Winston Psmith
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Posts posted by Winston Psmith
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On 5/5/2024 at 5:04 PM, RABid said:
YEOW! Just checked the ticket prices in Cincinnati. It must have sold out pretty fast. Everything is "verified resale" and more than I want to pay.
Looking over the list of concert DVD's as an alternative. Anyone have a recommendation on the best live King Crimson DVD?
Something to note - you'll get shunted off to a lot of BS ticket resellers because they're paying to have their sites moved to the top of a search. Look for the site for the venue itself, or whichever ticket (dis)service is really selling tickets for this event. I've seen instances where tickets haven't yet gone on sale for an event, and the re-sellers were already posting absurd prices.
In answer to your question, it kind of depends on which era of KC you're most interested in? "Neal, and Jack and Me" is Discipline-era KC at its peak, "Deja Vroom" gives you a look at the mid-90's "double trio" KC, "Eyes Wide Open" features the quartet from the early 2000's, TCOL-era KC. Last up, "Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind" has both CD and DVD versions of the same live sets. Possibly the most wide-ranging of the DVD's, in that the band was exploring material from nearly all of KC's history.
Some of the the live CD's also have concert footage, or DVD content, best viewed on a Mac or PC. Have fun . . .
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NPD
in Guitar Forum
Very nice!
Where are you thinking of using it in your signal chain?
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GC is still alive in part because it killed off so many small independents that the major manufacturers and distributors still need GC to front their products, at least for now. It'll be interesting to see how many of them start looking into exclusive relationships with other marketers, the way you can only find Behringer gear through Sweetwater.
I know back when GC could still afford to mail out regular sales flyers and catalogs, you'd see some products that were exclusive to GC. In many cases, it wasn't so much a particular model or product that was exclusive, so much as a cosmetic detail, like a specific Guitar finish, or a pedal with different graphics than the usual run, but otherwise, pretty much a stock item. As it is, I can't think of the last time I got any kind of flyer/ad from GC?
Luckily, here in the D.C. area, we still have Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center (locally known as "Chuck's"), which is very much what you'd expect a full-service Music store to look like, well-stocked, and well-staffed, with some folks who have worked there for decades, no exaggeration. For Used Gear, we have Atomic Music, out in the industrial wasteland of Beltsville, where I have found some of the coolest, and strangest stuff I currently use. There are also a few other independent Music stores, even for Vintage Gear.
If GC were to shut down, it's not the Pros who'd be impacted, at least not here. Many of the big acts coming through town check in with Chuck's, and many of the locals have long-time relationships with Chuck's.
In fairness, I have to mention the small GC outlet that was just blocks from my house, tucked into the upstairs of a local indoor mall. There were some good folks working there, and the vibe was very different from many of the full-size GC's. I found my Brian Moore iGuitar in that store, and the last thing I got there was my Quarantine Guitar, a used Taylor 110CE, bought on Friday the 13th, 2020, right before the world closed down. Less than a week later, our Governor ordered all indoor malls to close, which killed that GC outlet.
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2 hours ago, Jose EB5AGV said:
Perhaps someone who doesn't want to put hours and money on it? 😉
Nowadays most people (in general, I am sure people here is the exception) prefer new items and trash things barely used because they have got a newer model or just because some fault which could be fixed for a lots less than the full item cost... if someone was available to do it.
My main work is fixing electronics and sometimes I work on items nobody else would do (incidentally that is the reason I have customers from all around Spain and even from other EU countries 😁)
@Jose EB5AGV - I've been on both sides of this question, and in the end, it's not simply cost versus value, it's about enjoyment.
Here's an odd little thought, as an odd example - no one ever looks at a Guitar they're thinking of buying, and worries about how much they're going to spend on strings over time. Likewise, no one really adds up how much they've spent on strings over time, when they're selling or trading a Guitar.
"Well, let's see, I spent $500 for the Guitar, $120 for the HSC, and over the last 10 years I've spent about $350 on strings, so I guess it's worth $970 . . ."
