The Music Gear and Musicians Thread

I almost invariably use analog outputs on synths with digital outs. I've had too many jitter issues even with the best crystals and converters and just don't want it to be a thing I ever have to deal with.

Two prong cords (internal power supplies) into a Furman.

I tie together the channels by strapping the input RCA jack sleeves together with wire then grounding to the rack rails.

I've suffered with MIDI for 25 years, I can live with wordclock =)

But yeah, fine, I can live without a digital standard (and of course the standard has migrated from 16/44.1Khz to 32/192Khz for some people, so we'd still be held back a bit), I'd be happy with balanced outputs at this point =|

I just wanted to interject that those people are clinically insane, but I don't want to start an argument about sample rate and bit depth.

I have no issues with mixing down from an analog desk and mastering at 24/96 and up, but going that far with tracking is a ridiculous waste of CPU, disk space, and freeze render time. I really can't see myself ever going any higher than the 24/44 I've stuck with for years.

Furmans are great for cleaning up obviously atrocious club power, but what you're dealing with is a bit more complex. When you say that they are internal power supplies, do you mean that it is an old style two prong cord (like an old Sony boom box) going into the synth or that it is a wallwart? Either way, the issue is that it is an ungrounded connection that is also likely unregulated and there is either ac or rf leakage (iirc, I haven't had to deal with this stuff in years), and that by...

...you are effectively grounding the signal post-synth and drawing any wayward, harmful and unwanted noise away. Units with wallwarts/two prong connections, usually pedals but often racks/synths/etc, are supposed to draw ground from their audio cables, but that often doesn't happen due to the ground being directed elsewhere, usually due to a grounding issue elsewhere. Not often a problem, but if the circuit or the studio layout or the transformer invites unwanted noise, you have to rectify the issue.

You can probably solve the ground issue the old school way by simply buying some 12g green wire, screwing it into the rack rail somewhere, and then attaching it to the synth somewhere. I'm sure the guys who made your synth know of somewhere on it or on the pcb that would be acceptable. But your best/safest bet might just be to regulate the power supply instead. :)

Well, on a small scale it's easy to say you can live with word clock issues, but solving analog interference is something you have to do only a few times in your life before it becomes a learned skill, whereas solving any issues that arise with word clock is something that can never be learned as you can't solve incompatibility. You could be trying to sync Big Ben to a $55,000 Oram console and for no reason whatsoever it won't work, despite the fact that it those costs it should always work. Or you won't notice it isn't working until you're an hour into the session and there's drift and the whole thing has to be scrapped. Now imagine a world of digital out: Or six out of eight of your pieces of equipment will sync but none of the rest will. Or four out of eight will sync but the rest have varying amounts of jitter. Or... it is a horrifying thought.

What isn't horrifying is the idea of Audio over Ethernet becoming the new standard. I've been harping on this for years, but that will literally solve everything. Virtually every known issue associated with digital audio vanishes when Audio over Ethernet or Dante is introduced as the sole digital standard in the studio. It is probably the single greatest innovation in the audio world since the introduction of sync itself. May Audio over Firewire, USB, AES, SPDIF, rest in peace... very, very soon.

I'd still love to be mixing on any of the innumerable consoles from the 90s/2000s that are 24/48 or 24/"96" with supersample if only they supported high definition MIDI for DAW control. I can't abide 127 steps of fader, pan or EQ control, even if I know that I can just set my base level in the DAW and work from there. Just can't do it.

I'm pretty sure that there's evidence that (assuming good ADCs) 24/96 is actually demonstrably better than 24/44, but there's a preponderance of data that shows that 24/192 is worse because of physics issues (I can't remember the exact article, but the comparison is like ISO settings on a camera -- the shorter your sample period, the less time your ADC has to measure the signal, so artifacts/inaccuracies introduced are introduced). Of course, I do 24/44 because I like disk space/low overhead more than I like theoretical audio quality -- the advantages of being a hobbyist. =)

Old-style -- the NL2 has a fixed power cable with a two prong plug, and the Blofeld has the detachable style but still a two prong plug. Most of my other gear has standard IEC cables to internal power supplies or they use wall warts.

Ohhhh...I had no idea that they would try to ground over the audio cables. WTF. This makes total sense then, because the ART T8 is ungrounded (and passive). So when plugged into the T8 they had no clear ground (or whatever the terminology would be). Once I grounded the T8 to the rack rails (using 12G green wire =) ) the bulk of noise vanished.

So I effectively introduced ground related noise by 'lifting' the synths by plugging them into a transformer designed to reduce ground loops. Awesome.

There are several issues here. The first is that if I can afford an Oram console, I will gladly suffer through the rest of this shit =) The second is that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy to some extent because word clock is unreliable and so no one really uses it or puts much effort into standardizing it. The problem is that audio is such an easy fallback that there's no incentive for manufacturers to sort their shit out. The third issue is that I assume that anyone investing heavily into a word clocked studio would probably verify compatibility ahead of time, just like we have to do right now with Pro Tools rigs, plug ins, etc.

This was attempted once (in theory) with mLAN, but that never took off, likely because it was proprietary (but still open to licensing).

