Cam'ron, what are you playing on those? Dee-rums? What is the guitar map? I am into those sorts of sounds(actually it sounds like stuff on the guitars that i was playing many years back) so i am into hearing where you wind up wif it all.

As for recoarding levels, i usually aim for an *absolute* max of say -4dB. Like: Promark DC-9s, held backwards, both hands slamming into a rimshot flam trying to snap the rim and break the head at the same time = -4dB. It probably works out to be about an average of more like -10 to -15 dB for normal stuff.

That is unless i am porpoisely slamming the shit out of it to make it fuzz out. Which i discovered, works okay with my mixer, as it overdrives and limits itself before it drives the digital end into proper nasty clipping. Full on digital clipping is generally n.g. it basically gets scritchy and then goes dead until the level drops below clipping again, moastly sounds like ugly dropouts. My mixer doesn't do that, it just gets really distorted and kind of warm. Which is cool. But totally muddy and filthy.

I can dig it.

I like the jam Cameron. The drums sound good and real.

Unity just released there basic publishing licenses for Android and iOS for free. That shit usually goes for like $800 if memory serves. Of course, the pro team licenses are still $1500

So fuck C# and XNA (or should I just say XNA, Unity uses C# and Java), time to go the Unity route. Also, I can use the Unity editor for free for personal use.

Now, to learn things!

Our first customer just took delivery of our first full stack build. He was super made up. It almost didn't fit in his car. Total rush seeing him be so happy with it.

Congrats on a successful build!

Nothing like having hard work be truly appreciated.

It feels great. He is the exact kind of guy we want to build things for and his ideas about tone are what we're shooting for so it was awesome for this guy to give a bunch of cash to a start up and to trust us. Really means a lot to us y'know.

I am guitaring/background echoing yell on this, and it's the same little Fender SS 15 watt (w/ PV 5150 mod ) combo you would have heard on a couple of other things. And I am also curious how it will end up, I will eventually have to man up and scream over the top of it, which will be interesting to hear.. I am still experiencing the same problem with no (well, absolute pissweak with the knob maxed) volume coming out of my headphone jack on the US1800. I looked for a minute on the internet and nothing seemed to be addressing the problem. I have tried other headphones and 1/8" - 1/4" jack to no avail. I am sure it is something silly stupid but I have no put enough time into it to figure it out.

The headphone amp on the 1800 is just nutless, man. You need some super sensitive phones for it to get loud enough for tracking.


I have a pair of $10 Sony earbuds that're like 108db/m that I use for that purpose.

Seriously? 'The fuck?

My Focusrite Saffire's the same way. It's fairly weak, and kinda noisy to boot. And the soundstage/imaging isn't that great either. A couple of my friends have MOTU setups and, well, they're okay-ish I guess? Still not like a proper amp though.

If you have a nice component stereo kicking around, I'd use the amp/receiver from that. Right now I'm using an old Yamaha hi-fi amp for headphone duties at home and a Presonus HP4 at Garda's place, and both sound better than anything I've run into on an interface. Why can't they build a decent headphone section into these things?

Re: Curtis' earbuds- even with all the isolation from the HD280s? Damn.

Well the amp is always in the same room as me and the earbuds are so much more sensitive than the HD280s that the isolation doesn't matter.


I mean, when you've got an amp sitting 5-10 feet away from you cranking out about 115 decibels of what is basically highly controlled white noise through two 2x12 cabs and occasionally a 2x12+1x15 cab... you need lots of volume to even hear the fucking metronome, much less the backing track.

That's why I started reamping literally everything I record. So I can track with whatever ampsim and THEN blast my eardrums out.


Also, I meant 108db/mw, not db/m. I r teh stupidz.

Also, I just got done jamming through my JSX for like two hours. I don't hate that amp as much now as I used to since I raised the action on my guitar and didn't boost it this time around. That thing sounds like a hybrid of like an Engl Savage and a Recto. EQ balance of the Recto, character of the Savage. And it seems like it's not nearly as sissy volume-wise as I remember it being. I used to think that 3 on the master was pretty quiet compared to say a 6505 at the same level. But now they seem to be about equal? Must be the V30s responding to the amp better than all the other speakers I've ran it through. Or maybe the fresh retube job I did today. (Tung Sol reissue in V1 and JJs everywhere else, was what I had laying around new in the box)

The Tung-Sols are nice. Chris from Garda has them in... Something, I don't remember what. I tried 'em out in the AC30 and liked them. They don't sound anything like JJs. (Which I still like for adding some heft to a bright amp.)

Re: the metrognome, I don't know how drummers do it. Given the choice between hearing that for hours on end at volume or punching myself in the face repeatedly... The latter starts to seem like a really enticing option.

I've been liking the reamping thing lately. If I could get controlled feedback sorted out, I'd be set. I'm pretty used to being in the same room as the amps as well- and I record at louder-than-stage volume- so I'm also pretty used to killing myself with headphone volume.

I just track via my monitors so getting controlled feedback isn't really a problem since they actually get pretty damn loud.

The only downside to the whole thing is I don't play the guitar exactly the same through one amp as I do the other. I kind of move my right hand around to compensate for how loose or tight the tone I'm jamming through is.

My baws the electrician inventor wants to create some sort of music oriented shit with me.

I had an idea today... pretty simple... half a rack space box called the 'Mic Manager', it has a pad, couple levels of hi pass, variable impedance, and a battery powered boost for ribbon mics, and of course it lets phantom power through. So you can still do all those things to a barebones mic. Like my AT2020s... they'd really benefit from a pad.

I'm also going to suggest all the esoteric shit the guy in SOS complained about there being lack of last month.

That's actually a really great idea. My Rode mics are pretty hot- with the Saffire (which already starts at +10 IIRC) the NT5s as drum overheads can clip even with the gain all the way down. Continuously variable pad or stepped?

Oh- polarity/phase reverse switch.

But yeah, seriously, that is a great idea. That would be a useful little box to have around in any studio situation, whether it's a pro studio or a bedroom. Choose your components wisely and make it as sonically transparent (save for the low cut/highpass; don't know if you want variable response curves or just a straight-up brutal highpass here) as you can and you have a winner. Also, though it would increase the complexity of the thing, some sort of in/out switches or something in the circuit that makes the stuff hard bypassed when it's not in use? Like, if the highpass isn't engaged, the signal doesn't get routed through there at all.

Yes indeed, true bypass is going to be a must. And polarity... how could I have forgotten? I'm not sure if the pass and pads should be switches with positions or a smooth knob. We'll see if he even likes the idea (he seems to keep mentioning wanting to do something with lights).

You should tell him if he thinks your idea isn't a good one that he's a fuckwit. Cause that sounds like some useful shit to me.