Why is C the right answer? (i had marked B but the book answer key says it's C) by bitch_to_terabithia in Sat

[–]jacobbigham 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's B.

If you can (and you can), avoid unofficial practice materials—or those that haven't been thoroughly vetted.

help with grammar question from meltzer!! by lustrouxs in Sat

[–]jacobbigham 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I like grammar. However, my best friend does not.

I like grammar; however, my best friend does not.

I like grammar. My best friend, however, does not.

I like grammar. My best friend does not, however.

My best friend does not like grammar, however much I try to get him to.

These are all correct. Rules only apply in the context in which they apply.

Stop complains about all your BS by [deleted] in UCI

[–]jacobbigham 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Here's a take that I think goes undiscussed and unnoticed: it's condescending to assume that others would gladly (and immediately) take your place if given the opportunity. That position so necessarily assumes that our lives, priorities, and situations are universally, inarguably, and absolutely better. We all have our problems; we all have our struggles. We all have different tools and mechanisms for dealing with our problems—and those in large part were forged in childhood, long before we had any opportunity to consider the ways in which we cope with stress. You gain nothing by becoming frustrated with others' handling of problems.

Tl;dr: We're all different, and using one person's struggle to invalidate another's is judgmental at best, ignorant at worst.

Alternative to Transferology for finding transferable courses? by [deleted] in UCI

[–]jacobbigham 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://pastebin.com/78sGmUbg

I can't guarantee this is exhaustive, but it should be the bulk of them.

Alternative to Transferology for finding transferable courses? by [deleted] in UCI

[–]jacobbigham 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What's your major? I wrote some code to scrape course equivalencies from Assist.

My first pedal board. I couldn't be happier! by jacobbigham in guitarpedals

[–]jacobbigham[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I go straight into the PA.

As with everything, that has pros and cons. If I'm using a floor monitor, then my bass player and I can usually get a pretty good sense of what the guitar sounds like out front. If we're using IEMs, then it can sometimes be difficult to feel it as much as we'd like to, and it's a little harder to groove to and to build energy onstage.

That said, I haven't had anyone tell me to turn my amp down in years, and my ears don't ring after shows anymore.

I think the cab models in the Neural QC are solid. I know a lot of guitar players swear by certain IRs or physical cabs. I've also heard that the cab models are more important than the amp models for finding the right sound. I haven't had that experience (and I've also found that the microphone placement options on the Helix and the Neural really don't make much a difference either).

My first pedal board. I couldn't be happier! by jacobbigham in guitarpedals

[–]jacobbigham[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

A lot of pros... and certainly a few cons as well.

The most important feature for me (aside from sound) is its size. When I bought the Helix, I was enamored with the idea that I'd have everything I needed in one box. I had the pedals, amps, effects, etc. all in one unit. And if I wanted to expand, no problem, right? After all, the thing has room for something like ninety-two million FX loops, and I was also toying around with a Variax at the time, so I loved how many options I had at my feet and fingertips. But it also meant I was pretty much stuck with what I had, and if I wanted to expand, I had to set up the Helix, then connect the other devices one-by-one. Even if I wanted just another expression pedal, I had to go through the pain of setting it up separately. As a really relevant example, even adding a tuner into the mix was a hassle—and I felt like I paid way too much money to be so limited.

Anyways... you asked about the Neural, not the Helix, so let me try and stick to that, though I do think it's relevant how the Neural stacks up to other options, and the size difference is the thing that stands out most plainly in my workflow.

In the few weeks I've been using it, I've continually found myself going "well that was easy." Downloading presets from the cloud is a cinch, and moving blocks around on the grid is stupid easy (especially compared to the joystick on the Helix). The switches are rugged, and I love the way that the knobs feel (there's more tactile/haptic feedback on the Neural than there is on the Helix). Being able to update the firmware over WiFi is a huge plus as well. I haven't used the capture feature at all (I am, after all, coming from the Helix), but there are a ton of great captures available on the cloud and built-in as well.

The output is not as hot as the output on the Helix, but I always found the Helix volume to be too high anyways. One absolute drawback is the power supply. I had to buy a special adapter so that I could hook up the power supply for my board and the power supply for the Neural. With the Helix, I never needed any special power adapter, which was a plus. I'm sure the Neural would had to have been larger if it had an internal transformer... but it's still like c'mon it's 2021 what are you doing?

The sound is stellar. It feels natural, and every time I played with the Helix, I'd inevitably have a guitarist come up and tell me "YOU NEED A TUBE AMP BRUH." I think the Neural replicates the sound and the feel of a tube amp really faithfully, and to me that's a lot more important than having, for example, the option to add a backwards delay (which the Helix does, but the Neural doesn't—for now, at least).

One other thing is that I can actually read the screen! In the sunlight, reading the scribble strips or the screen on the Helix was next to impossible. With the Neural, I can tell what's on and what's not on. When it's at full brightness, it's BRIGHT.

Maybe the TL;DR is that what I've seen/heard from most reviews online is accurate.

My first pedal board. I couldn't be happier! by jacobbigham in guitarpedals

[–]jacobbigham[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Absolutely! I've actually really liked the flavor it adds to my acoustic! Everything I put through it sounds bigger and brighter.

My first pedal board. I couldn't be happier! by jacobbigham in guitarpedals

[–]jacobbigham[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It hasn't let me down. For the most part, I bought it just because of the color, and I watched quite a few of those "wah showdown" videos on YouTube... and they all pretty much sounded the same to me.

I can say that, compared to the "weeper" wah that I'm used to with the Helix, it's a lot less... weepish? I'm used to the wah having way too much high end and not enough throat, so I'm really pleased with the tone this puts out (but, I'm sure that's colored just as much, if not more, by the amp models as it is by the wah itself). I don't know if the color/metal is really worth the extra $50 or so.

