nickgrooves's forum posts 170

Hot take no.1 — This belongs on the Synth board instead of this guitar/bass board. If we're discussing her catalog from "1989"—present (which, we are).

Hot take no.2 — She is not comparable to Beatles or EVH simply because they wrote all their own material whereas she co-writes. She has some heavily-involved co-writers / producers on most of her hit songs since the early albums, which was not nearly as timeless and transcendent as those more recent mega-works. There's zero shame in co-writing but let's give them some credit for her success rather than say that she alone is equivalent as a solo individual to a Paul McCartney.

This seems buttoned-up but just to poke the bear … while I agree that certain gear combos can not be fully replicated … we can not ignore the huge, industry-wide success of amp sims and impulse profilers like the Kemper … so here is what I consider when trying to make my gear sound like other gear:

• mahogany is a dense wood resulting in warmer, fatter tone; humbuckers emphasize the lower and midrange EQ of your strings; if you want a Les Paul to sound like a strat the first thing you gotta do is brighten up that tone by rolling the mids and bass down (on your pedalboard or amp); I would also use the bridge pickup which will help get a brighter, snappier tone (this is true of all p'ups because of their physical location nearest the end of the playable string).

• Fenders tend to be made of lighter, more porous woods, and single coil p'ups are brighter and snappier (funk-ier?) right? so go the opposite route as above: boost your bass (like all the way up, probably) and mids (to taste, at least 7/12 most likely) and roll your "treble" or highs down; then use your 2nd-pos. neck/mid p'up combo to try and get that 2-coil meat on your tone

Again, I know this is controversial but I have had many sessions with students seeking their idol's tone where we basically tweaked their amp and distortion pedal settings to match a wide variety of players from Gilmore to Rhodes to BB King to SRV. It is possible to a certain degree.

Anyone classically trained, like Matteo, will be using dem fingers. It's a very common technique in the nylon fingerstyle world, including Flamenco. So if you want to study players, I would look at those genres.

Notification says [username] "mentioned" me but there is no link pointing to where. So, the notification is useless. It would be nice if it was hyperlinked like all the other notifications.

Also, the email I received informing me about this notification had a broken link in it. The email had a giant, orange "reply" button at the bottom but it wasn't clickable.

Great ideas. That Sony looks very similar to the Zoom design, cool. He really wants an all-in-one option. I think the appeal of the Tascam cassette is that it's analog tape, and he can bounce tracks down in order to get a rough demo mix. He's not gonna get a true mixer but let's face it the "usability" will be limited, anyway.

It's not about the converters for me, it's about the choice. I'd rather give my money to a good FOH engineer and get a usable live recording. Hell, often you can plug into their board for free. No matter where you place a Zoom in a room, it's not going to equal the quality of a multitrack stage feed.

Now if you're just wanting a reference then yeah that's fine, but there are MUCH cheaper options. Like besides a smartphone? I've got a Sony minidisc walkman that works great for this.

I think we're way over-thinking this customer's needs. He needs something super basic, that will take him from start to finish. As in, he can record multiple tracks and bounce them down to a stereo output (like many smartphone apps these days). Who knows why he is averse to computers. Maybe he doesn't own one. I don't judge. But talking about Dolby vs dBx, all that is way over his head. He's a total novice.

Behringer x32 (?) with the high demand of church and theatre FOH is what murdered those products, IMHO. Can't tell you how many times I've seen that board in the past five years.

Similarly, for reasons unknown to me, a lot of my drummer friends seem to love their handheld Zoom. Lots of bands I've played with over the years have had a drummer who records the show from his throne and then listens to it in the bus/van all night on the way to next gig. Apparently the sound from their throne is better than we thought … or they just love hearing themselves ;)

https://VillageMusic.store

(in Atlanta, GA)

Nope, that's not me. But thanks for the effort and upvotes :)

I was replying to this comment by admin Gchiaren:

We're moving towards utilizing MusicBrainz, Spotify, and Wikidata to help us better structure our artist data.

We're considering making it a requirement that an artist has to have a presence on one of those 3 services in order to be added as a community-editable artist page.

Is it perfect? No. I think anyone can put themselves on Spotify. But at least we would be making it more difficult to bend the rules...

Anyone who releases commercially distributed material can get on Spotify, since all(?) distributors include Spotify in their portfolio. As long as they've released material I don't see the problem with calling them an "artist."

Spoiler: is shameless self promotion allowed?

My 2nd-floor post audio prod. studio with lessons-on-the-side grew considerably over the last 5.5 years and is now on the ground floor with retail. Instruments, accessories, vinyl records, books / sheet music, repairs and rentals — mostly concert band but we rent fretted, too. So that's why I've not been around.

