My newest stupid project...

I've written and posted videos here about my much-beloved JVC KD-D50 cassette deck. I found another one on eBay for 99 cents! (Okay, shipping was $20, but still....). So now I own 2, and one of them is to be sacrificed for a Frankenstein DIY project I have been thinking up in my head.

I want to cool LCD display--which I love so much and spent HOURS looking at during my teenage years--to be mounted in a stand-alone project box. It should be easy to accomplish. Check out the video below (made with my little Sony digital camera... not bad).





Ideally, this thing would just have stereo RCA inputs (and maybe outputs) with a volume pot on the side or back to adjust the levels. That's how it works in the deck, so it should be no problem. There are only 7 wires going into the board that is connected to the display. My current theories:

• RED/WHITE (pair): power
• BLACK/YELLOW (pair): R/L in or out
• PINK/PURPLE (pair): R/L in or out
• LIGHT BLUE (single): Who knows?

The stereo slider volume pot along the bottom must control the levels in; it can't be the LIGHT BLUE because the slider controls L/R separately. So I am nearly positive that I am correct about the functions above; problem is, I have no idea which is which.

I am guessing RED/WHITE is power because it goes to a separate board than the other two; it would make sense that the in and out R/L would go to the same board. I can test this easily by loosening one of the RED/WHITE to see if the display powers up. If the others were easily removed and reattached to the board, I could do the same checking the levels.

The trick will be (once I find out what is what) getting the fewest number of parts out of the deck for it to work. It would be great if the thing could be powered by an external wall wort. I might need some help on this one. Gonna send the video to my buddy Dave in the Electronics Dept. Or, hey! Our new hire Matthew in Electronics faculty is a fellow musician! I think I have this solved!

More On This Topic

I managed to purchase a PDF of the service manual for this puppy online. $22. Since the actual unit cost under a buck, this seems to make sense (the fact that I now own 2 of them is another reason). It will be cool to try to do this myself.

A Note About the KD-D50

I have never pretended that this box was a high end piece of gear. As a teenager, I lusted after the just-out-of-reach Nakamichi decks, and the way-way-out-of-reach Revox decks that I demoed at The Gramaphone and Almas Hi-Fi. I purchased this one with lawn mowing money in 1983 or 1984; I think I tried to buy it at a place on Woodward because they had the best price. I remember getting kicked out of the store because I was too young, and that pissed me off (my mother had dropped me off). So I ended up getting the thing at Almas, which was my favorite place. I got my Polks there before. I bought my cheap-ass receiver at Fretter Appliance, but that's another story.

So, the KD-D50 wasn't top of the line by any stretch of the imagination. But it was designed for making mix tapes (or at least it had that in mind). There was a tiny computer--more of a calculator really--that helped you guage with some precision how much time was left on a cassette. Tell the deck what length of tape you were using (e.g. C-60, C-90, C-120) and it would keep track of your remaining time. I spent MANY, MANY hours making tapes using this feature. I would have a legal pad with track titles and times, and this would allow me to fit the songs in without having a tape stop in the middle of a song.

A mixtape (or compilation tape) that went "ker-chlunk" and ended in the middle of the song was no good to anybody. Never, ever, ever, ever would I stand for that. Conversely, a tape that ended with only seconds of blank tape at the end was a thing of beauty. No need to fast forward or rewind before switching sides (this was before auto reverse decks were widely available--in fact, Nak made a great deck that actually physically flipped the tape, as opposed to moving the heads).

Idea for a Mix

Just spinning some of the brilliant Blanton/Ellington duets from 1941. Gave me an idea: make a mix of great-sounding bass playing that pre-dates the debut of the Fender Precision Bass in 1951.

First track: "Pitter Panther Patter" / Jimmy Blanton & Duke Ellington

Steve as a SouthPark Character

So, my pals have a blog. And they posted themselves as SouthPark characters. So, I am a shameless copy cat. You can do it, too. Check it out:

G-Fab at home, mixin', writin', and takin' the dog potty.

G-Fab's alter ego, Dean Steve.

Smithsonian Global Sound

It turns out that most of the Hugh Tracey discs are available online from Smithsonian Global Sound, which seems like an amazing service.

Direct from ILAM the whole set on CD is 19,700 South African Rand, or 2,116 USD; that's about $10 per CD. I estimate that it will take about 160 hours to digitize the collection (I can obviously do other things while this happens, so that isn't even a factor). The real work would be cleaning the discs, breaking the master files into tracks, and adding the ID3 tags. I estimate that work to be 100 hours (that is actual sitting-at-the-computer time on task).

Obama's proposed $4,000 tax credit for college students requires 100 hours of community service. Searching online, I see that 100 hours is often used as a round number for all kinds of volunteer service (including court-ordered stuff... yeuch!). 100 hours during evenings and weekends would be no problem at all.

And check out Radio Global Sound, which is super cool, too. Streaming and free.

MSU Library Volunteer Gig

Okay, so if I do land this opportunity to digitize the Hugh Tracey African music collection at MSU (200 vinyl discs--whoa!), I will need to gear up.

1. I will need a good record cleaning system. Luckily, I just found the perfect one that won't break the bank. It's here.
2. I will need a better cartridge. I think my turntable is fine, but I think the cartridge and stylus could use improvement. I think a Grado Green will do the trick.
   
3. I will need to save the files to WAV format. That will take up lots of memory.
4. I will need a dedicated workspace downstairs.
5. I will need a better system for staying organized.

I would love to do this project now that the KWR thing is done.

Jade Visions: The Bill Evans Trio (1959-1961)

Over the years, I have made so many compilation tapes of the legendary Bill Evans trio of 1959-1961 that I have lost count. It would be easy to put every track from the four Fantasy/Riverside records on this mix. I always had to limit myself to 90 minutes, so I'll try to do that here. Scott LaFaro and Paul Motain playing with Bill here. This is the trio that changed Jazz. This mix begins and ends with tunes written by LaFaro; both were performed about 10 days before he was killed in a car wreck at age 25.





