And yes, i did waste absolutely no time maxxing the pres out. I recorded one clean thing to see that it worked properly, and then the very next thing was all dimed out.

I am a bad person.

As it should be.

An amplifier circuit is an amplifier circuit AFAIK and driving the shit out of the preamps is a well-respected rock-and-roll tradition and I couldn't imagine it would harm anything. Unless there's some digital shit involved I don't understand. But I couldn't imagine what it would possibly do. Again AFAIK but the only things I think you can damage by driving are is a speaker because of the physical mechanism involved, and a microphone as it is a speaker in reverse. I beat up mic pres all the time intentionally on many, many sources, unless I want a really transparent clean sound for, say, acoustic guitars.

Speaking of mic pres, I was having a good bit of techie and production methodology conversation with the guy Garda works with today during a session. (My voice is too shot from being sick to work at the level I'd like, and he understood and agreed, but the other d00ds got good takes. Better than usual.) Not to jinx it or anything, but they are looking to shitcan two of the assistants in the immediate future. My proverbial hat is actually in the ring. I am not a college kid in over my head, either, which is a plus. Having a somewhat older, experienced client, the sort who reads the manual for the SSL to figure out the routing before a session and tells the engineers about esoteric gear they didn't know about offer to do the bitchwork for peanuts is probably not something they get every day. Fingers crossed. Otherwise I'll be making tacos or some shit.

Man, that studio thing would be swell. I hope that does happen.

As for digi prollems wif overvolume, the main thing is that over say zero dB, the actual digital end of things can't pass signal. That really hard crunching/cracking distortion that is the sign of that. It is kind of related to some of the weird crackle things that you get when you try to make a digital connection record more than the pc end can handle. It gives a big KRUKK on the peak and then cuts out momentarily. It simply cannot do more than zero dB. I think that most decent-end interfaces these days are protecting themselves though. it is relatively simple to strap the peaks to 0dB max before they get to the converters. You might still be able to overload the converters with a stupidly loud source like a guitar head speaker out(uh, don't ever do that ever unless you like fire) but under normal microphone uses, i don't think it will be likely, what with the engineers having a pretty good set of guidelines to work around (for mics like 1hz-30khz, general max of say a 180dB source, etc...).

I will let ebberyone know if i break anything though and find anything new about the tascam. So far, mainly, i am liking the fact that it seems a nice stable connection. I don't think i will have to play any reindeer games to get the grounds tied together so it won't lose sync all the time(in the fashion the firewire device required).

My only concern remains the matter of how many tracks at once i will really be able to get through this on the laptop here. I don't really want to have to build/buy something new. I also wonder how overdubbing might go, seeing as it seems to bog down a little with high track counts just playing back, compared to the firewire one. Which i kind of suspected would be the case on this computer. Hopefully i can find an acceptable latency setting that won't fuck folks up when they try to play/sing along with tracks. Otherwise, i may very well need to put a new box together to get a cheap quadcore setup going.

ALSO, it is worf noting that now that i have the thing in my paws, it is really a 14-input device, for all practical porpoises. Fourteen analog ins, still a solid +6 over the Alesis, a fact which i am very excite about. I hope that i can continue to misuse the line-ins on the thing in the fashion i have become accustomed with the Alesis, as microphone ins.

The last two inputs are digital.

Which means that they won't help me much for how i operate. But would prolly work well if one had an amp modeller with a SPIDF out or somethin' like that. The main thing as i understand it, is that whatever device goes into the digi-in on the tascam, needs to be able to function as the master clock for both devices, as that is the only way that the US1800 can operate in that situation.

I would really love to be in the position Brian Wilson was for the last few original era BB albums. Just write the fuck out of an album without being hindered by your own physical abilities and have badass studio musicians perform the shiz. The guitar playing is coming along well, but I still can't help but feel that way.

You and me bofe. I told my housemate this morning, and she responded with "where are they going to get someone more qualified?" I am of course hesitant and it'll be a bit before I know, but they treat me differently than the average client, both personally and professionally, and have since the first session I ever did there.



Ain't nothin' wrong wit dat. I've done it. It's all about gain staging, proper or improper depending on what you're going for. A preamp circuit is a preamp circuit. Generally speaking, the line in and mic in on most inyourfaces is the same thing, just padded down anyhoo. I actually like my NTK into the line in on my Focusrite for Really Clean Things (acoustic guitar and the like). The output of the thing is so damn hot I'm probably better off running it into the line in. This is often even the case with higher-dollar circuits; the impedance is different and if there are t00bs or trannies involved, the signal path might be different, but for the most part it's the same stuff.



ART DMPA, the big ugly 2ru thing with all the meters, if you can scrounge up a couple bills now that you're working. Dump the stock tubes- Chinese 9th Gen 12ax7s that belong in a high-gain guitarmap, not a mic pre- for almost anything else, and you're golden. That's a grownup micamp for not a whole lot of buxx, if you're willing to put something decent in it.

