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Post by ryan on May 21, 2006 21:55:12 GMT -5
Wow, I actually got into the radio station tonight. I've just got a crappy dialup connection here at this Motel 6, though, so Media Player stops to rebuffer every few minutes. And there's another weird thing -- I'll be halfway into a song, and suddenly a new song will begin! Is that another symptom of my slow dialup connection, d'yathink? Or is this the way the station is being broadcast tonight?
At any rate, I dig what I'm hearing. The mixdowns come through loud-and-clear on my little laptop speakers. And what's great is, I haven't heard most of these songs before, and yet they sound totally familiar, just because I know the kinds of music y'all make. I just wish the damn thing would stop skipping from song to song like a busted CD player...
Regarding your four-track problems, Jeff, I sympathize, but can offer little advice. I would suggest, however, that you try listening through more than one output, just to make sure it isn't simply the output you're using that's busted.
Since the station is coming through as "Rose Rock Radio," and since Chris and Jeff have weighed-in their affirmative votes, I'm assuming that the name is a go. Justin, if you don't want to use it, let us know.
If you guys want me to, I'll go ahead and secure the domain-name. Again, let me know. I can front the $14 cost.
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Post by chris on May 21, 2006 22:05:13 GMT -5
I thought you guys might find this of interest. These are all the masters I have. Memories, like the corners of my mind...
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Post by Jeff on May 21, 2006 22:36:35 GMT -5
Ryan,
According to the equations that I am working from you take your
(bandwidth * 0.9)/ desired connection speed=# of supportable simultaneous feeds
Roadrunner promises 700kbps but delivers 550 kbps to my house. I should be able to support 6 connections. But I've been monitoring my actual bandwidth today, and I noticed that it has gotten down to 180kbps a couple of times. Further, everyone here at the house has used the internet today. Hell, I downloaded a movie at one point (The Corporation, which is worth your time). So, the problem could very well have been at our end. We had four simultaneous listeners today at one point. (One of them was me.) But since 2 or 3 pm we've mostly had three people listening.
That was probably too much information. Oh well. It might be a problem on this end. That was all I meant to say.
Jeff
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Post by ryan on May 21, 2006 22:49:31 GMT -5
Thanks for the info, Jeff, but I figure the most likely cause of the problem is the fact that I'm on dialup. Oh well, no prob. I feel like I got a "sneak preview" of the station tonight. I'll be looking forward to checking-out the real deal next time I've got a broadband connection.
BTW, I thought "The Corporation" was great. I thought the bit about a corporation having all the legal rights of an individual, but none of the liability, was very interesting. And the bit regarding the American corporation that bought the entire water supply of some third-world country -- and fined poor people for collecting rainwater -- was infuriating. No -- inspiring. That's what I meant to say. I was inspired to think that I might also be able to get away with such acts one day. America is truly a country in which anything is possible! Yay!
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Post by Jeff on May 21, 2006 22:58:34 GMT -5
Hey, you guys know that you can check the basic stats for the radio feed by plugging the url ( 68.203.212.90:8000 ) into your browser. If anyone wants I can even tell you the login and the password for the server. But, again, this is my home computer, so be careful. Just let me know. Jeff PS If you just click on the link without the port address then you are taken directly to the router for my home network. I probably won't share those login and passwords with you, but you could really fuck me up by making changes in there.
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Post by jtmx1 on May 22, 2006 0:47:19 GMT -5
Hey Chris,
I forgot that "The Only" was in the yahoo briefcase till tonight. I'm juggling about 200 songs from our collective past in my head this week. But I did remember it tonight, and I put it in the mix. Sorry it took so long.
It makes me think that I am probably forgetting someone else's work. Please, just tell me if I am. For example, I remember that Chris, Amanda, and Justin did a song with the words Lucky Duck in it. I really liked it. But I don't have it. Send it this way, and it will go in the mix, too.
I feel like we are making Indigenous Stew. Appropriate I guess, since we are the tribe of the Stew God.