NPR coined the term "driveway moment" to describe the experience of waiting in your car to finish a good radio story once you've reached your destination. The purchase and first playing of Portrait In Jazz (1959) was a "turntable moment" for me. I put it on and literally watched the vinyl spin on my JVC LE-600 turntable; I flipped it over and watched Side 2 spin as well. This record (and the 3 other Evans/LaFaro/Motain recordings) changed my life.

Boomerang!

Come back you little raven
And bite my face
--Misfits

A twelve-track mix made to persuade my Muxtape pals to come back out and play. All tunes feature the theme of "come back." The dominant genre here is old school soul, rhythm & blues, (Ink Spots, Sam Cooke, Junior Walker, Al Green, etc.), but The Ramones, Misfits and Roy Orbison manage a visit as well. Mix Tape Community pals, the water's fine out here, and 8tracks is a great place to play!

Boomerang!

1. I'll Come Running Back To You / Sam Cooke
2. Do The Boomerang / Junior Walker and the All Stars
3. Call Me / Al Green
4. Come Back Baby / Jefferson Airplane
5. She'll Come Back / The Turtles
6. Lubie / The Who
7. Come Back Kind of Loving / Little Milton
8. Come Back, Baby / The Ramones
9. Come Back / Misfits
10. Come Back To Me (My Love) / Roy Orbison
11. When The Swollows Come Back To Capistrano / Ink Spots
12. That's When I'll Come Back To You / Louis Armstrong

UPDATE: I listened to this mix 2x as I drove to Metamora and back to get the mail. I really like this one. Some random thoughts.

The Sam Cooke piece is a great opener, and the chromatic guitar intro MUST be a deliberate quote of "When The Swallows Come Back to Capistrano," which is also the penultimate tune on the mix. More on that later. The next track is just fantastic--Junior Walker's "Shotgun" is burned into the American unconscious, and this track is very similar. I love the way it starts with two stilletto pickup notes that have you disoriented for the first phrase or so. Jamerson tears up the bass on this track--that man was a national treasure. The B3/Leslie sound carries us over into the Al Green tune, which slows things down a bit. Jorma Kaukonen knocks his knucles around this great Jefferson Airplane riff and sings it, too, I think, then we get The Turtles track which sounds like Islamic surf guitar if there were such a thing. On "Lubie (Come Back Home)" we hear some early Who which is almost early enough to be by The Detours, but you can hear Keith Moon doing that floor tom thing he does that signaled his wild, wild ride to come. The Little Milton track is a corny little thing, but the backup vocals are priceless, and the fade out is a fantastic transition to the Ramones track (which is from 1989). The drums at the onset of the next track by The Misfits are interesting for punk; you almost make it to the end of the track without noticing that Danzig is singing "Come back you little raven / And bite my face." My favorite transition is from this phrase to the dooby-doo-wahs of the Orbison track. Yeah! This one slides comfortably into the chromatic guitar intro of the Ink Spots track, mentioned above; gotta love those vocals. And Louie Armstrong ends it with some fantastic Dixieland-inspired dialogue and jamming. I love this mix--hope you like it, too.

A seriously good mix

I love hearing new stuff. Here's some.

Got Back To The Babies

The Baby Advents, that is. I just finished doing the rest of the work on the new surrounds for the Baby Advent IIs. That was fun--you need to hook them up to an amp and play a test tone through them while you set the final adhesive. It's amazing how the voice coils realign themselves. Photos and a full report when they are done.

Now I have to find a way to get my friends to come back to the Mixtape Community. What better way than... a mix!

Robinson's Murphy Brown

We are missing our Scottie today. Murphy (1994-2006) was a great dog for our family, and Kathy is now itching to get another Scottie. Murphy came from Anstamm Kennels in Kalamazoo.

Sweden's Kent

My brother-in-law Viktor introduced us to the Swedish band Kent while we were in Stockholm. A fellow mixer on 8tracks created a Kent mix, so here it is:

Sad Treacle

I made you a Christmas present! I just uploaded the mix I used to call "Best of Gorkys" to 8tracks--chances are you already have a copy if you read my blog (I have been bugging people to listen to this band since I first heard them 4 years ago). If not, you're in for a treat. The new name of this mix is "Sad Treacle," and it's 18 tracks from the last three Gorky's Zygotic Mynci records: How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart (2001), Spanish Dance Troupe (1999), and Sleep/Holiday (2003). I am absolutely devoted to those records; the aural landscape created by them conjures images of Pet Sounds, Highway 61, Here Come The Warm Jets, and countless other brilliant pop records.

Now it's off to wrap presents (I'll spin this mix as I do it). Why do I always have to wrap Santa's gifts?





There's a second Gorky's mix that I give out; when I can find the track listing, I will post it. I used to call it "Second Best of Gorkys," which I think I will keep as a title, because it intentionally meant not what it said.

Structural Ambiguity

I love lyrics with structural ambiguity, which was one of my favorite concepts from college linguistics.

Consider the following phrase from Vampire Weekend's "Campus"

How am I supposed to pretend / I never want to see you again

I'll spare you the syntax trees, but this can be read in two ways: a) as two distinct statements [a1] How am I supposed to pretend? (question), and [a2] I never want to see you again; or b) one longer statement [b1] How am I supposed to pretend (that) I never want to see you again? (question). Listen to that track here.

Or my favorite from Luna's "Black Postcards"

If I had it all to do again / I wouldn't / throw it all away

The issue here is where the phrase "I wouldn't" attaches to; does it mean [a1]If I had it all to do again, I wouldn't (do it); [a2] Throw it all away; or [b1] If I had it all to do again, I wouldn't throw it all away." Listen to that track here.

