|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 14, 2015 14:26:56 GMT -6
Thanks -- there was another one on CL for over $2000, so $1300 looked reasonable in comparison. Probably have to avoid vintage stuff since I can't really babysit this purchase, and the buyer won't really know what to look for. (unless someone on this site has something they want to offer up ) Maybe I'll put a up WTB ad for them if their time frame can stretch a little.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 14, 2015 14:17:03 GMT -6
I assume this is the standard mechanical detent, and not actually a stepped pot, which means it's not exactly 'resistive recall', but maybe close enough for most purposes. If true, you can probably measure minute (0.0x-ish) gain differences every time you reset to the same location. Hopefully it won't set off my perfectionist tendencies... I looked on digikey and the most positions on a grayhill switch was 24 and the cost was about $70/each, so I guess we won't see those in any affordable equipment anytime soon, let alone a 40 position switch... I imagine that would take up an enormous amount of space on the pcb if such a thing even exists.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 14, 2015 14:13:38 GMT -6
A Bassman head will let you play around with cabs and speakers, that's where all the fun is. Hendrix used a Bassman on Voodoo Child with Steve Winwood. I would definitely go that route if I was buying for myself, but I think he needs something in the next couple weeks, so I'm not sure that will work. I did find this one though on craigslist.... were there both 50 and 100 watt bassman heads? winstonsalem.craigslist.org/msg/5021596964.html
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 14, 2015 13:47:35 GMT -6
Edit...I just saw the Category 5 price list and they appear to be over budget....for most people. Wowzer. Personally, I would look for a deal on an old Fender. That Tsunami amp looks like just the ticket if it weren't for the price. Definitely something to keep in mind
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 14, 2015 13:33:50 GMT -6
mrholmes -- Never heard of Bugera -- I'll check that out. ragan, which Dr Z amps would you recommend for that style? Maz 18 jr? I'd like to give him a higher end option in case he can come up with the money -- Thanks!
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 14, 2015 12:58:44 GMT -6
I'm trying to help a client purchase a new amp... he's in high school, so budget is limited, but he was getting ready to buy a Marshall half stack, which I didn't think was a great idea considering he's a SRV style strat player, and I'm guessing the basic marshall tube amps are garbage anyway. I've seen a lot of people recommending Dr Z and Bad Cat, but those are probably a little out of the price range. Probably doesn't matter much if it's a combo or head (in which case, I'd probably advise him to get an avatar cabinet). Speaking of which, what speakers are people using for this style of music? I've always used vintage 30's, but they've never really wowed me. He'll be using the amp live in small venues and for recording, so I'm not thinking a ton of wattage is needed. Maybe somewhere in the 20-50 watt range? Nothing too fancy or digital... just a basic tube amp with a couple tone controls, and maybe reverb. I see that SRV played a Fender Super Reverb, but are the current re-issues worthwhile? I would assume there's something better for the money. Blackheart? Divided by 13? Diezel? Orange? So many brands I know nothing about..... I've played guitar for 20 yrs, but I'm way out of the loop
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 14, 2015 12:13:50 GMT -6
Finally got this loaded up in Cubase last night..... what a fantastic voice! Reminds me of Guy Garvey from Elbow (one of my favorite bands)... and also Peter Gabriel. I'm going to try to do a mostly ITB mix so I don't upset my other project going on right now. This is gonna be fun
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 14, 2015 12:01:59 GMT -6
Ask your doc about maniere's disease. Docs miss it a lot. My mom has it. Wreaks all kinds of motion/balance havoc. Both of my parent's have been diagnosed with meniere's which is odd since it's not contagious and affects 1/10,000 people... Their doctors speculate that it may have been caused by low level carbon monoxide poisoning from an incorrectly installed water heater than ran for years before anyone figured it out. My dad has had a lot of hearing loss as a result. He was able to get his symptoms under control by limiting his salt intake.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 13, 2015 19:42:05 GMT -6
Can anyone with the Warm EQP comment on whether the gain knobs are detented or fully variable? I'm assuming fully variable, but I'd be more interested if there were detents. wiz? yes, detents. cheers Wiz sweet, thanks -- can you say how many positions there are in between the markings on the silkscreen? I'm trying to figure out if I'll be able to do recalls visually, or if I'll have to count the clicks for each knob.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 13, 2015 11:32:12 GMT -6
Can anyone with the Warm EQP comment on whether the gain knobs are detented or fully variable? I'm assuming fully variable, but I'd be more interested if there were detents. wiz?
