Greg Mein
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Posts posted by Greg Mein
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Is there anyone here playing in a state other than Ohio that has live music back to the 2019 experience?
Other than the local Live Nation venues that follow the national mandate for proof of vaccination or negative COVID test (and some of the private venues that target the artsy crowd that are enacting similar policies), it feels quite normal. Crowds in the hundreds, indoors and out, community festivals and events, private events, bars, etc.
As near as I can tell things are 80-90% back to normal around here, we could be playing all the gigs we wanted but did our last at the end of July because we're moving and our gear is packed away now. We did however attend a charity jam last Saturday night and played a few tunes there. My wife and I along with a number of people we know had covid last year and have moved on although we did lose a close friend and another person we knew. My observation is that millions of others have had a similar experience.
Due to our upcoming move we've done a lot of traveling lately (been in 10 other states within the last two weeks) and my observations are that hotels are full, traffic is as congested as ever, places are open for business and concern over covid is relatively minimal.
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As to you living too far away, the virtual GearFests were quite successful. It wouldn't surprise me if future GearFests (and NAMMs, for that matter) go for a combination of physical and virtual.
There's a plus and minus to that; when I actually attend I'm gonna spend money, often on things I don't actually need while with the virtual I was able to check on what I actually wanted and when I discovered no deals on that I could log out and get back to the 10,000 other things I needed to be doing.
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I'm hearing anecdotally about empty seats at concerts.
For many years already I've wrestled with what concerts I actually want to go see. At most places people are packed in like sardines, no elbow room and there always seems to be some loud people behind spilling beer and/or someone in front of you on crack or meth gyrating like they haven't been out of the house in years (imagine how much worse that would be now!).
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My only problem with doing whatever feels right is that I feel a lot of different things
Well I'm never going to get too far out, there are certain boxes that are nearly impossible for me to break out of; limits of my vocal range and the fact that I'm only proficient on guitar and keys aside from my ability to manipulate technology. Even given all the amazing tools at my disposal there have been times when I couldn't quite get the right sound or effect I thought I really wanted.
After all my time playing in this area I have a wealth of talented people I'm sure would enjoy coming to work with me on some recording but alas, I'll soon be moved far away.
On the bright side however my wife of five years now is an amazing musician and I fully intend to tap into her abilities for creative input and expect to have some very fun and creative collaborations.
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I used to try and restrain myself to some rules (can I play this live?, is the chorus catchy enough?, can I keep it to three minutes?) but no more. When I get back to recording my backlog soon I'll just do whatever feels right.
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I saw recently that, while Chuck is keeping his job as CEO, a majority of the company ownership is in the works to be sold to a venture capitalist group.
Between that and the dreaded covid19/20/21/22 rev D, E, F ad infinitum I wonder if we've seen the last Gearfest? I really enjoyed the two times I was there, met Craig and attended his seminar at one but I'll soon be living too far away to make attending practical anyway.
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I really like the UA stuff but have become fairly removed from it at this point. I am still clinging to an old 2008 17" MBP because I still have the UA expresscard thingie and plug-ins but I haven't used any of that in many years and can't even remember the last time I logged into their website. When I wanted a new interface for our live act I strongly considered a UA Apollo unit but the lack of MIDI ultimately was a deal breaker for that purpose.
Just yesterday I received my new MBP with Logic pre-installed and I'm looking forward to trying that again. I had Logic Pro 9 on the aforementioned computer and then the OS update to 10.13 killed it. I was fairly torqued off about that for a long time! I consider Digital Performer as my main DAW program primarily because it's so well designed for live use but I also enjoyed using Logic. For obvious reasons I've never worked with Luna but it would need robust MIDI functionality for me to even be interested.