Missing the Hammond/Leslie Today

I love the old Hammond console organs and Leslie speakers. I restored a 1959 A-100 (the same as a B3) and a Leslie 122. What a fantastic sound. Here's a clip of me messing around on the rig, which is now long gone.





This player just plays the same track over and over; again, it's nothing musical, and the fidelity is pretty bad (it's a small cassette recorder). But I had that thing sounding perfect. The tube amp in the 122 was the most gorgeous amp I have ever heard.

16 8tracks Mixes and Counting!

Hey, look at me: I now have 16 mixes uploaded to 8tracks. Many of these are recycled Muxtape mixes or previous mix CDs. Here's a list of what I have available on my 8tracks channel. The titles are hotlinks that will take you directly to the mixes. You can also click on the cover art to the right. (It's also possible to embed the mix player right here on a blog page; I do that sometimes, but I don't want to embed 16 mixes into this post).

No More Riots/World Up My Ass

This is a mashup of two Muxtape mixes of 80s hardcore: 7 Seconds, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Misfits, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Butthole Surfers, Suicidal Tendencies... you get the picture. 50% come from the fantastic compilation Not So Quiet On The Western Front; the other 50% were just EPs and other stuff that I had back in high school. "Punk's Not Dead, No It's Not." PARENTAL ADVISORY--STRONG LANGUAGE.

Music For Your Tape Recorder

This is my MTC Challenge #3 mix from back in May. We called it the "Sweet Sixteen" challenge; make a 12 song mix of songs you were listening to at age 16. This mix has OMD, Joy Division, The Smiths, Buzzcocks, The Teardrop Explodes, The Undertones, and many others. Cover art is the LCD display from the JVC KD-D50 cassette deck I had as a 16 year old. For a cool video liner note thing, visit here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug_1F5MoHpc

MTC Secret Santa Mix 2008

Joshua organized a "Secret Santa" mix exchange for this holiday. He rounded up the old MTC gang and assigned us all secret santas. The theme was "guilty pleasures." My mix was given to Aaron, and it includes Bee Gees, Tupac, Jane's Addiction, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Foghat, Thompson Twins, and Ace of Base and others.

Carrefour d'Afrique

A mix based on my college radio show (the first clip is actually a sample from one of my old air-check tapes). Great tracks from Tabu Ley Rochereau, Papa Wemba, Fela Kuti, Youssou N'Dour, Prince Nico Mbarga, and Cheb Khaled among others. I used to spin this stuff and dance my can off during my weekly radio show!

Pillow Mix

This is the second of two post-defeat mixes from 2005; again, I tried to select bands that were brand new to me and limit myself to tracks that were recorded post 2000. Two songs (Gorillaz and Caesars) were currently featured in iPod commercials. I love the frame of the same song by Capitol K (hence the un-original title for the mix). I Am Robot And Proud is a great name for a band. Other artists include Radio 4, Zero Zero, Call and Response, and Moving Units.

"Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" (BWV 147)

J.S. Bach's church cantatas are among the most delicious musical experiences on offer for ANYONE. This cantata contains a famous melody you've heard before. If you like music, you'll love this dramatic, gorgeous piece from the architect of modern harmony. This is perhaps the best performance available, too. I don't care what you're into: rock, rap, metal, house, indie, whatever... J.S. Bach is the man!

G-Fab's Dark Side Mix

This thirteen-track mix was made to commemorate my decision to leave teaching and join "The Dark Side" by accepting a position as a dean. Thematically linked, these tunes range from 80s old-skool rap, to econo punk, to 70s Motown; from Japanese pop to Canadian retro-synth. There's also Welsh popcraft, vintage Radiohead, ZZ Top, DEVO, and a harp solo.

Black Postcards

This one got me started again. After losing the election in 2004, I challenged myself to make a mix of bands I had never heard before for my campaign staff. This mix includes Luna, Pinback, Film School, Earlimart, Bunkbed, AM/FM, The American Analog Set, and Simply Saucer. Lots of people like this mix (I've been gifting it for 4 years), and it got me back in the game. I often name mixes after a key track; I had fun making the cover art for this one.

1930s Old-Time Country

This is your introduction to Pre-WWII country music from the dawn of commercial recording (unless you already know this stuff, in which case, it's not). I absolutely love this music, and I want you to love it, too. Here are twelve deliciously-scratchy tracks including The Skillet Lickers, Earl Johnson, Dock Boggs, and Uncle Dave Macon. These records were very important in the old-time music revival. Fiddles and banjos are cool!

Mr. Monkey Suit

The monkey speaks his mind! Twenty two monkey songs by artists as diverse as Big Maybelle, Willie Dixon, Beastie Boys, Richard Thompson, and others. Real gems here from Don Ho, Rufus Thomas, Felix da Housecat, and Chuck Berry. Kicks off with a great track from The Plasmatics. Added three tracks today: Stones via request by Larry, Byrne via request from Todd, and Dave Bartholomew via request from Elvis Costello and Sly & Robbie.

Stockholm Syndrome

Made this mix as I prepared to visit my sister in Sweden last summer--12 great songs from Stockholm bands. There are some great surprises here; everyone I play this for loves it. Notable tracks by Shout Out Louds, The Concretes, Melody Club, The Hives, and Wired For Mono. Viktor and I actually went to hear bands one night, and the cover art is a photo I took at a Stockholm night club (notice the bikes on the roof?).

Two Parties Ending

Another MTC challenge mix: create a found poem using one lyric from each song of a 12-song mix. This mix actually yielded two usable poems. The music is good, too: The Kills, Wire, Television, Radiohead, The Stooges, and Stereolab all contribute to the poems. Cover art is a detail from the Siget Music Festival poster I photographed in the Stockholm subway.

Pale Shelter

One of numerous 80s mixes I have made recently for friends. This is a good one covering a number of the UK bands I really liked in high school circa '83-'85, including Buzzcocks, Squeeze, The Teardrop Explodes, The Passions, The Stranglers, XTC, Prefab Sprout, and others. This mix has mostly deep tracks. I like it.

