I’ve just posted two PoSumOn albums. Ironically, the three of us joined up for a jam reunion the other day. It was really nice. We got to play with members of Dub Addis, a professional reggea band. Trey played guitar, I played bass, and Paul was on drums.
They wanted us to come back next week and jam again. DJ, Freso: See you there!
Hey y’all. I just finished up transfering an old JustJuan 4-track tape I found in the bottom of an old drawer. The sound could be better, but the tunes hold their own. Aw man, what am I saying!? These tunes ROCK! This content is under the “SmoothGroovinGrass” album. I can’t wait for my bro Sean to give them a listen. I’ve also added 4 songs from our Blue Shoe Magoo album. Sit back, turn up the stereo and enjoy!
Early this past January, I placed an order with Musician’s Friend for an Alesis MultiMix 8USB mixer. This mixer was a nice standalone mixer, but could also function as a 2-in/2-out audio device through a USB connection. The price was right: $149
Although it was backordered, Musician’s Friend claimed that more would arrive in a week. Well, when that week went by, the “More Expected” date was advanced another week. This went on for a month, so I cancelled my order with them. I went in search for a reseller who had one to sell. One by one, the online retailers I searched came up empty handed. All were expecting more soon…
Another month went by, with at least 4 online retailers updating their “More Expected” date each week. This seemed strange. I wrote Alesis.
A representative from Alesis claimed that Alesis had not anticipated demand, and they were shipping some out soon to resolve this issue. That response came over 2 months ago, and online retailers are still selling it although “more are expected soon”. Yeah, right.
Through my conversations with Alesis, I discovered that mid-April (next month) their new MultiMix Firewire mixers are coming out. These mixers will offer 8-in/8-out over a Firewire connection and only cost $100 more than their USB counterparts that Alesis makes.
I feel sorry for the folks who are still waiting in line to get their MultiMix 8USB when the Firewire version is coming out so soon, for just a little bit more money.
One reseller told me over the phone that the MultiMix 8USB had been discontinued. They said that they learned this at a recent Alesis product conference. If this is true, it is disturbing. Why are online retailers still taking orders for a product that seems like it is never going to materialize?
My advice, to anyone who is thinking about “buying” an Alesis MultiMix 8USB, is to either 1)wait for the MultiMix Firewire mixers to come out or 2)look into an alternative product by a different vendor. I couldn’t find anything online regarding this shortage, so I hope this post is informative and helps at least one person out there who is wondering what’s going on.
It’s with much excitement that I’m posting two albums of The McKees’:
Check them out on the sidebar of the page.
I recently got a good deal on a refurbished M-Audio Omnistudio USB and was also able to borrow an old 4-track cassette recorder. With this gear, I’m able to record all 4 tracks simultaneously from the 4-track cassette recorder, through my M-Audio device, and into my Powerbook G4. Once the tracks have been recorded to my laptop, I’m able to re-mix them and clean them up a bit.
I’ve got over 60 cassette tapes I need to digitize on my computer. It is a slow and tedious process, but one that I think will be worth it. These tapes include, among many things, practice recordings of PoSumOn – an old jam band I was in.
One issue I had to address before starting this digitization process was the fact that all of my 4-track cassette tapes were recorded at 9.5cm/sec (or double-speed), but the 4-track player I was able to borrow only played back at 4.8cm/sec (or single speed). Everything I played on the 4-track player sounded like it was all slow-mo! This wouldn’t do!
Using Audacity, a free, cross-platform sound editor, I was able to change the speed of the audio I recorded. So, I was able to record my tapes at single speed and then increase their speed by “100.0%”. This effectively “squashed” the recording to its original speed.
The end result sounds great. And I believe that recording at single-speed gives me a better sounding transfer due to the increased resolution of the tape (much like how a high-resolution scan will do multiple passes).
As I transfer and master the PoSumOn recording tapes, I will make sure to share them with you.
More to come from PoSumOn….