Kind Of Depressed

• Nights Off Marred By Non Productivity
• David The Water Jug Player's Same Song And Dance

There are a few things that are bothering me, one of which is the crappy sound of a recording I did last night.

The Audacity program that I am running has occasional "latency" related issues.

It's hard to fathom just how much of an impact finding out that something you worked the entire previous evening on has amounted to garbage.

I just have to tell myself that I really don't sound "that" bad.

I want to drink, but luckily only have 7 dollars, and refuse to drink cheap stuff.

The way to solve a latency issue is by playing the guitar and harmonica and singing all in one take, that way the voices are all frozen in time together none of them can independently fall behind the others.

I am getting messages, occasionally, which tell me that the recorded audio has been moved "behind zero" by the latency correction, but that Audacity has brought it back to zero and it may have to be moved to the "right" spot using the time shift tool, later.

Well, the whole idea of latency correction involves moving a track back an amount of time equal to how long it takes a signal hitting the microphone to be converted into a digital signal and "recorded." This happens about 130 milliseconds after sound that I am playing along with, sounds.

But, you can't move all of the tracks back, then they would still be out of time with each other (but would all sound 130 milliseconds sooner).

The original track has to stay at "zero" as a reference, and then every subsequent voice will able to be moved back 130 milliseconds to compensate for the delay.
I'm not sure what the program is telling me with that warning box, but I do know that, when the warning pops up it is time for me to save my work.
Maybe I can turn latency correction off and then just manually move each new track ahead 130 milliseconds...
All I know is it's pretty easy to tell if you are playing a snare drum right on the beat as you are doing it -you're either "right in time" with the song, or not.
Then, to play it back and find that two parts are off a tenth of a second from each other, well, that is like telling the harmonica player to stand 110 feet off stage and just jam along with the band from there, using a long cable.

But, Audacity is free, and I've gotten some good results with it, recently; just never after the latency-warning-box-of-death pops on the screen.

What I might do now, is Google the issue, and see if I can't find some advice for exactly what to do when the problem arises. I could just put the headphones to the microphone at the beginning of every new track to make sure that what I'm playing along with is in.

The second thing kind of bumming me out is that I got a call from David the Water Jug player.
He had just gotten a bike and wanted to know if I had a chain and lock.
I wound up meeting him on Canal Street on my way to Starbucks, where I now am, and was put off, once again, by being skeezed by him.
I tuned his guitar and we smoked some weed, that we both equally put in on, and then he asked me for a cigarette both times that I lit up, and then asked me for change as I was leaving. I was hoping that he would somehow redeem himself, though I don't know what shape that would take.
I ordered a Hohner Special 20 harmonica in the key of C, a couple sets of strings and some guitar picks, leaving about 7 bucks on the green plastic card.
I wasn't in the mood to hang out with someone who wasn't going to say anything new or interesting, in exchange for 85 cents and two cigarettes; and the 45 minutes that I spent sitting there with him.
I suppose though, what is playing out is common to a lot of relationships, which can be summed up by a woman whom I once heard say: "When people you haven't heard from in a long time contact you, it's always because they want something."
So, I suppose, since David the Water Jug Player only sees me once in a great while, he needs to grab the change and cigarettes (locks and chains) while he has the opportunity.