Should've left it alone.
Yeah, they're going to write that one on my tombstone.
Posts by Chris Duncan
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Hey, Larry.
Sounds good overall. In the interest of polishing the mix, here are a couple of things I noticed. I'm in my office studio at the moment, which has reference monitors and acoustic treatment. While it's not my main control room, things usually translate well enough to trust.
The rhythm guitar level is significantly hotter than bass & drums. It's difficult to tell because of the guitar, but the bass might want to come up just a touch to balance with the drums.
Bass / low frequencies aren't as directional as higher ones, so I don't think it buys you much in terms of panning it. I've always kept mine dead center. It won't get in the way of your vocals as most humans don't sing in that range (although that would be a neat party trick).
I think rather than turning up the solo, if you bring down the rhythm you might find it sits in the mix okay.
Hope this helps. Keep rockin, man.
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I think a lot of it comes down to your goals. Some people make art to have the end result. Some make art because the process of creating feels good. I suspect many of us are a combination of the two.
Personally, I don't write songs because I have any great gift to share with humanity. I do it to express emotions (it's cheaper than therapy). In this context, AI has no value for me because the process of writing and creating is an important part of the experience. If the end result is something that others like, that's bonus.
I don't gig anymore, let alone depend on music income to pay the bills. If I was creating because the end result was important to me monetarily, maybe AI would be a useful tool to help me crank out a ton of music, throw it against the wall, see what sticks, and then cash the checks.
It's doubtful I'd go that route, however, because when I was playing for a living the joy of the lifestyle was getting paid for expressing myself musically. I actually quit music as a vocation and got a job with computers when the styles I loved went out of favor and to make a living I found myself playing things I wasn't passionate about just to get work. It was better to gig part time doing what I enjoyed.
AI can be a good tool for those who want to get the end result and cash checks but have little musical talent. The down side is that it makes it easier than ever before for people with no skill beyond clicking a mouse to put talented musicians out of work. Think advertising, sound libraries, etc.
Automobiles put people who made buggy whips out of business as well, but the difference is that working a normal job, buggy whips or whatever, has always been massively easier than paying the bills as a musician. It's hard enough to make a living at this as it is without someone flooding the market by clicking a few buttons.
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I'd bet Brian may would sound just as good with an SD-1,Timmy or something.
Brian May would sound good with an out of tune banjo.
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A round of applause to the Kemper geeks, who have clearly been having way too much fun the past few weeks. Here's hoping their lives become very boring, very soon.
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Thanks, man.
I've used Jira on some software dev gigs, didn't even think of that. The rest all highlight the same concept, that I could accomplish this with the right project management tools.
And as a dev I guess that should have been obvious. Something about the forest and trees comes to mind...
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Tru-oil might work.
It's a gun stock finish really, but it's been used often on instruments.
The preparation and application is a bit more involved than just a oil & wax finish, but if done right and with enough patience (the finish needs to really set) and creates a very smooth surface, great for the back of necks.
But make sure you use it correctly
I'll look that up, thanks man!
And yeah, RTFM. Got it.
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Nice work if you can get it!
I'll have to try that having a wife thing again. Seems to be a fair amount of benefit to it.
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Black on Red is always one of my favorite colors.
Yeah, that's a beautiful guitar. And I'm a sucker for a good Strat of pretty much any description.
I have an 83 G&L Skyhawk (Strat) with exactly those colors.
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I've always played guitars with lacquered necks, both electric and acoustic, so it's what I'm used to. However, I recently picked up a used Martin cutaway as a "don't be afraid to drag around to parties" type banger. The neck had what felt like a heavy waxy buildup but was otherwise a good feel. I worked it down with the usual suspects, from moderate grit down to 0000 steel wool and got rid of the waxy area.
What I discovered was that underneath the paint and varnish (and wax), the wood of the neck itself was a very rough grain. It became clear that further sanding wouldn't make it smoother, it would just reveal more of the roughness, so currently I'm just living with it.
My hand doesn't get stuck on waxiness now, but it's still suboptimal. How would you guys go about skinning this particular cat?
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Hey, guys.
It's not like I have a major corporate-sized studio dealing with tons of clients, but I still find keeping track of things the occasional challenge. What tracks remain to be done for which song for what album, who am I waiting on to get what done, what's next, who shows up when, what do I need to make sure doesn't get forgotten, etc. Current frontrunner is a good old fashioned Excel spreadsheet, but that still gets a bit clumsy.
What do you guys use - Excel, simple text notes, cocktail napkins, or just screw it all, rely on memory, and fly by the seat of your collective pants?
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Thanks, man. I've been a studio rat for so long I've lost perspective on what the new gear can do live these days.
Except the Kemper, of course.
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Hey, guys.
I'm playing in a three piece that may end up doing some weekend work next year. I sold all my PA speakers & power and just have a Yamaha TF-Rack, which for a band this small is an adequate mixer for mains & IEMs.
This is a classic rock cover thing (think Bad Company, Black Crowes, etc.), so we're just going to be playing small to medium venues, I'd say from restaurants to modest rock bars. The band is a Kemper, a DI bass, a miked drum kit and two 58s for vocals, and IEMs for monitors.
I haven't gigged in years and the new equipment these days is pretty good, so I'm wondering if small PA speakers like this are close enough for rock and roll or if I have to lug more speakers than that.
For those of you who are working small / medium venues, do you think a pair of DBR15s or their Mackie Thumper equivalents would handle a three piece rock band?
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Please share the brands you’ve chosen for FRFR, very keen to hear your feedback.
Thanks in advance!
