[QUOTE=Left Face Down;18003104]// Quick question


Any upsides or downsides to getting a rack mount amp head? I should have enough money for a Mesa/Boogie Express amp by the end of next month; latest end of July. Debating between the 5:25 Rackmount Amp head and the 5:50 Medium Amp head. I'm going to use my XXX speakers until I sell it. When I do I'll be picking up a 1x12 Avatar cab. So the Long head will be too wide.[/QUOTE]

upside: convinience, but only if you're using a rack already
midi control i suppose, if you're using it already

downside: you end up feeling the need to make everything rack, to the point where people end up putting their pedals inside their rack only to control them from the outside via midi
have to plan around heat issues

Pretty much rack is only worth it if you want everything rack and you know what you want

The agencies around here want £250+ fees including tax, plus a months rent as bond, plus a months rent in advance.

We just found this guy through Gumtree. £500 bond and we can move in tomorrow, have it free for the rest of this month then start paying £500 a month on the first of July.

Best thing about this place is that it's a house. Not a flat.

So happy. The garden needs work too, which is awesome. I'm happy that I'll be able to do some gardening and turn the place around, rather than have to keep something nice looking.

The main selling point of rack setups for me was the ability to control everything via midi. I was sick of hitting delay pedals and changing channels and engaging an EQ just to get a lead sound. I use an FCB1010 which does it all in one hit. Of course, if you're not using it live then it's probably not as much of a selling point.


Also: For some reason I now really like In Rainbows by Radiohead. When it first came out I thought it was quite boring and samey; now I can't get enough of it.

[QUOTE=Sad But True;18003158]The main selling point of rack setups for me was the ability to control everything via midi. I was sick of hitting delay pedals and changing channels and engaging an EQ just to get a lead sound. I use an FCB1010 which does it all in one hit. Of course, if you're not using it live then it's probably not as much of a selling point.


Also: For some reason I now really like In Rainbows by Radiohead. When it first came out I thought it was quite boring and samey; now I can't get enough of it.[/QUOTE]

I was exactly the same, I'm now of the opinion it's their most consistent album. I mean it has things like Reckoner on it but the quality doesn't dip in between the great songs.

And that bassline at the end of Weird Fishes is just <3

Hallo mense.

I'm getting a little influx of cash in a month's time and I figured it would be well-assigned to expanding my hilariously limited rig using DIY pedals.

Now, I recently discovered the joys of the Memory Man and I'd love to build one, but the only schematic I've found is huge.

1) Is there a way to simplify the circuit a lot by removing features or making small tonal sacrifices?

2) What's the difference between all the versions? I know the Hazerai one is digital and crap, but what about MM vs DMM?

[QUOTE=Bruce E Kinesis;18003784]I was exactly the same, I'm now of the opinion it's their most consistent album. I mean it has things like Reckoner on it but the quality doesn't dip in between the great songs.

And that bassline at the end of Weird Fishes is just <3[/QUOTE]

Wait, are you saying Reckoner is one of the not-so-good tracks? Because it's one of my favourites off there, that and Vieotape and All I Need.

[QUOTE=mutant!;18003814]Hallo mense.

I'm getting a little influx of cash in a month's time and I figured it would be well-assigned to expanding my hilariously limited rig using DIY pedals.

Now, I recently discovered the joys of the Memory Man and I'd love to build one, but the only schematic I've found is huge.

1) Is there a way to simplify the circuit a lot by removing features or making small tonal sacrifices?

2) What's the difference between all the versions? I know the Hazerai one is digital and crap, but what about MM vs DMM?[/QUOTE]

If you've never done it before, get the tools, and make yourself:

-A booster

-A fuzz

-An op-amp overdrive

You don't have to keep them all in cases or whatever (cases are the most expensive bit apart from true bypass footswitches) but you need to develop your soldering and debugging skills.

Then, if you've done all that, and you still want to make a delay, there's a digital delay with modulation called an 'EchoBase' that you can order PCBs (a premade circuit board with labelled holes for the components: contrast to Veroboard, a widely available basis that many DIYers use for all but the most complicated circuits) for from a number of places.

Even servicing an analogue delay is extremely difficult and building one from scratch is impossible without an oscilloscope. They do still make the chips but they cost SO MUCH MONEY (you can order them yourself from coolaudio if you like, but the minimum order is $2000) and as a consequence the market is absolutely flooded with fakes that you won't have a snowman's chance in hell of spotting.

