4/12/2025 Help! Some idiot has set fire to our retirement savings. Will the law ever catch up with this guy?
With spring, software is also blooming here with the release of my as-simple-as-possible [free]
WebMIDI Recorder app
that lets you record notes coming out of your keyboard into raw midi files.
While the ability to easily make corrections and changes to a MIDI-recorded performance is hugely beneficial, it is also, usually, a huge pain in the ass that leaves you wanting to cause physical harm to your computer. Recording anything with a computer always seems complicated and distracting but dealing with MIDI devices feels much worse. For the app, I tried to eliminate as many steps as possible: you literally press one button to begin recording. My WebMIDI Recorder info panel has more details.
For those following the saga, this mix includes a new drum part, a new bass part, new lead vocal with some silly-fast modulation (panned hard right) and an Eventide Rotary [speaker] plugin on a pump organ. Remarkably, this recording started as a first (and only) run through of the song I did with my friend Ken Shano at a jam last month. Ken was killing it so we just kept playing the main vamp for, probably, too long but the performance had stable enough timing to try overdubbing some other instruments, which I've been doing. The tempo is a tad slow but obviously excellent for soloing over on guitar. Since you've been so patient, here is a bit from the end where Ken was bringing it home:
Enjoy - Bob
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.
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.
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.
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.
Music by Bob Sellon and friends. Features drums by Frank Sarcia, guitar by Ken Shano (Big City Wedding Band) , bass guitar by Jim Fabiano and piano, vocals, guitars and brass by Bob (me).
My online metronome lets you set the tempo, choose a sound and to save different settings for quick recall. Check here for more info or go directly to the metronome here.
4/10/2025 Updated! The ST Metronome now includes a precision mode, the ability to set the number of beats per second, a reverb level adjust, an accent level adjust and more.
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
Also visit NoMuseIsBadNews.com and my No-Muse journals.
And because I love you, I created a Spotify list of the complete series: No Muse Is Bad News Complete
A new free web app for keeping track of equipment going to and coming back from gigs we're calling "Checklists" is now available. Check the info page for details or go right to the app here .