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 12, 2015 12:18:44 GMT -6
Dibs on the first unit.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 9, 2015 0:24:01 GMT -6
Everybody's gotta learn somehow. On that note, did the OP say if he was planning on being the AE for this studio, and if he had any recording/mixing background? Seems like a large amount of money to spend if you don't even know if you'll like the work that will be involved. I don't mean to be discouraging, but not everyone has the patience or disposition to spend hours automating or pitch correcting a vocal, or manually editing drum tracks, or listening to the same 2 seconds of a song on a loop trying to figure out where a weird noise is coming from......... this is often very tedious work. I don't think most people would want to do it if they really knew what was involved. (Of course, this may not apply as much if you're just trying to make demos or non commercial music).
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 8, 2015 17:16:34 GMT -6
Lastly, the single most important reason to buy from ZenPro is the huge bag of Zen Blend coffee you're sure to get if you spend $20k! If you don't like coffee, I'm taking any and all Zen Blend donations. Seriously, I want your Zen Blend... anyone reading this, please send me your Zen Blend coffee. I need it. There's a 12 step program for that Step 1 Order more gear from Warren Step 2-12 keep repeating! Exactly! I'm just worried my wife will figure out that all of my studio expenditures have just been an elaborate (and very expensive) scheme to get more of my favorite coffee.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 8, 2015 16:37:15 GMT -6
Absolutely true about monitoring. If I had to do it all over again, I'd buy better monitors first. You have to be able to hear everything you are doing. I bought mics and preamps and never understood why professional equipment like that never sounded much different from the cheap stuff... And nothing every translated. Dumbass me just kept buying gear while listening to the same junk monitors. Zen Pro is a pleasure to deal with, and so is Warren...we don't always 100% agree on matters of taste, but we do more often than not hear things in lock step. Hell he's probably "right" when I'm "wrong" more often than not since he does nothing but test gear all day every day. One other plus of ZenPro is they carry GIK acoustics, which are hands down the best panels for the money. Furthermore, GIK will help you set up your room for free. Years ago when I was getting started, I sent them pics and drawings of my room, and they were extremely helpful in making a plan to get the best treatment within my budget. And their lead acoustical engineer, Bryan Pape, has helped me several times over the years when I've changed rooms and needed to figure out how to make best use of my panels. www.gikacoustics.com/contact/Lastly, the single most important reason to buy from ZenPro is the huge bag of Zen Blend coffee you're sure to get if you spend $20k! If you don't like coffee, I'm taking any and all Zen Blend donations. Seriously, I want your Zen Blend... anyone reading this, please send me your Zen Blend coffee. I need it.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 8, 2015 14:04:31 GMT -6
If you insist on doing all this at once call war at Zen pro Audio. I would love to see what he would do, I picture a 500 series's rack full of goodies and a rack full of Warm ! +1 on this.... Zen Pro won't steer you wrong... and those B-stock PSI monitors they have now would be worth checking into. Spend the most on monitoring IMO. I believe they also do custom PC's which I'm sure will save you a lot versus the sweetwater recommendations.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 8, 2015 10:17:24 GMT -6
Watched the other (better) netflix Hendrix movie last night.... 'Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Comin' .... much better than the Andre 3000 'biopic.' Among other thngs, it covers the sgt pepper show, and has interviews with Mccartney, and lots of others.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 7, 2015 22:36:33 GMT -6
