Tim Smith

Lot's of food? 

If they nuke England you'll be safe. Although I heard they recycle toilet water to drink.

I am on SO version 5 still since I hardly use it. One thing about it does interest me and that's the mastering section and Tunecore. Even so, I am not seeing a huge gain uploading through the DAW software .vs uploading a finished track seperate. In fact for me I like to have the track outside the DAW to hear what it sounds like in the real world before I upload it, so this could potentially be a disadvantage for me at least. SO and others have been tapped into soundloud for awhile though I seldom use the features.

I was mainly wondering if Tunecore makes it easier than SC to sell content? SC makes you find tax forms and are very vague about how to go about it, Sure they are, works in their favor. What advantage is there to uploading to tuncore via SO compared to simply exporting the track and uploading it?

I see many software makers trying to pinch us into a subscription. It isn't only SO. They want a determined or semi determined return to report to the owners. What they fail to see is many will try it and never go back to it again. If this was the only option in daw land it would be different. It isn't.

If I had large multiple projects in SO and clients dependent on those mixes, then yeah I would be over a barrel. Probably no more than someone using PT. I'll pay something to upgrade to something I can keep. 

On 4/2/2024 at 12:18 AM, Grem said:

No. My Alverez 5220 was made in Korea. 

Nice looking guitar. I  didn't know they were made in Korea. Interesting. At one time the Alvarez name was on what are now Yairi guitars. Something changed in that deal and Alvarez started making their guitars elsewhere. The very first one I owned had high action, but as a novice I had no idea and was playing it that way. Other than that, I remember it being a nice guitar.

2 hours ago, Grem said:

I have an old Alverez that I paid $150 back in the 80's. Still plays like a dream and sounds great. The action on it has always been the best of any acoustic guitar I have.

And I love my 12 string Taylor. Like you said, it's just got something about it that I fell in love with immediately. I got it for a steal too!!

Nice. I had one of that vintage. It was my first guitar. I wish I still had it. House fire. 

Was it made in Japan? That must be the Taylor pictured. Nice.

47 minutes ago, craigb said:

60's child? ?

Born in the 60's ya. Does that mean I'm old?

3 minutes ago, Grem said:

Nice guitars Tim. That Taylor really steals the show. With the Epi coming in a close second.

But that Alverez has my interest more than the others. Nice design they got there.

The Alvarez is patterned off of the Yairi which is a better made guitar made in Japan. They managed to copy it fairly well in a cheaper guitar in a China build. Not sure if the Yairi has that bevel or not. It's a nice addition. It was marked down at GC because they were discontinuing that model so I got it for a good price.  The Taylor, yeah. I was once a Martin man until I played it. Smooth, well rounded and buttery sounding. It has a little something I can't quite describe that just sounds better.

The Epi I thought was too big, but after playing it last night, I think I just needed to catch up to it. 

If I were going busking or taking a guitar on vacation it would probably be the old low end Martin. The Alvarez sits somewhere in the middle. I could do either with it. I did play it out once with great success, but now that I have the Taylor I don't imagine I'll be playing it as much. It would make a nice back up guitar.

Matt, I didn't intend to derail your thread. I get exited about acoustic guitars. I admire anyone who can build one. I wish I had more time for stuff like that. There once as this guy, I think it was here who made his own guitar pickups from scratch. I admired his ability to do that. 

I think they sell kits to make the process much easier, but some like to do it from scratch. I was actually considering a kit to build a les but chickened out.

Back of the Masterbuilt has this nice bead design down the middle.

Here's a pic of the curvature on the Alvarez. I noticed some other Chinese brands with it too, so they must all come from the same factory.

Here is a lineup of all my acoustic guitars. I ommitted the bouzouki and the uke

From right to left- The Martin X- Sound is intimate. Not harsh. Cons- Battery and electronics are not easily accessible.No built in tuner. Pros- Small size, great all round practice guitar.

Alvarez- Sound is shiney, rounded and projects well. Cons- No pick guard.. Pros-Easy battery access, onboard tuner and EQ. Has curvature along the top to make playing it easier.

Epiphone Masterbuilt- Large dynamic sound. Pros- Construction is impeccible , tuning holds solid, nice inlays, has two outputs one magnetic and one piezo that can be balanced. Need stereo plug to use both.Onboard tuner and EQ. Cons- Uses 2032 batteries which draw fast, larger size may not be a fit for everyone.

Taylor- Koa. Sound is beautiful well balanced with nice harmonics. Pros-Easy to play. Top notch construction. Unique three pickup system that can be adjusted for each two strings.Has EQ. Cons- No built in tuner.

