Oh jah.. I am gonna need one of these, most likely.

Good thing I gotta big ass tax return coming my way. It will be glorious to watch it instantly disappear.

It happens.

Even without the cut/boost shelving fanciness, you're probably right. If a thin-sounding guitar or dull snare turns up... Or even just normal usage on good sounding stuff. I get the very serious impression EQing on the way in was de rigueur up until the Intarwebs and the Home Recording Revolution told us not to. It's also rather difficult if all you have to EQ with are plugins.

Not only is the 560 cheap as chips, it's a proven classic design. DBX 160s in whatever variant are A) super-common in "pro" facilities everywhere and B) well-regarded enough there's plugin versions. If it's cool enough someone wants to fake it, it's a useful box IRL. Re: the Level-Or, it does seem pretty cool. The old Shure Level-Loc is really difficult to find and on the pricey side if you do. I hear the Shure SE30 will do the same thing compression-wise if you crank the input, and also has some mic pres on board. The Level-Or has the advantage of not being 40-odd years old and having some tweaks to make it more versatile for sheer wreckage, though.

As an aside, on the subject of nasty old limiters, the CBS Audimax and Volumax (yes, CBS as in CBS Nightly News) along with the Gates Solid Statesman have long intrigued me as ways to beat the everloving hell out of something. The "better" Gates tube broadcast gear goes for a small fortune, but a working Solid Statesman (keyword: working) isn't expensive at all.

That's a lot of channels in. Not bad, not bad at all... Re: Stereo buss compressors, do you often compress things in stereo? Do you often compress your master buss? There's your answer. Generally speaking, these guys tend to be expensive and not notably dirty. They can be very cool for sending a whole drum mix to. If you want to beat up a stereo room on the way in, there's that. Mixing into them is definitely a skill as well as a personal preference thing. I suppose it basically comes down to "will I use this?" and "would I rather have this, or two 'effect' compressors set the same?" If you just want something to crush drum rooms or beat up drum mixes in parallel, there's cheaper tools for the job. If it's a mix polish thing, then you're looking at a purpose-designed piece.

Disappearing on giant gear purchases are what tax returns are for.

I know it's a totally unsexy purchase, but if you're looking at all this shizzle, you'll need to pick up some cabling. And possibly a patchbay.

The cabling will indeed very necessary, unfortunately. And a patchbay, I am sure. This shit is still pretty haze-y to me, I just know that this is where I am definitely trying to head. Would it be possible to route signals out of the HD192, into outboard shit, back into the HD192? Is the patchbay simply there to streamline this process or is it entirely necessary to work with outboard gear?

ALSO: My thoughts on the stereo compressor were indeed concerning outboard mix compression, whether it be drums or da whole masta. That is probably something I should save for later, and just do that shit in the box 4 nao. It is naturally however, an area of interest to me. Seems like, that is where some amount of the "final product" magic lies on some things.

Cabling is right up there with stands on the list of lame-but-necessary purchases. Re: patchbay, in your case it's not necessary the way it is with some large-format mixing consoles that have no I/O other than a patchbay, but it does streamline the process. And yeah, that's totally do-able and very common. I'd venture to guess most of the people with HD192s do that all the time. This is where your patchbay comes in handy, as you set up I/O from the back of the bay to your ins and outs on the HD192, and your I/O on your outboard, and leave that all (semi-) permanently connected. Then you just connect anything to anything else using the I/O on the front of the bay and short patch cables. That way you're not de-racking stuff, dicking around with inputs on the back, moving gear, etc. It stays fixed in place and wired up at all times, and the only thing you ever touch is the patchbay and the controls on the gear. Just remember to label the patchbay.

If you're happy with the results from your hardware, you can always record it back on its own track/tracks, freeing it up to be used again on some other mix element. This isn't as ghetto as it sounds and is actually quite common. If you're happy with it and you know it's not gonna change, record it back in and EQ/compress/whatever something else. Hard drive space is cheap, hardware isn't.

