trying to instigate Revolution by taking a nap. Now, sending a message by spoiling your ballot is a little more effective in a sense that you are at least sending a message. The end result is the same though -- the person with the most votes still wins.

Quote #2 (paraphrased): 60% of the population didn't vote for Harper. That means 60% of the population will be happy to see someone else in power. So the three-party coalition is probably a good thing.

Oooh, this one is a doozy. Don't get me started about "voting for Harper" -- under 1% of Canada's population voted for Harper -- only the majority those who reside in his riding did. We vote for a Member of Parliament. The person elected Prime Minister is most often the leader of the party with the most seats. But I digress -- this wasn't what I was getting at anyway.

Instead, let's replace "Harper" with "Conservative" in quote number two. While it is true that the Conservatives received only 40 percent of the vote, The Liberals, New Democrats, the Bloc, and the fringe parties received even less; if you sum them together you get something like 60 percent.

Whoever wrote quote number 2 above obviously thinks his/her world is black and white. The only way 60% of the population would be happy about Harper's government being toppled is if -- and only if -- 60 percent of all voters marked an X beside the checkbox that read: "Anyone but Harper" on their ballot. Last I checked, that option was not on my ballot -- or anyone else's.

So if you let Stephane Dion become Prime Minister, do you think 60-percent of the population is going to be happy about it? Absolutely not. Maybe 20 percent of the population will be happy about it -- those who are privy to Liberal ideology. And if Gilles Duceppe became the appointed Prime Minister (it would never happen anyway) would that mean that everyone in Quebec would be happy? Absolutely not. In fact, I would expect there are a number of people who voted conservative -- even though they don't like having Harper as the party leader. We can't do anything about that as citizens. Our duty is to elect the representative who will best serve our interests in Parliament. To vote by ideology -- or along party lines -- something I see way too often in Conservative Alberta -- I consider to be dangerous. I've seen so many unqualified, egomaniac, socially corrupt, power hungry, and greedy folk get elected because they ran for the "right party" -- it makes me question the intelligence of the public. But hey, that's why we love democracy: at least we had our say.

Now even though these "quotes" aren't verbatim, they are representative of a number of comments on news-stories published all over the web. Seriously. Go have a look, anywhere, and you'll see what I mean.

To My American Friends...

2008-11-03T00:40:00.004-07:00

Let's do it. Let's make history. Let's forget the status quo. Let's take a chance in hope for change.

Let's elect the first African-American to the White House in history.

In one day, you have the power to not only change your nation, but change the world.

It's about time.

The world is watching, and waiting in anticipation.

Nothing To See Here Folks, Move Along...

2008-10-15T00:22:00.003-06:00

The result of today's election -- of the $300 million the Canadian Government spent on this election campaign, has been somewhat disappointing to many Canadians. In one light, I am glad that I contributed in my own way, even if the person I voted for was not elected, I at least had my say.

That being said, for the most part, the election results came in pretty much the way I had suspected they would.

Now, how would you know this? I would have made my prediction publicly on this website, but like so many of the public, I was not terribly excited about this election campaign. The only major issue (the economic meltdown) only came to light mid-way through the campaign. Just take my word for it -- this is what I predicted:

The Conservatives would marginally increase their representation in Parliament, though only succeed in winning a minority. In truth, they gained 19 seats, which was more than I expected they would.
The Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois would lose seats. In truth, the Bloc managed to maintain their representation; the Liberals lost a substantial 26 seats.
The New Democrats would gain representation -- though not as much as leader Jack Layton would predict. I was very accurate in this prediction, as the New Democrats gained over 20% representation in the House.
The Green Party would remain a fringe party.

What does this mean to the common Canadian citizen? Well, not much really. The face of parliament hasn't changed much since Parliament was dissolved last September. There was no major shift in the balance of power. I guess this is the reason why so many people feel that this election was a waste of time and taxpayer money.

I bet if you ask Jack Layton, he would feel that $300 million was money well spent. When you consider that his party (and his power in Parliament) grew by more than 20 percent tonight, he became the true winner of this evening's election.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, though gaining 19 seats in the House, becomes the first loser, as he was unsuccessful in clinching a majority government.

The bigger loser, of course was Stephane Dion. Losing 26 seats in the House will ensure his leadership will be cast into question in the coming days. I suspect we will see the Liberals spending all kinds of party money on leadership conventions, only to produce a new leader who will have the daunting task in attempting to repair a broken party.

The biggest losers of all, were the people of Canada. Roughly 56-percent of eligible voters cast a ballot -- the lowest in Canadian history. I consider this a major black mark for Canada, and for democracy as a whole. Voter apathy produces only one thing: Tyranny. If you consider that there were nearly ten-million voters in Canada that did not cast a ballot today, there was a distinct chance that those votes could have impacted the results of many ridings.

To protest by not voting (something I have been hearing about recently) is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. This is exactly how tyrants come to power.

New MacBooks Underwhelming

2008-10-14T12:44:00.004-06:00

It has been some eight months since Apple released an update to their laptop lines. Given the delay, us Apple zealots were expecting something big -- and I mean really big.

After the hour I spent on sites such as Gizmodo, and MacWorld reading up-to-the minute updates on the press conference this morning, I can't help but be a little disappointed.

Two things really bothered me. First and foremost, the new models don't sport any processor upgrades. Some models actually appear to have slower processors than the last revision. It is true that Intel is expected to release new mobile processors in the coming weeks. If I were Apple, I would have waited until the new processors were available.

The second thing that bothered me was the absence of the Firewire port on the MacBook model. On the MacBook Pro, only one Firewire 800 port is available. This is a cause for concern for any recording enthusiast, as you will need a Firewire 800-400 adapter in order to plug in your audio interfaces. Furthermore, you won't be able to use the that fast external hard drive, unless it is daisy-chained to your interface, and then you lose more than half of your bandwidth.

The bottom line is -- if you want to record on your laptop, the MacBook Pro is your only option.

Now, that being said, there were some advances in the MacBook and MacBook Pro models that are very impressive. The new design is beautiful, strong, and lightweight. All Laptop models now have LED-backlit displays, which means brighter, truer color representation, and lower power consumption.

The most striking news is the inclusion of the new NVIDIA graphics chipsets, which boast more than 5 times the performance of the Intel integrated graphics chipsets of the last-generation MacBook. The extra gigaflops of processing power will be better realized next year when Apple releases Snow Leopard, which will have the technology to utilize unused GPU-cycles on operating system tasks.

The price points aren't terribly impressive either. That may be partially due to the falling Canadian Dollar, but I digress.

As much as I love portables, I always feel that I am paying a premium for portability. That probably explains why I still have a desktop computer as my main audio workstation. When you consider that you have much greater storage capabilities, faster processors, larger screens (in the case of the iMac), more i/o options, the desktop computer wins hands-down.

I guess I'd be better off to wait another 6 months and see what upgrades the first-revision MacBook Pros will boast. I made the mistake of purchasing a first-generation MacBook, and thanks to an extended warranty, all the issues the computer has suffered has been repaired free of charge. This includes random shut-downs, cracking case (twice!), and audio jack issues.

Yeah, I'm thinking it would be a good idea to wait a little while.

Help Save The World's Largest Music Collection

2008-09-10T17:31:00.006-06:00

I would have thought the world's largest Music Archive would have been located at the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, or in the Archives of one of the Big 5 record companies. Apparently, none of these come close.

