jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

if it were me (and I used to do little shows like this in my late teens back when I imagined I was a passable singer) I would do a really mixed set from all eras, something like this:

something recent everyone can sing along to

a famous Beatles ballad

a more recent top 40 non-guitar hit (when I was a kid I went for stuff like later Madonna, Cher or even Duran Duran LOL)

a Joy Division tune, dead souls always goes over well, everyone knows

an old standard, maybe something by Cole Porter or Irving Berlin

a classic Blues number, anything from Clapton Unplugged goes over well

a Zep ballad

Behind Blue Eyes by the Who

an Eagles or Jackson Brown song

something country inflected but good like Townes Van Zandt's Poncho and Lefty

a Depeche Mode tune (Enjoy the Silence is crowd pleaser on acoustic)

a Cure or U2 song everyone knows (just like heaven or new years day maybe)

A Band tune (the weight is the crowd favorite though not the most fun to play)

a Kinks ballad or a Zombies tune

Wild Horses or Angie, 'nuff said

Something Motown or Stax, even Mustang Sally will work here...

a Rascals or Turtles tune

another recent pop hit, really consider going cheesey if you can make it your own, people love that

a famous, big production number you can ull off acoustic, Bohemian Rhapsody, Live and Let Die

a recent rock tune as your closer, you could go white stripes or black keys here

regardless, Angus.... best of luck, I hope you get some applause, have a good time, drink free beer and maybe score after the show

I didn't wanna say it 1st, but I have to agree with your friend in general

its always seemed obvious that the wonky tunigns are either laziness (a la Keef's open G) or a creative crutch (a la swervedriver or soundgarden - not that I don't like those 2 bands, but the alternate tuning songs are entirely driven by the weird voicings and fx pedals usually, cool because it was fresh at the time, but gimmicky nonetheless)...

or kids who can't learn to understand and play in standard past a certain point due to a lack of focus.... I am not saying there's anything wrong with this approach if you are a certain type of musician (if people will cheer for you then what your doing has utility), just don't pitch that you have improved on standard tuning and really know what the fuck you're doing

to paraphrase the Joker in Dark Knight, I know the smack-talkers when I read their posts or listen to their bands... however music should be fun, as long as you are having a good time then do what you like how you like, just don't tell me my business! odss are I kow more about what you're accidentally doing than you do

there's a lot of us below Keef level who still have owned tons of stuff

ahoyahoy

Yes, DAF are the 1st, 5th and 3rd respectively in D minor. Thats a zep/stp tuning. But mainly just for acoustic and slide work....

I used to be pretty fond of drop D too. Being able to get an easy barred powerchord under more interesting 4 note harmonies was appealing to me for awhile. The pitential voicings are generally similar to standard but the bass becomes so much easier it frees you up to get bold with your rhythm parts experimenting with interweaving 3 distinct diatonic harmonies and stuff that you might not go for otherwise because in standard it might be too big acstretch to chance screwing up on stage. And being 5/6ths the same drop D never held me up from improvising a riff livea nd thats a big deal to me.... going into other tunings really holds up my tendency to combine chords, rock riffage and melody in one performance like Joe Pass doing zep....

a lot of annoying tunes other than Bohemian Rhapsody which is a bear for a novice to translate to guitar

nothing more intimidating than the solo show.... think about more pop music, your bands are all about the interaction of musicians and the songs don't stand up well without the band

But the question is worst guitar you have bought. I will read this as LEAST FAVOURITE. This way I can comment... because I buy what I like and the rest stay on shelves.

that's how I read it... my 2 worst were actually decent guitars, just not for me in the long run.... seemed fine in the store

if my piles of guitars photographed together aren't pornographic then I guess I have a warped sense of sexuality

lots of keys, good weighted ones

https://youtu.be/NgViOqGJEvM?t=33s

but whatever floats your boat or sinks it

Open G can also sound sad...that's the main weapon for songwriting.

