Trusted Equipment - Part 3
Trusted Equipment - Part 3
by David Fritz (Mr Music)
David Fritz, Mr Music, is a Composer, arranger,
producer and performer of smooth/cool/romantic/healing
new age piano music.
Visit his site, join his mailing list and
receive free newsletters, MP3’s, albums and more, and
so get to know him and his music:
http://www.mr-music.co.za
Wednesday, 06 April 2011
We all have our favourite tools or equipment that we use at home or at our work places.
Your favourite pair of scissors, the specific knife you look for to cut and peel, the specific pen you look for at the office.
I also have, what I call my “trusted” equipment.
This is a mini series of articles telling you about my “trusted” equipment.
I hope you will enjoy these little articles and learn from them, especially if you are planning on entering the music arena.
In the first two articles in the series I told you about my
UPS and my backup computer, and how they have stood me in good stead
through the years.
My third piece of trusted equipment is my Roland CD2 recording machine.
Here it is:
http://www.mr-music.co.za/David_Fritz_(Mr_Music)_trusted_equipment_-_Roland_CD2_-_06-apr-11.jpg
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It may not look like much, but I have recorded 5 of my 10 albums
with this trusty machine, which has not given any trouble in the 4 years I’ve
owned it.
I bought this machine in April 2007, but at that time I was
a partner in another recording studio, and
I used all their equipment, so the CD2 was just lying around at home.
Then, without warning, in the last week of July in 2007 our
partnership broke up, leaving me without a recording studio
and an album due for release on the first Sunday in September:
only 5 weeks later!
Suddenly the recording machine, bought and lying dormant at home, became the focus of my life, as it was the only route for me to
record the album, for which I had already committed myself.
Since then I have recorded 4 other full albums on the machine,
as well as many backtracks and recordings for others.
Apart from the machine working flawlessly, it also is the only recording
machine that I can use as a blind person, without any sighted help.
The machine may not look like much, but it has all the
features necessary to record and master a CD, while not
knocking a whole in your budget, and it is very portable and easy to use.
Although originally bought as a backup and a stand-in, it has now
become the heart of my recording work.
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Be sure to click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of
this article to let your friends know about this
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I would love to hear from you. Please e-mail your
questions and comments to me. I’ll place them on my blog until such time
as the software bug is fixed which will allow you
to post them directly yourself.
Send your comments/questions to:
david@mr-music.co.za
Love and lots of simple, affordable, reliable recording
David
Mr Music
Music with impact …
http://www.mr-music.co.za
Trusted Equipment - Part 2
Trusted Equipment - Part 2
by David Fritz (Mr Music)
David Fritz, Mr Music, is a Composer, arranger,
producer and performer of smooth/cool/romantic/healing
new age piano music.
Visit his site, join his mailing list and
receive free newsletters, MP3’s, albums and more, and
so get to know him and his music:
http://www.mr-music.co.za
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
We all have our favourite tools or equipment that we use at home or at our work places.
Your favourite pair of scissors, the specific knife you look for to cut and peel, the specific pen you look for at the office.
I also have, what I call my “trusted” equipment.
This is a mini series of articles telling you about my “trusted” equipment.
I hope you will enjoy these little articles and learn from them, especially if you are planning on entering the music arena.
As music maker I’m in the public eye, and people expect an uninterrupted, “record-like” performance.
No matter what your skill; in the end you’re only as good as your equipment.
In the first article I told you about my UPS.
Many is the time that the power tripped at a function, but my equipment kept on working, thanks to this trusty piece of equipment.
The second piece of “trusted equipment” I own is an IBM pc.
Here it is:
http://www.mr-music.co.za/David_Fritz_(Mr_Music)_trusted_equipment_-_IBM_pc_-_30-mar-11.jpg
_trusted_equipment_-_IBM_pc_-_30-mar-11.jpg){kind=link}
Nothing fancy; the usual square desktop box, containing a
Pentium III capacity CPU, less than a GIG of memory, only a 20 GIG hard drive, but the important thing: soooooo reliable!
I got this pc about 9 years ago, and have never had a day’s trouble with it.
It still has all the original components that came with it, including a stiffy drive.
I use this pc during live performances for playback of my backing tracks.
I use it when DJ’ing or doing other promotion work, to play music from.
I also occasionally use it for sequencing in my studio.
Now I have never been a “brand” person, especially not around computers.
I have always held the philosophy that: what matters is reliability.
That’s why many of my “tools” are relatively old: because my buying decisions were based on reliability and functionality only!
Interestingly enough, this pc has never been my “pc of choice”, meaning that
I usually used another pc as my first choice, but my first choice pc packed up several times, and when I had to fall back on this one, it was there, purring when you plug in the power cable, starting up immediately, and baling me out of trouble more than once.
Yes, laugh, but it’s still running with Windows 98!
I don’t want bells and whistles: I want a stress-free, hassle-free life, which means I need equipment that always work, and function predictably.
Saturday I took off a lot of data from it and reloaded the machine for use on my Sunday gigs. I ran a “Check Disk” and Defrag: not one bad sector on the drive after 9 years!
Liked this article?
Be sure to click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of
this article to let your friends know about this
gem you’ve discovered.
I would love to hear from you. Please e-mail your
questions and comments to me. I’ll place them on my blog until such time
as the software bug is fixed which will allow you
to post them directly yourself.
Send your comments/questions to:
david@mr-music.co.za
Love and lots of 24/7/365 stress-free, hassle-free computer usage
David
Mr Music
Music with impact …
http://www.mr-music.co.za
Trusted Equipment - Part 1
Trusted Equipment - Part 1
by David Fritz (Mr Music)
David Fritz, Mr Music, is a Composer, arranger,
producer and performer of smooth/cool/romantic/healing
new age piano music.
