Danuman

Great suggestions guys! I like Motu stuff, but seeing that I recently raided my already fairly limited budget, it's a tad pricey. The 18 inputs of the Midas look very appealing, though I wonder how it would handle without a tablet. Truth be told, I wish it were a little more straightforward, but I'm definitely checking it out!

Hi all, Some of you may have seen my earlier post, about the issues I was having with connecting my new laptop to my older firewire mixer. At this point I'm looking at spending an annoying amount of money to be able to hook up just the mixer. The added bonus is there's no guarantee that it will actually work, let alone that it'll be anything even remotely dependable. Add to that the likely necessity for other adapters, and well... you probably get the point. I looked around a bit, but I'm not sure there's a whole lot on the market that can do what I want. I'd like a relatively simple interface that can be used with Logic for home productions, but most of all I want to be able to do multitrack live recordings. My current mixer has 8 XLR preamps (2 Hi-Z, which is nice) + 8 line inputs, which allows me to be reasonably flexible, although at times it already requires a bit of invention (which I sort of like, I suppose). Here's a typical setup: 2 Vocal mics 4 Drum mics Guitar mic Keys (L/R, line) or Harmonica (mic'ed amp) Bass (DI) So I suppose the minimum requirements are at least 8 mic preamps and two line inputs - plus a decided lack of FireWire - on a reasonable budget. What interface would you like? Cheers, Dan

Congrats with the new cab! Did you get a chance to try it out? If you’re more on the metal side of things (i.e. scooped mids) I would imagine you might struggle using the amps you listed, especially at 8 ohms. I quite like the black line 250, but it’ll have to work quite hard even at 4 ohms. The LMIII won’t be much more expensive if you can get it used, and it’ll sound much nicer at higher volumes, plus it’ll have a bit on tap, should you need it further down the road. I agree with @Skybone regarding older Hartke amps. Great value! Good luck!

After some more thinking, I think it must’ve been the output socket. I had previously tried what @Woodinblack suggested above. Unfortunately, that didn’t help, which is why I concluded I didn’t like the pickup - although I thought it was a bit odd. Quite an expensive case of trial and error, I’m afraid... but at least I’m happy with the result. Looks like there’s an expensive pickup going onto the marketplace soon. Thanks again for the helpful replies!

Cheers guys! After tinkering with it for the past year I was fed up, so I went out earlier today, bought a new input, a bunch of wire, and I spent the evening completely rewiring the guitar. I suppose my previous post already half implied I didn’t have terribly high expectations, but there it was - a subtle yet clear improvement! I decided, well screw it, let’s try the other pickup again. Lo and behold: The air and detail I’d been looking for all this time! I put Logic’s spectrometer on it, and I could finally see something happening above say, 1kHz. Still not sure what was wrong exactly, but it’s such a relief!

Hi all, I have a lovely playing P that just doesn't seem to want to sound right. Acoustically it sounds brilliantly deep and zingy, but when I plug it in, there's just a big lack of presence. It's like there's a blanket over it that needs to be lifted... It's driving me nuts! I'm currently on my third pickup. The first one was pants, so in my mind that didn't count. The second one was supposed to be good, so when it didn't sound right, I concluded I probably just don't like it. The third one is quite expensive, and does indeed sound better (well, more predictable, to be precise), but it still seems lacking in the same respects - so now I can't shake the notion that something is off electrically. I've replaced most of the wiring (except to ground), pots, and capacitor - so far to no avail. The wires I used were of the, err, cloth variety and of unknown make, so I don't fully trust it and I will be replacing it together with the input. I'll have swapped out everything at that point. How do I then measure the wiring and make sure that's not what's causing the issue? Suggestions more than welcome, thanks for reading! Dan

Well, I just received a reply from Mackie Support (who were amazingly quick, by the way!) stating that the Onyx is only supported up to Windows 7/OS X 10.8, however, "[...] the Firewire card in the Onyx uses Mac Core Audio as the driver. In theory, this should still work with newer Mac OS, even though it is not officially supported." Suck it and see, I suppose...

Haha, yes, why not. I've been doing some reading and it seems you may be right. I happen to have a Mackie mixing desk, but I suppose the same principles apply. It's not looking great. On the plus side, a shiny new toy has arrived. Here's hoping I figure out how to get back to recording soon!

Aw, it’s never really straightforward is it. Edit: Whoops, you beat me to it. I guess that means springing for a bunch of adapters and hoping for the best. I’ve looked into newer models of the mixing desk I’m using, but that’s no good either. Few upgrades, lots of money and it still uses FireWire. A new mixing desk is out of the question for some time to come, unfortunately. Thanks for the help guys!