You know, come to think of it maybe my toms sounded so much more badass on the EP than the full length we're doing because I didn't attenuate those high output mics. They were peaking on the input, with the knobs turned to zero. And they are the bast toms I have ever had. So yay molested preamps, boo fidelity?

Or maybe because I used Pinstripes. Clear Pinstripes are the shit.

If you used the Focusrite, the input on that thing already starts out with a fair bit o' gain. Higher output mics will drive it on drums. Also, IMO, toms like distortion, perhaps more than kicks or snares.

I think in general you can get away with quite a bit of filth on rawk and metal recordings.

I WANT A FUCKING XYLOPHONE

And a better sounding and playing acoustic guitar. AND MORE MONEY WITH WHICH TO ACQUIRE THESE THINGS.

Ah, and I forgot to mention earlier, but I ordered one of these for the bridge position of my tele a couple days ago: http://www.at-the-creamery.co.uk/custom ... YH_Mb9Vh68

I love the neck pickup, but am growing less and less fond of the bridge position as I continue to play with it. For gross power chords it's cool, because it is all midrange skronk from hell, but for cleaner sounds it is really ugly and narrow.

In general, there is not enough xylophone in rock-and-roll.

Using oddball instrumentation for effect has been going on for a longass time. A great example is Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, played on period instruments from the original score, the shit he actually wrote it for. And that's not even an early example; it just sounds like a film soundtrack even though it's from the 1830s. Because yeah, fuckit, let's find some obsolete or random shit and use that, and then have the violin players bounce the wood of the bow off the strings, and...

Also, re: acoustic guitars- my advice is Play Them, All. Sometimes a cheaper one just Has A Thing. I don't think I'd ever buy an acoustic without playing it.

Huh. I am not familiar with these at all. Never heard of 'em. I'll be curious to hear what you think of the things- and if you wind up preferring the stock pickup just because it Does A Specific Thing Well, or if these are preferable for nasty power chords too.

They are more or less the only WR humbucker replacement maker that I could even find. Their videos sound really promising, seem to do a real nice chime-y sort of thing that the originals do, but they are def spec'd a little hotter. The ones in mine are just regular cheap Fender buckers with WR covers. They are a very odd sounding pickup, that is for sure.

It is definitely one of my favorite things. I would also really like a melodica and some sort of harpsichord VST. Then I feel like I could be pretty happy with the weirdness available to me.

Clear pinstripes are doap. I ALWAYS used to use those. These days i roll with the Evans whateverthefucktheyares, but mainly only because they don't seem to go dead sounding. I think maybe they don't sound as good as new pinstripes do, but i did find that the pinstripes dropped off a shit tonne in sound after only a relatively short time of hitting them.



In the old dayes my grandparents had this fucking doap wooden marimba-type thing that my grandfather made out of 1x4s and and cardboard concrete-mold tubes cut to different lengths. That thing was surprisingly awesome. I think one of my aunts currently has it.

I always just intended to make some hammer-type instruments with hardware shit. I have saws, i have a pipe cutter, i have a tuner. Seems to me, there are like half a dozen similar instruments that could be jibjabbed up with like $50 worth of hardware parts...

I totally want to do something hammered with some copper pipe cut to different lengths. I just wish that copper wasn't so pricy right now. thick walled aluminum or steel would prolly work too though...



You should get one of those kiddie pianos like they used to sell at toys r us and mess with the strings so that it buzzes more like a harpsichord. Or indeed, just grab a $50 upright from craigslist(if you can figure out a way to move it) and mess with it.

Otherwise, hapsichord vsts totally exist. I just don't generally feel like the ones i have heard are sharp and spranggelly enough. I felt like they should be a little less-well-tuned or something. Kind of like how a 12strig guitar needs to be slightly out in the high strings in order to jangle correctly. Or how like a farfisa sounds best when it is a little out of tune. That sort of shit.

Doesn't happen to often, but I am in a low funk right now. bands are pissing me off, work is pissing me off, my chick is pissing me off.

Having sinus issues does not help, I am not sure if I am dealing with stress headaches right now or a sinus infection.

Mojo sent, bruddah. Being sick sucks.

Kind of insane, my brain has seemingly turned into a word/riff machine the past couple weeks. I feel like I am thinking up some new little line out of thoughts completely unrelated to the writing process every few hours or so, pretty much effortlessly. And they are lines that I am like, "OH FUCK, GOT GO WRITE THIS SHIT DOWN BEFORE I FORGET IT." It's more than a little dope.

I am kinda thinking this is a dope idea..



Would just get a single octave, but for that niche purpose I would probably not be missing out on a ton.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/bab/3778550970.html

A-ha!