Visit his site, join his mailing list and
receive free newsletters, MP3’s, albums and more, and
so get to know him and his music:
http://www.mr-music.co.za
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
We all have our favourite tools or equipment that we use at home or at our work places.
Your favourite pair of scissors, the specific knife you look for to cut and peel, the specific pen you look for at the office.
I also have, what I call my “trusted” equipment.
This is a mini series of articles telling you about my “trusted” equipment.
I hope you will enjoy these little articles and learn from them, especially if you are planning on entering the music arena.
Being a pianist you would probably expect me to put my piano, or a specific brand of piano first on the list.
Were I on the performing circuit 50 years ago this might very well have been the case.But living in the times that we do, this is not quite the case. Let me explain.
Pianos used to be everywhere; part of the furnishings of every hall, eating- and housing establishment 50 years ago or so.
So a pianist could simply turn up at one of these venues and sit down at “Old Faithful” and play his/her heart out.
But today pianos are scarce, and of the few to be found in such establishments, few are “roadworthy”.
Many pianists, myself included, cart digital pianos around to overcome this problem.
Now digital pianos run on electricity, as does sound systems, needed to amplify the digital piano’s sound.
No electricity, no concert!
So what do you think I count as one of my most important pieces of equipment?
My UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply)!
About 8 years ago I invested in a Mecer UPS, and this heavy little box has saved the day for me on many occasions!
It’s only 140mm wide, 365mm long and 170mm high, but weighs a ton!!
http://www.mr-music.co.za/David_Fritz_(Mr_Music)_trusted_equipment_-_Mecer_UPS_-_24-mar-11.jpg
_trusted_equipment_-_Mecer_UPS_-_24-mar-11.jpg){kind=link}
I simply run my digital piano, computer and sound system from it and relax, knowing that if the power supply takes a dip, I’ll be okay.
But I don’t only use it when performing. My Mecer is used in my home studio/office, where I also run my recording desks, CD duplicator and laptop from it.
Unfortunately I have experienced losing hours’ worth of recording due to a power outage, so now I don’t work without this “trusted” piece of equipment anymore!
Liked this article?
Be sure to click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of
this article to let your friends know about this
gem you’ve discovered.
I would love to hear from you. Please e-mail your
questions and comments to me. I’ll place them on my blog until such time
as the software bug is fixed which will allow you
to post them directly yourself.
Send your comments/questions to:
david@mr-music.co.za
Love and lots of 24/7 power using your UPS
David
Mr Music
Music with impact …
http://www.mr-music.co.za
Ivories In Love Volume 4 Released
Ivories In Love Vol. 4 Released!
by David Fritz (Mr Music)
David Fritz, Mr Music, is a Composer, arranger,
producer and performer of smooth/cool/romantic/healing
new age piano music.
Visit his site, join his mailing list and
receive free newsletters, MP3’s, albums and more, and
so get to know him and his music:
http://www.mr-music.co.za
Friday, 18 February 2011
Yes it’s out!
The next album in my Ivories In Love series, containing
14 beautiful love songs, is out.
As usual it’s an album of beautiful piano, with backing music.
What’s on this album?
Here is the list of tracks:
01 You needed me
02 To all the girls I’ve loved before
03 The carnival is over
04 I wouldn’t trade you for the world
05 You light up my life
06 Groovy kind of love
07 Wonderland by night
08 Collage no. 3
09 Annie’s song
10 That’s my desire
11 Greatest love of all
12 I love you because
13 Someone, someone
14 Love is a beautiful song
As you can see, all but one, are well-known “love” standards.
The only “unknown” piece is track 8, Collage No. 3,
which is my own composition.
Tuesday I called Ellen and gave her my headphones,
then I played her a snippet from each track.
Her response:
“What did you do differently this time? I think it’s the
best sounding album of all!”
I told her that I had used a new process (technique) to record this album.
Guess what I did?
I made a live recording!
Yes, Monday evening, on Valentine’s day, when everyone
was enjoying their Valentines and Valentine’s dinner at Sir Thomas,
I made a live recording, right there where I was performing.
And I am very satisfied with the results, as I’m sure you’ll also be,
when you listen to my new CD.
One thing I could unfortunately not do, was put up
microphones at the venue to pick up the audience.
This is not practical at Sir Thomas, due to the fact that
they lie right next to a busy road on which
mine trucks travel up and down incessantly.
Now all that’s left for you to do is to get your order
in.
Just send an e-mail, subject line
Ivories In Love Volume 4 Order, with your name,
surname, number of copies, mailing address and
phone number to:
david@mr-music.co.za
I’ll respond with banking details, etc, and we’ll
take it from there.
Or purchase directly from my website at:
http://www.singingivories.com/ivoriesinlovevolume4.htm
I can’t wait to hear your comments once you’ve listened!
You can see a photo of me holding my new CD, and quite a few other
action shots on my Facebook page: Go here:
http://www.facebook.com/David.Mr.Music
Liked this article?
Be sure to click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of
this article to let your friends know about this
gem you’ve discovered.
I would love to hear from you. Please e-mail your
questions and comments to me. I’ll place them on my blog until such time
as the software bug is fixed which will allow you
to post them directly yourself.
Send your comments/questions to:
david@mr-music.co.za
Love and lots of magic listening to Ivories In Love Vol. 4
David Mr Music
Music with impact …
http://www.mr-music.co.za