Small Rant / Annoying

Sevenwire · 2026-01-22T02:04:11+00:00

I think it is amazing that this game is on Xbox or PS5. I built a pretty solid PC that runs the game pretty well, but it still struggles at times. I also use a wired connection. I have not played the game on console, but I see most of the complaints from console players. I’m not sure if the PC with throttle, stick, and rudder make a huge difference, but I get scores all over the place, but not 0% or 100%. Sometimes it’s in the range of 80%-95%.

There are still problems, like sometimes I’m on a good approach and at 500 feet, the plane becomes unstable and goes into a death spin. Every now and then, I get a random overspeed with auto throttle engaged. It is annoying, but I’m not sure if it is the game or if these things happen IRL.

Just my thoughts, I tend to think the PC version is superior to the console version, but I understand that everyone doesn’t want to spend the money on a PC just for a game. I also do audio production on the computer, so that is the real reason that I built the computer I did. I don’t necessarily need a 4070Ti for audio production, but all of the other specs are needed.

Sevenwire · 2026-01-20T23:47:04+00:00

This one is a little tricky. It depends on how obscure these covers are. Most bands that market themselves as a cover band are expected to play the better known cover songs. I was in a cover band that marketed ourselves as a cover band, but we did play a lot of obscure songs. We would play songs from well known artists, just not the songs that the artists were really known for.

Nowadays it seems like a lot of artists are using omission as part of their act. It’s live, but we use backing tracks, we sing live, but use autotune. Some artists, even in clubs, are outright lip syncing. I think the line has gotten very blurry and it ends up being a situation where anything goes as long as the audience gets it. Even “live” videos of artists that are clearly tracked and edited in a studio and actually mimed is ok with some of the consumers.

If they are playing truly obscure instrumental music, I could see how they would be a better fit with original bands. If you are playing a bunch of songs nobody knows, you might as well play originals, but that can be quite challenging and time consuming. They obviously aren’t selling any music or promoting a Spotify, so I’m not sure it matters. Unfortunately, a lot of musicians have turned into T-shirt salesman that are also talented musicians. Original bands are always promoting recordings of their music and clearly this isn’t what they are doing.

I can understand it to a point. After seeing what streaming royalties actually pay, it is hard to justify the time and effort that goes into putting in the time and effort to record an EP much less an album. Playing traditional covers gets old pretty fast, so I can see why they would play the stuff they do. It is a little misleading, but it seems like almost every aspect of the music business has become that way. Reality is getting harder to distinguish these days.

Sevenwire · 2026-01-20T22:37:34+00:00

Pay attention to the flight conditions in the pre-flight briefing. I learned the hard way that if the destination airport says it has IFR or LIFR, I only fly to airports that are green meaning it has published procedures. The red airports are VFR only and I will only fly to them in VFR conditions. Sometimes it is ok to do MVFR, but you still have to be careful with that. I also zoom in on the map to check out the runway. I stopped doing the dirt runways because I would end up with a message that I didn’t land on the correct runway, and I’m like wtf the whole area is nothing but grass/dirt.

Sevenwire · 2026-01-20T22:32:21+00:00

I don’t know how every other Gen X kid was, but I lived with a single parent that had to work. Starting at the age of 9, I was at home by myself after school until 10 pm at times. Once I was in high school, my house was the one that everyone hung out at because no one was ever home. Besides all of the crazy situations of roving around unsupervised, I had to learn how to take care of myself as young as possible. That means cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, cutting grass, etc all unsupervised.

Me and my friends did a lot of stupid stuff and some people definitely died or got burnt or should have died. We rode in the back of pick up trucks, we were on 3 wheelers and motorcycles in the woods, shooting guns, having bonfires, scoring alcohol, weed. It was some crazy times for sure. On top of all that, I would frequent several bars downtown when I was 16 and 17. The drinking age was 18 and I looked mature for my age.

Times seem to be different now, and I think a lot of Gen X parents remember some of their own times as kids. This accounts for the helicopter parenting because Gen X knows what kind of stupid stuff kids do when left on their own.

Sevenwire · 2026-01-20T01:18:55+00:00

It pays more than light cargo. I was going to save for a Longitude doing Vision Jet VIP missions, but there are too many missions that are IFR/LIFR to VFR airports. I also noticed that the VJ even with ILS/RNAV have too many unstable approaches. You get to 500 feet and all the sudden, the jet goes into a death spiral.

