betamax

surprised it all works, wonder if thay carry spare ones?

im looking at putting about 4 synths (some old some not so old) into live action soon - the prospect of technical catastrophe is terrifying......tuning them to each other is bad enough from a cosy bedroom, never mind a manky dark wee stage with onlookers and soundmen muttering and tutting. Tis doomed I tell thee.

MPCs are great live. Its what they are designed for. Loads of flexibility, proper human/machine interface and ways of improvising everything on the fly. Add a few hardware synths and periferals with knobs and you are into sound creation chaos. Anything can happen. Thats more live than a rehearsed band imo. PCs however should be outlawed for the creation or performance of music and are the domain of homos.

Whats wrong with Torry?

My amp is scared of it.

Im selling

A Fender 4 x 10 Deville combo (Silverfaced) 60 watt Combo Guitar Amp

Its as new, and has been uprated with Jensen speakers and all new improved valves (Upgrade from Watford valves cost approx 200quid)

Ive owned it for a couple of years and it is a stunning amp.

Cost about 650 when new and this one sounds better than a new one by a long way.

Its got the vinyl cover and the pedal too. Will sell for 400.

PM me if proper interested like..............

Can deliver to anywhere in Aberdeenshire (except Torry obviously)

I may be selling a Nord Lead 2

Soon

Shits from a height on all the synths previously mentioned.

Will revert when I know when and how muchos dosh I need for it

Yo

Does it do samples?

Not sure - but its unlikely to have a sample import facility (If it does I want one too)

However it should be able to send midi messages, and if so, it can trigger samples on any remote sampler - thereby creating a wonder-kit of your choice*

Note: Any midi equipped Drum machine can speak to a sampler the same way

*prob much easier than using triggers on a conventional kit for example (nightmare unless you have a 6 hour soundcheck and drum techs)

I watched "The Queen" with Helen Mirren on Friday and there's a scene where Blair's on the phone to Lizzie, trying to convince her that it would be in the nation's best interest if she made some sort of statement that might help the public "cope with their grief"

"Cope with their grief ???" roared Prince Phillip, "what is Blair talking about, they never even knew her. Have the public nothing better to do ???"

A dramatisation maybe, but summed it up perfectly for me, especially as the movie was interspersed with real footage of stupid cunts bawling their eyes out and talking of being "in shock" or being "devastated" - no doubt the same Great British Morons who just about break their legs getting to the newsagents to gleefully buy the very gossip magazines that spent their very existence trying to discredit the woman by printing tawdry articles and photos.

That shite on Saturday just perpetuated the whole media circus.

Lest we forget.

Spot on like

The real tradegy here is the people who seem to want to wallow in it are the same fucking morons who actually perpetuate the paperazzi culture. God, the whole thing smelt of fakeness, hypocracy and simpering media over justification.

One is thoroughly embarressed by it all madam. etc

James Hewitt.

When I was working as a ''chef'' at posh BBQs my Glaswegian assistant chef (who was staunch scottish nationist and anti royalist), on seeing James Hewitt ambling towards our food stall, added several large stringy bogies (he had an appalling hay fever that day) to a cheesburger and waited untill Hewitt came along for his food. Bingo. Hewitt took the bait and enthusiastically wolfed the weegie snot burger down, nodding at us in patronising approval of our culinary skills.

Nothing to do with me mind. I just witnessed it. No way could I have stopped this. My assistant had a knife (a small white plastic one)

The gig was shit other than Nelly Furtado doing Maneater. Elton Mong should fuck off back to his rent boys and all of the acts should be put into a grinder. Apart from N.E.R.D.

That day has well and truly arrived, at time when self-publication and internet distribution is becoming increasingly important. You've got the situation where serato/final scratch/ableton live has widespread adoption, DJ's are getting tracks straight from the artists and playing them out in clubs (in some cases even paying out of their own pocket to get dubs cut of unsigned tunes they really like so they can play them out in the traditional way).

