TapperMike

Any Wold (That I'm welcome to ) Steely Dan

Thanks, But I've already bought the domain name paid for 2 year hosting and installed the cms. The next step is all the window dressing, I know it seems crazy but I have disillusions of monetizing the site

Premier Guitar has "Rig Rundown" where the video famous artists touring rigs. I've seen a few "how to sound like X videos on the web. When I had tappermike.com I did do a famous keyboards of the 60's and 70's articles I just didn't reach a wide enough audience. Not that I expect one from my new site I still have to build the damn thing. I want a nice "cut to the chase" look so if someone is looking for a precise tone they don't have to wade through a bunch of stuff to find it. Getting the Variax has been nothing but an enjoyable distraction. I find myself constantly chasing classic rock sounds when I should be doing other things.

For those who didn't get the invite.... Sorry https://www.facebook.com/groups/1065515906819234/?ref=bookmarks Once I have enough data to get going I'm going to open a Guitar Rig Wiki Basically it's a database of famous guitarists and the equipment / settings they used to create the sounds they are famous for.

You have good points. I've never been much for live guitar loopers. Sure Mixcraft has a performance setup that is similar to Ableton Live but I've only used it twice so far and I haven't used Ableton in years (latency issues) I have played hundreds if not thousands of standards in the past. Usually with the sheet in front of me or BIAB. I may consider just printing up fake sheets, working from them and if I can't recall them all by Gig time I'd bring them along. Cheesy I know. In the past I'd always get mad at jazz pianists who insisted on playing live using sheet music even though they'd played the same tunes for years.

Thanks for your support gentlemen. It's a street fair, so lots of people passing by on their way to cosmetic jewelry stands, homemade honey, so the performance will be more audio window dressing then anything else. Which I'm fine with. I'm sure there will be more acts then just me I just hope it's not a four or five hour gig. My Buddy said he's still has to work out the details of when, I'll be performing I could drag out BIAB or other software as backing tracks which would extend my playing time considerably as i've had a fairly vast repertoire in the past. Here is the hindrance of biab. It makes the situation harder to memorize / perform without it as you always have the reference of the chord charts before you. An old laptop in the bright sunlight makes it very hard to see the screen. I've decided to start with the songs I know best recently then work backwards to one's I haven't played in a few years and then concentrate on possibly learning new ones. It's all going to be Chord Melody stuff, I'm not going to sing and I'm not going to bring the ztar or linnstrument along. Even though I do have quite a number of tunes I've worked out on the z...that gets back into the issue with laptops and sunlight. What's odd is that just a few days ago I came to the decision I'd do more "tapping style" arrangements. The way I play tapping is very unique and yet closer to Chapman stick type soloist performance then EVH stuff. as I mix and match both conventional strumming / finger picking with tapping within each given phrase. Writing arrangements using this method can be time consuming. After I'm happy with my set list which already includes some of scores / methods I'll try to work a few in. So far I have... Autumn Leaves Blue Bossa Body and Soul Polka Dots and Moonbeams My Blue Heaven Here There and Everywhere They Can't take that Away from Me Dream A little Dream of Me Round Midnight. Note that these are actually very short songs the way I have them arranged. It's very melancholy stuff for a festival. But those I kinda have down blind.

So I've been mostly a hobbyist musician for the last decade or so. I noodle around play a few songs to amuse myself and try to expand my musical directions, sharing what I've learned along the way. I Might have a paying Gig! The city (of Wixom) aside from it's concerts in the park is going to close down a small section of downtown for a street fair of sorts. I've been invited to play by the planners. I don't have a set list as it's been forever since I've actually sat down and performed for others. It will be "one man band Mike" and while I know a few "chord/melody' arrangements for jazz standards I'm rusty. As well I know a few "fingersyle' arrangements of 60's pop era tunes. (Beatles, etc) A long time friend of mine is a member of the Downtown Development Committee. I went to visit him and show off my new variax. Played a few songs to demonstrate it's capabilities (he's a non-musician) He's heard me play in the distant past (over ten years ago). Now I wonder if I should consider not doing it because I don't think I have enough time to prepare.

