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twoday posted:When connected to a few pedals and an amp, what is the fundamental difference in sound between an electric guitar and an acoustic/electric? Acoustics lose all the low end through a normal amp and don't respond well to effects before the amp. The tinny buzzing sound that all acoustics get comes through much more than without amplification. The practical differences are that acoustics will feed back obnoxiously, especially with effects because they tend to boost the gain. You can mitigate these with an amp made just for acoustics along with a decent pickup, but you may end up negating the hollow, resonant quality by plugging the hole. I think the most natural acoustic sound is gotten with a microphone and being mindful of where you can sit/stand without feedback (hint: nowhere, just be good with muting). Acoustic guitars become less and less useful the further away your audience is. If the back of the room can't hear your acoustic without amplification, you should probably go with something like a hollow body that does much better through an amp. Even though you lose the "acoustic" sound and maybe can't do your full arm strums, the overall sound quality is better. Plus, people can stand within 10 feet of you without pain. Last thing you want to do is blow out a coffee shop with feedback and high notes that sound like rusty barbed wire. CalvinDooglas fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Nov 16, 2009 |
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Nov 16, 2009 22:04
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blustrat posted:You can get noise makers at General Store in your City Market District. Or hold your guitar up to the amp with the overdrive on and start knocking on the neck and head.
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Nov 18, 2009 23:45
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cat doter posted:Fret buzz is lots of stuff, mostly related to string tension but I'm curious if the strings basically sitting in a really 'comfortable' position would reduce things like that. I know saddles only really help with the feel and sustain of the guitar by a minor amount but every little bit helps.
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Nov 19, 2009 18:07
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gotly posted:What is the best way to transition from Guitar Hero to electric guitar? I can get expert on Dragonforce but when I bought my First Act electric guitar from Target (only $85!) it doesn't sound anything like Dragonforce. Also, is there a good guide to transcribe the different colored buttons from Guitar Hero to guitar tabs?? In case you're NOT joking: spend about 10 minutes in the Beginning Guitar thread, then 4 hours with your guitar every day thereafter.
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Nov 19, 2009 23:23
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Lately I've been using my bassist's (HAZ reissue) Mu-Tron III+ pedal and it sounds great, but it's a power hog. It takes two 9v batteries, but doesn't run at 18v, and the power supply just says "25v DC Max" with no indication of polarity or minimum voltage. Will any supply work for this?The Stygian posted:
Try changing the EQ on your amp to bring out the treble. This will sound strange when you play alone, but you'll be heard in a group. The EQ on your amp doesn't work the way the EQ on your stereo does, just by boosting the apparent loudness of certain frequencies. When you're dealing with an amp, the presence of the bass affects how the other frequencies respond. Too much bass and mids cause the tone to flat and thick, especially with humbuckers. As any sound guy will warn you, adding bass will also make your higher frequencies really muddy, and those higher frequencies are where you need clarity the most. Your compressor should go at the end of the chain, last thing before the amp. CalvinDooglas fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Nov 21, 2009 |
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Nov 21, 2009 15:20
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the wizards beard posted:This is basically the whole raw BM sound, why weren't you doing this in the first place? after reading the post again I should have added: Recreating any tone you hear on a professionally recorded studio album is a lost cause. It's not gonna happen. Let the bass play the bass, the guitar's best tones are in the alto/soprano range. I've found that EQing with low bass, low mids, and high treble (at least on my amp) brings out the overtones of the lower strings, which actually gives a deeper impression of bass than adding real bass to the signal.
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Nov 21, 2009 20:10
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Will the 9v compartment adapter on the 1Spot work with the HAZ MuTron III+? it takes two 9v batteries and it loses gain well before the batteries are totally worn.
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Nov 22, 2009 17:07
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Kramden posted:My guitar (and most guitars for that matter) sound like garden hoses during solos. How can I make it sound like a fire hose? That kind of playing takes a lot of technical confidence. Turn up your overdrive pedal or channel and practice playing at different dynamic levels. Written music uses at least 6 distinct dynamics - pp pianissimo, p piano, mp mezzo piano, mf mezzo forte, f forte, ff fortissimo. Those mean very quiet, quiet, a little quiet, a little loud, loud, very loud. You should be able to play them all distinctly, and the "burst" you're looking for will use f and ff.
