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Little things that make a big difference


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Here's another little thing...

 

When creating presets for dynamics processors and amp sims, do so with assuming a consistent input level, like -3 dB. Then normalize the input signal to those processors when using those presets. That way you won't run into a situation where a compressor preset has no effect because the signal is below the threshold, or way TOO much effect because the signal spends most of its time above the threshold. With amp sims, this is about making sure the Drive control has the intended results.

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Camping pads. The kind the backpackers often use to cushion the earth under them when they sleep.

 

The make great pads between gear when moving from gig to gig to avoid scratching them. And unlike those moving blankets, they don't need to be folded.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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Speaking of gigging - Gig Gloves are wonderful, and also come in very handy when you're moving. I like that you can fold the finger tip back so you can have gloves, but still work a smartphone. The original model is $39, which I think is worth it to give your hands some extra protection
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I have a small LED flashlight for poking around in dark areas like the back of my studio rack. It is squared off so very easy to set down aimed where you need the light. I just leave it back there, super cheap and handy.
It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Now on my second set odf D'addario XT strings, the ones in the black package with the big X on the front.

They feel great, sound great, very balanced. They hold tune better than any string I've used to date and last much longer. Yes, they are more expensive per pack (I use the 10-46 set) but they last longer.

 

I will play 150 gigs this year, it looks like these strings will not only save stage time by staying in tune but actually be less expensive in the long run since I don't need to change them as often (another time savings too!).

 

So, I am a fan. Will be using them moving forward.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Dick Rosmini had a MIDI guitar that he strung up with all six strings the same, and transposed every open string to the note he wanted for the tuning he was playing in. The guitar determined pitch by counting the time between zero crossings, which took longer for for the bass strings than the treble strings. With all the strings the same gauge, when playing a chord, the high and low notes started at the same time.

 

Hey Mike, I was just thinking about Rosmini yesterday. He was a brilliant renaissance sort of guy, equally adept at music (studio guitarist, engineer, producer), exotic plants, Rolls Royces, Persian carpets, photography, etc. When he worked for Tascam he would bring my studio partner & I prototype products to see if we could break them. Great dude.

Scott Fraser
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When you have to replace a fuse that's internal to a piece of gear, buy a second fuse and tape it to the inside of the gear so you don't have to go looking for one next time it blows.

 

So when I don't have a fuse onhand and wrap the blown fuse with aluminum foil, should I also find another blown fuse to wrap in aluminum foil as well?

 

:poke::laugh:

 

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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When you have a bad cord, cut it in half. One of the halves will likely be good. Solder on a connector, and you have a new cord...albeit a shorter one!

Yeah, and then you can cut the bad half in half and find out which quarter is still good, and then cut the bad quarter in half and find out which eighth is still good... eventually you get to microscopic lengths, but long before then, you can have a nice set of short patch cables for this and that. Just have plenty of connectors handy.

 

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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Dick Rosmini had a MIDI guitar that he strung up with all six strings the same, and transposed every open string to the note he wanted for the tuning he was playing in. The guitar determined pitch by counting the time between zero crossings, which took longer for for the bass strings than the treble strings. With all the strings the same gauge, when playing a chord, the high and low notes started at the same time.

This was the method used on the Yamaha G10 MIDI controller, which some people really loved and most people found cognitively dissonant (because it was literally dissonant) unless they played loud or with headphones. Interesting idea, though.

 

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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When you have a bad cord, cut it in half. One of the halves will likely be good. Solder on a connector, and you have a new cord...albeit a shorter one!

Yeah, and then you can cut the bad half in half and find out which quarter is still good, and then cut the bad quarter in half and find out which eighth is still good... eventually you get to microscopic lengths...

I wouldn't recommend that. Half is enough, and let's face it...you always need some short patch cords hanging around for your Eurorack.

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When you have a bad cord, cut it in half. One of the halves will likely be good. Solder on a connector, and you have a new cord...albeit a shorter one!

Yeah, and then you can cut the bad half in half and find out which quarter is still good, and then cut the bad quarter in half and find out which eighth is still good... eventually you get to microscopic lengths...

