The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[Danny G]

^^^^


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[spookstrickland]

Im not much of a knob tweeker, once its diald in it might stay there for years.  I do like to swap pedals out a lot so things sound fresh.

[Danny G]

Holy shit.

So a good friend works at a second hand store that is moving.

She called me today to see if I could come by immediately and check out some of the musical gear that's been sitting in the back storage room for years. Either it needed to go or they would just have to move it to the new location. She had already claimed a 1940s mandolin and an electric violin for herself (which I may purchase both from her).

Dug through the rest of the dusty piles and claimed:

A small Yamaha acoustic guitar in gigbag
A violin or fiddle in a soft case (for my gf)
A classical guitar from Spain and a hard shell acoustic case
A set of Sabian and Meinl cymbals and hats
A crate acoustic? amp
A five-piece woodgrain drum set which I am trying to ID. No faceplates, no stamps, Pearl kick pedal
A metal toolbox full of tools
Some kind of headphone amp? thing
A 2 space gator rack case (empty)

Trying to remember what else.

All for free.

Just, holy shit. Sometimes the universe throws me a bone. This is one of those times o_O


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[Danny G]

Update: the drum set is a Pearl. Trying to ascertain series/era now.


Dude.


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[Danny G]

Update: could be a 70s Pearl


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[neighbor664]

Score! What a haul!

[Danny G]

I'll have to take it to a drummer friend for a full inspection, but yeah it's either a stripped 70s Pearl Export or a custom home made set.

Won't really know how is sounds until I can change heads (literally ALL of them, top and bottom) and get a spare kick drum leg.

So either these will sound awesome or sound what you'd expect a free mystery drumset to sound like.


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[agent of change]

Nice score dude. Those Meinl cymbals are probably worth what you paid for em though. Don't hit em too hard.

[everdrone]

nice dude!  killer friend there 

[Danny G]

Nice score dude. Those Meinl cymbals are probably worth what you paid for em though. Don't hit em too hard.

I paid nothing for it and am happy to have it m/,

[Danny G]

Can't wait to hear what these drums sound like, but I'll be having to replace most of the heads. Which costs money :/

Curious to hear how these compare against my 70's Slingerland kit. I plan to keep one kit and sell the other. Because bills.


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[jibberish]

fuckin a chief!  just about had to call omar the tentmaker to adjust my pants after reading the body count wow!!!!

and I can't think of a more deserving person of a random cosmic bonus.

final answer: fuckin a!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#RANDOMCOMEDY#

"Watch it, that AC/DC guitar guy is one g away from being a total asshole..js"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i'm being lazy. does someone already play fred bear? I would dig if someone could hit record and lay the rhythm guitar down

I was thinking about using the audacity/WASABI trick and get the real song into audacity. the more complex plucking is between the vocals and he just hits much duller and simpler chords while he sings.  then i'll cut all the vocal phrases out and record one nice take of those 3 dull chords and paste paste paste paste haha.


OR learn the fucking song because it is 7 minutes of 3 very similar parts repeating. but that's why I don't wanna: 7 minutes is an eternity to fuck up a "one-off" performance just to record a gadget song.

WTF am I doing dancing with fred bear?  Well, this song struck me as a cool tune with ghey lyrics. and just like bricks and dumb found out, when I think your song is ghey, I get to fixing it up.  the song is now "Friend Beer" and I believe the chorus is too much fun, so I need to make this become reality haha.

edit: I was thinking that I am accumulating a large pile of these "evil weird al" songs I do. I bet some day I could do a really long set and hand out printed out lyric sheets so the crowd could sing new words to songs that everyone knows so well.
I also want to start a karaoke revolution, but the show killer is if there are backing vocals =  U R FUCKED
I think my version of turn the page would slay the crowd on karaoke night. then they would be wondering what I promised for next week

y'all haven't seen my new version of that old "my baby , she wrote me a letter" song.  it's now called "Going to see a slayer show" haha.