And all that when you can pick up a memory boy for £50 used?

I'm not trying to discourage you from getting into DIY because it's fantastic and you can build some great stuff really cheaply (current projects for me are an EHX Russian big muff with an extra control for the mids, and a DAM meathead- the latter costing like £200 new and much more than that used because of the waiting time and scarcity)- amusingly the parts for the muff come to many times that for those for the fuzz, despite the fact I could pick up a bass big muff or tone wicker muff for cheaper than a DAM! So the best thing about DIYing your pedals is that you end up with the right pedals for the tone you want, rather than just the pedals you can afford. Plus you can repair things yourself and see through all the bullpoop and snake oil of some ridiculously overpriced pedals in the world- and spot the gems.

[QUOTE=Sad But True;18003818]Wait, are you saying Reckoner is one of the not-so-good tracks? Because it's one of my favourites off there, that and Vieotape and All I Need.[/QUOTE]

No i'm saying it's absolutely INCREDIBLE; but that the other tracks still hold their own next to it.

Best cover of a radiohead song ever:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RUmmsMeHAaE

[QUOTE=Bruce E Kinesis;18003824]If you've never done it before, get the tools, and make yourself:

-A booster

-A fuzz

-An op-amp overdrive

You don't have to keep them all in cases or whatever (cases are the most expensive bit apart from true bypass footswitches) but you need to develop your soldering and debugging skills.

Then, if you've done all that, and you still want to make a delay, there's a digital delay with modulation called an 'EchoBase' that you can order PCBs (a premade circuit board with labelled holes for the components: contrast to Veroboard, a widely available basis that many DIYers use for all but the most complicated circuits) for from a number of places.

Even servicing an analogue delay is extremely difficult and building one from scratch is impossible without an oscilloscope. They do still make the chips but they cost SO MUCH MONEY (you can order them yourself from coolaudio if you like, but the minimum order is $2000) and as a consequence the market is absolutely flooded with fakes that you won't have a snowman's chance in hell of spotting.

And all that when you can pick up a memory boy for £50 used?

I'm not trying to discourage you from getting into DIY because it's fantastic and you can build some great stuff really cheaply (current projects for me are an EHX Russian big muff with an extra control for the mids, and a DAM meathead- the latter costing like £200 new and much more than that used because of the waiting time and scarcity)- amusingly the parts for the muff come to many times that for those for the fuzz, despite the fact I could pick up a bass big muff or tone wicker muff for cheaper than a DAM! So the best thing about DIYing your pedals is that you end up with the right pedals for the tone you want, rather than just the pedals you can afford. Plus you can repair things yourself and see through all the bullpoop and snake oil of some ridiculously overpriced pedals in the world- and spot the gems.[/QUOTE]

Cheers for the reply. Thing is, I live in a (semi-)third world country (South Africa), and while electronics components are cheap and widely available here, music gear isn't. The price of components (including casing) for a DIY Tubescreamer/DS-1 comes to less than a fifth of what I would pay to just buy one. I've soldered plenty before, and my lead singer is an engineer who spends his days building military robots so he's quite capable of helping me out with debugging and so forth.

Is it odd that as soon as you said military robots the first thing I thought of was Fallout 3? Probably.

Moaner: Yeah, Reckoner is unblelievably good.

[QUOTE=mutant!;18003917]Cheers for the reply. Thing is, I live in a (semi-)third world country (South Africa), and while electronics components are cheap and widely available here, music gear isn't. The price of components (including casing) for a DIY Tubescreamer/DS-1 comes to less than a fifth of what I would pay to just buy one. I've soldered plenty before, and my lead singer is an engineer who spends his days building military robots so he's quite capable of helping me out with debugging and so forth.[/QUOTE]

That's fine, and having another set of eyes will work wonders. But I would seriously recommend starting with something a bit simpler than an Echobase- you're going to need to learn these things by doing.

Go online and order some 'kits' of resistors and capacitors (they do a thing where you get like 10 of each value), and then get some op-amps and transistors, and you'll have everything you need to make any distortion or fuzz pedal produced before SMD chips became standard.

Bare in mind you'll need to get hold of a PT2399 for a delay, which aren't that expensive but won't be in stock in your local electronics store.

If you're determined, PM this guy and ask him to sell you a board.
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=83525.0

[QUOTE=Bruce E Kinesis;18003825]
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RUmmsMeHAaE[/QUOTE]

Epic cover. Like Gnarls Barkley even more now.