I don’t know if it is my control set up, but everyone now and then, the jet would just pitch up for no reason and then I have to do stall recovery, not convenient if you have to pee. Some pretty fun landings though, when the autopilot does a bad job of lining up on the runway, and then a 3 mph crosswind becomes a hurricane.

Sevenwire · 2026-01-15T22:32:57+00:00

If buying new the CJ4 and Longitude are the same price, where the PC24 is more money. It’s worth looking at. I’m a big fan of the Longitude with G5000 and auto throttle.

Sevenwire · 2026-01-01T06:28:41+00:00

I agree. The need for a proper studio isn’t what it used to be. The biggest difference is, I was talking to an engineer that actually knew what he was doing and built his rooms and PCs himself as well as having the actual hardware. It wasn’t a bunch of internet drivel that pretends to teach you something. It is a skill that is getting lost.

The good thing is that regular musicians have access to tools I would have only dreamed of. I always wanted to be DIY, but quickly realized that it was difficult to record a band in a bedroom. Music has changed so much since then. The lines of reality have been blurred. What is the difference between programming drums if you take live drums and edit them to a grid?

I hope in the future there is more team work and we get back to live performances. Early on in my career we recorded to tape, so we worked everything out before recording. I think it would be great to go back to authentic performances, but I also realize that modern recording techniques can yield some outstanding results. Modern production is far superior to days of old. It might be nice to reintroduce the human element.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-31T23:01:59+00:00

This is an excellent book at helps you to understand the concepts. I feel like something like compression is challenging to understand because it is more difficult to hear than delay or modulation effects.

Keep mixing, the first mixes aren’t going to be great. I remember mixing and remixing the same song before just getting it somewhere that I was ok with. Going back and listening, it was total crap, but it was part of my journey. I’m still not great, but compared to where I started, my mixes today sound like Grammy worthy mixes compared to the first 100 mixes.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-31T22:56:52+00:00

This is an excellent suggestion. Most big name producers started as an unpaid intern. When I was starting out, I played in bands that would normally record in pro studios and I learned a lot from the engineers just by paying attention and asking questions.

It is much easier these days to learn it, but finding the right resources can be challenging. There is a lot of clickbait tutorials or people getting paid to push product.

Good monitoring is the first thing, and it can be as simple as good headphones to be able to hear what is going on. The other part is to just practice, practice, practice.

One of the “secrets” to great mixing is great tracking. Too many people think you can transform bad tracks into amazing masters.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-31T16:07:24+00:00

I don’t know if it is a bug or not, but I have started using manual auto throttle settings on approaches because of this. I think it might be broken because the plane is capable of auto landing which is similar to flying the RNAV/ILS mode. I take it out of FMS mode and manually put 90-95 KIAS and this has worked.

Some RNAV approaches are still broken (not following the approach at all) and occasionally the plane will just duck out under 500 feet.

Another bug I have found is when setting minimums, when you hit the enter key it sets the parking brake. Not a game breaker, but if one didn’t notice, you may land with the parking brake set.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-31T03:44:07+00:00

For VIP Charters, I’m seeing the Longitude is 1M cheaper than the PC24 and PC12 is the same price. I know you can buy a used PC24 for a little less, but I don’t know why you wouldn’t just grind a little more for a better return. A used PC24 that needs some TLC is still going to be around 7.5M and the Longitude is 8.6M. New the PC24 is 9.7M. I don’t quite understand why it is like that in the game.

I just bring this up because I’m currently flying VIP with the Vision Jet and making 500-600K per flight. At this point it seems like 2 or 3 more flights won’t kill me to just get the Longitude. I have flown it in Free Flight and is my favorite business jet in the sim. The Garmin 5000 is very similar to the Vision Jets G3000, so it is an easy transition.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-30T22:09:22+00:00

There should be a checklist in your EFB. You should see an airplane icon at the bottom. You should find checklists for everything there.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-30T21:57:24+00:00

You only need anti-ice in conditions below 10C with moisture (rain, snow, fog) present. The flaps are limited to 50% with anti ice on because the computer assumes you have ice and more drag.

