If You Had a Thousand Dollars...

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:35 pm

A used tympani. And a hi-hat (picked up a snare and some brushes last weekend... man, real drum heads rock). And a beer. And a smile from a dancer.

Yeah, that's a cool thousand right there.

Kamakura · Post by **Kamakura** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 6:43 am

Pedal steel guitar and a set of Harmonica's...
or
The Mackie mixer that has built in firewire
or
1000 lottery tickets.

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 7:06 am

Kamakura wrote: 1000 lottery tickets.

...or perhaps send it to the wife of the President of Nigeria. I recieved an email from her offering me a very tasty deal.

starfinger · Post by **starfinger** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 7:13 am

i would get max/msp, tassman 4 and a midi footpedal.
and a meager electric guitar so i could learn how to play it.

and a big T-bone.

-craig

Kamakura · Post by **Kamakura** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 7:26 am

Caravan Ray wrote:
Kamakura wrote: 1000 lottery tickets.
...or perhaps send it to the wife of the President of Nigeria. I recieved an email from her offering me a very tasty deal.

Ah yes. I'm already handling the transfer of $16,000,000 for them. I did find it strange that I had to pay all the fees in cash and upfront. Hmm.

If you're interested; the deeds to a Nigerian Gold mine are available and a real bargain.

furrypedro · Post by **furrypedro** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 7:48 am

200 ftlong Subs
and spend the change on spacedust and fizzy pop
(but I'd be thinking about new monitors when I was eating them

)

Post by **Lunkhead** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 3:22 pm

I second the pedal steel idea. Then I'd need about 6 months to woodshed so I could actually learn how to play the thing. I think I might start out just getting a lap steel guitar.

king_arthur · Post by **king_arthur** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 8:27 am

I hope to be working on a project next semester where I'll be writing a bunch of songs and then getting people at school to do vocal tracks for me (basically, it's going to be the songs for a Disney-style animated movie, so I'll need somebody to sing all the Evil Prince parts, somebody else to do the Morose Puppy songs, etc.). So I would get one of those four-track digital recorders and sufficient cables and a small preamp so that I could go in the studio room at school and use their mics to record vocal tracks that I'd then fly back onto my 16-track. (The board itself is under the power of a downrev ProTools installation and is out of order about half the time, but that means the studio room and mics would be available lots

That and maybe one of those $150 Strat copies that I could keep in the trunk of the car for any time I need to lay down some quick guitar stuff. Or maybe a Tele or SG copy, since I already have a decent guitar when I need a Strat sound.

And I'd probably spend the rest on some extra sets of 7506 headphones for when I manage to lose or destroy the set I have (they are, as has been discussed elsewhere, very rugged, but mine have a pretty rough life, too...)

Charles (KA)

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 10:01 pm

Puce wrote:... to spend right now what would you spend it on?

That's the predicament I'll find myself in come Boxing Day. I would personally go with one of these options (in rough order of priority): A) a good pair of active monitors, B) a drum setup of some type, either i) a cheap electronic kit, or ii) a cheap regular kit and a way to do drum-replacement, C) a substantial computer upgrade, D) a mediocre laptop, E) a new fancy electric guitar, or F) a nice acoustic guitar and a pair of condensers to record it with.

What would you get with a grand? Also, if you have an opinion about what I should get, do tell.

EDIT: Clarity

Back to the choices Puce has listed, I would think that monitors and an acoustic drum set could be had for a grand. I got my monitors here and bartered them down like a hundred bucks less. Maybe you can do better than that. From there you could focus on the live or electronic drums.

blue · Post by **blue** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:38 am

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TLM103Anniv/

i dont get the love for active monitors. they are very heavy, expensive, and don't sound any better.

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:54 am

blue wrote:active monitors: they are very heavy, expensive, and don't sound any better.

You're right thrice, but after my monitor amp spontaneously exploded I've decided that having one less part to break and a bunch less cables to think about is worth my dollars. Plus, a lot of new monitor models that I'm interested in are being made without a passive version, a good example being the Genelec 8020a (too lazy to link. It's just a google away). Although they're small enough to illicit a snicker from a girlfriend, supposedly they live up to their name.

Also, I DID buy something on boxing week, but I'll wait until I have an audio demo done before I make a post about it.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:23 pm

Powered monitors and unpowered monitors have the exact same number of parts which can break. However, the difference is that with unpowered monitors, if one of those parts breaks, you can replace it independently of the other parts.

Personally I use a pair of Mission m30is and a SonicImpact amp.

