Reading majic's journal

So as per my conversation with harold_maude I have recorded 2 sessions of me playing the piano. I'm kinda proud of it because I had never really given it much thought until she said something. It was all done on an analog tape. I had some technical difficulties trying to get it into the computer so I could encode it to mp3 but I did manage to get the second session encoded will do the first one tomorrow. I think the first session is about an hour and the second session is 35 minutes. The wav file was 89 megabytes and I encoded it down to 64 kb then it was 16 megs so I went even futher all the way down to 16 kb and now it's 4 megabytes. It hasn't lost any real quality and still retains the shittiness of analog but it sounds pretty decent for being done with shitty equipment. I just found some stuff to work with and then went with it so it's as much a testament to my creativity more than anything else.

I'm still brainstorming on how to upload it to frankhale.org because my mother in law has a shit computer from the stone age with win98 and it cannot recognize my usb 2 hard drive. And since linux cannot recognize my winmodem in my Dell laptop I cannot connect to her dial up internet. So I'll try to scrape a couple brain cells together and figure something out.

So if your listening harold_maude gimme a little while so I can figure something out.

I'm still brainstorming on how to upload it to frankhale.org because my mother in law has a shit computer from the stone age with win98 and it cannot recognize my usb 2 hard drive. And since linux cannot recognize my winmodem in my Dell laptop I cannot connect to her dial up internet. So I'll try to scrape a couple brain cells together and figure something out.

Either buy a USB 2.0-extension card for your mother's rusty PC or help yourself to some proper external modem (at least if you still got a serial port ;)). I'm writing this post on my refurbished notebook, connected to the 'net with an ELSA Microlink 56k basic PnP. Works perfect! ;)

BTW: Have you tried compressing your recordings with Ogg Vorbis? That certainly would be a much better way to retain some good quality while still saving space (and time with uploading). ;)

cu, w0lf.

Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign for a diseased mind!

This post was edited by ginsterbusch on Nov 25, 2005.

Either buy a USB 2.0-extension card for your mother's rusty PC or help yourself to some proper external modem (at least if you still got a serial port ;)). I'm writing this post on my refurbished notebook, connected to the 'net with an ELSA Microlink 56k basic PnP. Works perfect! ;)

I'm getting ready to buy an iBook G4 so I am not going to buy anything else to go with my 2 year old laptop. Plus there is no reason why in today's day and age that linux cannot use winmodems with open source drivers. No excuse, people reverse engineer things all the time.

BTW: Have you tried compressing your recordings with Ogg Vorbis? That certainly would be a much better way to retain some good quality while still saving space (and time with uploading). ;)

Yes, however, the particular piano sessions were done with shitty equipment so the quality has some background noise in it but even compressed at 16kbps the piano is not effected (at least not by my ears). Plus the recordings are just of sessions being played. Nothing prepared for recording, simply playing as it moves me, all on the fly stuff.

I hope to have my first recording online later tonight.

Ok, I finally got the first session online...

http://frankhale.org/24NOV_16kbps.mp3

This is simply a session sitting at a piano and playing while recording to tape for 35 minutes, everything was made up on the fly. The file is small (4 megs).

The loading is going slowly. I suspect it's all that writing I've been doing.

Anyway, while it's loading and before I get to listen, I just thought I would tell you that it doesn't matter how it got recorded, the fact is that it did.
And that is the most important thing of all. :)

I know that as you do this more, recording this part of the art in you, that how you record it will get better.
Doing this, letting the world hear this part of you, is the same as when people read your poetry.

It's the exact same thing.

When your the only one listening to the music that comes when you sit down to play, what you hear is mute to anyone but you.
You know what you feel when you play, just as you know what you feel when you write.

But until you recorded it, all you could do was tell someone that you play.
Now anyone can hear it. Just like anyone can read the poetry you've put on line.
And the world, including me, is richer because of it. :)

It only looks that way because your standing on your head.

The loading is going slowly.

Don't feel bad, I uploaded it on 56k dial up... That took a pretty minute.

But until you recorded it, all you could do was tell someone that you play.
Now anyone can hear it. Just like anyone can read the poetry you've put on line.
And the world, including me, is richer because of it. :)

Thank you for the kind words. Let me know what you think of it when it gets done downloading... =)

The loading is going slowly.

Don't feel bad, I uploaded it on 56k dial up... That took a pretty minute.

well, I could offer you a mirror site - located in Berlin, Germany. Just send me a mail and I hand you over some account data. ;)

cu, w0lf.

Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign for a diseased mind!

It's slow for me too, so I've taken the liberty of mirroring just this one file on a hi-speed server in Pittsburgh. Let me know if/when you want it deleted.

"*sigh* Some men are really hard to manipulate!" - Orchid

It's slow for me too

because it's on my celeron 566 at home on a DSL connection that only allows 30kbps upload speed =)

It's fine to mirror, no worries...

Simply... wonderful. You have no idea how much I envy you. :)

Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.

Beautiful, Frank, just beautiful! What can I say... I'm stunned and amazed, surprised and envious. Wish I could do something close to this. Wonderful stuff... guess here's where it ends, right?

After decades of construction my website is finally up an running: www.kkds.de

Thanks to everybody with the kind words. I really appreciate it!

Martin, yes the metamorphosis is continuing but it's been a slow road and I am still on occasion acting like a total ass. Hopefully that will get less and less... =)

On the piano playing I find myself going wild with my right hand but can't seem to get that complex of a melody going with my left hand. I've gotten better but it seems that I keep confusing myself when I try to do a complex counter melody with my left hand. I'm definitely open for some suggestions... hehe =)

*smiles* ...as I finally get the music down loaded and at this moment listening.

I had an idea that of what it would be, and you have not disapointed me. :)
let me see,...the ocean, sunrise,...and rain.
somewhere in all these things the music has found it's way home.:)

thank you for letting the world hear what you have enjoyed all these years.:)
and me as well.

It only looks that way because your standing on your head.