The Music of Jenny and Peter in Ottawa, Canada

The business of music is on my mind not so much making music

2011-08-22T04:31:00.002-04:00

I have been looking into owning a new Fender bass on an interest free loan a music store is offering. Instead, I will save up a 500$ downpayment and pay interest over two years for a Fender Jazz bass if I can afford to save up the 500$ downpayment.

We opened a new web site with guitar sheet music.

2011-07-24T20:29:00.001-04:00

Peter started a web site with penatonic minor guitar pieces here http://www.sizzlingsurfminors.com/.

Starting to explore musicians wanted adds online.

2011-06-29T05:10:00.002-04:00

I started replying to musicians wanted adds for bassists. I posted an add of my own looking for weekend jamming.

Slowing down a bit on music production.

2011-04-24T02:17:00.000-04:00

Peter has been relearning the melodic minor scale and using that for sequences. No new equipment has been purchased lately. Peter needs a short speaker cable for his bass amplifier. Peter inquired about getting the light on his new Fender guitar amplifier fixed. The Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is under warranty for another 9 months.

Hydrogen drum machine.

2011-03-21T21:41:00.002-04:00

I experimented for about half an hour learning Hydrogen a GNU/Linux software drum machine. It is cool and I made some steady boring patterns and songs. Check it out here http://www.hydrogen-music.org/.

Study books

2011-03-12T03:10:00.001-05:00

One book I started reading early Saturday morning is The Principles of Correct Pratice for Guitar by Jamie Andreas.

I did not buy a new guitar after all.

2011-03-10T10:02:00.001-05:00

I had my eyes on a Joe Strummer Fender Telecaster on ebay but lost the auction.

Paying off the loans for the new equipment well.

2011-03-06T20:00:00.001-05:00

So far I have afforded to pay off the loans for the new guitars and amplifier. My tax return is going to be spend on a new guitar. This is on ebay though so I am not sure yet until I win the auction.

We played live for a show.

2011-02-20T03:57:00.001-05:00

We played Clouds, Whichever the Way and We Passed the Dawn live at a small amatuer concert. Someone filmed this performance.

We recorded Clouds a couple of time as practice

2011-01-31T21:47:00.001-05:00

We recorded Clouds with a Les Paul. Peter really needs to practice the guitar more.

We opened a Twitter account.

2011-01-31T16:56:00.001-05:00

You can read our tweets here http://twitter.com/#!/dreambeamca

More new instruments purchased.

2011-01-22T12:47:00.002-05:00

I continued to borrow money from music stores. I bought a Gibson SG faded series bass from one store again at zero percent interest. I also bought a Fender Mustang bass, again brand new and again at zero percent interest. I have wanted a Mustang bass for years and the sound turns out to be very similar to my Fender Musicmaster bass.

I bought a brand new Gibson Les Paul Studio

2010-10-03T14:15:00.001-04:00

I have a picture of myself at about 19 years of age playing a Les Paul copy on stage in a spot light. This inspired me to find a Les Paul as I am looking for a 6 string to play through the Roland Bolt 60. I surfed ebay for awhile on the weekend looking at Les Paul auctions, then a facebook link to Long and McQuade a popular Canadian instrument store allowed me to read their status update offering zero percent interest on Gibson products in October. I went to the store yesterday. Usually at instrument stores I come away without what I wanted and am insulted by staff. I have almost never bought new gear and the very few new instruments. Well yesterday they approved my loan and I came home with a brand new Gibson Les Paul Studio 6 string guitar. It will cost me about 108$ per month for one year.

New amp.

2010-09-19T14:04:00.001-04:00

I am purchasing an electric guitar amp, a Roland Bolt 60 which is a hybrid tube solid state amp. It was made in the 1980's I believe.

I have sold the 5 string Godin Freeway 5 bass

2010-09-19T14:01:00.001-04:00

I sold my Godin Freeway 5 bass for 300$. I piad 365$ for it so it cost me 65$ to play a 5 string bass for a few months.

I loaned out for sale two 12 inch PA speakers, the Peavey CS-400 and Mackie mixer.

2010-09-19T13:29:00.002-04:00

My old drummer Nick took a functioning PA by taking the Peavey CS-400, the two 12 inch Peavey PA speakers and the Mackie 12 channel mixer. I loaned it to him for free because he can not afford to buy it. He may buy it in the future by paying me some money each month. I priced it at cost 540$, if he buys it from me.

