From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V11 #6 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Tuesday, January 10 2006 Volume 11 : Number 006 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Re: Alloy: Memmmories...Dolby-related, of course! :^) [] Alloy: hi [Monya De ] Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment [Melissa Jordan Subject: Re: Re: Alloy: Memmmories...Dolby-related, of course! :^) > From: "Crackers" > Date: 2006/01/08 Sun PM 04:07:07 CST > To: > Subject: Re: Alloy: Memmmories...Dolby-related, of course! :^) > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: > To: > Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 10:45 PM > Subject: Alloy: Memmmories...Dolby-related, of course! :^) > > > > > > Hello dere, as my Lorikeet, Chedder, would say. :^) > > > > I've been reading the voluminous archives of Alloy, and of course > marvelling at the intelligence and musical knowledge of you guys, :^) and I > read something about how Thomas got his nickname of "Dolby" as a teenager, > when a friend or two read the brand name of the tape-recorder he was forever > fiddling around with. > > > > That reminded me of something: had I had more observant friends (instead > of the sort of gals who were only interested in teen idols and soap operas) > ;^) , my own nickname might well have been "Panasonic"!!! ;^) My Dad bought > me this glossy red Panasonic tape-recorder in the early '80's as an attempt, > yet again, to buy my love--we didn't get along, let's just put it that way. > I wore the darned thing out, recording songs off the radio, my own ramblings > about whichever boy I was in love with that week, ;^) bits of songs which I > never finished, and which were royally embarrassing when I listened to those > tapes years later, recordings of my friends and I hanging out, you name it. > Oh yeah, and of course my pitiful attempts at imitating Dolby's genius on my > own synthesizer, which my Mom bought me after I begged, pleaded and cajoled > for it. > > > > Gawd, I must've spent YEARS fiddling with the settings on that thing...I > had this one really awesome sound (among many, brag brag) ;^) which I called > "Electric Crystal". Sigh...but then the synth [which I named "Synthia" > believe it or not] :^) fell backwards off a table, which wrecked the power > jack, and, after years of intermittent power and the plug being held in with > string and Scotch tape, into the garbage "Synthia" went. It never occurred > to me to try to get it fixed... ;^) > > > > Just thought I'd pass along my own, Dolby-related, silly memories!!! :^) > > > > Love and green tea, Kara > > You know, that story was very sweet. > > I never had a real synthesizer as a kid. *sigh* But I did have a Commodore > 64 and I wrote a program to play it like a synthesizer from it's keyboard > (it was basically a modified version of the keyboard program in the back of > the manual but allowed for polyphonic play, ADSR control and the pitch was > corrected). Is that ever neat! :^) > I too had a Panasonic tape deck (a ghetto-blaster type with > detachable speakers. I still have it and it still functions to this day). Boy howdy, when they made things back then, they made them well, eh? :^) Don't get me STARTED about three-month warranties!!!! ;^) > > I had read about how in the early days of tape recording they didn't use > "multi-track" recording but instead something called "overdubbing" (the two > terms have kind of melded together to mean the same things over the years as > multitrack technology has replaced overdubbing technology). The way an > overdub worked was the erase head on the tape deck (an electromagnet that > erases the tape before it gets to the record head) was switched off and a > new part would be recorded directly overtop of the old recording. If you > fucked up then you ended up losing everything you had recorded previously > because there was no undo and the new recording wasn't on a seperate track > that could be re-recorded. So before a part was overdubbed they would make a > "safety" recording of the previous tracks. If they fucked up on the overdub > they'd just copy the saftey track. This made overdubbing a pretty slow and > labour intensive proccess which is why it was replaced with multitracking. > I bet in the days before multitracking, many musicians went nuts, huh? The level of frustration...Actually, I'd read myself about how bands, up until the late 60's I think (?), had to play songs "live" in the studio--they just simply had to play the song over and over until they got it right. I've heard old recordings where the percussion's WAY too loud for example, and there wouldn't have been a darned thing they could do to fix it!!! A salute to whoever invented multitracking!!!!! Sa-LUTE!:^) That's why I never tried making my own "dub" or "remix" tapes--I knew that my head would explode if I messed up!! I have a perfectionist streak a mile wide and as deep as the Mariani Trench... ;^) > Anyways. Not having multitrack technology available to me at the time it > occured to me I could simply hook a switch up to the erase head on my tape > deck and disable it when I wanted to overdub. But my parents wouldn't let me > experiment with my shiny new panasonic tape deck Drat!!! I was always taking something apart, and, uh, sometimes it even worked again when I put it back together. ;^) Nah, I'm kidding--I only ever wrecked one thing--it was one of those little piano-looking windup things from the inside of a musical jewellery box. I turned the wrong screw, and FROINK!!!!!! Fruit juice everywhere...oops, I mean, little springs everywhere!!! ;^) >so I had to do it with this > really crappy old 1970s desk top mono tape deck from radioshack. Ooooo, experimentation's such fun, isn't it? ;^) >I was able > to get it to work, YEAH!! :^) (pumps fist in air) > but the deck had no line-in so the only way to record > with it was through the crappy built in condensor microphone thus the audio > quality was extremely full of suck since you ended up picking up a lot of > the motor noise of the tapedeck itself. I myself had a line-in but no microphone, so I feel your pain...that awful dronnnnnnne in the background... > Even though I had proved the > viability of my experiment my dad and stepmother still wouldn't let me crack > upon my panasonic deck and fiddle with it. Hmmm, for some reason my parents never seemed to mind if I took things apart, but then again, I didn't tell them I was doing it!!! So I'd shut the door to my room, and out would come the screwdrivers...After all, they say it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission! ;^) > I did have a number of cassette tapes, none the less, full of different > musical experimentations either solo or with a bunch of my musician friends. > They're embarassing indeed, but there was a kind of sweetness to the young > unpolished enthusiasm that makes me wish I could find them again. > > So what type of keyboard was Synthia? I hope she was just a common, > run-of-the-mill synth and that you didn't end up chucking some rare vintage > collectable out simply for a broken power connector. I think she was a Yamaha SRX-90, or something like that. Kind of low to middlin' as synths go. In retrospect, I don't want to know how much my Mom paid for it...I'm cringing now, worrying that it might indeed have been something special! ;^) Boy, it's a lot of fun to talk to someone else who grew up experimenting electronically!!!! :^) Love and little teeny screwdrivers, Kara ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 09:14:43 -0800 From: "David Abbitt" Subject: RE: Alloy: OT KATE BUSH Jumping in late on the subject as I've had a busy busy busy December and January. Hi all! I'll be joining you at the 1/27 show at HOB - bought the tickets online and can't wait to meet fellow alloyites. Personally I think this latest double-CD collection by KB is among her best work. The second disc in particular is an incredible work of art. Not everyone's cup of tea I'm sure, but I really enjoy it. Dabb - -----Original Message----- From: owner-alloy@smoe.org [mailto:owner-alloy@smoe.org] On Behalf Of Robin Thurlow Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2005 10:17 PM To: alloy@smoe.org Subject: Re: Alloy: OT KATE BUSH I love whatever Kate does, to varying degrees... I don't think I'd be disappointed if the new record doesn't sound like her '80s music (as she's never been one to stick with any particular style) I've yet to hear the new one. Someone told me it was depressing, because she seems so blindly optimistic in the work, in spite of the fact that the good things she sings about will inevitably end. There is a vulnerable innocence in it. Do you find that to be true? xxxx ~r - --------------------------------- Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2006 11:44:46 -0800 From: Monya De Subject: Alloy: hi So I've been blindly posting from another email address and the msgs have not been getting to the digest! I'm compiling a roll call with show/dinner plans, please post what you're going to do. Monya- Sunset show +dinner, pls add me to reservation Monya +1 = Anaheim show, no dinner - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 13:51:56 -0800 (PST) From: Melissa Jordan Subject: Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment Hello, Alloy'ed, Melissa Jordan here. (Former Alloy member.) I wanted to join up here for a moment and see who is making the trek to So. California for one (or more) of the House of Blues dates. I'm going to the West Hollywood show. Flying in that morning with two friends whom I met over Dolby music back in college. We're going to enjoy LA (and the Dolby afterglow) on Saturday, and then fly back to the East Coast on Sunday morning. Hope to meet some of the Alloy folks in WeHo. Bites that you can't bring your camera into HOB. (But, as Senior Conspirator Thomas Dolby said to me, "They can't take your camera phone away from you." Now, all I need is a camera phone...) With best wishes and hopes to meet some of you, Melissa Jordan http://merujo.blogspot.com - --------------------------------- Yahoo! Photos Ring in the New Year with Photo Calendars. Add photos, events, holidays, whatever. