05.28.07

Do My Ears Decieve Me

Posted in Music at 4:36 pm by Steve

Being a musician I tend to spend a lot of time with my computer writing & recording music. Now, most of the time I am doing this I listen through a relatively high-end signal chain. My MacBook Pro connected via FireWire to a Metric-Halo audio interface that is, in turn, feeding my studio monitors (Event 20/20bas bi-amplified nearfields). Over the past few days I have been pulling the house apart to clean & rearrange. This weekend I was in the kitchen area and since I don’t have a music playback system there in the kitchen I used the laptop and iTunes.

All I can say is, kudos to Apple for finally developing a laptop with a decent playback system. For the record, it’s a 17″ MacBook Pro, so it may be that the extra size gave them the ability to put in decent sized speakers. I know my old 15″ PowerBook couldn’t compete with this one.

No, I won’t be dumping my studio playback system or stereo system, but it’s refreshing to actually hear a bass line on laptop speakers. I’m listening to jazz & classic rock, so the bass is not mixed way up front or enhanced with a sub-bass plugin or the like - though it is well mixed stuff that is mostly from first release CDs from the early/mid ’80s that weren’t over compressed or limited during “re-mastering”. Plus I tend to rip CDs in as AIFF files (full PCM files), because I can hear a difference with MP3s…though a friend insists that AAC with VBR is practically indistinguishable from the original CD - but that’s something I’ll put to the test another time.

I’ll just leave it with…I am impressed.

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05.13.07

The Music Fades

Posted in Music at 11:14 am by Steve

Two weeks ago my Fostex X-30 4-track cassette recorder met it’s end. It was a sad moment.

Now, it’s not as if I’ve been using it for anything - it had been retired about 15 years ago when I moved on to other recording gear. Coincidentally, I even spent some time a few months back dumping many of my old 4-track recordings to my computer to remix them and preserve them in digital form. What made me sad was the fact that I spent more time with that recorder from about 1987-1992 than I did with most people. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend.

I still haven’t brought myself to actually discarding it. I can’t seem to let go just yet…even though there seems to be no chance of fixing this. Saddest part is that there are many recordings I didn’t transfer. Old jam sessions, old song and things I recorded for other people.

I suppose it’s a bit ridiculous to get sentimental over a piece of out-dated recording equipment, but it was one of those anchors to the past that we all tend to keep around for no real good reason.

Perhaps it’s better that it did happen. Sometimes holding onto the past can be dangerous. Though, I’m beginning to learn that sometimes getting reacquainted with things from my past can be good…but that’s a post for another time.

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