SumOne
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Everything posted by SumOne
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Well, a BC Rich is quite pointy. -
once you've played a 5 string what's the point of 4?
SumOne replied to DDR's topic in General Discussion
If more strings = better, I think the 'why not play 6?' is the best answer (and was the first response). Or, if fewer strings = better, for people that insist on 4, 'why not 3'? Clearly there are advantages and disadvantages to each one, and personal preference. I think it's a bit of a misconception that it takes more skill to play a 5. One of the advantages to 5 is to keep the same patterns and not have to figure out open strings and drop tuning. For me, intermittently dropping E to D on a 4 is more tricky than playing it on a 5. And multi scale is the same argument, it is better for some things (tone, tension), not so good for others (chords, choice of string sets). -
I've just got a Paint Audio midi captain, seems a great piece of hardware - especially for the price (£103 from Amazon). It is quite tricky and technical on the software side though so I've been watching Wilson's videos. Yeah, he seems a good guy. So far I've just got it doing simple 'toggle effect on/off' message stuff, seems lots more potential though, I've got some MIDI learning to do though.
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once you've played a 5 string what's the point of 4?
SumOne replied to DDR's topic in General Discussion
Ah yeah, how could I forget them! Could also throw in: Headless vs Head (!?) Rickenbacker vs common sense -
The Lekato WS90 didn't last me long, I dropped the transmitter and some fault has developed where it is working intermittently (and this is at close range, fully charged), seems like a loose connection. It's a shame as it had been working very well - and at distance and even through walls. Just not very tough though (whereas I feel the Boss would've taken that 4ft drop to the floor and been fine).
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once you've played a 5 string what's the point of 4?
SumOne replied to DDR's topic in General Discussion
Top 5 Bass arguments: 4 vs 5 Plectrum vs Fingers Tonewood Compressors Solid foundation vs technical noodling -
John Lennon claimed the 'Flange' word for the effect though. https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-whole-beatles-and-george-martin-discovering-flanging-debate-has-just-taken-a-weird-turn ...so it needs a Scouse accent.
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Does that mean Moogerfooger should be pronounced a 'Mogue a Faguer' ? .....they are deliberately trying to confuse!
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Everyone knows that's pronounced Faowgear.
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But....Moogerfooger?! What are they playing at! Surely that's supposed to rhyme?
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While we're at it: Moog? Moo like a cow, or Mogue? I've heard it should be pronounced Mogue, but then they go and bring out a Moogerfooger! ...surely that's designed to be said 'Moo' and 'Foo'?
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I figure if that happens then it'd only take me a second to press a button on the interface to bypass the Laptop. Or if it's a problem with the interface, about 5 seconds to unplug from that and plug direct into the Amp (I still plan on using a physical Amp/Cab, the PA is too weedy)......it would mean ditching the effects for a while - which would probably please bandmates and punters!
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Yes, pushing my luck using that! I'd tried laptop with midi keyboard not long ago and gave up due to latency and glitches. With this current setup and even with the additional analogue to audio conversion it seems stable with about 5ms latency, so seems to not be an issue. (Although I would use a cable live to not add more latency). I'm not sure if it's down to having a better Laptop or the Volt interface or the DAW and Plugins I'm using (probably a combination of all), but it is working well with no noticeable latency or glitches.
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Currently, I am just mucking about and switching between presets on individual effects (so pretty much instant). The sales pitch for 'Gig Performer 5' includes instant switching between presets, trails between them, and a lot of MIDI and switching stuff, I'm holding back on that just now as it is $169 though. https://gigperformer.com/features-and-benefits
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Heading towards a gigable setup: Need some MIDI footswitches to go on the floor along with the tuner....and then into the potential headaches of MIDI mapping and what to do about parameter control.
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Future, or Folly?! Remains to be seen if this will ever become my gigging setup, works well at home though. The main issue with this sort of thing has always been latency and reliability, but this seems very reliable at about 6ms latency (which is better than most wireless systems). My shopping list is: Paint Audio midi footswitches to go with the tuner that'll go on the floor at gigs, and perhaps I'll get 'Gig Performer 5' to help with switching between presets if I can't figure a seamless way of doing that in Reaper. At a gig, the Laptop (setup for it to run with its lid closed) and interface would be put out of harms way on the Cab or on the table where we keep the mixer. If you don't count the cost of the Laptop and Interface and flight case (I already had them for other stuff so I'm not - so haven't spent anything using that maths!) then it'll be about £300 for footswitches and software including a few paid for Plugins...similar to the amount I'll get for selling a couple of analogue pedals. I guess the obvious thing is even with that mental gymnastics is that £300 could buy a decent multi-fx that is more convenient and reliable. But the Laptop setup adds almost unlimited options - often with free Plugins, and means that the sounds I work on for home/recording can be used live, one setup to rule them all! And Laptops/software are only getting more powerful and reliable, I think this might be the future - or at least something you see a lot more of in future. Edit: A re-shuffle to see how it'd work live. Seems to fit and work well and all the power adaptors are in a space below - just one power cable out. A quick move around and the flight case lid goes on. Sounding good just using the Laptop for 'always on' things, next step will be MIDI footswitches to join the tuner on the floor.
