jimmarchi1's Reviews

like a more cmprehensive iamge line stereo plugin

I think this is free now, but anyway, its a very fully featured stereo processor with a dual filter to, delay, phase and all the trimmings and best of all tis 3 plugins, 1 for mid and 2 more for the sides (labeled A and B). A solid gadget.

a great little m/s stereo shaper with EQ/crossover features

this little stereo control pluginis handy with the Eq like feaures where you can sunt lows down to stereo while treating mids and treble.... I use this on drum loops sometimes where I am trying to change the way I mixed the drums (or if its form a record, the way some other dude mixed them). There are similar things out there for free but nothing with this comrpeheansive control that I know of in one plugin.

This is my 'separation' tool for my multi amp setup.

This pedal is ALWAYS on the EL34/closedback side of my dual amp rig set 100% wet and for a subtle, single double. It sounds really good. After getting rid of my nova system I missed the doubling. I flirted with strymon and keely but I wanted HIFI shit (not purposely distorted, compressed and retro -- I don't need that in front of my amp). This is it. Tiny and effective. AND cheaper than the other 2 doublers I was checking out. The processed sound still sounds like my core tone. Any artifacts are completely hidden through my dark EL34 amps (traynor and selmer).... my voxes and matchless are less forgiving in that department, but this doesn't feed the vox side. I don't use this with 1 amp. That'd just be silly, right? This is r eally cool with the amps spaced wide and some ping ponging slap delay later. In the effect chain it sitsright after the Radial Tonebone ABY (always in Y mode). After this tehre's a Nove drive, the elft side of an M5 that's usually off but is there for modulation, the odd echo, maybe reverb, then the left side of the flashback which is always on 1 of the 3 presets with the effect level and feedback assigned to my 2 expression pedals. The great thing about this is I didn't need to change my presets on the FB to incorporate it whereas now that I dumped the analog chorus and went with the M5 I have to start over on presets. I mean, I am using my same 3 delays and the same nova drive rpesets, but I ened to create patches for choruses, flanges, phasers, compression, whatever I find I like on the M5 utilizing my core gear. And on the vox side I am still puttering with amps, deciding what can go in my spare 2 loops. Anything 30 watts or less will work well into a stock ac30 cab but right now tis aj ust a matchless at 30 and a half-powered handwired ac30. But this little guy was a great addition to the rig, for real. Easy to incorporate and just totally gave me that modern studio doubling vibe I wanted. They've improved their algorithm compared to the double/detune on the Nova/G systems. This little thing is outstanding.

Bank breakingly expensive.

This will break the bank but if you must switch between more than 2 tube amps and you wanna control them via your existing MIDI rig then this is it. Nothing else touches this shit.

nice!

I got this recently on the cheap. Its been dropped like my esquire and has dents. I haven't played it after the 1st day when it arrived but it has a good and deep 52 neck with tasty pickups. Very nice guitar that I plan to keep. Fantastic neck pickup, open, not boomy....

I forgot to add ths to my board forever.... because its mediocre.

an okay guitar with strat trem, solid lipstick pickups, good fret access but a shredder slim neck. I have had this forever and just feel mediocre about it. I should reneck it to be U shaped and more ME! or sell it. I rarely play this guitar.

SOLD.... when a guitar sits in my closet for YEARS? gotta go

the heart signature model!

every time I play this I feel like Anne Wilson is cheating on Cameron Crowe with me. a MILFy axe. Very similar to my falcon but eck thru. I will probably dump the dimarzios for duncans like in my falcon but I was seeing a 'whole lotta humbucker' at bridge on this.

a great 59 copy

mine is a 78 or 79 made by tokai.... long tennon, feels like nitro finish, subtle flame but more or less a plaintop. Pickus are gotoh PAF style that sound like T-tops to me... does a solid zep in bridge position, Medium beck, bigger than my Greco and smaller than my LP Platinum. A great les paul for the buck (about $1k SD)... wide nut unlike my greco mr which has a 60s thin nut on a 50s style guitar.

