Friday 19 June 2009

StoxDvds...get them here !

To watch a FREE Video Preview,
CLICK PLAY

Filmed by me on full size VHS camcorder, almost complete Belle Vue meeting, May 1986...Bobby Ball appeared
Highlights also of a Sheffield 1987 meeting

..and some later 2004 footage of the Heritage cars from new Belle Vue

Sunday 14 June 2009

Saturday 13 June 2009

Dishpointer...line up your Sat dish

Just choose your Satellite from the dropdown list, then enter your Postcode or town in the box below that -

Thursday 4 June 2009

The lost Stereo LP...found !

My previous post A Journey into Stereophonic Sound tells of my first experience of Stereo heard via an old (mid '60s) Vinyl Demo LP. I'm pleased to say I now have that recording, you can hear it all in the Player below...click the Play button -

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Sharing a Multitrack project using Reaper

There's been some confusion about how to share a project amongst us using Reaper. I've come up with the method below.

Huge improvement in Filesize, 50mb instead of 500mb for a Project, with no perceivable quality drop...amazing.

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0. NEW DEFAULT PROJECT SETTINGS

File > Project Settings > Audio Settings > Audio format for new recordings:

Set to OGG VORBIS, and go with its defaults.

Click bottom right to SAVE AS DEFAULT PROJECT SETTINGS

1. EXPORTING A PROJECT

File > Consolidate/Export Tracks:

Ensure ENTIRE PROJECT is checked top left, choose CONSOLIDATE TO, and in the dropdown box, OGG VORBIS,

Leave at defaults (192khz etc).

In Output consolidated files to directory, click the Browse button, and choose or make a new Directory, maybe c:\audio\songname ... this will convert all individual tracks to OGG format, and also Save a reaper.rpp file, plus some peak files (not strictly needed, but OK to include).

Click the Process button.

2. ZIPPING & UPLOADING

To send on for mixing, close Reaper, and Browse to your directory c:\audio\songname ... highlight all the files there (Left-click once on 1st file, then hold down Shift key, and Left-click the Mouse on last file, all will be highlighted). Whilst they are ALL highlighted, Right-click once anywhere on the highlight, and choose SEND TO then COMPRESSED (zipped) FOLDER ... you will see the files being added to a ZIP file named like your files.

Go to -

www.sendspace.com

Click BROWSE there, find the ZIP file, click on it .. it appears in the box ready for Upload ... enter Recipients Email, tick box bottom left to agree terms, and click UPLOAD .... once done, a link is sent to the Recipient ready for Download, and also appears onscreen.

3. DOWNLOADING & IMPORTING A PROJECT

When Recipient has the File, he UnZips the contents to a Folder in his working Audio directory, then a simple left doubleclick on the SONGNAME.RPP file will load all tracks locally into his Reaper prog, maintaining all PAN / VOLUME etc settings, as seperate tracks.

All of the above also applies if you use the excellent FLAC format...just substitute FLAC in the dropdown menu instead of OGG ....filesize is roughly double that of OGG, but totally lossless.

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Hope this all makes sense ! As a Proof of Concept, here's my cover version of "Driver's Seat" project, play about with it as you wish, its at -

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ckf9ju


Monday 1 June 2009

Why the name....Rocles ??

I get asked a lot...why the name Rocles? It goes back a long way, mid 90's...I am a licensed Radio Amateur, and way before the Internet, used to have a Packet Radio system. This was a very crude version of data transmission, where text, images, programs etc could be sent (VERY slowly!) via the radio airwaves wirelessly around the world. It used a system of "Nodes" each of which relayed to another, and another, forming a remote Network. Each Node needed an Alias. As I lived near ROChdale at the time, and i'm called LES, I put the two together, and ROCLES emerged :)

I've stuck with it as it sounds a bit musical (Roc/Rock..), so fits well with Home Recording....

So there you have it.......