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If you are going to be doing home recording then I presume you already have a Laptop and DAW and some sort of interface. In which case, you can get great sounds basically for free. I've recently discovered that my Laptop with a UA Volt interface (comes with lots of high quality plugins), Reaper DAW (can use for free), and free/cheap plugins is superior and cheaper than using hardware pedals for home practice and recording.
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Sold. Empress Bass Compressor Only a few weeks old (can give you the receipt), excellent condition, perfect working order. Boxed with paperwork (including extended 4 year warranty I have not signed-up). £180 £170 (+£5 postage via special delivery). It is a great compressor, can do clean and transparent better than just about any other pedal compressor - with a lot of parameter control, but what doesn't get mentioned so much is that the 'tone' selector also adds some really good specific character if you want. Selling as I've got a bit obsessed about trying to do everything from my Laptop
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Malekko Wolftone Unity MKII. Distortion/Fuzz. Perfect working order, with box, good condition. These are quite rare. £50 (+ £5 postage). It can go from mild fuzz through to synthy gated fuzz, lots of sounds (most of them pretty gnarley). Always sounds big! A bit complicated to explain the controls so I'll hand over to Malekko: "UNITY MKII is a multi-tap 2 transistor fuzz pedal fused with a compression section allowing maximum fuzztone flexibility and feel. From over-the-top fuzz mayhem to super buttery fuzz smoothness, the UNITY, like all WOLFTONE pedals, is extremely musical and very responsive to a player’s dynamics. The three controls, WEIGHT, GAIN, and SKEW, each create a certain kind of gain and distortion. They tap into the circuit at different places, therefore they have different characteristics in the way they respond to the player and what they do to the timbre and overall signal. Add the compression’s FORCE SWITCH and you have an extremely flexible and reactive fuzz pedal: from sweet to discordant! WEIGHT is both the initial drive setting as well as the primary compression setting, reacting to the FORCE SWITCH setting. GAIN sets distortion amount. Low setting is dark and crunchy, becoming much brighter and searing. SKEW affects both effect saturation and tone; from warmer at low settings to edgier and grittier when cranked up. FORCE SWITCH changes compression value. 0 is min, 1 is high, 2 is max. The compression effect is fully dependent on all three knobs but is primarily based on the WEIGHT knob setting. Examples of how the controls interact: A gating effect occurs when WEIGHT is set low, GAIN and SKEW set high. Slow attack swells happen when WEIGHT is high, GAIN and SKEW set low. The UNITY is one with bass guitar! Sounds huge! The interplay of the controls creates many surprising results in this extraordinary WOLFTONE design by Todd Wolfgram!" -
I've been spending a lot of this weekend doing this Laptop/live Bass thing at home and not once has the sound done any sort of glitch/cutouts/noticeable latency, and that's just through Reaper. Gig Performer 5 is specifically made to be low latency, low CPU usage, reliable, basically 'roadworthy' so I'm pretty certain I'll get it once funds allow. I'm blown away by what can be done applying effects live just with a fairly ordinary Laptop, £100 interface and free DAW and free or cheap Plugins. I've used DAWs for the last 20+ years, but they've never been good for live practice - let alone considering for live gigs as they were unreliable and the latency was too high, but now I'm down to about 5ms (the equivalent of being 1.5m from a speaker) and seemingly no reliability issues I'm seriously considering using it at a gig. I mean, look at the state of this lot, I'd never be able to afford the original hardware, and I've spent a lot on hardware pedals to emulate them (Future Impact and C4 to get the MF-101 sound, the RE-20 and RE-202 Space Echo, Broughton and One Control B-15 type pedals). I'm picky with this sort of stuff and in terms of sound and functionality these Plugin versions compare very favourably at a fraction of the cost:
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once you've played a 5 string what's the point of 4?
SumOne replied to DDR's topic in General Discussion
This is the biggest thing for me. 5 (and I assume even more so for 6) just feel a bit more, I dunno - serious, technical. More of an instrument to play sat down! -
once you've played a 5 string what's the point of 4?
SumOne replied to DDR's topic in General Discussion
Well, I did say 'relatively recent', the aim was listening some famous and accomplished players that play a 4 in a time since 5 have been widely available. (I said 'generally', before anyone said 'here's a picture of Flea with a 5, or so and so hasn't played for 2 years). So, granted, for people to say 'this Bass player from the 70s only needed 4' is a bit unfair as 5 wasn't readily available (and all the stuff like recording and home listening didn't need anything below a low E). But artists from the 80s onwards have had access to 5 strings, the ones I listed are professional Bass players playing today that generally use 4 strings. The point being that they must see advantages to it, it's not that they don't have the skills to play 5, it's that they (often) choose not to. And yeah, Bass playing is definitely old hat! -
UAD, Moog, Plugin Alliance, Toontrack (EZ Drummer), Plugin Boutique all have big VST sales on right now. .......although I wonder just how much of a 'sale' they really are - they just set high RRP that hardly anyone buys at so a couple of times a year there can be these '85% off' sales that look amazing but are actually just the price that they had always hoped to get. Still though, I guess we punters need to play the game and buy now rather than wait for some non-sale time of the year.