I placed the five PA speakers around the corners of my home office and hooked them up.

2010-05-21T06:35:00.002-04:00

This morning around 5 AM I hooked up the four speakers I have to the PA system. I don't have a fifth speaker cable for the new used monitor speaker. I did place all five speakers around the corners of my home office. I also moved the SKB Mixer Rack against my supercomputer shelves.

I have set up the mixing rack again with a Mackie 1202

2010-04-01T05:02:00.002-04:00

I bought a used in rusty shape Mackie 1202 mixer. I screwed it into the rack last night and hooked it up to the Peavey CS-400. I am mostly gathering music equipment into my office as I try to clean up more.

I decided not to sell the G&L 4 string Fretless bass because It is the best instrument I have ever owned.

2010-03-03T03:47:00.002-05:00

I was going to sell this bass so I could take a trip. Now I have changed my mind.

I have now put the fretless bass up for sale.

2010-02-27T12:03:00.003-05:00

This G&L L2000 fretless bass is by far one of the most beautiful instruments I have owned. I am going to sell it now if I can so I can pay for a computer programming learning trip to a conference.

Two steps forward one step back.

2010-02-07T12:21:00.002-05:00

Here I am referring to finances. I went all out last spring getting a used Ampeg B4 solid state bass head and then an Ampeg 4X10 HLF cabinet. I just did not use these much. I loaned it out to family a little. Someone heard it while it was out on loan and wanted to buy it. I decided I needed the money to avoid financial problems so I sold it. I solved my financial problems this month.

This is the 100th post to this blog and there is a link here to a bass warm up piece adapted from Dave LaRue's warm up piece the Spider.

2010-01-10T04:14:00.004-05:00

Here is a link to a warm up piece for 5 sting bass in a (http://webpagex.org/music/spider1.pdf) pdf file I wrote with Lily Pond software and adapted Dave LaRue's piece in the Bass Player book for 5 string bass.

Music study today.

2009-12-27T20:39:00.004-05:00

I practiced today exploring the 12 bars. I also practiced my right hand work. I am trying to even out the use of my two fingers to be more even rather than depending on only one finger. The thumb is my default. I also bought some picks when I bought the five string bass. I sound quite good with a pick. I am very quick with a pick.

Also today I installed and used Lily Pond music notation software. I explored some example files from the documentation.

I also worked on my bass practice spreadsheet and have now decided that I need a computer folder to organize the songs so that I can store MP3's of the songs as originally recorded and also store versions of myself playing them. The best software tool for this would be a web page and html. So I need to save my practice spreadsheet as html. Rather I will convert the spreadsheet to text.

The bass rig and its money value....

2009-12-23T03:57:00.002-05:00

I rented my bass rig out again last weekend and the weekend before that. I have now gained 150$ renting it out. The total cost for all the rig was around 2000$ including cables. So it has paid for about 7.5% of itself. Also the person using it is now interested in buying it. Someone else who heard it is also interested in buying it. I discussed this with the guy who played with it. My career vision for myself would not be served well with this sale, as I see myself playing music for fun in my future ten years from now.

Peter is purchasing a 5 string bass: a Godin Freeway.

2009-11-24T05:22:00.003-05:00

Here is the manufacturers web site page about this bass. http://www.godinguitars.com/godinfreewaybassp.htm. The frets are perfect and it is very well made bass guitar.

The PA system was loaned out to some folk singer songwriters

2009-11-02T16:54:00.002-05:00

There was a benefit concert for the Alliance to End Homelessmess and we loaned our PA out to this. I found I do not know how to operate the AudioPro AP812 mixer properly. Also the speaker cables I bought from Futureshop were noisy and unreliable. I won't be buying music gear from Futureshop in the future. I was temped by credit in this case. I much prefer layaways at proper music stores to finance equipment purchases. We managed with a more professional sound tech who brought his Allen and Health mixing board for the initial stage mix. We only used the AP812 in mono to power the speakers. I think, we could use one more monitor speaker. We also used the Trace Elliot TR100 acoustic guitar amp as a monitor.

Jenny and Peter volunteered at the Ottawa Folk Festival for a third year now.

2009-08-23T07:39:00.002-04:00

We were volunteering at the folk festival again this year. Last night we both were able to hear the Bruce Cockburn show. He played all our favorite songs. Peter volunteered in safety patrol and Jenny volunteered on the enviro-dish crew.

