I was just checking out the Damone site and they haven't posted anything new since June. There are some tour dates listed for the UK in December, so they are still around I guess (which, IMO is a good thing). They put up links to a couple of videos on YouTube "...chronicling the recording of our album Out Here All Night." It's pretty interesting to see them cranking out such a well produced CD in an apartment bedroom. Wild. It reminds me of that Cranberries disc title, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
Brad Sucks, the self-styled "one man band with no fans" works similarly. Writing and recording his music from his house or apartment as far as I know. At least I have never read that he's bought studio time or anything like that.
Ah, it gives hope to those of us aspiring to producing decent home recordings. I used to have a Tascam 4-track cassette deck. That was cool and really easy to work with. Would that multi-track computer software was half so easy to use. I could actually knock out decent sounding demos on the Tascam, but all the software I have tried has so many options I almost don't know where to start. All I am really after is programming up some Hydrogen drums tracks and then laying down guitar parts. How hard can it be? Maybe I should have kept the Tascam...
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Monday, July 09, 2007
No Audigy Prodigy
Spent all day Saturday trying to get the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum front panel inputs & outputs working in my AMD64 box. Reloading drivers, updating software, on & on & on.
No luck.
Finally, gave up. I ultimately figured it was pointless and would only work properly in another system (like the old K7 box were I had initially installed it and where it worked perfectly).
The front panel has a connector that looks like a floppy drive power connection. I didn't think anything of it. I didn't have it connected when it was in the K7 box. (Google is your friend.) Somewhere I read that if I hooked up power to that connector, it might solve the problem.
It did.
Unreal. All that grief for nothing, but it sure was nice to have it working again! Back to recording again! Yeah!
No luck.
Finally, gave up. I ultimately figured it was pointless and would only work properly in another system (like the old K7 box were I had initially installed it and where it worked perfectly).
The front panel has a connector that looks like a floppy drive power connection. I didn't think anything of it. I didn't have it connected when it was in the K7 box. (Google is your friend.) Somewhere I read that if I hooked up power to that connector, it might solve the problem.
It did.
Unreal. All that grief for nothing, but it sure was nice to have it working again! Back to recording again! Yeah!
Saturday, July 07, 2007
OTA HDTV with the KWorld ATSC 110
The KWorld ATSC 110 PCI card receives both Analog NTSC as well as Digital ATSC over the air signals. This post deals only with the OTA HDTV portion.
The software that they bundled with the card was useless to me, I thought I was getting a full meal deal that I could use right away with the card to begin viewing OTA HDTV, instead I got a non-functioning software key that would not unlock the trial version of the bundled application. Nonetheless, as you will see, the card itself works very well and was a really good bargain from newegg at the time I purchased it. I don't see it listed on their site at the time of this writing; it may be discontinued. They do have a listing for a ATSC 120 model. A step up? Don't know...
Anyway, I needed an alternative application to use with the card and fortunately I did.
I found a freeware app called WatchHDTV and initially had it working somewhat under Windows 2000, but the app is really designed for Windows XP so I was lucky--it worked under Win2K but not very well. It performs quite well under WinXP. The weird thing about running it under Win2K was that I had to load the bundled trialware viewer and then WatchHDTV. I guess WatchHDTV used some of the drivers from the other application, but that is moot at this point.
Let me list the requirements that got my card working for me:
It may look a little confusing but it's not too bad. Here are the corresponding entries from a TitanTV listing (click image(s) for larger view if needed):
The controls in this dialog are self-explanatory. Once you are done, click OK and you are on your way to Over The Air (OTA) HDTV viewing!
There are also other applications/features available in WatchHDTV. A quick glance in the folder indicate scheduled recording & playback, etc. but I haven't gotten around to using those so far. WatchHDTV may not be the ultimate PVR but for what I want I think it will work out just fine. For a fully functional PVR, the bundled Beyond TV application may be worth spending the bucks for the non-trial version. I didn't bother (yet?). There's also MythTV or KnoppMyth for the more adventurous and/or Linux users. Your mileage may vary. I attempted a KnoppMyth installation once. You can see how well it worked out by the lack of posting here upon the subject--that's not to say you won't have better success then I did of course. Go for it.
