project_c

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1471082036' post='3110386'] The unwanted clock switching bug is something that has been present in the Focusrite software for some time now. I had it when I bought my Saffire Pro 24 interface 6 years ago. IIRC it arises from a conflict between the Focusrite control panel with either your DAW settings and/or those in the Audio MIDI setup application. Make sure that you have selected the same clock setting in all 3 locations and it should remain stable in the Focusrite Control. [/quote] Ah ok, thanks for that! Will have a look at all audio / midi settings and report back. (I'm pretty sure it's not Logic because the problem is there before Logjc is launched)

So I've spent a good few hours playing through this box now, here are some thoughts. Sound: The sound quality really is excellent, there is more clarity and definition than I'm used to with my Motu MicroBook (which also sounds really good). Latency was never a real issue with the Motu, I used to play through Logic and listen to the output through headphones and it was fine, but on the Clarett 2Pre latency is pretty much non-existent. The 'Air' setting on the instrument input is surprisingly audible on bass, it's like a very subtle exciter, but with no harshness or colouration. It has the added bonus of making dead strings sound new, which is nice - I love the tone of dead strings but they can sound muddy, and the 'Air' setting gave my dusty old tapewounds a nice lift. I'm not sure if I'll use it all the time, but it's nice to have it there. Software: Setup, registration and installation is easy, the Focusrite Control is straightforward, but for some reason a couple of times the Clock Source set itself back to ADAT, even though I had it set to Internal, which I think was the reason I was getting no audio last night. Not sure if this is due to something I'm doing wrong or if it's a bug in the software, but it's not difficult to fix. I'll see what happens over the next few days, maybe I'll figure it out. The bundled EQ and Compressor plugins are very nice, totally useable for bass, the compressor especially is great and gives you the option to blend the compressed signal with the original. I normally use a Seymour Duncan Studio Bass compressor, this plug-in is a nice alternative to that, and also to Logic's own compressor plugin. I've only used the EQ for subtle bumps and cuts, nothing drastic but it seems musical and versatile. I've not downloaded the Softube plugins yet, looking forward to trying those later this weekend. Build quality: Can't complain about this, it's pretty amazing. Solid, chunky, red and made of steel. I've set the big Monitor knob to control the output to everything, feels great in use. Got loads of stuff to learn and record over the next week so I'm going to carry on putting this thing to work, should hopefully be fun.

the best in its price range: http://en-uk.sennheiser.com/on-ear-dj-headphone-hd25

I recommend an acoustic, because the Ubass felt like a tiny guitar strung with sticky spaghetti to me when I tried it, and the tone was not as upright-ish as I expected it to be, I felt like I got a more upright-ish tone with a p-bass strung with dead tapewounds. You don't need a posh acoustic bass as long as you find one with low action, and put either tapewounds or the deadest possible strings you can find on it, otherwise the tone will be very 'acoustic guitar'-ish. I have an ugly chinese made short scale 'Artisan' acoustic I bought for under £100, I bought it after trying a huge variety of expensive acoustic basses, all of which were terrible to play, both in terms of tone and setup. The cheap chinese was the best of the lot much to my surprise. Be careful with feedback, you will need to plug into an amp and acoustic basses tend to suffer from feedback.

Thanks Si, that's very kind - I think I've sorted it - last night I was getting no sound at all from the outputs or headphone out when playing stuff from Logic or any other source on my mac, until I plugged a bass in to the instrument input (perhaps I should have done this first), at which point the 'sync' light went red, and the clock source went back from 'Internal' to 'ADAT' - no idea why - but I set it back to 'Internal', and at that point it synced and started working as expected. I've saved a snapshot of the current setup, I'm keeping an eye on it today and seeing if anything strange happens but so far so good, output sounding good through headphones and I'm having a big practice and recording session this afternoon so I will be putting the instrument input and bundled comp & eq through their paces, I'll report back on it tonight.

Well, I have installed the Focusrite, and first impressions are not good at all. There is no sound coming from this thing, even though it's synced and shows sound going to the outputs.

ah Stereolab, used to see them a lot around 1990 playing with bands like the Faith Healers (anyone here remember them????) when Camden was the best place in London. Hard to imagine, I know. Anyone remember the 'Camden Lurch'? Venues like the The Falcon? The Sausage Machine?

same scammer operates on gumtree, always on some remote island. all his photos come from eBay, you can always find the pics they use on google images, and they don't even change the file names, they will lead straight back to eBay. I nearly fell for it not long ago, but a bit of googling normally takes you to the original pics and ad.

Hmm interesting! Mine is a 27inch 3.4Ghz Intel i7 iMac with 16GB RAM, primarily used for graphics and animation work, strangely also had fan issues to begin with but that got fixed under apple care - other than that it's been in constant use since 2012 with no issues, so I never felt the need to upgrade. El Capitan hasn't slowed it down, I havent fully tested all apps yet but so far it all works fine apart from the USB thing. It's not a total failure but re-inserting devices every time is a pain! There's a thread on the Apple discussions forum with lots of people reporting trouble [url="https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7262138?tstart=0"]here[/url], and an attempted fix which is WAY beyond my understanding [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/306777-guide-usb-fix-el-capitan-1011/"]here[/url]. Apparently "[color=#000000][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif][size=3]10.11 has a new mechanism to constraint the USB ports to your SMBIOS". [/size][/font][/color]