The world's largest Music Archive is owned by one person: Paul Mawhinney. He has spent his life collecting records, and has massed a staggering archive which includes over three million vinyl records, and over 300,000 compact discs -- all in pristine condition. Many of the titles have never been listened to. The number of rare and collectible titles he has must number in the tens of thousands, if not higher. For some titles in this archive, a collector would pay thousands of dollars for just one album.

It makes my piddly little CD collection of some 800 units look like a drop in the bucket.

But Mawhinney's archive is under threat of being discarded. Due to age and failing health, Paul Mawhinney has no option but to sell his collection. Pundits have suggested the archive is worth approximately $50 million.

The problem is, there are no buyers.

Mawhinney even tried to pawn the archive on eBay. If my memory serves me correct, the highest bid was about 1.5 million, and the winning bidder did not pay. He has offered the collection to Museums, collectors, Libraries, and Universities, and not one of them wanted to purchase it.

Much of the collection does not exist in the digital realm. Mawhinney has vinyl in his collection that stems as far back as the late 19th century. His estimations is that perhaps as much as fifteen percent of the vinyl released from antiquity through the 1940's have ever been digitally remastered.

In other words, this archive is the most complete account of American 20th Century Pop-Culture -- anywhere.

I think it's an utter shame that this collection could wind up in the landfill. It belongs at the Smithsonian; it belongs at the Library of Congress -- it belongs at a University... any University.

If you want to learn more about this archive, and what you can do to help save it, I would suggest visiting the website, or viewing the video available here.

You could also join the Facebook Group "Save The Music", which currently has an appalling 85 members.

I consider myself to be quite the audiophile. I don't think I've ever thrown out a CD, and I've often bought an album for nostalgia, without ever having an intent of enjoying it -- or even if I did enjoy it as a youth. My personal CD collection is an archive as much as it is my music library. In my travels, I have found great difficulty obtaining certain albums, and have often learned that many titles I remember listening to as a child were never released on Compact Disc. Given the fact that the next frontier for music is the kind that only exists digitally, I find it disturbing that there are entire generations of music that is being forgotten.

Vinyl eventually wears out or gets brittle. Magnetic tape is easily erased with magnetic fields. Compact Discs were designed to last 20-25 years. Hard drives will fail. It is obvious that music is going "format-less" -- that is existing only in the digital realm. What remains of the last 5 generations of music should be preserved for future generations. Mawhinney's archive is the most complete of any on this earth. Some institution should take responsibility and properly manage the archive before it is gone for good.

Dirt Nap

2008-08-26T09:43:00.004-06:00

Well, it was inevitable. My trusty iBook laptop which has given me so much grief over the years (though it ran trouble-free for almost 14 months) has finally decided to take a dirt nap. It suffered a fall to the floor (not my fault this time), and has trouble booting.

I get a boot chime, and I get a grey screen, but the OS refuses to load. No Apple screen, just a blank grey screen staring back at me. So, of course I went into troubleshooting mode to figure out what I could find out. Well, I pulled out my OSX discs and attempted to boot from the optical drive and repair the hard drive. This usually cures most problems, but no dice this time. I heard the optical drive spin up and do a little reading, but I saw no feedback on the screen.

At this point I decided that I had better find a way to rescue any files that reside on the hard drive.

So I booted into target disk mode from the other laptop in the house (a first-generation MacBook) and was successful in mounting the iBook's hard drive on the MacBook. A few minutes later, and I had everything I could think of that I may need to keep from the dying machine. As an afterthought, I ran the disc utility program and repaired the hard drive on the ailing laptop.

Thinking that I may have repaired some critical damage on the hard drive, I attempted to re-boot the iBook. Again, a boot chime and grey screen, but nothing else. Running all the possibilities through my mind, I came to the conclusion that I had a failure somewhere on the video processor, or some other problem on the hardware bus that was preventing the machine from booting.

Either way the failure is on the logic board, and that only means I have one option left. Purchase a replacement logic board, or retire the laptop. Replacement logic boards are incredibly expensive, and when it comes to iBooks, logic boards are in short supply, as this is the component that usually fails in the first place. As far as eBay is concerned, purchasing a used logic board from a seller is a bit like playing Russian Roulette -- auctions for laptop components are almost always parted from dead laptops.

So the next logical thing is to say sayonara to the trusty computer. I've had the machine for over 5 years -- and it was at least 2 years old when I bought it. I've likely sunk as much as $1500 of hardware and software into the laptop -- for repairs, upgrades, etc. So where does one draw the line and refuse to sink more money into the machine? Well, that is always the definitive question. Even if it was working, the most I could get for the laptop would be $200. If I hocked a dead iBook on eBay, I'd get less that $50 for it.

I think it's time to look into a new(er) machine. One of the stipulations is that whatever machine I purchase, it must be faster and newer than the machine it replaces. Therefore if I purchase a replacement laptop, it must have at least a 1 GHz G4 processor. These machines are still sitting around the $500 mark on eBay, which I thought was a little rich, provided that G4 laptops were retired by Apple over 2 years ago.

I realize it might make a little more sense and buy a state-of-the-art laptop computer for $500 more. The other two Apples that live in this house I consider to be quite fast already -- speed isn't the issue here. The issue is the chipset that resides in older Apple machines. The G4 architecture allows me to run legacy software. Yes, I realize that I can run old software through a virtual machine -- though my experiences with virtual machines and emulation has been mediocre.

Since I spend a great deal of time working in Logic on recording projects, I do have need for state-of-the-art technology. I have had my current desktop machine for a year and a half (and it was 1 year old when I purchased it) -- so it's beginning to get a little long in the tooth. I will likely wait for another iMac revision (or 2) and see if I can upgrade to a 24" Aluminium model for $500 less than a new one, but that's a story for another time -- and in all honesty, I don't need to be in a major rush to replace that laptop.

Reprise

2008-07-01T10:38:00.003-06:00

Exposition

It all began early last week. My Band, Tung N' Groove, has been hard at work trying to expand our fanbase, and by doing so, one of the necessary things to do is to play in more venues. So we were pleased as punch when the owner of the Mainliner Pub agreed to have Tung N' Groove play at his pub -- which was scheduled to be on July 18-19, 2008.

Things changed rapidly when the owner of the Mainliner called our guitarist DH last week and insisted to change the band's booking date to June 27-28. As it turned out, our bass player couldn't make it due to family commitments.

DH really didn't want to lose the gig to another band, since he is also a member of Mule Shoe, he called the boys in that band to see if they could play the gig instead. As it turns out, their drummer, JY, was working out of town, so it appeared Mule Shoe wouldn't be able play the gig.

Then DH had an idea: Since MC Fro was once a member of Mule Shoe, why don't we get him to fill in on drums? After consultation with all the members of the band -- myself included -- that's exactly what happened.

The Story

Now, longtime readers of my little weblog will know that my experience in Mule Shoe wasn't exactly a walk in the park. If you remember, I was fired from the band because the bass player wanted to make music with his son. There was nothing I ever did wrong to warrant dismissal; it was just nepostism, pure and simple. Personality-wise, I always got along with the guys in the band -- so I wasn't worried about that -- but going into the situation, I was a little apprehensive. Perhaps I felt like I was re-opening old wounds, maybe fate was originally telling me that I wasn't supposed to be in that band, perhaps I didn't want to be exposed to some of the particulars, politics, and idiosyncracies of selected members. You might be able to relate to this comparison, but have you been able to get along with certain people individually, but put them together, and all hell breaks loose? Mule Shoe isn't exactly like this, but from my perspective, it could be compared to this in certain situations. A band is a business, and a relationship. It is much more than that in one respect, and in others, it's really nothing more than a working partnership.

