2003-09-01 - 12:59 a.m.

A simpler life led I, but a much more productive one. It was on my first computer, a Compaq Presario, before people were recording on computers. I would play the guitar and sing into my monitor, save it, and then would actually count to something like six hundred, so I could add a guitar solo, �cause I couldn�t manage tracks--I could only combine two and I had to time it to the millisecond. I had the thing rigged up so that I could record onto an old stereo receiver through the computer�s headphone jack and line in/out cables, and a converter I bought at Radio Shack, no thanks to the perplexed salesperson.

I miss my old Tascam.

I had that and an acoustic / electric. I had a cheap mic. I had songs, and I had blank tapes, and I had a stereo to send the line in signal to, and another blank tape on which to record the master cut.

I got so much mileage outta that 4-track. What happened to it? I guess it just died.

After that, I decided to step it up. I had a Gateway computer by then, and I decided to go back to digital. I got Cakewalk, and even a teacher couldn�t record an A, a B, a C, or a D on that thing. Since there was money invested in that stupid, stupid program (trust me, it just didn�t work), a fancy new sound card was bought with direct guitar cable plug-ins.

Although I did enjoy removing the side panel of my computer in order to (correctly) install it, no. It never worked. All that money, all that time.

Then there was the time someone tried to record one of my songs for her school project. Shelved. I still have the DAT tape, as well as the DAT tape from a performance at CB�s gallery.

Then there was the big grey recording device, purchased used at Mr. Music in Allston.

It had an internal hard drive, and some Berklee hack had recorded onto it some piece of crap that resembled the theme from Seinfeld.

By this time, I had accumulated so much stuff. So much stuff. So many effect pedals. So much equipment.

And the big grey recording device didn�t work. I sold it on E-bay, (and, for free, threw in a nice jacket and some towels, for shipping), and got positive feedback.

Maybe it only didn�t work for me.

Then came the Boss BR-8. Purchased used, but not from Mr. Music (support your local musician my ass).

And a cartioid condenser mic. And a drum machine. Both highly disappointing.

This BR-8 thing rules. It has all these effects built in, rendering my modest yet hard-earned collection of effect petals meaningless. It also records to zip-discs--fifteen bucks a pop. I got as far as recording the guitar tracks and a bass track for one song when I just hit a wall and gave up.

The wall was that I was stupid and bought a mic that needed phantom power, and as much as I�d like to, I can�t summon up those kinds of ghosts on a whim.

Today, today, I bought a tube preamp, and I can do a helluvah lot with this baby. And it�s got the phantom power I need for my fancy mic to work.

I fired it up today. (One huge problem is that I need good headphones, by the way--it�s always something.)

Inept, and tweaking it a bit, I could hear what the skater-punks were saying across the street.

This is a chess game, it�s true, and it�s gonna take more time and more money before I can get anything done with this, at least to my (not obnoxious) standards. And I know I�ll never be able to get anything to sound clean. But today I made a big step towards being able to sleep at night.

No excuses from here on in. That�s the last time I hold off recording �till I get a necessary part for a long time.

I�d like a place to get this stuff set up other than my bed, but for now I'll gladly settle for blowing the dust off and setting everything up having it not only work, but not having it all (bed included) consumed by flames.