Greg Mein
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Posts posted by Greg Mein
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Great news, congratulations on being employed, I know it's been one of the most difficult situations that many have been faced with this year. I'm quite fortunate in that it's one of the few issues I haven't had to deal with and I know if it was it would cause me considerable stress.
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invest in solutions in search of a problem.
Oooh man, this sums up corporate America!!
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Back when I first got my Roland FA-08 and was incorporating it into my gig rig I discovered a great series of instructional videos on YT created by Ed Diaz. Later I saw Ed at Sweetwater Gearfest and thanked him profusely for those!
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I guess the big question is, "How do we wake up these anti-science people?" I tried logic, that doesn't seem to work.
Insights and incites by Notes
These people that you, and others, are arguing with or against, have you tried directing them to the clinical trial studies on masks? Wouldn't that be the indisputable scientific proof?
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Generally I'll go in search of a video only if I'm seeking some answers or specifics about a particular program or plug-in that I'm using and most times that's been successful for me. Manufacturer forums have helped me a lot also although there's often a limited number of people in the know there, I've occasionally been able to help others as well.
I'm not likely to get tangled up in the world of general knowledge videos very often, I don't see the value in that as they're using different equipment, methods and styles that likely don't apply to what I'm doing. Unless I'm doing gigs covering the hits, music at home is all about having fun and not feeling like I need to bang my head against the wall although I've certainly had my share of frustrating moments at the home recording console.
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It was on the First Thanksgiving (technically first one with a meal/feast, since Jamestown, VA held a prayer service a few years before the Mayflower arrived in 1620. It went into the history of the Pilgrims, my 10th great-grandfather was the spiritual leader, and just why freedom of religion and separation of church and state are so important.
Interestingly, the Encyclopedia Britannica still to this day calls them "traitors."
All good.
Fascinating stuff. I recently found out from familysearch.org that tracing my family line back through my maternal grandmother leads to my 8th great grandfather, Samuel Fuller, who arrived on the Mayflower at the age of 12 with his parents. Sadly his parents died that first winter but he went on to marry and have nine children.
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Our plans changed but my wife and I had a fantastic Thanksgiving meal, just the two of us. I enjoyed just staying home and doing that, I'm not usually a fan of huge gatherings anyway. She's improving and doing much better and I've been back to my old self for a while now. I hope everyone else had a fantastic Thanksgiving as well!
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Now in my email the Reason 11 upgrade is discounted 30%, I don't know if I'll be able to resist that although I'm ashamed at how long it's been since I've done any recording work. I can blame some (maybe even a lot) of it on the big storm that did so much damage to our house. All the outboard recording gear I have along with the MBP computer and interface/mixer dedicated to home recording got packed up and stored away, it won't see the light of day until next summer after we move away.
It's not a complete wash out however, I still have our live setup I can use that simply amounts to my other MBP with a lot of my best software and my MOTU 828x interface. Heck that might even be for the best as a streamlined approach if I would appropriate some time to it.
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Greg, I hope you and your wife have quick and complete recoveries with no permanent damage.
Notes
Thank you Notes I appreciate the kind thoughts. I feel confident we're going to pull through and be fine but it sure would be better to not go through it! I'm 60 but it's fortunate that I'm reasonably healthy. It's clear to me now why people with any type of compromised respiratory system can find themselves in serious trouble, it goes direct for the lungs. I certainly hope these vaccines will get out there and be available soon.
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Sad news indeed, RIP Mr Swedien.
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Here's to a super-speedy recovery to your wife, and no lingering effects for either one of you.
Thanks for the kind wishes Craig! I feel very fortunate in that I believe my recovery is nearly complete but it's a scary feeling to get a positive test result. My wife is improving but it will take some time to beat the viral pneumonia.
Some of my earlier posts may have seemed flippant to some but there was never a question of my going to work and doing the things that needed to be done. I'd managed to avoid it and could have this time if only we could have just dialed back the social interaction knob a couple notches, sigh.
At this point though it appears cases have really been exploding. If people would just isolate at the first sign of any symptoms it would probably go a long way to help.
