Gamers who play musical instruments

I attended a local jazz jam at a bar and didn't embarrass myself. I played the bassline to Miles Davis All Blues (fairly easy) and kept time with the drummer. All I did for the solo was play quarters along the mixolydian, making sure to hit 1, 3, 5, or 8 on the downbeat while mixing in a chromatic eighth for color. It wasn't showstopping, but I had fun with it and it drew applause. The audience was super friendly. Mostly sincere jazz fans in their 50's or older.

It definitely got me thinking how I need to get a tablet computer through. The bassist who did most of the playing had an iPad that he had running iReal Pro. Basically, it gives you charts and visually clicktracks for you so you don't have to battle with the drummer.

Anyone know if I can run something similar on an Amazon Fire?

Paleocon wrote:

I attended a local jazz jam at a bar and didn't embarrass myself. I played the bassline to Miles Davis All Blues (fairly easy) and kept time with the drummer. All I did for the solo was play quarters along the mixolydian, making sure to hit 1, 3, 5, or 8 on the downbeat while mixing in a chromatic eighth for color. It wasn't showstopping, but I had fun with it and it drew applause. The audience was super friendly. Mostly sincere jazz fans in their 50's or older.

It definitely got me thinking how I need to get a tablet computer through. The bassist who did most of the playing had an iPad that he had running iReal Pro. Basically, it gives you charts and visually clicktracks for you so you don't have to battle with the drummer.

Anyone know if I can run something similar on an Amazon Fire?

There's an android version of iRealPro, I was under the impression Amazon Fire devices were based on android, so should be possible? Might need to side load the google play store or some such.

So . . . home studio setups. I've picked up a small audio interface (an Arturia Minifuse 2) to play around with home recording; I've been dinking with songwriting forever but knowing how my creative process generally works while writing words, I do much better when I can just vomit stuff out, review, and rewrite, and for every paragraph I write in a completed document, I've probably written ten of them. Having the capability to do that with music I think will help things stick better and assist me with focusing a bit, but, man, there's so much stuff. Anybody have a small home studio with recommendations for things like microphones, monitor speakers, or headphones? I have a decent space in the basement that really just needs a table/desk set up, and, well, I'm guessing my laptop is old enough it will suck as a DAW machine, but just something I really want to get going.

Love my Minifuse, the software it comes with is great too. Guitar Rig 6 LE has the effects and amps you need for most sounds, Analog Play is a collection of high quality synth presets and they release new free packs every month or so I think.

Unless you're doing a bunch of synth and audio tracks with effects most PCs of the last 10 years should be fine for music, make sure you use your ASIO drivers.

DAW wise I recommend Reaper. It's pretty dense to get to grips with but it's lightweight and very flexible. Lots of tutorials for it too.

Sign up for the Bedroom Producers Blog newsletter, they inform you about free software and plugins all the time. If there's a plugin you'd like, Analog Obsession probably makes a free version, although all their stuff is on Patreon so a bit tricky to find.

Get their LALA compressor, it's an LA2A replica. So basically the one compressor you need.

I can't speak to monitors because my work space is in the living room, so I mix with Samson SR850 headphones. They are crazy cheap and not *great* but punch way out of their price class.

My mic is still my really cheap Samson Q2U podcast mic but I'm looking at replacing it with an SM57. Can add a pop filter for the podcast and take it off if I ever need to mic anything up. Conventional wisdom is if you have one mic, it should be a 57.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Anybody have a small home studio with recommendations for things like microphones, monitor speakers, or headphones?

What's your budget?

Now is the time of year in Kansas City when I go from running a dehumidifier in my guitar room for 24 hours a day to quickly running a humidifier all day.

I should do that but I live in a loft so I'd need to look into how best to do it. And the only acoustic I have didn't cost much more than a nice humidifier anyways soooooooooo. Should still do it for the electrics but what is the nice jazzmaster I need to get back up and running going to need a setup? The necks not even on it right now so I think I have other concerns

Good MrDeVil stuff

Thanks for the info dump; I've been leaning towards the SM57 anyways largely because there's a used one on Marketplace for a good price, and even in my largely ignorance I know the SM57 and SM58 are everywhere. I want monitor speakers honestly because I've given myself enough hearing damage over the years that I'm just dubious about using headphones unless I'm running them at very specific volumes, and I'm going to blast my ears more if I just play through headphones. I'm old enough and things are muddy enough now I'm paranoid.

