Small Questions Which Don't Deserve Their Own Thread

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > Small Questions Which Don't Deserve Their Own Thread

ChristsDickWorship: Dec 7, 2004; Annihilate your demons

for a porkchop posted:

I recently got a Yamaha Stagepas 500, and there's a warning on all the speaker connections to use '500s only.' They look like regular 1/4 inch cables, but I've found I often wish they were longer. What is 500 referring to? Is the 's' a plural or some other identifier?

Just make sure you buy 1/4" speaker cable and not 1/4" instrument cable. The label is most likely telling you not to plug them into a different amp, has nothing to do with the cable.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2009 23:33

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 04:37

ChristsDickWorship: Dec 7, 2004; Annihilate your demons

No. 9 posted:

I'm recording a guitar direct from my Fast Track Pro, I'm not really good at this -- but how loud should I typically be recording (dB-wise) when clean before running it through compression and effects? Right now I have a feeling that it is way too quiet (before effects).

You generally want any recording to average right around -18dB in a 24 bit recording or ideally -12dB in a 16-bit recording. Obviously you have to turn down if you're clipping on peaks, but that's the general rule of thumb to keep you well above the noise floor when you're mixing a bunch of recorded tracks.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2009 01:28

ChristsDickWorship: Dec 7, 2004; Annihilate your demons

Ninja Toast! posted:

Well, if you leave it on long enough/in the heat practically any tape will leave tape goo on stuff, but there's ways to get that off usually.

Painters tape is basically supposed to not leave crap behind, trade off is that it isn't terribly sticky. I've used it to mark stuff I've brought to public events where there might be more of them so that I get mine back with no ill effects, but those are typically plastic.

Still probably your best bet. http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Scotch-BlueBrand/Scotch-Blue/

I don't care if you learned to play properly or not. Have fun.

I think spike tape would be pretty ideal. The adhesive might stick around if you left the same piece on for a few dozen sweaty shows but if you changed it regularly or went at it with a cloth it would come up. It's the kind of tape historic theatres and whatnot will let you stick on their floors and walls. Spike tape and gaff tape come in lots of colors, stick way better than painters and artists tape and don't leave significant residue. They're also cloth so they are tactile which might help for this intended purpose.

Everything musicians use duct tape for they should probably actually use gaffer's tape for, but it's way more expensive. Way better for muffling drum heads and making quick fixes that will be properly addressed later.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2010 23:21

ChristsDickWorship: Dec 7, 2004; Annihilate your demons

Jerky Beef Kong posted:

Edit: Cutting the ground pin from laptop power cable will fix it, but I'd rather not do this. And don't have a hacksaw

The noise you're describing isn't a grounding problem, ground buzzes sound like what's coming out of the amp at about 2 minutes into this video. Pops and clicks in digital audio usually means something is out of sync, like you're recording at 48Khz but your output is trying to sync itself to 44.1, or one of the internal clocks just doesn't get along with the other and the samples aren't lining up.

Do you happen to have your speakers plugged into your onboard soundcard while your inputs are plugged into your USB interface? What kind of interface and drivers are you using? This kind of thing is one of the reasons interfaces with real ASIO drivers are necessary, especially with Windows. Windows is horrendous for causing things like this if you're using WDM drivers.

# ¿ May 17, 2010 00:33

ChristsDickWorship: Dec 7, 2004; Annihilate your demons

Crudus posted:

I will admit being guilty to not having read all the way through the thread to see if this has come up, but I think my questions are just esoteric enough to warrant their own post.

I am planning out a sort of three stringed electric guitar like instrument that I want to build as a project this summer. Unfortunately three stringed pickups don't really exist. In my research I've noticed that some bass pickups have a "split pole" design where there are two poles in the pickup on either side of the string (like this). I have tried looking for the interior schematics of these pickups to answer my questions but my Google skills are falling short.

If possible, I'd like to use a six string guitar pickup in a manner similar to the way these split pole bass pickups have a pole on either side of the string (two poles for each of the three strings). What I'm wondering is whether or not the poles inside of these pickups are wrapped individually or wound together in sets somehow. Articles I can find on pickup-winding are kind of confusing in general, and I'm not even sure how being wrapped one way or the other would make a difference.

My last question has to do with range - I'm not sure whether my instrument will have thicker bass-like strings or ordinary guitar strings... it seems that if I could use a six string pickup for three strings in the manner described, a thicker string would be picked up easier by the spaced poles. Obviously pickups are designed to suit different frequency ranges, but I'm not sure "how low I could go" with an ordinary guitar pickup before it would sound like poo poo. (I realize this second question would be best solved through experimentation.)

Thanks to any electricians/guitar techs who can help me out.

This project sounds really cool, I wish I could help more with specifics. You may know this, but PUSA plays a "guitbass" and a "bassitar" instead of bass and guitar, which are 3 and 2 stringed instruments on guitar bodies that incorporate both bass and guitar strings. A lot of people have tried to build them on their own after these guys, you may be able to pick out some of your basic "which strings and pickups work well" by digging through some of those sites.

# ¿ May 25, 2010 13:33

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 04:37

ChristsDickWorship: Dec 7, 2004; Annihilate your demons

h_double posted:

What's the easiest/most economical way to record video which I can sync to audio recorded on my DAW?

You mean recording both at the same time? Do it like they did it back in the day:

You know the cliche cartoon scene where the guy runs out with the slate in front of the camera and says "Scene 4, Take 20 aaaaaaaaaan ACTION!" and claps the thing shut? That was used to sync everything before timecode. Once all the tape and film was up to proper speed, the stage manager would run out and clap the slate. In post, multiple cameras would be sync'd to the first frame where the slate appeared closed. That point would be lined up with any audio recordings based on the impulse of the thing slamming shut.

Nowadays the slate is a part of the timecode process in that it visually shows the timecode and clapping it shut often starts the code rolling at a particular predetermined point.

So basically, you can sync everything with a clap, or if you're recording MIDI or something, hit a drum pad obviously and sync the first frame where you're touching it to the triggering of the sample. Lower budget concert DVDs with no timecode sync to the first snare hit in a song and sync cameras with photo camera flashes or strobing lights after they change tapes.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2010 23:35

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