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I've had some concern lately about it being time to get a new MBP, my late 2013 model has been the best one I've had so far but recently the right speaker crapped out and the USB port on the right side became flakey. My wife bought a new one last year. It's become harder for me to make decisions on upgrades anymore.
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(incredible and terrifying story...)
Yikes Greg, glad you and your wife have made it through the worst of it!!!
Be safe, Kuru
Thanks Kuru, it's the crazyist year ever and positive vibes are in short supply so I appreciate that!
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What a horrific year it's been at our home!
Despite the specter of covid looming all year I went about life to the most normal extent possible, however, it finally caught up with us on Halloween. It was a night I would have preferred to stay home, watch a couple scary movies, toss out some candy and go to bed but the wife insisted that we costume up and run with the geriatric party parade. At a host home we certainly got the covid. The following Tuesday at work I detected a mild sore throat and cough so immediately isolated myself. The following day we got tested and my results came back positive on that Friday. My wife's results, oddly enough, were negative that first time but she was retested and positive.
The cold/flu type symptoms (scratchy throat, cough, fever, headache) were mild and brief for me only lasting 3 or 4 days. There was something else though, a tightness in my chest that reminded me back to the days many years ago when I was still a smoker. That symptom still lingers but is beginning to subside and will hopefully dissipate soon. I'm scheduled to return to work on the 18th after 14 day quarantine.
It took a little longer for the effects to grab hold on my wife but it became a nightmare. She's more vulnerable due to an asthmatic condition. Her temperature was over 100 for several days, she had headache, bad cough and no appetite. It became apparent she needed to go to the ER and I took her early last Saturday morning at 5am. When you check someone in you don't see them again and it was terrifying! She had viral pneumonia but they began treatments on her immediately with oxygen, steroids, Remdesivir and some other meds, devices and procedures. Fortunately I was able to video and text chat with her. She was responding well to the treatments and we were all ecstatic earlier when the doctor said he was going to release her today. I brought her home around 5pm but she's not out of the woods just yet. We had an oxygen machine delivered and she's still taking some steroids as well as doing other treatments for an indeterminate amount of time.
Coordinating with all that we still have extensive damage due to the Derecho storm that ripped this town to shreds on August 10. We lost a lot of shingles and had a lot of water damage inside the house. It was difficult to get work done because this whole city was devastated and workers were in short supply, we have skilled workers from all over the country and they are busy. We did get a new roof, demo was completed and we've had most the drywall work done. This is November in the upper mid-west however and getting insulation up in our attic is a high priority now. After that there is still bare floor where carpet had to be ripped up and lots of finishing and electrical work that needs to be done.
So, how can there be any good news?
Well my wife and I have worked all year with no concern of job or income loss. I'll return on Wednesday and my quarantine time is covered 100% by "covid pay". It will take longer for my wife, of course, but she has a great deal of sick time to use, can do much work from home as she improves and we'll stay strong financially.
A great benefit we will be able to provide is that we will both be able to donate covid anti-body plasma (it was part of the treatment she received in the hospital) and we'll both be happy to do that knowing it could be very helpful to others.
So in conclusion, 2020 sucks but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!
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So sorry to hear that, what a horrible year! I was hoping things would be improving by now but I really am not seeing us turn the corner yet and things have also gotten worse for me.
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This thread is entering its 8th month. When I titled it "Ok, the Corona Virus Isn't Going Away, Now What?" I didn't mean "isn't going away, period."
The live sound people are really, really hurting.
Shows started back up a while ago in this area, there were some outdoor ones while the weather was still good but at this point they've all had to move inside. When I've gone to look at tickets via their email link a couple times there was a graphic showing masks required, social distancing, etc.. I'm not seeing that at this Stub Hub link but I suspect the requirements would display at some point.
As for my own act, some may know that my wife and I formed our own duo in 2019. We played several outdoor gigs over the course of this Summer but due to the horrible storm that caused extensive damage to our home on August 10th we didn't pursue any gigs past what we had on the books and were prepared to sit out the Fall/Winter season. That changed a few minutes ago however when I booked a gig for next Saturday at one of the places we played a couple times over the Summer.
