Gear Aquisition Zone [buy/sell/swaps]

sponge · Post by **sponge** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 6:18 pm 0

http://www.uaudio.com/products/digital/ ... index.html

This thing is fucking awesome. The best software vocal compressors, ever. And a space Echo.

Ok, I MUST NOT BUY ANYTHING ELSE!

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 8:38 pm 0

Blimey! You've got some superb stuff recently. Full on mastering suite studio now!

sponge · Post by **sponge** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 8:51 pm 0

Jon wrote:Blimey! You've got some superb stuff recently. Full on mastering suite studio now!

I've been splurge monster. I must stop now, otherwise I'll end up being a gear whore again. And I'll be obsessing over gear more than music. I'll be using all the new stuff on the next EP. Damn, though, it's amazing how much better it sounds. Too nice for what I'm aiming for, in some respects.

Full on mastering studio? I wish! Funny thing is, I'm still only mid-range gearwise at the very best.

The mastering guys would probably spend what my whole studio cost on a parametric or comp.

Time for me to stop buying gear and start concentrating on the next stuff.

How's your stuff coming? How're getting along with Logic? Tamed the beast yet?

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 10:05 pm 0

Haha. Splurge monster. Brilliant!

I do find it scary how much music related gadgetry costs when you get into the upper echelons. It makes me worry for the bank balance of my future self.

Ticking over with the Logic education. I don't actually have my own Mac yet as I'm waiting for the new Core 2 Duo processors to be slotted into the Macbook Pros (c'mon Apple!) so, consequently, I'm limited to using my Mum's Macbook. I've been working through the Logic training book you recommended and I'm finding it excellent. Really clear and, err, logical.

Going back to uni towards the end of September so I'll have more opportunity for making some tunes then. Looking at getting an audio interface at the moment so I can record some of my more unusual instruments (Linky) and incorporate them into my sound.

Really tempted by the TC Electronic Konnekt 24D but may have to opt for a cheaper interface without the DSPs like the Focusrite Saffire LE.

nyarla · Post by **nyarla** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 10:23 pm 0

Jon wrote:some of my more unusual instruments (Linky)

ooh, awesome! that looks interesting. my dad has an udu drum, i love the sound of that.
I love gamelan music too.. used to play in a Balinese gamelan group here (i'm in north australia, just over the sea from Bali). it's so beautiful... i'd love to do it again.
actually playing in a gamelan was probably my most awesome musical adventure yet :O

sponge · Post by **sponge** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 1:02 am 0

Hey, That UFO sounds great! It's almost like a steel drum, but you can hear the hands on it. Wow. I want one!

Music gadgets suck the money from your wallet, that's for sure. Still, better than spending it all on beer.

You should hold off on the audio interface. Now, they're all going firewire, there should be some competitions on and the prices will drop and drop.

That book is a good start. Logic is initially a bit big, hard and clever. Once you know where everything is, it's perfect. Nothing is faster. Window content linking is excellent. Screensets. And don't forget the escape key!

Look forward to hearing tunes from you.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 9:19 am 0

nyarla wrote:
Jon wrote:some of my more unusual instruments (Linky)
ooh, awesome! that looks interesting. my dad has an udu drum, i love the sound of that.
I love gamelan music too.. used to play in a Balinese gamelan group here (i'm in north australia, just over the sea from Bali). it's so beautiful... i'd love to do it again.
actually playing in a gamelan was probably my most awesome musical adventure yet :O

Just been checking out the Udu drums and it seems that there are some major simillarities with the Hang. I'd not heard of Gamelan groups before so I checked them out too. Brilliant sound. I love the sudden changes in tempo and rhythm.

The Hang that I own is in a scale called Yue-Diao (or sometimes Banshiki Cho) which is a Japanese pentatonic scale. I spent ages listening to lots of different scales because you have to specify what scale you want the instrument to be made in and when I found that one I knew that I had to get it - it's sounds really mysterious and relaxing.

sponge wrote:Hey, That UFO sounds great! It's almost like a steel drum, but you can hear the hands on it. Wow. I want one!

