Off Topic - Roger Zelazny's Unicorn Variation As Read By Rene Auberjonois

     I'm going off the beaten path today.  Usually I'm all about Southern Gospel Music, or things that have some bearing on getting this blog where I want it to be.  Today, it's still about audio, but not about music.  It's about searching for one thing, and finding another.  It's about synchronicity.  It's about searching the shed for a 35 year old audio tape of my Uncle playing the family piano, and in the process, finding a 28-year old audio tape that I wasn't even thinking about.

    One of my favorite writers, Roger Zelazny, wrote several of my favorite stories.  That includes "Unicorn Variation", and to a lesser extent, "Angel Dark Angel."  Both of these stories are on an audiocassette, and read by Rene Auberjonois.  The tape was produced by Durkin-Hayes in 1995.  If you don't know who Auberjonois was, you'd probably recognize him as Odo, in Star Trek: Deep Space 9.  If you like niche sci-fi (syfy), you may recognize him as Hugo Miller, from Warehouse 13.  Numerous other things, but what you may not know is that he "read" for a large number of audio book productions.  And that he could breathe life into his readings with majestic ease.  When you listen to him, the characters came to life.  Each had their own voices, and mannerisms.  I've always loved to read, but listening to Rene read the stories out loud, added another layer to my enjoyment.  

    I've intended for years to find that tape, and transfer it to an MP3 file.  Because tapes wear out.  They degrade, the audio fades, the tapes stretch.  28 years later is stretching my luck.  Recently, I've been on a related quest to upload old audio recordings of my Uncle Freil on piano.  In the process, I've had to buy a new tape player, and re-learn how to use Audacity, something I haven't worked with in over a decade.  So finding "Unicorn Variation" might have been unintended at this exact moment, but it's been in the back of my mind for years.  And this was the perfect time to find it again.  For the most part, the audio quality is still nice and clear.  There was one section that had some trouble, but the words were still clear, so I'm okay with a bit of hiss and clicking.

For anybody not familiar with Zelazny, I usually think of him as a fantasy/sci-fi writer.  But that's like saying the sun's hot.  Zelazny wrote concerts with words.  He's not for everybody, and I'm not thrilled with everything he wrote.  But he used words like Leonardo da Vinci used paints.  Like Michelangelo used a chisel.  Everything he wrote was a work of art.  In Unicorn Variations, a lone traveler meets a chess-playing unicorn at an abandoned bar in a ghost town, with the fate of the world hanging on a single game.

    It's the kind of story I love;   nobody is 'the bad guy.'  The story is full of charm, wonder, and wit.  I've read it many times, and listened to this tape off and on since the mid-1990's.  Angel Dark Angel is also a "read many times" story, but it lacks the wonderful whimsy of "Unicorn."  

    So now I have both stories, read by the remarkable Rene Auberjonois, as mp3 files.  I'll back them up on a few hard drives, download them to my cell phone, and never lose it again.  PLUS, at the end of the tape, Rene mentions he's also recorded Zelazny's "Last Defender of Camelot."  Now that one... that one is arguably my most favorite short story in my entire life.  

    Monique and I both spent some time today trying to track down a copy.  Not on eBay, not on Amazon, nor AbeBooks.  Not on any niche sites I ran across.  Not on Youtube (I searched, in case another fan felt like sharing).  Youtube did have an old Twilight Zone episode base on it, but it didn't live up to the book.  Not even close.

    So, still hunting for an audiobook of "Last Defender of Camelot."  If you know how I can get hold of one, I'd appreciate a comment or email.  :^)

Transferring Audiotape Cassettes to WAV and MP3

    It's been a while since my last post.  Lot going on in real life, but also making progress on the music.  I went to see my folks a couple of weeks back, and Mom gave me some old tapes and discs that potentially had Uncle Freil's playing on them.  Got home, and hunted all over, but none of the tape players in the house were able to play the cassettes.  Monique and I both sell on eBay... you'd think with 20+ years each selling on eBay, we'd have at least one fully functional audiocassette player in the house, but nope.  None that could transfer the music into my computer.  Going to have to buy one.

DISTRACTIONS

    Then we had distractions.  A very cute, tiny dog that decided we were going to be his new home.  With three dogs already, we can't afford a fourth.  Thankfully someone volunteered to adopt him. Also, Monique and her sister spent all last week reorganizing our clutter.  eBay had taken over.  There's still work to be done, but it makes more sense now.  It feels like we have breathing room again.

    During the same week, my computer kicked the bucket.  It started by only booting in low-res and 32-bit.  Then it wouldn't boot at all.  The next morning, still not booting, but it did attempt to do a repair on the drive.  Later that day, it booted up.  Over the next few days, it would start up, but with various hiccups.  For now it's booting up and working right.  It won't last forever, but at least it's working right now.

