Okay, we're ready for the warmth now please
3/13/2025 Spring is near and we are ready for it. We're still feeling the temperature dip below freezing from time to time but getting some remarkable days here in New England. All the more remarkable due to the foul weather that preceded them. Our fancy-pants downstairs boiler is boiling away, heating us up but ringing the register in the extended cold snaps that have come through this winter. We're just grateful for the heat.
Though I had high hopes of bringing you my Road Trip album live this year, schedules were just too tight for some of the players who have decided to step down. Though I'm still eventually going to put together a live band for doing original material, the vetting process and nearly a year of rehearsals down the drain has taken its toll on me and I'm pumping the brakes on it for a bit. Similarly, a new duo I had in the works has come apart as well sending me back to square one as far as live performance goes this spring. On the plus side, my keyboard chops have benefited greatly from all the rehearsals, already bearing fruit on new original material I've been working on with my long time musical collaborator, guitar extraordinaire, Ken Shano. I'll be posting some samples here soon.
I've been doing a ton of work on my StecTools library this winter and one of the more complete projects is a new web-based checklist system I put together for keeping track of equipment going to and coming back from gigs I'm just calling Checklists. Check boxes are provided for each list item to indicate if they have been "loaded" and for when they are "returned". The background of the list turns red if one or more of the "loaded" checkboxes are checked and the associated "returned" checkboxes are unchecked. When all the "loaded" and "returned" checkboxes are checked, the background turns green.
With one item not returned:
With all items returned:
Be sure to press the Enter key to lock in any changes to list or item names and press the Save button to save everything.
Get more information on the Checklists page I set up for the app.
Be well. - Bob
The No Muse Journals
I'm trying out some new artwork for the No Muse series.
And, yes, there are worse pictures of me. - Bob
| Vol. 1 | Vol. 6 |
| Vol. 2 | Vol. 7 |
| Vol. 3 | Vol. 8 |
| Vol. 4 | Vol. 9 |
| Vol. 5 | Vol. 10 |
"I really love the No Muse Is Bad News music. I just can't get enough of it. " - someoneijustinvented
Tone Generator
Beep, boop, boup. Yes. This does nothing but generate annoying test tones.
more..
"But, why? The world is annoying enough!". Thats`s true, especially when it is distorted. And I don`t mean idiots distorting the truth, though they are certainly annoying (and counter productive), I`m referring to distortion you hear when you are listening or playing music through speakers. It can be difficult to isolate the distortion on liars but for audio systems (i.e. speakers), test tones can help you quickly isolate problems.
The ST Oscillator (tone generator) is free and reqires no installation but will generate sine waves (tones), square waves, triangle waves and saw-tooth waves at frequencies from 20Hz to 20kHz.
Note - Set the volume low before turning on your speakers and Un-muting. It can be loud.
ST Sound Pads
The Sound Pads panel lets you trigger/play built in drum and percussion sounds on your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer.
The buttons 
play softer near the edges.
Check Your Numbers
The StecTools Budget Calculator is a simple page for comparing profits and costs for things like musical events.
more..
Anyone who has worked doing live music knows that it is next to impossible to earn a living wage from it. Though I don't have some magic solution, I did put together this simple online tool to help you find ways to improve your profitability. You might use the tool to determine how many seats you need to fill for everyone to get paid for instance.
The tool has two main sections: an Expenses section and an Income section. Expenses might include the cost to rent a hall or pay for each of the musicians and other staff. Income includes ticket sales as well as things like merchandise or sponsors. As you change the values in each of the fields the tool automatically recalculates the total income, the total expenses and the overall total (income minus expenses). By dropping different numbers into the quantity field of for tickets for instance, you can see where the breakeven point is for number of tickets verses the ticket price. You know that you will have to fill less seats if the ticket price is high enough but knowing exactly how high is useful information.
Road Trip
Check out my Road Trip album on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and almost 20 other stores or my dazzling Road Trip console.
All of the songs from the Road Trip album are now available as separate [audio] videos on my
"Bob Sellon" YouTube channel.
Play
Music by Bob Sellon and friends. Features drums by Frank Sarcia (owner and operator of Port City Laundry), guitar by Ken Shano (Big City Wedding Band) , bass guitar by Jim Fabiano and piano, vocals, guitars and brass by Bob (me).
ST Metronome
My online metronome lets you set the tempo, choose a sound, set the reverb level and to save different settings for quick recall. Check here for more info or go directly to the metronome here.
No Muse Is Bad News Vol. 1
Beginning October 11th I'll be doing weekly releases of songs from the
2015 No Muse Is Bad News
shows beginning with a series of solo performances of myself on piano/keyboards and vocal. Stay Tuned.
Road Trip - Live!
We're taking Road Trip LIVE! For several months I've been working with some great musicians to bring the Road Trip album to the stage and may be doing appearances as soon as September 2024. Stay tuned.