Christmas List

A very large supply of rechargeable batteries

To put in the stompboxes on your Christmas list, of course. A good Distortion pedal (I have two or three by Danelectro) and a good delay pedal good delay pedal good delay pedal - sorry, couldn't resist. Boss make very good pedals, depending on budgets.

A :-)

A very large supply of rechargeable batteries

A :-)

Or a multiple-pedal power supply system. Or a pedalboard with intergrated power supply. Or an Erie Ball Volume Pedal.

good delay pedal good delay pedal good delay pedal

Sounds more like an echo effect to me :)

I've looked at a couple of pedal boards, but none of them seemed to get very good reviews. Mostly questions about durability and cheap connections that break easily (or too small, in the case of Boss; I guess their pedals are smaller than the others).

New amp...well, I hadn't thought about upgrading my little practice amp, but now you've put my mind on it. That tube amp does look like a great deal, and it's already on 2-4 week backorder. Wonder if it will still be around (at that price) when the people on my list go shopping for me?

The other amp, with all its bells and whistles, raises a question for me. Better to send multiple effects pedals through a regular amp, or better to go with just an amp that has all those effects built in? I'm guessing most will say the former, though from an economical standpoint, that amp looks pretty cheap for what you get.

The other amp, with all its bells and whistles, raises a question for me. Better to send multiple effects pedals through a regular amp, or better to go with just an amp that has all those effects built in? I'm guessing most will say the former, though from an economical standpoint, that amp looks pretty cheap for what you get.

Well, I was trying to stay under $150 for you. For the price, this is a good versatile amp that you can get a lot of different tones out of it. It is based on the Behringer V-Amp multi effects modeler which is very popular and gets high ratings. I think most people would agree you get better effects with individual pedals because they are usually very straightforward and easy to tweak. But... they are expensive. With multi-efx like this you get an assortment of effects at a great price, although they are usually a bit more difficult to tweak.

If you want effects, you can get multi-efx units for much less than this. Last Christmas my brother gave me a Zoom G1X.

Zoom G1X

I have been spending lots of time with this lately and been getting some great tones out of it, I am seriously thinking about using it to gig with. It has great clean and distorted tones. Zoom has finally given their pedals a 3 band EQ (Lows, Mids, and Highs) which they lacked in the past. Man, I like these controls better than my amps controls, I am going to send it straight into my amps Effects Loop return and skip the pre-amp section of my amp. I have already experimented with this at home with my Marshall amp and it sounds fantastic. They have added lots of new amp models which sound great. And they have even made the effects more tweakable than ever, and you can even have 3 delays going at once (not that I would ever do that). But for $80 it's a darn good pedal.

But I would still think about an amp, what good is effects going into a little practice amp? You've gotta have a good amp. :wink:

...and a good delay pedal good delay pedal good delay pedal - sorry, couldn't resist.

That would be delaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy pedal. :mrgreen:

Hi,

Unfortunately, I now seem to have equipped myself with all the gear and musical software that I can justify. Not sure if this is a boast or a complaint... but there's really nothing more that I can put on my family's Christmas list when it comes to buying me musical knick-knacks any more. :cry:

However, there is one outstanding item that they still never seem to get..... I wonder sometimes how much effort my wife is really prepared to put in on this?? :? How hard could it be to find a husky redheaded female singer who would fancy being accompanied by a semi-senile amateur guitar enthusiast?

But for yourself, maybe some software would be handy - either for recording or for the many other nifty things that music software can do?

Chris

But for yourself, maybe some software would be handy - either for recording or for the many other nifty things that music software can do?

Definitely. It would be cool to have software that accepts direct guitar input for recording, but also allows me to compose using standard notation. The good ones seem to be really expensive, though. :?

It would be cool to have software that accepts direct guitar input for recording, but also allows me to compose using standard notation.

It does seem to be true that the 'big guns' tend to specialise mostly in one aspect or another, although they are getting a bit closer in overlap. I just use more than one, and that seems to work fine.

I started with Finale Notepad which is a free program. It allows you to compose for several instruments using standard notation. It will then play it back for you, using pretty poor sounds, or generate a midi file. How good the midi sounds depends on how good a program you play it back on.

For the recording angle I used Cubase LE, which was also 'free' (bundled with a pedal I bought). This would accept the midis that came from Finale and also allow me to add directly recorded audio, or more midis, to the same project. I.e guitars, drums (real or midi) bass, singing etc.

I've now upgraded to Cubase Essential 4 which has better features but is still way cheaper than the full versions (which I don't need anyway). I've also upgraded to Finale Print Music which is again a useful step up from Notepad but without being anything like the cost of the full blown version (which again, I don't need). I'm happy with both of them. :)

But I did add one more piece of software, which is handy because a guy who I take a few lessons from has the same program (he also has a much more professional ProTools setup, but I really don't need to try and match that). It's Garage Band, and it was also free.....except for the small matter of having to buy the iMac that it came bundled with... :roll: ... Still, that's been a worthwhile buy too.

