The Bass Geek

In mentioning the Playboy Psychonauts show last night, I forgot to note that this was the first show where I used the laptop that had been upgraded to Reason 4 AND Leopard. I pleasantly experienced no issues live, although I had to recreate the files I used – for some Reason (sorry), I couldn’t get the keyboard in the Sequencer view, and the audio wasn’t coming across properly. It was no big deal, as the files were just one synth and a loop. I noticed it occuring before the OS upgrade, too, so I’m assuming it’s a Reason problem. It does mean that I’ll have to go digging through my other old files and see if that’s a problem for everything. The physical setup went smoothly – since I tossed the audio and MIDI interfaces in a rack with a direct box and the appropriate cords, it’s been no problem. It also means I don’t have to travel with an amp.

At this time, the next Psychonauts show comes up in February, so I’m looking forward to getting some new songs and sounds ready.

Between the late night with the Playboy Psychonauts and the Steelers’ victory over the Bengals last night, I’m a little tired. But I keep my promises (and I’m bored at lunch), so here’s the non-techie side of the IMN Podcast.

The whole thing originates from the top 10 list IMN Editor Steve Hayes puts together each week for the site – he takes votes from the local cognoscenti and compiles the list, adding editorial content along the way. We then take that list, add the IMN OnTrack artist at the end, and we have a script for the podcast.

Obviously, we don’t script every word, but the list gives us a defined guide as to where the show is going, and it keeps us on track in case we start to ramble a bit. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is – it’s easy to get bogged down if you don’t have a plan. We record straight through, with slight pauses where I’m going to insert music later (we only take tracks from those artists who make them available for free, and this averages about five songs per podcasts). I edit in the tracks later.

We also have kind of a standard intro and closing we run through – nothing fancy, but it still lends a familiarity to the show.

To be honest, I’m not sure how many listeners we have at any one time. Not only does the podcast download-able, but it’s also in the IMN Flash player on the main site and played on low-power Purdue student radio. We’re not Adam-Curry-level by any means, but we do okay.

And that’s the story. We’ll occasionally have guests on, but usually this is what you get. We record in a variety of secret locations, just to keep the riff-raff out.