the main weapon for songwriting is an idea for a song

when I had 3 or 4 teles I used to keep the pinecaster in open G, Keith Richards style.... it sounded no more sad than I felt

I don't get it either Boom... maybe alone in a bedroom it jumps out as different but with other musicians?

all of this is true, hell, whenever I invent a particularly awesome dish I whip out my phone and snap some amature food porn

just remember to really listen before you just start smooshing stuff... all compressors and EQ are only as good as the ears and intuition of the person operating them no matter how intuitive the interface at first appears and dynamics processing has rapidly overtaken parametric EQ as the most abused mix tool, often recklessly applied, destroying otherwise fine mixes.... the more control a compressor or EQ gives you the more potential it has to fuck everything up! the popularity of simple old hardware designs to this day is not just the sound quality of ancient analog electronics but the lack of features which prevent the mixer from getting excited tweaking, mangling a sound that was well recorded in the 1st place

for beginners I generally recommend they focus on solid balance above all and only apply dynamics and EQ correctively (this may not men there's anything wrong with a sound in isolation but that without a taste of processing it is fighting the other sounds for bandwidth) until they understand what they're doing well enough to consider more advanced techniques like parallel buss compression, sidechaining and creative over EQing (after a few decent sounding mixes on varying styles of music), but YMMV! I am dinosaur.

the toneprint software for my Flashback X4 is fabulous.... its infinitely tweakable... people who have a strong preference for strymon for simulated old school delay haven't dug into the toneprint editor thoroughly.... the presets on the Flashback are not up to strymon standards but if you start fiddling around with the software you can make better simulations and even get some really whacked out sounds from these TC pedals

I assume the reverb is just as ass-kicking in its editability

it seems like a lot of trouble when standard allows you to do most of what you need, but I understand a lot of alternate tuning fanatics try to mine them for inspiration when writing, an approach that seems alien to me

glancing back at this post just made me realize the only benefit to being widowed at such a young age; I can fill all my closets with gear and I never have to ask permission to buy myself a new toy (although its a big responsibility not to get carried away and clutter the house while draining the fun account down to nothing, so I guess spousal nagging has its place)

wow, I can only imagine the dissertation you'll be able tow rite on your evolution when you are my age

I have asked this before but you never answered and I am dead curious; are you reintonating every time you create a new tuning? that hassle is what keeps me in standard most of the time (and my ear is really picky about intonation problems even when playing alone)... that and I am dead intuitive in standard after 25 years

when I think of ambient guitar I always seem to think of excessive use of ebow, drenched in filtering, modulation and echo.... very much a poor man's synth sound

ebow and 'sustainer' sounds are one of those thigns that I think reached its peak in the 80s and got really played out.... really its use on U2's classic Joshua Tree said it all

your old board and mobile studio setup was impressive as hell

I always forget about the M-Audio BX8s.... I've created some decent rough mixes on them in other people's project studios and they are certainly more than adequate to monitor sounds while setting up mics etc during a tracking/overdub session

an aside:

I know some will argue with me, but stick with Ableton of FL studio if you are not using a lot of hardware synths.... while the old dinosaurs, Cubase, Logic and Sonar (cakewalk) have great soft synth implementation they were originally designed strictly as sequencers that predated virtual instruments, the audio recording/sampling was added later and the recording facilities are good but the sample manipulation can be tedious for people new to them whereas Ableton and FL began their lives as elaborate sample sequencing/manipulation platforms that added softsynth implementation once the main plugin standards were well established and they are very easy to learn on allowing one to easily create a track with all virtual instruments and samples... the real time manipulation angle to Ableton is why its so popular and if you are coming from a DJ background rather than a traditional studio production background it will probably be the most rewarding option for you... Logic is very much more protools influenced despite being a little more geared towards dance music than PT

yes, its a sweep arpeggio and no you can't make a synth's arpeggiator do what a metal player does since a synth is not a guitar LOL

cute, try again

I was supposing its because the guys doing ambient guitar couldn't be bothered to learn to play piano.... I kinda just embrace instruments for what they are but I also have never met a non-wind instrument I couldn't play adequately.... well, the accordion gave me grief, but if I had put more time into it I think I woulda gotten better, but I was too busy

anyway, I do like some of those pad like guitar sounds well enough in context, but being a decent keys player I just tend to reach for synths when I want that sort of thing as I can really get a lot more out of them instead of just approximating with loads of effects --- and if I want effects, synthesizers love stompboxes and rack units and even sound great through guitar amps

