Interfaces, friends, computers and mortality...

Well, first of all, let me get to mortality. My computer died. There was a loud grinding noise and then it wouldn't boot again. It would get to the bios display splash screen, and never get as far as accessing the system drive to boot Vista. I've got most of everything that matters backed up, but it takes weeks to reconfigure a machine, get all the software installed and upgraded and all that. Talk about a sinking, sinking feeling in the pit of my gut.

An hour on the phone to the manufacturer's phone support, and they're stumped. They want to ship me a box that will get here in a few days, have me ship the computer to them - turn around time 8-14 days. Unacceptable. I say as much - the computer is under warranty, for freak's sake. They tell me I can trundle off to the local Best Buy's service dept, and to give them the case number. Off I go and meet Andrew (after standing in line and stuff like that).

Andrew is a wizard. He pulls his chin a bit and says "I've seen this before - I think I just took it apart and got the battery off the motherboard, let the bios reset itself, and it woke up. We try that, and it boots. Try reconnecting the hard drives now... hmmm... doesn't boot. Try each drive in turn. One boots, one doesn't. Here's the best part - it was my mostly empty, secondary drive. Everything on it is backed up already. I can't say as I've ever been so unaffected by a hard disk crash. Whew.

Interface update

So, I heard back from Presonus. Yes, they have no banannas. That is to say - they don't have a 64 bit driver for the FireStudio firewire interface. Sigh. Well, I looked at alternatives, talked to Wendy, did some soul searching on it. Do I really need the major huge rack when I get everything I need out of their Firebox product?

I think I might have been doing a bit of over-specification on that front, especially when I can feed the Firebox from my Mackie mixer still. Moving to the Firebox does free up $550 that I can start spending on virtual instruments. Hmm. OK, Firebox it is (and yes, it does have 64 bit drivers ;-).

First up will be the SC Electric Guitar, which is actually hard to find in online stores. I tracked it down at audioMidi.com. They have this nifty wish list feature, so I plowed mine in. It's a long (and expensive) list. Ow.

Friends and Feedback

I've been getting some good, thoughtful feedback on my Beauty of the Rain duet reworking. In particular, regarding this bit of a verse:

Original:

But when she gave you more to find
You let her think she'd lost her mind
And that's all on you
Feeling helpless if she asked for help
Or scared you'd have to change yourself

Adaptation: (Gal / Guy )

But when I gave you more to find
You let me think I’d lost my mind
And that's all on me
Feeling helpless when you asked for help
Or scared you'd have to change yourself

Critique:

Definitely liking where you're going with it. My nitpicky critique now is on one line... the "That's all on me" isn't going to sing nearly as nicely as a long vowel - the "all on you" of the original :) What if you gave the first 3 lines to the female character - so the "all on you" hangs as an accusation - leading to the insight of "feeling helpless.. or scared I'd have to change myself"?

I’ve given the matter some thought – first of all, the protracted part of the phrase is actually on “all” not “you.” “Me” IS weaker phonetically, but stronger emotionally (at least to me). What I’m aiming for, the key bit here, is that the guy accepts responsibility but then hedges. He’s trying to be honest but he can’t come the whole way. It’s a “spin” that’s not completely self revealing. The follow up “Or scared you'd have to change yourself” lands the core truth with a frank brutality that strips away the layers of his pretense.

I can see it working either way. Other opinions are welcome, so fire a comment my way!

More Friends

Ashley Armstrong is the daughter of Christine Armstrong, who sang I Give on the currently posted recording. She's using youtube to chronicle her songwriting. I thought it a most interesting idea.