I bought the Yamaha DXR10 based on recommendations here. It's not the cheapest solution. However, because I've been very happy with it, I haven't felt the need to explore any of the other options.
Also worth noting that I bought it before Headrush became another viable FRFR solution, and well before Kemper started offering the Kabinets. I'm sure both of these sound good. Headrush is about getting an FRFR for a cheaper price. The Kabinet is about the amp in the room experience.
My only other thought is that the DXR10 has a 10" speaker. I play classic rock and that's fine for me. For metal guys doing the lower tunings and heavier tones, it might also be worth comparing a 10" to a 12" inch to see if the latter gives you a better experience for heavy guitar riffs.
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Wow. I leave you guys alone for five minutes and you're already on about something new...
I currently have a powered toaster and remote which live in the studio. If I get back out gigging next year, I'll probably buy the Stage because I enjoy the performance mode / buttons and tuner on my remote. That's a larger footprint than the Player, but I don't use any other pedals. The Stage would still slim down my rig and also let my toaster stay nice and comfy in the studio. So, the Player isn't something I would need.
That said, I think it's a brilliant addition. If I look at it as yet another amp sim pedal instead of expecting it to be a Stage or a Profiler, it's clearly going to be a huge success. It's all the tone quality you'd expect from a Kemper, and for guys who don't care about performance mode (which I'm sure is a very large percentage of users), it covers most of their needs and fits on a pedalboard.
I also understand the intentional limitations. I wouldn't spend $1500 on a Stage if I could get the exact same thing for $700. If I want a Stage, I'm willing to pay for it. If I didn't need all that, I'd be happy with the Player's limitations and the money I saved.
Adding paid upgrades to different levels of functionality makes sense. However, like others my first thought was, "Is this a sign of things to come, an end to all the free OS updates and a move to pay as you go?" I have the same trepidations when a software company offers a subscription model even though they promise to still offer perpetual licenses (which often quietly disappear a year later).
If it was anyone other than Kemper this would be a serious concern, but these guys are the gold standard for product support. I can't imagine the company changing its DNA because of one product. They are who they are, so I expect ongoing support for all products to continue to be best in class.
Well done, guys. Wishing you much success!
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Can you take another break from your Kemper and then come back and ask what has changed....because it can't be co-incidence this time that we get a bumper load of improvements
You weren't working with Kemper during your sabbatical were you ? Ha!
I'm not smart enough to work for these guys.
This is just the way my little universe has always worked. It's been an interesting life thus far.
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Like the auto mechanic reading the notes:
Customer states: There's a squeak when driving over a bumps.If you can't even positively identify the problem....what would you like the tech to do about it?
My favorite story about this, which is allegedly a true story, was a guy who told his mechanic that if he went to the store to buy chocolate ice cream, when he went back to his car it wouldn't start. However, if he bought vanilla or strawberry, the car started just fine. Of course, they laughed him out of the shop.
He wrote letters to GM and other such stuff but ultimately it came down to this. Because chocolate was the store's most popular flavor, they put it on display in the front of the store (it was a big store). Other flavors were at the back corner, about as far from the door as you can get. The car had a problem with "vapor lock," which will resolve itself after sitting for a while. The extra time it took to go to the back of the store allowed things to resolve, and his car started.
So it turns out he wasn't crazy after all, but it's easy to understand the mechanics thinking otherwise.
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Certain issues lend themselves to a simple recipe in order to reproduce. Unfortunately, it is not always that simple.
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up for anything in the world involving software. And these days that's pretty much everything.
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I am doing it just like that and i can't select paste. sometimes it works, most of the times not. Using a Macbook Pro.
As I said, visit the biggest Facebook Kemper groups. People there share my experiences. And most people try to avoid using the Rig Manager because it causes so many problems. I asked them to post their issues on here, but they don't want to, however.
well, i just started my Profiler in Performance mode, loading a peformance I edited yesterday.
surprise, surprise: Slot 3 is a totally different profile now, which I never selected or anything....Like a lot of other guys here I develop software for a living. The single most important thing in fixing a bug is "steps to reproduce," preferably from a clean point of entry when possible, e.g. 1. turn on the Kemper, 2. start RM, etc. so that you're working from a known and reproducible state.
When someone tells me that xyz doesn't work but I don't have that specific level of detail, it's very difficult to solve the problem. If I can't reproduce the issue in my debugger, it's hard to know what part of the code the bug is in. And, importantly, without steps to reproduce, when I think I've fixed it I can't repeat those steps to confirm that the bug is really dead.
I totally get being frustrated with stuff that isn't working (I have less patience than I should). That said, did you open a support ticket as Burkhard asked, and if so did you include specific steps to reproduce for your problems?
These guys really do want to help us, and these are the tools that they need to do that.
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I am having issues with RM 3.3.50 loading up. It seems to take a long time to connect to the Rig Exchange before starting the progress bar on the start screen. Then, when I minimize RM and maximize it, I get a pop-up screen that RM lost connection. This has been going on for at least a week or so.
I'm using Windows 10 Pro, and I have 400mbps connection. I never had this particular problem before. I am assuming the Kemper servers are having issues.
I know this is 101 stuff so I apologize in advance, but my biggest pet peeve with Windows 10 is the constant stream of updates whether you want them or not. The single most potentially destabilizing thing you can do to a computer is update the OS, and now that's happening on an almost daily basis.
I have had more than a few audio problems where things were working fine, I go to bed, and the next day they're magically broken. In those cases rebooting the computer (hence the 101 apology) has cleared the problem.
I know there are other pain points for RM, but on Windows 10 the very first culprit I always look for is an update, even when it seems unrelated to audio.
