MrKnobs

Originally posted by Billster Are you aware of any coercion by the FCC to get the radio stations to pull an artist? Well, I'M aware of a near-monopoly as nearly all radio stations in the US are owned by Clear Channel Communications www.clearchannel.com In fact, I'm under contract to them for a few more months. Maybe they'll fire me for writing this, the contract I signed was the thickest agreement I've ever seen in my life. Probably something about posting a negative opinion in there... Terry D.

Originally posted by Rique That

Originally posted by Angelo Clematide In this matters, are there huge differnces between country side and metropolitan areas? . Yes. The states running north to south in the center of our country have fewer large cities and more rural population. They're also extremely Christian, often fundamentailist Christian. Just driving through Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, South Dakota, etc. you see large numbers of billboards against abortion, promoting Jesus, etc. The radio stations are predominantly religious in these regions also. The "blue states" are primarily on the coasts. These states are more urbanized (NY and CA, for example), and tend to have a mix of ethnicities and religions. As an aside, both parties have their initial primary elections (where a candidate for each party is selected) in the northeastern states, which are very liberal. Thus, New Hampshire et al get to vote on the Democratic candidate first. By the time the primaries get down to the "heartland," most of the candidates have dropped out due to their poor showing in the liberal states. So we get a candidate like Kerry, who was perceived as quite liberal and a "war protester," even though he was a decorated veteran. This sort of candidate isn't palatable in the heartland states or in the south, and therefore will take CA and NY but will always lose in a close election due to the electoral college system which gives the thinly populated states a disproportionate vote. The Democrats make this same mistake again and again, they never seem to learn. Note that the last few Democratic presidents were all from the South. Terry D.

Originally posted by Angelo Clematide Excuse me for this simple question, i live in a complete other political systen, and politicans here are hardly ever subject in art. - Is there actually a US artist who supports Mr. Bush, or is it just en vogue to be against any president no matter what he does? - How was that with Regean back then, who sent troups to university camps and people got killed? . Country artists are all about love of country, patriotism, "my country right or wrong," simple values, small towns, honest work on the ranch or farm, etc. Very conservative, simple ethos. At least that's the paradigm. What each artist really thinks is probably kept to themselves, with the notable exception of the Dixie Chicks. This is the value system that plays well in Middle America, which is largely rural and "Bible Belt." Hence your red states and your blue states. Having said that, and having been on the road with various country stars for years as a soundguy, I'd say the stereotype is fairly accurate. Most of these guys aren't posing, they're the real deal. Now lately we've got some "drugstore cowboys" at the top of the charts, guys who, as we say in Texas, are "all hat and no cattle." Just like our current president, who is actually from Connecticut and Maine. Terry D. P.S. It was Nixon, not Reagan, who sent the national guard to Kent State where the troops opened fire on unarmed students. P.P.S. There are many country stars who still openly support Bush, though nothing like right after 9/11. The drummer in my band is a big Bush supporter, as are most people in Texas where I live.

Originally posted by Billster I've seen Santana in concert, and he made this weird speech in the middle of the show about Nelson Mandela and "angels all around us if you look for them", and so on and so forth. I'm sure that is part of the show everywhere he goes...and no one makes a stink about it. BUT, if he wanted to, he could have his publicist get it on CNN that "Santana says Bush is a loon" and get a lot of attention for himself. Funny you should mention that. I just watched his concert in Brazil yesterday and in the middle of a song he just stopped playing and motioned to the band to take it down a notch. He asked the light man to bring up the lights on the audience and said, "Look at yourselves! This is the dream! One world, one love. And BUSH is the nightmare!" Terrry D.

Originally posted by Billster I'm sorry, that's not true. Exactly what is chilling about having a No. 1 chart position. Big punishment there. I still disagree. It cuts to a fundamental question that I guess a lot of you don't care about. For every few dozen vacuous Britney or Whitney "performers" who aren't using music for anything other than selling product, there is the occasional ONE artist or group who still sees music as it was more commonly seen in the 60's, a vehicle for social commentary. It's nothing less than the "American Idolization" of music, the ascension of mediocrity and soullessness to the throne of pop music. And then, surprise, one artist who was assumed to be among the vacuous crowd uses the stage to speak out. I disagree with you guy's speculation and cynicism (that's a first for me, huh?) because I've met Natalee and I can tell you she's the sort of right brained person who thinks with her heart and is inclined to blurt out her feelings without thinking of the consequences, much less getting it cleared with her manager before doing so. So I wasn't there, but I don't think it's a publicity stunt. It cost them dearly for a while, and it's really a testament to how good they are that they could survive the sort of institutional blacklisting they got from the incident. Music matters to me, and so does freedom of speech. I'd pawn my guitars and give it up before I'd become the Hall and Oates or Taylor "American Idol" Hicks of music. Terry D.

