SoyMac is now wired for sound. It took a bit of doing. After installing "Toast," the Mac CD-burning program with its related sound recording software, "SpinDoctor," I then had to figure out how to connect my more than forty-year-old amplifier to the computer. I had to go to the Mac Store and get a gadget called an iMic which converts audio signals to whatever goes into a USB connection. Then I had to find the right adapters to connect the iMic from my amplifier to my computer, which is about ten feet away from the amplifier.

I have been using audio gadgets now for the same forty years as the amplifier's age. Along the way I have collected a variety of different cords and connections. I rummaged in my pile of grey and black spaghetti and came up with things that fitted together. The output of the amplifier (the headphone jack) fits a big steel phone plug which was used in the 50s and 60s. My phone plug adapter goes to a mini-stereo plug which served in the seventies and is still widely used today. That in turn leads to a twin-branched stereo fork which came with the iMic and ends in RCA plugs, which in turn fit into an RCA to mini-plug double cable. The mini-plug from this goes into the circular white iMic, which then, finally, plugs into SoyMac with the now-familiar small rectangular USB interface. This cable concoction has plenty of yardage, more than enough to go across my living room floor. It spans not only space but time, moving from the phone plug fifties to the RCA sixties to the mini-plug seventies, all the way up to the USB hardware of our own time. The next connection will not be a plug at all; it will be wireless.

So now I had the connection, and it was time to try the music. What would I choose to record first? I have a lot of tapes, and some of them are out-of-print rarities, beloved only by myself. One of my favorites, which I got when I was working at a New Age bookstore in Cambridge, Mass. in 1987, was VIOLETS IN SPRING by harpist Anne Williams. This 1985 album was produced by Williams and a bevy of other acoustic players and chanters, answerable to "Earthsong Productions" in (where else?) Sedona, Arizona. The liner notes read: "Judgement represents the return of Gaia, the Mother of Life, to Earth…the feminine ray coming back into manifestation…a return in consciousness to the presence of the Mother…" Some of the pieces are: "Goddess Star," "Amethyst Pool," "Crystals Dancing," and the title track, "Violets in Spring." I just love this tape. It's totally sweet and relaxing.

I put the Mother of Life into my nineties-vintage tape player and ran the Feminine Ray through the iMic into my milky Macintosh. My first attempt to register Earthsong's tinkling harp resulted in distortion and noise, because I had the recording level too high. The second attempt was much better. I ended up putting each side onto a separate CD, out of caution in case I lost some of the music, and then re-assembled the transcribed product onto one CD. I won't have to do that again, I can do them now in one session. Thus I saved the return of Gaia from media obsolescence, at least for a few years more. Now I can move on to even more unknown audio recordings, including, I hope, reel-to-reel tapes on which I recorded the sounds of my youth.

By the way, Anne Williams is still around, which is nice to see. She goes by "Ani Williams" now, and she's still coming into manifestation, harp and all. And she still lives in Sedona, a place I hope to visit someday. You can see her website at Songaia Sound Productions.

Celestial harps are much on my mind these days because I am painting a picture of an Angel with a Harp, flying among the towering clouds. This may sound heavenly, except for the lightning bolts and the tornado. Severe weather is predicted for that return in consciousness.

Posted at 3:21 am | link