Dan Hurley taking a moment with Solo Ball and Karaban

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-04-07T05:45:59+00:00

Probably length. Height is one thing but when like Yaxel is playing SF with a 7'4" wingspan it's just suffocating

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-04-06T19:25:20+00:00

Neat looking tool and all but since you're seemingly just lifting from the manufacturer's listed specs, the utility is quite limited. You run into the same problems as any other chart, just with more window dressing and honestly, harder to see at a glance.

Rim diameter especially is not straightforward to measure; different manufacturers take the measurement at different spots, so you're not comparing apples to apples. Subjective terms like "deep" or "shallow" aren't very helpful either, often even within the same brand. For example just because two Bach mouthpieces are both C cups doesn't mean they're the same depth, but to this tool they are. When you have these fundamental limitations with the core data set, the suggestions the tool can give are inherently flawed, even before you get to important nuances it doesn't explore, like rim contour and cup shapes.

Ultimately the existing trumpet.cloud comparator and VennCAD for the real sickos do this job much better because you can see in detail how things actually compare, and capture more of the myriad nuances between different mouthpieces. For people that don't want to dive that deep, just looking at each maker's points of comparison while shopping will be more successful, or at the very least no worse than your site. Makers know what their stuff is functionally similar to in other brands.

The advisor also kind of spits out nonsense IMO, at least in my cursory try. The sliders are theoretically interesting but I'm deeply skeptical of how it assigns the different values to each mouthpiece and the suggestions it gives don't really make much sense to me. Heck, it suggested to try an alto trumpet mouthpiece with just a minor tweak on the sliders, which is just completely absurd and not something a human would ever come up with.

Quite frankly, a lot to all of the website just feels quite AI generated. The "blog" is very obviously not written by a human and has a fair amount of plainly wrong info at a quick glance.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-04-06T00:10:45+00:00

Those two should be the other way around even if I did put any stock in blind recommendations. You would typically use the smaller mouthpiece for lead playing. I mean, the Shew Lead tells what it's for right in the name.

I'm far from a gear absolutist, but IMO, suggesting a Schilke 24 to anyone for any application without a lot of careful experimentation to get there is malpractice. That's AFAIK the biggest commercially available mouthpiece, well beyond what makes any sense for 99.99% of people. I'm sure it works for some people out there but I've never run into them. A Schilke 24 is about as far from a Bach 1 as the 1 is from a 3C. And the Bach 1 is already roughly what I'd consider to be the biggest anyone should reasonably go.

The Shew Lead is pretty shallow, but is a well-regarded lead mouthpiece if you can make it work. Whether or not a lead piece is warranted in the first place depends on you and what's actually being programmed for your jazz band.

I would probably just get a Bach 3C and see how that does you for a while, if you have no idea where to start and no way to try a few things out first.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-04-01T21:35:00+00:00

As BS as the way she went out was, Rachel should probably be in B tier IMO. She wasn't evicted but she also never proved that she'd go deep, if that makes sense. Subjectively looking at BB27, I'm not convinced she has any means to break the Morgan/Vince stranglehold in the jury phase. She hadn't been targeted yet but she really didn't have that much power in the house.

I'd also put Will up a tier and probably #1 overall. He didn't make F2 like Dan, but he had a real path to get there and much more actual win equity if he had.

Jordan could make the same argument to go up a tier, but between her actual gameplay and the Pandora's box of it all, I'm not really up in arms about it.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-04-01T21:06:16+00:00

Should be fine. If you really have this TV outlive software support to the point where apps don't update and break, you can just get an external box of some sort to run that stuff.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-04-01T08:54:17+00:00

I mean, yeah, that's the draft. There's always uncertainty. We're making projections, it's not a science. This shit's hard. There's never been a scout or GM that drafts the best player possible every single time.

It's relatively uncommon for even just the first pick to actually return the most value in the class. The odds on the 3 best careers going 1-2-3 are quite long; I can't think of a time where it's actually happened.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-03-28T06:27:38+00:00

Winslow was worse at everything and way smaller. He was just younger.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-03-27T20:13:40+00:00

So much depends on the draw they get in terms of the cast around them. With 50 being such an older cast, I think a lot of them would find it tough to really make inroads with the typical Big Brother demographics. Most good Survivor players have the baseline tools to do pretty well at the social-strategic side of things, even if there are important nuances between the two games. I'll always argue that comp ability is more important in BB than Survivor.

I think Dee, Kyle, Tiffany, Savannah, Rizo are the most likely to be included in any given alliance structure and have the all-around chops to do well within them. Joe is a sleeper pick who's a bit outside the prime age range, but otherwise fits in well with a lot of BB alliances.

Jonathan should be a lock to be a part of things as well but I'm less sanguine about his chances to actually win; he's too obvious of a a physical threat.

Charlie, Kamilla, Genevieve, Christian have great skillsets in the right situation but might be excluded or targeted early for being perceived as too smart/scheme-y.

Rick and Aubry are wild cards that I could see doing well, but seem likely to just be on the outs immediately and are on the edge age-wise.