Send me your wish list, mention "equipboard" and I'll see that we quote you a killer deal.

So it's been a while and I don't remember the rules. Delete if this post crosses a line.

UPDATE: Here are some links for those interested …

https://VillageMusic.store

Facebook .com/tudorvillagemusic

Instagram @tudorvillagemusic

I had a customer ask me just the other day if we carry any Tascam cassette recorders. He wants a completely non-computer "affordable" recording AND mixing setup. I explained that to my knowledge, his only alternative was cassette as CDs are no longer considered a reliable medium (ruling out burn-to-CD mixers). I don't think he can afford ADAT but I totally forgot to suggest it.

Well, I was going to say "anything in the Other category." Then I thought it better to get you a specific example. Then I thought, maybe I can figure this out on my own. Turns out "modular synthesizers" have their own category separate from keyboards, and all I had to do was add that category to my board. I added a bunch of categories and 45 "others" dropped to 12.

It seems the remaining dozen items were never categorized upon being added to the system by other users.

Why are some keyboard synthesizers showing up in said category, while others fall under "Other" ...

Maybe it's me. They seem to be categorized correctly on their gear profile page.

This is really NOT a big deal to me, but since the name of the website is "equipboard" and Categories is the only tweakable feature on our boards I feel like our boards should be organized accurately.

Wah affects tone and falls under the same bracket as "dynamic contrast" playing IMO.

I believe a "good" boost pedal is transparent (does not affect tone).

That being said, many wah pedals have a volume boost - some are even adjustable - and can act as a "boost pedal" even though they aren't quite the same.

Subtle, agreed. I have noticed differences in electric guitar caps though (inside the body cavity, on tone pots). There are at least two camps here in Atlanta - the sprague orange lovers and the oil-and-paper lovers.

This may be off topic but for young players reading this I'd like to clarify the difference between playing with dynamics and "cutting through the mix."

Playing with dynamic contrast is extremely beneficial to your music. This may include picking or strumming softly, palm muting, and attacking or accenting certain notes differently. It doesn't matter what genre you play, it makes a huge difference to your audience.

Above this, on a higher level of audio volume, is how your guitar "sits" in the mix when you play with others (whether live or on a recording). Good "placement" means adjusting your EQ, tone knobs, etc. to blend tastefully. Unless you play instrumentals, your guitar probably doesn't belong front and center - but your wicked guitar solo!? Enter: boost pedals. Boost pedals effectively raise your volume (or the volume of certain frequencies) of your signal creating a "lead track" in the mix. The reason they tend to boost "mids" is because that's where the meat of guitar tone lives.

Other ways of doing this: (1) use a volume pedal; (2) use a 2-channel [overdrive] pedal or more than one drive pedal.

I prefer the second option as I usually want my "lead" tone to have more drive than my "rhythm" tone. In a way, this is no different than using your clean amp tone for "rhythm" and your overdrive pedal for "lead" (which is what many Blues players do).

I'm stoked about the Moog Sirin. It has a different VCO architecture. The Minitaur uses v/Hz while Sirin uses v/oct. The filters have more steps, too.

Subtle changes like these are how I'm justifying my interest but I'm also a huge fan of the company (read: bias). I fell in love with Moog when I fell in love with Rush as a teen (because, Taurus bass pedals) and consequently have always had an eye on the Minitaur. I visited the factory years later while on tour in Asheville. Amazing tour, and their showroom has ALL THE TOYS.

I bought one immediately and am nearly done making a video demo. I added Sirin to Equipboard a couple days ago and will post my video in a "review" there soon.

LOL that's a new word! Heck man I ain't dead yet.

Mine was born Oct 1966 and is all-original including original tubes (seriously!), cabinet with piggyback hardware, speakers, even the thin brown speaker cable with flat right-angle plug.

I'm the third owner and the first real player-owner. The first owner barely used it and had it in storage for decades. The second owner had it in their living room as a showpiece for about 15 years and turned it on maybe a half dozen times. I know this because they're my uncle. When it came to me, I had my local amp shop inspect and validate everything. I had them replace the capacitors (which were nearing end of life or already gone) with era-correct caps. I also had them replace the head's power cable with a modern 3-prong (with ground) for safety. Finally, I had them solder a simple little RCA jumper plug so that I can activate the tremolo effect without using a footswitch (and leave it on).

I still have the original caps and power cable in a ziplock bag in case I ever pass it along ... though I have zero intention of doing so. It sounds freaking amazing.

Actually, I too have always been very old school in this regard. I have never had a huge board. I own a variety of pedals, but only use 2-3 at a time not counting the tuner. I have two other boxes on my board that look like pedals but are really switchers in order to remove non-engaged FX from my signal path.

