Scratch Paper

Inclement weather today. This morning I went for a run over to St. Vincent and was completely drenched.

The picture was taken more than an hour after the rain stopped, draining the back yard. This is mudslide weather.

We looked at nearby slopes through the webcams. All snow seems to be washing away.

Maybe this problem goes away if you buy the latest version of Apple’s software… but…

I’ve been trying to remix some instrumental songs, because the levels in mp3 were too much lower than in Garageband. An exercise in frustration.

The discussion, Garageband output volumes in relation to other sequencer output volumes…., does not indicate yet why although Garageband lets you go into the red without distortion, the mp3 you send to iTunes is distorted in spots (unless you lower the level to the point where you have to adjust the volume when you play your song). Furthermore, distortion in the mp3 output does not seem directly related to clipping in the recorded tracks.

If only Garageband were “what you hear is what you get.” In other words, here’s my RFE: what gets sent to the headphones when I’m playing my mixed song should be what gets sent to iTunes when I export, even in a lossy format like mp3.

Don’t tell me I should know how to record and how to mix, by the way. If I knew what I were doing, then I wouldn’t be using Garageband.

When recording guitar, especially bass guitar, I was getting a consistent, annoying hum upon taking my fingers off the metal parts of the instrument. With enough high end, you could call it a buzz. Terrible.

This happens not only with my little amp, but even with the preamp direct into the computer. My guitar cables aren’t balanced. Maybe the real solution is to have XLR outs from guitars. That must not be good for other reasons.

Anyway, what seems to work is running a wire from the jack to my body. I was going to wear the wire (show on the right) as a bracelet, but that leaves too little contact to be effective. So for now I have to hold the wire under my tongue. No hum/buzz. But maybe I won’t try recording during a thunderstorm.

Somehow Gilles and I got onto the subject of advertising. He says it works because either we do not pay attention and it leaves a residue, or we do pay attention and find it silly, but it still leaves a residue. When we then go to make a decision where either the choices are very similar, or where we do not have enough information to distinguish between similar choices, the residue of advertisement works in favor of the goods or services advertised.

So what should we make of the photo to the left of this text? If you actually read the labels of the photos, you notice they contradict what the rest of the text is trying to get you to buy.

Why did they do that?

Is it a typo?

Are they trying to get me to see the fnords?

Today was our first time at Collet d’Allevard this season.

The snow was wet and getting soupy, at about 6 C when we left.

The girls were skiing with much more confidence than at the beginning of last season.