I'll give Reaper a shot; I've been playing with Cakewalk, and, good GOD, the UI is painful. Light is good; for the hell of it, I downloaded the free version of Pro Tools, and my laptop wouldn't even start it, and Cakewalk is a bit of a pain. I'll try Reaper, they give a 60 day window for free use, and finding something more comprehensible would help.

Podunk wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Anybody have a small home studio with recommendations for things like microphones, monitor speakers, or headphones?

What's your budget?

I'm trying to keep it under a few hundred at this point; I'm very much a serially obsessive person who tends to charge headlong into different hobbies, and I don't want to burn too much up-front until I make sure this isn't another thing like painting miniatures where I get loads of paints and minis and hey, guess what I don't do anymore. I'd like to spend maybe ~$250 between monitors and headphones, and, well, if I hyper-obsess, I'll upgrade later and sell the cheaper stuff.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I'm trying to keep it under a few hundred at this point; I'm very much a serially obsessive person who tends to charge headlong into different hobbies, and I don't want to burn too much up-front until I make sure this isn't another thing like painting miniatures where I get loads of paints and minis and hey, guess what I don't do anymore. I'd like to spend maybe ~$250 between monitors and headphones, and, well, if I hyper-obsess, I'll upgrade later and sell the cheaper stuff.

A few thoughts:

- Conventional wisdom is that mixing on headphones is not going to yield mixes that translate well to other systems, and I have definitely found that to be true. But it's also way more affordable to get into a decent pair of headphones vs a decent pair of monitors, and you pretty much need at least one good pair of headphones anyway, for recording. You can get a very solid pair of closed back headphones like the Audio Technica ATH-M50x or Shure SRH840 for $150 (and there are plenty of good cheaper options, but I use and can vouch for both of those models). Open back headphones are sometimes better for mixing, but worse for tracking, because of the lack of isolation.

- The SM-57 is a great starter mic. You might also consider an entry level large diaphragm condenser mic instead if you're going to be recording vocals. There are a few okay ones in the $100 range like the AT2020 or AKG P120. But the 57 is fine too especially if you have a line on a good deal.

Honestly for messing around and getting your sea legs you can't go too far wrong with just buying some stuff in your price range and going for it.

If I may be so bold and suggest presonus stuff. They have packages that contains everything you need to start out (except monitors) here.

I am a big fan of their studio one daw and with their last two releases they have made it super simple for beginners to record their music together with a million youtube tutorials. But…. If you are using a mac, garageband is already bundled with it so thats an option as well.

I would also highly recommend going on reverb.com and see if you can find the things you want for cheaper. The focusrite scarlett is a fantastic starter interface for cheap as well.

Podunk was a huge help for me when I started out, so I would echo his advice. Find the things you need in your price range, give it a try and see if it sticks. No need to invest a ton of money.

As far as studio monitors, make sure they have an eq on them to balance out your room.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I'll give Reaper a shot; I've been playing with Cakewalk, and, good GOD, the UI is painful. Light is good; for the hell of it, I downloaded the free version of Pro Tools, and my laptop wouldn't even start it, and Cakewalk is a bit of a pain. I'll try Reaper, they give a 60 day window for free use, and finding something more comprehensible would help.

Just to forewarn you, music software is all pretty hard to use. That's why most people tend to be very loyal to their DAW of choice because once you've learned it it's too much work to learn anything else.

Reaper is pretty tough to be honest, but with 60 days to learn your way around, plus even after the free trial it remains fully functional, it just has a nag screen, you can blunder your way to comfort.

*edit to add*

The Minifuse does also come with a light version of Ableton which may be simpler to use, it's just been upgraded to 12.

And Guitar Rig has a very basic tapedeck feature if you want something as more of a scratchpad to get ideas down quickly.