Well there you have it. The ATSC 110 is a really cool card handling both analog & digital signals. It works under WindowsXP as well as Linux. It's not too difficult to get it up and running (for free) once you have all the pieces to the puzzle, and best of all, it really works! :-)
The software that they bundled with the card was useless to me, I thought I was getting a full meal deal that I could use right away with the card to begin viewing OTA HDTV, instead I got a non-functioning software key that would not unlock the trial version of the bundled application. Nonetheless, as you will see, the card itself works very well and was a really good bargain from newegg at the time I purchased it. I don't see it listed on their site at the time of this writing; it may be discontinued. They do have a listing for a ATSC 120 model. A step up? Don't know...
Anyway, I needed an alternative application to use with the card and fortunately I did.
I found a freeware app called WatchHDTV and initially had it working somewhat under Windows 2000, but the app is really designed for Windows XP so I was lucky--it worked under Win2K but not very well. It performs quite well under WinXP. The weird thing about running it under Win2K was that I had to load the bundled trialware viewer and then WatchHDTV. I guess WatchHDTV used some of the drivers from the other application, but that is moot at this point.
Let me list the requirements that got my card working for me:
- UHF Antenna (rabbit ears, nothing fancy)
- Windows XP SP2
- ATSC 110 WinXP drivers 1.3.3.2 (most current at this time)
- WatchHDTV 1.950 (most current)
- WatchHDTV TS1.120.zip
- K-Lite Codec Pack (Standard)
- Channel Listings (from TitanTV) to plug into the WatchHDTV configuration
- Install the ATSC 110 card & connect to the UHF antenna (brilliant right?)
- Boot Windows XP, download the necessary software (again, earth-shattering insight).
- Install the ATS 110 drivers and reboot as required.
- Install the K-Lite Codec Pack
- In the Select Components dialog box, scroll down and DO select MPEG-1/MPEG-2/DVD under the DirectShow video filters option. There are two options under this category: libmpeg2 & libavcodec. If one doesn't work out, uninstall/reinstall and try the other.
- Before you click Finish, select Configure ffdshow video decoder (you can do this later if you wish, but let's just get it over with). Click Finish
- In the ffdshow config window select Deinterlacing --> Click Apply --> Click OK
- Unzip WatchHDTV1.950 & WatchHDTV TS1.120 to locations of your choice.
- Navigate to WatchHDTV TS1.120 and run regwatchhdtv. Close that window.
- Navigate to WatchHDTV1.950 and run WatchHDTVInfo
- Select your BDA Tuner (probably only one in the list, it will be labeled something like 713x BDA ATSC Tuner)
- Select your BDA Capture (again, only one in the list, something like 713x BDA Digital Capture)
- Select your MPEG-2 Video Decoders (in my case ffdshow Video Decoder)
- Select your AC-3 Audio Decoders (again ffdshow Audio Decoder)
- As for DVR-MS Filters, I don't really know which works best or does what. I selected StreamBufferSource
- WatchHDTV Transport Stream Filters: if it says Stream Filters aren't installed, run regwatchhdtv again. Close/Reopen the WatchHDTVInfo and you will find the missing options (repeat your selections above). I chose WatchHDTVTSSource (again, though I don't know which of the two is better or why... experiment I suppose. You can always go back to WatchHDTVInfo to rearrange your settings.
- Finished? Click the Create decoders.txt button & then OK
It may look a little confusing but it's not too bad. Here are the corresponding entries from a TitanTV listing (click image(s) for larger view if needed):
The controls in this dialog are self-explanatory. Once you are done, click OK and you are on your way to Over The Air (OTA) HDTV viewing!There are also other applications/features available in WatchHDTV. A quick glance in the folder indicate scheduled recording & playback, etc. but I haven't gotten around to using those so far. WatchHDTV may not be the ultimate PVR but for what I want I think it will work out just fine. For a fully functional PVR, the bundled Beyond TV application may be worth spending the bucks for the non-trial version. I didn't bother (yet?). There's also MythTV or KnoppMyth for the more adventurous and/or Linux users. Your mileage may vary. I attempted a KnoppMyth installation once. You can see how well it worked out by the lack of posting here upon the subject--that's not to say you won't have better success then I did of course. Go for it.
