Guitars

[Gambit 1870]

1 hour ago, Tweaky said:

Any noticeable difference in sound between the two?

They seem pretty much identical to me.

All the good bits (Pups and hardware) from the Core range have been fitted, a different profile neck and nicer finish than SE although the SE finish is pretty damn good. 

 

As for sound, I think the pups tighten  up the bottom end, not so sludgey and they seem not as bright/bitey at the top, more of a sparkle. 

 

I've gone full digital now (Helix) through PA, so can't comment through an amp. 

[Rocketfrogs]

On 08/08/2024 at 10:07 AM, Tweaky said:

Any noticeable difference in sound between the two?

They seem pretty much identical to me.

The green ones much faster...

[Tweaky]

Close your eyes and listen to this  Ferenc performance,  preferably in the dark, on headphones.

Equivalent to a first Pink Floyd moment

Edited August 18 by Tweaky

[ray4410]

[Tweaky]

Not so much Guitar related  news, but if you make your own music on a PC or Mac you would be familiar with Native Instruments.

They have updated their various KOMPLETE software bundles to version 15, If you order during the pre-sale (before September 23) you'll get iZotope's AI-powered mixing tool Neutron 4, https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/izotope-neutron-4 which would ordinarily set you back $249, for free.

 

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/catalog/

 

TBH If interested I'd do what I did last year, wait until the Black Friday sale comes at the end of November, and get one of the bundles for a massively reduced price.

[ I bought KOMPLETE 14 ULTIMATE for AUS $899, which was AUS $1000 off ! ] not only that, but their Black Friday sale lasted a very long time, until January 15th if I remember correctly.

Same sort of discounts apply if you want to upgrade from one version to the next.

 

The biggest news is that the industry standard, and included KONTAKT sampler player, has been updated to version 8,  which now includes 3 new tools. LEAP, TOOLS and CONFLUX.

 

LEAP.

Leap is a tool for transforming loops and one-shots that makes it easy to turn a basic sample into a new hook, riff or texture. Shipping with 12 curated loop packs geared towards specific genres and styles, Leap will also let you load in and manipulate your own samples and trigger its effects in real-time with the black keys on your keyboard.

 

TOOLS

Tools is a suite of generative tools aimed at helping you spark creativity and come up with new compositional ideas. Kontakt 8 introduces two new Tools: Chords for chord sequences and Phrases for melodies. Third-party developers will be able to develop their own Tools for use in Kontakt.

 

CONFLUX

Conflux is a hybrid instrument that brings "synth-type capabilities" to Kontakt for the first time by introducing movement and modulation to sounds through real-time wavetable manipulation. [ from the description It seems similar to ARTURIA's Augmented series of instruments to me]

 

[Tweaky]

Have you ever seen a gadget, that quite frankly, defeats the purpose of it's invention ?

 

The video below shows a obviously enthusiastic but incompetent guitarist demonstrating the Chord Buddy - but a Cheap Chinese Ripoff Copy Version, on it's fitting , application and use.

 

Actually the Real Chord Buddy wasn't designed as a learning tool, it was designed for guitar players with very bad arthritis so they could still play.

 

Maybe Mick Jagger will get KEEF one for XMAS.

 

I found this video unintentionally hilarious, I think you will as well.

 

 

Edited September 13 by Tweaky

[Tweaky]

Presonus is changing its business model of its Studio One , digital audio workstation software from V 7 onward's, which will be released very shortly on October 9th.

The subscription SPHERE version of Studio One, where you could subscribe for a yearly fee, and get to use all of Presonus software, including Studio One Pro, but never actually gave you ownership of a perpetual license of Studio One, has gone.

 

The new pay for software updates model, when V7 is released, will include some of the software that was previously only available in the SPHERE subscription model, but this time you will own the software. [See video below for what some of this software is, Presonus will give more details on the 4th of October apparently]

 

Fist and biggest change is that there will only be one version of Studio One, and that will be the PRO version, so no more feature limited Artist version at a cheaper price.

Everybody will be on a perpetual license [You own the software], you will just have to pay more for updates [which is what Presonus is now calling a subscription]

 

Version 7 will be the last Version Number, and you will HAVE TO PAY a yearly subscription firstly to update from V6 to V7, and to get software updates for a year, which currently will be US$179.99pa. AUS$265

 

For current Studio One owners, you can update now for a cheaper US$149.99/ AUS$221 and that will get you version 7 when its released, and one year of updates.

 

New purchasers of Studio One are the only ones getting a bargain out of this change, they can get Studio One Pro  [normally AUS $599 ] for US $199.99 / AUS$295 , which includes a 1 year software update subscription......Basically AUS$300 less to get into Studio One than people who have been using it for years.

 

TBH I'm in two minds about this, firstly to keep Studio One up to date is going to cost you more than other DAW's, around AUS$100/$120pa more depending on currency exchange, compared to say a version update of CUBASE, actually more when you take into consideration that version changes to CUBASE tend to happen every 18 months, rather than yearly.

