gchiaren's forum posts 789

Hi waynebrain,

What is your goal? Live performance, or production? What artists inspire you?

Haven't tried those two, but did compare a Zoom unit and Digitech unit in a best multi-fx shootout we did. The Zoom came out on top on that one. If the effect quality is comparable, on price alone the Zoom G1on would be my choice.

Yeah, it's colloquial. You can see it as an Instagram hashtag, or what Urban Dictionary has to say about it 😄

One of the definitions from dictionary.com:

television shows, articles, photographs, etc., thought to cater to an excessive, irresistible desire for or interest in something: a magazine filled with enticing food porn; an addiction to real-estate porn.

I say go with Neutron. iZotope is known for making very intuitive plugins (great for beginners), I remember the first time I used Ozone was such a breath of fresh air. Neutron has been getting really great ratings and reviews.

agreed, also, measure your penis

Because it should... like... match up to the size of the woofer? o_O

Highly recommended reading here: The Best Studio Monitors

That's a healthy budget! You can afford just about everything on that list.

Yeah if it's a modified Strat please just say you have a basic Strat and in your review you can add as much detail as you want about how you built/modified it.

I've been playing through Native Instruments Guitar Rig lately, you can see the amp models they have available here.

How would you build out the rig if you wanted to recreate the tone Matt Bellamy gets in Psycho? At the very least how would you start?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqLRqzTp6Rk

For the longest time I have liked Teles a WHOLE LOT more than Strats. But lately I'm coming around, I dig the Dave Murray Strat, and I wouldn't turn down an olympic white vintage Strat.

Gibson SG Standard 🤘

It's great timing that you're asking this. We recently got through doing a big electric guitar string rundown, and picked our favorites. You know, the best strings are the ones that feel best to YOU at the end of the day, so I encourage that you experiment a bit. Having said that, we all need some guidance, so check out the ones we picked:

Best Electric Guitar Strings

There's a tradeoff between quality, lifespan, and cost. $11-12 is quite a bit to pay for a set of strings, but you might find (as we did) that it gets you the best sounding and most durable ones. Having said that, for most people out there $4-5 Ernie Ball Slinky and D'Addario XL are just fine.

This one just narrowly missed out on our top 5, but I really enjoyed Ernie Ball Cobalt Slinky strings.

If you're asking in terms of gauge, it totally depends, it's hard to recommend a gauge (unless I know a lot more about your playing style, how advanced you are, etc). That article I linked to has a write-up on how to think about selecting your string gauge.

Hope this helps :)

ps. yeah Hot Fuzz you nailed it, can't get enough of that gif lol

Are you set on Ernie Ball Slinky?

This ChromaCast CC-EHC might be a good choice

To me, cheaper than a Duet 2 means less than $595.00. You have a LOT of options there :)

From this best audio interfaces guide:

preamps on the Mackie Onyx are apparently quite good, and quite underrated. Its preamps draw comparisons to ones found in interfaces several times what the Onyx costs.

Congrats on the new guitar! 🎸

Recommendations for headphone amps - I think you mean a guitar amp with a headphones jack (careful saying headphone amp, that's an entirely different thing 😄)

If you crave that sough-after tube tone in a more compact package, have a look at this guide on the Best Small Tube Amps. Focus on the ones with a headphones jack. On a budget the Bugera V5 Infinium is pretty great.

For even smaller practice-friendly amps, check out this guide: Best Mini Amps.

You contributed to Equipboard by writing reviews of your gear and filling out your profile, so I'll let this self promotion fly this once. 😏

We need to add a "Jim Says" tag to items on Equipboard.

Jim Says: Fuck this thing!

Jim Says: It's so cute!

😆

TASCAM DP-008EX Digital Portastudio 8-Track Portable Multi-Track Recorder. Great reviews (and lots of them) everywhere you look. $160 on Amazon (US).

Making your Equipboard private is a legacy feature and you got stuck in the past :) I made it public for you.

Check out my answer in the comments section :) http://equipboard.com/posts/best-pedal-power-supply#comments

Is there a big difference between Sennheiser HD 25-1 II and Sennheiser HD 280?

Yes I would say there is. For starters they feel much differently on the head, HD 25-1 II being on-ear, and HD 280 being over-ear.

You're welcome! For what it's worth, I had the Sennheiser HD 280 myself when I got into music production. I didn't really use proper studio headphones before that so the HD 280 were damn impressive. Considering they are more on the budget end, they're rock solid.

I later upgraded to beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80 (~$40 more if you go by Amazon pricing), and to me those are vastly superior! They probably exaggerate bass a little more, but you get used to that. They just sound warmer, and their comfort level is off the charts. Those ear pads feel like warm fluffy clouds against my head. They just fatigued me less than the HD 280 over long producing sessions.

Hi Cirro!

So I think jimmarchi1 is advocating you go for studio monitor speakers instead of headphones :)

It's a good idea to eventually have both. For headphones, here's what I would do. Read this guide, it's both a primer to what you need to know about headphones for producing, as well as some recommendations of popular, well-reviewed models: Best Studio Headphones.

