adamg67

Some great tracks there @Barking Spiders

Only 10 is hard. I could change this for 10 completely different ones, but I've had a go. All probably songs that moved me on a bit musically when I heard them, all songs that I still think are great: Nina Simone - Feeling Good John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze The White Stripes - Little Cream Soda Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give it Away Muse - Plug In Baby Primal Scream - Get Duffy Leftfield - Inspection (Check One) Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still I'll try and do a playlist if I get chance

Oh and you get cool darkglass picks and stickers with 'em as well.

It turns out that Darkglass merch is not as expensive as darkglass gear is: https://darkglass.myshopify.com/ Just got some in the post today, some of the T shirts are crew neck and they dont have stock of all sizes in all of them. Here's my fave, glows in the dark as well: (and yes, I am sucking it in)

The only time I've ever trimmed silks is to get a set of TI Jazz flats on a 35" scale bass, they are fine to the zero fret, but the silk was into the nut. They don't just trim neatly, unless I've missed a trick? I added a couple of bits of heatshrink on mine to stop them unravelling. They're definitely not going to line up either, big difference in length.

I was made up the other day when I managed some 5/4 guitars over 5/4 drums (well ones that sounded decent anyway, I've always been able to play over 5/4 but not so that anyone would want to listen). Or should that read "7 or 8 guitars over 5/4 drums"? I could manage that, though it would take a while to record.

I thought I’d just post something on the subject of backups, since many of the people on here will be using a computer of some kind. This isn’t a “how to” or even a “you should”, and it isn’t specific to any OS. It’s just how I look at backups after both using various computers for 30 years or so and also working (amongst other things) as a developer, ops engineer and sysadmin (looking after servers, not desktop PCs) - a lot of the principles are the same. I’ll try and keep this short, I can elaborate if anyone’s interested but the general rule on anything technical is “don’t get me started” I do two things across all my computers, including the laptop I use for music: 1. I make sure I can reinstall the OS and all software (including plugins etc) easily. What that means is very different for different machines, the music laptop is probably the most onerous on this front, for other uses this is all automated and I can build a new one with a few commands. For the music machine I keep notes on what needs installing, from where, how it installs (virtual instrument makers have some weird ideas about this) and where any license keys are. The basic rule is, if I need to build a completely fresh copy of my music PC with all software installed, that’s no problem. It also means when I start a new PC, I have only what I want on there and the latest version of everything. 2. I make sure I have any data that I don’t want to lose - any files including things like saved presets in my DAW - backed up using a proper backup solution (for some things other than my music laptop there is a variation in this, but I still use something that lets me go back in time to previous versions of things). For me it *has* to be a real backup solution that gives me the ability to restore files from different points in time, so I can go back to a good copy of a file that I’ve screwed up (or some software has). I actually do this twice at the moment, once using iDrive (cloud backup) and once to a backup server at home that I built from the remains of the my old music desktop. What I do not do: I don’t maintain any kind of disk image(s) which could just be re-applied to my disk(s). I could do, but if I did this it would be *as well* as the two things I already do, not instead of either of them. That’s because there are scenarios where a disk image will not help. For OS & software, that includes: - If your whole computer is toast and you’re not going to repair it. A disk image contains a lot of stuff that’s specific to your computer and you can’t just use it for a new one (iLok anyone?). - If you buy a new computer and want to migrate stuff to it. Lots of music software now lets you install / register on multiple computers so long as you don’t use them at the same time, so migrating can be really easy and you can have new and old at the same time. For data, it’s the thing that you really need to protect yourself against at least as much as hardware failure: user error or software bugs which leave a file empty or corrupt, but still there to be copied to your disk image. A proper backup solution for data will give you a good chance of going back to a time when the data was there. A disk image will not, unless you keep multiple ones. Pretty much the only scenario that a disk image helps with is hard drive failure, and yes that needs to be covered but if I have to cover the other situations as well I might as well just do it once. I've migrated to new machines a lot more often than I've replaced a failed hard drive (and I'm aware that I've just jinxed mine ). I also don’t back up by copying files to something like an external hard drive or cloud drive. This has the same issue as a disk image in that if the contents of a file get lost or mangled, you will happily copy the damaged file to your external drive or the cloud, losing the data there as well. Please please note that I would not want anyone to stop doing any of things I say above that I don’t do, especially if that’s all you do - it’s better than nothing. Don’t stop doing anything unless you’re replacing it with something you are sure works better. All of this is only my 2p, YMMV and all the other caveats apply.

http://shotcut.org/ Does multiple audio tracks which gives you lots of options for how to record things. I've used it a few times for simple editing and it probably takes a bit of time to learn how it works, but it looks like it's very good once you learn it. There are tutorial videos on the site. Review here: https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/shotcut , summary says "A remarkable free video editor that makes even advanced editing straightforward, Shotcut is a brilliant tool for novice videographers."

