The Musical Instruments Thread

What is that? A contrabass clarinet? :p

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What wood is that? Koa?
 
I play a clarinet, but mainly the bass variety (bass clarinet) for about five years now.

For me it is a toss up between the French Horn and the Clarinet as my most favorite instrument; both have such a human quality to them.
 
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For me it is a toss up between the French Horn and the Clarinet as my most favorite instrument; both have such a human quality to them.

I hate the french horn, but it's a french horn player's fault. I wasn't familiar with how a french horn is played, and after a performance, I went to shake her hand, and got slimed.

Also, spit valves are gross. :p
 
Yes. Yes it is.
 


Casio keyboard (since mid-to-late 1990s), Yamaha Clavinova (since 1997), Washburn bass (2006), Ibanez acoustic-electric guitar (2008). Not seen, Nemesis Eden amplifier (came with bass), and a flute which I broke.
 
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Alrighty then! So here's my stuff, at least in terms of hardware:

1. Takamine EAN70 Acoustic-Electric (given to me as a gift by my cousin - it used to be his, but he doesn't have time to play it anymore)

http://img94.imageshack.**/img94/7650/stuff4b.jpg

2. Genz Benz Tranzamp A25 + some silly old marshall ss amp that belongs to a friend of mine (the acoustic amp is also my cousin's and he gave it to me with his guitar, the marshall is under my caretaking on a semi permanent basis)

http://img704.imageshack.**/img704/4523/stuff1.jpg

3. Yamaha Pacifica Electric. Simple dark green finish. (this belongs to the same friend whose tiny marshal amp I have, both of which are with me semi-permanently :lol:)

http://img69.imageshack.**/img69/3349/stuff5.jpg

4. This is my Warwick Wamp 200 bass head, sitting on a Yorkville 8x8 cab. Sitting on top of them is my little M-Audio ProFire 610, great little sound card for recording.

http://img248.imageshack.**/img248/5597/stuff2.jpg

5. Epiphone Thunderbird IV Bass (MIC), Sunburst w/o pickguard.

http://img85.imageshack.**/img85/2825/stuff7.jpg

6. My baby, Epiphone LP Custom Plus (MIK), Sunburst Flametop, with the bridge PU cover removed. It's all stock atm, but I'm thinking of upgrading to the '57 and '57 plus pickups, as well as rewiring it to the classic 50s style. Will probably upgrade the electronics (pots and caps) when I do this. Just haven't decided if I want to do it myself, or get it done by someone who knows what they are doing. I'm pretty new to soldering, so I don't want to cock it up, because I absolutely love this guitar to bits.

http://img121.imageshack.**/img121/1162/stuff6.jpg

7. M-Audio Oxygen 49 MIDI controller, for the software.

http://img219.imageshack.**/img219/3938/stuff3.jpg

8. Fender Super 210. Beautiful sounding amp, but I have internal tube rattle with my latest set of power tubes, so I'm a bit cheesed about that.

http://img94.imageshack.**/img94/1461/stuff8.jpg

9. Boss DD7 delay, SD1 overdrive, and Dunlop Crybaby 535Q. As you can see by the sticker on the crybaby, I don't gig at all :lol:, mostly use it with slippers or barefoot, so it's not seen much wear and tear :)

http://img138.imageshack.**/img138/6193/stuff9.jpg

In terms of software, I use Ableton Live to record on, and have Guitar Rig 4 (without the controller), as well as a few synths and drum machines to play along with. I use my HP laptop as a hub to make everything work together, and it's fantastic. Windows 7 is even more stable than Windows XP, so all in all, it's just a lot of good fun.

I eventually want to pick up a Gibby LP standard, but I'm not going to do it until I've achieved something (work related), I can truly be proud of and feel that I can reward myself with.

As a complete aside, the Yamaha actually plays really well considering that it's never been set up or anything. It's a really well made guitar, and I was very pleasantly surprised by it. It sounds garbage on the little Marshall that came with it, but it sounds really clean and sparkly on the Fender.

Oh, and the amp in the background is my monster Traynor YCV80, which I'm trying to sell, because the damn thing is so god damned loud. That is also a great amp, with a solid clean channel, and a solid dirty channel.
 
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GTR, you're lucky your GIGANTIC picture was the last post on the previous page because that was quite negrep worthy. :p
 
What is that? A contrabass clarinet? :p

Yeah! That monster is the Contrabass Clarinet
it's about $4000 for a good one (costs more than my car) and it's really difficult to find one around here :(

For me it is a toss up between the French Horn and the Clarinet as my most favorite instrument; both have such a human quality to them.

