Chip McDonald

I've caught myself, having just woken up for a minute, thinking things like "I'll go get coffee" (from the Starbucks inside the local Kroger) "I'll go walk the pup down at the river" (park, where countless anti-maskers now walk/jog) "I'll go visit my parents" (my mother myseteriouly died of massive blood clotthing a few months ago; and I obviously I can't go around my 86 year old father) ... then I remember. I can understand the attraction of the people that are rolling the dice and pretending nothing is happening. But one has to be smart enough to understand the consequences of gambling.

It's kind of neither here nor there, unless someone has been tested 12 hours prior - and even then it may not be close enough - the test won't be perfect. And the test(s) have an error rate. A better thing would be if they invested (or someone.....) in a clearinghouse company that mediates *antibody testing*. It would be profitable. Because not only is it going to be necessary, another thing people aren't thinking about is ..... if I take the vaccine I'll never know if I had it previously or not, unless I get an antibody test. Which some are only of a 60% accuracy. A company that offered antibody testing with an online security ticket will be useful by mid 2021. Not just for businesses like Ticketmaster, Regal Cinemas, but also for the plethora of millions that will want to know both before they get vaccinated if they're positive for the antibodies but then also AFTER, in order to know if they've seroconverted. There is so much... armchair science around vaccines and convid it's.. frightening, another harbinger of how uneducated we've become. It's going to be such a mess. Ticvketmaster, the movie theaters, clubs - they've got to be controlled to keep the virus from continuing through the 10% the vaccines won't cover, and the anti-science abstainers. There will be people that say "I'm vaccinated so I'm perfectly safe!" - 1 in 10 won't be. And then the people that refuse to get vaccinated, or *know" they have the antibodies will keep it in circulation. THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN!!!

It's curious to figure out if things are outliers on the long tail or not. Bandcamp seems to be in an uncanny valley.

Another limiting factor is whether they continue with their anti-self repair philosophy. At some point regardless of their technology if it becomes well known they're effectively making the Chrysler K-car of computers they may find themselves suddenly in a peculiar bind. ...but RISC V....

I could see a divergence of Apple focusing on energy efficient self-fab chip for laptops, Intel focusing on larger tech and heavy lifting for everything else. Intel is going to be at a disadvantage being an OEM supplier instead of a bespoke production. RISC 5 might change things at some point.

Dunlop Univibe Rocktron Intellifex Yamaha MagicStomp Line6 Modulation Modeller

To further complicate matters in this "post record label" age genres are not the sieve they once were. I am having enormous difficulty coming up with templates that make any sense. When I was in a pop band, there were parameters of style. Metal band, same thing. Fusion band, boundaries. With no boundaries I'm spinning my wheels in a morass of an Uncanny Valley of styles that fight each other from an audio engineering standpoint. Stylistically I can move between things, but then making the sound itself work with it is an unexpected chore. It's like a buffet with no concept, with lo mein, enchiladas and Korean sushi on your plate with vanilla ice cream melting on top. Glop. No, that's a bad analogy. Having one song that has a thinned-out arrangement because of the density against a sparse but thick sound creates havoc. With everything on the table it's hard to remove things. So - I think things have to be "steered" towards a DAW template, but one that is limiting somewhat stylistically. Which is the trick.

I guess the "Bill Gates is a demon" thing came from that Netflix movie? That happened FAST. As in, within a day or two even the handful of left wing friends I have on Facebook were on the "Bill Gates massacred people" band wagon, and that has somehow been turned into "the covid vaccine is being made by Bill Gates". Nobody can explain to me how exactly, but "I'm not taking that vaccine, Bill Gates isn't going to inject me with a microchip!" is such a .... insanely pervasive thing, it's got to be the most successful meme of all time. "Bill Gates isn't a scientist, why should I listen to him?", just on and on about BILL GATES. Right now the important thing is getting the R0 number down to where it can burn out and *vaccine acquired herd immunity* can have a chance to take hold.

It *can* be nuanced. But it isn't right now. For the most part the anti-vaxxer community presently runs on the propaganda that "Bill Gates (who has apparently massacred millions in Africa) is going to inject a microchip in people". Literally. I've heard this from in-laws, from friends, and unfortunately the vast majority of my "friends" on Facebook - even the "left wingers". They know nothing of testing protocols, they don't discern the difference between the different vaccines. It's just "I'm not getting it, Bill Gates is the anti-Christ" and then some mutterings about "the liberals". There is no nuance, it's not fear of outliers, it's brainwashing. I've heard it uttered as an aside from people with college educations, who work in professional environments, "oh yeah, the Pelosi shot!". People that, a few years ago, I would never have thought would fall for such an twisted and dumb angle, but it's VERY pervasive. They're wary of "the shot" not because of outier situations such as your own, or some sort of industrial contamination possibility, or mercury poisoning, or some previously accounted for reason - but because they "know" it's a plot. *I'm* not eager for the Moderna or Pfizer offerings, but I would like to be first in line for the Astra Zeneca/Oxford versions - a more conventional solution. *That's* being nuanced, they're not all the same. But that's a far cry from Bill Gates + some right wing propaganda non-sense that is going to stop a LOT of people from *never* getting vaccinated, who are also the same people that take no precautions and are effectively single-person super spreaders. If that 71 million that voted for the Red Team decides they're not going to take the "commie pussy lib hoax Bill Gates" vaccine they could negate the whole thing.

