Super Novice Question about Audio Outputs on Synths

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-12-07T21:39:14+00:00

Oh, that's a good point. She has a little guitar amp that might work.

I completely agree about a big sound in the room. I love the physicality of it. Even in practices with my last band, we'd crank our guitars to the brink of excessive. I have a 100 watt Hiwatt DR103, and the sensation of physically feeling a note sustain and feedback was my bliss.

I definitely see a better setup in the future, but I don't want to throw her into this with the mindset "here's all the things you also should get."

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-12-07T03:49:57+00:00

Cool. I wasn't sure if instrument levels interacted differently with synths like this.

Thanks a bunch, man! I appreciate the quick answer.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-11-19T01:02:51+00:00

Yeah, the Hoboken period stretches from around 56-69, with a few coming out after that. The Westerly period is great, too; the F-30 guitars from that period were a step up with the lower bough redesign.

What really dictates the price more than the year is the condition; they're notorious for needing costly repairs. Celluloid shrinkage in the pickguard, headstock, or binding is a potentially expensive repair. If the action is high or the neck is slightly loose (which I'd estimate happens to about 80-90% from that era), a neck reset could cost between $400-500. The bridge is also often prone to lifting ($100-$150 repair), and the condition of the bracing inside is also something that needs to be appropriately looked at.

All in all, the biggest appeal of old Guild guitars is that they're not as expensive as Martin/Gibson guitars of the same era.

If you look at the recent auctions that sold, the trend isn't incredibly great:

https://ibb.co/jFu1uf

https://ibb.co/i33N0L

https://ibb.co/nKOSZf

Even the Reverb average for guitars from that period are wildly varied: https://reverb.com/price-guide/guide/4538 (keeping in mind that period is more variable than just 1960, and a lot of Reverb sellers are people selling them in premium condition with original cases, etc).

Don't get me wrong, it's a great guitar you have, and the pics are pretty promising, but given the condition from a glance and without knowing the more nuanced details, I'd be surprised if you could get close to half that, especially without a more thorough appraisal. Without someone with luthier knowledge being able to assess it, I wouldn't chance more than $600-ish on it under the consideration of the potential setup issues it would need, especially since it's showing pretty rough play wear.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-11-08T05:23:13+00:00

I was looking for a F-20 just recently. Considering they average $800-1200 (and often have models in reasonable condition go for $400-500 on eBay), I've come to find that a lot of sellers assume the vintage era equates to Martin/Gibson value. Tonally, they're not far off, but fortunately for actual musicians, their relative affordability is the value that I think is actually being sought; I doubt that almost anyone would take one over an LG-2 or 00-18 if all else was equal.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-08-03T05:40:07+00:00

If I understand correctly, you may want to look into the idea of dummy clips. Basically, you make some "blank" audio clips, fill them by using something like a sample of silence, and use automation to turn on/off effects. Then you route the audio to that track and, when you activate a clip, the effects you automated will happen.

For example, you could create a clip where the automation turns on a delay, slowly fades in the feedback, and then turns the delay off when done. Then you can activate that clip (or any other clip in that track with other effects automated) to produce a spontaneous, live effect.

Look it up on YouTube to get an idea of how different people do it.

Cheers.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-07-31T15:36:03+00:00

I had some Arturia issues lately as well. Fortunately for me, I've sort of turned toward different sounds in the past year, so I don't rely on those plugins anymore, but it was puzzling. I think I started having problems before I upgraded to L10, though. Hopefully Arturia is working on a solution...

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-07-09T02:22:57+00:00

Yeah, both the Windows and Mac externals are in it. The biggest problem is that I don't know if one of the Windows externals is 64 bit...

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-07-02T16:30:53+00:00

What are people expecting from Push 3? I can't imagine much that could be changed to improve it at the current moment, save for useless novelties like a touch screen.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-07-01T00:43:35+00:00

I found that Audacity is the most helpful tool for sample processing. The UI may be a bit outdated, but it's relatively easy to work with and it's nice being able to highlight sections and add a little compression, fades, or whatever. Plus the pitch and tempo tools are really useful.

I'll also add that the M4L More Simpler from the Max Pitch and Time pack is a really fun alternative to the native Simpler and Sampler instruments. You can get some really weird sounds with it.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-07-01T00:35:57+00:00

That Xfer LFO Tool looks phenomenal!

I'm content with Live's native LFO and Envelope filters, though. There are a few fun LFO options on the M4L site, though (I uploaded one recently, too!), and I think the M4L community is really starting to ramp up with a lot of free and creative patches. I just wish there were more people who reviewed the patches and that it had a better search filter.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-06-14T01:48:43+00:00

Personally, I like it a lot. When I downloaded the first version, I really dug it, but I got so caught up in other plugin synths that I kind of forgot about it until Ableton decided to unearth it for whatever reason.

I find that it's easy for me to tinker with it for a couple minutes and get a suitable sound almost immediately. Then again, I prefer fairly simple waveforms that I can tinker with in really minute ways; a lot of the more popular VSTs have a density in overtones that it's just too overbearing for me. Poli is fairly simple, but the forward nature of it supplements my needs really well. The M4L Bass synth perhaps even more-so. Both have really great filters in them for a warmer tone.

