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NEWS UPDATE ... from Hayne Davis ...October 29, 2024... November 19, 2024 ...
eMail- DaviSound at DaviSound dot com ... Text- 803 - 944 - 7972
PAGE INDEX:
January 21, 2024 - DaviSettling In 2024 I February 9, 2024 - DaviScariest ... A I or R I ? I March 26, 2024 - '' DaviSouth...DaviSick...DaviSpace '' I April 30, 2024 - '' DaviShortest? '' I May 31, 2024 - '' DaviSurvived...DaviSidelined...(Again!)... '' I June 30, 2024 - '' DaviSelebrating '' !I July 27, 2024 - '' DaviScratching '' July ! I August 29, 2024 - '' DaviSimple DaviSolar '' I September 26, 2024 '' DaviSoldering DaviSeptember '' I September 30, 2024 '' DaviSeptember Addendum '' I October 29, 2024 '' DaviScaryHalloweenELECTION Season! '' I November 19, 2024 '' DaviSaddened'' I
TO DAVISOUND MAIN INDEX TO DAVISOUND NEWS ARCHIVES
November 19, 2024
'' DaviSaddened ! '' ...
In the words of one of my long-time correspondent friends who texted....
"Well, it happened."
As much as I feared it as addressed last month, I really didn't think it could possibly happen....again. But, I should have known better. I never understood how we could have come to that low a bar the first time, let alone to have that same candidate forced on us as a possibility the third time. And, yet, look what happened. Even after all the daily lies, all the incompetence, corruptness, crimes and convictions, it was all overlooked and rewarded by the "RI voters", supposedly just because they don't like the current price of groceries and who, in their shallowness, place that blame entirely on the Democrats.
However, unlike the last election, this time there actually was/is some reason to doubt the results because of the Musk and Russia alliances and some very unusually strange voting patterns.
It has all caused me to practically be actually sickened in disappointment, not particularly because of some political obsession, or even the host of incompetent, willfully destructive and undeniably corrupt stooges in the incoming administration, but mostly because the majority, slim as it may be, of our electorate in this country no longer puts character, TRUTH, morality and democracy (as well as a host of other lacking virtues) above all else as their acceptable standards! They want to deport all the felons yet they gleefully elect a thirty-four time, peer-convicted felon as their "glorious leader"! Another blatant example of the many hypocrisies of today's double-standard Republican party! ANY thing and EVERY thing are acceptable for ''their side'' while NOTHING is acceptable for the ''other side''!
Starting at the top, I cannot begin to imagine how ANY father or mother could accept, let alone endorse, ANY of this incoming crowd named thus far as role models for their sons and daughters! Yet here we are. This IS the REALITY of today's America!
Yes, for those of us who care about decency, TRUTH over lies and reality over make-believe, and of course our democracy itself and our constitution, it TRULY IS sickening to ponder all of this American down-turn! As one of the old school moderators said after a debate in the 2016 campaign, "How in the world have we come to this?". (In reference to the nomination of an overblown reality TV host/unscrupulous con man). I wonder what he thinks now after nine more years of tumultuous societal sinking!
I also wonder what my father, and others of his WWII generation,would think about today's Republican Party with it's Nazi members! My dad was a lifelong Republican who made the choice largely for what it stood for in the ''old days'' and mainly, I think, because his former Allied commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower, became president under that party label. I just wonder what he would think of that party today and the scum they attract and welcome into it with open arms. As I mentioned in a prior post back in March on my Dad's birthday anniversary, he was a decorated World War II veteran who survived all FIVE major European campaigns. Having been among the first American combat soldiers to reach the infamous Siegfried Line, he spent Christmas of 1944 dug into the snow along the Belgium- German border in what was later to be labeled, ''The Battle Of The Bulge''. What do you suppose he would say about these ''Nazi-Trumpers'' in street parades and boat parades all across American streets and waters in recent years- some even on our local lake on the 4th Of July of all things?Way back in February, I wrote a lengthy piece which has, already to date, drawn more comments than most any other of my prior News Update posts. One of my long-time clients commented that I probably drew a lot of ''flack'' for it but, surprisingly it has all been positive so far- I guess that is because I have long ago run off all but the ''like-minded'' to this site!
TALK ABOUT SICKENING!
If you missed it, you can use the February link above or go directly to the excerpt I refer to here - EXCERPT . In that piece I mentioned that I, myself, although not politically motivated enough to align with any party in those days, leaned more toward the conservative center (I was actually too politically cynical to give it much concern in those days). I also mentioned how, in the early seventies, I ''coached'' my old college friend, and band mate, Lee Atwater in some of the manipulative advertising techniques I had learned during my early broadcast advertising career. Of course, Lee later became the ''godfather'' of ''bad boy'' style ''dirty politics'' and, no doubt, spawned much of the ''fear/hate'' propaganda tactics we have become infiltrated with today (but as I hinted at in that piece, I think even Lee would be appalled by some of what he would see today). He always felt that you could not run on policy in the south, but that you had to paint the other candidate as the ''bad guy'' in every way possible. He did that effectively ... and it usually worked.
Lee performing at the Bush inauguration in 1989.
And, with the president elect himself.
Lee with fellow South Carolinian, James Brown
whose custom demo studio console I built.
Lee really was a talented guitar player. Even though we only had three instruments in our little group, Lee, a drummer, and me on bass along with a vocalist, I always said it sounded like we had TWO guitar players because of Lee's stylings! Sometime, in a lighter vein, I will have to tell the story of how we managed to play TWO Christmas party gigs, a couple of miles apart, on the same evening via Lee's creative manipulation! He recorded an album in 1990 with B.B. King and others on Curb Records, entitled Red Hot & Blue. The title track from the album earned Lee a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Recording at the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards in 1991. He also performed with Paul Shaffer and his band in an episode of Late Night with David Letterman.
When I was driving home through Washington from an installation in New York in 1982, I was supposed to stop in at his Reagan Administration office in the White House that night for a ''jam session'' with some of his musical buddies of the day. But, I had to call and decline since I had been up all night the night before and was suffering from one of my worst ever migraine headaches that evening. I guess I am the only person in history to decline an invitation to a jam session at the white house!
The last time I spoke directly with Lee, he called to thank me for defending him in a newspaper letter to the editor about a recent column that had been written against him. I remember he said he was calling me from ''Bush's boat'' and that they, laughingly, still thanked me for passing along the term ''sheeple''.
But, as time went on I became more and more aware of what was actually going on in American politics and the more I learned, and the more I saw, the more I disassociated myself from the GOP. As others have said, I didn't leave the Republicans...they left me. I had already become impressed with the Bill Clinton administration and became a true convert when the Supreme Court actually did ''steal'' the 2000 election from Al Gore!
Truthfully though, I think all of those ''dirty politics'' tactics were mostly ''just a game'' for Lee, something he just enjoyed playing to the hilt. He was a born ''showman'' and manipulator and knowing him like I did, I really don't believe he ever considered the seriousness of what he was doing, and the legacy he was creating, until he was facing his own death bed. Then when he did, he shared the following statement and apology to America via LIFE magazine, around his birthday and shortly before he died, in 1991.
In a February 1991 article for Life , Lee Atwater wrote:
My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The 1980s were about acquiring – acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.
So, as I ponder this election and reflect, I wonder just what my old friend would actually think of his beloved GOP as it has evolved today. I won't speculate too much but, based on his own words and death-bed apologies to many of those he offended, I have to believe that he would also be SADDENED, as I am, as to what is now unfolding, and likely dismantling in the future, in our mutually beloved, USA! This current incoming crowd of power hungry, self-servers will most certainly NOT be ''speaking to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.''
George Carlin defined the difference in parties this way - ''Republicans care about property, Democrats care about people". I think Lee was realizing some of that in his last public statement. Of course it is not all that simple....we ALL care about our property and we certainly ALL care about our families. But, there is no doubt that American ambition has now evolved into the most stringent American GREED in our history and that most on the political right will now do, and sanction, ANYTHING for the sake of this GREED AND POWER. You don't have to look hard to see the evidence of this, it's everywhere! I also stand by my observations over the years that most of today's Republicans are either ignorant ( my term ''RI'' from earlier post) or corrupt, or both. Or, to put it more ''conservatively for the conservatives'', most of the right wing voters are either uninformed or misinformed, or both ....ask ANY of them the last time they watched a news network besides ''Fox News'' (pure propaganda) or looked beyond their little ''bubble group'' on social media.