<a href="http://apple.com/logicpro/">best use of $1000</a>

c hack · Post by **c hack** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:59 pm

Your stuff sounds amazing as is. I'd go with more/better instruments.

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:10 pm

fluffy wrote:Powered monitors and unpowered monitors have the exact same number of parts which can break.

Sorry, I meant 'parts' as in "Parts of the puzzle" or "Parts of my setup", as opposed to "electrical parts".

There are a lot of other factors to think about as well. !) My amp isn't designed for my monitors. If I turn it up too high they will explode. @) If I turn my amp down low-ish the highs get muffled (more so than I would expect from Fletcher-Munson), which I am attributing to impedance mismatch or the capacitance of my 10 foot long speaker cables. #) As I mentioned, speaker cables, even awesome ones (mine aren't) have non-trivial capacitance, which colours the audio and causes a phase shift that delays the bass. I'm too stupid to hear the shifting, but I know people who can, and I'd rather not even worry about that sort of thing. $) I trust Mackie or Genelec to make a good amp to go in their actives. I don't trust myself to find a good amp to go with my passives. %) Lot's of actives do bi-amplification. My passives can do that too, but I'd need to buy a second amp with a cross-over (or just one fancy bi-amplification amp), at which point I stop saving money but start gaining hassle.

So, Thoreau.

WT: Also, I like the band name UltraSuede. I know it's not very fluffy or porcupine-y or plaid-y, but if it tickles you the same way it does me it's free for the taking.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:17 pm

re #, you mean you know people who THINK they can hear the difference. Give them an ABX test.

Also, bi-amplification isn't really that useful at the low power levels you typically run monitors at. It doesn't hurt, of course, but it doesn't really matter whether you do do the amping or the crossover first, until you get to power levels like what you need to fill a movie theatre.

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:30 pm

Yeah, # and % are a stretch, but they are the wafer-thin mint to my Python-esque buffet of complaints. The biggest factors are that I want small and simple, and my big amp and my big nearfields (I think they're either midfields in disguise or they've been designed with ogres in mind) are neither.

But it'll all have to wait until my chequing account has some more digits.

c hack · Post by **c hack** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 10:02 pm

I think it's wise to get active monitors. I'm on my 2nd power amp now. I just got it a few months ago, and already it only plays one channel. I hate power amps with a passion I never thought possible. I'm considering getting a regular amplifier now, one that would go to your stereo. The sound might be colored, but at least it'll work.

blue · Post by **blue** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 10:27 pm

c hack wrote:I think it's wise to get active monitors. I'm on my 2nd power amp now. I just got it a few months ago, and already it only plays one channel. I hate power amps with a passion I never thought possible. I'm considering getting a regular amplifier now, one that would go to your stereo. The sound might be colored, but at least it'll work.

yeah, but what if you didn't already have the mics?

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 10:44 pm

c hack wrote:I'm on my 2nd power amp now. I just got it a few months ago, and already it only plays one channel.

Are you fucking kidding me c hack? You just bought that thing. I'm sure it's still under warranty man. It was the Alesis right? Dude that's some bad luck. I'm wondering if that amp wasn't defective from the get-go. I'm not really sure what could be causing your issue unless it's load related. A bad crossover, the speaker wires. I dunno. I don't mean to second guess, and I'm sure not meaning to kick you when you're down. I'm feeling for you, seriously I am.

Damn, NS 10's are supposed to be the shit but if you keep blowing up amps, I don't know what to tell you. If you're thinking about trying a stereo amp, try getting a vintage Crown like this. They are renowned for being able to take a licking and not color the sound to terribly.

Just a thought. Again sorry c hack.

EDIT: On the powered monitor notion, I will say it's kind of a small hassle but where mine are placed it's kind of drag having to walk to either side of the room to turn each one on after I've made sure everything else is on. And then the reverse before I turn everything else off.

Hey I said it was a minor bitch. That's really the only downside I've had. The monitor weight only means something if you're having to move them all the time. I don't, so I could care less how heavy they are. And I like the Bi-Amped thing. They're supposed to be tuned for each component that way, but I can't say if they are or not. My ears aren't that good.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 12:43 am

how much less could you care?

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:24 am

fluffy wrote:how much less could you care?

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. Is it how much less could you care about c hack's amp blowing up? Are you suggesting I don't care that his amp blew up? What do you mean?

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:21 pm

well, if you say (like you did) "could care less" that means you care, but if you say "couldn't care less" it means you don't. see which you meant in your message. wow, this was a useless post.
so, uh, $1000? i think i'd add it to my upcoming car downpayment.
-bill

If You Had a Thousand Dollars...

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