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Nov 23, 2009 02:40
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Nelsocracy posted:Does anyone know of a good metronome or drum machine that can play swing rhythms? I'd like to be able to practice playing jazz to a semi-decent sounding electronic drum track. I'm willing to pay up to around $150.
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Nov 30, 2009 06:06
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Schlieren posted:Is this guitar wiring layout overkill or even possible?
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Nov 30, 2009 17:56
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Mr.Gorha posted:How do I go about promoting a band? They're not looking hard enough for gigs. You can get a gig just about anywhere, even if it's a poo poo gig. If there are places in a city that want you to sell tickets for them (and who sometimes charge you for unsold tickets), there are most assuredly smaller venues that will let most anyone play. Even in Denver, a metro area of over 1 million, 50 is a big draw for one band on one night Most of the places that expect you to draw are actual music venues. They want national acts and local bands can't expect to get into those places for a while. If this band wants to get out of town, all they have to do is pick up a newspaper and see who's got music that week. Breaking even might be the best they can expect right away, but it's how you start. Besides the actual legwork of calling bars all the time, all they can really do is get a demo together, pimp their myspace, and work hard enough to sound good.
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Dec 2, 2009 03:15
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butros posted:Ok dumb reverb tank replacement question. Are tank reverbs universally able to be swapped out just by disconnecting the plugs and putting in the new tank, or are there some reverb tanks that you need to solder in? The one on my Blues Jr. just unplugs and I'm wondering if that is the industry standard. Either way, you know yours plugs and you shouldn't have any trouble finding parts compatible with a current, popular Fender amp. Even if you get a lovely tank, it's just a box with a spring inside, it won't damage your amp.
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Dec 2, 2009 22:05
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What is appropriate to pay for a crappy 4 track recording device that I can line out to my computer? Any reliable brands? I've got like $50 or less to spare for it, but I and the band need a way to record casually. I would use Garage Band, but I get terrible latency, and my speakers are broken so I can only hear system sound with a 2 second delay through AirFoil. mezzir posted:And i realize that would seem to fit in PYF, but ideally it'd just be something from musician to musician of what type thing you listen to when you're in a rut or what song you just heard that broadened your horizons or what'd you just hear that you think is a cool idea you want to emulate or think other people could use to hear. Any interest anyone?
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Dec 3, 2009 19:01
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1830 posted:
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Dec 5, 2009 02:05
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scuz posted:My guitarist has a "line out" on his amp. To plug it into the mixer, do I use an instrument or a speaker cable? If the amp's speaker automatically shuts off when the line out is used, you might want to mic the amp to preserve stage sound.
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Dec 15, 2009 20:45
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scuz posted:The problem is that we don't have a mic to spare in our rehearsal space I'm not even sure I've owned an amp crappy enough not to run both. Are you trying to run the guitar through a PA for practice? might be a little overkill for a small space.
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Dec 15, 2009 22:36
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In any case, it's a tube amp, so I don't think the speaker would be turned off, would it?
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scuz posted:It's for recording. We have 3 microphones and 4 things that need a microphone (we've only got one on drums) if we wanna record them. The drum mic is hilariously bad: a Shure PG58 with a taped-on windscreen. Pictures are in the rehearsal space thread. We need more/better microphones and we are all broke and it's depressing as hell. If you're multitracking there's no need to mic everyone at once, and you really shouldn't because of bleed. If you're doing live takes, I'm not sure I'd even bother with the drum mic because they'll be on every track regardless. Mixing a line-in with a bunch of ambient mics could also sound a little weird, since the line-in will lose all the room noise/bleed, which causes it to sound very "up front" and unnatural in an otherwise live mix. The easiest and least bloody way to do that recording is probably to record the drums first, then everyone else record to the drum track. You can then use all of your microphones to separate the bass and hi hat (trust me this sounds great), and mic all the instruments. The more stages you can separate the recording into, the more you stretch your equipment and get better quality. The trade is time and energy, but it's better to put in a lot of effort and get a decent recording than some effort for a worthless recording. You also don't need a windscreen indoors.