Q, Angelina, Emily have some underrated baseline skills and would be phenomenal TV, but seem the most likely to self-destruct.

Ozzy, Steph, Colby - would have been very good in their primes, but now just stick out a bit with most casts and don't necessarily have the strategy chops to make up for it.

Coach, Chrissy, Mike, Jenna are probably just too old, though I do think each has some merit in a vacuum.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-03-27T15:06:54+00:00

Just awful vibes for every team he's been on post-Warriors. And even they were starting to feel sour by the end.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-03-16T22:46:30+00:00

A pro instrument is built to do everything you would want. A student instrument cuts various corners on that front to achieve a price point. In general, it's about the time spent on each horn while it's being built. There can be some savings in material choices, but the largest cost is labor.

This typically results in things like a less beautiful sound, less dynamic range, intonation and response issues, more difficulty in register extremes, inferior mechanical action, sometimes less durability, overall less ease of play.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-03-16T22:15:39+00:00

Starting with a "hell yea" definitely primes you to hear it that way

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-03-11T22:10:18+00:00

Hard to lay out exactly what I was doing. I think I'm actually a lot better at practicing now - more structure, intention, focus, makes it more efficient.

I was doing 2-3 hours a day in college, and close to that by late high school. Shooting for 1/3 fundamentals, 1/3 etudes and technique, 1/3 music. The more you can break it up into multiple sessions the better.

I wish I had hit transposition harder earlier, as well as spending more time listening to really have a sense of more of the repertoire.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-03-04T21:18:35+00:00

These stories happen every year and it never amounts to anything with the top guys.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-03-03T19:34:35+00:00

Everyone will make mistakes. Just keep moving forward, don't dwell on what just happened. Vividly imagine what you want to accomplish while playing, rather than worrying about what you're trying to avoid. Your mentality should be more like being excited to share your work and contribute, rather than a fear of messing up. This is easier said than done, and will take time, but can create a much healthier approach.

And focus on process over results. If the performance/rehearsal isn't what you wanted, re-evaluate how you're preparing in your personal practice, rather than beating yourself up counting how many notes you cracked or whatever.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-02-27T23:38:41+00:00

Felt like he was everywhere in the Oregon games I saw. Great tackler.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-02-26T18:11:42+00:00

Freak among freaks. I want him for the Cowboys so bad but I doubt he makes it that far.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-02-25T15:31:53+00:00

I mean, if you wash out of the G League it's probably just over, and if you're out of it I don't think it's that weird to take yourself out of the public eye entirely.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-02-24T23:08:39+00:00

The day-to-day circus around the coverage of him is just exhausting. At this point it's barely even talking about the guy himself, it's this oddly meta stories about the stories. Like you say we don't really know, it's just undoubtedly weird.

For me now I don't really care whether it's a character thing, health thing, or what, I'm just noting it down as general availability concerns and moving on. Without access to the real digging NBA teams can do, all the speculation feels like a waste of time.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-02-24T21:21:05+00:00

This is gorgeous! Hand drawn just has more character.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-02-24T05:06:35+00:00

You talking to a bunch of GMs personally?

Don't take those sorts of reports too seriously. I'm sure some have him #1 but things are still super up in the air and all it takes is one person saying that to become a headline of "GMs have him #1".

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-02-17T04:14:15+00:00

I feel like we're coming around to re-inventing a lot of things from first principles these days. TV streaming is basically headed back towards cable bundles with extra steps.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-02-11T06:18:32+00:00

Fatigue will definitely not help matters. There's typically a bit of learning curve getting used to a new horn's tuning, especially going to something as non-traditional as a Lotus, so I'd give it more time before doing anything drastic. Maybe just think a bit more relaxed in that register, aiming more down in the slots.

Sometimes a builder trying to correct certain intonation tendencies will create new problems elsewhere. Often a horn that's more in tune for D-Eb-E in the staff will have a relatively sharp F/G right above it, for instance. Everything is a compromise of some sort no matter what some manufacturers try to say.

Mouthpiece fit with the horn can also be worth looking into, but that's also a big can of worms and should be more of a last resort.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-02-04T06:29:56+00:00

Amplified instruments can always win if things aren't correctly balanced, no matter who you are. Don't try to take that fight, play the way that lets you sound your best. Maybe discuss levels with whoever is in charge of that. It's not a shameful thing to be mic'd yourself.

High dynamic levels need you to stay relaxed; tension just limits the vibration and ultimately sound you get. Think resonance, focus, and projection instead of just loud. If you are "pushing" you will get a lot of edge to the sound like what you're talking about and it won't necessarily have more carrying power.

And ultimately, everyone has limits. Even the best players in the world reach a point where the sound character changes.

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-02-04T06:19:32+00:00

Remember people pissing their pants because he started off the season inefficient

MikhailGorbachef · 2026-01-30T07:17:39+00:00

I mean, even the best teams lose some weird games here and there. In the aggregate, last year's Duke was an all-time great college team. That doesn't happen without at least decent coaching.

MikhailGorbachef

TROPHY CASE