bobdaspit

rack upheaval

bobdaspit — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:39:58 +0000

Current state of the racks…

2 simple goals – (1) get the patch bay up off the ground, and (2) get rid of any outboard that has not been used in more than 2 years.

Spectrasonics Omnisphere wins TEC award

bobdaspit — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:54:16 +0000

For the first time, Spectrasonics won the prestigious TEC award for Best Musical Instrument Software. Congrats guys! Well deserved!

UA Apollo

bobdaspit — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:43:43 +0000

I’ve been a MOTU firewire interface guy for a long time – 828, 828mk2, 828mk3. I was about to pick up the 828mk3 hybrid. But the UA Apollo interface looks like it might be worth checking out.

HD500 Limitations & Add ons

bobdaspit — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 00:38:18 +0000

The Looper in the HD500 is mono. Kind of a shame for a device with so many stereo effects.

My quick fix was to grab a Boss RC-3 and put it in the FX loop. I also have a Digitech Timebender in the loop before the RC-3. Now it’s very easy to get full stereo ambient effects. If I get more into looping using this method, I may swap out the RC-3 for something a little more involved.

ps – the fx send from the HD500 is a stereo send if you use a TRS to 2 x TS cable.

Obviously the board (if you can call it that) is kind of messy right now -

1st Ribbon Mic re-tensioning – Success!!

bobdaspit — Thu, 19 May 2011 03:46:40 +0000

This is not as easy as it sounds.

While prepping for a guitar session today, I noticed that my CAD Trion 7000 ribbon mic sounded “buzzy.” It’s a great mic for only $150 – but sending the mic to a repair shop for a new ribbon costs $146. Kind of like the cell phone of microphones. Opening up the mic revealed that the ribbon had stretched a bit (actually, there are 2 ribbons in this particular model) and was hitting the screen on either side, thus causing the buzz. I read a couple of “how to” articles, and decided to give it a go.

Although I was warned in advance that it is very easy to snap the ribbon, I went ahead and used tweezers to attempt to pull the ribbon taut. And the ribbon promptly ripped. I thought it was game over. However, there was just enough ribbon left over to be covered by the clamp that holds it in place. By using a Q-Tip soaked with isopropyl alcohol to temporarily hold the ribbon in place I was able to slightly tension both ribbons so that they floated in the center again, and didn’t bump into the screens on either side.

I over-tensioned the one that I ripped, and had to slightly re-do that one a bit looser.

I fired up the mic, and it sounded just like new – or possibly a bit better!

Here are some great pictures (not mine) that show what’s going on (again, not my mic – just pics I found showing the same problem):

This is not my mic - but I had the same saggy ribbon problem

1 of 2 ribbons tensioned

Both ribbons tensioned

bragging rights

bobdaspit — Sat, 14 May 2011 22:32:30 +0000

Little known fact: I co-invented the velocity-t0-slide guitar sampling technique with and for Hans Zimmer. John Mayer credited Apple with inventing the technique during his presentation for their GarageBand Jam Pack: Rhythm Section product. silly boy.

Strymon Timeline

bobdaspit — Sat, 14 May 2011 21:11:33 +0000

Strymon Timeline -

I recently got rid of a bunch of pedals and vowed to go the complete software route. New and ever cooler pedals might make me modify that commitment.