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Dec 15, 2009 22:57
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scuz posted:Sorry, I made you type that whole words out That's the grill, watch out for rattling. If you are using a dual cassette, you can still record the drums separate. Record them onto one track, the rhythm instruments onto the other, mix the two down to one tape, then record your leads and vocals on the empty track and mix them down again for the "master". You sacrifice some quality, but it does eliminate bleed and might save your band a number of takes.
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Dec 16, 2009 04:41
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Also when I say windscreen I mean the thing that screws on to the microphone where the diaphragm is. Like the difference between the SM57 and SM58 is its windscreen. What do you call it?
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rockear posted:Another possibility is to just do it live. Get a good balance going in the room first. Take your best mic and systematically record some samples from different placements in the room. Pick the one that sounds the best - shows the best balance between the instruments, and doesn't have any crazy frequency peaks or nulls - and record that. If you have two decent mics you can pan them out and get stereo.
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Dec 16, 2009 18:45
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rockear posted:In my experience I'd rather have the "mojo" of the band playing together than the modest quality increase you'll get from bouncing on a cassette deck. When we did live takes in the studio, we ran into the other side of that problem: after so many takes, the band just loses chemistry. I don't think there's any perfect way to record with a band, so much of it is trial and error.
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Dec 17, 2009 00:52
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Pocket Billiards posted:I'd also like to know what Sibellius is like for making sheet music. I've used Finale, but not Sibelius. They're both software for professionals. It really depends what you intend to do with the music. If you're writing music in multiple parts or want to share it with others, you should use software so you can check what you wrote and make it look nice. If you're just interested in writing down ideas, it's totally worth the effort to get good at writing music by hand. Software is excellent for things like scores, where you can't see errors at a glance or play all the parts yourself to check, but it's a little overkill for one or two staves at a time. Once you become fluent in writing down music, the only real advantage of software is that it makes your music presentable. I've had various copies of Finale for years and more I write down music, the more I prefer to do it by hand.
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Dec 18, 2009 13:15
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Who does good, not too expensive custom guitar pedals? A week ago I lost all of my pedals and cables and over the next few months must rebuild my collection piece by piece. I'm open to new stuff, but it's got to be good. True bypass, no bleed, roadworthy, reliable. I had a Keeley TS-9 and will definitely get more Keeley pedals, but who else does good custom/mod work?
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Dec 19, 2009 20:40
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mezzir posted:Apologies for the bump but got damnit this is still bugging the poo poo out of me and I've had no luck identifying it whatsoever Well if Shazam doesn't recognize it's either jazz or not popular. As if there were a difference.
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Dec 22, 2009 20:42
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black_mastermind posted:Oh, I have no complaints! I will be buying from that dude again, for sure. Sweet pedal kits, concern about my soul... what more can you ask for? Are these things roadworthy? I've got precious little experience assembling electronics. I need something that can take two rehearsals and a show every week.
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Dec 24, 2009 20:06
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scuz posted:
I owned a Crate half stack for a couple years in high school/college and am very glad I sold it to buy a Mesa. It was all tube, pretty much a Marshall copy, but it just never sounded very good. Always a little muddy, and then something started going out on it and it became useless. My current amp I've had over twice as long and has done much better for me.
