Earbrass

In recent months I've attended several concerts (Philharmonia Orchestra, a violin duo, a solo pianist) where there were no compressors (or indeed any amplification) in evidence at all, despite it being, as others have pointed out above, a scientifically provable, unarguable fact that compression makes music sound better (it is, after all, a simple matter of the measurable behaviour of sound traveling through air). As far as I could tell, the only mechanism they had for managing their dynamics was to rely on the skill and musicianship of the individual players! Honestly, I felt embarrassed for them. I did ask one cellist whether she'd considered using a compression pedal to help her "sit better in the mix", but she just looked at me as if I was some kind of weirdo. Amateurs.

On ‎14‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 20:54, kodiakblair said:

Never heard anybody describe the Beatles as anything other than a pop band.

"pop group" surely?

Peavey Milestone. Light weight, well balanced, slender neck, sounds great. 

There is a tricky balance to be struck between catering for the needs of minorities such as the deaf, and limiting the burden that so doing imposes on the majority community. From all I've heard about this case, my opinion would be that the promoters did all they could reasonably be expected to do and the case should fail, but of course what is reported in the media may not be the full story, and the court will have access to more information than we do.

On the wider issue, it is perhaps worth remembering that, in the US at least, disability campaigning has a highly unpleasant extremist fringe:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-41850498   We should be on our guard against such lunacy spreading here.

11 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Personally, I can’t think of a reason why I would want to play amplified at home. I’ve been using a Phil Jones Bass Buddy for some time and it keeps everyone happy.

As mentioned previously, good neighbours are worth keeping and I’d be inclined to play the good guy. 

This. Playing amplified in a terrace house is unnecessary and antisocial.

Wal bought my old Zoom G2Nu guitar fx unit, and was a pleasure to deal with. 

Mike bought my DSI Mono Evolver Desktop synth. Fast payment, good communications, all good.

Just like to add that anyone who plays a fretted bass (or any other equal temperament instrument) is influenced by J.S. Bach whether they know it or not . But people these days prefer to bang on about some modern fad like the Beatles......hell in a handcart I tells ya. 

...and Lidl aren't taking Fortnum and Mason's business either. 

***** SOLD *****

Dave Smith Instruments Mono Evolver Desktop synth. £325 posted within UK.

This is an absolute beast of a synth. As far as I can tell it's in full working order (sometimes the push-buttons need a firm press to activate, but they all work), although I spend a lot of time staring at it and wondering what the hell it is doing...which is largely why I'm selling it - it's just too much synth for me! Also it's default mode seems to be the gnarly/industrial/sci-fi type sounds whereas I am mostly interested in the more trippy, ambient type tones. These can be coaxed out of it too, if you know what you're doing, but it doesn't take much provocation for it to revert to the dark side. You do need to take some time to understand what it does - you can get it into modes where it does not respond to keyboard input, or where the sequencer is running but no audio is sounding - all these are legitimate states, but it's easy to think it's defective when you are new to it - I went through this several times in the first few weeks of ownership. Maybe not an ideal first synth, but it is stunningly powerful if you take the time to learn it. 

OS V2.1. Power supply (US 2-prong style, with UK adaptor) included. Manual is available on-line, as is an excellent in-depth guide written by an enthusiast, which is really worth having. I can email both if required.

Links:     DSI product page: https://www.davesmithinstruments.com/product/evolver/
    Manual: http://www.davesmithinstruments.com/downloads/evolver/doc/Evolver_manual_3.2a.pdf?765cbf
    "The Definitive Guide To Evolver": http://www.carbon111.com/evolverguide.pdf
    There are also plenty of demos on Youtube if you want to take a look.

Summary of the specs: 

4 OSCILLATORS : 2 DCO's -(sawtooth, triangle, saw/triangle mix, and pulse waves (with pulse-width modulation), and hard sync)
        2 Digital wavetable oscillators with Prophet VS waves and wave sequencing capability, FM and ring modulation.
        White noise generator.
        Glide (portamento): separate rates per oscillator.

