Almost a blog
This has sort of grown organically. It's the nearest I ever get to a blog, and, up to now, has been updated fairly infrequently. I'm sure most of it is pretty boring stuff anyway, but a few folk have emailed me to ask me to update it more often... One of my new year resolutions is to use it as more of a journal than I have been doing!
9 January 2010 :: S'no joke...
Thanks to Jez for giving me a nudge and reminding me that as we're now into a new year, it was high time I updated this page!
Hope you all had a great Christmas!
One "good" thing about this cold weather is that I'm spending even more free time playing and practising! This has been further encouraged by the wonderful Crafter TA050AM I was given by my lady friend. It's rekindled my interest in acoustic guitar playing, to the extent that I haven't so much as touched an electric guitar since Christmas Eve!
The Dragondreams Forum is slowly growing. We now have ten members (not bad, seeing as we don't advertise and have only been running for a couple of months. There's a good, friendly vibe about the forum, and I'm looking forward to seeing whether it grows over the coming months.
That's about it for now. This weekend is going to be a busy one, but I plan to add some fresh content to the site soon.
22 November 2009 :: Don't fear the Reaper
Following on from buying the "no brainer" softsynth package for under a tenner: http://www.audiomidi.com/Ultra-Analog-VA-1-BR-No-Brainer-Deal-P12692.aspx
I've stuck with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 for around a decade. It's like slipping into a favourite gardening jumper. It's an old friend that I know, love and trust. When I use CW, I'm firmly in my comfort zone. I've accepted that it has drawbacks. I've never been able to use softsynths or VST effects with it, so I've never bothered. I just worked round it, figuring that "creativity" is not the same as "productivity" whenever I was presented with the argument that using old technology was hampering my creativity. To me, part of "being creative" is overcoming any perceived shortcomings in the technology and just getting on with the business of making music.
Being the proud owner of a fully-featured software synth, it made sense to start seriously thinking about moving on from CW and looking into a more up-to-date recording and editing package. I've tried Logic, Cubase and Sonar, as well as Muse running in Linux. I just couldn't get on with any of them. And the reasons were probably all in my head. Then I remembered Reaper. Last time I tried it, it was a very early release. And I hated it, but realised that it had potential. The day after I bought the synth, I looked on their website and spotted that the latest version (3.141) had only just been released.
Having spent half a week with Reaper, I'm rapidly changing my opinion. The last couple of days have seen me digging out long-buried tracks from my back catalogue and simply fiddling with them in Reaper. This is just so I can make use of the hundreds of options for tweaking that are now available to me. I've also joined the Reaper users' forum for help when I get stuck. This latest version is miles away from the version I first tried.
It's had a knock-on effect with my guitar playing too. Because I'm aware of the dangers of getting wrapped and rapt with the technology, I've become even more focused on my guitar practise! I'm sticking to my regime of teaching my fingers a new scale each day, building a lengthening "warm-up" sequence that I'm starting to see real benefit in.
Leaving the Guitars.co.uk forum has also had a huge effect on my practise regime. I'm spending far less time typing about playing and much more time really working on my music.
Oh. and I've flattened the second battery in my Dragonfly! ;-)
18 November 2009 :: Out with the old
A good friend and work colleague came hurtling in to my office yesterday, burbling something about a "no brainer" deal where I could get a softsynth package for under a tenner - saving almost a hundred quid on the retail price! I checked it out, and sure enough, the deal was for real with no strings: http://www.audiomidi.com/Ultra-Analog-VA-1-BR-No-Brainer-Deal-P12692.aspx
Always a sucker for a bargain, I bought it. Then I discovered that my old copy of Cakewalk PA9 simply cannot do anything with it! :-(
However, every cloud and all that. I've been telling myself for a couple of years that it's time I moved out of my CW comfort zone and tried to come to terms with something a bit more up-to-date. I'm giving Reaper another chance. Last time I tried it, they still hadn't got the MIDI/audio integration quite sussed. The latest version was only released a couple of days ago, and it promises to be a bit more MIDI-friendly. So tonight I'm going to have another go at installing it and getting it to talk to my system.
