[UD] Good News 'n' Bad News

Tomteriffic · March 9th, 2002, 09:26 PM

<-------- Kind of one of those.

As some of you know, by day I'm a real estate novelist and accidental mathematician. By night I'm a musician and computer geek. I'm also a full-time UD cruncher and proud member of the Formerly Deranged Bovines.

What you may not know is that I've also had a rather lengthy career as a recording engineer/producer, etc., etc., and am now long retired. However, I've maintained a pretty nice studio in what used to be our living and dining rooms. My wife is the house drummer and graphics designer for Spiny Norman (our indescribable duet) and Little Silver Coaster Records. Both of these rooms house the better part of my UD herd.

My main, biggest fastest cow was actually built as an audio workstation. I've held off installing the specialized hardware and software until now, waiting for a few other things to come together. They did, finally, in the form of a pretty spendy microphone preamp and a couple of mikes that are just perfect for our voices and my guitar.

So, now I gotta put this thing together and start making some noise, or forever recant my claim to being a recording musician. That's the bad news.

The worse news is that my general purpose machine which doubles as my number 2 workstation, upon which I'm writing this, has one of those cussed Delta fans on the HSF and it's gonna need to be turned off while I'm recording.

The good news is, I don't do this 24/7, two of the cows are quite quiet and I can work around the limited fan noise thy make, and two are in another room. So, while the big cow is down for a while while I once again tear my hair out trying to turn it into a recorder, the others will continue to crunch, and really, only when I'm in the midst of a project will the big cow be offline (and the #2 one also, when I've got mikes open).

The better news is that the big gonzo semiannual computerfest is happening next weekend, and I have a bit of space in the other room, as well as some room on a KVM switch, so I may be able to cobble something together to fill in for the part time big dawgy.

I gotta do this folks, it's who I am and have been since I was in footed pajamas, so I hope you'll understand. I'll still be crunchin' but not to the degree that I have been, at least on the weekends

And, with a bit of luck, I can whip together a replacement and keep the output about the same.

If I come up with anything, musically speaking, that I'm not totally ashamed of, I'll send around an MP3, OK?

MDdan · March 9th, 2002, 09:44 PM

You're forgiven as long as you write us a theme song.

I would also like to point out that most of the folks on the team would actually like the sound of a delta fan in the background of a song. We're kinda geeky that way I guess.

surreal · March 9th, 2002, 09:55 PM

Quote:

since I was in footed pajamas,

You mean you're not wearing them anymore??

Quote:

You're forgiven as long as you write us a theme song.

Tomteriffic · March 9th, 2002, 10:12 PM

Aw shucks!

Let's see: "Cows are cracking on the cancer, molecules displayed"
(Sung to the tune of "I've been working on the railroad')

or

"Pentium 3, AMD, even a couple of K-6-3's as the Mad Cows go cruching along" (To the tune of "As The Caissons Go Rolling Along")

Somebody stop me, I gotta go download some drivers!

surreal · March 9th, 2002, 10:20 PM

and what tune its that sung too?

?

GilaManster · March 9th, 2002, 10:57 PM

TT, you are one fun crazy hombre!

GilaM

LittleKing · March 9th, 2002, 11:32 PM

Here's a suggestion that might keep you going, just put a little money into getting a new HS/F. Or maybe some here has an extra HS/F they would sell or better yet give to ya.

LK

Tomteriffic · March 10th, 2002, 01:39 AM

Thanks for the thought, LittleKing, it's just a PITA to do that particular HSF, just getting that machine out of it's cubbyhole is an afternoon's work and the clip on the HSF is a bear, so, one of these days.....

In the meantime, my whiz-bang 10 in-10 out audio card does about 10 seconds of audio and locks up the whole system tighter than my boss' wallet.

Soooo, until I come up with some better ideas or another thousand bucks to blow.... (Does his VERY best Walter Brennan) "Get along little dogies...."

eagle1 · March 10th, 2002, 11:11 AM

The new card locks up your machine????
Maybe it's the software (if you are using one that came with the card) and not hardware!!!

Good luck with your recording and post a song!!!

Tomteriffic · March 10th, 2002, 11:24 AM

Eagle, it's actually an older card and the company, unfortunately, went out of business. The good news is that I have several friends that have this setup, one of which is running on an AMD platform, so I ought to be able to get it worked out.

The even better news is that I got it running pretty well as of about 4:30 AM where I am (the old studio rat all-nighter)

The Windows Media Player still locks the thing up, but, hey, that's not what I use this thing for

Now, to figure out how to get some sound into this thing. I'm also on a software learning curve here too.

In the meantime, the little dogies keep on crunchin'. Lost a couple of WU's l;ast night whilst fighting with the big one, but, hey, she's back on track now