G-Fab's Headphone Mix

This is a mix of 12 tracks that make use of "headphones" as a key trope in the lyrics. Here we see headphones as isolation, erotic connection, rescue, distance, place, sleep aid, punishment (only Dylan, right?), personal universe, and dance floor mantra. Artists include Bjork, Dylan, Ultravox. Beastie Boys, G Love, Joni Mitchell and others.

Very Well, Then...

A themed mix regarding "education," this was an MTC@MCC challenge from back in the Muxtape days. Many genres, but "Teachers" by Daft Punk and Soulwax serve as the framing device; the mushy center includes Rick Nelson, NRBQ, Modest Mouse, Sweet Honey and the Rock, and Pet Shop Boys. Get ready for class!

Mystery Party

My fist mix here on 8tracks. Begins with 80s Philly no-wave and includes XTC, LCD Soundsystem, Elvis Costello, Devo, and "Dad, I'm In Jail" by Was (Not Was). Todd loves this mix. "I Love A Man In Uniform" is just a great Gang of Four tune from their underrated Songs of the Free record. The cover art is from Lidsville.

Hardcore Mixes Back Online

Punk's not dead, no it's not...
Punk's not dead, no it's not...
Punk's not dead, no it's not...

This is a mashup of two Muxtape mixes of 80s hardcore: 7 Seconds, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Misfits, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Butthole Surfers, Suicidal Tendencies... you get the picture. 50% come from the fantastic compilation Not So Quiet On The Western Front; the other 50% were just EPs and other stuff that I had back in high school.

Note about the cover art: this was THE jacket in Detroit clubs in the 80s. The Misfits were huge, and the non-skinhead punks wore leather jackets like this one with the Misfits skull logo on them. Funny thing--the past two years of ski seasons in Utah, I have noticed that this logo is huge with the snowboard crowd. I asked a couple of the dudes wearing the logo on their jackets if they'd ever heard of The Misfits (some of the jackets even say the band name). None of them know the music. Hysterical.

All of these were part of my teenage soundtrack; nearly every track features the "F-word" or worse.* PARENTAL ADVISORY--STRONG LANGUAGE.





* I feel the need to state here that I do not advocate the killing of policemen, nor do I think it was a good thing that John Lennon was assassinated. Furthermore, I do not think it's funny to encourage small children to stick their heads into burning hot ovens or kill themselves if mom doesn't bring them a Pepsi. My parents struggled with this issue when I was a teenager, but I must re-state it here: most of this is ironic artistic license, not advocated social or political policy statement.

Original Playlists (tracks now in different order)

No More Riots

1. Killjoy - Rich Plastic People
2. Unaware - Race War
3. Millions of Dead Cops - The Only Good Cop...
4. Social Unrest - Their Mistakes
5. Karnage - The Few, The Proud, The Dead
6. Bent Nails - No More Riots
7. Impatient Youth - Praise The Lord & Pass The Ammunition
8. Dead Kennedys - A Child And His Lawnmower
9. Chruch Police - The Oven Is My Friend
10. Captiol Punishment - El Salvador
11. 7 Seconds - Fuck Your Amerika
12. Intensified Chaos - Intensified Chaos

World Up My Ass

1. Butthole Surfers - Suicide
2. Circle Jerks - World Up My Ass
3. Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized
4. Misfits - Sculls
5. Minutemen - Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs
6. Dead Kennedys - Religious Vomit
7. The Birthday Party - Big Jesus Trash Can
8. D.O.A. - Fucked Up Baby
9. Meatmen - 1 Down 3 To Go
10. Minor Threat - I Don't Want To Hear It
11. Bad Brains - Joshua's Song
12. Black Flag - I Don't Care

Music For Your Tape Recorder

Back from Utah, nursing a hurt thumb. (It's gonna be okay--nothing Ibuprofen and a bag of frozen peas won't fix). Got back to some of the old Muxtape mixes and reposted MTC #3. The photo above is me at 16 behind the wheel of my 1971 Standard Bettle. Loved that little car. Jim Goldberg and I installed a used Blaupunkt cassette deck and Pioneer speakers; all of these tunes were cranked in that little green car over and over again. Have a listen:




Music For Your Tape Recorder
MTC Challenge #3

1. This is Helena / OMD / Dazzle Ships (1983)
2. Are Everything / Buzzcocks / 1-2-3 EP (1980)
3. Do It Clean /Echo and the Bunnymen / Crocodiles (1980)
4. Went Crazy* / The Teardrop Explodes / Kilimanjaro (1980)
5. The Love Parade / The Undertones / The Love Parade EP (1983)
6. Aloysius / Cocteau Twins / Treasure (1984)
7. New Era / The Specials / Specials (1979)
8. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now / The Smiths / Hatful of Hollow (1984)
9. Digital / Joy Division / Still (1981)
10. Harborcoat / REM / Reckoning (1984)
11. Another Nail In My Heart / Squeeze / Argybargy 1980
12. Radios In Motion / XTC / White Music (1978)

*converted from vinyl LP.

KWR/UAW Project Finished!

I am finally done with the digitizing/archiving of Ken Robinson's union tapes. It took me about 3 weeks of evenings and weekends to complete! Click below to learn more:

http://screencast.com/t/0PJegFKa

G-Fab's iPod Speakers

Okay, I think I may have told a few of you that I don't use my iPod as an iPod very often. It's actually a 6G hard drive for my car stereo. I have it hard wired into the GM factory deck in my 2004 Chevy Impala. But if I listened to my iPod outside of the car, here's how I would do it.

