gchiaren's forum posts 789

I'm looking to invest in a Acoustic 120w amp and use that as my guitar amp

What do you play? Acoustic or electric? Sorry if I'm being dumb but I don't quite follow :)

So currently you're playing your guitar through a Fender 75W amp? Do you know what amp it is exactly?

Yup, what Jim said ^{^}

Have a look at this guide here: Best DAW

Hey narcist!

Ah man that guide was fun to put together, I loved testing those (and many more). Piano was my very first instrument, I'm formally trained in it so I guess it's my "best" instrument :)

Jim's pretty spot on, it sounds like the Yamaha P-45 would fit the bill. It's just such a great value and is just a solid "cant go wrong" digital piano.

The Kawai ES100 is downright impressive but as you noted it's quite pricey, and also harder to get from local retailers. I'm not too familiar w the Korg SP-170 but I believe the Korg B1 replaced it. I wouldn't get the NP-32 since it only has 76 keys. 88 fully-weighed/hammer action all the way for proper piano playing!

Yeah, Yamaha P-45 all the way - 88 keys, great feel, great grand piano voice, a single stereo 1/4" output jack, pretty decent speakers (hard to find a digital piano with built-in speakers that are stellar), some decent non-piano sounds you can work with, it's light (25 lbs), has a metronome, and adequate polyphony. Ah man actually I don't think it has effects if memory serves me right.

To Jim's point, you can also use it as a MIDI controller since it has USB, and then if you get bored of its built-in piano sound, use a piano VST! Another really fun test we did was to find the best piano VST. The easiest one to get into was absolutely XLN Audio Addictive Keys Studio Grand, it's also pretty cheap and sounds awesome. Demo version on their website :)

Interesting times ahead...

haha glad you got a kick out of it 😄 that was actually from personal experience, me and a music producer buddy were talking monitors, and our other non-musician friend in the room said it was the most confusing conversation since he had no idea we were actually referring to speakers!

Point well taken regarding monitors over headphones for production. However, I think for a budding music producer - the target audience of the guide - closed-back, over-ear headphones might be the most practical and cost-effective option.

A very workable set of cans can set you back $100-150. It's hard to get a single good monitor with a 5" woofer for that, much less a pair. Production environment is also a big consideration. The beginner producer will be bouncing around between their DAW and YouTube tutorials, probably on-the-go in between classes, or on the bus/train during a commute, or while traveling, etc. Yes closed-back headphones have their issues, like accentuating the low frequencies and lacking a great stereo image, but regardless I would strongly recommend that route to a novice.

If the indication is that they're sticking with the craft, and the space is available and the funds are there, then yes, studio monitors should be the next purchase, all else equal.

Add a new artist, or band/group from here: http://equipboard.com/pros/new

When you are on an artist's page, click Edit Artist Details (it's a link in the top section with a pencil icon next to it), then look for the Bands & Groups heading. That's how you associate an artist to a band.

Hi yepac,

You're starting an exciting journey :) Ok, so you ask some good questions. Jim's recommendations are great, but a lot can change depending on the questions he asked. How new are you to synthesis? It sounds like you're new to computer recording in general, and need to learn your way around a DAW. What DAW to recommend first of all depends on whether you are planning to produce on a Mac or PC!

I suggest this article as required reading to anyone starting out: How To Make Electronic Music.

Don't be put off by the term "electronic music" (notice it's not called how to make EDM haha). Hip hop is essentially electronic music, and all the principles to build out a music production setup are more or less the same between genres (at least at first - your choice of synths and samples is likely to change over time).

In that guide I linked to, it goes over how to pick a "good accessible DAW for beginners" based on your operating system, and also walks you through headphones/speakers, controller, and audio interface.

Regarding which controller to get - I can see how for hip hop production it's tempting to go with something grid-based with pads. My best suggestion would be to go with something that has both keys AND pads, so you get the best of both worlds to start out with. I love the AKAI MPK Mini Mk2 - it's hard to go wrong with that one. I just think a Maschine at first would be a little much.

Trust me, you'll have plenty on your plate to learn to begin with, as a beginner you'll feel anything but limited. Perhaps one thing that could make you feel limited is if your computer or laptop can't handle your DAW and slows down and crashes all the time.

Read over that guide, and come back and post if you have more questions, happy to help!

Title basically explains it. I'm looking to get into music production and I have no idea where to start.

