Slower, cheaper, less useful…
I’m looking forward to having a dry aged steak later today. I’ve had a strip loin in my fridge for 37 days in an UMAI dry aging bag and today is the day!
While you can see the changes in just a few days in the above image, there’s not much visible change in the last month. That’s probably a good thing. Some of the changes could have been bad. Everything seems to have worked well though and today we’ll be cutting that strip loin into some nice, thick NY Strips.
Check out my ride on Strava.
https://strava.app.link/aC9Z3g9cdFb
This was the second time I jumped on one of my bicycles and went for a ride since May 2022. That month, I had to get off the bike and had emergency back surgery for a herniated disc between L4 and L5. I was losing control of my legs and couldn’t walk, but oddly, I could still ride until about two weeks before the repair.
If you’ve had back surgery, you probably know you aren’t allowed to do anything like bend over, lift anything over ten pounds, or twist your back for about six weeks. So…no bicycles. Then, I started physical therapy.
That went well, but during my recovery, I discovered that my knees had finally given up the ghost. I’d had terrible knees for years. I think all the cycling had extended their useful life by years and years, but no more.
So, in January 2023, I had bilateral knee replacement surgery. That meant an even longer recovery period, though I didn’t need to be as careful as I did when I underwent back surgery.
During this time, I used an electric scooter to get around, as bicycling wasn’t a thing. At first, my knees didn’t bend enough to allow it. Later, they were just too weak to allow much riding. Of course, with therapy, everything improved. A few rides on the Biki bike-share bikes proved I wasn’t quite ready, though.
To continue my exercise, I switched to a Xootr kick scooter and worked back up to a ten-mile ride. I love my Xootr.
Then, last week, about ten months after surgery, I decided it was time. I hopped on my Bike Friday pakiT and headed out. As I recall, I rode just under thirteen miles and felt great. My, um, saddle needs a bit of work. Not the bike’s saddle, mine.
This past week, it rained whenever I thought I might head out. That’s no fun. But Saturday was beautiful, and I hopped back on and had a lovely twenty-mile ride with no issues. Even my saddle cooperated!
It’s time to start getting ready for some sort of long ride in the coming year. And if you’ve ever followed the blog, you’ll know I like week-long tours. The last one I did was a week or so on the Katy Trail in Missouri and it was a gas!
Let’s just be open to whatever shows up in consciousness. But don’t try too hard. Maybe don’t try, just sit.
Check out my ride on Strava.
https://strava.app.link/wlTJtor92Eb
I’m sorry to say that I failed at Black Friday and bought things I didn’t need. Sigh.
Okay, what did I get?
Easy Music Center, my local instrument and gear shop located an annoying two blocks away, had their annual 10% off anything in the store. Sometimes, stores will advertise that, but then you’ll find it doesn’t apply to things already on sale. Easy Music Center doesn’t do that. Admittedly, there were a few specific manufacturers that weren’t included, not many, and nothing I necessarily would have bought there anyway.
What did I get?
I upgraded my audio interface from a Focusrite Solo Gen 2 to a new Focusrite 2i2 Gen 4. The difference in sound is very noticeable; very. In addition, I can now plug in more than one input instrument, something I’ve wanted to be able to do for a while. I haven’t tried it yet, but I did get the interface set up quickly and easily.
That’s the solo, this is the 2i2 4th Gen.
Naturally, I had to buy new cables, but that was a plus! I’d forgotten that I own studio monitors capable of balanced input. All I needed now that I have a unit with balanced output were some new cables. And yes, they were on sale.
I also picked up a new string winder tool. I own one. I just don’t know where it is at the moment. In addition, I picked up a couple more cheap tuners. They seem to last me a couple of years, then start giving me trouble.
But did I get anything else? Maybe something expensive?
Well, here’s the fail.
I ended up buying one of their clearance guitars. I’d really liked to have had a guitar on my epic road trip this past summer. Imagine, if you will, a month without being able to make music. Not so much anymore.
I bought a Steinberger GT-Pro Spirit “Deluxe” guitar. Given the clearance price and the sale discount, it seemed like an opportunity to have some fun on the road. I’ll travel in January and February, the former to Hawai’i Island and the latter to San Francisco. I’m covered, I can bring a guitar, my Spark GO, and some headphones, and jam out daily!
Is this the best-reviewed travel guitar out there? Nope. Does it have fans? Yep. Could I have done better? Maybe, maybe not. I will say that with my Spark GO, this guitar sounds excellent to me. It’s easy to play, feels well made, has a smooth action, and is light and easy to carry around. It even came with a decent gig bag.
Should I even bother with all this stuff? After all, I’m not a great or even a good musician. I’m hopeless. But here’s the thing. I’m not playing for other people and certainly not for pay. I enjoy what I do, and that is the point.
I’ll show you what I mean…this isn’t for you…this is for me to remind myself I did this one day and had fun doing it.
I’ve had a few days to play with all my new gear and have reached some tentative conclusions. Keep in mind, I’m not a particularly proficient player nor a guitar tech wiz.
The setup for each system was as follows. For the Valeton, I’ve hooked it into my M2 Pro Mac Mini with Apple’s own expensive cable so I could use the editor. Other than that, I just hooked it up to headphones to spare my neighbors, and went to town.
The Spark GO required a bit of setup to work with the Airstep SPK controller. I hooked my Spark GO up to my iPhone 15 Pro Max with another good cable, and yes, used headphones from the Spark. Opening both the Spark app and Loopy HD, it was off to the races.
My thoughts?
The Valeton is a lot easier to setup for this. That makes sense as it’s combined unit including the looper. It also has good sounds over my headphones. The looper works great and with little tweaking, I was able to play over a loop I created pretty easily.
The combo setup of my Spark GO, the Airstep SPK, and my phone is harder to setup, especially make sure Loopy HD can read the controller. I do wish Loop Pro was able to do this, and I suppose that it can with the full Airstep controller, but not the Spark version. Further, I’ve had more trouble getting a good sound on the loop, though it certainly does work. I’m also not getting as clear a sound as I might like through the headphones, but I’m new at this and can probably tweak it to get right.
Who wins? Well…neither really. I’m far more likely to travel with the Spark GO combo. At home, I’m far more likely to use the Valeton in my living room where it’s hooked to my Mac and studio speakers. In my bedroom? It’s going to be the Spark combo.
In short, both solutions work, but seem to have different usages, at least for me. Since all the gear was on sale, I’m not feeling like I made bad purchases. I love the Spark GO and will certainly take it on trips.
All the best!
I managed to get through the day without touching my guitar…this was not in the plan, and I hope to play soon.
But I wanted to say that, at least, I’ve been quite happy with my Spark Go and the Spark Control.
I know I suggested I’d prematurely ordered it and might have considered the AirStep first. Well…maybe so, but I’m good for the moment.