I never liked this when it was my friend's

this was my bassists 1st Gibson and I used it when my special wasin the shop sometimes and HATED it.... but now that I have it on a trade? I like it. I wanna mod the bridge to a PAF style with a coil tap for humbucking coil tapped middle position and then it will kill it. Might try brass saddles and block too. Truth be told I have had this for ages but haven't touched it much for 6 months. I am sure I will joanjett her and be into it. She has a great feel with 10s and 11s. Strat whammy on a Jr?! YEAH

300 bucks USD well spent

I overpaid for this because its the only firebird 1 reissue that's not a custom shop.... its a decent fire bird. The pickup is off and I plan to get an antiquity or Curtis novak. Otherwise? solid. I ahte Joe Bonamassa but this guitar kills and the shoreline gold finish is breathtaking even in poly! Fat neck for an epi, Bonamassa musta been specific with the Koreans who made it.

whoa

I just got this beat up '78 or 79 sunburst sent to me, She cost a solid chunk of my tax return but well worth it, a fabulous hybrid between a 59 special and a 59 burst standard! everything they crack it up to be. THE underwound dimarzio superdistoion at the bridge is a bit too hot for me and midrangey too and the dimarzio brass baseplate PAF is woooly for me... butI will not mod this guitar because it has a voice. It is so classic rock, heart meets cheap trick! What a player. The best roundback neck and a wide nut. OOOH!!!!!!!!!!!! always wanted one, now I have it.

We still haven't spent a ton of time together. I have a lot of guitars. Great and singular instrument.

ASR of Tennessee, still around but they don't make 'em like this anymore.

The 600 is a 300 watts per side 70s/80s poweramp. Mine has the meters laid out horizontally and the stock photo I found has vertical meters but the amp is the same. The P600 sounds more like a crest than a crown. A fairly hifi sounds that has pretty low THD even when slamming loud. Can be used ganged mono or with 1 side disable via a switch on the back. Mine has big metal handles pictured to make rack removal easy but some don't and that's a shame because they are needed. Takes up 4RU like an H&H. These are great amps and mine is currently powering my 3 way Yamaha ANS's. You wanna be careful with this guy in a studio role as it blows out a lot of passive speakers! Its a great amp for larger monitors and kills it powering individual wedges in dual monoblock mode. Ia ctually got this as a gift from my oldest friend along with the old Teac 15 console I had for years. Great, low rent vintage setup. I was never fond of this in a guitar role for wet/dry/wet though It had some harsh when I needed to fill the really big venues, though I really liked using it in ganged mode for clarity where I was running 2 plexis and a single dual showman with this as the stereo for the showman.... anyway, these are cheap and readily available and kick some ass. The back gets hot, use caution if moving a rack after show! don't touch the heat sinc and don't close the back of the rack until its cool to the touch. Built like a tank but the down side is it weighs a ton. This fucker gets tube amp loud too. its not as loud as an SVT's 300 watts, but with a preamp out front for abss it gets damned close though an SVT 8x10 much like the H&H... has much better bass response than an H&H to my ea. Fast and precise with a helluva kick. In the studio I sue this and the 3 ways when working on my bottom. In solid state power amps Crown is the modern while H&H is British, Crest is in between and ASR is very American. If you have the luxury of collecting stereo PAs then add this to your stash. ALSO! and importantly there is no protection on the power switch so it thumps into your bass drivers when powered up. I never turn mine off for this reason. It stays warm but is well ventilated under my work space... the thump can blow a woofer. This won't happen on an H&H though it plagues Crowns and Crests of similar vintage to mine (70s)... I suspect that they remedied this with an RC network on the 80s ones as pictured here like Crown and Crest did but who knows?

Worth the free download.

This is a cute little freeware stereo audio editor. Has the features main of soundforge and wavelab, VST hosting (though its finicky) and eats up jack shit SPU. You can edit master in here in a pinch, it works.

The best pressure triggers ever!

I have had and made a lot of triggers for drums but I heard good things about the D-drums and bought them and find them to be the most rock solid triggers ever. I use these on my triple roto toms to record 3 MIDI channels to trigger drum samples to create human fills in my electronic music. I have also attached them to hub caps, baking sheets, 2x4s.... each object you hit with a VF 2B stick creates different MIDI data that will affect your samples or drum synthesizer so experiment. Every drummer or drum savvy producer into electronic music should own some ddrums.

