HairyScaryMark

I have Guitar Rig 2. My verdict is. Distortions and amp models are ok but tendency to get either a bit muddy or excessively trebbly depending on how you use them. When you learn how to tweak the settings better it becomes less of an issue. The effects I generally do not rate that highly and tend not to use them in favour of other (many of which are legal free downloadable) effects. The reverb and chorus is generally beaten in quality by the ones that come free with my DAW or free downloads. It also eats up processing power in a big way, unlike any other VST plugin I have. It works with some guitars really well and others not so well. There is some stuff you can legally download for free such as, not tried any of it but it might be worth trying out. Voxengo Tubeamp download Studio Devil Guitar Amp Plugin for VST, Audio Units, and ProTools RTAS! I downloaded a DS-1 model from somewhere which seemed pretty decent as a source of distortion but I haven't actually used it on guitar yet, just messing around with other things. Can send you it on MSN if you want.

Nothing shall stop me from attending this gig.

Sorry, never look in that forum. Guess I should have.

I heard a rumout that Blaze Bayley will be playing in moorings bar in Aberdeen. I went onto his website and found this Congratulations, this is the most amazing thing ever. edit: I haven't been into bar for a few weeks and it is maybe postered in there already for all I know. I also got confused to which year it was and was convinced 2009 was next year.

What makes you think the OP can play 'properly' and wont beak them too? (Sorry to OP if you aren't good at breaking cymbals) It is maybe just coincidence but most of the broken cymbals I've came across have been Zildjian cymbals and a lot of people seem to buy them by default, without exploring the other options properly. disclaimer: I'm not a drummer I just know a few.

I am not a real drummer (I did Grade 1 and ocasionally mess around on my sister's kit) but most of the drummers I know seem to be awfully good at breaking Zildjian cymbals. They all play mid/lower range Zildjian and I suspect their higher end stuff is better. I think they sound ok-ish but in my view most would be better getting a minimal set to practice with (costing less than the Zildjian stuff) until they can afford to splash out on the higher end stuff. I bought a set of cymbals from thomann for about 80 a few years a go which a drummer I work with thinks sound better than most of his Zildjian cymbals. It is not great but they are not easy to break and I have even used them on some recordings.

I don't mean to be negative but your sound blaster is really not made to record audio. You might be able to get it to sound ok-ish but there is likely to be problems with latency etc. A Firewire or USB2 recording interface is generally a better option for this purpose. Only things I can suggest is to decrease your sample rate and look through the options in your control panel and see if there is anything you can change. Also check the options in your recording programme to see if anything you can alter to improve performance.

It is deffinately a hugely ridiculous idea. The money could be spent in far better ways to improve public safety. There are two things we can do; Avoid attending the places which have these tests on principle. Do not give the people in the council who approves these measures our votes (I cannot do this howevr as I live in Aberdeenshire).

Without meaning to sound stupid. Is there a way of telling which gigs are 14+ and which are 18+ in advance?

I have Guitar Rig and I would recommend saving your money and buying a half decent real amplifier if you don't already have one. You can get a Fender Super Champ XD for just over 200 and it contains 2 6v6 and 1 12AX7 valves. Guitar Rig 3 costs about the same. In my view, most of the effects that came as standard with my DAW are of higher quality than the ones included with guitar. Guitar Rig also eats up your processor useage like no other effects plugin I have. I have found you don't necessarily need a particularly powerful computer, depending on what sort of processing you use. Guitar Rig, some compressors and other effects are hugely processor intensive. Most effects I use however do not make a great deal of difference until used in mass. I would recommend the computer route as you are generally going to have to use a computer at some point anyway to convert it to digital (i know there are some exceptions). The other alternatives tend to have far more limitations and less options for expansion. Also, you will never get the best sounding recording rig on the planet irrespective of how much you spend on equipment. Reguardless of whether you go for tapes, standalone digital or computer recorder... you will need a set of speakers or headphones to mix with. Many people say headphones are not ideal, this is true but in my opinion you are going to get something of better quality if you spend 100-150 on headphones vs the same money on budget end monitors. Standard hi-fi style headphones will not be sufficent for mixing.

It is quite a pity but I shall make an effort to check out some of the gigs you have lined up Favourite memories for me are the Lemon Tree gig with Karloff, which was the first time I saw you guys. The 'An Evening wtih Black Atom' gig in Moshulu was also well and truely epic. Seem to recall the other bands that night were We Shall Be Blessed and Godplayer. Thrashist Regime have been really good when I saw them but haven't heard any bands involving any of the other members (apart from My Minds Weapon, which isn't really my sort of thing although they are good at what they do)

Based on the results I have heard + reports from other people. I would suggest going to The Mill. Neil is fairly widely repsected and the equipment is of good quality. I also believe he is easy to get along with.

