So much has happened since my last post, so I will try to get you up to speed quickly without boring you or shooting stuff over your head (which I'm sure I tend to do with some of my technical talk from time to time).
I have had continuing problems with my Mackie MDR 24/96 multi track. I took it back to the repair shop, and he started doing stuff with it while I was there. I kept trying to tell him that I had already tried this, that and the other, but he insisted on continuing to try some of these same things. I was getting frustrated with the situation, and I think he was too because he was starting to realize that he had never fully fixed the thing in the first place. He said he would look at it some more tomorrow, and that he would appreciate it if I could bring some other hard drives for him to experiment with. I'm not thrilled about it, and I'm pretty sure he wants to figure out what the problem is without me around so that he does not have to admit that he didn't do a proper job the first time around.
I'm not really upset with him though, he has helped me out for free with some other stuff. I had a blown crossover on one of my mains (Behringer Eurolive b1520), and he rebuilt it for free right on the spot. He also hooked me up with a free Yamaha 8 inch to replace one that was dry roting on a pair of really nice dual 8 tower speakers I have. He has also offered to replace the e-prom on a guitar processor that I picked up recently for about $10 (including parts, I will discuss this processor later).
So, I also recently made a few purchases on eBay, and got some new toys. First is a ProCo Rat. I have owned 2 of these in the past, this now making my 3rd. I always remembered it as having crushing drive and great tone. I got it in the mail and scrambled off to band practice early so I could play with it. I was less than pleased with it oddly enough. While the amount of drive you can get out of it is devastating to say the least, the tone left me wanting more. there is a point on most distortion pedals where once you turn the input gain to that critical mass point, you expect to get nice warn saturation after exceeding that point. Such was not the case with this pedal, it gave me more of a sloppy fart sound, almost a synth sound. I didn't enjoy the way it sounded, especially when I compared it to the on-board distortion on my Ampeg VH-150, the Ampeg completely destroyed the Rat. Tone, Balls, Saturation, every department hands down. It's still a new pedal, and I got it for a great price. I still have the box, manual, all that. Anybody want to buy a Rat?
I also picked up an Alesis M-EQ 230 and a Digitech RP-1 from the same seller, he cut me a break on shipping, and I managed to get both on pretty low bids. I was happy for a time. Then when everything arrived, to my surprise the EQ didn't come with the power supply. He was relatively quick to remedy that though, even though I am still waiting to get it. I also discovered that the it is an unbalanced unit, which is not the guys fault, I bought it without looking up the specs. I was a little upset at first, but then I realized that I am going to be running it through the mains inserts. which are not balanced anyway, and they are going to be on short cable runs too.
The Digitech RP-1 has not been a completely happy story either. One of the other guitarists in my high school band had one in addition to some other pedal board he had, and let me use it for a while. It ended up being the core of my tone for one of our albums. After the album was done I went back to my old stand by, the Digitech GSP-7. Anyway, I recently got another GSP-7, and the old high school band has been getting back together every once in a while to do some re-hashing of the old tunes, make a re-release album and maybe even do a show or two. This inspired me to get both the Rat and the RP-1 since I (at least thought) I missed the tones I got from them, and that they would be useful for the reunion. So I went out of my way to find them (and trust me it was not easy finding an RP-1 in good shape). I left the RP-1 on over night one day shortly after receiving it, not on purpose, but I did none the less. After having done that, I was fairly certain that it was in pretty good shape. It has a dark tone, almost too dark, but it's easy enough to fix with some of the filters it has on-board. I was happy, until a few days later I broke it out again to do some recording and it started rebooting every few seconds. It was an as is sale, and I think the guy knew exactly what he was selling me. I'm a little pissed. I have not left any feedback on his page for that particular sale yet until he responds to me about working with me on the issue. If he doesn't want to work with me, then I'm gonna trash him.
