The Logic Off Topic list

Just to stay firmly OT for a moment :-)

One of the "no politics" messages a while back alluded that unmoderated 
lists would degenerate into some quagmire called a "newsgroup" as 
though a newsgroup was some kind of black hole.

My experience with newsgroups is that this is a useful, in fact, rich 
resource.

In fact, I would suggest to anyone on this list who hasn't already done 
so to set your newsreader to

rec.audio.pro

This particular newsgroup is an invaluable source of info on outboard 
gear, recording techniques, and opinion. It concerns all the gear/ideas 
that you will need to get sound into your Logic system and plenty of 
lore on mixing, mastering and other items we all deal with on a daily 
basis.

You will soon find that there are the usual platform wars, political 
haggling, off color jokes, in a word, it is unmoderated ... but any 
decent newsreader allows you ignore,kill or highlight any thread you 
chose. There are regular contributors who are real gems. A fellow named 
Scott Dorsey, who has worked every mic/pre recording scenario and is 
always helpful. Another is Bob Ohlson - his production credits go back 
4 decades and span every conceivable job the recording industry has to 
offer. Listen when he decides to join in.  Another is Fletcher, a high 
end audio dealer who speaks authoritatively about a broad range of 
technical issues - of course, he favors the products he carries, but he 
is the kind of dealer that really checks out a product before putting 
it on his roster.

There are others worth highlighting as well, you will discover.

I have been upgrading the front end of my studio this year and have 
found this group to be very useful indeed for discussion, requests, 
info, links and so forth. I have made a number of happy purchases that 
began with research here.

The particularly nice thing about newsgroups is that they are 
accessible to Google - so you can do an advanced search - say, for 
example,  you are considering buying a particular mic - Google will 
search for instance rec.audio.pro  and present the results with its 
usual efficiency and relevancy. Most useful.

I also sit on a couple of other newsgroups which I won't mention 
because they have nothing to do with music, Logic or for that matter 
politics. I have to say usenet is the most underrated protocol on the 
internet. Use the tools you have to eliminate spam and trolls and you 
have a wealth of info without having to login, without having to submit 
demographic information, without advertising and yes, without 
moderators - far from being a jungle, usenet is in fact a very pleasant 
place to visit.

(my apologies to anyone to whom this is not, umm... news)