Definitely, and step it up a couple more times and the bass clarinet's got a more wholesome quality IMO. I cannot describe it but playing the bass cl has a more satisfying, maybe.. a nice rich feel to it

GTR, you're lucky your GIGANTIC picture was the last post on the previous page because that was quite negrep worthy. :p

close call
I didn't know the picture of the bass clarinet was that big because I got it right off the manufacturer's website. It didn't look that big from there.. my bad
 
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I getcha. I LOVE saxophones larger than alto. (for example, most music from Morphine)

However, Alto, or...for christ's sake soprano? Ugh...gets on my nerves like few other instruments.
 


Casio keyboard (since mid-to-late 1990s), Yamaha Clavinova (since 1997), Washburn bass (2006), Ibanez acoustic-electric guitar (2008). Not seen, Nemesis Eden amplifier (came with bass), and a flute which I broke.

Girls playing bass are HOT... Just saying.. :love:
 


Casio keyboard (since mid-to-late 1990s), Yamaha Clavinova (since 1997), Washburn bass (2006), Ibanez acoustic-electric guitar (2008). Not seen, Nemesis Eden amplifier (came with bass), and a flute which I broke.

Girls playing bass are HOT... Just saying.. :love:
 
Alrighty then! So here's my stuff, at least in terms of hardware:

Hot damn ... :eek: Do you produce your own music or something? And what do you usually do?
That's one whopper of a setup; and I thought I was the one member blowing lots of money on musical gear... I wish my home studio was as rich (might become richer this summer, as I decide to go do the "mobile DJ" thing ... might sell out on my musical tastes, but damn, it's good money, even in T.O.). Wish I had more guitars too, but I haven't learned how to play guitar yet, so I'm only stuck with one acoustic. Until I get the time to play with it and actually learn that may be a god idea.
 
Girls playing bass are HOT... Just saying.. :love:

Listen to a Japanese band called Mono. Although, admittedly, their bassist scares me sometimes.

Hot damn ... :eek: Do you produce your own music or something? And what do you usually do?
That's one whopper of a setup; and I thought I was the one member blowing lots of money on musical gear... I wish my home studio was as rich (might become richer this summer, as I decide to go do the "mobile DJ" thing ... might sell out on my musical tastes, but damn, it's good money, even in T.O.). Wish I had more guitars too, but I haven't learned how to play guitar yet, so I'm only stuck with one acoustic. Until I get the time to play with it and actually learn that may be a god idea.

Hehe, I go in and out of my 'producing' mood, and right now I'm out of it. I'm completely disillusioned by EDM at the moment, which is what I used to produce, progressive house, etc. Now I'm mainly into doing soundtrack and ambient stuff. I've done a few pieces for a few friends of mine who are working on independent video game projects, and just try to keep myself occupied with composition, in general. In terms of my guitars and stuff, I love the blues, 70s-80s rock, as well as some shoegazer type stuff. I'm one of those people who is average at picking up and playing absolutely any instrument, but a master of none. I've been making/playing stuff for about 11 years, but have never bothered to take formal lessons, so the only thing that holds me back is my absolute lack of musical knowledge :\.

It's only this year that I began taking a few guitar lessons to help me with some techniques, and I've been reading a book on music theory :p. Contrary to what I've always thought, both things have really helped me up my game by a huge margin!
 
Hehe, I go in and out of my 'producing' mood, and right now I'm out of it. I'm completely disillusioned by EDM at the moment, which is what I used to produce, progressive house, etc. Now I'm mainly into doing soundtrack and ambient stuff. I've done a few pieces for a few friends of mine who are working on independent video game projects, and just try to keep myself occupied with composition, in general. In terms of my guitars and stuff, I love the blues, 70s-80s rock, as well as some shoegazer type stuff. I'm one of those people who is average at picking up and playing absolutely any instrument, but a master of none. I've been making/playing stuff for about 11 years, but have never bothered to take formal lessons, so the only thing that holds me back is my absolute lack of musical knowledge :\.

It's only this year that I began taking a few guitar lessons to help me with some techniques, and I've been reading a book on music theory :p. Contrary to what I've always thought, both things have really helped me up my game by a huge margin!

Nice. I'm pretty new to producing myself, only a couple of years under my belt, much more proficient on DJing ... just like you, stuck on music theory at the moment. Also stuck on sound design, those synthesizers can be a pain in the butt. Analogs are ok, but FM synths just screw with my head. Learning a few methods of synth programming that were recommended to me at the moment and making progress on it, but very slowly.