Aweh, thanks. I'm planning to build a distortion box and a compressor/filter/semi-parametric EQ box before I get to the delay anyway. But yeah, you mostly answered my question - seems like a Memory Man or similar is way out of the question. Guess I'll trawl Gumtree/eBay for a Memory Boy.

[url]http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/d4235ab3ec/ukranian-folk-band-covers-katie-perry?rel=player[/url]

I take offense to the fact that they misspelled her name

[QUOTE=mutant!;18004015]Aweh, thanks. I'm planning to build a distortion box and a compressor/filter/semi-parametric EQ box before I get to the delay anyway. But yeah, you mostly answered my question - seems like a Memory Man or similar is way out of the question. Guess I'll trawl Gumtree/eBay for a Memory Boy.[/QUOTE]

A comp-eq box is a cool idea actually, I might make one for my other amp at some point.

I like my memory boy, but the modulation isn't much like a DMM. It's a great pedal in its own right though.

Yeah, I figured a high-pass filter going into a 1-band semi-parametric EQ going into a compressor would be awesome - I play a Strat into a JC and the tone (particularly when distorted) suffers from being too "wide" and not "tight" enough, so a nice low cut/high mid boost/compression treatment would do it worlds of good (especially since I play in a two-guitar band, so it's even more important that my tone be focused and not all over the place).

[IMG]http://zombietv.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/zombie.jpg[/IMG]

Band plug

[url]www.myspace.com/mildestone[/url]

I was in charge of recording and mixing everything

WATCHU GUYS THINK

The drummer is playing cool beats beats but is a little sloppy. That all the bad I can say about musicianship.

Production wise:

Compress the vocal more. And a small dip in the low mids before the compressor. Then put like a high shelf on it and turn it up a little bit. It's a pretty good vocal but it's muffled and doesn't stand out. Could be the mic.

Drums sound pretty good for the most part. Not as big and juicy as the song calls for but you did very good considering your mic options. Overheads sound good though. Kick could do with a little more definition.

Guitars are the best part of the mix imo. They could have a little more bit. But they sound pretty tight. Could do with a delay or reverb in the harmonics intro. Bass tone was pretty cool too. Maybe coulda done with an automated reverb on the harmonics part near the end of the song too.

That was all on the first song.

Listened a little to the second one it's much of the same.

Mixes are little dull overall. Like if you put it up against like 30STM track it would probably be night and day. Yours being dark and 30STM being bright as the sun. This is probably a mastering issue. But then again it should not being sounding dark after the mix.

Best suggestion would be get some reference material and play it up against your tracks. It's a very humbling practice but can improve your ears (i.e. what to listen for in your mixes) dramastically.

30STM while not quite the same kind of music might be a good choice actually.


Hope this novel helps.


Dug the songs though dude.

Thanks brosef but I'm running out of time for those songs, well for battle of the bands anyway, maybe I'll keep hacking away at them

The hi hat is EVERYWHERE, but that's a bleed issue that I couldn't do anything about

Honestly everyone else's recordings in this contest sound like trash, and some of them are studio recordings too :P

The best way to deal with highhat bleed is to sample replace the snare with a sample you took from the kit or from a decent sample library. But I've never done it outside of protools unless you count drumagog. So it may be harder in other DAW's.

Are we talking hihat bleeding into other mics, or other instruments bleeding into hihat mic? Cause if it's the former - well, I almost never use a hihat mic at all. Overheads capture it just fine.

Conversation-hijack:

While we're on the subject, would people mind crit'ing my band/mix?

[url]http://www.myspace.com/thefearsband[/url]

I personally prefer the second one's mix and general sound quality. Oh, it's a pop/indie mix so don't expect massive guitars all over the place.

Sup lod?

Today I used my brush axe to do loooooads of weeding/clearing of the new house.

In a couple of weeks I'm gonna build one of these;

[IMG]http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/barbecue/main.jpg[/IMG]

SBT: Sounds pretty slick dude.

Yea man you guys sound

Needs some djent :D

There was supposed to be a good up there

Wanna be myspace buddies? :D Seems the the next step is networking and whoring friend abilities

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3oIiH7BLmg&feature=player_embedded

WHAT DOES DJENT MEAN

you ****ers have been saying it for years and I still have no idea

its that characteristic poopty sound that bands like meshuggah and periphery use

27 string guitars playing two notes in a lethargic and inane pattern with drum beats that are lauded for being amazingly technical but are flat out ****