Well there you have it. The ATSC 110 is a really cool card handling both analog & digital signals. It works under WindowsXP as well as Linux. It's not too difficult to get it up and running (for free) once you have all the pieces to the puzzle, and best of all, it really works! :-)
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Super Strat
What happens when you a take a circa. 1986 Fender Squier Stratocaster that you have been playing for the last 20 years and decide it's time for a change? Buy a new guitar? No way! It's hot rod time!
I have been talking about doing this for years. The Seymour Duncan Everything Axe Set looked like the ticket (and ended up being so in a round about way--I could not find it in black so I ordered the pups separately over time).
So, over the last little while I have been collecting the needed parts & tools and during a break from the breakneck speed I am running at work I threw it all together to see what would happen. Can you really have it all in one guitar? Strat quack & humbucker warmth & power. We would soon find out...
Most appointments on this guitar are recent, some go way back (an old Seymour Duncan Classic Stack in the bridge [replaced during this project], the graphite nut, mid pup phase switch & Dunlop Straploks). At some point in the last year or so my wife picked up black vol. & tone knobs & pickup covers for me and they looked great against the original white pickgaurd. Not too dramatic a change, subtle enough and yet it sets the look off quite nicely.
I knew there would have to be some heavy rewiring (since all the pickups were being replaced)--but it would go beyond that. There was no way I would even come close to approximating my favorite Strat tones with the mini-humbuckers pups in the neck (Lil' '59) & bridge (JB Jr.) if they were wired standard. Enter the 3-way On-On-On mini-toggles (there was only one place in town that carried them!). They would serve as Series - Single Coil (aka split or tapped) - Parallel switches for both of those pups. A new 2-way On-On switch would replace the old as a phase switch for the middle (Duckbucker) pup--there is no sense in going the other route since it is intended to sound Start-y. Why would you want to split or put it in parallel? You wouldn't, IMO. There's no need.
That was not all though. Oh no. After all these years, I actually wanted to be able to use the tremolo bar on this guitar without having the thing go out of tune after the first bend. That required some simple yet effective modifications that have worked out incredibly well.
First, I already had a graphite nut in place--shouldn't be any binding there. Next I tossed the cheese ball roller string trees in favor of a couple of new Graphtec string retainers. Finally, for the headstock I replaced the original Gotoh Schaller-style tuners with a new set of chrome PlanetWaves locking tuners.
Then came the bridge. My old bridge block has always been junk. Some kind of cheap alloy with no mass. I wanted a steel block for more sustain and hopefully a more musical tone. Next the bridge. Something had to be done. Years of sweat and grime had coroded the saddles and screws badly. They would have to be replaced. I did my research, priced it all out and made my decision. I would forgo the saddle/screw replacements in favor of a drop in replacement bridge (with included steel block). I went with the Gotoh licensed Wilkinson VSVG bridge from Stewart MacDonald. It turned out to be a solid choice. The intonation screws are inside the saddles and lock down firmly. The saddle height set screws do not protrude out the top or the saddle making general playing and particularly palm muting comfortable. No more chewing up your hand on the bridge during aggressive rhythm attacks. But does it all work? I can say that it does with a resounding YES! You can actually play using the bar, even for dive bomb bends and the instrument still remains in tune. Amazing!
Yes, but how does it sound? That takes us back to the electronics. You know, there is not much room in a Strat control cavity and I was not about to start hacking out chunks of wood with a router or dremel--you can totally destroy the intrinsic tone of a guitar doing that kind of thing. It was not an issue though. Since I have never been a fan of two (or more) tone controls), I simply took out the one between the volume and the other tone pot. Now, it's one each--a master volume and tone (just the way I like it), and I had plenty of room for my mods. The Lil' 59 was already in, so I wired up the Series/Split/Parallel switch and hooked it up in the pickgaurd hole where the tone pot used to be. While I was at it (as I did not have the other replacement pickups yet) I drilled another hole and prewired the second humbucker S/S/P swich and installed that as well. Finally a bit at a time the rest of my parts started showing up and when I found a spare moment, I was ready to begin. To make a long story shorter, I have ended up with what I wanted:
The tone pot is one of the original 250K. For some reason I decided to replace the .047 tone capacitor with the same rated ceramic cap. It sounded awful!! I had another one of the original caps and put that back in as soon as I could. The tone control with the ceramic cap was unusable! Issue resolved...
