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Rudi

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Posts posted by Rudi

    What did you get for Christmas?

    in Musician's Lounge

    Posted

    I got a flying lesson in a Tiger Moth. I've flown in 2 seaters twice before (once from Baltimore over Chesapeake Bay and once locally over Portsmouth & Southampton) but in modern aircraft. This was from my son.

     

    I usually wouldnt want these 'experience' gifts but this is different. Always loved the classic biplanes.

     

    His girlfriend bought me some extremely strong Belgian beer : 10% !

    Not another one...! (guitar)

    in Performance

    Posted

    13 hours ago, TapperMike said:

    In the distant past I too would get rid of a guitar when acquiring a new one.  Back then I stopped because in a short while I'd miss the old guitar.   Many of my professional friends would also have seller remorse.

     

    So far, this has not happened to me. My old Strat (had that for 23 years), the Jackson Elite (had this for 2 years), the Yamaha acoustic (had that for 46 years) etc. It might do at some stage, who knows.

     

    My working guitars change position as favourites all the time. So I would have to be pretty sure when losing one of those!

     

    13 hours ago, TapperMike said:

     

     

    Recently I haven't had much time for playing.  As a result I've lost callouses.  It makes playing slow chordal playing a struggle to get clear tone from.  As a result, I'm reaching for my Parker with 09's while I build things back again physically.  The only drawback to the variax is you have to play with 10's and in standard tuning.  Otherwise it wreaks havoc with the piezo pups.  

     

    Yeah I remember a Anderton's video on youtube regarding various POD HD models and how the 400 wouldn't accept the vdi port.  It would be nice to store your guitar modeling along with your amp/effects preset but It's not the end of the world if you can't.

     

     

     

    I wondered about upgrading to a Pod HD500, but I wont get rid of the 400. Its all set up nicely as part of my rig now. I would just keep it as a gigging tool. What ever other line 6 processor I might get would be for studio & home use.

     

    I should be able to import the custom patches into a new sp. If not, I know how to reconstruct them.

     

    Odd that you cant change string gauges on variax. Lucky for me I use 10-46 on electrics anyway. The only exception being the Hofner which has 11-65 flatwounds. I know what you mean about swapping gauges though. I used the Hofner yesterday evening for a couple of hours. When I picked up the LP afterwards I was forcing the strings hard down onto the fingerboard for 10 minutes & losing intonation because of it.

     

    • Like 1

    Not another one...! (guitar)

    in Performance

    Posted

    15 hours ago, Richard Tracey said:

     

    I don't know if you guys are the same, but he walks about everywhere with guitar picks in his back pocket - it cracks me up!!!

     

    Yes Richard. I used to keep a pick in a key fob. Now I just keep one in a purse. And yes I do need them sometimes. Once I went to see a jam session and was persuaded to play. Other times I might come across a music shop or whatever else, so it makes sense really.

    • Like 1

    Not another one...! (guitar)

    in Performance

    Posted

    Elsewhere (somewhere?) I reported trying out the Variax Standard & JTV 59. I prefer the Standard. The handling is better. I even like the sound of the pickups. It has the Fender sound I crave.

     

    There is only one left at PMT now. It’s almost certainly the one I played (white). I will wait until after xmas now and If it’s gone then I’ll likely wander up to Andertons.

     

    One nuisance is that it seems that my podHD400 won’t interface properly with it. It seems that only the podHD500 does that.

     

     

    I will part-ex the Casino Coupe when buying. I might even see if they'll take the Dagger Bass too. 

     

     

    The broad plan is to lose a guitar every time I gain one. This should focus my mind properly, as I really will have to like the new one much better than the one that getting the heave-ho.

    BeatBuddy Drum pedal

    in Performance

    Posted · Edited by Rudi
    formatting

    I picked up this thing a couple of months ago, and if I’m honest I still haven’t yet used it a lot. I expect to use it in my studio when I get around to making a jazz tune.  

    I’ve put this in the Bass area, because it’s not a drummer’s tool (I checked with Tom Hoffman anyway). Although it can be used with any other instrument, IMO its bass that it lends itself to best.  

    This Sweetwater demo gives you a great overview of what this is and how it’s used.

     

     

     

    This user review isn’t bad either. He’s a bassist and plays along at 7.50 in the video.

     

     

    What it is.

    It’s a MIDI based drum machine. It uses large high quality WAV samples and it’s operated by a foot pedal (or pedals).

    It looks as if it is designed for live use when working without a drummer. However, it’s not just a bunch of pre-programed bars to play over. The foot pedal(s) control where you are in a song. Used live or as an aid to practice, it’s a performance tool. . The ‘live control functions’ work as follows:

     

    * A tap will begin a song (Intro followed by a repeating ‘verse’).

    * Further taps will play a fill (it will cycle through 3 available fills). The fills will time themselves perfectly regardless of when you stomp during play.

