Extending the network reach

We’ve got a large wireless network setup at the house currently but the signal wasn’t quite strong enough to reach to the back end of the garage, so I took one of the Airport Expresses I had lying around and plugged it in out by the receiver and a 2nd Airport Express towards the front of the garage to bridge the gap between my router and the one hooked up near the receiver. I set the “bridge” AE to extend my existing wireless network and the receiver’s AE to join my existing network and enabled AirTunes. I had a nice strong signal so I used an 1/8″ stereo to stereo RCA cable it hooked it from the receiver’s AE to the AUX input on the back of the receiver and was able to setup iTunes to play my music from my MacPro through my receiver in the garage, which was cool enough but I wanted a way to be able to change songs from the garage without going inside to interact with iTunes, and then it hit me.

The iTunes Remote Control

If you’re fortunate enough to have an iPhone you have access to one of the most amazing apps created for the device. It’s called Remote and it’s probably the best example of a sleeper app I’ve ever seen. I had downloaded it (it’s free) from the App Store but never really had a use for it until now. With Remote you’re able to connect to your iTunes library (as well as your Apple TV) and control the playback of songs. What’s amazing is that is also gives you a wonderful artwork view, ability to control AirTunes speakers, search your iTunes library, edit playlists and more. So instantly I had this amazingly powerful remote that allowed me to access and playback music sitting inside on my computer and hear it outside in the garage through my receiver and the sound quality was excellent.

The other bonus is that I now have wi-fi access out in the garage should the need ever come up

I purchased the current version of their plugin for my Logic Express setup and I plan on upgrading to 2.0 (the first version to include their Direct Note Access technology) when it’s released this fall.

Celemony Melodyne Direct Note Access

Enjoy!

The One

Words and music by Evan Agee

I see you as the night turns to day
The sun begins to shine, forgetting all the troubles of yesterday
I see you and the clouds roll away
The sky bares its blue, for you

You’re nothing like my mother and you’re nothing like my friends
and you’re nothing like the woman like the woman I thought I would be with
and you’re nothing like the girls that I’m always chasing after
oh you’re nothing, nothing but the one.

I had heard when I found the girl for me
love would take control and guide us to our destiny
I had heard everyone has someone
one that’s meant to be for you

You’re nothing like my mother and you’re nothing like my friends
and you’re nothing like the woman like the woman I thought I would be with
and you’re nothing like the girls that I’m always chasing after
oh you’re nothing, nothing but the one.

The church I attend, First Baptist Church of Richmond Indiana is also now podcasting! We finally got a new computer in our sound booth (a 20″ iMac) so now we’re recording the services digitally and releasing the sermon portion of the service online. You can check that out on iTunes as well. I’m really enjoying working on our church’s podcast, not something I get to do often.

For work I’ve been getting into some video-related work as well. We’re adding a component for uploading video that will subsequently be streamed via our video streaming server. It’s something that’s hard to troubleshoot and requires a bit of time but it’s great fun.

Some other great news is that the band I played with a couple of years back, Unseen, is reforming with a slightly altered lineup. This time around we’re playing mostly original music that I’ve written and we’re in the process of writing more. My brother Mitchell is going to be our vocalist so I’m really excited about that. He can sing well and it’ll be great to have a chance to spend more time together.

I played a lot of guitars. The poor guy that just happened to ask us if we needed any help was up and down their guitar fetching ladder all night long. I played several American made Fender Strats including the Eric Johnson signature model and a new 2008 American Standard. I also played several Gibson Les Pauls including one of the beautiful blonde standards with a natural finish and a similar-looking Les Paul Studio. I even tried an SG Standard. However, all of the Gibson guitars felt almost identical to my Gibson Explorer and therefore wouldn’t offer me the tonal variety that I was looking for, so no Gibson for me today thanks.

The salesman asked me if I had ever played a PRS (Paul Reed Smith) and I haven’t. I had always assumed that they were essentially the same as a Gibson in terms of tone and playability but he insisted that they were built to be a best-of-both-worlds combination of a Gibson and a Fender, so I gave them a shot. The first one I played felt amazing. I was extremely close to choosing that guitar over all of the others I had played. It was extremely pricey but just barely under my limit. So I was down to three guitars, an American Deluxe Strat with a maple fretboard, an American Deluxe Strat with a rosewood fretboard and this PRS Custom 22 in a beautiful ruby finish. I sat them all in a row, ready to try them all again and see which felt and sounded the best. In the end the Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster with the rosewood fretboard won out over all of them, beating even the $2900 PRS. I had chosen my new guitar.

My wife, being the wonderful lady that she is, decided to also let me get a new amp also since I had chosen a guitar that was relatively inexpensive (compared to the Les Pauls and PRSs that I had played). I was looking for something with great tone, hopefully tube powered and with a few simple onboard effects so I could get by without my Line 6 Pod Pro if I didn’t want to cart my entire rig around to every practice. He recommended the Line 6/Bogner Spider Valve 112. I tried it and it is AMAZING! This thing has the best clean tone that I’ve ever been able to produce. I’ve owned a Marshall Valvestate 2×12 for the last 15 years and this amp really puts it to shame. I can get the full gamut of tones out of this small amp and it’s all tube!

I haven’t had much time to play with the guitar and amp yet, but I plan on fixing that soon.