Wow, the weather has been beautiful in Houston this week. Clear skies, highs in the 70’s, lows in the 40’s. Nice. Makes a guy think he ought to spend more time outside doing more nothing more often.

But alas, it’s been a hard working week. One of those vortexes that pulls you in with it’s challenges and even a few mysteries, and spits you out the other side feeling swelled and spent, and maybe even a little wiser.

See - this week, I’ve been moving from the planning to the execution stages of a very interesting project. The idea is to assess a company’s very-broken-web-portal, decide what’s important about what clients are actually doing there, and then blow the whole thing up and redesign the portal to actually do those things. You’d be surprised how far from the mark one of these B2B web portals can stray. Years of operating with no vision for the product, no standards, no meaningful client input, and no resources… well, that can really mess things up. The good news is that most (ok, a lot?… ok, I’ll settle for “some”) of the functionality that needs to be there is there. The bad news is that the architecture for delivering it is broken, and users have to have a PhD in using the portal to be able to squeeze anything out of it.

These are not lazy or stupid people who built this thing, either. They thought they had all those things. They did the best they could with what they had as they went along. It’s ended up a little bit like the Winchester Mansion. I’m sure it gets much worse than this, but I’m also not sure I want to witness it if it does.

So I’ve managed to wade through the Swamp of Preparation. I’ve done the interviews and read/discussed the as-is documentation. I’ve waded through the wishlists. I’ve listened to all of the assessments of the technical hurdles and the occasional naysayer predicting (hoping for?) total doom and failure. It’s gelled. OK, gelling. I can see how it needs to be transformed.

Now comes the hard part.

In other news, I talked to my dad today and he almost shot his age (75) in golf last week. 76 at Champions on the Cypress course. Champion indeed. He said that putting felt like rolling the ball into a big bucket, and he sank 3 putts over 30 feet. My old man, in the zone.

I bet he could integrate enterprise-wide workflows within a web portal with one hand tied behind his back…

With high speed internet access prices falling, and the strength of independent music distribution on a (slow but steady) rise, it should be no surprise to discover that it’s really easy and affordable to broadcast yourself LIVE over the web.

In one simple webpage, Krispen Hartung explains how to use SHOUTcast hosting to setup a live webcast feed that anyone can listen to. You can easily set this up and be broadcasting from your bedroom, home studio, or rehearsal space for the price of a 12-pack each month. Find a live venue with high speed internet, bring your laptop, and you can even simulcast a live performance!

We’re not quite to a time when a band can build a large, career-sustaining fanbase through the web alone. But that day is coming. Even now, why wouldn’t a band or solo musician be able to build a small, dedicated fanbase through webcasted performances and releases? I love the excitement and fun of a live show as much as anyone else - but if I have to choose between no show at all, and a webcast of a good band - I choose webcast.

Thanks to Kris Hartung for putting this information together!

For some of us, there should be a standard cut-n-paste post apologizing for blog-neglect. To those very few people who bother to come by my humble little blog: I have no excuses, but a few explanations. Spam was hell (hooray for WordPress 2.0!). Work was busier than ever. Priorities, and all that.

But here I am again, re-committing myself to exploring blogging and some of the great technologies that allow us to share ideas.

So, I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.0, made a few changes, and installed some tools that should help make things easier. And as always, learned a few things in the process.

Podcast. Hmmmm… yes. Podcast. Whatever happened to that idea…

There’s some really exciting news on the high-end looper front. Bob Amstad is ready to debut a working version of his potentially market-busting looping device - the Looperlative LP1 - at this year’s Winter NAMM show (January 19-22, 2006). Although the unit is still in development and testing, Bob has shared some information with the public, and I’ll summarize what we’ve learned in this post.

Please stay tuned right here for a possible podcast interview with Bob Amstad regarding the LP1! I hope to be able to corner Bob for about 30-45 minutes to discuss it in detail.

Now, on to what I can tell you today. This is all based on publicly available information gathered at Bob’s site and a few other mailing lists:

In the spring of 2004, Bob announced that the Looperlative would make it’s debut. I’m not sure exactly how that slipped, but I suspect that development issues were deeper than expected. Bob has apparently overcome those issues, and now there is a confirmed debut at Winter NAMM (Jan 2006). Looperlative Audio Products will be located in Hall E Booth 1857. This is on the right side of the hall between the two sets of stairs that take you upstairs.

Two excellent musicians and experienced loopers will be performing to demonstrate the unit:

• Steve Lawson
• Rick Walker

Here is the only currently available photo of the front of the unit:

Here’s the blurb at the front of the Looperlative website:

Equipped with a fast DSP and 128MB of memory, the Looperlative LP1 offers up to 20 minutes of mono audio recording or up to 10 minutes of stereo audio recording. With 8 individually controllable stereo tracks per loop, you have the flexibility to add and remove layers as you wish. Additional auxiliary stereo outputs allow you send only the tracks you choose to your effects units.