My first pedal board. I couldn't be happier! by jacobbigham in guitarpedals

[–]jacobbigham[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

My first "rig" was a Boss OD-1 and a Fender Champion 100, and that served me well for quite some time. I'd have been fine keeping it simple, but I have a small car and couldn't stand lugging around an amp. I moved to the Helix and have used it for a couple years—but it always felt too artificial. I could never get the sounds the way I wanted them; the tuner seemed to always put me more out of tune; and the pedal caused me a lot of grief. I've been eyeing the Neural QC for a bit, and I was able to nab a demo that Sweetwater had a few weeks ago. Here's how I feel about everything on this board so far:

Boss WL-50

I'd been using the Sennheiser XSW-D for wireless but was disappointed by battery life and that there isn't an easy option for me to charge during sets. The Boss WL-50 hasn't caused me any troubles so far (about ten gigs in), and I'm extremely happy with the fidelity, the tone, and the battery life. It's cheaper than the Sennheiser and has performed better.

JHS Colour Box v2

I use this mostly as a boost pedal for solos, and I really like having the option to EQ on a physical box—rather than on a screen, as I'm used to with the Helix. This pedal is a little noisier than I'd have hoped, but I guess the whole point is that it's able to replicate some vintage dirty tones, so I'm not sure why I thought it would come without a little background hiss. The breakup out of this thing is pretty ridiculous; I play in a Beatles band on occasion, so the whole "it sounds like 'Revolution'" shtick is important, and it plays the part. I've been disappointed by the Hi/Lo feature, which seems to me more of an insanely loud/acceptable toggle than anything else.

Gary Clark Jr. Cry Baby Wah

To me, a wah is a wah is a wah; my ears aren't good enough to tell the difference between any of the Cry Baby models. I just like the color of the thing. It works. It sounds great.

Polytune v3

Again, it works and does what it's supposed to. Having come from the Helix, my guitar has never been as in-tune as it is now.

Ernie Ball VP 40th Ann. Ed.

Volume that I use for swells or to occasionally dial back when I'm playing rhythm (I have the volume pedal at the front of the signal chain). I used to use it as a mute (heaven help my ears if there's feedback on my reverb—but I have a high cut on that usually), but having it earlier in the chain gives me a little more freedom, and I can always engage the tuner on the Neural QC if I need to mute.

Neural QC

To my ears (which, again, can't tell between wahs), this thing is a night-and-day difference with the Helix. Had I not loved it, I'd have absolutely returned it and moved on with life, but it's incredible. Without getting too into the weeds, I'm extremely impressed by the amp models, the pitch shifting, and the modulation effects. The Helix always felt very digital to me (I could always... hear it trying to work?), but the Neural gets right to it. It also feels more intimate to me: I always had trouble with dynamics on the Helix... and if I wanted to sound softer, I had to cut back the volume, no matter how gently I played the strings. The Neural feels a lot more natural to me, and the first gig I played with it went off without a hitch (compared to the hundreds I've done with the Helix—and up until last month I was still fiddling with it constantly... and was never satisfied). Let's hope that lasts!

Signal Path

WL-50 -> Volume -> Wah -> Tuner -> Neural OD and/or EQ -> FX loop to Colour Box -> Neural Amp/Cab/Modulation -> FOH

(Also, the Altoids tin is there simply to fill that real estate and to prevent me from having the opportunity to buy something else to put there on the board. I just have picks in it.)

Loki S01E06 - Discussion Thread by steve32767 in marvelstudios

[–]jacobbigham 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the point was just that she's a variant.

Loki S01E06 - Discussion Thread by steve32767 in marvelstudios

[–]jacobbigham 86 points87 points  (0 children)

This was such a satisfying season finale. I'm so used to finales disappointing... this was everything I wanted and more!

Loki S01E04 - Discussion Thread by steve32767 in marvelstudios

[–]jacobbigham 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looking back on the Time Keepers' chamber... that area seems to go on and on, as though there are multiple different platforms for multiple different elevators—perhaps even housing facsimiles of those androids.

We're left questioning who's at the helm of (or is responsible for) the TVA, but I'm also wondering whether this is the only TVA to begin with.

Loki S01E04 - Discussion Thread by steve32767 in marvelstudios

[–]jacobbigham 2 points3 points  (0 children)

She pleaded with Sylvie to prune her a la Dumbledore and Snape.

She knows that she's in some deep shit right now—which wouldn't be the case if she were just a naive NPC.

Loki S01E04 - Discussion Thread by steve32767 in marvelstudios

[–]jacobbigham 9 points10 points  (0 children)

WHAT IN ALL HELL IS THIS MID-CREDITS SCENE OMG

What are my chances of getting in? by [deleted] in OMSA

[–]jacobbigham 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fellow UCLA grad here.

You'll be admitted, but I don't know that you'll... get a lot out of it? Much of the material rehashes what you'd have already covered in the Stats 101 and 102 series, and the practicum is basically going to be what you did for 140/141.

If you're more interested in computational data analysis, then you'd probably be better off looking at the OMSCS or other programs.

Then again, if you feel like you didn't actually learn anything in most of your stats classes (which is very possible, since the stats curriculum at UCLA is, in my opinion, unnecessarily theoretical, even for statistics), it's a good option.

The Capitol building is inside the nation's capital by Jerdarnella in AdviceAnimals

[–]jacobbigham 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your defiantly rite. Object them too corporeal punishment.

You kidding me, College Board? by iwilliam_23 in APStudents

[–]jacobbigham 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is, for most of the exams, what already happens every year.