thoughts on the latest spencer krug recording

i've listened to a few tracks off this record, and i'll admit that i grasp why a pop audience would react positively to it - it sounds fancy. i'm not being an ass on purpose (although i probably couldn't prevent myself), but it's the basic idea. it gives you the opportunity to put down the garbage you normally listen to and feel sophisticated and upper class for an hour. and, maybe it might act as somewhat of a gateway.

but, it's just so terribly contrived. the cadences. the crescendos. it's blatant cliche, and clearly consciously designed to maximize itself as such. and, on top of that, he plays the instrument like a blunt poke in the eye - most of the record sounds like a player piano. not a sequencer. you can program dynamics into a sequencer. this is just straight artillery fire.

the guy has demonstrated potential. and his refusal to do what he's expected is definitely refreshing. but, i'm sorry to say that this is some of the deadest piano music that i've heard.

thoughts on the new pinkish black single

the last one took a bit to click, but it eventually did, and this is likewise a bit disorienting. you have to give this band full marks for a subtle evolution. but it comes with the caveat that they're getting harder to follow because they seem to be getting poppier and poppier.

this is moving slowly into something like spencer krug territory.

(that one record he did, organ music - not vibraphone music like i hoped, is actually uncharacteristically interesting. it's a saturated space, with a lot of mediocrity, but nothing hits you in the gut like a good, dark, smart synth pop song.)

nope. soundblaster is doing the same damned thing with no further drivers installed.

it's a windows problem. i knew it was a windows problem from the start. and i can fix it for a bit, but it never sticks.

i need to get groceries. but, i'm going to have to start breaking some stuff when i wake up. it's gotta be installing broken.

it may be that i have to break everything immediately and then install it all on top of that.

*sigh*. that got me nowhere. it's back to the bleeding on the m-audio card.

i'm going to take a step back and test with the soundblaster on an m-audio non-install, because i don't think it's doing this. if i can convince myself of this, i'll try leap-frogging the m-audio install and testing directly with the mixer.

i don't actually use the m-audio card for recording. i put it in the system years ago as a playback card, meant for more living room type applications. if the setup is stable without it, it's not worth fighting with it - i'll just take it out.

on 800th thought, i'm getting the same outcome from the m-audio card on immediate install, without even turning the mixer on, suggesting the conflict is probably with the soundblaster. and, listening to some stuff i've done over the last year indicates it's definitely not the setup i've been using.

so, i'm back to checking things on and off, one at a time. at least i have a reduced set of options, this time.

yeah, this driver conflict is persistent. and, to be entirely honest, i don't really have the will to resolve it - i just want it to be stable so i can get back to actually making stuff.

hopefully the following plan is workable. i'll have to test it...

1) restrict the wdm to the m-audio card. that is, do not install the wdm drivers for the alesis device.
2) only use asio to interact with the alesis device.

i think that this will avoid conflicts. and, if i can determine that the outs are essentially interchangeable, it won't matter much.

after i've tested this a bit, i'm also going to see if i can find an asio media player. foobar ought to work, but i can't find an xp-period component.

both devices can connect over asio. i don't think there's a conflict over asio, it seems to be specifically in the kmixer. but i guess we'll see.