Earlier today Jen actually told me that I needed to play guitar tonight. I told her I was planning on it. The new attenuators thing was delivered today so I had extra incentive.
Guess what I didn’t do.
You guessed it. I didn’t play guitar.
Tomorrow. I promise. It’s a moral imperative.
To tame the untamable amplifier.
I took this picture yesterday with dispo because I don’t know why I use dispo but I still do and it bugs me a little but that’s irrelevant.
What was I saying? Oh yes. I took this picture yesterday when I was thinking about how I want to play guitar more than I do.
This Tascam US-16×08 is one of the great unsung heroes of the Covid-19 pandemic for me. This is the interface I use to record guitar parts. I used it for vocals a couple of times too, but for car music I use a different interface. That’s another pandemic hero, but this guy… this guy has been a huge part of me recording about 130531531 songs over the last year.
I bought it to record Lizardfish rehearsals because if I mic up all of the instruments we need a ton of inputs and this can handle 16 at once (only 8 mic cables though, I need xlr to 1/4 inch adapters if I need more). I took it home before the last gig, though I don’t really remember why. I think I was considering recording the 2/1/20 gig. I didn’t though.
Larry and I were looking at digital mixers on amazon yesterday. We were talking about a really nice one that runs about $2k. That would be awesome to have, but it’s overkill for me. I just need the interface. GarageBand handles the mixing. Still… the thing was really cool. I can’t start GASing about PA gear though. I do that enough for guitar and camera gear. I can’t make it worse. Nope, can’t do it.
Anyway, three cheers to this 16 channel USB audio interface. You’re doing good work, my friend, and I am glad I bought you.
I did some recording. I changed things up and used the Les Paul instead of the ES-335. I used the extension speaker instead of the built in speakers and I stuck to the 18 watt channel. I used the Ryra Klon clone and the Wampler Plexi Drive Mini and it wasn’t an over compressed mess the way it was last month. It sounded okay.
I put rhythm parts onto the only two songs I have going for March, and a lead part onto one of the remaining songs from the last round of re-recordings. I still have one song that needs leads but my hands were really tired and I was pretty well done so I didn’t even attempt it. That project has two songs ready to mix now.
Really looking forward to getting my mitts on that little attenuator. It is cheap and overly simple but when I used one with my Deluxe Reverb it worked really well. Hoping for similar results this time. I really want to make that 30 watt channel happen. Fingers emphatically crossed.
Now that I have done a little experimenting with using an extension speaker cabinet in place of the built in speakers on my Bassbreaker 18/30, what did I learn?
I don’t know.
First, as expected there wasn’t a ton of difference in volume. The 18 watt channel, with the volume as low as it could go and actually produce sound, through the two built in speakers was peaking at around 103 decibels. Surprisingly, the 30 watt channel, under the same circumstances, was peaking at about 101 decibels. Through the 1×12 extension cab the 18 watt channel was peaking at about 98 decibels and the 30 watt channel at about 97. So quieter, but not enough to make a difference.
Both channels sounded really nice while plugging in direct and going through the extension speaker. Maybe not quite as nice as through the two 12 inch speakers, but it was good.
When I started pushing with pedals everything changed. The Ryra Klon clone into both channels sounded pretty good, though super trebly through the 30 watt side. I have made that complaint about this amp before. The 30 watt channel is SUPER toppy. With the Ryra it was noteworthy but I tend to keep the treble high on that pedal anyway. I turned it down some and it was a smidge better.
The Ryra was set with the overdrive very low so it was mostly a clean signal. When I kicked on the Malaise Forever Black Lives Matter on the 18 watt I had a pretty rockin’ distortion level but it wasn’t all that great. When I switched back to the 30 watt channel it sounded like garbage. It was fizzy and thin and it sounded like I had all of the bass and mids off and the treble cranked. I didn’t. I had the treble set to about 1, the mids set to about 7, and the bass at about 9. I turned the Ryra off so it was just the Malaise Forever and it was a little better, but not much. I ended up turning the treble on the amp to 0 and diming the bass and mid, and then turning the tone on both overdrive pedals to about 9:00. I switched back to the 18 watt channel and fudged with the tone pots on the pedals and found something decent, but the whole idea of using this amp was to have the 30 watts worth of headroom.
