How To Spend a Bestbuy Giftcard in a drum-istic fashion?

[KCMcC]

So I bought a TV for my room the other day, mainly to faciliate more convenient use of the drum oriented DVDs I've gotten recently (The Igoe and Stanton Moore vids specifically). I found a Westinghouse 20" LCD that was $350, but it was a floor model, so with the purchase price they give you a $150 gift card (a good idea on their part - they guarantee the revenue and sales numbers from a $350 sale, but assuming you would have spent $150 at bestbuy sometime in the future anyway, it's like getting a $200 LCD).

ANYWAY:
What can you think of that can likely be purchased at Bestbuy that could be directly beneficial to development as a drummer, or practically useful to a drummer?
I've already got a decent stereo, and a decent pair of phones at home, decent stereo in the car.
The obvious choices are CDs or DVDs (either directly instructional, or merely "good music" that would be educational in itself) in fact it looks like they carry both Dennis Chambers CDs (a good start)

What else, am I overlooking something obvious? Not so obvious?

[Deathmetalconga]

Maybe a CD player/dubber? I have one hooked up to my mixer with two recording mics. When the band comes over I record them onto the CD, as though it were a cassette. I then put the CD in a computer and I email the recordings out to the band members for comment and study.

www.terrasonus.com

[KCMcC]

One of the guitarists already bought us a 4/8 track digital Fostex, and we record all practices (I'm also in charge of turning it into songs and distributing it to the band).

Good idea though, and it does lead to the next step, maybe some good software for mixing/editing/processing the stuff - right now I just drag the 60-90 minute sound files into windows movie maker, and then splice them up with that.

[Bluewolf]

That sounds like a pain. Get the software, and make it a little easier on yourself. If you don't get the software, use one of the free ones like Audacity, instead of Windows Movie Maker.

[KCMcC]

Yeah, I knew without even looking into it that it had to be one of the very worst ways to do it. But I also knew that it would work. It's now 11, and I've been at it since about 8:20 (though I have taken a couple food breaks, and posted some stuff on the internet so it's not quite three hours of straight work)

Any suggestions for some good software of that type (you mentioned audacity as a free one) what about stuff that we can also use to do some processing of multi track stuff?

[Skitch]

So I bought a TV for my room the other day, mainly to faciliate more convenient use of the drum oriented DVDs I've gotten recently (The Igoe and Stanton Moore vids specifically). I found a Westinghouse 20" LCD that was $350, but it was a floor model, so with the purchase price they give you a $150 gift card (a good idea on their part - they guarantee the revenue and sales numbers from a $350 sale, but assuming you would have spent $150 at bestbuy sometime in the future anyway, it's like getting a $200 LCD).

ANYWAY:
What can you think of that can likely be purchased at Bestbuy that could be directly beneficial to development as a drummer, or practically useful to a drummer?
I've already got a decent stereo, and a decent pair of phones at home, decent stereo in the car.
The obvious choices are CDs or DVDs (either directly instructional, or merely "good music" that would be educational in itself) in fact it looks like they carry both Dennis Chambers CDs (a good start)

What else, am I overlooking something obvious? Not so obvious?

Try to find the Peter Gabriel Secret World DVD if you can!

Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com


http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=drummermikemccraw

[GRUNTERSDAD]

XM RADIO--if you dont have it...commercial free music from everywhere and all genres of music. Put on the headphones and play along, I love my satellite radio.

[Bluewolf]

Yeah, I knew without even looking into it that it had to be one of the very worst ways to do it. But I also knew that it would work. It's now 11, and I've been at it since about 8:20 (though I have taken a couple food breaks, and posted some stuff on the internet so it's not quite three hours of straight work)

Any suggestions for some good software of that type (you mentioned audacity as a free one) what about stuff that we can also use to do some processing of multi track stuff?

http://www.thegaragedoor.com/home/free.html

This site has a few different links to software. Audacity would be what I recommend, and what I use. Most of them are capable of multi track, but some (all?) are limited to how many tracks. I personally use a Roland VS-1680, so I only export a single mixed down track to the computer. Audacity can do the multi tracking stuff, and in both stereo and mono tracks.

[KCMcC]

Yeah, our practice recordings are usually single track, but the low-end has been lacking, so we are thinking of sticking a second mic on or near the Bass Amp, and mixing that in.
Since it'd probably be alot closer to the bass amp then the other mic is to everything, might need something that I can shift the tracks timewise in relation to eachother.

Doesn't matter that much, except we are trying to get to the point where our myspace page is all material from the current lineup, but without going into a real studio just yet.

Thanks for the heads up on Audacity, I'll definitely check it out.

[Skitch]

XM RADIO--if you dont have it...commercial free music from everywhere and all genres of music. Put on the headphones and play along, I love my satellite radio.

Yeah - I forgot about this! Excellent suggestion!


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com


http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=drummermikemccraw