I realise that sounds very specific to a certain type of scene and a certain type of music, but anyone can put their material on the digital distribution bandwagon now, and there is a tradeoff at work here. You can cut out the middlemen, the big labels, but who is going to bring your audio up to commerical quality if you don't get with the times and take responsibility for it yourself? The alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

That all makes sense to me. Exiting times ahead. Especially if all the middlemen are cut up so badly they die in the gutter buried under a pile of big labels. It will hopefully trancend all genres in time.

Ive had my own stuff bootlegged by club DJs and its a lovely feeling. Fuck the money Im not getting. Seriously. Its how music should be shared. Like oxygen, love and germs.

If you want to get just one good preamp, go for the Focusrite ISA220, it sounds amazing, I thought SM57's were shit till I heard it through it...the EQ is also very good, particularly suited to vocals and accoustic guitars. It also makes a great DI for guitars and bass.

I will be happy when I have the Brauner VM1, thats the vocal mic I'm after....if you buy one of them I'd record at yours for 150 a day

Very true that the SM57 only comes into its own with a decent pre-amp. My old set up sounded shit. I kinda blamed the qual of the mics sometimes but since Ive had a decent pre-amp and a good A/D interface it all sounds 100% better. Prob true of most mics - you can only get the best out of em if the rest of the set up is decent.

Only mic I use a lot is the SM57 and can recommend it for consistantly good results (warm sounding) and not much $ (Ive got some posher ones that dont sound as good basically)

I only record vocals, electric guitars and amped synths like

Drums, cymbals or bass might need something diff / more specialized

I'll help ye oot

sorry too late mate

slot filled

some guy who used to play in new order just phoned me from the job centre

wooo. 3 people so far i've met who like them. they're so loud! (right now i've got an abletonmidibeatmatched LFO controlling the filter cutoff, through which I have plonked my bass guitar. daddy!

In the context of the orig question regards synth quality related to value for money - the pulse+ is probably it - not amazingly versatile but in terms of making some brilliant sounds for not much cash its the one Id start with (and did - pulse+ was my first proper synth). Liked it so much ill end up with another one sometime.

Alternatively theres always the software synth avenue, which is prob an even cheaper and more flexible route, but thats a whole diff genre in my head anyway, and def not something Im that well informed about, having tinkered for while before putting a fist through the screen (nearly).

Ive always said id love to work with a proper producer, not someone who tracks up as well, just someone who's job is to make the track come alive,

Im lucky enough to have worked with three 'proper (ish) producers' over the years. These guys are smart like and always have a studio chimp (aka engineer) to set up the recordings and do the multitracking and editing. The type of blokes who just address the rest of the room with instuctions and comments, like '' THATS FUCKIN SHIT - CHANGE IT TO THIS.... DONT FUCKIN ARGUE '' and ''THATS A FUCKING NICE TAKE, MOVE ON, TIME IS MONEY'' and ''HAHAHA WE'LL HAVE TO GET SOMEONE WHO CAN ACTUALLY SING IF YOU WANT TO DO A CHORUS LIKE THAT''. Its def works.

I aspire to have a job like that one day.

seengs as this is now general synth discussion, what are some good reasonably priced synthesisers/keyboards that can produce decent 'organic' tones. 10EW are trying to get into some keyboard orientated stuff, but we don't want it sounding like New Order or any lame fizzy synth rubbish. It needs to sound warm and raw, and fuzzy if needs be. I saw some dudes playing some sort of Nord and it actually sounded really natural and nice.

whack any synth into a decent fuzz* pedal and will tend to sound warm fuzzy orgasmic etc

*but not distortion or overdrive - it will turn the synth into a guitar.

waldorf pulse+.

Exquisite machine.

Germanic techno / Detroit techno heaven.

I one used two in parallel - immense.

Sold mine when skint but may have to re-purchase one.

Is that not absurdly cheap for a Moog?