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 15:04:40 -0700 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment Melissa!! Hey - now I may just have to add the West Hollywood show to my So Cal agenda. How you been doing? Its been really quiet around here without you. - -Keith in Denver - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Melissa Jordan" To: Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 2:51 PM Subject: Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment > > Hello, Alloy'ed, > > Melissa Jordan here. (Former Alloy member.) > > I wanted to join up here for a moment and see who is making the trek to > So. California for one (or more) of the House of Blues dates. I'm going to > the West Hollywood show. Flying in that morning with two friends whom I > met over Dolby music back in college. We're going to enjoy LA (and the > Dolby afterglow) on Saturday, and then fly back to the East Coast on > Sunday morning. > > Hope to meet some of the Alloy folks in WeHo. > > Bites that you can't bring your camera into HOB. (But, as Senior > Conspirator Thomas Dolby said to me, "They can't take your camera phone > away from you." Now, all I need is a camera phone...) > > With best wishes and hopes to meet some of you, > > Melissa Jordan > http://merujo.blogspot.com > > > > > --------------------------------- > Yahoo! Photos > Ring in the New Year with Photo Calendars. Add photos, events, holidays, > whatever. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 19:00:43 -0800 (PST) From: Melissa Jordan Subject: Re: Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment Hey, Keith! Well, heck, after My Year in Hell, I'm doing okay, thanks very much! I work at National Geographic, do monthly radio commentary for our NPR station here in DC, and I'm doing a lot of writing/blogging. This is much healthier than the way I spent last year, most of which was a blur of groveling for work. (Bangs head repeatedly against wall.) It would be great to meet you out in California, so I hope you will be at West Hollywood! It's going to be a blast! Cheers, Melissa http://merujo.blogspot.com Keith Stansell wrote: Melissa!! Hey - now I may just have to add the West Hollywood show to my So Cal agenda. How you been doing? Its been really quiet around here without you. - -Keith in Denver - --------------------------------- Yahoo! Photos  Showcase holiday pictures in hardcover Photo Books. You design it and well bind it! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 20:20:36 -0700 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment I just checked - looks like I might be able to rent a car at a reasonable rate for Friday night. I can rent from Enterprise and have it dropped off/picked up at my hotel. I'll then make my way down to WH and see some sites and the show. It will be a late night drive back - but I won't imbibe after dinner that night, I'll save that for the next night when I only need to make my way across Disneyland by foot. Thanks to Google maps, I found out that my hotel is practically across the street from the park's main gait. I'm staying at the Radison Hotel Maingate Anaheim if anyone is looking for a nearby hotel. So - tentatively consider me for a dinner reservation in WH - -Keith - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Melissa Jordan" To: Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 8:00 PM Subject: Re: Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment > > Hey, Keith! > > Well, heck, after My Year in Hell, I'm doing okay, thanks very much! > > I work at National Geographic, do monthly radio commentary for our NPR > station here in DC, and I'm doing a lot of writing/blogging. This is much > healthier than the way I spent last year, most of which was a blur of > groveling for work. (Bangs head repeatedly against wall.) > > It would be great to meet you out in California, so I hope you will be at > West Hollywood! It's going to be a blast! > > Cheers, > > Melissa > http://merujo.blogspot.com > > Keith Stansell wrote: > Melissa!! > > Hey - now I may just have to add the West Hollywood show to my So Cal > agenda. How you been doing? Its been really quiet around here without > you. > > -Keith in Denver > > > > > --------------------------------- > Yahoo! Photos  Showcase holiday pictures in hardcover > Photo Books. You design it and well bind it! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 20:22:47 -0700 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment correction - I'm staying at the Ramada Inn Maingate - Anaheim. - -Keith - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keith Stansell" To: Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 8:20 PM Subject: Re: Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment >I just checked - looks like I might be able to rent a car at a reasonable >rate for Friday night. I can rent from Enterprise and have it dropped >off/picked up at my hotel. I'll then make my way down to WH and see some >sites and the show. It will be a late night drive back - but I won't >imbibe after dinner that night, I'll save that for the next night when I >only need to make my way across Disneyland by foot. Thanks to Google maps, >I found out that my hotel is practically across the street from the park's >main gait. > > I'm staying at the Radison Hotel Maingate Anaheim if anyone is looking for > a nearby hotel. > > So - tentatively consider me for a dinner reservation in WH > > -Keith > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Melissa Jordan" > To: > Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 8:00 PM > Subject: Re: Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment > > >> >> Hey, Keith! >> >> Well, heck, after My Year in Hell, I'm doing okay, thanks very much! >> >> I work at National Geographic, do monthly radio commentary for our NPR >> station here in DC, and I'm doing a lot of writing/blogging. This is >> much healthier than the way I spent last year, most of which was a blur >> of groveling for work. (Bangs head repeatedly against wall.) >> >> It would be great to meet you out in California, so I hope you will be >> at West Hollywood! It's going to be a blast! >> >> Cheers, >> >> Melissa >> http://merujo.blogspot.com >> >> Keith Stansell wrote: >> Melissa!! >> >> Hey - now I may just have to add the West Hollywood show to my So Cal >> agenda. How you been doing? Its been really quiet around here without >> you. >> >> -Keith in Denver >> >> >> >> >> --------------------------------- >> Yahoo! Photos  Showcase holiday pictures in hardcover >> Photo Books. You design it and well bind it! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 20:42:37 -0800 (PST) From: Melissa Jordan Subject: Re: Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment Excellent!! My travelling companions and I are staying at the oh-so-swanky Holiday Inn Express in West Hollywood. (Hey, it was $100 a night, which is a bargain for that 'hood, and it's a short drive in the rental car to the overpriced parking at House of Blues!) Keith Stansell wrote: I just checked - looks like I might be able to rent a car at a reasonable rate for Friday night. I can rent from Enterprise and have it dropped off/picked up at my hotel. I'll then make my way down to WH and see some sites and the show. It will be a late night drive back - but I won't imbibe after dinner that night, I'll save that for the next night when I only need to make my way across Disneyland by foot. Thanks to Google maps, I found out that my hotel is practically across the street from the park's main gait. I'm staying at the Radison Hotel Maingate Anaheim if anyone is looking for a nearby hotel. So - tentatively consider me for a dinner reservation in WH - -Keith - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Melissa Jordan" To: Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 8:00 PM Subject: Re: Alloy: Back in the fold for a brief moment > > Hey, Keith! > > Well, heck, after My Year in Hell, I'm doing okay, thanks very much! > > I work at National Geographic, do monthly radio commentary for our NPR > station here in DC, and I'm doing a lot of writing/blogging. This is much > healthier than the way I spent last year, most of which was a blur of > groveling for work. (Bangs head repeatedly against wall.) > > It would be great to meet you out in California, so I hope you will be at > West Hollywood! It's going to be a blast! > > Cheers, > > Melissa > http://merujo.blogspot.com > > Keith Stansell wrote: > Melissa!! > > Hey - now I may just have to add the West Hollywood show to my So Cal > agenda. How you been doing? Its been really quiet around here without > you. > > -Keith in Denver > > > > > --------------------------------- > Yahoo! Photos  Showcase holiday pictures in hardcover > Photo Books. You design it and well bind it! - --------------------------------- Yahoo! Photos  Showcase holiday pictures in hardcover Photo Books. You design it and well bind it! ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V11 #6 **************************