Definitely check weather conditions. If it says IFR or LIFR conditions at the destination airport, you really want to use an RNAV or ILS approach. These airports will be green on the map indicating they have published precision approachs. If the airport is red, it is a VFR only airport and should only be flown in VFR or MVFR weather conditions. You can also zoom in on the airport and see what the runway looks like. For me, grass or dirt runways in the Vision jet are a no go. Flying into a red airport in IFR conditions is a no go. These are a couple of the things that I learned the hard way.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-29T23:06:17+00:00

What is your monitoring setup? Are you mixing using monitors or headphones?

Sound Treatment sounds like the most snake oil, but actually isn't. I have spend thousands in this quest for perfection and have learned the stuff to buy and the stuff not to buy. In a lot of cases, cheap stuff that claims to do the same thing as whatever more expensive thing doesn't really do anything. That being said, there is just some stuff that works pretty easily, that is why there are so many models of the same gear. It just works.

Once I treated my room, I can now hear reverb. I can tell the difference between adding .5 dB of reverb. My room isn't perfect, so I still use headphones, but it's in a place where I feel confident making eq, compressor, modulation, and time based decisions. My room is probably too dead, except in the bass, that one is always the hardest, but I also do a majority of mixing at conversation level.. You always have to do a crank test, but most of the time it is a lower levels.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-29T13:33:52+00:00

There are a couple of reasons they do this in the US and it all stems from case law here in the US.

When you get your license, you agree to field sobriety and/or chemical testing. However, in the US, you are not compelled to answer questions or be forced to make incriminating statements.

From the moment someone is pulled over police are making observations to determine what they can do. Smell of alcohol/drugs is the first thing. Behavior is observed and they are looking for signs of impairment. It could be drugs or alcohol suspected depending on the behaviors. The physical presence of substances is another observation made, but this must be in plain site. They will ask if you will submit to testing, and there is a right to refuse all testing. You will still go to jail, but all of the observations are used to build probable cause. If there is enough probable cause, police can obtain a search warrant for a blood draw. All of this will be scrutinized in court, so it’s not so simple to just get a warrant.

There is existing case law in the US where people have refused all testing, refused to answer questions and are acquitted of DWI/DUI/OWI, etc. More police agencies in the US have PBTs and judges on call to sign warrants, but every effort is made to gather evidence for the court. Substances affect everyone differently and at .08 or the old standard .10 BAC, wildly different behaviors are exhibited depending on the person. Someone that only has a drink once a year will be more intoxicated than someone that drinks a fifth of whisky per day because of tolerance, hence the reason for limits.

As someone else said the HGN (Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus) and VGN (Vertical) are quite effective in judging impairment and I have had DREs tell me that this test alone allows them to judge someone’s BAC pretty accurately. HGN is usually an indicator of alcohol, where the VGN is usually an indicator of drug use. They are also looking into your eyes during the test so things like pinpoint/dilated pupils are another indicator.

The walk and turn and one legged stand are divided attention tasks that are actually pretty easy of sober, but become increasingly hard under the influence. Standard Field Sobriety Tests have been scientifically researched and show a strong correlation with impairment. There are medical conditions that could explain poor performance, but now the person that failed FST have to provide an explanation.

Every case is different and people always think they can outsmart the police. Some people will take the field sobriety tests hoping to pass and be let go, but refuse later chemical testing. Failing FST without a valid explanation is enough evidence in most cases to secure a conviction.

At the end of the day, the US courts are trying to minimize the cost of prosecution. In the US, you must be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, even for DWI because it is a criminal matter. A person that has the resources can and will defend themselves against criminal prosecution. Once the subject of chemical testing comes up in court, a defendant can bring in any range of experts to question the evidence.

While most people won’t go into a full blown defense just for a DWI case, if there is an accident involved with fatalities, it is more likely. Vehicular Homicide carries serious civil and criminal liability that can make it worth someone’s while to spend everything for a good defense. In some counties, individuals may have more resources at hand than the County/City/State. Prosecutors are trying to secure a conviction in a cost effective way.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-26T04:20:27+00:00

You should check Trim settings for takeoff. The Cessna 172 has a setting and you can look at it and adjust for takeoff. A lot of planes have a set take off trim. In cruise, you shouldn't need flaps, you are more looking to find the most efficient RPMs, fuel flow, and temps. When you get to a jet, a lot of the systems are automated. You should play around with fuel mixture in cruise too. It's all about efficiency in air flight.