Of all the guitars shown, all have back bracing except for the Taylor which means it will probably be more prone to humidity. GC recommended I get case humidifiers for it. You can tell this in the way the Taylor sounds. 

Glued in.

You guys are into deeper territory than I will ever get into on guitars, although I did get a hot glue gun and glued the electronics back into my Martin. It was either that or let it flop around inside the guitar. Time will tell if it holds. Seems pretty sturdy so far.

11 hours ago, TW5011 said:

This may not sound like a difficult thing, but it usually is much more complicated than it seems.  Buying a company's apps and taking over the code is often an immense amount of work, to the point that it would be quicker to write it from scratch than to learn what they did and update it.  There are exceptions, of course, because some programmers use good coding technique and document what they're doing.  But in my experience, it's usually really difficult.

BTW, I've worked at a couple of companies where I wrote custom code for their apps.  One of them was a billion-dollar IT company that had bought some other companies.  I know several programming languages, but one program we inherited was in a language I'd never seen before, with lines like this:

RTVDTAARA DTAARA(*LDA (1 10)) RTNVAR(&PNAM)

and there was no documentation whatsoever.  It was not fun, nor efficient at all.  Looking up the terms, it's not too difficult to figure out what it's doing, but deciphering why they did it can be quite elusive.  And when there are tens of thousands of lines of code that isn't organized well or documented, you can spend years on it, and by then it's falling behind the competition (and probably incompatible with another Apple operating system upgrade).

I suspect many corporate leaders don't understand this, so when companies like MAGIX or InMusic buy other companies, they probably suspect they can just put people to work on it and upgrades happen, while not bothering to keep the original developers (because it's cheaper to hire entry-level programmers).  This is probably the main reason some companies become a graveyard of companies they have bought.

Well when I typed that I partially knew it was wishful thinking. I really liked ACID. If you can get it to run it's one of the very best programs for loops. After using other DAWs I realized the GUI wasn't as intuitive. I began using it back when Sonic Foundary owned them, and later it became kind of moot if you owned Cakewalk which loads ACID loops. In fact, there may be some real bargains out there now for them. It was a novel technology, copied in concept by Ableton. REX loops were said to be better for time stretching, at least I think I remember Anderton saying that. I never noticed much difference for what I did. REX was not an Ableton product but made by the folks who make Reason.

ACID imported some movie formats, but not nearly enough. PC ones which is why they must have thought adding movie software would be profitable and truthfully, I would wager more movie maker software sold than ACID.   Movie maker was made for those making basic movies with a PC. It was fine for me and if it goes away I will be sorry to see it go. Cubase is the clear winner for a DAW that incorporates movies, or at least it and Nuendo are tops in that category. It's one of the few that imports a mac movie.  Never used Digital Performer, but it's also a clear winner in the movie and sound category so far as movie houses are concerned.

Much like Cakewalk, a lot of those programs were built on old code and took a lot to bring up to modern standards. 

As you alluded to, much more would need to be done to keep all of those programs floating. I wish them the best. Lots of people buying movie software only make a few movies a year, so there was no incentive to upgrade it every year to something else for many. 

I have several of those movie maker products and ACID. I made a few movies with those. Ok for basic stuff. Acid was slow to load and always buggy. I evetually removed it from my computer.

I hope they can find a buyer who will improve the products.

On 3/27/2024 at 10:52 PM, Starship Krupa said:

Become known in the neighborhood as a person who's interested in fixing up old instruments!

One time, my neighbor across the street had about 3/4 of an old CB700 drum kit out on his lawn, ready to be dumpstered. He knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to haul it off instead.

No snare, one really ratty cymbal stand, no kick pedal, no throne, but it had a bee-yootiful Rogers "Big R" hi hat stand (same model Bonham preferred).

Not knowing anything about putting together a drum kit, I figured I'd fix it up and donate it to a school or something.

Another neighbor donated an ancient Japanese marching snare. I started setting it up, got various parts from a local used instrument store and Craig's List, some Zildijian ZBT cymbals....and started playing it. Got completely and thoroughly hooked on playing drums. Cut new bearing edges, rewrapped the shells....

Fixing up that kit turned me into a drummer! It's now my favorite instrument. I later got a sweet vintage Slingerland set on Craig's List and fixed that up as well.

Kept the CB's as a gigging kit, but gave it to a friend a few months ago in preparation for moving. It's found a good home in his studio and will never see a dumpster.

I replied to this already, but I think the software doesn't seem to carry a quote across pages, or at least it didn't for me.

Congrats on all of that. I wish I had neighbors like that, then again, maybe it depends. They don't leave those kinds of things around here.

You are apparently very handy at fixing up stuff.