Duncan's vary much from model to model. Two things that catch my ear the most about the JB and the Jazz are... Rich(sweet) and slightly hot. I love them on my Parker. Sometimes I think it's too sweet. I can go about six songs before I want to play something with a little more traditional / warm tone. Creamery makes some great pickups. For the cork sniffer so does Lollar

Spandau Ballet - True

Actually mostly just GB. Great Britain had huge tarrifs on imported goods back then. It made importing Guitars from the US rather difficult for shop owners and put the price way out of the range of consumers. If you look at ...The yardbirds they are all playing squire telecasters (esquire) Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page. It's because "true tele's" were just so damn hard to get, even moreso with strat's and LP's (but that was a production issue back then as gibson had stopped making them. Usually back then they all bought used from resale shops. American Military personal stationed there would sell off their guitars for near what they bought them at. A strat wouldn't last long... just ask Paul McCartney. He stated in the early days of the Beatles a Stratocaster came available at a resell shop. He saw it in a window and the next day when he came into buy it...It was gone. Peter Noone (Herman's Hermits) beat him to it.. Epi casino's and rick's weren't that expensive back then and even though they wanted more expensive bigger name new instruments in guitars the pickings were pretty slim in Great Britain. Germany is another story. Probably due to American influence. Military bases and investment into German infrastructure. Guitar Point in Maintal Germany Has one of the largest collections of vintage guitars (especially American) in the world. I've been to a few of the huge vintage guitar stores in the states. Where one can only `afford to drool. Guitar Point wouldn't be able to operate financially if they had to import all of those vintage guitars from offshore places. Which means when they were new they were shipped to Germany. The one thing that both you and I have to deal with on a daily basis is budgeting. We don't make the type of money where money is no object. In earlier years I could afford to have a huge stable of guitars. I've got a ...modest collection of 12 now. and I still dream of guitars I'll never afford shy of winning the lottery. Still a variax is on my bucket list. I can get an open box Yamaha variax standard for 645.00 US (499.13 GBP) That's a deal. I don't think you would be happy with the Yamaha Variax standard as it has a Slim "C" profile neck. You wold prolly be happier with a JTV 69 as it has a slightly thicker C profile then a standard Fender C shape. Even if you get bored (as hard as that may seem) with all the included guitars there is still Workbench HD which is a solftware tool that comes with all variax products. One thing to note..about variax in the general population of guitar players. In recent years I've seen a few guitarists at free concerts switching over to variax guitars from Fender's and Gibson's. These are all in 60's/70's/80's cover bands. These guys will easily bring three or four guitars to a 2 hour show. It's just easier for them to flip a switch or turn a knob then to change guitars. A few have Pod HD's so they can store the amp/effects/guitar settings on the stomp box. It takes quite a bit of getting used to and some planning but all of them who have made the switch to variax don't regret it.

Here it is...http://www.steinberg.net/en/newsandevents/news/newsdetail/article/future-proof-os-relying-on-64-bit-3778.html I'm not a Steinberg user. I gave up on it many many years back. Having been in the software field for many many years now I can tell you...Nothing is future proof. There will be something unforseen that will require a hard decision on when to leave legacy support behind simply because that's the only way for a product to advance Is this an advancement or simply a way to not fix issues with cubase and it's own bit bridge technology? While you can still use 3rd party bit bridges such as jBridge usage will be unsupported. . Steinberg is owned by Yamaha. While Yamaha has done a great deal for the hardware industry over the years including advancing Line6 technology after squiring it However one can wonder what type of investment / oversight Yammy is giving to Stienny. Yamaha was responsible for Steingberg's move to a subscription model. There is a lot to be said for Stienberg in the past. Steny gave us VST/VSTI OST technology. They designed and developed the sdk's and the early versions had no restrictions on use. This allowed the freeware market we have today. However when VST3 came out Stieny became quite restrictive of use and licensing fees. Which is why you won't find freeware and smaller vst companies not porting to VST3 it's not just about 64bit format.

Many models never made it across the pond. Back in the 60's Fender ventured out with the Coronado They bring it back every ten years or so and when they do they'll often make a squire version

I was a serious Gibson player till I bought a Stratocaster. Mostly it was about feel for me. My first guitar was a 335. Saved and saved for months. Borrowing friends cheap guitars till I had it. That 335 was what I burned my self into. Even though it was too big for my body. Later I would have two Les Paul's. I love LP and a few other Gibson guitars for their tone. I've never been happy with LP copies, Heck I've been dissatisfied with many models of LP's They are either too heavy or too like or the neck is too round. I'd always preferred the 50's slim profile over the beefier necks that came later. That was the profile of my 78' Custom. I still hated the weight. I can't get away from the tone of certain (not all) Gibsons. Oddly I'm not a fan of 335 tone. I was when I wanted it and when it was my first guitar. That quickly faded. For a semi-hollow tone I much prefer my Raven West 450. Smaller (prs shape) semi hollow. In the jazz category it's easy to see the association with Gibson. Mostly because Gibson used to give huge discounts to named professionals in return for the advertising having the gibson brands predominately displayed in various magazines and on shows. Anyone who has had a box(full body) for years knows what happens to them over time. Warped necks worn frets, the guitar rattles glue loses cohesion. The thing that remains is when listening to those old recordings you hear that gibson tone. So it becomes the benchmark you hold all other guitars up to. I've seen it for myself with serious boxes. And yet I love the tone. Technology makes it so that I'll prolly never own another Gibson or Fender. Variax is the answer. Strat wieght, Strat, neck. All the tone in the world and I can play a Les Paul tone without shoulder pain or my leg falling asleep.

