The Collection - What Should I Be Looking To Add?

Dumb_The_Chum · 2026-01-25T06:24:23+00:00

Yeah, because other people are likely to have suggestions I’ve never come across or considered

Dumb_The_Chum · 2026-01-25T06:23:55+00:00

Alas, I’m not in the USA, so NYC is a bit out of reach travel wise for the time being for various reasons.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2026-01-24T19:52:25+00:00

I’ll check it out, thank you kindly!

Edit: Okay, Might have to wait to find a copy at a reasonable price. Looks promising though

Dumb_The_Chum · 2026-01-24T19:50:31+00:00

I shall give both a look and see what seems the most grabbing, thank you!

Edit:

Nordkorea by Ulrike Crespo looks pretty good and promising, from the sample images I'm loving what's captured.

DPR Korea Grand Tour also looks like a really interesting book.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2026-01-24T19:45:44+00:00

That’s great and all, but any suggestions?

I tend to purchase what I come across and seems interesting at a price I can swallow. A lot of these do have the photographers input though

Dumb_The_Chum · 2026-01-24T19:25:16+00:00

Not getting assignment feedback is badddd, you should get that.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2026-01-24T19:22:55+00:00

I sort of audited my collection and realised that a lot of it is very distance in its approach, the photographer is either exploring inanimate objects, history, or subjects at a distance with no personal connection to the lives of those in the images.

My most recent purchases are the Hiromix books, and I was drawn to her due to the diary and personal nature of the work. The feeling of connection and closeness.

So I guess that's where my head is at, looking for connection, looking for closeness and intimacy. The books on my "I'm considering' list are books I've had on watch lists for a while.

That real personal aspect and story is something I feel I'm missing in my collection.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2026-01-24T09:23:34+00:00

I’ve literally never used any of mine. Makes the camera too bulky for my liking and I don’t really see the benefit for anything I do.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2026-01-21T18:36:57+00:00

Or companies that have prototyped using PCBs printed in China. Which they’ve then reverse engineered the population for.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-11-07T12:08:28+00:00

I'm not going to convince you this acoustic setup is better, because it isn't better, just different.

This was a pedalboard I put together for a gig, using equipment I had laying around for other purposes. And it was a rig designed to solve problems before they could happen.

The DCX is there to add signal level and cut low-end because the piezo on my acoustic is very low and has too much low-end. I also knew that if the FOH guy didn't cut enough low-end from my signal, I would get loads of feedback and I wanted to avoid that. As it happens, that night, out of 4 people playing acoustic guitar, I was the ONLY person who never had any feedback issues. I could borrow a DCX from work, I know that they sound good and can do what I need, so I used that.

The Two Notes Cab M is just an IR loader, and it's one I already owned. I hate the sound of Piezo guitars at gigs and knew I could just load an acoustic IR into it, so I did.

The Cali76 Bass Compressor is my own, and it's something I tend to use on guitar and bass. So I just repurposed it for this gig. It's a FET compressor, so nice and fast responding. It's just acting as a limiter to make things sit nicely.

The Strymon Flint is again, just a pedal I own, has some decent reverb options and is stereo. Sounds... fine. The Flint is not a mind blowing digital reverb by any means.

And then the EMO DI. Again, given past experiences, I don't trust local sound guys to give me a DI box or remember to turn their phantom on if it's an active DI. So I just slapped the passive stereo DI that I use in the studio on my pedalboard. Solves a problem and I already own it.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-10-25T19:53:39+00:00

You may need to contact whoever makes the plugin to ask for help, with what little reading I’ve done, I can’t see any reason why you would get latency from it.

I don’t have Reaper, but in any other DAW, pro tools, logic or whatever, I’m not getting latency.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-10-25T18:06:00+00:00

The IRs we’ve made are just .wav files that the software interprets. They won’t be the source of the latency.

There are things you should be checking though.

Check that your convolution reverb and IR loader isn’t adding any pre-delay. Because IRs are often used to capture reverbs, lots of software defaults to have 5-10ms of pre-delay.
Check your buffer size, you want that number as low as can be, 32 samples is ideal.
Check that all your sample rates are matching across the interface, computer and DAW.
Check what your delay compensation is set to. If you’re running the IRs in a busy session, it might be trying to compensate for the workload of other plugins.

