MachineCode

Hey man, I'm with you. I really dislike that genre too. I much prefer thrash, prog, and traditional metal to the extreme, black, and death variants. It's more the vocals that I find off-putting, but sometimes its the guitar tones and the constant blast beats as well. Like you, I do prefer a more natural sound as well. Gate: It's not only the speed of the cut but also the depth. With muting technique you can only go as quiet as the amp will go on the current settings without being played. The gate lowers that down to silence. Since the dynamic range of the rise from silence to peak is greater and vice versa on the cutoff, it's perceived as punchier. You are right about Mesa and discounts. We sold em at a store I worked at for a few years and the best I could get was if the owner was willing to give it to me at or close to cost. Mesa was always kinda "the price is the price." How do you like that Kemper btw? Also to keep on topic... Gojira!!!

You may not personally like it, and I personally do not, but for better or for worse that is a part of the sound of that genre. The EMGs are also not only used for high output, but for their frequency response. They they tend to filter out certain ranges that would end up getting to be too much too soon under high gain, while focusing others so that they are what's prominently hitting the first gain stage of the amp. This way, as the compression effect of saturation builds up, it evens out more while still retaining some articulation under more extreme conditions. There's a reason you don't see certain popular guitars and pickups all over that genre. A Strat or a Les Paul is still gonna sound like a Strat or Les Paul through a 5150, 6505, Diezel, insert other high gain monsters here, and not have what is necessary to get the type of sound needed for the genre. Les Paul will definitely get you closer than a Strat though. WRT the the noise gate, it's not only to tamp down the noise but also to have that quick cut to silence under palm muting to change the envelope of the sound, sharpening the transient to make it a bit punchier sounding. Also, I've known people who had endorsements on gear. They don't normally pay you money directly like how Nike pays LeBron James, but rather you get free or heavily discounted gear and chances to have signature models tailored to your specifications. Hell Mesa Boogie doesn't even give free amps to their endorsees but rather something like half price. Most musician's who aren't completely starving to the point where they can't afford equipment or maintenance wouldn't be endorsing gear they didn't like enough to actually use from time to time as it would just get them a lot of free shit they don't like. That type of sellout behavior is more found when licensing your song to a Coke or car commercial as that is where the money is.

Dream Theatre is a different animal. They fall into the category of compensating for the low tunings by adjusting their gear differently. They are also not in the extreme metal genre but rather prog metal where you need a sound that's going to allow for articulation of more fine details. JP is also not using something like a 6505+ or an UberSchall with the knobs dimed (nor should anyone as that would just sound terrible.) but rather a Mesa Mark II C+ (now his signature JP2c which is a reissue with more flexible features but same circuit), the same amp Metallica was using for Puppets and Justice. I own a Quad Preamp based rig where CH1 is more or less that circuit and while it packs a lot of gain, it still remains quite articulate but doesn't quite get to modern extreme metal levels of gain like some of the aforementioned choices. It's an excellent sound, but it's different than what those genres use. There are also a lot of variables to what makes a great live sound. Acoustics is a big one, but having a good consistent dedicated crew is another big one. A band like DT is going to always have their people and their setup with them, and scalable versions of that setup for different sized venues, whereas the opener or even a slightly lower tier band is going to be more at the mercy of the headliner or venue for that sort of thing and therefore not able to have everything completely optimized for them. More having to adapt to their situation vs creating the situation they truly need. Still doesn't negate the role of the surrounding environment. An example I can cite of acoustics ruining the sound of a very professional act is Iron Maiden. Big legendary metal act, definitely not a super high gain type sound but still, needs that bottom end to sound heavy enough to work. They can afford the best of the best and always travel with a massive setup and crew. In many places they sound excellent. Came to the Wells Fargo Center in Philly the other year and the overwhelming consensus was that it sounded awful. Just a boomy, muddy mess. That arena is known for sounding terrible and just eating up all the intelligible frequency range while just accentuating the mud. To the point where even the mighty Iron Maiden and Co. couldn't tame the beast. In a place like that, the amount of filtering that would need to be done in order to not excite the shitty acoustics WRT to the low end would leave you with something that sounded like a bee in your ear coming from the line arrays. It would lose too much of what makes Maiden sound like Maiden. At the same time, if you go too far in boosting specific frequency ranges to the extreme to try and compensate for the room, you can easily end up with massive feedback concerns at the volumes they're playing with. My point about venue acoustics was more to point out that certain sounds work in a greater number places and that it's not only the band and sound crew that are factors. Extreme metal is one that works in fewer places than most. A tighter and dryer acoustic environment would be more suitable for that style. Good luck getting that to happen in a large enclosed space. Yes adjustments can be made on the equipment end, but there's only so much that can be done before it no longer sounds like the genre is supposed to, for better or for worse. I say this from literally decades of experience at this point as a player, and on the other end working in recording engineering and live sound (more the recording end as that's what I preferred). I'd love to be able to always have a group play with what I would personally like, setup how I would like, but that just not right for every type of music. The tones coming from the band are as much a part of the genre it as the compositions are. You are right though that many times musicians can be their own worst enemy and stubborn as mules. I've been there and dealt with that many many times. Most of them do not take the time to learn how stuff actually works and when told how to fix it by people who have, far too many dig in their heels and stonewall on the dumbest things out of a misguided belief that someone is going to change their sound to something they don't like. Sometimes it's also out of laziness. The words "it doesn't matter" and "that's good enough" as responses to notes are frequent with these types. I literally still have sessions on my hard drive from 10 years ago that didn't get finished from a band whose guitarist did exactly that to the point that when it started causing major problems in the mixing stage, the band wanted to stab him and the sessions were abandoned. But sometimes it is hard for a guitarist who's used to playing live with a bunch of gain and certain setup that seems to work for them to realize that on record, layering multiple lower gain tracks ends up sounding bigger and meaner than doing the same with higher gain. In the end, you do work for your client and there's only so much you can do to change their minds before you just have to let them lie in the shitty sounding bed they made.

