Latest toys

What are yours?

I got one of those “must have” bargains over the weekend. A little echo/delay unit like this one:

delay

Mine is the same as that one but not badged as Maplin. (It’s not badged as anything but is otherwise identical). Not in great condition cosmetically but works just fine.

Not too much info on the 'net, but the price was right… £2… what’s that, about $3.50? Got it on the local market. Can’t pass that up at that price eh?

I’m unlikely to use it as a recorded effect but it’s quite handy to add to the effects chain to add a bit of “space” for monitoring vocals when recording.

As pointed out in that Ebay listing, it certainly has a “filthy” element to it when pushed.

So what are all your latest toys then?


Mark

my two latest are a Roland guitar synth gr33 and pickup…and a 60’s Vox Tone Bender w/germanium transistors…absolutely the bomb.

Cruiser :D

M-Audio FastTrack external recording device with an XLR mic input and guitar input for my laptop computer. Inexpensive USB powered device that is perfect for my very modest needs. I only recently started playing around with the guitar input, which is fantastic 'cause I can plug my electric guitar right into the FastTrack and wail (no amp necessary) which means happy wife, happy sleeping kids and therefore happy me!

Zoom MRS 8 digital multitrack recorder - absolutely love this little unit, it is so portable and versatile. Use it for pre-amping and an effects box through to the PC

Presonus Fire Box- very happy with this sound card. Loads of headroom, no noise.

Nomad Factory Rock Amp Legends- best amp modeller I’ve used

NI Guitar Rig 2- it’s okay but a major CPU pig, think I’d rather Waves GTR as I can associate more with stomps than rack effects

I don’t drink much anymore so my bar money goes to toys!!!

Still waiting on my Little Lanilei 3350LT:

http://www.songworks.com/pages/6/page6.html?refresh=1106519688826

I can see Mark now… with the stone hammer beat’in the piggy bank to get the coins to buy all these yard sale “toys” and Tom following him around, with a U-Haul… up’in the bid with “Green Backs”… :O :p :laugh:

They say Florida is a good place to go for “Flea Markets”… IT’s pretty good around here if you can get IT to stop rainning…

Bill…

my new power conditioner (furman) and 8 channel mic preamp (nady) just arrived today. As well as my 96 square feet of 2" wedge foam and 8 LENRD bass absorbers (from foambymail.com) I’m gonna hang up my insulation tomorrow and do a before and after test for frequency response. Anyone have a suggestion as to how to do that? should I do sine wave sweep or pink noise? or what?

Anyways… the power conditioner doesn’t seem to do a whole lot. I also got Humfree tabs to isolate the items in my rack. I was hoping the power conditioner would zap some of the buzz in my vetta II amplifier, but alas, no luck.

The preamps are a bit disappointing. The gain is not that great. It’ll work for already loud sounds, but it has no where near the output as my behringer ada8000. I can put the nady on -10 db and the behringer on +4dbu and the behringer is STILL way louder. Plus, the nady is full of hiss. two of the channels have a little 60 cycle hum. Turning on all 8 channels even with the dials at 0 introduces a lot of hiss. the behringer is only hissy when you crank the gain. Surprising since it’s only twice as much at $200. It’s turned out to be a great preamp for general use. I wanted to get the SM PRO Audio PR8 but Musiciansfriend is out of them. It’s pretty much the same thing but has balanced outputs (which may be why my nady is so hissy, it has TS outputs.)

I’m doing a recording session in two weeks and I’m gonna’ finally record with 16 tracks… if I can get N-track to cooperate a little more… but that’s another thread.

Recently picked up the Sans Amp and Waves gold native bundle. Really happy with both.

Hey, all good replies. Thanks guys.

Have you ever noticed that that if only you had a [insert name of gear that is giving you the most GAS], then your studio would be complete? Then when you get it, there’s another item to get.

It’s probably true to say that many of us who do this for a hobby actually have two hobbies. One is making music, and the other is the hobby of building the studio. That’s fine by me. I enjoy both.