The other "old" I've got rid of is my attitude to practising and the way I'm teaching myself guitar. I've made a conscious effort to go back to basics and ground myself more thoroughly in the basics. So I dug out the scale bible and I'm drilling myself in a mode a night. And it seems to be paying off! I'm already finding new inspiration and ideas. It was hard work not drifting off into my usual noodlings at first, but self-discipline is getting easier.
I've also had a parting of the ways with the Guitars.co.uk forum - and that's freed up my time to play guitar instead of type about playing guitar. However, I got the urge and started my own guitar forum. The link is at the bottom of the page if you're interested.
17 October 2009 :: On yer bike!
Fish or cut bait?
Jez and Matt are popping round today to have a play with the Dragonfly. I'm also trying to get the new brake cables fitted on my mountain bike so me and Denise can finally get out and go for a gentle ride tomorrow. Bear in mind that I've been fitting these V-brakes for about six weeks...
At the same time, I'm determined to strip down the Dalek and start building it into its new configuration. Instead of the wheeled trolley it currently occupies, the new rack is going to be a permanent, wall-mounted fitting. I have all the parts to get on with the job. And they've been cluttering up my hallway for the last month!
The problem is guitars! As soon as I come up into my studio to start measuring up for the new rack, one of them will make eye contact and insist on having a cuddle for a few minutes. The "few minutes" often turns into an hour... then two hours. Upshot is, I decide to put off breaking the Dalek down for another day.
Much the same thing is happening with fitting these damn V-brakes. And at some point during today, there's a supermarket shopping trip to be shoehorned in to the schedule.
Good news this week has been getting back in touch with Ted Crook, the leather craftsman who made my original three custom "Dragondreams" guitar straps. He's made me two more, one each for the Schecter and the Dragonfly. All I can say is his work just gets better and better! And he's sent me the URL of his new web site too!
3 October 2009 :: Busy weekend ahead
Yesterday
was an entertaining day. Had Big Vern, SickString and Zombie Sheep round for
a play. Big Vern brought his new Gibson Dark Fire, SickString dragged round
a Brian Moore, and Zombie Sheep brought a Schecter Diamond Series Omen 6 Extreme.
Which is now mine! In return, I managed to empty some of the clutter from
my attic, in the shape of a few synth modules that Big Vern seemed happy with,
and a MIDI keyboard controller that went in part-payment to ZS for the Schecter.
;-)
SickString seemed happy enough just to have his Strat and Brian Moore strap pins repaired.
However, I've got to get out in the workshop and sort out the neck pocket on DD2 so that it can be returned to thetenthplace soon. It'll also mean that I can get on with profiling the Harris on Gordon's Teledragon...
Then I'll be able to concentrate on the secret project for ZS. The one that doesn't exist. And doesn't involve a certain black Epiphone Les Paul...
And tonight it's over to Pontefract with my parents, who are treating us to a meal for my elder daughter and my girlfriend's birthdays (last Thursday). Tomorrow we have an invite to my younger daughter's, whose boyfriend is treating us. I can't remember the last time I had a weekend free from the stress of cooking! ;-)
23 September 2009 :: Dragondreams sprouts a Dragonfly
A Fernandes Dragonfly Elite, to be more precise.
I'm loving this guitar. It's only been in my possession for three days so far, but I think I've finally found my "dream" guitar...
Canadian 5As quilted maple top, mahogany body and set neck, rosewood fretboard with 24 jumbo frets. The Dragonfly is fitted with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge and a Fernandes Sustainer in the neck position.
Playing it with the sustainer switched off, it's a more than impressive guitar. The neck pup is a sort of cross between a single coil and a humbucker sound. It can do a very mellow jazz to a pretty impressive rock. The JB in the bridge is a real animal. Bags of punch and clarity!
Even without the sustainer, it's like playing an organ.
Kick the sustainer in and... well, "you could go for a bite and that one would still be playing".
It'll sustain a note until the battery runs dead (around 100 hours according to the manual). Changing the battery couldn't be simpler. The battery housing can be flicked open with a fingernail, revealing the PP3 lurking beneath.
Yes. I KNOW it's green!
But green is my birth colour, and it's a stunning thing to look at in the flesh.
The build quality is superb. The playability was almost perfect straight from the box too. After a couple of days noodling with it, I finally got round to dropping the action a fraction, more to have the sense of ownership that comes from tweaking than for any other reason.
