Tag: independent musician life

  • Finishing the Tech Battle and Releasing a New Anthem for Lehi Pioneers

    Finishing the Tech Battle and Releasing a New Anthem for Lehi Pioneers

    As a follow up to last week, the journey of tech hasn’t fully ended. But it is getting very close to being finished…

    While out on vacation in the Northern California area, I didn’t have a lot of downtime while my girlfriend and I were running around to wine tastings and amazing meals. Despite that, I was able to fix some email issues I had.

    The fantastic thing is, my email has never worked this well. Very consistent, and not getting stuck anywhere. Plus substantially better spam removal before it even hits my inbox. Ahhh.

    Websites are working smoothly without choking. Which means I can update the web store. Another ahhh thing, where it’s a sigh of relief.

    There’s a few more websites I have to transfer over, but they’re low hanging fruit. The task at hand is an sftp server so that I can transfer files with co-writers and music supervisors. Once that is done, I’m ready to fully relax and use it to its potential.

    Last week I heard from my girlfriend’s co-workers that they really appreciated the anthem for their school’s team. I was told they thought it was super cool. Apparently there is a plan in place to get it into their games for audio backing. Which is music to my ears.

    This week is the follow up release for Lehi High School with a version of Do You Want to Play for Lehi High’s basketball team. As they say: “Go Pioneers!”

    Stay tuned…

  • Overcoming Tech Hurdles to Deliver the New Birmingham Squadron Theme

    Overcoming Tech Hurdles to Deliver the New Birmingham Squadron Theme

    The end of my Kubernetes nightmare is around the corner. So is another musical release. Lots of little changes finally starting to work and take shape.

    It’s been several months of intense learning as it relates to Kubernetes / Microk8s. In the last several days some obstacles have finally been overcome. I’m hoping to have a solution to my last problem within a few hours. Hopefully not more than 24 of them.

    As much as I like to dick around with tech, this was probably a situation where I bit off a bit more than I could easily chew. Definitely lives up to my adage of “start before you are ready.”

    One thing I learned on the journey is that some AI is great for research. Some can kind of code, but if you don’t keep an eye on it, it will drop the ball in big ways. As long as I make notes along the way of what worked, I’m ok. When I don’t there’s trouble.

    The great thing is, as soon as this solution is given or clarified in a few hours I can start getting back to the real work – RECORDING!

    Like this morning…

    While I’m waiting, I opted to work up another version of Do You Want to Play. The version I worked this morning will make it’s debut in a few weeks.

    Timelines are getting shorter sometimes. Like today’s release. It was recorded months ago. Artwork done, months ago. And now it makes for a sunny debut for the Birmingham Squadron. Very fitting for a cloudless blue sky where I’m at today.

    If you’re a fan of basketball and the G League’s Squadron, then today is your day! Celebrate it loud and proud. I know I will.

    Stay tuned…

  • Tone Test: Blue Steel Strings Breathe New Life Into My Acoustic Performances

    Tone Test: Blue Steel Strings Breathe New Life Into My Acoustic Performances

    dean-markley-blue-steel-acoustics

    Today I’m finally getting around to changing the strings on my Taylor 615ce with a set of Dean Markley Blue Steel acoustics. After several live performances and a couple of recordings, including a cover of “Not A Bad Thing” by Justin Timberlake, it’s time I sit down and get my first impression of a new line of strings.

    Sit with me as I take off some old flat strings that got played to death. Then watch me do things I don’t recommend doing with your strings.

    Get tuned up. Stretched out. Ready to play.

    Finally top it off with what my initial reaction is to hearing how Dean Markley Blue Steel acoustic strings make me feel. Rather what I think they sound like on my favorite acoustic guitar.

    First Impression Dean Markley Blue Steel Acoustics

    YouTube player

    Transcript:

    Sometimes your strings are flat and you need to change ’em.

    First things first. Sexy, minimalistic packaging going on. Some kind of sticky thing. Inside we have a package. Sealed strings. Let’s open ’em up. Let’s find out what they’re like.

    They come in two winds. They look like they’re kind of color coded. Better read the packaging. High E, is black. The B string is blue. G string is black. D string blue. A string black and low E string, blue. Alternating color scheme. I’m using medium acoustics. Thirteen through fifty-six, my favorite kind. De-tune strings. Get ’em off. Here we go.

    Low E string if I remember correctly that is going to be black. The B string. Agh. I can tell you right now that they don’t taste very good. String G. Cryogenically activated strings have a very very odd taste. Don’t eat your strings.

    Fly and be free.

    Black for the A. The lower strings, they don’t taste any better than the upper strings. Ah, what a symphony of sound that is.

    Stretch ’em out just a little bit. Blue steel’s generally don’t require a whole lot of stretching on the electric side. So hopefully they won’t require a whole lot of stretching on the acoustic side.

    Handy dandy PolyTune by T.C. Electronics. Awesome app for getting your guitar in tune.

    Ok. We’ve got it tuned up. Let’s clip the strings off. Once you’ve clipped the strings it’s a good idea to tune once again. Just incase there’s any slippage.

    That’s interesting… No slippage whatsoever, it’s still in tune.

    As far as sound goes.

    They have a good solid tone to them. Not overly bright but nice and solid at least with the fingertips.

    They have a real nice solid tone to them. I really dig it. Don’t sound overly buzzy. They sound nice and big and full. That’s actually a really good thing. I like that.

    Dean Markley I think you’ve hit an A+ out of the park home run with these strings.