Aht

I tooks me an ahtsy photo today for the photo a day fun.

Isn’t that loverly?

My dad gave me a scare tonight but everything seems to be okay. Bellana will be home tomorrow and we’re having pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. It was supposed to be a mini-Thanksgiving but there’s a turkey in the fridge that says otherwise. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t wait.

On a musical note, I added another song idea to the NaSoAlMo queue and it brought me over the 29:09 goal. Maybe I will push myself to finish. Maybe there will be some car music this week.

I might need to go to bed early so that I can wake up super early and get my exercise and breakfast finished before the turkey fun begins.

Direct Input

I said in a post from earlier today that I was thinking about just saying screw it and recording some guitar tracks via direct input into Garageband so that I could play while people were sleeping… and then I did it. I added guitars to two NaSoAlMo songs. They sound okay. I am so rusty that the playing was just bad. Who knows, if I get a burst of energy at a time when I can make noise I might redo the tracks from today through the glory that is my Deluxe Reverb. Until then, this will do.

Nerd Boy Screws Up His Plans

I had every intention of going to visit both of my parents today. Unfortunately I suck at eating and my lunch angered my stomach and I was nauseous enough to not want to leave the house. I did buy a whole new wardrobe this morning but that is the best I could do.

I played some guitar in the hopes it would make me feel better. It didn’t. Emotionally or digestively. I played with the self timer and the remote shutter on my camera in between takes of tracks for National Solo Album Month (up to three songs now. Yippee). I have redefined the word “Nerd”.

HeHeHe... Nerd. — Robert the Slack Jawed Yokel, coming soon to a Simpsons episode near you.

This one was taken in manual mode at least. No self timer or remote shutters here.

DSC_0027 (1) — I just love that red jewel light on the Deluxe Reverb.

The doofus in those pics might look like a total goof, but that guitar is a thing of beauty, isn’t it? Did I mention that Jen bought me that for my 50th birthday? Good work, Jen.

Reposting This

I am reposting this because I miss my band. I want to play I want to play I want to play I want to play.

June 24, 1977

Saving this for later. It sounds like an FM broadcast of a Genesis show in London on Steve Hackett’s last tour and it includes “Inside and Out”. The mix sounds really good. A little too much Phil maybe? A little too little Mike? Just enough Steve and Tony and Chester. Well… is there ever enough Steve in the mix? Nope. Never enough Steve.

NaSoAlMo

Tomorrow is November 1st and November is National Solo Album Month.

Should I do it? I should, but will I? I’m undecided. I haven’t had the energy for music lately. I want to get myself back on the ball but I’m having a tough time with motivation.

I’m going to tell myself I’m going to do it this November, but I’m not sure if I will stick to my guns.

Stay tuned.

Two Recent Items of Note

Two things that I have been wanting to post here just so that I could find them if I need them in the future. One music related, one marriage related.

First, the music one. I plugged one of my USB audio interfaces into a USB-C adapter and then into my iPad. It works perfectly. I can bring up the mic input in GarageBand, pick an available channel from the interface, and record without lag or errors. Sigh of relief. Now I actually have to have a song to add guitars and vocals to. Maybe I can still sneak in a Record Every Month Challenge song for October. There’s NaSoAlMo next month to think about too. Also, I haven’t played guitar in ages and I am starting to get the shakes from guitar withdrawals. You know how it is. I still haven’t tried GarageBand on my MacBook since taking the last OS top off update. It shouldn’t make a difference. I don’t think anything audio related was included in the update. I am still thinking about wiping the whole thing and restoring from a backup and seeing if that fixes whatever crap was wrong last month. Have you tried turning it off and on again? Yes. Have you tried killing everything and reinstalling it? Not yet.

That’s the music thing I wanted to write down. What’s the marriage thing? My wedding ring is in the shop. I took it back to the jewelry shop we bought it from back in 2009 to get it resized. It was a size 14. It will be a size 12. I mentioned the cause of the weight loss and asked if it will be okay if I need to get it resized a second time. They said sure. We did that on Saturday, October 22nd. They said I could expect to be without it for a week or so. Jen also dropped off her engagement ring as one of the clasps that holds the diamond in place is broken. Hopefully they will both come back at the same time. I seriously miss my ring. I keep absent mindedly reaching for it and being surprised that it isn’t there. I am looking forward to not having to wrap yard around it to make it fit better though. I won’t miss that annoying little thing.

There. Now we’re all up to date.

PRS

As I was sitting in the living room feeling terribly nauseous and sick I put on Youtube and poked around. I found a rig rundown video with Alex Lifeson’s guitar tech from the Time Machine Tour in 2010. They checked out his guitars. Most of them were his signature Les Paul model, the Les Paul Access. There were a couple of older Les Pauls too and his gorgeous ES-355, and that one Telecaster he plays now and then. There were also a couple of 90’s Paul Reed Smiths.

Lifeson started playing those in the late 80’s or early 90’s (I think) after he stopped playing those Signature strat copy things that I think he was a part owner of the company. I was so happy when he stopped playing those things and I really liked how he sounded playing those PRS guitars but I was sort of hoping he’d start playing Les Pauls again, which eventually he did. I mean, Geddy Lee once said something along the lines of Alex doesn’t sound like Alex unless he’s playing a Les Paul. I don’t remember the exact quote but it was something like that, and once Mike my lifelong bass player said the same thing about me and that was pretty much the best compliment I’ve ever heard.

Anyway…

After I watched that rig rundown video I found today’s new episode of That Pedal Show and who should they have as a guest? Paul Reed Smith himself.

Maybe someday after I win the lottery and buy a bunch of Les Paul Standards from 1957-1960 I might treat myself to a two humbucker Paul Reed Smith model. They are great guitars. Even that weird strat copy they make for John Mayer is a great guitar, even if it’s basically a stratocaster with a funny looking headstock.

Crappy Song Alert

Here’s one of the four awful songs written and recorded in September 2022. It’s probably the best of the four, but that’s not saying much. Maybe I’ll redo it someday in the future when I have an actually functional home recording setup and when I’ve actually been playing the guitar for a while and not on a five month break.

Pain Pain and More Pain

I put leads on four songs before work this morning. It was a bad experience in three ways. First, I am so rusty it’s embarrassing. Second, the interface problems left me on the verge of screaming in fury and frustration the whole time. Third, I have no callusses on my finger tips anymore and I am in searing, burning agony right now. I played for about 45 minutes and oh my god the finger tip pain.

Fun.

I have four songs to mix by the end of the day. I don’t have an album-in-a-month for September, but maybe I have an EP in a month? At the very least I’ll have my first RPM Challenge Record Every Month song since RPM ended in February. That’s nice. The four songs I have to pick from are AWFUL and the guitar playing is AWFUL and the singing is AWFULAWFULAWFUL, but at least they exist. I guess.

My iPad has a USB C input. I am thinking of trying to use one of my USB interfaces with the iPad to see if the same problems with lagging will happen on that machine. If not, then I can keep writing and recording without wanting to punch holes in the wall in furious angry anger as the input signal drops out for a fraction of a second and fucks up a solid take… again and again and again and again. That would be nice. If the iPad work around doesn’t work… I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll need to upgrade to a faster USB interface but I most definitely do not have any money for that. Two kids in college, you know? Urgh.

Pics…