Rain

Tow words: Battlefield Earth. I've seen a few just as bad but this one always stood out for some reason.

I was thinking not that many, but Logic surprised me at startup by saying it was scanning 507 installed plugins - including Logic's own, of course. Obviously, there's a lot of duplicates in there if you take into account the mono/stereo, native/dsp instances all listed as individual plugins. But still a bit of a shock because I tend to think that I use mostly stock plug-ins. I've noticed a long time ago that if I have a clear idea of what I am doing and what I want, I'll used mostly bundled plug-ins - especially for EQ and compression. That was true in Sonar, and it is in Logic. Then I have a few that I consider shortcuts - not that I could not manage without them but for some reason, I got used to them. Things like Waves' Renaissance Vox. It's just so simple to use and it saves me time. To be honest, at my humble level, if I'm messing around with a bunch of different EQ's and compressors, it's usually because I'm not sure what I am doing or I'm lying to myself and just trying things until I accidentally find something that will push me in the right direction and make up for my own inadequacy. But I usually take that as a learning opportunity and try to duplicate the results using regular, stock plugs.

Welcome back!

I've always been a huge fan of Alice and those records with the band under Ezrin were truly special. My expectations aren't exactly sky high for this new one but it will be nice to hear them playing together again. Sad that Buxton isn't there to be a part of it. I did check out the first excerpt when it came out and I thought it wasn't bad. I love solo Alice too, although I've not really listened to much after The Last Temptation in 1994. I think the only album I never really got was Special Forces. But the rest, even the weird ones like DaDa, I can dig. In early December 1989, there was a giveaway on tv to promote Alice's Trash tour. I called, hoping I could win the cassette. Well, I did win the cassette alright - along with a t-shirt and a pair of tickets for the show in Montreal in January - almost 300 miles away. For a small-town kid like myself, without a license, and who'd never been anywhere, that was kind of problematic. The show might as well have been on Mars. But a friend who was a bit older, worked a blue collar job and had a little money thought this was an opportunity we could not missed so he offered to pay for the bus tickets and a hotel room for the day. That's me under the massive hairdo at 6 am the day of the show, shortly after we arrived. First time in the big city. We'd spent the night drinking Jack Daniel's in the back of the bus... Second photo is a bad shot of the show, obviously.

I remember the look on my ex-wife's face when I first told her I had been a huge Def Leppard fan for a few years. She was a little younger than me so for her, Def Leppard was Hysteria. She had a tough time believing that they were once considered a heavy metal band. By the time Hysteria came out, I'd long since lost interest in them - I was into Metallica and the whole thrash scene. But I could still appreciate the well crafted pop songs. Also, strippers loved Love Bites. I was 16 but I managed to sneak in with older buddy. Truth is, I never cared for stripper after I turned 18. But Love Bites brings back some sweet memories. 🤣 Anyway, thanks for posting this. I will be checking it out this weekend. I'd be curious to see one for Pyromania.

The subscription model saved me a ton of money. I steer clear of that type of scheme (mostly). I must take the opportunity to raise my glass to companies like Lennar Digital, developers of Sylenth1, an extraordinary synth, who went the opposite way. Rent to own. They will allow you to buy and use their synth on a monthly plan. If you decide to interrupt payment for a few months, it's ok. You temporarily renounce access to Sylenth. You can pick right up when you are ready and start making monthly payments, and it all goes towards your permanent license.

I'm sure he would - he seemed to have a wicked sense of humor. I can't even begin to express how sad this makes me. It'll take some time to process this - even if it's not unexpected.

I know it clashes with my "dark dude persona" and all, but I am extremely fond of her music - mostly because my mother loved her music, so those songs became an integral part of the soundtrack of my life. Her music also seems to evoke a certain image of America and simpler times - burgers and milkshakes and drive-ins and all... Although I did not experience any of that, I grew up in the nostalgia of those years - one of my uncles had a collection of old 50's/early 60's cars, we had a few retro-themed restaurants in the area, and of course my mother was a huge fan of those 50's records and movies like American Graffiti. I also used to think she looked so pretty on those old album covers. Anyway... https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjwngwxdnwgo

So many of them. But this one comes to mind because I just listened to it this weekend.

Sedakas's version was great, but the bass line in this one, brother... I know, I'm supposed to be dark and all, but what can I say - it's an amazing song... Listen to that bass.

We'd just gone through the song, when a voice was heard that broke over the humming tube amps... It was our drummer and sure enough, he had a brilliant suggestion to make. "That's genuinely stupid" I thought. But then again, what else can you expect from the drummer... Even though I did not utter word, every one in the room picked on it. Except the drummer of course. So I know how to deal with genuine stupidity, but not AI. Some people who are in the business of delivering a product can certainly find it useful. But that's a different mindset - one that I genuinely respect. I have been there. But for me - and this is going to sound stupid and corny - music is a little like personal growth, or a little like praying. Which is why I no longer care about delivering. Imagine you're on a plane that's about to crash - who would ask AI to communicate their last thoughts? Art is that to me. A chance to be absolutely real. That's also why I am convinced that drummers are really absolutely stupid. (Except Neil Peart, of course).

Thank you, Greg. I sincerely appreciate.