So, what's my point? If you enjoy working on it, and you're happy with the results, that's what matters. BTW, you might save yourself some time and effort, maybe even a little money, by looking for a pre-wired Pickguard from Dragonfire or GFS.
FWIW, I love good used gear. It's a form of recycling, or maybe pre-cycling, by keeping stuff out of the trash stream.
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I have to agree with brother @Caevan O’Shite!
BTW, The Politics of Dancing is one of my favorite 80's tunes!
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Belew is fond of using Pitch-Shifters to create some of those Intervallic leaps we hear in his solos. My bandmate gave me a Digitech iStomp with Belew's "Impossible Pedal" loaded into it, and that's what it does.
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BTW, for anyone who's interested, the "Discipline"-era transcriptions are available on BandCamp. I can't wait to dig into "Frame By Frame!"
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Here I'm iz . . .
My apologies in advance if I'm going over things you already know, or already have.
First off, the Jerry Garcia/Doug Irwin-inspired Guitar in that video has some truly Byzantine wiring, above and beyond the Hex PU Out. Let's just leave that as it is for now.
Second, the GR-20 is the least "intelligent" of the GR Synths that I've used, in terms of depth of programming, both in terms of onboard programming and outboard MIDI Control. While the idea of an "Entry-Level Guitar Synth" may seem oxymoronic, the GR-20 was clearly designed for players who dislike or disdain Menu-diving. It does, however, work as a pretty straight-forward Guitar-to-MIDI Converter. Moving on . . .
I have to admit, I was very unhappy with almost everything about the Roland GK-3, which led me to buying Guitars with either the GHOST Hexpander or the RMC Piezo system already built in. YEMV, of course.
One issue with mounting any 13-pin PU, whether Roland, Yamaha, or Axon, is the spacing between the Bridge and the Bridge PU. Fitting even one GK-style PU can be problematic, even more so when the GK PU would block the screw heads for adjusting intonation.
Also, if you have a Guitar with a particularly wide, flat Neck Radius, adjusting the Hex PU to match can be a PITA.
Next up, consider the discomfort and inconvenience of having two of those plastic GK modules mounted onto the top of your Guitar, with two of those 13-pin cables hanging off of them.
I have to expect that you might also run into issues with having two sets of HB's mounted so close together? Since each Hex PU is really a set of 6 discrete, minuscule HB's mounted into the plastic frame, you'd be crowding 12 HB's right against one another. I can envision issues with magnetic fields, phase cancellation, "BOB"-knows-what else, although I'm honestly just speculating on that. Someone else might better be able to explore the EE issues.
Another potential issue is that Roland never made any kind of Merger for 13-pin PU's. If you have two GK PU's mounted onto one Instrument, you're still going to need a separate 13-pin device for each PU.
If you want to control more than one Roland Guitar Synth, or other 13-pin device from your Guitar, that's another matter. Roland offers an A/B/Y box called the
US-20 Unit Selector. I have one, and it works very well, although the price has gone way up from when I bought mine!?!
Roland also made a 1-In/4-Out GK splitter, but it hasn't been available for some time now. It was designed more like a Splitter box than an A/B/Y switch, so it wasn't ideal for performing.
If the goal is to expand your access to sounds, the MIDI Out jack is your friend. With a Mac and a MIDI-to-USB connector, you have easy access to all the Virtual Instruments within Garageband, just to start with. I would expect that you can find similar Soft Synths and Virtual Instruments within a current PC.
If you love hardware Synths, like I do, get a MIDI 1x4 MIDI Splitter box, or, if you're more ambitious, get an 8-In/8-Out MIDI Patchbay, and start connecting outboard MIDI gear.
I try to avoid using MIDI Thru, because you can accumulate a few milliseconds of lag time by running through successive MIDI devices. Likely not critical for jamming with yourself, but if you're trying to sync to a Sequencer or any other MIDI Clock device, it can be a problem.
That's probably more than enough of me, for now. I hope any of it is helpful . . .
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I've seen and heard Belew with David Bowie, King Crimson, and the Adrian Belew Power Trio, and it's always entertaining, to say the least.
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Coming here in October.
