sound advice 1

People often come to me and ask “Unca FX tell me how I can get good music sound cheaply”. Ignoring the implied cheapskate slur and choosing instead to accentuate the positive implication that I know a bit about good sound I usually oblige. So when Shaun from Rock n Roll Damnation and Lardarse Rodeo and Harry Clarke from Kalimna who also spends a lot of time here sent out plaintive bleats on the net I put up my hand. And promptly didn’t do anything. Now with New Year and all that – here/hear I am.

Over the years having set myself soundwise up cheaply and family members and friends and relatives I have accumulated a certain wisdom. A wisdom fed by experience listening, mainly to music, but lets not forget its not always all about music, in different settings and with various technologies.

I first heard a lot of reproduced music on an old wind up 78 player in a shed. “Come Down Come Down from Your Ivory Tower” still takes me back to my childhood in the bush. I first heard “Hey Joe” and "My Generation” on a crystal set in bed. Later when we got electricity and a radio in a modest radiogram I went halves in a Sonny Terry LP with my dad. My Fair Lady and Camelot were on high rotation as was a Dave de Hugard collection on bush songs which we got a bit later.

Then on to buying my own records – I think my first record was 12 X 5 by the Rolling Stones, although my first music purchase was the sheet music and words to Dylan's Like Rolling Stone, so Chris Shanley could play it on the piano while I sang.

I got older, shifted houses, got my own systems, bought vinyl, cassettes, CDs, and so on.

So Harry and Shaun who have asked and any others can join me on this interactive journey titled : “How to achieve pretty bloody good sound without wasting money”

Sound reproduction is a complicated business involving much science, some art and a lot of old husbands' tales and myths and a lot of strongly held views.

As an aside the nastiest USENET group I ever participated in was aus.hifi, there was stalking, online and in real life, bannings and denial of service, identity theft, threats of violence and threats of legal action. All in a group occupied by hi-fi nerds who might to an outsider seem like a pretty harmless bunch of bearded losers in corduroy pants and tweed sportscoats with leather elbow patches. I’d had an easier ride when I was active on alt.religion.scientology in the early days

I’ll conduct this imparting of wisdom with a dialogue in which I will make some simple but big statements of principle and allow others to argue. I probably won't put up all references or sources first unless a stoush develops or people want further reading. I’m biased. I’m biased toward fact rather than folklore. Evidence rather than woowoo and handwaving and a distinct bias toward a cheapskates kind of Ockams razor in this field. For example if I, and most people, can’t hear any difference between when a $60 DVD player is used to play CDs and when a $5,000 CD player is used – I would say buy the $60 DVD player.

Mostly people want to uprade from an existing system.

My First Big Statement is: Don’t throw the old system out. It quite possibly is very ok. Or at least parts of it are. The amp may be a lot better than some around now and speakers don’t usually wear out and with a small fix may well be very good.

Next big statement: The biggest effect on your sound is your room. The size of the room and the shape of the room but very importantly the “aliveness/deadness” of the room.

Even though the most important effect on your quality sound is your listening room it is also, at least at first glance, the most difficult to control and tweak.

Next biggest effect on your quality sound is your speakers.

The next biggest effect on your sound is the input or content container which will most likely be a CD or perhaps a vinyl LP. Increasingly this content container may be a hard drive or a flash drive carrying digital music.

The least effect on your music will be the CD player, the amplifier and the wires.

The CD player simply has to read the information off the CD and send it to the amplifier. All the amplifier should do is take that signal, amplify it, and send it to the speakers where it is turned into acoustic energy and it moves air in the speaker box and in your ear.

Let us say our defendant has around $1,000 to spend on a music stereo set up.

Allocating money in line with the hierarchy. We get:
1 Most money on room. In theory – but in practice this money will be already “sunk costs” and may be difficult to do more than some simple tweaking around the edges. Don’t worry, to use econo talk there is some “low hanging fruit” and “gains can be made at the margins” – say $200 or less
2 Next most on Speakers – spend about $600
3 A little money on a decent amplifier- I’ve had my last 3 given to me or you can get one off eBay for around $80 - $100
4 Even less money on a CD player – grab an old DVD player or buy a cheap new one for $80
5 and as little as possible on connecting wires. $15

If your budget goes to more money hold everything the same and up the investment in speakers.

