theLiveCast.com

So I’ve had to put the project on hold for a little while. I put too much money in up front expecting to be able to continue for a while before needing to tackle the purchase of a new computer. My narcoleptic Powerbook obviously had a different opinion on things. It has put me into an unplanned hiatus.

I still have work to do on Kangaroo, She Keeps Bees, and Second Story Man before posting those. Mixing down has proven to be challenging when the computer won’t stay awake for 30 minutes straight. I’ll continue to work on those, but will be avoiding any new shows recordings until I can get the laptop repaired (over a grand) or replaced (probably double the price). Being of limited financial means compared to overflowing ambitions, I’ll be waiting a while.

If you are interested in helping out with the free laptop approach mentioned in the last post…click here http://freemacbookpro.com/index.php?referral=641714

Hey [Friend’s Name],
Check out this site freemacbookpro.com.
They’re giving away the new macbook!
Click here: http://freemacbookpro.com/index.php?referral=641714
Thanks!

Seriously though…Last night during recording (of course), my Powerbook G4 went to sleep. It’s been doing this for a few weeks now. Suddenly and with no warning, it randomly goes to sleep. To wake it up sometimes you close the screen and open it to a “normal” waking after an abnormal sleep, but other times (most times unfortunately) you have to remove the battery and power supply then try to turn it on, draining its power, and starting over through a full boot process.

If I was only using it for checking email and stuff, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but in the middle of recording for the site, it gets a little extra frustrating. When you check out The Love Story’s set in a few weeks, it will be spliced somewhere in the middle because of the shut down. Same thing happened with Lucero’s set.

I know these referral sites seem cheesy, but I have my iPod because of one of them. It really does work. Asking for 20 referrals from all of the people listening to theLiveCast now seems like a less daunting task than finding another $2500 to put into the project. So if you don’t mind helping out, follow the link and sign up for any of the ridiculous things they have on there. If you complete that I’ll get credit. 20 of you do it and I get a new laptop that won’t go to sleep cutting out precious recording time during a live set. They have all kinds of things you can sign up for from Blockbuster and Netflix memberships to credit card offers and learn-to-use-your-Windows95 disks.

As well as helping out the site, you could get yourself a free computer while you’re at it. Just bug all of your MySpace friends until you get 20. Thanks for the help and hopefully, we can get 20 signed up and get that laptop in the mail before the next session. If it ends up being who I think it is, none of us will want to miss any of that set.

As I approach the end of mixing for Follow The Train, I’m thinking about making time for single set posts for the first two episodes. It will save me bandwidth and make it easier to hear the set/band you want when you are navigating your music player of choice.

I have no idea when I’ll have time to get all of them accomplished so I’d like your opinions to help me prioritize the work. There is a poll in the sidebar for you to cast your vote.

Reminder: we’re capturing Lucero on Friday. Stay tuned for that one. It should be a great show.

Friday most of the gear arrived for the first version of the rig. We’ll be doing hardware setting tweaks, software configuration, and load testing over the next couple of days in preperation for the recording this weekend. Wish us luck. Hopefully, the rig accomplishes what it is supposed to without any major troubleshooting.

I received word today that we’ll be getting a lot of support from Pro Co. We’ll be getting a splitter snake, some XLR and instrument cables, and some DI boxes. Thanks to Pro Co for the gear. We’re that much closer. We can now pull off any live gig under 24 channels. We’re just waiting for microphones so we can upgrade the mics in any lesser equipped venues that might be encountered.

We’re proud to announce that we are members of the artist endorsement program for Presonus. We’ll soon be ordering our recording interfaces taking us one step closer to bringing the first liveCast. Hopefully everything can be in place for the Yo La Tengo show on 1/25. Pro Co, are you ready to see your company up here?

Check out our pages for information about the project, our equipment plans, and a list of current endorsers. We’ll be doing a lot of development in the coming weeks and preparing our rig for the first live show podcast. Stay tuned for updates to the rig, sponsorship information, and our first shows we’ll be liveCasting.