Weatherspoons (Justice Mill or Archibald Simpsons) is the best value i've seen. Something like 2.99 for a cooked breakfast. The orange juice was about 99 and Coffee 69p, last I checked. The quality has always been fairly good when I have had breakfast at weatherspoons also.

I believe Musicroom.com - Sheet Music for Musicians will let you purchase sheet music online of a single piece of music, download it and print it off. I did it on one ocasion but wished I just bought the book in the end.

Really good performance and song. Great you found a bass player finally.

I went in on Saturday and didn't really enjoy the two bands I saw very much but mainly they were just not to my taste. STill was a good place to hang around but decided to leave before end of 2nd band we saw. I cannot remember it being full of neds or anyone complaining about paying to get in,. 3 is quite good value for money in my opinion although didn't like the bands very much on this ocasion. Usually there is at least one band I like however and seen some great bands there. Still by far my favourite place to see bands in Aberdeen.

Add a De-esser (usually anyway, see below for link to free one) Use a fast compressor (many default settings tend to be far too high, 25-40ms maximum). Signal chain of vocal channel De-Esser>Compressor>EQ> high pass filter it to 150 or higher. Find the harsh points in voice and EQ them out providing they aren't the important details. Find the nice parts which 'cut through' and emphasise them). Make new effects send. Always use reverb in an effects send as it allows more flexibility. It is also good to share reverb between differnet instruments as it adds to the sense of the music being performed in the same space. Set your effects sends to post fade also so you are not adjusting the volume of the dry track when adding reverb. Signal chain of effects send EQ>reverb>gate As you said 'sparse' you may want to try this if the singing is not too 'busy'. Otherwise go for a more subtle and shorter reverb) EQ (high pass filter ~500) Reverb (predelay is probably useful and make time over 1 second) Gate (attack time - 0 unless your reverb processor doesn't have a predelay function.. release time - however long you want your reverb to be before cutting out suddenly). Set your gate threshold not that far below where the singing level usually is. If that sort of reverb doesn't work. Try a shorter one without a gate. A high pass filter is very important with reverb however as bass is likely to muddy up the mix. digitalfishphones.com - free audio effects plugins This site has a good De-Eser, Compressor and Gate which is also free. As you said electronic music you possibly will wish to use more 'unusual' effects. I would however recommend getting the basic tracks to sound good first before venturing into these too heavily. Make an effects send yet again and use an envelope/automation to control the level of the send throughout the song. You might get the most effective results by having this effect coming in and out at the 'intense' parts. I would suggest trying chorus, resonance and automated filters.

If you already play an instrument you are possibly best saving up for the next model beyond the bottom one (i.e fender mexican rather than squier). It will last you longer and not feel the need to upgrade to the same extent.

I find the ticket price for some gigs, particualrly the bigger gigs to be unreasonably expensive. Some of the medium sized gigs seem to be catching up also. I also don't like the really big gigs as they tend to be unpleasant, people stand far too close together, push to front, throw stuff around, push people to be 'rock n roll' and generally are not very enjoyable from my experience. At least not the indoor ones. The more established bands tend to have higher ticket prices as they can get away with it. The newer bands want to attract new fans so ticket price reflects this. Personally I would like there to be more gigs, people to attend more gigs and the prices to be lower to encourage this. If live music is in fashion, this is good for bands of all styles.

Maybe you have a point but I find it unlikely that an educational tool actaully makes people sound similar. It is more likely the vocalist lacks the imagination to add their own individuality to their work...... In my view, education in music is there to help rather than to act as a set of rules.

I would recommend learning how to use your fingers becuase I much prefer the sound of playing bass with fingers. It is a preference however. It also opens up a whole variety of things you cannot do with a pick. Being able to do both is preferable. Try to go for consitency with dynamics and learn some classic bass lines and then learn how basslines are constructed.

Thank you. I am no means an expert but unlike many supposed experts I believe I can explain what I have done in the past with some degree of sucess. I really must emphasise something I've already mentioned. Honestly do not try to tune your kit lower or higher than your kit wants to sound. A lot of people playing heavy rock seem to think they need their kit to be really low tuned. Your kit sort of has to be made for this if you are going to do it and you wont really get a good perception of how 'low' your drumkit sounds acousticly in your bedroom vs some pro band on a recording. Also if you are a double kick player, a really low bass drum is likely to sound muddy. Try the beater skin being quite low and the resonant head being a bit higher. That way you can get some 'click' to the sound although that quality largely comes from being mic'd and EQ'd in the right way. Some jazz and lighter rock players try to go for the most high and subtle bass drum sound around. This might sound great on your own but if your kit is not really made for it, it is likely to sound inadequit, even if that style of music traditionally has that. It is unlikely that you will overpower the sound with your bassdrum in these styles of music and you can get away with something lower than you might think.

