Inverters and Electrics on a Small Boat.

I bought a new inverter for the boat, a sign perhaps of my change in function for Sadaf, not the ocean traveler i thought i was, but more of the stay at home kind and snuggled up in a warm bunk with a few home comforts. I bought a 500w 12v inverter to charge up my rechargeable batteries for my radio and mp3 player, and to recharge the computer; I have 3 car batteries and a solar panel which used to be for an electric motor.

The worst thing about the inverter is the noise from the fan, not comfortable. When everything is plugged in the wires are everywhere, and when i recharged the computer battery it must have taken a lot of power as the inverter shut down as the battery got near to the empty mark! I think it would be ok for emergencies but as a thing if relaxation and leisure it did not pass the test. 

I think I will stay with my rechargeable batteries and my speakers, there is no much volume (no amp with them) but it does OK if, like today, it is raining heavy.

Home Recording Distrbution

I started a new page of Facebook called “Home Recording distribution”, it is a page to help artists like myself who are fed up with multinationals distributing music at inflated prices, and over loading us with their narrow choice of musical genre. 

Everything is 'packaged' from the CD to the recording, even the type of reverb they use on the final mix; there is nothing original they can offer. We are so used to it, to get the plastic wrapper in a plastic CD cover which is given to us in a plastic bag!

A new 'Cottage Industry' that once had so much promise and hope - the internet has been high jacked. To produce one’s own music and getting it ‘out there’ to the world, either for profit or for interest is not easy. Controls are everywhere. 

I listen to people/music I know, people who have spent their time and energy composing, writing, learning, producing, recording, editing, re-editing, designing their CD; so much time and effort for what? For it not to be listened too? For it to be put away while people just go to the multinationals and buy something that they have ‘heard before’. I do not think I have bought a CD from a shop in years.

I have made my own recordings for years, I sold them on the streets, I have sent them through the post....it works! I also listen to recordings I made of other people, 'field-recordings', ethno recordings, of local bands, people, in the UK and around the world. They have more life and originality; they have new ideas and passion than any mass produced run-of-the-mill factory production. 

Today I listened to a Cumbrian flute player called Rob Rynn, who produced his own CD with his own money by paying studio time, and working on his own CD design etc. it is good, it is original, sometimes it is not accurate in tempo, sometimes it is like a live recording...but it is good and it is different and it stays in my mind...it is personal. I encourage people to record and upload their music to the Facebook “Home Recording Distribution” page, and try and sell your work, or interest people in it. Here is the link and logo:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Home-Recording-Distribution/117782875075397