Geez, what I put myslef into, just to make a couple hundred bucks.

Given my track record with local bands, I have tried to keep my involvement as professional as possible -- not get too close to the members of the band, and not put my heart into the music too deeply. Thus, if things go awry, then the separation isn't so painful.

I did take the job, promising myself to play my absolute best.

I was once a member of Mule Shoe, but that was three years ago. Many questions were going through my head. Would I remember all the songs? Did they learn a pile of new ones that I don't know? They released an album in late 2004; would they want to play any originals, and if so, how many?

All the questions led me to believe that I should sit down and review all their material. The problem is -- is that there isn't a set list anywhere. Even the guys in the band never carried set lists. If I racked my brain and scoured my iTunes collection, I only could come up with about 20 songs that I recalled Mule Shoe ever playing -- and that's about half of what's required to play a night's worth of material in a pub. I have also been incredibly busy as of late, so I haven't had the time to sit down and review anything.

So I went into the gig cold.

And what came out of my hands over two nights was nothing short of a miracle. All the covers -- even the originals -- came out with so much accuracy and precision that I left the other bandmates speechless. I even surprised myself at the accuracy of my long-term memory. I did not play perfectly -- when music is as subjective as it is, there will always be room for improvement -- but to the casual listener, these errors would have been entirely missed.

In the end, it was great to catch up with all they guys in the band again. We had lots of good laughs, many hugs and handshakes, and we made some pretty-good-sounding music. The crowd was decent, and supportive on both evenings. We all walked out with smiles on our faces.

What did I learn? Why should there be a moral to every story? I guess that means to be professional on all levels all the time. And play every gig like it's your last.

I'd Sure Like Some More Canwoods

2008-06-11T00:18:00.012-06:00

Ah yes, the never-ending drum addiction continues.

It's been a little more than a year since I purchased a used set of Canwood drums, and spent some time fixing them up. Even now, the drums aren't fully restored; the bass drum hoops could stand to be replaced, and perhaps all the hoops could be replaced, but most certainly, the drums need to be refinished.

And what's tearing me apart, is that I love the finish. That deep candy-apple red with a tinge of purple. Oh how I wish the finish wasn't so scratched.

I've resolved to refinish the drums someday -- and by that, I mean someday in the near future -- and by that, I mean in the next five years.

But there is a problem. There is always something in the way, and the problem is, is that it is going to take me a very long time to pull out the sandpaper, use some elbow grease, sand the drums down, re-stain, and re-lacquer the drums. This isn't something I can do over a weekend -- though it probably could be done in a weekend -- it's just that my attention span can't deal with the fact that I would blow an entire weekend (or 2, or 3) doing such a task.

No, I would need something like 6 months. And there is no way on this earth that I could retire those drums for that amount of time.

So I began thinking about how nice it would be if I had a second set of Canwoods in my inventory. This way, I could restore one kit while playing the other. And vice versa.

Now, I wouldn't want a replica of the kit I already have. No, the trick is getting a drumkit with completely different sizes. I was thinking I'd like a 22" kick drum, with 13" and 16" toms. This way, I would have all major drum sizes in my inventory, and would allow me to build a kit in any configuration I would want. After the restoration was completed, both drumkits would be stained to the same color. I could have a rock kit, or a jazz kit, or a blues kit, or one major behemoth if I wanted to join some Rush tribute band in the distant (and unlikely) future.

I have always wanted a little versatility in my music. The Canwood kit is ideal for my blues act, the Savoy Blues Band, but it's a little on the small side for Tung N' Groove, my rock act. Having a second Canwood kit with the same finish would fill that void.

But this is a pipe dream that doesn't have to be fulfilled tomorrow. Maybe next month, or next year. What's imperative, is that I will have to wait for the perfect kit to come my way, for the perfect price, and then I can pounce.

Every now and then a Canwood kit pops up for sale on eBay, but they are few & far between. I may have a little better luck searching the area Craigslist, or Kijiji.

Funny thing is, about 4 or 5 years ago, I found a Canwood drumkit for sale in a pawn shop in Lethbridge for about $650 dollars, if I recall. I never bought the kit, as money was a little tight, and the drums weren't in the best shape. But it had the drum sizes I am currently looking for. Serendipity is kind of funny that way.

The most important thing, of course, is the journey. Playing the drumkit is important, but what is more rewarding, is finding the instrument, giving it as much TLC as you can muster, and bringing that instrument back to its' former glory.

If I had that second kit, I could go through the stripping, sanding, and refininshing process one drum at a time, yet allowing me to play the rest of the kit. It's kind of like having your cake and eating it too.

Anyway, if you have a Canwood kit, in sizes 13" 16", and 22" (or 18" or 24" bass drum), and you are thinking about getting rid of it (and you live in Western Canada), drop me a line quoting an asking price. We might be able to work something out. I may ask for a few pictures as well, if I can be so bold. Who knows what could happen? The internet is a curious and wonderful thing, it has created a community and friendship among strangers that cross borders, geography, and even culture. But that's another story for another day.

Ed. Note: As of February 20, 2009, this request has been filled.

Apple's "Snow Leopard" Set To Pounce Next Year

2008-06-10T10:40:00.005-06:00

Yesterday's big news at WWDC 2008 largely was centered on Apple's new iPhone, which included a number of new applications, faster speeds, and a $200 price drop. As this generated a lot of buzz, I don't consider this as groundbreaking as Apple's second announcement: We can expect OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard, about this time next year.

Apple only provided a demonstration to select developers yesterday, so information regarding this release was a little sketchy. However, Apple wasted no time in publishing their objectives for the client and server versions for the rest of us to see.

I'll be a little honest. When Steve Jobs demoed OSX 10.5 Leopard early last year, I wasn't as excited as I had been about past OSX releases. The only technology that really impressed me was Time Machine, as I didn't expect I would find much use out of many of the other technologies. It became clear to many users and pundits that Apple had been focusing in the incorporation of new features and "eye-candy" in order to sell copies of their new operating system.

I was an early adopter of OSX. I have been using OSX since the Cheetah (10.0) days, so I have seen it's growth first-hand. Most users will agree that even though the footprint of each installation has increased (10.0 and 10.1 shipped on 1 CD-ROM; 10.3 shipped on 3 CD-ROMs, and 10.4 shipped on DVD), that the code was written tighter, and performed faster. You didn't even need a benchmarking program to test this; the increase in performance was easily noticeable -- at least until the release of 10.5.

Leopard reversed that trend. A huge amount of animation ("eye-candy") was introduced in Leopard, and at a cost of performance. Many users complained that their computer performed slower than the prior release. In fact, it was once argued that if you didn't have an intel-core processor, you needn't bother upgrading to Leopard. Sound familiar? If I had a quarter for every article I read that said Vista was an abomination and an embarrassment to Microsoft, well -- I'd be on a beach somewhere drinking Mai Tai's instead of writing this.

Early reports on OSX Snow Leopard indicate that Apple is introducing a number of technologies "under the hood". This doesn't usually excite the consumer, but it excites computer geeks like myself. Recently published articles claim a "focus" on performance -- which I understand is partially true. What is true, is the technologies they will be introducing is going to set the stage to introduce technologies and features that were only science fiction a few years ago.

And it starts with performance. Although nothing is said yet about what chipsets the new release will support, many pundits feel that it will abandon the old PowerPC architecture. At the very least, nothing has been said to give the indication Apple is declaring PowerPC obsolete. Although, if they did, it would allow them to strip out all the archaic code, and ensure the OS would run natively.