As far as patchbays themselves, you have all sorts of options from the uber-cheap to the retardedly expensive. You also have I/O options ranging from hardwired solder connections(!!) to DB25 snakes to plain ol' TS/TRS/XLR I/O. For Garda HQ, we bought plain old Neutrik bays with... I believe TS I/O? I don't think they're TRS. Anyhow, it serves our comparatively limited needs and one lives in our live rack, where we run our wireless/pedalboard/synth/vocoder outs directly to the thing. You might want an XLR patch panel for your mic ins and a 1/4" for everything else. Or a TT (Tiny Telephone) bay, if you're feeling really adventurous. I don't know that there's any real benefit to the latter except A) being able to cram more shit in a smaller space and B) the ability to purchase good-quality used patch cables in bulk on Ebay from other studios.

Really the only downside to a good stereo buss compressor is that they're fucking expensive. There is no real cheap option for that, outside of maybe building an SSL clone, and even that isn't cheap. If you dig compression, it is sorta a magic box, though. That being said, pres and character comps/EQs are probably the place to start, on the principle that whatever's going in should sound as awesome as possible from the start.

ART makes a 500-series rack compressor now. According to the folks in the thread, it's actually useful/decent.

hai guys, long time no speak been playing a bit more bass recently and I think the reason I find it so hard is that I have pretty short fingers which don't really stretch far enough for long scaled a p-bass neck is Are there any decent shorter scale basses or should I just resign myself to the fact that I have small girly guitarist hands simply not built to bring da funk?

That is good to know about that that is not totally fucked jiggery, re: running HD192->outboard->HD192. Would it automatically (via some function/facility) send that shit out at unity gain or would I have to have my faders set to zero and all that jazz?

I have been thinking quite a bit about how I would go about all diss. I am definitely thinking I am gonna grab a couple Lindell things, I have peeped some clips of people using their gear and it totally checks out. Definitely gonna grab one of them 7x compressors, shit looks like my flavor. It's a fucking 1176 clone with a mix knob. (I think also, maybe that ART would be very nice as a "clean" compressor)

I have a tendency to use parallel compression on more than just the drum bus. I'll use it on snare and kick, too. Just to be able to get it thrashing and pumping, but bring back some of the unfuckedwith dynamics so it doesn't sound too flat.

Definitely going to lay off on the stereo compressor for the time being and just do dat in Reaper. That, or when I have a coupla compressors with stepped gain knawbz.

I think, also. That I want a couple of EQs. Maybe an API and a Pultec design.. Just to address the mid-forward/scooped flavors. API for da guitars and snares, Pultec for da kicks and bass.

The Japanese fender aerodyne basses are short scale and amazing. Tough to find though.

I think the Gibson EBs are short scale and can be had for not too much. Don't buy the epiphone equivalent, they use a softer species of mahogany and every one I had in the shop, the fucking bridge pulled out of the posts. Very expensive to repair for a bit great bass.

Yarr the EB(looks like an SG) is a 30ish". (Standard bass scale length is more like 34" or so)

Actually a lot of foalks' "3/4 sized" or "youth size" basses are around there too. I was eyeing the Rondo Music kiddie-sized P-basses for a while, but wound up never pulling the trigger. I have stubby-ass fingers too, but i was able to more or less adjust to the normal scale length eventually. Still, i suspect that a shorter one would be more comfortable.

They do sound a bit different though. It can sound good(see: Mike Watt) but it can also sound in some cases a bit like a long scale guitar, kind of reedy with a different midsy sound, from what i assume is a side effect of the strings vibrating differently.

It is a bummer to hear about the epi EBs bridge issues. I was eyeing those for a while too.

Yeah our tech ended up screaming at Epiphone after the 4th or so. I think he just had to redrill deeper and better posts, but it was a lot of work. Older models might be better, and less desirable models of gibsons aren't that much more either.

Oh yeah, there are those short-scale squier jag basses that are dope and not expensive at all. Those are probably the best price:quality short-scale basses on the cheaper side of things.

I have smallish fingers and player enough bass that it was my major in college. You can get around enough but i would try a rondo bass. Their basses were excellent. I had a pair of them and liked them both. This way you can try the scale and see if you like it


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Looks like Squier do a short scale jaguar bass which looks cool and pretty cheap. I like my Squier p bass so might be worth a shot, gonna see if I can find one to play.

