The Things And Such

Synchro Arts Vocalign. For, you know, aligning dialog and stuff. It needs ProTools.
This groovy mech suit which I've already blogged.
A fascinating article on lead in gasoline and crime rates.

Because you need to see this again, that's why.

Didn't I already blog this baby hippo? I think I already blogged this baby hippo.

I'm Not A Wise Man

Which is why I do things like this.

This is the free book cover design for Createspace. The book is 228 pages.
I think it'll be available on Amazon and as a Kindle book in a week or so.

Levels

I've been a bit of a problem child complaining about my levels going into converters. I'd be using the Scarlett's converters if only their input levels could be turned down, like, a whole lot.
Then, and I swear I was in the shower when this bonked into my mind, I realized that when I was first using the M-Audio 2626 I was running from the Neve preamps directly into the M-Audio's preamps via XLR and wasn't having a problem with the levels.

Gain issues can sneak up on you.

Are you bored out of your mind already? Good. It's about to get worse.
Looking at M-Audio's own specs for the line input (via TRS) levels:

• Maximum Input level +19.6dBu, typical

But on the microphone input:

• Maximum Input level +6.5dBu, no pad

So what does that mean? If you kick the pad in then you should have a maximum input level of +26.5dBu. Now that's a level I can work with. Heck, that's probably about where my Apogees are. I'm not very good at fathoming why the maximum input levels are so low on these devices. Is it because so many -10dBV devices get plugged into them and they're tired of musicians whining they can't get good levels into them? Or because Mackie insert sends aren't +4dBm? Who knows?

Things Important to Baby Hippos

The Tune Peddler. (Via Jeremy Crowson.)
Shooting chainsaws with a slingshot. (Also via Jeremy Crowson.)
Dream Up is Deviantart's new "99 Designs".

A list of people whose names I've used in my book:
Johnson
Ed
Jeremy
Chance
Schlachtmeyer
Maduka
Joe Chapman
Montserrat
Niles
Rebecca
Schiavo
Julie
Gregory
Blair
Dan
Emi
Jeanne Lewis

Got 'em if you Smoke 'em

Hi. My name is Drew and this is my public service announcement.
Do you smoke? Did you know that smoking is really, really bad for you? I mean it's really bad for you. Even worse for you than "they" say it is. It messes up your cardiovascular system post haste.
It's really bad for you.
But you know that already. And you still smoke. Hey, I can dig it. I eat way too much. I don't exercise enough. I'm totally on-board with where you're at.
So let me lay onto you an alternative. Instead of "just quit smoking" which is for many people simply impossible, try electronic cigarettes instead.
For whatever reason, our vehemently anti-harm-reduction culture just won't admit it, but e-cigs are simply not harmful to you.
But you can smoke them. And they can deliver however much nicotine you want.
Look. You don't smoke so you can inhale tar or other cancerous stuff. You want the nicotine. Maybe you want to hold something in your hand.
Here are some reasons to switch to e-cigs:

• They won't kill you.
• You can smoke indoors. They don't smell bad like cigarette smoke.
• They won't kill you.
• In many places they're cheaper than regular cigarettes.
• They won't kill you.

So if you smoke, try e-cigs. There are a gazillion brands out there and you can get them at any local place which usually sells tobacco.
There. I'm glad I got that off my chest.

Acid Rock

So, recording then. With City Samanas. This song ended up being fairly acid rock like.



Here's an album. I mean, so far it's just one song. But it could be the start of an album.
I put this piece up here rather than on the City Samanas page just because I felt this was more raucous than City Samanas and probably sounded more like Pleasure for the Empire. I, of course, haven't told any of the City Samanas that. Er. Yet.

