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Shane_B.

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Posts posted by Shane_B.

  1. I like to listen to my music to compare the mix to professional tracks once in a while but I get bored liatening to my stuff a lot.

    The last 4 songs I mixed and mastered when I got Ozone 9 Advanced are excellent compared to professional tracks and I do listen to then a lot. I'm astonished at how well they turned out. And I take no credit for that, it was 99% the software.

    But I normally only go through my library if someone is interested and I'm playing it for them, or it's been a long time since I listened.

    I really like Soundcloud. I can listen anywhere through my cell. I recently got a Bose Soundlink Revolve + Series II speaker to listen while working and stream Soundcloud and YouTube Music through it.

    Those are very revealing, just like their Wave Radio's. If anything is wrong in the mix they over-emphasizes it. And they do sound great. A shocking amount of bass. My last 4 masters fit right in with pro masters. So does my stuff from when I was 100% analog. The stuff in between analog and O9A needs a major revisit. Hah.

    I found out the other day that I can get a second one of those Bose Revolve and use their app to set them up for stereo. Been dying to get a second one now.

    When a song speaks to me, I obsess over it and have to record it and get it out of my system. Then I seem to lose interest in it for a very long time and come back to it eventually to see how well I mixed and mastered it. Sometimes I'll pull it back up in my DAW and make changes then it will sit a long time again. I've gone back and remixed and remastered songs that were over 15 years old. Especially as my listening equipment improved over the years and I could hear my errors better.

     

    • Like 1
  2. 17 hours ago, Bapu said:

    Distressors shine best on real/live kick and snare in the aggressive genres. What instruments are you trying these VSTs on?

    I've tried the LA2A and 1176 on electric DI guitar and bass, mic'd acoustic, vocals, sampled drums. I've never gotten in to recording live drums properly. At the time there weren't DAW's and I didnt have access to the hardware.

    • Like 1
  3. 19 hours ago, Bapu said:

    It's a compressor. And a little more. It's touted as a LA2A and 1176 in one unit.

    There are some good emulations out there. The native UAD version is available as well as Slate and some others I can't remember right now.

     

    There's so many to choose from in VST format that it gets difficult to decide. They don't all sound the same. In the end I landed on the one that came with the DAW I use. I think it was a reasonably priced add-on iirc. 

    I always liked the one that comes with GR too, but it's too difficult to use wrapped up in the GR package.

    There was a free one floating around for years that the internet forums raved about saying it was identical to the hardware. It sounded awful to me. Maybe I just don't like what they do and the one I ended up with was altered enough to where I did. 🤷‍♂️

  4. I think the reason desktop sales are slowing is because of the obscene cost of the graphics cards caused by bit mining.

    If you want a decent 4K-UHD PC you're going to drop $5K easily. Then add a 4K-UHD capable monitor on top of that.

    Then spend that again in two to three years when the newest games and software come out that requires a better GPU than you have.

    You may be forced to upgrade the CPU so it is capable of unlocking the full potential of that new GPU.

    And you may be forced to upgrade the MOBO to unlock the full potential of the CPU you had to upgrade.

    But you can save some money by buying RAM that is overclockable, although you may have to replace that every one to two years. Sorry, no warranty on overclockable RAM, but they'll sell it to you anyway and give you free software to do it in real-time from your desktop without going in to BIOS.

    In other words just throw it all out and spend five grand minimum every 3 years to keep up with the software.

    On second thought, just buy a cheap console for gaming with crappy graphics and use a much less expensive PC for not so demanding tasks.

  5. I could see the white fuzzy dice on a red one. A love bead curtain with tassles across the front. I see where you're  goin' with this.

    My brother had a red one back in the day. I had the opportunity to buy that exact model amp and cabinet combo a few years ago. Same color and all. I didn't because my wife would have killed me if I spent a penny on musical gear. In hindsight I should have let her. Haha.

    It was an incredibly clean and full sounding amp. And extremely loud.

  6. On 7/20/2024 at 6:31 PM, Notes_Norton said:

    I gigged on cruise ships from 1986-1989. They didn't have TV back then, so I got in the habit of doing other things. when I got off the ship, I tried watching again, but found myself thinking, "I'd be having more fun if I was doing this __________."

