Saturday, May 19, 2012

Ooops, Where Are The Vocals?

Yesterdays Song Fixed

I slept in until about 10 a.m. after having been up until 2:30 on 3rd street making $13.70.
That was kind of like what I would have made last Friday night, had there not been one man who gave me 25 bucks by himself.
Like hermit crabs, the group of horns and guitar>
moved into my favorite spot, forcing me to move
to my second favorite spot...
There were three "acts" performing on Third Street:
The guitarist who stands up was standing at his spot, and seemed to have about the same amount of money as I did at the point that I saw him, maybe a little more. There was a 5 dollar bill in his case, making it look like a little more.
I was kind of chagrined that I hadn't gotten any fives by the end of the night, but then discovered a clump of five ones, folded together; that counts as a five dollar bill (just minus Abe Lincoln) so the guy that stands up had nothing on me.
He tends to use a singing voice which is designed for loudness alone, and comes out as a croak rather than a smooth note a lot of the times. But, that is his market; people who like the "alternative rock" that he does, and don't expect him to sound as good as the mega-star artists who recorded it.
Then, there was the group of horns, guitar and upright bass, who moved into my AT-T alcove spot the first break I took to run to the store for a beer, like hermit crabs.
This morning, a train hopping guy who I was talking to motioned to my guitar and told me that I ought to play "on Florida Street," like a group of horn players whom he had seen last night -said that they made "500 dollars" (and he believed them because they were right across the street from the Hilton Hotel, "so, they could have..."). 
Maybe they did; that's a lot of five dollar bills, though, from the same kids who walked past the rest of us and only threw a buck here and there...makes me wonder if I am playing the wrong instrument; LOL!
I had gotten there early enough to get the spot first, but then lost it by running to the store. Lesson learned; maybe buy my stuff at the store first and ice it down and have it in my pack with me so I don't have to run to the store, waisting time, and losing spots. Of course, I started out with only 20 cents yesterday, having squandered a lot of playing time, working in the studio on gems like...
Jungle Sailing Fixed
I was embarrassed to realize that, through yet another quirk, the vocals were entirely missing from yesterday's posted song, Jungle Sailing, making it a boring 6 minutes of rhythm guitar and drums with very little to do with crossing the Mississippi River.
My first order of business today was to remedy that.
I had to use the "Mix And Render" option from the "Tracks" menu, in order to get all the tracks into stereo, which I have changed the link to. I never seemed to have had to have done that before, yet, yesterday's song, for some reason only exported the first two tracks, leaving the vocals out.
It may be due to the fact that I recorded as a different "user" that time. When I am user "Daniel," the studio interface comes up with a black background, whereas when I am user "user" it comes up with a white background. Every user has his own preferences and environments, which are configurable by anyone who can find the time to read textbooks on the subject. Maybe the preferences are set so that user Daniel has to "mix and render" before he can export all tracks...only Audacity Help might know for sure...
Saturday (today)
Today is "usually" the day that I get an all-day bus pass, and go to the Cortana Mall, where there is the Wal-Mart, with it's cheap food to go on the grill, and the Guitar Center, where I have had to buy picks and strings on consecutive weeks.
Then, I "usually" go to Scotlandville, and grill behind the building, wash up and change clothes, before taking the #10 back downtown by sundown to start busking.
The Howard Matter
I might shuffle that routine in some way, lest I become as predictable as Howard who, by the way, has not been seen after having left Scotlandville in a huff over having been disturbed at his habitual sleeping spot
This is, I realize a golden opportunity to part ways with the guy in a way which would make it appear that he was the one who initiated our parting of ways.
I am seriously considering not going to LSU today or tomorrow, just so I won't run into him. If he doesn't come downtown to find me tonight, then the matter will have been settled and then...
California, Here I come! 
But, first, Texas.

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