[Glastonbury] Night of the LongHairs -- May 5th

[Martin WHEELER]

Hi all __

I know this is a bit late (I've had a busy day), but I'd like to say a
huge thankyou to Tim and Chris and Robert for the fantastic evening last
night -- the best we've had yet, as far as I'm concerned.
(This is mainly because I know absolutely SA about music, music
processing, or sound under Linux in general.  My expertise is strictly
limited to clicking on the xmms icon, or running aumix from the command
line.  Anything else is highly technical, and beyond my grasp.)  So last
night was two full hours of stuff I didn't know, and I really
appreciated it.  (Especially Tim's extempore composition -- a bit West
Coast baroque, with a hint of Bartok, wouldn't you say?)

Chris and Robert's expert demo of music editing and use of Rosegarden
really sent me home thinking.  (OK, we may have had the odd full disk
occasionally, but there wasn't a core dump, was there?  Well, not
that I noticed, anyway.  If I'd have tried any of that stuff, I'd have
had half a dozen core dumps, at least.)
What Linux is now capable of in the field of audio editing and mixing on
the average home PC is really staggering -- I think of what we were
pratting about with ten years ago, and how proud we were of it, and the
advances are immense.

So a big thank you to all who brought that realisation to me by last
night's demos.  And all the preparatory effort that went into making
the evening such a hugely interesting success.


Also a big welcome to the new visitors who turned up last night -- it's
pretty sobering to think that people are prepared to drive in from
Milverton and Bridgwater for our meets.  (Big respect, Chris & Robert
-- you're excellent crowd pullers!)  It appears we are catering for
a very wide catchment area, so it behoves us to do the best we can for
the group every time.


And I too could have gone on for a further hour after the 9 o'clock
watershed; I was just ready to start getting my hands dirty with the
editing side when it all had to stop.  This is a shame.  But I don't
think we're going to get the facilities we get at St. Dunstan's anywhere
else in Glastonbury (the use of the LCD projector is worth it alone);
and I'm extremely grateful to Steve and Pam Iles for the use of the
room.  Maybe we can find a workaround for the 9 o'clock deadline --
Steve, would you give me a ring at home sometime, and we'll talk about
progressing this, if poss?

So cheers all; and once again, a big thanks.

Let's have lots more of this type of meet.

[NOTE to the Plymouth brethren -- you really missed a treat, Nirwin --
you'd have loved this one!  Get yourself a copy of Rosegarden and start
playing.]
--
Martin Wheeler   -   StarTEXT / AVALONIX - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
mwheeler at startext.co.uk                http://www.startext.co.uk/mwheeler/

I knew I'd come to the right place, because of all the longhairs around.
                            -- overheard from a newcomer to a LUGoG meet