I got those sun ain't shinin', screwy soundcard blues

Ok. So the waning of the summer light and the end of daylight savings time effects my concentration, energy level, and general sense of well-being. I know there is a name for the syndrome, but I prefer simply to get what I need and do what I must to make it to Spring and let it go at that, without embracing a popular terminology of victimization. Cranky too? "Well, yes, since you asked.

More germane to the blog is the hell I experienced installing a new, 24 bit sound-card. Though my "new" M-audio 2496 is is not state-of-the-art, it is a significant improvement over the old Soundblaster I was using. Unfortunately, uninstalling my Creative hardware drivers also removed the multimedia audio controller from the computer. It took a couple of days (remember I'm not at my brightest!) to figure out that I could download new ones from Dell. Then it was another week before all the functions on the new card worked. I still don't know how I got the mixer finally to regulate recording volume, but I'll take that gift and be grateful for it.

The first order of business was to re-record and renovate the Op. 59 No. 2 of the Budapest set of Beethoven's middle quartets. That's done and posted and can be downloaded anew at the link on the original post. While only the last movement had a skip, patching in a movement recorded on a different card seems chancy, so I reupped the entire quartet, flac and mp3.

Future posts will be recorded in 24bit 96khz and sampled down to CD quality specs before posting. If anyone wants a 24 bit flac, please ask, as I will not be putting them up as a matter of course. Debate rages about whether or not 24bit masters make any difference. I think they do, although the benefit is not necessarily apparent -- more felt than heard I guess. I wanted to try it, anyway. I'd love to hear any feedback on the issue or on subsequent posts with the new card.

And, though Dylan Thomas had death, not winter in mind, "Rage against the dying of the light.

Revisions to Budapest Qt. Beethove Middle Quartets

I discovered listening to the CD I made of it that the last movement of Op. 59 No. 3 of the previous post had a pronounced skip at the beginning of the movement. I have uploaded a corrected FLAC and MP3 of the movement in question, for those who have already downloaded, and replaced it in new zip files of the entire quartet so that subsequent downloads will have the corrected version.

Thanks for your understanding.