The only drawback of ownership is that these things have little resale value. But that's not really a drawback with a guitar this good! I simply cannot imagine parting with it. It's mine now and forever.
And who knows. One day, someone really famous might start gigging one and their credibility will go up, taking the price with it.
If you're fortunate enough to get your hands on one, give it a real go. It may surprise you.
I'd just like to thank Martin at M B Music Ltd for his patience and friendly good humour when it came to supplying me with this guitar. He's a gem, and he keeps his promises!
And here's a quick burst of a bit of initial noodling I did with this guitar. The quality is rough. I'm currently full of anti-virals and painkillers. I'm sat far too close to the monitor, but I simply can't be bothered to move. And neither can my fingers if you listen to the track! :-)
20 June 2009 :: Life takes on new focus...
I'm sat here drinking coffee and getting ready to go and meet up with Big Vern at Sounds Great in Manchester. I'm really looking forward to catching up with him again - and the fact that I'm collecting a couple of guitars from him at the same time is a bonus. One of the guitars is a lovely example of a Gretsch Electromatic ProJet, that I've been lusting after since I first saw it. I hummed and ahhhed too long originally and Big Vern bought it. I think my psychic powers must be improving, because he's caved in to my silent nagging and decided to part with it! The second guitar is a Vintage, looking something like a Peavey Wolfgang. I've been wanting something with a Floyd-style vibrato for a while, and this fits the bill nicely. I already have a pair of Iron Gear pups ready to drop into it as soon as I get it home. ;-)
Having caved in to pressure myself, I sold my rather lovely Tanglewood TW45 to my brother-in-law. At the time, I was playing it less and less and concentrating on getting to grips with the Simon & Patrick Cedar 12. Around three weeks ago, I found I was writing and playing more and more acoustic material and having to resort to a couple of nylon-strung acoustics to get the feel I wanted. It was no good. I needed something like the TW45 after all.
Brand blinkers went on. I knew what I wanted. It HAD to be a folk-bodied electro-acoustic. It had to feel instantly playable. It had to sound lively when finger-picked. I spent a day trawling guitar shops, trying everything in sight. In the end, after rejecting Martins, Taylors, a Stonebridge, everything in the Yamaha catalogue, I narrowed it down to a Takamine and an Epiphone. In the end, the Tak had the edge. She's now taken up permanent residence. :-)
There's also a Shine WT-445, Les Paul "alternative" winging its way northwards. I spotted it, loved it, made an offer. The offer was accepted and it's mine.
The site has been neglected for ages yet again. However, life is looking rosier by the minute. I'm feeling like spending the time sharing some of these ramblings again. Watch this space for some new material, and a couple of projects. One of the projects is to build a sustainer along the lines of the Fernandez... I'm planning to go and buy the parts on my way back from Manchester.
17 May 2009 :: Busy in the studio...
I started practising a little exercise in arpeggios up and down the neck. Nothing flash, just a simple E minor, D major, C major, B minor descending run, starting on the B at the 12th fret. With my usual "goldfish-like" attention span, it wasn't long before I'd got sidetracked and recorded it, adding a bass line to stop me getting bored. Before long I added some drums. Then some keyboards. Then I decided it was less of an exercise and more of a work in progress. So I sat down and reprogrammed the drums.
A couple of weeks ago, I jammed over the backing track for ages (there's a twenty-minute slice of this jam here if you really want to be bored witless). Over the last couple of days, I got my act together and recorded it properly. The track has a structure and I'm quite pleased with it. You can take a listen to the version I just finished recording at around 7pm this evening by clicking here. It's called "Back to the top".
2 May 2009 :: A bit of a fresh start
Not a single entry on here for the whole of April!
Sorry about that. April was a "strange" month really. My six month secondment in the job I really love was due to finish - and I'd heard nothing about a possible extension. Things were a bit fraught right up to the last ten minutes of my last day in the job! As I was packing to leave I got the word that I'm still there for another six months. Talk about brinksmanship! Our HR people have a lot to learn about people skills... Add the fact that I'm now more or less single again and it's not hard to see that updating the site has not been high on my "must do" list.
Music has obviously been somewhat on the back burner, what with all that going on.
