Not Buying Another Kindle Book

I bought the Amazon Kindle 2 just when it came out and was immediately in love with it. I have to admit, the screen is wonderful to read and feels very much like paper. Also, I love the free wireless access. Although the Kindle features a basic web browser, it’s still very useful and functional. At first, I also really liked the idea of being able to download books when I’m on the road, or anywhere for that matter (most of the U.S., that is). But then they yanked my copy of 1984, and that really opened my eyes.

In this day and age, companies are trying their best to take away ownership of media and forcing people to move to subscription-based models because that way they can make huge profits by not really giving you a product but mere access. In the “old days” I could take a music CD and lend it to my friend, listen to it myself, or use it as a coaster if I wanted. I paid for it, I owned the disc, and that was that. But with the proliferation of digital media, that has all changed.

I have no problems with digital media. In fact, I love digital media. The thing I can’t stand is the media companies trying to control it to the point that it makes the media almost useless. In my opinion, the biggest culprit is DRM (digital rights management). A LONG time ago I bought a couple of Depeche Mode songs from iTunes, and it was the last time I ever bought anything from them. They wanted me to jump through hoops so that I could play the same songs on multiple digital devices (my PSP, my phone, etc.). Why the hell can’t I listen to the song anyway I want if I paid for accessing it? Just give me the damn thing in MP3 format and let me listen to it however I want.

I believe the Kindle has taken this to an even further step. With iTunes at least I had a copy of the song and could’ve burnt it to a CD and then ripped it back as an MP3. But with the Kindle, all I get is a DRM-protected file on the Kindle that can’t be read by anything else. I can’t print it, I can’t read it with something else, and I can’t lend it to anyone. And as I rudely found out, they can just yank it from my Kindle without my permission and without my knowing, as they did with the George Orwell books (the ultimate Big Brother irony).

Since I don’t own any of the books that I buy for the Kindle, what happens if Amazon decides to scrap the Kindle service? Or when the device eventually becomes obsolete? I’ll either have to move to their “next” device to access my books or just lose complete access to them. So if you’re amassing a huge collection of Kindle books, you are putting your entire faith in Amazon and the existence of their services, something I’m not willing to do. The convenience is great, but from now on, I’m going back to my paper books, thank you.

Does this mean my Kindle is useless? Far from it. I still love my Kindle. I recently took a mini vacation to San Francisco with my wife and the Kindle was absolutely an awesome tool. I used its FREE wireless access to get bus schedules, send emails, find maps, etc (yes, you can do that on your cell phone too, but I’m not willing to pay $200/month for a cell phone plan). I also use my Kindle in conjunction with Google Reader to read my favorite news and blog sites. Also, I transfer a lot of my own documents to my Kindle for convenient reading.

I think the Kindle is a great device, but sadly it’s being crippled by DRM. The media industry just needs to do away with DRM altogether, because frankly, 99% of the time someone will wind up cracking the DRM anyway. I mean just look at BluRay. It was supposed to be the “uncrackable” format, yet you can already rip BluRay discs, and it hasn’t even become mainstream. The media industry needs to stop treating all their customers like thieves and pirates. Those who pirate software, music, books, etc. will continue to do it regardless. Protection schemes like DRM only hurt the average consumers who just want to easily access their media without having to worry about a million formats and what devices they work with.

Resurrecting My Dell Inspiron 1501 Laptop

While still contemplating my next purchase, I realized that I might actually be able to use my current Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop for music production. The biggest problem with this laptop is that it doesn’t have a firewire port, which I need for the Presonus FireBox audio interface. However a long time ago I had bought a Startech Firewire Expresscard for it which I couldn’t get to work. Then I remembered that I was trying to get the card to work with Windows Vista.

I hate Vista. I regret the day I “upgraded” my laptop to it. It slowed it to a complete crawl. So yesterday I decided to upgrade back to upgrade back to Windows XP which the laptop came with originally. To sweeten the pot, I also decided to swap the stock 30GB drive for a Samsung 500GB drive that I had bought for one of my PS3’s. I never used the drive for the PS3 because frankly I found no use for it, so it has been just laying around.

The move back to XP went great and I was able to get the 500GB drive in there as well. In fact I’m currently posting this from my laptop. Also, I ordered 2GB of RAM for the laptop because currently it only has a measly 512MB and it’s swapping way too much for the hard drive.

Once the OS issues were worked out, I went back to the Firewire expresscard. Plugged it in and sure enough, it’s working great with the FireBox. Well, I mean it seems to be so far. I haven’t tried it with any soft synths yet, but I’m not really anticipating any problems. If anything, the problem may be with the speed of my laptop since it’s only got an AMD Turion X2 running at 1.6Ghz.