What Apple is doing, is re-writing the OS to take advantage of multi-core systems. This idea isn't new, but my understanding of this is that this technology has not been fully exploited. Apple promises to introduce a new technology -- named Grand Central, which will take advantage of multi-core systems. The end result is simple: The more cores your computer has, the faster it will run.

Obviously this will mean anyone with a dual-core mac (or more) will notice a boost in performance. Those lucky to have quad-core (or 8-core) Mac Pro's will have machines that will perform at mind-bending speeds. Single-core users (mostly Power-PC users) likely wouldn't see a boost in performance. Which leads me to believe OSX 10.6 will abandon PowerPC support.

As many of you already know, OSX 10.5. Leopard is already running circles around Vista. Windows 7 is being designed to replace a problem OS, though it's release may be too late. OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard is going to deliver performance to PC users that will make Windows look dated. And Snow Leopard will likely come at a much nicer price: $129.

Apple began to introduce their intel-core chipsets about two and a half years ago, while completing the transition about 18 months ago. The question everyone is asking, is how many Power-PC users will there be in 2009? And how many of those users will be unwilling to invest in a new computer at that time?

Max: A Pristine Audio Encoder for Mac

2008-06-04T15:58:00.008-06:00

In the past, I have written a few entries (here, here and here) about my audiophile tendencies. In summary, after investing a sum of money into high-quality studio monitor speakers, I began to hear the limitations of certain audio formats, namely MP3 and Apple's AAC (which is based on the MP4 format).

It is a slow and ongoing process, where I have managed to re-encode approximately 10% of my audio collection (which is, incidentally, greater than 600 compact discs). In this journey, I have even uncovered more limitations -- not in the audio itself, but in the encoding technologies themselves.

For most consumers, the encoders included in Apple's iTunes or Microsoft's Windows Media Player should suffice. Both applications allow the user to choose a variety of file formats and bitrates, which should produce an encoded audio file which best suits the listener.

But not me.

Enter Max. Max is a high-quality audio ripper / encoder for OSX, which sports a number of advancements in audio encoding technology. Even though it is a standalone application, it integrates well with iTunes, will import artwork from a variety of websites, and will query the Musicbrainz database to ensure proper ID3 file tagging. Best of all, Max is freeware.

The interface is simple and clean. Everything you need to see in the main panel is there. If you need to make individual edits to individual tracks, all that is needed is to hit the 'Tracks" button on the toolbar, and a panel opens for you to make the desired changes. The same thing goes with artwork.

Tabbing from one song to the next works as expected, preventing the user from grabbing the mouse and double-clicking every individual track. I may even say, that this is a better interface for inserting tags than iTunes. However, a user should not need to individually enter these tags, if he is querying the Musicbrainz database.

Max has the ability to encode in nearly any audio format you desire. It can encode to AIFF, MP3, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, MP4, Apple Lossless, and many others. Within each file type there are many options available to tweak the encoding settings. I chose AAC, as it is the file type that most of my audio is encoded at. Not only can you choose the bitrate best suited to your needs, but you can choose the quality of the encoding -- good, better, maximum, for example -- and the user can employ variable-bitrate encoding to ensure maximum fidelity.

Of keen interest, is that it appears that you can choose multiple output formats, and change your settings accordingly. This could be useful for individuals who desire to have a high-quality encoding on their desktop computer, and one that might be optimized for web consumption.

Of most importance to me, is the error-correction settings. I am unsure of the technologies included in Windows Media Player, but I do know that iTunes has a preference where you can use error-correction when ripping your compact disc. This is desirable for those who have a few scratched cd's laying around.

Now, my experience with iTunes error-correcting technologies has been mediocre at best. I had a number of encodings that produced clicks, pops, and other undesirable noise on a few CD's I own. Compounding the problem is that a lot of the music I have is out of print, from independent artists, or generally hard to find. In these cases, repurchasing said compact disc is not an option.

As an experiment, I used Max to re-enode a few of my CD's that didn't encode well in iTunes. I chose AAC as my codec, used 192 kbps as my bitrate, and enabled variable bitrate encoding. I employed error-correction using cdparanoia as the error-correction type, and only allowed skipping after 40 retries (I would have considered using never allow skipping as an option, though I thought this might ensure a troublesome audio file never encodes).

So, how did it work out? Well, Max does produce pristine encodings. The audio quality surpasses that of iTunes' encoding capabilities. It does take longer, however, to encode a CD -- largely due to error-correction. The audio tracks that encoded poorly with iTunes (with audible clicks and pops) sounded much better than the original, with many of the pops much more subdued, or non-existent. Thus, I felt Max did exactly what it promised to do. Given the fact that these audio files are of very high quality, they are a little larger in size than the iTunes counterparts, but not much larger to become a storage problem.

What Max Does:

Pristine audio encoding in a number of file formats
ID3 tagging using the Musicbrainz database
Import cover art from webistes such as Amazon.com
iTunes integration

What Max Cannot Do:

Max is not an audio player.
Max cannot save heavily-damaged CD's.

Max appears to be still early in its development, and it is still a little buggy at times. It doesn't always import tags from Musicbrainz, but I feel this is largely due to the fact that I have tried using the program with rare CD's at this time.

There are a number of scripts included in the distribution, though they returned errors when I tried using them. I wonder if this is due to the fact that I have all my audio stored on an external drive.

Overall. my biggest beef with the program was the lack of supporting documentation regarding the program's settings. The help section in the menu only had little to say about the error-correction settings, and what was required to query the Musicbrainz database. I hope better documentation will be more in-depth in future distributions.

That being said, I am quite impressed with the developer's efforts. The program is not for everyone, as iTunes will produce an encoding acceptable to most listeners. I, however will continue using Max as my default audio encoder for the foreseeable future. As I have said once before, and I'll have to say it again: it looks like I'm going to have to re-encode my audio collection yet again.

This is never going to end.

[Ed. Note: The missing hyperlinks have been updated. And, I'm going to need a bigger hard drive.]

The Live Record is Finished

2008-05-23T21:00:00.011-06:00

It has been a very long six weeks. As I have mentioned in prior postings, I have been hard at work producing my band, Tung N' Groove's promotional CD, which I recorded live at a recent gig.

Now, the recording isn't the only thing that has been occupying my waking hours, but I would think that it is likely one of the more exciting endeavors I have been recently involved in.

The last time I wrote an entry about the recording, I was ranting about a critical mistake I had made in the recording process, rendering the bass drum track unusable. In order to save the recording, I employed a technique called sample replacement, essentially replacing all the bass drum hits with pre-recorded samples. It was an awfully long process, since I did it manually, and took me almost 20 hours to complete. In other words, three full work days.

I spent nearly the same amount of time into editing the audio. This can mean a great many things in the audio production world, but for the most part -- in this recording -- it meant stripping out unnecessary audio regions. This usually means background noise, hums, clicks, and undesirable frequencies can be filtered out before they cause a problem. This in effect can clean up the audio you hear in the end result.

Once the heavy lifting was completed, I began mixing the recording. I explained the process in an earlier post, though it's a little more involved that "making every instrument find its' place in the mix". Entire volumes have been written about the subject, and I hate to bore my readers with theory. In layman's terms: "I just turn the knobs until it sounds good to me."

What sound advice. It's like saying the strategy to winning a hockey game is to score more goals than your opponent.

It took some time, but last weekend, I finally managed to have the album mixed. I promptly moved the project into the mastering phase, where I put the finishing touches on the album. It actually took me two attempts, but I think I got it to a point where I can be happy.

