Leaderboard

Making some progress. A belt should arrive today. Hoping it will fit, but not completely sure until it shows up. The speed controller was DC. It ran off of a motorcycle battery. Noise free, but not the most convenient, so a simple DC to AC wall wart later and problem solved. My TICE Audio Solo power conditioner should keep things clean enough (no relation). The input and output of the Pass Pearl have been figured out. This is a top notch phono stage. And the ZuAudio rebodied Denon DL-103 is out for repair. The cantilever was broken off just past the pivot. I honestly don't remember how that happened. But it's getting an upgraded, tapered cantilever and a new square shank, high polish, diamond true ellipsoid needle to replace the missing, stock round needle. Should be a nice sonic improvement. Now I just need to concentrate on a new, larger stand. it needs to be 20" x 36" to house the turntable and the motor pod. I'd like the top to be thick butcherblock and the base of the stand to be a separate unit. I'll then use the Big Feet isolator feet in between. I'd like a low shelf for record storage and an 8' shelf on top of that to house the phono stage, speed controller and record cleaning gear.

Sorry to argue, but that's what's known as a coping mechanism. The remedy is moving somewhere warm. It took me 40 years to learn that.

Yup, finished prepping for halloween.

As a lifelong fan of both these guys, I'll be re visiting this movie tonight.

look - terminal blocks...

The Bad Plus streaming tonight at the Village Vanguard (or if you want to watch during the day seems yesterday's stream goes until tonight). $10. https://villagevanguard.com/livestream

When it doesn't snow I guess people have more time to prep for Halloween

Quite a good interview with Tom Walker, the real guy behind Jonathan Pie. He actually trained as an actor, but realized that the best he could hope for was third centurion with three lines in a Shakespeare play. So inventing Pie was a really good thing for him. Although his rants seem spontaneous, he writes them, learns them and delivers them as an actor.

Being there, doing that...... EDIT: and the remedy just arrived!

Prine: Crooked Piece of Time: The Atlantic & Asylum Albums (1971-1980)

Spent some dome doing research on USB audio interfaces with 4 analogue outputs. NI still sells the Audio 6 ...as part of a $320 package aimed at vinyl DJs: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/traktor/digital-vinyl/traktor-scratch-audio-6/ Hard pass there. I recent bought a 2 in/2 out unit from MOTU and I have been very impressed with it. There's a model with 4 outputs for $220: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/M4--motu-m4-4x4-usb-c-audio-interface It has a bunch of things I don't need for Traktor, as well as making use of 1/4" jacks for the outputs (necessitating 1/4" to RCA cables.) I don't see to many other similarly priced units that compare well with it. In any case, I found my ancient ESI Gigaport AG and I'm going to do a test broadcast with it in the next week.

RIP Connery ... Sean Connery.

This may be the only good to come of this, Connery movie marathons.

mmmm hand waxed.....

Test Tone @ Home live right now: https://mixlr.com/illuminator/

^

I still have half a bottle from 2019 batch. should sample soon and see how it is....

I'm through three episodes but I decided to put it on pause for now and read the book.

Agreed Dusty....I don't go out to see much Jazz, but we saw Hiromi on her "Move" tour, and it was fantastic! She has such talent and enthusiasm, and she seems to really love playing the music.

Got power back on at my place after two and a half days without it. Fuck you Zeta.

Another great one gone.....RIP Sean Connery 😪 https://variety.com/2020/film/actors/sean-connery-dies-oscar-winner-and-james-bond-star-dead-at-90-1234820498/

That went less than well. Had annoying digital artifacts all night, then ~1:45 in, I lost audio. I did a second segment of the show, using a Mac Mini (meant for other purposes) for Mixlr. THAT part worked fine, then Traktor stopped working again. I have no idea what's going on. It's now pretty clear that either my 2015 MBP is closer to 100% dead than I thought or my NI Audio 6 is basically useless. Replacing the former is expensive but doable in as much as AAPL still makes goddamn laptops. Replacing the latter is a much bigger headache as the A6 is long OOP and there's not a direct replacement. I'm going to do a test broadcast sometime in the next week, using a different audio interface for Traktor. That will hopefully give me an answer as to the location of the point of failure. In the interim, tonight's show (part 1): https://mixlr.com/illuminator/showreel/illuminator-on-mixlr-60 Tonight's show (part 2): https://mixlr.com/illuminator/showreel/illuminator-on-mixlr-61

Doing this show with my Native Instruments Audio 6 USB audio interface acting as both my DAC for Traktor and my ADC for Mixlr. This is an arrangement I have sought to avoid since ...ever, really. However, the last two weeks I've had some very strange audio issues with my interfaces. Last week Mixlr was summing the input from my (now removed) Onkyo interface and the built in mic on my laptop. Tonight (and earlier this week while I was working on tonight's set) my Mac straight up refused to see both my Audio 6 and Onyko at the same time. To the point that Traktor would refuse to play. At first I thought it was my (admittedly cheap AF) USB hub. I swapped in a different (and much better) hub, but had the same issue. Cursing, I removed the Onkyo and the hub, and now just have the Audio 6 going straight into the Macintop. Mixlr did the same idiot trick this week that it did last. This time I caught it almost immediately. My 2015 MBP is dying, not so slowly. I am not sure it is the source of my current audio woes. Going with the "KISS" philosophy currently. Also, this is why I need a Mac Mini dedicated to the purpose of streaming for using Reddit's PAN service.

It's been almost six months since we had the last drop of precipitation here...

Thanks guys... I buried her under the tree just outside the window she liked to stare out of. Gonna have to get used to not having my shadow following me around the house anymore.