To go beyond traditional boundaries, the Looperlative LP1 is network enabled. Imagine saving and restoring your favorite compositions to your computer or network hard drive. As features are added to the LP1 software, easy upgrades can be installed through the network port. This is an effects box for now and for the future. The network port offers many possibilities including streaming digital audio and multi-unit synchronization.

Basic info:
The Looperlative LP1 is a single rack space unit. A fascinating innovation: the unit includes an Ethernet port that will allow the software to be updated, and also allow the user to send/receive audio from the unit. It’s not clear to me if the audio/send receive is “realtime” - and I suspect that is isn’t. The real power behind this feature is the fact that it enables simple, ongoing software upgrades. As LP1 users decide that a new feature is desired, Bob can update the software and users can upgrade their units with a simple Ethernet connection!

Here’s a quote from a recent post from Bob Amstad, updated with additional information that I’ve gathered since this first post:

• 1 stereo input (unbalanced, 1/4″ L/R inputs)
• 3 stereo outputs (1 main output, and 2 sub-mix outputs) (also unbalanced 1/4″)
• Note that although the unit will initially go live with unbalanced connections, Bob has mentioned that there may be the possibility of a factory upgrade to balanced connections
• MIDI interface primarily for connecting a footpedal remote controller (LP1 has a “MIDI Learn” feature that allows you to put the unit in learn-mode, press a controller footpedal, and then tell the LP1 what action you want that pedal to control. This makes footpedal programming EASY!)
• Ethernet interface for upgrades and computer interfacing
• Power comes from a “wall cube” power supply, sometimes called a “wall wart”
• Front panel in the picture does not show the vacuum flourescent display turned on because my digital camera is incapable of capturing it because it is scanned. However, it is there for configuration and displaying current loop and track.
• 8 stereo tracks per loop. Track 1 is the master track and the other tracks can be synchronous or asynchronous with it. Tracks can be individually turned on and off. This gives you both the ability to undo and redo.
• Audio is sampled at 48kHz with 24-bit resolution.
• Audio connectors are 1/4″ unbalanced stereo connectors.
• The DSP is fast enough to handle much more than just looping audio. I have plans to incorporate software-based effects into the unit after the looping features are mature.

Pricing:

Ah yes, the all-important question of price. I was pleasantly surprised to see Bob say this about pricing:

Final pricing has not been set, yet. You can expect it somewhere in the neighborhood of the EDP when you still were able to buy a new one. Pricing will be finalized before January NAMM

EDP’s run in the $750-$950 range, which is a great price to pay for this unit, considering it may be able to perform like a rack of 16 EDPs. Please note that this is not a confirmation of price!! I’m simply providing the traditional price range for a new EDP, which Bob referenced. Official pricing will be announced at the NAMM show.

More details:

A couple of key points to focus on, and some additional information:

Can the tracks be of different lengths? (ie.not just multiples of the master track)
Yes, it is the intent that each track can be either synchronous or asynchronous with the other recorded tracks. For example, you may have 5 tracks that are all 4 measures long. Then you may have another track that is not an even number of measures that shifts in time in relation to the others.

You can record different parts to different tracks and turn the parts on and off as you wish. In fact, each track has an independent volume control which allows you to change the volume of a recorded part after it has already been recorded. So, you could fade out a part and then fade it back in later as your composition progresses.

By default the first track you record is the track that sync tracks will be based on. However, at any given time you can choose a different track for new tracks to be synchronized to.

Will it be possible to “feed” a track already recorded into another track?
Copying from one track to another and merging multiple tracks are already on the list of features. Concatenating tracks (appending one to the end of another) is possible, but I didn’t have plans to put this in. However, the software features added will be driven by customer requests.

Does the 10 min stereo mean total track time? If so will that be upgradable?
10 minutes stereo is the total recording time at present. I have some thoughts on how to the lengthen this, but I don’t want to make any promises that have not actually been tested. Though the unit does not currently allow memory upgrades, there are other possibilities including adding a network storage device. The software to do this hasn’t been written, yet.

Whats that knob for? It looks like the mod wheel on Eventides.
The knob is a generic knob to adjust the many parameters that you can set in the unit. The display which was not lit in the picture (forgive me, I don’t have a film camera any more), will show what menu option you are currently adjusting.

Is there a footpedal in the works or will it be all MIDI?
Their are currently no plans to sell a dedicated foot pedal. The unit will work with MIDI foot controllers.

