Wednesday, January 10, 2007
A New Musical Era
As most of you know, or can probably guess, I am a lover of music. I listen to all kinds, except perhaps heavy thrash, rave and boy/girl bands. Other than that, I'm open to just about anything.In particular I like rock, jazz, classical, easy listening and on the odd occasion, country. I would not be the man I am today, nor would I be able to survive, without reggae and ska. This is the music that gives me life. It is in my blood.
Over the years I have built up quite a vast amount of music in my collection. I have around 100 vinyl records, mixed between 7", 12" and LP, and mostly from the 80's and 90's. I also have around 300 cassette tapes, which contain all manner of things like copied albums, bootlegs, radio versions, and interviews.
When CD's became the main format my collection kept growing, and when I moved in with my now wife, we combined our collections to bring the total number in our house to around 300 CD's.
While I am able to listen to any CD I want, whenever I want, I am unable to listen to my vinyl and cassettes, an activity I used to partake of a Sunday afternoon. This is because when we moved home my stereo system (5-CD rotator, double cassette deck and turntable) were no longer required and relegated to the attic. Along with it went my boxes of vinyl and tape. A sad end to a glorious life.
The problem is I still want to listen to the music contained on those formats, but can't because of the manner of their retirement. The ideal solution would be to find a way of transferring all my vinyl and tape to CD, then I can keep the originals in safe storage, not annoy Gail with all my music lying around, and be able to listen to any of it whenever I want.
Today I found the answer to all my problems.
It's the USB Turntable!
Basically, this is a turntable that you attach to your PC through the USB port, thereby allowing you to convert easily to MP3 or CD format. In other words, you can transfer all your inaccessible music to digital format, preserving it forever and brining it once more into the category of "today's music".
It's not cheap though. At £120 it's dearer than your average turntable but it'll be worth it to transfer all my hidden tunes onto CD. I'm getting one. I can't afford not to.
I did a lot of work on Stella today, finishing up the new cover letter and tightening the synopsis. I'm still working through the manuscript and I seem to be removing more and more chunks of superfluous text. Can't be a bad thing I'm always being told.
The new novel idea is still percolating nicely. No notes taken as yet because it still needs a few doses of spice to make it into a worthwhile project.
I also have another novel vying for my attention but in a different way. An idea has come to fruition, another DI Lennox novel, but this one is really heavy in the historical stakes. It's the history that gave me the idea, and that hopefully I can build Lennox's first full case arouns since he was involved with Slick. It will need a vast amount of research, so I reckon this could be one for later in the year or even 12 months time. I won't rush it, and I shall research thoroughly, as per my GDR vow.
So I have a lot on at the moment; two novels bubbling away in my head, setting up the freelance side professionally, publishing Poolside Poetry, and of course the endless cycle of promotion/marketing.
Sometimes I just don't know where to start. Thank God for those GDR's. If I could only rid myself of the day job!
PS - Happy Birthday to my old pal Rod Stewart. 62 today ya old duffer! ;-)
Colin 1:22 pm
2 Comments:
That's a lot of album's you've got. :)
Saw you on bksp.org and thought I'd jump over and say hi.
Saw you on bksp.org and thought I'd jump over and say hi.
Col, Let me know how you get on with the turntable. I was looking at them a couple of months ago and wasn't sure whether to get one or not. You can be my Guinea Pig. LOL.