mylittleeye's forum posts 212

I want to put out a shout about how much I get out of Rick Beato's You Tube channel.

He goes into detail on all sorts of aspects of music - theory, history, artists, songs, and their production. Even when the theory's going over my head I feel I'm learning all the time - I love it! Ricks enthusiasm is really infectious and its the first place I go if I find myself losing heart. He even enthuses about AC/DC - a subject I never would've thought I could ever find interesting! - Who'd've thought !?

https://youtu.be/g-ssiNeTgwc

Cool - Seems about right, so after doing a bit of research of my own I suspect that what I had in mind was perhaps the so called Tom Jones mic: the Sennheiser MD 211. Here they are in action alongside Janis... ain't that some funkadelic footage right there!

https://youtu.be/mZmiefQ5y4U

Awesome! - I have another question too... Those microphones! To me, in the early1970's (and I know I'm showing my age here!) they were the height of modernity. Just the sort of mic that Joe 90 or James T Kirk might use, were they ever to become pop stars. Those mics were the future - and as far as I'm concerned, they still are! What were they? perhaps more importantly, where can I get one?

Okay, so what was the keyboard used in this magnificent 70's classic?

I'd swear it's the greatest sound everr!

Oh dear, not a lot of help about today? Sorry, can't offer any useful advice myself but hey...
next to a National, this is the most metal guitar I've seen! https://youtu.be/2eEB-vJic_o

My first instrument purchase was a Generation D tinwhistle whilst on holiday in the Hebrides as a child. Folk music was doubly uncool in the early 80's but through visits to family and friends there I discovered The Corries, Planxty and the whole Scottish/Irish traditional music scene. Each year I'd get another one in the set not realising that I'd only ever need the D whistle; The high G was useful only for playing to dogs and bats.

My first Harmonica was a Marine Band in E, chosen because someone told me that most blues is played in E... Only problem being it was was of course E in the diatonic major, not blues minor. I just kept buying harmonicas in random keys until I learned that it's the A harp that plays in E minor; in the 'cross harp' position. The E harmonica's still pretty much mint in a drawer somewhere - No one I know plays blues in B!

My first Guitar was a cheap Japanese Columbus Les Paul copy which I chose 'cos it looked like the LP on the first ZZtop album cover. I got nowhere with it and soon quit and sold it on. I don't miss the guitar but I regret not sticking at it. The Peavey Rage I got with it was a well regarded little 15w SS amp too; a fine recommendation from Rose Morris on London's famous Denmark Street.

Yup, I have 4:33 listed as one of my Desert Island Discs for when I need a bit of peace and quiet.

I'm tickled that there's a collection of 4:33 covers and remixes - Cage Against The Machine

It's one of the few pieces of music I know all the words to

Okay, Moogbadger, perhaps I was being a bit philistine towards Madame Radigue. Having given her a bit of a listen I've actually come to quite like it. Nice to have on while I'm reading, struggling to sleep or just zoning out!

I take back what I was saying before; I must have been in a particularly sour mood! :-)

Now that I'd like to hear!

First bear in mind that I'm coming at it from the perspective of an 'analogue' country blues folkster whose grasp of music tech is pretty much pre-millennial! - (I've only recently got my head around my Zoom 9000 although to be fair it sat in a drawer for 20 years 'til I picked up the guitar again).

The OP-1 is the gateway drug into making music that I've always enjoyed but also resisted (I have enough tech in my life already). A lot of its reviews/forums say the OP-1's not for beginners, citing its 'limitations' and unconventional workflow. But then if it's too wierd for beginners and too limited for pros then who is it for and why does it have such a cult following?

Well, I can liken it to another fine piece of 90's tech, my old Psion Series3. This too had 'limited' functions but I had more fun exploring the the limits of its capabilities (slouched on my bed, half watching MTV Europe, on the bus, plane, lunchbreaks) than I ever would have made time for sat at a desk in front of a 12" CRT and Windows 3.1 (besides, that was DOOM! time!) Consequently I was able to create on that Psion what remain to this day some of my most sophisticated and complex spreadsheets ever; The Psion's limitations focussed ones attention into mastering the functions that really mattered most - plus I could do it whenever I liked and wherever I was most chilled out and relaxed!

This is what I feel the OP-1 gives me - This single tiny integrated unit delivers a physical (basic midi) keyboard, multiple synth engines, a drum machine, sequencer, sampler, 4 track recorder, and plenty enough filters and effects to keep ME happilly occupied. I don't have to waste months of my life GASsing over countless gear reviews, wondering which features might actually be useful to me and which are marketting hype. plus I don't have to fill a significant part of my home with a spaghetti of cables, keyboards and synth modules... At my 'music production' level this thing promises to be unbelievably liberating.