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Dec 28, 2009 19:47
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crate is awful nobody should own one
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Bubba Fuzz posted:I have a guitar related question, and this seems like a reasonable place for it. My ESP EC1000 has been giving me some trouble. Playing anything past the 12th fret sounds terrible, especially on the high strings. The notes buzz and are out of tune. At first, I thought it was an intonation issue, so I tried to make adjustments. Then I noticed that even my 12th fret harmonics were out of tune. This is the first time I've encountered this, and didn't even realize it could happen. What adjustments did you make? How old are the strings? If this is like other ESP/LTD guitar, it probably has really low action from the factory and medium sized frets. That combination will make your guitar more prone to buzzing in the first place. You could probably set the action a little higher than the factory adjustments and be fine. You can make your own truss adjustments, but in my experience it's not going to be a miracle cure and it takes a lot of patience. By the time your guitar is due for a setup, which it definitely is now, the truss is one of several things that will be adjusted. It also takes more than a few allen wrenches to set up a guitar. Your ear and a normal tuner are going to have a very difficult time discerning pitches as precisely as what a professional guitar tech should use, a strobe tuner. It's extremely sensitive to minute differences in pitch that your ear can't hear accurately because of the difference in tone between the harmonic and fretted note.
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Dec 28, 2009 23:43
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Mokracy posted:But the basic idea is playing the barre chords with strings 1 and 2 played open. Very, very common technique. "Coffeehouse Singer/Songwriter 101" right here
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Dec 30, 2009 17:23
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JD posted:Can you guys recommend some some blues with pretty easy rhythms to sing and play? I know Jimmy Reed, but I was hoping for something a little less poppy. Any blues standards should be pretty easy. Caledonia, Sweet Home Chicago, Born Under a Bad Sign, Matchbox Blues, Stormy Monday, One Way Out, Big Boss Man, Crossroads, Got My Mojo Workin, Shake Your Moneymaker, Killing Floor, Baby Please Don't Go, I'm a King Bee. There are tons. Once you get the rhythm parts they're simple. If you play and sing you should just go to some blues jams and pick up a few tunes, they get played all different ways.
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Jan 3, 2010 21:10
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Gorilla Salsa posted:Man, you have to post this as school is starting up? Here's 4 measures. That'll be Gah! no offense dude, but you gotta learn some notation or get better software! TWO staves, man. Gotta use the grand staff for the piano. Also, that's not what the pianist is playing.
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Jan 12, 2010 18:28
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mrbradlymrmartin posted:You should learn to count. That's 4 bars. CalvinDooglas fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Jan 12, 2010 |
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Jan 12, 2010 23:41
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Twlight posted:I bought an AC15 a while back and it's starting to sound like I need a new set of tubes. I didn't buy the amp new, but from ebay so I assume it's been a while since the tubes have been replaced (if ever). What types of tubes do you guys suggest? And would I be able to replace them my self or would taking it to a tech be the best option? Tubes take forever to go out, I'd look at your EQ, rig, and tube bias first. The first two you can do, and biasing tubes requires a tech (though it's almost always done well before installation in an amp). See if they are microphonic, that's pretty much the point where you NEED to get them replaced. Microphonic means the tubes pick up physical vibrations from their environment, like a microphone. When the amp is on turn the reverb all the down, rap your finger near the tubes, and listen for popping or miniature thunder sounds. If the tubes pick up your tapping, they're way old and need to be replaced. Replacing tubes is the easiest thing in the world. Just pull them out, take note of the order left to right and whatever numbers are printed or written on the tubes, and find the models somewhere. Getting different tubes will change the sound of the amp, so changing tubes is a chance to make bigger changes. Your amp has two power tubes and two preamp tubes, you're probably looking at about $75 to replace them all, so it's well worth your time to inspect closely and see which tubes, in any at all, need to be replaced.
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Jan 18, 2010 17:31
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Twlight posted:I've unplugged everything from the amp to make sure that the noise is still present and it is. I've noticed it at multiple different eq settings on the amp as well trying move pedals around shift guitars etc. I've got it isolated to the amp it's self. I think I'm going to buy the tubes from Eurotubes, as someone in another thread suggested. Microphonic sounds? Hiss and hum aren't more likely to be caused by tubes than a number of other parts. My amp went out a couple months ago and I was convinced it was a tube or tube socket, but it turned out to be a number of small, unrelated parts that had failed.