So, HOW will we survive another four years of chaos and negativity like never before seen? That's a very good question and a very disturbing thought. But, as I said before when wrapping up one of these ''far afield pro audio news updates'', I guess we just keep TRYING to share our thoughts and TRYING to educate and TRYING to reason with the unreasonable....but it WILL be harder than ever before, for certain.
Next time I promise to TRY to be more upbeat here and concentrate exclusively on audio/electronics topics! Until then, thanks, as always, for joining me here and for making it this far though my ''election year vent''!
Hayne
October 29, 2024
'' DaviScaryHalloweenELECTION Season! '' ...
DaviScary HALLOWEENELECTION Season!
Well, just as the ''scary'' effects of the worst hurricane of my lifetime this past month are finally starting to dwindle (see below), now we are staring at the ''DaviScariest'' ELECTION of my lifetime bearing down upon us!
In just a few days, as I write this, we learn whether or not the American voting majority has gone completely oblivious to reality and voted our democracy and government, as we have always known it, into oblivion, or whether enough insight and morality has over-ridden propogated ignorance, fear and hatred enough to preserve it from outright fascism. Of course if the sane do prevail, as I hope and expect at this juncture, we still, no doubt, have plenty of ''DaviScary'' chaos resulting in the days and weeks (months/years?) that follow to keep our concerns foremost and dominant (from those deniers who will never accept truth and reallity).
Way back in February, in anticipation of this very SCARY SEASON...I wrote a little piece that is STILL getting email comments which further explains my concerns about the seriousness of the current political situation in our country. I usually make it a rule NOT to venture into politics in this little forum but the situation this time is SO VERY untypical and SO VERY SERIOUS that I felt I must make the exception and document a few observations that just might possibly make a positive difference to at least one or two voters. If you did not see it and would like to, here is an EXCERPT from that post back in February. This election it really is NOT about politics as usual, or party or policy, but rather about character, TRUTH, rule of law and American Democracy itself which are all on the ballot!
In closing this month's brief edition, let me veer back to the wonderful world of AUDIO (and in this case broadcast RADIO) for a bit (no digital pun intended!) and comment once again on the ''good old analog days'' and some of the gear many of us ''old timers'' grew up with. If you are not familiar with RADIO WORLD magazine, some of you might want to check it out as the on-line edition is readily available each month and often includes many interesting technical articles that bridge the worlds of pro audio and pro broadcasting.
A little while back in these updates, I did a piece on ANALOG TAPE and splicing technique which a few of you seemed to find interesting (and at least one of you found it humorous as well
I always had a stash of personal (yes, bought and paid for!) carts for my stuff so that management couldn't acuse me of tying up any of their precious (often limited) supply. Heaven forbid we take away commercial vehicles for creative entertainment programming pieces (in the case of some narrow mindedly managed stations...NOT the ones I worked at though!). I actually liked to have my own personal carts to carry with me back and forth every day in my brief case so that they would be safe from tampering and accidental erasure. I have always treasured these personal relics and held on to some of them down through the years but, alas, as we continue our move and relocation, so far I have NOT been able to run across this precious stash of old ''Fidelipacs''. Hopefully they will turn up somewhere yet as I would hate not to have at least one of these old souveniers of the days of analog tape gone by (not to mention the audio snippets they might contain, albeit no machine around to play them on!).
This past month, RADIO WORLD ran a little article all about THE CARTS OF OUR LIVES which I think many of you will find most interesting. Check it out when you can and, please, join me here again next edition for more DaviSound News Updates which will, HOPEFULLY, include a ''DaviSigh'' of RELIEF after the votes have been counted (assuming they have not been sabatoged!).
Oh and, if you are reading this beforehand, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
As always, THANK YOU for returning here and please join me here again next month for another ''DaviScribble''!
Hayne
September 30, 2024
'' DaviSeptember Addendum '' ...
HURRICANE HELL - ene !
This is one of those rare SECOND posts for the same month (following the one below on the 26th)!
As most of you no doubt have heard, we in the southeast have gone through ''Hurricane Hell'' since this past Thursday night with the arrival of Hurricane Helene!
In the wee hours of last Thursday night/Friday morning our area joined the millions with a total grid failure which is still continuing in most areas as I write this. I just received this text, below, from Duke Energy this evening-Duke Energy: Nearly all our customers in Upstate South Carolina lost power due to Helene. About half of these outages will require a major reconstruction effort. Thousands of crews are working in the area, including those that are repairing and rebuilding the transmission lines and substations in remote areas that send electricity to the distribution lines serving homes and businesses. We are making great progress and will restore customers throughout the week, with a majority being restored by Friday. We appreciate your patience, and we’re committed to getting everyone’s power back on as quickly as we can. Updates at duk.us/32. Text STOP to cancel.
Ironically, since I had just posted a little story about my modest solar setup here back in August, wouldn't you know that would be the most damage we suffered in our immediate location - just when I needed it the most! Of course I am most thankful that we did not suffer greater property damage (there were some more, rather minor, damages and tons of limbs and debris scattered everywhere but nothing really major compared to many in our area where nearly every other house has a large uprooted tree, often across the house!).
My main array was totally blown down and my smaller array was partially blown down. Our electric pontoon, which normally has a 600 watt array on it's top that could be tapped for use during an emergency, was also lost due to storm damage so no top/no solar there! I managed to piece together enough to keep our lights on and our fridge and freezer limping along enough to keep from loosing food storage (barely since it has been very little sun for the weakened battery banks!). Cell service and Internet has been slow and erratic but, thankfully, still up for the most part.
My wife and I drove around the county (in the places that have been cleared and where we could get through) yesterday and I have to say the damage we witnessed is truly unimaginable. And, we were just on the ''Eastern edge'' of the path. This is, BY FAR, the worst storm I have witnessed in my lifetime. While Hurricane Hugo was very destructive in Charleston and along the coast with a narrow path upstate to Charlotte back in '89, this thing was hundreds of miles wide and traveled hundreds of miles further! Many dozens of gorgeous 300 year old (and plus) oak trees were up-rooted in Newberry (and around our Lake Murray area as well) with most of them falling across, or into, adjoining houses! Roofs were torn and scattered and, in some cases, missing entirely. My childhood home, adjoining the old DaviSound building in Newberry, fortunately survived any major damages by ''just a hair'' as lifelong Walnut and Pecan trees fell beside and between both. The campus of Newberry College lost several of it's beautiful heirloom Oaks and the entire grounds are littered with fallen trees and limbs along with wind-blown debris. It's the same all over town (and most every other town from Columbia to Asheville and beyond!) with trees across roofs and doors/windows blown out etc. etc. The further one travels upstate, the worse it gets (from news reports).
But, the good news of course, is that injuries and loss of life, bad enough as they have been, could have been much worse. Of course reports are still coming in and there are hundreds still missing, particularly along the Western S.C./Eastern N.C. border. It is, by far, one of the worst situations I have ever witnessed, first-hand, in my 76 years (and there have been many other major storms and tornados in these parts all my life).
I wanted to jump in here and do this folllow up post (while I have good Internet service at the moment) and thank those of you who have reached out in email and texts inquring about our safety and wishing us well! And, of course, I wanted to update you on the situation here specifically as it stands. It will be awhile until we can get things ''cleaned up'' and ''back to normal'' but we are safe and we are functioning.
If you came here at the end of the month, as many of you do, for my usual last minute post, I remind you that I did the regular update a tad EARLY for a change back on the 26th so please scroll below for that one if you missed it.
I thank ALL of you again, sincerely, for ALL of your support and I hope to see you back here next month, ''same station''!
Hayne
PS- Please overlook any typos throughout since I dashed this one off in a hurry with only brief proof-reading. I am sure there may be some I missed!
September 26, 2024
''DaviSoldering DaviSeptember'' ...
Hello again and ''Happy Autumn''!
I mentioned last time that September, one of my favorite months, would both fly by too fast (as always) and this year be filled mostly with SOLDERING activity in my new work room. And, that it has!
I have also seen the email activity (and a few texts) pick up some this month too which I was most glad to see! I am ALWAYS glad to hear from, and personally correspond with, all my inquirors!
One email from an old, faithful client from abroad mentioned that I must be a ''tough old American'' (having weathered all the health issues of the past few years and still going) which I most appreciated. I don't know about ''tough'' per se, but I am most fortunate to have survived, so far, several major heart issues that many would not have- for that I am MOST thankful! I have always said that I would continue to build my audio products, on a select basis, as long as I was certain that I could still do the quality work that my clients, and I myself, expect. I would often say that, AS LONG AS MY EYES AND HANDS ALLOW ME TO SOLDER, and do the required intricate work properly, then I would continue.