That said, Dante needs some serious prosumer presence for it to take off.

I have a feeling that in 5 years MIDI won't even be a real thing anymore, things like OSC, Wifi MIDI, ReWire, VST/etc. are making much of it less relevant with each day. Except for old grognards like me.

You could see the writing on the wall starting a few years ago when manufacturers, to cut costs, stopped putting MIDI THRU jacks on their gear...and no one cared. Of course, I do, but I'm a sangry nerd

Sorry dudes, they've blocked BF at work and I've been busy at home with holidays and newborns...

First, your mom is esoteric looking! Second, I went and played a bunch of different PRS guitars with the same "pattern" neck, and decided I really liked it (the neck shape). I looked online for a Starla nearby, and the closest one was a six hour drive away. That wasn't going to happen. I went to a local music store and asked them about special ordering one, and they quoted me a pretty good price. I also asked what would happen if I absolutely hated it, and they said we would figure something out. It's a PRS, so I wasn't really worried about QC issues, I just didn't want to hate the sound of it. At the same time, I figured I could just change pots and pickups if that happened. Lastly, it's one of the "cheaper" PRS guitars, so I felt just fine about the whole thing.

I work at a job I don't love so I can buy shit that I do. This might not be the best system, but I'm sticking with it for now.

Oh, and I'm an angry dude. I like to play blues and stoner metal. I'm digging the Bigsby though, and seeing what I can do with that.

I have been thinking about that, but right now the plan is to play it as-is for a while. As soon as I get 20 minutes to myself I'm going to put some strap locks on it, but that's about it for now.

I eBayed the Taylor to pay for the Starla. You guys can laugh at me all you want, but one day I looked at it and decided it was too pretty. Like, "this guitar is +2 Bends +4 Chording, and -16 Masculinity". I liked the sound of it and played it for a good while, but I was also starting to sour on the neck shape towards the end. It (the neck) was too thin for me. Build quality was great, frets were nice, and I would actually probably prefer one of the lower end ones because they are not chambered. I will tell you that after playing those mini humbuckers for so long, the first time I plugged the Starla in and played an E, I sat right up. I would suggest playing the different models to see what you like, because they sound quite different from one another. I thought the Standard was a lot brighter than the Custom (what I had). What's nice about the latest Taylor solidbodies are the swappable loaded pick guards. There are some clips on YouTube where you can hear what the different pickups sound like. Also, for the record, I feel obligated to tell you that I wasn't a fan of the bridge and that the tone and volume knobs felt like cheap plastic. Two other things you might want to know... 1) I was in Best Buy the other day and they were selling one of the low-end solidbodies for $768 brand new. 2) You will take a hefty loss if you try to resell it after buying it new. I bought mine used and lost maybe a couple hundred bucks selling it. Had I bought it new, I would have cried myself to sleep. People simply don't know what they are.

I started on a PRS SE. I thought it was nice. Even then I could tell it was of better build quality than half the stuff I picked up in the store. A few years ago they were making one with soapbar P90s that I really liked. I don't see them anymore. Bummer. The new ones look good, but I don't like the look of the birds they're putting on them now. Mine had dots. Normal people probably don't care about these things, but I am a special snowflake.

I 100% approve. I enjoy my job, but many other aspects of my life leave me unfulfilled, so fuck it, if I'm irrational about certain purchases, I'll deal, it keeps me sane. I mean, hey, modular synth...

I find it funny that the two of the guitars I've been thinking about you've already owned =) I was going to get a PRS SE (the 2 soapbar model, which you can find on eBay) because they're so cheap there's little risk. But after realizing I'd end up swapping the bridge, nut, tuners, and pickups....I figured I may as well spend a bit more money on a guitar that would do things right stock. I've also heard really good things about the Richmond guitars (Godin subsidiary) and Agile/Rondo stuff (DIRT cheap and a very rabid fan base).

I started coming around on the Taylor but saw that prior to 2011 (?) they had a 16" radius fretboard -- holy shred fest! A lot of people online sort of complained about it, saying it felt 'modern' or 'shredder' but looked way more classic/blues. New ones have a 12" radius, which is more reasonable to me. The mini-HBs appeal to me -- if I get another guitar it'll be a complement to my superstrat, so ideally set-neck, mahogany, miniHB/P90s, shorter scale length.

Some of my friends pointed me at Godin which are apparently amazing guitars for the money and generally considered on a par or better than many "big name" guitars that are 25-50% more expensive. They're also made in Canada and/or the USA, and the QC is supposed to be miles ahead of, at least, Gibson.

Crazy enough you can actually order a Godin Core P90 from Amazon Prime. I hate to spend money on a new guitar however, for the reasons you pointed out. So I'm mostly window shopping at this point and hoping for a deal on either a newer Taylor SB or the Godin Core P90 or Godin LG P90 (or the magical Heritage).

In one week, my band will be playing it's first and probably last show, opening for my friend's band. So if anybody's in uptown Waterloo for some weird reason and you want to see me publicly have a mid-life crisis in front of a microphone, now's your chance!

SO THAT HAPPENED:



I'm the one playing the guitar that's about to go supernova.