So how does it sound? Have a listen for yourself.

mcfro.blogspot.com turned 4 yesterday.

2008-05-07T20:50:00.005-06:00

1442 days ago, I created this website. Some 418 postings later, I continue to write on here when spare time and my urges permit me.

The fourth year was somewhat of an average year, I have been getting, on average, about 120 hits per month -- which is about what I was getting the year prior.

The visits I mostly get are from Google searches. Surprisingly, I get a lot of queries regarding drum restoration, and Canwood drums. Of course I began fielding these site visits when I first began blogging about my drum restoration project last April.

There are surprisingly, a few repeat visitors that come back again and again. Most of those are from my neck of the woods, however it's nice to see that I get a few international visitors. Yes, I check my web hits.

June 2007 ended up being the most successful month for the blog -- ever, largely due to the post: "All it Means is I'm Earning Less and Less". Much thanks and love goes to the medhatblog for providing a link to the article, which increased my readership, and provided my little site a lot more traffic than what I was used to. Of course, things have settled back down, but a few come by now and again from the medhatblog.

No projections for the future of the site this year. Blogging seems to have become passe, which is not at all unwelcome. I'm somewhat happy that every eighth grader no longer has their own website, where they can vent about how much they hate their parents, and try out every new four-letter word they learned in the cafeteria. Still, there will always be a place for blogs and blogging; it's just not going to be everyone's claim to fame. Very few people write well; and even fewer attain their success by blogging. Those who have managed to rise above the ranks have used gimmicks -- usually their looks to build and maintain their reader-base. I find posting scantily-clad photos of myself on the web to obtain traffic quite low. But I digress. To each his own, or "to each a zone".

Of course, you can rely on me to write on here a few times per month, about some strange geekdom that I am raving about at the moment. I have a live recording that is 75% finished, and I can't wait to bring it to everyone. I may even post a link here.

Damn Murphy and His Laws

2008-04-22T00:37:00.002-06:00

Anything that can go wrong, will.

I have been investing 8 to 12 hours per day working on my recording project, and have successfully managed to fix the errors as indicated in the last post. Amidst editing the audio, I uncovered one other major issue.

I am a singing drummer. It was something that I stumbled upon early in my career, and it has made me more employable than many of my peers because of such. Thus, the tracks that I recorded last weekend had me singling while playing drums.

This is the reason I uncovered another major issue. While listening to my vocal track, I discovered there was a lot of bleed from the snare drum into my vocal microphone. I would usually let this slide, however, the transient of my snare drum was much louder than my vocal, and it was coloring the snare track.

My first thought was to EQ the transient out, but this would have left my vocal track incredibly muddy and useless.

Given the time available to me, I decided on drastic action. I overdubbed my background vocals for about half of the songs in my home studio.

The truth of the matter is, that I'm not exactly happy about the situation. But in the end, I should have a product that will meet or exceed my expectations.

The Recording Process (Case Study: Tung N' Groove)

2008-04-17T00:17:00.013-06:00

I am halfway into my third week of "semi-retirement", and contrary to popular belief, I am not going stir-crazy. I have been very busy with a number of personal projects -- one in particular I wished to discuss here.

The Problem

One of the bands, I play in, Tung 'N Groove, is going through some growing pains. We want to expand our "sphere of influence" by playing in a few more clubs than we already do. This essentially means we need a press kit.

Part of the press kit includes a CD which demonstrates the material the band plays during a regular performance. In bands I have formerly played in, this was often a cassette tape, recorded from a board mix. The fidelity of board mixes is mediocre at best, and often doesn't capture the full power of the band in a live situation. Being one who has an interest in recording, mixing and producing, I jumped at the chance to record the band at our performance at the Redcliff Hylton last weekend.

This has not been the first time I attempted this. In January, I lugged all my recording gear to the Redcliff Hylton in an attempt to record the band. MA and I spent the entire Saturday afternoon assembling gear, mounting additional microphones, and soldering cables. Hardware limitations would mean that I was limited to recording 8 tracks at a time, so a few compromises had to be made: The drums had to be submixed to stereo, and the vocals also had to be submixed to stereo as well.

When I got the recording home and listened to it, I realized immediately that the limitations of my recording hardware crippled the recording. There was nothing I could do to save the submixed drums. In addition, the submixed vocals were horrid, due to complexities I do not wish to go into here. The answer was of course, that 8 tracks would not be enough. I would have no choice but to expand the number of inputs my DAW can handle.

Lightning Strikes Twice

Thanks to eBay, I scoffed another recording interface, and integrated it into my hardware rack, bringing the number of inputs I could record at one time to 18. I also had to purchase a couple extra microphones, specifically a pair of Studio Projects C4's. I had the hardware, and with Logic Pro, I should have been able to record the band, with enough separation to create a mix which would meet my standards.

Of course, I would have to test it at home first. This was the first mistake I had made the last time I tried to record the band. I set up a new session in Logic Pro, armed 18 tracks and hit record. It worked beautifully. One other hurdle remained: I couldn't exactly take my 20" iMac to the club in order to run the recording software. I needed to bring my laptop. I have Logic Express 7.2 installed on my core duo laptop, but it's limited to recording 12 tracks at a time. GarageBand is limited to recording 8 tracks at a time, plus you can only record at 16-bit depth, so that option was out. I uninstalled and unregistered Mackie's Tracktion 2. I needed to install Logic Pro on the laptop.

Problem number 2: Logic Pro is a huge install -- a 40-gigabyte install (7 DVD-ROMs). My laptop doesn't have that kind of room anymore. I tried to find a way to do a minimal install, but to no avail. I fought with the damn thing for six hours before giving up.

I had one last option: Reaper. Though Reaper is making waves in the PC market, the Mac Version is in the beta stage. It is buggy and unreliable -- even the forums are dotted with a number of Mac users who have suffered kernel panics during critical recording sessions. Given the fact that I didn't want to use beta software in this session -- especially when I had only one shot at this -- I really didn't want to use Reaper. But it became clear I had no choice.

The Set-Up

Last Saturday, MA and I returned to the Hylton to assemble a huge mess of wires, and microphones for that evening's performance. We took a number of inputs directly from the mixer, though the guitar cabinets were miked individually, overhead mics were placed over the drumkit to capture the cymbals, and the Bass guitar signal was split via a DI box, and recorded direct. To capture the 'roar' of the band, we set up a stereo pair of microphones in the middle of the club, pointed at the stage. To prevent tampering, the microphones were suspended from the ceiling, well out of the public's reach. We set our recording levels, and returned to the club that evening to play the gig.

The ~~Performance~~ Session

Reaper worked beautifully. The software, hardware, and computer handled recording 18 tracks simultaneously for nearly three hours of audio without skipping a beat. I was pleased, and I could not wait until the next day when I could load the session and listen to the recording.

The Truth on ~~Tape~~ Disc

Listening to the recording the next day, would be comparable to a rude awakening. But then I am my own worst critic. I had to come to terms with the fact that we didn't play all that well, largely due to the fact that we haven't gigged in two months. But I knew there would be diamonds in the rough, and out of the thirty-five songs that were recorded, there might be a dozen that could make the cut.

Back Up Early, Back Up Often

Before I began doing any "destructive editing", I burned a backup of the session -- 7 DVD ROMs' worth. Once I had a permanent backup that I could go back to, in the event I messed something up, I went about chopping up the audio into individual songs. It took me nearly two days to extract 12 songs from the recording session.