Fave real tubes: Seymore Duncan Twin Tube Classic. Very versatile. CON: switching isn't silent.

Fave solid state: Brad Jeter Gold Standard

Fave mini: Ibanez Mini Tube Screamer. Tiny footprint, same circuit components as orig.

Finally, I must remind that overdrive ultimately comes from your amp. All of these pedals sound great [to me] when paired with a quality tube amp. I play Fenders a lot. In particular, my all-original 1960s Bandmaster or modded Hot Rod Deluxe w/ tube lag switch.

Oh, well I wasn't expecting that from you guys. Whatever happened to Nick? Probably busy.

Tons of gigs. Some nice festival circuits, lots of theatre. One stint in Europe. One tour with Opera Carolina (guitar) playing a really cool new R&B opera about MLK. Lots of James Brown -esque clean strat love through a Fender Twin Reverb along with some gorgeous steel-string acoustic ballads - sorry, "arias."

Also been getting my studio business up and running. You may recall we had just opened when I started posting on this forum. Now we are fairly settled into the scene and running smoothly. I'll probably update my Equipboard soon enough. Been doing a lot of tracking and mixing for clients. No time for forum posting.

Regarding pianists and the OP - yes I'm classically trained since the age of 4 through university and have many keyboards including an acoustic Wurlitzer upright and a Steinway grand. However, with my Jazz-Funk band I prefer my Moogs. I've got quite a little collection now. I spend most of my time on the Subsequent 37 CV but just got the new Sirin yesterday. I've got a friend coming over to the studio tonight to film a YouTube review of the Sirin, hopefully will post by Friday morning. YouTube uploads always take FOREVER with my macbook and "fast" AT&T wifi. Anyone have a tip on how to upload faster, please share!

I really appreciate the "what happened to Nick" concern. It means a lot knowing I was missed if even for the briefest moment.

Get it off your chest, nickgrooves, that's what this thread is for :-D

Haha so in other words when people completely ignore the question you're asking?

Yes @gchiaren. That is my musician pet peeve. I suppose it is a general pet peeve of all peoples but musicians (who are often gear-conscious or tech savvy) are frequent offendors.

Emphasis on basic. Think signal flow or stage plot. If we get too specific, we'll get lost in the details and miss the big picture ... which is ...

What is your basic studio setup?

For example, here is my current situation:

Various guitars, keyboards, and other output-jack instruments

powered mixer

analog / digital converter

sound card interface

PC (ProTools and Cubase)

editors (Melodyne, etc.), plugin effects, VST instruments

I started this thread because I often feel daunted by the multitude of options. For example, my mixer has a USB output ... I could record from the mixer straight to the PC ... but I don't think the conversion is as optimal as my 3rd-party A/D converter. And, my keyboards can each double as a MIDI controller. I'd love to have one of them hooked up to the PC via MIDI, for notation purposes but also for tracking. But I'm not really sure how to do that since my interface does not have a MIDI input.

I purchased this MIDI port today from a friend's studio garage sale: http://equipboard.com/items/m-audio-midisport-4x4-anniversary-edition-usb-midi-interface

Trying to figure out how to incorporate into my setup.

Finally, I feel like some of you (attn: Jim) are WAY more creative than myself regarding the use of components in ways they were not intended. Like using a reel-to-reel tape deck with tubes as some kind of vocal effect, or using a passive DI box to remove hum from your guitar amp speaker.

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!

In my humble opinion, you have two really exciting, creative opportunities here:

1. Use internet to collaborate from artists around the globe.
2. Invent your own new genre of music using unconventional instrumentation (example: instead of jamming with typical "band" folks hook up with that cute cellist in the school orchestra)

Great suggestions by all. Great thread since most young musicians believe there is "nobody to play with" in their vicinity. As a private music lessons teacher for over 15 years, I can assure you there are ALWAYS other people to play with, you just haven't met them yet. They may be adults, heck they might even be your friend's parents, but they're your neighbors. Quietly shedding in their proverbial closet.

Hey narcist, I totally empathize with you on this one. I have been tweaking my Peavey Detonator (my first electric) for years in an attempt to save it from obsoleteness.

First I replaced the nut (with graphite) and bridge (Wilkinson floating trem). Then I swapped out the Tone pot for a passive mid sweep/boost Tone pot. Tuners followed (Wilkinson EZ lock) and most recently, complete pickup swap: n = DiMarzio Satch; m = DiMarzio Area '58, b = DiMarzio Fred.

