The
Squamidian Report – Oct. 29 / 11
Issue #492
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
There are a lot of down-sides to ‘The Wife’ being away. She’s not here to do the cooking and cleaning and getting groceries and all the other stuff she does so well. But, there are up-sides as well. The biggest one is that the house is very quiet. So, I’ve been taking advantage of having a quiet house. Ryan had hooked up a microphone to my computer that I could use for over-dubbing voice into those motorcycle videos I’ve been making. The tiny little mic that is used for Skype just didn’t cut it very well for working with the videos. My little Mac Mini computer came with some interesting recording software and it turns out I can make good use of Ryan’s mic in conjunction with the software to record some of the music I do when I’m on my own and all alone, plunking away on my guitar.
It’s a bit tedious recording this way because I have to set down each track separately. I have only the one mic to work with and I can only work with one track at a time in the software anyway. I don’t have the hardware equipment required to lay down multiple tracks at the same time. But, once the first track is down, it can be used as a guide for more tracks and this is where it gets fun. My first track will be my voice doing the melody, with the rhythm guitar in the background as the mic can’t help but pick up both. The guitar is conveniently quieter as it is further away. That unfortunately means they are stuck together as a single track and therefore can’t be manipulated separately. Then, I can start to layer some lead guitar, and some mandolin, and some base guitar. But that leaves my lonely, rather uninteresting voice by itself. So, at that point I can lay in some harmony tracks and a bit of reverb. That’s cool, harmonizing with yourself. Because the tone of ‘all the voices’ is the same, the chords almost ring, at least in the monitoring headphones, though not necessarily in the finished format.
The biggest problem I’m having is with my timing. Ever since my hearing got damaged last winter my timing has been off and its frustrating. Its an on-going struggle to get each track close to the others even though I’m using headphones as monitors. So if you listen to any of the numbers I’ve recorded, you’ll have to cut me some slack as there are some pretty rough areas. But, I’m having a great time doing it. It’s a good way to pass the time when its cold and wet out.
I’ve recorded and mixed several songs that I tend to do by myself when I’m all alone and have converted them to MP3s for uploading to my web site. All the instrumentation is just me playing different instruments on different tracks. All the different voices are also just me, each voice laid down separately on different tracks. Once a given recording project is ‘good enough’ the software converts it to MP3 or M4P formats for playing as CD or on line. I use the term ‘good enough’ because you could drive yourself nuts and waist days or weeks adjusting settings and filters and really not make it actually any better than what you were able put into it on the raw tracks.
As I’ve just said, I’ve uploaded several to my web site. There is a page there with the song titles in blue, they are the links that take you to the actual recording. When you click a link, a page will open with a music control bar in the center. The song should automatically begin playing after a few seconds. When finished, you can click the play button on the control again to re-play, or click the ‘back’ arrow at the top of your browser to go back to the page with the song titles. Its up to you. Hopefully you’ll enjoy giving them a listen. If not, that’s also up to you. But do cut me some slack, this is not a serious attempt at recording music, because I wouldn’t even know how to do that. Its simply me playing around with a mic that is hooked up to my computer.
http://www.thedougsite.net/Songs/songs.htm
And now the sad stuff, its time to put the bikes away for the winter. The season that wasn’t sure went by fast. I won’t go into all the complaints about the non-summer, I’ve covered that topic more than enough already. I will say that I rode through enough cold and wet this year to last several lifetimes. This was the first riding season I’ve had where I needed to get a full face helmet in order to ride, but ride I did. I managed to put over 20,435 kilometers on Big Blue this season. And that’s without even going anywhere. We didn’t do a major road trip this year. Ryan and I got out a couple of times on small, 3-day rides but they only account for a quarter of the clicks racked up on the bike. All of the rest was done within a days ride from home. Being involved with my chapter of the CMC probably accounts for a lot of the riding. We had group rides, hops over to Vancouver Island, meetings and meet & greets. All time consuming and very gratifying. Being 1st officer of the Vancouver chapter is almost like having a full time job, just with no pay. But its very gratifying and well worth the effort as I watch my chapter grow from almost nothing to an active entity.
Ryan and I got out for one last ride on Tuesday. It was a gorgeous day, bight, sunny and the sky was clear. Mind you, the temperature never go above the single digits so we didn’t head up the highway, we stayed local and did a ride up the Squamish Valley. Most of the leaves are down now but what was left is very colorful, and with a lot of the leaves off the trees, the scenery is now visible through the trees. Very enjoyable ride indeed. But now the bikes are parked. We topped up the tanks and dumped some fuel conditioner in, and rode the last sad few kilometers home. I went to my chapter’s Tuesday evening Meet & Greet in Horseshoe Bay in the car. It was 7 degrees when I left here and just 3 by the time I got home. That’s too cold to be riding the demanding Sea to Sky highway in the dark, even with heated vests.
I had my GoPro helmet camera along so I figured I might was well video some of the ride. It’s the same ride I videoed last time but its more open now because of the leaves. Anyway, here’s a link to a 7 minute video of our ‘last ride of the season’.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
We’re experiencing another chilly damp day in KW and they say it’s only going to get colder! The new weather guy for CTV Kitchener Ross Hull I believe his name is doesn’t seem to have the hang of accurate predictions yet! He’s been on our local station for over a month now and is a likeable guy with knowledge of broadcasting the weather but his predictions haven’t been very accurate. I sure hope he develops a knack for getting it right soon! LOL! I guess since November is just around the corner everyone is packing their summer stuff into their sheds for the coming winter. I’m not even going to guess when our first snowfall will arrive but I do hope it won’t be until mid December.
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I just read a story about Jeanie the bear out in Whistler BC. Apparently she’s been a fixture in Whistler for 20 years and has raised many cubs while living in close proximity to the town. She’s been a famous photo subject for tourists and towns folk alike and been living off scraps from the local restaurants for all this time. Then, this past couple of weeks she’s been breaking into private residences and businesses alike and foraging for food. If she encountered occupants in the building she’s just broken into, she would become aggressive toward them and help herself to the food anyway! This behavior is of course unacceptable so the local authorities finally had to capture and destroy her. They had relocated her 6 times before over the years but she always managed to find her way back to Whistler. Jeanie had always been docile and friendly toward the residents and guests of Whistler but lately her aggressive behavior made it dangerous to be around her so with her record of returning to the same town, the authorities decided they couldn’t take the chance of relocating her again! Unfortunately, she had to be destroyed and her cub from this years family has been put in a special compound and will be released into the wild once he’s old enough to fend for himself! What a shame that this famous animal had to be done away with! This is apparently the 7th bear to be put down by the authorities of Whistler this year. I guess when bears don’t just pass through those BC towns it’s necessary to destroy them for safety reasons. They say that there are 100 bears living in the valleys surrounding Whistler so I’m not surprised that they make their way into the town looking for easy pickings. It’s just too bad they end up this way!
That’s it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
Got your snow tires on yet?
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Have a good one..
the doug
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