Well, this month I have truly put that to the test... and, I am happy to say, I am still passing the test and then some! I actually don't feel/see much difference now at age 76 at the soldering table than I did when I was 46...and that's the truth! The main difference, I guess, is the increased awareness of the old ARTHRITIS plague all over the old frame at the end of the day!
I have been trying to tie up many of the loose ends on the various remaining, ongoing, projects around here that I owe all my loyal ''clients in waiting'' and that has involved DAILY soldering activity almost continuously during every work hour I could squeeze in this month (and there have been QUITE a few of them!). And, I expect this trend to continue on for the remainder of the year, at least.
Since ''DaviSoldering'' has been the theme for this month, I thought it might be appropriate to address the unique way we have always done our ''DaviSoldering'' in these parts or, more specifically, reflect on the UNIQUE way that our circuits are constructed. Of course, we have always had a section on the website fully addressing this very issue and I hope that ANYONE interested in DaviSound, past/present/future, would want to thoroughly read this section to fully understand WHY we do it the way we do- UNIQUE BY DESIGN ! But, in addition, I dug up a few photos here to kind of illustrate the evolution of these methods described in that section.
So, that's our little journey down ''Soldering Road'' for this month's edition. I hope it gives you a little more idea of just what goes INTO and INSIDE each DaviSound project and what all is required to make it all happen.
We began, of course, by building our circuits similar to what most everyone did in those days. However, since much of our work was ''one-off'' as they say, we often just used perf board (perforated board) to mount components and tied the leads protruding from the top underneath the board and then soldered. Then, when we needed many duplicate boards, such as with a multi-channel console, we began using PCBs- printed circuit boards similar to the industry norm. However, it wasn't long before I came up with the idea of SURFACE MOUNTING the components, as seen in the above photo of channel module circuits for a custom PA console, circa early 1980s. I honestly believe I was one of the first to utilize mounting components ON TOP of the board with no drilling holes for protruding leads. I had certainly never seen/heard of it at the time we began using it. This technique allowed for more rapid assembly without having to insert parts through holes and flipping the board over for soldering. Instead, all parts were simply laid on the copper solder pads on the surface and tacked down. The above PCBs were made with the traces HAND DRAWN on the board with resistive ink prior to etching
The above PCBs illustrate how we refined the etching/fabricating process for our PCBs utilized in our ''DaviSuperSystem'' consoles of the late 1980s. These were for input modules and sub-master modules of our 24-16-2 consoles of the era.These were made by first, hand laying the layout tape patterns , as per industry norm, and then photo etching processes were utilized to produce the boards in the traditional industry manner.
However, I NEVER liked anything about the whole PCB process. To me it was a nasty (some would say even ''toxic''), wasteful, somewhat expensive and time-intensive way to produce circuitry. I hated the idea of taking a piece of completely covered copper clad board and then etching away, with acid, about 90% or more of all that copper just to leave behind a few circuit traces to be utilized. So, I came up with another original idea that I pitched to my assistants in those days, who happened to be very talented and skilled lady craftpersons. Why not use their finely tuned skills with a soldering iron to simply hand lay each circuit WITHOUT ANY CIRCUIT BOARD whatsoever! I started experimenting with what became known as our ''AIRBORN'' circuit technique, an example of which is shown above. You can read more about why this is actually a far superior method to anything else by clicking the above link to our ''Design'' area. Although I now work entirely SOLO, I still use this method today. It can be a bit tricky and requires some tedious attention to avoid ''painting one's self into a corner'', but with the precise patterns and layouts developed over the years, it produces the uniquely special performers that have made DaviSound circuitry legendary world wide!
When the AIRBORN circuits are complete, ribbon cable is attached and the entire circuit is then encased in plastic housings to become our famous MasterPiece Modules which are the ''backbones'' of all DaviSound projects and Tool Boxes.
Among those emails received this month that I mentioned early on, was one from a reader in the United Kingdom commenting favorably on my little spiel about ''Artificial Intelligence'' back in February (scroll down or use this link- AI versus RI ). He also sent this amusing photo which pretty well sums up all I had to say in just a few words!
I read your News Updates every month and if I happen to miss one I always catch up the next month. I really enjoyed your piece about artificial intelligence. You are correct in that many of us in Europe often discuss with some amazement, and amusement too, just how ridiculous much of your political scene truly is (yet some of you might say the very same about us!). I ran across this photo of a sign the other day that I thought you might enjoy! Thanks for your insights that you share. I do enjoy them. K.L., Brighton, England
Thank you to ALL OF YOU who join me here every month for these little posts! I hope to share a lot of new, productive developments in the months ahead as we move through the final quarter of 2024 and I also look forward to your continued emails and texts!
Hayne
August 29, 2024
(In Memory Of Maggie Lee Franklin Davis, August 29, 1916 - May 27, 2011) Happy Birthday ''Maa'' !
''DaviSimple DaviSolar'' ...
Welcome to ''Dog Days Down South"!
Actually, the weather hasn't seemed quite as bad as usual for some reason (I normally detest August because of it) and, the dreaded month has almost slipped past with one of my usual favorites coming into view (''DaviSeptember'' !).
Let me say out front that , THANKFULLY, the back-slide on my health issues that I reported here last month is also slipping past along with August. So, I can now say, once again, that I am feeling much better and have had quite a productive ''DaviStretch'' here the past couple of weeks. The arrhythmia issues have settled quite a bit, and some of my old endurance has returned, so it feels great to be able to put most of that out of mind and get back to all the projects needing attention here.
One of the latest projects required a brief interuption to my DaviSound projects since it involved one of our three solar setups. So, I thought this month might be a good time to talk just a little about one of my other passions (aside from audio), SOLAR POWER (or more appropriately, SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY of any kind)! Since I was a very young man (back in the prehistoric days!) I have ALWAYS been fascinated with the idea of being energy independent. I loved the idea of being my own "power company"! When I initially built my first studio building, I had the small control room powered by a couple of large 12 volt batteries and a simple, homebrew, custom inverter. I ran all the audio gear and lighting on DC direct from the batteries and only used the inverter for tape machines and a turntable (remember vinyl records?). How did I keep this charged? Why with SOLAR of course! Solar panels were VERY, VERY rare in 1970 and even more EXPENSIVE! But, fortunately, I had a contact (former neighbor's husband) at NASA who steered me to a few surplus panels that I roof mounted and I managed to run that thing fairly sucessfully (except in the cloudy winter months) with just under 300 watts of solar! Of course, there were times when I had to ''cheat'' and plug into the grid to recharge since, as mentioned, the marginal setup just wouldn't cut it for even two cloudy days in a row.
My solar powered control room was fairly short-lived though since, as time went on and the operation grew, I had to quit "playing power company'' on that small scale and concentrate on growing the business. However, I never lost my enthusiasm for self sustainability. When we did media installations back in the early '90s my work vehicles were all inverter equipped and supplemented with small portable solar panels.
When solar started becoming readily accessible with panels imported from China, along about the time I vacated my old facility and began working from a dedicated back room in our Newberry home, I set up a small system to power that work room independently. I was amazed at how efficiently it worked and with just a few hundred watts of solar and two deep cycle marine batteries, I was able to use that setup exclusively for many years (until I moved into my new work space here at our Lake Murray location just recently). Using all LED lighting and a small inverter, I NEVER had to worry about running low on capacity even during the cloudy winter months although there were times when I would have to watch and monitor my useage very carefully. Of course, I could always switch that room over to grid power if need be but I enjoyed the idea, and the fact, that I never once had to!
Even prior to my relocation to my home workroom, I had supplemented the old DaviSound facility with solar again in the early 2000s as well as converting my mother's neighboring house to completely off-grid in the latter two years prior to the sale of her property.
Now, my solar setups here at our small lake cottage setting are VERY modest compared to most (for example my stepson Jason's 16 Killowatt rooftop system with LiFePO4 off-grid battery support!). But, while we are still grid-tied, I can power our house as well as our out-buildings with the setups when desired or required. All together I only have about 2700 watts of nominal, well used, ''hodge podged'' solar panels and, of course, the simple rigs never quite live up to that efficiency. But, I have over 1500 amp hours of combined battrery storage capability and I can switch the three systems in any combination to power whatever is needed or desired. I also have a small 500 watt, low mounted, wind turbine which contributes marginally from time to time whenever a substantial wind finds it's way into the narrow corridor location (but it can be quite helpful at times, especially on windy nights!).
This is one of my three ''power stations'', adjoining my neighbor's back yard. Our storage shed as well as our new building are beside it to the right (not shown). This little array is primarily used for the new building and my new workroom.The storage shed itself is powered by a large, separate 300 watt panel, courtesy of Jason, (also not shown). But, as mentioned, all systems can be combined in multiple combinations if desired.
