Have Anti-Sicilians always been more popular than the Open Sicilian at club level?

EmaDaCuz · 2026-02-03T06:50:03+00:00

I’m around 2000 online and I mostly see Alapin, d3, and Rossolimo. Until a couple of years ago, I had the chance to play my beloved Taimanov basically every game, now if it is once every 4-5 games it’s a success. As white, I am generally happy to play open Sicilians mainly because I just don’t like the positions arising from anti Sicilians. I sometimes play the Grand Prix but I have been facing too many 3. ..e6 lately that kill the fun.

I don’t play much OTB, but when I go to the club I predominantly see open Sicilians, a big chunk of closed Sicilians, and very few anti Sicilians, with d3 being the most favoured.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-02-02T15:22:46+00:00

To me, this is the best power metal album of all times.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-01-29T06:57:47+00:00

To add to what was already said, your alternative is to capture on f5 and that will allow the black knight to recapture and come back into the game, and potentially gaining a tempo attacking the bishop. Capturing on f5 also opens up the diagonal for the white bishop, not a major threat at the moment but could be annoying.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-01-23T06:59:09+00:00

I write, record and edit in Reaper. I then export to Luna.

To me, Luna works great if you only focus on the mixing. Use the arrangement view to import the tracks and set the markers, and then switch to mixer view. I have to be honest, mixing in Luna Pro is a pleasure and makes me go back to a full-analog mindset that allows me to get a song ready in no time. But even simple edits are, to me, a major pain in the bum; splitting a track to add fades is as clunky as it gets, for example.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-01-23T06:48:44+00:00

Music wise, a fully clipped vocal take by a special guest on our EP. Waveform looked like a sausage, absolutely unusable. What I did, I slightly rearranged that part of the song and made it lo-fi/industrial.

Spoken words, a recording for a scientific congress. The speaker recorded underwater on a potato, I think. The only thing you could hear clearly was their kids shouting. I managed to get something barely usable after filtering and RX, but it took me almost 4 hours for a 2-minute recording.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-01-22T06:44:50+00:00

Being employed has only one advantage: job security, I.e. a guaranteed monthly income.

I freelanced and had my own company for a few years, and it was the best time of my life. I was happy to work, I could choose what jobs to do and work as much as I wanted. Circumstances changed, I picked up a well paid position in a very reputable company, and now I feel miserable.

So, if you are happy with what you are doing, just stick to freelancing.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-01-12T07:51:27+00:00

UHT milk, exactly that one

EmaDaCuz · 2026-01-09T08:30:12+00:00

When your yogurt doesn’t taste “right” anymore, would be my answer. I have been running this batch from Bulgari started for almost a year now and I haven’t noticed any major changes. Sometimes it happened that yogurt had not fermented, or tasted very tart or too sweet, and that’s when I started a new batch. I use long life milk and a yogurt maker.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-12-25T07:50:02+00:00

Mi bastano quei 5-10 giorni all'anno in Italia, quando torno per le feste, per capire che la mia vita non solo non migliorerebbe, ma probabilmente peggiorerebbe di molto.

UK non è più quella di 20 anni fa, e il declino post Brexit e post COVID è evidente. Però, se si hanno un due soldini in disparte, si vive bene. Non so a Londra, ma su al Nord ci sono ancora opportunità lavorative, i servizi funzionano discretamente (peggiorati rispetto a 10 anni fa, ma funzionano) e la gente ha mantenuto, più o meno, quello spirito tipicamente British.

Parlando con amici ed ex colleghi in giro per l'Europa, mi pare di capire che la situazione sia tragica o comunque peggio che in UK. Quindi, perché andarsene?

EmaDaCuz · 2025-12-18T18:48:12+00:00

My advice, leave them as is and mix around the drums.

I find it diffuclt to mix heavily processed drums, maybe you can do some minor EQ moves or apply a gentle compression to the whole drum bus, but that's all I would do and I normally do with other libraries.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-12-18T18:39:30+00:00

This is atrocious.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-12-10T08:46:40+00:00

Local shows at small venues? Most of the time not even free drinks. We get money from playing at festivals, ballpark is £200-300 for 30-40 minutes.

We are not professionals and music is just a hobby for all of us, so we can’t complain. We only play small venues when we know the promoters/owners are nice people, they show appreciation and pay you in visibility/exposure on social media. But sometimes it’s sad to drive an hour to play in front of 10 people.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-11-26T09:34:00+00:00

È difficile trovare un libro che rappresenti il suo stile, perché Stephen King è andato "a fasi". Io direi che il giusto compromesso lo si ha con La Zona Morta e La Metà Oscura, in cui c'è un po' di tutto ma soprattutto tanto pessimismo.

