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And for an incredible bargain too!
The Helpful Elves were definitely working to cheer me up yesterday.
It started, oddly enough when I tried on Monday to get rid of all of the trash from the garage clearing. The PG County landfill was very unhelpful and made it sound like the type of stuff I wanted to get rid of was going to cost $85 to drive up and throw it (myself) into the landfill. I'm not buying that they were telling me the right thing, but in case they were, it was still unnacceptable. They weren't being helpful, they weren't even being friendly.
In contrast are my experiences with the Montgomery County Transfer Station. They don't charge, they are helpful, they WANT you to give them stuff and they will cheerfully tell you where it all goes and not default to acting like you're trying to pull a fast one on them by trying to take trash to a landfill instead of calling your local garbage collector.
So, rather than opt for the _Alice's Restaurant_ scenario with PG, I just drove up to Rockville, and Ta-Da! 500'^3 worth of stuff is gone from the garage, the yard and our lives. And they took my stash of dead batteries, AND they took the household chemicals with a smile.
So there I was in Rockville. I took the opportunity to drop in at Guitar Center, but they didn't really have what I was looking for and scored 1/3 on anything else I wanted.
To Hell with them, and drove home.
Well, actually, no. First I drove over to the new location for Atomic Music. Much of their stuff is still in shambles and piles as they sort thru and build shelves and display areas and sort it all out.
So I dig about looking for and at various things, mostly finding long-term project kinda stuff that I won't be able to afford for a long term kinda time. But then, just as I was on my way out, right there on the counter I found it- The "Laser Beams" I've been needing for my "Sharks".
Shortly after I acquired my current multitrack (A Roland VS-1880), I also picked up a CD Burner for it. No, it can't just take any old burner. We established that pretty quick. It needs to be Roland's own thing. But some folks have cleverly decoded Roland's protocols and sell "compatibles" on E-Bay. I bought one. It kinda worked, and then died.
Why do I want one?
Well, for archiving for one thing. I'll run out of disc space eventually, and SCSI drives are not as popular as they once were.
And what happens when the drive dies? And what happens if the multitrack melts down like the old one did?
All of the new Rolands don't use SCSI anymore but do have built in CDRs. So the best way to preserve my work long term and have some way to transfer work over to my next multitrack (some day, hopefully years away) will be to have it all on CD.
Also, I can preserve archive versions of work so that if a "current" version melts down, I have a chance of going back and finding a decent place to pick back up.
So that's what's good about backing up the raw data files off the 1880.
The CD-burner can also burn things as audio (but only two tracks).
BUT, the good thing is that by burning music directly off of the 1880 onto CD as audio, I can bypass having to record onto CD externally via the CD Recorder when it comes time to make test recordings, and rough mixes, and eventually, masters. That can hopefully take pressure off of the CD-Recorder, which I also foresee as having a shelf life and could break (again).
That way, I also bypass using the more expensive and increasingly rare "Audio CD", which the CD-recorder needs.
This also lets me directly make a "Master CD" that can be burned onto a better quality CD when it comes to future albums.
Anyway, for a zillion reasons, I've wanted a working replacement for the CD Burner for my Roland 1880. And my frustration at their rarity and cost has had me muttering like Dr Evil "Why can't I just get some frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams on their frickin' heads?".
And Atomic Music just happened to have something that looked exactly like my dead one, and since they couldn't test it, they sold it to me for $30 and told me that I could bring it back if it didn't work, as long as I was quick about it. On E-Bay, these things have gone for as much as 10X that price. Did I mention that Roland doesn't make them anymore?
Yeah, I pounced. That was NOT an unreasonable gamble.
And then I got all clammy and superstitious. I didn't want to tell ANYONE about this until I knew it worked, not even Sonya.
But, thank you Eris and your Helpful Elves, it worked. IT WORKED!!
It's Alive!
ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!!!
AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAAAAA!
Now, if it can just *keep* working...