Jeff
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Post by jtmx1 on May 22, 2006 0:55:15 GMT -5
Ryan, I DLed the last part of NI's Akoustik Piano last night. It was the DVD that contained the Steingraeber( www.steingraeber.de/ ), the piano I was most interested in. (Uprights rule!) Disc one is 5.9 GB. That means that I can't burn it off directly. Rather, I'll have to break it into parts. And currently I don't have the drive space to do this. But I will within a week or two. Why am I telling you this? In a week or two I'll be sending the DVDs along. I can send you a check for my contributions to Rose Rock Radio at that time. Alternatively, I could donate right now if you had the pay pal account. In any case, I don't want you to think for a second that you are frontin' the cash all on your lonesome. Jeff
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Post by jtmx1 on May 22, 2006 9:05:15 GMT -5
Chris, I listened to the sample of the popping problem that you put up. That is EXACTLY what I am getting. I've tried to do a little research on the problem. I think our decks may need degaussing. Here's what I have so far: 1. www.longselectronics.com/cassetteguide.jsp"Demagnetizing Heads Another important key to maintaining good audio play and record quality is to periodically demagnetize all tape heads. The constant passage of tape over the guides and capstan shaft can produce a build-up of magnetism. This build-up results in increased high frequency distortion hiss and clicks, as well as low frequency noise such as rumblings or popping. Demagnetizing is a process of neutralizing magnetic build-up on the heads. Demagnetizing should be performed on a regular basis, about once every 1,000 tape passes."
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Post by jtmx1 on May 22, 2006 9:27:01 GMT -5
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Post by Jeff on May 22, 2006 9:28:41 GMT -5
Here's the procedure: “The virgin's blood and goat's head are optional, but the way you wave the degausser about is pretty critical. Essentially it should be switched on about a metre from the machine, and brought towards the heads fairly slowly (over a period of 15 seconds or so) to allow the alternating magnetic field to build up gradually. Pass it slowly over the heads, ideally without actually touching them, and also pass it over the tape guides before withdrawing slowly to a safe distance (three feet is fine, if you don't do metric) before switching it off again. Never switch the thing on or off when close to the heads as you could leave a permanent magnetic charge on them, and always switch off the tape recorder before degaussing.” Nice write up here: home.flash.net/%7Emrltapes/mcknight_demag.pdf
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Post by chris on May 22, 2006 9:56:30 GMT -5
Oo! Good thing I still have the divining rod... I mean the degausser that Justin and I bought at Radio Shack some... oh... 10 years ago.
We always thought that it was a little bit of voodoo, since we never heard any noticable change in the quality when we did it, but we did do it regularly (hell, probably too often). I will put on my purple cloak and try this ancient art once more.
Further update:
I was just thinking about the degaussing process that Darren and the minorities had... it did essentially become this elaborate ritual, not because we were looking for some spirituality in the magnetic fields, but because we were so damn afraid we were going to do something wrong and ruin our dear 4-track. Everyone got still and quiet whenever we had to do it...starting with the wand a couple of yards away from the deck, moving it SLOWLY to the heads. Then I steadied my hands on the plastic part of the deck for the actual waving of the wand over the heads, which brought the tip precariously close to the metal (usually within a centimeter), and then over the other metal parts of the tape player. And finally, one all that was done, the wand was brought back, slowly, the same distance away, and then turned off... and then a mighty exhale.
We were such paranoid freaks...
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Post by jtmx1 on May 22, 2006 10:10:20 GMT -5
I probably need a healthy dose of that paranoia. For a moment I was considering putting my deck on top of my monitor and hitting the degauss button. Probably not the best idea.
Chris, please, let me know if that solves your problem. I don't have a degaussing wand, and I really don't want to buy one, even if it has a phoenix feather in it.
Jeff
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Post by Bumbledore on May 22, 2006 11:50:30 GMT -5
The musician doesn't choose his degaussing wand. The degaussing wand chooses him.
