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Mike Rivers

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About Mike Rivers

  • Birthday 11/30/1999

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  • occupation
    Subject Matter Expert
  • Location
    Falls Gulch, VA
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    MPN Advisory Board

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  1. After months of deciding that there would be a NAMM show in January 2022, it's now been postponed until June 2022. The usual suspect - Covid19
  2. The Chromebook is really for common applications and the Chrome software won't hardly run anything on its own. It was a good choice for no-budget families and students who need a way to get their school lessons done on line. I'm surprised at the shortage of "real" laptops of about that age with a 12-13" screen, and how much they cost nowadays when one can be found. I'm willing to go $200 for what I want, but either I can't find it or it's $379.
  3. He was indeed a most unique artist, producer, engineer, and whatever else he's doing at the time.
  4. There have been some great drummers over the years but only Charlie Watts was the drummer for the Stones. The fact that he kept his job and the band never quit working is what made him noteworthy. Now you want a really interesting drummer, look up Joe Morello with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. He was such a dynamic and melodic player that when he took a solo you never lost the tune.
  5. Looks like they also know how to sell businesses, too. I saw recently that, while Chuck is keeping his job as CEO, a majority of the company ownership is in the works to be sold to a venture capitalist group. We're assured that, as customers (and, I suppose, for you, Craig, as a supplier) that things will remain as they are. Hope so. I'm not a major Sweetwater customer, but I've always had good service from them when they're the right dealer for what I'm looking for. A news article about it
  6. Sure. Why not? If you walked around the house playing the bass, that would be weird. There are many contemporary artists who have taken the uke to places where it's never been before (and sometimes I question if it should go there), compose music with it, write songs with it. And there are still traditional Hawaiian singers, song writers, and players for whom the uke is there regular working instrument.
  7. Sounds like good news, and that the end is in sight.
  8. I've missed out on just about every new form of music since about 1950. It's why I don't use tons of plug-ins when I mix.
  9. Well, of course there's a difference sonically between Soundcraft's mixers. There can be a sonic different between two cables. But you're using the mixer primarily if not exclusively for live sound, and you don't don't have a lab to run tests that you can agonize over. And with live sound, you have a lot of distractions from the small subtle differences between op-amp circuits or transformers-or-none. So, for all practical purposes there's nothing to worry about there. Make your choices based on functionality. Does one have a built-in effect processor that you think you'll never use? Do they use the same connector types (and mix of balanced outputs and inputs) as your present mixer so you won't need new cables? At least the same number of outputs and inputs as you presently have? Input and output levels? I haven't done a comparison search of those mixers or other similar ones, but do that. See what you can get and don't get with each one.
  10. C64? Commodore 64 computer? Computers and audio until fairly recently have always had a hard time co-existing. Most of the noise problems stemmed from the power supply and computer chassis that didn't have a solid ground connection, That's why you can still get hum with the device turned off, Proper grounding through cables can help, but they as long as there's any connection between grounds of the computer and anything connected to it, there will be a problem. Whatever works.
  11. Good progress with both you and your gear. Always glad to hear it. You'll probably be up and running while new things that make walking more uncomfortable for me keep popping up - some have predictable end points like the scrapes and bruises from the fall I took due to my brain not knowing what my feet are doing due to neuropathy. It's just like troubleshooting electronics but at some point you just can't get the right replacement parts (like a new brain).
  12. I applaud you for making your own cables, though given what I think an MFX3 is, the analog I/O is on a D-sub connector, so all of the cables are "custom," so you probably made the ones you're replacing anyway. At least the outputs are balanced so you'll be taking advantage of their common mode noise rejection with new balanced cables, assuming they're going to balanced (differential) inputs. But are you certain that the noise as you hear it now is due to crosstalk through cables? It's possible, given the age of the equipment and what the designers had to work with at the time, that they did their best to keep all the stray noises bottled up inside the case, but that some made its way to the output connector and is getting into your system the same way the music is. Like Craig says, "It's authentic." Have you discovered a way that you can predictably make the noise occur? By executing some function? Loading a file? It would be good if you could do some testing like that - make the noise, move a cable, make the noise again and see if it's still there. A new balanced connection will guard against some noise, but not all, so your work won't be for naught, but it might not solve your problem.
  13. Good to hear that you're back at work with the ever-expanding rack. I think every day, and stare at it about every other day, of re-configuring my patchbay, but haven't warmed up the soldering iron yet, My jackfields are surplus telephone company ones and they're all solder terminals. The cable lengths are all tailored to the old Soundcraft console and had plenty of slack to remove a row of jacks and get it into a reasonable soldering position, but with the Mackie console in there some are too short and don't leave me very much working room. If I wanted to do the job right, I'd either dig out my ADC patchbays that have punch-down connectors (the tool only coss about $50 last time I checked, about 10 years ago) and rewire the whole works. The ones I have now are standard long frame 1/4" jacks with 2 rows of 24 while the ADCs are Bantam jacks with 2 rows of 48 jacks. I could save enough rack space with those to move a few pieces in a home made mini rack in the hutch over my desk - because they fit there. But buying a handful of Bantam patch cables would cost a small fortune. So it sits, and when I need to patch in some mic preamps, I have a snake from there to the patchbay resting comfortably behind the rack. But nobody uses patchbays any more. It's been a while since you've posted here and, knowing you had a few band gigs scheduled recently, was concerned that you hadn't overworked your leg. Too many pedals? Too many gigs?
  14. That's why they became so popular. As a common school yard instrument up throuth the 1950s, they have now been replaced by cell phones, Sad.
  15. OK, so you missed it. A video of the talk is now up on You Tube. You can get to it directly here: [video:youtube] The official reason for this seminar was to convince the AES and manufacturers to get together on standards for interconnecting analog equipment, adhere to them, and that manufacturers specify the input and output configurations for a piece of gear so the user will know how to connect to it. The talk was well balanced, well explained, and well illustrated by Bill (as usual) and it's a worthwhile primer on what balanced and unbalanced really means, why we have ground loops and how to avoid them, and best practices for cable wiring when connecting a balanced and unbalanced device. Stuff you should know about, and think about next time you have an XLR connector in one hand and an RCA jack in the other and know that if you buy a ready-made cable or adapter, it won't be the best way of connecting them for minimum hum and noise - and how you can do it correctly with some parts and a soldering iron.
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