Parts-express.com is one of my new favorite places to do business. I have been having a roller coaster experience with my first transaction with them, but at the end of the day, it has been a good experience. I ordered 2 Peavey 400 watt (200 RMS) 15 inch drivers for a 215 cab I picked up for free a while back (I'm pretty sure I posted pics of it a while ago). They were only $50 or so each, with free shipping. Sounds like a great deal, and it is, except... When they got here, what they had shipped me were passive radiators. So they gave me a return ticket, picked them up the next day and checked them out (since I didn't recognize them for what they were at first). They sold out of them since they got the returns back from me, so they said they would do whatever they had to do to get me back in business. They promised me a pair of 600 watt (300 RMS) Eminence Beta series. I am quite pleased with this resolution. Now granted I have not seen them in the mail yet, but I am not really in a hurry, it was really more of a project cab, something to have in case I decided to pick up my bass again.
Max Thrash IV went well, mostly because it finally happened and didn't get cancelled due to snow a third time. About 60 people showed up, which is one of my better turn outs at the studio (which only has an 80 head cap). This was due mostly in part to the fact that I had Woodbine Hotline play, they always draw a crown.
I had a few problems with the system though. At one point during a set change, I hit the mains assignment buttons for the 7-8 sub groups (for no particular reason), and there was a massive boom, which made the Crown CDi 1000 (powering the subs) go thermal, and it would not come back up. I was pissed, but I had to roll with it. I had a Crown 800 CSL in the rack that was not being used, so I switched the subs over to it real quick and prayed for the best. Well, I have to say I was quite pleased with what I heard. I would venture to say that the 800 was punchier and had more bottom than the CDi.
Later in the night the amp I used to power the center stage monitors and the drum riser monitors went thermal on me and also wouldn't come back. For the sake of the artists who had to suffer with only 2 of 6 monitor cabs running I felt bad, but not for myself, I was almost relieved. It's a Gemsound EAX 1000, and I paid about $100 for it new. I have known it is a lesser amp, and have been looking for an excuse to replace it for a while now (even though it has served me well through some rather abusive situations).
Well I came back to the studio the next day to do some cleaning up and to check out the possibly damaged equipment. Everything seemed to be working just fine (except for the multi track of course). I'm VERY relieved that the CDi 1000 is still online, it is after all about the most valuable piece of gear I own (monetarily anyway). But it got me to thinking. #1, not having bins is not good, I need to split the load with another amp, which I have. #2 not having monitors is almost as bad, again I need to split the load, which brings me to #3.
#3, I don't just need to split the load here. I was using my smallest, cheapest amp to do the hardest work. That little EAX was pushing 2 different mixes over 4 different wedges, and the 2 most important mixes at that, center stage and drums. I have been getting a lot of drummers tell me that they need more in their monitors, and drummers usually do need the loudest mix. So I thought to myself "Why not get another amp and another crossover and use the 215 cab you just got once the new speakers arrive?" So I think that is exactly what I am going to do. One of the local music supply houses has a decent number of Peavey CS 800's for $200 to $300. That's a pretty solid investment on a work horse of an amp. I may pick up 2 of them once I get a chance to set some coin aside. The only problem now is to find space in the drum riser for a 215 cab, a 12 inch wedge and a 15 inch wedge...
I am going to post some videos at the end of this, but before I get to that, I need to tell you all about my latest find. I stumbled across this company the other day while cruising through eBay. They are called Seismic Audio, and they have STUPID low prices on their own brand of pro audio gear. They don't make instruments, mixers, mics and prob a few other things, but they make a lot of stuff that the struggling musician and/or studio engineer can use. They have 400 watt half stack cabs for a little over $200, with free shipping. They have 24x8 100 foot snakes with parallel XLR and TRS 1/4 returns for about $250, again free shipping. They have 350 watt 15 inch stage monitors for $260 a PAIR, not each. Or you can step it down to 250 watts for $210 a pair. And of course this is all with free shiping too. I think they have free shipping with everything. I don;t know if their stuff has the best tone in the world, or what their spec tolerances are like, but for the price, it's worth looking into.
So here are the videos I was promising...
First is an acoustic ditty I wrote, and Rachel maned "Tranquility" for me.
the next 3 are sets from this past weekends Max Thrash IV
Brethren Boys
Well that's about all for now. Sorry if that was a lot. I probably missed some interesting stuff, but I'll be sure to let you all know about it if I remember.
Later,
Neely
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