I use MIDI cables! I own old devices too ;-)

although a couple of my new devices do MIDI and even direct recording thru a single USB and I must admit the convenience is really enjoyable over chaining up MIDI cables from my PC to various devices!

interestingly, guitar gear with MIDI functions has not gone USB, my big rig is all with regular MIDI connection as my TC devices and controller don't do USB.... even programming patches has to be done via MIDI cable and menus...

so the problem is we're primarily guitarists and that guitarists are just dinosaurs! I play through a number of amplifiers that were old when my dad was gigging LOL

but try a couple of my duggestions and if you haven't read the Alesis documentation try reading it.... devices with internal sequencers can be difficult to sync to computer sequencers! recent gear is a lot more cooperative, but for decades syncing triggering synths and drum machine internal sequencers to a master MIDI sequencer has been difficult. When you read about the classic Depeche mode productions you will always find Daniel Miller or Alan Wilder talking about how hard it was to get everything synced to the computer sequencer and synced to tape at the same time. Look at the bright side, you are all MIDI, no CV and your sequencer is also your recorder so once you get the Alesis sequencer synced you won't have any more issues.... hopefully once you sync it there won't be any clock drift (I get some audible drift when syncing my Bassbot for more than few minutes of continous internal sequencer playback and its a bitch, and that's very modern MIDI implementation, though otherwise its a faithful 303 clone which is probably the source of my troubles).

why not just play a synthesizer?

then just buy the quilter.... I've not tried one, but people rave about their tube-like clean tone and the drive sound is said to be its own thing that is very un-solid-state

just bite the bullet form a retailer with a no-questions-asked return policy

the blackstar you mentioned and roland blues cubes sound very good too, maybe 80% there depending on the setting

that said, depending the tube sound you are after YMMV, because I have never heard anything cop the AC30 sound.... but the new solid stte stuff seems to get in the ballpark of Marshall and Fender

I think the thing with Quilter is that Quilter people seem to embrace them as their own sound that's very good in tis own right versus Blackstar and Roland thata re trying to use transistors to cop vintage tube tones most players covet.... if I ever went solid state I would be looking for an amp with tis own personality

I don't know what people mean by 'ambient guitar music' as its being referenced here, but all the modulation effects have very similar electronic thigns going on from chorus being simplest to phasers being the most complex.... as a kid I was chorus guy but Iw as a child of the 80s.... as I got older I switched to a Boss BF2 and eventually got into phase, owning a vintage small stone as my sole modulation effect for many years... until going back to chorus when I had a Roland CHorus-Echo for awhile which is a SPace Echo with a built in Juno6 chorus circuit thatw as so lush, yum.... then I was seduced by a friend's rare Mutron foot Flanger thatw as a realy treat, very unique sounding flange with detailed controls found on few vintage examples as well as a tredle that could control the sweep if you wanted.... but then it was back to the smallstone until I finally got an offer I couldn't refuse for her and sold her

recently I went back to flange for awhile but eventually sold the Ibanez FL9 and have been using modulated echo when I want warble.... every time I get on a Cure or Smith's kick I get a chorus or flanger and then I think better of it after a few months

but I kept the smalls tone the longest and used it the most... I think phasing is one of those effects that jumps out without sounding cold, harsh, metallic, whatever whereas chorus and flange sound best when they are too subtle for live work (and I had very good sounding examples)

I used to drill holes in a piece of plywood, take the bottoms off my pedals, and put the screws thru the holes into the pedals to secure them to the board so I could stomp savagely without them moving....

looks like the OEM manufacturer that over the years did Univox, Westone and a lot of unsung Japanese pseudo-copies in the 70s.... great guitars actually.... well not the exreme low end, but most of the fender copies and the Gibson style ones that were properly set-necked and not bolt on copies were damned nice

I live in a town where there's no record or cd stores there used to be a thing called HMV... but that to hell.