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Post by ryan on May 22, 2006 11:59:02 GMT -5
Y'know, you guys crack me up. Back when I was using my 4-track regularly, I often considered purchasing one of those $60 degausser wands. But at some point, I found a plastic cassette-tape shell at Radio Shack which contained a small battery and some kind of rudimentary degaussing mechanism. The way it works is easy -- you put the degaussing cassette in your four-track, you hit play, you hear a loud shriek (if you forgot to unplug all headphones and speakers) and you see the red LED on the cassette-shell illuminate. You let it play until it stops automatically, which usually takes only about two seconds, but sometimes as long as 8. I often repeat the procedure twice in a row, and then I usually clean my tape-heads, rollers and capstan afterward.
I used to follow this procedure every time I sat down to use my 4-track. I was obsessive about it, even though I wasn't convinced that the $5 degaussing cassette was really doing anything at all (other than screeching and illuminating). Yet, I have to say, in all these years, I've never experienced any degeneration due to magnetized tape-heads. The ol' Tascam sounds as good today as it did in 1998. Unfortunately, I've lost an input-channel, but that's another story...
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Post by Jeff on May 23, 2006 9:56:55 GMT -5
Ryan: I got part of your phone message that you left yesterday. I'll hold off on the check for now. Otherwise, full speed ahead I guess. Everyone: The radio station is back online if you want to listen to it today. I took it down because it taxes my computer and dominates my connection to the internet. If we were going to run our own fulltime broadcast, we'd probably need both a dedicated PC and cable connection. Even then we'd only be able to get to 6 listeners at a time (at 80 kbps). So, Ryan may be right to think we should get someone else to be our server. I certianly don't mind running it for now; I hope that you guys can stand the off and on nature of the feed, though. 68.203.212.90:8000
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Post by rannad nayr on May 23, 2006 12:22:54 GMT -5
Jeff: Cool. I'd thought your machine had cut me off; I need to stop leaving such long messages for people. But at any rate, I guess you got my message that I called Wassim and procured the domain-name from him. That means it's ours, even if we don't put up a website right away.
Beyond that, I think I'm going to set-up a paypal account for us. I may be able to use my existing paypal account; I'd prefer to do that if I can. I just need to make sure I can change the name of the account so it's no longer "Idiot Plot Merchandise."
Did I mention that I spoke to Justin yesterday before I called you? He was in Chicago, waiting for a flight to DC. It was pretty funny; I didn't know he was travelling. I said, "Dude! You're in Chicago!? I'm gonna be in Chicago next weekend! You know what? You should miss your flight! It'll take 'em at least a week to get you booked on another, and in the meantime, we can hang-out in Chicago over the weekend!" But no matter what words of temptation I spoke, Justin refused to be swayed.
I don't have much else to say right now. I've got a long drive ahead of me today, so I'll catch up again later on tonight.
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Post by Jeff on May 24, 2006 11:45:23 GMT -5
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Post by chris on May 24, 2006 12:48:24 GMT -5
Amazingly enough, it did! I did the deed last night, and I couldn't find any popping thereafter. I can't believe that voodoo that we do did so well.
It will probably be a while before I can really digitally load some of these tapes though. Me very busy with editing a documentary.
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Post by jtmx1 on May 25, 2006 7:28:07 GMT -5
Man, I am going to say this one more time: I love Rock & Roll Song by Darren and the Minorites--really Chris and Justin. Again, wow. Good work, guys.
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Post by ryan on May 25, 2006 9:22:26 GMT -5
I had never heard "The Eclipse" by Darren and the Minorities until today. Wow, what a hilarious tune. I love how you guys were experimenting with tape-speed and silly spoken-word vocals.
And Jeff, your song "Seeing Things" is really cool. Your music very often reminds me of Nine Inch Nails, but smart. Have you ever heard a band called "Kenna?" It's basically just this one dude, who wrote and performed the music, and the Neptunes, that Zeitgeist music-production team of the 2000 era. It's probably the only Neptunes project that never really took off, but it's good music. I think you'd like it; the keyboard work and the drum-machine patterns are amazing.
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