The Hardware Rebellion

Last Thursday night, I ran down to the basement to record a fresh scratch track for Teenage Popsicle Girl so that I'd have it for the recording session that I planned for Dorsai Thing over the weekend. Of course, the last time I'd been down in the studio, I'd been recording ladyat to ADAT for Juanita's album and this recording was going to be done with no one in the engineering booth to Cubase, so I needed to swap microphones and rewire them so that they were using the mic pre in the studio.

Finally, everything was set up correctly, the guitar was tuned, and I was ready to record. I grabbed my handy Frontier Designs Tranzport remote control, pushed a button to wake it up, and --

Well, the little green light came on, but there was nothing in the display. Ack!

It turns out that I had upgraded from Cubase 4 to Cubase 5 since the last time I'd used the beastie. And although Cubase 5 claimed that it was talking to the Tranzport, the Tranzport firmly disagreed.

So I went to the Frontier Designs website. And there, I discovered that they'd discontinued the product. (Obviously, because it was way too useful.) But they had a new set of drivers. I downloaded them and installed them.

And still no luck. Hmm. That was supposed to work.

Eventually, I fired up Cubase 4 and did the recording there, which meant that the Tranzport worked and I didn't have to call daisy_knotwise down to the basement to push the record button. I may yet figure out how to get the thing working. Maybe even later tonight.

At least I had my hardware problem out of the way for the weekend.

Until I discovered on the drive to Michigan that the power switch on my Creative Zen MP3 player was broken. *sigh* Everything I see suggests that particular problem is unrepairable.

So I have a nice new iPod Touch which Gretchen agreed that I could have as a very early birthday present. It seems very nice.

It also now has Steinberg's Cubase remote control app loaded on it. If only it would work with a footswitch for punch ins. :)

The Hardware Rebellion

Last Thursday night, I ran down to the basement to record a fresh scratch track for Teenage Popsicle Girl so that I'd have it for the recording session that I planned for Dorsai Thing over the weekend. Of course, the last time I'd been down in the studio, I'd been recording ladyat to ADAT for Juanita's album and this recording was going to be done with no one in the engineering booth to Cubase, so I needed to swap microphones and rewire them so that they were using the mic pre in the studio.

Finally, everything was set up correctly, the guitar was tuned, and I was ready to record. I grabbed my handy Frontier Designs Tranzport remote control, pushed a button to wake it up, and --

Well, the little green light came on, but there was nothing in the display. Ack!

It turns out that I had upgraded from Cubase 4 to Cubase 5 since the last time I'd used the beastie. And although Cubase 5 claimed that it was talking to the Tranzport, the Tranzport firmly disagreed.

So I went to the Frontier Designs website. And there, I discovered that they'd discontinued the product. (Obviously, because it was way too useful.) But they had a new set of drivers. I downloaded them and installed them.

And still no luck. Hmm. That was supposed to work.

Eventually, I fired up Cubase 4 and did the recording there, which meant that the Tranzport worked and I didn't have to call daisy_knotwise down to the basement to push the record button. I may yet figure out how to get the thing working. Maybe even later tonight.

At least I had my hardware problem out of the way for the weekend.

Until I discovered on the drive to Michigan that the power switch on my Creative Zen MP3 player was broken. *sigh* Everything I see suggests that particular problem is unrepairable.

So I have a nice new iPod Touch which Gretchen agreed that I could have as a very early birthday present. It seems very nice.

It also now has Steinberg's Cubase remote control app loaded on it. If only it would work with a footswitch for punch ins. :)

The Wetware Rebellion

Katie and Julie contracted a stomach bug at Dorsai Thing over the weekend, which meant that late Saturday night was extremely entertaining. daisy_knotwise thought that Katie had thrown up because she was so upset about not being allowed to go down and listen to Daddy in the filksing. So she called me and I went up and took Katie downstairs where she sat politely on a chair and listened to me sing Cruising for her. She even sang along on some of it. :)

Katie is young enough that she still suffers from basic filker innumeracy. That is to say, she kept leaning over to me and telling me that it was my turn again. I had to explain to her that it wasn't, chaos circle or no. And before it got around to being my turn again, Katie coughed a couple of times and then ran out into the hall where she threw up another teaspoon full of stuff.

I took her back up to the room and let Gretchen know that the problem had persisted. Then I ran down to the con suite where I grabbed some Coke (warm flat Coke being a classic treatment for digestive distress) and where Marnie was happily able to supply some chewable Pepto-Bismol tablets, which were exactly what I had been looking for. Gretchen agreed that she'd continue to watch the girls and that I could head back downstairs to the filk. After it broke up, catalana and I were comparing notes on various things when my phone rang again.

Julie's stomach had now rebelled. Several times.

It was an interesting night. The good news was that everyone did get some sleep in between bouts of the girls losing the contents of their stomachs. By morning, Katie was happy to eat fruit at breakfast and Julie was able to keep things down.

I tipped the maid well.

We thought we were out of the woods, but right after we got home, Julie threw up the milkshake that I'd bought for her. Later, she threw up on Gretchen and our bed. But she seemed otherwise in good shape, so we figured that we'd see how things worked out today. (Answer: she's fine now.)

And then we put Katie to bed and gave her a bottle. Which she drained.

And promptly returned all over herself, her favorite blankets, and her badi. I think she was more upset about losing the badi for the evening than anything else. I explained to her that she would sleep in the top bunk and badi would sleep down here keeping an eye on her until he could be washed.

There was a lot of laundry today.

And the girls seem to be just fine now.

The Wetware Rebellion

Katie and Julie contracted a stomach bug at Dorsai Thing over the weekend, which meant that late Saturday night was extremely entertaining. daisy_knotwise thought that Katie had thrown up because she was so upset about not being allowed to go down and listen to Daddy in the filksing. So she called me and I went up and took Katie downstairs where she sat politely on a chair and listened to me sing Cruising for her. She even sang along on some of it. :)

Katie is young enough that she still suffers from basic filker innumeracy. That is to say, she kept leaning over to me and telling me that it was my turn again. I had to explain to her that it wasn't, chaos circle or no. And before it got around to being my turn again, Katie coughed a couple of times and then ran out into the hall where she threw up another teaspoon full of stuff.

I took her back up to the room and let Gretchen know that the problem had persisted. Then I ran down to the con suite where I grabbed some Coke (warm flat Coke being a classic treatment for digestive distress) and where Marnie was happily able to supply some chewable Pepto-Bismol tablets, which were exactly what I had been looking for. Gretchen agreed that she'd continue to watch the girls and that I could head back downstairs to the filk. After it broke up, catalana and I were comparing notes on various things when my phone rang again.

Julie's stomach had now rebelled. Several times.

It was an interesting night. The good news was that everyone did get some sleep in between bouts of the girls losing the contents of their stomachs. By morning, Katie was happy to eat fruit at breakfast and Julie was able to keep things down.

I tipped the maid well.

We thought we were out of the woods, but right after we got home, Julie threw up the milkshake that I'd bought for her. Later, she threw up on Gretchen and our bed. But she seemed otherwise in good shape, so we figured that we'd see how things worked out today. (Answer: she's fine now.)

And then we put Katie to bed and gave her a bottle. Which she drained.

And promptly returned all over herself, her favorite blankets, and her badi. I think she was more upset about losing the badi for the evening than anything else. I explained to her that she would sleep in the top bunk and badi would sleep down here keeping an eye on her until he could be washed.

There was a lot of laundry today.

And the girls seem to be just fine now.