I've just started watching BR EXIT And am curious as to what you in the UK think of all of it. I have to say, I've had mostly negative dealings with the way the EU operates through my work in the software field. Usually I can apply simple common sense and the fact that the company I work for is not part of the EU, Neither is the country I live in. That doesn't stop the ambulance chaser attorneys from their intimidation tactics. Though, it has made things difficult for dealing with re-sellers in the EU member states. Some (very little) of what the EU is doing has been good for a few areas. Mostly in regards to conservation (ecology, wildlife) However even self governance in a system that has the appearance of democracy is not what it seems.

I blame David Lee Roth for that one.... anyway. Thunder Road - The Boss

Re VST format. Sttenberg owns the proprietary rights to it and really there is not much difference between 2.5 and 3.0 The major difference is licensing. If you are a developer it's practically royalty free with the right tools to create your own vsti or vst plugins in VST1,2,2.5 But not VST3 which you have to pay a substantial amount of money for. This is why you see so many freeware vst plugins over the net. Some are great and some are not so great. Even the best of the free usually has some small things missing that could have really made something worth paying for. Some vst developers do it for a hobby and some do it as an inroad to larger companies like ..IKM, NI and the like. Most free developers give up on hope and lose desire to do any better or do anymore as time goes by. Which is the same for the freeware/linux community. I know as for a time I would work on a few freeware apps in the distant past trying to cultivate my software design skills. It was really frustrating adding tons of code which would be compiled by someone else who...just couldn't / wouldn't get around to it. Finally I threw in the towel as it wasn't helping me advance my career and I got so sick and tired of the half-arsed way lead developers would put crap out and not be as devoted to the project as when they started. I experienced the same thing with Wusik Station as a user. Gigs of sound libraries that are crappy poorly sampled and poorly if at all optimized. That users can create on their own and are added to the library. The only thing I got out of Wusik was EVE which is a smaller rompler /sample based player. And even then I piled through endless libraries only to find a few usable sounds. On the other side of the spectrum there is some signs of hope for developers of high quality freeware who want to join forces with major players This was originally released by Martinic as a freeware plugin. I have the freeware plugin Aurturia did a great deal of polishing the sound up and adding nice features.

Solitaire - Laura Branigan

Here's a thing to note about Magix and Yellow Tools. YT was big in EU for a time. The problems were numerous for YT and support for YT was a joke. One of the resellers who stopped carrying YT was doing all the heavy lifting fixing problems with the environment. He was so busy trying to fix YT's issues even with people who didn't purchase that he got a great reputation and increased his sales for other products dramatically (all this comes from http://kvraudio.com) Magix bout YT fixed the authentication process and gave the basic version away for free. Now the expanded library is bundled in various Samp releases. While I'm not a fan of YT or vandal (vandal always seems highly compressed and "edgy" to my ears. It still makes for a massive collection of sounds. Now on to my rant about daws in general. If you buy a daw with a plugin library, that library should be portable into any other daw / hosting environment that you own. As an example. I bought BIAB upgraded package with a special set of IK Media's guitar rig. The included BIAB rigs will work in any host/daw. That's the way it should work. and yet... Many daws that include plugins of their own making won't allow you to use them in different hosts....Like .....Mixcraft.. The standard version of Mixcraft and the pro version include third party apps which one pays for included in the price that cannot be used in different host applications. A prime example is VB3 by gsi. I love vb3 so much so I bought it. Yet the version included in Mixcraft will not work in other host applications. I get a warning prompt when trying to access it.

Just two days ago Mixcraft released a sales email for price drops. My upgrade from Pro 6 to Pro 7 was $45USD Well worth it. I hate to start off on a negative.... Since I'm using WaveRT and an hdmi output for my audio monitoring the sound is both thin and crackly. That is not the fault of Mixcraft by any measure. Microsoft produces a free alternative to asio and waspi (direct sound) called WaveRT. It's fixed all my latency issues associated with running Win10. However it's not supported by Microsoft which is why many other daw's/hosts refuse to allow it's use for audio / midi. WaveRT will give off crackles if you use another program in the background which taps into audio resources. This doesn't occur if you are only using the host/Daw and close out any programs (including browsers) that may be using the sound card. I plan to try it using my Yamaha THR10 as a monitor/sound card later. (Too much to do today) Because I've covered Mixcraft 6 in great detail in the past I'll concentrate on my findings regarding the Pro7 version. First off... Practically no latency with midi. I've opened up a few of the demo files and played along with some rather extensive pre loaded content. Not even a whisper of latency. Most of this has to do with WaveRT. Though some has to do with a powerful system (Dell i7 3.60 Ghz and 16 gigs of ram. It's simply stunningly fast. Next Mixcraft has added a lot of features borrowed from Ableton Live. Performance view for looping and enhanced quantification, sync and so much more A long time back I was equally fascinated with and frustrated with Ableton live. I'd quite frequently comment that the reason they had crazy cool editing tools was more about how badly it failed with regards to latency in order to get things right the first time. After 10 minutes using performance mode in Mixcraft 7 I've lost any desire to use Ableton Live ever again. M pro 7 pro has added a few virtual instruments and enhanced many of those included. If there is one pet peeve of mine regarding these instruments is lack of fully developed banks./ programs / presets (FXB. While in years gone by I'd love to tweak knobs to find "famous sounds" These days I'm much more content to find a close enough approximation. Like Sonic Projects OPX-Pro I've yet to transfer over my countless third party effects and virtual instruments onto my Windows 10 machine. I often debate which to keep and which to leave behind. Not for storage as much but for ease of access my vst folders are a nightmare.