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1470787492' post='3108526'] Sorry to hear of your IT woes! I have a 2011 iMac and I'm afraid that El Cap is working perfectly. I'm not sure why we are getting different results? Very odd and I hope it's fixable for you. I have the 2Pre too and other than making sure I had the right things selected in the control centre, it has been flawless! I'm yet to max it out - the thing hasn't broken a sweat yet! You'll love it.. Oh and the lack of latency is mind boggling!!!! I'm running plugins all the time for the shear hell of it! Loads of em! Blimey! £50? Did you buy a really long cable? Mine was only about £25. It's a great interface, I love the features and it's going to definitely be on the next album I record. [/quote] Yeah, the shop I bought it from gave me a v good price on the unit after some haggling, but then shafted me on the cable, they only had 1/2m or 2m in stock supposedly, so I was forced into buying the long one. Re the USB issues - are you using any USB peripherals on a regular basis? I have a scanner, printer, the Motu Microbook and a Wacom Cintiq (via thunderbolt) in there all the time. The Wacom works fine, the others drop out for no reason. Maybe the issue is down to my mac rather than the OS, but I'm reading lots of horror stories online. I've done an SMC reset, no change, might do a PRAM reset to see what that does, but other than that I'm lost..

I've just upgraded my 2012 iMac to El Capitan (from OS10.7.5 - been holding off for years because that OS worked well) and found that USB is now completely broken. What have Apple done with this OS?? Devices are not showing up, there are occasional crashes when using apps that are looking for those devices, I have to restart my Motu USB interface every time I wake the machine up, I have to unplug and plug my scanner back in every time I want to use it - it's a disaster. The OS itself is nice, and my graphics stuff seems to be working without problems, but looking around online, the USB issues - USB audio issues specifically - are commonplace. So with that in mind, I have decided to give up on USB for audio and I bought a Focusrite Clarett 2Pre today. I have not even opened the box yet, but before I do, if anyone knows of any issues with El Capitan and this interface, please let me know. I'll get round to getting it all set up tomorrow, I'll report back on how it is. First observation - I had to pay an extra £50 for a thunderbolt cable to actually connect this to my mac. For a <£400 interface, this is taking the p!ss a little bit, but I'm willing to live with it if it works as well as reviews suggest.

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1470330551' post='3105232'] Used Fenders definitely increasing in value. Especially anything remotely vintage - 60's have risen a lot, 70's definitely up for nice examples and early 80's higher too. [/quote] Are they the import ones from the USA on eBay? because that's just the drop in the pound when the price is converted. Although I guess they may have gone up in price regardless of that, whether they're selling is a different matter.. I'm certainly holding off on any major purchases until I know what's going on, and it sounds like many others are doing the same. Still have my eye on that new Mustang PJ though, but that's under a grand which makes it a less risky buy because of the smaller increase in price.

[quote name='crez5150' timestamp='1470323785' post='3105153'] I dont see an issue I think if someone is prepared to spend 1k plus on a bass the another 5-10% aint gonna put them off [/quote] I think prices will increase by more than you think.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1470323103' post='3105144'] God, you're all so bloody negative! Why not look at the up side? Every used, second-hand, pre-owned Fender is now worth more too. [/quote] Doesn't look like second hand prices have increased at all here on bc or eBay tbh. if anything they're dropping.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1470236842' post='3104388'] The solution is blindingly obvious, of course. If employed, either ask for (and obtain...) a pay rise, or bid for (and obtain...) a higher-paid job. Those self-employed have only to raise their tarifs by an equivalent amount. Those with fixed income just stop spending (and therefore gain with no effort at all...). What's not to like..? The majority of the British populace are apparently happy enough to accept this modest price for having taken back control again, and have even dodged the 'Blond Bombshell for PM' bullet..! It's all good, surely..? [/quote] Wow. I hope this was sarcasm. "Hey, if you're poor, just ask for more money! If you're hungry, just eat some food!" if only the millions of hungry people living in poverty had your brains, they'd be fine.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1470213516' post='3104064'] Brexit - the excuse for everything. The pound is down a bit against the dollar and euro - it recovered after an initial drop. As it's somewhere round 10% down, that is not the sole reason for a 30% price rise. So it's simply money-grabbing greed while there's a good excuse to be had. [/quote] How is an economic downturn which is an obvious and undisputed direct result of that vote an 'excuse'? The economy of the U.K. is in deep trouble, if you think this is a 'blip' i'd like to see what you define as an economic disaster. When nobody has a pot left to p!ss in, people are still going to be saying it's a coincidence that has nothing to do with Brexit.

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1469087725' post='3095570'] Ah yes, cats and carpet covered amps. Not a good combination if you like your gear to stay pristine :-) [/quote] Yeah, cat hair has a way of weaving itself way into the deepest core of that amp, there's is no way of getting rid of it. And if you do clean it up they just see it as a challenge. The last 2 days of extreme heat has resulted in thick clumps of the stuff all over the house, it's quite scary.

Trace Elliot Commando 15. (May even be pre-90s.) I only got it a few years ago, I paid next to nothing for it, I use it almost every day. It's big and quite heavy, but really good for home use, I got it after playing through one in a rehearsal room and being surprised by how good the tone was. Not usually a fan of Trace, but there's something about the Commando series that is different from their usual stuff. Also my cats use it as a bed, scratch post and general meeting area so it's clearly invaluable to them.

Yeah hopefully the analogue aspect makes a difference to the sense of realness. That's always been my biggest issue with plugins, they sound nice but they don't feel quite right in the way they respond to changes in dynamics, they are static snapshots. Even if this isn't the real thing, it's a step closer to it than the plugins. I think I'll probably order one of these real soon.

Really curious about this pedal for headphone / studio stuff for a dry signal with no pedals, I've tried most amp sim plug-ins and I always end up turning them off because I find them a little artificial, but from the demos this sounds a lot better. Anyone know what's actually going on inside the box? Gain, some clever eq, what else?