Before bed this morning

I downloaded a program called “Musician Composer” (MC) and what it does is it takes any midi file and formats it into sheet music, you can leave on the screen or print out. Most midi tracks have their respective instrument parts on staves and they can be solo and a follow along with the transport bar to show where in the piece the score is and what measure its on including its time signature. This is a real useful piece of software as I’m on day 1 of a 30 day free trail. Most likely I’ll get this after GP6. MC is especially useful to learn established music because I don’t have a band but I could make my own midi score using this software.


After taking out my fast track usb end to my laptop I plugged my headphones into my laptop. In FL Studio they work fine although the sound is down a bit. That’s because the sound on the fast track was a little higher then the sound card resident in my laptop. I tried my headphones on my laptop with YouTube, no problem. The problem is in my fast track audio interface. After I had a chance to mull this over, I’m wondering if it’s not the fast track but the usb cable itself? I’m sure that’s the case. I don’t like my “studio” set up the way it is now anyway. I mean the hardware end of it. I need a few more things, like studio monitors for sound. I don’t have anything to hear my music against other then headphones. So, I think it’s the usb cable, which is causing static in what I hear. There’s nothing wrong (?) with the fast track. Its just the usb cable, the way I abuse the fast track/cable when moving it off the laptop so the cats don’t rest on it. If the problem with the fast track is the usb cable, then I’ll get a new replacement cable and put a couple of paperback books on my laptop to discourage the cats from using it as a resting place. Cats like heights, nests, and hiding places, which my laptop is neither. This way I preserve the life of the usb cable. The static isn’t a problem when I record a vocal track into Edison (FL Studio) So getting a replacement usb cable isn’t a high priority right now.

Holy crap, Pure Speculation is next weekend! This weekend is Remembrance day and Pure Spec is right after that on the weekend of the 18th. I don’t have to work that weekend and the location this year is better then last year but according to their schedule, they have their costume contest, which I have zero interest in and that’s right when I get off from work. I don’t know any of the guests this year and the panels are all kind of lame. Plus it’s a $35 hit this year for just 2 days. It says, November 18th (Friday)but most of the action is on Saturday/Sunday November 20th. I have Sunday and Monday off this weekend. They do have a by Skype interview with Mike Resnick and a couple of panels I might be interested in but for $35 bucks? I’m sure Happy Harbour has just a day pass but I don’t think they did last year. The organizers really need to hold Pure spec on a long weekend, like labour day. Saturday, after working 6 hours after a busy week before that wont cut it and it doesn’t look like I’m going to make it this year. Now, if Pure Spec was on a long weekend, with some events on a Friday night would be better. This weekend would have been better. People are off work this Friday, most Remembrance day festivities would have already taken place by the time the event starts. People could be filing in about 7pm on a Friday. They’d have a chance to sleep in if they aren’t taking part in any Remembrance day events.

Tonight, it’s Monday night Raw. The show has been pretty lame lately. The best parts occur when they set it up from the beginning and the main event. All the stuff in the middle is filler anyway. I‘m going to tune in for a bit of it and then tune out for most of it and catch the end of it and wind down my night.

I’ve got 1 more week I can take off before the end of the year and I mentioned it to the boss that I’m going to take Christmas week off, the last week of the year from Christmas Eve to January first and Monday is a day off anyway and I come back to work January 3rd 2012. This means I get 10 days off with pay. Anyway that‘s all for now.