`I wonder how they ponied up the money and I wonder why Here's my stories regarding Samplitude and Acid. I was a rising star of the flashkit community. Moderated over several forums and was on my way to being a SuperMod right about the same time Mark Fennel sold fk to internet.com At that time we were developing the sound and loops repository. I made quite a bit of money via extremely long days recording loops and sound effects for fk. It was part of a big promotion to get other loopers involved and to provide royalty free loops for flash designers. I worked mostly in Cakewalk and Sampitude at the time. As my rep grew I was handed quite a number of editing/remix/mastering gigs from Acid users. They wouldn't accept me just taking the stems and working in my own software they wanted it in Acid format. This was just as Vegas handed over acid to Sony. Working in Vegas acid was fine. But when Sony took over they stripped all the professional features and put out a dummy down version of the product hoping to capture the amateur market. Freaking hell! I could no longer use my third party plugins. There were very active discussions regarding this on the acid forums when some exec explained to us the long term acid user that we were not the market. It wasn't for a long time till they came out with later versions of Acid "Pro" which brought back features that were in the Vegas version. By that time I was done with Acid and the side work that I'd originally been getting also dried up. Samplitude was always great for polishing things up for me. And I've found the Magix old school sequencers like Robota fun to play around with. I'm oddly not a fan of Vandal but I do think it was good of them to take on Yellow Tools and make it available for all, The DAW market is already huge with fierce competition over an ever diminishing customer base.

Here's the update with my midi latency issue. Banished for good. I just installed Mixcraft Pro 7 on to my Windows 10 machine It uses Windows WaveRT I swear from what I'm hearing and playing it must be about 3ms. Which is funny as the linnstrument boasts 2ms Of all things I am running the audio out via my hdmi output to my video monitor and aside from me wanting to get a 2.1 sound bar to enhance the bass it's awesome.

Love Ricky Wade's playing. I tried the chapman stick but it never really worked for me. Hated the bass strings being tuned to 5ths down from the center. Warr guitars and megatars make much more sense. I've stated this before. Watching Stanley Jordan on the Tonight show back in the 80's forever changed how I approached tapping. I went from EVH type playing to melodic tapping overnight and never looked back. Even the Linnstrument is a tap (touch) instrument and I'm having the time of my life with it. As for learning instruments compared to guitar some aspects make it easier to learn (especially if you are just starting out) Most especially...No picking techniques required. Developing two part techniques is much like the piano. You start with simple concepts and build yourself up from there. Such as blues walking bass line left hand and chords in the right or vice versa depending on the setup.

I remember the story as well. The grain was rye. Now that I've found the link.... Here's more - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot

Also, It's not just a way back when thing. I see young people everyday on youtube showing the same type of dedication to their craft.

I will submit to you that the Beatles didn't "have to" hear about hard work. They already knew about self discipline and determination as they had developed the skills separately before joining forces. Sure I wish I'd started playing guitar or another instrument earlier than I did. That being said, I had other pursuits which required determination and discipline such as the study of martial arts. My parents didn't pay for my lessons I did. Mowing lawns, paper route, cleaning the Dojang (Korean) I also practiced every day and tried to get in as many lessons as I could. All while maintaining my grades. Quite often in junior and high school altercations would occur as it was not a secret and there were those who wanted to "test me" It was my training AND hard work that made many of these so called fights child's play for me. People wanted to learn from me because they wanted my skills for free. They didn't want to miss their favorite TV shows and they always had excuses. While wanting to be good and wanting fame and fortune can walk hand in hand. There is a huge differences between wishing to be good and wanting or needing to be good. People who want/need to be good at their chosen vehicle be it for fame or not push themselves to make that a reality. It's a want/need that pushes one to be their best, not a wish which makes that a reality.