For the past five years I have been plagued buy a mystery hum that gets into every non humbucking coil in the house (Even the reverb coils in my amplifiers). If I wanted to have hum free plating, then I had to orient my guitar in such a way as to reduce induction from the magnetic field lines. The source always stayed in the same place, but I couldn't figure it out.
Two days ago I awoke in the cold dark hours with an epiphany.
There is an electrical substation about 80 meters away, which I have walked past a couple of thousand times.
Until that moment of clarity I never even noticed or made the connection. It's encased in a residential/commercial looking brick building. So no glaringly obvious.
The Awesoem Power Of Rockets is looking forward to the transition to a larger residence where there is space for a small recording studio & workshop. Hopefully no hum in the air!
Visits
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Sorry about the lack of updates.
The Awesome Power Of Rockets headquarters are in disarray at the moment.
Preparing to make the transition to larger premises.
That won't take place until mid June, so posts will likely be few between now and July.
Anyway, to keep it somewhat music related, I highly reccommend that any DIY enthusiasts head over to the circuit snippets archive and check out some really sweet projects.
My favourite being the PWM, which sounds a heck of a lot like a big fat mono synth.
It can be controlled by LFO or an expression pedal. Don't be affraid now, the circuit is easy to build and I suspect, designed by a genius!
Check out the Sound Sample
The Awesome Power Of Rockets headquarters are in disarray at the moment.
Preparing to make the transition to larger premises.
That won't take place until mid June, so posts will likely be few between now and July.
Anyway, to keep it somewhat music related, I highly reccommend that any DIY enthusiasts head over to the circuit snippets archive and check out some really sweet projects.
My favourite being the PWM, which sounds a heck of a lot like a big fat mono synth.
It can be controlled by LFO or an expression pedal. Don't be affraid now, the circuit is easy to build and I suspect, designed by a genius!
Check out the Sound Sample
Monday, April 2, 2012
Going Direct
I've not had too much going on in the land of musical instruments.
What precious little time I've had to sit down with the guitar, has been spent tinkering with my various D.I. boxes.
The Sansamp GT2 seems to be the best among them.
I mostly set it for Fender style clean tones with reverb supplied from the Boss FRV-1.
The results are quite satisfying. Like a tube amp in the sweet spot, it will break up pleasantly if pushed hard. I can't say the same for the Digitech digiverb.
I'm not sure if there's a dodgy patch lead or if the pickups of my Mosrite are too hot, but I hear an unpleasant clipping when the reverb is engaged. Bypassed the distorion goes away, but even when fully dry, the clipping is evident, which is a bit of a shame as I like playing with a wide range of dynamics.
The issue requires futher investigation, and comparison against the Bad Monkey pedals from the same manufacturer.
Will get around to posting samples one of these days.
What precious little time I've had to sit down with the guitar, has been spent tinkering with my various D.I. boxes.
The Sansamp GT2 seems to be the best among them.
I mostly set it for Fender style clean tones with reverb supplied from the Boss FRV-1.
The results are quite satisfying. Like a tube amp in the sweet spot, it will break up pleasantly if pushed hard. I can't say the same for the Digitech digiverb.
I'm not sure if there's a dodgy patch lead or if the pickups of my Mosrite are too hot, but I hear an unpleasant clipping when the reverb is engaged. Bypassed the distorion goes away, but even when fully dry, the clipping is evident, which is a bit of a shame as I like playing with a wide range of dynamics.
The issue requires futher investigation, and comparison against the Bad Monkey pedals from the same manufacturer.
Will get around to posting samples one of these days.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
2012 - Sansamp GT2 - First impression.
I got mine nice and cheap and have only had a little while to play with it so far, but already there are things I do and don't like.
Here are the basics:
3 amp settings (Tweed (Bassman), British (Marshall), California (Boogie).
3 "mod settings" Clean, Hi Gain & hotwired.
3 mic settings Classic (flat), Center (mids), off axis (lower mids)
First off the amp settings appear to have different gain and eq structures, the Tweed being the lowest gain and the California being the highest. The tweed has the lowest bottom end and the others are fairly similar in my first test.