No

Its just a micro moog not a mini moog

its like a stripped down minimoog only capable of a couple of sounds - basically fuzzy synth organ and synth bass, really simple when it works and beautiful to look at (black leatherette and 70s formica finish) - I suppose it should have cost me more but the bloke who sold me it didnt know the diff between a bontempi organ and a modular synth

if anyone on here knows anyone who can fix synths Id appreciate it like - its a hard wired synth and Im sure a wire or two have just come loose, so it should be repairable unlike a modern one

A drummer should be able to sound better* than a machine. Most can't. The ones that can are like fucking gold-dust. Does anyone know any? I want one for some gigs later in the year.

*better = groovyness, knowing when to be busy and when to pull back (dynamics), integration with the actual song, coolness of the sound of the kit itself, energy (ie no beer), lots of make-you-wanna-dance-ness, and most of all the ability to keep it simple but make it sound good. A brain is often also useful.

Another thing not mentioned, room acoustics...... Recording in a nice sounding room or a 'dead' room is preferable also.

For example: I recorded the same singer two weeks running. The 2nd week, I placed a number of large pieces of foam around the room the singer was recording in. There was a recognisable difference. The voice was a good bit 'clearer' and slightly more 'powerful' sounding. The room wasn't that bad for echos in the first place but even that tempory D.I.Y was worth doing.

I get the same benefit by hanging duvets in the room - makes a massive difference to the miked vocal sound compeared to a un-duveted room. Much more clarity / presence. For recording vocals - the deader the room the better I reckon.

Cost is not proportional to synth goodness

My 3 favorite synths are:

Casio VL Tone - payed 8

Access Virus TI - payed 1300

1970s Moog Micromoog (in need of repairs) - payed 110 (plus impending repair bill)

No price relationship at all.

Some amazing sounding synths are really cheap. Some expensive ones sound shite.

Funcionality is what often comes at a price tho. More flexible and useable sequencing, control and programming options usually equals shitloads more cash. This is why God invented samplers.

Synths should look good too. That usually adds some $$$.

bump.

also, how much studio time do you allocate for the mix? Do you produce the mix on the same day as you record?

Id say a general answer to most of your questions is a general NO. Ive found that the local studios Im aware of dont do the proper mastering of which you speak or indeed have said gizmos.

Im the same as them - when I do my own recording I dont master it properly other than whack it through Wavelab and beef it up a bit. Reason: I dont know how to master ''properly'' and dont know anyone who can (locally). Ive had some commercial released tunes mastered professionally down south and they do indeed shit all over the unmastered mixes so I know the difference, but at the same time dont know any local facility that could do it.

As for mixing - I spend ridiculous amounts of time if the track is benefitting from it - and very little time if the track hits a brick wall or reaches the quality Im after really early on (quite rare). Knowing when to stop is the hard part. Diminishing returns and all that.

Im sorry but am I the only one who thinks that someone who thinks its ok to batter away on a drumkit for hours (or indeed years) in a residential area is a fucking moron?

Lucky for you it was just woman with kids youve pissed off. Drums up your arse would probably sting a bit......

Try rehearsing in a proper reharsing space - not a fucking housing estate.

Christ. My beleif that 99% of musicans are thick self centred cunts has just gone up another percent.

Looks like Viduka is off to Newcastle too. From a Boro persepective I think theyll be glad to see the back of him. Massive wages for a player who only seems to actually play football during contract renewal talks. The rest of the time hes anonymous/injured/a bit too fat.

thats a bit cynical

this is a global TV corporation we are talking about

im sure they are not like that.......

Thing is, after the Jade and Shilpa thing why on earth did they think it was even remotely a good idea filling the house entirely with women?

They'll kill each other by Friday.

Thats what I thought, but then its prob designed to give the tarnished reputation of the state of the nations female youth a chance to redeem itself, given it was widely condemned by the world media after Jade race hate mob fiasco. Most foreign people now think that Jade is yer average young british female. Uneducated, spoilt, ugly and opinionated. Its almost correct. But this lot seem like a diverse crowd of oddball freaks so could distract from what happened in a positive way I suppose. Some are interesting and have the potential to be good car crash telly - but non of them are likeable. I admit I may watch a few....especially when the fights kick off. My moneys on the nedette pot head to batter the porno twins.