phishtaper

great info, blane. yeah, its like buying a car. loads of possibilities. nothing out there is absolutely perfect. and you cant get everything you want and need on a single car for the money you've got to spend.

sometimes your choice is most informed by exactly how you want to use it. stealth? need to go small, therefore probably no external PP or pre-amp. weekend at a festival? power becomes a huge issue. so, whats great for me may be not-so perfect for your recording uses. im of the opinion that there is generally no one perfect device, or obvious choice in most recording technologies. and most serious tapers have a whole slew of gear and we use various recorders, mics, pre-amps, AD converters, etc according to the show.

lots of research involved - which, arguably is half the fun

im just talking out of my ass here, but my understanding is that the H4 was primarily designed to use the internal mics, at the expense of external rigging. the 48vPP will work, but will drain the 2 AA batteries so fast that you wouldnt want to use that. the built-in pre-amp (which would be used when phantom powering) is not supposed to be that great (clipping) so you'd probably want to use an external pre-amp to power your mics, but the actual xlr-1/4" jack is a bit wonky and has needed after market mods (it wiggles loose after a bit). moreover, it will only take a 2G card, and if you want true 24-bit, you wont get a very long recording at all.

in short, its not a bad machine, but like everyting out there, it has its problems. the trick is determining your usage and figuring out which of the machines best suits your needs (ie., wont fail you). the pre-amp probs and the limitation of recording time would be my biggest concerns.

LOL, ask ten people their thoughts on recording gear and you'll get a hundred different opinions.

we have the M-Audio Microtracker 24/96 and have used it to record many shows. its a good little machine. its biggest problem is that it's finicky (although, to their credit, M-Audio has made several firmware updates based directly on feedback from the taping community). the biggest problem with the H4 is that it does not conveniently allow for external mics (rendering it useless for taping concerts).

ah, i miss tapers section. endless discussions like this prompted by someone simply pulling out a cable from their bag. "hey man, i see u have audio magic's, you checked out the oade mod on the new grace? s'wicked."

Phishtaper....awesome choise!!! I have my youngest daughter jamming away to this song right now. She loves it. She will be one this weekend and already has great taste in music.

thats so cool!! great taste indeed! (and great parental influence too)

i love the whole harmelodia album. maybe its just the kid in me ...

#231 Songs Not for kids only.

1. Bob Marley- 3 Little Birds.

2. M.S.I. (More Stupid Initials) - Teddy Bears' Picnic (Believe me when I tell you that this version is barely for kids, to say the least.)

3. The Beatles - All Together Now

4. The Muppets - Movin' Right Along

5. Woody Guthrie - This Land Is Your Land

6. They Might Be Giants - D & W

7. Phish-Contact

8. Bob Dylan - You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

9. Rheostatics - Monkeybird

10.

11.

12.

[color:purple]Way more room for solar panels, tent top, and unicorns.

ah, those were the good old days ... when you could bring your pet unicorn into a Dead show. at least I think they were people's pet unicorns I was seeing ...

last time I checked, there were no trenches on the way to soccer practice.

niiiice.

my vote for quote of the day!! double exclamation point!!

good riddance. hummers just look ridiculous now, especially the original ones.

i mean, why not just drive one of these? ...

another vote for ... Janice.

One of my earliest memories as a kid was watching the Uncle Bobby show on local Toronto television. And as an adult I had the genuine pleasure of a chance encounter with one of my childhood heroes. Sadly, Uncle Bobby passed away this week.

Full story here. He touched the lives of a lot of kids growing up on southern Ontario and western New York in the 60's and 70's. He will be missed.

Here's another site for some fond memories.

i cant disagree with anything you say here. and i can totally relate to your views on howard. i guess i just find the show to be funny and interesting.

one possible outcome of the proposed sirius-xm merger is that it will lead to many more, and different, channels. sirius-xm will become the singular infrastructure of satellite radio, and offer both its own programming as well as third party content. kinda the way cable tv or digital tv works now. you can buy what you want. essentially, it all just becomes a private, pay-for-service, customizable radio system. the big issue will be whether people are willing to pay 50 cents a day to listen to canadian sports talk, for example, or whatever. for now, i think its worth the $15/mth to not have to listen to all the commercials, and to have at least 15 stations to which I can turn and probably hear something I really like. i think it might even be better bang for buck than buying and listening to CDs in the car. is it worth it for non-commuters? dunno, maybe not.

