The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[Lumpy]

I had a kitchen accident and cut my fingernail, not too bad but I'm nervous it will snag on something and get worse. I have clear nail polish, maybe I will slap some on there to try to seal it up. I don't know if that will work. Don't have crazy glue, that stuff dries up so fast and it doesn't last if it's unused.

/big baby

[mortlock]

if its a playing finger, its legit. the smallest thing can fuck you up.

[JemDooM]

Lumpy this happened to me recently, nail varnish probably won't work just cut the nail as short as it will go then file it smooth, hopefully with the tear gone or atleast almost gone, then file it smooth every day until it grows out!

/blog, feeling a bit up in the air while we move onto entirely new sets and our new drummer beds in, it's a strange feeling of uncertainty and I miss feeling solid, it's as if the band is a beast I follow through forests, sometimes I'm only catching a glimpse of it, sometimes I'm close and at times iv ridden on it's back, these last few weeks it's been far ahead, like maybe I can only imagine it, been working hard on catching up again, we've booked to record a second album in November which is exciting, I'll have it fully harnessed by then whatever it has become...

[jibberish]

underpowering speakers when trying to play them loud is how to destroy speakers, so I need to upgrade some 100w/ch to 200-300w/ch for that 3-4db of extra headroom

You probably don't have to worry about that, IMO (pushing underpowered amps through into your speakers). Much more risky to over-power your speakers.

I really should say "have excessive headroom"  rather than  "overpowering with amps".
I agree, you cant put more power than the speaker is rated for or it melts after a bit.

my problem is I have several sets of speakers that just get going with a 100w/ch amp at about the volume I want, but it is getting raggedy and I really just need tight headroom and a few more tight db's. and by getting going, I am talking about maybe 10watts continuous or thereabouts which is getting pretty darn loud in a room

the real problem is that power increase wrt volume increase isn't linear. a barely audible increase in volume(ie 3dB) takes double power. so the difference between 100watts and 200 watts becomes less one of volume , but rather one of bigger headroom at essentially the same volume.

ok, if I am jamming at 10watts continuous and if I hit a passage that doubles in volume from the base continuous (+10dB ), I would need a 100watt burst of power to play that peak cleanly.  this then puts these 100w/ch amps at about the end of their power supplies. what if I hit a 13dB peak? I need 200 watts clean.
this probably isn't going to happen more than once or twice in a row as the power supply reserve gets sucked dry
anything over about 3db above rated power goes to garbage so a 16db peak would need 400 watts and that will be garbage

I seriously would be happy with all 300w/ch amps.  run them like really beefy 100watters regarding the actual volume. and they can hit a 500watt spike strongly.
the sound is so much bigger when the amps are playing really cleanly. this is what I really mean by overpowering the speakers

[Lumpy]

Besides super-bright LED's, I really hate pedal knobs that have no indicator line on top, or it's just a notch in a chrome knob, etc. Yeah, your knobs look very sleek but they have to be easy to use, more than looking cool.

Settings are...

[mortlock]

Lumpy this happened to me recently, nail varnish probably won't work just cut the nail as short as it will go then file it smooth, hopefully with the tear gone or atleast almost gone, then file it smooth every day until it grows out!

/blog, feeling a bit up in the air while we move onto entirely new sets and our new drummer beds in, it's a strange feeling of uncertainty and I miss feeling solid, it's as if the band is a beast I follow through forests, sometimes I'm only catching a glimpse of it, sometimes I'm close and at times iv ridden on it's back, these last few weeks it's been far ahead, like maybe I can only imagine it, been working hard on catching up again, we've booked to record a second album in November which is exciting, I'll have it fully harnessed by then whatever it has become...

i know the feeling. my band, as you know, has also had a recent drummer change, that came after another abrupt drummer change. the dude we had landed last summer only stuck around for about 4 months until his living situation changed and was no longer available to us. he took the band in a unique direction and we played to his strengths. the new guy is a completely different animal and we have shifted gears to some degree to play to his strengths and what he brings to the table. in alot of ways the change is great as we can take things into different directions and keep things fresh. honestly im just glad we were able to find someone dumb enough to buy into our crap. my take on this is not as nearly as poetic as following beasts in the forest.. but it will have to do. make sure you save me 6 minutes at your recording session in november..      

[RAGER]

Besides super-bright LED's, I really hate pedal knobs that have no indicator line on top, or it's just a notch in a chrome knob, etc. Yeah, your knobs look very sleek but they have to be easy to use, more than looking cool.

Settings are...