Originally posted by Anderton I mean, what's the big deal? They don't like Bush, said so, then did a song about what happened because they didn't like Bush and said so. Is this really such an earth-shaking big deal that they belong on the cover of freakin' Time magazine? I think not. Right now they're on Larry King, and the home page on AOL trumpets Dixie Chicks album back at No. 1. Is this what passes for news these days? And I don't care about Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Katie Holmes, Denise Richards, Heather Locklear, any of them. Why do people spend any time whatsoever being interested in this kind of stuff? Yeah, I think it IS a big deal. What this is about is the brainwashing of America, and what now happens to any artist who speaks out against the politics of their demographic. Chilling, really. Terry D.

Originally posted by brikus You should thank me Terry...every time I bump this fine thread, you get another share of congrats ! BTW, do you have some other crunchy groupie stories to tell ? I could write at least three more sets that size. I will when I get around to it, I was retired when I wrote this one, and had a mandatory 30 day period where I had to stay away from work. Terry D.

Originally posted by timrocker Bravo, Terry! You've got a super story there, and written it in great style . Thanks. I really need to write another one, it's been a while. Terry D.

Originally posted by where02190 Then why, no matter what system, no matter what converters, does it sound better if you leave that master fader at 0 and adjust the track faders? I don't know about your method of working, but I don't have any converters in the signal path after my master fader. Once I'm digital, I stay digital all the way to the CD. But I guess you're talking how it sounds in the monitors. I haven't noticed any difference, but to be honest I most often automatically work with the master at unity gain from many years of working with analog boards. I use groups to tie faders together (drums, vox, etc) so I don't have to pull a lot of faders down individually, and I use trim automation a lot also. I'll try your experiment. Terry D.

Originally posted by The Chinese Just remember to listen- If you hear distortion or saturation you'll know it. Watch your clip Lights. None should be on. Now MAKE SOME MUSIC!!!!!! he he. -Todd A. Exactly. Terry D.

Originally posted by The Chinese Nothing really to flame in your post.... however, It's a bit advanced for the original poster, which is why I kinda just alluded to it in my earlier post. Unfortunately, the truth is often complicated. Kiwi has it right, and his post(s) should have ended the thread. Too bad people who don't understand often have the most strident opinions.... I personally think that 32bit floating math is one of the bigest reasons that our engineering skills are falling by the wayside. I mean, you can keep tossing track after track after track with almost no thought. No longer do we have to meticulously record our tracks etc. This is exactly right, you don't have to worry about this sort of thing anymore once you have 32 bit floating or even 48 bit fixed summing busses. This is straight computer science, there's no (rational) alternative argument possible. Todd, why do you think this is a bad thing? Gain staging was an important engineering skill in analog boards, which we all mixed on for years. It's still important when using analog outboard gear. But for this application, it can be safely set aside - it's actually quite convenient, no shame in that. bUt it all comes back to that converter....0dBFS is a real ceiling. Why not just record correctly and not pull your master down so far? Hmm.... because it doesn't make any difference which way you do it? Like Kiwi said, the game is simple. On the way in, use lots of bits for more resolution, don't exceed 0dBFS on the peaks. If you want to run it a little less hot that's OK too. 24 bits gives you a good result in a pretty wide band. On the way out, if you have 32 bit float or 48 bit fixed, don't sweat the summing. Of course if you're not staying digital all the way to the CD (printing to tape or something), you have to watch the level on the way out. Honestly, this thread is much (impassioned) ado about nothing. However, there is some good info in here for people who don't understand the internal operation of digital gear, provided they can separate the wheat from the chaff. Terry D.

Originally posted by fuzzball There is a difference between a post slut and a post whore. Assuming it's like sex, where sluts give it away and whores charge for it, that would make me (mostly) a post whore. Terry D.

Originally posted by brikus Click here to find who's the post whore master... I MUCH prefer THIS because the list includes me. Terry D.

I use a Gateway laptop for field recording. It hasn't let me down yet. (knocks on wooden table). Terry D.

Originally posted by Roy Brooks I wonder if Mr Knobs has gotten around to seeing the movie Creature. Never heard of it. Terry D.

Originally posted by cyberponch Speaking of action, I want to hear more of Pebblestar's groupie stories. A couple of days ago she had a one night stand with a straight girl, which produced some bizarre and hilarious conversation for days. She posted some of it over on OJ, but I suspect she didn't post it here because it's a bit raunchy. Terry D.