Cheers, that is definitely not what I wanted to hear, but if that’s true you have potentially just saved me a lot of faffing about. I did see an apple branded TB>FW800 adapter, but does that mean there’s a pertinent difference between TB versions 2 and 3, and USB-C? In the short term I’d certainly like to keep using the interface I’ve got. It’s large, works fine and I just blew all my money on a new laptop!

Ah, I see. I quite like the idea of having that for backup. Hopefully someone round here can provide a sample so you can find out if it can give you what you want to hear. (I could ask when I’m in that particular studio, but I can’t make any promises...) Something to consider though: it’s quite big. Here it is on top of my amp.

Exactly! That OWC looks quite nice, if a tad expensive. I hadn’t looked into this stuff before today, so I’m not sure what to look for. (Or watch out for!) Good point, Sibob. I thought I’d leave out branding and such, but I suppose it might help to know. The new laptop will be sporting Thunderbolt 3 ports.

Hi all, I’m currently awaiting the arrival of a new laptop. Unfortunately, my interface/mixing console connects with FireWire 400. I was just going to get an adapter, but I found out I’m going to need two! It should work, I suppose, but perhaps there’s a more elegant solution with some additional benefits... Anybody know of something like a good hub/docking station that features FireWire? Cheers, Dan

I played a radio show that used one - I really disliked the result. Had I known it was such an expensive piece of kit, maybe I’d have enjoyed it more. On a more serious note; I’m sure it was a matter of preference - and I should stress that I didn’t get to adjust any settings - but to me it added too much grind. Is the tone hammer not good?

Mate, you probably don’t need me saying this, but I watched some of the videos you posted and that is some deliciously tasty playing. Mmm, treacly and chewy timing... I dig it. I’m assuming you get sponsored? Anyway, well done man!

Ooh, there’s a lovely Christmas present. Generally speaking, I simply do not enjoy modern looking basses. Dingwalls, however, are a very notable exception. I imagine it sounds absolutely incredible. Congratulations!

Which bits?

Cheers, this appears to be much closer to how I like it! I wasn’t able to recreate the issue on my DAW, as the pick-up’s behaviour appears to be confoundingly unpredictable in different situations. I played my full rig (amp and both cabs) with a (very) loud blues band this weekend, and the bass had more sizzle straight away. Turning up the 750-1k region did much more to increase definition than it did with other rigs/setups. I suppose I need to get to know the pick-up a bit better. The string-to-string balance feels unlike anything I’ve ever played, so here’s hoping I can make it work. 🤞

You know what, that doesn’t seem quite as silly as I thought.

Ah, yes, of course. Jamerson I’m well aware of. If capturing the sound of those recordings was the objective, perhaps Mr. Novak tried to make a pick-up that sounds like dead flats on a washing-up sponge even with fresh round wounds!

Thanks! Yes - sorry - that was a rather long-winded way to say that a bit of eq is needed to get a flat-ish sound (ooh, there’s a tricky concept, but I mean similar to how it sounds acoustically). It’s a really great sound when I do get it there, hence the suspicion that somewhere something is a bit off... I only wired it straight to the output in order to see if there was anything obviously wrong with the wiring. With the previous body it sounded mostly similar, except the guitar itself sounded a lot less lively. I guess I don’t fully grasp what people consider to be the defining characteristics of a vintage P sound... I’ll see if I can do a recording later tonight.

Hi all, I’ve been working on my MIM P for a while now. It’s been a slow process, but recently I completed building a new body. I just wanted to tinker with the look, but the improvement in resonance over the original body is really quite dramatic, so i’m absolutely chuffed with the result. When I plug it in, however, it remains a bit cluttered in the lower mids. Say between 150~250 Hz. I put in a lovely Curtis Novak PB-V, which to my ears sounds beautifully balanced and hollow and precisiony and flat — provided I boost a touch around 1.5k and cut a similar amount around 200. (On an Eden Traveler, so a little goes a long way.) Which is a perfectly fine workaround, obviously, but I did have some trouble getting it to sound good on other rigs. So ideally it would just sound like that with the amp set flat, as with other basses. I’ve already bypassed the electronics, so might this just be what the pick-up sounds like? Or could it be a mismatch between the pick-up and the guitar? Is there anything that could cause a pick-up to lose definition like this? Thanks for reading! Cheers, Dan

Cheers! They’re quite a thing to behold, aren’t they? Still, at over a grand less than the one I saw, it’s still way too dear. Perhaps one day. Quite happy with how my build’s coming along though!