A good friend of ours was in the exact same boat as you, and inspired us to put together this guide. I strongly recommend you read it top to bottom: How To Make Electronic Music

It goes over some basic gear you'll need, and we definitely stress choosing, learning, and getting cozy with your DAW, since that will be the centerpiece of your music-making.

Alex Aiono does have a nice and simple setup, if you look at a video of his like this one that's definitely more of his performance setup - of course, the gear could be used for both production and performance!

Read that guide, and come back with any questions you might have about your specific needs 😄 👍

I did.

Hi wesley! Sorry for the confusion. Basically you need to Save items to your Equipboard (your Equipboard is divided into your Have list - gear you have - and Want list - gear you want).

Whenever you are on a product's page on the website, you should see a +SAVE button:

http://i.imgur.com/nE98yJP.png?1

Click that button and that's how you save an item to your Have list.

I hope this helps! :)

Not currently on Equipboard. However, I guess you could use the official SoundCloud link for one, and then the freeform website link for the other? 😀

You're correct, finish doesn't really matter. Done! http://equipboard.com/items/gibson-sj-true-vintage

http://equipboard.com/items/gibson-sj-true-vintage?src=pim_name Hi all, the picture for this item is incorrect. The guitar pictured is definitely not a Super Jumbo. Can someone please change the picture to match the description? Thanks!

Walter can you point me to a better image?

GUD NEWZ GUIZE!!!!!!!!!!111111 If you know Weezer, I sent a message via Instagram to bassist Scott Shriner. He posts a lot of gear to his EB, and I thought it would be a nice idea to get him notified 'bout that. I never thought that would happen. I sent him his EB profile and he said "Oh wow I'll check it out" Well, hell yes!

That's freaking awesome.

Terry, a huge welcome! That's a very cool story. Your gear now being called "retro" is a good thing I think ;) And that's so cool that your daughter sings and plays all those instruments at age 11. I bet you love that. Definitely a great excuse to build a nice music space. "Of course we need more/better gear! It's for her education!!" :)

Thanks for the thanks, and thank YOU! We're glad to have a community that's helping us build this database of knowledge.

After a ton of fun and exhausting research, we JUST published this: the best synthesizers to start out with. A lot of the ones in this thread are mentioned in the article.

It's more geared towards someone making the jump from VSTs to getting a suitable first hardware synth that's both accessible and powerful, and we kept our recommendations under the $800 mark (the Sub Phatty is the only one that goes near that, so truly the rest are under $500).

Any and all feedback welcome. It turned out to be one of my favorite pieces we've done. Hardware synths are so cool.

Matthew Followill's (Kings Of Leon) new amp? Bottom-left corner of this screenshot.

http://i.imgur.com/3sEKGPB.png

michael says it's a Matchless DC-30 with a speaker cover. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Here's the link to the actual video.

We just need to unlock that feature (i.e. swapping out an item in a submission) so that mods can do it too.

Shouldn't we be able then to replace the submitted item to the entry?

You're totally right, yes you should. The fact that this process is still "locked down" is an oversight on our part. I will add that to the todo list right away, that mods should have the power to swap out items.

I think that we should also be able to report duplicated submissions for cases when the same or equivalent source turns to point to different items

Not sure I 100% follow, can you explain this a little further? Are you just saying that a duplicate submission should be able to be flagged? So like, say Yannis is spotted with two Jazzmasters, in two different submissions, but they happen to be the same guitar. One of those should be flagged as dupe, and marked for deletion. Did I understand right?

sorry for the wall of text but it's not that long of a read, and it's important!

Hi all,

I recently came across an interesting submission that involved a few members, including one of our very own esteemed mods luxiu. There's an Equipboard lesson to be learned there, and I wanted to take a few moments to talk about it.

The submission was in this state:

http://i.imgur.com/jmclUTbl.png

User jjshelton came in, changed the quality rating to Needs Improvement (Item) and said:

"I don't believe this is an American Special."

luxiu then came in, changed the quality rating to Completely Incorrect and said:

"Is not an American Special, you can notice that it lacks the mic position switch over the pick-guard and also the truss-rod over the headstock."

I then chimed in and asked if Completely Incorrect was a fair rating here, since that's reserved "...for things you are saying need to be outright deleted and banished to outer space," to which luxiu replied, "We are providing wrong information by letting this stand around here."

So, objectively, luxiu is correct. We are providing wrong(ish) information. However, the point I want to make is that Completely Incorrect is NOT the correct quality rating here. Here's why:

Equipboard submissions EVOLVE!!!

At least that's what we had in mind when we designed the system. What do I mean by evolve? They are there to be improved upon and revised.