UPDATE

Well, I finally got everything installed and for some crap reason the FireBox doesn’t work correctly. Such a waste of time. I plugged in the Firewire Expresscard to the laptop and plugged in the FireBox to the Expresscard. The card seems to be functioning fine and the computer sees the FireBox. I was able to install the drivers and everything just fine. I even get sound out of it, but the sound has a ton of garbled noise mixed in with it. That’s usually a latency issue, but changing the latency time values didn’t fix it at all. I rebooted the computer many times and only ONCE I actually got perfect sound out of it, but the next time I rebooted it was back to the crappy distorted audio.

At this point I have no idea what the hell is wrong with the computer. My best guess is that the ExpressCard firewire interface isn’t fast enough or is causing problems. I’m not gonna spend any money to buy another ExpressCard because I have a feeling the FireBox won’t work with any of them. *sigh* This really sucks because I was hoping to use this for music production.

Home Music Studio Gear List

As promised in my previous post, I’m posting a list of my home music studio gear along with connection diagrams.

MIXER

First up is the mixer, a Behringer XENYX 2222FX Stereo Mixer:

A solid mixer is the cornerstone to any decent studio, and I picked the Behringer based on numerous reviews and also my limited budget. This is a decent sized mixer with plenty of inputs and outputs with great sound quality. You should be able to pick one up for under $300.

Here are some basic specs for this mixer:

Also, the board provides an excellent effects processor, but sadly you cannot apply separate effects to individual channels. You can only apply the same single effect to whatever channels you like.

COMPUTER

My main desktop computer that I’m using with my music gear is getting really old. It’s an Alienware Area 51 3.4 Ghz single core PC. Yeah, like I said, pretty old, but it gets the job done for now. I am considering either building another desktop, as discussed in my post here, or getting a powerful, light-weight laptop. I’m really leaning towards a laptop because that way I can take it with me for live performance.

Anyway, my current setup is running Windows XP Professional, has 4 Gigs of RAM, 300 GB main SATA drive, and a 1 TB secondary SATA drive.

AUDIO INTERFACE

For my audio interface I’m using a PreSonus FireBox 6X10 Firewire Recording Interface:

Here are the features per the manufacturer:

• High-Speed FireWire Network Audio Interface
• Plug and play FireWire (IEEE 1394) audio interface
• 24-Bit / 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96K sample rate
• Record/playback 6 inputs/10 outputs at 24-bit/96K
• 2 PreSonus microphone/instrument preamplifiers
• 2 analog line inputs, 6 analog line outputs
• S/PDIF input/output
• MIDI input/output
• Low latency monitoring
• Headphone output
• Powered via FireWire bus or externally
• Software router/mixer
• Windows and Macintosh compatible
• Fits MAXRACK rack mounting system

I have absolutely no complaints about the FireBox. Here’s a list of what I love about this interface:

• Very low latency. Low latency is a must, especially when using soft synths, because you don’t want to hear the sound two seconds after you press a key. Even with very complex soft synths, I’ve never noticed any lag.
• MIDI Interface. Not only is it an audio interface, it also provides a convenient MIDI interface. You get one MIDI IN port and one MIDI OUT port (16 channels each).
• SPDIF input/output. The SPDIF interface is great if you want to record digitally direct from a CD player or from your favorite synth.
• FireWire powered. The FireBox comes with a wall wart power adapter, but you’ll never have to use it because it can be FireWire powered. I hate wall warts, so this is another great bonus feature.
• Extra Firewire port. The FireBox comes with two firewire ports so you can use the second one to daisy chain other FireWire devices. So in reality you don’t lose any FireWire ports when using the FireBox.
• Small footprint. The FireBox is light-weight and compact and only takes up a small corner of my desk.
• Great sound quality! This should’ve been listed first, because hey, that’s why you’re buying an audio interface, right? But yes, the audio quality is pristine from all inputs.

MUSIC WORKSTATION

My first and only music workstation is the Korg M3 61 Key Workstation Sampler Keyboard:

Sadly, I haven’t had enough time to mess with this keyboard so I can’t really write much of a review about its features, so I will just point you to some YouTube demo videos instead:

MIDI CONTROLLERS

I’m using two MIDI controllers, an M-Audio Keystation 61es and an M-Audio Oxygen 49 Keystation. I really prefer the feel of the Keystation 61es since the keys are semi-weighted, but the Oxygen 49 has a built-in control surface which comes in really handy with DAW software. Also, the Oxygen is smaller and lighter than the Keystation 61es so it works best on my computer desk.

MIDI CONTROL SURFACE

I’ve got an Evolution UC33e MIDI Control Surface that I use with DAW software. This little unit is highly programmable and also provides just enough faders and control knobs to handle most tasks. Also, it comes with overlay templates for some of the most popular DAW’s. But if I’m not mistaken, I believe this control surface is now out of production and only in stock at a few music retailers.

