If I was to play a show, I would use one without exception. I’m probably never going to play a show, so I’m fine going by the piano or my ear if need be.

Hey, Bob. I live in MA as well. But I don't talk to many people 'round here. "Crazy" just doesn't have the same negative connotations; in fact, it often connotes a positive quality, especially in phrases such as "crazy good."

It's a small world, after all.
correct. "ya man he's a crazy son of a *****" is a compliment in my book.
I think you get the idea, but you're having trouble seeing the benefits of saying "crazy" whenever we would have said something more offensive.

The exception of course is when arguing with an angry female. I wouldn't dare call her crazy. I'd much rather call her unresolvably obtuse.

I think arguing with an angry woman is crazy.

Did I say arguing? I meant defending my soul from unrelenting attack.

Oh, well. Haven't needed to do that in years.

And not one word about how the banana slugs feel about the whole thing.

What make and model do you use? Do you use them to generate a tone, or do you use them to read the tone you are producing? I have a lot of trouble with them reading tones but suspect that I don't use them correctly.

I just record whatever and fix it with autotune.

I have a Chromacast tuner that clips on the headstock. I got it for free a few years ago and it's still going strong. I also have a tuner in my amp I seldom use, though it works just fine.

A lot of people have the Snark tuners. They are really nice to use in a dark venue. I've used some tuners that are very difficult to use because they are too sensitive.

Tuning by ear, I'm pretty much spot-on and don't technically need a tuner or external references. It's not because I have perfect pitch, but because I'm listening for harmonic clashes while playing a single string. I was taught this technique years ago, and it's unfortunately very difficult to describe.

I know how to pick em.

When someone takes liberties with your heart
You think maybe its time for a new start
The bridge is long, cold, and dark
The other side seems so far away
When you take three steps forward
Still she wants you to stay
If you stay you will pay
Every day, every day
If you walk, she will say
Anything and everything she has in her bag
To twist and to break, your spirit and soul
Still you walk, the bridge is long
She tries to follow you with song
The other side approaches, with grass so green
The paradise city, if you know what I mean
Her song is fading, now in the distance
A romance is fallen, a romance is gone

Pretty much how I do it. I can hear the harmonics when when I come on pitch. I'm perfectly happy with a tuning fork. Earl Scruggs once said that he could tune from the 60-cycle hum that comes from an florescent light.

What I really want is a tuner that will give me an *instantaneous* readout of a pitch in cycles, but haven't found one. I suspect that some of the oscilloscope programs for smart phones would do it very easily, but I've learned to not go down my techno-geek rabbit hole unless I have a lot of time to burn, so I haven't looked into it.

I'm saying I can tune strings with no external references. I'm not listening for the pitch at all, but "warble" that resonates on either side of being in tune. It's a technique that's common among banjo players (or what's what the guy told me, who was a damn good banjo player from true mountain cloth).

It's one of those things that I could write an entire novel on how to do it, or just take 30 seconds to show it to someone. It's deceptively simple once you see it in action.

Tuners are pretty fast, but I'm not sure what you mean by "instantaneous." A second is about the top-end you'll ever get, give or take a few points of accuracy.

Physically, it's impossible to create instantaneous because you are converting a messy sound wave to a messy digital wave. In theory, A440 is a clean sine wave at 440hz, but the reality is that there is no such thing in the physical world. A sound wave actually carries all harmonic frequencies from A to G, but A 440 is the dominant frequency.

You then add in the strike, which slightly increases the initial dominant frequency to A# or B. An electronic tuner (and even your ears using a tuning fork) has to wait 1/2 a second for the body of the tone to reveal itself before it can be tuned properly.

It's an interesting fact that the body of the the sound between an oboe and a violin is indistinguishable to the human ear. It's the strike of the instruments that allows us to know which instrument we are hearing.

So, yeah, it's aurally and electronically impossible to know the pitch of an instrument instantaneously, because of physics.