Reaper . . . isn't completely awful as a DAW. Clunky and I suspect once I learn things a bit more and start playing around with effects/virtual instruments I might move on, but, for a learning thing, not terrible. It works. Also, thanks Podunk for the Shure SRH840 recommendation; those things sound great. I'm being lazy by using a Boss Katana (tube amps are just too damn heavy to haul to practice), but I put on those headphones and my guitar sounds so much damn better. I'm going to have to upgrade an amp at some point.

In unrelated news, I bought a Fuzz pedal kit from Build Your Own Clone a while back, and put it together last night. They send you the blank enclosure, PCB, all the parts, and you solder together. I have very limited soldering experience but figured I'd give it a shot . . . and I now have a Fuzz Face-style pedal that works perfectly, and it was a very satisfying experience. I see more pedal kits in my future, it's pretty interesting to build it. There are a few places that have King of Tone kits, and, well, why not?

Once you are familiar with Reaper you can start doing template projects and tracks and customising your workflow. I never really need to dig into menus any more.

I have my podcasting templates, songwriting templates, practice templates. If I want a guitar track I insert a 'Guitar track' that has my whole FX chain and is already set to input 2 which is the one I always use for guitar. Same for bass keyboard and drum keyboard, instrument is loaded up with the plugins I want.

I also have hot keys for tasks I use a lot, I even have my phone paired with Reaper for macros.

Stuff that's all a pain in the butt to set up, but you only do it once.

I am finding my head turned with some of the features built in to Ableton Live 12 for music creation, but the inertia of starting over is just uuuugggghhhhhh.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

In unrelated news, I bought a Fuzz pedal kit from Build Your Own Clone a while back, and put it together last night. They send you the blank enclosure, PCB, all the parts, and you solder together. I have very limited soldering experience but figured I'd give it a shot . . . and I now have a Fuzz Face-style pedal that works perfectly, and it was a very satisfying experience. I see more pedal kits in my future, it's pretty interesting to build it. There are a few places that have King of Tone kits, and, well, why not?

Congrats! I've done a ton of DIY pedal and synth modules over the years and nothing beats the feeling of soldering a bunch of parts together and seeing it work for the first time. Also it's much better on the wallet. If a kit is available as assembled or DIY I almost always go DIY to save some cash.

Already ordered a King of Tone DIY kit from StewMac; I looked at it yesterday and when I re-checked today, they'd started a Halloween sale so it was 20% off. Just shy of $100 for a pedal that currently has a more than six year waiting list for a new pedal, and I've seen two of them posted locally on marketplace of $650 and $700. It's the Ridiculous Hype Pedal of all Ridiculous Hype Pedals, and the other guitarist in the band I play with is very much a gear-chaser who wants prestige stuff, so I'm betting he's on that waitlist. Will be lots of fun to show up with a homemade version, have to say.

How do you decorate your DIY kits, out of curiosity? I know they could be hydro-dipped but that seems like a thing I would absolutely screw up in every possible way. I do not exactly have artistic talent in painting.

I got a delay kit from Stewmac though I can't recall which off the top of my head (Edit: It was this one!). It was probably the wrong one to grab as the board was tight as hell so in the end it didn't work for reasons I still need to get around to figuring out. I did get back to trying to get the Jazzmaster working so maybe I'll get back to it soon.

Yeah, I'm a bit concerned about upping the complexity with this kit; the fuzz I built was the easiest pedal BYOC had in stock, and I put it together in an evening. There was enough space on the PCB where over-soldering wasn't really a concern to goop together multiple contacts, but might be on the KoT clone, which has 30+ resistors alone plus loads of other elements.

I considered a phaser kit since I don't currently have one outside of a multi-effect pedal I'm not hugely fond of and everybody has Phase 90 kits, but that one seems even more cramped so why not add yet another overdrive to the ones I've already acquired?

I just found this thread! I've been out of the habit of checking the forum for a long while, but I'm going to be back more regularly now.

This thread has all the things: soldering, music gear, home studio stuff, jazz...

Who am I - I'm a musician, recording engineer, I have a home studio. I started producing my own projects in 2023 and am releasing electronic music under the artist name WEI EN. Been expanding my knowledge of soldering by building eurorack synth modules from parts, and learning about synthesis itself, ofc.