There's such a wealth of gear now its really overwhelming

Perversely, overwhelm is exactly what I've squandered(?) my wealth on the OP1 to avoid! - The OP cost twice as much £€$ as I reasonably could afford but half the current OP-1 retail price - I make music for fun not as a profession I and really can't be arsed with all the mainstram pro gear. If it's anything like the photo industry, much of the stuff is unneccessary, over-marketed peripheral faff anyway. In fact photo gear might be a good analogy - In synth terms the OP's perhaps like a rather good pocket camera as opposed to a camera bag full of pro-gear. When I take photos with my old Fuji x10 I feel like I'm 'off duty' and making chilled out relaxed pics for fun - I'm in a different headspace to when I'm 'working'.

The article linked below is what made me think that just maybe an OP-1 could just justify the expense. However it was only when I saw Jean Michelle Jarre list it in his top ten favourite synths that I actually felt compelled to dispense with prudence and buy into the Teenage Engineering cult... "It's Not A Toy" ; "It Goes Deep..." ; "Seller's regret; I bought it again!" - they're all mantras of the OP-1 way - Maybe it is best to steer clear...

https://audionewsroom.net/2015/06/rediscoveries-te-op-1-creative-block-limitations-other-stories.html

It's good that we, the UK and US have each other. We're like backup storage for each other's culture. Blues music was on its way out before young white London lads like Mick, Keith, Rod and Eric embraced American race music from imported 78's and the American Forces Network radio.

We can blame the early Chicago Police Department for the survival of Irish diddly diddly music which was, by the 1950's, practically extinct in Ireland - a casualty of the craze for amplified accordion 'Polka bands' and cowboy film era Country and Western music and then Elvis! Cheif O'Neill of the CPD had a preference for hiring his own countrymen, especially if they also chanced to be Irish musicians and it became his life's work to collect and write down any tunes they had brought across the atlantic in their heads - O'Neill's Music of Ireland became known as the bible of irish music, preserving 1850 irish tunes that would otherwise have been lost; it's all the fault of those Chicago cops! The Punk rock approach started in the US but found fertile ground among London's disaffected youth - We're quite good at reconditioning your rejects and then selling it back to you but hey, it does go both ways.

Anyway... kinda lost the original point... Oh yeah Synths; ARP-2600 Niiiiiice! :-)

I got that OP-1 in the end! 😱 !!

I don't remember a timewhen ska was cool... th boostones seemed to break the mainstream in 98 or 99, but only for about a month and then everyoe moved on.... and for the record I like ska and two-tone

I'd assume that's 'cos you grew up in the US? Here in the UK white urban youth embraced the music of their immigrant Jamaican neighbours, and mixed Ska and Two Tone bands like The Specials, The Selector and Madness crossed over to the mainstream. It was huge for a while. The late seventies/early eighties BK (Before Kylie) were a great time to grow up here musically. So much diversity: Ska, Reggae, Rock, Punk, New Romantics - radically different genre's. Popular music today seems so homogenous by comparison. Musical taste defined which playground 'Set' you belonged to. Ska and Two Tone fans were mostly the hard nuts. Jarre, Vangellis, Mike Oldfield fans? - We hid in the library and played D&D or chess, depending on where on the spectrum we lay. (Actually the chess players would've been into classical music of course! - not that I'm stereotyping or anything... just how I remember it)

In avant-garde/academic circles, there's a composer called Eliane Radigue - she's an old lady now - who's used the ARP 2500 for most of her composing life. ...it's instructive to hear what she's done with this huge old piece of lab equipment. It's electronic, but somehow quite organic as well...

Bonkers I'd say! ;-)

I came across this short portrait of her after this thread lead me off on an evening of Youtube retro synth joy - I can't say my first impressions were favourable. She struck me as one of those bullshit artists with "all the gear but no idea" You know the sort; Has the resources to be an early adopter, cluelessly fannies about with it; get's attention shouting "I have the special stuff - My Art, my Art! - When she says "I always have the piece I am working on in my head" I'm like "No love, I get that too, it's called tinitus!"

But perhaps I'm being too harsh. I'll give her a listen... perhaps she'll grow on me.

https://youtu.be/lcy5fLcAsQQ

...that's the noise my studio makes when I'm not there

:-D It's actually quite a catchy tune sped up 1000% (...if you're a bat)

I'm relistening to this Podcast of Matt Berry interviewing Jean Michelle Jarre - Hearing it last year is what's renewed my interest in electronic music - Episode 2 is devoted to how he put together Oxygene (in his 'kitchen studio') and its a fascinating listen. He comes over really well actually - I had always perceived him as being somewhat up himself and very very French!

https://open.spotify.com/show/4AwYnNYRwelLvEUJ1tmlcP?si=atU3FILXSQmb8BbQJMY3hw

I never realised the synth seen at the climax of Close Encounters was the real thing. Oh and look! now I can get an ARP 2500 of my own for just €100 that slips invisibly into this megacomputer parked on my lap - god I love living in the future!