I didn't mean YOU wasted time, *I* have wasted a lot of time doing that. There *have* been things I should have just resorted to using a canned beat, or a mechanical/electronica kind of thing.

Easy, 70's.

One thing I've seen nobody bring up, maybe nobody has thought about it, but when the vaccines start happening for the general populace (January, Feb, March, hopefully) it is of the UTMOST importance that WE DO IT RIGHT. Meaning, when it starts happening we need U.S. MASK and DISTANCING MANDATES ON A FEDERAL LEVEL. And when it reaches the point where everyone has availability, ... WE WILL NEED A SERIOUS LOCK DOWN. We'll need one probably by December, but when the vaccines are readily circulating. Not for 2 weeks or a month. That won't work because of the 14 day window + 30+ possible days for infection during the run of the sickness. 2 months. Because we need to give the vaccines, which will take 28 days to receive another 10 days for seroconversion to actually happen, combined with people that already have it to let it run it's course. There will be jerks that don't want to get vaccinated, and the same anti-science jerks that will STILL discount it. We MUST do this "post-vaccine" lock down in order to let it have a chance to burn out!. Not just because it will be necessary for a return to normalcy, but because if we don't then the jerk anti-science anti-mask anti-vaxxers will keep it going - which could enable it to mutate by 2022 into something the vaccines won't address. We will be seriously, permanently screwed if that happens. There won't be another gazillion $ push for a vaccine, and even if there was it would be that much more difficult to fight; and the next populace mutation could be worse thanks to bozo "Dunning-Kruger herd immunolgists" going around helping it out. WE HAVE TO DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!!!!

Found out about a month ago a guy I know got covid-19 at a gig - and 30 other people. Supposedly someone died. Friend of mine got bed-ridden sick for about 2 weeks, and in the process infected his wife and in-laws, who apparently got a bit sicker than him but didn't need to be hospitalized. Which is insane by itself, but people around my area *still think it's just the flu*. Those 30 people won't know if they've got permanent heart/kidney/brain damage, and will probably go around and brag about getting it as if there were no consequences. I don't like Biden/Harris, but I hope they move to change the way the median i.q. are running things presently. There should be a PSA on every tv commercial break informing people what happens to the body, in many cases permanently. People have no imagination apparently, and combined with ignorance we're "here". There should be easier/faster ways of getting tested, AND antibody testing.

I'm wanting a Tensor Flow a.i. trained plugin that automatically massages the timing and dynamics (of midi date) to match the habits of certain famous drummers. Hats and rides are the hardest to deal with. I don't think round robin works properly in most drum VSTis, in that there is usually a range in velocity that is supposed to represent "drummer variance" but within that range the timbral changes are too subtle versus the volume. In other words, dynamics change, but not the timbre within that range. A closed high hat that gets louder and softer - but sounds basically the same while doing so - doesn't sound real, hats still moving from a previous hit sounds different than just starting from a stand still. And swing functions need to incorporate a velocity scaling aspect for the same reason. A 16th feel with just timing offsets is not how a real drummer plays. It's bizarre that some VSTis leave out swing entirely. I suppose swing has been extricated from modern perception, based on observations of new students trying to play anything that is swung or shuffled. Or some drummers that are technically very adept, but are oblivious to the subtle in dynamics of ghost strokes on James Brown funk beats or a Purdie shuffle, or Stewart Copeland time keeping. I have wasted too much of my life doing tweaks like in Craig's article, there really should be a better solution in the year 2020. Jamstix gets close, but is too monolithic. I want "swing style","swing percentage", "swing dynamic curve", "swing variance beginning/middle/end of measure".. and more.

Clever idea, and surely the result of brainstorming "what is the post-COVID consumer going to be interested in?". The problem would be utilization of space; I quit going to shows because the logistics of getting in/out were too much of a pain. Being immersed in the Human Soup aspect 24/7 would suck. But if they converted existing conference spaces to be more live-music friendly (and not on the mega scale depicted in the article) that would be a good move possibly. There was a brief time in Augusta Georgia where bands would rent out hotel conference rooms, put on their own shows and play, since the club scene was so messed up at the time. Thinking back...it worked really, really well since the hotel handled the "infrastructure" of drinks/food and a place to stay if that was called for... I would think there is a certain size venue, House of Blues situation whereby a hotel could build out a multi-purpose conference center to accommodate acts that might not fall into the "traditional" venues. It seems like in the south east there is a problem with places between bad/small club sized rooms to 1000 seat+ theaters; 20 years ago there were 350-500 seat places for a certain level act to make a tour out of, but now the economy doesn't support those places. Hmm... most hotels have conference rooms that most of the time do nothing, particularly during the week. A clever hotel chain could fairly easily set them up to be music venues based around regional acts. The old school "Holiday Inn" gig adjusted for modern times.

