Making a tape or two

Here at That Boarding School Girl apart from being annoyed but not surprised at the Bear Pit that was Wednesday's activity in the House of Commons, I am unwell with a rotten  cold and cough so haven't been out on Thursday, not feeling up to much at all. 

Anyway continuing on a bit from last weeks post, the point behind having the cassette deck wired in was not just to play any old cassettes either pre-recorded on older ones of mine but to also to make new ones.

 As you will see in this picture, I have a portable cassette player aka a "Walkman" although that strictly speaking is a Sony term that while only playing in one direction before the tape stops and you turn it over, does feature Dolby B noise reduction for tapes made with it, a five band equalizer that acts like tone controls  to alter the sound to your tastes and a tape selector for tapes made to play in "Normal" or "Chrome/Metal" positions.

Around it are three tapes I made, one an original and the two Beatles ones I did this week on the Technics cassette deck.

One thing that those not brought up in the tape era won't realize is while a tape has a set playing time that time is not only halved across two sides equally but doesn't necessarily easily fit an album because either one side is longer than the tape's side or as with the Beatles 1962-1966 it is an album that runs for sixty-three minutes which would be too short for a seventy-four or ninety minute tape with lots of minutes of blank tape to get through before the second side and slightly too long for a sixty minute tape.

I decided with that one to remove a couple of songs that were not necessary and move one song to the second side to get it to neatly fit on a that sixty minute tape.

Likewise to get the forty nine minutes per side of the matching 1967-1970 album to a ninety minute tape I deleted a track from each side which left only a minute of blank tape from each of the tape which was very neat!

Project x part XII - simplification

This series of articles dates back to 2015 with the last entry from May of 2018 where we change the amplifier to better quality one.
Unfortunately when I went to put it one a couple of weeks ago the red power indicator came on for a second followed by a deep thud. Subsequent tests show it blew a few fuse and a number of transistors in the power amp.
This was a good time as any to try and simplify matters by adding one of the popular mini hifi components that have been around for the last fifteen or so years that typically comprise of a amplifier with built in cd player and tuner unit.
Denon are a very well respected maker of hifi components whose systems like that are frequent hifi award winners in that category.

The UD-M31 is a typical example of the breed being small , remote control driven with a RDS radio built in that does looks really smart.
There is a small 3.5mm headphone socket on the front that automatically switches out the loud speakers which were optional with model and not supplied .

 Looking at the rear panel you have antenna sockets for AM and FM radio and unlike the latest units two sets of line sockets that comprise of inputs AND outputs which means you can plug in recorders such as a cassette deck or MiniDisc easily and for MiniDisc there is an optical output for recording from cd which was the main digital input connector for them used for recording.
There are the pair of spring clip loud speaker connects right, then left for this units 22 watts per channel RMS which is the same as the previous one and notably higher than the original which will work well with the Wharfdale Delta 30's

 The cassette deck wired in with all its fancy tape tuning and display adjustment has a mechanically operated draw and the ability to insert four second pauses between recordings that helps when using tape searching systems like APSS.
It has a dedicated headphone output with its own volume control for monitoring.

The Pleasure Principal - vinyl collection restoration

One thing I went through during the nineteen nineties was format standardization usually across whole artists as I bought things on tape for quite a period and lp record before that so albums in no particular order were across them
The downside of that is some special albums went in forms I did love and this did include what I regard as Janet Jackson's two most consistently good albums that matched personal expression with musical experimentation.

 Released in April 1986 Control was her breakout album after two very so-so albums issued while being a child actor and Control is the key word in this as it was her adult statement of independence exploring issues and linking up with Jam and Lewis produce who throgh their production company FlyteTime to the signature Minneapolis funk sound popularized by Prince to new heights.
This featured four singles Nasty, What Have You Do For Me lately, When I Think of You and Let's Wait Awhile who wold very well.
This copy is a mint first UK copy.

Her follow up, issued as the buzz around brother Michael's Bad album dropped in late 1989 took the same team but instead invited people to look at the world around them such as disadvantaged children, under educated and excluded young adults, the drugs issue touched on memorably by Mrs Reagan in the Just say No campaign and also encourage positivism, the belief things can be turned around.

 This had a number of hits across 1989 and 1990  with Miss You Much, Escapade, Black Cat that featured heavy metal guitar solo, Alright and Lonely.
I own a seven version cd of Black cat.

One issue with the original vinyl issue I had was that - it was a single disc for just over an hours worth of dense loud music  so some songs were trimmed and it had be cut at low volume meaning it could and did sound noisy on replay.
There was only a half inch gap between the end of last song and the start of the paper label making the end  tracks sound poorer than normal.
In that era the lp was something issued as an after though with majority sales on tape and cd where such issues simply don't exist.
In July of this year this album was reissued on vinyl as a double rectifying that failure using heavy 180 gram vinyl and that version is now restored to my collection.