..got me a ticket to a aeroplane slayer show.   they kick ass and I gotta go....  and so on. 
so I have to get that laid out..busy busy busy...

[Danny G]

In asking about the drums online, one person brought up a good point that with the wraps removed the rims may not seat properly


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[jibberish]

I was getting worried about figuring out the part that emerson added to his version of nutrocker.
the original Switzerland 1970 film and the bucci video are both unclear as to the detail of the playing.
I have been mostly searching for some kind of piano score while I burn the left hand pattern into my brain.
I may finally have found something: a crappy as hell ?korean? MIDI piano-roll style video.

the left hand is totally wrong, BUT the right hand clues, the ones I need, are there frozen in print.

This POS video is going to let me do this. (the emerson part starts at 1:39 and goes a few bars until it goes back to the main theme)

my nephew started talking about playing around on some piano a dude fixes up and leaves randomly around the towns (that dude is awesome for doing that=more music on this world. mega kudos)
anyway..my nephew said he digs boogie woogie and is starting to learn how to play it.
Talk about a massive segue,
so I got to play a fairly intact round of the original nutrocker.  the flow is still choppy becaue I haven't really practiced the entire thing much.  I had to work out the rough parts before even thinking about assembling the whole song
I did it on a massive synth sound though heh, any stu can use a piano.

[Danny G]

Well this is cool.

Have two friends/projects that are wanting me to come in the studio to do harmony vocals.

Both are projects I've been heavily involved in, but not currently "in". At least one will pay.

Awesome! I've never been brought in as a ringer to do vocals before. #hugeconfidenceboost


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[jibberish]

ringer has a nice ring to it. nice.

Mortay, are there any noise bands that use ?"noise vocals"?
i'm not even sure I know what I am asking, but I guess a band where some kind of vocals is a fair fraction of what the music[sic] is all about.

[mortlock]

yeah, if i understand you right, id say there are plenty. tons of P.E. bands/artists use vox as part of their 'sound'.

[jibberish]

cool. I like to screw around with vocal sounds and different voices, so that would be a fun angle to explore.

***************************************************************************************************

I/O trick:

The Problem:   if you are trying to drive a hi-impedance input (like the mic input on my video camera) with a lower impedance source that has some drive to it(like the korg synth line outs), the input gets blown away before you can even really crack the volume on the source and climb above the noise floor.

What is happening is that the circuitry of the synth is designed to flow a certain amount of current to set up max volume(voltage). A hi-impedance input really only wants to "SEE" a voltage, not choke down a pile of current, so it all craps out.

The Solution:  look up the output impedance of the device that wants to drive too much current and get a resistor of that same value.
Put that resistor right across the output from signal to ground. You now are giving the hot output exactly the impedance match to get the optimal V and I AND it sounds the best.

Meanwhile, at the top of the dummy load resistor, the hi-impedance input is calmly watching the voltage that has been set at the top of that resistor, and easily monitors even full volume (max voltage) without having to choke down a bunch of current. the dummy resistor is doing that chore.

make sense?  we are playing with an electrical concept known as "The Maximum Power Transfer" theory.

[this would be sophomore year electronics after full calc sequence is completed freshman year, so you can understand via the math wtf is really going on.
if you don't know how to use calculus you cant even begin to fully look into the frequency domain and definitely are missing out on a Godzilla sized pool of really cool information. how can you do complex hooke's law calculations? that is the most universal physical equation in the universe, except it is a 2nd order differential equation that algebra can barely slog through.  good thing scraping road pizza only requires keeping your grubby fingers out of your mouth]

[jibberish]

Step 2 of I/O trick: do the homework.

What I know at the start: the korg output immediately blows the camera mic input away.

