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Greg Mein

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Posts posted by Greg Mein

  1.  

    grand reopening on New Year's Eve. The asked my funk/soul/afrobeat band to play the party

     

    The gig will be limited to 100 attendees

     

    The vast majority of posters were not even in our local community, only very few mentioned ever visiting the venue under previous management, and none of the protesters were fans or followers of our band.

     

    I'm pretty certain we won't actually see protesters at the show

     

    At the risk of stating the obvious, ever since the internet became available for mass consumption people have been emboldened to write things they would never say in your presence.

    An unknown venue, 100 people in attendance and a band not known outside your area, yeah, I'd have to say you nailed it in your final paragraph.

  2. I've gotten to the point where I don't answer any phone call unless the number is in my contacts

     

    While I was still working I had my phone set so that it wouldn't ring unless the caller was on my contacts list and that was reflected in the voice mail message so that if it was legit they'd know to leave a message. As a doctor my wife couldn't do that and she often got scam callers. I turned that feature off after I retired but I honestly don't get many calls anyway, scam or otherwise. When it comes to internet stuff; Craigslist, messages, Facebook, email or whatever these folks are so incredibly obvious I no longer give it a second thought.

  3. I bought a brand new MacBook Pro from the Apple website in August this year along with a "magic" mouse. The MBP is apparently a left over from 2019

     

    Wait...didn't Apple still make MacBook Pros in 2020? The M1 machines didn't come out until November of 2020, and they weren't MacBook Pros.

     

    When I go to About This Mac in the upper left hand corner it reads, "MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)" and I can certainly prove that I bought this from the Apple website in August of 2021.

  4. Intel being phased out anyway, I don't see them as having much more of a useful life beyond a year or so.

     

    Due to the theft of my computers in July insurance paid for my new one. Even though I knew the M1 was coming I couldn't wait for that. Apple has a long history of leaving users in the dust and I've learned to cope by just trying hard to avoid OS updates. I actually had a frustrating day recently when I went ahead and updated from 11.6 to 11.6.1, an update you wouldn't expect to cause much trouble. After the update the computer wouldn't recognize the power adapter. What I've learned is that the SMC chip on this one needed a reset, an annoying problem I've not had in the past. 12.0.1 is available to put on here but there's no way I'm going to try that. Apple has taught me that when you get things working the way you like just leave it alone. That sentiment goes double for the 2017 model I bought to replace our stolen gigging computer. It's highly unlikely to ever go beyond 10.14.6.

     

    I suppose if your'e just experimenting then there's no harm done and you almost expect to have problems.

  5. I recently retrieved a box full of my CD's from the storage unit we're trying to get emptied out and have them in a cabinet in the garage where they'll likely stay......not in the box but in the garage. The only actual CD player we have now is a Bose Wave Radio that's in the garage and I turn on when I'm working out there. Now instead of just the radio, I'll be able to pop in a CD when I'm out there if I want. All our record albums are out there too but no turntable yet. It's really amazing to me to think about how I bought most of those records while I was still in school.
  6. I use a cable that is dual RCA male plugs on one end and 1/4" tip/sleeve on the other to run my backing tracks from my interface to my JBL stick speaker. I bought Pig Hog on Amazon. One of the metal sleeves on the RCA side came off but they claimed their cables were guaranteed for life and sure enough, I sent them a photo of the damaged cable and they replaced it. It doesn't get much better than that.
  7. Contact their support, Presonus has nice people working for it.

     

    In all honesty I'm mostly just curious. I don't plan to do any deep dives or jump ship from what I already have. I've only been revisiting because I still have the StudioLive 16.4.2 unit and am wondering how much good use I may still be able to get out of it. My main DAW continues to be DP, mostly because of its great live performance functionality. I had Logic 10 put on my newest MBP and haven't even looked at that yet. I have two MOTU 828x interfaces that will work with any of the software I already have. Between our upcoming live gig, getting my studio room ready and a bunch of upcoming travel plans I just won't have time to get too distracted with the Presonus stuff for the foreseeable future.

  8. The forum is basically a separate entity from the PreSonus user site. There may be security reasons for that, I don't know.

     

    One aspect I really like about the way PreSonus handles a person's account is that nothing ever goes away, and from time to time, cool things get added (especially if you're part of Sphere). Some people have complained loudly in the forum about how PreSonus "won't let you roll back a Studio One update, which sucks because now my XYZ synthesizer is behaving strangely and I can't live without it." At that point someone has to tell them that every version of Studio One they've ever owned is downloadable from their account.

     

    I got back to the forums and from what I was reading I got the impression I could still use the 16.4.2 as an interface on my 10.14.6 machine but that was the end of the line for it, OS11 is a no go. If true that's actually fairly impressive, I believe I've had the 16.4.2 since 2013 so that's a long lifespan in Mac years.

     

    So I was just curious about the Studio One program, it appears version 5 is the current with Professional as the top dog and two or three lesser editions. My unit came with Studio One 2 Artist which I can apparently still download. Oddly enough they don't offer me any upgrade options from my account page. I somehow got to the Presonus main page where I could look at their software and poked around looking at the options but then when I go back to my account it seems I'm stuck in there and can't break back out. I'm probably doing something wrong, overall the website seems reasonably well laid out but I can't get from one part of it to another; main products page, my account area and the forums are all apparently separate ecospheres.

  9. A discussion about Presonus is rather timely for me. As I try to get my home studio back together I'm hoping I can get the original big 'ole SL16.4.2 working with my newer MBP's; a new one running 11.6 I bought earlier this year and a 2017 model with 10.14.6 I also bought earlier this year to replace a stolen 2015 model. Both of these have thunderbolt 3 ports only but I have the necessary adapters to convert over to firewire (thunderbolt 2 - 3 & thunderbolt 2 - firewire).

