Anybody gonna turn the lights on up in here?

One thing that the 2CanJam gig really brought to the fore is the need for good lighting over cheaping out and having to just use the lighting there. So I have been researching sequencing hardware and software for LED lighting along with sniping the electronics surplusers for really bright LEDs.

So far the most fun in my quest was at the 8 Channel LED Controller v.3, the 24 Channel High Current USB LED Controller v.3' and the Chromation Systems 48 Channel Mono / 16 Channel RGB LED Controller pages because of all the neat stuff they had to download and goof on off line. Chromation Systems sells the kits, too, but provide a lot of dox in open access for the DIY diehards who just have to go it alone!

99 & forty four one hundredths of the parts are kitted up for some guitar pre-amp projects that fit in Altoids boxes. That's one each for mono and stereo guitars and a bass version as well, so that's going to be the pre-occupation for the rest of the month. That, and scrounging up a couple 150k quarter watt resistors for one project so I don't have to piggyback in an Altoid box. Power will be external, so that helps, but I'd rather not series or piggyback like I would for rack stuff.

It will be handy to have a little pre that could fit in a shirt pocket. We'll see how it goes.

Posted on 25 Mar, 2:17 - Category: Backstage
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2 Can Jam fizzout

Have had a blast popping out mp3s for all the songs from the 2 can Jam along with DVDs of all the raw data from Cam 1 and DVDs featuring 11 songs as a sampler. And flipping certain songs into different formats.

The Boyz (Greg and Rick) have not seen any footage from cams 2 and 3, and I'm not even sure Rick gave Greg his copies, so who knows what Greg got to see so far. (Rick broke up with him after the gig because "he smokes cigarettes and kept asking me to go to church", according to the vine).

In the mean time I'm having fun tinkering with these media files and it looks like good ol' boy Greg just might get an OK little promo viddy for Christmas or his "Birfday" or just because I could.

And I'm still focused on more lighting for future gigs and all I've had budget for is a couple little tripods so I can return the one I borrowed from Kirk's Q3 Accessory pack and in the future all three will have their own little table top tripod.

Posted on 21 Jun, 9:59 - Category: Backstage
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2 Can Jam

I got to record Rick Johnston and his buddy Greg gigging as 2 Can Jam at Hot Rods last Friday night. The guys were in fine form and played some tasty ditties.

On the plus side, the sound was terrific and the little Zoom Q3 works very well in low light conditions. Just not that low light.

I tried out the little cams by Phillips and they worked pretty well for video. Next time, though, I am going to put a piece of tape over the mic port since the sound was distorted (as we knew it would be working that close to the monitors) when when turned down to two. Used them for stills as well and got some nice ones as well as a few blurry ones.

Copped a couple clips at 720p near the end and hope to use that aspect next time instead of 640x480.

All in all the "vidya" was too dark and the sound was pretty nice. It will take a little extra work to turn any of it into decent promotional media but we can do it quite handily given a little time.

I'm already looking at light bars and other micro spots and LED sequencers in addition to infinity mirrors and other 'disco' lighting solutions. LED fill lights are spendy but I think it would be fairly easy to make some from surplus LEDS and include controllers varying from simple dip-switch programming on up through PIC controllers.

It won't be dark next time and will be a lot more fun to film as well as to watch.

I was all ready to record two voice tracks, a guitar track and a keyboard track on the old MR8HD but Rick wanted to keep it simple, so what we got for sound on the Zoom Q3 is it for the mix for all time.

Burned three copies of the 8 Gigs of data from the Zoom and lo-fi DVD raw video rushes for immediate review. Just wish the rest of the team were as up to speed on their homework so we could choose which songs for demo and get that rolling.

Posted on 27 Aug, 7:23 - Category: Backstage
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Songs by Grant Rose

The rev01ution Will be Digitized
I am getting ready to start a project I have wanted to get to for a long time, and that is digitizing all the old 4track masters I have of numerous sessions with Grant.

A few are slated for further orchestral development. So I have begun a TiddlyWiki and some other stuff to start the promotional process for the releases when they eventually come out.


Posted on 23 Apr, 23:11 - Category: Backstage
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December's Web Project

New pligg powered site coming soon! Pretty bare bones right now. Hope to be ready for launch next week.

Posted on 10 Dec, 2:36 - Category: Backstage
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