pkennethk's forum posts 2051

Doesn't this fall under "Audio Engineers" now (innocent question)?

We have the category of "Audio Engineers", and I'm fine to heap Recording, Mixing, Live Sound etc Engineers into one category, as it's no more reductive than any of the other categories.

My point was that "What headphones are popular with Engineers?" seems like a EB kind of question, but there is no way to answer that question on EB.

... and, secondarily, I was surprised that nobody visiting the site seems to care about Engineers who are in their prime, still alive, and younger than 60 years old. I necro'd the thread because I was shocked to find (as the OP did) that a lot of the current "top" Mix Engineers didn't even have profiles on the site.

Today, I asked myself: "What headphones are most popular with Mix Engineers?". **

Finding: There no way to answer that question via Equipboard.

1. I can go to Musical Instruments / Headphones and sort by "Most Used by Artists"... but that's it. I can't sort by "Most used by Bassists", "Producers", "Engineers", etc.

2. As pointed out by the OP, and this is still true 2 years on: a lot of the top Mix Engineers working today don't even have profiles on Equipboard in the first place. I just added Manny Marroquin a few minutes ago.

Currently, the #1 headphone "Most used by Artists" is a pair of DJ headphones. If I could filter by "Most used by Engineers", I suspect the top model wouldn't be a pair of DJ headphones.

Is anyone else curious about this stuff?

** I don't mix on headphones, nor am I an aspiring Mix Engineer. Mixing on headphones for brave people who have no reasonable alternative and/or only care what their stuff sound like on headphones.

...and no, I'm not sorry for necro-ing this thread at all. I'm proud and happy to do it.

Thanks for the excellent historical recap!

Sorry, back on topic. So the 200 phasers were 3rd party console modules? That sounds odd.

I don't know how else to interpret "desk 40mm module".

https://imgur.com/a/RMqAuxG

When did API 500 series finally become the last-format-standing?

The puzzling thing is which console(s) of the day supported this "desk 40mm module" format?

API 500 Series is close to 40mm wide, but not quite.

The "A" size of Danner Cassettes are 4cm/40mm, but that's a German format that I doubt a UK company like ADR would be building for.

The P200 in that ad photo is way too short to be in ADR's own "Scamp" rack format, so I'm guessing Scamp was something they intro'd deeper into the 1970s.

ADR famously made modules for Helios consoles, (Helio's founder Dick Swettenham was a friend and collaborator with the ADR guys, from what I can tell) but it doesn't seem that any of the formats for those consoles were exactly 40mm wide.

If we knew which consoles supported that format, hunting for deeper info might get a bit easier.

Sketch for the VMX VJ surface control!

Nice. Is it giving you what you hoped for?

Even my lexi mx200 and 400 will humiliate a quadraverb in every department.

I'll give you that. I hang onto the quadraverb for that grainy algo and that dark & greasy AD/DA path... as an "only" rack reverb, even if you're a die hard shoegaze fan, it'd be hard to live with in 2024.

FWIW: if you just recorded yourself ruminating on different pieces of rack gear for an hour a week, with some normie occasionally asking for clarification on things to modulate the pace... I think that'd be a pretty decent podcast.

"Jim's Rack Gear Rabbit Hole"

I'm really brand loyal. All of my consumer AV stuff is Sony and Panasonic. Obviously I like Sony pro audio so I have a sony tv and reciever, but I like Panasonic because they make some of my favorite capacitors... they're a cut above Mallory and are smaller than similar Wimas.

For multinational conglomerate corporations like Sony and Panasonic, I appreciate certain eras of their production within certain product categories, but any company that size and that diversified is going to shuffle some of the really great people around to different divisions every couple of years, and/or cut funding to one business unit to shore up another, etc.

My one and only TV is still my big-ass Panasonic plasma, that I've had for at least 13 years now. The best and very last of their plasma production. They ruled that segment, and I was Panasonic or bust when I bought it... but now, in the OLED era, it's a different Panasonic.

Sony SVHS in the 90s, Sony DV camcorders in the 2000s, Sony mirrorless cameras in the 2010s, Playstation in the PS1 & 2 era, they get hot for a decade here and there... but hard for me to embrace any company that big across multiple decades and/or product lines.

Everyone knows Richard James is a fan and owner of at least one Yamaha Disklavier acoustic piano.

Nobody seems to know what size or exact model of Yamaha Disklavier.

There are multiple entries for Yamaha Disklavier on Aphex Twin's Equipboard, but none of them provide any proof of exactly which model, or even what size.

So, piano experts, what size grand is used in this crazy 2012 live performance?