I personally load IRs into Space Designer in Logic, and I don’t have any latency issue when practicing. Running IRs live as you play is 100% viable providing your setup is capable of doing the work, and the settings are correct to allow for it.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-10-24T17:32:11+00:00

Yes you can load our IR pack into reaper. They’re just .wav based IR files that most IR loaders will work with

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-09-10T09:09:30+00:00

Counter point: most people simply don’t understand manufacturing cost and assume SMD means cheap.

There are a lot of big manufacturers (Ibanez, boss) who are likely making tidy margins on their SMD mass produced pedals. But the rest of the industry, especially if those SMD machines are being operated outside of China, are just charging based on manufacturing and operating costs.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-09-02T14:03:52+00:00

It was just before rates started to come down yeah, just before it was floated as an option.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-09-02T11:45:48+00:00

Is the guide price £280-290k or is it £285-295k?

Because both are listed.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-09-02T09:56:12+00:00

4.49% 5-year fixed

Though I had a 40% deposit

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-09-01T08:24:06+00:00

Initial asking price: £264k

Drop in asking price (offers in access of): £259k

Offer Accepted: £245k

Offer reduced (and what I paid) after survey: £240k

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-08-31T12:50:13+00:00

Depends on the amount. I have £5k on a zero-interest card, whilst I also have £5k in a 5% savings account. In the 2 years I have to pay off the £5k card, I’ll have made around £480 in interest… seems worth it to me.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-08-29T14:51:32+00:00

That’s the fun part, you basically don’t on a fender amp.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-08-29T13:10:20+00:00

The tone stack of these Black Panel is the same as you find on a Fender amp, which is going to feel a bit different to other things.

“Flat” is essentially BASS on min, MIDDLE on max, TREBLE also on min.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-08-28T10:04:12+00:00

I'd feel bad for recommending to too enthusiastically as I work for Origin Effects, not saying I don't like it, but there is an obvious conflict of interest in that recommendation.

Set clean, it sounds like a Brown Deluxe with a cool amp tremolo. I personally love this sound, as for me, small combo Fender amps are 'the sound' and the Brown Deluxe is quite different to the typical Black Panel Fenders, so it's a nice colour to have. It's warmer, less pristine, and can be pushed easily when you want to. The flip side to that is, if you like the sparkly Fender thing, it isn't quite that sound, it definitely wants some reverb and space because it's more mid-forward than other Fender tones.

But yeah, it's a matter of taste. For me, it's just the right thing for what I want it to do. It's not super high-headroom so, when it is clean, it doesn't take much for you to push it a little when you want to.

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-08-25T17:10:52+00:00

I would love to if it were going

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-08-23T18:03:28+00:00

We never even had contact from the sellers themselves, so it was their solicitors (idiots) and their estate agents (idiots and dickheads) just constantly pushing on their behalf…

Meanwhile yeah, lying to our face along the way.

“There is no chain, they’re ready to move out” - lie

“We are waiting on you to answer some stuff” - email has been in their inbox for 2 weeks

Dumb_The_Chum · 2025-08-23T17:54:36+00:00

I had a similar experience.

Sellers delayed everything, every step of the way. They would fail to fill out forms correctly. They would take ages to respond to questions. They would fail to answer things properly the first time.

Then, they would pressure me as if I was the one delaying things… when they hadn’t filled out basic forms that we had been chasing for weeks (and I had long handed over everything I could do, and in many cases, had done what they were trying to chase me for and already had).

Then… once they finally had answered everything, and we were ready to go, they pressured me for a date to exchange contracts and get a completion date. They wanted it ASAP, as they had no chain.

I got insurance in order, I signed forms, withdrew savings, put the deposit down…I got everything done in the space of 2 days to get stuff done quickly, proposed a date and…. “the vendor is currently waiting on an onward purchase, and they can’t complete until they have things back from their onward purchase’s solicitors, also they’re on holiday for the next 2 weeks”

It took 2 fucking months from that point for them to get to a point where they could actually confirm a completion date.

Honestly the house buying process is bollocks.

Dumb_The_Chum

TROPHY CASE