jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

It's a pretty complicated circuit for the 70s... but at least they maintained Dave Reeves' clean layout and the construction was usually pretty tidy, if not up to Harry Joyce Co standards.

When I push the faders up for the first time to begin a mix and the bassist starts riffing on the regular G string above the 5th fret while the rhythm guitar is blazing away with the roots on low E, I grit my teeth a little bit and start looking at my fully parametric EQs.

PS: nice sound city

Who would? But the benefit of the E to C tuning on a full size modern 5 string might not be appreciated by everyone... or anyone for that matter. It makes sense on THAT instrument, which is super specific. Theres a reason the bass V didn't go mainstream and isn't even as popular as the bass VI. Using that tuning sounds nutty to me.

If I recall correctly, the 60s bass V also gas less frets. It's designed for session work so a bassist reading a chart can reach a wider range of notes without changing hand position. It's really its own instrument.

Engineering Team... always capitalized. I'll always try to be accommodating and just do a faithful capture of a bassist who is a gigging band member, but if that love sound isn't happening in the context of a record, I speak up. If you don't listen to my suggestions, that's fine... just don't pretend it's my fault when your bass sound doesn't sit in the mix. If you're overdubbing rather than tracking as a full band then the 70s rules should be followed but seldom are. I just threw my hands up in the air with this one band of dopes in june and bowed out until the mix... it's almost November and these folks who "know what sounds good" are still tracking... or are trying to.

Definitely get in touch with Warwick l.

Look into Fender Bass V

The OG. Isn't that designed for a high C instead of a low B though?

My friend, I've never given bass neck radiuses a second thought... I'm more of a bread and butter bassist. I only pick my bass up on my own music or if a client is unhappy with a bass performance at mix and it's too late to bring the guy back in or he's a stubborn jerk. My golden rules of bass are:

1. Don't overplay it we'll be here all day.

2. Mostly low is the way to go.

3. The root on 1 is usually fun.

4. It's not your job to fool with knobs. Controls wide open, no stomp boxes unless its a wall of sound fuzz song, amp set flat, DI into a mic pre with huge bottom on another track. It's a bass, not a CS80.

5. Make it sit in the track or your mix will sound whack. String gauge, wrap type, cotton or foam under the saddles and pick type or fingers and the technique used are the best EQ and dynamics processing.

The idea of a compound radius on bass is interesting though. I mean, why doesn't warmoth offer that? Seems like bassism. Which is a portmanteau of racism and bassist...

So about fancy bass brands, my buddy has a fully customed out Warwick Bass II, gibson EB-2 style, that is hands down the best playing shortscale ive played and it produces the roundest, fullest tone I've ever heard from a hollow bass. It's a spectacular bass. Every Warwick I've picked up has been better than average but when you gave something fully customed out like my friend did, they really step up their game. They fulfilled every requirement he had and accommodated all his fiddly requests. If they offer the small frets on a compound radius, Warwick will treat you right on a custom instrument.

These days whether you live in the states or not you might as well be. Our corporations and politicians are like the mafia; you may mor live in the neighborhood where the gang started but its affecting your life in ways you don't even notice.

Remember when we had a war on drugs and pot dealers couldn't advertise? Now they're licensed in the Capitol, detailing sessions I was doing on spec and spamming my fear site.

Being a P and J traditionalist if I were looking for 60s fender frets on a 5 string I would just do a custom parts bass from warmoth. Comprehensive fret selection. Or if I had a modern fender 5 string P I would just buy a warmoth neck and sell the stock neck.

Correct, this website had the user search feature you seek once upon a time. No idea exactly when it changed, exactly. it was there one day, gone the next.

No kidding. I've been here forever and had no idea. Well we should bring it back.

I've never searched for a user, so I just searched your name and... nada. Seems like an omission.

Thanks for liking the gear porn of my old band... that theater is sadly gone, but that was a really fun record to make. Most of it is hosted on my soundcloud. Memorable times.

Cool. I don't own an la2a... yet

Thanx

Are you planning to do a lot of u2 covers?

Need knobs and keys.