The mod settings appear to be a little misleading, as the "clean" setting doesn't mean clean tone, but actually means "stock" or "unmodded". I have read on other websites that the Sansamp is not capable of a clean boost, this was not my experience. When set for Tweed, Clean & Classic, I was able to get a really nice Fenderesqe clean tone with my Goldtone PB-GRE. As mentioned in my previous blog article, this guitar has a fairly low output and is likely biasing my experience.
The tone of the settings I've described is sparkly top with a nice thick bottom. I did notice a bit of noise (hiss), but that might be due to a flat battery, or that I'd cranked the gain. After fiddling with the knobs (they're old and a bit crackly) I was able to tame the noise and stop my mixer from overloading.
Speaking of overloading, this and the VT bass have some serious power in the output department.It can be tricky to track down the culprit when your mixer clip light isn't triggered and there's unwanted distortion somewhere. I'm not 100% on this, but I think that the Sansamp series might actually be able to clip their own output stage.
So far I'm not convinced that the high gain models are up to the job of direct recording without some intermediary speaker cab filter. They can be somewhat fizzy, but it's also possible that the low output pickup just doesn't play well with those settings and I need to use a guitar with a humbucker or at the least high output single coil, like a P90 or a Mosrite.
I'm pretty happy with the clean tone and look forward to spending more time with the unit.
Stay tuned.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Presenting: The Humble microKorg
It's size and price were appealing to the masses, and for many their first synthesizer.
I've had mine sine early 2007, and it was far from my first synth.
Essentially it's a cut down version of the MS2000. In fact, the only real difference is that it's got less knobs.
Out of the box it comes with some of the most cheesy presets I have ever heard.
The presets are grouped on the front panel via genre's surrounding the main selector knob.
Unfortunately the genre's don't sit well with many, and I ended up covering them up with my own printed on stucky labels.
The microKorg appears to be fairly limited on the surface, but below the surface lays the heart of a small modular synth. What it lacks in polyphony, it makes up for in charm and scope for some really useful and just plain weird sounds.
What people need to get past is that it's not analogue. Complaints of a lack of warmth are unwarranted.
Spend a bunch of time with the little beastie and I bet your opinion will change considerably.
I mostly program variations on Electric Piano and Organ sounds, with a few string synths, pads and science fiction noises thrown in. It's capable of some seriously overwhelming Bass, which it turns out is really handy for emulating a church organ. You can achieve a kind of 8 bit vibe with it as well, but it would be better if a bit crushing effect was available. I don't spen too much time on that since I built the Midibox 6582 in 2010.
The modulation matrix is surprisingly flexible and you can rout to most major points which you would want to control.On the front panel you'll find every parameter listed helpfully next to its corresponding number.
Modulation sources are Two LFO's with multiple wave shapes (LFO2 is more limited in selection), Envelope generator, Modulation Wheel.
Cross modulation is possible between sources and you can obviously send them to control pitch & cutoff.
Korg also included control for the audio output, so you're able to do nifty tricks like emulate a lesie speaker by controlling the left/right balance.
Unfortunately what was left out of the control matrix is the ability to control the effects section, which I think is a real shame as they are capable of making things a little crazy.
The vocoder is a fun addition, you have the option of using internal oscillators, or doing the classic thing and using external carrier and modulator waveforms.
Getting the vocoder to sound good is a tough task, but it can be done with some patience and experimentation. I prefer to use external sources over the internal waves as it seems a bit more authentic.
The microKorg also makes a nice effects box.The effects are noise free and whilst basic, sound as good or better than many stand alone units.
Chorus, Flanger, Phaser & Delay are staples for guitar, but if you set it up just right you can use the Arpeggiator to make yourself a midi synced variable patterned tremolo.
Using the filter on guitar allows you to emulate the use of a Wah pedal, with the additional option of midi sync.
Speaking of filters, the digital filter in the microKorg has been designed well. It sounds nice and smooth, and doesn't have the zipper effect which plagued many earlier analogue models.