The design allows for the use of any MIDI controller that supplies program change messages. The LP1 is fully configurable. You can assign any LP1 function to any MIDI button and the programming system is fairly easy. From the front panel you select the menu item to program a button. Then you press the button that you want to program on your connected MIDI controller. Last you turn the knob to select the function that you want assigned to the MIDI controller. The procedure is very easy and allows a person to use any MIDI foot switch that they choose.

In addition, the unit has support for MIDI pedals. Currently pedals can be assigned to control track volume and track feedback. Additional functions will be added over time.

The LP1 is designed to eliminate the need for a special pedal that may or may not suit your personal taste. I’m certain that every person feels differently about what pedal works best for them. I’m very fond of my MIDI pedal board, but I know that many people use a different one than I use. The good news is that with the LP1, I get to use what I like and you get to use what you like.

Can you talk about how the LP1 implements momentary-style functions, if it uses program change commands as its method of control?
At the current early ages of the software, there aren’t any momentary functions, yet. However, when the time comes to implement them they can be brought in through continuous controller messages. A simple switch attached to an expression pedal input on a midi board will generate a CC message with different values for each of the two states of the switch.

How many layers of undo/redo are you building into each track?
There are no immediate plans for undo at this time. You can gain similar functionality by recording the different parts to different tracks. The advantage is that unlike undo, recording to seperate tracks allows you to start and stop parts in any order. Instead I would like to expand on the track idea and allow you to save and restore banks of tracks which would allow you to extend beyond the current 8 track limit.

Any plans for time-stretching or pitch-shift manipulations (ala the Electrix Repeater)?
We will investigate these after the more commonly used features are all completed. Again these two items only require software changes. So, the current electronics are capable of supporting these features.

Finally, here’s a quote from Steve Lawson, an experienced professional musician and long-time looper, who will be demonstrating the LP1 at the NAMM show in January 2006:

The pedal programming is as simple as it could be - turn the dial to the midi pedal setup area, press the pedal and then tell the unit what you want that pedal to do. So far, no matching of button numbers to parameter numbers or anything like that.

And the sync/unsync thing works beautifully - just depends on whether you press play before record on the subsequent loop. Really intuitive.

With the regular software upgrade options available via the ethernet cable, the looperlative is set to be a real revelation on the hardware looper market. It’ll take time for Bob to get all the software written that he wants to put in there, but even with the first beta software set, there were options available that I’d couldn’t have done on the EDP without hooking up all four of mine…

And it’s Stereo :o)

see y’all at NAMM/Campbell,
Steve

Exciting news on the looper front. More to come!

In a previous post I mentioned my prior web hosting service - edatarack.com. They are evil, incompetent thieves and liars. Well, if I had done my homework, I would have known this before signing up. Beyond the horrible reviews they’ve received at the web hosting review sites, I also would have found THIS little tidbit, if I had been smart enough to look:

Better Business Bureau at Fort Worth
101 Summit Ave., Suite 707
Fort Worth, TX 76102

BBB Reliability Report

EDATARACK.COM
4621 S COOPER
ARLINGTON, TX 76017
(877) 218-2916
Type of Entity: INCORPORATED ,
Phone Number: (877) 218-2916
Membership Status: This company is not a member.
Type-of-Business Classification(s): WEB HOSTING
File Open Date: September 25, 2003

The information in this report has either been provided by the company, or has been compiled by the Bureau from other sources.

Customer Experience

Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to unanswered complaints concerning service issues.

The moral of this story? DO YOUR HOMEWORK before you sign up with any online services, especially a webhost, who you will depend on to keep your website and email running reliably and secure. The other moral? edatarack.com is evil incarnate.

Just got an email saying that my Visual Thesaurus subscription has been renewed for another year. $12 bucks. For one millisecond I thought:

Damn! That’s beer money I could have saved.

But then I went to the site again (for the first time in about a month), and I quickly remembered why I bothered to give these people $1/month in the first place.

If you haven’t ever checked out the Visual Thesaurus - just go do it now. It’s free if all you want to do is browse. This is how I like my technology - smart and fun.

This is the first post using the new blog configuration. Hello cruel fucking world.

This was supposed to be the second article about live looping, but my previous web hosting company - edatarack.com - decided to ruin that idea.

Screw edatarack.com! If you happen to be reading this, NEVER EVER EVER use edatarack.com as your web hosting provider. They are constantly experiencing downtimes (that they will not acknowledge), server software corruption, hard drive failures, and database problems. Their “customer service” is rude and ineffective (and online ONLY - no phone support). Finally, they are thieves. They do not honor their uptime guarantee, nor their promise of pro-rated refunds.

Avoid them at all costs.