h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello....?

is it me or has it gone spookily quiet in the MUG of late?

What you guys all up to with music? btw, I have a tab for the Journey of the Sorcerer (hhgttg theme) that someone very kindly posted on my page (their name escapes me for the moment) if anyone would like it- I'm happy to link to it here.

Kaz

Music wise... I've been busy corrupting my copy of cakewalk sonar on the computer (must get round to uninstalling it and reinstalling it so it works a bit better)
Err, still playing the new guitar and still impressed by it and getting very impressed with using that gutiar with the focusrite trackmaster pro preamp (which I highly recommend)
Err...
And just about an hour ago took delivery of a new hifi amp
Well, not exaclty new, more an EBay rescue an old 1984 - 1987 Pioneer SA 960
This amp is to replace the old arcam alpha amp in the studeo so I can get the arcam open and have a good dig inside to repair a doggy connection on the speaker termianls (think that what the problem is); failing which I'll be dropping the arcam off with a friendly local 80-year old electronics expert/shop owner who is quite handy (and cheap) for fixing little electrical problems
However the next problem is the new amp and the need to affix a plug to the power cable
Err what other musicy things.... Still practising playing the Cuica that I bought a while ago, and hopefully will be actually getting round to doing some samba type arrangements soon so that I can record the cuica to go with it
err.... And still bemoaning the lack of decent live music in this town - having utterly failed to make it to the 'party in the park' live music thing last weekend (first day boring music but second day was the more interesting 'world music' thing that I utterly forgot they had)
....
Oh, and doing some frightful VST-effect manipulation on a 12 string guitar
Right, next to bribe my lodger to rewire the plug on the new amp

Its Ages since i picked up my guitar Never seem to get the time these days

wellI only seem to have time to play guitar on weekends, if at all. Sounds interesting 2legs. Pardon my ignorance but what's a cuica?

Hope the new hifi works out. I keep pestering my dad to get our turntable fixed but it's a case of making sure a new one will work with an old amp. Hows ebay for getting stuff that's reliable like that?

The Cuica is a friction drum... Used a lot in samba music, I've written an entry on it, I'll try and rop a link to it here as that kinda explains a bit more what it is

The new amp is brilliant... In really good condition considering its age, and certainly sounds a lot more open than the previous amp I had in here (the Arcam)
I've set it up in the studeo for now, though if I can work up the energy I may try it out in the bedroom with the Big speakers, and bring the samsui amp from upstairs down here
I have found EBay pretty good; Not got that* much HiFi stuff of of it; the new Pioneer amp was off of EBay (£26 including packageing/postage so I think quite a bargan).

I think any turntable should work with an amp no matter how old; I've a err two or three year old Morantz turntable upstairs (not the greatest thing in teh world but it does for now), and I've had that running through the old arcam alpha (late 70's I think?), through the Samsuey amp (early 1990's I think), and hoepfully soon it will be going through the new pioneer (made between 1984 and 1987) and of course I've had the turntable through all of these speakers...a less than a year old pair of Mordaunt Short giant stonehendge coffin speakers, and the old (late 70's?) Celestion Ditton 15's, and my 1970's KLH speakers (when they were still made in this country, just down the road from where I now live).
Blimey. that makes me sound like a real HiFi geek
Actually out of all that equipment, yeh, the new Mordaunt Short speakers are out of this world, but the Celestion Ditton 15's, with the Pioneer amp (at a combined cost of oo £36), is really incredibably good, and even the oo ten times more expensive than that new Mordaunt Short spaakers, even though they are defiantely better, are only that little* bit better really for most things; The big differnce is on classical music, the more expensive speakers just have the definition that the older ones seem to lack; But seeing as how I'm mainly playing old Dub, rock and blues stuff, they're really not being used to their full potential most the time
I'd certainly recommend the celestions and the pioneer SA960 to anyone lookign to build a cheap system; Both must turnup on EBay pretty frequently and cheap I'd imagine
The little Celestion, well, not that little, Ditton 15's are really well designed cases; easy to get inside and quickly perform any little repairs (like me fixing the binding posts a few days back)

Unfortunately I've got to have an election and tiler round to sort out some stuff with the house this month, so I won't probably be buying any new guitar or HiFi stuff for a while

Thanks for that. It's handy to know. The cuica stuff sounds interesting.
Yeah, it's a case of hooking up a new turntable to some AM speakers, Dual amp, tuner and a marantz tape deck. My dad bought another amp secondhand a while back cause he was convinced it was the phono channel that had gone and not the turntable itself, but having swopped them over and still got the same problem its gotta be the turntable. Basically what happens is it plays fine for about 15 mins and then the stereo sound literally "drains" away from one speaker. I've never had the same problem using the tuner or the tape deck, so it must be the turntable?
what do you think?

That sounds like a very weird problem... I'll try and remember the next few days I should be off out with my mate who's an even more over the top HiFi nut than me (and also someone who only* buys old second hand gear, and consequently ends up fixing and messinag about with a lot of electronics)...
That really does sound like more of an amp problem; but it can't be if it does it on two amps, thought it mgiht be something in the power stage on the phono amp side.. must err.. naa I can't think... I'll ask him anyhows see what he thinks; I really don't know much about the internal workings of turntables other than reattaching the belt when it slips off
I've seen quite a lot of replacement bits for old tunrtables on EBay though, might be able to buy a new stylus for it etc off there I guess anyhow I'll ask the guy who hopefully might actually have a bit more of a clue

Cheers.
Anyhow, so are you going all samba with this new drum then?

I got into all this altered tunings stuff on the guitar and it's really got me out of a rut and playing new stuff, which is great. I've been using DGDGcd a lot. gives some weird results and the c and d at the top takes some getting used to (messes up the logical form of scales!) but good fun nonetheless!

Recently, my university music group has been learning new stuff for concerts supporting local causes and regional events for Burns Day. However, we've just been told that there's an ulterior motive for learning the pieces - our musical director has been training us up as backing vocalists on her latest album. Sound's really exciting, something else to go on the CV.

yeah. sounds fun. Good luck with it. It will be a great experience to have

One smart alec asked me, when I told him what we'd be doing, "Are you being given studio rates for the recording, or royalties for this?" Not knowing what studio rates are at the moment, or what the sales figures are for her albums, I couldn't say.

But as you say, it's a great thing for the CV when I leave university.

yeah absolutely.

I hate people who have that uppity attitude and try and be smart just for the sake of making other people feel a bit rubbish it's annoying. You could have lied about the rates and impressed them massively with a big figure!

Ooops, I was perhaps a bit misleading with that post there. He knows we're a student/staff group, in it just for fun, only money that changes hands is the subscription fee thingy we pay for insurance while on Uni property and registration with the Student Association. He's just taking the mickey about us getting into the world of recording and turning pro on the side.

oh right. Well it's still pretty cheeky