This is a partial view of my other rig on the other side of the house. I also have 600 watts of top-mounted panels on our electric pontoon boat (not shown) which includes an on-board 2000 watt inverter that can also be tied into the other systems when/if desired.
Of course, the more things you have, the more you have to maintain. And, this month found me having to troubleshoot TWO of my inverters on separate occasions with one requring major rebuilding. I also had to repair one of the solar setups from resulting storm damage earlier. So, all of that was somewhat a detrerrent to my work on the ongoing DaviSound projects but, fortunately, all was accomplished in a fairly timely manner and some progress has also been made in the workroom as well. I will get into more detail on some of that here next month since it will certainly prove to be continuing on into another ''DaviSoldering DaviSeptember'' as we move into ''Indian Summer''!
I have long wanted to talk about my modest little solar setup to show that you do NOT have to have an elaborate rooftop system to enjoy, and reap the benefits, of sustainable energy. I hope that my little example might inspire and encourage any of you who have had inclinations to experiment with renewable energy, especially solar, to go ahead and start exploring the many options that are out there today. Solar has never been more affordable and with the advent of the portable ''plug & play solar generators'' that have become so popular in recent years, it has never been more easy to get started! I didn't start out wanting to ''save the planet'' back in 1970 when I first got the ''bug'' but that is a VERY nice side effect of the hobby as well! The more emissions we can save the better! I am not TOTALLY electric here since we have two gasoline vehicles in addition to my old, well-used Nissan Leaf, my electric lawn mowers and our electric pontoon boat (and, of course, our eBikes that we love to ride when able!). But, I am all for an ALL ELECTRIC future when it finally does happen! Believe me, it is the most EFFICIENT way to power EVERYTHING ... never let the ''know-it-all'' sophomoric (''sophomoronic'') naysayers convince you otherwise!
So, once again, I THANK YOU for joining me here and I hope you will be back next month as we ''DaviSolder'' our way well through ''DaviSeptember''!
July 27, 2024
''DaviScratching'' July ! ...
Yes, I am afraid that I pretty much have to "DaviScratch" off most of the month of July, '24, as far as any major progress being made, after all. It seems I may have JINXED myself with that overly optimistic "DaviSelebrating" post last month since July has been something of a disappointment and a backslide.
I, apparently, jumped back into full "high gear" a little sooner than I should have and found a myself soon facing a rude awakening with a few recurring issues. As a result, I have had to "DaviSlow" down again just a bit and go back to my full med dosages that I had reported were reduced last month. Then, along with my own ongoing health circumstances, my wife had one minor surgery already this month and is scheduled for another this coming Tuesday. So, therefore, July as been pretty much a "wash-out" for us here in terms of productivity.
While I am squeezing in a few hours of workroom time at every opportunity, those opportunities have been few and far between. August should be better but, at this point, I am afraid to predict just how much better-
don't want to JINX myself again!
It was also a very slow month for incoming texts and emails but I did get one follow-up to the post I did awhile back regarding the origin of the term "Flanging". This particular reader listed a few hit recordings that utilized "phasing" to some extent but, I had to point out, that what he was referring to was NOT the actual "flanging" technique that I had described. One such example that he mentioned was the Doobie Brothers classic, ''Listen To The Music''. But, as with the others he mentioned, this example simply utilized the analog processing of the day on one (or some) of the tracks of the multi-track recording. We used to build these analog "phase shifters" on a custom basis as well back in the late seventies which were, essentially, just automatically sweeping, frequency variable "comb filters" that combined signals to produce the "phasing" effect - close but not quite the same effect, nor the resulting sound, of actual "flanging"!
Well, I guess I will cut this one very ''DaviShort'' and aim for a bit more productive August down here (albeit typically the worst hot/humid month of the year for S.C.). As always, I DAVISINCERELY thank you for checking in here and, as always, I thank all you ''clients in waiting'' for hanging in with me through yet more unforeseen ''DaviSetbacks''.
Hayne
June 30, 2024
''DaviSelebrating'' ! ...
Happy ''DaviSummer'' holidays to all!
Yes ... I am celebrating a bit and, not necessarily because it is summer holiday time once again, but mainly because I am much better and have made MUCH progress toward recovery this past month (from my third heart attack and surgery described last month)!
I have been gradually getting back to my regular chores, including a few hours per week on DaviSound projects (along with daily physical therapy), and as another month winds down, I am most happy to report that I AM feeling my strength and stamina returning much more than I thought it might, especially so soon. My cardilologist check-up and lab work this past Friday went so well that they even reduced some of my heart meds and told me I was doing exceptionally well for someone who had endured what I had such a short time ago. All of this is so encouraging that I am now planning to be back on my old, regular work schedule just as soon as the holday break (this coming week as I write this) is past and we move into the second week of July. I know that you ''clients in waiting'' will be most glad to get this news just as I am glad to report it!
I want to, again, thank those of you who have reached out in email and texts to inquire about me during this most recent episode...that is ALWAYS encouraging and MOST APPRECIATED more than I can tell you!
A couple of posts back, I had written a piece about the origin of "Flanging" and promised I would do a follow-up on tape-editing the old fashioned way- with razor blades and splicing blocks ( or in my case....with demagnetized scissors - ''DaviSplicing''? No ''highlight and cut/delete'' existed back in those days!). Well, I may just let that wait until I can get a chance to find, and upload, some examples of some of this ''wizardry'' to our recently upgraded YouTube channel. That way you can hear exactly what I describe. We used to be fairly good at this technique so I think some of you might find it fascinating. By the way, if you have not subscribed to our channel yet (very few have), please do so. I'll try to dig out the link and post it at the end of this update. With all that has been/is going on, YouTube uploads have been/will be infrequent, but eventually numerous, in the months down the line.
There is one ''DaviSplicing'' story that I will go ahead and share with you now since it kind of falls into that old ''DaviSynchronicity'' category that I have talked about here from time to time over the years. I also think some of you may get a ''kick'' out of this little story. Back in the very early radio days, I was one of those, now admitted ''jingle thieves'' (hopefully the ''DaviStatute of Limitations'' has run out by now!
These audio/musical wonders were often just too much to resist for us smaller ''wanna-be-bigggie'' station programmers. Unfortunately, they were also FAR TOO EXPENSIVE for us small market stations to afford (or at least for us to convince management otherwise). So, often we would get a copy of another station's older series from a friend (or a ''friend of a friend of a friend'' etc.) in another market. We would then take snippets of the jingle, typically the intro or the end ''stinger'', without the other station's logo section of course, and add them into our own voice promo productions. This little bit of ''trickery'' became so commmon that, at one point, PAMS salesmen would ride around the country listening for stations using their copyrighted material in this manner and then pay them a little visit. This would then usually result in the station manager having to purchase a set of jingles, at top price, so as to avoid being sued for the copyright infringement (and typically the boot out the door of the ''theiving'' production guy as well!).
Well, the unique case in point that I want to describe here, that ''DaviSynchronicity'' situation, is truly one that just could NOT be resisted by yours truly! In late 1969, I left my Operations Manager job at WIXE, Monroe, N.C., and came back to Newberry to, once again, attend classes at Newberry College. I also went back to my old ''alma matter'' station, WKDK, to do the night shift. As I began updating their production, my old friend and partner/mentor from WIXE, Dave Hedrick, called me and told me he had something that I wouldn't believe. He had a pristine copy of a new set of jingles from a Nashville radio station that he knew would be right up my alley. Man was this an understatement. This had to be the jackpot of all jackpots for a, now well experienced, ''DaviSplicer'' jingle thief! Here is the deal ... the Nashville station was WKDA, 1240. We just happened to be ....WKDK, 1240! How coincidental (''DaviSynchronicity'') is that?
Well, as you may have guessed by now, all I had to do was to take the initial ''Kuh'' sound from their K, and intricately splice it into the very front of their A, and ...VOILA, WKDA then became WKDK and I could use their whole, entire set of jingles, AS WAS! Well, after many successive dubs of each cut and many hours of splicing and re-splicing, I was finally able to acheive a result that was so perfect that it would likely have fooled even the PAMS crew themselves had they heard it (thankfully they never did as far as I know!). Now, this was NOT as ''quick and easy'' as it might seem and this technique also required about as much luck as it did skill, but I was finally able to acheive success with most of the cuts - albeit one or two that came off sounding '' W-K-D-KayAy'' with the little extra waver on the end. But, all modesty aside, most of them were flawless! Hopefully, one day I can find a copy of these and include them into our forthcoming YouTube jingle collection.