Looking forward to chatting and contributing.

awakes from post election stupor

Ahem. I finally decided to give up on the weird jazzmaster wiring stuff I was doing in favor of just getting it working so I went ahead and ordered a new pickguard. Which when it arrived I realized I had ordered it with the wrong pickup routes... But after some truly terrible work with a dremel I got them to fit I finally have a working guitar! It's great! There's a hum I need to track down at some point but I'm making myself deal with it for a bit before I fall down another wiring rabbit hole. I did have a moment where I thought it was straight up busted but I realized I had the gain maxed out for testing when I was making sure the pickups worked so that was a relief let me tell you. I also went ahead and took the middle pickup which is a Curtis Novak Danelectro style pickup and slapped it in my bass vi and damn, I love that thing. Not so much the pickup which does rule but there's something about the feel of a bass vi that I just love. Something about the string gauge and tension just feels right to me in a way my acoustic and electric guitars just don't. Maybe I just identify with objects that are constantly under more tension then they probably should be

I also got an Old Blood Noise Endeavors Alpha Haunt fuzz pedal as my christmas/pre tariffs gift to myself and let me tell you this thing sounds like trash in the best possible way:

So I've had a bit of a fascination with Harley Benton guitars; they were always just some manufacturer of cheap, forgettable instruments in my head for a long time, but the Official Internet Hype Train has really been rolling on them for a while now. They're the house brand of Thomann Music, a big German musical retailer, and they only sold direct from their store in Germany. Prices were cheap, but you'd have to wait 12-14 weeks and pay all that shipping, so I just shrugged and ignored it. Their new Telecaster model was getting really good reviews and a number of guitar YouTubers I follow had said plenty of very positive things about it, and, sure, it was $139, but with the wait and the bother, I'd never gotten around to it.

Then they opened a US store on Reverb, and that $139 guitar plus long wait and shipping was listed at $209. Including shipping.

IMAGE(https://u.cubeupload.com/MilkmanDanimal/PXL20241123214114735.jpg)

I didn't really need another guitar right now but, well, with the way the world has gone the last month, I figured for $209, even if I don't like it, I can flip it for enough where it doesn't feel like an utter waste, and I do have to say . . . this thing is insanely playable for the cost. I mean, the fret edges are a bit sharp, there's a weird pattern to how the neck was stained particularly at the 7th fret, the volume knob is bizarrely tight and hard to turn, but at $209 you're grading on a curve, and it's an "A" on that curve.

Also it's pink. I like the pink.

So if somebody wants some cheap retail therapy in the guitar world, I'm genuinely impressed with the build quality of this thing at this price point.

Thats really cool to hear. I, like you, have been sceptical of them since they are so incredibly cheap. Glad to hear it wasnt a waste of money and time for you. How are the pick ups / trem other hardware?

That mint on pink looks great.

I've also been curious about a Harley Benton, but with shipping and taxes it wouldn't be a saving over a Squier Sonic Series locally and returns would be a massive pain

The pickguard's actually more of a cream/off-white, just looks greenish in the photo for some reason. As for hardware, the tuners not shockingly feel pretty flimsy and it stays in tune kind of, but, well, it was shipped to Minnesota in November, and it's a bit chillier outside so I suspect it's still acclimating. Also should really throw different strings on, as I'm guessing whatever's on there as factory standard is pretty damn cheap. As for pickups, not really impressed by the neck pickup, it's just kind of bland and a bit muddy, but impressed by the bridge pickup; it's got that really distinctive Telecaster squawk going on, and I do dig that one.

One of the reasons I picked this up is by all accounts I expected the guitar to be pretty solid and it would give me an opportunity to replace the tuners and pickups, which I've never done, so the fact those aren't perfect isn't much of a challenge. They're definitely usable now, and I'll just improve them later.

Seems like a great base for modding for sure! Enjoy!

I wonder what the neck pocket on those fits. If you could swap out for a warmoth neck on one of those than those would be basically the perfect modding platform

lol. having a generational argument about music with someone my age. He is trying to tell me that music was just better back in the 70's when we were growing up and I am telling him that he forgets how much bad music we had that we have blocked out of our heads.