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We played our first indoor gig back in February and have done several since, some indoor and some outdoor. We'd developed a good reputation in the area with our unique act but sadly our last gig in this area was July 29 for the big RAGBRAI (an annual bike ride across the state) group in a nearby town where there was an overnight stop. It was our last gig in this area because we're moving. We've done a great deal of packing and have two storage units, one nearby and one 1400 miles away near our destination. We accepted a counter offer on a home out west and just got our home here listed on Tuesday so we hope to make our move a reality in the near future. If you haven't been involved in the real estate market of late let me assure you, it's been crazy with prices and an unprecedented housing shortage, an interesting thing to ponder if you weren't aware.
We ran into a problem before our last gig when we had computers and other things stolen in a brazen daylight burglary on July 5th, however, I was able to get a replacement from Macofalltrades configured and with my backups we were able to pull it off without much of a hitch. In the "crime doesn't pay" category the police conducted a proper investigation, the woman who committed the crime was identified, arrested and now faces a couple of felony charges. A search warrant was issued but the only items we were able to retrieve were some personal documents. Meanwhile after being informed that our insurance would cover depreciation on my 2013 MBP I went ahead and ordered a brand new MBP from Apple complete with Logic, a Magic Mouse and MS Office. About a week ago someone finally connected my '13 MBP to WiFi and I was notified via email and the Find My Mac app however it was impossible to identify the location because I'd chosen to have the HD deleted when that happened, a decision I wrestled with but ultimately decided was for the best. A little off topic I know but obviously had an impact on our ability to perform gigs!
It will take some time for us to get settled into a new location but certainly hope to get out and find some gigs when we do.
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Wonder if anyone around teaches harmonica?
I play blues harmonica pretty darn well. The secret is NOT playing in the key of the song, but a fourth above - e.g., for a blues in E, you want an A harmonica.
It's all about the flatted 7th!
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It's been a long time since I was in a position where I had any concerns about rejection or failure. I've sought after and been recommended for groups and gigs in my area and have been very successful with that, especially given that performing has really only been a side venture. I like to think that I have an incredibly realistic approach to life and so I've never expected much from my original recordings knowing that I'm a tiny fish in a very large ocean. I've had a couple minor personal successes that were enjoyable for me.
I've finally reached a point in life now where I have more freedom and I'll be pursuing some musical ventures with more vigor in the coming months. I'll probably be putting myself in a position where rejection and/or failure may affect me more. Time will tell but I'll certainly be able to deal with anything that comes my way in a positive way.
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I just got a press release from IK Multimedia about a new series of pedals that (I imagine) they're introducing at the NAMM show this weekend.
If they"d come out with a rack mount synth unit chances are good I"d grab one of those.
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We stayed overnight at the downtown Hilton on our way home from a recent vacation near Pigeon Forge. It just happened to be the Friday at the beginning of Memorial Day weekend and man, was that town ever cooking. The streets, bars and restaurants were all full!
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Don't you just love it when that happens?!?
It"s hard to imagine getting a better result! I"ve been a good customer with them for quite a few years now and this obviously assures that"ll continue.
I"d already ordered another 2015 MBP but having two at the ready is good, that"s the way it was before.
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MOTU was on it. The major issue was the OS blocking the driver. Now I'm hoping to get back on track.
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Glad to hear things are going well for you!
Things are not currently going as well as I would have hoped! We had a burglary on the 5th and I lost two MBP's. One of those was a refurb 2015 I'd recently bought and dedicated to our music gig. It was working great and I'd used it at the last couple of gigs.
We have a huge gig coming up so I bought a refurb 2017 MBP where the ports are now all Thunderbolt 3. I've spent the day getting various software going again with good success but when I got down to the hardware business I discovered that my MOTU 828x with the Thunderbolt 2 port is not showing up. It hadn't even occurred to me that it wouldn't work through the expensive Apple Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapters I'd bought. I'm so screwed. The beginning of my life as a full time musician is currently looking grim.