A Eton and Shrewsbury Mess

There's only one set of things that have been on everyones minds this week and it's also pointless even trying to say "this will happen" cos things are in such a state of disarray that frankly no one knows what might happen and where we'll end up.
It's around that thing we have been unable to escape in the last three years that have seen two general elections, three prime ministers and a european union election - yes Brexit.
Let's start with proroguing parliament,  a measure applied from last week by the Prime Minister and given approval for by the Head of State (The Queen) that really wound some people up saying to pause parliament is undemocratic.
First thing to say is often it is paused typically whenever a Prime Minister wishes to bring in new measures and is more often than not before the Opening of Parliament by the Queen. 
There is no legal restriction on the number of times in any term it may be nor if the number of days. Boris Johnson wanted 23 days in part for his own legislative program apart from resolving the conundrum that is Brexit and John Major got more in controversial circumstances in the 1990's.
A appeal against it in Scotland was rejected because it was found to be Lawful and all was was a matter of Political Judgement not reserved for legal interpretation.
We can say he is therefore entitled to do it.
Part of the significance around the timing is as things stood come October 31st, we would be leaving the EU with or without a deal and it is the idea of leaving without that is exercising Members of Parliament to the point the passed a law preventing it.
Let's back track a little here.
No Prime Minister said they wanted to leave without an agreement which for the avoidance of doubt is undertaking agreed by the United Kingdom AND the EU BEFORE we start trade negotiations covering tariffs, customs arrangements, plus the major issue of the Northern/Southern Irish border.
You are simply are not allowed to start those negotiations UNTIL you have agreed to leave with the EU or have left by any other means making it necessary.
The EU is insistent on the so called Irish Backstop that has Northern Ireland subject to EU customs rules to keep trade flowing without restrictions and borders with the Irish Republic unless THEY felt other workable arrangements could replace it no ifs, buts or maybes AND entirely their own call.
The UK Parliament voted three times down an agreement between then Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU that included just that because it disagreed totally with it (and treated one part of the UK Northern Ireland on leaving as if it hadn't).
In a two week period the Speaker very controversially allowed MP's themselves time to discuss and put forward alternative proposal that they did and to which MP's also rejected.
The reason we faced NO DEAL was because-actually Parliament CANNOT agree a deal itself that the EU can also agree to.
This week the same MP's decided with 27 member majority not to allow leaving without a deal  even though they themselves can't agree one having had three years to do so a point likened by the Prime Minister as to going round and round like a circus which in that respect regardless of my view is true - we are while saying they haven't been give enough time to discuss Brexit.
I could hold my head in my hands and darm well scream my beeping head off when I hear that as as far as I can that's pretty much most of what Parliament has being done in that time - debating it.
Plus the extra time has to be agreed by the EU (and they don't have to).
The trouble with agreeing the custom union is we HAVE to use EU Customs Agreements with NO say in them and no ability to make our own either so it would not be in the EU but still subject to them. Not really an exit from the EU which the voters wanted.
The problem is they can't agree a beeping thing by way of this agreement before leaving so realistically all you can do is either leave without and get a trade deal in double quick time honouring the referendum AND the european parliament votes OR apply to rejoin the EU.
Reapplying it should be remembered isn't automatically the route to restore the UK to where it was with our opt-outs and exemptions and may even involve agreeing to further measures to bind is in more such as a guaranteed period where will will not be allowed to leave, working toward the adoption of the Euro and so on. 
That would tie the hands of any incoming Prime Minister.
It's most unlikely you'd be told what an agreement would be BEFORE you decided to rejoin either  which is the converse of the Pro Remain argument against leaving which isn't an improvement on the uncertainty and fear that some people have.
Both leaving without an agreement or reapplying BOTH have risks and within sections of the community potential losers and winners and unless the EU were to set out terms for both first I honest don't think another referendum would really help.
I honestly feel getting involved in the the EU with the unwillingness of Mp's to insist on a referendum at the point of the Maastricht agreement and Lisbon Treaty failed to test the voters enthusiasm  for "ever closer union"  and I say that as someone who was favourable to the then Common Market and who with some reluctance concluded what increasingly not acceptable within the relationship was not amenable to change from within.
It was the inability of David Cameron to do that around 2015/6 that set all this off and he did tell the EU as much.
We also face the situation that the Prime Minister isn't being allowed to go the country either because a piece of legislation only passed in 2011 by David Cameron and Nick Clegg then leader of the Liberal Democratic Party only allows for breaking a fixed four year term IF you can get 66% of the Mp's to agree and they're not.
Labour are refusing UNTIL No leaving with No Deal is blocked.
That figure is a extremely high bar, almost without precedent which allows the opposition to determine in the kind of mess we are in now not allow the ball in this stand off to be put back to the people to determine by either returning the Governing party with a majority for its program or or the opposition and their alternative.   
It needs an amendment to a simple majority of Mp's in a free vote to do the job it is meant to. 

Having typed this I'll cuddle up to my plushies - beeping grown up messes!