What's happening in Lansdale today?! 06/02/2014

The citizens of Lansdale were witness to a procession of emergency vehicles this morning.

At 10:30am on this morning, a fleet of heavily armored police and public safety vehicles rushed north on Broad Street.  Small towns like Lansdale do not often see such commotion on the main streets.
A thought of terror crosses the mind;  makes the heart beat faster.

News helicopters circle in the air above.  The people of this borough want to know what's happening.

There has apparently been a home with residents who have barricaded themselves within.
Furthermore, @montcoalerts reports, "2201 Harvard Drive - MONT TWP - Report of a Shooting".
The active incident dispatch status website for Montgomery County indicates a helicopter landing at Harvard Drive today at 10:03 am.

The whole story had yet to play out and be revealed.

Start up Company?!?!?!?!?!

What does that even mean?!


OK, so this will mainly be a ramiling type of ramble.

Friday night>>>Saturday Night: NTN

"What is NTN?"

It's  an entity that seems like a mistake, but at the same time, makes sense.

An unexpected discovery...


Things that seem like errors right off the bat...probably are lessons for us.




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No more cigarettes, Susan!

Who the fuck  IS SUSAN?

I don't know.  It could be anyone  I suppose.....
The main idea is, I don't smoke those nasty cigarettes "no mo'"!!!

I can't put trash into my instrument..  If I played the Tuba...
If I played the Tuba and smoking cigarettes would be the equivalent of putting
Taco Bell wrappers in the bell of my Tuba.  Uh, no...


OK, my business card.

People who got here through an SD/lo card.

I am stepping down right now.  I don't think I'm the best anything.
I'm just trying to be the best me!!!

I am waiting for Adobe Premiere to be installed on my computer...totally legally of course.





AHH!

OK, so it is definitely the night before NTN.  Did I solve everything?

I don't even know where my notes are..  That 's quite alright.

I prayed before last week's show.  I will pray before this one I'm sure.





I don't have time for images...and quite honestly, my glasses are smudged to high heaven.


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I have to run NTN tomorrow night.  People that I want to be there...I hope you're there.

Matt, everyone else named Matt.  The other people I love and want in my life.

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I believe that I only have one voice to count on, as far as listening to my words is concerned.

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I don't have to qualify or introduce that voice..   If you know, you know..

If you don't dig, then you dont' dig, and that is cool too!
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Well, I'm a person who is drunk off of white merlot at this particular instant,

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I'll add this...

Jaye Mains...
Taylor Cockenberg...

excellent artists...

I'm so glad to have met them..  I was distracted for the first show, but they are obviously the most talented people I know from this area....and that's all thanks to Shannon T.

√

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Good Job God!


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There are 17 hours between now and Neighborhood Tune Night.

Give me the strength, the imagination, the Passion!

O, we will please you, because we love you.

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- Christopher S.  & Shannon T.

Open Mic Night in Lansdale's Applebees.

That Cheddar Cheese...I'm on my Knees 

Alright, it's been a while I'll admit.

I haven't felt inspired or alive at all really for sometime.  Blah.

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I feel lit though.  A certain sadness.  It's almost a "summertime sadness", which ironically I picked up the sheet music for.  I'll post the song up here when I finally learn to play it.  

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Moving forward, Saturday nightsat Applebee's Lansdale will be a late night open-mic night.

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Work is in progress getting everything together. 

I need to recruit local musicians using craigslist.  I'm going to go on there tonight and put up a post and ask those interested to inquire.  

That way I can determine exactly what kind of equipment I will need to have set up and familiarize myself with the musician's style of music and personality in order to be a more thorough MC.

Being in contact with people who will actually e-mail me back, will help me develop a schedule for who will play when.  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The main team players for the Open Mic Night are Christophe Strawley, Paul McEntegart, and Shannon Brouse.  These are some sexy butchers.  

Home Studio Time!

I came home for a couple days this week. It is hard to move everything from the studio, so I just brought the Micro Korg the laptop and the launchpad... Will report back with an update and a new song by the end of the night.

Home Studio Breakdown

I may be a little "obsessive-compulsive"...

It seems like I'm doing this everyday...but I just get such a rush out of rearranging my studio on an almost daily basis.  Comfort is born from the feng shui of an ever changing musical environment.  Pleasure...

The Analysis of a Home Studio

There are three keys factors that make a home studio pleasurable to record or jam with.

Accessibility, Color Coding, and Accuracy.

First off: Accesibility;  A good home studio is easy to manipulate.
If you need to change a cable to make a new patch, it should go down seamlessly.  
If maneuvering behind a mixer is causing stumbling or the involuntary unplugging of other cords,
you may want to consider the spatial orientation of your gear...which can be difficult, given the, sometimes, limited space that musicians are subject to.

Color Coding:  With great gear comes great responsibility.

When shelling out hundreds and hundreds of dollars for the latest musical gadget, a pact is made with oneself to take great care of the aforementioned goods.  These instruments are like children...they are best monitored when they are being monitored...a great way to do this, is to color code your cables.
   Por examplo - Purple is Piano

Look at the images to see where the microkorg and the drum machine are plugged into the mixer.

Accuracy:

With any modern technology, the most important key to success is selection.  

If you are using a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), it is important to be reminded of the keyboard shortcuts and their consequent results.  

Such as "Ableton Live's 'Draw Mode' enables you to draw envelopes in the automation lanes of an instrument".

Another point of interest for accuracy is the USB-MIDI cables being properly placed.  Nowadays, musicians see USB-MIDI cables primarily.  Novation's Launchpad is a power house of a MIDI control surface, so I think it wise to give the Launchpad it's own dedicated USB slot.  (as opposed to a USB 4-way splitter)

Finally, making sure that your mixer has all the right wires going in and out makes a large difference too.

In the studio setup seen at the top of the page, the audio output is through 

a guitar amp and a VIZIO soundbar.   See below.

 

The audio coming IN through the mixer (e.g. the piano, the microkorg and the drum machine) is being output through the "Control Room Out" to the Guitar amp
and the soundbar.

It takes practice...

I rearrange my studio space at least 4 or 5 times a week, just to try different setups and see the ones that work best.  This is a rather good setup currently, as it allows me to play through the mixer and also run the raw audio data into Ableton Live.  I can play line level performances and record them simultaneously, with very low latency.

Not to mention, it's nice to come home to a beautifully crafted studio space and utilize it with ease.  

Music is a wonderful thing, it is a gift to us mere mortals and I want to cherish and adore it.

Ta for now!

Christopher Strawley

Sweet Revenge & Revealed as Love

A couple new songs for Friday and the weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

In the market for a new cat?

A short commercial for a local pet supply, made by Christopher Strawley of Solo/Gram.