Audio Interfaces

I've been looking for a USB audio interface to use with my iBook. I really want to find something not too large or expensive, but it seems the more I research, the more confused I get!

I'm currently looking at the Tascam US-122 and the Edirol UA-25, but as I said, I'm getting more confused as I go; and I have found other products too!

Some of the music instrument sites have reader comments, which can be a way to find out more about devices; or it can just end up confusing you more.

There's an interesting resource at the "Audio Field Recording Equipment Guide"

Recording Tip #1

When using a side-address condenser microphone, it works much better if you identify the 'front' of the microphone, and point that side at the audio source.

Seriously! Doh!!

Pedal Board

SKB PS-45 Pedal Board

I've been thinking of getting a pedal board to keep some pedals together rather than have them floating around in a bag. There's quite a few to choose from, and they aren't inexpensive. This one looks good as it has a built-in power supply, a hard top (SKB makes some cheaper pedal boads but they have a soft bag, not a hard cover) and hey, a life-time warranty. I have generally been happy with SKB cases I have bought.

It's been interesting reading the user reviews for different pedal boards on some of the music supply sights. Pedal boards seem to be something that really provokes the emotions of users. I just have to measure my pedals and see if they will fit in the space available (27" x 15").

Ouch!

Since I don't write my own songs, I guess I can be considered a cover artist (if I can use such grand a term for jamming away on songs I like.) And because of this, I have developed a fascination with covers that "real" artists do of songs I like.

For example, I really like the cover of Wall of Death by REM. Got it playing on the iPod right now...

Yesterday the sound track to I Am Sam arrived. It's a movie that I never saw, but the sound track has a bunch of artists performing Beatles songs*; so I had to get it.

If you are thinking of getting a copy for yourself, note that there's at least three different versions of the album out there; the original with 17 tracks, a foreign import with 19 tracks, and an 'extra tracks' version with 20 songs. I bought the latter, but quite frankly, I don't think you gain a lot with those extra songs...

The first playing of the CD was somewhat of a bust. Sarah McLachlan does her usually excellent work on Blackbird and Eddie Vedder's You've Got to Hide Your Love Away is spell binding, but Ben Harper seems to be channeling Cat Stevens on Strawberry Fields and Golden Slumbers never worked for me as a song on it's own; it needs Carry That Weight to finish it off. It might have worked had Ben Folds version been drastically different from the original; but it isn't.

It seemed that for the last half of the album, each song was worse than the preceding one; Nick Cave's Let It Be, just about broke my heart.

Most disappointing (though not the worst song on there by a long shot) was Howie Day's cover of Help!

I have a live tape of him performing Help! solo, and despite the poor quality of the recording, it's phenomenal. The Beatles original - despite the title and lyric - is performed as an upbeat, fast rocker. In the live performance Howie slows it down, simplifies the accompaniment, and his voice really makes it sound like he's in therapy looking for help, rather than singing a rock song.

But either someone over-produced the cut on the album, or Howie's on Prozac, as the CD version - though it starts almost as slowly - adds in electric guitar and way too much "stuff" so that it loses all the charm of the acoustic cover. Howie almost sounds happy.

Okay, I'll quit complaining as I know I couldn't do anything half as good, but still; 'Uggh.'

By the end of the CD I was thinking I'd file it away and never play it again, but I gave it another go this morning. On second hearing, things weren't quite as bad as they seemed; but that may just be damning it with faint praise.

If only you could buy You've Got to Hide Your Love Away and a couple of tunes that you like (if you do) from iTunes; but they only have the partial album available, and none of the songs I'd have bought....hmmm.

*Full disclosure; yeah I am a big Beatles fan and that might color my attitude to these songs, but I can think of lots of cover's of Beatles songs I have liked.

You Know You're Old When...

Your daughter asks you what "LP" stands for, and you not only know what it stood for, but why it was called that...

You work with someone who didn't know what 'Side 2' of an LP is/was.

May 25th, Towel Day

Tomorrow, May 25th, is Towel Day.

You sass that hoopy Douglas Adams? Now there's a frood who knew where his towel was. You are invited to join your fellow hitchhikers in mourning the loss of the late great one. Join in on towel day to show your appreciation for the humor and insight that Douglas Adams brought to all our lives.

What do I do?: Carry your towel with you throughout the day to show your participation and mourning.

When do I do it?: May 25th, 2005.

Where do I do it?: Everywhere.

Why a towel?: ...any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

What's With The Weather?

Saturday was the Concert for Cambridge on the Cambridge Common.

It was overcast, cold, breezy and wet...in other words, just like you'd expect the weather to be in October...but not the end of May! Something is seriously whacked with the weather.

I went down for a couple of hours and saw several people including Chris Williams and Jake Armerding. Then, due to the weather, they abandoned the stage, and the hundred or so hardy souls that had remained moved to the tent behind the stage for an unplugged performance by the remaining performers. I saw just a bit of Chris Smither perform.

Well, damn the weather! Though in some ways it was kind of appropriate; a little Club Passim annex set up on the common.