A Critical Error Discovered

Now that I had 12 of the better songs extracted, I figured I could get to work mixing the audio. Nearly right away I uncovered a major issue with the bass drum track. During the first song, something came loose or moved on my drumkit, and I found an annoying rattle in the track. Even worse, is that this went unnoticed, and was present in every single song. My first inclination was that perhaps the rattle could be removed though careful EQing, but my attempt at this left me with a bass drum track that sounded terrible.

The solution -- which became immediately clear to me, is a technique called sample replacement. In short, this means replacing the recorded audio with programmed electronic copy. Now, if I had the cash, I would have resorted to an automated program such a Drumagog, which would detect the transients of the bass drum and replace with drum samples automatically. Alas, I am unemployed, and that means I would have to program the bass drum track manually -- and this would take hours to complete.

So yesterday, I began the long drawn-out process of replacing my bass drum track with samples. Recording the samples does not take a lot of time -- about as long as it takes to play the song from start to finish. It is in the editing process (ensuring all the samples are lined up, and in sync with the original track) which takes so much time. I would have sooner resorted to using loops, but we did not record to a click -- so that option was also out.

The first song took me 2 hours to program. And every subsequent song has taken me as long. I have spent the entire day today, and half of yesterday, to program some five songs. I expect to invest another twelve hours into fixing the bass drum tracks before I am ready to move on to the next phase.

The Next Step

I am pleased to say that the remaining tracks are in a position where I should be able to work with them. Everything else recorded well enough that I should be able to produce a recording which will meet my expectations.

I will need to listen to each individual track on each song, and listen for clicks, pops, and even wrong notes. If something can be fixed by editing, or even by overdubbing, I may have to consider that option.

I will have to administer plugins to the individual tracks. This includes EQ, compression, and reverb. Applied properly, this allows the individual tracks to "find their place in the mix". This is an exhaustive process which can take days, but the results are well worth the investment.

The next logical step in the recording process is called mixing -- this is where all the instruments are balanced with respect to one another to produce one cohesive sound coming out of your speakers. The mix is then "bounced down" to 2 tracks -- one file of all the instruments, instead of multiple files being played simultaneously. This is often thought of the format that most people consume music, but this isn't exactly true.

The Master

Before audio is distributed to the masses, a mixed file goes through a process called mastering. The mixed file undergoes a little compression, EQing, and other refinements, which puts a "sheen" or "glitter" to the final mix. It also ensures that there aren't any transients that might potentially blow the speakers out of their cabinets. The master is then burned to a disc conveniently called "the Master", which is the recording from which all subsequent copies are duplicated from.

Status

As you can see, there are 400 things that have to happen in order for me to get the band's demo out to club owners, and I am on number 8. If anything exciting happens in my travels between here and there, I expect to make a note of it here.

If you are still reading this, I sincerely hope that you have found this read to be informative and insightful.

South Park Was Right...

2008-04-03T10:39:00.004-06:00

I can't believe it... South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were right ten years ago.

Scientists have been successful in creating the six-assed monkey.

Actually, more accurately, they have managed to splice the DNA of a Pig and an Elephant... "Didn't you ever hear that song by Loverboy?"

Actually, more precisely, scientists have managed to create a human-animal hybrid embryo -- which isn't too far off the mark of Parker's and Stone's predictions from South Park's first season.

You can read all about that story here.

I think I can handle the above news, but I'm running for the hills if I ever discover a 50-foot satellite dish sticking out of my ass.

Day 2

2008-04-02T00:15:00.004-06:00

This is officially Day 2 of being unemployed -- partially out of choice, but mostly due to necessity. In the last 2 days I have fielded phone calls from friends and relatives inquiring if I am bored out of my tree yet, which incidentally, I have found rather amusing. In fact, I am not running out of things to do.

For example, I spent most of the afternoon laying on the couch since I pulled something out of place in my upper back, and it was excruciating to do most actions, including sitting. So I took a muscle relaxant and found myself quite stoned for the afternoon. I found it difficult to focus, and my eyes were drooping. This somewhat threw my plans for the day out the window, as I fully expected to spend the day sitting on the couch watching game shows.

Okay, this story is a little embellished. It is true, however, that I have a long list of projects that need to be done around my house. Much of it can be accomplished with this fantastic new product that has recently been brought to my attention: It's called Swiffer.

Perhaps you've heard of it.

Derelict

2008-03-17T23:13:00.006-06:00

The more time I spend on this weblog, the more I begin to realize how much like my psyche this site begins to resemble. By this, I mean, that this place -- much like my mind -- is a total mess, unkempt, broken, and in need of a major overhaul. I have been trying to motivate myself (when there's time) to add tags to all the blog posts, but that has since been tossed at the bottom of the priority heap. I've been trying to give this site a facelift, but unfortunately it continues to recede... not unlike my hairline.

I continue to convince myself that things are going to change, and they will in two weeks. I hope I can find the motivation and desire to make this site, and the others I maintain to appear in the way that I have been envisioning. But that has much more to do with how much energy I have (and how many daytime game-shows I insist on watching), than how motivated I am.

Most of the weblinks situated on the sidebar are broken. Tags are missing from more than 300 posts. I finally fixed a broken picture of me, and it took me how long? It was only today I realized that the image hosting site I was dependent on a scent few years go went tits up God-only-knows-how-long-ago. It was a damn good thing that I have kept backups of this site, as I have managed to retain 95% of the images that disappeared into the black hole known as the internet. Still, I have to re-upload every image manually -- and after some 20 minutes of frustration, I managed only to resurrect about a half-dozen images.

Once April 1st hits, things are going to be totally different. Say goodbye to MC Fro, the tree-hugging hippie, and say hello to MC Fro the Trailer-Trash Hermit. It's probably just as good; I likely destroyed more trees in my tenure as an Environmental Consultant than I managed to save. But that's another story for another day.

It's time to start cleaning up everything. This includes my house, my yard, my car, my website, my mind, and my life.

Deep Freeze

2008-01-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

If any of my readers browse through the news headlines (or perhaps are unfortunate enough to be living it), they would be aware that the great Canadian Prairies are in an Arctic deep freeze where we are experiencing temperatures as low as -40˚ Celsius, with wind chill factors in excess of -50˚. For those who are fortunate enough to never have to endure these temperatures, exposed flesh freezes in under a minute, and necessities such as fuel will freeze in your gas tank.

I am writing this because I am currently 90 minutes minutes late for work, as my car has been rendered the equivalent of a large maroon ice cube. The block heater has been plugged in for the last 2 hours, and I've been trying to turn over the engine every 30 minutes, though my attempts have currently proved fruitless.

I realize now that my car should have been plugged in overnight, but the forecast stated that temperatures were expected to rise overnight. Once again, the "Precision Weather Forecast" was far from being precise.

In ten minutes, I will once again venture out into the abyss and make another futile attempt to start my car. Otherwise, I could attest these turn of events as fate telling me not to leave the house today.

You know what it's like in the Yukon wild when it's sixty-nine below;
When the ice-worms wriggle their purple heads through the crust of the pale blue snow;
When the pine trees crack like little guns in the silence of the wood,
And the icicles hang down like tusks under the parka hood;
When the stove-pipe smoke breaks sudden off, and the sky is weirdly lit,
And the careless feel of a bit of steel burns like a red-hot spit;
When the mercury is a frozen ball, and the frost-fiend stalks to kill --
Well, it was just like that that day when I set out to look for Bill.

-- Robert W. Service: "The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill"

UPDATE:

I managed to get my car started, and arrived at work at 10:30AM, a full two and a half hours late.

Apple Zealot? Hardly.