Ah, mine's probably not what you're after then. Mexican standard upgraded with Texas Special pickups + direct out + 4 way switch. Maple board though. If you want the details drop me a PM, if not no bother.

What kind of Tele are you after?

Yes, and that's the body shape I've used - reverse iceman, AKA fireman.

I think a Baritone counts. 28" scale Ibanez RGIB6 with a custom made reverse Iceman ("Fireman") body. Feels nicer than a standard guitar to my bass players hands.

Love it. I had a reverse iceman body made for my RGIB6 baritone, black with a whit scratchplate, must get some pics taken.

In a "regular" DAW there are two ways to go with this: 1. Use a virtual amp instead inside the DAW. Im' assuming Garageband has something like this? 2. Use re-amping (I do this mostly now for bass) - might be a bit of a faff with a 2i2, and ideally you need a re-amping box, but you get to use your existing amp. In either case, you record the bass entirely dry and then play with the tone after it's in there. I like re-amping because you're using the same gear you use live, and I *do* think that work done mixing for recording can carry over to your live sound (your live FOH sound, anyway) because you're hearing your bass along with the rest of the instruments.

Well bl00dy hell, that was harder than I wanted it to be. I'm determined to do a few more of these this year (not hard when I only did one ever before 2020) just for the learning and to push myself, I'm usually just a blues/rock kind of guy. Saw this month's and thought two things: 1. I like that picture, I go to (the northern version of) places like that a lot and I know how it makes me feel and 2. That will take me right out of my comfort zone. It really did as well, I'm working (WFH full time anyway) so no extra lockdown time for it either. So, I've tried to do something true to the picture - I resisted the temptation to be a bit meta and do one about how hard it was to do one, or other more tenous things - so this tries to express something, but I'm really not sure about the results. On the plus side the piano lessons are really helping and I've learnt a lot about playing solo string parts on a keyboard. On the minus, I'm not even sure what it is I have produced and to me it's just a bit too "nice", which is not my thing... but, if I don't say to myself that I will definitley post what I write here when I'm done then I wont' make the effort, so here it is. At least there's a slight surprise part way through. All VIs: SSD drums, a random stringy synth from Komplete 11 in the background and Spitfire Solo Strings for the Cello and Violin. The drums are fairly heavily modified from a Groove Monkee pattern, the rest is by me and played live on the keyboard, with a little bit of tweaking after for dynamics, vibrato etc.

Fender MIM guitars are good, I can't work out why anyone buys the US ones.

I picked up a Paul Reed Smith S2 Custom 24 a couple of years ago and that’s not going anywhere. The S2 is made in the US factory, same quality but without the carved top and a few other minor things, so a bit cheaper than the crazy priced “core” PRS. Much much better than the (Korean I think? Or Chinese) factory made PRS SE series - I traded one of those for the S2. It’s just like this in fact: https://www.peachguitars.com/prs-s2-custom-24-elephant-grey.htm (that’s the new price, I didn’t pay anything like that) Plays just amazingly, sounds awesome, looks better than a Strat or LP and for me beats anything at the same price and a lot of things at a lot more. I’ve got a very nice MIM Tele as well and it’s good, but the PRS is much more flexible so the tele will be up for sale soon.

Hmm, I've got a tuner in my Multiamp and one in my DAW, I'll give those a try vs the Strobostomp when I get a chance and report back.

Nice, I saw the pic with the polytune. Have you noticed the difference? I've not compared the Strobostomp to anything else but it seems to work really well. Does the "normal" setting work? Seems a lot to ask of some DIP switches!

Looks like there's a trend for minimal DI ( + maybe comp ) + tuner boards. Here's mine, the Strobostomp is a bit OTT but I like to do my own setups and all my basses have a low B as well. I also noticed that the EBS Microbass III has comp and tuner, but I really like those two DG pedals, the Vintage Ultra with the cab sim has huge range of tones and the Hyper Luminal is the only compressor I've really got to grips with and liked after trying a fair few. Board is a Pedaltrain Nano and it's powered by a Palmer Batpack 8000 which is velcroed underneath, you can see the on/off switch and charge indicator between the two DG pedals - so no mains required, and with a board that small my guess is it will last a full day. It can be used while charging as well. I made the patch cables to fit from some Fender ones I had to keep things nice and neat.

I've got a Batpack 8000, but I don't have a way of measuring the current draw. Hmm, well, I suppose I have a multimeter and 9v power supply plugs of both genders, so I could make something, but only for spot checking it, so maybe not worth it. If I'm bored (I'm still working so not likely) I'll try it. My initial scientific measurments for a minimal board (more of a fly rig really) with DG Vintage Microtubes Ultra, DG Hyper Luminal and a Peterson strobe tuner (doing nothing most of the time obvs): it lasts aaaages. I'm curious anyway, so I'll run a timer when I'm using it and see what it will do with those pedals running at least.