    In that same time frame, we were told our taxes were going to be... a lot. Much more than ever before.  Last year I half-way retired.  Still working part time, and still selling on eBay.  Near the end of the year property taxes were nearly double compared to the previous year.  So we sold on eBay like never before to be able to pay it.  Now we're having to pay taxes on all the extra income we made in order to pay the other taxes.  
    As it turned out, it wasn't so bad.  Not great, but not "end of life as we know it" bad.

STILL SEARCHING FOR A CASSETTE PLAYER

    While all that was going on, the hunt was still on for a tape player.  Apparently, there are no "good but affordable" cassette players being made.  You can either go cheap/mid-range, none of which had... pristine... reviews.  Or you can go eBay with classic, expensive, decks from the 80's.  Tough call... you want the final audio to sound good, but the bank is already broke.  Cheap was the only option.
    There were three models on Amazon that seemed appropriate, in a price range from $25 to $60.  All three had a standard headphone audio out jack.  With the correct cable, you can go from headphone out, to the computer's Mic In, and digitize the audio with Audacity.

    The winner was the Semier AM/FM Radio Cassette Recorder, model number SM-138.  It could play and record audiotapes, has a 3.5mm earphone jack, can run on 4 C size batteries, or AC (power cord comes in the box, thankfully).  As you can see in the photo, the box had some corner damage, but the machine was in perfect condition.

TESTING THE AUDIO

    Did a test run, and it works!  Not perfect, but I'm playing tapes recorded 30 to 40 years ago... and they were recorded with one of those old Radio Shack shoe-box recorders.  I'm thrilled they still worked at all.  A little audio wobble under the circumstances is completely acceptable.
    One of the reviewers (don't remember which unit it was reviewing) warned of a 'hum' when you used a power cord, and gave advice on how to avoid it.  (Use batteries, or buy a $10 Noise Isolator.)  It was a well-written review with a lot of helpful info, but he made it sound like not following his advice would result in horrible audio.  I disagree.  

    When the player audio is set to the lowest possible level at which recognizable sounds are playing, and Audacity recording levels adjusted appropriately, the audio was acceptable for the circumstances.  Hum wasn't an issue.  Bad tape quality, years of tape degradation, and highly variable volumes within the same recording, those were issues.  The quality sure wasn't up to sound studio standards.  But with all the technical challenges, it was as good as could be asked for.

GOT THE WRONG TAPES

    One last issue... now that I can play the tapes, and digitize them, those first two turned out to be recordings of professionally made CDs, which I already owned.  Very disappointing.  Not the end of the story, though.  Last night, going through old boxes, I found two audio tapes that I had personally recorded of Freil playing the piano.  Only had time to check one side out.  There are 14 minutes of good enough audio, with songs I haven't heard him play since the late 1980's.  That made it all worthwhile.

    Can't wait to listen to the rest.  Hope to find more gems from the past, but it's been too long since writing a new blog.  Now you know what's up, and that I'm still making progress!

Update - More Music by Freil Thrift

     It's been a few days.  Real life has been pretty time-consuming.  I wanted to pop in with a bit of news.  A few posts ago, I mentioned a Hi-8 video, and an audio cassette tape, that might be out in the shed, and that might have Freil playing music on them.  That's an exciting possibility.  Today I went to see my folks, and Mom found TWO audio tapes that have Freil recorded on them.  Plus ONE cd that definitely has him playing, one that MIGHT have him, and another one that probably doesn't, but going to check out just in case.  These are all home recordings/burnt CDs.  Nothing professionally generated.  But still, there's a potential treasure trove of music I've never heard him play, or music I haven't heard in many years.

    So, tomorrow I'll root around the house for a tape player with headphone out (or RCA jack, either is fine).  Don't know offhand where one is, but we have a LOT of old stuff.  There ought to be at least one player around here that will work.  I don't know what kind of quality to expect from the CDs, but the tapes were probably recorded on the ubiquitous radio-shack type of player/recorder that we used in the 70's.  It won't be high-quality, so my goal is to rescue the song as best as possible.  As long as it's recognizable as his piano playing, that'll have to be good enough.  Really excited to hear them!! 

    On a side note, I've been getting a lot of use out of Audacity recently.  Maybe it'll have some feature that will clean up low-quality recordings on old tapes?  Soon enough to tell when I find the hardware to play them on.  

  I jumped the gun just a bit.  Searched the house, found several tape players.  One was busted.  One only played high squeaky sounds.  One played, but only though a built-in amp, and only output to RCA jacks.  From all I've read, plugging that into my mic input jack would have likely burned out my computer's audio board.  At the moment, uploading the audio tape is at a standstill.  Got feelers out with some friends, and family.  If that doesn't work out, the next step is to buy a new one.  Bottom line, it's going to take longer than expected.  Still excited, just have to let all the options play out before spending any money.  

In the meantime, practicing a new song to record for YouTube.  Still have most of the Singing Chapmans "Redeemed" album to write about.  And still have all the songs from their "Introducing" album.  Plus rebuilding something like a decade of blogs from my original Grace Notes, including midi files and sheet music.  We're talking years worth of projects.  At least I won't be bored.