 

Secondly Presonus are saying that they will be adding at least 3 new features to Studio One every year.

If these features are actually wanted/needed is up for question, I strongly suspect these 'New Features' are marketing speak to disguise what will ultimately be considered future 'Bloatware', by that I mean software Personus has already included in their SPHERE subscription [or previously available to be purchased from the Presonus store, when that was operating] but very few people wanted or used [usually because there were better 3rd party options]

 

The value of these New Features will also ultimately depend on what other software you have.

If you are like me and already have a collection of Soft Synths and Effects from ARTURIA or elsewhere, and Native Instruments KONTACT , plus some of their software, you will probably have pretty much all musical instrument and effects bases already covered, all you will be wanting from Studio One is the ability to record and master them.

So basically, I strongly expect I'd end up paying for things I don't need.

 

I'm going to take a 'Wait and See' approach to this change, hopefully more will be revealed on October 4th.

 

If it just seems like a cash grab by Fender, since they bought Presonus and have been responsible for these and previous business model changes, I might do a Crossgrade, and get CUBASE 13 Pro or 14 at a reduced price AUS$640 rather than AUS$850 [ Stienberg usually brings out new Cubase versions around Dec/Jan]

I could always choose to update Studio One 6 at a later date.

 

I'm STILL waiting for INTEL to release their new CPU's.

My main priority is to upgrade my music PC, and has been for the last 18 months.

The 14th Gen INTEL CPU's run WAY too hot and chewed up electricity, so I decided to wait for Arrow Lake which from unofficial test reports are faster, cooler and chew far less electricity

 

 

Edited September 21 by Tweaky

[Tweaky]

Have you ever downloaded a PDF instruction manual, or opened a inbuilt one that comes with software you have installed, and just stared at the screen, and think, this is such a PITA to find the info I need, and especially to cross reference what you are reading with something else, several 100 pages away. 

Have you ever found exactly the bit of info you were looking for in a PDF manual and wished you could highlight it, or even make you own notes next to it, and then bookmark the page it is on ?

 

These problems really hit home with a vengeance when viewing HUGE 1000+ page instruction manuals.

 

Well I've been looking into changing my DAW to CUBASE 13, and I thought I'd do a search for the manual beforehand to see what I'd been in for, if looked too daunting to learn, then I'll forget about it.

Google brought up a interesting post at the VI Control forum relating to this, and subsequently, a great way to make using PDF manuals a LOT EASIER.

[Fantastic forum on using Virtual Instruments / composition etc - a lot of Pro composers at the forum if you haven't visited before ]

 

The original post is linked below, but I'll copy and paste the most relevant bit.

https://vi-control.net/community/threads/started-an-insane-journey-last-night-reading-the-entire-1-440-page-cubase-13-pro-manual.145374/

 

Started an Insane Journey Last Night: Reading the Entire 1,440-Page Cubase 13 Pro Manual

Not exactly an important post obviously, and I must be nuts, but I'm going to finally do it: my goal is getting it read by New Year's Eve. I only got 30 pages in last night and already learned about a few settings that I've seen but wasn't exactly sure what they did.

The biggest issue is, how to efficiently read this monster... a PDF on a PC screen doesn't cut it. Trying to print it is a weekend project, but even with that, you have no search or indexing on the parts you want to remember.

I think I found an efficient way: I imported it into the Apple Books app on my iPad, which allows me to write notes with the Pencil, highlight text, and most important--bookmark the page that I leave notes on, that way I can display only bookmarked pages later (I'm sure 99+% of iPad users already know this, lol). And as expected, the image quality just looks great.

Also, Books automatically does horizontal scrolling which I prefer over vertically rolling up a straight PDF. I can't pinpoint why, but I feel like I know where I'm at in the "book" with Books, unlike the Kindle app. Kindle app is technically great but I just always feel like I'm not sure where I am. I guess I'm just weird.

I run a Windows PC and laptop, so to get the full PDF to the Books app, I simply hit F1 in Cubase, downloaded the PDF to my PC desktop (which I want there anyway), then opened the iCloud webpage and uploaded the PDF to that. Then it shows up in the Files app on the iPad. I just tapped to download it on the iPad, then hit the "up" arrow and told it to open in Books. Done.

 

As I also subscribe to Sound on Sound Magazine, I download the PDF version and keep back up copy on my desktop, but instead of iCloud to transfer the PDF to my iPad, I use a USB cable to my PC to iPad, open up iTunes, open up books, and just copy drag and drop the PDF into it, done.

I've had a iPad for about 2 years , its only recently that I've started to use it potential.

 

Anyway, I hope some of you might find this useful.

[Tweaky]

I've been practicing my finger picking, its coming along nicely .

 

 

[ray4410]

[ray4410]

[Jakeyb77_Redux]

[Jakeyb77_Redux]