I know right.  Are them damn switches on or off??!!!  Fuck??!!   

[liquidsmoke]

It's really awesome when your tone is all fucked up and you figure out it's because your foot probably accidently turned a knob on one of your pedals. Blank knobs? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jibberish]

I seriously think pedal boards are a kludge that somehow can be replaced with something that makes more sense.

unfortunately, the pedalboard layout is the defacto performance design standard. 

the knobs should be up high like on a music stand. the footswitches should be in a nice row, like you could just pivot on your heel vs looking all around your jigsaw puzzle on the floor for what to step on.

oh well.   
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


tried out the crown 3000 500w/ch 8ohm beast on my big C-V's (12" 3-way in a beast of an enclosure)  it was beautiful. I was watching the woofer surrounds closely as these speakers have never had more than 200w through them, but they raged. I used my nikko pre amp and it was beautiful.

anyway, with the low sens and gains at 12 o'clock on the crown, the nikko gets to about as loud as I think the C-V's can handle , also at 12 o'clock.

the C-V's are fused even. they are meant to be played.  this is a great matchup. as of now it is staying this way. crown3000+C-V 12's

next comes the rebuilt Phillips dual 6" 2 ways. for their size, no other speaker can put out the sound these can. the stock speakers were amazing sounding, until I melted all the drivers out of them heh.  SO, I put major kick ass kicker 6" woofers in and replaced the original crap tweeter with a Phillips (ironic) style ferro fluid soft dome since those can take some watts. these guys just get rolling on 100watt amps. the woofers are 100w rms rated each, so yeah. more schmoltz on tap for them.

those are my home PA system I guess you could say and they need to get loud to get over anything even a drum set.  no problem

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so that 16ch Mackie real actual pro mixer has something  cool on it i found: control room headphone monitoring options. you can listen to all kinds of signals through one set of headphones just plugged into the board by switching switches. SCORE!  this is pro level shit. 300 bucks for this amazing fucking thing.

the problem solved is the one of you have to listen to your source being recorded before it gets into the DAW so you don't have any time lag as you also listen to the recorded tracks you are playing along with. that equals 2 sources for your headphones needed at once. this thing can do it heh. just put w/e into the return of my choosing and select it. done

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

have to get 300 feet of 14awg speaker wire for 6x 50' runs and i think i saw a pretty full roll of romex so skip that.   i will pull the trigger on some sort of compact ceiling LED lights here, and i think wire guides will be fun-painted pvc pipe. i have to replace one trim board for the ceiling panels becasue it twist-warped over time and actually is probably about ready to fall off heh. when i do this, i will mount all the wire guides with the new speaker wire in it, and that should be about it.
then i can take some pics

definitely stoked to finish this up so i can get back to working on music without compromise this time.

[jibberish]

the swirl is getting clearer

ok so "symptom of a downs" appears...[this rules haha]

then "autistic Einstein" appears

just a couple more bits of something and this is all going to come together for some crazy names

[Danny G]

Ocean of Stars played a strong set tonite for the Small Stone showcase, holy shit am I excited about this band.

Photo courtesy Superjudge70 from the old board, whom I've finally had the pleasure of meeting




Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[jibberish]

super.  you sound[sic] stoked, right through the web. hopefully someone video-ded your set.

I remember superjudge.   he hated monster magnet with a passion

(total lies spewed for the laugh only)

[RAGER]

I would be very interested in seeing some video of Ocean of Stars.  Post it duder.

Got my SuperNova back today.  Reacquainting ourselves tonight.  It's been a while.  We'll be sore tomorrow.

[BrianDamage]

Well I got a new (to me) bass amp last night to replace the one that got stolen a while back. It's not as big as my last one but it sounds better. It's an ampeg ba115hp ss combo. Sounds like an ampeg but with no dirt to be had. So now I am after a tech 21 vt bass pedal. Anyone got one they wanna sell fer cheap?

[fallen]

I LOVE pedals but pedal boards have a lot of downsides. The obvious solution is to move the pedals into a case near the amp and patch them into a midi loop switcher. Then drop a midi controller at the front of the stage. Keeps the pedals away from drinks and whatever else.

I saw YOB and of course the bass players rig stopped working because he had two adaptors powering his board and someone unplugged the one powering his compressor.

Hopefully soon this can be cheap enough for anyone to do without spending the ton of cash they want for that Bradshaw stuff. I think the cheapest you can do now is the Disaster Area 8ch switcher strip paired with a cheap 5 button midi controller.

