rwillett

Just got myself a 2nd hand Mod Dwarf. Got it fired up and upgraded. Looked at the documentation and realised why developers should not under any circumstances write documentation The docs are pretty rubbish, but t'other half is out for tonight with the gals, so I have a few hours to 1. Have a look at the docs properly and have a play. 2. Open a nice bottle of white as that always helps me working. One the girls is driving so I don;t have to pick her up I managed to create a simple pedal board but the volume was very low, I'll wait until she's gone and sit down and study. Just seen dev toolchain for it (https://github.com/moddevices/mod-plugin-builder) Typical, only had it four hours and already looking to write code. I can't remember the last time I used ncurses but it's a dependency. I'll fire up VMWare Fusion and have a play, Rob

Just for information, Guitar Pro have come back about my complaint over the low volume. They don't have a solution, they didn't actually deny it is a problem, but didn't say there was a problem Apparently the mobile app was developed based on a older version of Guitar Pro and they want to update the app to a newer verstion of Guitar Pro. They did not give any timeline. They then thank me for my understanding. To summarise their response = "We may or may not have a problem, we don't have a solution". Thanks Rob

@BassAdder60 Thanks for this information. I play for myself. I live in a part of North Yorkshire that is remote, where men are men and sheep are scared. The chances of finding anybody else to play with in a band is low. I drive for 40 mins each way at circa 50mph to even find a teacher. Finding a group of like minded people to play in a blues rock band (or any band) is very, very low. Hence I play for myself. We have a Vox AC30 headphone amp plus a NUX Mighty Pro headphone amp. The NUX is a more sophitsicated version of the box in your email. My daughter nicked the NUX (and my Westone 1A 6 string) as she is learning to play, I just then used an iRig and an iPad with Amplitube or Bias FX 2 on to practise with. Thats the core of the matter, I wanted backing tracks that I put together and the iPad/iRig/Amplitube/Bias FX 2 solution didn't work. A macbook, iRig solution would have worked but that requires using a keyboard and a mouse and thats a pain with a bass guitar around your neck Nicking my NUX back has given me a solution that does work. I still use the iPad to control the NUX, I get backing tracks, I'm not that fussed over all the effects that the NUX has, its easily good enough for me. I think the mod dwarf will work as well and still might go down that route. All the best Rob

Sadly the bridge I have is supposed to be a Fender Jazz four string from mid 90's. I reckon it's a no-name piece of bent metal. The replacement, arrived a month later, which was also supposed to be a Fender Jazz bridge from the mid 90's (spot the pattern) is different but so roughly finished, it almost cut my hands. It resembles a Fender bridge, in much the same way I resemble George Cloony, George and I both have two arms, two legs, a body and a head and we probably have some shared DNA from Charlemagne, but thats about as close as it gets. I do now have two bridges for the price of one, I have an idea for a bass that needs a bridge (👍), a short scale (four string) neck (👎), some pickups (👎), a large slab of Carbon Fibre (👎) (proper laid stuff, not printed), some 3d printed stuff to align stuff (👎), some wiring (👎) and a few days in the garage, once I can find a decent pillar drill (👎). Oh and a Henry (👍)to get rid of the CF strands which are pretty nasty. So long way to go yet Rob

A reasonable solution turns out to be: 1. Keep Guitar Pro 8. Its not perfect but its fine on the Mac and borderline usable on an iPad. 2. Steal back by Mighty Nux Pro from my daughter. She gets a VOX AC30 headphone amp to replace the NUX. I'm too nice to her. 3. Connect the NUX up to the iPad and make sure the second Bluetooth Audio channel is connected. The first Bluetooth channel controls the NUX from the iPad, the second Bluetooth Audio channel sends sounds down to the NUX from the iPad. 4. Set up a quiet bass config on one of the seven NUX channels. e.g. gain on the AGL amp is 9% and the master is 24%. 5. Turn the volume up on the NUX Mighty Pro. This is why I brought the Pro and not the older version. If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you... I now have a practise session that works well. Still working on drum patterns but thats not an issue. Extra cost £0 so thats nice as well Rob

@fretmeister You are absolutely right and I should learn, I have too many things I need to do, work, 3d printing, learn guitar, work, treasurer, play with kids, lose weight, work, get fit, coach (did I mention work) that I'm struggling to fit things in. I feel like this most days I'll try and see how it goes.

