6:00 am Friday 5/9 My new MP3 player - I like my new MP3 player. It's not an iPod or anything. It's not cool.
But it cost $36.99. Free Shipping. New, not refurbished or anything. The MSI Mega 536.
http://3btech.net/msime5364gbu.html
It's a little glitchy, the buttons sometimes stick or fail to work.
It's got a 4 gig hard drive, which is pretty good for $36.99.
MP3s sound good through a stereo, specs indicate a signal to noise ratio of 90db, which is apparently better than
the iPod.
Transferring from my Windows XP laptop to the 536 is easy.
Hook the mp3 player to the computer via a mini usb cable / usb cable, and the XP computer automatically reads the mp3
player as a removable disc. 98se apparently needs a driver. To transfer files, just copy from one and paste in the other.
If you liked the mp3s on my mp3 player, you'd just have to hook up your computer with my mp3 player and copy and paste.
It can play mp3s on SD cards. These days, 2 gig SD cards go for like $10, so if 4 gigs isn't enough, you can get a few SD cards
and put 2 gigs of music on em and play from the mega 536. I haven't tried that feature yet.
You can hook 2 mega players together, and directly transfer mp3s from
one to another, or between a mega and another player (the mega has "host mode"). I haven't used this feature either.
It also plays video, shows pix, has an FM tuner, typical mp3 player stuff.
All that is fine and good, but it's not why I bought this gadget. I always felt that these gizmos should be able to do recording.
Computers, going back 15+ years, have had sound cards with line ins, and those computers could record 16/44.1 stereo wavs.
Why do most mp3s players lack that ability? This one, the Mega 536, does not lack that ability. It does record stereo
wavs at 16/48 through a line in. That's the bitrate of DATs, the bitrate of the ins on my DV. That's $36.99, new, free shipping,
all accessories (cords, power adapter, etc.), for a 4gig mp3 player
that can record 16/48 stereo wavs through the line in jack. The recording is extremely easy to do. Get one of them cords with stereo mini
3.5 male on one end - plug that into the mega 536 - on the other end of the cord is 2 male RCAs, plug those into line outs from the board.
Turn the mega 536 on. Push the button on the side. You're recording. The quality is good. The s/n is at least 75 db based on looking at the
meters in soundforge. That's $36.99.
Here's an unmodified wav - Moto Guzzi at Smalls a couple of weeks ago.
This little clip will have a -72db and a -3db on it. It also has a microphone, and records mono 16/48. I haven't used it
to record a show yet, so I don't know how the quality is. There are some flaws with this gadget, there is no way to adjust audio levels, or meters,
so you have to guess. And, sometimes it might shut off for no reason. If you're taping multiple bands at a show, you might want to shut it off
after one band and turn it on before the next band, instead of just letting it run throughout. It might have been a battery power issue, I don't know.
I didn't notice any glitches, when it ran, it ran smooth.
You in a band? You recording all your shows? You might as well. If what you want to do is play albums on an mp3 player through a stereo
and do line in recording, this is what you should get.
Lessons for bands - I'm starting a new series called "lessons for bands". I got a lot of em written, but
I'm gonna drib em out, rather than just putting 10 pages on here. Tip 1 - People will stop going to shows when there aren't any new songs.
The Shackeltons - A month or so back, Jersey Mike made the unqualified
statement on a local music message board I think that Chambersburg's The Shackeltons were
unquestionably the hottest buzz band in South Central PA. I had heard the buzz, but I thought at that time that it was too soon to tell.
Well, when you take the preexisting rave reviews from Rolling Stone and Spin, and you add on the new stuff, the SXSW, the New York Times,
WXPN Festival and Bumpershoot, I have to say that Mr. Powers is correct. Others are going to have to have some serious accomplishments
to match where The Shackeltons are right now. They're a good band. Their metacritic.com score is 73. Indie Rock, or "knowingly frazzled rock" with "thick, burly riffs"
according to Jon Pareles of The New York Times. They're playing at Gullifty's on May 31 with The Thrives and Mitch Hood.
As an aside, I should mention that Jersey Mike Powers (who books Appalachian Brewing) is one of the few local music people that I pay attention to. He's often right.