If you're looking at this photo of Paul Banks and submit that as a plain old Fender Stratocaster, that's not completely incorrect. It's a step in the right direction, and a starting point (if you submit that item as a ukulele, then, yes, THAT'S completely incorrect).

Someone might then go in and quality rate that as Needs Improvement (Item) and say, "Hey that's some kind of signature Strat, those pickups are not standard."

Someone else can then come in and make the submission as thoroughly researched and backed up with proof as it is today.

Equipboard shares similarities with other community-built websites. Wikipedia and Genius (the rap lyrics website) come to mind. I'm reminded of a video I watched from one of the Genius founders Tom, where he explains this evolving of a community submission. He uses the Wikipedia page of "Asphalt" as an example. Start watching from 3:31 (the main point is made by 4:36).

https://youtu.be/X45YY97FmL4?t=3m31s

Again, sorry this ended up so long but I think it's a core fundamental of Equipboard. Let me know if you guys have questions, concerns, or anything to add to this. 😄

Awesome, thanks for the help. Yeah I noticed Codella's site is down... I'll do my best with this submission. Nice looking guitar for sure. Anthony Gonzalez has some great gear.

Anthony Gonzalez of M83. Help IDing this guitar?

http://67.media.tumblr.com/29b3560ad84dbcfe02ff24043a4ff852/tumblr_nd6crbkcZd1r6f9coo1_1280.jpg

Interesting question. What exactly do you like about the feel of a Les Paul? The neck? The heft/weight? The body shape?

Send him the hair out of your brush. That's a great gift because it's so unusual, no one will be able to figure out if you intended it as a joke or a threat.

How'd you figure out my calling card?? o_O

Anybody here? C'mon, this is of great importance. I just heard of Bloc Party promptly and Russell Lissack's gear has the exact same problem... http://equipboard.com/pros/russell-lissack-bloc-party I think I posted some items connected to him.

absentwalrus, you've been killing it in this thread, and on Equipboard in general. You keep making great submissions. At the beginning of this thread I promised a little prize... we're gonna send you something, we'll get in touch via email 😄 🤘

Yeah, Steve Aoki is an electronic music producer and remixer, and I would say he's best known as a DJ/performer. I guess you could say musically it's sorta generic EDM stuff, but he knows the formula that works. He's very over the top, and has some crazy signature moves he does during a show like throwing out an inflatable raft and crowd surfing on it...

http://ebeqsne.cloudimg.io/s/resize/635/http://images.inthemix.com.au/1752/1752972.jpg

As well as "caking" people...

http://www.nme.com/images/2014SteveAoki_Getty452344486110814.hero.jpg

It's polarizing stuff and lots of people view it as a huge gimmick, but on the other hand he's taking the showmanship to a whole new level and people seem to love it. The documentary is worth watching just to see the inner workings of someone who works tirelessly to make their dreams come true, and to see how influential he and his record label Dim Mak were in his early days (I believe he discovered the band Bloc Party which is pretty cool). There's also the whole aspect of him trying to win his father's approval which I thought was super interesting. The Aokis are an interesting family in general.

I watched this last week, I really enjoyed it. I never knew Aoki's father Rocky Aoki was founder of Benihana. It was a very interesting behind the scenes look at a producer and DJ who works very very hard.

I definitely recommend it. If anyone's wondering, it's on Netflix.

In our tests, most impressive was the Fishman Loudbox Artist. We did a little best acoustic guitar amps rundown, maybe it'll help?

Wow, we're late on this one. But as they say, better late than never 😬

First of all, thank you for sharing this idea, it's a good one! Happy to report we're working on it as we speak.

Initially, we're going to test out a simple Equipboard widget. Less fancy than html/java/etc. Basically, we'll auto-generate a jpg image of the first few items of your board, and bake in some text like "Check out the rest of my gear at equipboard.com/gchiaren". So we'll generate this image and host it, and give you some copy/paste options so you can put it wherever you want.

Your website or blog would absolutely be a great place to put it, but we were also thinking in the footer/signature of any other music forums you participate in (from the beginning of the internet I've been seeing people list their gear in their signature in forums, so this could be a cool replacement).

Excited to get this released to you all so you can try it out.

Any feedback on that strategy? 😄

I have a recommendation and a question.

First, I'm not a huge d&b head, but this Mat Zo mix is so good, makes me want to bounce out of my chair when I put it on during the day:

Mat Zo - FABRICLIVE Promo Mix (June 2015)

Second, does anyone have any recommendations for drum & bass mixes in the same vein as that? Like a good mix of aggressive/raw but also knows how to take it to deeper, and even more melodic territory. I know that's asking a lot since Zo is a king of spanning multiple genres.

