The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[jibberish]

my sis was up from Ashland to deal with her house up this way and she brought my nephew up.  He is very into music and plays bass in a little HS band.  he is fearless, which is something I sort of envy. anyway. he plays bass through this little rumble 30w combo with a pedal to wring every db of midrange crap out of it and almost be heard. my thought: "aw hell naw"


also, he doesn't get up to guitar center often at all, so that in itself is a big deal. so I took him up to GC to play with the toys for a couple of hours.
What he didn't know was that I was going to surprise him with a better amp.  so we walked right past the hartke and mesa and orange and looked at fenders and acoustics, G-K, and some off brand bass combos. well this acoustic B200 was off the hook in that $500 price range. we sonically abused GC. I enjoyed that.
"here check out this stingray just to really mess your head up regarding what an awesome bass feels like" haha dammit I want one of those now too. that wasn't supposed to happen. this was a "NO G.A.S. for moi" day

acoustic B200mkII


so while he was messing around with all the other stuff, the sales dude and I bought it and snuck it out to the car into the back seat. my nephew didn't notice when we were leaving that there was now this giant box in the back seat (of a corolla). I was laughing.  halfway back to the house I was just reviewing what amps he heard and liked, with him, when he talked about that sick acoustic.  " so you really like that one huh?" "ya that thing was sick" "look in the back seat" "NO FUCKING WAY!" hahaha

I ran my schecter with th e active pups through it for the hell of it. it has input gain and a whole 'nother overdrive section. the 6 band eq with the massive distortion made some crazy sounds with the guitar.  so bonus, he could easily use it for guitar practice too. sounded fine clean too.


epilog:
I will never get my new turntable, but when he turned around in the car and went "no fucking way!" =priceless

I played with a tele and a LP studio(cuz I have those) through a 5 watt bogen for $199.....i'm going back for it. I wailed on that thing . it sounded wicked. but that day was not for me, so it stayed at the store. (actually black Friday and wtf Monday are onle 6-7 weeks away. I scored 2watt fender gretas for 1/2 price last year..i bet some more tube amps will be available for scoring . especially because tube amps are getting really mainstream again and china is on that shit like flies.

[RAGER]

Good on you jib.  Super cool.  When I got my nephew guitar amp distortion pedal a while back he was ecstatic.

[RacerX]

I'm auditioning for a guitar spot today.

That oughtta at least be good for blowing the dust off the big rig...

[JemDooM]

That's awesome jibb! He'll never forget that

Thanks for the thoughts guys, I think I just need these experiences to learn from, I need to work on my tone and put more thought into setting up volume and tone for bigger venues, iv only had this problem in bigger places, small ones are fine. I might need a complete tone/pedal overhaul, sometimes I think I have waaay too much gain from my overdrive and on the amp, I hate my dd3 delay if I'm honest, and I'm really limited as to the settings I can use on my amp without my leads going out of control with feedback. I'll get there heh (;

[RAGER]

I'll take that dd3.  It's a good delay.

[mortlock]

feedback can be your friend. its a major part of our sound..haha. sometimes its all we do.

[RacerX]

Well, I guess I passed the audition, but it looks like they want to scrap their material & start fresh, which is appealing to me because I can be involved in the writing process.

[mortlock]

what kind of band??

[RacerX]

Power trio. The direction is sounding more "stoner"/less "doom" than SANDIA MAN. More jammy/groovy than SM's lurching & pummeling.

[black aspirin]

Goddammit, I'm fucking done with Tracktion 4.  Ever since I upgraded, it has been nothing but a constant shitstorm of trouble.  It crashes around 30% of the time you play a track back, can't work well with BFD2 drums, and now it has started loading only 4 or so kit-pieces when I bring the track up, after saving all of the data before closing it the previous time.  On top of that, when I re-load the kit, now the snare sounds like a hollow piece of shit even though it has the EXACT same settings as another track, in which it sounds great.

And their customer service is horrible...on top of that, hardly anyone uses it, so getting videos or other tutorials on specific things with it is almost futile.  I originally went with Tracktion (and had fewer issues with Tracktion 3, but they switched companies, and now I can't even use the software I originally bought any more) because it was supposed to be so simple to use...but now I'm checking around to see what DAW to go with next.  One that is actually popular enough that I can get useful advice when I have a problem, like ProTools, Cubase, or some shit.  Spent most of the day finally figuring out how to get each kit-piece on the drums assigned to a different track, and then all of a sudden...crazy, unexplainable glitches out of nowhere that will force me to start all over again.  Almost all of the work I've put in over the last few months is suddenly fucking wiped out.  Other than the knowledge I gained about getting better guitar/bass sounds, etc...FUCK!!!