Well, that's my little ''DaviSide DaviStory'' for this edition boys and girls. As always I thank you for ''tuning in'' and, as always, I invite you back here next month for another edition and more ''DaviSpecific'' news on DaviSound pro audio projects!
Happy 4th of July (and beyond)!
Hayne
YouTube - MCP DaviSound
May 31, 2024
''DaviSurvived...DaviSidelined...(Again!) ...
Well, here we go again.
The reason this month's post is last minute instead of early as promised last month... is because I almost wasn't here to post at all!
On Tuesday night, May 7th through Wednesday morning May 8th, I endured my third heart attack in three years (the last one resulting in open heart, triple by-pass surgery in October of 2021). Thanks to the wonderful staff of the Newberry County Hospital ER, I was stabilized enough to transport to Richland Heart Hospital in Columbia by ambulance for what turned out to be a 4 hour procedure in the cath lab to partially open my collapsed artery (the one they had NOT by-passed in my prior surgery) and finally place a life-saving stent. This one was a massive, major hit which, I am told, not many survive. So, I am indeed lucky and thankful to be here!So, here I am, once again, on a ''roller coaster'' recovery ride trying to regain strength and get back to ''normal'' activities. As of this writing, I am just beginning to start to feel a bit of my ''old self'' returning in terms of strength and stamina. Naturally I am on a plethora of new medications which are also taking a lot of getting accustomed to and a big part of those ''roller coaster'' swing rides. But, on a positive note, I have managed to actually get back into the new workroom for an hour or so the last couple of days and I do feel my strength returning just a bit each day. Therefore, I am looking forward to being able to accomplish a little more with every new day but, naturally, on a required paced recovery basis while working in the cardio rehab therapy along with it. 
Intensive Care Unit, Richland Heart Hospital, May 9th, 2024
In closing this month's ''bad news/good news'' edition, let me thank all of you in advance who I must, once again, ask your indulgence through another ''DaviSlowdown'' while I recuperate enough to get back to a more normal work routine. This will, of course, mean another bit of a set-back to an already back-set schedule but I WILL be making progress in the weeks ahead, albeit a bit more ''DaviSlowed'' for awhile.
Please continue to keep the faith and I will be continuing to complete your ongoing projects as rapidly as I possibly can!
My best to you all,
Hayne
April 30, 2024
'' DaviShortest?'' ...
I know... I've used that opening sometime in the past. But, I truly do expect THESE few lines to be the shortest News Update in quite some time...maybe ALL time!
This month, I have been busy, busy, busy in so many directions and have simply run out of time here at the last minute! So, I am ''DaviSqueezing'' in a few minutes for this brief note just to let you know I'm still at it (understatement!) but will have to postpone my expected update until next month (including the promised segment on ''DaviSplicing''). However, I will try to get the May update in early, somewhere around mid-month.
Meanwhile, I invite you to scroll back over the previous quarter posts below, if you haven't already (I got a couple of very nice comments about my little tribute to my dad in last month's post. BTW...I talked about web traffic to this page early on this year. Interestingly, February's edition about ''AI'' and "RI'' has drawn almost triple the average visits at 2,948 so far! Thanks for all the sharing!).
As always, I sincerely thank you for YOUR visit amongst all the others and I hope to have you back here next month ! Until then ...
All my best!
Hayne
March 26, 2024
'' DaviSouth ...DaviSick ...DaviSpace '' ...
Hello again and WELCOME to ''DaviSouthCarolina''!
Coming to you from the heart of one of the most naturally beautiful places on the planet !
Unfortunately, it is also home to some of the WORST roads and politicians on the planet !
And speaking of WORST politicians (as we were last time)... I did get a couple of comments about my long-winded oration last month (I expected a lot more!). Fortunately, the two that responded were favorable and one echoed my sentiment while reminding me of something that I had never heard before...that George Washington addressed his own concerns about political parties in his farewell address saying something to the effect that he was afraid that loyalty to party might eventually take priority over loyalty to country...exactly what has happened to many in the Republican party today (only much worse than he could ever imagine I'm afraid)!
But that's enough of that! No time wasted on ''politics'' or the mess the country is in this go 'round! As for ''DaviSick''... yep, shortly after last month's post I started feeling a little like I was catching a cold. That was a strange feeling for me since I had not had a cold, or virus of ANY type, since I started mega-dosing vitamin C and other preventives on a daily basis over seven years ago. Ironically, I had recently cut back drastically on my daily C thinking I would stretch my diminishing supply until my new order arrived and, wouldn't you know, just a few days after I did that -WHAM! A virus starts to surface after all these years!
And it wasn't just any old cold or flu virus either. Yep, you guessed it....after all these years of carefully preventing/avoiding it, I let my guard down and caught the big monster itself- COVID! Fortunately, about a day into it, my new supply of vitamins arrived and I began taking a gram of C every hour that I was awake and the COVID monster was not as ugly as it could have been as a result. The peak only lasted about three days with only around 36 hours of fever (I let the fever climb and do its job on the virus...never got above 102'). It was bad enough but I have had worse experiences in the past with just the old fashioned flu. HOWEVER...this one has taken it's toll somewhat in the AFTER-effects. Not only did I loose ALL taste and smell for about a week (and still not back 100%), but I also experienced continuing waves (episodes) of extreme fatigue which is gradually improving but still not completely alleviated.
Since I have always had an ongoing battle with chronic lung issues, it naturally hit that area ther hardest leaving me with some mild breathing issues that are gradually improving along with the fatigue episodes. Here's the thing- it seems I now have what they call ''LONG COVID''....which basically means the virus still has a minor grip ''under the surface'' and I haven't completely stopped the culprit yet (although still pouring on about ten to twelve grams of C and other nutrients like D, Zinc and several herbs daily).
I had a blood test done and found that I am now actually ANEMIC! It seems that this is a recently discovered effect of the virus and one of the reasons so many struggle with lack of oxygen during COVID episodes. It is NOT so much the lungs not functioning but instead the oxygen carrying hemoglobin that is being starved by the virus. Studies have shown that ALL Covid fatalities have near nil iron stores as well as depleted Vitamins C and D and other micro-nutrients. So, now, along with my other vitamin regime, I have begun ''pumping iron'' so to speak...pumping it IN that is. And, after about three weeks, I am FINALLY beginning to feel the difference! It may take up to three or more months for my hemoglobin to reach normal levels again but I already feel like my energy and stamina are returning slowly but surely.
Now about that new ''DaviSpace'' ...
The new workroom is itself, of course, a work in progress and will continue to be for quite some time as I keep moving parts and supplies in from our old location and rearranging things as required. But, the good news is, along with the stocking and organizing, I am starting to work in it a bit now also and getting a feel for the new work bench.
Here is a look at the growing ''clutter'' as you walk in the door. (Again my apologies for my lousy cell phone camera!) The center table contains ''Mixer O'Tube'', a LONG ONGOING work in progress that will hopefully be out and on it's way to Ireland by year's end (then the other, LAST, large mixer will be finished up and on it's way to Norway shortly after). Now that I have the center work table where I can leave the large projects set up continually undergoing construction, things will move along much more readily!
This is the new work bench. Despite the cluttered look at this moment, it is proving to be very functional. Again, sorry about the photo quality. It would have been some better had I compensated the exposure for the bright window.
Here is a view of the ''media wall''. Believe it or not, I still have three tape recorders to bring in and crowd into this area! The TV is, obviously, ''overkill '' but it was the one from our old den in the Newberry house (which we are in the process of vacating) so I had to use what I had. Eventually, a much smaller one will take it's place and leave room for mounting space on top of the cabinet. Meanwhile, the additional recorders will be mounted on a flat, roll-out dolly and stored underneath the cabinet. There is a ''hodge-podge'' of old mixers and amplifiers that remain to be hooked up. I am planning to use the old custom integrated amp (black box beside the TV) as the monitor and routing unit where everything will be distributed (I built this years ago for dubbing music to tape from my living room at night for the new FM station during construction-circa 1988-89). Also seen is my old vacuum tube consolette, my original Sony MX-12 mixer (circa 1970) and another small mixer which houses one channel of my infamous ''DaviStrip'' mixing console channel. A Sony digital mini-disc recorder/mixer is in the lower recessed area. This area is primarily for archiving my old analog tapes from the studio days to digital.