I should have put in a new 5-way selector while I was at it, but no big deal. The original still works well enough (the screws are rusted though, I should have replaced them when I replaced the pickguard screws).
So... how does it sound? (I'm getting to it, be patient.)
First, wired straight I do not think you would ever be able to approximate Strat tones by any means. My favorite Strat positions have always been the 4 (mid/neck), 5 neck, and 2 (mid/bridge): in that order. If I could get those, I would be happy. With the switching options on the bridge & neck, I can approximate those tones. I think (aside form the 5 position) the Duckbucker really helps in those instances for sure--and, for the first time, I have really started using the mid pickup on it's own. That's something I rarely if ever did in the past. The
Duckbucker actually sounds pretty good on it's own. The Lil' '59 sounds very good in series (standard humbucker mode) and so does the JB (now that I have that 500K volume pot--it really only provided a slight difference, but it cleaned it up enough for me tone-wise to make it musically useful to me). It can do heavy rock, has decent sustain, and nice harmonic responce--works for me. My Warmoth has a full-sized JB, perhaps they share some characteristics but they are obviously not the same pups. Don't expect a mini-JB to match the awesome might of the original, but the Jr. can hold it's own as long as you don't expect it to knock you down like it's big daddy.
So there you have it. A hot-rodded 1980-something Japanese made Squier Stratocaster given a new (and useful) lease on life. It was not too long ago that the frets were so worn out, and in such bad shape that I thought it was done for. My local luthier saved the day and made it more playable then ever. It made the perfect guitar to do some experimenting with, and in the end it's now worth more then ever before in all respects. With all of the tonal options available on it (19 variations based on the current switching configuration), it truly is an incredibly versatile instrument.
Oh, and I even did my own setup on the bridge for it. I must not have done too badly. It plays well and the intonation is correct (it should be considering the software I bought). Not too bad, huh? ;-)
I have been talking about doing this for years. The Seymour Duncan Everything Axe Set looked like the ticket (and ended up being so in a round about way--I could not find it in black so I ordered the pups separately over time).
So, over the last little while I have been collecting the needed parts & tools and during a break from the breakneck speed I am running at work I threw it all together to see what would happen. Can you really have it all in one guitar? Strat quack & humbucker warmth & power. We would soon find out...
Most appointments on this guitar are recent, some go way back (an old Seymour Duncan Classic Stack in the bridge [replaced during this project], the graphite nut, mid pup phase switch & Dunlop Straploks). At some point in the last year or so my wife picked up black vol. & tone knobs & pickup covers for me and they looked great against the original white pickgaurd. Not too dramatic a change, subtle enough and yet it sets the look off quite nicely.
I knew there would have to be some heavy rewiring (since all the pickups were being replaced)--but it would go beyond that. There was no way I would even come close to approximating my favorite Strat tones with the mini-humbuckers pups in the neck (Lil' '59) & bridge (JB Jr.) if they were wired standard. Enter the 3-way On-On-On mini-toggles (there was only one place in town that carried them!). They would serve as Series - Single Coil (aka split or tapped) - Parallel switches for both of those pups. A new 2-way On-On switch would replace the old as a phase switch for the middle (Duckbucker) pup--there is no sense in going the other route since it is intended to sound Start-y. Why would you want to split or put it in parallel? You wouldn't, IMO. There's no need.
That was not all though. Oh no. After all these years, I actually wanted to be able to use the tremolo bar on this guitar without having the thing go out of tune after the first bend. That required some simple yet effective modifications that have worked out incredibly well.
First, I already had a graphite nut in place--shouldn't be any binding there. Next I tossed the cheese ball roller string trees in favor of a couple of new Graphtec string retainers. Finally, for the headstock I replaced the original Gotoh Schaller-style tuners with a new set of chrome PlanetWaves locking tuners.