Music gadgets suck the money from your wallet, that's for sure. Still, better than spending it all on beer.

You should hold off on the audio interface. Now, they're all going firewire, there should be some competitions on and the prices will drop and drop.

That book is a good start. Logic is initially a bit big, hard and clever. Once you know where everything is, it's perfect. Nothing is faster. Window content linking is excellent. Screensets. And don't forget the escape key!

Look forward to hearing tunes from you.

They are really lovely instruments but they aren't cheap and are becoming increasingly hard to get your hands (hangs?

) on. Last I heard production had been scaled right back and you had to go to Bern, in Switzerland, and buy one direct from the two people that make them.

I'd love to get my hands on a small harp (a celtic one perhaps?) because it has the *perfect* complimentary sound for the Hang.

As for the interface, I'm looking to pick one up next month but I am in the very fortunate position that a good friend works for a major on-line music tech store and is happy to sell me stuff at a much reduced price. Well handy.

Looking forward to throwing myself into Logic when I get my MBP. I'll definitely be hassling you for production tips when I start putting some tunes together.

nyarla · Post by **nyarla** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:47 am 0

Jon wrote:Just been checking out the Udu drums and it seems that there are some major simillarities with the Hang. I'd not heard of Gamelan groups before so I checked them out too. Brilliant sound. I love the sudden changes in tempo and rhythm.

There are lots of different kinds of gamelan.. i've played in 2. I'm not sure of the name of one of them, but the other one was Angklung - except we didn't use the bamboo Angklung instruments... apparently it's also the name of that type of music. It's funeral music apparently... it's my favourite type - it doesn't have so much of the stop-start as the other types, it is very flowing and melodic.

The other one i've played in was the stop-start style, not very melodic, with lots of gongs and drums..

I love it because it's very cooperative. Everyone in the group has to memorise huge sequences of rhythm/notes, most of them slightly different, which, when played together, interlock. Each instrument is also tuned slightly differently (to specific ratios) so that the actual notes they're playing create shimmering "beats".. it's brilliant

It's sooo loud too. The sound vibrates your body intensely.. I always felt high after playing :O

None of the music is ever written down, they teach it orally.. so basically the teacher showed us the first 5 notes, we played them a bit, then they added the next 5...etc etc... building it up until eventually you've memorised a 10 minute long song of intricate constantly shifting rhythms...

That was over 5 years ago, and I can still remember most of the songs

Another cool thing is that the official names of the 4 notes are "ning", "nang", "neng" and "nung" IIRC

In the stop-start gamelan I played in, I was the big-big-gong player... we played a balinese culture parade thing and i had two dudes on either side of me, holding these massive gongs hanging from sticks...they had to walk along carrying them while i just walked along hitting the gongs with a big mallet. The vibrations from those felt awesome too.

madfiddler · Post by **madfiddler** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:29 am 0

Anyone need any expansion cards for the Yamaha 02r?

I sold the desk this week for Â£750 *sob* but still have 2 ADAT and 1 Analogue cards for it.

As for GAS.

As an original pre-ordered, I got a really great deal on the EWQL Symphonic Orchestra XP update.

Also got NI Komplete 4 upgrade for free this year too. Nice system.

Anyone else interested in MIDI gear, watch ebay - or get in touch.

Maxed out Emu Proteus 2000 module
Emu Morpheus
Novation Supernova Rack 44 voice
Digitech Studio Quad V2 processor
Digitech Studio 400 processor
Boss GX-700 processor
and more

Gotta pay the bills since EA fucked my dev. studio....

sty · Post by **sty** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 4:50 am 0

Impulse purchase this week from our local verson of ebay

Original Ibanez ST-9

supposed to be very nice, tested it a tiny bit with shite guitar through shite amp and it sounded OK, can't wait to see what it's like through the Marshall at home.