I'm not using a dedicated mixing app, though I have been looking at AUM. The problem is I spend far too much on apps that simply don't do what I expect them to do and any app at any price is now annoying. I have zero issues with spending £20 but I'm exceptionally cynical about it all

Ah. I didn't look properly. I assumed the tabs were on a separate line. My bad. Thanks.

let see if the makers of Guitar Pro 8 come back with any sensible suggestions. What I'd like to do is feed the output of that into either Amplitube or Bias FX 2. and from there into headphones. Fall back is using a macbook which was not as easy as an iPad.

@Smanth I don't think the iPad version of MuseScore uses tabs. Sheet music yet, but not tabs. It states that it has guitar tabs in the app store description, but none of the app store pictures show tabs at all. I couldn't get it to open anything other than a few somgs unless I signed up or did the free trial, so gave up. I've got Guitar Pro 8 on the Mac for reading music and tabs. I have to confess to not looking at the notes and only looking at the tab.

Mmmmm.....

Tried that. The sound is just too low in GP8 on the iPad with an iRig. The iPad is better using a Bluetooth Audio stream to the Mighty Nux Pro plug. My daughter nicked it off me, so I might nick it back and give her a lttle Vox AC30 headphone amp. Rob

@Dood I have a few spare ones here, I can see two spare Macbooks and a Windows one. I was trying to just use the iPad as it's a bit easier. The problem with the Macbooks is that you have to stop and use a keyboard and/or mouse, the ipad is simpler, I did start with a Macbook as the irig comes with Amplitube. Perhaps the solution might be Amplitube, iRig and a midi foot controller. I have all of that, but my home office is pretty crowded already. Perhaps I need to declutter The best solution would be Guitar Pro 8 to sort out their app and do something about their low volume level. I can but dream Thanks Rob

I've tried learning musical notation and I find it difficult. I thought i would be better as I have a maths background and have developed in over 40 different computer languages over the years, but like foreign languages, my brain doesn't want to work like that. I know some people just pick it up, my daughters read music, but I'm the kid in the class that struggles here and needs special tuition. I'll have a look again and see if the last head injury at rugby has helped at all.

I can't sideload on the iPad, so I have to download it from the Apple app store. I don't even know if you can jailbreak an IOS anymore, you used to be able to about ten years ago.

@Woodinblack Thats a good idea, didn't think of transposing. I know I can export this into Midi, but I wanted the tab notation displaying at the same time. Its nice folloiwng it along as it moves through the song. I;ll try this.

You can use the iPad version for free but it constantly keeps nagging me to sign up for things. I look at a score, sign up, Iearn, sign up, local library give me your e-mail, it never ends. It also seems to be sheet music only and my music reading skills are prerry much zero, however my daughters play Sax and Flute so they may have a look and see if it fits their needs. Guitar Pro 8 on the iPad is very basic, but it does more or less do what I wanted, though the app does look very much like an afterthought compared to the desktop version. Thanks Rob

I downloaded from the Apple app store, I'll have another go and see if there is a free version.

I saw MuseScore and downloaded it, it mentioned a free three day trial and £69.99 subscription per annum, so it got deleted very quickly. Is there a free version or something? Thanks Rob

