Music + Technology = Pete Lacis

AVCHD and the Apple Final Cut Fiasco

Posted by in pete lacis, technology, trouble shooting

While the AVCHD format is still pretty new, I was disappointed to learn that the version of Final Cut Express HD (3.5) that I purchased in August would not support this new codec. Then I learn that the new version of Final Cut Express 4 supports AVCHD, but actually has less features than v3.5 So this would lead one to believe that it costs $99 to “upgrade but downgrade?!” With this realization (and after researching about and drooling over Final Cut Pro Studio 2), I was all set to purchase…read more

Jan.13
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Google, The New York Times, the 2000 Election and the 26 year old version of myself

Posted by in pete lacis, technology

Like many folks out there I use Google Alerts to track the happenings of things I’m interested in. Included in my search query are mentions of myself…..primarily for the purpose of seeing which sites I post on are tracked (and how quickly things get indexed) and also because its interesting to see who’s talking about me. Imagine my surprise when I find this Google Alert from seven years ago regarding the 2000 election. If I recall correctly, I was having lunch with a colleague in Chicago when we were approached…read more

Oct.13
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Gibson’s new self-tuning guitar

Posted by in music, musical instruments, musician, pete lacis, technology

Well, this isn’t the first self-tuning system to be available to the public, but its the first made available from a major guitar manufacturer. Since Gibson and Fender are essentially the GM and Ford of the guitar industry, I’m quite skeptical as to the level of quality made available through these mass producers. Then again, after many years of searching for a quality Les Paul I did purchase a 1960 VOS Les Paul Standard within the past year and absolutely love the instrument. I’ll reserve my opinion to when I…read more

Oct.02
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Custom Audio Amplifiers (Suhr) OD100 Classic Plus – third time is the charm!

Posted by in amplifiers, audio clips, musical instruments, pete lacis, technology

After about a month in the shop, I received my newly modded Custom Audio Amplifiers OD100 Classic Plus (+). This is actually the third time this amp has been modded (was originally an OD100 Standard, then SE, now Classic Plus). My first impressions on this amp are as follows: the character of the gain is still 100% Suhr. It lives in the same family as the SE version of the OD100, however through the conversion to the plexi transformer and the EL34’s some things have really changed. Normally I would…read more

Sep.13
2

iPhone: the cost of being an early adopter

Posted by in apple, technology

In typical Steve Jobs fashion, yesterday Apple unveiled the newly refreshed iPod line including the iPod Touch (or neutered iPhone). While most of these products were well received (not so for the iPod Nano “Fatty” – what were they thinking?), the annoucment that thrilled, yet shocked many was the $200 price drop of the 8GB iPhone. I was an early adopter of the iPhone (July 19). My wife followed suit a few weeks later (her six month old Treo WX just wasn’t looking so sexy next to my iPhone). Typically,…read more

Sep.06
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