The filter holds up quite well to it's analogue counterparts eg: MS10/M20, Frostwave Resonator, Moog Ladder filter. It isn't capable of the nice analogue overdrive, but you can fix that with a simple dirt box for very little cash (make your own if you want!).
My only gripes with the design decisions behind this little box are the lack of velocity sensitivity in the keybed and the complete lack of control over the inbuilt distortion (which sounds horrible in my humble opinion).
I've been tempted to sell it a few times, but at the end of the day it's got so many features that I'd be kicking myself if I parted ways with it rashly.
Even compared to more modern synths it holds up nicely and I believe is one of the better purchases I've made over the last fifteen years.
microKorg Manual
Monday, February 6, 2012
A little DIY - How to make your own Sustainer
I've received a request for a better explanation on how the sustainer works.
Well it's pretty simple really. At leas my version is at any rate.
All you need is a handful of parts and it can be made for less than $20
Ideally you'll have a string magnet. I've used old strat pickups, but Alnico Bar Magnets are available on Ebay pretty frequently.
The Bar magnet will probably give you a better result.
Apart from the pickup, my sustainer was built from stuff readily available from the local electronics store.
The thinnest enamel coated wire that I found is .25mm, a bit smaller would be better (tighter coil), but this was all I had to work with. On the strat pickup with the orignial wire removed I wound a coil to 8 ohms. I think it was 160 turns of the pickup. There is a handy turn calculator online here where you input your wire gauge, magnet size and desired resistance.
Incidentally the 33awg roll from Jaycar is 16 ohms +- an ohm.
To power it all I used a simple 386 chip based circuit that can deliver 1/4watt at 8 ohms.
It comes in kit form and usually costs less than $9
Simply connect the tip of your guitar jack to the input of the circuit and the sustainer coil to the speaker terminals.
If it doesn't do anything, try reversing the speaker wires as there may be a humbucking effect.
Every coil I've made has been different, some strings will feedback more than others depending on how sloppy the wire wrapping has been done.
Jagmaster Sustainer Guitar
Gretsch Sustainer Project
Well it's pretty simple really. At leas my version is at any rate.
All you need is a handful of parts and it can be made for less than $20
Ideally you'll have a string magnet. I've used old strat pickups, but Alnico Bar Magnets are available on Ebay pretty frequently.
The Bar magnet will probably give you a better result.
Apart from the pickup, my sustainer was built from stuff readily available from the local electronics store.
The thinnest enamel coated wire that I found is .25mm, a bit smaller would be better (tighter coil), but this was all I had to work with. On the strat pickup with the orignial wire removed I wound a coil to 8 ohms. I think it was 160 turns of the pickup. There is a handy turn calculator online here where you input your wire gauge, magnet size and desired resistance.
Incidentally the 33awg roll from Jaycar is 16 ohms +- an ohm.
To power it all I used a simple 386 chip based circuit that can deliver 1/4watt at 8 ohms.
It comes in kit form and usually costs less than $9
Simply connect the tip of your guitar jack to the input of the circuit and the sustainer coil to the speaker terminals.
If it doesn't do anything, try reversing the speaker wires as there may be a humbucking effect.
Every coil I've made has been different, some strings will feedback more than others depending on how sloppy the wire wrapping has been done.
Jagmaster Sustainer Guitar
Gretsch Sustainer Project
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Quick update - Resonator and Iso Cab demos Online
Recorded a couple of short demos last night.
The Iso cab is left channel only since I forgot to mix to mono.
The resonator demonstrates Acoustic and Electric in opposing channels.
Gear used Rode Nt2a, Boss BC-2, Boss FRV-1 & Digitech Bad Monkey (bypassed).
The demo's can also be found on the Sound Page
The Iso cab is left channel only since I forgot to mix to mono.
The resonator demonstrates Acoustic and Electric in opposing channels.
Gear used Rode Nt2a, Boss BC-2, Boss FRV-1 & Digitech Bad Monkey (bypassed).
The demo's can also be found on the Sound Page
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