Some Homework and background reading:
1 Why the music you are listening to probably sucks
2 The Death of Dynamic range

Next time I’ll go into why and what about the room and some experiments with your existing system and room. Later on I hope we can get input from Floppy and dogpossum on integrating digital music (other than CDs) into the system. Not a mature solution around as far as I can see. I hope also to get commenter Carl to chip in with his Recording Studio experience.

sort of dunno nothin'

For a long time I've lamented the demise of the "quality" novelty song. I haven't heard one around for years. Maybe Ween's Pushin th' Little Daisies. But not much of any substance that has everyone from grannies to kinda kids singing it like Ahab the Arab (now there's one due for revival) or Snoopy and The Red Baron, or Monster Mash or the daddy of them all Purple People Eater.

A good novelty song not only has to be catchy and an ear worm but a bit clever and operate on a few levels for the knowing hepcats and the unknowing great unwashed. And it needs another ingredient - in some way it should grab a bit of the zeitgeist like King Tut and Hot Rod Lincoln.

Peter Denahy's Sort Of Dunno Nuthin grabbed me the first time I heard it on John Nutting's Saturday Night Country around xmas time. Luckily the video doesn't spoil it at all. Deserves to be a hit.

Especially after the rush to international fame of Cory the "Numbskull from Narre" in yellow sunnies and hoodie.

PS: I didn't mention that Denahy is a superb muso who spent time in Slim Dusty's touring band, always a good recommendation, and some of his growing up and musical learning was done in his mother's country of Japan.

new years eve

Forgot to mention the boy - Moroccan Kings - is on tonight at Ruby's Lounge Belgrave.

See ya soon.

music offspring espy cd

They're young, it's loud, it's heavy, it's tight, it's at the Espy, he's my kid, I'll be there, it's free.
What more can you ask for.
You're invited

come back pjk

shoelaces

Know what this is below?

1 (Bottom, Longer): H×INT((P+2)÷2)+V×P+L

2 (Second, Shorter): H×INT((P+1)÷2)+V×(P−1)+L

You're right. It's the formula for getting the lace length right for Bi-Colour Lacing.

The most famous Shoelace site in the world is run by Ian Fieggen, a Melbourne bloke. It includes 33 different ways to lace shoes, plus comparisions of lacing methods by comfort, difficulty, visual appeal and ease.

His photos and diagrams are helpful, to the point and a pleasure to view.

Top photo is Black Bam shoes with cyan trim and cyan & black Checkerboard Lacing. Diagram is Lattice lacing.

musical chairs

The other day we were at what I suppose was Jen & Ken's (Spanish Style) Kitchen Tea and TonyT had hijacked the convo towards fillums. Mel Brooks came up and Cat on Tin Roof then Singing in the Rain.

I supplied a small rant on the Art Deco style of Top Hat from intro lettering, to room design to music to clothes and even how Fred dances rectilinear and not, say, Art Nouveau and curvy like Gene Kelly. Anyway in the first of many mistakes, thinking I’d be clever, I asked TriviaTonyT “What was the first colour musical”?. He quickly counter feinted; “Wizard of Oz”, just as I mumbled out “Gigi”.

Now I‘d always had in my mind that Gigi was the first colour musical but no, TonyT and his coterie of female admirers insisted that the first colour musical was “the wiz”. Overwhelmed I subtly shifted the conversation across to The Producers or Curb or something.



Now I’ve looked it up:
“Gigi is a 1958 motion picture musical”

“The Wizard of Oz premiered at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on August 12, 1939 and Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood on August 15, 1939. The New York City premiere at Loew's Capitol Theater on August 17, 1939 was followed by a live performance with Judy Garland and her frequent film co-star Mickey Rooney. They would continue to perform there after each screening for a week. The movie opened nationally on August 25, 1939.”

However:
“the first all color all talking musical feature was entitled On with the Show (1929). The most popular film of 1929 was in fact the second all-color all-talking feature which was entitled Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929).’

So there. 

Listen to Tip-Toe Through The Tulips (mp3) from Gold Diggers

ac/dc gs-t & nabakov melbourne tuesday

For Shaun Cronin


Fans, under signage and behind cameras, and smokers on crutches, in low key homage.

Adelaide visitor snaps memories of vibrant lane culture to take home.
(As always. Click on image for more involving experience)

train fragments

"Nah.Yeah. No I haven't moved far. Born,brought up and went to school in Resso. Now I've moved to Tommo."

View Larger Map

van curries favour - again

Director Alan Parker and a smattering of the non-stars of The Commitments reminisce about the "small film with a big heart and a foul mouth". The best backstage story comes when it emerges that Van Morrison was briefly considered for the role of Joey "The Lips" Fagan. According to writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (of Porridge fame) Morrison, the soul of charm as ever, began their meeting by brandishing the script and growling, "Well this is crap, isn't it?"