[Danny G]

Those new run Acoustics have some bang for your buck. I gigged for awhile with a B200H (the head version of that combo) while my SVT was getting fixed and was happy with it.

Then it just stopped working. If I had the money I'd get it fixed, take it out of the box and put it in my rack case as a backup.


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[RAGER]

Fuse?  Wire off some place?  Open 'er up and take a look.

[AgentofOblivion]

Goddammit, I'm fucking done with Tracktion 4.  Ever since I upgraded, it has been nothing but a constant shitstorm of trouble.  It crashes around 30% of the time you play a track back, can't work well with BFD2 drums, and now it has started loading only 4 or so kit-pieces when I bring the track up, after saving all of the data before closing it the previous time.  On top of that, when I re-load the kit, now the snare sounds like a hollow piece of shit even though it has the EXACT same settings as another track, in which it sounds great.

And their customer service is horrible...on top of that, hardly anyone uses it, so getting videos or other tutorials on specific things with it is almost futile.  I originally went with Tracktion (and had fewer issues with Tracktion 3, but they switched companies, and now I can't even use the software I originally bought any more) because it was supposed to be so simple to use...but now I'm checking around to see what DAW to go with next.  One that is actually popular enough that I can get useful advice when I have a problem, like ProTools, Cubase, or some shit.  Spent most of the day finally figuring out how to get each kit-piece on the drums assigned to a different track, and then all of a sudden...crazy, unexplainable glitches out of nowhere that will force me to start all over again.  Almost all of the work I've put in over the last few months is suddenly fucking wiped out.  Other than the knowledge I gained about getting better guitar/bass sounds, etc...FUCK!!!

Get Reaper!  It's basically free (an unlimited trial), there are tons of tutorials and plug ins, it's easy to use, and it's stable.  It sounds like you might be having low-performance computer issues.  On my old computer the VSTi drum tracks would only partially load at first and then once the computer had time to load everything into RAM it would start populating all the sounds.  Anyway, get Reaper RIGHT NOW.

[Danny G]

I've opened it up 2-3 times and nothing looks amiss.

Powers up, but the peak light stays on and no sound comes out of it.


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[RAGER]

Def a doo hickey gone wonky in there then.

[JemDooM]

You do have a point mort sometimes feedback is awesome..

Rager would you not prefer to buy the dd3 where you are for better postage costs? I have to sell mine and obtain another as closely as possible I don't want to be caught out without one, if you seriously want it name your price

aspirin I could not recommend studio one enough!

Power trio!!!

[Danny G]

Def a doo hickey gone wonky in there then.

Ain't dat da troof. I'm just hoping it doesn't cost more to fix than what I originally paid for it


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[Corey Y]

So, my friend who plays guitar and sings in Mental Waste has rheumatoid arthritis. He got diagnosed several months ago, but it's for sure now, they ruled everything else out. We recorded 10 songs for a split over a year ago, wrote a few new songs and recorded one in January for a compilation, but nothing since then. He has so many problems with joint pain in his arms, shoulders and wrists that he doesn't really feel like picking up a guitar most of the time now. We've always been a very low key band, recording only and no expectation of gigs, but now we're pretty much dead in the water. As slow as we have gotten stuff done so far, we've actually done way more than any other band I'm involved with. Just because there's no b.s., minimal members, once we start working on music it's done and ready to release pretty fast. Now I'm wondering if I should offer to pick up the guitar and primary writing duties and have him just write lyrics and sing, hang in there and see if we can ever get around to writing new material again or just dissolve the band. Personally I care more about his health than the band, but as of now I have 3 bands for over a year with releases seemingly eternally in progress, never writing new material, rarely practicing, never playing shows and usually with at least one member who can't really participate full time.

[mortlock]

http://therochesterinsomniac.com/2013/10/01/pairing-up-guides-to-local-music/
the pairing of bands to drugs. this is a cool article..my power electronics band, foot and mouth disease got mentioned.

