Best Ever Albums

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

RoundTheBend — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 12:41:01 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/30/2018 16:41

That do sound nice.

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

Tha1ChiefRocka — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 01:32:59 GMT

Author: Tha1ChiefRocka

Posted: 03/30/2018 05:32

Quote:

that's really cool.... really great, but like... why punish yourself? chops before props - i dig it, but it doesn't have to be one or the other. then again, i suppose that's your style. rugged. raw. all that. and that's cool too. i don't think you should mortgage the house to pay for the custom or noth'n like that, but when i can afford to upgrade a little here or there, i like to... there's nothing more inspiring than a new amp or a new guitar or a new delay pedal. i can't imagine playing on a cruddy drumset just cause.

1. I play drums for a hobby. I don't play in a band or consciously attempt to write any music for artistic or monetary value.

2. I'm in college and spending money on anything other than food, drink, and shelter is very limited. I spend any fun money on going to concerts generally.

As soon as I get a steady job and a little extra scratch, I know I'm going to spend it on fixing my drum situation.

My dream would be to have this kit. Kick drum sound is a little flat to me, but my god, the toms are god-like.

Link

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

RoundTheBend — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 19:23:10 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/29/2018 23:23

Pretty much.

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

craola — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 03:43:13 GMT

Author: craola

Posted: 03/29/2018 07:43

sethmadsen wrote:

I agree that gear means squat if you can't play and sometimes people get really good at knowing gear and are missing the whole aspect of soulful playing.

It's a bit like an artist who only has charcoal or a pencil to create with. A great artist could create something absolutely beautiful with nothing else. Maybe even the medium is a sidewalk or a napkin... and still it's amazing.

But artists often like to play with their palate or medium too... and when they do, they often explode into something amazing.

I mean, that's the whole spirit behind the MTV Unplugged series... can the songs/artist sound just as good/stand on their own, completely stripped down?

i agree with pretty much all of this.

all around, some great points raised about learning to play your instrument, and i 100% agree with that.

.......but the gear is fun too. and so many of these great albums we listen to wouldn't be nearly as special without the tools these folks were using. jimmy hendrix is a household name in part because of how he turned glitches into sound effects. pink floyd was using the best gera on the planet. ok computer and kid a are gearheady albums to the max. boards of canada. you name it. heck - shoegazing, post-rock, ambient and electronic music are so tied up in the gear, they couldn't exist without it. so gear is a fun part of the process, and if you get turned off by geekspeak, maybe find a different thread. i dunno. i suppose neil young's aesthetic revolved around one old beat down guitar, so if your strokes run that way, all the better for you.

learning to make a bad instrument sound good is a great goal. making a great instrument sound good is pretty awesome too though. i've heard plenty of bad musicians make great guitars sound terrible and great musicians get crud guitars to sing.

Tha1ChiefRocka wrote:

I have a real shitty drum kit that I've been playing for years. My thinking is that if I can make IT sound good, then I must be a pretty damn good drummer by now. There is a hole in my 10 inch tom, my crash cymbal broke, and I never replaced it so, I only have the one ride cymbal, my kick pedal is basically broken in half (but still works) and my hi hat is all sorts of weird. I can probably do more with less than most people.

YoungPunk wrote:

I almost learned how to make bassoon reeds, does that count?

i bet i could spend a lifetime pondering this question and make no progress.

ETA: i would argue as well that every piece of gear - whether it's a guitar, a snare drum or a delay pedal - has to be learned, practiced and studied. throwing a bit of delay on your guitar isn't going to make you suddenly sound good if you don't know what you're doing with it. in a way, it's a whole other instrument and ought to be respected as such. the edge didn't make his career by slapping a delay onto the end of his chain. he learned how to maximize the potential of his delay, essentially writing songs around the delay rather than the guitar.

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

RoundTheBend — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 01:19:11 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/25/2018 05:19

I agree that gear means squat if you can't play and sometimes people get really good at knowing gear and are missing the whole aspect of soulful playing.