    I still have an older 2010 17" MBP that I was using when I originally bought that mixer/interface but these things have been on the back burner for a number of years and the StudioLive unit got very little use due to extenuating circumstances.

     

    So anyway I've recently visited the Presonus website where I still have an account although I hadn't logged in for perhaps a few years. It still shows my registered products however, a couple of which I wasn't even aware of. Where it gets weird is that I can't seem to get to the forums from my account page there. I recently was able to add to a relevant forum discussion there but now can't seem to get back there, strange.

  10.  

    I have to admit I hardly ever listen to any streaming service. My time is so limited due to working so much, and I can't have music in the background while I work because it pulls my attention away. So if I have leisure time for listening to music, I'd rather spend that time making my own music than listening to someone else's.

     

    This is the same feeling I've always had, I don't even miss Sirius as much as I thought I might.

  11.  

    The volume needs to come way down. The number of musicians needs to come way down. The amount of gear needed to perform must be minimized and simplified. And the venues need to be nearby.

     

     

    That's essentially what I did a few years ago after getting married. The band I was in was real popular and the money was far better than most area groups but it just became too much work and scheduling got complicated. My wife was more about sight reading classical pieces and had been a church organist but quickly adapted to playing classic pop/rock covers with me so doing our own thing was really the only way to go.

     

    We're in a completely new area now but already have a gig booked for next month. In all honesty I would have preferred to focus more on getting my recording setup together.

  12. I'm thinking about a corner design.[/i]

     

    I don't know your room, but where are you going to put the speakers?

     

    Might be out of your price range, but I have a Stealth chair and it has a removable arm, specifically for this reason.

     

    Speakers won't be placed in any tight corner, I have some ideas but have only moved into the measurement "phase"; determining where studs are, block diagraming, measuring walls, etc..

     

    In the past I had a full size keyboard that rolled out from under my desk, it's good for a compact setup but the situation is that the desk is either always a little too high or the keyboard too low. This time (or I should say, for now) I'm going to keep keys on a stand next to my desk and wow, after selling off a lot of gear in recent months I'm down to only having three electronic keyboards! I have a 46" LG TV/monitor I will wall mount and want to be able to see from both the keyboard and desk which means at least part of the desk has to be against the same wall as keys. A little of a downgrade, I had been using my 55" Samsung before but that got re-appropriated to the bedroom.

     

    Thanks for the chair link, certainly expensive but I'm a believer that office chairs are a get what you pay for item. The one I have is still satisfactory but I'm keeping this link for future reference.

  13.  

    Something else to consider - one way to improve the "sound proofing" (both external sounds entering and internal sounds exiting) is to keep an eye out for photo backdrop stands and hang heavy quilts from them. I've got one over the window in my current room and it really reduces the constant freeway noise and other external sounds. Not terribly expensive and easy to take down, move, put back up, etc.

     

    That's a good idea, after the room is a bit more "established" I'll ascertain what I need to do for diffusion, absorption and so forth. Our area is a private community and noise is not a huge concern here.

  14. For now I'll just say that it isn't complicated and will not be difficult to build. I have a clear, simple vision of the assembly in my head already.

     

    Your efforts are appreciated! If you find that the concept works, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be willing to put the time into making their own instead of spending the extra $$.

     

    In agreement on that!

     

    Great suggestion on the floor mat, easy enough to do and I can leave the floor as is.

     

    I'm pondering what to do about my desk. I've looked at some of the studio workstation types available but I'm not sure I like any of them and it's especially hard to know when you can't actually see them in person. I'd built my own before and may just go with my same design albeit reduce the width a bit. Alternately I'm thinking about a corner design. There's an problem I've often had when it comes to this stuff, maybe others understand what I mean; I'll build something for a specific purpose and design but then almost immediately start changing things around or come up with better ideas that render my creation somewhat obsolete. For that reason I think I'll try to keep it as simple as possible for maximum flexibility.

     

    There's another issue when it comes to chairs, seems hard to find a high quality office chair that doesn't have arm rests. Arm rests can be annoying when trying to record some guitar/bass while sitting at the computer.

  15. For now I'll just say that it isn't complicated and will not be difficult to build. I have a clear, simple vision of the assembly in my head already.

     

    Your efforts are appreciated! If you find that the concept works, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be willing to put the time into making their own instead of spending the extra $$.

     

    In agreement on that!

     

    Great suggestion on the floor mat, easy enough to do and I can leave the floor as is.

     

    I'm pondering what to do about my desk. I've looked at some of the studio workstation types available but I'm not sure I like any of them and it's especially hard to know when you can't actually see them in person. I'd built my own before and may just go with my same design albeit reduce the width a bit. Alternately I'm thinking about a corner design. There's an problem I've often had when it comes to this stuff, maybe others understand what I mean; I'll build something for a specific purpose and design but then almost immediately start changing things around or come up with better ideas that render my creation somewhat obsolete. For that reason I think I'll try to keep it as simple as possible for maximum flexibility.

     

    There's another issue when it comes to chairs, seems hard to find a high quality office chair that doesn't have arm rests. Arm rests can be annoying when trying to record some guitar/bass while sitting at the computer.

  16. When I first got a cell phone back in the late 90's I had US Cellular and one of those little Motorola phones. It didn't work well in the plant though and it came to my attention that Verizon did plus they had a discount through my employer so when my contract ran out I switched over. My wife also had Verizon and we combined our account after getting married and at this point I've been with Verizon for at least 20 years.

     

    Now that we're both retired she's been talking about looking into a one of the cheaper "piggyback" type services like Pure Talk.

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