starise

Happy New Year to you as well John. May all the best come your way in 2017!

Thanks for posting the links. I have been there and downloaded a few of the tones. I just need more time to do it and honestly, I doubt I'll find the time. If the search for a good tone is anything like looking over thousands of keyboards sounds, it could take weeks. Probably more complicated because not only am I comparing the tones, I'm also changing guitar models to compare how that tone sounds with each model...very time consuming unless a person gets lucky and finds what they want right away. Fortunately I found a few nice ones on my older HD500 that seem to work for what I was going for, so maybe I'll just be ok with what I have for now. I want to get to those links more often. The Firehawk looks like a nice setup. A combination of HD tones with wireless capability and connectedness to iOS and android devices. Best of luck in moving towards new directions. I think we all tend to feel like were recycling things or doing the same things...at least I do. Alternate tunings really helped me here, especially D tunings since I tend to hum in D. The scale resonates with me somehow.

I didn't really get anything yet. I bought my wife a stay at the shore and i guess this was partially for me too, although she is the one who mostly enjoys it. A few months ago I got an upgraded DVR setup. Comcast X1 . I have a remote I can speak into and it will search programs. HD, fast internet, all that. Yesterday we set out to exchange our other boxes on the remaining TVs, four in all. This makes all my TVs HD and they can now all see recordings from my DVR. Comcast bought Netflix, so now I have Netflix integrated with Comcast movies and I have amazon prime movies too. One of the TVs was too old to work with the newer HDMI connections, so I was out at BJ's last night buying a new 4K HD smart TV. The video is really amazing. I guess this was kind of a Christmas present, even though the new TV is in my wife's room ;).

I pulled mine out and was playing the other day again.It's been awhile so my fingers are sore trying to adjust. As TapperMike has mentioned I feel similar that the single coils give more definition to things like metal, probably why I'm gravitating more to the telecaster setup on the variax. I don't like the sound too deep and mushy. This easily happens when trying to get a thick metal or classic rock kind of tone. That kind of tone might sit well with a lot of folks but not me. Maybe you can relate to this: That kind of music is better played with less strings. The more minimal you can get and still get the chord or base sound the better IMHO. This is true no matter if you play a Variax into a line 6 product or into an amp with an old school guitar. Variax pros- The models are spot on and modifiable in software.The only noise you hear is the programmed noise of the amp models. The ability to use both variax digital AND standard outputs at the same time ( with line 6 variax)...watch this...it gets tricky though unless you were born with a computer for a twin. On stage when the heat is on to perform, who really wants to be fuddling with a bunch of wires? So I usually keep it simple to just the Variax connection when playing it out. I keep presets close and easy to reach. Cons- Factory tones loaded into the HD series floor units only offered me a few patches I really liked. There are other patches online you can get, but I don't have the time to go through 500 patches. I might try a few of those that look tasty. Not a huge leap from the HD500 to the HD500X. My favorite so far is the tweed setting..has just the right amount of crunch for my music and has a nice adjustment range. Still less expensive and more adaptable than buying a tweed amp. A half dozen nice patches made it worth the money for me. I might tweak more and I might use one or two of those Martian sci fi sounds on a later recording. Best results are obtained using line inputs into a quality stereo setup...even on stage. A single mono amp is probably limiting yourself though it can work like that.

I was really taking to Him. Now where's the emocon with the tongue sticking out?

I think this is a deep observation, but I might not be deep enough to make that call. I have a tough time trying to get any direction from some of it. I think I get that more of these artists are unhappy and acting some of that out on canvas. Maybe unhappy isn't the proper term. More like trying to work through a dilemma of some kind. I don't mean to give off a negative feeling as it pertains to some art. I like the idea that we can convey things we can't see in the real world in a visual or written format and these things can be extensions of how we feel. I'm trying to remember the last time I was really pulled in by a visual artist. Pulled right into their world and able to experience their feelings as they painted it. I tend to notice neatness and construction first and then get an impression on the content second. Why would someone paint a man's body on a tuxedo with a fish head? I might say to myself. That's a really nicely done picture of a...man with a fish head. Then I might ask. Is this person a pisces? A neatly dressed Pisces? Does this give the idea that these animals can have human like traits? Does this say that a real person looks like this underneath his facade? It's easy to say it can mean anything I want it to mean, but the artist had a personal reason for it. I would like to think that most of these artists aren't shock jocks. I had no idea you were an artist Rudi! Man you get around. It must have been a great experience! In a time when we can literally reproduce any image to perfection with minimum effort using computers, maybe the draw is that this kind of art allows for more flexibility of expression outside of normal means? Oh Lord here we go again. Thanks for your comments Just1L. I'm not trying to put you on the spot, so no pressure to answer either way if you don't have a ready reference. I'm curious of examples that might help me to better understand this idea. I didn't know this was happening although I've seen some music groups release different editions of their music almost in real time with their changes.This might have been because they couldn't remember how to play it exactly the same each time so they ended up with different versions? You make a good point that most artists are in it for themselves and this is just human nature. As long as good and evil can be conveyed through art I imagine someone somewhere will disagree with it. Maybe no different than disagreeing with an idea of any kind, but in order to agree/disagree I have to get it first. To me maybe the most important thing is absorbing the art and trying to get where the artist was coming from. If he or she never had any intent for anyone else to get it then I ask myself why I would want to invest any of my time in something that someone did solo with the intent to keep the ideas solo. I want to give anyone the benefit of the doubt and attempt to get it. Great way to put it! I'll take being moved by art if that's all I can get from it. At some point I get curious though. If it really moved me I want to know why. I've heard music that seemed to convey really deep sad emotion that touched me . I had to ask myself if this was the intent or if the artist came across some kind of recipe to reproduce that effect. I think it was probably an emotion driving it which makes it all the sadder for me.A soul crying out in sad agony put to music. Or maybe it didn't really have that effect on the artist..only on me. I hesitate to admit that sometimes when I'm playing I can make myself tear up....hopefully it isn't because the music is so bad Yep I hope this is the intent of most. I really believe it is...I just don't get a lot of it. Wish I did..really want to.

In another thread a poster stated that in order to try and expand his imagination he liked to look at weird or unusual art. I also tried this idea just to see what I could see. One common thread that seems to run in much art is a bent for the mysterious and the dissimilar, especially concerning abstract and modern art. The thought also occurred to me that I see the same things in music lyrics that make no sense on a surface level but conjure thoughts and feelings. It would be like someone talking to you in an unknown language, but on some level you get something from it. In the world of art a person can combine visual imagery that will never be seen in the real world. Putting ourselves into that framework can place our senses into an alternate universe of sorts. In fact, much of this imagery wouldn't function in our universe. The artists seems to be attempting to convey several things with this type of art form with some variations. Some of this art is truly dark, drawing on imagery from parts of the human body not intact and in states of influx. Disgust and revulsion seems to be the goal of some artists.In some cases this combination invokes horror even if misunderstood. In lighter versions of this type of art we simply see images that don't usually go together or doing things impossible. Somehow the melded images of dissimilar things might be attempting to pull something out of us that isn't natural or common. In a worst case we might simply scratch our heads in curiosity never knowing either the intent or the possibility of the art. Our minds might attempt a grand assembly of the art in order for it to mean something to us. For me, to know the intent of the artists is most important. Is the artist insane? Out there so far that no one else can know the ideas? Has the artist carried being different a bit too far? Can a few artists land the airplane and share why they make strange art?

I really envy people who can write a lyric well. I see a real distinction in approaches depending on education as it pertains to both the quality and speed of creation. To me, it seems that something is lost when it becomes all about getting a product out, even if a person is good at that. I would hope it could still be about the art. I could stand to learn from this thread because I am anally retentive when it comes to expressing myself lyrically. I don't know why. I get this feeling I'm holding back for no real reason. I have trouble simply letting go with something weird and then trying to explain it to myself. I sing regularly and play regularly in public, so I'm not really shy like that, but it's usually other peoples work. On the few songs I have taken to experiments with in lyrics I seldom start with anything but a bag of magic beans....I sit with whatever I happen to decide I want to play and start to make something with it. It isn't meandering usually. It is something structural in my head. It's always the music first. A combination of basic music composition and imagination. Then if I happen to be really lucky I might start to feel like something verbal is coming out but since I'm lyrically illiterate it's usually only a word or two. Sometimes a thought actually comes from that and it turns into actual lyrics....but usually that doesn't happen. I feel like I have it down there somewhere buried deep. Usually too deep to ponder to myself much less anyone else.

I'll second the opinion that using only headphones isn't the best approach. Ear fatigue sets in fast for me over longer mixes. Ear fatigue also causes your ears frequency perceptions to change. No matter how comfortable headphones are initially they tend to get uncomfortable over long periods of time. This is kinda gross, but I've wiped sweat from around my ears when tracking acoustic instruments. They get hot after awhile, like ear muffs. Almost without exception a mix that sounds good on decent monitors sounds good on headphones and not usually the other the other way around for me. Spacial effects like reverbs and delays don't seem anywhere near the same on headphones compared to monitors. Finding the things wanting and compensating is probably one of the single largest things that can improve a mix. If my headphones have a slight 500hz bump I'll need to recognize that when I'm mixing so my mix isn't hyped in that place. The frequency response chart that comes with your headphones can tell you this and you can notch that down in eq to get a more flat response. Seldom will you find anything with a completely flat response.

I've been using ATH-M50's since I can remember. My dogs chewed the cord on the first pair so I bought the ones with the replaceable cord. ATH-M50x I think. Great for those times when monitors aren't an option. I like them a lot.

A new cartoon series featuring Mr. Butthead .

I think this is a pretty good early work. Especially if you were just learning DAW work. I could hear some of that high harmony this genre is famous for in it. I had to listen on a bass light system, so I probably missed a lot of the quality of it. Nice Rob!

Ever feel like this guy?

I am really enjoying the new Martin Luther King Jr stamp - just think about all those white bigots, licking the backside of a black man. Dick Gregory My belief is, you know, certain things have to be explained that's never been explained. Dick Gregory

Imagination 10.....tact -25

Thanks Tom...ok you have another one?

Here's one I made back in 2013 and for some unknown reason I called it furter......I was probably tired and this was the first thing that popped into my head. I had forgotten I made it....this is music only with what I feel is a sci fi feel.

Tom that "crooning" as you say in those last two was nicely done! Prometheus- I like the haunting sound that track has, actually pretty good considering everything you've said.

Just1L- Are you afraid to take your shirt off at the beach? This makes sense...kinda.

That's pretty brainy for a child of 4.