bitflipper

I dunno, $39 would be a great deal for somebody who doesn't already have a de-esser and a spectral compressor. Such a consumer probably falls right into iZotope's marketing demographic. Next ground-breaking product: a combination bitcrusher + cheese straightener! Part of a new suite of things you never knew you needed.

I am reminded of Flo & Eddy (The Turtles), who set out to write the dumbest song ever as a gag, only to score a hit with it. That song was called Eleanor ("Eleanor, gee I think you're swell, you're my pride and joy, etcetera")

Next you're gonna tell me that music production is similar fakery.

Thanks for that, Marc. I was so disappointed with the first album that I never gave the band a second chance. But your comment spurred me to give it a listen. You're right - it's pretty good. I know there's a lot of good stuff from the 90's that I missed due to spending that decade completely disconnected from popular music. It was disco that pushed me away in the 80's, resulting in a retreat to the music of my youth, primarily oldies from the 19th century. The Brandenburg Concertos - that's the soundtrack of my youth, my musical comfort food.

When this song was originally released, I had never seen Saturday Night Live because I was a working musician and Saturday nights were spoken for. But I had bought the first videotape machine I could afford and began recording SNL episodes and watching them on Sunday. It was a Sony Beta, which my technoid brain assumed would become the prevailing videotape format, being technically superior to VHS. That thing cost over a grand and didn't even have a wireless remote. I can still vividly recall playing back an SNL episode that featured a band named Dream Academy, playing Life in a Northern Town. I stood there slackjawed, thinking this was the best thing I'd ever heard on that show. Rewound and played it over and over, then ran out that afternoon and bought the album on cassette. Only to find that Life in a Northern Town was the only good song on the album. The band vanished, leaving only this one masterpiece as their legacy. Here's Justin Hayward covering it 40 years later, with an orchestra and still sounding remarkably mellifluous for an old man.

Just watching Runaway Jury on Netflix...Gene was one of the best villains ever. You know he's evil, but he's still sympathetic. Of course, some of that credit goes to John Grisham, but I'd previously listened to this on audiobook and didn't even form a mental picture the villain while listening. My money's on carbon monoxide. At 95, the list of things that could have killed Mr. Hackman was extensive, but his wife was much younger and his dog younger still.

This is a most welcome addition. I'm a fan of the spectral filter, but it had been a little less usable due to it favoring the lower frequencies within the band because it was reacting linearly, like a compressor without a sidechain filter. Now we have a sidechain filter for it. Hopefully they'll someday make its slope adjustable. But just the modest 3dB tilt helps.

My Cinnamon Girl is Keep on Rockin' in the Free World.

What a voice. Pure silk.

I love a mystery, especially when something behaves in what seems to be an inexplicable manner at first glance. Long ago I had a pair of PA column speakers that suddenly had really poor bass response. I took them apart, tested each of the 8 speakers separately, verified they were wired correctly. Curiously, if I ran just one of the cabinets - either one - the bass was fine. But when connected in parallel, the bass disappeared. I'm sure anyone reading this knows exactly what had gone wrong. In my defense, I was 19 and didn't know half of what I thought I knew at the time. Turned out, one of my home-made speaker cables had one end wired in reverse. In Geoff's case, confounding though it is, the answer is simple in retrospect. The passive tone control on most guitars is a simple RC low-pass filter. The fact is that the harmonic content in a plucked electric guitar string is quite subtle. Plug your guitar into an oscilloscope sometime, you'll see that it's essentially a poorly-formed sine wave. And what happens when you apply a filter to a sine wave? One of two things: either it does nothing, or it acts like a volume control, depending on whether the signal frequency falls within the attenuated range of the filter. The effect of the filter is more obvious on the bridge pickup simply because there's more harmonic content in the signal. reginaldStjohn's comment about flat-wound strings being mellower was news to me, but makes sense. I've never heard flat-wound strings on a 6-string, but am familiar with the tonal difference on a bass.

This piece was written specifically for this singer, and he may well be the only person on the planet who can sing it. Jump to the 4-minute mark to hear his full range over 60 seconds.

My guess would be that Noel is very much in the loop.

Been there; I know that feeling. However, know that the idea that you have nothing left will eventually be proven otherwise. The emotional well from which we draw musical inspiration is filled with all the experiences life has ever thrown at us, both good and bad.

The way I heard it: Optimists believe that this is the best of all possible worlds. Pessimists fear that is true.

Update: I've turned into such a pessimist in my old age. There wasn't any snow, we had a full house and a full tip jar, and were immediately booked back for August. All in all, a most pleasant gig. Could it be that the secret to happiness always expecting the worst so that you can be pleasantly surprised?

Well, here in Seattle we almost made it through the entire winter without any snow. Not a flake. Of course, the day it finally snows, melts, refreezes and snows again is the day my 2-wheel-drive van is loaded up with every expensive thing I own. Plus we'll likely get to play for empty chairs tonight. This is what we like to call "paying your dues". But sheesh, I'm 73. When will my dues be considered paid?

That's the first time I've heard of an employer forbidding backing tracks. Is that common in your area? Seems like an unnecessary reduction of the local talent pool. Then again, I remember back in the 70's it was not uncommon for some clubs to require a female vocalist. I remember that because we hired two of them to gain entry into those venues. It was a horrible experience, a soap opera. The two gals were close friends, had choreographed dance moves, and were decent vocalists. Then one of them decided it would be a good idea to do the horizontal bop with the other's boyfriend and that was the end of that band. Never again, said me - who's been performing with a female vocalist for the past 10 years. She's married to the drummer. They're currently getting a divorce. If it comes down to them not being able to be in the same room together, I've already decided to keep the drummer.

Plus the denominations in the tip jar are larger. Sure, they may remember when 25 cents was a reasonable tip, but something about a hundred makes them feel particularly philanthropic. I have a buddy who mostly does nursing homes. You'd think that would be depressing, but he actually connects with the residents (more so the older he gets). Plus gigs are 1 hour and he gets $300-400 for each. He's a solo act who books himself, so that's 100% take-home pay. Sometimes, he does as many as 4 of those in a day. His rig has been trimmed down to just an acoustic 12-string and an amp that also serves as his PA. Several of those places are near me, so he'll often call up and say he's got a couple hours to kill before his next gig and wants to come over and shoot the breeze or grab an espresso. The next logical step, I suppose, is playing funerals. I read an interview with a pianist who was asked to play at a friend's funeral. She didn't know what to play so just quietly improvised some slow tunes. Afterward, guests congratulated her on the performance and asked if she had a CD for sale. She didn't, but wisely set about making one and began actively seeking out funeral gigs. Today she is the queen of funerary music, making more money from selling CDs to funeral homes than actually performing at them. She had inadvertently created a new genre. And yes, today it has become a recognized genre. Not sure if they have a Top Ten.

Thanks for that positive note, Bob. It's kinda refreshing to play for an older audience. Nobody's told them it's not cool to get up and participate. Not that they'd give a sh...hoot anyway.