    * A held press will trigger a ‘transition’ to a ‘chorus’. The transition acts as a fill of indeterminate length. Only when you release the press will it reach the chorus. It will return to verse when    next held down via a further transition.

    *A double tap ends the song using with an ‘outro’.

     

    A further slaved foot switch can be added. If it’s a BeatBuddy one, it will have 2 buttons that can be configured however you want them. The default setting is for button 1 to play an accent hit (a cymbal) and button 2 acts as a pause button. A further tap will restart the song with a fill. It’s useful for caesura moments in a song (eg: ‘Sweet Little 16’ has a lot of such pauses).

     

    What it isn’t: Though you can control tempo with a knob, MIDI or tap control, you can’t change the song elements or create a new song using just the hardware. New song arrangements need to be created outside the unit and imported.

    Another thing it isn’t: It’s not an effects pedal. It can be used independently through a separate amp, or through a separate input of your instrument amp.

     __

     

    I bought the BB slave pedal which comes with an instrument stereo TRS patch cable. I also bought a MIDI cable so it would interface with my SIAB or keyboard (hopefully).

     

    I used the unit through the Aux input of my Fishman acoustic amp, reasoning that it would sound better due to its wider range (regular guitar amps don’t have tweeters etc).

    I had to download the latest firmware onto the supplied SD card. The card holds the default 200+ songs, 10 drum kits and the operating system. I also bought extra SD cards for backup. The software interface (via USB) is called BeatBuddy Manager. This is used to load or save out new songs and kits to SD card. The Manager can also be used to create new kits and edit existing songs. The Manager has its own a separate pdf manual.

     

    So far I have used it as a practice aid. I felt an immediate benefit, though it will be even better for bass players. The small display screen is cleverly designed. Coloured coded screen displays let you know whereabouts in the song you are. The visual metronome is a vertical bar tracking across the screen counting bars. The screen shows SONG, GENRE, TIME SIGNATURE, SONG PART (eg: verse or fill), DRUM KIT and VOLUME.

     

    The BeatBuddy is more comprehensive than the onboard drum songs in my SIAB. It has more drum kits (10) and songs with some juicy odd time signatures.  I wanted to use some of these for my recording. This is not what the BeatBuddy was created for, but this is the interesting thing. People seem to find different uses for this unit.

     

    Here are two reviews by users whose opinion I value, Rob Chapman and Scott Grove. Both are using the BeatBuddy as a practice aid. Scott is making good use of his MIDI savvy in his video.

     

    Rob Chapman

     

     

    Scott Grove

     

     

    The unit has 3 knobs used for VOLUME / DRUM SET / TEMPO.

    There is a TAP button and 4 directional buttons for feature navigation.

    It is supplied with SD card and a 9 volt power supply cable.

     

    There is an USB link socket and stereo / mono inputs & outputs for ¼” jackplugs, MIDI and headphone sockets with a headphone volume dial.

    It’s a well constructed robust looking unit (as is the slave footswitch). As usual with all such devices, the weakest link appears to be the power cable.

     

    Difficult to rate this as its the only one of its kind (that I know of anyway). I am impressed with it and have high hopes it will be a flexible recording aid.

     

    17-December-2016 RS

     

    What are you getting yourself for Christmas?

    in Musician's Lounge

    Posted

    No plans to get me anything either.

     

    I will probably wait until after xmas to go for the variax. There is only one (probably the one I tried out) at PMT now (formerly Nevada).

     

    No gigs in the pipeline due to band being a man down at present, Theres plenty of stuff to be going on with.though, I'm recording. In fact Im in danger of overloading the recorder. I've had a couple of overload warnings on the current tune.

     

    How much do we need more stuff at xmas really anyway?

    SongStuff

    in Musician's Lounge

    Posted · Edited by Rudi
    format

    SongStuff

    While I think about it…

     

    Moderators: I know well enough that they aren’t appreciated most of the time. Sometimes it’s laborious to mind the site and pander to the members. A bit like having to mind the kids when all you really want is an hour or two to yourself? Yes, I was a mod once ;).

     

    Contributors: Moderators are contributors, but so is everyone who reviews a service, product or critiques somebodys work. They are also those who stimulate ideas that can be serious or funny. The least appreciated contributors seem to be the technical experts who enable us to function better with their assiduously acquired knowledge.

     

    Regulars: I sometimes feel embarrassed that there are more regulars here than I know about. They spend their time elsewhere on the forums and so I think of them as newbies until I notice their post count. Then I realise it’s been too long since I visited the creative forums and listen to some tunes or read some lyrics.

     

    Imposters : They are not interested in us. They are here to impress us, court our praise and inspire us to follow them.  When they fail (they always do) they move on. They most frequently are responsible for the ‘Too Good to be True’ posts.