Good luck with finding something to suit.

Chris

Write someone a song...and play it for 'em around the Festivus Pole!

Cat

I started with Finale Notepad which is a free program.

Is it? I went to the Finale website and it looks like they're charging $9.99 for it (though they have a free "Trial Demo"). Not that that's a deal-killer by any means, but it's pretty rare in my experience for a company (other than MS) to suddenly start charging for software that was formerly free. Maybe there's an alternate site where I can get it free.
the Festivus Pole

Is this available at Amazon? :o

Is it? I went to the Finale website and it looks like they're charging $9.99 for it (though they have a free "Trial Demo").
Hey, you're right! :shock: Looks like you missed out by just under 3 weeks. Apparently Finale 2009 was released on October 1st and it looks like they decided to start charging for it from then on. I had both 2007 and 2008 and they were indeed completely free with no time limits or conditions, and widely known for it. I guess they hoped that if you liked it enough you'd eventually move up to a paid one (which worked on me). Thanks for the heads up, I'll have to stop saying that it's free.

EDIT: Here's a link to an announcement from Finale last month stating that they will start charging from the 2009 version, but will offer a free Finale Reader soon.
Announcement

If you Google around you might still find somebody with Finale Notepad 2008 (it's close to a 40meg file) but most sites used to just link straight to Finale anyway, and they obviously no longer offer it. I certainly would have got $10 worth of use from mine, so I imagine that 2009 would be worth it. But that's not to say that you'd agree.

Chris

Ha, I did manage to locate a link to a free download of the 2008 version:

http://finale-notepad-2008.software.informer.com/

Haven't been able to find a free download for Cubase LE yet...

I don't like Finale Notepad. I use it because it was free and I download and register my copy. If you have to pay for the 2009... I'd check it out because the 2008 has major complains for me. For that kind of software I'd review Guitar Pro or somethink like that.

I think Cubase LE never was free. You get a copy when you buy some gear such as, for example, multi-effects with computer links or external audio cards.

I don't like Finale Notepad. I use it because it was free and I download and register my copy. If you have to pay for the 2009... I'd check it out because the 2008 has major complains for me. For that kind of software I'd review Guitar Pro or somethink like that.

Hi Nuno,

What were your "major complaints"? with it? I'd be interested in seeing if Finale Print Music, which is the version that I have now, has improved on what you didn't like. Apparently, Finale originally design Notepad with the idea of it being a free 'reader' - like Adobe Reader is - so that anybody could open files created by the paid versions. But they kept adding more features (for instance 2008 added the ability to save as a midi file). So it ended up becoming quite a well featured program in its own right. I bought Guitar Pro fairly early on, but found that it only did part of what I needed, so I don't use it now. What do you think are the good bits of Guitar Pro - maybe I should dig it out again?
I think Cubase LE never was free. You get a copy when you buy some gear such as, for example, multi-effects with computer links or external audio cards.

That's what I found too. As I said above "Cubase LE, which was also 'free' (bundled with a pedal I bought)". When they changed to bundling LE4 it wasn't upgradable via a patch so I looked for a download, and couldn't find one either. As it happened I ended up getting LE4 "free" again with some more hardware that I bought anyway. But I still thought that it was worth paying for the next version up, which is Essential 4.

However, I was actually suggesting that HC might like to consider having his family buy some PAID software for a Christmas present. :wink: They wouldn't be so cheap as to say "Here's your Christmas pressie - it's free, but I found the link to a download for you.".... Are they? :mrgreen:

Cheers,

Chris

What were your "major complaints"? with it?
Major complaints for a freeware? I guess they think if you want a good piece of software you must pay for it. I absolutely disagree. There is great free (from freedom) software.

Once I said it I can turn the mode "software engineer" off! :lol:

My complaints concern the user interface. It is certainly poor. You have to use constantly the mouse for the most common tasks. I have not discovered how to change some attributes that you select in the first dialog window. I always copy the music and start a new empty sheet where I paste it.

When you use the tablature section it is very complex to introduce the numbers and you have to add the note in the pentagram as well. Guitar Pro does it automatically: it proposes a fingering that you can modify just by pressing the cursor keys.

Currently I'm trying to use it for annotating some riffs and songs for the bass. I can read the F clef but I want to write the tablature as well. You can not add a tablature with only 4 strings, it is only has 6 strings and I think (I'm not sure) the strings use the guitar standard tuning.

And there are lots of minor complaints as for example: colors, use of repetitions, use of standard music notation, the way in which the menus are arranged, etc. I'm using it because it was recommended in the SCW forum but I want to check the new release of TuxGuitar. I was using a previous beta version and it was not stable. I was using a Guitar Pro demo version at that time.

If one of those things can be made and I didn't find how to do it then it is even worse.

Now, my comment on the Cubase LE was an answer to Hanging Chord. It seems he is searching a free downloadable copy. I did read your post, I was emphasizing. :wink: