Anybody remember "the cave"?

Some of the old people pop in here every once in a while. I'm connected with a few of them on FB now.

We've had this discussion before, and it's pretty much agreed that FB and youtube killed this place.
 
Its been a very very long time since I've been on this forum, my old username was kingofpain678
I remember you pretty well. I joined in the December of 2009 {well, I actually joined in 2005 but that's another story} and you were one of the people that was active here around that time. One thing among others that I always remember about you was that you said "the guitar is a mid-range instrument." That was late 2009 or sometime in 2010. It's funny what sticks in the mind about people.
You weren't only active in the cave, you were on the actual recording forums too, quite a bit, in my first year here. You often seemed to have problems with getting a guitar sound that you were happy with and you seemed kind of intense, moody and struggling with aspects of life.
I know people tend to get misty eyed about the cave and it had its moments, but for me, the real action, contention and insanity happened in the actual on topic forums. The cave was always flat beer for me compared to some of the meltdowns that happened in the main forums. And they are still here for anyone that wants to see what this place was like back in the day.

there was a point in time where we had some weirdo in the cave who went by ... I think the name was catthink? we called him/her cat stink
They were called cantthinkofname and they weren't exactly respected round here ! I never really had any interaction with them and I don't know why so many people had a downer on.....actually, there was some confusion as to whether they were male or female. They gave the impression they were female.
After I'd been on HR for a few months, I wrote a song called "Ode to a home wrecker" {as in home recorder} which captured some of my early impressions of the things that were being talked about and some of the characters that populated the place. You and Cantthinkofname were in the song, along with Teysha Blue, Chibi Napa, RAMI, EZ Willis, Poetic Intensity {he was a drummer}, True Eart {she was a mod, I think}, Miroslav, Lt Bob, Gekko zzed, RawDepth, Southside Glen, Greg_L and Noisewreck. It must have been written in early 2010 because my drumming mate and I recorded the music for it during the night in March or April of that year in a rat infested warehouse and it was one of the few songs I had at that time where I actually had a full set of lyrics and a melody and actually had to work out the music for it. Usually it was the other way round. I remember writing the song as I was doing my deliveries in central London. The whole thing was done in about 20 minutes.
By the way, no rats turned up and the warehouse was freezing !


Teysha Blue, how d’ya do ? Chibi Napa’s after you...
And Rami’s due at ten to two to teach us how to boogaloo
And since I met the king of pain, I can’t even think my name
Still, now my will is so easy, laced with poetic intensity
Truth hurts, but mirrors.....

Bobby, the house is empty ~ the tenants have all left
The place is overrun with geckos, chomping, slashing, with raw depth

Down on the southside there’ll be ‘ell to pay If some nubidoos don’t get their way
We’ll send the boys to wreck yer noise, Compress yer gain stage, improve yer toys
Truth hurts, but mirrors laugh..…
 
The Cave has long been buried.

Us old Cave dwellers are few and far between these days.

Nothing lasts forever. But it was pretty fun while it did.

turning the Cave into the cesspool it had become......
The Cave was just one really unique little slice of cyberspace with that crazy crew of misfits from all over the world participating...With the theme of a Biker bar...no one had to hold back and shit was tossed...generally pretty respectfully

During the summer of 2010 on a drive through France, I wrote a song about the cave. I'd stop every so often to jot down lyrics. Lyrics have rarely ever been my strong point I'm afraid. But, these are just a relatively new person's impressions of it at the time. The song was called "In the cave."

1. In the cave ~ where gymnasts exercise diarrhoea mind
In the cave ~ where cynics, atheists and hecklers plunder tender vines
In the cave ~ Illiterate poets dispense with known rhymes
In the cave ~ it’s the place your mummy warned you about 89 times


2. In the cave ~ where no serving wench can get in through the door
In the cave ~ where the winning of a battle doesn’t justify the war
In the cave ~ where snow lava burns cold and the flames freeze you raw
In the cave ~ where less ain’t quite less but is somehow less than more


3. In the cave ~ where fizzy water bites like industrial strength wine
In the cave ~ where no one’s hot reputation get made or come in on time
In the cave ~ where girls of dubious reputation service guys
In the cave ~ where no prisoners are taken red, dead or alive


4. In the cave ~ where eclectic gyrations spawn pornographic scenes
In the cave ~ where genetic mutations quote Shakespeare and Keynes
In the cave ~ where alliances don’t last a quarter of the week
In the cave ~ where friends sell and betray you and pretend they tried hard to speak [for you]



Over my dead body he used to say and over his dead body lay
Let the dead bury their dead.
 
Teysha Blue, how d’ya do ? Chibi Napa’s after you...
And Rami’s due at ten to two to teach us how to boogaloo
And since I met the king of pain, I can’t even think my name
Still, now my will is so easy, laced with poetic intensity
Truth hurts, but mirrors.....

Bobby, the house is empty ~ the tenants have all left
The place is overrun with geckos, chomping, slashing, with raw depth

Down on the southside there’ll be ‘ell to pay If some nubidoos don’t get their way
We’ll send the boys to wreck yer noise, Compress yer gain stage, improve yer toys
Truth hurts, but mirrors laugh..…

oh that is absolutely awesome! don't suppose you have a render of the song sitting on a drive somewhere? I would love to have a copy.

I remember you too, my brain doesnt work so good but I think possibly most of our interaction was in the main forum? I think we had mostly positive interactions, I mean really for being the shit head that I was there were only a few people that I really butted heads with - mostly greg though
 
Grim can turn a phrase. This is particularly nice: "..where genetic mutations quote Shakespeare and Keynes."
 
oh that is absolutely awesome! don't suppose you have a render of the song sitting on a drive somewhere? I would love to have a copy
I don't but when I get round to mixing it, I'll be sure to send you a copy.

Grim can turn a phrase. This is particularly nice: "..where genetic mutations quote Shakespeare and Keynes."
Sometimes I wonder where some of my phrases come from ! My Mum taught me to read when I was 4, before I started school and I've always just liked words, even if they don't exactly make sense at times.
 
I'd be happy to take a crack at it if for no other reason than i could use the practice
Because I record on an Akai 12 track standalone DAW, I've got no idea how to send the tracks as individuals, let alone lined up. There is a method by which it can be done {called Deepstripper} but it's something I've always had the info on as a "just in case" thing should I ever be forced to go the computer route. But as I love the Akai, I'm just stocking up on back up units should my working units ever go kaput and can't be fixed.
 
Because I record on an Akai 12 track standalone DAW, I've got no idea how to send the tracks as individuals, let alone lined up. There is a method by which it can be done {called Deepstripper} but it's something I've always had the info on as a "just in case" thing should I ever be forced to go the computer route. But as I love the Akai, I'm just stocking up on back up units should my working units ever go kaput and can't be fixed.

If it has a usb port...this may be the way...quoted from site elsewhere

My band recorded drum tracks on an Akai dps24. I use a pc based DAW, so I had to get the tracks from the dps24 onto my computer. I used the usb connection and the akai software- (it's on their website). After a little tweaking I imported the audio tracks into a folder onto my computer. It was a bit of a headache- and time consuming as the usb interface is not that fast. Look for the AkSys software on the Akai website. There are a couple of things to download- a usb driver and an AkSystrackview utility, and one other thing I can't remember. Hopefully this will apply to your situation.
 