From: Radio Times.  Movie Connections, Monday 17 September, 10:35pm - 11:15pm, BBC1, The Commitments

i know it was father's day but wtf?

Singer Van Morrision is a dad again.

His wife Michelle Rocca gave birth to a baby boy in Mount Carmel at the weekend but details have just emerged.

The couple had kept the pregnancy a secret from the public as they did with their first child - a baby girl who was born last year.

No other details of the new arrival were revealed.

From Radio Telefís Éireann

Eolas faoi RTÉ
Is Craoltóir Seirbhíse Poiblí é RTÉ, eagraíocht neamhbhrabúis faoi úinéireacht mhuintir na hÉireann. Is é RTÉ ceannródaí tras-mheán na hÉireann, a sholáthraíonn seirbhísí teilifíse, raidió agus seirbhísí ar líne saor go haer, seirbhísí atá cuimsitheach agus éifeachtach ó thaobh costais  de, ar seirbhísí iad atá ar ardchaighdeán agus atá neamhchlaonta de réir oibleagáidí reachtúla RTÉ.

happy birthday (& father's day) van

My favourite grumpy old musical pioneer and genius was 62 on Friday. All the best Ivan George. The big surprise is that Van is, allegedly, a father again. His partner, the extremely attractive TV presenter and former Miss Ireland, Michelle Rocca and Van are said to be the parents of 17 months old Aibhe Rocca Morrison. Silly old bugger. Serves him right to be up all night I say. Anyway happy Father's Day Van.

To celebrate I'm watching the DVD of Van Morrison: Live At Montreux 1974/ 1980 through again. You can pick it up at JBs for about $14. Do yourself a big favour. (I'm looking at you Amanda Flop). To tide you over until then this clip of Van doing Summer time in England gives a good example of the man in action. I worry that YouTube sound is substandard and played through small computer speakers is even more degraded. I just hope that sensible people don't restrict their listening to lossy compressed sound over computer speakers. But I'm afraid they do.

Anyway. It's traditional amongst true believers (and shoddy journalists) to celebrate Van's milestones with stories of grumpiness. Here's my latest; Glen Hansard from The Frames, support group to Bob on the recent tour, went to a birthday party for Van:

About 10 years ago I was invited by a mutual friend to Van’s 50th birthday. Me and my girlfriend drove to his huge country house. Van was there, Jerry Lee Lewis and his wife, some friends and children as well as some dogs (smiles). An all intimate small circle and a unique experience. Some time during the evening a woman came to us and whispered: “Come to the living room, Van sings some songs.” So we all went there, Van and Jerry were singing and it was incredibly touching.

Q: You must have been in seventh heaven?

A: Both were drunk, sang country songs and I WAS in heaven. A bit later that evening, Van asked whether anyone would like to hear a certain song. I was completely insecure whether I should say something or not and refrained. When he shortly afterwards asked again, whether there was nobody who had a request I worked up the courage and said: “Hungry for your love”. “Hungry for your love” is a song from the “Wavelength” album which I adore. Van looked at me coolish and said: “You don’t know me!” I turned around and left the room. That was exactly, what you never want to hear from your idol. It was rude and impolite.

Q: So he really is the grumpy man that everyone thinks he is?

A: He often is grumpy. A little bit later my girlfriend came to look after me and made me go in again. Van was still singing and I enjoyed it. At the same time I was very hurt. He asked whether anybody wants to sing something and my girlfriend said: “Glen will play!" Van looked around, came up to me, handed me his guitar and left the room. I felt so terrible. I played a song and people liked it. When I played a second song, Van returned and after I finished he asked me: “What was it that you wanted to hear?” I replied: “Hungry for your love.” “Do you know it?” I said: “Yes”. And he said: “Okay ­ then sing it!” He really asked me to sing his song.

Q: Your favourite song.

A: My favourite song by him. I really sang it on his request. When I had finished we went into another room. Van sat down with me, handed me his guitar and said: “Play for me!” So I played for him and we then spent the whole night there singing his songs. It was completely unreal and a giant challenge. One of those stories you can make a film of: Young man meets his idol, is spurned by him and in the end wins his recognition. It was fantastic. When I should sum up the whole thing: I was in the company of a great artist, watched his fingers, his mouth and the way he was forming words. A top-class lesson, having the chance to watch the master at work. It is hard to explain, how much you can learn in such a situation, just to watch a great artist. But it is unbelievable how much you learn. I literally sucked in the information. I was 21 or 22 years old, open and absorbed everything. And I am sure that he wasn’t aware of how much he gave me. But I still live on today from what he gave me then. And “Yes” ­ I would love to do an album with him.

rudd gropes stripper

I'm sick of these politicians.