:slight_smile:


Mark

I don’t have any new toys :( But here’s a list of what I want to get (not in any particular order)

- A shinybox ribbon mic
- A second Tampa (for stereo recording)
- Nice monitors
- Another acousic guitar
- A drumset
- A percussion set

Is that too much to ask? :D

I want TIME… to use the toys I ALREADY have… :(

D

I got a -90 Fender Strat (USA). It’s made my playing so much more fun and easy! Goddammit I love my guitars. Next thing I’m going to get is a good (budget) steel-string semiacoustic. Any of you got good experiences of specific brand/model?

The Super 7 draw for this weekend is for 25 million loonies… The girl we bought the ticket from promised us they were the winning numbers… If we win I’ll buy you guys all the toys you think you’ll need.

So, get your list Up-to-Date…

All we can do now is wait for the draw to happen… Here, we report to Moncton, on Monday… to pick up the winnings… :O ???

Bill…

For all you guitarists:

I got a low tech toy called a “Jelly Fish.” It costs $9.99 and is a guitar pick that resembles a jelly fish. Depending on how you pluck or strum you can achieve some interesting sounds like a David’s harp by plucking individual strings, or a mandolin, or a 12-string guitar. It really works best on an acoustic guitar with metal strings. Then use the “metal tank” reverb effect on n-track for some really brilliant and shimmering sounds.

I would caution if you are an aggressive player that repeatedly striking the guitar body will probably create a Willie Nelson hole in your guitar – unless that is a sound you are looking for. :slight_smile:

You can check it out on-line at: http://www.gear1music.com/jegupinew.html

But it can be purchased at Sam Ash, George’s Music, etc.

Happy playing,
Beth

I’ve got a big solo gig coming up, so I convinced MamaRomeo that I neeeeeed a small mixer and a proper dynamic vocal mike, so I got a Behringer UB802 and a Peavey PVi and tossed in a new capo. Only about $100 total, but I feel so much cooler and better and handsomer now.

The big gig? “Fun Fair Day” at the preschool where my wife teaches. Should be about 150 two- to five-year-olds and their mothers in attendance… :p

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go practice “Old Macdonald” and “Shake Your Sillies Out”. :blues:

PR

I agree with Diogenes in that I need more time for playing with my toys in the studio…

- And yesterday I found a way of sparing myself the trouble of going shopping for a compressor/limiter to use while recording tracks - Guess what? My EMU 1820 card allows for inserting a decent (EMU proprietary, BTW) compressor into the channel strip of the virtual mixer with no extra load on the DAW CPU itself. This approach works excellently!

Now, if I could just make up another excuse for buying a dBx compressor/limiter anyway… :D

For now, my gear wishing list (apart from time, which I haven’t yet found a way of reaping from reality) includes:

Garritan Personal Orchestra VSTi plugin
Ukulele
Acoustic treatment material for the studio
Scheduling an appointment for getting my upright tuned (I know a great piano tuner who owes me a favour)
Some proper studio furniture (preferably sporting 19" rack frames)
Finger cymbals, cabasa and guiro (those cropped up as a request/idea for a track we are working on ATM)
Creamware Minimax - HW emulation of a great synth
AKAI pad controller
Doepfer continuous slide synth controller
etc.
etc.
etc.

GAS never ends… :p

regards, Nils

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- And yesterday I found a way of sparing myself the trouble of going shopping for a compressor/limiter to use while recording tracks - Guess what? My EMU 1820 card allows for inserting a decent (EMU proprietary, BTW) compressor into the channel strip of the virtual mixer with no extra load on the DAW CPU itself. This approach works excellently!


Hey Nils,

That EMU stuff is the bees knees ain’t it!? I LOVE my 1820M.

D

Done picked up a Japanese J-Bass a week or so back. Me likes it!

Nils, the GPO was my Christmas present from my wife. You know what? It leaves you wanting the full set. :)