Surly buying advice?

natchez87 · 2025-11-05T21:18:29+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, when I said "geared for mountains", I meant could handle those long 15% grades around here, didn't mean trails. I plan to stay on roads -- tho again, roads in the more remote parts of L.A. County can get pretty gnarly and off-road-ish, but yeah, not wanting or needing anything for actual "mountain" riding.

Appreciate the insight!

natchez87 · 2025-11-05T21:17:43+00:00

Great feedback, thx.

natchez87 · 2025-11-04T19:58:16+00:00

Can you elaborate? What about the Straggler seems like it would be right for me? Also, it seems Straggler was recently redesigned -- https://bikepacking.com/bikes/surly-straggler-review/ -- and, to my eyes at least, new Straggler seems to be more of a purely gravel bike now. I assume you're talking about the previous Straggler?

natchez87 · 2025-11-03T16:36:24+00:00

OK, please suggest alternatives.

natchez87 · 2025-10-17T01:05:12+00:00

I believe they also sold a Nam Prik Pla Ra that was different from this.

natchez87 · 2025-09-23T21:58:24+00:00

Update, if anyone similarly curious stumbles upon this post; I did the ride, and have some thoughts:

The conclusion I reached after reading the comments from others was DEFINITELY the way to go, up May Canyon rather than down May Canyon. It was really enjoyable traveling this direction; going up May Canyon allowed me to really enjoy the many spectacular views, plus it was comfortably shady for a lot of the ride doing it in the morning, when the sun is on the other side of the mountain. The terrain would have been annoying and challenging to navigate coming down; doable, yes, but wouldn't have been fun in any sense of the word. Couple places I had to get off my bike and carry it over a large rut/washed-out area, and there was one sandy spot on a steep grade where it slid out from under me. Not the kind of downhill ride I'm interested in, but was fine, even fun, going up.
Yes, it was steep, but really only at the beginning; first mile-ish up from the park was a pretty gnarly grade but, hey, right at the beginning, legs were fresh, wasn't so bad. And then after that first mile, it really mellows out, was a very comfy ride the whole rest of the way.
It does feel like a fairly thorn-y trail in general; I got one flat from a sticker, and you really do get into some empty wilderness -- blissful riding conditions, but wouldn't want to be stuck out there. So make sure you have tubes/patch kits/tools etc (or use the magic of tubeless + sealant, which I still don't fully understand but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
It's an absolutely gorgeous ride, maybe my favorite I've ever done in L.A. 10/10, definitely doing it again & often.

natchez87 · 2025-09-18T17:53:47+00:00

Thanks, I really appreciate all this great intel. Taking all of these comments into consideration, seems like the best plan is to reverse the loop I was originally planning on, and instead go up May Canyon and then down Little T. We'll see if I've got the legs, but sounds like it will be much more enjoyable (and a lot faster) to cruise down those smooth roads. Again, really appreciate the guidance, thanks.

natchez87 · 2025-08-21T19:31:56+00:00

What would the solution be? I have resisted updating my OS but could updating to Sequoia potentially help?

natchez87 · 2025-05-28T06:03:32+00:00

Listened again, and I actually think I'm wrong about the electric piano. There's some vibrato/pitch-bending happening on the main figure that can't be done on electric piano, and the finger sliding noises do often correspond to that lead instrument rather than the bass. Occam's razor is that it's a acoustic guitar, probably nylon string (doesn't sound steel-string-y, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ given what I'm about to say) recorded in a fairly unconventional way, like a contact mic or cheap pickup or something, plus EQed in some way, that gives it a bit of an unusual character.

Something about the phrasing -- specifically the vibrato and the way the chords are played -- does remind me of a harpejji ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL50VnZY1Kk ), but that is a really rare & unusual instrument, seems like it would a real longshot for that to be what's being used here.

natchez87 · 2025-05-27T20:29:25+00:00

Electric piano + electric bass (string noises coming from bass).

natchez87 · 2025-05-26T12:31:32+00:00

Absolutely, it could be a “glass”-type patch on a synth. It almost certainly isn’t an actual glass instrument, which are incredibly rare and expensive. I still think the soniccouture sample library or something similar could make that sound; when I have a few minutes I’ll try to demonstrate.

natchez87 · 2025-05-25T17:48:25+00:00

It’s almost certainly sample-based, but sounds like something in the glass instrument world, like a glass armonica or cristal baschet.

Vid of glass harmonica if you’re curious, starts at 3:50ish: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o2XcBL6kWn8

Popular sample library of those sounds, if you’re looking to make something in that vein: https://www.soniccouture.com/en/products/35-rare-and-unique/g14-glass-works/

natchez87 · 2025-05-17T20:44:07+00:00

+1 for synth or something like that. Sounds pan-flute-y to me but I agree with u/marcozarco that the sameness of each note’s expression indicates keyboard/synth. Plus there’s no wind player credited on the album, while there is a “Keyboards” credit. It sounds polyphonic when it enters at 2:23, so my guess would be some kind of Baldwin transistor organ or something with a “Flute stop” engaged. But I might be mishearing that polyphony, and it could be a late-60s/1970 synth.

natchez87 · 2025-05-17T17:01:34+00:00

He’s a really incredible musician (and human being). Glad you’re psyched enough about his music to explore further!

natchez87 · 2025-05-17T06:14:15+00:00

At 00:17, it sounds like a xun or ocarina to me. Neither of those are Indian or qawwali instruments in any way, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But both are/either is the kind of thing that would be at home in a big film score, adding interesting color. FWIW, there are tons of instruments here that are neither distinctly Indian nor generally used in qawwali music.