However, the last three or four days have seen me back in front of the DAW, working on another "epic" guitar track (not my description...). It's still very much a work in progress. If you fancy a listen to the ludicrously long "jam" version I did of it earlier today, feel free. Be warned, it's about 18 minutes of bum notes, repeated phrases and an embarrasing silence when I dropped my pick. This version is my "ideas" take. I looped up the backing track in Cakewalk, then just let it run while playing over it and recording the resultant mess with Soundforge. Consequently, the levels are all over the place and there's been zero post-production work. This is the way I tend to build my tunes. I get the basic idea nailed, then keep playing the melody over and over while recording it. Once I'm happy with it, and have learned how to play some of the things I did during the jam, I'll sit down and do a "proper" recording.
Thanks to Alastair, Andy and David for their help and support while I've been working on this one!
31 March 2009 :: You can tell I've been busy...
...because I haven't had time to update the site for a week!
Not really anything new to report. I'm still moving things around in the studio, trying to get everything "just so". I keep getting distracted from that task by the gorgeous Simon and Patrick Cedar 12 that I recently bought from my good friend Marc. It just begs to be picked up and played. It has one major drawback however. It's the LOUDEST acoustic I've ever come across, which kinda dictates at what hours of the evening I have to stop noodling around with it. ;-)
I'm now back at work after my three weeks leave, and the ideas are bubbling through. Having all the gear permanently set up is a Godsend. Whenever something "hits" me, I can simply lay down the idea to be worked on at my leisure. Another problem I'm facing though, is that I'm still experimenting with the sheer range of sounds I can get from the Dalek - and each new sound is inspiring new avenues for my music to meander through.
Right! Enough typing. Back to noodling. ;-)
Almost a blog is where you'll find all the archived front pages from the site.
20 March 2009 :: What a difference some space makes...
I've finally got round to moving the studio into a suitable sized room! And the difference it's made is enormous!
I
have room to move around while I'm playing, yet everything is laid out as
I want it, and all within arm's reach. Even the MIDI controller keyboard can
now be left set up permanently instead of being balanced on the edge of a
chest of drawers in the back bedroom. ;-)
The Dalek is now stood next to the big stack and feeds into the DAW mixer through a DI box, giving me the option to record my noodlings while listening to them at decent volumes through the pair of 4x12s. Already, inspiration is flooding back. It's been hard work, but it's been worth it! :-)
14 March 2009 :: What a week it's been...
And none of it involving music :(
Most of it has been spent driving between here and Manchester in a quest to help my younger daughter find a new car. And in between trips, I've been rearranging my kitchen, tidying the living room, and binning loads of junk from the hall.
Normal service will be resumed soon...
5 March 2009 :: Pre-amp Heaven!
After an evening spent revelling in the sound of the Yamaha DG-1000, I wish I'd got one sooner.
It doesn't have a myriad of menus and sub-menus, it has no onboard effects. All it does is provide eight different basic amplifier models, which you can then tweak using the familiar control knobs on the front panel: gain; master volume; treble; high mid; low mid; bass; and presence. When you find a sound you like and want to keep, press and hold the "Store" button. The only (minor) drawback is that you have to start keeping some sort of chart to help you remember what sound you store at which location.
Press "Recall" (and this is the bit I still haven't tired of watching) and the control knobs on the front panel move themselves to the settings for that stored sound!
In some of the reviews I've read, owners beef about the fact that it's only got one input socket and one output socket. I actually like that. There are fewer connections to worry about. The mono output on mine goes straight to a mono "Y" lead splitter and into the stereo compressor. I have no problem with that. ;-)
The sound of this thing is so musical. Set up the trim controls so that the input level suits the guitar you're using, tweak the output level to match the rest of the rig - and away you go. The eight amp models don't seem to be based on any particular "big name" sounds. However, every one of them is quite simply a great sounding "amp" in its own right. And why imitate when you can innovate?
One thing I didn't find in the manual, but makes a lot of difference when running the amp direct to the DAW, is the speaker simulator. It's a combination of button presses that are not listed anywhere in the manual. Press "Midi", "Clean 2" and the "up arrow" simultaneously to turn the sim on. Press "Midi", "Clean 2" and the "down arrow" to turn it off. WIthout the sim, the sound is bright and very full, perfect for running into my pair of Crate 4 x 12 cabs. With the sim on, the sound into the DAW is very close the sound through the cabs.