Kenneth, you're onto something with a correct submission garnering more points than a half-assed one.

I also think we should return to unfettered gear additions but mods ssd should be able to delete garbage/duplicate gear at will which would doc the user points for adding clutter.

Let me know if you decide to part with your jupiter 6. Hint hint.

I know these sound like demands I'm shouting out, but I'm sure there are solid business/technical reasons why a lot of this isn't in-place already.

I don't know about that. I've watched this site expand organically and a lot of that growth was organized ad-hoc.

I'm on board with all your suggestions and would be happy to implement the item moves a few days a week once the categories are set up the way you just specified.

Fully in agreement.

I think semi modular is its own category. My Pittsburgh modular microvolt is a self contained instrument with a fixed signal path if you dont plug in a patch cable. That's definitely it's own type of instrument. And as mentioned above it can also be euroracked as the heart of a larger, custom instrument. I should really do that and add 2 more oscillators and some more mod sources for extra chaos but I digress.

Can't see it without joining a group I have nothing to add to... but I know the TDA2030 power IC well. It's been around for a hot minute. It's common in low power consumer audio products and also in high power driver roles in more complex audio amps. Very low THD when implemented correctly and provided with ample current on demand from a good bipolar PSU. There's also higher wattage variations on the topology that are heavily used in consumer audio. When they redesigned the pathfinder to utilize ICs over discrete transistors it was easily the best option out there. I'm not sure if it's been bettered for clean performance. A quick look at a current pathfinder schematic revealed that the preamp is a bog standard 80s design using TL072 dual op amps. At the time they were really popular due to the high impedance fet input. My mixing console channels are loaded with them. They work and they've gone generic and are now cheap as chips.

I thought the Mini Super Beetle was solid state but no, its cheesily branded "NuTube" tech comprises of VFD (vacuum fluorescent display) tubes which we are firmly assured is modern day tech vacuum tubes - different but the same?... 🤷

Its vaguely a triode, I looked into the specs of nutubes. It has almost no gain, lower than any conventional triode. That amp is an opamp preamp with that nutube thrown in for coloration followed by a class D power amp. Mostly solid state. I would never call it a tube amp. All the heavy lifting is solid state.

A new princeton is nothing to write home about. The silver version is better than the 65 reissue to my ear. Still. Meh.

I grew up playing a 60s PR. It most definitely could and did take a pathfinder to school once you wound both amps out a little. A pathfinder is a fine amp but it caves in when pushed whereas the princeton gets bigger and richer until it finally breaks up into the blackface roar. The new ones sound stiff to me and when you open them up they can be harsh and fizzy. I have no idea why but I suspect parts quality. Given my choice between a pathfinder and and a PRRI I'm not sure which way I would go. I would also say that comparing a vox to a fender is apples and oranges, totally different design ethos. I'm a well known vox lover.

As a clean pedal platform I'm fine with almost anything, but that's not why you buy a tube amp. People do it but its nutty to use it that way if you ask me.

Edit: I just noticed you found a ac15 custom (one of the worst iterations of the vox el84 platform in my opinion) vs the pathfinder. I'll have to give that a listen. Some time I should acquire a pathfinder and do recordings of it against my 62 ac30 through the ac30's speakers... hmm

No stress, dude is just going through his 20-40 year old fancy gear purchase rationalization phase. Itslike a guy who buys a rand new flagship mesa that breaks every time he does do a regional tour but keeps telling everyone mesas are the greatest and the only amp for serious touring musicians. People get this way for awhile, then they hit middle age. His comments are about him not you.

EDIT That said, the thing you're trying to do is not going to happen on the cheap with a simple aby switcher or even a boss line switcher ls2, you would need 2 fx units sandwiching your verb... maybe you just need a small looper for whatever you're talking about looping your shimmer? Or maybe just try turning your fx off for awhile and just play, then turn them back on and see if you still want to do the swell out front and loop the reverb stunt?

Wait. Howsabout 2 reverbs?