"when I get round to mixing it" for a 10 year old song

That sums us all up in a single phrase! :laughings:
I know !
My "problem" if you want to call it that splits into various channels that join the great ocean of intention and procrastination.
Firstly, my songs in the old days fell broadly into two categories, those that were complete and those that were complete frameworks. The ones that were complete frameworks would be made up of either bass/drums, bass/percussion, guitar/drums or guitar/percussion. These would build relatively slowly. They might take years for a melody or lyric to emerge. For example, I've just been putting electric 6 and 12 string guitars tonight on one such song called "Jiggery Pokery." I remember having the idea as far back as 1997 or '98 {I remember where I was when the chorus refrain of "Are we pigs or Englishmen ? / Hold your breath and count to 10 !" came to me}. My drummer friend and I actually recorded the song in early '99. A friend had bought me an acoustic 12 string {long story} and I had a pickup fitted and it was one of the earliest recordings I did with it. It may actually be the first one where I actually simultaneously recorded DI and miked on the 12 string because while my 6 string electro~acoustic sounded horrendous when plugged in, the 12 string had an intriguing sound. I liked it. Still do. But I also like it miked so I had the two together. My mate played congas then then we did a percussion track {I remember using the mandolin as a percussion instrument, scratching the strings beyond the bridge}. And there it remained for 10 years. I came up with loads of lyrics for it and assured myself that I'd knock them into shape one day. Then in 2009, a different friend that plays the drums put a drum track on for me. It wasn't until about 6 weeks ago that I finally settled on a melody {some of which had been in my files for years} and seriously condensed the lyrics I had because there were like 10 or 11 verses and a huge middle part and there's only room for 4 verses and the middle part truncated into something that makes some kind of sense. Over the last week, I've laid down acoustic bass guitar, mandolin, worked out some backing vocals and an idea for a violin part and today I did those two guitar parts using an isocab I built years ago. It's in the kitchen and I was tracking from the front room while my wife watched 4 episodes of "The Crown."
The song will be instrumentally finished by Saturday, hopefully, by some time in the next two weeks I'll put on a vocal and then I have to work around the govt covid lockdown and three of my friends to help with harmony and backing vocals and then it will be complete ~ over 20 years after it began life as an idea !
I have quite a few songs in that stage. It would've been lots more but in 2018 I forced myself to get mixing and within a few months, I'd done 75. As I once saw on a Reaper site, finished is better than perfect. Right now, I have at least another 70 {possibly more} that I could mix right now and I know I will. Just not right now !
But......:spank:
 
I love drums. Not every one of my pieces have them but most do. And I like actual drums. I like the kit I have. It's by no means a classic kit, but I like its sound. Whereas until 2009/10 a particular drumming friend and I used to record most weeks {which explains why I have so much stuff being worked on}, since then, the drummers I know live in different parts of the world or different parts of the country so if they're in town, if they have the time to spare, I'd grab them for some sessions. Which, for the last 13 years has tended to somewhat limit my hand. I'd kind of write in a bit of a rush and because it's important for me that the drummers very much put their stamp on my songs, we'd certainly get stuff done. I remember back in 2012, my mate Ray and I {he's from and lives in Zambia} did a session where we got 13 songs done in less than 4 hours. Sometimes, one take was all that was needed. But you get the picture. So I tend to have quite a number of songs that exist only as guitar and drums or bass and drums. Some might have lyrics but as yet no melody. Some might have just a vocal and are waiting for other instrument bits to appear. Some might need just one instrument or a vocal or backing vocal. All in different states of play ! And if any of my drumming friends are going to be in town, if they could, we'd get something done so I'd quickly put together an arrangement of a few songs and if we recorded them, they might be sitting around for 15 years ~ if I'm around that long !
Sometimes, if I'm cribbing the drum tracks off one song for another, I'll take a listen to prospective candidates and I'm often pleasantly surprised by songs I've been meaning to mix but haven't listened to for years. Sometimes I'll look at the title and can't remember the song at all. :eek:
That all said, though I kind of have an imaginary mental deadline {ie, before I die}, I like both not being tied to a deadline or being under commercial constraints. It's important that this remains fun for me.

If it has a usb port...
Unfortunately, the 12 track has not a usb port in sight !
 
It's important that this remains fun for me.

Well as the beatles once said in the last lines of She's leaving home.... "Fun is the one thing money can't buy"

If it ain't fun, other than monetary gain LOL why would we waste our time?
 
I miss the cave and Greggor.........one of the reasons I only occasionally troll these page instead of daily.

being offended is good for you, thickens the skin, makes you learn how to deal with dreadful emotions. and nothing wrong with a good skuffle, in person or online.

With that said, Trump is better than Biden, and Jo Jorgensen would be better than both of those idiots. i guess only 1% of us is brave enough to try to buck the system. Metallica need to split up and do solo projects like Kiss did. Gibson sucks, always have, always will.....along with Guitar Center and eBay. Drum software is way easier to deal with than real drummers and their drama and egos, plus they don't beat the shit out of you for correcting them.
The Beatles suck.
The Stones are over rated.

I could go on and on............Zeppelin are a bunch of talented thiefs!
 
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