I'm really intrigued by the home roasting. Sounds like something I would enjoy. If anyone wants to talk home roasting in more detail, feel free to PM me -- I love talking coffee. And now for my starbucks spiel... the real sin of starbucks is over roasting everything.. it's win-win for them because dark roasted coffee is easy to roast consistently, keeps longer, and cuts through milk easily with that smokey bite. They can also buy dirt cheap beans since you're only tasting the roast, not the bean. Unfortunately, so many people have bought into the starbucks hype that they think very oily darkly roasted beans = premium coffee, which couldn't be further from the truth. Like ragan said though, I'll definitely buy their coffee in a pinch.... it's usually not terrible, just overpriced and not special. If you want really good coffee (and don't want to roast your own) buy from someone that roasts locally and stamps the roast date on the bag (2 weeks after roasting, it starts to lose it's flavor fast). Or buy from one of the mail order places like muddy dog coffee that roasts right before they ship out. For the polar opposite of starbucks coffee, try some lightly roasted coffees like a Kenyan or a natural processed Ethiopian.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 6, 2015 23:11:22 GMT -6
I found this video too, last night after watching 'Jimi: All is By My Side' on netflix, which is apparently riddled with inaccuracies and fabrications.... but still kind of interesting.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 6, 2015 23:06:57 GMT -6
My fave is the aeropress (inverted) -- all the benefits of french press, but quicker and really easy clean up. Plus you can grind finer and brew stronger since it's got a paper filter. Electric kettle is a must for either though. Chemex is another good option if you want to make more than 1-2 cups, but still have easy clean up.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 6, 2015 0:16:07 GMT -6
So are you guys roasting your beans at home in the oven?
I am intrigued but my wife would probably think I've flipped if she found a 30 lb bag of green coffee beans in the kitchen.
I started with a $14 popcorn popper a few months ago, but it had a very small capacity, so I upgraded to a used Behmor 1600 (dedicated coffee roaster) which can roast up to a pound at a time, and looks like a toaster oven. I got one used on the coffeegeek forums for about $150. It takes 15-20 minutes to roast a batch, and the Behmor has smoke suppression, and coupled with a strong range hood, it's doable inside (wife tolerates it anyway). Most places (sweetmarias.com, burmancoffe.com, happymugcoffee.com) sell in 1lb quantities with discounts for larger quantities. The green beans stay fresh for 18-24 months, so buying a lot at once isn't really an issue. If you're already buying high end coffee ($10-$15 a pound), then roasting your own can save you money pretty quickly. It's not hard to get good results either... the coffee I'm roasting is as good or better than anything I've bought before (with the possible exception being the elusive subject of this thread).
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 5, 2015 20:30:16 GMT -6
I roast my own beans from raw green stuff, hows that for DIY? Me too! Check out happymugcoffee.com for the best green bean prices I've seen so far... frequently $3-$4 a pound depending on the bean (and usually certified organic/fair trade/rainforest/yada yada). I have about 30 lbs of unroasted beans from them, and some more coming in the mail. This coffee addiction is cutting into my studio budget.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 5, 2015 16:24:10 GMT -6
Sweet looking (and I'm sure sounding) mic! Entered.
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 5, 2015 15:38:17 GMT -6
"bereft of depth and breadth" I think I might have to steal this line for a song lyric (all in the spirit of Led Zeppelin of course)
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on May 5, 2015 13:34:16 GMT -6
I just stumbled upon this Page interview from guitar world in the 90's. It's a good read, and covers a lot of the production side of things: www.iem.ac.ru/zeppelin/docs/interviews/page_93.gwQuote on engineers involvement: "Glyn Johns was the engineer on the first album, and as I mentioned earlier, he had a bit of an attitude problem. I'll tell you what he did. He tried to hustle in on a producer's credit. I said, "No way, I put this band together, I brought them in and directed the whole recording process, I got my own guitar sound -- I'll tell you, you haven't got a hope in hell". And then we went to Eddie Kramer for the second album and Andy Johns after that. I consciously kept changing engineers because I didn't want people to think that they were responsible for our sound. I wanted people to know it was me."
|
|
|
Post by mdmitch2 on Apr 30, 2015 23:16:51 GMT -6
Don't get me started on the Zen Blend........ There's something special about that coffee that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. I've been trying to talk Warren into telling me his supplier for years, but he won't budge! Although he has been very generous in supporting my addiction over the years... especially when I bought a set of PSI monitors Watch out for the caffeine though... even seasoned coffee addicts have been known to get a buzz off of zen blend.
|
|