On 3/29/2024 at 8:42 AM, aidan o driscoll said:

@Tim Smith Hi Tim. RUSH fan here

I say that as the Rush guitarist Alex lifeson ( Classically trained ) uses a sort of major chord "Cheat" inversion up and down the neck for barred chords like F etc. I learned this from an Iron maiden & Camel session guitarist back in the day.  It looks like this:

So You can bar just the A D G B string with 2nd finger ( thumb is first  in my language ), then use 4th 5th finger to hold down G string at the 5th fret and B string at 6th fret. This cheat also helps your finger stretch with a bit of practice. Dont need to play the two outer E strings.  

Slid this up and down the fret board to get F F# G etc etc.

Wow, thanks!

Creating a good pun is no laughing matter.

Just disregard me. I don't really understand what funny really is because I laugh at all the wrong things.

Ouch, ouch ouch. My take on most puns in general, but some are funny.

3 hours ago, Bapu said:

As long as they don't ask me to play the ?

My question would be- why? 

I know. Because they can. I can't imagine getting a high pitched sound out of a pumpkin. Ok at least not in that way.

On 3/24/2024 at 12:34 PM, bitflipper said:

Well it just keeps getting worse more interesting.

We had rehearsal on Thursday and the pressure was taking its toll on our singer, who's married to the drummer. She and the guitarist let a trivial disagreement bloom into a big argument and he left in a huff, never to return. This is unusual for us, as we all generally get along really well.

So yesterday we brought in a new guitarist and spent 4 hours working with him with the goal of deciding whether or not to cancel this week's gig, too. It's a good gig and we don't want to lose it - scenic location on a river, lively audiences and a decent-sounding room where we get to use our own PA.

To everyone's delight, the new fellow really stepped up to the challenge. It looks like we'll go ahead with next Saturday's gig, even if it's with a somewhat truncated repertoire. The drummer has new drugs that are greatly alleviating his treatment's side effects. We're rehearsing again today and will get in at least one more session before Saturday. For my part, I am doing my best to project confidence that it won't be a train wreck.

But there's a bit of a strain relief coming on Tuesday. I'm going up to Bellingham to see Penn & Teller, treating my daughter and granddaughter who haven't seen them live before. And since I'm not the one driving, it will be a pharmaceutically-enhanced evening for me. Brownies!

My guess is, if the drummer can still play it will do him good to get out there. A whole lot more than if he had sat at home thinking about the grim reaper. That tension was probably bound to happen given the dynamics there. Guitarist leaving may have been for the best.

13 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

A lot of good advice here. I'll add my .02.

A big mistake I made when I was learning full barre chords was that I thought I had to treat my index finger like a capo, holding down all 6 strings. Obviously, once you think about it, you don't need to fret behind the strings that are already fretted by your other fingers. So for instance, with an E shape barre, you only really need to use your index on the low E and the high B and E. This lets you curve your index finger, which is much stronger than when it's flat. Using a bit of @Byron Dickens pulling back with your arm muscles becomes more effective, too. I'm now at the point where I can play without planting my thumb. Of course I do use my thumb, but my hand doesn't cramp up from having to use my finger muscles and wrist tendons to clamp so hard.

The other thing is, yes, take it to a pro and have it set up properly for your playing style. A good luthier will watch you play for a couple of minutes in order to see how hard you pick and strum. People who play harder need higher action, people with a light touch on the right hand can drop it lower. I'm not a basher, so my guitars are all light action.

I've found that nut height is often overlooked in favor of bridge height. A good test is to capo at the 1st fret. If the guitar becomes much easier to play, especially campfire chords, then your nut is higher than it needs to be. Make sure your setup person pays attention to this.

Last, the book that helped me the most in understanding guitar setup and repair was Dan Erlewine's. I recommend it for any guitarist, even those who don't want to do their own setups. Just understanding what's going on is valuable for communicating with your guitar tech. And there are some things, like setting intonation on an electric when you change string gauges, that IMO, every guitarist should know how to do anyway.

As mentioned by others in this topic, if a guitar sounds good it IS good, no matter how or where it was built and how much it cost. Case in point: an anonymous neighbor of mine dropped off a CHEAP old Asian-made classical on my porch, complete with musty-smelling gig bag. It's so cheap that the headstock decal is a foil sticker. The frets were actually pointy on top and serrated. The bridge is held on with a pair of wood screws whose pointy tips I can feel underneath. The kind of sub-beginner instrument that used to put people off from learning guitar.

But it actually sounded okay, so I leveled and polished the frets, put on a set of really nice tuners that a friend had laying around, took the bridge down, and it's an amazing guitar. Stays in tune, doesn't have the cardboard box tone you'd expect, records really well, being a gut string, it's easier to play than my steel strings.