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@Thethirdapple- Short answer - there's probably little or no benefit to trying to rig multiple GK PU's onto your Guitar, unless you're trying to use 2 GK's to cover the range of an 8-, 9-, or 10-string ERG.
If you really want to expand the range of sound, and arguably, control that you get from your GK-equipped Guitar, get a MIDI-to-USB connector to drive Virtual Synths inside your computer, or get a MIDI Splitter Box and start looking for affordable, used MIDI rack modules to accompany your GR-50
I'd be glad to expand on this, or exchange PM's - I've been playing some form of MIDI Guitar or Synth Guitar since the early 1990's - but I have to get ready for a day of work right now. Just after 8:30 AM U.S. East Coast time here, so I can check back this evening.
Two small points - A Guitar with a 13-pin GK PU driving a Roland Guitar Synth is NOT really a MIDI Guitar rig, as the 13-pin connection is not a MIDI connection.
Also, the MIDI tracking on the various Roland GR models definitely improved over time, at least up through the GR-33. The GR-55 is a very different animal, and FWIW, I've avoided it.
Time to run, talk soon . . .
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59 minutes ago, Scott Fraser said:
+1, yup, to get your Roy Buchanan on.
@Scott Fraser- @Caevan O’Shite is very fond of "Swell" effects, so that's the way to go!
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I have always found that a heavier, stiffer pick served me best for picking dynamics, although YEMV. While you can certainly use a heavy pick to hammer away at the strings, I've also found that when using a light touch, a stiff pick enhanced my tone and articulation.
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Bumping this one to check and see if @picker had any luck?
FWIW, there seems to be a LOT of online discussion around using the HX as a MIDI Controller, and a fair amount of confusion, as well.
It seems that there is a Command Center within the HX, where you should be able to set up MIDI commands, although most of the discussion surrounds using the HX for CC (Continuous Controller) commands, rather than simple PC (Program Change) commands?
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I have to agree with @Dannyalcatraz, their overall sound reminds me of AC/DC.
Couple of thoughts, in that regard. Very likely Guitars with HB's, going into some kind of Brit-sounding Amp, or Amp modeler.
Keep in mind that many OD and Distortion pedals use very similar chips and circuits. I once saw a list of ALL the Overdrive pedals that used the JRC4558 chip, the favored chip for vintage TS9's, and it seemed like you'd have a hard time finding an OD that didn't use it!
Start out with a solid body with HB's, and an overdriven Amp tone, see how close you can get without adding pedals, then try a straight-ahead Distortion pedal, like a RAT, or DS-1, or what-have-you. If you have a Distortion pedal that's meant to model a British Amp tone, so much the better.
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That dark stain really brings out the grain, and reminds me of some PRS Guitars that I've seen. You would be hard-pressed to find an off-the-rack Guitar that looked anywhere as good!
The $$$ you don't spend on tools can go into the electronics, and a strap worthy of the Guitar.
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Greetings, everyone.
Sorry I haven't checked in lately, but my computer is seriously screwed up, to the point where I couldn't even stand to use it, or try to. If there's a ghost in the machine, it's a poltergeist, and the poor bastard is dangerously insane.
I'll spare you all the interesting things that it does, but if it were a car, you wouldn't let your worst enemy drive it, for fear that there would other, innocent people on the road with them, and it.
We have a handful of recent and older Macs, in varying states of disuse or disrepair, so I'm trying to Frankenstrat something that will work for a while. Nothing could tempt me to buy another Mac, at this point. If I had the $$$ for a new one, I'd pay some bills and buy a pizza with the change. If money were no object, I'd spend a few thousand on Music gear I probably don't need, and then I'd look for half a dozen used or refurbished Macs, and assign each one to a specific function, Music, Photos, Writing, Internet. I'm not a Gamer, YouTuber, nor Influencer, so I don't need the newest or the fastest, I just need something that mostly works.
Getting a late start on a light day here, hoping your days are good!
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Trying my luck here, see if this thing doesn't crash . . .
Couldn't watch the video, so my apologies if I'm also going over things that are obvious.