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I didn't see this until today but the 9th was a big day for me and the 10th left me in recovery mode. The 9th was my 61st birthday but what made it monumental was that I retired from Collins Aerospace after slightly more than 30 years that day while my wife had retired from her geriatric psychiatry job at the University on the last day of June. We had a huge party in the event room at our favorite Mexican restaurant not far away, attendance was great and as near as I can recall everyone had a great time!
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I sent them to my iPad/Kindle via an email address you can find when you go to Amazon and "Manage Your Devices".
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Very sorry to hear you lost your computers, I sure hope you didn't lose your data. But as to the books, I think you may be able to just re-download them. I know the books are set up so that when there's a free revision, you can just download it from your account.
If that doesn't work, contact your sales engineer, and explain what happened. Drop my name and say to come into the forum, and I'll confirm that you're a stand-up guy.
And if by some chance that doesn't work, which is HIGHLY doubtful, send me a PM and I'll give you download links.
Then when you write your review you can mention how eBooks are sooo much better than print
Also, just as a note for the future, you can back them up, load them into an iPad, or whatever. The model is trusting the customer.Thanks Craig. I'm left with my Dell desktop (several years old but I use it a lot) and I dug out this 2010 17" MBP I hadn't planned to unpack until we'd moved. My wife retired on June 30 and tomorrow is my last day at work. We've been working towards this goal since before we were married nearly 5 years ago but we've had to deal with unexpected setbacks, primarily, last Augusts derecho storm and now this only weeks before we'd hoped to list.
On the music front we have one more gig in this area at the end of July when the huge bike ride (RAGBRAI) does an overnight in the area we're playing. Losing my gig computer is bad. I've ordered a refurb MBP and will scramble to install programs, configurations, licences, etc. plus I need to replace some associated gear that was in the bag with the stolen computer. Really sucks!
I was able to download the books again but it appears that the only clear cut way is via the original "Software Activation Instructions" email from Sweetwater.
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Well I "lost" these books already. Monday we were burglarized, my wife surprised the culprit (a woman) and actually saw her as she slipped away but wasn't aware at the time that she'd come out of our basement window! She got away with my main 2013 MBP, the 2015 MBP I recently bought for our music act along with some associated gear we use in that computer bag, another computer bag that had an old Dell laptop in it and my travel CPAP. It's still unnerving and incredibly odd when and how she got in and what she took but it's also quite fortunate she didn't get much more valuable loot!
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Acoustic drums really set the level in most situations and when they start bashing the cymbals...well. I see Plexiglas shields often anymore, even in auditoriums. I'm having trouble with the whole band in a 10x10 shed thing to start with?! Yes suggesting electronic drums really seems like the best suggestion to me!
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What is perfect pitch?
When you throw a banjo into the dumpster, it hits an accordion and they both break.
I have a banjo but every time I pull it out it doesn't take long before my wife makes me put it away again! I sold the accordion. Some here may remember the rather remarkable story of how a woman in Chicago tracked it down via the thread I started in SSS. She was looking for that particular model to give to her father for Christmas (a sort of return to his youth), we sealed the deal and I met her in Moline for the transfer.
Studio looks like crazy good fun TC! At this point I've eliminated a great deal of my hardware and will rely greatly on software when I resume recording. I may live to regret it but with an upcoming move consolidating was essential and I've got some very good computer power.
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to see if it is available to read on Kindle
I have the PDF manual for my Presonus StudioLive mixer in my Kindle library, it's been so long that I did it though that I don't remember how I got it there.
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it's a PDF and not copy-protected. I trust that people won't steal it...
I really like the PDF idea mostly due to the fact that I'm attempting to scale back and consolidate for our upcoming move. If they were actual print books I would not have bought them, at least at this point in time.
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The Memphis Rock 'n Soul Museum. It's an affiliate of the Smithsonian.
I visited that on my first Memphis trip also, it's across the street from the Gibson factory if I'm thinking of the right place.
What I've Been Doing the Past Year: 3 New Books!
in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage
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I'm sure you'll find no argument there!