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Legion303

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Posts posted by Legion303

  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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). :P

    -steve

  4. What type of music are you going to primarily be playing?

    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

  5. 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

  6. The only way they're "useful" is that it's another fun obstacle for cracker groups to bypass in the never-ending waste of time circle that is company-vs-pirate.

    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

  7. Well, I could tell you what I would do, but then it would be my solo. :P

    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

  8. 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

  9. Maybe your computer is introducting latency not represented by your DAW? Or maybe i'm just wrong.

    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

  10. Asio4All is garbage. Nothing can replace hardware ASIO drivers. Recommending this is instanely stupid. Most people I know who have tried it, have experianced latency problems, software problems, and audio problems.

    Works fine on my laptop's onboard sound chip, which has an inherent latency of 7ms but no ASIO drivers. ASIO4ALL gets it down to 3ms with no problems.

    I don't see any reason for anyone to use this.

    See above.

    -steve

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