Quick take - PC (Program Change) Commands should be among the simplest and most direct forms of MIDI communication, even more so than Note On/Note Off. CC (Continuous Controller) Commands are generally more complex.
Start out with the two devices disconnected from one another, and check which MIDI Channel each is set to, and that MIDI PC Commands are enabled in both. for simplicity's sake, you might as well set them both Send and Receive MIDI data on Channel 1, then turn them off, for the moment. If you're using a MFX as your Master Controller, connect the MIDI Out from the MFX to the MIDI In on the Catalyst, turn the Catalyst on first, then the HX. (Admittedly, this is an old-school approach to powering up a MIDI rig, where the Master Controller is the last thing you power up.)
Ideally, when you switch Presets on your MFX, you should see that the Catalyst is also changing Presets.
You may have to dive into MIDI re-mapping, making sure that Preset #1 on your MFX brings up Preset #1, so that your Patches line up with one another. If you've been busy tweaking Presets and moving them around within your devices, you may find that their PC #'s don't correspond to their position in your User Preset banks: the Preset you've stored in #1 might be sending a very different PC#, depending on where the original Preset was.
You can, of course, set things up so that Preset #1 on your MFX brings up Preset #13 on the Catalyst, I find that it's somewhat easier to manage your Presets if the numbers align, as well. It also helps if your MFX has a good legible display, so you know that you're dialing up the Surf Safari Preset, instead of trying to remember which # is which Preset.
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2 hours ago, Thethirdapple said:
Not sure I have run across any pedals which have internal programming to do multiple, up to 16 simultaneous CC’s , which is the ‘89 marketing phrase which has me most intrigued… agree that with some basic software and or an exp to midi hub this is also doable with any pedal or controller nowadays.
and Im a sucker for SysEx.
PEACE
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_One difficulty would be sending each CC on a discrete MIDI Channel? I can't imagine wanting to send 16 different CC's to one device via one EXP Pedal or Controller?
In theory, with enough MIDI Patchbays or Splitter boxes*, you could use one EXP Pedal, or other Controller to send CC's to 16 different MIDI devices, but you run into the reverse issue, figuring out which CC you want each device to Receive, and how to send multiple CC's, without a Sequencer, or something like it.
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1 hour ago, Thethirdapple said:
The ability to assign multiple CC to a single “pedal” is cool.PEACE
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_Not about this product in particular, but many Pedalboard-style MFX will also allow you to "assign" (Boss' term) the onboard EXP/Volume Pedals to send various MIDI CC commands from the MIDI Outs on the MFX.
It's possible to design a group of User Presets that focus on the MIDI Control aspects of the MFX, essentially using it as a MIDI Footswitch Controller. I know that Behringer makes a MIDI Footswitch Controller with two onboard EXP Pedals, and a simple 1X4 MIDI Splitter box would allow you some of the same functionality as that Lake Butler Controller.
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If you want something a little less "light industrial" looking, you could add something like this to the wood risers - Screw-on rubber bumpers 3/4 inch
They'll also give you just a little bit more space for the power brick and cables.
I use these - Cable tie base - with cable ties, to keep all my audio and power brick cables neatly bundled under my Pedalboards. You probably don't need 100 - yet - but FWIW, the 3/4-inch size fits perfectly under the rails of a Pedaltrain board. 1-inch bases are too wide to be completely invisible from the top of the 'board, but they're barely visible, and they work.
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I'd be wary of folding legs on anything that I'm going to step on.
I was thinking more of taking a 2x2 and cutting short lengths for risers.
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Can't help with the Italia site, but this looks like the sort of upgrade you had in mind - Dano; Red "Crackle' Sitar - Sweetwater
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Welcome aboard, and my respect on calling your space a "Music Room." (My own preferred term for my own Music space, because calling it a Studio would be hubris.)
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Prepare to have your mind Belewned!
in Guitar Forum
Posted
There are some real treats on "Radical Action . . ." and some new material that never made it onto a studio recording.
You might also look into "In The Court Of The Crimson King" on Prime. It's much more of a documentary than a concert video, but you get more insight into the group that you're seeing and hearing on "Radical Action . . ."