Well, the "thinning out" process has begun. I hope. My contract job ended, so I am now free again. I just sold my Dell computer to my friend Dave. I originally found a computer on Craig's List for him, and bought it, and was configuring that to give to him, but one thing led to another and it turned out that computer was a better fit for me. So, I decided to keep it for myself, and sell my Dell to Dave.

He got a good deal, and I am sad to see that computer go (I did a lot of development work on it for a project last year) and it was all configured with all my tools, etc. - stuff he'll never need. But now my "new" computer is getting loaded up. And I have been having fun with it in a brand new way. Brand new to me.

I have some old audio tapes that I recorded when I was a kid. Mostly stupid kid stuff, but I was rather prolific at creating sound effects and recording various things and stories I would make up - sometimes with friends. Anyway, amongst all the audio cassette tapes, I also had some old reel-to-reel tapes. I'm talking old. I recently found a tape player at a thrift store that would play them. So, I thought, why not get all the recordings copied into the computer where they will no longer degrade and so I can get rid of the bulk of tapes that I have?

So, that is what I have been doing. I used the tape player from the thrift store to play the smaller reel tapes, but I had some large reels I wanted to copy - reels that were much too large for the little thrift store acquisition. So, I went digging. In my closet was hiding an old reel-to-reel tape recorder that used to belong to one of my grandmothers. An old Panasonic. I never realized just how old it was until I opened it up over the weekend. It wouldn't rewind, so I expected to open it up and find a broken belt that I might be able to repair somehow. The belt was GONE (I must have removed it years ago - presumably after it broke), but I also noticed that it was awfully warm inside - warm enough to make me wonder why it was getting so warm inside.

Well, lo and behold, the amplifier inside the thing has electron tubes in it! I don't know why, but I just think that is SO COOL!!! I used to have an old tube amp...and a collection of electron tubes. They got left behind when I moved to California, unfortunately - otherwise, I probably could have sold them on ebay.

Drats!

Anyway, here is a picture of the old beast:


I also downloaded some free software to help me record the tapes into the computer and edit the resulting wave/mp3 files. I use the dBPowerAmp software (with the optional auxiliary input program) to record the audio (took me a while to get it configured properly and it is cumbersome to use because of the non-standard use of controls and lack of menu bars). The additional Power Pack add-in was buggy and caused the software to lock up, so I de-installed that. I then downloaded Audacity to use in editing the wave files, and that is pretty cool. It also has one or two annoying quirks due to non-standard (i.e. unexpected) behavior, especially when exiting the software.

It is so cool to me - something I wish I had as a kid when I was making all these silly audio recordings. One of the most interesting things is how I can go in and select a portion of a wave form and amplify it or change the speed or whatever. I amplified a section that looked like it had nothing (I could hear nothing), but when I amplified it, there was something there. I could hear the hum and the characteristic rattling of the filament and/or plates of the electron tubes from the tape deck! I find that to be very fascinating. I also amplified a little blip that turned out to be me uttering a nasty word in a whisper. Surprising, to say the least. But fascinating!

Well, I have hours and hours and hours of tape to record (on cassettes). I have almost all of my reel tapes recorded already. I didn't have many of those. This old Panasonic reel-to-reel tape recorder just keeps on going. It is funny, because the cassette player I was going to play with next just quit working yesterday. It threw a belt. Those rubber belts in the modern machines either melt or get dry and crack. I had a replacement belt, but it was melted in the plastic bag it came in, so was useless. Yet this old Panasonic just keeps cranking...and it has a piece of string driving the take-up wheel! I guess there is something to be said for string and springs. In fact, the take-up reel was working too well - it had too much tension on it - so I added a spring to relieve some of that tension (I have a box full of tiny springs from old tape machines from my past).

One interesting piece of history I found on one of the tapes was a recording from the Flandrau Planetarium in Tucson, Arizona, when they used to have an astronomy and space news line you could call. They were talking about the "up-coming launch of the Voyager spacecraft." The two Voyager spacecraft launched in late 1977 and took a tour of the solar system (and are now the most distant man-made objects in space - and are still sending back data!).

So, now that and my past and my memories captured on tape are now being copied into my new computer:
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The computer that I sold to my friend Dave was called "Behemoth". I have named the new one "Borg". It is named Borg because it is assimilating my past. All of my software (programs, documents, etc.) that I have ever created have been copied from all my old computers and disks onto a large drive on this computer, along with the audio recordings that I am currently transferring.

Borg has a white CD-RW drive (I could swear I ordered a black one, but oh well). The CD-ROM drive above it came out of the Dell. This one originally had a black CD-RW drive in it, but I swapped it for the CD-ROM from the Dell so my friend could have the CD-RW drive, but then I wanted one, so I ordered a new one.

I ordered a RAID controller last week, but it has not arrived, yet (ARGH!). I want to make sure this big hard drive gets backed up in case something happens. I wouldn't want my creations to get lost. Once I get it all together, I will begin archiving everything to DVD. That way, all of my work, all of my creations, all of the thoughts I have recorded, all of my email...eeewww...will be preserved in digital form long after I am gone. But then, I guess I won't care at that point.

It's fun. Soon, Chris will be copying her recordings of the music she produced into the computer, and hopefully after that, we'll begin shooting some videos and doing some video production and editing. Woo hoo! Ugh - but it all just takes so much TIME!

Well, until next time... Enjoy the time you've got!