Of some possible interest, I included some of my mother's old ''knick-knacks'' on the top of the desk cabinet to the left. If you look to the upper right corner of the cabinet you can see a kerosene lantern ''headlight'' from an antique automobile. My grandfather, William Hayne Franklin, owned the third car ever sold in Newberry County and that was one of the two front lights from it. I have a picture of him in that car stored somewhere and, when I can run across it, I will post it.
The tiny wooden shoes located at each front corner were one of my mother's treasures. That's because they were some of the few items that my Dad was able to bring back from his tour of duty in World War II. They were genuine hand-carved souveniers from Holland. In honor of my Dad, as I write this on his birthday, I would like to mention that he was one of the few U.S. soldiers to experience, let alone survive, EVERY major battle of the northern European theater in World War II, from Normandy to Bastogne. He was decorated with five major battle stars at the war's end. He started out with the 801st Tank Destroyer Battalion which became fragmented during the Battle Of The Bulge. He was then absorbed into the 101st Airborn just prior to the Battle Of Bastogne and then, afterwards, absorbed into Patton's 3rd Army when they arrived to assist the 101st. He lost most of his hearing from the incessant shelling of German 88s while dug into the Ardennes forest in the winter of 1944, and before that the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. He had previously suffered some peripheral nerve damage from continuously manning a 50 caliber machine gun post during the battle of Saint-Lo, Corporal (finally Sergeant) John Will Davis. He was a true gentleman to all, never talked about the war unless dilligently prodded, and never complained about anything. The one battle that he lost, but also fought bravely, was a long one with lung cancer. He died on November 1st, 1991 at the age of 76.
This is a view of the storage wall which is nowhere near complete (there is also a similar area against the other side of the wall in the adjoining storage room). Eventually, the left shelf cabinet will be filled with tapes and books and the other shelves with parts bins/boxes. Right now, like much of the room, it is only in transition. But, I wanted to go ahead and post these quick snapshots to show that some progress has been made in the new room although not fully settled and organized as of yet. If curious, you can scroll back to the January edition below to see what the room looked like empty upon completion.
In closing, I mentioned last month that a reader had contacted me about the origin of the term ''flanging'' and I promised to cover it in this edition. Although I am running short on time (and energy) today I will give it a quick shot. In the old ''analogasaurus'' days, long before digital processing and effects boxes were ever even thought of, there was a unique effect that most of us called ''phasing'' that was sometimes used on recordings. I used it often in radio productions and on a few of my musical efforts as well. Surprisingly, not all that many at the time actually knew how it was acheived or you would have likely heard it used a lot more often. One of the most famous hit records to utilize it was the early 1960s hit by Toni Fisher called ''The Big Hurt''. It is often described as a ''whooshing'' sound like a jet plane was flying through the recording doing rollovers! Most of you know the digital variation often called ''Flanging" in your effects boxes (which can never quite replicate the real thing!).
The way it was done in ''the good old days'' required the use of three tape recorders. You would take two copies of the recording and carefully sync them up by hand. The way you did this was to rock the two reels of the tape deck across the playback head to ''queue'' each tape to the very first audible start of the recording. Then, having each of these tapes playing back through a mixer to a third recorder rolling in the record mode, you would then hit the start buttons of the two playback machines at the same time and hope for the best! This would always give varying results every time you did it and you would simply pick the one you liked the best. When the machines were running close to sync, all you would hear would be a doubling effect or maybe a slight echo effect. But, when one lagged behind the other enough to cause a phase shift between the two, then you would get that wonderful ''swirling'' effect that was so magical back in the day! As the phase shifts occurred, they would typically run the entire frequency spectrum which provided the effect.
Now, sometimes, the machines would stay so close in sync that you never got the desired phase lag. In that case, you would simply take your thumb and hold it against the flange of one of the tape reels to slow it down a bit until the phase shift occurred....thus the term ''FLANGING''. Hopefully that explains the origin of ''flanging'' sufficiently for our young inquiror (I GUESS he was young....most everyone IS younger than me these days anyway at least!).
So, that about wraps things up from beautiful Lake Murray, ''DaviSouthCarolina'' for this edition. Pease join me here again next month for yet another edition of DaviSound News Updates. Meanwhile, please keep those ''cards and letters'' (otherwise known as texts and emails in today's world) coming in! Next time I will talk a little about another lost art of the analog days- ''DaviSplicing'' (how we intricately created tape miracles with razor blades and scissors!) as well as address a recent inquiry about our TB-8-SE ''DaviSolidSingle'' and it's unique offspring!
Thanks for reading!
Hayne
February 9, 2024
'' DaviScariest ... A I or R I ? '' ...
Before I start this month's little ''diatribe'' ...
Maybe you wonder sometimes, as I do, just how many people bother to read these monthly updates of mine. I have joked in the past about my ''limited audience'' (faithful albeit comparatively limited) saying something like ...
''Thank all of my readers for joining me here this month (BOTH of you!) ...''
Well, in all honesty, it's not quite THAT limited. In fact, according to our hosting stats (last month totals shown below), this News Updates page (News.html) AVERAGEs right around 1000 or so hits per month, That means some months a bit more and some months a bit less but right around 1000 or so per month averaged over the year. For example, last month we had 1,045 visits to the News Updates page whereas the visits to DaviSound.com (the main Index-Welcome page) totallled 3,829. Some months greatly lower the average while some far exceed the average (example- my little ''audio biography'' post last year totalled 2,426 to date). A lot of that, no doubt, had to do with sharing and, perhaps, a few re-reads as not all were unique hits when broken down by referring sites/pages.
None of these totals are impressive for the worldwide web if you are looking for click traffic as your priority...and, it is QUITE a decrease from a few years back when we were getting MANY thousands of hits per month. But, for the times we are in (something about what I will be getting to here a bit later), and the way in which DaviSound fits into it (along with my own situational delays with any real progress on the audio projects front the past year), I am happy, even somewhat surprised, to see even this much repeat traffic to our little corner of the Internet these days.
Here below is a partial view Screenshot , from our hosting stats area, of the visits to our web pages during January, 2024, totalled at the cut-off date/time shown. The initial site visitor page (Index.html-not shown in this '' / '' category) received 3,829 requests (''hits''). The others are listed in order of the number of requests (''hits''). Again, I was somewhat surprised to see that this News page received the most visits of any with 1,045.
One thing that I find most intriguing is the fact that almost a fourth of our repeat traffic to the News Update page seems to be from visitors who are in no way connected with, or have any great interest in, pro audio. I have no idea what that means but for whatever your reasons for visiting and reading my ramblings on a regular basis, I am glad to have you! Since this particular update waxes more toward the ''philosophication'' side of me, I am guessing that this minority of visitors will appreciate this month's edition moreso than our audio faithful who come here hoping for some substantive news about DaviSound audio endeavors (and there WILL be a lot more of that in the months ahead, I promise!).
I mentioned just last month, as the new year kicked off, that I would vow to keep things on a purely positive note....ALL ABOUT POSITIVE this year was the opening theme just last month... and not wander too far afield with my ''DaviStatements'' (the web page on our site by that same title has now been superceded by these regular monthly News Updates so there have been no further additions to that site area in quite some time). However, as I approach my 76th birthday on the 20th of this month, I guess old ingrained traits are a bit too hard to break at times. I suppose the old ''editorialist'' in me just can't help but editorialize a little now and then any more than I can stop my other ''habits'' of the past decades. Newcomers to the site may not realize that I wrote broadcast editorials for many, many years for broadcast on my stations as well as for some of the many others that I programmed or consulted for. Nowadays, this little forum is my ONLY ''broadcast station'' so this is where I ''vent'' from time to time. And... this edition will be one of those ''times to times''!
The rumor bees are buzzing all around us these days and the big buzzword is ''A I'' ...''Artificial Intelligence''. I have had my attention called to this frequently the past few months and recent email correspondence with a very talented lady writer underscored my concerns about how it is affecting, or will affect, EVERYTHING in the world around us heretofore.She was commenting on how it was going to ''replace all the creative writers'' and creative works as a whole. I reminded her that, indeed, it was already happening and how it sickened me to read in a recent issue of RADIO WORLD magazine articles by/about some radio programmers who are using artificial intelligence to not only write their spot commercials, but to voice them and produce them as well!
A good while back I ''editorialized'' a bit about this already...not exactly ''A I '' per se but the way that digital software was now taking much of the creativity out of audio and video productions. This new digital ''means to an end'' approach by so many in today's industry is very much contradictory to my, and my peers', lifelong motivations for doing media productions, that being the need to create. As the old saying goes....''It's not so much the destination that is important but rather the journey itself''! Since the earliest days of mankind, many of us have always felt this need to create something from scratch starting with a part of ourselves from within and utilizing whatever tools and materials at our disposal to replicate our inward emotions outward to a final piece of ''art'', hopefully. Sadly, many of today's latter generations will never fully experience this form of creative satisfaction as their only artistic ''expertise'' comes from their ability to manipulate some software program.