I've tried to reconcile the difference in our perception of light and sound by thinking about the color wheel (circular, but a tiny fraction of the spectrum of light waves) and the musical helix (like a slinky that represents a tiny fraction of the spectrum of sound waves), but the difference is irreconcilable imo.

More importantly, when used structurally, sound and light become what we know as art, the perception of which is dependent on both the artist and the observer. Not everyone's eyes see the exact same color because the medium through which light and color are observed, the rods and cones in the retina, are flawed. Nobody hears the exact same sound because the medium through which sound and notes are observed, the ear and the marrow in our bones, are flawed.

This is exactly why artistic tastes come in many forms and art will be a consistent source of subjectivity until further notice.

Our rods only pick up red, green, and blue. Via whatever magic, our brains are able to take this 3-color processing and see millions of colors.

Sound works the same way. We get a mess of waves hitting our ears and our brains can parse it all into musical notes, instruments, jet engines, pans falling, and what-have-you.

All waves are noisy. We say the sky is blue, but in reality, it's a huge mix of colors with dominant spectra.

The only real difference is that we do better classifying light into discrete colors (mainly because it *is* more discrete). Classic example is white, which we all know is all the colors in a relatively even ratio. Piling sound on sound generates white noise. We simply can't process it and fail to describe it.

From a physical level, there isn't a whole lot of difference between sound waves and light waves. They are each described by the same equations. Our brain treats them both the same way.

Interesting. Can you reconcile why music sounds terrible backwards, while football replays make much more sense played backwards?

We've lost the beret and the Dickies and are going for the Jedi Master look. I always stay tuned this net for the latest fashion trends.

Looking for a part in remake of Andrei Rublev. . BTW, cashmere hoodie.

As 2018 comes to a close I always reflect on the past year as far as my fitness goals go. This year was pretty good. I just looked up my stats on my fitbit for 2018 totals. I wanted to get in 10 miles a day in walking and I did it.
3817.55 miles (10.45 per day)
8450921 steps (23153 per day)
5262 flights of stairs (14.41 per day)

I really wanted to get more stairs in so that will give me something to shoot for in 2019. Also since I turn 65 this year I have already signed up for my medicare advantage plan which starts in March. I am looking forward the Silver Sneakers program which gives me free access to a variety of local health clubs. I have belonged to health clubs in the past but always found way too many excuses not to go but if I get if for free I can skip a few weeks and not feel guilty. I definitely want to step up my workout intensity this year and going to a health club if even infrequently can only help.

Have a Happy New Year Lounge! Don't get to crazy out there tonight I'm staying in with a few friends coming over.

Depends on what you mean by sounds. I think this is a more appropriate way of showing a sound wave:



Yes, that's a kick drum, but every instrument looks like that. At the beginning, you have the strike, followed by the body, and ending with the decay.

If you reverse that, you aren't getting the same thing, and it sounds strange. However... it doesn't always sound bad. In fact, reversed sounds are found in all sorts of music.

In the first case, you can create a clean sound save in an oscillator (or synth):



Clearly, if you reverse that wave, you'll get the exact same thing, which is boring.

Going back to the first wave, you can slice the strike and decay off to grab the body, then reverse it. This sound usually doen't sound that bad.

You can also reverse that sound to create a "riser," which is basically a "woosh" sound. This is used in music, and it's especially common in sound effects for TV shows and movies.

***

Reversing a tackle on tv isn't going to be as jarring because there is no attack and decay to much up the natural continuity of the image.

MrBaseball,

Was that miles based on steps during the day? A couple years ago I got close to a thousand miles walking, but that was just dedicated walks. Your total is amazing, and I'm resolved to get in twenty miles a week now.

Happy New Year, everyone. Resolutions I have none, but that's never stopped me before.

my resolution is to go easy on john for the whole new years day.

Happy New Year Loungers

Happy New Year, Everybody!

As we gripe and worry about the coming year and all the problems we have as it begins, always remember those who didn't make it to 2019, and that living beats not living!

...I think.