Here you see the speaker system of my teenage years: a matched pair of Polk Audio Monitor 4 satellite speakers and a Polk Audio LF-14 passive subwoofer. The M4s have been my personal reference speaker for my entire adult life. I have always had these hooked up everywhere I have lived; they've received near daily use since I purchased them with lawn-mowing money back in 1983/4. The LF-14 was a Christmas gift from my Dad & Marti (it was my Dad's partner, John Voepel, who told them what I wanted to complete the system). The LF-14s are actually quire rare now; they could be operated in pairs or as a center channel sub. This was many years before subwoofer systems became popular. The amp pictured there is a new eBay purchase, the small yet mighty NAD 310, which is the perfect little computer music amp: no tuner, no phono stage, micro plug in the front panel, and absolutely no frills (they didn't even install the little chip that keeps the amp from sending a "thump" to the speakers on power up).

The NAD 310, which is now my at-work computer music amp, is home for the holidays (I didn't want to leave it in the building over break). In my at-work setup it currently powers a pair of late Polk M4s (not nearly the same build quality as these early models I've had at home all these years, and the newer tweeters on those late jobs are not as nice--still, can't beat 'em for $40 on eBay). I also use the TotalBithead DAC between the wicked-noisy Gateway computer on my desk and the NAD. That TotalBithead is a dream.

Sounds sweet.

More on the Polk Sat/Sub System:

The driver used in all 3 of these cabs is the same--a powerful little 6.5" woofer. Each of the sats has one, and the sub has two. In the sats, the woofer is matched with a really nice tweeter; in the sub, the woofers are wired in stereo--one fires R channel, the other fires L. Unlike the sats, the sub is a sealed cabinet. The other element of the sub--apart from the switchable crossover--is a 14" passive radiator. The sealed cab works this way: as the combined L/R signal fires from the woofers, the raditor moves in the exact opposite fashion based on vacuum pressure. You can actually see this happening during play. It's a very subtle effect.

My dilemma is this: the passive LF-14 has always been a little meek for loud stuff. It's a very subtle effect. Recently I have read of guys modding the LF-14 and other 80s-era passive subs by adding modern plate sub amps. This could easily be done for uner $100. Why not go for it, you ask? Well, the main reason is that I'd have to loose the cool crossover. Might be worth it to get the LF-14 booming in the living room, eh?

Stylophone & Kraftwerk

Equipment list from the Computer World era of Kraftwerk!

• Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 (used only on the tour)
• Moog Polymoog
• Moog Minimoog
• Korg PS-3300
• Roland MC8 Microcomposer sequencer (used only on the tour)
• Friendchip "Mr Lab" unit
• Custom-built 32x2-step analogue sequencers by Matten & Wiechers
• Dubreq Stylophone
• Mattel BeeGees rhythm machine
• Texas Instruments Speak & Spell language toy
• Casio FX-501P Programmable Calculator with FA-1 Cassette Interface
• EMS and Sennheiser vocoders

I actually still own a Speak & Spell. I have vivid memories of my 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Beck, getting us an early version of that toy (I think her husband was a distributor or something). Check out this amazing video of the Stylophone in action:

Thank You, Joshua!!!

Joshua got me one of these for Christmas (the thing that plays the melody, not the Roland thing). It's a Stylophone!





Thanks, Man!!!

So, dig it...

My pal Joshua from work buys me this cool thing. And then one of my oldest pals in the world, Todd, posts to my blog that he bought me the same thing. How cool?

Todd's links deserve inclusion here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkTQsOQLEeU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9dvAWFDbN4

Rediscover African Pop!

All this cassette digitizing brought me to an aircheck tape I made of my college radio program "Carrefour d'Afrique." It's spinning from analog to digital down on my workbench right now. Meanwile, I've started to hunt for some of my favorite tracks and I FOUND THEM! As recently as a year ago, I could not find this fantastic live album by Tabu Ley Rochereau; I also had a hard time with Papa Wemba's "Bakwetu."

Makin' a mix right now!

Here's a start--the intro is from an actual show I did in 1993! The rest of the tracks are ones I actually played (I introduce the Mahathini track). I digitized the whole aircheck tape, but it's pretty hissy. Listening to the intro, you can tell why I didn't go into radio. My voice still cracks like that from time to time. I think I might be an "uptalker."

1. Carrefour d'Afrique Intro / Steve Robinson on WDBM 89FM
2. Ngizothi Mamakubani / Mahlathini [S. Africa]
3. Bakwetu* / Papa Wemba [Zaire]
4. Indaba / Soul Brothers [S. Africa]
5. Sorrow, Tears & Blood / Fela Kuti [Nigeria]
   
6. Lunch Time / Gabriel Omolo [Kenya]
7. Didi / Cheb Khaled [Algeria]
8. Sweet Mother / Prince Nico Mbarga [Nigeria]
   
9. Sai / Kanda Bongo Man [Zaire]
10. Taaw / Youssou N'Dour [Senegal]
    
11. Kinshasa** / Tabu Ley Rochereau [Zaire]
    

* I absolutely love this song. Papa Wemba was one of my favorite African artists in the early 90s. I saw many of these acts here in Michigan, including Kanda Bongo Man, King Sunny Ade, Loketo, and many others. Most of these shows involved getting called on stage to dance with the band. There's also the great African tradition of "dashing" or laying cash on the performer's body (and no, it's nothing like tipping a stripper).

** I think one of the happiest moments of my life was playing this song on my show one day, cranking the thing just about as loud as it would go. The radio station was on the 3rd floor of the old Auditorium building. There were speakers in the studio and in all the offices. I did my show from 10am - 1pm on Sunday mornings, and I always had the whole station to myself. This was the summer before I got my first teaching job. I danced my bucket off. Listen to the snare drum on this track, particularly at middle section. Soukous is possibly the most joyous musical genre ever. Dancing to a live soukous band is like nothing else in the world.