And rescue guitars are like rescue doggies: they return the love and are eager to please. If you think I'm kidding about that, I am not at all. I grew up reading Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang and watching The Love Bug, and have experienced it enough times to know that it's for real.

My favorite electric is a Squier Affinity Telecaster (absolute bottom of the line) that when I bought it for $15, was literally in pieces. Some dip5hit had obviously tried to smash it on stage, but y'know, if you try to smash a Tele on stage, what you end up with is a stage with holes in it. The neck and bridge and control plate had all been taken off the body and the bridge pickup was dead. Tuners were missing. Multiple chunks of the thick poly finish missing from the edges.

I put it back together,  put some Schallers on it that I had laying around, a Mighty-Mite AlNiCo in the bridge, laid some Krazy Glue in the edge dings to smooth them out, and good lord. I'm not lying, I have at least four friends (I've lost track of the actual number, to tell the truth) who have told me "if you ever want to get rid of that guitar, tell me immediately." And they are all guys who are into really nice US-made vintage guitars. When people pick it up and play it, they get this look in their eyes....

What do you have to do in order to get someone to lay free guitars on your porch?   Really I guess a Squire is a decent body with usually cheaper made hardware on it. Which means it won't tend to stay in tune as well. Not sure what a set of tuners go for?  Electrics seem to maintain a decent setup better than acoustics. You seem to know your way around guitar maintenance and the ideal guy for that guitar. That neighbor was wise to drop it there.

I'm to the point where I have my old Martin X as the tune tester in my studio and my other guitars are mostly in cases. If I get something , the plan is to pull out one of the better ones for tracking, but that Martin has seen a fair share of recordings. People try to EQ the bass off a guitar. With that Martin it mostly isn't needed. I have this old Laguna HSS people here probably remember me bragging about it when I bought it, and to me then it was wonderful. Even today aside from the cheap tuners it rocks going through the right setup. I see them going for a little of nothing online. You playing that guitar probably had a lot to do with how good it sounded.

4 hours ago, Pragi said:

Very nice guitar sound and singing .

That sounds very good, man....

Thanks!  No rocket science involved there

You know the title of the thread almost invites negativity to me. I would say I'm probably uninformed about most modern music.

In a nutshell I see a lot of it like pop sauce. The sauce has that heavy programmed beat and some scantily dressed diva whose voice has gone through lots of correction and what she sings about is relevant to almost anyone on a very basic level, or it's about s-x .  Is that what's really selling? I dunno. Maybe sometimes.

Yep I have seen chemo first hand. Past it now, never want to repeat it. Thoughts and prayers for your friend. 

22 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

There was a similar discussion on another forum about not making music because of forums, having to update software, looking for new products.

These Cakewalk forums are like a woman's knitting circle.   

Since I am at my job until April 12th and it's a bland and very boring job, this is about the only thing I can do. I mean I will still probably drop by later but the dynamic will be different.  I will no longer feel compelled to sit in a small office for the whole day looking out the window at a nice day. I stop my several other forums and am mod on one. It's still like being a goalie waiting for a ball with a team of 80 year olds. But we tend to rush life along. I guess I still haven't learned that lesson.

Even though I know I'm as different as night and day from a lot here, I liked coming here, and if we all stayed in safe little circles we would never branch out. This forum has staying power. Not sure why? Maybe because the same people keep coming back. I don't think the product itself is anything enough in and of itself to keep anyone here, but I'm just an opinion.  I was "starise" here with many thousands of posts and when they transferred something went wrong and I lost that and just decided to use my name.

I do like looking at new products and getting updates to old ones. In fact, they were not initially going to allow a deals area. I'm glad they allowed it and cclarry has done a great job among others there. 

22 hours ago, ptheisen said:

I will admit that it feels like there is significantly more drama on this forum than on the forum of the other DAW I use.

I like safe riff raff, drama, well not so much. Trollery? I guess we have Wookie for that.  TBH I haven't found any fun forums with any of the other DAW software I have that are anything more than half empty doctor's offices. Boooooooring.

22 hours ago, craigb said:

No, no...  Having creativity and not being able to use it is a lot like trying to make love to someone else's wife when you have company in the house! ?

.

I'll have to take your word for that one. I had a guy going after my first wife and I could have ended up in prison for killing him. He wouldn't come out to confront me.

Pretty sleek plan, get thousands of people using the free version and then add a paid version with more bennys.  

I like stand alone so far as I would not want to be connecting to a server every time I use the software. Might be tempting to try again based on what they offer.

I'm on the outside looking in right now with not a lot of motive to do otherwise.