    Same here. We had 3 channels growing up. Then there was a period where they couldn't scramble the cable signals and we had a TV with a built in tuner. Got all of it for free for a few years then they started scrambling it again. About that time I got in a band at 13 and played out till I was 28 every weekend. I don't ever recall even turning on our TV during that period of the mid 80s till late 90s when I was in school and eventually working and playing out at the same time. I seem to remember TNN was good back then and MTV. USA and the WWF and the late night horror shows they had  but I never got in to TV series'.

    There's nothing wrong with watching TV. It's a great escape. Now days you can pick and choose. You aren't limited to what's available on a set amount of channels.

    I wish I could be recording or playing live, but I've lost my mojo. I tried to pick up my guitar quite a few times recently but just sit it back down after a few minutes. I was really excited when I bought a house recently and was planning on seting up a nice studio but I just can't get back in to it. Music consumed my life for so long I think I'm just burned out on it now. I still love listening to music. I have almost 100 albums downloaded from YT Music, but I just can't seem to get back in to playing or recording. 

    • Like 1
  7. I liked MTV in the early days when I was a kid, but it started changing and I got away from it.

    I haven't had cable or satellite in well over 20 years.

    The last time I had satellite I had a service called Voom iirc? Their slogan was All Horror All The Time. It was it's own service seperate from Dish. The installer came out and installed their own dish and box. HD horror 24/7 with a box that let you record.

    Dish Network bought them out, took over their satellite, shut it down, and morphed their channels in to a "Premium" package through Dish Netwok. I got rid of all of it at that point and haven't missed it one bit.

    From time to time I've paid for streaming services but I've gotten rid of them all now and just have YouTube Premium mainly for the music. I get way more out of youtube,  picking and choosing what I want to see.

    Between that, Amazon Prime's free movies and series', and the plethora of free streaming channels out there now, there's more content available than you could ever watch in your lifetime.

    I have a pretty large collection of movies in 4K on disc. I really enjoy older movies that have been restored and watch those when I want.

    • Like 1
  8. 56 minutes ago, Grem said:

    Never heard of this. 

    My dad had cars he had to do that in. Iirc it circulates the coolant through a longer path through your heat system inside and gives it more room and time to cool, but I could be totally wrong with that. I just know it worked on older cars my dad had.

    • Like 2
  9. I had to go back today to get the rest of my concrete statue order. I got my mpg up to 35.2 mpg. I couldn't believe it.

    Last time I went I got held up in a slow moving traffic jam. Some idiots were waving "Free Pal..." flags from an overpass on the highway and it caused a slow moving 3 mile traffic backup.

    Soooo ... so much for my higher octane gas theory. I just filled up with the cheap stuff yesterday.

    I went up in my attic in MO one time to run wiring for ceiling lights. I lost 8lbs in 2 days. I had a one of those white zip up suits on and when I took it off the footies were filled with sweat. It was brutal. The first day I used a rake to push aside the blown in insulation and put down walkways to the areas I needed to run the wiring. Second day I did the wiring and raked the insulation back.

    The #1 most important thing about roofing is ventilation. If you don't have enough soffit, ridge, or stack vents, it will cut the life in half. And don't let them shoot you bathroom and kitchen vents in the attic. Make them vent them properly through a stack out of the attic. Black mold will form. I had to replace a 30 year roof in about 15 years because it overheated from improper ventilation because the previous owners cheaped out. I put a 50 year on it and they added a bunch of stack vents and ran insulated runs from all the inside vents to them. It's especially important, and code, in warmer climates. 

    • Like 1
  10. 5 hours ago, paulo said:

    What does the 99mpg refer to ?

    Mettelus is correct. It gives you the exact current miles per gallon you are getting while pressing the gas pedal or if you are moving and take you foot off the gas. The 32.4 I was getting was an average over the last 50 miles.

    The 99 number is how I know what my mpg is when I take off from a dead stop. No matter how hard or easy I take off from a dead stop I get around 8mpg. Going uphill from a dead stop is 4 - 6mpg.

  11. 11 hours ago, PhonoBrainer said:

    I assume that was a 50mi trip down a mountaintop? ? I get a whopping 19mpg in my v8 F150. ?

    A few years ago I got it to 29.9 driving on the highway (Rt.80) across Indiana. That was a more accurate reading because I drove well over 100 miles that time. I always set my cruise control to the speed limit which was 65 there iirc.