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Jan 18, 2010 22:33
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Twlight posted:Sometimes tapping the side of the amp will quiet the noises for a short while. If physical force changes the sound, it's probably not a tube. Something being physically loose inside a tube would be catastrophic (as far as little tubes go) and make some pretty awful noises, not static. If you can pull the amp circuit chassis out of the box, look it over for corrosion. I recently fixed a boost pedal just by scraping some corrosion that was causing a short. It's tempting to assume that the replaceable part of the amp is what's most likely to fail, but that's not always the case. Tubes are very sturdy and will last years before they wear out, during which time any number of moisture or heat related issues can ravage the circuitboard. Does your friend have a tube amp you can plug yours into? They'll all be the same type of tubes - EL34 power and 12AX7 preamp . Take note of the position of each of your tubes and swap them one at a time with the tubes in someone else's amp. For preamp tubes, use the socket nearest the power tubes. This preamp stage is amplified by every other preamp stage, so flaws will be most apparent there. We don't mean to harp, but you probably don't want to shell out $75 for spare tubes.
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Jan 20, 2010 03:29
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Ferrous Wheel posted:While we're on the subject of tubes, does the hivemind have an opinion on eurotubes kits? The stock set in my ValveKing 112 is nearing the end of its useful life (four years old, not great to begin with) and buying a readymade set would save me a bit of time. If I'm going to pay a huge premium for it though I'll just buy them individually like a normal human being. I was only seriously considering the regular set- I don't want ultra high gain and the "gold pin" option sounds like expensive bullshit. Your biggest choice concerns your tone. If you get different 12AXsomethings or get the same tubes with different hardness, your tone's going to change. There are a variety of 12AX preamp tubes, so you've got some shopping around to do. CalvinDooglas fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Jan 20, 2010 |
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Jan 20, 2010 21:52
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Ferrous Wheel posted:That does remind me though: I like to use a 12au7 in my Tubeworks overdrive and I'm in the market for a new one (tube that is). If the "testing for low microphonics" isn't bullshit I might pay for it because the stompbox can get very noisy, for obvious reasons. Maybe better just to grab a big box of the things on ebay and use the ones that are good though. Thoughts? I'm not familiar with other types of preamps, so I can't comment on those ones. Microphonics probably aren't your tube pedal's problem unless it makes noise from being knocked around. A microphonic tube in an amp would be much worse because the amp is vibrating the tube, which isn't the case with the pedal. I don't know that a tube tested extra hard for microphonic qualities would reduce line noise from a pedal.
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Jan 21, 2010 00:25
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Ferrous Wheel posted:@ Dooglas: It does make noise from being knocked, along with every other type of noise a pedal can make. It gradually gets worse and worse until finally it just screeches nonstop. This has happened several times, always after putting in a fairly large number of hours on the pedal. Each time replacing the tube has fixed it. Maybe I've been fixing something else without knowing though, I'm not sure. I've thought about replacing the transformer as well just because the pedal is always pretty noisy.
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Jan 21, 2010 05:41
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mrbradlymrmartin posted:Clearly you should get a modular synth and the nicest vocoder money can buy guitar because nobody's going to go out and buy a piano. But if you do have access to one you can practice on, play piano.
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Feb 3, 2010 18:27
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Syjefroi posted:I got my first commercial-writing gig today. Never done one before, but the music they need is pretty simple so I'm not too worried. My current composing software will not easily get the job done though. I'm looking for recommendations on a program to use. My specifications:
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Feb 12, 2010 06:03
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h_double posted:I'm pretty sure Finale supports VST plugins, if all you need are some better sounds. If you have access to a studio, maybe you can rent a few minutes and plug their MIDI stuff into your score. CalvinDooglas fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Feb 12, 2010 |
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Feb 12, 2010 15:14
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Syjefroi posted:Yeah, I have Garritan, but that's why I'm looking for something else, because Finale is good for making music look good and any effort put into it to make it sound good is a waste of time I think. how'd you get this gig anyway? do you have a degree or reputation for writing music?
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Feb 12, 2010 20:18
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