jimmarchi1's Reviews

I still have a pair laying around

studio standard for overdubs (though you see drummers use them elss and less favoring heavy duty over-ears)... decent sound quality that all o us who go abck to real recording studios will find inviting and familiar. But they are delicate and so many parts can break easily. They also fall off my head if I get excited and start dancing around. I doc them 2 points for shit construction. theya ren't exactly cheap though they are cheaper than a lot of fancy stuff used by DJs.

more than music uses

the classic bundles, hot rods last a long time and sound great when brushes are too jazzy and sticks rock too hard.... theya re also useful in S&M situations.

classic sticks, don't knock 'em

these are my drums tocks of choice... I've sued them since highschool... they aren't super durable but the weight and diameter feel right to me and I don't drum that much. I keep a pair at my day job desk whether its at home or in an office and I also have a few pairs at home to pound on things and to trigger samples via the d-drum triggers using roto toms with dampners on them. I will never change sticks.

a good all around ribbon

I've owned and used a ton of ribbons.... there are better ones than the fat head but not for this kinda scratch. If you have a little more money find an old Naked Eye or the Shure equivalent. Or pony up for a Royer LOL. They're great if you can afford them. But the fat head gets the job done. Very neutral in the vintage to modern spectrum of ribbon tone. A good all arounder though in my world it mostly gets use on guitar speakers. So far its held up well too, even with some serious close micing it hasn't needed a retension in years.

a solid passive DI

I keep this passive around to take a feed off the speaker out of my amps so that I can try some IRs on them in a mix. It excels at this providing a very uncolored tone to my ear. I've always preferred passives in this role and I figured groovetubes would get that right since they are all about tube amps. Worth the minimal investment even though tis basically an amp box and not so stellar on instruments alone.

classic

I always keep a countryman around because tis a classic DI box. The fet can get a little gritty and the transformer is not the most hifi going, but it has a sound. When I record DI telecaster I like this box and I also sometimes like to use it with my 303s because it has a sound in pickup mode being hit really hard that's different than the non-transformed balanced hi Z input on my Eureka. Sounds good with a moog too, though more for leads than bass. For bass I tend to use the USB out on the sub phatty or use the eureka or my radial for the SE1. Anyway, everyone needs one. But remember that while it has a speaker pad that it tends to color an amp feed and I recommend a good passive DI in that role.

great Radial DI with solid AD conversion thru USB

I got this to be able to DI he stereo outs of my digital piano but I've used it more for synths, guitars and bass. Its a stellar USB powered active stereo DI with all the usual trimmings but it has pretty decent AD conversion that will work with any USB port allowing you to DI whatever into a laptop or even your iPad if you have the camera kit. Hell I once used it with my LG phone LOL. But its got dual XLR balanced uts still so you can use it into your interface or a console or whatever. Its great. 2 channels of cleaner-than-a-countryman active DI. Makes me smile. This is such a great piece for the computer musician.

wow

if you spend time with the programming, fully understanding how to access all the voicings? This thing sounds as good as I do if you give me a nice P-Bass. it won't replace Victor Wooton but wow. These guys created a really special VST bass. It helps to have some experience as bass player to get the best out of it so you know what type of voicings you would use when you were playing a line. This is handy for me because I haven't owned a bass in ages and don't really want to invest in one. This thing sounds good dry, treated with a little compression and appropriate EQ cuts to sit with your kick drum and it also shines through virtual effects and amps. A miracle of modern technology. And this basic p-bass version is free. They have other basses including an upright and a ton of guitars (like I need a guitar, but maybe some of you don't play guitar) and I a considering buying some more basses from them in the near future. Go get the P II before Amplesound changes their minds and puts them all on a paying basis!

a pretty fully featured free limiting amplifier from some reliable guys

TLs has a really basic limiting amplifier plugin that's a fantastic freebie with a low CPU hit, but this guy gives you a bunch more control when you're concerned about time constants and sounds pretty good too. I really like both of the TLs guys on individual channels, they don't usually tickle me as bus comrepssors, but maybe its just me. But yeah, anywhere you want old school compression ona channel and need precise control of release time both peak and RMS? this guy... plus there's more metering stages than their other limiting amp plugin. Just so you know, I am pretty sure 'pressure' is the gain reduction knob. This can get pretty squashy but it has that laggy attack time we all love sometimes. I sued to use this more but I've been back on a grabby compressor kick.

too good to be free

this freeware semi-parametric EQ has a handful of voices based around the filters and input/output electronics of famous EQs, a mid band with hi or lo Q, high and low abnds that do wide bell or shelf , fully adjustable center frequencies, saturation, input and output trims, a highpas, auto gain balancing to make up or cut any discrepancies from your EQ and a bunch of virtual make-up amp reponses like deep and silky that really effect the sound especially with the saturation engaged. This is not particularly surgical EQ but its more surgical than the vintage console EQs that inspired it. This has vintage vibes and modern convenience, costs NOTHING! I really like to do a little high pass, maybe a little low bell boost, a big lower mids cut and a big air shelf on clean ora coustic guitar and then engage the saturation and fuck with the input and output gain, EQ model and output amp model until I have exactly what I want in the mix shining through, just the specialness of the soloed recording and none of the bullshit that masks the other elements. but this guy is great on anything. Love the slick EQ. I discovered this ages ago but recently saw Dave Pensago hyping it and also saew him hype up MJUC, which you should check out! But seriously? Get this and get their feedback compressor, which is one of the best software compressors ever and it covers a style of compression that is seldom talked about. Both free I might add. I dock this one star from a perfect score because it could really use a low pass too. It woulda been easy to do.

