That Trek looks awesome. I wanted an older steel framed thing like that, I don't really like the looks of my bike much. Too modern and racey looking for how slow I ride it (average 15-16mph) To be honest I kind of wish I never sold my first road bike which was a singlespeed Langster. I rarely do rides of over 25 miles, singlespeed would probably be better for fitness, and for some reason I never had knee issues with that bike.

Thanks guys! I got it from our local trek rep who gave me the frame for some recording work and a setup or tway... he had it rigged up as a fixie, and i just couldn't let an old 531 frame go down like that all covered in black anodized sheez. :p but the 80's treks are seriously fantastic bikes for modding-- mine's got nothing from it's original incarnation on it.. and hell- you can get a really nice frame with parts you can sell off for $200 (!)..

hey todge-- it sounds like your fit needs some adjusting if your knees are hurting-- you using cleats or had a proper fit? for less than 30 miles-- you shouldn't be getting knee issues for sure. the other thing it might be is that the crank's width from pedal to pedal may be too wide-- fixies are notoriously narrow-- and if you're rocking a triple or something now-- they can be 3/4 of an inch or more wider, which'll put a LOT of strain on the insides of your knees.

I suppose I'm late to the party re: software amp modeling. I used Amp Designer in Logic on a bass track last night, and whilst finishing up scratch tracks for me solo record, I decided to plug the silverburst Tele straight into my inyourface and give it a whirl with a fiddle of the standard size. Beats the hell out of my poor old Pod XT.

2:04 am, just got home from work. Went in at 6:30 in the morning... I'm so god damned tired I'm dozing off as I'm typing this.

is it that the interface sounded that good, or that the pod sounds so bad?

i got okay dirty sounds that way, but i never seemed to like the clean sounds.. mebbe i should try it again! i have a copy of amplitube 2, i think... i gotta give that a whirls. man would that be convenient..

Well, the interface doesn't really sound like anything- you have a Saffire Pro; plug into channel 1 and confirm this. (I have used it for cheesy funk Strat position 4 sounds without a modeler, the old Strat-straight-into-the-desk thing.) Amp Designer just plain sounded better- the top end was a lot more lively without being harsh; the Pod sounded dull and muted in comparison. And small, and vaguely compressed even without any compression anywhere in the chain. With the software, the gain sounds were more open, less congested, and the cleans were fuller. The attack seemed more realistic to me, too.

Granted, the Pod XT is ten year old modeling tech at this point. And I'm curious what Amp Designer- which is a stock plugin in Logic Pro- has going on under the hood. If the cab models are convolution, how far I can move the mic models (the graphics show a 57, an 87 and a Royer ribbon), and what I can make it do. The spring 'verb is pretty passable too, and has a nice sproing! when turned up.

Logic seems to like foisting really usable plugins on you as part of the package.

I wound up using it again later on to demo some stuff for the band, all clean/edge-of-breakup/light crunch stuff using Tweed Bassman and AC30 (+ 808) models, and it came out pretty damn passable. I'll probably post it up tonight after we get the arrangement sorted. Again with a fairly minimalist thing; this one's sorta Radiohead-ish.

The Hackintosh can run whatever in realtime with a 32 sample buffer and imperceptible latency to the point if my amp was as far away from me as the computer, that's about how long it would take for the sound to travel. I trust it to do things- like amp modeling- I never bothered with on my laptop.

I considered a fitting but I think my right knee is just a bit nackered. I twisted/popped it about 6 years ago and its not been the same since. For instance I just did a day on the DH bike and despite not really pedalling much my knee is sore again. Speaking of which here are some videos of me riding my DH bike like a boss

That looks like an awful lot of fun, Tom. And again: FUCK, YOU'VE GOT THIN.

It's fun as fuck And yeah I seem to have got over a plateau and its falling off me again, my jeans are getting loose again

Just obtained: http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/ ... 02266.html




It's 1082 pages.

I downloaded it to my Nook, so bathroom time has become way more educational.

Read that as C sharp 2010.

That is how you should read it.

I think that's why they use the guitar ....

Power outage at work, so I came home and blew my fucking ears out with the old neighbor's JCM800. With the master on 10, I think one should have to have a weapon license to use one.

Sounds about right. Old Marshalls are fun. Not horribly practical for live work in this day and age. Maybe it's just me, and I've never done any sort of real test to prove it, but I swear older stuff vs. newer stuff at the same wattage rating, the older designs tend to be louder?

It might be an interesting test. Earplugs and a dB meter (the iPhone app for this is pretty accurate, having seen the readings A/Bed against an actual dB meter in person) and a bunch of amps- up all the way, of course- and see what's what. Even better if there was a safe way of measuring how much wattage these things were actually throwing down, but that's a little more difficult of a test.

Fuuu I wanna hit those.

Older amps tend to have the high mid thing going on, which is much rougher on the ears than modern amps' low mid emphasis. I'm not sure if they're actually louder or not, but the high mids slice through a live mix like a hot knife through butter. Low mids tend not to do that. Weird how the roles are reversed in recorded stuffs... high mids get ate by the vocals and low mids slice right through.

I think I might be getting sick.

My hangover yesterday turned into a sore throat last night, and this morning it still feels like shit.

Road trip! Playing up in Vermont tonight, all packed and ready to hit the road. Marshall 6100, Les Paul, American Tele, all packed. This is the GnR band, they have a truck, bigger than a van smaller than a box truck that seats 5 or 6 so we all go together. 5 hours up... hmmm... catch you guys tomorrow