Category: Gear

New Gear: Native Instruments Maschine Mikro

I know, I know… “you just bought the standard NI Maschine a week ago” you say? This one fell in my lap and when I tell you the deal I got you will not blame me for jumping on it. Here is the break down. I got this on ebay and at first I was skeptical about it due to the price and the stuff included. It was listed for $300 which by its self was not a great price seeing how Native Instruments just dropped them to $249 new. The thing that interested me was full licensed copies of NI Reaktor 5, Razor and Maschine Expansion – Transistor Punch. Reaktor 5 full alone costs $399 hence why I was skeptical but I contacted the seller and he verified with receipts that he in fact purchased all the software and hardware just over a month ago.  I’m going to give the Maschine Mikro a chance but I may just flip it on eBay for $200 and recoup some of my money. I was able to get all the licenses transferred to my NI account this weekend with out any issues and I am supper excited to finally have a fully working/legit copy of Reaktor.

Time for a refresh

So I’m blowing out my Mac Book today in preperation for Native Instruments Maschine and want a clean install of my DAW, software synths and effects. I wanted to make a quick list of my “Must Have” plugins and software.

DAW:

Software Synths:

Software Effects:

Drum Samples “Must Haves”:

  • Roland TR-808
  • Roland TR-909
  • Oberheim DX
  • Sequential Circuits DrumTraks

 

New Gear: Mackie Thump TH-15A

Have been searching for some monitors/PA speakers for awhile since the 10’s I had were not cutting it anymore and I hated hauling a amp for them. I made up my mind I wanted powered speakers but could not spend $1200 bucks to do so. So I trolled around CList for a few weeks and found the Mackie TH-15A’s with stands and bags for $400 and I jumped on it. They sound pretty good and have a nice low end to them. I will be doing some testing in diffident environments the next few months.

New Gear: Native Instruments Maschine

I can’t wait to tear into this thing. It will read all my Akai MPC Kits out of box and the sequencer looks great. I love the fact that you can do 98% of all the features on the hardware unit and not have to touch the computer.

What I got included:

  • NI Maschine Harware Controller
  • NI Maschine 1.7 Software
  • NI Dark Pressure Maschine Expansion
  • NI Platinum Bounce Maschine Expansion
  • NI Transistor Punch Maschine Expansion
  • NI True School Maschine Expansion
  • NI Vintage Heat Maschine Expansion

I want to find a nice case or bag for it so I can travel with it. Here are a few options I have found.

UDG Hardcase Protector for NI Maschine – $69.99 (Carry just the controller)

Native Instruments Maschine Bag – $65.00 (I can carry my Mac Book with this case also)

New Gear: Xotic EP Booster

Picked up a used Xotic EP Booster for $75.00 and it got here today. I just grabbed the manual and I want to mess around with the dip switches inside it and see where I want it to stay at.

Information taken from Xotic’s website.

What do the tones of renowned guitarist such as Page, EVH and Johnson have in common? They all used the legendary echo machine EP-3 as a pre-amp.
We’ve captured that magic in a new Xotic Effects pedal, the EP Booster.

We’ve used the highest quality parts available with a discrete FET design and low impedance output, the EP Booster provides up to +20dB of unadulterated boost with multi-dimensional, shimmering highs and lows, and no ear fatigue. The internal DIP switches let you choose the boost frequencies, and EQ settings.

Housed in a small 3.5″x 1.5″ x 1.5″ case with blue LED and transparent knob, the EP Booster can be powered by 9-volt up to 18-volts.

A simple pure boost that pays reverence to the magical EP-3 and captures the celebrated tones of the world’s most famous players.
The EP-Booster,great tone starts here!

The ‘Handy Tips’ Pedal board building

Snagged this from TGP forums I wanted to archive this. I do not agree with all of this , but it has some great points that help keep us going in the right direction.

The first law of pedalboards: Anything than can break or fail, will in time, break or fail!!

Cables:

  1. Cables- the most overlooked thing on a pedalboard. Buy good quality, keep as short as poss. DON’T buy anything other than soldered ended cables. (sorry, George L’s but your product falls apart in use and when transported unless you solder it)
  2. Also, arrange in straight lines with r/a corners to change direction.
  3. Never coil cables, and especially in ‘one loop’- this will cause induction and hum. This applies to power leads and patch cables
  4. When planning a board, always add 1.5 inches around the perimeter of each pedal for jacks and ps jacks and to prevent hum via induction
  5. Never loom midi and audio leads as midi leads can induce noise.

Placement:

  1. Put the ones you stamp on most at the front.
  2. If you use a looper, put looped pedals at the back as theoretically you won’t need to stamp on them
  3. Put power supplies under the board
  4. Think about comfort- eg if you use a Pedaltrain, often a wah is not comfortable to use at such a steep angle.
  5. be logical- if you play in one band and always play stage left, then run your input, output and mains leads to accomodate this. If you play in many bands and in different stage places, try an arrangement that gives flexibility.
  6. Pedal heights- try and use a packer to get the pedals you stamp on at roughly the same height (other wise you’ll tread on setting knobs!)- a 10mm thick piece of MDF covered in velcro both sides is dandy

Other things:

  1. Putting panel Neutriks on the side of PB- DON”T. You’re adding an extra connector, an extra length of cable, and an extra weak or fail point into your rig. (I fell into this trap)
  2. Power supplies- make sure any you buy are NOT daisy chained solutions (even if housed in a metal box)- make sure they’re individual PS’s – like a PP2.
  3. True bypass in isolation, generally, is useless. It relies upon every pedal having matched impedance when on- you’ll get loads of mis-matches. Buffered pedals or loopers with buffer better.
  4. Get a mains conditioner for the pedals and amps. Pays dividends. Olson are cheap and they rock (and Pete Cornish recommends them).
  5. Transport- do you need to transport, and if so, how? if you do, wrote a checklist of pedalboard ‘downtaking’ in the bag or lid- like take out all jacks on the periphery of the board before putting flightcase lid on!!!

Chain

Generally:

  • Buffer
  • Volume (as guitar vol)
  • Wah
  • Whammy
  • Envelopes, Pitch shifters, Auto wahs
  • Compressor
  • Fuzz
  • OD
  • Boost
  • Volume (as master volume)
  • Vibe
  • Any other modulation
  • Delay
  • Reverb
  • Leslie sims (especially stereo ones)

I don’t believe a tuner should be in line through choice. Prefer in an isolated loop with a mute function. End of chain best, to prevent ghost noise

Jazzmaster Bridge Setup/Replacment

I have only had my Jazzmaster 24hrs and I can see the string slipping on the stock bridge is going to get annoying. I have been scouring the net and finding FAQ’s about the bridge and proper setup and what not but I still think I may replace it out. There is a great FAQ here at OffSetGuitars.com that I suggest anyone with a Jazzmaster to take a look at it. What are my options?

Setup Stock Bridge:

 

Replacement Bridges:

More to come…

In Search For a perfect OD pedal

I have the need for a nice overdrive pedal for my Reverb Twin that will keep the same sonic qualities and be as transparent as possible with my tone. Here are a few I have been looking at.