Now that I have your attention, I'm hoping somebody can help me with a technical issue. It's odd, weird and very first world. Background 1. I'm still learning to play bass, some people who have heard me think that is too strong a statement and that I haven't even started 2. I work in IT for a living so have a lot of laptops and other things lying around. My other half would say too much stuff and she's probably right. 3. My immediate solution to a problem is to solve it from an IT point of view. Thats what I do for a living so why wouldn't I? 4. I have a bass guitar lesson wth a bloke in Sedbergh who is an absolute genius when it comes to playing guitar and writing music down. I am in awe of his skills and that rarely happens. As part of my learning to play I have the following workflow setup. 1. My tutor will write something down in tabbed notation (e.g. second string, third fret) during the lesson 2. We practise and he pretends I'm doing well and then I go home and practise some more. 3. I normally transcribe his work into Guitar Pro 8 on my Mac. I have a legit copy and it's easy to do. 4. I then copy the .gp file to my iPad into the Guitar Pro 8 ipad app. 5. I 'play' the file on Guitar Pro 8 iPad app and it displays the tabs and plays back simple notes. I normally slow things down and then slowly get better. 6. I have an iRig HD that connects my bass to the iPad, I run either Amplitube 5 or Bias FX 2 on the iPad (works very well) and I use headphones to listen to the cats being strangled as I play. So whats the issue? 1. The output of Guitar Pro 8 on the ipad is so low, I can't hear it properly. I can hear it in the headphones if nothing is being played, but the moment I play anything the Guitar Pro output is drowned out. 2. I have contacted Guitar Pro owners and raised a ticket. 3. Other people have had a similar issue with low volume. My thoughts 1. I like seeing the tabs and hearing the notes as I practise in Guitar Pro 8 on my iPad. It makes a big difference to my practise. 2. I'm not wedded to Guitar Pro 8 but it's a great system on the Mac and I have paid for it. The iPad version is not that good to be honest. 3. I have a NUX Mighty Pro as well and have connected the iPad up via Bluetooth and have the same issue as with the iRig. 4. I like using the iPad for this and it's dedicated for music. What are my options? 1. At this point Guitar Pro 8 iPad works well visually but is rubbish for sound output. is there an alternative ipad app that shows the tabs and plays something resembling bass sound? It needs to show the tabs, thats critical. 2. Could I put a USB mixer on the headphones of the iPad and the output of iRig and then feed that into headphones? Amazon has some cheap ones. Not keen as this is yet more hardware. 3. Could we use a software mixer on the iPad to increase the volume of Guitar Pro 8 and blend it with the output of Amplitube or Bias FX 2? 4. Some other hardware option such as a Mod Dwarf and use the iPad just for controlling the Mod Dwarf. I know @Smanth loves her Mod Dwarf and it has an awful lot of inputs. Does that take Bluetooth in? 5. Some other clever idea that I know nothing about. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Best wishes Rob

Fair enough.

Some businesses are rubbish at comms to the massive detriment of themselves, I can't imagine why they can't be upfront and explain this (assuming it's legit). I run a 3d printing business as a sideline and I sweat over taking eight hours to respond to new business and queries. My thoughts are that if they are saying 14 days, then given how long you have waited it's a small extension and actually makes no difference in terms of getting your money back (if you can). I'd write back and say that unless you have a posted and tracked delivery date by fourteen days from now, you'll want a full refund. Just my 2p Rob

Ha. I saw that and thought I was going mad. Thanks for saving my sanity. I couldn’t work out why I had bookmarked a box. rob

Ebay should take a more aggressive stance on dodgy goods, but some stuff is difficult to police. Most of their staff wouldn’t have a clue about a Fender bass and couldn’t identify a real one from a fake. Also competitors throw fake fake (sic) accusations out to remove items that compete with their own. Whilst I’m not en eBay fanboy, it’s difficult. I do astrophotography and look on eBay for any bargains, you occasionally get them, but I see a lot of fake auctions for high end telescopes. Questar are common, some Astrophysics scopes as well. These scopes can sell for many thousands. Probably much the same price as a decent Fender bass from early 60s. They use stick photos and sell a non existent item for $2,000 or whatever. When I report them, eBay has been really good at removing them. They go through patches and depends on who reads the submission. I’ve had people try to remove my stuff or rip my photos off for their own. EBay has actually been sensible most of the time. anyway, the new listing is technically accurate, it’s over priced by about £450, but that’s capitalism for you. caveat emptor and all that. rob