In my earliest days of recording and producing broadcast promos, jingles, and commercials, I always felt a bit ''ashamed'' of my humble little studio compared to the ''biggies'' I was competing with. The big names for station promo jingles in those days were PAMS of Dallas and Pepper-Tanner of Memphis. Both of these were huge outifts with endless resources and state-of-the-art facilities. Meanwhile, my limited budget, one-man operation was a small, self-built cement block building in the back of my parents' property in a small S.C. town. When I started landing some big-time radio station clients some of them would, occasionally, want to come and visit and they would always talk about how they were anxious to see my studio and all the gear that produced these wonderful productions. Well, in those earliest days, when I was operating with a few cheap tape recorders and makeshift mixing consoles in a small 10 by 14 foot room, I would always find an excuse to postpone such visits since I knew (at least I THOUGHT I knew!) that what they would discover would be so far below what they expected to see, or what they were used to seeing elsewhere, it would cause them to scurry away never to return!
Now, looking back, instead of feeling ''ashamed'', I am most proud to have acheived what I did with those humble tools and the fact that I could use what simple gear that I had, doing countless overdubs from one machine to another, (no multitrack machine in the beginning whereas the competition all had 8 and 16 track machines at the time) and get a competitive sound worthy of playing in the same ballpark with some of those biggies (albeit for a much lower fee). Of course, it wasn't but a year or so until I started expanding the little facility adding more rooms and gear and, of course, learning to build my own gear that would eventually equal, or surpass, that of the competition. But, even though we made upgrades, we still mostly always operated with simpler recording gear than our competitors ... when I went to 4 track they all had 8 and 16 tracks. When I went to 16 tracks they all had 24. I finally started building my own 24 track recorder from a converted Ampex video machine in the early 80's but, by this time, we had become so popular for our custom built audio gear that my emphasis had shifted away from ''creative custom recording services'' to ''creating the tools that create the art''.
The point here is, nowadays ANYONE with a computer can sit ANYWHERE and turn out most ANYTHING and the only distinction is not how artistically talented and creative you are but, instead, how clever you might be at manipulating programmed software! And, now, with this advent (THREAT) of Artificial Intelligence taking over all aspects of the media ...in the words of one of the Think Tank specialists who helped to create this new monster, ''God help us. Now we have REALLY F****D UP!''.
So, yes indeed my comparatively few readers, I am ''DaviScared'' by this new threat and, believe me, it is a THREAT. One can make jokes about it, ignore it (I will get to ''ignoring'' a little further on!) or jump on the bandwagon (as most will try to do I am sure from what I am seeing....likely the low-talent types to begin with will be the first to dive headfirst onto the wagon). But, make no mistake, this is going to SERIOUSLY change our world from here on and, from my perspective, only for the worse!
Now then, having said all of that, there is something else that I am even MORE ''DaviScared'' of (and I don't really scare all that easily so I use the term''scared" in the sense that I am gravely CONCERNED). That something else is what I am calling ''R I ''. ''R I'' (my own term) ,,, stands for ''REAL IGNORANCE'' (as opposed to ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE). I have mentioned many times in my ''mini-torials'' that the dumbing down and brainwashing of Americans that I have observed and experienced over the past two decades especially, is so unbelievable to me that I OFTEN tell my wife (all TOO often in her opinion, I am sure!) that I feel I am living in an alternate reality and it is closely akin to the TWILIGHT ZONE! I just can NOT get used to seeing and hearing what is out there all around us these days and, to me, it is truly mind-blowing. I can certainly understand how there is a huge movement out there these days away from mainstream society with so many of the thinking few that's left choosing to get away from everything and become nomads or live isolated somewhere far off-grid.
Now ''IGNORANCE'' (born out of the root word ''IGNORE'') does NOT necessarily coincide with ''STUPIDITY''. It bascially means that if you are ignorant, you are simply IGNORING significant facts of reallity that exist all around you. Now this ignorance can be DELIBERATE (voluntary) or it can be NON-DELIBERATE (involuntary). There are all-too-many IGNORANT Americans nowadays and to a great degree, it seems to be largely CHOSEN ignorance. Many seem to have that old ''My mind is made up so don't bother me with the facts'' mentallity. If they choose to watch a newscast to learn what may be going on around them, they typically choose ONE news network instead of sampling them all and it is usually the ONE network that spits out the propaganda that they have become accustomed to and that they now crave to feed their addiction.
This has now become so bad in our country that many well-meaning, otherwise good people, have become BRAINWASHED (yes, I mean BRAINWASHED in the truest sense of the word!) hate mongers willing to turn against their own friends and family if you don't join their CULT! Tell me this isn't ''scary''...something to be MOST concerned about! Those of us outside looking in at all this absurdity just can not believe it can be possible! How could this become so rampant in the United States Of America? Would it make any difference to any of these propaganda addicts if they knew what their propagandist thought of them? I doubt it (''R I''). I once heard the head of one of these networks tell a prospective advertiser, ''You really ought to advertise on MY network...my viewers are so gullible they'll buy anything''! The principle on which it was founded no doubt!
The United States Congress nowadays looks like a Saturday Night Live skit from days of old yet nowadays it is REALITY! (''R I'')! And, many of us ponder which is the scariest trend - the idiots elected to congress or the morons who elected them! We wonder how it is possible for so many voters to accept, and in some cases support and enable, the shenannigans of those they elected simply because they have hijacked their always aligned political party. Can't you still be loyal to a political ideology yet at the same responsibly reject some wacked-out cult leader and the surrounding hypocrites who have simply slapped on your party label? Then, the few brave and sincere states-persons from their political party who have nobly done their duty and stood up against this dangerous nonsense find themselves exiled, threatened, or at best, IGNORED (''R I'').
If you were to write a TV, or movie, script about something like this in the old days (old days here meaning just a few decades ago) then EVERYONE would expect an ending where the ''good guys'' (those courageous few just referred to) would ''win in the end'' with everyone coming to their senses just in time to recognize and reward them for their TRUE loyalty to the constitution and law and order (where is James Bond when we need him?). Unfortunately, in these days of dominant ''R I '', I don't see this happening, And, yes, it is VERY CONCERNING....okay, let's just admit it is actually very SCARY! And what is so scary is that REAL IGNORANCE causing all of this...so many ''voters'' willing to IGNORE and accept things like the January 6th assault on the capitol of the United States which. to my old eyes, was the WORST thing I have ever seen happen in this country...and I have seen a LOT over seven decades! How can ANY sane, moral person ''overlook'', or IGNORE ("R I") something like that....and that is just one of MANY atrocities being swept under the rugs of their ''R I'' mindsets.
I know that I have always vowed to keep political views and stances out of my little forum here but nowadays that is just so hard to do when all this ''R I" surrounding us threatens our very existance as a true democratic society! The old ''head-in-the-sand'' approach is just not going to work anymore so we have to TRY to bring some sense back into the nonsense for EVERYONE's sake! ALL of us, I think, need to converse, speak out, and be willing to listen as well as inform. This now goes way beyond politics! All my readers in other countries may find it a bit difficult to fathom that we now have a significant section of our United States population who actually believe that the world is flat, that the man-made climate crisis is a hoax, that ''space lasers'' start forest fires, that the world is only 5,000 years old, that celebrities are in cahoots with a ''deep state'' political system that can ''rig'' an entire football league and Super Bowl outcome, and that members of their opposing political party are pedophiles or/and ''reptillians''! And, what's worse, some of them are sitting in the U.S. Congress right now! Furthermore, if they had their way, they would force their mindlessness on the rest of us!
Now, think about it....
When you mix all this ''R I'' with ''A I''...then you REALLY AND TRULY HAVE A HELL OF A SITUATION. Most of these wackos already live in some sort of alternate reallity where EVERYTHING is wrong with those on their ''other side'' while ANYTHING is right with all on THEIR side. FOR GOD'S SAKE LET'S ONCE AND FOR ALL BEGIN TO PUT TRUTH AND COMMON SENSE ABOVE POLITICS AND POLITICAL PARTIES BEFORE IT IS FAR TOO LATE! But, then, how do we do that when those I just mentioned are not capable of employing common sense or even recognizing the TRUTH? My grandfather always said, ''He who argues with a fool is just a bigger fool''...his way of saying that you simply can't reason with the unreasonable. I'm afraid that is just where we are now in this society and there just may not be a solution. I can NOT echo the words of our president who claims that he honestly believes our best days are ahead of us. I truly wish they were. But I am afraid that this newest edition of ''artifical intelligence'', and how it will interact with the already dangerous "real ignorance" all around us, just might be our final undoing!
