mic mods

i am not impressed with the ecm8000's ~20dB of self noise; maybe i shouldn't have so hastily procured 6 of them!

anyway, mod time it is, with instructions and recommended parts kindly posted by others (thank you!):
http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=111051
http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3626&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=ecm8000&start=27
http://www.linkwitzlab.com/sys_test.htm (scroll to the mic section)

seeing as i am currently financially challenged to the point where i should probably buy food over audio gear, it's an opportune time to start learning how to mod mics and maybe even diy. now, where is my soldering iron?! long time no see, my friend...

holy crap. even my laptop has ~20dB of self-noise on the on-board mic input. poor form; i can't hack this card up either!

toywrecking

wow: i didn't get in any trouble whatsoever for breaking the little recorder (thank you!). even though i didn't really break it (i don't think): seemed more like an electrical problem than a dumb user fault. i even psyched myself up for a torrent of swearing which thankfully didn't eventuate. from previous experience that would have sent me sprinting for cover; even in my incapacitated state.

come to think of it, even my supervisor didn't get cranky at me for breaking an expensive monitor last year. and i really did break that one. perhaps people have come to terms with my accident-prone nature and are more forgiving than i am (towards myself!).

I just received a letter from my beloved educational institution inviting me to an ICT careers evening. Not promising from an ICT point of view when the letter failed to be mail merged properly: 'Dear <first name>' is simply lame. How can I place trust in and recommend an institution that doesn't (properly) practice what it preaches?!

On a more pleasant note amongst a dump of miscellaneous sleep-deprived thoughts, I think I've found a new favourite microphone; such a nice response with clean and crisp sound, unlike the one with 20dB self-noise! If I don't drink coffee for 150 days, I might even be able to afford my own... caffeine vs. gear... gear vs. caffeine... oh and I was also taken with the monitor stands at the con too... hmmm... no coffee for a year?!

red red wine...

i've finally found a red that i like: lambrusco! 'soft' it may be but so long as it tastes good i don't care. i am no longer homogeneously white!

oh shit. the little recorder won't turn on... fuck!

A ∩ B = Ø

fuck: stereo diffusion as a lame excuse for multichannel reproduction; interesting ideas with poor technical implementation; misunderstanding and misuse of technology (misuse of dsp techniques really makes me cranky!!!); stupidly long compositions; and, playing stuff straight out of protools or a dvd player in a 'live' gig. just getting a sound engineer to press play is poor form: live means actually doing something, you lazy arse! and why sine tones?! especially high frequency ones, eek! perhaps i am just scarred from having to listen to too many test tones...

back to my day job it is. there is a limited intersection between these two worlds; i don't know what i was thinking. where are the well thought-out, awesome ideas that push boundaries, question, comment?! only one person really piqued my interest. ONE.

blood tastes metallic

you incessant fool! you've stooped to a level so low that there is absolutely no return path. ever. fine, play your petty little games through translucent falsity, but don't you dare tell people untrue shit about me. i don't care about why you're fabricating codswallop: fuck you and your selfish lack of ethics and disappearing conscience. a (carnivorous) fish much bigger and smarter than me will chew you up and spit out the bones; don't expect me to garbage collect when that day comes. what do you expect when you treat people with blatant disrespect? i don't know what world you've constructed for yourself but you and i will never see eye to eye. think it's personal? fucking right it's personal.

conformance testing

play music, learn a second language, study hard, go to uni, become a professional, get married, move out of home, buy a house, have kids, save money for retirement, and repeat. stopping to think twice about this paved path that so many have trodden on and then looked back forlornly, has thrown me off it for good. such cultural straight and narrows have been my bugbears for so long it's time to crash tackle them. it only takes one bad egg to stink out the nest, and catalytically so if that egg came out a funny shape and has no shame or fear of smells wafting to the neighbours. sniff away!

certain aspects of my semi-culture are great, but then there are the questionables: the boxes that i refuse to tick without some reasonable explanation and justification as to why they're there. it doesn't help that culture has a large part to play in shaping people's views, expectations, and beliefs; all of which i like to question and push the limits of. so, it's time to make people feel uncomfortable and prod them ask themselves the hard questions. this is not out of spite but because the prejudices that i have seen are logically unfounded. no more bleating sheep, please!

kamikaze volunteer?

starting on the same note as the previous post finished, i'm beginning to warm to the idea of 'infiltration from the inside'. that is, donate my time to the grand wyd08, with the sole intention of kicking up a shit and getting booted out. how long would one expect young catholic pilgrims to tolerate someone hellbent on a mission to rampage?

yay or nay?