I was saying brick and mortar record stores are dead, but I was implying that even in the stone ages before the internet we found ways to start bands and play shows.... I think I was 14 at my 1st show, maybe 15 -- stop being mad about it and just think around the probem, hack away at the solution until you are on the path to where you want to be going.... namely a local band that puts together occasional local shows

before going facebook or anything, don't you have a few school friends who like the music you like?

I was joking about CV/Gate, its terrible for most purposes LOL

check your MIDI channels.... don't let anything be universal, then fire up the Alesis and try sending clock data to play a pattern by sending a single MIDI note-on message (middle C for the duration you want a pattern to play) to the Alesis

you could also try MIDI out from the Alesis on one channel into the interface and MIDI out/thru from the interface on another channel to the alesis, then audio from the Alesis back in.....

have you tried dumping your patterns from the SR16 into general MIDI sequences via sysex? from there you could import the sequences to Cubase and let Cubase be the master sequencer it wants to be sending the whole sequence to the SR16 instead of using the internal sequencer..... the timing ay feel slightly different if you concentrate but we are talking fractions of milliseconds and only the biggest nerds pick this stuff out with software sequencers versus digital hardware... its not like the quirky 303 and 909 sequencers

hey, this may seem obvious, but do you have the alesis maual?

http://5a18fcdc5c8aa2617926-54d68a14e2e7c1f76563a2d8c3e9fd82.r82.cf2.rackcdn.com/920/documents/sr16_manual.pdf

http://www.alesis.com/kb/article/1575

a lot of people still have these drum machines.... I can't believe you're the 1st person to have this problem with a popular, legacy sequencer like Cubase

I've enver heard of this but I have never linked an alesis machine to Cubase via MIDI that I can recall.... check your MIDI clocksettings in Cubase and I will think this over

maybe you need to get older gear or some of the new gen of analog drum machines and go back to the rock solid timing and compatability of CV/Gate? LOL its all the rage again even though its a giant pain in the nutsack

yes.... plus I am nearly frostbit from shoveling snow

I corrected my post and added to it though

so wait, a hofner and a casino? you aren't a beatles fan, are you LOL

you woulda liked my gretsch when I had it, very similar to George's 1st guitar, what a 'hold your hand' sound through a vox.... I was sad to elt her go, but those dearmond pickups are just too noisey for stage work in the iPhone age and I had to thin the herd that year with a baby on the way. Needed space and money :-(

Its funny, most people prefer the bridge P90 to the neck (probably why seth lover copied a dearmond and gibsons tarted throwinf those staple pickups as the enck pickup on the deluxe guitar prior to the humbucker)

I am a known passive Yamaha and Tannoy fanatic, but I also like the Adams with the ribbon tweeters, the JBLs that digitally adjust to your room (forget the model, but they are some of my favorite actives), Event's Tuned Reference series, and anything with dybaudio mid and bass drivers including dynaudio's own powered monuitors....

but really I an not that into powered speakers as the biamp setup on most sounds hyped to my ear and I think I mix better on a couple different sets of passive monitors using my own power, whenever I sue my powered monitors I come up with dull, midrangey mixes until I flip them to passives or listen in the car LOL.... YMMV though

I'm around, busy shoveling snow today. Caught me way off guard. It was so warm all week too....

For once I have little to add to the conversation the last couple of days.

agreed, also, measure your penis

on your level here'ssomething I put together wen I was 16 or 17 using a dated sampler, 1st dition fruityloop for percussion and a sony minidisc recorder or ADAT, not sure...