Only so much though. While a classic plexi tone may carry better, it's just not suitable for the genre. They need to use tones that actually sound like what they play, and that generally means a shitload of gain and a bit of a boost in the extremities with a dip in the middle. Can they compensate a little? Of course. In a boomy environment, the lows generally get a bit of a dip to help out. But you can only go so low before it stops chugging and sounds weak. Also presence is not a magic bullet, but rather usually a negative feedback line sent from the speaker side of the output transformer into one of the late driver stages that ends up creating an upper midrange boost. It can be helpful sure, but it can also be harsh as all fuck on many amps past a certain point and can make a tone thats very fatiguing to the ear, while still not really fixing the problems caused by bad acoustics. Does tuning to B or A make it less intelligible. It absolutely can. Especially if they don't compensate by using thicker gauge strings and pickups that have an extended low range and all around don't know how to set up their rigs (making the guitars do what the bass should be doing, too much gain where it turns to fizz, etc.). But none of that means shit when faced with a horrible acoustic environment where you have 5 second decay times on the reflections and a frequency response plot that looks like mountains and valleys mixed with spikes. The only thing that would save that would be to remedy the issues in the room as you just can't fight physics. With the exception of tiny little box sized rooms, the larger the space, the more difficult that becomes. That's why, with a proper system, these kinds of bands sound infinitely better at big outdoor shows than arenas as arenas are quite possibly one of the worst environments you can get. And @guitarzombie EMGs can be excellent in the right application. I would hate to have my single coil Strat pickups when trying to play death metal. Consequently, the standard hi output EMG humbuckers aren't really what I'd want in a blues context. But, they do make pickups for that sort of sound as well. Don't believe me, ask David Gilmour.

While there IS no excuse for poor mixing, with live sound you are VERY much at the mercy of the room. For example, big boomy arena acoustics are horrible for loud heavy music. Renders much of it unintelligible. Why do you think studios put such an importance on acoustic treatment? How the reflecting sound interacts with the direct sound makes a massive difference. The phase relationship between the two create all sorts of peaks and nulls in the frequency spectrum that greatly vary the sound. The low end of the frequency spectrum is especially vulnerable due to the wavelengths being much longer than those of the mids and highs. A large portion of live venues, and especially big arenas that were designed around sporting events vs concerts, do NOT place a huge importance on acoustics and ensuring a flatter room response. Mid sized venues and select theaters are usually better for this sort of thing, but it always comes down to the individual place. Something I tend to do is if I can't get general admission at a show, I try and sit right behind, or if that's not and option in front of, the mixing console as the show is being mixed from their perspective. This usually gets you the best sound.

Sorry, never saw that thread but just now found the debates list so I can avoid that mishap again. I'll change mine to Bad Religion then.