It's a bit like an artist who only has charcoal or a pencil to create with. A great artist could create something absolutely beautiful with nothing else. Maybe even the medium is a sidewalk or a napkin... and still it's amazing.

But artists often like to play with their palate or medium too... and when they do, they often explode into something amazing.

I mean, that's the whole spirit behind the MTV Unplugged series... can the songs/artist sound just as good/stand on their own, completely stripped down?

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

Anonymous — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 22:22:50 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/25/2018 02:22

I have some Korean-made Fender electric/acoustic bass that I occasionally noodle around on. When I do plug it in, my fiance has an Alesis Quadraverb and a Boss RC-300 that I can play around with. We run it through some Fender keyboard amp. She's got quite a few other instruments and things lying around, but that, the mbira, and the marimba are mostly what I mess around with.

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

LedZep — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 21:05:37 GMT

Author: LedZep

Posted: 03/25/2018 01:05

Gear is definitely important, for sound, image and partially for technique/proficiency. But it's basically what Chief said, if you can make a terrible instrument sound good, you're good. I own a Gibson LP 2012 50th Anniversary version. Chocolate brown, no fancy finish, it's pretty worn and I love it. I also have a little Vox 40+ (practice amp, I rent/borrow gear for gigs) and a terrible Yamaha multi-effect. I do most of my setups on amp or digitally cause that Yamaha f-ing sucks. I'm still a student so when I win a lottery or get my first payment, proper gear will be the first thing I'll buy 😁

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

Graeme2 — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 20:36:07 GMT

Author: Graeme2

Posted: 03/25/2018 00:36

Tha1ChiefRocka wrote:

This. I get really turned of with a load of geek talk. It sure helps if you have the cash to splash and the know how but that last sentence is what it's all about for me. I have a nice fender jazz bass but I'll play through any set up (I don't have my own amp) and still sound great. Also that's the bass I'm stuck with and I'll make it work in any situation (nearly). Of course certain gear and pedals are essential to create the exact sound in some styles.

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

RoundTheBend — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 13:37:44 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/24/2018 17:37

Oh poop... I just realized I messed up the SG and the Precision bass... oh well. If anyone cares I'll explain.

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

bobbyb5 — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 03:06:46 GMT

Author: bobbyb5

Posted: 03/24/2018 07:06

This is so fascinating to me. I don't know ANYTHING about any of this stuff, so it's interesting for me to hear people talking about it. Maybe I'll learn something.

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

RoundTheBend — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 01:51:42 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/24/2018 05:51

Why the different basses (imo) and why they are worth having (hopefully you heard the differences in the video)... and why a bassist might consider broadening their palate with these tone monsters.

Gibson SG: known for it's "mudbucker", to give really deep and boomy neck pickups sounds (absent in the video because it looks like he playing closer to the bridge pickup)... also this wiring configuration is probably the best:

1962 Fender Jazz: Jaco makes the more unique sound of this bass famous, but it's actually pretty versatile to bring in the mids (almost) from a precision bass, but then brighten it up with . The neck is a beauty to play.

StingRay: the first "modern" bass to use active pickups (also developed by Leo Fender, but sold as MusicMan).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Rickenbacker: your mom likes this bass... just kidding. It's the sound of lemmy and the rush dude... hehe... Paul McCartney also used it... idk... it's a very versatile bass, just like the Fender Jazz, but somehow maintains the growl of the precision that (imo) is lost when you go from precision to jazz.

Danelectro: made from masonite, and hollowbody, along with a short scale and lipstick pickups makes this bass ring beautifully with a very unique tone.

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

RoundTheBend — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 01:24:52 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/24/2018 05:24

Also, I have yet to play through a more versatile, warm, PRESENCE GIVING, smooth bass amp/cab than the M6 Carbine and a Powerhouse Cab (I have the 6x10, but they all sound amazing).

What I love most about the amp/cab is you can really dial in the tweeter, as well as the voicing: it has a dial on it that you can control using a switch, and revoice your mids on the spot - either a huge scoop down or up, or a small scoop down or up... and anyone who plays bass knows how important those mids are to the character of what you are playing.