     

    Queue Jumpers: Imposters are queue jumpers, though not all queue jumpers are imposters.

    Why do I call them queue jumpers? Because I liken the lounge to the front page of a newspaper, and they only want to be on the front page. To be noticed first, whether they deserve it or not.

     

    ‘Too Good to be True’ posts:  An enticing title, almost always misleading. So after you’ve read it, you wish you hadn’t. Why? Because it’s just another ‘queue jumper’ who wants attention. Typically that post will be their first or second. They have a band to advertise, a product, a website, or maybe just their own work. I usually feel duped after reading such posts.  

     

    The lounge:

    Most of us put in the time and become part of the community and give something back to it. Most of us will post our work in the areas provided for that purpose. I realise that the lounge welcomes ‘shameless self promotion’, but I for one will only reluctantly read or respond such posts.

    I’m not proposing any change to the lounge’s purpose & function. I understand that there are pros as well as cons in all this. Just making my position clear.

     

    Songwriting, Lyrics, Recording.

    The creative areas seem to take care of themselves. With people interacting and getting to know one another and their work. They make their own mini communities. If I were John, I would be most satisfied with this state of affairs. To have carefully created something, launched it, and eventually see it not only function, but propel itself forwards under its own momentum with minimal maintenance. It’s a bit like parenting. You nurture and prepare a child as best you can, but then see them head off into life as their own person, maybe doing stuff that you never foresaw.  

     

    Mosh Pit: It’s a volatile place that could be shut down at any time because it could become dysfunctional & nasty.

    Why is it there? In there, we can reveal the parts of us that are normally not seen. Sometimes we may not like what we see, but that is its real function, because if we confine ourselves to time honoured social etiquette we become sanitised and bland. Most important of all, we get to see what others make of the newly revealed us. The creative areas are the converse of this. They are like pre-school play pens; with safe rounded edges and soft flooring.

     

    Being creative often means getting out of the play pen and into some dirty, maybe even toxic areas. Pound for pound, I have personally found more inspiration in the mosh pit than elsewhere.That’s why books, film & video games all involve conflict and struggle of some sort; be it physical, mental or intellectual. There’s a reason that there are no successful stories where everything is wonderful all of the time.

     

    All the same, most Mosh Pit contributors probably wonder how long the place can last. I think that the longer it does last, the better we collectively are. By better I mean more resilient, flexible and generally robust mentally and emotionally. Taking a few bruises now and then is fine. Only if anything more serious occurs will we need to reconsider closure.

     

    This post turned out longer than I had intended. It wasn’t meant to be definitive or all inclusive, but just a sketch.

    I appreciate everybody here that I know. I have not harboured any grudges (yet). I sometimes worry a little about friends that disappear for a while, or visit less frequently; - Yes I do have someone in mind right now. I’ll check FaceBook later on.

     

    Sometimes people that seem the least grounded or discerning, demonstrate remarkable insight or integrity, and other qualities that don’t always show. That’s why I have not yet given up on anyone here yet. I continue to be surprised and rewarded by remaining open to those I disagree with. I'm happy to learn from anyone at all.

     

    John: are you still reading this? Thank you for maintaining SS and being here ALL THE TIME man. That goes for the Mods too. :ilovemusic:

    • Like 3

    Art And The Dissimilar

    in Musician's Lounge

    Posted

    17 hours ago, starise said:

    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 dont always need to know the intent of the artist. I only need to be moved by it. The listening experience should be enough. We shouldn't have to worry about being bamboozled, or something being over our heads. We only need to be ready for it. Sometimes we are not ready. I made the point elsewhere about not being ready for Dr John (Gris Gris) when I was 16. 

     

    Its been said that if you could express what you want in another way there would be less point in doing it.

     

    No honest artist wants to confuse us IMO. He wants us to 'get it'.

    Art And The Dissimilar

    in Musician's Lounge

    Posted

    I was a visual artist before I was a musician. I thought that was my vocation.

     

    Clyfford Still & Mark Rothko were my influences at Art College. Their paintings are neither figurative nor abstract. Rothko painted huge paintings at suggested viewing them from 18” inches away.

     

    So for me, music should have been no less ambitious, and I liked Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma & the title track to Saucerful of Secrets was my favourite recording for a year when I was 16.

     

     

    Even after I became ‘conventional’, all the lyrics in the songs of the time were weird and sometimes impenetrable. Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Syd Barret, Robert Hunter, Neil Young, John Lennon, Nick Drake etc.

     

    So for me, surrealism and abstraction in lyrics are almost the norm. I recall posting one of my songs in the lyrics forum, and no one had a clue what it was about. I was dismayed, because to me it was obvious. It was a wakeup call though. So my next song was ‘It Doesn’t Matter What I Sing’.

     

    John Moxey’s songs are far heavier than mine. He should chime in here.

     

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