I wouldn't recommend that. Half is enough, and let's face it...you always need some short patch cords hanging around for your Eurorack.

I was sort of being facetious. It's like Einstein's explanation of successive approximation using the example of sitting on a couch with a pretty woman. Oh well, they can't all be gems.

 

 

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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I was sort of being facetious. It's like Einstein's explanation of successive approximation using the example of sitting on a couch with a pretty woman. Oh well, they can't all be gems.

 

I got that. Us edjukated syentists gotta muchuel unnerstandin.

 

Maybe it's different for guitar players or people who run cables on stages where they get run over with equipment cases, hand trucks, or a fork lift, but I find that most cable problems are at a connector, not in the middle. So you find the bad end, repair or replace the connector, and then your cable is only a few inches shorter than it was.

 

I've been accumulating cables for 60 years, and by now most of them either haven't been used in over 30 years or they have removable plugs on both ends.

 

Does Hosa still have a lifetime guarantee on their cables? Used to be you could send back one that failed and they'd send you a new one, but that was back in the day when nobody wanted to use Hosa cables because they failed. I don't think I've ever had one of theirs go bad.

 

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Not to drag this out, but...a lot of cables have molded or otherwise uninspectable plugs. So if you're feeling crunched for time, there's merit in just cutting the effing cord in half, and choosing the part that still works.

 

Maybe it's different for guitar players or people...
Wow, that's harsh. :)
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Here's another little thing that makes a big difference, at least to me: Color-coding tracks in a DAW. I've had a consistent color scheme for years (drums = red, bass = brown, vocals = green, guitars = blue, etc. etc.), so I can find a track in seconds within a virtual mixer. Track icons are even better.

 

Some people say all those colors look cartoonish. I say I have a faster workflow..so I'm sticking with the cartoons :)

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Not to drag this out, but...a lot of cables have molded or otherwise uninspectable plugs. So if you're feeling crunched for time, there's merit in just cutting the effing cord in half, and choosing the part that still works.

 

Once you've cut the cable, you need to determine which half still works. That takes a meter or a continuity tester, otherwise you might put a new connector on bad piece and still have a cable that doesn't work. When you're in a time crunch, the thing to do is take the spare cable out of your case or closet and use it. Doesn't everyone carry spare cables?

 

If you find a bad cable, put it someplace where you won't pick it up and use it again. Then, when you have time, a new plug or two, and the proper tools, decide how you want to make the repair. If you can use two shorter cables, then cut it in the middle. If you'd really have a nearly full length cable, then cut it at one end, and worst case you'll have to replace two connectors. And then you'll have a cable that you can easily diagnose and repair if it should fail again.

 

 

 

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Maybe it's different for guitar players or people...
Wow, that's harsh. :)

 

Oh, now I get what you meant by "that's harsh." I didn't intend that guitar players were somehow different than the rest of us. I suppose I should have said specified electric guitar players, and included bass players, too. Because of how guitar cables are used, they tend to get more wear and tear than cables that interconnect equipment in a rack. Not only are they plugged and unplugged very frequently, but, since guitarists aren't often stationary when playing, the cable gets a fair amount of flexing right where the cable goes into a plug. Hence, my suggestion that guitar players are harder on their cables than some other users of similar cables.

 

No offense intended.

 

Also, cables that get "run over" are more likely to be damaged in the middle than at a connector. And cables that are run so that they're tripped over, causing a plug to yank out of a jack, shouldn't be.

 

 

 

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When you're in a time crunch, the thing to do is take the spare cable out of your case or closet and use it. Doesn't everyone carry spare cables?

 

Of course, I'm not suggesting taking out a soldering iron between sets. I'm never not in a time crunch!

 

If you find a bad cable, put it someplace where you won't pick it up and use it again.

 

Which brings up another little useful tip: when I run into a bad cord, I tie a knot in it so I know it's bad. At some point enough "knotted cables" accumulate so that I fix them all in one fell swoop, which saves time compared to fixing them one at a time.

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Maybe it's different for guitar players or people...
Wow, that's harsh. :)

 

No offense intended.

