racketboy.com

My band finally has a couple of shows lined up. If you're in the austin area and wanna come out to Head Hunters on thursday May 9th, introduce yourself to the fat drummer from Bad Habit & the Corruptions! We go on @ 1030, and its our first show, so you're BOUND to see me drop a stick and screw up the timing!

We're also playing May 29th at the Red Eyed Fly.

Just decided to do a little one-off reunion show with my old band and it lead me to finally post up some recordings from our last shows. Loud, noisy, punk drum & bass. Probably a lot more fun to play than listen to. Either way, i'm kind of jacked (and not looking forward to relearning these songs without a chance to practice them)

https://soundcloud.com/kmke/sets/the-ke ... n-ketamine

Just got this guy...


http://www.ovationguitars.com/guitars/product/celebrity_cc24_4_5_rr

I was asked to play an acoustic set in a couple of weeks and realized that I don't have a decent acoustic guitar.

I have a beat up Carlo Robelli that came free with some one's purchase from Sam Ash. It's... an acoustic guitar? It's playable, but it's super low end. I have a Walden in my possession, some one moved to Florida and left it with me. Not crazy about the way it feels. And then I have my 12 string Fender. I liked it when I bought it, but playing it now, I don't know. The neck is super wide (I know it's a 12 string but it's REALLY wide) and flat as hell. I haven't check, but the radius is definitely greater than 12 inches. It makes it really hard to bar chords on, I can't even make it through a chorus without my wrist really hurting. I use to play it a lot... I don't know how!

So yeah, I had to get me a decent acoustic to play on. I haven't played acoustic guitar for any great length of time for years now. So, I decided to get something that would be really easy to play. I remember liking the Roundback body of Ovation guitars, so I decided to check them out. Turns out a lot of reviews said the neck played more like an electric guitar, and the satin finish on the back of the neck makes it even better. I have an acoustic guitar pickup that I can use on basically any acoustic guitar, but having the internal pickup simplifies things a lot. And having a built in tuner is a bonus.

Now I'm off to learn a bunch of songs I've never heard on a guitar I've never played... wish me luck!

Update from my band, Beat the Doll! We have a new demo uploaded.. It's not our heaviest, but we think it's pretty damn sweet. Our singer kills it, I'm so stoked to have that guy on board. Check it out, it's called "Family"

http://www.reverbnation.com/beatthedoll

http://www.facebook.com/beatthedoll

edit: more tracks have been uploaded

My new toy:

Been thinking about synthesizers lately. Any suggestions for an introduction?

RyaNtheSlayA wrote:Been thinking about synthesizers lately. Any suggestions for an introduction?

I started on a Korg MS 2000s. It is a great virtual analog synthesizer because it has lots of accessible knobs, it's well organized, and has a great sound.

Here is the rack mountable unit for midi use:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007ADQDH ... precache=1

I picked this up a few weeks back...



Casio Privia PX750

Something I've been wanting to do for a while now is to start playing piano on a regular basis again. I even mentioned it in my first post in this thread! And even complaining about it back in August of 2011, I still never really did anything about it. Until a few weeks ago, when I decided a nice digital piano is a good idea.

Finally, my piano playing days are no longer behind me.

RyaNtheSlayA wrote:Been thinking about synthesizers lately. Any suggestions for an introduction?

There are several great beginner synths out there. Do you have a taste for anything specifically? Analog synthesizers are a lot more expensive and generally carry fewer features than a digital synthesizer, but analog is where it all began. A lot of people prefer analog, but sometimes the price gets in the way.

This one is cheap for an analog synthesizer, with patching capabilities that enable a lot of complex variations. Also has midi in and out.


The Minibrute, it's bigger brother:


This one is made in England and has tons of features packed into it. It's very well built, and can even be battery powered or plugged in to an A/C adapter. It's also a 2 oscillator synth with high, low and bandpass filter options, a ring modulator, and all the general waveforms that analog synths carry.


As for software, this one struck my fancy. The Teenage engineering OP-1


It has a lot of functionality, and has a built in lithium-ion battery that can last up to 16 hours according to the manufacturer, but according to the users on the unofficial OP-1 forum, it's more like 8 hours.

Those are just a few I had/have interest in. Let me know if there is anything I can help you out with.

The Korg DS-10 program for Nintendo DS was my introduction to synthesizers and is what I used to make the soundtrack to Unemployment Quest. It served as my introduction to the world of synths and I think it's a great way to get an idea of how synthesizers work without breaking the bank.

As far as hardware goes, I'd recommend the Korg R3. It's pretty affordable as far as synths go and it's REALLY versatile. The only downside is that the limited knobs/display makes it kind of inconvenient to work with unless you are also using the included software.
And obviously it also depends on what you're looking for (analog/digital) and how much money you have to spend!


I also started playing my diatonic accordion again. I love that thing but I'm still pretty shaky. But I've been practicing daily for a little over a month and am HOPING I stick with it FOR REAL this time!