2 FILTERS: One low-pass analog Curtis filter per channel, selectable 2- and 4-pole operation (self-resonating in 4-pole mode)
       Digital high-pass filter

3 ENVELOPES: filter, VCA, and Auxiliary envelope. Envelopes freely assignable to multiple modulation destinations & all envelopes can repeat/loop

4 LFOS - Four syncable LFOs

MODULATION MATRIX: 4 x 2 modulation matrix with 24 mod sources and over 75 mod destinations

FEEDBACK AND 3 DELAYS: Tuned feedback. Three-tap syncable delays with feedback and amount controls per delay

VCA: Analog VCAs

EFFECTS: Stereo analog distortion. Output Hack

SEQUENCER: 16x4 steps: syncs to MIDI clock and external audio: sequences can control not only oscillator pitch but any parameter in the modulation matrix.

MEMORY: 512 fully editable programs (four banks of 128)

IN/OUT: MIDI In, Out, Thru, and Poly Chain. Stereo audio input: 1/4" unbalanced. Stereo audio output: 1/4" unbalanced

DIMENSIONS: Dimensions: approximately 10.75" L x 6" W x 1.9" H (27.3 cm x 15.24 cm x 4.8 cm) Weight: 3.18 lb. (1.49 kg)

SOLD Zoom G2Nu Guitar Multi-FX

The first encoder is ok if you move it slowly but gets a bit random if you tweak it fast. Otherwise it all works fine.

Link to manual: https://www.zoom-na.com/sites/default/files/products/downloads/pdfs/G2Nu_G21Nu.pdf

A couple of YouTube demos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgNexJsu1zM
               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce7vuAKR9nA

Sold with manual but without power supply (also works on batteries).

£20 posted within UK.

Thanks for looking.

(Feedback thread in sig.)

3 hours ago, project_c said:

Go and actually watch some of this stuff and then come back and tell me it's not horrible. Just because something is a 'source of income' it doesn't mean it's automatically good. Selling crack is a source of income.

 No thanks; I believe you when you say it's the "most retarded thing on earth", and that it's "stupid garbage for the lowest common denominator". That's why it's the sort of thing I would never watch. 

. The question is, why do you watch it? 

33 minutes ago, project_c said:

Have you actually seen PewDiePie??

No.

35 minutes ago, project_c said:

The guy is a gigantic twat sitting in his bedroom and shouting at video games. It's the most retarded thing on earth. 

It's stupid garbage for the lowest common d[en]ominator. 

So why do you watch it? Have you considered starting your own youtube channel in which you sit in your bedroom shouting at stupid retarded youtube videos? You never know, you could be onto a winner there.

What we should really be discussing is whether or not he was influenced by the Beatles at all. I'm going to say..........no. Any other opinions? 

We're off to see them at the O2 on Thursday. Probably wouldn't have bothered on my own account, much as I love their output from the early 70's, but Mrs. E has somehow managed to go her whole life without ever going to a big rock gig, so this is largely for her benefit. 

4 hours ago, fleabag said:

How do you know they weren't necessarily in the right order  ?

Seriously?   Perhaps I'm getting old - I thought everyone would get the reference.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQNYUJIW4sw    @2.25)

49 minutes ago, steve-bbb said:

hes sort of like Miles Davis... stellar improv skills and NEVER played a wrong note 

... he played all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. 

6 minutes ago, Conan said:

Absolutely! But then sometimes taste goes out of the window... For example:

Smoke on the Water takes some beating - there's a reason it's become such a cliche. Same goes for Beethoven's 5th..... and Brown Sugar too come to that.

Not much of a problem, but what's going on here? There have been plenty of posts in this forum since June.

Clearly a superlative bass player.

35 minutes ago, charic said:

Just take the url from the youtube page and it works straight from there

 

'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOTWZut1FHs' remove the quotes in this case

Thanks - once I deleted the old links and re-pasted them it worked fine.

Anyone worked out how to embed Youtube videos yet? Tried editing existing posts, using http & https at the start, with and without [media] tags, but no luck so far....

Värttinä tonight, here in Hämeenlinna. Then Deep Purple at the O2 on Nov 23rd. Next after that it's,er, Värttinä again in Southampton in December. Groupie? Me??

Sold on Gumtree