The Helpful Elves were definitely working to cheer me up yesterday.
It started, oddly enough when I tried on Monday to get rid of all of the trash from the garage clearing. The PG County landfill was very unhelpful and made it sound like the type of stuff I wanted to get rid of was going to cost $85 to drive up and throw it (myself) into the landfill. I'm not buying that they were telling me the right thing, but in case they were, it was still unnacceptable. They weren't being helpful, they weren't even being friendly.
In contrast are my experiences with the Montgomery County Transfer Station. They don't charge, they are helpful, they WANT you to give them stuff and they will cheerfully tell you where it all goes and not default to acting like you're trying to pull a fast one on them by trying to take trash to a landfill instead of calling your local garbage collector.
So, rather than opt for the _Alice's Restaurant_ scenario with PG, I just drove up to Rockville, and Ta-Da! 500'^3 worth of stuff is gone from the garage, the yard and our lives. And they took my stash of dead batteries, AND they took the household chemicals with a smile.
So there I was in Rockville. I took the opportunity to drop in at Guitar Center, but they didn't really have what I was looking for and scored 1/3 on anything else I wanted.
To Hell with them, and drove home.
Well, actually, no. First I drove over to the new location for Atomic Music. Much of their stuff is still in shambles and piles as they sort thru and build shelves and display areas and sort it all out.
So I dig about looking for and at various things, mostly finding long-term project kinda stuff that I won't be able to afford for a long term kinda time. But then, just as I was on my way out, right there on the counter I found it- The "Laser Beams" I've been needing for my "Sharks".
Shortly after I acquired my current multitrack (A Roland VS-1880), I also picked up a CD Burner for it. No, it can't just take any old burner. We established that pretty quick. It needs to be Roland's own thing. But some folks have cleverly decoded Roland's protocols and sell "compatibles" on E-Bay. I bought one. It kinda worked, and then died.
Why do I want one?
Well, for archiving for one thing. I'll run out of disc space eventually, and SCSI drives are not as popular as they once were.
And what happens when the drive dies? And what happens if the multitrack melts down like the old one did?
All of the new Rolands don't use SCSI anymore but do have built in CDRs. So the best way to preserve my work long term and have some way to transfer work over to my next multitrack (some day, hopefully years away) will be to have it all on CD.
Also, I can preserve archive versions of work so that if a "current" version melts down, I have a chance of going back and finding a decent place to pick back up.
So that's what's good about backing up the raw data files off the 1880.
The CD-burner can also burn things as audio (but only two tracks).
BUT, the good thing is that by burning music directly off of the 1880 onto CD as audio, I can bypass having to record onto CD externally via the CD Recorder when it comes time to make test recordings, and rough mixes, and eventually, masters. That can hopefully take pressure off of the CD-Recorder, which I also foresee as having a shelf life and could break (again).
That way, I also bypass using the more expensive and increasingly rare "Audio CD", which the CD-recorder needs.
This also lets me directly make a "Master CD" that can be burned onto a better quality CD when it comes to future albums.
Anyway, for a zillion reasons, I've wanted a working replacement for the CD Burner for my Roland 1880. And my frustration at their rarity and cost has had me muttering like Dr Evil "Why can't I just get some frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams on their frickin' heads?".
And Atomic Music just happened to have something that looked exactly like my dead one, and since they couldn't test it, they sold it to me for $30 and told me that I could bring it back if it didn't work, as long as I was quick about it. On E-Bay, these things have gone for as much as 10X that price. Did I mention that Roland doesn't make them anymore?
Yeah, I pounced. That was NOT an unreasonable gamble.
And then I got all clammy and superstitious. I didn't want to tell ANYONE about this until I knew it worked, not even Sonya.
But, thank you Eris and your Helpful Elves, it worked. IT WORKED!!
It's Alive!
ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!!!
AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAAAAA!
Now, if it can just *keep* working...