If you're a visual person, check out this infographic. 😄

Of the 3 you mentioned, the most well-suited for producing are the Sennheiser HD 280. From what I know the Bose QuietComfort 25 are more "recreational listening" type headphones, and the Sennheiser HD 25-1 II are great for DJing. Having said that, I've seen a bunch of pro producers work on their music with both! So at the end of the day, it's just about how well you know your headphones sound signature, and making sure you have various sound systems available to reference your mix.

could a permalink to the suggestions box be put here?

Hmm... what suggestions box are you referring to?

yesss my master...henceforth I shall be known as Darth... COMPRESSOR

http://images.equipboard.com/blog_content/darth-compressor.jpg

this site is addictive

http://i.imgur.com/MN9vs4K.jpg

danke schön everyone. I don't want this graphic to get too convoluted and text-dense, but I have an idea - I'll add a notes section for some disclaimers and explanations for some of the good points you guys are making.

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, understood. I think in part this graphic is to help the ever-growing contingent that might not have the funds or space for monitors, and/or who cut their teeth producing "on the go."

But hey, all paths on the diagram do lead to getting monitors eventually ;)

We see so many questions from beginners around studio headphones & studio monitor speakers, we thought it would be fun to create a helpful infographic.

Any feedback? Think a beginner would find it helpful? Both the subjects can get complicated and we have full buying guides dedicated to them, but thought the graphic would be easily digestible.

Does it get your thumbs up or down? 👍 👎 Be honest!

Here's a preview, click on it to see the full size version :)

We get this feature request quite a bit! It's kind of a complicated change which is why it's taking us a while to get around to it. Working through a list of stuff, more small/medium things, but we'll make this one happen sooner or later :)

Lots of ❤️ here for the Dispatch Master. That's my fav Earthquaker reverb pedal. Ahh man Sweetwater just ended their 15% off ALL EQD pedals. 😧

fwiw Amazon has it for $10 less.

When I bought my acoustic I closed my eyes and had guitar clerk and wife pass me several guitars... so all I went on was feel and tone.

That's very cool... I'd find it so tough not to look! What was your budget at that time?

I absolutely adore my Taylor (710CE) acoustic-electric. Brand new Taylors are pricey though, up to $800 you'll be in the 100 series and unfortunately I don't know too much about it. There's a Taylor 200 series that I played that I (and a lot of people) love - if you go used you might be able to find a Taylor 214ce Grand Auditorium (not the Koa one) for under $1000 (brand new it's $999).

We wrote up a guide on 4 good acoustic guitars under $500 but unfortunately they didn't take me on that outing (sigh) so I can't really elaborate further. That LX1E Little Martin seems really cool though.

I always read great things about Seagull acoustic guitars from a value and quality perspective. Seagull Maritime SWS to get your search started.

Sub $1000 Breedlove makes some beautiful guitars as well.

Yeah, so technically the widget is generated using the FIRST 3 items on your Equipboard. I think one thing we should change is that when you add new gear, it should get tacked onto the end. Currently it gets added to the start which doesn't make as much sense now that you mention it. We've heard this feedback before, so thanks for bringing it to our attention again. I think I can change this pretty easily. :)

Is this a sunburst Martin D-28? D35 is the only other model that I can sort of match up.

http://images.equipboard.com/uploads/source/image/43926/vance-joy-1.jpg

You're a boss. Thanks!!

What's this brand?

http://i.imgur.com/TZ4ZyFY.jpg

As if the name isn't obvious, it's about Lemmy Kilmister. He (and thus the documentary) is downright fascinating. One of the truest, most authentic musicians there ever was. The guy is metal.

Akai Professional LPD8 - that is a fun and functional little controller, and you get drum/sample pads and some knobs. This will allow to tweak knobs and control parameters in a software synth, like Sylenth1 or Serum for example. Mixing and mastering... I'm not so sure that it will benefit you for that at all. Remember, it's JUST a controller - it's made to control other things. By itself, it doesn't make any sound, or have any effects or anything.

I can't help you with the many Launchpad models as it has been a while since I've gone through all their features. Again, that's a MIDI controller and you use all those knobs and buttons to control stuff in software. You can perform with it too, like Madeon does.

Focusrite makes some great interfaces that are both quality and budget-friendly. The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (2nd gen) is great.

For sampling real life sounds, yeah a phone recorder is good to get you started.

If your laptop specs are decent I don't think you'll have too much of a problem with latency but I guess you never know, depends on a lot of things.

Tell me this - what's your goal? Producing electronic music? Making hip hop? Performing live? Who are some of the artists you want to be like, that you look up to for inspiration? Maybe knowing some of that stuff would help people be able to steer you in the right direction :)

Hi Waynebrain!

Ok, this is how you would do it:

First, get a USB audio interface. There are some very good ones to choose from in our Best Audio Interface guide.

To use your Yamaha PSR 295 keyboard as a MIDI controller keyboard, you just hook up the USB on it straight to your laptop USB port. You don't really need to go through the interface for that. Same thing with a Launchpad, connect it via USB straight to your laptop.

When you want to plug in a mic, you would plug it into your audio interface via XLR connection. If you want to use studio monitors, you would also plug those into the interface (the interface will have L&R monitor outs, preferably balanced 1/4" connection or XLR). Same thing with headphones, plug those into your interface.

And to be clear, you interface plugs into your laptop via USB. If you're running out of USB ports, you might want a USB hub to expand the number of ports you have available.

I hope this helps but if you have more questions just ask!