I also told him that we listen to music differently now because we can and that we have WAY MORE ACCESS to music now than ever before. This has led to us listening to our own curated playlists and reinforcing our tastes which leads to us thinking anything outside our own sonic walled gardens is crap. In sharp contrast, all we had in the 70's was the AM radio station the bus driver had on and that meant that we had to endure literal HOURS of Frank Mills' Music Box Dancer or Debbie Boone's You Light Up My Life before the flow of inner ear bleeding deadened the sounds of our agonized screams.

Nah, music was definitely better back then.

Mixolyde wrote:

Nah, music was definitely better back then.

IMAGE(https://u.cubeupload.com/MilkmanDanimal/youareoldboomer.gif)

Music today is phenomenal, and nostalgia is nothing more than nostalgia. Everybody likes the stuff of their youth, and it's just not that good to anybody else. Sure, a lot of pop music today is garbage, but my generation fell in love with "Safety Dance", and, while I love that song, it's also garbage on any meaningful level.

Sure, pop back in my day included great stuff like The Police and Michael Jackson. Today it's Kendrick and Billie Eilish. There's always great pop even if most of it is forgettable crap that only nostalgia can love in 30 years.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Sure, pop back in my day included great stuff like The Police and Michael Jackson. Today it's Kendrick and Billie Eilish. There's always great pop even if most of it is forgettable crap that only nostalgia can love in 30 years.

I think the only 2 songs in any of my playlists that are newer than 1991 are "Return of the Mack" and "Uptown Funk" - plus some Prince songs. I don't get exposed to new tunes since I don't listen to the radio and I'm definitely stuck in my own music. Some of it good (Steely Dan, Prince, Chicago, Floyd, [insert folk artist here], etc.) and some of it bad (well, a lot of it, but it's MINE, dammit!).

I'll check out Eilish. I've at least heard of her. I started watching True Detective S4(?) the other day and a song by her is the theme. I dig the music part of it, but not so much the lyrics (I'm old so closed captioning is on). I'm really a music person, not a lyric person. I hear the melodies, the various instruments, etc. but couldn't tell you any of the lyrics of a song until I hear it a lot.

I don't know what a Kendrick is, unless you're talking about Anna Kendrick. I'll look it up and give it a whirl.

Off topic for this thread, so as a lurker, I'll toss in that I used to play most instruments except keyboards and high brass back in the 80's but haven't touched an instrument since Marching and Symphonic Band in college in '88. Well, I do pick up an acoustic guitar about once a year just to remind myself that I don't remember how to play anything. I wish I would make time, but, alas...

So... thanks for mentioning 2 artists I should peep.

-BEP

bepnewt wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Sure, pop back in my day included great stuff like The Police and Michael Jackson. Today it's Kendrick and Billie Eilish. There's always great pop even if most of it is forgettable crap that only nostalgia can love in 30 years.

I think the only 2 songs in any of my playlists that are newer than 1991 are "Return of the Mack" and "Uptown Funk" - plus some Prince songs. I don't get exposed to new tunes since I don't listen to the radio and I'm definitely stuck in my own music. Some of it good (Steely Dan, Prince, Chicago, Floyd, [insert folk artist here], etc.) and some of it bad (well, a lot of it, but it's MINE, dammit!).

I'll check out Eilish. I've at least heard of her. I started watching True Detective S4(?) the other day and a song by her is the theme. I dig the music part of it, but not so much the lyrics (I'm old so closed captioning is on). I'm really a music person, not a lyric person. I hear the melodies, the various instruments, etc. but couldn't tell you any of the lyrics of a song until I hear it a lot.

I don't know what a Kendrick is, unless you're talking about Anna Kendrick. I'll look it up and give it a whirl.

Off topic for this thread, so as a lurker, I'll toss in that I used to play most instruments except keyboards and high brass back in the 80's but haven't touched an instrument since Marching and Symphonic Band in college in '88. Well, I do pick up an acoustic guitar about once a year just to remind myself that I don't remember how to play anything. I wish I would make time, but, alas...

So... thanks for mentioning 2 artists I should peep.

-BEP

Depending on your tastes, check out Pusha T and Bea Miller as well.