Then came the bridge. My old bridge block has always been junk. Some kind of cheap alloy with no mass. I wanted a steel block for more sustain and hopefully a more musical tone. Next the bridge. Something had to be done. Years of sweat and grime had coroded the saddles and screws badly. They would have to be replaced. I did my research, priced it all out and made my decision. I would forgo the saddle/screw replacements in favor of a drop in replacement bridge (with included steel block). I went with the Gotoh licensed Wilkinson VSVG bridge from Stewart MacDonald. It turned out to be a solid choice. The intonation screws are inside the saddles and lock down firmly. The saddle height set screws do not protrude out the top or the saddle making general playing and particularly palm muting comfortable. No more chewing up your hand on the bridge during aggressive rhythm attacks. But does it all work? I can say that it does with a resounding YES! You can actually play using the bar, even for dive bomb bends and the instrument still remains in tune. Amazing!
Yes, but how does it sound? That takes us back to the electronics. You know, there is not much room in a Strat control cavity and I was not about to start hacking out chunks of wood with a router or dremel--you can totally destroy the intrinsic tone of a guitar doing that kind of thing. It was not an issue though. Since I have never been a fan of two (or more) tone controls), I simply took out the one between the volume and the other tone pot. Now, it's one each--a master volume and tone (just the way I like it), and I had plenty of room for my mods. The Lil' 59 was already in, so I wired up the Series/Split/Parallel switch and hooked it up in the pickgaurd hole where the tone pot used to be. While I was at it (as I did not have the other replacement pickups yet) I drilled another hole and prewired the second humbucker S/S/P swich and installed that as well. Finally a bit at a time the rest of my parts started showing up and when I found a spare moment, I was ready to begin. To make a long story shorter, I have ended up with what I wanted:
- Bridge: Series/Split/Parallel Seymour Duncan JB Jr. (I considered two other pups for this spot--another Lil' '59 or a George Lynch Lil' Screamin' Demon)
- Middle: Phase switchable Duckbucker
- Neck: Series/Split/Parallel Lil' 59
The tone pot is one of the original 250K. For some reason I decided to replace the .047 tone capacitor with the same rated ceramic cap. It sounded awful!! I had another one of the original caps and put that back in as soon as I could. The tone control with the ceramic cap was unusable! Issue resolved...
I should have put in a new 5-way selector while I was at it, but no big deal. The original still works well enough (the screws are rusted though, I should have replaced them when I replaced the pickguard screws).
So... how does it sound? (I'm getting to it, be patient.)
First, wired straight I do not think you would ever be able to approximate Strat tones by any means. My favorite Strat positions have always been the 4 (mid/neck), 5 neck, and 2 (mid/bridge): in that order. If I could get those, I would be happy. With the switching options on the bridge & neck, I can approximate those tones. I think (aside form the 5 position) the Duckbucker really helps in those instances for sure--and, for the first time, I have really started using the mid pickup on it's own. That's something I rarely if ever did in the past. The
Duckbucker actually sounds pretty good on it's own. The Lil' '59 sounds very good in series (standard humbucker mode) and so does the JB (now that I have that 500K volume pot--it really only provided a slight difference, but it cleaned it up enough for me tone-wise to make it musically useful to me). It can do heavy rock, has decent sustain, and nice harmonic responce--works for me. My Warmoth has a full-sized JB, perhaps they share some characteristics but they are obviously not the same pups. Don't expect a mini-JB to match the awesome might of the original, but the Jr. can hold it's own as long as you don't expect it to knock you down like it's big daddy.So there you have it. A hot-rodded 1980-something Japanese made Squier Stratocaster given a new (and useful) lease on life. It was not too long ago that the frets were so worn out, and in such bad shape that I thought it was done for. My local luthier saved the day and made it more playable then ever. It made the perfect guitar to do some experimenting with, and in the end it's now worth more then ever before in all respects. With all of the tonal options available on it (19 variations based on the current switching configuration), it truly is an incredibly versatile instrument.
Oh, and I even did my own setup on the bridge for it. I must not have done too badly. It plays well and the intonation is correct (it should be considering the software I bought). Not too bad, huh? ;-)
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