I sold the Hartke bass now that I have a G&L L2000.

2009-08-09T04:08:00.002-04:00

I sold the Hartke bass now that I have a G&L L2000 fretless bass. I can not justify having three basses.

Mixing bass

2009-06-26T01:09:00.002-04:00

I did finally get my little Behringer UB1002FX mixer working. I might divide my bass signal with this mixer into my main head, my tube preamp and my Mooger Fooger pedal. These last two would then go into the PA. I would use the left right pan and control room out to do this. The Mooger Fooger has a stereo output so I could even imagine mixing my tube preamp on one side of the Moog. Ah, music gear. My trial license for Adobe Audition recording software has run out now.

We now have a new power mixer a Yorkville AP812.

2009-05-13T16:08:00.002-04:00

We bought a Yorkville AP812 power mixer and two new used Peavey 12 inch PA speaker cabinets. This was basically paid for with tax money and retirement funds.

The Ampeg B4 is now serviced and working fine.

2009-05-13T07:10:00.000-04:00

I had Tom Stewart at Spaceman Music fix the Ampeg B4 and it is now working great. The total cost in Canadian dollars so about 560 and 180 for repairs so about 740 for the 1000 watt bass head.

I have a used Hartke bass now and Ampeg B4 head circa 1999.

2009-04-20T19:37:00.002-04:00

Peter bought two musical equipment items on ebay lately. He bought a used Hartke bass and a used Ampeg B4. The Ampeg needs work.

Practicing Jenny's chords.

2009-02-04T16:14:00.002-05:00

I have been playing the guitar more lately. I have played the Ovation we own at least once a week the past three weeks and it is right beside our favorite couch spot in the living room. It is ready to go and then back safely in the case where it is now.

Of course, I still play only the 12 bar blues but within this I try for variety like last night playing 6 and 8 bars which seem brighter. I also am working on the open Chords I must be able to play much better to perform Jenny's original songs. I am very weak on transitioning between open chords. I have also been working on my fret board pressure.

I did borrow a book from the school library on Cello technique that is in the opening chapter applicable to a player of any instrument. I have also been reading about the Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar movement of the middle and late 1800's.

Using M-Audio Quattro USB interface.

2009-01-25T15:37:00.002-05:00

I played a few cycles of the 12 bar bass through the Trace Elliot and then into the Quattro and into my eMac and used Garage Band ( the basic Apple Mac music editing software) to record this and then covert it to an MP3 and listen in iTunes. So this Quattro interface will work with Mac OS X 10.4 and will use Garage Band. Now I might buy a used iBook that can run Mac OS X 10.4 and use this on top of our Roto Rack 10 U wheeled rack.

Peter's old song: Its hard not to think of the planet

2008-09-02T20:56:00.000-04:00

Its hard not to think of the planet
=====================

key of E
chords are E G A B BAGE
play bar chords and lift off on fifth and tonic for rhythm.

E
Its hard not to think of the planet
G
Its hard not to think of the earth
A
When I think of the planet
B
I think of what is all worth
BAGE
What its all worth
EE

same cords
second verse
Its hard not to think of the ocean
Its hard not to think of the sea
When I think of of the ocean
I think of what loves done to me
What loves done to me

same cords third verse
Its hard not to think of the twilight
Its hard not to think of the sky
When I think of the twilight
I think of how the earth is going to die
How its going to die

repeat first verse etc

Copyright Peter Timusk aka Pierre Anoid aka Pete Nasty

Wheeling and dealing music gear not producing much

2008-08-10T06:43:00.001-04:00

I have been trying to sell some of my gear or trade it. Nothing much has resulted out of this.

We are both volunteering at the folk festival again.

2008-08-08T23:09:00.001-04:00

Both Jenny and Peter are volunteers again at the folk festival.

We now have a new mixer a Behringer UB 1002FX but no power supply.

2008-05-10T13:21:00.003-04:00

I bought on ebay a new UB 1002FX Behringer 10 channel mixer that allows two XLR microphones connections. The mixer though did not include a power supply but the seller gave me a partial refund to cover buying a new power supply. We also have two Shure SM 58 microphones and these are almost brand new. So now we need a guitar preamp and we are set. The next part of the plan for this year is to purchase a Peavey 4 way power amp and with that two more PA speakers. These should be something that can handle 250 watts at 8 ohms like my present Peavey 115DL's. I guess these should be Peavey as well. Also the preamp will be a Radial foot box preamp.