Back when tape and ADAT were still the boss...

this was a gift from the owner of the 1st studio I worked at. It syncs timecode to MIDI (if you are a baby, timecode is a track on a tape that gives timing info to other devices, invented to sync 4 tracks in the 60s before 8 track). This was how we synced our MIDI gear to the tape machine for sequenced overdubs. It worked solidly most of the time. Probably the best box of this type ever made, I've used it to sync tape to protools, tape to synths and drum machines, you name it. it collects dust in the modern age but I will never get rid of her. NEVER

A 70s classic of solid state LOUD!

The H&H amps are fabulously warm and inviting solid state power amps favored by 80s guitarists (thanks Bob Bradshaw) in their wet/dry/wet rigs. And that's exactly why I acquired mine. I replaced my ASR systems amp with this guy for more warmth but in the end it proved too heavy for non-roadie gigs and I went to a Carvin ultralight stereo amp in 1RU. This sounded better than the Carvin but from the audience it was no biggie. Now it powers my Tannoys with which it pairs well although I have to be cautious because it could blow them if I crank my PC output too high. I usually use the Tannoys very low though so I feel safe... just in case I have a shitty limiter in line between the DAW and amp so if I turn it up it starts limiting and warns me I am approaching blown tweeter turf. At low levels this amp is warm and flat and has very low THD. In a guitar context turned up for big venues it adds subtle odd order harmonics to your wet channels that are very interesting. I think these days the better bet is the Matrix stuff for guitar or even an old 90s valvestate power amp in 1RU just for weight concerns. They will get you the tone and not kill your back when you have to moce your own rack. I am done with wet/dry/wet with a line out and power amp though. I have a more vintage setup now but this will never leave me as a great reference amp in my home studio. I've used it for sound reinforcement to great effect too. Its served me well in that role indoors and out while my ASR powered passive wedges. These are collectible though because they used to be favored by EVH and Steve Stephens among others! But you see them cheap sometimes in stores and if you see one BUY IT even if you don't need it.

At 200 watts per side its not a total beast. I also like that there's an RC network providing 'thump' protection when you power up so you don't smack your drivers with a deep and sharp voltage spike as audio. Another reason I have her on the sensitive Tannoys (and when I wanna get all studio standard my NS10Ms). I don't wanna rely on the limiter to save me.

Fun fact, H&H has been owned by Laney for years and the older Laney solid state line was designed by the old H&H engineers. An early linebacker bass amp ahs a great sound thanks to the H&H warm mosfet power amp. Interestingly Crest bought Arbiter/Sound-city in the 80s and the head engineer there was Dave Foxx of FoxxRoxx. Reissue silicon fuzz faces for Crest after the Arbiter buy out inspired Foxx to create the famed Captain Coconut heandrix-inspired multi-effect.... anyway. H&H? they rule. This is the one to have.

I think everyone who dabbles in dance music and hip hop type stuff has this.

Its a great plugin that everyone should have. I use it less than a lot of people but my version of electronic music is very retro and often straddles rock and vintage pop so its maybe not applicable to my arrangements all the time. Still a fantastic plugin that simplifies the whole sidechain thing and takes it into strange new places like when Barney left the Be Sharps in the simpsons. Taking Barber Shop to ssstraaange new places!

Evolved feedback comp.

This is a pay version of TDR's free feedback comp.... it has a more versatile sidechain and a different feel to the 2 time constant sections.... its not actually better than feedback comp II, just different and a little more versatile thanks to the detection circuit tweaks. I like both and use both. I like this one better on groups.

Older bus compressor... still like it.

At the time this was one of the better bus compression plugins but its got stiff competition these days. It still has a response and sound all its own. Once ina while this guy is just the thing.

This filter is fucing weird.

you can shape some bizarre filters in Engineers.... tis free too. I would give it 5 stars if its weirdness was more useful but truth be told I have never made use of this in a mix or in sound design. I try it but its 'special' abilities are so over the top.