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Link

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

RoundTheBend — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 01:04:30 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/24/2018 05:04

These are the things I like as a bassist (also if you pay attention to bass, that's typically why I like the music I do):

This has crazy ability to dial in to the mids and get lots of different tones out of them:

Link

I also like this sound:

Link

I haven't played much around with this pedal line, but really think the Hot Hand is something really cool at 2:33 (the rest is interesting, but the Hot Hand is really cool):

Link

Also this guy, imo, is the best of all the gear heads:

Link

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

Tha1ChiefRocka — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 20:50:56 GMT

Author: Tha1ChiefRocka

Posted: 03/23/2018 00:50

I have a real shitty drum kit that I've been playing for years. My thinking is that if I can make IT sound good, then I must be a pretty damn good drummer by now. There is a hole in my 10 inch tom, my crash cymbal broke, and I never replaced it so, I only have the one ride cymbal, my kick pedal is basically broken in half (but still works) and my hi hat is all sorts of weird. I can probably do more with less than most people.

Re: Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

YoungPunk — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 20:14:45 GMT

Author: YoungPunk

Posted: 03/23/2018 00:14

I almost learned how to make bassoon reeds, does that count?

FOR STARTS

craola — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 13:40:06 GMT

Author: craola

Posted: 03/22/2018 17:40

to kick things off, i'm a talk 'bout this're SSD Devices Atom Smasher. from the website:

Quote:

The Atom Smasher is a digital delay pedal, reverb pedal and micro-sampler. It's supposed to be odd, noisy and as pleasant or unpleasant as the user desires. It came about simply because I wanted a number of 'exotic' or experimental guitar effects in a single pedal without having to take up much pedal space. If the patches seem a bit random, well, they're the ones I found myself using the most. Although this is a pedal I built for my own amusement, hopefully you will find something to love about it yourself!

There is a waiting list for pedals as they're built one-at-a-time, so to add yourself to the waiting list, use this link. The cost of the pedal is £180, and an extra UPLINK expansion pedal (here's a short demo of it changing sample length) can be purchased for £25 with no additional shipping cost. There's an option for plain metal or white enclosures for the UPLINK controller - I prefer plain, but it's up to you.

So what the hell is it, right? It's got 8 modes:

STUTTER

GLITCH

DUAL PITCH DELAY

PITCH SHIFT

*note: favorites in bold.

This pedal looks INCREDIBLE, right? Weird, versatile, unique, et cetera. After reading a lot about the pedal (including reviews and the manual) and watching several videos online, I really wanted one of these pedals. I added my name to the wait-list last year and realized this could take a long time, so I messaged the guy who makes these pedals. Sure enough.....

It turns out, there are hundreds of people on the wait list, and SSD Devices is one guy's hobby (the guy works two or three jobs and has a band he's trying to get off the ground), so... it would probably be several years before my name came up. If you want one of these pedals, good luck. I ended up grabbing one (thank you, /r/letstradepedals in return for a pedal I wasn't using).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

This is by far my favorite pedal ever, and this guy is a genius. He's mad. But he's a genius.

Gear Talk (Effects Pedals, Modulators, Sequencers, et al)

craola — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 13:27:18 GMT

Author: craola

Posted: 03/22/2018 17:27

for many of you, this music obsession goes well beyond connoisseuring, and i've heard some brilli stuff from the lot of y'all, and i'm always game to hear what gear grinds your gears. what pun?

i got into a bad habit of occsnlly cluttrng my music diary with tonehead nonsnse, so I'm startng this thread instead.

any of your thoughts on anything gear-related welcome (favorite use of an effect, best tone you've ever heard out of a synth, most versatile sequencer you've ever laid your eyes on, strangest use of a theremin, OMG i want to buy this!, OMG i just bought this!, here's my review of Montreal Assembly's Count to 5 and other comments like this are totally in the belong category).

in general, discussion good. links and pictures and videos are good. you know the drill. have at it.