We are getting a new mixer and have been practicing a bit this week.

2008-05-09T04:31:00.003-04:00

I checked out a Fender Squier Jazz bass at the local store but can not afford it right now. It played well though and the thought of having a second bass that is new has not passed from my mind yet. We did purchase on ebay a new 10 channel mixer which will allow two XLR microphones.So now we need a pre amp for the acoustic guitar and I think we will try to buy a radial preamp footbox for acoustics.

The people in power do not really like music.

2008-04-22T22:40:00.002-04:00

You can not eat music one is left feeling after being told music is not allowed in the working world. Music making is anti productive in our society. This is another reason making music does not happen.

I avoided music for a few days.

2008-03-22T02:40:00.002-04:00

I avoided playing for a few days. I did set up a wish list at the Musician's Friend web site. I also managed some messages between myself an old acquaintance about music. This old friend was the son of a music teacher and has said he has a software set up for music. In the past he has intimidated me about music and love.

New domain name and Facebook Page.

2008-03-16T04:59:00.001-04:00

We started to develop our web presence with a facebook page and now a domain name for our new name Dream Beam to point here. Our old band name the one we just dropped was "the Red Dove".

Small press bookfair today.

2007-10-27T02:41:00.000-04:00

Jenny and I are at the Small Press Bookfair today. She will sell her poetry book. I will show off my anthology books that have William Gibson's signature before mailing one of them to the first editor in England.

Clouds played in folk festival volunteer party.

2007-09-20T20:34:00.001-04:00

Jenny and myself played her song clouds at a volunteer party for the folk festival volunteers. See this picture.

Jenny and Peter are volunteering at the Ottawa folk festival

2007-08-14T04:33:00.002-04:00

Jenny and Peter are volunteering this coming weekend on the folk festival. Peter did some advanced volunteering on this year's theme which is t feature Woodie Guthrie.

Jenny and Peter are volunteering at the Ottawa folk festival

2007-08-14T04:33:00.001-04:00

Jenny and Peter are volunteering this coming weekend on the folk festival. Peter did some advanced volunteering on this year's theme which is to feature Woodie Guthrie. We will be there mostly in the afternoon's and early evenings but not performing. We will be helping others perform.

We attended the Johnny Winter show and enjoyed it.

2007-03-30T03:50:00.000-04:00

The Johnny Winter show was small and enjoyable. We did wait in the rain snow mix for about an hour before being let in. We enjoyed hearing the excellent playing of the instruments and for most of the evening the bands were three piece guitar, bass, drums. I played in these types of three piece bands in the 1990's.

Some better pictures of my new guitar.

2007-02-24T06:50:00.000-05:00

I hope these pictures give a better idea of my new guitar.

Photos of new Guitar

2007-02-15T05:39:00.000-05:00

Here are some photos of the guitar and amplifier that we recently bought.

We opened a My Space page for our band The Incense Essence but we still have no recordings to share.

2007-02-03T20:32:00.000-05:00

I spent an hour or so establishing a myspace.com membership for the incense essence.

It is here at this address: http://www.myspace.com/theincenseessence.

Enjoy our web presence.

I did layaway a Schecter Custom PT telecaster.

2007-01-26T19:44:00.000-05:00

This guitar made by www.schecterguitars.com is my best guitar to date but I have only played it a few minutes now. I should have it paid for and home in about a month. I have played guitar the past two days now.

The incense essence are going to hear Johnny Winter this spring,

2007-01-20T02:52:00.000-05:00

Rob, Jennifer and myself are going to hear Johnny Winter play some blues this March. It will be the first show we have paid for in years. It will also be the first live music for 2007 for us. Mighty Popo are having a CD release party soon that we are also considering attending.

Changed my mind about buying a guitar.

2007-01-20T01:53:00.001-05:00

I changed my mind about buying a guitar this month.

Buying a good quality six string.

2007-01-19T05:13:00.000-05:00

I decided to get a better quality six string guitar. I may be purchasing a custom telecaster this weekend.

I sold the applause bass.

2007-01-15T04:58:00.000-05:00

I was able to sell the applause bass. I got a fair amount of money for it. But lost about 350$ on the original cost. But I played this when younger and it served me well. It may have had some sentimental value but the times I had with it were not the greatest. I had gigged with it and used it on stage. I had used it to imitate a cello.

