pkennethk's forum posts 2051

This all sounds solid to me, but with the same caveat/plea as for the software consolidation:

Preserve the current level of granularity behind the scenes so reviews and artist attributions can be filtered by generation/edition/configuration down the road, Amazon-style.

Even though there's an occasional software release that feels like a regression stability-wise, or the devs roll out a UI redesign that is initially unpopular, the trajectory for software products is still pretty linear, and the codebase you buy almost always benefits from free improvements over time. Hardware doesn't always follow this same path, especially "mk 2" products that are the result of manufacturing constraints -- e.g. a crucial chipset is discontinued and the product has to be redesigned purely to accommodate a more readily-available chipset -- or makers of a Mk 1 product are acquired and the new parent company releases a mk 2 years later that is more about fitting into a new overarching corporate strategy than it is about being a clear improvement over the original.

...anyway, just my verbose way of again making my case for keeping the generation/edition/configuration info that is already attributed, in the event that a hardware product line makes a big generational jump forwards or backwards in terms of quality.

... but regardless of whether or not a hardware line gets better or worse over time, I think the net benefit of this consolidation will be a win for all of us. I especially like that this could help upstart/boutique hardware companies, as they're often iterating faster than we could otherwise keep up with here. e.g. Black Corporation's Mk 1 and Mk 2 Deckard's Dream synths get pooled together for better numbers and, ultimately, better visibility on the site.

drool!

That's some confident penciling. Such a shame that this stuff has to get so cleaned/sterilized to make it out to press. Thanks for passing my way!

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=53933&PN=1&totPosts=20

I'm doing a 2 page spread today where he's bursting out of a tiny little car window and he becomes like 10 stories tall and islooming over the city...

I'd love to see that once you've inked.

Love it!

Is this a tie-in with Mr. Oizo's new movie?

no, we came up with Sid (the bug) last year. He's more of a stick insect or mantis of variable size....

I didn't think there was any serious possibility of a link, just an amusing coincidence. Mantids are rad.

Love it!

Is this a tie-in with Mr. Oizo's new movie?

I forgot end users can edit these categories. Fixed! ha!

2 findings in the Utility Plugins category:

EXS24 is a Sampler Plugin, not a Utility Plugin.

C-Lab Creator is a vintage sequencer package for Atari ST, it was a competitor to Cubase and the forefather of what became Apple (né Emagic) Logic... so also not a Utility Plugin.

It's LIVE!!!!! (price drop alerts) https://imgur.com/SyzaAdC

Nice work, everyone! Congrats on getting this shipped!

Quick question: Do music videos fall under "Promotional" or "Studio"?

Actually gave some thought to including that as one of the options but didn’t think enough subs would apply to it.

Perhaps a bit unsatisfying but I’d leave usage off for a music video, none of the current options really make sense 🤷🏻‍♂️

I know we got all serious about music videos being an art form in the 90's and 00's, but they're still promotional material, right? They're a commercial for the artist and the song. Record labels fund music videos to sell more records.

That said, I can't recall the last time I saw a new music video that featured anyone playing any instruments. MTV is categorized as a "comedy" network on my Sling subscription right now, I kid you not... so maybe it's a moot point either way. Times have changed.

So, anyway, if leaving music videos untagged is the new guidance, I'll stick to it.

Dude! This is great! The panel layouts, especially. If the Rock'em Sock'em panel is the newest, then IMHO you're trending in the right direction with the inking. Getting cleaner/clearer as you go.

Not a dumb question at all. Part of what keeps the lights on is ranking in Google for products, so Equipboard wants to come up when someone searches "FL Studio 20" for example. The search volume tends to be for the latest current version. So there's the rub.

In that case, it seems totally worth the administrative overhead to keep on top of it all. :)

Thanks for the explanation!

Eek. Okay thanks for the rundown on that. Maybe we just make the item "iZotope RX" and leave it at that!

Dumb question: What's the benefit of having version #s in any of the master entries in the first place? Why not just "izotope RX", "Avid Pro Tools", "Ableton Live", "FL Studio", etc? Seems like a good amount of administrative work of keep on top of the version #s, once there are hundreds of consolidated entries for the whole field of MI software.

I'm surprised this item isn't more popular with artists.

... when the QR site starts getting some traffic we're going to think about the risk of a print run. We could always do it on the cheap online, but man, I love old school comics that are 20-24 pages, maybe on lousy newsprint with lots of printing dots, that i can hold in my hand, so I'm really pushing for that as well as online availability.

I love the high-tech/low-tech combo. I've finally lived long enough to see the birth of data-driven zine comics.

I've got "80s & 90s Comic Book Nerd" written all over me, don't I?

in comic sans...

ha!

I have you beat though, I'm the artist for an indie comic now, got roped in by my friend. Nothing is nerdier than a t-square and non-photo blue art boards.

Wicked. Link me to it when you publish & godspeed on hitting your deadlines.

After typing the name of the gear in the Gear - What gear does the artist use? box, I'd like to get a link to that piece of gear (or at least a larger preview of its main image) so I can double check I picked the right one. Currently let's say I type in "Korg wavestation A" and get two options appear, I can't check which one is correct without going to a new browser tab and searching for that gear and comparing the two.

I have to do the two-tab thing a lot too. A way to check which one you're grabbing within the same tab/action would be great.

This site is just not set up to handle solo electronic artists that release under multiple names. period.

It frustrated me at first, but I've just come to accept the reality.

Look at the case of one of the most popular producers on this site: Aphex Twin: aka AFX, Blue Calx, Bradley Strider, Caustic Window, GAK, Q-Chastic, Phonic Boy on Dope, Polygon Window, Power-Pill, Smojphace, Soit-P. P., The Dice Man, The Tuss, user18081971...

(amazingly, I don't think he's every released anything with "Richard D. James" as his artist name)

I think the only way to bypass this limitation right now is to make all the aliases a "band" and then make Richie a member of all those bands. If this is what we are supposed to do, officially, I can hang with that just fine, but I have doubts that a lot of the less-obsessive posters here could figure it out/abide by that without some more explicit technical intervention.

But, big picture, 90s electronic music heroes just don't seem to be a focus of the community at the moment. Take a look at the current genre breakdowns from this Jupiter 8 example:

https://imgur.com/OS6OnSc

The focus seems to be on getting the nuances of rock right first and foremost, "Electronic" isn't getting the same focus, and if that's where the bulk of the traffic and developer passion lies here, there's nothing wrong with that. So I think you and I are scratching at something that just isn't a current priority.

... all that said, I obviously feel you re: the double-ups. It's a problem I'm interested in resolving.

I knew you were going to say that.

I've got "80s & 90s Comic Book Nerd" written all over me, don't I?

So when you check back on your list, what do you do?

re-organize, prune a few items, add a few items.

If you find "the right" gear, do you purchase via the Equipboard link?

So far, I haven't purchased anything from my Wishlist via an Equipboard link. I don't have any impulse purchases in my wishlist, they are things where I'm going to check every site and try to find the best price.

eg. I can probably get a mint-condition Push 2 off craigslist for $500 (I'm in Los Angeles, the getting is good), and anything I buy used off Reverb, I'm probably going to ask the seller a few questions first, so I'm not sure if the link to EB would still apply by the time I'm done asking questions and making offers.

The items I'm likely to use a direct EB link for are things with a well-defended MAP price that are hard to buy used, like Spectrasonics software, or something new and boutique that isn't likely to be on sale, like the Polyend Tracker... but in both cases, I'd only be using the EB link as a way to consciously try and help EB out... because I'm still going to first check sites that don't have an API-link to EB, like my local shop, Perfect Circuit, and then circle back to make a point of purposefully using the EB link.

If I had smaller/cheaper items in my list, like cables and guitar strings, I'd be more likely to just hit the EB link and buy without a lot more searching. I'm generally a very fussy comparison shopper. Much more a "Maximizer" than a "Satisficer". I get physically ill when I spend money. Take my feedback with a tiny grain of salt.

My earlier thoughts: https://equipboard.com/forums/general/topics/black-friday-equipboard

Thanks for this! So you mentioned: "Would anyone else here appreciate alerts on wishlist items that happen to go on sale?" -> I think this is something that I personally would also want to have. Out of curiosity, personally, how would you like to be alerted? Would you want to be alerted only when:

Re: How: I'd want communication via an email AND a red-bubble alert here on the site. With an option to turn off email alerts if they got to be too much. There currently isn't perfect parity on EB between items that trigger an email notification and items that trigger on on-site red-bubble notification... I'm sure this is by design, I'm not 100% sure that there needs to be parity for every type of communication... but for price alerts one is specifically setting up/opting into, I would want parity/both types of notifications at once.

a.) there's a HUGE sale for the item on your wishlist. Basically "Black Friday" huge

or

b.) there's a drop in price on the item e.g. This pedal is $150 but it's now $135, which is not that significant

or would you want an alert for both?

Just tell me the threshold you're using as a %. Ideally, I could set my own threshold, but I think a default or hardwired threshold of like ≥ %25 off MAP would be just fine for most of us. Guitar Center is doing 15%-off most things most months, but 25%-off or greater is harder to come by.

Hey all, Jovian here! I'm currently helping Michael and Giulio with some stuff and want to understand a bit about the Wishlist on Equipboard.

You lucky skunk. Congrats on the new gig! Doing User Research, or will you be coding some of these solutions too?

If you ever saved any gear on the Wishlist, I'd love to learn more about why you do that. What was on your mind when you hit that "Save" button? Did you ever come back to that list?

I use the Wishlist as a way to remind myself of what I'm on the lookout for, and to prioritize what's on that shopping list. I might see some cool sale and want to bite on it, but I'll check my wishlist to see if that shiny new thing is really more important that the stuff already on my to-buy list. Hard to keep track of it all in my head, this is a way to externalize, organize, and prioritize.

I check back on my list at least once a month.

My earlier thoughts:

https://equipboard.com/forums/general/topics/black-friday-equipboard

I really wanted to watch this Chris Claremont X-men doc a few years ago, it never became available for free and was only briefly available to buy digitally via my cable provider only to become free last week on YouTube..

Ha! I had the same doc in my watchlist for like 2 years. I finally broke down and paid a few bucks to rent it, if memory serves. One way or another, I saw it.

Ditto. I've been following the scattershot distribution/roll out of this documentary, and I don't quite know what the plan is. Maybe making it hard for everyone in the states to see it is a way to build up demand?

I'm like a prime target for this doc, I want to see it, and I can't... and it's not 1996. Seems wrong-headed.

I was never a fan of amp modelling, really. I remember my days of starting out with a Zoom G5 during my university years. Got a Randall RM50 and I began to love the natural, organic tube response that I didn't get from digital worlds. I tried out amp models and profiles from Kemper and Helix and to be honest, I felt underwhelmed by them. I mean, sure, you can technically load your own IR's to make them sound good, but they still don't feel like a real tube amp.

If your instrument just doesn't respond the way you need it to with a DSP-only signal path, then I totally get it. If it's simply more pleasurable and engaging for you to perform without amp modeling, that's reason enough.

Preach on, brother!!!

Where have you been all these years, warpcanada? I've felt so alone in me low-key seething re: counterproductive software version/edition proliferation here. Finally, someone else has the passion! :D

Incredible news!

Party hard. It doesn't get any better than this.

you're confirmed cancer-free?

I don't concur, if I were using a fractal or helix I would need 2, I don't trust a small computer not to go out in certain environments.

Good point re: complexity of modern DSP solutions, but it's just one thing to replace, that can be express-shipped or re-purchased easily. You buy two, you have them pre-loaded with the same patches, and you can fail over to the duplicate pretty quickly and easily, right?

OK. re-reviewed for real now. I wonder why my first "correct" didn't take. Oh well. All is right now.

parhelia_0000 are you under a lot of social pressure to show up with a very unique live rig, or is this just your personal preference to add a lot of complication and risk to your live setup?

A buddy of mine who is an accomplished guitarist was explaining to me the pressure that guitarists in his circle face in auditions for bands and HoW gigs... he says you're expected to have an instagram-worthy pedalboard full of new and old boutique stuff or you're just not seen as a "fit" by those making the decisions.... which is shocking to me, because I'd just want the person with chops, great ears, a great attitude, and something like a Helix to cover all the bases... but I don't play in guitar bands, so what I'd want is irrelevant.

Anyway, just wondering where this pressure is coming from to make a studio setup consisting of several vintage items road-worthy? What paying audience out there can hear the difference between a delicate boutique rig and a Helix or Fractal Audio box tastefully programmed to sound damn close to that boutique studio rig?

All of this is brutish, ill-informed blasphemy, I know, but NOTHING is worse than watching someone slowly die on stage because of a technical malfunction. Is it really worth the risk to ask so much from 30 year old electronics?

EDIT: I know my tone sounds like I've made up my mind and am asking all this rhetorically, but I promise you I am not. I really want to understand what is driving you to want to bring a whole studio of carefully-collected gear on the road. I'm not a guitarist. Change my mind, please!

Now that we have badass product pages for these DAWs that show things like 1162 Pros using Ableton Live (YES!!!), does it make sense to change the Artist sort on Gear Pages from "Most Followers" to the "Popular" algorithm used to sort Producers, Guitarists, etc?

The "Most Followers" sort reflects an apparent high-water mark for following artists in the middle of the previous decade's EDM boom. I feel like using the Popular algo instead would make the Artist sort on Gear Pages a little more current. Thoughts?

EDIT: if that algo is more expensive, performance wise, and it's gonna drive up the AWS bill, then maybe not worth it.

I'm not a current PT user, but Avid has been all-in on subscription for some time now, and part of that switch involves weaning customers off the expectation of big annual updates and new major version releases. This is why Adobe (who is the gold standard in old-school desktop software successfully making the jump to subscription) doesn't include year or version #s in the official names of their products anymore. So I'd be shocked if it was anything other than "Pro Tools" from here on out.

Reviewed!

Looks like nobody has submitted the 816ce to Andy's profile yet. Go ahead and make a new submission for the correct model. Get some points. Get back on that horse!

It's annoying that errant submissions take forever to go away here, but probably more annoying to the author of the error than to anyone else.

Anyone who's submitted a bunch here has at least a few of these oopsies to their name. It happens. Don't get discouraged!

I see I'm in the minority though!

preach on.... I think it as mostly me and Kenneth talking so we're not a majority, we're just vocal.... and we're both really hardware oriented.

Well said. We're just the chattiest voices, not the most important voices.

And I've been "that guy" who marked someone's Tube Screamer sighting as "Needs Improvement" because it wasn't the exact specific Tube Screamer model and I thought guitarists and Equipboard were especially picky about that stuff. I'm glad Equipboard has taught me how to be that specific, but I agree that detail might not be helpful to everyone (or better added in comments to an artist gear sighting).

For hardware, I think we should stay that specific. Hardware is not a moving target. e.g. If you buy a Prophet '08, Sequential is not going to email you and offer you a free/cheap upgrade to Prophet Rev 2, Sequential support is not going to recommend you upgrade to a Prophet Rev 2 to fix a bug in Prophet '08 firmware... you may own and use that Prophet '08 rest of your career... but if a pro is spotted using Ableton Live there is 1) typically no visual way to identify which version and edition of Live they are on, 2) that pro is very likely to upgrade to the next version of Ableton once it is released and 3) per the previous example, tracking down a Prophet '08 20 years from now, to get exactly the Prophet '08 sound, is a feasible and common endeavor, but running a 2015 version of Ableton Live on a 2035 computer would probably require a vintage-CPU/legacy OS emulation environment and an illegal copy of Ableton, as officially transferring a license that old between users is typically not supported by the vendor... and using that old software is much less likely to unlock any special mojo in the same way that using a very old guitar, discontinued pedal, or synth full of ancient parts might give you... in other words, using old software is a bad path to suggest/encourage impressionable new producers into trying.

I need to get the bum voice fixed and spend a few good months with it before I could ever entertain letting 'er go. I barely had time to get comfy with it before that voice went.

JP6 went from a score of 64 last week to 90 this week, that's more like it :)

I'm in no rush, so my thoughts may change a hundred times before I actually purchase but, right now I'm settled on:

• Alesis Vi49
• Logic Pro X
• Some semi-affordable portable loudspeaker

I think you'll be more than happy with this setup, and I'm relieved to hear this is how you're leaning.

Eventually, you may want to add an audio interface in the mix to further improve latency (time between when you press a key and when you hear a sound from the computer) and overall sound quality of the output, but in my personal experience, the latency performance and audio quality of the built-in sound hardware on MacBooks is totally usable... don't add further complication unless you have a good reason.

This thread has kinda been put to bed for now, but I have some thoughts from last week I didn't have the bandwidth to indulge until now.

So, based on needs as described thus-far:

1. If money were no object, and you didn't want to bring a computer on stage, I think a Nord Stage 3 would be your ultimate solution. It's got enough sample memory to house an outstanding piano/keys library, as well as classic Melotron sounds, strings, etc, all user-swappable, with free high-quality downloadable libraries hosted by the manufacturer. Stage 3 also has a complete virtual analog synth engine built-in, so you can handle "On the Run" with the best of 'em. Also it's sexy, red, and vibe-y AF... which is one of the many reasons they hold their value incredibly well. Yamaha, Roland and Korg surely offer deluxe stage piano/workstations that can claim some similar features, minus the style, but check the used values of a 15 year old Nord Stage vs. any similar Roland or Yamaha product...

2. If you can live with brining a laptop onstage, THIS will ultimately yield sonic results better than any hardware product that's trying to emulate a piano, Rhodes, etc, for way less money. You'll also have a ton more options for continuing to explore what it is you want from synths and keys without a big cash outlay up front. If you're on Mac (you mentioned graphic design) the sounds packaged with Logic Pro X, for only $200, could very well be all you need, ever. Heck start with Garageband even. If you want to spend a little on boutique virtual analog synth sounds, U-he DIVA is pretty fantastic, and more flexible than any single analog synth under $4000 could hope to be.

Ground rules for MIDI controllers:

1. DO NOT buy a controller that requires drivers to be fully operational on Mac or Windows. Driverless (aka class-compliant, aka plug-n-play) has been the industry standard since at least the late 00's, but there are still used products out there that aren't, so just be 100% sure whatever you buy doesn't require drivers, because if drivers are non-optional, it will become a doorstop once the manufacturer stops issuing updates. Don't buy a keyboard/synth with only a traditional 5-pin DIN midi out socket and tell yourself that will be your midi controller, as you'll still have to buy a MIDI to USB converter to get it to your computer, or use the MIDI i/o built into your sound card... doable, but non-optimal if you're new to all this stuff.

2. Unless you're buying a controller from a company that also makes wood-frame digital pianos, the kind sold in piano showrooms, then you're buying from a company that doesn't make their own controller keybeds. Unless there's been a major manufacturing shake up in the last decade that I'm unaware of, a company called Fatar supplies key beds for most products out there, and if it's not Fatar, it's sometimes the lesser-known Medeli. Fatar makes a whole range of different keybeds with different feels, but don't expect lightyears of difference in key feel between different brands for this reason. From my personal experience, Novation, Arturia, and AKAI* offer the best low to mid-range midi controllers right now. I can personally vouch for the quality of Arturia's preset editor software... it actually works, which is more than I can say for some. If you want something with fully weighted hammer-action keys that feels like a real piano, don't cheap-out, buy one from a company that makes the aforementioned piano-showroom digital pianos, something like the Roland A-88.

*AKAI is now owned by same parent corp that owns the Alesis and M-Audio brand names, but I don't personally have enough info to recommend recent Alesis or M-Audio branded stuff. I'm not yet sure how much overlap there is between the 3 brands under-the-hood.

I'm so sorry to hear about this raft of health struggles. At the risk of sounding trite: without health, not much else matters. Be strong; the community will still be here once you've prevailed.