Going to add tracks by

Fela Kuti [Nigeria]
Youssou N'Dour [Senegal]
Prince Nico Mbarga [Nigeria]

Moving the KWR Stuff

Okay, I am moving all the Ken Robinson UAW Tapes stuff to another blog--this will be a static home for the online recordings. It won't be the main depository for the digitized materials; those will be archived on DVD-ROM and Audio CD and donated to the Reuther Library.

http://kwr-uaw.blogspot.com/

Tape Machines

Here are a couple of machines that are similar to the ones that must have been used to capture these events.

In other news, this e-mail came across the college system today:

DisAbility Services in the Learning Center has a supply of cassette tapes we no longer use. If anyone can use them, let me know and we can make some arrangements. They are the 60 minute, Maxell, full size tapes.

I called Terese and asked if she had some left. She told me she'd give me a box. I thought she meant a box of 6-10 tapes. She gave me a CARTON of packets of 6-tape packages.

The analog cassette is dead.






Meanwhile, the current UAW president was on TV this evening after Congress turned its back on the Big 3.

Grandpa, what would you think of all this?

Editing the UAW Tapes; Night II

The photo above comes from the the volume From Lake Superior to Indiana: The Story of UAW Region 1-D. Published by the UAW in 1988. This photo was taken on October 28, 1972. If I am not mistaken, to the immediate left of the podium, a portable cassette recorder can be seen. I selected this photo because it is from the middle of the time period of the tapes (1969-1974) and also shows the kind of recording environment in which most of the tapes were produced. This photo appeared in the Region 1-D newsletter; it was taken at a dinner for a local union.

The photo above is me and my grandfather; it was almost certainly taken in 1975. The scene of the photo is not my grandparent's cottage on Lake Michigan, so I believe it was taken at their home in Grand Rapids. I look to be almost exactly Owen's current age (7); I turned 7 in April of 1975. My grandfather died in January of 1976.

Okay, gonna call it a night now. I am through June of 1970 at the Woodcock Rally in Grand Rapids. The formal events are easier to edit--you can hunt for the applause as section breaks, and it's easier when speakers change. That's 4 tapes down, and 7 to go. The remaining tapes are all formal programs. Hopefully that makes them easier.

It's remarkable how much more usable the recordings seem when broken into tracks. I am taking them into iTunes one by one, adding the image of the cassette they came from, and labeling the ID3 tags.

This will be a very useful collection when it's finished. The UAW really does have an amazing history.

Funny about my entry below: the point about the weak batteries really dawned on me as I was typing, and I just kept on typing. Kind of a cool artifact of a thought process. I think it probably is true--the logic makes sense, and I just can't imagine them using reel-to-reel decks to make these recordings as all the activities were going on.

---------------



On the Brendan Sexton speeches at Black Lake in 1970 after Reuther's death now. This is pretty amazing stuff.

I've developed a good method for this. But it's not quick.

Issue: clearly many of these were transferred from reel-to-reel, as there are speed up issues. Wait a minute--not necessarily true. If a battery operated recorder was used, it may have just... wait a minute. Let's think that through:

Q. If the tape slowed down recording speed because of low batteries, would the tape played at normal speed sound too slow or too fast?

Here it is: I am digitizing these cassette recordings from the early 70s. Two of them speed up toward the end (i.e. the speech is faster and the vocies are higher in pitch). My initial thought was that they were transferred from reel-to-reel machines. Now I have a new theory, but I can't decide if it goes the wrong way. My new theory is this: the recordings were made with battery operated cassette recorders and the battery was running low. The tape traveled more slowly during recording, so at normal speed playback, the recorded program sounds faster. Does that make sense? (Or would it be the other way around?)

It's fairly clear that Sexton was somewhat annoyed that my grandfather was taping everything. Pretty funny.

Back to the Union Tapes

Two Tape Per Night

That's all I'm going to be able to do. This is rough stuff, even if you are just cutting tracks. The result is pretty cool, though. I just imported Tapes A and B into iTunes to add the ID3 tags and images. It's going to be very useful to people who want to hear them.

There re 9 more tapes. That's about 5 more days of this stuff. Looks like one set of these will be about 20 audio CDs and/or 2 CD-ROM discs. The CD-ROM discs can have my work papers, the spreadsheets, and all that kind of stuff on them. The audio CDs will need a printed track listing.

The files will be much more useful to scholars as mp3 files, I think.

There are some places where the reel-to-reel decks are very fast; I was able to slow down a track or two with Audacity, but I wonder if that would take too much time. I will wait until it's all broken into tracks to figure that out.

Going through and doing the tracks on these, it's interesting to hear my grandfather interact with people. I'm editing the Black Lake tapes, and these were made after the tragedy when Reuther was killed in 1970; Ken Robinson seems very aware that these tapes are permanent--he refers to them as "the oral history of our union." Brendan Sexton seems uncomfortable making the tape at one point. It's very interesting stuff. They are mostly talking about the construction and management of Black Lake.


Well, I heard back from the Reuther Archive. Not only do they NOT have these recordings, they are very excited to get them. So I am starting to break the timed master tracks into smaller segments tonight.

This will take a while.

Gonna use a slightly different syntax. A_1_001.mp3

This will preserve the original side information.

Update: It took 20 minutes to do the first side of the first tape. Not as long as I thought. I could do 3 per night at this rate.

Update: One hour later, and I am working on Tape B, Side 2. Only cursory track descriptions. This is going to take a while.

Vintage G-Fab Basses

Pictures of me with basses past.

My Japanese 1962-Reissue Jamerson "Funk Machine." This wasn't a Jamerson model, but I set it up that way: LaBella flatwounds, funk filters, the whole nine. This thing had the "low hovering cloud" sound. This photo was taken about the time I was playing in a band called Trancemitter (played that bass on about 25% of the tunes, especially the drum-n-bass stuff).