(bit of silly buy on the one hand as I could have bought a nice telecaster for only double the price, but on the other hand I can sneak this into the house past the Mrs. whereas a new Guitar would have been spotted - also I really fancy a Les Paul rather than a Tele

)

Post by **Muttley** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:56 am 0

sty wrote:Impulse purchase this week from our local verson of ebay

Original Ibanez ST-9

supposed to be very nice, tested it a tiny bit with shite guitar through shite amp and it sounded OK, can't wait to see what it's like through the Marshall at home.

(bit of silly buy on the one hand as I could have bought a nice telecaster for only double the price, but on the other hand I can sneak this into the house past the Mrs. whereas a new Guitar would have been spotted - also I really fancy a Les Paul rather than a Tele )

Awesome!

Now, don't forget, in true 80s metal style you're supposed to use it as a clean boost to drive the amp a bit harder (a JCM800 single channel ideally, but impossible to find these days) and tighten up the bottom end somewhat.

Muttley

Chuffmeister · Post by **Chuffmeister** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:21 am 0

Sponge, what kind of attack times are you getting with the comps on UAD and the SSL box?

I am looking at buying a UAD at some point (currently I am using a Powercore Element card) because the native plugins I am using at the moment don't really have that critical 'snappiness' that is such an essential tool.

It seems like a lot of companies are bringing out DSP boxes recently and I am certainly very interested in grabbing one of these rather than buying another DAW to handle yet better native plugs.

The powercore element is quite nice for reverb and the compressors are generally useful but I do feel they are lacking.

madfiddler · Post by **madfiddler** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 1:57 am 0

I'm upgrading my PC very soon - and networking others to use the large libraries, and would also appreciate comparisons between Powercore and UAD. With the Powercore, is the firewire one 'the' one to go for? or is there additional latency problems with it etc.

sponge · Post by **sponge** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 8:20 pm 0

Chuffmeister wrote:Sponge, what kind of attack times are you getting with the comps on UAD and the SSL box?

I am looking at buying a UAD at some point (currently I am using a Powercore Element card) because the native plugins I am using at the moment don't really have that critical 'snappiness' that is such an essential tool.

It seems like a lot of companies are bringing out DSP boxes recently and I am certainly very interested in grabbing one of these rather than buying another DAW to handle yet better native plugs.

The powercore element is quite nice for reverb and the compressors are generally useful but I do feel they are lacking.

The SSL is nice and snappy in a commercial pop music way. Great for drums and perc. There is a new SSL specialised drum channel strip plugin coming out which looks very interesting. It does introduce latency, so don't think about realtime usage and make sure your DAW can do delay compensation.

The UAD plugs are shockingly great, but I really don't use them for percussion. I pretty much stick to the LA 2A for vocals which is probably the most transparent compressor I've ever heard. Makes things really, really thick if you want. And the RE-201 Space Echo, which is utterly utterly great, despite eating DSP like its going out of fashion. Again, latency, but the sound is great.

For verbs, I'm still loving the Classik Studio Reverbs for creamy Lexi-like digi verb and Logic's Space Designer for impulse stuff.

nyarla · Post by **nyarla** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 8:54 pm 0

since this thread has become show-your-new-shiny-gear somewhere along the way.....

the guitar i bought (new) off ebay arrived yesterday, a Schecter Omen 6.. it's soooo nice to play, it's in a whole other realm compared to the only other electric i've owned, a Samick strat copy... just lovely. feels quality.

I haven't plugged it into an actual amp yet, but it sounds good so far going straight into my firewire 410

and it's got that nice looks-different-colours-depending-on-the-lighting-and-angle thing happening..

those aren't my books in the background btw. though that is my chair.

i'm not sure, but i think the neck (which is bolt on) isn't quite on right.. you can see in that first photo, where the neck joins the body it isn't quite parallel. it feels very solid though..
a friend of mine makes guitars and is the guy local musicians go to for fixing all manner of guitar related gear, might get him to have a look at it....