C6? C7?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJHsT8kEyzs&t=305s

What you don't realize is that Sony bought MCI in the 80s and went all in on the pro audio market culminating in the C8000 and the first convolution reverb, dre s7000. They also acquired the developer who created Acid, the forerunner to ableton and they really pu sdd hed the hell out if time stretch technology.

I totally forgot they acquired Sonic Foundry at the start of the millennium. Sound Forge was so great. You're right, Sony really were crazy enough to really try and go there before all this technology was "democratized".

In the $100-ish dollar rack reverb price range, I would go Alesis Quadraverb or one of the late-80s/early-90s Lexicon LXP products... and after trying a bunch of different low and high-end vintage verbs myself, years ago, this IS how I went... but reverb is a very much a personal-taste thing, obviously.

Over 50 I would go Sony... prices on digital reverbs have inflated lately as people realize their plugins aren't so hot

The idea that Sony ever made a product featuring MIDI i/o sockets blows my mind. I think of Sony as this giant that was always too big and too smart to get mixed up in products that intentionally-catered to professional musicians. I think of all any of their stuff that gets used on a record (mics, field recorders, etc) as pro-broadcast products that are slumming it in the MI space by accident... but I don't think there is any way to justify MIDI sockets unless you were thinking "I want musicians to like this product" during the design phase.

I know there were plenty of products in the 70s and 80s aimed at music studios with 5-figure price tags, money flowed like water in the record industry back then (or so the history books tell me... a different time with different economics), but still, there are the brand names used for TVs and VCRs, and there are the brand names used for MI products, and those two groups hardly ever mix.

Wow, that was fast! Thank you!

My pleasure :)

Do you need any more supporting-evidence before you submit?

I think its worth 50 shipped. Meh!

In the $100-ish dollar rack reverb price range, I would go Alesis Quadraverb or one of the late-80s/early-90s Lexicon LXP products... and after trying a bunch of different low and high-end vintage verbs myself, years ago, this IS how I went... but reverb is a very much a personal-taste thing, obviously.

This model doesn't have an entry on Equipboard yet, how am I supposed to know if it's any good or not? ;)

Offer 'em $65, shipping included.

Mods can you please add

Name: rekordbox

Image: recordbox

https://equipboard.com/items/pioneer-rekordbox-professional-dj-music-management-software

https://reverb.com/item/70324044-deering-black-diamond-banjo-charlotte-nc

It's black. It's Deering. It's got a 1997 date of manufacture. Seller claims it's the same model Buckingham played.

Mods can you please add

Name: [B85 Audio Fuzz Machine] Image: [https://reverb.com/item/42177019-b85-audio-fuzz-machine?utm_source=rev-ios-app&utm_medium=ios-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=42177019]

Here you go:

https://equipboard.com/submissions/448703

I've heard an fb01 in action, I thought it sounded pretty decent. They're cheap as hell.

I've got a sweet spot for 80s and 90s half-rack units. Don't ask me why.

I did add the Fender American Vintage II 60 Precision Bass RW DPB here: https://equipboard.com/items/fender-american-vintage-ii-60-precision-bass-rw-dpb

This is a current instrument for sale on Sweetwater, if this is what they wanted, they could have added it themselves.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PBassAV260DB--fender-american-vintage-ii-1960-precision-bass-daphne-blue

I agree that the picture they linked looks like it's probably this exact guitar (you've got a great eye for gear, we all know this), but if the community member's request isn't entirely clear, it's ok to ask more questions first.

Nice!

I'm a tx7 man now. All my dx7 keyboards are gone. No space.

Less is more.

If only the FB-01 was patch-compatible with the DX100 and had the same DACs.

Dude! That screed about Bob Mould and recording at Pachyderm made me laugh so hard I almost yakked!

:D

I had zero access to anything Husker Du had recorded back on the farm, in the pre-internet '90s, but it seemed like every other article or review I read mentioned him... he was somehow everywhere.

Danny Kortchmar is seen with a special kind of telecaster cc. 1967- with a knob/switch on the top left of the guitar body

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxIZ00I8fJRwFKSGSDl5EQ-qFz-ghR7cpw?si=ftFyqHhr1eVhutln Kootch(?) in the Fugs in 1967 with this telecaster, clipped to when it is best visible.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQZATlQjU6mLgL9g6S2KcDbbdJWglAZ4z5mEIA3uC2Ggne8TqeTMHNST1RQn6uw1ATfAfw&usqp=CAU Kootch with a similar custom one more recently

so far i havent seen this guitar anywhere else, can anybody shed light on this?

This thread is for people who want a specific vintage or boutique item added to the database that they are unable to add themselves, not a thread for help with identifying a specific guitar.

That said, I'd never heard of the Fugs and it all sounds like a pretty interesting chapter of NYC pre-punk.

I'd recommend starting a thread in the Guitar section of the forum titled something like "Need Help IDing this 60's Telecaster" or "What kind of Telecaster is this?"... people love Telecasters, you'll get some good responses.

I always thought the 100 sounded brittle but people have made good use of it. There's also the full size key version, the dx27 and the other consumer model, the dx21. All of them are 12 bit converters IIRC

The DAC on the 100 is supposedly cheaper/crappier in a way that takes away some of the inherent sterility. I have never had hands-on a DX100 myself, but people I trust swear by them. The 21 and 27 are superior in terms of features, but supposedly lean more towards the cleaner sound of the TX81Z.

I don't want to make room for the 21 or 27, so DX100 wins on size, at least... but in reality, I'm gonna stick with the FM VSTis and call it a day.

The mk1 and tx7 have a place in my heart. Those old DACs have a sound alright....

I'll add the DX100 to that list in terms of DXs with "extra DAC magic".

A DX7 takes up more room than I can spare these days, but it would be nice to have a TX7 and DX100 for exactly the reasons you point out... but I've been happy enough with Arturia DX7 for a few years now.

I had it for a very long time, but never used it, because couldn't create stuff easily, and thought that this keyboard wasn't as cool as it's said. But a few days ago, someone told me that the DX7 has more potential than I think, so I took it down from the attic, played around, installed Dewed, and it's indeed fun.
But I want a synth where I can mess with its settings live.

To state the obvious: it's a purely digital synth. The DACs on the Mk 1 impart some extra grit and roundness to that digital path and the key feel on the MK1 is great, but fundamentally, you can use a VST emulation of a DX7 (Dexed, the Arturia DX7, etc) and not miss much of anything vs. the actual hardware... and trust me, recording/automating real time parameter changes is waaaayyy more practical with something that supports CC-based MIDI input for all parameters (and the old Yamaha DX synths don't support this, as mentioned)... even if you wire up the DX7 for real time control with SysEx, recording and editing those MSB/LSB data pairs in a DAW would be a huge pain compared to how easy it would be with a VST or a modern CC-mapped synth.

I used to use a Kenton Control Freak MIDI control to do exactly what you're trying to do to a TX81Z.

AFAIK, all the Yamaha FM synths of this era are fully SYSEX-addressable. This is NOT as cool or easy as having a modern CC-mapping spec, but yes, you can @#$% with all the parameters remotely via MIDI... AND because it's SYSEX, you'll have way more than 128 steps of resolution on some parameters.

Bad news: for the TX81Z the SYSEX it wanted was achieved through pairings of MSB/LSB messages and hexadecimal values... which might take you a day our two to brush up on, but if I could figure out how to program it via the tiny buttons of a 1990s MIDI controller 20 years ago, you can definitely address it with Max or anything else that lets you send SYSEX messages. You're a smart guy, you'll figure it out.

The fun starts on page 30 of the manual.

This doesn't go into coding the messages yourself, but it's a start:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2J2NuZY2ro

I'm pretty sure the entry for LA100BL is for the 1960s original and the 100-watt Supergroup refer to the contemporary reissue run. We definitely should have 2 different entries for the OG and the reissue, but I couldn't tell you definitively that this is what these two entries were intended to be used for by whoever created them.

I see similar lack of info re: when the "supergroup" moniker started being applied to this line of Laneys.

It's interesting to me that Japanese publications in the 1990s were able to get vividly-detailed technical info like this straight from the artists, but even the most musician and producer-focused magazines in the US rarely mentioned more than 2 or 3 pieces of gear in passing in most any interview.

Japanese Magazine: "Tell us how you make music"

Artist: "Let me walk you through this numbered diagram of our studio setup and my touring rig."

USA Magazine: "How did you approach this latest project?"

Artist: "We didn't want to repeat the same thing we did on the last record, and one of our first conversations with our new Producer was how much we all loved Husker Du, which is why we decided to start listening to demos and making notes at Pachyderm Studios (in Minnesota, Husker's home state)... we ended up scrapping everything we recorded at Pachyderm, but that's where we ran into Bob Mould, who agreed to play bass on "ruptured septum"... a track that didn't make it into the album, but we think we might release as a bonus track for the Japanese CD release..."

These come up every now and then. It's a situation that can only be fixed by the site owners, but I don't personally know of any situations where one of these "should be a Band, not an Artist" situations has been corrected in recent times.

https://equipboard.com/forums/general/topics/group-listed-as-an-artist-and-not-a-band-group

I'll start a thread internally to see if we can get any movement on this... but it'll likely be a long while before anything happens.

I wish I had a better answer for you.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna try to get a Codanova VMX VJ for 40€ (good state, with box).
I'm making up a collection :D
https://equipboard.com/items/codanova-vmx-vj

Good luck! Let us know what you think of it if the deal goes through.