Here's me with THE bass: my old 1964 J-Bass. This thing had been modded and refin'd so many times it was silly. Leo Quann BadAssII bridge, brass nut, EMG pickups, ebony fingerboard with snowflake inlays (yes, someone actually removed the Brazilian rosewood). No bass ever played better. I was rehearsing with the Mott Middle College Steel Drum Band (that's Andy in the photo). Sold it so I could go to Harvard for 2 weeks--true story.

John Slavo's fretless Ric. He ruined it, actually. Man, that thing looked cool. It was a 4003, I think. I remember that old Joy Division t-shirt. Dig the Thomas Dolby glasses (or John Lennon glasses, or whatever). That was freshman year at MSU. Hooky played a Ric, too.

Dad & Mart got me this Charvel/Jackson P-J bass for X-Mas in 1986. It didn't look like me, but it was a really nice bass. The active pickups sounded like EMGs and the bridge was a copy of LeoQuann. The unfortunate headstock was constantly poking people and it got stolen from my car in Lot 51 at MSU. Replaced it with a Mexican J-Bass and later traded it for the 1964. My first white bass--the rest of them were white.

Baby Advent Refoam

Enter G-Fab: Speaker Repairman.

I learned, with horror, that the foam surrounds on my Baby Advent IIs had decayed to the point of deterioration. Maybe that's why the Polks edged them out in my little shootout with Bill last Friday. eBay to the rescue--I bought a set of replacement foam for $20. And I get a cool workbench project, too! Fun! Above you see the surround before I went to work. Unacceptable! Click the photo to see a closer look at the rip in the foam.


Here you can see me going to town on the woofer frame to get the old adhesive off. I used an Exacto knife as a scraper on the paper cone; on the metal frame, I used a small wire brush with the Dremel. Sticky and smelly, but it worked.


Here are the woofers with the new foam in "dry fit" mode. Tomorrow night, I'll do the initial glue up on the cones. The fellow who sold these also sent adhesive and nicely-prepared directions. The whole thing will probably take 3 evenings.

I am also going to paint the pecan endcaps on these guys with black Rustoleum. I used that paint on the headstock of Mac's banjo, and it worked nicely. I tried to sand and re-stain one of the endcaps, but it looks like ass. Black will do nicely.

More photos of Mac's banjo project, which finished up about 12 months ago, are here.

An Old Post

Most of what I write here is crap, but back in May I really did something nice. It's worth reading if you care about mixtapes, love, and reflecting back on the good times in your life.

http://analogmix.blogspot.com/2008/05/mixtape-as-courtship-ritual-case-study.html

Oh, and this one has some good writing in it, too.

http://analogmix.blogspot.com/2008/06/mtc-fantasy-bands.html

Going to bed early (Listen to BACH!!!!!)

Well, gotta get a pre-dawn start tomorrow: consultant in from out of town, blah blah, woof woof. But I had time this evening to make an 8tracks mix of one of my favorite recordings.





J.S. Bach is the man, and they don't come better than this. Yes, you've got your Goldberg Variations, your Brandenburg Concertos, your Two and Three Part Inventions, the Motets, and even the B Minor Mass. But nothing beats the 200 church cantatas. The man was an absolute genius, and his work on the cantatas might be the artistic pinnacle of the Enlightenment. I'm dead freakin' serious.

Past/Present/Future

Music and writing both help me try to understand time. And by understand, I mean the kind of thing you do when you are looking in the 'fridge for something you want but can't find it. And then maybe you forget what you're looking for.

Writing this blog, for example. Nothing much I write here matters very much. That's not a slam on myself--I mean it. It just shows that yesterday I was doing this, and the day before I was doing that. And now I am doing this. This.

Music is similar. I remember making fun of Michael Hedges who, in an interview, talked like a total pothead about how in music you can listen to what you just played, listen to what you are playing now, or listen to what you are about to play. True. I take it back, Michael (you were still probably high off your ass, but hey...).

Right now I am writing at Doc's workbench in the basement; the crappy Fisher throwaway speakers suspended above my head don't sound so bad.

Secret Santa Mix

Joshua's doing a super-cool Secret Santa Mix/T-Shirt thing. Make a mix and buy a threadless t-shirt for your person. Gonna be fun. I'm listening to the draft of my mix, which must be on the "guilty pleasures" theme:

The mix theme (and this doesn’t have to be it, but I think this topic is rather fun) is Guilty Pleasures. That is, songs that we are kind of embarrassed we like. I know that some of us will respond by saying that "good music is nothing to be embarrassed about" (Robinson and Juchartz). Yes. Fine. But think of it as an “I-bet-you-didn’t-know-that-I-really-enjoy-these-songs" type of mix.

While making this mix, I have learned that I am not easily embarrassed. The mix has some fun and unexpected things on it. The frame is a pair of songs that were playing in a public place and I did not let on that I liked them.

In talking with Bill, I realized that I am more embarrassed by what I do not like. For example, I wish I enjoyed more Hip Hop or Contemporary Country. Just because I'm not a hood or a hick doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to get into this stuff.

I am liking this mix. My favorite mix is the one I am currently working on. I wonder who my person will be; should be loads of fun.

Good Enough Audio

The 4 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and ROCK OUT!

Good Enough Audio: Based on the psychological development theory of D.W. Winnicott, this is the idea that a practical quest for sound reproduction that is "good enough" will provide the greatest overall musical satisfaction. A component of this theory is the pursuit of used and moderately-priced "mid-fi" componentry from the golden age of 2-channel audio (pre-5.1 and beyond). This framework assumes that lossy formats such as mp3, encoded as low as 128kpbs (this includes streaming radio), while not perfect, are enough to satisfy. In sum, it is a "quantity over quality" argument. Voltaire would have agreed; the perfect is the enemy of the good. Quote: "Yeah, I suppose that a virgin vinyl pressing played on your Linn turntable through your McIntosh amp will sound much better than my computer; but in the time it takes you to set all that shit up (not to mention pay for it), I have just listened to five songs I like plus the album you told me about just now because I streamed it over Rhapsody." Not to be confused with Garbage Audio.