Here's the real thing close up in all its operational glory...

https://youtu.be/TYMX5QuUaj4

As a kid at school I would be nerding out To Jean Michelle Jarre and Vangellis when all my cool classmates were into Ska and Two-Tone. This, to me, was the sound of the future; I imagined that such people were more scientist than musician, and occupied vast exclusive electronic laboratories like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, all well beyond the means of us ordinary mortals. I was interested to read that Jarre still counts the ARP 2600 among his top ten favourite synths today.

Thanks for the history lesson - It's good to see at last what this miracle of sound actually looks like and how it came to be. A heavy dose of nostalgia there! it makes me feel so old to think what was so futuristic to me back then seems so quaint and retro today - still a great sound though!

Mind you - Nothing can sound more like science than a "Harrington 1200..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqkUISJej2o

Counts in my book! Those are good looking!

Clearly Fender's marketing gurus have never been to Burgundy or they'd realise french mist is the same colour as any other; such a load of bull, laughed so hard I nearly choked on my wine! I would describe the finish as metallic lavender but then what do I know.

Should ever I become a luthier I'm truly inspired to create my own special finishes now... A light metallic grey could be Cornish Mizzle. How about a fine metallic mustard: London Smog?

"I already have a guitar but..." - Aha! Now the words begin to make sense... :-D

...that and the fact it's 'Burgundy Mist' / "Oooh it's Pink!" was a persuasion point too but kind of means I only have joint custody now. She's been taking an interest in guitar too, now that she realises Rocksmith is something we can play together. You're right, and I'm pleased of course... ???? I suspect that Evan Dando may have had similar issues with his one... https://youtu.be/-S9O8Cmdoqg...

So the guitar is pretty rare and only came up on ebay at Easter. Unfortunately I had to dip into our holiday fund to get it. GF is like "But you already have a guitar!" and doesn't grasp how tangible things such as a trem bar and phase switching could possibly have any priority over lying sweating for a week on some Spanish beach. So it came with conditions... such as "If you're going to take this guitar thing seriously then you ought to have 'proper' lessons!" ...as if my own 'innate talent' wasn't enough - Fine! So hence the coloured dots all over my other guitar's neck. Also she claimed custody of it until my birthday in November. I've paid for that guitar in so many other ways...

Strictly speaking the Ryan Jarman sig Squier 'Musuar' (bottom) arrived before X-mas but was a combined birthday/Christmas present. Does that count? https://images.equipboard.com/uploads/gear_photo/image/6294/xl_20191204T131911.jpg

Aww damn - I had tickets to see him in a club in Nijmegan when I was stationed just over the border in Germany. It was about the time Pulp Fiction brought him back to everyone's attention. Unfortunately I came down suddenly with glandular fever and so instead spent the evening in the med-center, severely dehydrated and halucinating screaming monkey faces and WW1 tanks rumbling towards me. Always deeply regretted not seeing him there, it was one of those 'intimate venues' where I'd also once missed Henry Rollins sitting in for a poetry reading. I missed the Levellers that same weekend too.

Dick Dale's playing was brutal tho'. RIP big fella.

if only someone had told me this before...

If you are a complete beginner I'd recommend the SG for the simple reason that its scale length is just that little bit shorter than the 25.5" of the Strat. When one's starting out I think it's worth making everything as easy as possible for your hands to find their way around the fret board. Starting on a shorty would help minimise the initial frustration of those seemingly impossible chord stretches. Other noteworthy shorter scale guitars are the Les Paul, Mustang, and the Jaguar. There are plenty more!

I'm presently sporting a fine set of DR NEON Hi-Def MULTI-COLOR Mediums 'cos I's got class.

You know who you are... https://youtu.be/fcwpOXfuHUw

That's the thing, Most of the people I considered offering here are great singer songwriters with solid guitar skills rather than exceptionally gifted or creative guitarists. How does one define under-rated? A lot of 'great' guitarists do their own thing very well without being technically in-yer-face-awesome. BB King comes to mind, and plenty enough folks can fingerpick like Mississippi John Hurt these days. Like Clapton said, there's one in every crowd.

I'd like to hear people's reasons for their underated guitarists getting a mention here. Elliot Smith, like you say, may not be technically dazzling but his signature style and creativity is unique enough that I'd rate him alongside Nick Drake. Obviously though I'm turned on more by gentle acoustic creativity/virtuosity than face melting Yngwe Malmstein arpeggios.