Pictures later. If I can tear myself away from playing through it long enough to get the camera out.
I just cannot understand WHY Yamaha stopped making this beauty!?!
4 March 2009 :: Anticipation...
At time of typing, I've got about five hours before I go and collect the Yamaha DG-1000 to finally "top out" the Dalek. :-)
A fuller "report" will follow, once I get home from the office and screw it into place.
Stunning service from Flightcase Warehouse. Ordered a cheap 8U studio rack from them at lunchtime on Monday. It arrived at 8am yesterday morning. It's not the beefiest or best made rack I've ever come across. But it's certainly damn good value for money at a penny short of £18 including delivery and VAT! Later on Monday evening I caught sight of their "latest deals" button - and ended up buying a hard case for my Shine 335 clone. If the service is as good two days in a row, I'm hoping that turns up before I have to leave for work this morning.
Update. It's now 8.30pm. The drive over to Holmfirth was "interesting" and nearly ended up with the Astra gaining a Merc complete with absolute MORON! as a bonnet mascot. Who, in their right mind, STOPS to give way at the end of an entry slip road??? If you were the brain-dead, window-licking, knuckle-dragging imbecile who was driving that Merc and you're reading this... I hope your knob rots and drops off!
But the amp! I had it in the rig about five minutes after getting home. And the verdict is... it's awesome. If you're ever in the market for a pre-amp, forget all these Line 6 and Rocktrons. Just buy one. They have no bells and whistles (but the Dalek has plenty of those). If you want something that can give you rock-solid guitar sounds, the Yamaha kicks everything else all over the playground!
3 March 2009 :: Just when you think it's safe...
Screwdrivers were all put away, the wiring loom had been cable-tied to make it some sort of neat, I'd been finding my favourite settings for most of the sounds I want to use in my next couple of tracks... then disaster struck!
Yep. I decided to browse Ebay to see for what sort of price I could pick up a small, 6 to 8U studio rack. Since fitting the mixer in the Dalek, I'd had to take the power amp out of the bottom section to make space. I figured that a small rack would be just the thing to house the power amp (and its twin when that arrives). That's when I spotted the Yamaha DG-1000 pre-amp. Don't get me wrong, the Digitech GSP5 is a fantastic tool. But I've been secretly lusting after the DG-1000 for a while. The MagicStomp pedal that I have uses the same amp models - and I love them! Before the fateful night, I'd bid on a few DG-1000s, but they all went for around twice what I was prepared to pay. Quite by accident I spotted one with a "buy it now" that was right on the money. It also had a low start price and no bids, but a long time left to run. My reasoning was that if anyone put a bid on it, then it was going to spiral upwards as all the rest had done. So I hit the button! :-)
I'm collecting it from Holmfirth tomorrow lunchtime.
Which is why the screwdrivers and wire-cutters came back out of the toolbox. The DG-1000 is a 2U box, so something else had to come out of the Dalek to make space. The Behringer patchbay also arrived, so it made sense to pull the rig apart yet again and re-order the bits. I decided to pull the graphic eq out of the Dalek and that's now going to go in the amp rack, where it will probably get more use.
However, I'm determined that that is definitely IT for now! It's high time I started playing through the beast, instead of continually fiddling with the component parts.
Sticking the normalled 'bay in there has also had the desired effect. I spent a happy hour last night patching effects in different sequences just to see what further sound options I've now got. It's also MUCH tidier to live with.
Roll on next weekend when my three weeks of leave start! :-)
1 March 2009 :: Time for reflection - and a tidy up
The new year's resolution of keeping this site updated more often certainly seems to be holding up! It's a little ironic that the person responsible for giving me the the kick up the backside to get on with it is probably the only person who hasn't been back in touch with any comments about the new look site! ;-)
Plan of attack. Now that the Guitar Dalek is as near as dammit complete, I'm going to stick a section on here describing the rationale and reasoning behind building it the way I did.
The Almost a blog page was getting large enough to warrant being sorted out into separate months - otherwise the page was going to become unmanageable. It's already grown to 40Kb. Time to slim it down and break it up. Almost a blog is now broken up under headings for year and month.
"To
look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render
it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward..."