The other things include suchly:
This was the first recording with the Lindell mic preamps and the Edwina microphones. I used the Edwinas going into the Lindells on the left and right side of the drum kit. When I first listened back I was all like "Egads!" because the whole thing was way too bright.
There are a number of reasons that was true but lets face it, with the EQ available on the Lindell preamps I decided to just, you know, use some. Because I had them. I, of course, had to set the levels just by eye because I really can't monitor while recording live band (I do actually have to play in the band mind you.)
I'd kicked a little bit of high mids up on the Lindells. And the Edwina mics could handle that very nicely.
I love the color on the Edwina mics. I don't know how great they work with the whole band in the room. Off-axis they're not linear at all -- they're very dark. So (say) the bass gets picked up great in them. Do they offer more isolation than the Oktava 012's? I dunno.
The drum set was rather creaky on Wednesday night. More creaky than I'd noted it being before.
I may not be doing things the way I ought to. Perhaps the Edwinas should be on the drums but the drums go through three channels of Neve preamps? Or perhaps the drums get the Oktava microphones with the Lindell preamps? Or perhaps some other thing altogether.
I wasn't altogether happy with my guitar sound. This was the first time at this space I was unhappy with my sound. I'm not too sure what was going on. I played with the amp a bit. It might just be a thing. You know, that happens.

Do do to you

I got a to-do list in order to finish my book.

1. Drew makes sure the whole book is here, in the correct order
2. Fix widows and orphans
3. Update chapter page numbers if they've changed
4. Proofread the whole thing!
5. Finishing touches and fancy-ness

I'm formatting the interior of the book in... Open Office. Yeah, I know. But I also want to get the book done, you know what I mean? I made the interior text hyphanate and automatically Orphan and Widow control with the format editor. Right now I've set it to 3 characters at the beginning and end instead of 2 and it looks vastly better.
I'm at 229 pages. I need a cover image. I need a little button or bug that's the "Mobile Infantry" badge. Or not.

Acting Mech Bars

Tamara Gorski, who was a producer on Millennium Crisis, has an acting class in Winnipeg.

Here is some awesome mech art by Alexander Iglesias.
Using color bars to set up your monitor.

Six Lazy Days

I'm spending way too much time on this. You can make your own here.

In Soviet Russia Kitty Photobombs YOU

AM Studios is a rehearsal and recording studio in Manhattan. That is, if you need a rehearsal studio in Manhattan.

Do you need to know even more about sampling rates? Because if you weren't sure before, you can be sure now. Only thing is that I don't think I tested the M-Audio at 48kHz and then at 96kHz. But we're going to record tomorrow night at 48kHz and you're gonna like it. So there.

Let's go all the way. Trust Me I'm A Scientist is my favorite new audio engineering magazine.

Six "Easy" Days

So I finished "writing" my "book". By that I mean I finished editing a parody of "No Easy Day".

Although there are very few paragraphs in the book I didn't manhandle in some way, much of the book was a search-and-replace changing things like Usama bin Laden to "The Xenomorph A. I." and "AK-47" to "SAG pulse rifle", "helicopter" to "drop boat".
The suit you see in the picture above does not adequately represent the Starship-Troopers-esque suit the protagonist wears in Six Easy Days. It's a CC model created by Joonas Sairiala.
To better match the original No Easy Day cover the background would need to be white. I don't yet know quite which way to go with this but I hope to just make a Createspace book by the end of the week so I can move on to other things.

The Dragons We Do Have

• Sintel
• Dead
• White
• Callista
• Callista w/o horns

That's really all I have to say about that right now. Aren't you glad you asked?

Q&A

Drew, in your humble yet unassailable opinion, is the Samsung Galaxy an iPhone killer?
Yes. Yes it is.

Things Three

I am incapable of figuring out what Cash Music actually does. They have some mightily high-falutin' mission statements and they're all about empowering the artist and blah blah but... Maybe I'm not supposed to know.

Here I am trying to placate City Samanas by compensating for my low guitar-playing skills with my not-quite-as-low audio engineering skills.

I put some holes in my SKB preamp and converter rack. Or rather, I put more holes in it. And I removed some of the now not terribly useful BNC connectors. In any case, now the six inputs can be accessed externally which will make the "Where to I plug this in?" question easier to answer.

Zoe Keating is a cellist.