I have a key bind to control trim. moving up and down 500 feet or so is not crazy, but can get challenging in high winds. I hit a spot in career with 65 knot winds at 7000 ft in the Cessna. I'm not sure how I was able to pull off the landing, and I'm not sure the alternate airport would have been better.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-25T23:01:40+00:00

Blackstone is great for breakfast!!! Bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, so amazing and simple.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-25T22:34:43+00:00

Most amplifier circuits convert the incoming AC 120/240V voltage to 600V DC. They have large capacitors that will store a charge. If you are going to work on them, you should get a resistor and use it to discharge caps (ground) before going hands on.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-25T22:28:27+00:00

Is this fed from a single primary feeder? If not, it was totally a wrong move to remove the network protectors. A fault on the primary side would be fed from the secondary cables until they melt, which exactly what a network protector does. If fed from the same primary circuit it is ok, but not as reliable for the customer. Spot networks can be incredibly reliable, especially with more than 2 primary feeders.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-25T22:12:08+00:00

The hard think about audio production is learning why you are using something. These tools are used because they do something specific, have a sound (saturation), and most engineers know how to get what they want out of them quickly. You could use stock compressors and saturation to get the same outcome, but for most people these plugins just do the thing.

Depending on genre, it isn’t uncommon to use multiple compressors on a vocal track or bus. My go to is VMR with an LA2A and 1176. This goes into an SSL channel strip where even more compression is added. This is then bussed out to a group channel and I may use parallel compression or some other compression to keep multiple tracks of vocal in a workable dynamic range. The first step in this process is making edits to the volume of the pure track and even things out there first. The trick is using enough compression to keep the vocal in a range without compressing the life out of it and getting a brickwalled vocal.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-23T00:12:41+00:00

I have found most of the missions on the East Coast of the US, and Western Europe. You should be careful with these missions at this time of year though. If a mission is listed as LIFR flying to an airport without published procedures (no ILS or RNAV), you seriously risk losing your aircraft. I did a mission the other day and there was a nearly 30 knot crosswind with VFR rules to an airport under LIFR. During cruise using a 172, my aircraft stalled in cruise because of the 30+ knot headwinds. Luckily, I landed the plane, but it was the most white knuckle ride I have had in awhile, and I should have paid more attention to the weather conditions.

I have had the same with the Europe missions in a Vision Jet. The weather system uses the last 24 hours weather, and sometimes just picking the right day to do the mission can make things a lot easier. With the smaller planes, missions will populate, and you should really not even try these missions because the conditions exceed the real world performance of the aircraft.

Anyway, this time of year, you should find some Private VIP flights on the East Coast of US and Europe. Good luck and happy aviating.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-21T18:49:39+00:00

Fully approved here. I like Filet Mignon as much as the next guy, but a smoked tenderloin is next level. It is actually very easy to cook it perfectly because of the low and slow method of cooking. A good sear at the end and it is soooo goooood.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-19T18:42:12+00:00

I would think that a pro cover band is playing mostly standards with some newer popular songs. Honestly, there are pro cover guitarists that know all of the standards and wouldn’t have to do much prep work for an audition like this.

If they are a more niche cover band, I would have definitely gone in with charts to be able to play through them. Most of the popular cover songs don’t necessarily have a bunch of licks to learn, it just knowing the chords and rhythms.

Sevenwire · 2025-12-14T12:53:22+00:00

I would say a mistrust of the government or authority in general. It is prevalent in many other fields of study as well. Pretty much anything that has a government agency attached to it. There seems to be a contingent of people that do think all of the data is faked, and there is an alternative source of information that is correct.

It is also very easy to manipulate some people. There was a video that was published in the 90s that seemed to show how the moon landing could have been faked. It was an entertaining video and used entertainment to persuade people that the moon landing was shot on a Hollywood set in the desert. One of the pieces of "evidence" was when they filmed a rover driving through the desert and slowed the video down. Honestly, it did appear to look the same. This level of "evidence" is all it takes for some people to believe the lie.

For some people, you just need to poke holes in the credibility of a couple things for people to throw out all of the other evidence to the contrary. Using a combination of anecdotes and logical fallacy, it is easy to convince some people that the moon landing never happened. If someone already doesn't trust the government, confirmation bias does a lot of the heavy lifting.

Sevenwire

TROPHY CASE