I Keep Losing Things

...and then it takes a month or so to find them again...

Just re-found the Clapton UnPlugged Sheet Music book that I'd been looking for the last two months. There's several great songs on thereI want to learn...

Just have to get around to it before I lose the book again...

Living Legends Award Concert

Cool concert on Friday night. I was volunteering for part of the show so mainly saw the second half. Richard Thomspon was in fine form (someone called out for "Wheel of Death" and he said that was a fine request, and if he had time he'd do it; but he didn't...[damn]) He was playing with Danny Thomas (I think his name was) playing double bass. Sounded like the word of God...

As usual, he played one really funny song, which I think was titled I want a girl with Brains or something like that, filled with dreadful rhymes and it went on for many many versus, but the crowd ate it up.

David Grisman played with Old School Freight Train, which is actually a bunch of young guys who play old-time music.

Then Alison Krauss & Union Station closed up the night. The show ran late, but it was a good time.

Professional Performer Tip #1

After the show - as we were tidying up - I saw one member of Old School Frieght Train carefully folding up the shirt that he'd worn for the show and putting it into his backpack. I was tempted to ask how many shows you can go without washing a shirt...

In a similar vein, here's a tip from Howie Day; To survive on the road, pack "Febreze. You can do all your laundry -- just spray your clothes with Febreze"

47x47, A Retrospective

Last night was the 47x47, A Retrospective part of the festivities celebrating the 47th anniversary of Club Passim.

Hosted by Tom Rush, the concert featured performances from Tom, Lori McKenna, Ellis Paul, Catie Curtis, Dr. Al Kooper & the Funky Faculty, the Silver Leaf Gospel Singers and Sarah Borges. Held at Saunders Theatre, it was a surprise that the show wasn't sold out, though perhaps this was partly because a second show is being held tonight; the Living Legends Award Concert which will feature Alison Krauss & Union Staion, Richard Thompson, David Grisman & Old School Freight Train and others. That show is sold out.

The Silver Leaf Gospel Singers were amazing; they have been going for close to 60 years, and the leader of the group is 84! They sounded great and really got the stiff New England crowd on their feet! I think being active keeps you young.

Or as Tom Rush later said, just because you grow old doesn't mean you can't be immature.

Tired from too much work I didn't stay to the end, but what I saw was awesome, and I'm looking forward to tonights show.

Jammin

Daivd and I worked on a few songs last night. Spent a fair amount of time on Wall of Death, which is a Richard Thompson song. REM covered it on the Richard Thompson tribute album Beat The Retreat. That album is out of print and I haven't found REM's version on any other album, so I bought a used copy of the CD through Amazon.

Anyway, it's a pretty easy song to play, though we are futzing with some of the chords at the beginning...

We also worked on Bob Dylan's Abandoned Love, which is an interesting song. I guess there are two recordings of it; one on an album that isn't very good, and the other is a live recording that appears on a bootleg. The latter is the version to listen to.

Some notes:

The first known recording is from the Other End club, New York, 3 July 1975. Dylan performed back-up for Jack Elliott on two songs (Pretty Boy Floyd/How long) then performed Abandoned Love, solo, a song which Clinton Heylin says (in Stolen Moments) he probably wrote that week.

I found this post on the net from Joe Kivak:

I agree with this as i was at that show an i was the one who taped it. I was sitting right under Dylan. At my table was Paul Siebel, Larry Estridge & Mayer Vishner. I can never forget the power that came out of every line in that song. Every line was better that the last one...It was an amazing moment that will stay with everyone who was in that room the rest of our lives.

When Dylan came up he was very nervous an for the first 2 songs he had the capo on the guitar crooked an it was buzzing the strings but he never noticed. He nervous an shy. Then after the second song (which Dylan never sang on,near the end of the song Jack looked at Dylan to sing a verse an Dylan shook his head no an then the song ended) For the first 2 songs they where both sitting down. Then Dylan asked Jack if he could use his guitar ("Can I Use Yours?"). An they switched guitars..An Dylan stood up for the next song an Jack diddent know what was coming an was gonna play with Dylan..But once Dylan started the song Jack moved to the back and just listened, Amazed like everyone else..And after Dylan sat down Jack started to do his next song an then realized he had the other guitar..That's how much in awe he was at what he just heard. Dylan had just out of nowhere blew everyone away with this song an then walks off an sits back down. An now its up to Jack who like ever one else couldent believe what he just heard.

After the show was over we took the tape up to WBAI where Mayer Vishner was doing a show an played at about 4 in the morning.. Then the sun came up an it was now the 4th of July... A night i'll never forget.

Like A Rolling Stone

Ron Wood quoted in Guitar World magazine:

"We were doing drugs in the dressing room [at a concert in the early '80s]. Suddenly the tour manager stuck his head around the door and said, 'The police are here!' We all panicked and threw our drugs in the toilet. Then Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland walked in."

One Of Those Things

You know the nightmare; the one where the class is having an exam, but you don’t know where the classroom is, what the test is on, or even what the subject of the class is.

All you know is that you’re going to fail miserably.

