If it worked on steam, I'd be fine

[crystaljuggler]

I've not been around here long, but as I'm browsing, I may as well post some thoughts. I could blog, but I don't, and couldn't anyway at the moment, as will all become clear.

So far I'm several months into this whole studio project, and I've been fighting against the hardware from pretty much day one. Even before it arrived. For example, I ordered a pair of Event ASP6 studio monitors, got an email saying they had been discontinued, did I want them to send me something else or cancel that part of the order? I told them to cancel, then the next day I received... a speaker. Just the one. What they expected me to do with it I don't know, but it took a lot of messing around to get it sent back and refunded.

Then the mixing desk, which took a while to organise, and as detailed elsewhere, hasn't played nicely with the rest of my system, which is a bit crap when the PC cost the better part of a grand. Then I had it all running for a while, until the massive RAID5 array fritzed itself (or Vista fritzed it, possibly) and I lost all the data that was supposed to be in a redundant, failsafe place. I tried hard, but couldn't get it back. That sucked a bit.

Other things, like trying to get a Rode NT1A microphone in time for a recording session, and finding out that none of the stores near me that generally have them in stock, and had them in stock before I needed one, have one when I need one. The Firewire card that was supposed to be delivered to my home address but didn't get there in time and couldn't be redelivered to my work address so I had to go haring down country lanes on my lunch hour to the depot to discover that they'd sent it out for delivery again and I had to do the drive again the following day.

And now it seems we're having power cuts, one of which a few days ago fried some part of my web and mail server, which I set up many moons ago and now I haven't the faintest idea how it works - the joy of FreeBSD is that you can set it up and forget it. I've got it working now, sort of, but I'm too scared to turn it off in case it doesn't come back up and I never receive the email from Allen and Heath that I'm waiting for. So I'm not about to try anything crazy like reinstalling everything until I know I can do it properly.

All this, I'm sitting in a mass of cables in my lounge with computers spilling their innards onto the carpet and operating system disks everywhere, and I find myself wondering why on earth I should be thinking of going any further into this studio lark, when I've been living in electronic hell for four months. I'm in it this far though, and I console myself with the thought that when I get it all up and running, and stable, and failsafe, and I find the time to use it, and the energy to create with it, there will be some great reward.

For now, though, if anyone's got a cave, far away from computers, gadgets, electricity, running water, musical instruments and day-jobs, that they wouldn't mind lending me for a few years, get in touch

[Chad_Rushing]

I hear the Taliban is looking for a few good cave dwellers...

[crystaljuggler]

I hear they're not big fans of music or dancing, either - perfect!

I have finally managed to get it all (mostly) sorted out now, which is a relief, and it actually seems to be doing what I designed it all to do. I'd still like a cave though, only now I want solar power...

[garageband]

that when I get it all up and running, and stable, and failsafe,

This is not the nature of the beast. A Harley rider is a Harley fixer.

[Chad_Rushing]

They like making videos though...

Harleys... I like em... and I hate em... And I like to hate em.

I have to say, life would be simpler without all the annoying shit we have now. Not nearly as convenient... but simpler...

[crystaljuggler]

'Ting is, I have no problem fiddling with the innards of the machine, tinkering with the drivers, fiddling with this and that - I wouldn't be half the nerd I am today if I hadn't had to rewrite autoexec.bat umpteen times per machine back in the days of DOS. However, it would be a really hardcore Harley fanatic who took his whole bike to bits every weekend because the new indicator stalk he'd installed randomly made the brakes fail when he applied them at 33% while travelling at 67MPH, for no obvious reason.

What has actually been a revelation has been using a Playstation 3 over the last few weeks. I plug things in, they work. I ask it to do something, it does it. Given that I've been working with everything from Cyrix to AMD to Intel across at least eight operating systems for nearly fifteen years (never had a Mac, so be quiet, you smug people) it's a pleasure to find something that actually just does what it says on the tin. Can't run audio stuff on it though, so that's something that will have to wait. In terms of the user experience though, it can't be beat.

One day, there will be a single corporation that makes everything electronic, and that day will be both joyful and sad.