Much like you, I'm a home-based learner. I don't believe in taking music lessons. Every time I took a music lesson it was from some self-important prick trying to teach me to do the "twinkle twinkle little star" on an instrument ... basically teaching me how to play a series of very basic songs on the instrument. That's like giving a hungry man a fish as opposed to teaching him how to fish for himself. So I'll never take guitar lessons. Mind you, I may find lessons for classical guitar but I doubt I'd find any lessons for metal guitar around here. And that's the aim. :D

As for my song preferences, I'd list Funky/Electro House and BreakBeat as my biggest ones, though I have a thing for psychedelic trance, but I'm also into ambient/soundtrack stuff (especially ambient breakbeat, trance and psychedelic).

Say, you wouldn't happen to be still going to school anywhere around Toronto ...
 
When it comes to creating fresh sounds from synths, I'm also an absolute dunce. I just experiment and experiment until I get a sound that I like. I'm never able to recreate a sound playing in my head, into reality, so I just play with knobs and settings till I get a sound I like, and then work with that. I was playing around with NI Massive a few months ago, and, though I was able to come up with some basic and typical synth and pad sounds, I wasn't nearly close to using the full potential of that behemoth of a program. I've decided to not try and make a science out of it, and just go with the flow :lol:.

Also, as far as lessons are concerned, how it worked out for me, at least in terms of guitars, was that my cousin taught me a few basic chords back when I was 14, and told me to just play those in various orders to come up with different tunes. I had a little Casio keyboard at the time and used to play random tunes from songs or movies on it by ear, and then I tried recreating those tunes on the guitar. That's how I learned to play the damn thing. However, after almost a decade (admittedly, on and off playing, I was never regularly playing until 3-4 years ago), I decided to find someone who could actually show me some tips and tricks, and some technique when it came to playing particular music (Blues, Rock). When you're taking lessons that go beyond basics, I think you'll find that there are quite a few teachers out there who are willing to go beyond "twinkle twinkle" :lol:. I'm actually teaching a friend of mine how to play classical guitar (myself and a few other friends chipped in and got him a nylon string Yamaha for his birthday), and he's come a really really long way going from knowing absolutely nothing, to playing simple chords in a very short amount of time.

Also, in terms of school, I keep going in and out of various colleges, because I either get bored of what I'm doing, or have altercations with professors/teachers so I never end up following through :lol:. I've done two years of automotive design in Barrie, two years of graphics design/industrial design at Humber, a year of design foundation at Seneca, but I can never be bothered to finish what I started /facepalm. I might do computer programming this coming September just so that I can have a paper in my hand saying I'm not as dumb as I look :lol:.
 
When it comes to creating fresh sounds from synths, I'm also an absolute dunce. I just experiment and experiment until I get a sound that I like. I'm never able to recreate a sound playing in my head, into reality, so I just play with knobs and settings till I get a sound I like, and then work with that. I was playing around with NI Massive a few months ago, and, though I was able to come up with some basic and typical synth and pad sounds, I wasn't nearly close to using the full potential of that behemoth of a program. I've decided to not try and make a science out of it, and just go with the flow :lol:.
Massive is pretty ok. It's just a big analog synth with a lot of options. Now FM8 ... FM synthesis I just don't get ... a wave that modulates a wave that modulates a wave that modulates a wave .... what kind of logic does that serve? Anyway, I'm still going to make a science out of it. There's people out there that can make you a sound just as you described from nothing. You tell them to make you a sharp pianolike sound, a few knob turns and switches flipped later, you got a sharp pianolike sound. I want to be able to do just that .. or maybe not have encyclopedic knowledge, but be able to get a sound out of my head and on a synth. But it's pretty hard to learn when there's very few words to really describe sound and the rest of descriptions are nothing but cheap metaphores.

Also, in terms of school, I keep going in and out of various colleges, because I either get bored of what I'm doing, or have altercations with professors/teachers so I never end up following through :lol:. I've done two years of automotive design in Barrie, two years of graphics design/industrial design at Humber, a year of design foundation at Seneca, but I can never be bothered to finish what I started /facepalm. I might do computer programming this coming September just so that I can have a paper in my hand saying I'm not as dumb as I look :lol:.

Well, if you find yourself enrolling to Ryerson U, you might want to look me up. I'm looking into starting an electronic music society for the students by the end of this summer ... basically a student club for DJs and Producers of any kind of music.
 
Massive is pretty ok. It's just a big analog synth with a lot of options. Now FM8 ... FM synthesis I just don't get ... a wave that modulates a wave that modulates a wave that modulates a wave

Haha, I have an easier time playing around with FM8 than I do with Massive. Go figure :lol:.

I have a few friends that are into sound engineering, that are able to do exactly what you describe, but I leave their strengths to be their strengths and stick to my own, i.e. composition :).

If I'm down by Ryerson I'll definitely look you up, sounds like fun, the project!
 
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