Outflanked by Howard on the pork barrelling and throwing money at any project dreamt up by a rural town of less than 10,000 people Rudd and his spin doctors have cynically either constructed an "incident" out of two pots of light beer and a walk past a lap dancing venue or they have resurrected one of the total of three known occasions of Kev's actual and real nights on the turps and refashioned it, in a less than springsteenesque narrative of a subsequent stagger around the late openers and fleece joints around New Jersey.

The timing is suspicious - just when the average voter is getting truly jack of Kristian Kev and his Hillsong Happy Clappers- here we have, oh so conveniently, a concocted misdemeanour, which will turn out not to be a downer (nb: pun) but will turn out to be a fillip to Rudd’s poll rating. Watch the Opposition other mob led by Howard and Downer look pathetic while trying to land a blow, below the belt, so to speak and not succeeding. Watch the woman in the cul-de-sac at Caroline Springs shrug with a yes-it’s-a-bit-sleazy-but-so-what, into the “current affairs” camera and watch her eyes say “Perhaps he’d make an ok PM after all.”

bob melbourne reviews

bob melbourne reviews

dylan melbourne set list 17 august 2007

Rod Laver Arena  Melbourne August 17, 2007

1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (Bob on electric guitar)
2. It Ain't Me, Babe (Bob on electric guitar)
3. Watching The River Flow (Bob on electric guitar)
4. Tangled Up In Blue (Bob on electric keyboard and harp)
5. John Brown (Bob on electric keyboard, Donnie on banjo, Tony on standup bass)
6. The Levee's Gonna Break (Bob on electric keyboard, Donnie on electric mandollin, Tony on standup bass)
7. When The Deal Goes Down (Bob on electric keyboard, Tony on standup bass)
8. Things Have Changed (Bob on electric keyboard and harp, Donnie on violin)
9. Desolation Row (Bob on electric keyboard, Donnie on electric mandolin, Tony on standup bass)
10. Honest With Me (Bob on electric keyboard)
11. Spirit On The Water (Bob on electric keyboard and harp, Tony on standup bass)
12. Highway 61 Revisited (Bob on electric keyboard)
13. Nettie Moore (Bob on electric keyboard)
14. Summer Days (Bob on electric keyboard, Tony on standup bass)
15. Ballad Of A Thin Man (Bob on electric keyboard and harp)

(encore)

16. Thunder On The Mountain (Bob on electric keyboard)
17. Like A Rolling Stone (Bob on electric keyboard)

in the electric mist with confederate dead

Above: Buddy Guy as Hogman Patin in the film.
Further signs that things are generally on the up and up.  In addition to James Lee Burke having a new Robicheaux book out in USA [see post below] the second Robicheaux film based on In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead is in post production.

The first, and so far only film, is Heaven’s Prisoners a goldmine of bayou scenery and well cast minor characters, but a huge flop in terms of Alex Baldwin miscast as Robicheaux and Kelly Lynch not quite as bad, as Dave’s wife.

This time around it already smells good. Tommy Lee Jones as Dave and Levon Helm and Buddy Guy as minor characters. Sadly for us tragics no Clete. The director is Bertrand Tavernier so the Hollywood clichés that marred Heavens Prisoners are likely to be few.

The music, only nodded to in Heaven’s Prisoners, looks to be upfront and funky in this film. Buddy Guy, Louisiana born, plays Hogman Patin, the zydeco/bluesman who has info on two murders that Dave is investigating. The film uses Nathan Williams & The Zydeco Cha Chas to round out Hogman's Band.

Reports are of Buddy Guy digging the accordion and doing a zydeco version of "Stone Crazy" and "Damn Right, I Got the Blues," as well as an original "Birthday Song" that Buddy wrote for the film. Word is that the obligatory extras that accompany all DVD releases will contain 3 or 4 live full songs that aren't in the film.