I then switched out the Malaise Forever for the Wampler Plexi Drive Mini and it still made the high pitched hum that it had when it was going through the two 15 watt amps, but that is due to the shitty power supply I’m using. Playing it with the Ryra and through the 18 watt channel was much better than it had been through the 15 watt amps. That little increase in headroom helped a lot. If I played power chords down low on the neck I still had some of that over compressed mushiness I was bitching about during RPM, but for the most part it was better. I switched to the 30 watt channel and all of that compression was gone. Granted, it still sounded like toppy dog shit. Ugh.
So what did I learn. I learned that if I want to record with the 1×12 extension cab bypassing the built in 2×12 then I will probably have to rely on the 18 watt channel. Once the little speaker soak attenuator arrives I will hopefully be able to crank up the 30 watt channel a ton and maybe get a less shitty tone without blowing the roof off of the house. I know I sounded very trebly when I was using this amp with Lizardfish, but it wasn’t this bad, was it?
I think the final lesson may be that I just miss my Deluxe Reverb even more than I already knew. Oh for the end of the ‘rona.
Well I guess I’m going to write some music in March. I’ve got one song underway and, much more important from the nerd point of view, I created a Trello board.
I think I’ll go Les Paul this month, and hopefully go with the monstrously loud 30 watt amp. We will see.
The folks at RPM Challenge headquarters announced their annual post-Challenge listening party. Normally it’s an actual social gathering in Portsmouth but with the ol’ ‘rona a-ragin’ it’s going to be online. I don’t know if I’ll join in. They have a system setup where there will be six chat rooms setup with different music playing in each room. Turns out so many people participated this year that if they played one song from each submitted album it would take over a day to get through it all. Nice.
They also announced a new challenge. Oh boy, hold on kids, here comes the pain. This one is to record an original song each month from now through next year’s RPM Challenge. I did that 10 times over for 11 out of 12 months last year. I guess I could do it again. The goal will be one song per month. The attempt will likely be 10, at least for now, but maybe just five. I don’t know. One I can do. I need to scape together $45 for an 8ohm attenuator so I can try recording with my huge amp at a non-gig volume.
We’ll see.
It’s weird. Now that RPM is over I don’t have any projects planned. I don’t think I’ll do another album in a month. I think I’m burned out on that for now. Well… for today at least. As Traffic once said, Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring?
I still have a couple of songs to finish on the latest round of re-recordings. I think I have three that still need a guitar part and some mixing. I also thought about remixing the second round of re-recordings. I decided recently that I did something to mess up the guitar sounds and I should fix it. The downside of this is that I will always be able to find something wrong and I will always want to go back and fix it. Nothing is ever finished.
Outside of that? Nothing, really. Maybe I’ll find a guitar teacher on the youtubes and actually try and learn something instead of just yankin’ my own musical chain. Hell, I should have started that last March. After a year I might be almost tolerably not terrible.
Really though, the only thing on my agenda going forward is getting the damn vaccine. Everyone in my house needs it and we all need it right now. I’m tired of this crap.
Here’s the final RPM Challenge submission for 2021. 10 songs at 44:41. This is my 10th straight February with an album completed on time. It’s not very good but it’s done and I am very pleased.
And here is the link that will bring you to a page that will actually play the whole shebang. Can I get a WOOOHOOO?
I’m finished. It’s done. Twice. I have two albums. One will be submitted to RPM headquarters. This is the other one. 10 songs, 40:16. Let’s call this one Guilt Machine Leftovers.
As usual, that player is only going to play the first track. If you want the whole crappy outtake thing then you can get it here.
Inside the Red Head's Head 