2008-01-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

Those who know me might argue otherwise, but according to this poll, I'm only 64% addicted to the Apple brand and their products. In all honesty, I figured I would have scored higher.

64%

Matt Good, on the other hand, was quite proud to achieve a score of 76%.

There Was Something In The Air That Night

2008-01-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

In recent weeks, there has been a considerable amount of buzz around the Macworld 2008 Keynote. Rumors of new Apple Computers and products have had Mac zealots frothing at the mouth, while placing bets at what might just be under the black curtains at Apple's booth. By this morning, the buzz had grown to such proportions that the commotion outside Moscone Center this morning was reported to be near-pandemonium.

Though I have yet to watch the keynote address, I was reading the highlights via live web feeds, so I have least, some idea what Steve Jobs had to say -- which I could honestly say, wasn't as Earth-shattering as some keynotes have been in years past.

The biggest news, of course was the announcement of the MacBook Air, a new notebook with a new form factor, which should have the competition running back to their drawing boards. Now, there is nothing new with ultra-light, ultra-portable, or ultra-small computers -- except that these types of notebooks are crippled in one way or another. They usually have under-sized keyboards, are under-powered, too small a screen, limited expandability, or too little battery life. So why should Apple be any different?

Apple did some very impressive things with their new notebook. It is the thinnest design of any notebook in production today. At its' thickest, the notebook is 0.76" (1.94 cm) thick at its' rear, and it tapers to a mind-boggling 0.16" (0.4cm) thin at the front. Apple also ensured that the computer weigh as little as possible, as their new model is a scant 3 pounds (1.36kg) -- roughly half of what conventional notebook computers weigh today. To further complement the new design, Apple included a 13" widescreen, and a full-size laptop keyboard. The Power Plant inside the MacBook Air includes 2 Gigabytes of RAM, an 80 Gigabyte Hard drive, a 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 802.11n wireless, built-in Bluetooth 2.1, and 5 hours of battery life. Most impressive of all, is that Apple is incorporating their multi-touch technology -- as evident in their iPhones, into this new notebook. This means you can pinch, stretch, rotate, zoom, scroll, and rearrange with 2 or 3-finger gestures on the trackpad.

And you can have one of these beauties in two weeks for $1799.00 US. Some pundits feel the price point is a little steep; others feel that it is much cheaper than some of the competitions' ultra-thin portables.

As fantastic as the new machine sounds, I am not the least bit interested in buying one. Why? What did Apple skimp on in order to produce such a lightweight machine?

Well, I suppose it depends on your intended uses for said machine. If all you are going to do is write school papers, listen to music, write emails and surf the web, then this may just be the machine for you. If I were going to College this year, this would be the notebook I would buy -- simply because it is smaller and lighter than a binder I would tote in my backpack.

One thing I do require a notebook for is mobile recording -- and nearly all recording interfaces use Firewire. Guess what? Apple removed the firewire port on the MacBook Air to save space and weight. Strike one. I suppose I could purchase a recording interface that employs USB 2.0, but that's another story altogether.

A 1.8", 80-gigabyte hard drive (the same ones used in Apple's iPods) are used in the MacBook Air, to conserve space and weight. Sadly, 80 gigabytes doesn't cut it for hard drive space these days. Strike two. In order to solve the problem, an external drive would be required to store the user's photos, music, movies, and documents, which brings me to my next beef.

Apple included only one USB port on the MacBook Air. While other notebook manufacturers are including as many as four USB ports on their portables, I feel this a poor area to cut corners in. Only geeks know how to set up and run wireless print servers; the rest of us plug in our printers via USB. Some of us like external keyboards and mice; especially while working at a desk. Not to mention, we plug in our iPods and digital cameras. Not enough USB ports? Strike three. I suppose you could buy a USB hub to connect all your peripherals to.

Apple further slimmed the design by omitting the optical drive. You can buy a specially-designed external drive from Apple for 100 bucks (sold separately, of course). Now, I agree that my optical drives get little usage; I likely burn 1 disc per month, but it's the security blanket issue that concerns me (what I mean by this is explained below). Apple has been ingenious in designing a clever little application that allows the user to 'hijack' the optical drive of a networked machine, and have the software install on the MacBook via a wireless network connection. I am quite intrigued by this technology, if it works, then it will be really cool to witness, and may spell the end of optical drives on portables. What scares me, is how does one boot from a system recovery disc on this machine, if, heaven forbid, the hard drive fails? I would like to do further research into their wireless-optical-drive-hijacking thingy before I administer another strike.

The MacBook Air does not have built-in Ethernet. Its only connection to the rest of the world is via its' wireless capabilities. You can, however, purchase a USB to Ethernet dongle and connect to your local area network that way. Another cursed dongle. As far as Ethernet goes, I don't think I have ever connected my notebook to the network via Ethernet, so I am unsure if this is deserving of a strike.

Apple ensured that every MacBook Air comes stock with 2 Gigabytes of RAM installed. What they don't tell you is that there is no room for expansion. That's right, the RAM is non-upgradeable. Now, 2 gigabytes of RAM should be enough for a year or two, but when will it not be enough? Remember, Bill Gates once said that 640k of RAM ought to be enough for everybody. Strike four.

Now, I am speculating here, but I imagine that a lot of the exciting technologies that are evident in the new MacBook Air will find their way into the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines by their next revision. I am specifically referring to the multi-touch technology Apple is continually developing, though given the relative success (or failure) of solid-state storage, and the lack of optical drives may deterime which technologies make it into these new machines. I know the MacBook Air by now sounds really compromised. Remember what all the pundits said about the iMac when it was released in 1997? "No SCSI? No ADB? No Floppy Drive? What is Steve thinking!?" They all predicted it would fail miserably -- and it was a grand slam. So we could be wrong. Maybe missing some of these features isn't much of an issue after all.

The following features would be the only things that would get me excited about purchasing a new notebook: LED backight (already in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro), lighter weight, and longer battery life (I want 8 hours!), but I am unwilling to compromise on such issues as RAM (expandable to at least 4 Gigabytes), and drive storage. And since I often deal with high-end audio production, so Firewire and Gigabit Ethernet are a must-have on my ideal machine.

So no MacBook Air for me. Although, I think we will see new MacBooks in exciting new form factors in the coming months, and those will be impressive machines. They will be thinner than the current models too -- just not as 'thin as air'.

I wonder how long it will take Low End Mac to dub this machine a 'Road Apple'.

2007: Year of the Empty Bank Account

2008-01-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Before I get into too many details, I'd like to wish my readers a belated Merry Humbug and a Happy Hangover Day. I hope your last week has been filled with joy, fellowship, and lots of 'walking through the winter, drink in hand'.

The pillaging of the tree this year wasn't quite the cache as it has been in years past, though all I really asked for was clothes. I did however, brave the lineup at Visions on Boxing Day, and walked out with a 40" Samsung LCD high-definition television. I'll be feeling the pinch of that purchase when my January credit card bill arrives.

It has somewhat been a bit of a yearly tradition here at mcfro.blogspot.com that I take a few minutes on the first day of the new year to reflect what I accomplished this year, and what I would expect in the next 52 weeks to come.

Sifting through this year's posts, I have come to the early conclusion that I really didn't accomplish anything, given the astounding few number of posts there have been. I mean, there were at least three months were I didn't blog at all. Like I have said on here ad nauseum, I have been busy -- I've been lazy too, lethargic, exhausted, and unmotivated. It's all derived from worker burnout, and is a big reason why my New Year's resolution is to find a healthier work/life balance. Money can buy lots of things; but it can't buy sleep.