The tone pot has a Sprague orange cap, soldered well, not garbage. Very effective on the sweep side. The "boost" not so much, so I rarely ever used it. It was a cheaper alternative to installing better pups. Now that I have real pups, I plan to leave that Tone on center detent indefinitely.

I have sold guitars before, but I don't consider them "getting away" or lost ... I sold my PRS Custom 24 in order to buy my wife her Canon 5D Mark III (it's like a really nice pro camera). I hadn't played the PRS in over two years with no future plans to play it, so it made sense. No regrets. I sold my Carvin electric 12-string as well. Sometimes I regret the Carvin yet I have not needed it since for any gig. Part of purging, for me, is actively reminding myself that I don't have to maintain a stockpile of gear "just in case" I "might" need it "some day." This might be blaspheme on a website called Equipboard, but it's a healthier lifestyle.

PS: Having that Area '58 in middle position has given me a whole new outlook on middle pups. It sounds like an amazing NECK strat position.

(1) I have used TC Helicon VoiceLive Play (the blue one) at many wedding/party gigs where odd vocal effects are necessary, and I love it. You have to be careful about the settings though, because if you set too much mic gain, or if the house/PA has too much FX on your mic channel, you can get nasty feedback. Also, there are some cool harmony effects you might enjoy. But definitely plenty of distortion options for voice. I also use their Mic Mechanic at times and love it. Helpful for people like me who can sing pitches well but don't have the best tonal quality.

(2) I am totally copying and pasting Jimmy's answer regarding passive boxes and amp speakers and synth outboard FX loop ... it might take me a year or so to understand what he just said, but I think it's a path of education I'd like to explore :)

Hey Jimmy any chance we could twist your arm into uploading a diagram? (true tech schematic with the little symbols for resisters and such might be too complex for some readers)

For some reason, I vehemently hate losing things. It gets under my skin and pisses me off for a long time - like some kind of grudge against Fate. As a result, I am fully aware of the gear I have "lost"...

• a really nice trombone stand, which I lent out and never saw again
• a decent mic stand w/ boom

Everything else gear-wise I found or recovered. I learn a lot from reading artist interviews. Once, many years ago, I read that somebody wrapped their gear with colored tape to separate it from venue gear (and avoid getting misplaced). I wrap the ends of all my cables with yellow tape. Just a little stripe to show it's mine. Same stripe appears on my stands, DI boxes, etc. The only thing I don't tape are my instruments and my amps. Nothing sticky touches those.

I try to list as much as I can, within reason, so that I can attempt to keep track of it all. For tax reasons, for my personal interest reasons, scrapbooking, call it what you will. Somebody recently donated a drum set and accessories to my summer camp program. I listed the drums, but am not planning to go through each piece of hardware. The logos on the cymbals are all worn off, but even if they weren't, I probably wouldn't bother with that level of minutia. Like others have said, the stuff I use definitely gets listed. Stuff I have found useful, like Cable Cuffs, will get listed because I hope other players will also find them useful and maybe make their endeavors slightly more enjoyable. But I'm not going to list the hi-hat stand, the kick pedal, etc. since I'm not even a drummer! LOL All my guitar FX get listed because in a way, they are like little instruments. The main programs I use get listed, again, because I find them useful. All within reason.

Hard to pick just one. When I was a junior at UGA, one of my drummer buddies kept nagging at me to play with him up in Charlottesville (where, for some random reason, he'd been commuting for gigs). I finally agreed. One Thursday afternoon, after classes let out, I hopped in the car with my guitar and drove about seven hours North to the most beautiful mountain city I've ever seen. It was Superbowl weekend, so there was TONS of snow everywhere. The air was cool and crisp. I arrived around 2 AM, unpacked into the band house - which was actually quite decent - and slept. We all woke around 10 AM on Friday, ate, rehearsed for a few hours, then hit the town for some partying. Saturday, more rehearsing and then ... the gig! Some UVA frat house, I don't remember the Greek letters but it was so cold outside. There were around 700 warm bodies crammed into their main room. Our stage was just a wooden platform running the length of the side wall. We jammed and rocked for a solid 4 hours with only one break (college life!) during which time I managed to make out with some random girl. During the second half of the show, she and some other girls hopped on stage and started grinding on me. That was definitely memorable. But mostly, I remember just having one heck of a good time playing with new and old friends, to a PACKED house, in a strange beautiful town, and playing my arse off. My solos were spot on. Really tasteful music that night. Everyone was happy, too because it was before the big game. Eventually the cops came due to a noise complaint and pulled the plug (literally, power cut). When the lights came back on, we packed up. That girl gave me her number, and then I must have given her mine because she called me an hour later with her [female] roommate and asked me to come over. I was so exhausted and sweaty though, and she was on the far opposite end of town. No thanks, and no regrets. That was a perfect weekend.