Trying to sell the peavey power amp and applause bass.

2007-01-11T21:36:00.000-05:00

I am trying out Kijiji to sell some of our music equipment. I am offering to sell the Peavey power amp and the applause bass.

Women's Blues

2006-12-31T04:54:00.000-05:00

We did two run throughs of the songWomen's Blues today. Jenny sang while I played a fast single note six string twleve bar blues. I used a pentonic scale to play the blues as I always do. I am not yet able to smoothly improvise the blues at the speed I play it at. I try but I mess up.

We are learning some labour songs today.

2006-12-30T10:24:00.000-05:00

Jenny picked out three labour songs for us to learn. I will be able to play Women's Blues right away as it is a twelve bar blues tune. I have not looked at the music for the other two songs but I will try to learn the music today. We may play a few of these songs February 6th or 7th weekend at a union event.

The new amplifier is beautiful

2006-12-30T10:22:00.000-05:00

The new amplifier is really sweet. I have it playing through my PA cabinets at the moment. It has a good rough sound and is loud. I may buy the amp its own cabinet.

I paid off the amplifier head.

2006-12-24T07:53:00.000-05:00

I now own a Trace Elliot guitar amplfier head. I got a ride around town with a union activist and we went to the Song Bird store and I paid the final payment on the new amp head. I brought it home and put it under the tree.

Another new song written

2006-12-24T07:52:00.000-05:00

I am playing my six string more. I wrote some nice pop punk song chords and again recorded this on my iPod using my iTalk microphone.

New guitar amp and still shopping for the cabinet.

2006-12-23T11:38:00.000-05:00

I am buying a guitar amplifier and it is only the second guitar amplifier I will have owned. This amp is a trace elliot guitar amp although the company is a bass guitar amplifier company. The amp produces signals at 80 watts for 4 ohms. I spent some time looking at a local builder's offerings for the speaker cabinet. The shop manager helped me price a few combinations of speakers in the local builders solid pine cabinets but as he said the store has much cheaper cabinets. The amp will be paid off in middle January so I can wait awhile now to do more thinking about the cabinet. I also have some PA cabinets that will at least work for now.

I wrote a poetic song using some Deep Purple notes.

2006-10-05T05:33:00.000-04:00

Using the notes from Smoke On The Water I wrote a political song which is more poetry to music. I wrote it in the early morning on the weekend and recorded it on my iPod using an iTalk microphone.

These are the names of the bands that I worked with last night.

2006-08-20T06:19:00.000-04:00

I set up the stages for these bands last night. First Autorickshaw and I bought their CD and had them autograph it. The second act I worked on was called Super. Their bassist used a short scale Fender like I play. His was the standard powder blue Fender. I then helped set up The Saddies who closed the night.

Ottawa Folkfest.

2006-08-19T06:28:00.000-04:00

I have met a new songwriter and his band wil be closing the folkfest this year. I will be volunteering at the folkfest and tearing down the main stage. This reminds me I need to sleep and also prepare my safety shoes and gloves and check my bass for travel. I am invited to a volunteer party late night tonight/Sunday morning and we can bring our instruments. The new songwriter is a professional associate in non musical work. I am lucky again to have this music contact through other activities. I have a new full time job now and may be able to build my PA system a bit more with my extra money. Or I can pay off the debit I incurred from the PA upgrade.

I would like to have may be 4 vocal microphones and 6 instrument microphones and also some DI boxes or other interfaces. I think buying this many that I will be buying the new discount Shure 58's and 57's which each come with cable for about 75$. This could be about 750$ worth of microphones.

In terms of computer recording I am waiting for an Intel Mac driver for my Quattro pro USB interface. But at this point I am also looking into firewire interfaces. But I should really get more experience with recording with my board.

I watched a classic album movie of Deep Purple's Machine Head.

2006-06-05T03:04:00.000-04:00

The first music I ever bought myself was the single of Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple. I enjoyed watching a film of that band tonight after work. I say tonight because I am still up from Sunday. In fact in 1998 I started to play Smoke on the Water with a band. I don't play it any more. In fact my PA equipment is all put away right now. In the movie the bassist Roger Glover used a mixing board to isolate tracks and thus instruments in their songs. These are songs I have heard for years. I study these songs. I am enjoying going around with my iPod listening to music these days.

