Beedster

Sitting in the living room next to Buddy, our Choc Lab. looking through some BC threads, find one that looks interesting, press play, nice four on the floor drum pattern, then in comes the bass, Buddy gets up, looks at me angrily and walks out

Sorry to hear it, but none of it surprises me

I’ve been sent basses by sellers who’ve said ‘I loosened the string to stop the neck being damaged in transit’. Strange logic

I used to have this problem on an old Precision and it was the saddle tension spring that was at fault, no idea why a spring should buzz but I changed it for a newer shiner one and the buzz went

Yep, although I suspect that Amazon or another player must be looking at this poorly organised and increasingly unpopular sector and thinking "We could own that". Have to say that hearing positive about ParcelForce is a new thing, but resonates with my experience recently, and Mrs Beedster just had a lovely driver sort an issue for her. Like Amazon, PF seem to do what it says on the label. I'm really disappointed with the way Interparcel have gone downhill though, sending bills for alleged infringements of their policies without the two things that were absolutely required 1. A statement of the policy in question 2. Photographic proof of the infringement ...is poor. The fact that on both occasions the original; message suggested that the packaging was insufficient suggests they're simply fishing, someone at the depot sees something that s/he doesn't like, and scans the label into a list of offenders, without reference to any clearly communicated policy - for example that no more than 20% of the surface area of the package can be covered in tape or similar (it would still be illogical). In both cases above I sent them proof that there was no problem with the packaging and they withdrew the 'fine' both times. But to my mind any business that can email a customer telling them that they owe them a fine for breach of their T&Cs needs to make damn sure that they have their own house in order first.

Absolutely, sounds lovely soloed, can turn to mush in the mix

i see it as a bit like buying a plane ticket and being told that unless you buy extra insurance cover, if the plane crashes your family won't get compensation. However the courier companies try to spin it, they have a professional obligation to get your item from A-B and to compensate you if they don't. The fact that they have now started trying to charge customers for various breaches of what are as far as I can tell entirely unwritten rules that they make up as they go along suggests to me that, as above, their days are numbered as Amazon - with whether you like it or not a far more customer-centric model - slowly takes over the world

I suspect that they're having problems with some poorly applied tape catching on their machinery so have decided that they will add a fee to every package that has tape! You can't win can you, too little tape and they charge you to 'fix' the packaging, too much tape and they charge you anyway. Interestingly however, they don't provide any indication of how much tape is the right amount

So, the reply from Interparcel below.... Apparently the fact that I put 'Fragile' tape on fragile items, in the hope that the courier will not trash the item in question, results in extra cost. This was the package Makes me launch that they can add a fee like this for the reason above, yet they lose or damage the item and you'll spend months getting your money back (assuming you paid for the insurance). You've been warned folks

Wow, thanks BRX (once again), there's so much in there that resonates. One of the reasons I posted is that, as a long time user of PT, I just get the sense that the engineers are not as worried as they used to be about glitches - with each update there seem to be more issues, not less. The feel that, as you put it, it's on its way out, is tangible (let's face it, any recording package that can lose a track cannot in any way be described as 'professional'). I'm not sure which version I have on my old iMac but it's stable with no glitches, I haven't updated it for a long time and there's no problem. But even that version takes longer and longer to load with each passing week, and because I can't have two versions open at the same time (without buying another license it would appear), these things slow to a snail's pace what should be fast and seamless. I also worry that one day I'm going to log on to the iMac only to find a message saying that Avid no longer support that version of the software or similar. The Adobe thing is interesting. It was my having to start using Adobe a year or so ago that coincided with the problems with Pro Tools, although it seems now that Pro Tools is quite capable of making its own problems. Either way, they certainly don't seem to have a nice effect on each other when they're both open at the same time. I'm going to have a look at Audition because I do have CC. Thanks again BRX

Genius

Owen is a 100% absolute gentleman to deal with

Thanks very much folks, interesting comments. The reason I posted about Reaper and not, for example Logic, is simply that I keep hearing positive things about it, almost as if it's some form of magic bullet! I tried Logic briefly and it didn't really make sense to me, possibly because I'd already tried and failed to see any merit in Garageband. There's a few things above I hadn't thought of, especially around latency and plug-ins. I use two RME devices with Pro Tools, a Fireface 400 with an older copy of Pro Tools on an old iMac, and a Babyface Pro on a recent Mac Mini (I also tun a copy on a MacBook for editing in the house). I've certainly never had any compatibility issues (and referring to BRX's point above, whilst I can understand that opening up the software to 3rd party interfaces caused problems, when I started using PT it wouldn't work unless the computer was attached to an interface, which came with a whole different set of problems if you wanted to edit away from the desk). My main problems are that over time I've found the software itself is less stable than it was, I've had numerous crashes over the last few months, it takes an extremely long time to load which can also be frustrating (for reasons I won't go into here I have to switch between PT and, for example Adobe apps, and there's less chance of a crash if any app I'm not using is turned off, both appear a lot more likely to crash if the other is open), and don't get me started on how long it takes to load at the point in the month at which it checks that my subscription has been paid (and on two or three occasions, despite being paid automatically by DD, it's refused to open suggesting that I haven't paid - OK, after a few tries it does, but this is not a user-friendly experience by any means). Most seriously on two of three occasions I've imported a PT file from one computer to another using a hard drive only to see an error message indicating that 'one or more tracks are missing'. I've learned that I need to duplicate all files before closing a copy of PT on one machine and moving to another to edit, but all the same, this is a pretty serious problem and just adds to the increasingly long list of minor issues I'm having, all of which seem to be getting worse over time, not better. So, I think my patience with PT is slowly running out

I've been using Pro Tools a long time, until this time last year as a hobbyist, now as part of my day job. Recent issues with the software plus the fact that it's getting to be quite an expensive package has made me wonder whether I should look elsewhere. I hear a lot about Reaper. I do mostly voiceover work for my day job at present plus some hobby music recording. I'd usually be quite happy to simply try a new package on spec, but time is not all that plentiful, and because I'm also using it for work now, I don't want to make life any harder. My main question is whether there is going to be a steep learning curve with Reaper coming from Pro Tools, and if so, do you folks think it's worth it? Thanks Chris

Dad's points are spot on. Worth adding that if you're like me and move around a lot an H-clamp can help https://exploraudio.com/categories/instrumounts-h-clamp-/1/. I use a Heil PR-40 mic which was recommended by a few folks on here a few years back, occasionally they can be picked up used for within your budget. I got a bit obsessive about recording DB but found that a lot of tonal and acoustic nuances I was trying to achieve when tracking and playing back solo'd were completely lost in the mix, although the degree to which this is true for you will depend a lot on what type of music you're playing of course. Good luck, a lot of fun to be had and as per the above, a fair bit of patience needed (And please keep it to yourself but I found that conservative use of reverb, an effect I normally stay well clear of, seemed to work well with DB.)

As you say, buyer mighty just be a bit busy at present

I feel your pain mate, I learned that with eBay it’s often better to decide your price, list it at that price BIN only, and that way they have to pay immediately if they bid or the listing stays open. Good luck.