Jim Alfredson

The lack of moderation killed the BN board. How were we, as members with no power, supposed to control other members who's only purpose was to act like assholes? This place could easily wind up the same way if all moderation was aborted. I don't see how that would be your fault or Sangry's fault or anyone's fault except mine for pulling the plug on moderators. Ditto with the BNBB. The irony is that they pulled the plug after the Grammy awards and now that Norah's record has sold something like 18 million copies, they could've easily afforded to hire a moderator, or at least supplement a current staff person's pay in order for him to sit at home for a couple of hours every night and moderate. It was premature to say the least. But so what? This place has become more than I could've imagined and I'm having a blast with it and from what everyone's said on this thread and others, this is the place to be!

That's the Native Instruments B4. It's a Hammond organ simulator program. You can play it via any keyboard that has MIDI and a computer with MIDI (or these days some keyboards have USB interfaces and you can plug them into the computer that way). Then when you set everything up right, you hit a note on the keyboard and the software (in this case, the B4) creates the sound and outputs it through your soundcard. The B4 is the best Hammond simulator I've heard... that said, it still has a lot of things wrong with it... things that are not simulated at all or not correctly. I won't go into it here. What's the point? Well, the program cost about $200 whereas a real Hammond and Leslie would set you back a couple of thousand... not to mention the upkeep. This is a cheap way to get a decent Hammond sound on your tracks. If it's part of a dense mix, you probably couldn't tell it's not real. Also, if you have a powerful enough laptop, you could use this live. I know a cat that did just that. He had a MIDI keyboard and his laptop. It kicks the snot out of any of the current hardware organ simulators like the Korg CX3 and the Hammond-Suzuki XB2. The only crappy thing is not having real drawbars to pull but if you set up enough presets it probably wouldn't matter too much. Almost all hardware synthesizers nowadays are dedicated, streamlined computers meant to produce sound... these programs use your existing computer to do the same thing. It's the WAVE OF THE FUTURE, as I keep telling Joe. Personal computers are infinitely upgradeable and cheap whereas hardware synths are neither. Software is the way to go!

March 6th is indeed the date where we opened our doors here. I can't believe it's only been a year... seems like this place has been around longer than that. By the post count you'd definately think so!

All I know is that my boyz in the green & white beat OSU and Wisconsin lost which means MSU is on top of the Big Ten. WooT!

Good times had by all! I like playing that club, although I had trouble hearing Joe (your speaker was turned away from me). But it's all good. We heard some cool stuff on WEMU on the way home... some new Brad Shepik... it was hip.

Can I be your friend, Joe?

We begin playing at 6pm and wrap up at 10pm. Anytime in the between would suffice.

You're seeing things.

Kudos to that guy for remaining calm and not swearing up a storm on TV. I think if I would've been stabbed by that thing I would've said, very loudly and with mucho gusto... FUCK!!!

Thanks, greg and snowflake! We had a good time... it took us a full set to adjust to the room having never played there before but things loosened up as we went along. We hope to be back in Ann Arbor soon. Nice to meet you as well Greg and always good to see you, snowflake!

That's not Noj, that's a character from "Office Space", one of the funniest movies ever!!

This has been a fascinating discussion. Randy, I'm not trying to single anyone out. You don't wear a baseball cap all the time, only once in a while. And who gives a crap what I think, anyway? I'm just some nutty organist! Are artists valorized in this society? Depends on what you call an artist. The word is thrown around so much it has lost all meaning. Is Britney Spears an artist? The media would have you believe she is. In my mind she's entertainment, not an artist. Chuck Close is an artist. Jason Moran is an artist. Mia Lynn is an artist. Are they valorized? Not enough, imho.

Now there's a name for a record!!!

I was upset when the local Tower Records closed in East Lansing. I spent far too much money there. At the same time, becaue of their closing, I saved a lot of money by ordering online. The prices were ridiculous in the store itself. The times, they are a changin'...

The first two Return To Forever albums have some really nice Fender Rhodes work from Corea. Beautiful stuff.

I'm sorry to hear that, Tom. My sincere condolences.

Nice article.

I fixed it...

Hm... they obviously spent money that should've been paid to musicians doing everything but actually paying musicians, but realestate? That's nutty.

Criminey... I swear, if my head wasn't attached to my neck I'd forget it. Thank you. I'm embarassed.

Bummer. I have a Pioneer that's getting close to 8 years old and it still plays CDs just fine.

I'm going to bare my teet at the Jammie Awards tonight.

So it IS true... Fight #5

Deep, there's an easy solution to forgetting one's password. Email me and I'll reset it for you. No need to make another account. Would you prefer to use your original account?

Done. Good idea.