I have been admitted to a diploma in Sonic Design.

2006-05-31T23:50:00.000-04:00

I have been admitted and accepted the offer to study towards a diploma in Sonic Design. This program is only five credits about 1 credit per year at Carleton university from the School for Studies in Art and Culture, and there is a web page describing it here at this URL http://www.carleton.ca/artandculture/sonicdesign/index.html.

Noise and hearing lose

2006-05-31T23:44:00.000-04:00

I am reading an international book produced by the World Health Organization on occupational noise exposure prevention. This book was paid for by the money I get from my union for expenses for my health and safety work at Carleton universities campus. But the book has the basics on acoustics and also hearing physiology. It also has information on hearing measurement and evaluation of noise in workplace. This includes plans to do a noise survey and also to calibrate noise measuring equipment.

I took my Fender Music Master bass in for a tune up.

2006-04-05T21:57:00.000-04:00

My Fender Music Master bass is in for repairs at the Song Bird music store. I hope to pick it up on Friday. It was not broken but it had not been set up for years. This is just a tune up but I asked the guitar tech to try to fix one fret on the A string which buzzes. I think this is the F note or F# note if I remember correctly.

I made a microphone protective box.

2006-03-29T04:18:00.000-05:00

I garbaged picked a metal tool box that is tall rather than long. It is sort of a file folder sized box. I used the foam packing from my latest Macintosh computer and cut some holes in a few layers of foam and made a microphone box. Usually microphone boxes are done with softer black spongy foam. I used the white styrofoam. It worked. I cleaned up the foam. I only have three microphones and one of them is in terrible physical shape and another is almost 20 years old.

Library books are helpful for learning music.

2006-03-04T20:21:00.000-05:00

Here are the music books I am borrowing at present:

Jungleib, Stanley. Generl Midi (Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1995).: This seems to be a book about MIDI written about the time sound cards became popular. I remember trying to buy a sound card for my IBM XT in the middle 1990's.
Rothstein, Joseph. MIDI: A Comprehensive Introduction (Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1992).: This book I have read the first chapter and will continue reading it even if it seems MIDI is more for keyboard players.
Brice, Richard. Music Engineering: The Electronics of Playing and Recording (Oxford: Newness, 1998).: I have read a few chapters of this book now. It is highly educational and I have learned a lot from it and discussed music waves with my dad who is an experimental physicist.

I downloaded manuals from the various music equipment makers web sites.

2006-02-20T23:22:00.000-05:00

I have printed all the manuals for my music equipment and have begun to read these manuals. It really is a lot to learn. I was able to get some signals through to the computer this past weekend but I have not done more than that. I need to read the manuals of the compressor/limiter/gate, the USB audio interface, and the mixer.

I have test recorded the bass and guitar so far this weekend.

2006-02-18T19:01:00.000-05:00

I hooked up the bass and mic'ed the guitar and both record but the signal is low. I don't really know how to use Garage Band yet and am just trying it out. I did read my mixer manaual once talking about learning. I need to read my Compressor manual now. I read about basic effects for recording eailer today.

Recording this weekend.

2006-02-17T05:06:00.000-05:00

I just hooked up the mixer, the USB interface, the bass, the microphone, and power amp and that's all I have cables for right now. I put the control room mix into the power amp. I put the bass into channel 1. It seems channel 3 is dead on the mixer as the microphone won't work there. It did work on channel 4. But I also changed the cables so it may have been the microphone cable. I patched the mains out to the USB interface. I just tested the control room to power amp and room speakers so far with the bass and microphone. They work but it was past 11 so I did not do more. I am setting up for a weekend off of work and study so I can use the equipment. Jenny wants to record and that is what we will try to do this weekend. I got an email from a former music teacher of mine yesterday.

Read about microphones and more general mixer and home studio stuff.

2006-02-13T04:03:00.000-05:00

I read about how microphones work. I now understand what phantom power is about. I also read about patch bays and how these work for normalised and non-normalised patch bays. The normalised are for effects sends.

I am interested in buying a Behringer Patch Bay 2000. I can afford one of these new but there is no rush to buy one just yet. I am buying a compressor, limiter and gate all in one Behringer Composer. I am slowly cleaning up my office and thinking of where I will place my old eMac, the mixer, and monitors etc. etc.. The idea is to place all the stuff in accessible locations so one can operate all the connections. The patch bay means you don't have to go behind everything to change cables. There is room for this gear but there may be limited space for performers.