So, how do I end something like this on a positive note? Good question! In my younger days, I simply employed some of my own ''R I '' and mostly ignored politics as something that would always be corrupt to a large extent (by the very nature of the self-serving types it largely attracts) and something that was beyond my control anyway. As for my own ''political leanings'', in my young adult days I was very much the moderate conservative like most in my immediate surroundings. But, I helped plan campaigns and write and produce advertising for both camps on occasion.
Many will be surprised to learn that I even coached my old friend, Lee Atwater in ways to manipulate a media audience (Lee was later to become a key figure in the national Republican Party under the Reagan administration and is often credited with starting the ''bad boy'' politics that mushroomed and plague us to this day. Lee later admitted regretting some of this however and most of his tactics could be considered ''good natured'' compared to what we see today!). I remember passing along the term ''Sheeple'' to him during one of our rap sessions. This rather derogatory term had been coined by my old mentor Dave Hedrick which he often used to refer to a radio audience that he wanted to manipulate. Lee, of course, loved it. Later this term was picked up by Karl Rove and utilized behind closed doors throughout the Bush administration.
As the years passed and I observed the political right becoming more and more extreme, and attracting more and more undesirables, I found myself disassociating myself from that camp entirely. By the time Rush Limbaugh came along and helped to ruin AM radio, along with the minds of most of his audience, I was completely disgusted! As the years went by, I began to observe that the FEW politicians willing to serve for the RIGHT reasons were usually on the LEFT side of the aisle so I just inherently migrated in that direction.
In those earliest days, those simpler times, we did NOT have the rampant corruption and ignorance all around us that is so prevalent today. We did not have the dangerous, giant network propaganda machines that exist today. And, we did not have the abundant ''R I '' of it's vulnerable audience which is not only threatening our political system but our society as a whole and, indeed, the very future of the planet itself! The stakes are higher than they have ever been and now with ''A I'' in the works joining up with ''R I '', even those few who WANT to may not be able to tell fact from fiction, or reality from made up ''alternate reality''.
I began this ramble because of my concerns for the future of creative media but couldn't help but morph into my greater concerns for the future of EVERYTHING ELSE! So, how do I now step back and say ...''Oh well, in spite of all of this, please join me here next month when I will, again, bring my focus back to my nice new workroom and all the audio related work at hand.''? I guess by doing just that. We still DO have to focus on the positive things left around us and remind ourselves that at least about HALF of our populace is still sane and seeing the same positives. We MUST keep a daily watchful eye on all the chaos but, at the same time, try to maintain our positive outlook for all of the good things that still occupy our lives and which hold some promise for a brighter future.
In my little corner of the world I have pretty well settled into my brand new little work room (certainly can NOT get another stick of furniture in!) and will be spending many long days and nights in the coming weeks finishing moving in, organizing parts and materials to both the new room cabinets and parts bins as well as to the adjoining storage sheds.
This month's post is EARLY once again (normally coming around the end of the month) so I will wait until next month to post a few photos of the new environs (some of the finished, empty room photos posted last month, scroll below). It has taken a LOT of work to get this far with the new setup but I am VERY proud of the result. I feel it will definitely allow me to be much more productive than I have been in many years as everything has been designed and built with a specific purpose and function in mind. I am looking forward to spending MANY productive work days here in the months/years to come and serving all of you who still believe there is a place for well designed ANALOG audio components in this crazy world!
(BTW- Have you heard the news lately about the resurgence of ANALOG computers complete with new forms of non-volatile analog memory in the works? That ought to be interesting to say the least! 180' away from digital ''A I''....or is it? We'll see!)
If you have made it this far with this post I truly do appreciate you and thank you! I am so pleased that you are one of our average thousand or so readers who come by for more ''punishment'' month after month! Hopefully there will be brighter days ahead for us all in every direction as the year unfolds ... we must have HOPE and do what we can!
So, until next time, do what YOU can, keep the faith and please join me here next month for news that will, hopefully, be more uplifting!
Thanks again,
Hayne
PS- Just as I was finishing up this edition, I received an email from a young inquiror wanting to know if I could explain the term ''flanging'' and where it originated....seems the effect was showing up on his digital processor and he wondered how it was acheived back in the ''old days''. Since I used this technique quite often with radio productions, and even once or twice in some of my own music productions, I can certainly clue him in ...which I will do in the next edition!
As always I ask you to please overlook any typos/misspellings...I dash these updates off in the old Windows Notepad text editor which does not employ any spellcheck and, while I do proof-read a time or two, something always seems to get by me that I miss!
Another final afterthought, in regard to web traffic as we were addressing above, our newly expanded YouTube channel is falling FAR below the website in terms of views for whatever reason. We certainly can't count on the biased Google algorithm for much help so I hope many of you will find the time to check it out. I do believe most of you will find it increasingly interesting in the weeks and months ahead when time allows us to put up more videos (I'll be putting up the first of many forthcoming old radio airchecks very soon!). Your subscription to the channel would be most appreciated! One of the last uploads is a nice little presentation ''Ode To Wood'' featuring our exclusive Boris Karloff narration and selected photos from our website. I do hope you will check out this little piece here -
DaviSound's Ode To Wood-YouTube
January 21, 2024
'' DaviSettling In 2024! '' ...
Another new year is rolling along and it's time to, once again, start a new ''DaviSlate'' with our monthly news update posts while relegating last year's entries to the News Archives area.
I was thinking of calling this one ''DaviSettling'' and ''DaviSkeptic'' ... with the latter referring to my cynicism regarding the outlook for the new year with regard to the state of the world situation (the climate situation, the political climate situation, the continuing dumbing down and brainwashing of Americans, etc. etc. etc.). But ... I decided to spare you that rant since I promised my wife (and myself as well) that my new year's resoluiton would be to try and maintain a positive point of view and rediscover my old ''eternally optimistic self '' of days gone by.
I certainly do have a lot to be positive about since, among other things, I am FINALLY finished with constructing my new work room and starting the ''SETTLING IN'' process this month! It has been a rather long, hard journey to turn my third of the new metal out-building in our back yard into my new work room (office/engineering work space/mini-studio) these past six months. However, the room is now ready for moving in! That ''moving in'' and ''settling in'' process will also take a bit of time and doing since I have to haul all my furnishings (cabinets, parts bins, tools, gear etc.) in multiple loads from my old home work room and try and crowd them all into the new 9 x 12 room or the adjoining storage shed next door. Much of the storage shed haul was accomplished in late fall but there will still be more to come.
Here are some phone camera (lousy) snapshots of the just fully completed room. I had to document this wonderful ''emptiness'' since it will become all-too cluttered in the days and weeks ahead, no doubt, as I try and fit everything into it that has to be there. Some may find my color scheme and layout a bit weird (wife, Annette, says it reminds her of an old farm house...an analogy that I like!) but it was what I came up with based on what was available within my limited budget!
This is the view from the entrance doorway. The electronics workbench will go under the window. The corner cabinet/closet is for access to all electrical as well as a mini utility closet.
This corner will house a roll-out storage cabinet hutch
with additional storage in the corner behind it.
This is a view of the room entrance
squeezed up against the other window.
My very first piece of furniture! This old writing desk belonged to my mother (and before that her sister) and was in my childhood home during my adolescent years and until my mother passed away and the house sold. Since then, it occupied my work room in our Newberry home where I used it as a ''computer desk'' (I added the lighting). I'm looking forward to using this nostalgic ''antique'' piece as the desk for my laptop and paperwork. It was just brought into place this afternoon so the room is already starting to feel like home
The back wall and corner, not shown, will house more cabinetry, shelving and a small recording/dubbing setup for the ongoing archiving of my old audio tapes to digital. The complete moving/set-up process will be ongoing and I will, no doubt, be ''DaviSettling'' in for quite some time. However, I do expect to begin working in there very soon along with the moving in and organizing. Once I get the work bench and my parts bins squared away, I will then be bringing in the several, pending DaviSound projects to a large, center work table where I look forward to getting back to them in the old ''work rotation'' fashion I once used at the old DaviSound facility.
So, yes, there is a WHOLE LOT to be positive about and look forward to for the year 2024 and beyond! I invite all of you to join me here each month as I try and document most of it
Therefore,with all the optimism I can muster for the coming year, I wish you all a most Happy New Year 2024!
My Best Efforts,
Hayne
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