    It's been idling rough lately so every 4th tank of gas I put in mid grade gas, not regular. I had just filled up. I drove an hour to pick up some concrete critter statues and it got up to 29. On the way back with about 300lbs extra weight it peaked at 32.4. Some spots were 50 but it was mostly 65.

    I don't know if it was the better gas or what. The truck seems to be "tuned" to get the best mileage at 65mph.

    It does kick in to 4 cylinder mode but I've forced it to stay in 8 and I haven't seen any difference.

    To force it in to 8 cylinder mode you put it in manual shift and set the gear to 7th. It will still automatically shift, but it locks out 8th gear and 4 cylinder mode.

    A few things I've learned over the years driving big trucks is not to take off slow and get up to speed. I always get better gas mileage getting up to the speed limit faster and letting momentum help. I get about 8 - 12mpg on takeoff. If I baby it and go slow to get up to speed, it stays at that until I get up to speed. 

    I also learned that the bigger the engine the better the mileage. I had a 5.3 v8 in my old truck. Best I ever got was 24mpg. Same make, model, and year truck, just a smaller engine than my current one.

    A schoolbus ran a stop sign and totalled my 5.3l Sierra. It only had 15K miles. Almost killed me and I was down for a year. I had to get the same make, model, and year replacement for their insurance to cover it 100%. The one I have now was the last one in a 150 mile radius of where I lived at the time. I was kind of forced to get it. I didn't want this truck because of the bigger engine, plus it has all the Denali features except it says Sierra. I think someone special ordered it and backed out and that's why it was left sitting on the lot so long. I truly didn't want it because it's a really nice truck and I use my trucks a lot and I'm rough on them.

    I was thinking it would get worse gas mileage because of the bigger engine. I was completely wrong.

    That said, this is probably my last vehicle anyway so it's all good. I had my first Sierra 15 years. I doubt I got that long left.

    I had a Honda Fit for work years ago. I was getting 47mpg in it. Nobody believed me so I started keeping an excel spreadsheet. I still have it backed up somewhere. I'd log my mileage and gallons every fillup. I peaked at 47mpg, took it in to get the valves adjusted which is part of routine maintenance on those after the first 20K or so and it never got over 35mpg again after that. I put almost 200K miles on that car and never did a thing other than suggested maintenance, tires, and oil. Never even touched the brakes. Never needed them.

    I've logged over 750K miles for work and used to watch my mpg very closely. Especially when gas was $4 dollars a gallon back when I had the Fit.

    • Like 1
  12. 23 minutes ago, paulo said:

    I guess the people who think that buying an expensive electric car is saving the planet gather them up and add them to their arguments. Those are always full of holes.

    I broke my MPG record of 29.9mpg in my giant 6.2L V8 GMC Sierra this weekend. No holes in this story. It's all true.

    20240706_125035.thumb.jpg.2c4f09aa0f09c27ade8ba552fd8d8340.jpg

    • Like 2
  13. 32 minutes ago, Notes_Norton said:

    From a non-scientific observation, I think for the sake of corporate profits, we are going to heat the Earth to the point where we can no longer grow our crops, and the human race will become extinct. Probably not in my lifetime, but my grandchildren might see the beginning of the end of humanity, and they will blame us for being so wasteful.

    What gets me is, the plants and factories that do pump out heat and polution should be made to "scrub" as they call it. Get it at the source rather than tax people to oblivion like they are attempting to do. That solves nothing.

    Blaming the population and charging us for the problem they created is like cutting someone's leg off to fix a hang nail on the thumb of their left hand. It makes no sense.

    They have near zero and actual zero emmision combustion engines. Give those companies breaks to make that new technology affordable and available to everyone. Focus on hybrids and stop pushing all electric on a grid that can't keep up now. Give tax breaks to people for planting trees. Pave the roads with something other than black heat absorbing/holding materials such as concrete. Concrete lasts longer and is better to drive on. Use the old style freon and make the systems that use it tighter so the units last 50 years like they used to rather than this new crap that is so explosive people refuse to work on appliances in your home anymore and tell you to just throw it out and buy new every 5 years.

    There is a lot that could be done by the producers of the problem rather than blaming the people. But there's no money to be made by actually fixing the problem now is there?

  14. 4 hours ago, Rain said:

    The explanation I've seen is that this is the temperature registered at the airport. It can vary across the valley... 