COMPUTER MONITORS

It’s hard to work on music projects using one monitor. A lot of times you are switching back and forth between programs and it’s nice to have some screen real estate. I’m using a pair of 15″ (I think) NEC MultiSync flat panel LCD monitors. Although they are really old monitors, what I love about them is that each come with a built-in 4-port USB hub! This comes in real handy because I’ve got all my MIDI controllers connected via USB to one monitor, freeing up my PC’s USB ports for other things.

AUDIO MONITORS

For my audio monitors, I’m using a pair of Alesis monitors.

Come on Sony, Give Us Netflix on the PS3!

I love the PS3 (so much in fact that I bought two), but one thing that’s really annoying me is Sony’s reluctance to bring Netflix support to it. I also have an XBOX 360 and I absolutely love its Netflix integration and I see no reason why Sony can’t shell out the cash to make the licensing happen on the PS3.

I don’t watch any TV so I catch up on any movies and tv series via Netflix. I have a custom-built home theater PC connected to my TV and I used to use it to watch Netflix. But as of late my device of choice has become my 360, mainly because of how well Netflix has been integrated. You still can’t watch the HD movies and TV shows in actual HD when using Netflix on the PC, but you can on the 360. And with the latest software update, the streaming has become even more intelligent and seamless.

My network router is downstairs, but my 360 is in my bedroom upstairs, so I’m using an an Actiontec MegaPlug power line network adapter to connect to the network. The connection isn’t the fastest, but with the latest 360 software update, I’m having no trouble watching shows and movies streamed in HD from Netflix. Also, the way the latest Netflix software adjusts the quality is quite seamless and doesn’t interrupt you like it used to. I’ve only noticed this happen a couple of times when it just seamlessly drops the quality. Another thing that I noticed is that if the connection quality improves, it will actually increase the resolution back to HD, something it never did before.

Which brings me back to the original point. Damn you Sony, give us Netflix on the PS3! To this end, I even sent them a few emails, only to receive the following canned response:

“Thank you for writing us about Netflix. We value your input and appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Please rest assured that we will convey your feedback to Sony Computer Entertainment America’s (”SCEA”) appropriate management.”

Yeah, I’m resting assured that they’re sitting on their asses and doing nothing about it. Instead of giving us something useful like Netflix, they’re wasting their time with the retardation that is PS3 Home. * sigh *

Depeche Mode at the Hollywood Bowl

I’m a huge Depeche Mode fan and anytime they make it to the Los Angeles/Orange County area, I’m bound to make it to at least one of the shows. This time around, I was lucky enough to make it to the Hollywood Bowl show last night (August 17th, 2009). My wife and I went with one of my cousins and we had seats 37, 39, and 41 in section J2.

I’ve never been to the Hollywood Bowl so this was a completely new experience. First things first, I think the traffic control was absolutely terrible. The parking situation at the Bowl is also terrible. They use stacked parking which I think is one of the worst ways to handle parking. Basically at the end of the show we were stuck in the parking lot for literally an hour.

What I did like about the Bowl is the outdoor setting. It was refreshing to be in an open-air venue, especially with all the pot smoke that was floating around. Also, I felt that the acoustics were better than the Staples Center or the Honda Center (compared to previous DM concerts at these venues).
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New Home Music Studio

I love playing music. I have been playing the tablas off and on since I was around the age of 7. I have never had any formal training and I don’t even remember how I started playing the tablas. I just remember that I used to have a set and somehow knew how to play them.

For years, the only thing I ever played were the tablas, but in high school I developed an interest in playing keyboards. Coming from a background in Afghan and Indian music, naturally I gravitated towards the harmonium. But finding a decent harmonium in the U.S. was no easy task at the time. But as luck would have it, my brother was getting married in Pakistan, so when he was heading out to get married, I made a request that they bring me back a harmonium. Pakistan isn’t known for great harmoniums as most of the good ones come from India, but my brother and my Mom were able to find a decent one for me. I was ecstatic when I got my hands on my first harmonium. In fact, I still have that one, although I now prefer a newer one that I acquired from Afghanistan when I myself went there to get married! But that’s another story (and a good one)!

The Korg M3, My First Real Synth

Anyhow, I’ve acquired quite a lot of musical instruments since my high school days. I’m now 35 and out of college and working, and spending most of my hard-earned cash on musical instruments and computer hardware. My most prized musical instrument at the moment is my first ever synth, a Korg M3. I had been eying this bad boy ever since its introduction, but could never muster up the cash to get one. But that’s when ebay came into play. Read more »