Another is Alex Smith.
Appalachian Brewing / Doughty - As it happens, the same day as The Shackeltons at Gullifty's (Saturday, May 31)
Appalachian Brewing is having their anniversary bash. In previous years they've had free shows from Lake Trout (with Bo Bim)
and The Hold Steady (with The April Skies). This year it's a free show with Mike Doughty (ex Soul Coughing) and Tom Hamilton's American Babies.
Based on that fact that in previous years, the free shows have been packed, I can conclude that people like free shows
with national acts. And based on this, I can conclude that this Abc Brew show will be packed. This show needs no hype from
me.
Other May 31 - Well, there's certainly a lot going on Saturday, May 31. But that's not all. The Underwater has scheduled the first
of their 2 CD release shows at Dragonfly for that night (this is a 21+ one, with other bands tba, the other one scheduled is Sunday June 1, with
Jealousy Curve, Kingsfoil, other bands tba, that's an All Ages one. And, The Tamboureens
are playing at Suba, a short, short, ever so short walk from
Dragonfly, and they're playing early, from 9p to 11p.
7:00 pm Tuesday 4/21
Tomorrow is election day here in PA. There are famous politicians who are running for President on the ballot.
There are other politicians. There are also delegates who aren't too famous
on the ballot. Depending on what Congressional District you're in, you have a bunch of choices of delegates.
Well, here's a handy graphic to tell you which delegates to choose if you feel like voting tomorrow.
In District 17, Russ Diamond is the owner/founder of
Raintree,
so, make sure you vote for him, if you're in that district - Dauphin, Lebanon, Schyulkill, Berks.
Again, if you vote.
5:00 am Tuesday 3/4 The Underwater - The big news for The Underwater is this. They're signed
to Megaforce Records and Forces, the new album, is coming out April 29 in Europe
and May 27 in the US. Megaforce is the label that the new Black Crowes album,
Warpaint, is coming out on. Buy the new Black Crowes record, it's coming out today,
March 4. Yay Megaforce.
Here's a link, a screen shot of the megaforcerecords.com homepage.
I think the Black Crowes are pretty big, or huge, and I really like seeing The Underwater
there on the label page right next to em. Also, I should mention that there are certain technicalities
about saying that The Underwater is "signed to". I think it's a distro deal, maybe? Something having to
do with BLE. And an upstream deal? I think that an analogy could be made where the Black Crowes = Silver Arrow
and The Underwater = BLE. But The Underwater is right there next to the Black Crowes, and to me, that's pretty cool.
And if BLE, which is The Underwater's record label, has this kind of distro deal, that means that if everything goes
well, and The Underwater wants to put out records from bands that are reading this right now, they might very well be able
to do that. Provided everyone thinks the economics would work, and it's in everyones self interest, etc etc.
Think about that one, y'all. It's actually, potentially, pretty big for the Central PA music scene. If The Underwater wants to turn
BLE into a "Fowl Records" type label, where The Underwater is Jimmie's Chicken Shack, BLE has national distro already.
So, you know, it's in the best interest of almost everyone who is reading this to make The Underwater's Forces release
a big one for The Underwater and Megaforce.
If you're a Metallica fan, you should have heard of Megaforce Records. "Kill 'Em All" and "Ride the Lightning"
were first released by Megaforce.
I might tack some more on here later.
5:00 am Tuesday 2/26 Black Mountain - I'm digging Black Mountain. Tyrant.
Underwater news coming soon. I'm working on Album Art for (label)
so there might be an annoucement soon. Black Crowes have an album coming
out soon (hint). But man, I'm digging Black Mountain. Deep Purple in Rock,
Early Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Zeppelin. Mining it spot on. Not 100% on the perfection
in some ways, but, yeah. Black Mountain.
3:00 am Friday 1/25 Julia Othmer - I do want to mention that Julia Othmer (I brought her to Gullifty's
a while ago) just had a song on some ABC TV show. It was called "Big Shots" and the
song was called "hold me" It was apparently right after Gray's Anatomy. I think it was 1/10.
Anyway, more postitive action to Julia Othmer.
5:00 am Tuesday 1/22 End those who control the world