[JemDooM]

that is a fun article

Corey sounds like you should definitely suggest that to him, he might be glad you did as its a way for him to carry on, that really really sucks...

[Chovie D]

Goddammit, I'm fucking done with Tracktion 4.  Ever since I upgraded, it has been nothing but a constant shitstorm of trouble.  It crashes around 30% of the time you play a track back, can't work well with BFD2 drums, and now it has started loading only 4 or so kit-pieces when I bring the track up, after saving all of the data before closing it the previous time.  On top of that, when I re-load the kit, now the snare sounds like a hollow piece of shit even though it has the EXACT same settings as another track, in which it sounds great.

And their customer service is horrible...on top of that, hardly anyone uses it, so getting videos or other tutorials on specific things with it is almost futile.  I originally went with Tracktion (and had fewer issues with Tracktion 3, but they switched companies, and now I can't even use the software I originally bought any more) because it was supposed to be so simple to use...but now I'm checking around to see what DAW to go with next.  One that is actually popular enough that I can get useful advice when I have a problem, like ProTools, Cubase, or some shit.  Spent most of the day finally figuring out how to get each kit-piece on the drums assigned to a different track, and then all of a sudden...crazy, unexplainable glitches out of nowhere that will force me to start all over again.  Almost all of the work I've put in over the last few months is suddenly fucking wiped out.  Other than the knowledge I gained about getting better guitar/bass sounds, etc...FUCK!!!

customer servie is horibkle, their forum is run by a jackass too, or was at least.
Tracktio 2 was so fucking awesome...its was like a virtual porta-one  wiht unlimited tracks...juts obone simple ..perfect.
Then TRacktion 3 cme along adn added all this extra crap. I knew it was th beginning f the end and told them so, for which they banned me from their board LOL 
a couple months later the product was discontinued. i was shocked to see they had revived it and mad a trcktion 4 . Im dreading the day my ancient computer dies and I have to give up tracktion 3, and probably my toneport too.

next time I will go with a more universally used DAW, probably some version of pro tools.

[RAGER]

Might try out playing synth for a progy/metal/rock type band that's just starting oot.  I used to play in a band with one of the guitar players a few years ago.  They sent me 3 tunes to work on so we'll see.

[black aspirin]

Get Reaper!  It's basically free (an unlimited trial), there are tons of tutorials and plug ins, it's easy to use, and it's stable.  It sounds like you might be having low-performance computer issues.  On my old computer the VSTi drum tracks would only partially load at first and then once the computer had time to load everything into RAM it would start populating all the sounds.  Anyway, get Reaper RIGHT NOW.

I might give Reaper a try.  When I sent the rep from Tracktion my log of crashes, he informed me that it was an internal issue with BFD2, and that I need to contact them as to why it's having problems with crashing, and using so much memory that it gives me memory error messages and won't always load all the kit pieces.

All I can say about my computer is that it's a brand-new iMac with 16GB total memory, and a little over 8GB of free space.  Perhaps I have something configured wrong, sure...but most of the advice from the Tracktion rep is, 'Here's a video on plug-in usage', or 'Here's a video on rack filters'.

The rack-filter thing seems to be the best solution, and I watched the video and read from the manual...but when I did everything exactly as laid out, the rack only connected with a little more than half of BFD2's outputs.  I pointed that out to the Tracktion rep, and he recommended the very same video I had used to get to that point without addressing why it only connected with some outputs and not others with any real answer.  So far, their protocol is, 'whatever they ask you, just recommend a video that's somewhere in the ballpark of the question, and hope they don't ask any more questions'.  All of this is just a total drain; I wanna have fun recording at home, and all I'm doing lately is dealing with one stupid computer glitch after another.

I guess for now, I will talk with FXPansion about BFD2 and the problems I'm having, tell them what I was told by the Tracktion rep, and see what happens.  But my suspicion is that each company will blame the other.

[lordfinesse]

Get Reaper!

+1.  While Cubase is still my primary daw, I use Reaper a lot. It's really easy to use, and the stock plugin package has some pretty cool stuff. Since it's free, there's really no reason not to at least try it.

[Danny G]

Getting together with prospective bassist for Ocean of Stars tomorrow. Wish her luck.

Hope she kicks its ass cause I'm tired of looking for a darn bass player and want to finally start moving forward.


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