Tip of the Quill: A Journal

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Keyboards, no drums.

I’m slowly getting the hang of Reason, the synth/mix/electronic-music application from Propellerhead Software. This is a very, very nice piece of work, light years beyond the basic synths I played with occasionally back in high school. I’ve coupled this with an Edirol PCR-30 MIDI keyboard controller, which is essentially a dinky little half-keyboard slapped onto […]

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Starting to build the studio.

So on a trip to Guitar Center this afternoon, I finally found what I was looking for: a beginner’s guide to building a digital audio studio. Desktop Digital Studio by Paul White is a smart, easy-to-read guide to building a musicmaking studio in your bedroom. It goes into what all the different programs do (like […]

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TiVo for radio!

Oh, I so want one of these. The Griffin RadioShark is a “time-shifting” radio tuner, which you can use to record shows on a schedule and then download them to your iPod. Finally, I can get All Things Considered on my iPod in a scrubbable, portable format to take with me in the car, on […]

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Two years!?

I might have posted about this, I don’t remember… Even if so, the Motorola Offspring Wearables concept is about the closest thing I’ve seen yet to what I’ve got in mind, especially the “wristable”. Wicked cool. Only drawback: it’s not supposed to arrive for another two years. Rats.

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Best. Coffeehouse. Ever.

I would once again like to reaffirm my firm belief that Common Grounds in Arlington is the best coffeehouse ever. Free Wi-Fi, supercomfortable seating, and they may also prove to be the location for a supersecret (kinda) project I just might have coming up in early October. Stay tuned!

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Friends on stage.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of seeing two of my old friends from The Advisory Board take the stage in the Cedar Lane Stage group’s Summer Sampler 2003, a collection of three one-acts. The first play, Hawks, Doves and Hardwood by Michael Goldfarb, is about three students struggling against a last-minute deadline for a […]

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The Consumer Excitement Index.

Over at Inc.com, Adam Hanft delivers Wanted: Something New Under the Sun. In it, he declares: Why does everyone fret so much over the consumer sentiment index? I’ve never understood the predictive value of such a fluttery, day-by-day mood check. A far more meaningful measure of economic vitality would be one that doesn’t exist yet, […]

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{fray} in The New York Times.

Hey, check it out – Derek made the New York Times! Many Web sites are dedicated to collecting true stories, from the trivial (your first rock concert) to the inspiring (veterans’ wartime recollections). Storyblog (fray.com/storyblog) is a group Weblog that links to sites about true stories. “We look for any site that is about individuals […]

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Well, I was going to post some more…

Best laid plans, my friends. My intention to post a few more follow-up things today (mostly small articles I’ve been scribbling on for a while) has gone by the wayside, the fault of sleep deprivation and Monitor Eyeball. Ah, well. That’s what the weekend is for. And partying. Issue-finished partying. Like it’s 1999. And stuff […]

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The first update to the new issue.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dave Thomas to Inkblots – his critique of Spellbound is now available in Critiques!

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