    I remember when they changed how they forecast in Iowa. I know Digital Dopplar has been around a long time, but they either changed something or networked all the radar points or something like that. It was almost 30 years ago so I don't remember exact details other than the fact that the weather reporting was barely accurate after that. And out there you literally live and die by the weather with the tornadoes and blizzards and extreme weather that has always occurred out there.

    I've also seen a report that temps started going up when they started getting the data from airports. All the black pavement absorbs and holds the heat and what do they do, they decide to stuck a thermometer out there and make "that" the official data.

    That said, the entire country is a giant grid of heat absorbing highways. Never should have gotten away from concrete for several reasons. I drive on the original "concrete mile" in NJ almost every day. Built in 1912 and it's still there and has only had to have been patched a few times in over 100 years. Look it up on Google. "Concrete Mile in NJ".

    Anyway, I don't believe we're screwed do to climate. I don't believe there is a thing we can do about the natural progression of nature and I haven't seen any change in my lifetime other than the agenda on how it's reported.

    • Like 1
  15. I've lived in 3 states long term over the last 53 years. East cost and midwest.

    It was always hot in summer, cooler in the fall them cold going in to winter. Then it slowly warmed back up going in to spring and the cycle repeated. Never repeating the same temperature, wind, rainfall ammount patterns twice.

    I've seen it snow in May, I've seen it be 70 at Christmas. I've seen it 80 in May and -23F actual temp at Christmas.

    So to answer your question, nope.

    • Like 1
  16. 2 hours ago, craigb said:

    Confession:  I have never heard of this guy!  And, no, I don't mean I've vaguely heard the name but know of nothing he's done, I mean I've never even heard the name before this thread!  Other Friedman's like Marty, yes, but not this guy.  RIP none-the-less!

    I can't post any of his songs. He was a bit vulgar, but misunderstood. A lot of people took his songs as racist, but they were actually anti-racist.

    He played with all the big names back in the day. Dylan, Nelson, and many others. He also ran for political office.

    He was a very unique individual.

    • Like 2
  17. 6 hours ago, bitflipper said:

    But if money is tight, there are a number of freebies out there that are fun and useful.

    I've never used any synth other than what came with Sonar and free stuff.

    Same with samples. I've never purchased a sample pack. Always used free stuff I found and what was included in my DAW package.

    I did the subscription thing with S1 for a while that unlocked all they had to offer. I never used any of it. There were better free sample packs on their Exchange server imo. I've used one of the drum sample packs I got on the Exchange a lot.

    The best DI for guitar I've ever used is my inexpensive ART mic pre. All other DI's directly in to the audio interface always sound "glassy" and harsh to me.

    I have their comp and mic pre. I'll chained them together at default settings and I can't tell the difference between that setup and an amp, especially after being processed with guitar rig or other amp sims.

    A good place to get audio interfaces is Amazon. I got my Presonus interface at a fraction of retail. It was sold as used/refurbished. It came factory sealed. It was literally brand new, or if it was refurbished they did a heck of a job repackaging it.

    • Like 1
  18. 11 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

    Good thinking, but alas it doesn't work.

    Plus I'm getting every couple of hours, from FB

    Hi Bob,

    You’ve not yet unlocked your Facebook account. Your unlock link will expire on June 27 2024 at 7:20 PM so please log into your account before that.

    And when I log in, it tells me I'm blocked.

     

    It really sounds like you've been hacked. It happens a lot.

    Someone hacked in to my Google account from my DAW. I know exactly where from too and I kept screenshots and IPs and all that. I may persue legal action one day. All they did was read confidential emails, they didn't do anything else.

    You can go into your Google account and your Fecesbook (lol) account when you regain access and see where people are trying to get in from.

    People hack in to my forum account regularly. I don't even care anymore.

    I'm so busy these days I rarely have time for anything but work and sleep. Haven't even touched a guitar in months and months. Maybe that's why I'm so cranky. Oh wait, that's not why ... .... ..... ?

  19. It could be your browser too.  If you have cookies blocked or other security stuff enabled. 

    The only time I use Chrome is in situations like this. I use a different browser that has all kinds of tracking stuff blocked, but unfortunately there are times when things just don't work and I am forced to use Chrome with it wide open. IOW I don't block anything they try to do. I've had to do that a few times unfortunately.

    • Like 1
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