Concert Jamming
My favorite band is the Dave Matthews Band; I think I have seen them in concert about 40 times. This summer they are coming around again so I guess my “concert count” will be up to 43 by the end of July. If you have ever seen them you probably know that the parking lot before the concert is also an event in itself.
One of my favorite parts of the Dave Matthews parking lot experience is all of the amateur musicians. It’s been my experience that you can’t walk 50 feet without seeing pockets of people sitting around jamming. I have made some great recordings and even better friends during these impromptu jam sessions. A guitar and my handheld recorder are great icebreakers and a promise to email the recordings to the other musicians usually good for a couple of beers.
A while ago I picked up a handheld recorder just to play around with and realized it invigorated my love for music. The model I got was cheap but since it was so useful I decided to upgrade my equipment and it was well worth it. The model I have now is the Zoom H2N handheld recorder. It gets unbelievable battery life, better storage options and just plain sounds better than my last recorder. I’m a huge believer in only getting Products with Rebates since I don’t have money to burn. I also love the idea of getting a deal. So, if you are an amateur musician like me you may want to look into picking up a Zoom H2N recorder, they are great.
Here are some of my favorite features
- 5 built-in mic capsules
- Records in WAV up to 24-bit/96kHz and MP3 up to 320kbp
- Data recovery function protects against unexpected recording errors
- Over 20 hours of operation using two standard AA batteries
- Operates on battery, AC or USB bus power
- Accommodates up to 32GB SDHC memory cards
They Need to Plan Better
Its a hot one today. I’m not sure what the actual temperature is but right now I’m sitting inside this metal building until the air conditioning kicks in it might as well be 100 degrees. I guess they didn’t expect it to warm up as fast as it did because the facilities crew didn’t decide to turn on the AC until we came this morning. So, it will probably take the entirety of the day for it to really get the temperature under control. Well, I guess the good news is that tomorrow it will be nice and comfortable by the time I come into work. However, in the future it would be nice for the facility manager to actually look at the weather report.