Hello, Doff

So, I've read the Voodoo Labs materials on powering various pedals, but am still unable to get my Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus to function with my Voodoo Labs pedal power brick. I guess I'll have to read everything again but I'm hoping somebody here has done this before ...

I am running my Line 6 successfully, and of course all the standard 1-9v-battery pedals. The Cool Cat Chorus takes two 9v batteries, but there's something weird about the voltage? I think. All I know, is that I've never been able to use a regular power adapter wall wart, always had to use the special Dan-o wall wart. REEEEEALLY want to get away from that thing. All my other pedals run off the pedal power. It's gotten to the point where I will actually stop using this mediocre Cool Cat Chorus if it won't work on the pedal power brick. So, helping me could actually save the life of this poor pedal! haha

I'm sorry, I am late to this party ... higher ratio tuning gears save me time, because I can dial in the correct pitch on the first try, instead of messing around with a low-ratio tuner and never quite hitting center. However, it's absolutely true that the higher the first number (16, 18, or in the case of my Steinbergers, 40) the more rotations are needed to turn that post. So if you do a lot of alternate tunings or manually drop to that low D every other song (no hip pocket?) then stick with a lower gear ratio.

Wilkinson bridges are amazing. Yes, made by Godin but Godin makes amazing stuff so I don't see that as a negative. All of my guitars have floating trem Wilkinson bridges except my frankenstrat, which has their "vintage" model. Can not say enough good things about these bridges. Love them. Never had any problems with setup, intonation, or playability.

PS: can't help you on the resale value either but I will say that I believe Steve gets most of his liquid solo tones from his pedal board, which is on the floor, not in a rack. So if you're trying to go after that tone, or if you are basing your decision on his recordings or live dvd tones, I would triple-check his signal path before you drop $500 and discover the lead channel tones aren't that amazing. Also, if they are essentially the same amp, and you're going to have a rack mounted G-system, you might re-think having a rack-mounted amp head. Having all your gear in one rack (if you're doing a rack) is much more convenient then having to schlep TWO giant heavy things (rack + stand-alone amp head).

I always thought it was ironic that they aren't loved by metal players, since Vai is often lumped into the metal genre. As for the MIDI functionality, while I do some MIDI stuff with my keyboard rig, I have yet to incorporate any MIDI into my guitar rig. I'm not sure why I've been so hesitant because there are some incredible devices out there, from computer interfaces (like floor controllers that can trigger loops and backing tracks) to insane tap tempo master clocks ... but yeah I can't help you here on the MIDI program changes. Are you saying that you can have all your effects programmed for each song (in the TC g-system) and have the amp programmed to be on certain channels for those songs, and have them all switch together with one tap of a MIDI controller? So from song to song, all you'd have to do is hit one little switch? hmm

chatting? there is an EB chat?

I used to be on AIM all the time, like every night for a couple hours. This was a long time ago, before Facebook, maybe before Myspace, when Livejournal was really big (although I never had one). Basically, when those AOL Online free trial cds used to come in the mail. All the OGs know what I'm saying.

But these days, no chatting. Texting is my chat room.

I'll give you something on guitar tomorrow at 120bpm

Ah the classic disco tempo. This will be fun! Two EB song collabs! So ... just curious dukeuke how did you select these three tempos?

For simplicity, I say we don't get too hung up on posting comments about what key (some users of various ages and knowledge may understand this to mean different things, or not understand at all) and what chord progression, etc. etc. The main focus should be setting a standard tuning (like A=440) and tempo, and making sure you record your parts to a grid (like everyone uses the same amount of intro clicks before recording). This way when you upload your tracks, it should all line up automatically. If it works, great. If it doesn't work, doesn't make the cut. Then after we have a finished product we can discuss what key it's in ;)

Nope they aren't :) Don't think they had been invented(?) yet.

I sometimes wonder if the best guitars are already made or yet to come. I appreciate both super-vintage and über modern. I used to view electric axes - keys and guitars alike - as one overall piece of gear (like a horn, or drum; many pieces OK but not interchangeable or easily customized). Now all I see are mods. Keyboard expansion memory, 3rd-party guitar pickups, custom knobs and pots and bridge saddles and graphite nuts ... I just don't see the perfect guitar as coming right off the factory line. Too many advancements and yet, my favorite Fender tone pickups are the ones my buddy hand-wound for me a few years ago to pre-CBS specs in his garage. They sound more amazing than any Fender at the big box store. So yeah, I would probably experiment with some DiMarzios. Guitars were designed to be hot-rodded IMHO.