Just wanted to make a sticky thread with some helpful resources to get started on Equipboard, and answer any questions anyone might have. I'll add more things to this post as needed. 😄

If you haven't already, check out the FAQ to see if your question has already been answered.

To learn how submitting gear to artists works on Equipboard, check out this guide.

Need help identifying some gear before you submit it? There's a running forum thread where Equipboard members help each other out with that.

Feel free to ask questions in this thread but please keep them on the topic of how to use and contribute to Equipboard.

🤘

When you go to your Equipboard page, there's a little pencil next to your bio. Click that and you'll see things you can edit.

We did a not-so-great job designing that, we get so many questions on "how do I change such and such on my profile..." 😣 gotta fix that up soon!

Recently posted this pic on the Equipboard Facebook page of the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing a show at Virginia Commonwealth University 1989. Can anyone id what guitar Frusciante is playing there?

EDIT: Never mind, stupid me. It's this one I think 😳

http://i.imgur.com/dmvycC9.png

Billie Joe Armstrong... Can't tell completely because of glasses, but you come close according to my screwed up mind.

Hah the girl that cuts my hair said the same thing once 😁 def not the same eyes though!

http://equipboard.com/pros/tycho/epiphone-les-paul-standard

Made a mistake here! Please delete. I already added the correct Epiphone.

Deleted!

Also, wanted to let you guys know of a little fix to the site we released yesterday. As EB's database of artists and gear is growing quite large, a little bug crept up where when a new item was added to a pro artist, it would sometimes randomly get added to the START of the section, as opposed to the end. The reason that's problematic is best illustrated by this example:

The Edge has a lot of effects pedals, and a user added this more recently (which seems like something that should probably be deleted, yes?). Well, the code decided to randomly place it at the beginning of the list, so now everyone's first impression of his Equipboard page was negative since that's the first "effect" they see.

Anyhow I think we improved it, and now items should be tacked on to the end of lists. If you note any funny behavior let us know :) The system is still far from perfect because a lot of time placement of items is subjective (e.g. "I think this guitar is important to this artist so it should be at the beginning"), but tackling it one small improvement at a time!

you look like this Russian guy named Roman who used to roadie for me... he ahd a deformed ear because of Chernobyl radiation absorbed in utero.... his mom was pregnant living in the next town over, either that or he was just fucking with me

I get Shia LaBeouf and Matt Bellamy quite a bit from people. Maybe your roadie was Matt Bellamy and he was really fucking with you :)

I thought you just had twins? With Michael? Now I'M confused.

I can't tell if you're joking or being serious lol.

I'm a dude. Michael is a dude. We're married but not to each other (though we do spend most of our waking hours together haha) :) My wife and I just had twin boys, yeah :)

Michael's on the left and I'm on the right.

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

2 things.

1. G is a woman

2. I'm a star too :(

1. please tell me you're just trying to confuse cammojodragon and dont actually think im a woman 😐

2. yes, yes you are. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Here ya go, the Best Uni-Vibe Pedal! Seriously what a great effect. Really happy to have been exposed to it. Prices of our recommendations range from $65 to $200. After testing them, personally I'd go with a Deja Vibe or The Depths. And hell, the TC Viscous Vibe is super fun as well. I might have to spend a little more time with them to call an outright winner for my pedalboard.

Hope you enjoy, and if you feel like we messed up in any way or something isn't clear or could be improved, we love getting feedback!

Seems to be the one range of effects pedals that's not been covered, and the articles that are there are an amazing resource; I don't suppose there's one in the works? Perhaps not the most commonly sought effect, but for that reason it'd probably also be one of the most useful articles as the information is perhaps harder to find

Umm... are you a wizard? Or spying on us? * checks the air conditioning vent *

We're working on that EXACT article as we speak. Your timing is uncanny :) So we just finished testing out a handful of them, and are writing our thoughts and reviews as we speak. This is an interesting topic, admittedly we didn't know a whole lot about Uni-Vibes going into it, so we had to learn all about them. After playing with some I SO want one now. It's the effect I never knew I wanted.

boom762, it's not the same as a phaser. It's kind of this hybrid of a tremolo, phaser, chorus, and flanger, but with its own unique twist. The original unit from the late 1960s goes for like $3000+.

I'll update this thread with the article as soon as we publish it!