But this has got me thinking that perhaps the home studio is one set up and the rental PA will be another set up. Then combined, these would be a larger single set up. I will see about picking up a Peavey Unity mixer this week for the rental PA. Also I need to buy some balanced cables for all this meaning short cables for the patch bay and also cables for the rental PA system. Also the eMac will need an external USB hard drive for recording and archiving but this item can wait and it would actually be cheaper to wait for these hard drives to come down in price. Also I have investigated receivers and monitor speakers from Future shop. I would use this for play back in the home studio.

Speaking of stereo set ups, I have set up our living room stereo fine now. I can also listen to my iPod on the living room stereo. The cassette player, the DVD/VHS, and TV are all working fine.

Labour song books photocopied.

2006-02-06T01:02:00.000-05:00

I was able to take the small 4" X 6" song books and copy two pages to one page. I now need to take these pages and print them two pages on opposite sides and I will have some larger songbook copies for our musical therapy group.

M-Audio pro quattro is going to be my interface device.

2006-02-01T21:34:00.000-05:00

For converting my analog music signals to digital and getting them into the computer I am purchasing an M-Audio Pro Quattro USB device. Here is the blurb for it from the store's web site:

MANUFACTURER: M-Audio

DESCRIPTION: Genuine pro-quality sound, up to 24-bit/96kHz, through your computer's standard USB port. Pristine A/D/A converters. Multitrack recording and mixing without PCI card installation, zero-latency direct monitoring for simple recording and dubbing, balanced 1/4" TRS connectors, and selectable in/out levels to accommodate different instruments. 1x1 USB MIDI interface. Includes cable, power supply, cd.

Kustom 16 watt practice bass amp home. It does sound nice.

2006-02-01T21:31:00.000-05:00

I had layed away a small 16 watt Kustom practice bass amplifier. It has a Celestion speaker. I got it paid for this week and have been playing it today. It sounds nice. I will take it to our self help group and leave it there for playing my bass at the music therapy group. That group is meeting again tomorrow so I will be attending tomorrow.

Looking into computer recording.

2006-01-21T06:39:00.000-05:00

I tried a little Garage Band song making. I did a small song and like the ease at which I can do this. I am surfing ebay for controlers for Garage Band and also thinking of laying away an M-Audio AudioSport Quattro USB Interface at the music store.

I am buying a small practice bass amp.

2006-01-21T06:37:00.000-05:00

Because I am now participating in a small music therapy group and need an amp for my electric bass I layed away a small Kustom bass practice amp that I can easily carry about on the bus. I will pay it off in the next three weeks.

I am looking into buying my wife an acoustic guitar.

2006-01-17T13:18:00.000-05:00

My wife has said she wants a guitar. I am usually dropping by a vintage guitar store that is near where I buy cigarettes in bulk. I will be looking at what sort of guitars they have for sale in the next little while.

I picked up 7 labour songbooks for the music therapy group.

2006-01-17T13:17:00.000-05:00

It looks like I will attend the music therapy group this Thursday. I had promised them some labour songbooks and just now purchased 7 books for the group. It looks like this is done now. I did try to copy some but thought that it would be easier and possibly cheaper to buy the books rather than use a lot of printer ink. I might also find it cheaper to make copies at a print shop and it would certainly be eaiser than printing them myself.

I read about CD's and DVD's and other digital back up and storage devices.

2005-12-30T14:37:00.000-05:00

I read about the various specifications of CD's and DVD's and also floppies, hard drives, zip disks, etc. in one desktop audio book from the U library. I guess I now know a little more about these devices and how best to store music made on computer. I need to get our tunes into digital storage. I will need some gear to do this. Yes it is time to turn my old eMac into a digital workstation.

I wrote some music tonight on my bass.

2005-12-16T02:23:00.000-05:00

I wrote a few licks on my bass tonight. The tune is not complete and is only three sections and one section is only four notes aka the Ramones, (G-D-G-D-G-D-G-D then F#-E-F#-E-F#-E-F#-E) the other notes are a rockabilly/12 bar pattern aka the Buzzcocks with (A-C#-D-E) for four times then the opposite down the scale rather than up on the next string the D string. So (A-G-F#-D). Then a two note rhythum with D ta ta ta ta C taaaata aka kick drum bit.