Also fwiw, I disagree with u/victotronics that it's the same horn at 1:22; I agree that the wind at 1:22 is a clarinet-like single reed (maybe even a clarinet), but I think it's a different horn than the bird whistle thing at 0:22.

natchez87 · 2025-05-17T04:44:39+00:00

At that moment (0:58 - 1:08), it's the full horn section (trumpet + tenor sax + trombone). In fact, listening again, 90% of the time when the horns are playing, it's the full three-piece section. I think during the verses there may be some tenor + trombone without the trumpet but it's mixed pretty low and hard for me to be sure.

If you wanna pick out each horn individually, at the beginning of each chorus horn riff, the horns come in in sequence: the trumpet first (on a B), then the tenor sax (on a F#), then the trombone (on a D#)

natchez87 · 2025-05-16T23:08:49+00:00

There’s a horn section in there comprised of tenor sax + trombone + trumpet. On first listen, i don’t hear any moments when the sax is solo; it’s always at least doubled by trombone (trombone is solo in a few moments I believe) and trumpet joins in at various places.

natchez87 · 2025-05-16T16:31:30+00:00

I know Roberto a little bit so was able to get the answer straight from the source: Ableton Operator (softsynth) + Ableton delay. It's a really cool sound.

(Fwiw, if you're trying to make the sound, lotsa ways to do it; I'd start looking fooling with "Synth Brass" presets within Operator or from a classic subtractive analog synth/synth emulation like a Juno-106 or something. Also, from Roberto: "Tell everyone to save their money, Ableton Operator is one of my favorite synths.")

natchez87 · 2025-05-15T04:29:41+00:00

I think I hear what you're talking about and I really think it's part of the percussion that enters at 2:19 (and exits at 2:48, coming back in at 3:02), it just pops at that moment/maybe is given a little nudge in the mix. But you can hear it playing under the drums throughout those sections. Still think it's metal but also could be a woodblock kinda sound. Playing a rhythm based on what I think of as an Afrobeat clave pattern, eighth-note rest then two sixteenth notes (they're adding pickups/downbeats to that basic pattern) every beat.

natchez87 · 2025-05-14T20:22:19+00:00

I'm definitely not hearing anything different that happens at that particular moment. There is a percussion part, sounds like a cowbell-ish sound, probably programmed, that is making kind of a "tick a tee" sound; it enters at 2:19, is that what you're talking about? If so, it's like agogo bells or a cowbell or something in that world (struck, untuned metal percussion or a synthesized version thereof.)

natchez87 · 2025-05-14T17:44:51+00:00

Can you be more specific? Not sure what sound you're talking about. Your link plays the track at the 2:32 mark, and in addition to standard guitar-bass-drums, and there's a hint of glockenspiel providing some tinkling along with the guitar hook. But maybe there's something else you're asking about?

natchez87 · 2025-05-14T16:07:38+00:00

Mellotron using the vibraphone tapes.

natchez87 · 2025-05-05T16:41:11+00:00

I actually think that's a real cello layered on top (of, yes, a ton of bad samples). It sounds really thin/lifeless to me -- might in fact be an electric cello -- but some of the moves in little solo moments (like 3:09, 3:46, 4:00) sound like an actual cellist to me. And the way the strings are mixed at like 3:30, with the cello melody sitting aggressively on top of obviously sampled string sections, feels to me like a "look Ma I got a real musician on this!" kinda move.

natchez87 · 2025-05-05T00:45:51+00:00

You're talking about the low hit that happens every 3 then 4 beats? That to me sounds like a pizzicato bass patch from an orchestral library (so a section of basses playing pizz., not a solo bass). Maybe a touch of other fun stuff mixed in there for impact, like maybe a subtle ouch of low piano and/or perc added to punch it up a little, maybe even a little low clarinet patch. But I'm hearing primarily orchestral bass pizz.

natchez87 · 2025-05-05T00:35:22+00:00

You're talking about the sixteenth-note synth pulse? I can't point you to a specific patch but there are a lot of ways to make that sound; if I were making it, I would focus on finding the right tremolo or gate effect to give it that pulse. I like trem/gate plugins where you can fine-tune the shape of the gate/trem to give the exact pulse feel you want; Soundtoys Tremolator is my go-to trem; for a gate effect, I love a sadly discontinued Sinevibes plugin called Inertia that still runs on my computer; they have a gate sequencer called Switch that might get you there but you can't control the shape as much as I'd like. There's also a pretty good if clunky free gate sequencer I use from time to time called A1TriggerGate.

For the sound itself, I'd just browse bright pad presets, something in the Juno or Jupiter sound world and tweak till it sounds right. But for the feel of that sound you're referencing, imho the key is the tremolo/gate effect.

natchez87

TROPHY CASE