I don't get a sense that Elliott Smith is widely regarded here in the UK. His songwriting and guitar style keep drawing me back.

I also like me some guitar that's delivered raw and raucous. Bob Log III, formerly of Doo Rag and Fredrick "Joe" Evans IV of Left Lane Cruiser - spirited, if not sophisticated guitarists.

*15 Watt Peavey Rage * I got it from the famed Rose Morris in Denmark Street; London's Tin Pan Alley. It came bundled with a cheap Japanese Columbus Les Paul copy in black ash sunburst that I saw in the window and had to have 'cos it looked justl like the guitar on the first ZZ Top album I thought it sounded a bit rubbish at the time but actually, no, it was just my playing. That was way back in 1988 - wish I had stuck at it but I I switched to harmonica instead! I don't miss the Columbus but the amp was well regarded.

Jim, they are THE Ramones inspired semi-ironic asian girl band. Apparently they could make Kurt Cobain squeal like a girl; I didn't inquire how.

Three you say?

Shonen Knife

https://youtu.be/ADo6wawOUFo

The Dammed https://youtu.be/D7_rzojvKdE

The Damned https://youtu.be/pakL7lB82oY

And of course Killing Joke couldn't sue Nirvana because they themselves had ripped off The Damned (in case anyone didn't know already) https://youtu.be/TaDbMZlN2Pg

Canned Heat - Going Up Country https://youtu.be/nBhpiUFSYWI

https://youtu.be/3Qo9R5kDZWY

I like this thread - it's too young to die!

Nick Drake - Road https://youtu.be/DjZMhzGkghw

alexi murdoch - at your door https://youtu.be/KHuXwYwECFs

Thanks for that comprehensive breakdown Jim - a lot to take in but all good to know! I think you've sold me on the glove, but I like your idea to get them all.

Furthermore I've now fallen for the Blackstone Appliances MOSFET OD if only, mainly, for the fact it sounds filthy and looks like it's been pulled right out of a spitfire cockpit - It was aparently used extensively on ZZ Top's La Futura, (not especially a fan of the band but I do like that dirt)

Arrgh! - I really must force myself to make do with my Bad Monkey for a while yet. I'm putting myself on a GAS recovery program for a while before someone arranges an intervention.

Oh That's interesting Jim. I'd not heard of The Glove OD and from what I read about it, it sounds more my cup of tea. The tonal descriptions: "Mild bluesy breakup" to "Billy Gibbons throaty grind" and "9v gives a saggy compressed crunch"; this all sounds right up my street. John Lee Hooker, Black Keys, Left Lane Cruiser; loose, saggy distortion is what I'd aspire to, rather than Death Metal chug or Prince/Gilmour shimmer. - It could possibly usurp the EHX Soul Food from my wishlist!

I've been exploring the budget pedal path, Certainly some budget options approach the pro originals and I'd consider them good enough for home gratification whilst I'm still learning. So considering the path Overdrive -> Distortion -> Fuzz -> - Delay/Reverb;

A pro might use a Tube Screamer/OCD - Boss DS1/2, Proco Rat or Big Muff Pi - EHX Holy Grail Max reverb all for about £400-£500

I have a Bad Monkey -> Ibanez 60's Fuzz -> and Behringer Echo Machine EM600. (£100 total)

I would Look at: the JOYO JF-02 ultimate drive which is a very highly regarded clone of the Fulltone OCD overdrive at a quarter of the price; - £33

Then there's the Tom'sline BLACK TEETH teeth distortion pedal: Warm smooth wide range vintage distortion sound based on 3 versions of Proco Rat - solo turbo and normal guitar pedal - £25

The Behringer Echomachine is a cheaply constructed 'swiss army knife' of analogue delay effects. It's main strength however is also its weakness; the variety and flexibility of delay styles means it is also complex to operate, too fiddley and fragile for stage work perhaps but a fine tool to explore with; £45 gets you just about very delay style going and it sounds great despite the plastic construction.

(conscious that I've mixed up delay and reverb here; I have a delay pedal but don't feel the need for both (amp's built in reverb does fine))

No. I don't find women very funny.

This theory brought about that women are not funny simply because they don't have to be to secure copulation nor to gain favor in social circles.

@boom762 - Your theory's strength is in it's inherent irony.

One has to wonder which end of the telescope you're looking through?

In the UK we have a long tradition of popular comediennes. From Gracie Fields and Joyce Grenfell to contemporaries such as Jennifer Saunders Dawn french, Victoria Wood, Morwenna Banks Sue Perkins, Joanna Lumley, Jo Brand, Diane Morgan there's too many to list. Even foreign women here become somehow empowered with humour.

Can I just opt for three dinner dates with Kristen Schaal please?