Archive for the 'music' Category

Why Do Sound Engineers Insist On Actively Mixing Vocals?

Friday, January 16th, 2009

They’re teaching it wrong. I mean, they have to be for every sound engineer I’ve met to get it wrong the first time. (By every I mean every one but you, of course)
Oh… hi. Let me catch you up on this rant that’s been going on in my head for about 4 years now. It [...]

The Macworld All-Star Band Speaks!

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Last night, Chuck Joiner delivered something that has never* previously been accomplished other than gigs and rehearsals: He assembled the entire (existing) Macworld All-Star Band into one (virtual) room, leaned heavily on the Skype button, and recorded the entire conversation.
And we let him release it. Crazy, huh?
Well, it’s out there, and it’s alive. You can [...]

Guitar coming along

Saturday, August 2nd, 2008

As indicated, I took my first guitar lesson on Tuesday, 4 days ago. Our 8-year-old daughter took HER first lesson on Friday. Out teacher, Matt Lister, is absolutely fantastic. In the period of a half-hour lesson he was able to get each of us (separately) playing songs and actually using the instrument. [...]

Learn something new

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

On Tuesday I will continue on my path of knowledge expansion. After work I’ll head over to Earcraft Music in Dover, NH where I will take my first guitar lesson. The guitar is something I’ve always wanted to learn, and my wife is happy because it might just stave off flying lessons for a few [...]

KnockOff at Overtime Sports Bar Tonight

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Playing this evening with pick-up cover band KnockOff at Overtime Sports Bar and Grill in Beverly, MA. I think we start around 9:30 or so, but I’ll be there earlier than that to setup and maybe grab a bite. If you’re in the area, come by and say “hi”.
KnockOff is a female-fronted, four-piece classic rock [...]

Gigging Stresses

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Tomorrow night (that’s Saturday, May 3rd) I’ll be playing with Ghetto Fabulous at the Lo Kai in Dracut, Massachusetts. Here in upper New England we have a slew of Chinese restaurants with attached bar/club rooms complete with big stages and sprawling dance floors. It’s quite odd to me, but hey, it works, and that Lo [...]

A Great Gig: Finding the Intensity vs. Volume Balance

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

On Friday night I played at The Peddlar’s Daughter in Nashua, NH with Knock-off, a band with which I used to play full-time, and now pick up gigs with occasionally. It’s a female-fronted, 4-piece classic rock outfit, and the gigs are always a lot of fun. But, for me, Friday night’s gig was more than [...]

SXSW Debrief

Monday, March 17th, 2008

As most readers know, last week I attended the South by Southwest conference for the first time. I caught the last bits of the film festival, and then was there for both Interactive and Music. I reported on this over at The Mac Observer and iPodObserver.com throughout the week, as follows:

Twitterized Attendees Shape The Show
Music [...]

New Inspiration: Practice Slowly

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m also a drummer in addition to my various business interests. Having played the instrument for nearly 25 years, I’m always on the lookout for sources of new inspiration. I was just reading an interview in Modern Drummer with Jeff Ballard. He’s the “new” guy (he’s over 50) [...]

UNH Students Targeted by RIAA, UNH reports it wrong

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007

I hate to complain here, but I wanted to get something correct online in hopes that it sticks.
Recently the RIAA has sent threatening letters to between 30 and 50 University of New Hampshire students here in Durham, accusing them of illegally sharing songs over the Internet using Limewire or Gnutella.
Unfortunately, every article [...]