I give it 3 stars for now.

I've giving this 3 stars because I just can't find a huge use for it yet... Iw as thinking crazy Danial Miller and Alan Wilder resynthesized sounds but I haven't hit on magic with it. I'm not even sure what everything is supposed to do because who the fuck ahs touched a real synclavier? they're STILL valuable, antiquated as they are. For retro sampling I am feeling a lot better abut the TAL sampler. My review might go up when I spend ore time with it, but I'm into making music, not dicking around for hours without finding the sound for my song. If I wanna jerk off I'll rent some porno.

wanna emulate an emualtor?

Being a huge Depeche mode fan I got this plugin because it has the bit-reduction on the output to simulate the emulator II and Akai s60. I trusted TAL tog et the sound right at the output. I also liked that it could play soundfonts and that the rest of the features and the keyboard mapping looked more intuitive than Kontakt (which is a time consuming whore). I really wanted to replace my standalone soundfont players and image line Directwave. This is great being able to layer my own samples with soundfonts. I picked up an extensive collection of Emualtor II and Emax liabraries converted to soundfont so they have the AD conversion sound of the emu gear and with this guy I am simulating the D to A sound and I can do those DM tones I love. But I also enjoy the Akai mode and I certainly love layering my own percussive samples up with soundfonts and stuff. This guy ahs the great TAL fitlers and ncie envelopes and just generally kills it. Its a very retro sampler plugin but tis so much easier to sue than the old hardware with all of the menus and buttons. This is a few pages of easy to follow GUI with a lot of graphical representations to help you along.... and some actual knobs to boot! Well worth the pittance it costs.

my 1st solid state student amp, but its more of a fuzz box for me

this is my 1st solid state student amp purchased 25+ years after I started playing.... I got a beat up one on a larkfrom my local GC for like 10 or 15 bucks when I was buying strings.... I've been padding down the speaker out into a DI and suing it as a super nasty distortion unit. I might mod it some too to make it less polite when turned up. Its actually a pretty cool fuzz box for non-traditional guitar sounds. I got the idea when I was listening to smashing pumpkins with my toddler and remembered that Corgan had said that the weird guitar tone for the riff in Everlasting Gaze was a little crate student amp. I figured what the heck, lemmee get a pre-modelling junk toy amp for my own vile uses. And next thing you know I was recording my own snakey riff and went off to the races on a garbage-inspired song, although I skipped the crap speaker and went right into the board LOL

I actually have this thing out of the pressboard cab right now and threw the cab in the attic.... I will probably mod it and then try to rack it so i can throw it in a true bypass loop for use in front of an amp using the line out jack. Or maybe I'll rack it and just throw it in a spare amp switcher loop on my egnater head switcher so it can drive good speakers. At 15 solid state watts I can do my 'turn it to 11' fuzz trick for a gimmick tone live but easily revert back to my fancy amps for most sounds. We'll see. I am prettys ure the shit speaker is going to et used for target practive if I ever get out to paintball again!

tube drive/compression

this guy adds tube-like clipping and compression.... heat is gain and mix is self explanatory. The pad is handy for hot signals when you can't get subtle enough even with the heat way down although in most DAWs you will have a trim control hiding out somewhere before the effects chain if you know your software, still the fixed pad is a quick way to jack it down a fixed amount fast and you can trim up or down from there.... and the blend is great for sub group use. I like it on drum busses especially where there's a lot of synth and drum machine and not much in the ay of loops or real drum samples. Cool on some vocals too because its a smooth distortion that's not dark. With vocals its like different effects depending where you fit it in the chain. If tis first the dirt slies one place and then gets compressed (although if the esses are hissy I would de-ess and THEN use this, for real) and then sandwiched between compression and EQ you get another thing, and then driven by EQ? yet another. Try it on an echo send after your delay or on a reverb send before and/or after the verb.... try putting it before that delay but after an expander set pretty extreme so only the attack is overtly crunchy and that can just trail into space. What can't the little radiator do? well, it ahs a sound that's not tweakable. Wanna get some control? spring for the big version, but this is fast and musical so I am fine without the fancier one.

is this thing on?