I read about digital signals v analog signals

2005-11-29T23:15:00.000-05:00

I did some more reading in audio engineering. Jenny is still selling her poetry book to almost everyone she meets. We discussed an old gig and are more keen to get our old guitarist back now.

I bought gig bags

2005-11-19T23:36:00.000-05:00

I bought a nice canvas and plastic gig bag for my bass and one for my wife's dreadnought guitar.

Peavey graphic EQ box is home now.

2005-11-13T03:55:00.000-05:00

I paid for the rest of the Peavey Graphic EQ. This is their early model from the early 1980's and I was able to download the manual on their web site. The manual was just a scan of the original.

At Songbird I also checked out gig bags for my Music Master bass. They had another Music Master for sale for 630$ and it is again a beat up old vintage instrument; this one with a red paint job. The neck and frets are much better than mine. I almost bought it. I am also looking at bass amps there. They have two Hartke 3500's to choose from and a Trace Eliot. The Hartke's are well power matched for my cabinets but the Trace Eliot is a little under powered. I just looked at new fender bass heads on the fender.com web site.

Learning more mysteries of sound and music physics.

2005-11-13T03:50:00.000-05:00

I completed reading the second chapter in this book Brice, Richard. Music Engineering: the Electronics of Playing and Recording (Oxford: Newnes, 1998). I learned about diffraction and reflection and the concept of reverberation in a room. I also learned about hearing that is the basics of the physiology of hearing and the ear. The next chapter is titled Stand By Me - microphones and their applications.

Why do I like Peavey equipment? A silly reason.

2005-10-30T07:59:00.000-05:00

I like Peavey because the Peavey logo reminds me of the Star Trek logo. I feel the oppressive loudness of rock is like Klingon oppression. Ok enough silliness. I am buying an early model Peavey Graphic EQ for my rack. This will cost 115$.

I am reading about musical engineering and have almost completed a chapter in a book on basic wave form physics and measures in musical engineering. The book's cite (in legal studies format) is Brice, Richard. Music Engineering: the Electronics of Playing and Recording (Oxford: Newnes, 1998).

Time...a Pink Floyd song? or was it Money?

2005-10-15T22:16:00.000-04:00

Computers and smoking take money but more especially time. I make time for my smoking and spent a fair amount of time at the computer. Speaking of smoking I took the PA set up down from the living room and wrapped the mixer up in its plastic bag and put in the office where there is less smoking.

Studying music books.

2005-10-15T21:37:00.000-04:00

I am slowly slogging through Neil Nehring's Popular Music, Gender, and Postmoderism: Anger Is an Energy (Thousand Oaks, Cal.: Sage, 1997). In music I also started to read this book this week: Firth, Simon. World Music, Politics and Social Change (Manchester, UK: Manchester University, 1989). Both of these books are critical of the elitism of music studies in universities. I also started to study mixing and effects in the book White, Paul. Basic Effects & Processors (London: SMT;Sanctuary, 2003).

I set up everything in our living room.

2005-10-05T23:26:00.000-04:00

Odd you say well yes. I set up the mixer, rack case, power amp and speakers in the living room. We are getting ready to practice with our former guiatrist.

Picking up mixer rack case today.

2005-09-30T16:48:00.000-04:00

I am just going now with a friend to pick up the SBK mixer rack case. We will bring it back in his minivan.

The new Peavey CS 400 power amp. 200 watts per channel.

2005-09-28T05:02:00.001-04:00

The new power AMP. Peavey CS-400 2 channel 200 watts per channel.

2005-09-28T04:56:00.000-04:00

My ten year old Peavey PA speakers(cabinets).

2005-09-28T04:50:00.001-04:00

Some photos of the new mixer.

2005-09-28T04:46:00.000-04:00

Photos of my new mixer.

2005-09-28T04:42:00.001-04:00

Here are some photos above of the new mixer.

Browsing an SKB cases catalogue.

2005-09-26T12:33:00.001-04:00

I got a good deal on a Mixer case from SKB sold through our local musical instruments store. I still owe 140$ on it. I then visited the SKB web site and ordered a catalogue which arrived today.

Neck and headstock pictures of my electric Fender Music Master bass.

2005-09-13T00:39:00.000-04:00

Above are pictures of the neck and headstock of my Fender bass.