I kind of had one of those moments last night when I took a Dobro/lap-style guitar class with Stacy Phillips last night. I’d taken a class a few months ago, but hadn’t touched the damn thing in two months. You might get away with that if everyone else is just starting out, but it turned out that the other eight or so participants already knew their way around the guitar. Geez, I wasn’t even in the right tuning.

On the other hand, it wasn’t a complete disaster; I actually picked up some stuff along the way (though it was far to fast for anything to really sink in as we rushed on to the next part and I’d forgotten the part we just did.)

Fortunately I recorded the event (using the Marantz; which records about 4 hours on a 256MB CompactFlash card using MP3 format) and I have tabs for one of the songs and he promised to send tabs for the other three he covered, so with a bit of diligence, I should be able to find my way through these.

Really, if you can record the session, and get tabs, then it doesn’t matter how fast things go as you can go back and absorb it all at your own pace.

He kept asking if I had any questions. The only problem was, I had so many it was impossible to know where to start.

Edirol R1

Edirol R1

While I recently bought the Marantz PMD660, a friend bought the Edirol R1. He actually ordered his months ago when it was first announced, and it then took months to be delivered. I don't know when the PMD660 was announced, but by happenstance we both took delivery of these solid state recorders within about two weeks of each other.

They are somewhat similar in functionality and application, yet they are also very different. The R1 is much smaller (though not as small as my Sharp mini-disc recorder) and records at 16 or 24 bit, while the PMD660 only records at 16 bit. On the other hand, the construction of the Marantz appears to be a little more solid, it has XLR connections (and phantom power) and separate level meters.

Both also have built-in microphones; that's right, two for stereo recording, though given the mics are only two or three inches apart, you aren't going to get great stereo separation!

My friend used the Edirol to record a recent concert using the built-in mics and was impressed with the quality of the recording. It certainly didn't seem too bad given the situation.

I think the big question is how important the 24bit recording is to you. If it wasn't for that option, I don't think I'd consider the R1.

Accessories

Shubb GS

Bought a couple of accessories today for the class on Monday (hey, if you can't practice, buy an accessory, right?) Bought a new steel, a Shubb GS, because the one I have at the moment I find rather slippery and difficult to keep a hold of. I thought the wooden handle on this might make it easier to use.

Also bought a Beard capo for use on the lap guitar (a capo on a lap guitar is very different from the kind used with arm-pit guitars...)

Lap Style

A couple of months ago I took a lap-style guitar class. I got quite excited about the whole thing (I even practiced!)

Lap-style – sometimes erroneously called Dobro, through a Dobro guitar doesn’t have to be played lap-style – makes for an interesting counter-point to regular acoustic guitar playing. It’s kind of similar but very different; both in the way you play, as well as the sound you get out of the thing.

Anyway, I took the class, and then…well a month has gone by and I haven’t done anything.

Now there’s a one evening clinic being help at my local guitar store next week. I hummed and hawed about going, but finally decided that I really should do it if I want to keep this up.

Of course, this means that I should practice before then…

Lego Harpsichord

From the "what will they think of next" department:

With the exception of the wire strings, this instrument is entirely constructed out of LEGO parts--the keyboard, jacks, jack rack, jack rail, plectra, soundboard, bridge, hitch pins, tuning pins, wrestplank, nut, case, legs, lid, lid stick, and music stand are all built out of interlocking ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene) plastic bricks and related pieces.

And is playable.

You can see pictures and hear an mp3 file at this site.

The Dreaded F-Chord

Someone posted on an online forum that they were having trouble learning the F-chord and this was my answer to them:

Here's some things that really helped me:

1) If you aren't using them at the moment, try putting light strings on your guitar. It will make it easier while you are practicing.

2) Rather than practice at the end of the neck, try doing the F-chord shape further up the neck (like at fret 5, which is actually an 'A' chord.) You'll find it a lot easier to do the F-chord shape there.

3) By making it easier to practice the barre chord, the more you'll do it. The more you do it, the sooner your hand will a) do it properly, and b) you'll get faster at getting your fingers into the right position.

4) A great song to practice with is Psycho Killer (Talking Heads) but play the A and G chords as barre chords up the neck (A is an F chord shape at fifth fret and G is an F chord shape at third fret, and the first part of the song is A-G-F!) There's Bm further on, but don't worry about that!

And don't be surprised if it takes you a few months to really get good at it...that's what it takes!

Good Practice, Bad Practice

The problem with practicing is that you have to do it regularly. Better to do a little every night than do two hours once a week or so.

The other problem is that there is good practicing, and bad practicing.

Bad Practicing is getting out the guitar and playing a medley of the tunes you know best; all four of them.

While it’s good from the point of view of keeping your muscle memory up (so at least a year from now you might still be able to play them) you aren’t really learning anything.

Good Practicing is taking a song you don’t know, or a riff you haven’t mastered, breaking it down into manageable bits, then starting out slow and l-e-a-r-n-i-n-g how to play it. This requires both patience, and the application of some brian power.

It’s the only way to get any better.


Damn, it’s hard to keep up with though.