ConFusion

Very nice time yesterday. (The con's still going on, if you want to go over there for a few hours, but I need more sleep.)

• Got together with the ever-wonderful Sarah Zettel for a business lunch(!)
• got lots of hugs from nice folks like Sally and Shay
• cleared up a misunderstanding on scheduling
• had a pretty good set which seemed way too short for me (and in too small a room)
• tested the new Zoom H4 (I'll be going over that audio later today)
• got up to the party for Steve MacDonald and his lovely wife Katy (yay!)
• freaked out that Steve's son Lucas has got so frickin' tall
• spent some lovely time talking politics with Rene & Carol Gobeyn, Mark Bernstein, and Tara Barber, among others
• had cake
• went downstairs to Shula's for dinner, very nice steak soup
• hung out in the hallway for awhile, talking with Matt and Pam and Gail and Shalla and Pat and Jennifer and Mark Peters and Mike and all kindsa good folks
• went to the open sing after Steve's concert
• hung out for about an hour, determined I really really really had to get home before I fell over
• enjoyed a lovely and dear friend belly-dancing for me in the lobby before I left
• got home much faster than I thought I would

All in all, a very pleasant time, mostly spent singing and talking with friends, which is really what I go to cons for these days.

How's your weekend workin' out?

Audio Tech Update (Happy Happy Joy Joy Edition)

At my set Saturday at 'Fusion, I tested my new toy.

There is a whole new class of, basically, palm-sized recording studios. Mine is the Zoom H4, an adorable little beastie that has two built-in microphones, fairly simple and straightforward recording operations, runs for up to four hours on two AA's, and records to an SD card in either .MP3 or .WAV format.

Unfortunately, I had the Mic Gain set to Medium. It should've been set to High. The MP3 I made of the concert is very low in volume.

However, that's just a matter of increasing the frickin' volume, which I can do with three mouse clicks in Sound Forge. The recording itself is crystal clear.

So, if you decide to get the Zoom H4, and you go through Sweetwater, ask for Andy. And mention my name.

Update: It occurred to me that I hadn't actually said why I had this little beastie. Well, because I got an idea... an idea that will be implemented this weekend at the house concert in Louisville.

See, I put the Zoom between me and the audience. And I sing for, say, two hours. And I take my bows. And I go over to the CD table, where I've got my computer. And I load the MP3s I just recorded into the computer, burn them onto a CD, and hand you a copy of the concert you just heard, never to be sold anywhere else, that'll be ten bucks, please. (Fifteen if you want them converted to two audio CDs.)

Reasonable?