After learning quite a lot about this in recent times I will write what i've learnt here. Taken from another guide. "19 out of 20 drummers will say they know how to tune drums. 18 of those guys are absolute total fucking liars." Don't rely too much on drummers for help. From my experience, even the ones who can tune drums are often not that great help.and will come out with stuff like "I just tune to what sounds good"..... Thank you drummer. I was planning to make them sound bad. There is quite a lot written about it of varying quality and I had to read a lot just to get the basics. Practice on your current skins before starting with new ones. You will learn a lot about the general process here without spending money on new skins. You should change your skins regularly. Never leave them on for more than 6 months and if you play a lot you should change them more regularly. Change the resonant head as well. Possibly not as often but still change it reguarly. I personally would start with bassdrum and then snare then move through toms but it is up to you. The reason I suggest this order is becuase you will discover it takes a lot longer to get them to sound the way you want them than you expected. There is a reasonable chance you will get stressed out and give up. Tuning the bass drum and snare first means you will at least have the 2 most important drums sounding half decent even if this happens. Either way they all must be in tune with each other so you are going to have correct it again later, whatever order you do it in. step 1 Put beater skin on drum. Make sure it is positioned nicely so it balances. Also, make sure it is actaully the correct size and not damaged. Also, do not put them on the wrong way round. It may be easier to cut a hole in your bassdrum skin now rather than later. A hole in bassdrum skin will allow more flexibility if you later decide to use microphones on your drumkit. Tighten skin a little bit so it stays on. Tighten skin conciderably until it is too high to realisticly be of any use. Push down on skin to stretch it even further. I know of some people who actually stand on their drum skins to do this. Leave it there stretched for a while. This should help it stay in tune later as it wont stretch so much and go out of tune while you are playing Loosen skin until it too low to make a nice sound when hit Tighten until you get the lowest useable note If you are tuning the toms, repeat process for all the other toms (and snare) and get them in tune with each other before going onto next part. Whatever you do, you will probably end up changing it later to some extent so try not to spend too long on this, within reason step 2 repeat step 1 for resonant head If you are short of time you can put them on at the same time and dampen the resonant skin with a towel. If you want a more boomy sound the resonant head should be lower. If you want a punchier sound the resonant head should be higher. step 3 Go through each drum and see how they sound as a complete product as part of the kit. Then analyise them further and examine how they sound vs what you want them to sound like. Keep adjusting. If you get them sounding fairly good, stop at that point unless you are sure you can make them sound better as you have just as much chance of making them sound worse. You will also probably have to adjust the tightness of the snare (the actual metal thing round the back of snare). This is not usually as simple as it should be and usually involves loosening the things holding the snare on, pulling on it at it then tightening it further Other tips Each drumkits will sound best with a certain tuning. Do not fight against this and try to work with what you've got. Check the pitches of drums with another musical instrument. Always tune the snare with the snare turned off. You may however need to adjust it after turning it back on Learn how to put on the skins properly. I know a fair few people who put their skins on the wrong way round (resonant head on beater side etc.) It is also importnat to make sure your skin is actually well placed on the drum as you attach it or else you will get problems. ALWAYS tune up the way.... The tuning will move much quicker and more accurately if you are tightening rather than loosening the skin. If you want to lower the pitch. Tune downwards a lot then move it up further gradually Use good quality skins. Adjust small amount at one time when going up. For example. even 1/16th turn may be enough to turn it at one time but it depends how near you are to what you want. Keep each tuning peg as equal as possible at all times but be aware that they do tend to move a bit after you tighten them so be prepared to adjust them indivually. Mentioned this before but it worthy of mentioning it again. CHANGE YOUR SKINS REGUARLY!!!!!!! Always do any major tuning at least 24 hours in advance of playing the kit for any serious purposes. Buy a Tama Tension Watch or similar and write down the readings you used EVERY time you tune your drums. This is a device which messures the pressure guage of your drums at each tuning point. It will speed up the process and allow you to achieve the same results at a future date a lot easier. Be patient. It will take a long time but will also make your kit sound like 10 times the drumkit it would otherwise be. It will be worth it in the end Be prepared to re-tune it later. Even a few hours of playing or dodgey weather can send the tuning of a perfectly good kit into oblivian.

I like the cathouse. One time the sound was good. The other time it was really bad. Maybe the time it was bad they used in-house rig or deaf sound engineer. I don't know. Both times crowd and atmosphere was good and has very convienant location.

Guitars Ibanez RG7620 7 string gutiar (I don't know why I own it but I like it) Schecter Diamond Series Jazz Elite Ovation Balladeer Acoustic Sansamp psa-1 pre amp marshall 2x12" cabinet various effects Keys Korg Triton Extreme Evolution MK-461 controller for when I feel like playing dual manual hammond or something else that requires 2 keyboards. computer various software synths and samplers from Native Instruments and M-Audio (i think i have 14 in total) Barratt And Robinson upright piano