if fruity blood overdrive is like a blizzard of rusty nails this thing is like a soft cloud that you barely notice unless the settings are extreme and the track is hot and trebley. It is a VERY soft distortion though one of the 2 clipping modes is crispier than the other and if you concentrate you can hea rhte difference. I rarely find it worth putting on a track but its cool after a delay on a send because the earlier repeats get that subtle gunk and then get cleaner as they decay. If you do that you will wanna run the delay output nice and hot so you can actually hear the distortion in the mix and then tame it abck down with the distortion's output control so it sits. You can also use this to add some character to the bland fruity chorus or some skronk to a slow fruity flanger patch.... most better modulations don't need the little bit of dirt though since they have more of an analog or early digital growl/crunch already. I wish the interface was bigger though, its a real squint when I am tired or I have mood lighting up at night. Tiny interfaces were the image line thing during the era when theyintroduced a lot of their bread and butter plugins that don't use the native GUI. This is worth keeping on your plugin list though because the only way to make a bad sound with it is to under use it where it barely adds any harmonics or dirt.

subtle to mean

right away you will turn this up and find it to be a mean digital fuzztone with a decent amount of tweakability but its a cool overdrive effect at more subtle settings. Spartan but effective controls make this a workhorse when you need dirt while mixing.

serviceable FL native delay

this is my go-to basic delay.... serviceable digital repeats with a bare bones low pass, step-sequencer-based tempo sync, ping pong and reverse stereo... ya get an input control and input pan as well as the mix knob that the original fruity delay lacked (making it worthless as a send effect). Cute GUI, just wish it was bigger because it makes me squint when i'm tired. Use this when you need a low CPU hit. I tend to set up FL channels as sends with various mono, reverse stereo and ping pongs at different tempos that are minimally in the mix bus but hitting reverb sends and then route various tracks into the delays when I want a pre-delay and slight echo on the ambiance. I might have a whle mess of different delays to verb on some tracks to give subtle space and coolness and automate the amount its sending to each absed on whats goingon in the music so you get a different kind of delay and reverb pre-delay feel all through the track. I'm subtle so you'll listen to my music and not hear it but you would miss it if it was there. What I don't usually us this for is overt delay that hits the mix-bus hard. There's also a stereo offset control that's stepped in micro/miliseconds that you can use in ping pong. I find the stereo offset most useful to set up like a quarter note delay on one side and make the other side feel dotted. If you listen carefully you can get all sorts of swing feels off the offset side just by ear. Another decent meat and potatoes fruity effect. They do their ebst when they don't overdo it.

a very nice free chorus

the good folks who emulate all the guitar pedals did this rack chorus plugin.... I haven't used it extensively but its pretty fully featured and has a retro, colored sound that's more early digital than analog to me.... think dimension D maybe? but with adjustable aprameters. Very ncie chorus when you need tweakability. I would sue this on a guitar track or a synth or anything really, maybe even a vocal. Nice. I gotta find a song that needs it though.

fully featured, serviceable chorus

tons and tons of tweakability make you think this is going to be a mondo versatile, but it has a cold digital sound even when you dicker with the filtering options and cross point. No biggie, tis good at THAT sound and that's a useful sound. All the options are great. If I want an out front guitar or analog synth chorus that screams 80s then this ain't it, but for a lot of other applications its the bees knees and its a super low CPU hit. Its particularly good for vocals because of how clear and uncolored it is and the plethora of parameters mean you can dial it onto a strong vocal to thicken without compromise what's good about it.

I think it benefits from being used 100% wet as a send so you can run the wet signal into something to warm it up or dirt it up.... I've popped it into all sorts of mild saturation plugins and like that and on vocals its cool to keep it cold but run it into an enhancer so that only the effect is getting the aphex harmoncis added and the dry vocal is nice 'n clean.... I also like to send to this on a bone dry vocal before I add compression so tis just whatever mild peak limiting and high pass I tracked with

it works for the basics

a bare bones mid-side processor for your whole mix or for certain sub groups.... can be helpful on reverb sends too if you want to make the room sound bigger without a long reverb tail and more verb than early reflection, add width by taking the sides way out beyond the hardest panned channels... another cool trick is to have 3 sends, one that's early reflections, one that's short decay with predelay and one that's a long decay without predelay and you leave the earlies normal stereo, use this to shrink the width of the delayed short tail with this so tis nearly center and then you use this to kill the middle on the long delay? if you work some expansion into that equation too if you have the ears for it, really shape the long decay verb.... then you can, like, route all the channels to different combinations of each and take echo sends and rout them to different amounts of these reverb busses and the master creating a really dynamic and interesting picture of the room the song is taking palce in giving a sense of front to back, size and like just MOOD

but yeah, I like this and the stereo enhancer. they are bare ones but effective.... throw in the pan modes on equo for real fun, but only if you really understand what you're doing. But yeah, there are better ms processors and I have them but sometimes I just wanna do basic stuff across effects sends in FL and then I wanna be streamlined and use their native plugins so its a low CPU hit. You can do a lot with a little if you know how to work it.

anyway, tis got the phase offset and delay sections (continuously variable phase can be very useful on guitar buses where you wanna align 2 different microphones a certain way and pan them out... if you work the phase and the delay right you can do a lot with guitar buses where you have multiple mics or a tight double) and stuff and cool internal routing features, you can do a lot with it even though it seems like the feature set is less than a lot of the ms plugins that incorporate EQ