What is the korg line output impedance?
The manual says 1.1k and it can drive a 100k load.  <-the clue is this will be the best load for the best sound

What is the camera mic input impedance? it turns out that the impedance isn't all that high but it is super high gain and cant even take much voltage along with little to no current.

this now requires a 2-step resistor which provides
a) a 100k load for the korg output to see
b) and some way to really take the starch out of the line level signal and kill the voltage and the current. this is called an attenuator circuit

anyway, you build what is called a pad
here is a link to one with some nice explaindo, and the nice 100k look to the input side the korg would need to see, and a thousandfold reduction in schmoltz across that 100 ohm resistor the mic input is seeing

http://arrakis-systems.com/pdfs/Microphone%20Input%20to%20Line%20Level%20Adapter.pdf

[Danny G]

Got together with my buddy who I'll be recording vocal harmonies for. Went great! In fact he's also doubling my workload of songs as well as pay.

We used GarageBand, he played the existing tracks and I recorded over them, first experimenting, then finding what works, then fine tuning. Did six songs and he still has a few more.

Felt great to work out my voice (I need to start warming up for gigs), as well as really listen back to myself and see what I can improve (opening my throat more, projecting more or less depending on the needed dynamics etc)

We have one more sit-down next week to do the last few songs and better fine-tune what we've worked out. Full day session next week Thursday, which we'll be prepared as hell for.

Interesting listening back to my own voice. By itself/too loud in the mix it still sounds weird, but when mixed to the proper level really blends well with other voices. Cool


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[Danny G]

First Ocean of Stars rehearsal since SXSW last night.

Went great considering it's been two months m/, (however I have yet to listen the jam room recordings)

Two rehearsals next week, gotta be right for our gig in the 21st


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[jibberish]

^^ I remember I kind of freaked out the first time I heard the playback of my voice recorded on a nice setup.
(hi end blue mic, avalon tube pre, mac, pro-tools, mackie monitors)

_________________________________________________________________

ghetto fix for neck divers:  put an oversized lag screw with a standoff that holds the strap a distance away from the guitar body.
one inch makes an amazingly big difference. the screw has to be long and well seated because of the increased force created by the leverage from the strap now being out from the body. (the correct term for that pivoting force caused by the strap is "torque moment-arm")

_____________________________________________________________________

boogie woogie bassline indoctrination is going well. initially, it is tiring due to muscles fighting each other. after the patterns get burned in, the speed goes up nicely

then the real fun is splitting that hand out from your right hand and add something while maintaining the boogie woogie bass

the emerson bassline is a pure 12-bar blues.  that in itself is fine.
the problem is the pattern is one that moves, not a mindless 1-2-3-4 over and over.

so I have been just drilling that pattern and trying to do stuff with the right hand, even drinking coffee while playing the bassline helps split the hands apart. heh.
the rubber meets the road right as I have to check that the coffee cup is sitting ok so it doesn't tip when I let it go. the rest of the time is robo-drink, like your shake in the car = zero thought needed. pretty cool realizing what things you can and cant do sans conscience thought.

the other bummer is that there isn't a whole lot of schmaltz left in my left hand after an hour of those drills, and the guitar playing time has suffered.

[Danny G]

So the West Texas run with Adrian Conner/Chasca almost ended before we even loaded drums into the van.

Vincent Van Go (her van) had a busted turn signal light. In replacing the bulb it shattered in her hand and cut her index finger pretty bad (and RIGHT where she holds a pick).





For scale, the smaller blood droplets pictured are the size of nickels.

The initial amount of blood led us to wonder if an ER visit was required. But the old guy who works at the rehearsal space had a first aid kit on hand and was able to stop the bleeding and get her patched up.

She would have to hold her pick with middle finger (index finger now a mummy of band aids), so we'd have to strike a few of the more complex numbers from the set, but the show went on!

Marfa, Alpine and San Angelo all got rocked proper. Much fun, and much respect to Adrian for being such a fucking trooper.


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[Danny G]

Finally cleaning up the new drums with lemon oil and giving all the lugs some WD-40.

Man, this is a gorgeous kit.


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[Bro. Righteous]

I dip the lugs in vasoline, just the tip, not as greasy or slippy as wd40...keeps the tuning tight.