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Spooky by the Classics IV.
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That's a fantastic intro video, great work!
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Yes the XP30, I bought one back around 2000 and had it up until about 3 years ago, great working cover band keyboard. In more recent times I upgraded my lower tier to a Roland FA-08 and then added a Korg Krome 61 up above. I found the Krome to be a pretty good replacement for the XP30 with all the useful sounds and, of course, the much expanded storage that all newer keyboards have.
ETA: I saw someone post a link here to a Kurzweil PC3K6 61-key Synthesizer Workstation that looked like an intriguing alternative to this type/style of keyboard also.
Hi Greg,
how does the keyboard action of the Krome compare to that on the XP30? I am hoping it is different from the one on the Korg Kross as I sold that board as the keyboard action was really not to my liking. Cheers!
I don't really like to address that since it's so subjective, I believe the action on the Korg may be a little "lighter". When keys has been my main function in bands I prefer to have a full size weighted piano action keyboard on the bottom with the lighter synth/organ style action on the top and with that in mind the transition from the XP-30 to the Krome was not a huge deal for me.
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Yes the XP30, I bought one back around 2000 and had it up until about 3 years ago, great working cover band keyboard. In more recent times I upgraded my lower tier to a Roland FA-08 and then added a Korg Krome 61 up above. I found the Krome to be a pretty good replacement for the XP30 with all the useful sounds and, of course, the much expanded storage that all newer keyboards have.
ETA: I saw someone post a link here to a Kurzweil PC3K6 61-key Synthesizer Workstation that looked like an intriguing alternative to this type/style of keyboard also.
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Wait a minute, is Crammit the same as Jammit from 10 years ago??? I'm going to download it on my iPhone but don't know what songs are available, etc?
Yes it's from the ashes of that program and they've included all the content that was available however I found them to be way heavy, so to speak, on heavy metal/prog and not really suited to my more pop/rock oriented act. Think Dream Theater.
I prefer to use DP and create my own backing tracks, it's a little more hassle to haul that system around but I can also use the midi sequencing to trigger outboard hardware. On the rare occasion I've used a downloaded midi file I've almost always found it necessary to go in and strip out all the controller, patch and other odd midi data before I could rework the thing into some usable for me.
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I'd also have to go with the 70's because it's "my era" but what might make it interesting is that there is certainly a whole lot of other stuff put out during that time that I would never have listened to. I'm sure just the stuff I hadn't listened to or wasn't aware of from that era would be more material than I'd ever have time for.
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After spending days running a chainsaw to clear out tree limbs and continuing work to pack things up and move them into storage it's fair to say I have disaster fatigue in a very literal sense. I'd never heard of a Derecho until the day I was standing there looking at the attic through what used to be a ceiling.
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This is funny because my wife and I do 2/3 rounds of the Champs Tequila song as kind of an ice breaker when we return from break with me on guitar and her on the EWI-5000. She does some Pee Wee Herman dancing and people love it, some even join in. You get to the break and everyone knows what to shout!
Subscription-Based Services - Which are Worth It?
in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage
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I quit hard copy subscriptions which for me were just guitar/keyboard magazines. I'm working hard at consolidating for our move next year and it's difficult for me to throw those out. I had an extensive collection dating back many years and I've mentioned before how I sent them all to a service in CA where they digitized them into PDF files for me.
When Quicken announced they were switching to a subscription model I quit using that program and developed an extensive and detailed spreadsheet in Excel to track my finances. I did, however, recently allow CCleaner to install as a subscription program on my PC.
With TV we have what might be considered the typical stuff including Netflix but we did drop DirectTV and switched to YoutubeTV for some significant savings.
At the very top of my list and highly recommended is a discovery we recently made on Amazon Prime where we subscribed to something called The Great Courses. This is an amazing series of lecture courses covering a vast array of topics. I've been watching lecture series on quantum mechanics, nuclear physics and gravity while together with my wife we've watched lecture series on the black death, geological wonders of the world and learning Spanish. I have a huge list of others I've been watching and others I intend to watch including one on Ableton Live, a program I have but have used very little.