• Rule #1: your music will come in lossy formats--get over it.
• Rule #2: control what you can: get a decent DAC and amplifier/speakers/'phones.
• Rule #3: keep it simple.
• Rule #4: never buy new.

At home, Good Enough Audio means running an 1/8 plug out of the PC into the crawlspace and into the Yamaha receiver on the other side of the house. Today I added a "Y" adapter and sent the signal to the JVC integrated amp ($9 on eBay) in the basement. How does it sound: mighty good, actually. Or, "good enough." Because I have the nicer DAC unit at work, I might take a better pair of speakers there.

Taking a bit of a break from the KWR Tape project; they are all digitized and organized. Just need to break down the tracks and add descriptions. That could take a while. They are preserved and in one place. Deep breath.

On Friday, my pal Bill and I had lunch in my office. We did an important project: evaluate the relative merits of two pairs of bookshelf speakers. Mission: send one pair home. Here's what I wrote him afterward:

My assessment. Feel free to share your reflections when/if time permits.

Advents: Perhaps preferable for solo piano; a bit of an edge with dance/electronic. Overall better and wider soundstage with more pleasing mids; bass is contained but somewhat more accurate; less boxy than the Polks on tunes with traditional rock and roll instrumentation.

Polks: Much more pleasing bottom end for double bass, bass drum; perhaps preferable for instrumental jazz; slight edge with small chamber ensembles. Overall better bottom end; punchy and open bass, but less accurate. Rather nasal and constrained for rock and roll.

Verdict: ?

Actually, I don't need another pair at home, so I may just keep the extra pair under my desk and swap them every month or so just to change the soundscape here. If I had to select, I think it would be hard.

We were listening to a pair of Polk Audio Monitor 4s and a pair of Baby Advent IIs; both pair were purchased on eBay for approx. $40. They were being driven by my Denon integrated amp, which I have written about before here. I bought that on eBay, and it looks like it might be going back, as I just purchased another integrated amp. (I've got a little bit of a problem, here).

At any rate, I realized yesterday that the Advents didn't get a fair shake because the surround foam is toast. I purchased some replacement foam for $20 (where else?). I'll restore those puppies over the holiday and see what happens. Maybe they will live in the living room, my childhood Polks will go to the office and the cheaper late 80s Polks will go up on eBay as well.

Organizing and Editing the KWR Tapes

This is going to be the hard part.

It's taken me 2 evenings just to sort out the initial captures of the 21 sides; they are all straightened out, and I am almost done clipping the silence from the beginning and ending.

Update: more clues that the source tapes were reel to reel and that these are duplicates. There was a "bobbing" type sound at the beginning of one tape, probably from slack on a reel.

If these are duplicate copies, I wonder where the originals are. I suppose there are several possibilities:

• The UAW still has them
• They are buried in a pile of materials at Reuther
• They are lost

Regardless of where they are, if they haven't been digitized, they are even harder to work with than these copies. There are fewer and fewer reel to reel decks; it's much harder to stop and rewind those machines. Even if the originals are somewhere safe, chances are this work I'm doing will be of some use to someone.

Thought: perhaps Brian Harding would like to co-author an article or a presentation at a conference.

KWR/UAW Tapes: Digitizing Finished!

Okay, that didn't take as long as I thought. I just kept feeding the deck new tapes during the work day, and now I am going through them at home.

It's a good thing I took some scratch notes as I encoded these files; the numbers got loused up and my notes have been helpful in putting them back together. These files take a while to decompress and compress for editing, so the first wave of trimming the silence away from the beginning and end may take a while.

22 files. Now the real work begins. I need to listen to them and cut them into usable tracks, adjust for volume and EQ, and add the ID3 tags. I'm keeping track of all the work in an Excel spreadsheet.

Interesting discovery: The last 3 tapes are clearly transferred from a reel-to-reel source tape. One clue is written on tape #1. But you can also hear it. One tape spins up to speed in a way that compact cassettes do not; another tape repeats about 30 seconds of the previous side--only possible if the tape was a copy of a previous recording.

One of these tapes broke today, and I had to pull it apart and splice it on my lunch hour. If these tapes had sat around for another 10 years, there might not be someone around who remembered how to do that!!!

Making Progress on the KWR Tapes

Discovery: Saving these as mono MP3 files will not save much space at all. I will leave them as stereo files (though the source is definitely monaural). All files 128 kbps stereo--plenty big for spoken word files.

Currently digitizing the 1971 Brendan Sexton tapes; I was able to digitize tapes during the day with no problem. Some items:

Raw Masters

• 22 files
• no changes in bit rates
• log final lengths
  

Side Masters

• volume adjusted
• monaural
  
• eq fixed
  

Tracks

• ideally >10 minute sections
• add ID3 tags
• add photos of the original tapes

Syntax

A1_001.mp3

KWR UAW Tapes - Technical Notes

Source Recordings

The recordings exist in Compact Cassette format; all tapes are low noise/normal bias quality from commercially-available brands, including Maxell, BASF, Scotch, and Ampex. It is not clear if these cassettes are copies of original tapes or if they were made directly from the source programming (one tape is labeled "original," which would suggest that it was recorded in real time at the event). It would appear that all recordings were made with a hall/room PA system as the source. The make and specifications of the source tape recorder(s) is unknown. Programming is almost certainly monaural in all cases.

Digitization

Two cassette decks were used for source playback: JVC KD-D50 and Yamaha KX-W392. In both cases, playback was in the normal bias position with no noise reduction circuit engaged. Digital encoding was performed with a Zoom H2 Handy Recorder in mp3 format at 128kbps stereo. Recordings were then adjusted for volume and EQ using PolderBits software. Editing was performed to limit track length to 10 minutes. ID3 tags with track identification were added using Apple iTunes software. Files were archived as audio CDs, as well as CR-ROM copies of the final files.