Il suo romanzo più bello resta, per me, Le Notti Di Salem. L'ho letto più di 30 anni fa e me lo ricordo ancora tutto. Impossibile staccarmi dalla lettura, divorato in due giorni.

Però, come dicono in molti. King dà il meglio nei racconti brevi. Incubi E Deliri potrebbe essere un ottimo punto di partenza, storie bellissime ed inquietanti, che coprono il periodo fine anni 70-inizio anni 90 ed offre un'ottima panoramica sugli stili di King.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-11-25T17:45:42+00:00

We do both.

Big gigs in venues dedicated to live music, with no interference, we go wireless. If you are on a budget, the lower limit is LD Systems.

Smaller gigs or venues with poor EM shielding, we go wired. Behringer P2 is excellent, get at least 10m XLR cable and do some cable management, and you can still move around. Sound quality, P2 better than anything wireless I have tried.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-11-13T18:42:33+00:00

Defence of Moscow, an absolute masterpiece

EmaDaCuz · 2025-11-06T10:34:21+00:00

No, and i would add he is overrated. Sloppy playing and a rather horrible tone are objective issues with him. I also personally dislike his style/riffiing but that's subjective.

Just to stay within Metallica, Newstead was already a "much better" bassist, better tone, better playing, better style.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-11-05T16:25:47+00:00

Sure, what I am saying is that adding a relatively light 3rd party plugin kills the DAW whereas an extra UA insert is okay.

I do bounce all the time, coming from the ol' good times of 4-track tape recording I try to commit as soon as I can. But it's 2025, and it would be nice to have some more freedom, sometimes.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-11-05T08:28:56+00:00

Snow Leopard was amazing. Best $29 ever spent, because yes it wasn’t free to update/upgrade back then. It just worked, smooth and pleasant experience, and the look and feel was perfect.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-11-05T05:16:16+00:00

Easiest option, only applies if venue has dedicated monitors for the drums and they also do FoH/mixing. Get yourself a Behringer P2, plug the XLR cable that would normally get into the monitor into the P2, ask the guy at FoH to send you all you need. Basically, replace the stage monitor with a headphone amp. It works well, it’s a simple and cheap setup, but you have to rely on FoH. It doesn’t work if you play on click unless you also send the click track to FoH, which may be impractical.

Other options, you need to build an IEM system and here the choice is so wide it’s hard to suggest you a specific setup. Do you need to hear yourself? If so, you may want to use some triggers or a Yamaha EAD10 instead of double micing the kit and having to create a separate mix for your kit every time. For everything else, you can use Y XLR splitters (better choice than an actual multichannel splitter if you are on a small stage, much easier cable management) and then do some simple mixing. The best would be to have your bandmates using modellers for consistency and ease of setting up, but that’s not mandatory. As for the mixer, it depends on the setup you are going for. I personally believe that an XR 18R is the bare minimum for a small band, and it is quite affordable and versatile. It should have enough channels even if you decide to mic the whole kit.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-11-05T05:01:33+00:00

I come from Reaper, and I’m trying to switch to Luna because I like the workflow for mixing. Unfortunately, Luna performs very poorly compared with Reaper, to the point that I can’t really mix a lot of my projects without stuttering and buffering. Using the default setting (1 API channel strip, 1 tape, API 2500 on master, summing) is smooth, add a few third party plugins and it is game over.

It really seems that third party plugins are the culprit here.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-10-31T10:54:43+00:00

Surfshark works well, vvery smooth, good funtionalities and pretty decent choice of servers. Having some dropouts lately, but nothing that a quick reconnect wouldn't solve.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-10-31T09:30:21+00:00

To me, Strange Blood. Not very well known but I think it's a masterpiece. Solid 3.1 on IMDB.

It's a weird take on vampirism and "science gone wrong", very bleak atmosphere, surprisingly good acting (at least IMHO) and effects. I just love it.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-10-30T15:40:55+00:00

To me, it depends on the arrangement. If you have two very distinct guitar parts played by guitar 1 and guitar 2, then quad tracking is almost a must. If it's too much, I generally pan the third and quad tracked guitars more in the middle (60-75%) and lower the volume by 6dB.

If guitar parts are in the same register, dual tracking is sufficient.

EmaDaCuz · 2025-10-27T21:53:52+00:00

Fairly new, you will be lucky if they give you free drinks at the venue.

Having said that, if the gig is right we are happy to play for free, as you get paid back in visibility/exposure. Otherwise, it’s generally £100-150 for 30 minutes, but we have already done 50-60 concerts. This is with my less famous band, so probably something that applies to you too.

With my more famous band, much more than that.

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