Darn, I was hoping you'd know something about them...

;)

(thanks!)

I feel kinda embarrassed now. I'm such a geek.

There is no shame in knowing your $#!? inside and out.

If you want a mackie 8bus but with sound quality get a topaz project8 and big line level interface(s). It'll run rings around your onyx but will sound and feel instantly familiar.

The Mackie has been on the "to sell" list for a while now, it was only ever a utility that met a certain need at a certain time. I just don't have a need to have everything patched in at once these days. I just plug into the RME babyface as needed, icky as that sounds.

If I DO get another analog mixer, though, it'll be more for color than utility... thus my desire to start learning about the things that are both good and also not the price of a good used car.

FWIW, I'm not much of a Cars fan, I just put Ric on the list because his Jazzmaster is @#$%ing great.

If Fender issued this black-on-pink Jazzmaster as a higher-end Squire model, like they did with J Mascis, I'd buy one:

https://www.cleveland.com/resizer/v2/https%3A%2F%2Farc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-advancelocal.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2FZB45VZM6SRDDJMTIMVBH57TOLU.jpg?auth=551cb9071543d20c358e685fe3a4e4cb302e8b0f0585874101e176b66a4a266a&width=1280&quality=90

Instead of a gig bag, they could throw in a replica of that wig... perfection.

Yet another reason it's good to be married to Nicole Kidman.

Ha!

I would add:

• Nels Cline to Jazzmaster - Fender even wrote an article on his vintage one!

YES!

Added all 3, nice.

maybe they should do a Phillip Sayce signature his 63 Strat is really cool

Is that the one that's looks like it was dredged up for the bottom of a river, Rory Gallagher style?

If so, Fender Custom Shop 100% on that one. They're the only folks in Fender that could hope to clone that thing, and paying $5-$7k for a clone of a guitar worth more than a new car makes some kind of sense, so long as it plays like something really special.

How does a guitar like that even feel to the touch? (amazing, I'd imagine)

maybe as fender custom shop item i know they did it with brownie Eric Clapton's Start

The Vandalism Strat was a lefty Fender Japan ST-362 with a Seymour Duncan '59 Neck Pickup slapped the bridge position.

You can still get ST-362s from the early 90s for $1000 or less. They're not that rare.

And you can get a '59 Neck for $100 new or half that used.

Pickguards for the HSS Strat config are cheap.

With those 3 things ($1600 or less) you could have an exact replica of the Vandalism Strat that is a true 1:1 of what he played, from the same year and the same factory, with the exact same mods.

Fender Custom Shop would charge you $5000 minimum for the same thing... you would get a hard sweet case and case candy and all that... but still...

I am no Kurt Cobain expert, and I never met the dude, but it's not a stretch to think he'd find that really offensive, and that anyone who paid $5000 for a replica of some cheap Strat he bought with the intention of destroying was pretty much an idiot.

So I'm saying Japanese factory (or Mexico, Indonesia or China if they must) because I think charging any more than you would have to pay to build your own from a real '90 ST-362 is just kinda lame... the only people who are gonna buy a $5000 Custom Shop Vandalism Strat are rich YouTubers who want to flex and Gen-X dentists who want something to hang in their man cave.

Sorry to be a downer man, Custom Shop makes great stuff, they'd make a killer guitar... it'd just be so $$$$.

Also, this guy is more traditional BT speaker from Roland. It still has some guitar tone affordances, but they can be bypassed via aux in, just like all the other products of this type. I can't find 100% confirmation in the manual that it can do aux and BT at the same time, but a review I came across stated it could do "all 3 inputs at once".

It's cheaper than the Spark, but that's maybe all it has going for it. Vibe-wise, it's got a Chanel/Louis Vuitton thing going on, which is... something... IDK...

https://blog.bestbuy.ca/musical-instruments/review-of-the-roland-btm-1-bluetooth-speaker-with-guitar-input

You sure you don't just wanna go with the Spark?

Yeah, the headphone out is the toughest part. A product designer would probably get laughed out of the office if they spec'd a consumer-focused BT speaker to have a headphone out jack. The assumption is you'd just connect to your phone directly if you wanted to use headphones.

A suggestion from out of left field:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Eris3.5BT--presonus-eris-3.5bt-3.5-inch-powered-bluetooth-studio-monitors

They sum everything, they have BT, a stereo line in, and a headphone out:

https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/210049593-Eris-3-5-4-5-BT-Using-all-inputs-at-the-same-time

Not sexy (in a way non-MI people would recognize, at least), not portable, but they check off boxes. Presonus is fairly trustworthy for speakers too.

I'll keep pokin' around.

1. Do you need battery power?
2. Do you already have a decent stereo sound system in the room you want to practice in, or does this setup need to be pretty portable?