Below: Nathan Williams as himself with the Zydeco Cha-Chas

inking - offspring no2

guess what i've got

Clues:
1 - I hope it rains over the weekend for about 4 hours
2 - I'll light a fire
3 - I'll crack a good red
4 - I have all the other works
5 - It's the first hardback of this cat I've owned
6 - It landed on my doorstep today
7 - Cost au$26 landed
8 - Took only a week to get here
9 - No release date yet for Australia
10 - I'm smug

Last paragraph of the first chapter:

" But that was before Katrina. That was before a storm with greater impact than the bomb blast that struck Hiroshima peeled the face off southern Louisiana. That was before one of the most beautiful cities in the Western Hemisphere was killed three times, and not just by the forces of nature."

next dot con bubble

Often someone else says it better. From John C. Dvorak of PC Magazine:

" Every single person working in the media today who experienced the dot-com bubble in 1999 to 2000 believes that we are going through the exact same process and can expect the exact same results—a bust. It's déjà vu all over again. And since this moment in time is only the beginning of the cycle, the best nuttiness has yet to emerge. Nevertheless, this is not to say that a lot of nuttiness hasn't already happened.

If we look closely, the 1999 dot-com bubble was nothing new. We saw all sorts of bubbles before the dot-com one. For instance, there was the CD-ROM bubble. Remember all the CD-ROM companies? Bill Gates's "Information at Your Fingertips" was the watchword. Microsoft itself started a unique division called Microsoft Home. The whole scene collapsed almost overnight.

Each succeeding bubble has been worse than its predecessor. Thus nobody is actually able to spot the cycle, since it just looks like a continuum. I can assure you that after this next collapse, nobody will think of the dot-com bubble as anything other than a prelude.

Before the CD-ROM bubble, pad-based computing was all the rage. Every company and a lot of start-ups were going to make this kind of computer. It was a total bust. Before that we had the software wars, when you could choose from dozens and dozens of word processors and spreadsheets. And don't forget the IBM PC clone wars in there somewhere. These all resulted in one sort of collapse or another.

I think you get the idea.

Each of these bubbles had a distinctive theme. For the dot-com bubble, it was e-commerce—it really should have been called the e-commerce bubble. Everything was focused on how the Internet was going to destroy all existing brick-and-mortar operations. We were told that you'd be buying sandwiches over the Internet and having them delivered the next day by FedEx. Everything was about "eyeballs" and finding ways to attract customers, whether they bought anything or not. Every article in every newspaper in the country parroted the litany as to how you'd be out of business in a year or two if you were not present on the Web in a big way. Of course, this was all crap.

The current bubble, already called Bubble 2.0 to mock the Web 2.0 moniker, is harder to pin down insofar as a primary destructive theme is concerned. A number of unique initiatives, however, are in play here. Let's look at a few of the top ideas floating the new bubble.

Neo-social networking. Today everything from YouTube to the local church has a social-networking angle. And this doesn't even consider the actual social-networking sites, from MySpace to LinkedIn to Facebook to even Second Life. This scene is totally out of control and will contribute to the collapse for sure.

Video mania. With dozens and dozens of YouTube clones cropping up to get on the "throw money away" bandwagon, you must sense that the eventual shakeout in this space will have a negative impact.

User-generated content. This idea has been around since Usenet and just keeps improving. It will make no contribution to the overall collapse except for users reporting the collapse.

Mobile everything. Here is another concept that has been in play since the mid-1990s. It cannot trigger a collapse since it will never fully get off the ground, although the iPhone mania may be a bad sign of something.
Ad-leveraged search. Most search engines will fail as a matter of course. This segment of the industry is mundane. It would be affected by a crash but not trigger one.

Widgets and toolbars. I cannot see the widget scene going crazy, and the jury is still out on toolbars. But there is the potential for nuttiness, I think. The problem here is that these things tend to be dependent on the stability of operating systems and browsers. One bad operating-system patch and suddenly nothing works.

You can come up with your own theories about the next collapse. Your guess as to the cause will be as good as mine. All I can tell you is that it's a sure thing. "

yesterday upon the stair

I'm on a bit of a J.P Donleavy kick. Everyone knows that the Shane McGowan/Pogues Fairytale of New York, beside being possibly the best song written in the last 50 years, was named after J.P's novel of the same name.

He's just turned 80, J.P. not Shane, and he was on BBC Desert Island Discs back in March.

Here's his Desert Island list:
1. The Water of Tyne: Farnham Youth Choir
2. Oh Susannah: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
3. Annie Laurie: The Red Army Ensemble
4. Second movement of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major: Helen Grimaud
5. Land of My Fathers: Fron Male Voice Choir
6. Parce Mihi Domine: The Hilliard Ensemble with Jan Garbarek
7. The Humming Chorus: Puccini
8. Part of the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto: Maurizio Pollini w. Berlin Phil