2007 got off to a very expensive start, as I quickly dropped four digits into a newer, faster, and larger iMac, which has, more or less, become a machine I use for audio production. Since the successful resurrection of my derelict iBook, I spend most of my web-surfing time on it instead of the desktop machine. Sure it's not the fastest, but it's good enough for most mundane tasks, and even runs a number of video games quite nicely. The laptop also keeps me out of the windowless basement, which ensures that I see more sunlight -- indispensable for someone like me who goes through mood wings and bouts of depression.

2007 continued with a string of large purchases, as in April I added a third drumset to my arsenal. Price is relative: though I got a great deal on the kit, I still paid a pretty penny for it. I have subsequently spent small sums over the course of the year for replacement parts and upgrades. The Canwoods have also seen a number of gigs already, so they are paying for themselves -- if they haven't already.

An expensive set of concert tickets allowed me to see the Police in concert in Edmonton. After paying for fuel, meals, accommodations, and toys, the trip escalated well into four digits, but it was worth every penny to see Stewart, Sting, And Summers together for the first time in nearly 25 years.

June also saw the most successful blog post on this site, ever. Skeet from medhatblog.com kindly linked to me from the website. Though it didn't elicit comments as I had hoped, it did generate scores of traffic -- over tenfold what I was accustomed to. It even increased my readership -- albeit temporarily. Had I continued blogging regularly, I may have managed to keep those readers, but they have since gone.

I guess this was where I really got lazy. Now that I was generating a great deal more traffic than I had been, I also felt increasing pressure to be delivering work of exceptional quality in order to maintain that readership. That was, to say the least a little daunting. In one hand, the site was beginning to become what I had wanted it to become (popular!). On the other hand, I didn't have the energy to invest the time and effort required to make this site what it was becoming. So I sat on my haunches and meditated on what I wanted to do with this site. The next thing I knew, nearly four months had passed, with nary a post on this site, and all my readers found other weblogs to be entertained by. Thus, the answer became clear -- I'll just write about my insignificant little life whenever I am inspired, and if readership increases, great. If they do not, that's still great too.

The first entry since my 'hiatus', was a review of Matthew Good's performance at Medicine Hat College this November. The posting also generated a fair amount of interest from readers across Canada, including a few views from Mr. Good himself. He didn't drop a note, but he left a trail of bread crumbs that said he had been here.

Musically, 2007 has been a year of transition and flux. The Savoys took an extra long vacation this year, and by the time the band got back together to prepare for this year, it became clear that the band would be falling apart. We have best intentions to continue in 2008, and we are currently auditioning a replacement for BG, which we should know in a week if he is the right guy -- or not.

Tung 'N' Groove also got out of our heads and onto the stage. It took a great deal of rehearsing, and a large number of hefty equipment purchases, but we are now gigging regularly, and continue to build a dedicated following. We have secured a number of dates for 2008, which will be posted on the band's website when I have both time and motivation.

I hope everyone's 2008 is a prosperous one. See you (hopefully) soon.

Tuning Lug Annoyances

2007-12-18T13:46:00.001-07:00

Ed. Note: This is the fourth entry into the "Canwood Drum Restoration" thread that I began writing this past April. For those who are interested in reading the first three entries, you can view them here, here and here.

An update to this project is long overdue, and my work is far from finished. But recall me saying that this would be a labor of love. It may take me a few more years to get the kit back to 100%, but it's the journey that most rewarding.

Of most importance, was getting the snare drum back into a condition where I could use it as a primary snare drum. It may be difficult to see from the pictures, but I measured the drum to be 4.5" deep by 14" diameter. I already had a Yamaha maple 4 x 14 drum in my arsenal, so I needed to find a a way to make this drum have a different character than the Yamaha.

The Canwood snare had been heavily used. A few of the tuning lugs were broken, the tuning hoops were rusting in areas, The snare throw-off was broken, and the snare wires were stretched. New snares and the throw-off were purchased in a local music store and fitted on the drum in a pinch, but some of the harder-to-find parts, such as the tuning lug swivel nuts wouldn't be found in my city.

Enter Drummaker.com. Searching through their vast inventory, I placed an order which included a pile of nylon lug washers, swivel nuts to refit every tuning lug on the snare, two "mighty-hoops" and a tube of machine thread grease, made by Loc-Tite. Now we are underway to do some serious restoration!

That's when I hit the first hurdle. It ended up that the swivel nuts I ordered did not fit my tuning lug casings (the ones I purchased were square; whereas mine were hexagon-shaped). That left me scouring eBay for the proper parts. I eventually found 2, and paid more in shipping than what I paid for the items -- go figure.

Once I had all the hardware off the snare drum, I again inspected the shell. The shell is quite round -- the drumheads spin freely on the drum, though there is a slight variance of about 1/16" in diameter. It's not severe, yet not perfect either. Now came the hard part: checking the trueness of the bearing edges. To do so, you need a perfectly flat surface. "One slab of marble, please."

This might have been the first time in my life that I wished I had a pool table in my house. My kitchen countertops are far from being perfectly flat. The closest thing I had was a mirror -- and I doubt a 16" X 24" mirror from Wal-Mart is perfectly flat.

But beggars can't be choosers, and a close approximation is better than none at all. So the mirror found a spot on the bedroom floor, the lights were turned off, the drum shell was placed on the mirror, and I shone a flashlight inside the shell.

Yup. Just what I had feared.

Over time, even the best-made drums can suffer from tortion. Poor tuning practices, transportation, changes in temperature and moisture can have an effect on the shape of the drum. Thus, the bearing edges are no longer true. The variation is very small -- 1/32" at the worst places, but in the world of drumming an untrue bearing edge can lead to nightmares. It is true that bearing edges can be re-cut, however the problem arises in finding a skilled craftsman whom you trust to perform such a delicate operation. One small mistake, and the drum is ruined. Alas, the bearing edges will have to wait. The snare was re-assembled using the new parts.

After a few gigs, I began to realize a mistake I had made during the first phase of restoration: Petroleum jelly.

AKA Vaseline. As it turns out, it is a fantastic lubricant. In fact, it's a little too good. There still needs to be a little bit of friction between the tuning lug and the swivel nut, for the drumhead to maintain pitch. What I found out, is that there was little to no friction at all, and my drums were detuning themselves at an alarming rate. It got so bad, that I was often tuning my drums twice a set (once every 5-6 songs). To compare, I was used to tuning my drums once per weekend.

So out came cleaning rags, and the Q-tips, and an afternoon was spent wiping each tuning lug free of vaseline. The Q-tips were run in and out of every swivel nut. I even tried placing a drop of the Loc-Tite machine thread grease on each lug. Then I found more problems.

A number of my tuning lugs were bent. They will undoubtedly need replacement. It appears another order to Drumbuilder.com will be placed in the near future. I reassembled the drums and gigged with them again.

Well the drums hold their pitch a little better, but they still detune more than they should. Maybe I'm just using a little too much grease. Wiping off any excess from the tuning lugs should allow them to behave they way they should.

From my standpoint, the upgrading of the drumset will continue in three phases. The first phase continues the hardware upgrade. This includes replacing bent tuning lugs, and installing nylon washers. All other tuning hoops should be inspected to see if they are flat. If not, they require replacement.

Phase two will include hiring a skilled craftsman to re-cut the bearing edges. This should eliminate most of the tuning issues I have with the drums.

Phase three is purely cosmetic; the drums are to be re-finished. A color is yet to be determined. This would also be the opportune time to replace the wooden hoops on the bass drum.