Well... when I closed my (guitar lessons) office back in March I immediately lost at least 10+ customers due to "I can't do that computer online video stuff". Of those 10 about half have been ironically texting me asking when I'm going to open my office back up (as if SARS-COVID2 somehow has magically gone away?), and the rest left with various comments ranging from "you don't believe that hoax, do you?" to "you're being a pussy being afraid of it!". Which again leads me to say, the anti-science anti-mask brigade are a demographic that has been weaponized by the right, via triggering a dopamine fix when they would otherwise have an inferiority complex conundrum. "You don't listen to those DUMB commie libs, do you?", "those libs think they're so smart!", etc. - the anti-mask brigade are all reveling in how *smart* they are for not *buying into the "hoax". In the face of science. Something that would otherwise intimidate them. The emotional power of not feeling mentally weak in this situation has been co-opted. Part of the strategy is the willingness for this demographic to effectively limit their computer use to literally just Facebook. They're not going to use Google to go find actual research abstracts, read actual papers or follow up who is writing what, what the agency represents. Weaponized dumb.

COVID-19 is the most rational and likely explanation for a healthy percentage of that number. If you don't believe it's mostly COVID-19, try to explain why this year has been so different than any other. Why wouldn"t a new disease that kills people not be the cause? ......... what has happened to reading comprehension in the 21st century? How could I write "these jerks are killing people, wrecking people's lives, wrecking the U.S.. Those of us who have had family and friends die or left with life long complications will remember." and be implying the 300,000 excess deaths were not from COVID???? YES, I believe the excess deaths were from COVID. My OWN MOTHER was probably one of those 300,000.

Sad to see right wing "speculative anecdotal science" propaganda on here. It's allowed on Facebook and Twitter, and it's been like a 100 watt Marshall with JBLs for the inane. 25 years ago the same people would be listening to our doctors and scientists and things wouldn't be as bad in the U.S. as they are.

There are about 300,000 excess deaths not attributed to COVID so far this year. Read into that what one will. I'm pretty tired of coddling the anti-science crowd. When this is over people will start looking back at this time and fingers will start pointing, at those that made this situation worse. There will be lawsuits, although at this point criminal reckless endangerment should be invoked. A lot of people will start backtracking about their stance they had: these jerks are killing people, wrecking people's lives, wrecking the U.S.. Those of us who have had family and friends die or left with life long complications will remember.

I haven't bought a physical book in years. Having done a book through Amazon, it's ... interesting how "1982 Computer Shopper magazine" the software technology is. The hoops to jump through for formatting, to manage the look of the end result are amazingly archaic and glitch ridden. Having said that - you and Bobby Owsinski are in some sort of Music Industry Publishing Olympiad! You need to do his podcast with a theme of you two just talking specifically about writing in the business, how it's changed, your processes now.

"It's not really a Dumble" "It's kind of a Dumble sound" "it doesn't sound like a Dumble" .... it doesn't sound like which Dumble? Have you played through a Dumble? What EXACTLY is the "Dumble sound" from a circuit point of view? Whose Dumble?

"Yeah, but it's a stolen design from (boutique Tubscreamer clone maker)" "Yeah, but it's a ripoff of a Fender (whatever amp)"

(Conversely to the above) "It's not a real tube amp because it has an IC in it". Says the guy standing in front of his pedal board with the Tubescreamer turned on. Instead say "I don't like it because I can't overdrive the first tube stage" or something, but don't say you don't want an IC inside your amp, when your sound doesn't know that your IC based pedal is in or outside your amp! "Bah, it's digital" Says the guy standing in front of his true bypass-but AD/DA when turned on pedal.

"Overdrive" pedals. Somewhere between 1974 and now the "overdrive" descriptor has been mutilated. I'd like to hear Craig - the defacto OG pedal designer guy - chime in on this, but it's... interesting hearing people describe "what is an overdrive pedal?" these days. "well, it's kinda, you know, more like a cranked amp tone", "it's like a, driven sound", etc. etc. Meanwhile, they show their pedals board: the "overdrive" pedal set to unity in front of their digital delay pedal. Or, their "boost" pedal set to unity - in front of their chorus pedal. I don't think people doing this have the intent of blasting the front of their Boss DD3 with voltage, and I think people have very little awareness of the Dawning Age of Distorted Guitar where a treble booster was literally meant to distort the front of the GUITAR AMP. There seems to be very few people that are actually OVER DRIVING their amp.

A.I. implementation on phones is an isolated use, and if implemented poorly doesn't mean the technology isn't potent. It will affect us more than the internet has, probably more than nuclear technology. It will change every job, every life, in ways we can't imagine.