Recent content by Simon Beck

There is a third option which actually costs and weighs less, and sounds closer to a Wurlitzer. The Valente electric piano is a modern reed piano, hand-made in Brazil. It features a 61-note keyboard, C-to-C, a sustain pedal, and completely passive circuitry using magnetic pickups. I bought mine...

Found elsewhere on this forum: "I found the following post from Nils K on 9/22/2004 ....IT WORKED FOR ME .... In my case, I left the CF card in the MR-8 and turned the USB "on" , then used these steps to copy and install the unzipped file mr08_mv1.21 ...However, I probably could have just...

A new mix - stereo this time - of "Don't Buy a Banjo, My Son". Took the bass and piano down, brought the electric guitar and backing vocals up, and did some subtle panning of everything except rhythm guitar, bass and lead vocal. I haven't done a stereo mix since the early 1990s, when I was still...

Thanks for your feedback! That's exactly the kind of advice I needed. You're quite right about the vocal. It was a bit "spontaneous", and for some reason I was too close to the microphone. No excuses. Percussion: I had hoped to find a ready-made Bodhran track, or at least some samples of the...

First, a mock-Irish ballad, "The Ballad of Cormac O'Nissen", with lyrics co-written by my sons Thomas (15) and William. (12). All instruments and vocals by myself. Percussion was programmed in HammerHead 1.0 and looped in Audacity. Ukulele and mandolin are both in low-G uke tuning. "Tin...

My son and I have been successfully using a CF-to-MicroSD adapter for a year or so with my second-hand red MR-8. Even the 2GB MicroSD cards are getting hard to find these days, so I tend to buy cheap job lots when they come up on Ebay. One word of warning if you want to get a CF adapter. These...

Haha! My son (also 15) and I have just started building an SG copy (bolt neck) from a Thomann kit. We have sprayed the body and neck with grey primer, and we are waiting for the British weather to improve so we can give it a few coats of bright blue (Ford Monza Blue) and then clear lacquer. This...

Not true. All my drum tracks are created on my PC using HammerHead 1.0 and Audacity, and I export them as WAV files and put them on my MR8 with no trouble at all. You HAVE to use the Fostex WAV Manager program to do it, and the file has to have the correct name (e.g. TR01.WAV if you want to use...

Had a fun recording session with my elder son Thomas today. He is 14 and a keen folk and blues guitarist. He decided to record the classic New Orleans song "Iko Iko" - he recently heard Dr John's version and really liked it. The first track was vocal and rhythm guitar. Thomas has a late-1960s...

Too late. We've just promised him an Epiphone Les Paul Standard in Pelham Blue for his 15th birthday... :rolleyes:

You wanted pics? Well, here is pretty much ALL my gear, keyboardy and otherwise:

I've never pushed my kids towards music. One day about two years ago, Thomas (12 at the time) pointed at my electric upright bass and, out of the blue, said "Can you show me how to play that? Show me how it works". I taught him a few simple bass lines, and from there he progressed to bass...

Yeah - my stage-name is "Butterfingers". And not in a good way... ;)

My 14-year-old elder son and I have three ukuleles between us as well as WAY too many guitars... Thomas's: Mine: And yes, we really do own two identical mandolins! Thomas bought one recently with some saved-up pocket money. It arrived damaged (the neck wasn't properly attached), and the...

Very nice. And easier on the ear than mine! :)