Look, I don't know a reel from a jig but if you play a couple bars I'll get it and jump in. It's all music. If you learn an instrument and not an idiom you're wide open. Learning to do a few things right now on one instrument and then leap frogging to the next one is fine until you need to do something else on that first instrument. Maybe it's just the former session player in me rearing its ugly head, but you should really learn 1 instrument well and as much about music as possible before, not just as it relates to that instrument. It will open up those other instruments completely so the learning curve is only muscle memory. It is the way.

If accordion is on your list, start there. You don't back into that one.

Edit: I'm not singling out Celtic Folk musicians. I hear so much of this attitude these days from young musicians. Why are you struggling with your firstrecord? You never learned to do a single one of the tasks required thoroughly and didn'tdig into what makes the stuff you know tick. Why are you great at the blues jam but worthless at the band audition? Same answer.

I'm not trying to be a negative nelly, just suggesting some focus. Of you've got A doem maybe proceed to B... once you're looking at C maybe experiment with the rest of the alphabet. Accordion for example will require the OP's full attention.

You've posted about accordion, the bodhran, converting a classical guitar to steel strings and now mandolin. Maybe pick 1 instrument and focus on it. Theres no way you're mastering all the typical folk/country instruments at once, kiddo. Just focus on one, then next year expand your repertoire.

I've been a mod here a long time. I can't ever remember a violin discussion (and I used to play violin/viola) so it might be a total lack of violin forum chatter that caused your search issue.

You can try it but I wouldn't... the strings don't attach the same way and you might not want to count on the necks and joints of a classical to hold up under the added tension long term. A classical guitar doesn't typically have an x braced top and back either. They tend to use old school glues on guitars intended for nylons so you could easily destroy your guitar with heavy steel strings. Picture your top getting cracks and the slowly bridge pulling up and you won't be too far off.

You can get a decent korean acoustic guitar for a couple hundred semolians. Less used.

I'm a rotosound guy lately. Not really committed toabrand or gauge on bass since I seldom play it.

The Eurorack world would love to sell you a lunchbox case with like 2-3 modules to convert, divide down, etc... but we both know their ultimate goal is to alienate you from your bandmates so you spend all your time dreaming about plugging itty-bitty tiny colored cables into itty-bitty sockets that are too close to all the other knobs and sockets.

THIS. Besides the expense I stay away from eurorack because it's such a insular approach. We have 2 guys who are already isolated islands: the groove box guy and the circuit bending eurorack processing fx pedal sound mulching guy. The last 2 weeks I've been the only person providing a musical anchor. Even with guitar players you tend to get a lot of dick waving or 1 or 2 chord funk stabs and not much else. If you pull me away to play with patch cables beyond a modest semi modular like my microvolt it's going to descend into disorganized noise very quickly. When I'm focused on adding music then the guitar players make more sense, mike gets his sax and riffs off of the 0phrases I out out there and it gets beyond throbbing gristle.

And the rabbit hole of new module expense takes budget away from acquiring and maintaining my vast collection of vintage polysynths, which are my true love. And processors.

I've been really deep diving my sony mu-r201 lately and I need more if them. I think now that I've spent time with the halls I no longer lust after a giant lexi 224. When I first bought one it was for the excellent true stereo early reflection engine and it served me well in a few mixes, but the large halls as it turns out shame every big name processor I've ever used all in 1u with an easy interface, no LARC required. The built in analog stereo eq doesn't hurt. 3 band eq is a pretty next level feature for a reverb/delay. There's a mind blowing midi syncable pattern delay with a little 80s digital grit too that I'm just starting to dig into. Hard to believe sony put this beast out in the mid 80s. When I say true stereo i mean true stereo. The spread feature injects tiny delays woth what sounds like some all passing and pitching from the opposite channels on either side and it just makes my ears feel so good. Snatch one up before people get hip to them. They're inexpensive right now despite having been a real high end product when released. No plugin can touch a sony.

Yeah I own triggers and have used them to trigger v-trig gear. A little hard compression and a big gain boost helps. Not a pr0blem for me.

I had such a bad time with clocking between a guy's elektron gear, my friend's drum kat and squarp pyramid rig to my analog sequencers , circuit mono and polysix last friday I'm not even worried about drum trigsright now. All it takes is someone upstream of me to fuck up their settings or get out of one piece's tempo range and things get wonky.