Nice, which stop did you go to? We went to BB&T Camden where Cory Taylor had to address most peoples location confusion in not knowing whether to call us Jersey, Camden, or Philly. He just dubbed it Philly as this is the least Jersey part of Jersey.

Saw them open for Slipknot over the summer and they were pretty damn good. Next: Alice In Chains

I like those tubs you got there

Just checked my copy and it does not have those problems.

What do you guys with these very large collections, especially ones with displays like Fleck's Zelda wall, do to keep your games clean and dust free?

I have a cardboard Majesco copy. Can you specify the error and what you wish for me to check on my copy?

Hey now, that sentence can mean something entirely different on certain websites

The Wii sensor bar style light gun just never worked as well as a proper CRT lightgun setup. The motion just never tracked correctly on a consistent enough basis. I was at an arcade where they had replaced some monitors with LCDs (sacrilege) and done the conversion on some of their light gun games and they just absolutely sucked in comparison to the ones that still had the original equipment. It sucks cuz combined with either an on gun joystick for moving around, headtracking, or VR, it could be really cool and new experience. I just picture one day doing the real life version of Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions and smile.

Mixed feelings. Great for buying, shit for trading. Like others, I wanted that new PSX (refurbished with a metal fan in my case). Well, Christmas 96, Danbury, CT, they gave me $2 for my NES console and really not much for a solid collection of games. I realized the error of my ways by around 01-02 and started collecting.

Excellent! Thank you so much for this.

Nice job! I'm doing a little reconfiguring of my setup (NES is not currently hooked up) and then will be taking my runs. Contra is gonna be my problem.

Nah, MM1 is awesome. People are just put off by it because it was not common to have back in the day due to MM2 being the breakout success, and it's noticeably harder than the others (although 3 gives it a run for its money). I personally, outside of beating the Yellow Devil without cheating, don't even find it that hard. It seems like one of those things people automatically dismiss as too hard because other people told them it was hard. Kinda like a lot of children with Math. Totally valid favorite choice though.

I read the site posted in above and learned a lot. It's written by one of the developing team's daughters who found all her father's research and documents. It's fascinating how Chuck Peddle just rounded up his co workers at Motorola, started a new company from scratch and created a product that revolutionized an industry and changed the world. You could never pull that off nowadays. I also had no idea that they did all this in Valley Forge, PA, which fills me with even more regional pride. RIP Chuck Peddle. Your daring to dream will echo for generations to come. If not for you, we might not even have the topic upon which this forum is based.

C'mon man, what are you scared? I thought you were cool. Don't be such a wuss. Last year's Jim woulda done it. You've changed man.

The only niche solution that could be remotely feasible would be custom low res LPDs because it wouldn't require the facilities to make giant vacuum tubes, nor lead, nor require super high voltages. CRTs relied on volume to justify the expensive manufacturing process that it took to produce them. Made far more sense when they as a technology were more or less the only game in town for most applications. Plus, as stated earlier, an integral part of the process is environmentally harmful so it would be a hard sell. As far as used stuff, most of the problems that occur are chassis problems as those tubes were generally super durable and needed to be physically damaged for most things that would render them useless. The issue is less the durability and longevity and repairability, although parts stock will inevitably dry up some day, but rather the fact that so many TVs that could have been salvaged, or were easily able to be restored to proper working condition, were instead thrown away and then destroyed, thus ensuring that the supply of working monitors runs out faster. And you can't really blame the average TV watcher for it. They are generally going to want to watch current broadcasts and stream video and play modern consoles, all of which require a modern TV to do correctly. On top of that, the HD or even 4K TV at this point that ends up replacing it is cheaper and larger than most CRTs were during their era, without most of the drawbacks.

While my favorite is MM2 I can see that perspective. I feel like everything released after 3 was a bit late in the NES lifecycle where a lot of people started to move on to Sega or SNES whereas 2 and 3 were released during peak Nintendo mania. Everyone played those back in the day where fewer played 4, even fewer played 5, and a LOT fewer played 6 as that one was way late to the party.

They weren't. That was the Hawaiians

Sonic The Hedgehog series. Kill Robotnik and take a nasty bounce into a pit or some lava and you're goin again.

Italian stereotype here so we go to my Grandparents' house for Christmas Eve and only eat fish and pasta. Christmas day is pretty standard stuff though.