Legion303

Are you muting the other strings when you're hitting that A on the B string? Try it. -steve

AKG 240S. And for the fourth time...this needs to be stickied (here in the newbies forum). Doesn't vbulletin allow you to cross-sticky the same post in different forums? Bah. -steve

Melodyne 3. -steve

Whoever runs that site needs to move http://ocremoved.thundershock.org/Lockdown1/Koudelka_Requiem_ElectricFlamesMix_OC_ReMoved.mp3 to "RemovedByRequest". -steve

In my experience, they only help if you have problems with your mouse (jerky motion, mostly). If you keep your desk clean and you don't have a high-gloss finish on the surface you're probably OK without a pad. Otherwise, or if you're experiencing jerking and you aren't SOC (ba dum chh), get a generic $1.00 mouse pad and that should be the end of it. -steve

I'm stumped. As this is the only time google has failed to retrieve lyrics (any combination, and I just tried for about 15 minutes) for me, my guess would be that this is a new or indie artist. Nice song, though. If you find out who it is, let me know. -steve

My method is to tunnel my entire home desktop over an encrypted NetOp Remote Control link to my laptop and control the mIRC session that's always up at home. YMMV. -steve

Thinkpad. -steve

I'm really enjoying Amplitube 2. -steve

I wish someone had told me about this thread before I bought my new pickup from there. But I'll keep it in mind for next time. Or I could have used my eyes, bur where's the fun in that? -steve

Well now. I got my guitar back from the luthier last night (fret level job that took a week because he was booked). Prior to that I had dropped the action and filed the tremolo knife edges smooth again (16 years of beating on the whammy bar had chipped them)...and this morning I dropped in my new SH6. I have to say, this thing rocks. Balls-to-the-wall power when I'm playing, and absolutely no noise when I stop. This is a big change from the shitty stock pickup. Thanks again. -steve

Thanks for the help, guys. SD are cheaper, easier to install, and now 3 guitarists whose opinions I respect are recommending them to me (except for that traitor Snapple...but we'll let that slide). I guess this is a no-brainer. I am sticking with the SH6. Sorry, JB fans, but the reviews are slightly better and the hotter output is more in line with my metal stylings. Although I have to admit that for the first time ever I was swayed by the fact that a musician I like uses a certain piece of gear (Michael Amott, whose signature is on my headstock along with Bill Steer's, and who uses the JB). -steve

Melodic thrash, death metal, blues, classical (not that Yngwie shit)...I've heard that you can get a good clean tone out of the EMG if you know what you're doing, but since I use my middle single for clean playing it doesn't really matter. The other thing I've heard about active pickups is that they're great for computer recording due to the almost complete absence of EM hum coming through them (from monitors, power supplies, etc.). On the other hand, the EMG needs a new jack, a place for the battery, and lots of wiring, whereas the SD can be dropped right in, supposedly sounds as hot as the EMG, and is a good deal cheaper. I'm leaning toward it. Do you guys have any opinions on tonal differences between the two brands? I tend to play and record like Slayer--not much bass. Thanks again. -steve

Right. I've narrowed my choices to the following based solely on customer reviews: Seymour Duncan SH-6 EMG 81 I'd prefer people who have actually played both models to weigh in, but I'll listen to anyone's opinion on this. I know the EMG is an active model which has its own benefits, but I've heard that wiring it up with existing passive pickups is a pain in the ass without extra modifications. The SD is cheaper and has great reviews, but is a passive pickup. The guitar whose humbucker I'm replacing is an '89 Ibanez RG560 with a maple neck/fretboard and a body made of ash or alder (Ibanez decided to coat every interior surface so that I can't see the wood in its natural color, but it's a soft blond wood). It currently has 3 pickups in H-S-S configuration, and the H is the one I'm replacing. Thanks for any advice. -steve

On the other hand, Amplitube 2 has been out for a very long time and has not been cracked. Cubase 4 has been out for at least a month and has not been cracked, and probably won't be. There are several other programs out there that are in the same state. To date, the *only* pirate group to crack the protection has disbanded amid rumors that they were actually hired by Steinberg to work on protection schemes. Before they disbanded they said that the program they cracked took so much work that it would probably be their last release ever. That's pretty much what happened. Normally protections only hinder paying customers, but these companies have found a way to make it hinder the pirates too. -steve

Well, I could tell you what I would do, but then it would be my solo. Use Yoozer's URL (say that 5 times fast) to find out what key you're in, and mess around with scales until you come up with something you like. If this is your first song it's probably not going to be easy. Me, I know exactly what I'd do over it, but that kind of intuition comes only with genius or experience, and I'm no genius. -steve

Thanks for looking. Those tabs are note-for-note accurate, but in the wrong tuning. I wrote them. EDIT: I wrote them for Displacer's Death Tab site forums several years ago. His forums had a problem displaying the percent sign, which was changed to a large negative integer in the text, and broke up the tab lines severely. You can tell which other tab sites stole them from Displacer (and failed to credit me or him) by the obvious cut-and-paste job they did while leaving in the percent sign corruptions. If you look at the intro to Locust Star, it looks like this in standard D tuning: d|--------------------0-----------------------------| A|--------------------------------------------------| F|*-------0-----------------------------0-----------| C|*-2-----------2-----------------2-----------2-----| G|--------------------------------------------------| D|--------------------------------------------------| . . . . . . . . (etc.) But on the video I saw this weekend, they play it in second position on four consecutive strings. Unfortunately the angle is bad and I only have a blurry shot of his fret hand in second position, but a relatively clear shot of his picking hand hitting four consecutive strings. This sequence is impossible to play like that in standard D tuning. -steve

Anyone? It seems to be some sort of open D-ish tuning, but I don't have enough video to piece it together. -steve

Make a song with all presets, on default synths. -steve

Actually, that's right. Analoq went into some detail on this, but it makes sense that your audio card isn't reporting the latency between its in port and your speakers, but the latency between its in port and the PCI bus (or wherever it connects). So real latency for me might be soundcard + DAW + effects + signal path to speakers + distance I'm standing from the computer while I play, which explains why the sound from my finger hitting a string ~2 feet from my ear would hit my ear so much sooner than the sound from the speakers does, at least at latencies higher than 10ms or so. There's also the (probably negligible) latency of the signal going from my pickups through the 20' cord before it even hits the soundcard to consider, too. -steve

True, and his band is absolute shit, but here he is playing a 2-neck custom job live, and it's pretty impressive for guitar wankery. EDIT: let's try that link again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9FLWzpMvdA Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go wash my jeans. -steve

Where did you get this information? I'm far from having a perfect ear, but the delay when I'm playing my guitar at 10ms is too distracting for me to stay in time. -steve

http://www.google.com -steve

When Kontakt loads, click on the Engine tab and select "Offline (bounce) mode". -steve

Do you really want to do this with computers? Because it seems to me the easiest way to get shitty production sound would be to record the song through bad amps in a garage. -steve