I'm just resigning myself to the headache with trash godz. If something's going sideways I just gave to turn it all off for that jam and go freehand on 1 or 2 keybeds. Its encouraging me to actually practice synthesizer playing this week.

Sometimes everything works and sometimes it doesn't. Midi filters and start stop messages are a bitch compared to analog pulses. S trig synths are a pain. It is what it is. Sometimes you can only do what you can do without pouring more time and money in.

Also applies to bass: I generally prefer flats,

This. I'll never go back to round wound bass strings. Less abusive to my hands even if I gaige up and the sound. People say they're dark but this is probably a fault in the signal chain. They produce a more musical set of harmonics to my ear.

Drum triggers. Right now I'm using an sq1 with the gate set to negative and the duty cycle set short which is fine when we're using drum machines, I just slave to the master... but with live drums I can only use drum triggers with my v trig synths or the guy has to play to a click. I think i could build something passive with an npn transistor and a diode into a 1/4" ts jack to convert to s trig but I'm not so confident of the durability. If I buy a box and do it on vero board with jacks it costs money and I was wondering if there's something on the market I'm unaware of that'll be about the same cost without the hassle. Maybe an attenuvertor? I dunno.

The obvious solution is to use my juno but for trash godz everyone really digs the poly6. Its swampy and rude. Way more their sound. It's really cool to lock a synth to the kick and just trigger note or chord changes as needed while playing other instruments. The project evolved heavily while I was doing other things and I'm struggling to keep up now that I'm sitting in regularly again.

Maybe if I use the triggers as click for the sq1?

I'm also interested in dividing clock down to trigger an sq1 even slower than the 1 pulse per step lowest resolution to stretch a simple sequence for bars without resorting to multiple patterns in a more complicated sequencer. I need stream lined live performance tools lately. Really streamlined. Jamming with sequencers can be difficult when you're dealing with Rick players as well as other nerds.

You know, I've been thinking the same thing 😂 I've got a wah, compressor, loop and footswitch all off board atm cause I'm out of room, so it might be time to build board No.2

Either that or it's time to assess your minimum needs. I always found a few months hard gigging with a solid band lineup really helped me streamline... sometimes down to a tuner based on what was integral to putting on a good show while maintaining speedy setup and breakdown. What can people actually hear? What's too s8btle for a PA system?

My recording 'board' is anything and everything in my studio though. Which is racks of gear and drawers of pedals... and synthesizer external audio inputs. If I can get level matched for each input and keep the impedances in a reasonable range I'll try anything... if you can get me to pick up a guitar.

Yeah, I read music, play the piano passably well, play every tonal rock instrument proficiently, still work as a recording engineer and tech and have more classical training than a lot of people and I couldn't achieve the mental and physical memorization for accordion. Plus the pumping action is physically tiring and I had a nice 50s bohmer back in the day. Maybe if I gave it hours every day it would've gone better but I have other things to do. I don't think you pick accordion up causally for a few folk sessions. That's not to say you can't do it, just be prepared for a grueling process that eats up all your free time.

Accordion was the first time I encountered a non wind instrument I couldn't make music with right away. It was a really humbling experience.

For those of us who use analog triggers and clock, how is everyone generating, dividing, multiplying and distributing their v-trig pulses? What's your master? Anyone else have old synths with s-trig? My poly6 arpeggiator is the bane of my existence right now.

I don't think you have enough stuff.

At the moment? No board right now. TC nova drive and/or an ep3 echoplex whenever I have it working right. It's a maintenance hassle but really an iconic sound even with the echo off

I tried it but failed to master the chord section. Its frustrating and not worth it unless you're planning to use accordion on a lot of tunes.

Either that, or secure a second Line 6 DL4 and have that placed after the shimmer reverb.

Probably the cheapest and easiest route

I didn't say those new solid state amps were going to replace your dual kt88 mono blocks, just that solid state designs have improved for guitar. Admittedly that's a low bar as I cam count the number of great sounding solid state amps of the 20th century on 1 hand.