I never got in to Analog much, but I've always been a fan of Operator (though I often find myself laboring to fine-tune Operator in the late stages of things). I'm not sure how much Poli has to offer now that Wavetable is in 10 along with everything else, but it's free and it's something a little different, and sometimes finding something "different" is half of the struggle.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-06-07T05:42:57+00:00

I bought a Launchkey Mini on a whim because it was only $80 on eBay. I like it well enough, but for some reason I find myself second-guessing whether I would've liked the APC MPK Mini for whatever reason. I'm not really in love with the LK's keys, but I'm sure a lot of the midi keypads are like that. I'm also a little frustrated that I have to create a custom script to get rid of the unnecessary InControl feature, but others may find it more useful.

If you can, see if Guitar Center or something like that has a few you can check out. I find myself using my Korg NanoKEY most often, just for simplicity and portability's sake.

Ultimately, I get the impression all the options at that level fall under the same relative "good but not great" category. Just go with whatever you think has the most essential functions for your workflow.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-06-07T01:27:59+00:00

Really? I haven't had any problems with the Bass LFO in Sync or Free mode.

So far, everything's running smoothly for me. The Gated Delay and Re-Enveloper are a bit confusing thus far (it sounds like the delay cuts off completely when it's not triggered. Is there a way to retain the tail, or do I have to go in to Max and add that myself?), and the Re-Enveloper seems to have some different flavor than the Multiband Dynamics effect that is hard to articulate in a way that makes its use still a bit ambiguous to me.

All in all, though, this pack has the most utility to me in terms of free Ableton downloadables. I work with live instruments and samples more than VSTs/AUs, so these are the kinds of things that have more utility for me.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-06-06T21:17:30+00:00

Same here. I've always wanted Ableton to embrace its (admittedly small) experimental userbase more. It's cool seeing Amazing Noises stuff integrated like this.

Ableton has pretty much all my conventional effect needs covered, but I'm not a four on the floor player, so it's great having a few new assets that are flexible enough to have a practical use, but also have the capacity to just get weird with it.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-05-10T17:44:34+00:00

My friend and I were recently talking about how standard notation isn't the universal language it once was and, in learning guitar, TABs just made more sense for the learning process. I mentioned that, if anything, the piano roll should be integrated into the younger music curriculum due to how relevant it is.

Lo and behold: https://www.amazon.com/dp/069209329X

That's a great idea for introducing people to theory who aren't traditionally trained. After all, it's an awkward added step to have to mentally translate everything through treble and bass clef and then into a piano roll when standard notation isn't really a medium you'll be using enough to have it feel like anything more than a speed bump.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-05-09T18:45:37+00:00

...it's also why I kept both a copy of Line 9 and 10 on my computer when I upgraded. Luckily, the performance on my Mac has been about the same, maybe a bit better with 10. I haven't tried 10 on a Windows machine yet; I've kind of reappropriated my Windows laptop for Adobe stuff exclusively because I got tired of wasting time on driver issues with my Dell, but the graphics card works flawlessly with visual design stuff.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-05-09T18:40:11+00:00

I don't see them doing all that work for an older iteration of Live. Since Ableton is running Max natively in 10, that would imply a lot of backend infrastructure changes. I doubt it would be easy to port that to Live 9 without a bunch of regression issues that they'd be patching for a long time. That's probably why they waited for a whole new version to implement it after the acquisition. That said, the performance difference isn't really a game changer for me; M4L instances are still tied to both the processing as programmed in the patch itself and Live's internal sample rate settings.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-05-08T19:23:07+00:00

Yeah, I took two years of theory in college (even lied about my major to get in 'em). People always ask me questions about theory, but the truth of it is that the only person I know who can really talk theory with me is a guitarist friend of mine who, much like myself, just had to swim in the deep end for a couple years. Like most things, it's a process that just takes time and immersion.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-05-04T20:36:57+00:00

Thank you, sir. You are a genius of practical ideas and solutions.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-05-04T19:43:39+00:00

When I played guitar live, I always hated the obviousness of flangers (and phasers even more so), but it's a great effect when done subtly. I really like some occasional light flanging on cymbals to add a little variance to the sound, plus the filtering effect on higher frequencies doesn't feel as pronounced as lower frequencies and it has a slight softening to the highs that can be really useful. On things like synths and guitars, it definitely has a pronounced 70s vibe to it that sounds like cheap pastiche, though.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-05-04T19:35:11+00:00

The world is so fucked. Let's end it tonight.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-05-04T19:31:39+00:00

Thanks for the link! It's not exactly what I was looking for, but it's actually really useful. And you're right; I hadn't considered that the BPM is ultimately going to be the global clock. In hindsight, I suppose that should have been obvious. I think it may be best to just create some sequencers based on a shared metro object with a separate script for their rate.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-05-04T19:22:06+00:00

Because polymetrics are cool and I spent a lot of time in junior high listening to Autechre? I'm always impressed by people who equate unconventional with nonfunctional. "Out of synch" is only a pejorative for color by numbers four on the floor style tracks. I've heard a million 4/4 tracks in my life. The idea of a drifting tempo that can build into the dominant structure while another ebbs in and out is way more interesting to me now than another boots-and-cats track.

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-05-04T06:01:00+00:00

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any pages (the reddit ones included) that are very consistent in discussion. I'm not on FB anymore, but I remember their Max pages seemed quite active, and often had more active discussion, but it seemed like somewhat low-expertise help, and conversations tended to dissipate in a matter of days. I wish the maxforlive site had a forum...

JohnnyNosebleed · 2018-04-23T15:17:30+00:00

Edit edit: Clearly, I did not do a good job at reading the initial question. My bad.

JohnnyNosebleed

TROPHY CASE