and fwiw, i dont think he was all that sincere

wow, paying a company who makes a mulit-millionaire of a guy who swears, is mean , and makes fun of the disabled... would never support that, sarcasm or not. there are better ways to create intelligent debate/conversation.

so, you dont own a tv then, eh? or, go to movies? or, buy CDs? making fun of things /people /places is ubiquitous. ever laughed at a dumb blond joke? mocking is a benchmark of "humour". and the construction of humour is delicate and contextual. plainly saying that a joke is wrong because it makes fun of something or drops the F-bomb or has an edge, ignores that delicate context, and is too black and white, i think. every single word ever spoken could potentially be contrued as offensive by someone somewhere.

im not saying that you are wrong. in fact, i would have backed you 110% a few years ago before I heard stern. but, after having listened for a few years, its become clear that the intelligent debate/conversation on his show far outweighs what some people, in some places, at some times, consider offensive.

F Jackie! (although, Jackie's Joke Hunt ... get it? ... is funny sometimes)

Arte rockz! We caught him in Buffalo a couple of years ago. One very funny man. George Takei's love muffin.

yes, the pendulum is on the backswing ...

I've had one since they came out, back when you had to be a doctor or dealer.

which one are you?

I don't subscribe and won't.

why not? is it the cost? do you pay for cable tv? same thing, in my mind. i have no doubt that if someone gave you a sirius radio for free for a year, you'd end up loving it.

I mentioned "raunch" believing he's gone that way since he left commercial radio.

a lot of people think that. far from it, tho'.

that's the thing about stern. give him 10 minutes and you are disgusted. give him a week and you are a fan. there's a lot of very intelligent and provocative chat in between the titties and beer. im a bit surprised that you listened for so long and yet you have no desire to start listening again. its so much better now.

a music magazine that everyone agreed with would be incredibly boring ... RS has some good stuff (especially its photos) and I've always liked the British mags like Q and NME, as well as Interview.

was it a duct tape wallet?

yes, please MOBE, next topic ... the last thing we need in here is another debate about Phish

perhaps if people knew The Slip was playing, they might be more interested in your campsite ...

I used to listen religiously to his show when it was on Q107 and a Buffalo station. Does he still do a news segment, or is it all raunch?

you couldn't have been listening too religiously if u think it could possibly be all raunch. raunch is only part of what stern does. a small part.

as for sirius "giving" stern the bonus, he earned it as part of his contract by signing up more than expected subscribers. and of course, sirius and xm are losing money - infrastucture costs are enormous at this stage of this new technology, especially since they operate two completely different systems. infrastructure costs were huge for cable too - ted rogers went a billion dollars in the hole in the 80's laying cable, and now look at him - he owns the Blue Jays and the ScroDome. same with RIM. satellite radio is the future, its just still gonna take a few years before its mainstream.

im looking forward to howard on the way in and the dead on the way home soon.

cant ya just feel the love ...

just heard this on the radio. should be very cool. im looking forward to it.

maybe a bear took it?

reminds me of a trip to NYC, when a sketchy guy offered - for a fee - to make sure no-one walked off with our bags during the 30 seconds it took us to unload the trunk. "hmmmmmm, you mean we pay you $5 so you do not walk off with our bags?"

chk chk chk played last night! motherfucker! i would have loved to see that. ah well.

they were a lot of fun. only played for about 70 minutes, but at that level of energy, it's hard to take more - especially in a sweaty sauna like it was that night. half the band was shirtless by the end. nic commented, "we asked Holy Fuck to warm things for us, but this is fucking hot!"

they came on at midnite and left just after 1am. sold out show. really loud! heavy heavy in your face bass and drumz. they played a bunch off the new album, like must be the moon and heart of hearts as well as some old stuff like intensify and is this thing on. lead singer nic offer is captivating, but bassist justin vander volgen is absolutely amazing!! dance-punk is what they call this band, and the bass drives it all. one of the guys from holy fuck came out and played the last song with them too. well worth the $15 ticket!

we've gone to see a bunch of this sort of band lately: ! ! !, tv on the radio, lcd soundsystem, modest mouse. having gotten sirius satellite radio a year and a half ago, have been exposed to all sorts of new bands and im loving most of it. especially nice is being able to see them all in such small venues.