Originally posted by pebblestar She sure did. And I kinda felt bad that I didn't do more to help her, but as you said last night you can't be responsible for these people all the time. You know just how bad it is considering the number of guys she probably unsuccesfully hit on in the club even before she focused on us. To my experienced eye, she was somewhere between the "20 minutes to nail her before she pukes and probably passes out" stage and the Rohypnol stage. I mean, under other circumstances, she could easily have been the girl in the dressing room bathroom pulling a "train." Ugh! Terry D.

Originally posted by brikus So basically you just let the guy get a STD from a tough drunk chick, without warning him ? We should be that lucky. This dude is a parasite, basically. He introduced himself to us as a "promoter" but really he's just a dork who likes to hang around bands and feel like he's part of the scene. He lives with his dad and has no car, and he definitely has no social skills whatsoever. When he first contacted us, he talked a big game and, though we didn't believe him for a moment, we wasted a few press kits on him to see if he could really get us shows where he said he could. The answer, of course, is NO. Even if this guy does catch the jack from the drunk chick, at least he got laid for probably the first time in his life. There is no way in hell he would have hooked up with this reasonably hot chick without the cascading series of shoe scrapings from above as each of us (her primary targets) rejected her for our various reasons. She's definitely cute enough to have had her pick of most guys in that club if she hadn't been both so sloppy drunk and so pathetically desperate. She needed an intervention / rescue mission, not a date. I hardly exchanged words with her, but it was obvious she had baggage stacked higher than Union Station during a porter strike. Terry D.

Originally posted by pebblestar Not that night unfortunately. After all that, the bitch at home wouldn't put out. PS I know what you mean. T.

Originally posted by pebblestar Me, I spent the night alone with my cats and could not have been any happier. And ladies and gentlemen, THAT is rock n

Originally posted by BeauNasty Amen, brother! But I'd still {censored} 'em! Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahaha! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is rock 'n roll. Terry D.

Originally posted by vanlatte Which begs the question; what if your wife was not standing several feet away? I know the feeling. Then it would have been like the night before, when she was NOT there and some drunk chick was all over me and had to be scraped off. Meaning it made no difference that my wife was there Sunday night, other than I had to find a way to let the Sunday night chick know ASAP before she embarassed herself too much. At my age, I'm not terribly attracted to strange drunk chicks making fools of themselves at a club, no matter how attractive they are. Terry D.

Originally posted by brikus oh yeah...I'd play the young Mr Knobs who bangs the groupies. OLD MrKnobs has been getting some (attempted) action lately too! At Saturday night's show I had some drunk freaky woman hanging on me trying to kiss me. I unloaded her on Pebblestar and that was quite a show. I guess she didn't have a strong gender preference.... At last night's show something similar happened. Another inebriated girl, another incident. I think this one was mostly interested in Pebblestar, but as I was loading gear into my truck she was getting all gushy and huggy with me which I had to put a stop to since my wife was standing several feet away. The wife showed up separately and unexpectedly so I don't think this girl knew we were together. Anyway, she's all over both Pebble and me and my wife is standing with her arms folded amused at my discomfort. I'm looking for an escape hatch as the girl is talking nonstop and suddenly she gives it to me. She starts complimenting me on my new Toyota Truck and and I slip in "Talk to her about it while I'm loading, it's her truck too." The girl's face gets slightly less dim and she says, "Oh, you're his wife..." and starts stammering out assorted random combinations of denials, excuses, and apologies which coalesce into she's really just interested in Pebble which is the truth anyway. I finish loading and get in the truck. Pebble asks me if I think she should bag the chick and I shrug, "Why not, you're young and single." Pebble says, "Your wife told me it's a bad idea." In full earshot of my wife, I reply, "My wife doesn't remember being young, and she's way too conservative to know how to have a good time. I say, go for it. It might be good or bad, but either way it'll be an adventure. Try to nail her before the puking starts." I have no idea whether she did or not, I caught one last glance at them in my side mirror embracing on the sidewalk in front of Darwin's. I suspect you'll hear about it when Pebble shows up here next time. Terry D.

I don't know if this happens anymore, but I once had a high $$$ digital card in my computer that had frequent clicks and dropouts. I contacted the manufacturer and they told me those were DMA errors and my video card was likely causing it, I should see if there was a newer driver. I thought that answer was bullsh*t, but when I changed my screen resolution the problem went away entirely. I downloaded a new driver for my graphics card and I haven't had the problem since. Crazy! Terry D.