What did This Teach Me

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.

March Music

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.

Another Music Challenge

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.

Quarantine Project Free

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.

#RPM2021 Day 28 Part 2

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?

#RPM2021 Day 28 Part 1

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.

Almost Done

I just finished mixing song #18 of 20. The last two are duds so I am going to give my ears a little bit of a rest. Just for a few minutes.

I’ve finished three of the five songs that I rescued from the January album-in-a-month fail and I’m thinking that I might have been better off leaving them where they were. Two of them are okay, I guess, but I don’t think any of them are going to make it into the 10 song album I submit to RPM headquarters.

This one is on the bubble:

This one is also on the bubble, but it really doesn’t have a chance:

I have sorted all of the songs I’ve finished so far into three lists. A, B, and C. There are six songs on the A list and they are all going into the final submission. Those are the winners. There are five songs on the C list and they are definitely not going on the final submission. They will go on the leftovers album. The two songs I still have left to mix are likely going onto the C list. The remaining seven are on the B list. They could go either way. I have to re-review them and pick three to move to the A list. The 18 songs combined have a total run time of one hour and 16 minutes. If I move more than three songs from B to A I just have to make sure the leftovers run for more than 35 minutes so that it too qualifies as an RPM Challenge Album.

So many factors. At least I have a cover and a title. I figured those out weeks ago.

Not quite done yet, but I’m getting there. My ears are very tired but it’s worth it.

Happy Last RPM Challenge Day.

#RPM2021 Day 27

My ears are mush so I’m calling it a night for the RPM Challenge. I had an absurd amount of work left to do in the last two days and somehow I managed to compete an absurd amount of work today. I still have an absurd amount left to do, but it’s about one third as absurd as it was when I woke up today. Absurd, eh?

When the day started there were 12 songs unfinished. Four of them had all the tracking done and were ready to mix. The other eight still needed their lead guitar parts. The first thing I did today was mix the four songs that were ready. I posted a couple, but I’m kinda down to the February dregs at this point so not all of it was worth sharing. Next I broke out the 335 and got to soloin’. I managed to get through all eight songs. I was pretty shot by the time I finished so lucky for me I didn’t have any more to do. Lastly, while watching a Marvel movie with the wife and the step son (Far From Home) I mixed two more songs. Here’s one of them. The other one sucks mighty.

So where do we stand? Well, I have more than enough songs finished to qualify for a complete RPM Challenge, and exactly enough songs finished to qualify for a complete FAWM. Congratulate your humble narrator as he’s a winner for the 10th consecutive February.

I still have six more songs to mix. I’ll get to those tomorrow. In the end I will have 15 songs that qualify for FAWM (entirely written in February) and five others that don’t qualify for FAWM (I started writing them in January) but do qualify for RPM (entirely recorded in February) which should give me the equivalent of two RPM albums. I just need to sort the good from the mediocre from the bad and put together the final running order. Likely the final running orderS as I’ll submit the good stuff and then have a left overs album made up of everything else.

One day left. Six songs to go, but they are all gravy. I’m pleased.

Rats

Wampler Pedals released something new yesterday. It’s their take on the ProCo Rat distortion pedal.

I don’t own a Rat. I don’t really have any plans to get one. In order to just put my toe into the water I bought a cheap Chinese clone a few years ago. I’ve barely ever used it, but in the spirit of the day I brought it out and used it on a couple of songs. I like it. Maybe enough to change my mind about upgrading… someday. Someday.