Rich's dirty secrets to awesome home recording with cheap hardware
I'm pretty sure any pro-audio guy who reads this is going to be thoroughly disgusted because the method described below uses old-school tech. But it works and it can be done very cheaply. And yes, I mean CHEAP. Not "inexpensive". I mean cheap, as in stuff-you'd-find-at-a-garage-sale cheap.
Must-have gigging essential - GPS (and how to get ultra-precise directions)
I've been a Garmin GPS user since 2005, so believe me when I say that I know my way around a GPS. The current unit I own is the nuvi 40LM model. The "LM" by the way means "Lifetime Maps", so when buying a Garmin GPS, always get one that has "LM" in its model name so you don't have to pay for map upgrades.
Why the rock music scene in Tampa Bay sucks (and what can be done about it)
Since moving to Tampa Bay Florida in the mid-2000s, I've been in and out of a few bands. Some never went anywhere after the first rehearsal. Some would purposely withhold information such a conveniently not mentioning the fact it was a church band (if you're in a church band, say so up front or bug off, and I seriously mean that). Others I got kicked out of for "not playing well with others", and I'll explain more about that in a moment. And one turned out to have a singer who was nothing more than a pill-popping, stoner drunk. Of course I didn't find this out until after I joined the band, played a single gig where the singer took the stage in a high drunken state and promptly forgot half the lyrics to the songs he was singing. It wasn't pretty.
The audio CD turns 30
On 1-Oct-1982, Billy Joel's 52nd Street was the first commercial compact disc, released in Japan. Now while true CD technology is several years older than 1982 (prototypes were around as early as the mid-1970s), the "music CD", if you will, started in '82, meaning the CD as we know it is 30 years old.
This is what happens when I break my own rules
I bought a 12-pack box of Dean Markley Vintage 1972 reissue strings. As I've said in previous blogs, you should never buy this many packs of strings at once because what happens is that you'll never get through half the box without some of the strings rusting on you.