[Lumpy]

Well I got a new (to me) bass amp last night to replace the one that got stolen a while back. It's not as big as my last one but it sounds better. It's an ampeg ba115hp ss combo. Sounds like an ampeg but with no dirt to be had. So now I am after a tech 21 vt bass pedal. Anyone got one they wanna sell fer cheap?

You could also look for a Catalinbread SFT (<---- see what they did there?) and I think it's been cloned already (so it's cheaper).

[jibberish]

I LOVE pedals but pedal boards have a lot of downsides. The obvious solution is to move the pedals into a case near the amp and patch them into a midi loop switcher. Then drop a midi controller at the front of the stage. Keeps the pedals away from drinks and whatever else.

I saw YOB and of course the bass players rig stopped working because he had two adaptors powering his board and someone unplugged the one powering his compressor.

Hopefully soon this can be cheap enough for anyone to do without spending the ton of cash they want for that Bradshaw stuff. I think the cheapest you can do now is the Disaster Area 8ch switcher strip paired with a cheap 5 button midi controller.

I am going to start looking at this stuff.

seriously, pedals are out of control.  the circuit for a tube screamer(Ibanez) is like $5 of parts. any fuzzface 2 transistor fuzz has $15 of parts including the pair of $5 Ge transistors.  all these builders in their shops are using crude NEMA enclosures and cool paint jobs and that's the state of the art.
guitar center can smell it too. they have so many pedals it is sick and they are all $100+ now.

I wish some of the main pedal players like a couple of which post here would get a group together, like in other industries, to push the state of the art of pedals forward. The group could develop new standards and engineer out some of the worst disadvantages to a big board full of pedals.
for example, everything used to be 19" rackmount. now there is a new standard for rack gear. those little vertical packages that slide into a chassis with a backplane.
the redundant things like power, signal chain, mounting are all taken care of, leaving the builder to just build guts and not worry about all the other crap.

companies like roland have made those huge effects rigs to try to do it all, except if one thing sounds like ass, the whole thing loses its shine for you.

[BrianDamage]

Well I got a new (to me) bass amp last night to replace the one that got stolen a while back. It's not as big as my last one but it sounds better. It's an ampeg ba115hp ss combo. Sounds like an ampeg but with no dirt to be had. So now I am after a tech 21 vt bass pedal. Anyone got one they wanna sell fer cheap?

You could also look for a Catalinbread SFT (<---- see what they did there?) and I think it's been cloned already (so it's cheaper).

Nice. Thanks man. I had never heard of the sft before.

[Danny G]

Ocean of Stars video will be posted soon as I see it \m/,


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[AgentofOblivion]

Tonight we're going to a radio station to be interviewed about the band on some "Local Artist Spotlight" thingy.  Never done anything like that.  My singer and bass player, who are the ones really excited about participating, are by far the highest risk for saying something really stupid.  What should have been a really cool thing is turning into a nervous thing because I don't have the heart to tell them to not come because they're dunces.  Potheads that think they're funny and clever are the worst.  M I Rite?!?

[everdrone]

just finished up the South by Southwest festival here in Austin.  I saw the following heavy/doom/classic rock bands, including:


Spirit Caravan (Wino)
Scorpion Child
Kadavar
Orchid
The Well
The Heavy Eyes
Sons of Huns
Slash and other famous musicians in Jimi Hendrix Tribute

and local heavy rock Austin bands:

Ocean of Stars (Danny G)
Eric Tessmer Band (Danny G's old band)
Crimson Devils
Lone Star Demons
Burning Avalanche
Destroyer of Light
The Well

I saw a bunch of other bands too.  yay!  Super awesome time  Inspiring.  A vocalist says he will sing over a tune, so I am hoping he will do it soon and it sounds good and we will form up a doom band and use the demo to recruit other musicians, I gave him these tracks:  https://soundcloud.com/earthalliance-area51  he is xXx straight edge so drugs and alcohol dont get in his way

[Danny G]

Best I can do posting from my phone but here's a brief teaser clip from Ocean of Stars at Small Stone Showcase

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8e5BKpzGKPk


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[RacerX]

Things may be looking up, music project-wise.

/guardedly optimistic

[BrianDamage]

Things may be looking up, music project-wise.

/guardedly optimistic

Same here. May possibly be bass/vocals for a Blue Cheer/Cream/Band of Gypsys style power trio.

[liquidsmoke]

Things may be looking up, music project-wise.

/guardedly optimistic

Same here. May possibly be bass/vocals for a Blue Cheer/Cream/Band of Gypsys style power trio.

Nice!