Gravitational Distortion album dropped for digital purchase and pre-order yesterday, so naturally the entire thing is on youtube several times over already... /humblebrag

Hot dog, I am starting to cop sick tones again.

Condenser for the bass/lowmid/sometippytopsorta/roominteraction and dynamic for skronknassty/attack. Feels good, man.

Woah, baby. It's been going on for a year or two now as far as my awareness stretches, but it's become very popular for heterosexual (but edgy) kids to refer to themselves and their intimate relationships as "queer". Was this shit going on in the 90's, too? I feel like there's definitely a social justice resurgence that's been going on since maybe 2011 or so with people my age. Which is, ya know, very cool...

BUT: when boring white, straight kids are hurling around terms like "gender queer" yet subscribe to a nearly entirely hetero lifestyle, that shit is kind of offensive, no? I mean. It offends me.

I've kissed some boys in my day, and I dress pretty androgynously as of the past 2 years. THAT SAID. I would never have the gall to try to associate myself with the LGBT community as anything other than an ally. Not for fear of said association, but more out of respect for the fact that I have never been oppressed for my sexuality. These sick bastards are trendhopping on some shit in the most distasteful manner.

And so I ask you, elders; is this a new thing?

The tough punk adults when I was a kid used to use it in a sort of ironic "fuck the norm" kind of way.

I definitely get that that is where the intention is coming from, but when the only thing that makes you "weird" is your overblown style of dress, it just sort of whitewashes the concept. Most of these people I am talking about live "punk rock" lives in their imagination, but these motherfuckers do exactly what their conservative parents do. They get home from work, they watch shitty television, eat shitty fast food and that is really about it. Two of my ex-roommates are these sorts of people, and they would just veg out and watch How I Met Your Mother and hardly even talk to each other. They claim to be genderqueer or whatever (even going as far as referring to themselves as a gay couple), but their relationship plays out pretty much like any other shitholeish, empty social-norm-fulfillment bond. It's like, "well.. we're supposed to be a part of this whole couples thing and we don't want to be alone... BUT. WE'RE NOT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!!!"

The whole "they/them" genderneutral thing that has become popular is totally chill to me in concept, if it is applicable. There are folks out there that definitely fall into that category. However, if you're an idenity-less (in search of some distinguishing characterstic), contradictive hetero piece of trash just sort of floating about in this world, it's kinda crazy to rip the mailman's head off when he refers to you as your birth assigned gender, no?

It's sort of insane that these people will knock on white kids with dreadlocks for cultural appropriation, but are constantly buying into the gender normative constructs they claim to be disarming. I've known a handful of dudes who have claimed gender neutrality in order to gain access to what they percieve as female bodies (which defeats the point) that they would not have access to if they did not identify as such.

It's just bullshit. Anhow, endrant.

This is... Not my experience. While the "alternative" culture as a whole was friendly toward the LGBT community, the closest we had to that sort of appropriation were the "lesbian until graduation" sorts. I know a few who are happily married now. To men. With children. And more power to them- gender and sexuality aren't binary; those are cultural constructs anyhow. I don't recall anyone who wasn't at least not-straight enough to act on it co-opting the identity and language of a marginalized social group in an attempt to be hip. Though things have certainly changed quite dramatically in re: the marginalization of LGBT people, even in the past decade, never mind fifteen-twenty years on.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the appropriation of "genderqueer". It meant something subversive. Subversive things always get boosted. And yeah, I am a little irked by that, for fairly obvious reasons.

Part of me is very envious of this generation's liberation; the rest of me would hate the drama, thinks their communication skills are terrible anyhow, and is content being a dull, old nerd who doesn't get out anymore.

While I kinda let the gender ambiguity thing progressively slide after I turned 30 (I convinced myself I should age gracefully...) I always just rolled with it- whatever anyone wanted to call me or assumed I was was fine. Even if it meant accidentally passing as female and having to pitch my voice to match their expectations. Which my friends and I found really hilarious. Being harassed for being a lesbian was also more humorous than actually offensive.