 

I know! I was just funnin' with you. You know, like when addressing a crowd, and you say "Ladies and gentlemen...and drummers" :)

 

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Of course, I'm not suggesting taking out a soldering iron between sets. I'm never not in a time crunch!

 

I once rebuilt the power supply for a Soundcraft mixer on a stage at Chamizal National Park before that evening's live broadcast of the folk festival, and it was the morning after a . . . . ahem . . . production meeting, which somehow involved a lot of tequila. But part of my job on that team was to make sure everything worked. This was before 9/11 and I was able to carry my tool kit on board the plane and all they wanted was to see a business card, so I gave them one of my cards from the FAA, where I was working at the time.

 

when I run into a bad cord, I tie a knot in it so I know it's bad. At some point enough "knotted cables" accumulate so that I fix them all in one fell swoop, which saves time compared to fixing them one at a time.

 

If it's somebody else's cable, I'll tie a knot in it. If it's mine, I usually set it aside and fix it when I get a chance. I don't break too many cables. A friend of mine who used to run a fairly good sized sound company here would take a big knife out of his pocket and cut off an end right then and there to be sure nobody else tried to use it. They always had a big pile of cables needing repair, and that was one of the jobs for their interns. Because of the kind of shows that they did, their cables really did get run over by fork lifts now and then. It seems that stage hands will go out of their way to run over a cable.

 

 

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Of all the clip on guitar tuners I've used, the Boss TU-10 is the best.

Over the last 6 years, I've seen Snarks die or disappear. The 3 $10 tuners I bought on sale a year ago Xmas are now one and it's flaky so I'm gonna toss it.

 

The Boss may not be the most accomodating form factor but it soldiers on, is accurate and it WORKS!!!

 

As a bonus feature, it can easily be read on a dark stage or in bright sunlight. The daytime display is an easily seen light grey background with black markings.

 

I just got another one, "open box" from a reputable dealer. $17. Should be here Monday. Now I will have a spare so I can leave one with the main gigger and use the other one for whatever else comes up.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Here's another life hack. When you buy something, often there are little fold-ins, mounting hardware you don't have a need for at the moment, rubber feet for something for which there is no immediate need, an adapter cable, the little caps that fit over jacks, and other floobydust. Put these in a ziplock bag, label it, and dedicate a drawer to these. Then if you need any of these things in the future, you're covered...and five years from now when you go to sell the thing on reverb.com, you'll have all the needed miscellaneous stuff.
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  • 2 weeks later...
rhymezone.com - online rhythming dictionary. Couldn't write lyrics without it :)

 

Good one!!!

 

Also https://www.thesaurus.com for when you are looking for a different word with a similar meaning.

 

+ 1 for both suggestions, though I have had to resist the temptation to use a word that has no business appearing in a R and B song (' Pleistocene? WYH?') ð

 

Because a new theme or an better idea for a phrase might pop into my head at any moment (most often when I am far from my notebook or computer), in addition to these tools, I use routinely use Google Docs when I write lyrics so that I can write and edit no matter where I am.

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I"m a keyboard player. Maybe it is our nature, or maybe it is because I taught junior high band for over three decades, but I always seem to be the Boy Scout (in terms of always being prepared) in every band that I have worked with. Depending on how organized your musical partners might be, it"s not a bad idea to carry a few essential items that other band members might find useful too. I don"t want to have to be someone"s mother, but when it"s ten minutes to the first downbeat and you find out that the sound man needs another 57, the guitar player doesn"t have another D string, the drummer lost his drum key or the bass player did not bring an extension cord, I"d rather just hand them the needed item than deal with the club manager who is complaining that the band is starting late. Fortunately, these are somewhat rare incidents and I have rarely worked with anyone who was less than grateful or who was a repeat offender.

 

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Good one! In a similar vein...there are short USB extensions, only a couple inches, so the stick doesn't have to plug directly in to the motherboard. The USB connectors are guaranteed for something like 1500 insertions. So if you're going to wear out a jack, better an extension you can replace than the connector on a motherboard.
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