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My long-time music friend and blues guitarist, Deadman Turner, has kindly offered to sell me his PK-5A pedal board, an offer I’d be a fool to pass up. This MIDI gadget by Roland is discontinued, and DT’s unit is one of the best kept models I’ve seen. So, in the next few months, expect this bassist to get all Sting on yo’ asses 
Thank’s DT, VERY much appreciated.
As for a sound module, I’ve ordered an iPad and NLog pro is my app of choice. Coupled with my MIDI-USB cable and the Camera Connection kit, the whole rig’s cheaper than a hardware synth and better sound quality and playability than even Virus hardware. Noice
Today I ordered this audio interface so that the band can record gigs and rehearsals as a reference record, or even full albums. The deal was awesome, NZ$ price way less than AU$ price, no freight fee and an overall AU$ cost stupidly below AU$ RRP The US1800 haa 8 balance mic inputs, 2 instrument/line ins, 4 straight line ins and 2 digital S/PDIF channels for 16 simultaneous inputs and 4 outputs over USB2. Schweet Full review when it arrives and is put into service.
UPDATE: Still waiting, hopefully it will arrive today (Feb 8)
UPDATE 2: Apparently being DHL’d tomorrow (Valentine’s Day) eager to get this up and running!
GarageBand on iPhone. Not as easy to use as on a MacBook but Amplitube iRig and MultitrackDAW seriously want to rethink their pricing! This top dog of “prosumer” Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) is killer at AU$5:50 on the App Store, yet pretty much does most of what it’s Macintosh sibling does, except mayby track counts and inputs.
Onscreen instruments are better suited to iPad, I think, but still quite usable 
for sketching a melody or bass line. The Automatic Instruments seem at first play to be a little “samey” but I think there’s a knack to how you you use them which will come with experience. It’s certainly better than having a favourite drum loop and using it over and over in the same song, though. (Guilty as charging myself…)
The interfaces for tracks are familiar, too. The effects are done in a typically iOS way, but make sense in a GarageBand way. There guitar amps (shown), effects pedals (shown), loops and recording tools are are all really nice simplifications for use on a smaller screen than your usual music DAW.
Like I say, familiar in evry way. Also, I’m told 4S has full USB classes, so I’ll be 
getting a camera adapter kit soon to try out my iMic, Singstars and GuitarLink. GarageBand for iPhone, worth every cent of its $5:49 price tag.
This is me with my new toy… er, sorry, professional instrument, my candyapple red Fender Standard Jazz. She looks a dream, plays herself (almost) and sounds like rock’n'roll with deeper bottoms than any bass I’ve ever owned wihout any compromise to clarity and brightness.
The front pickup is warm and woody, with thump and thunder, bring on the back pickup and she becomes solid and funky, while the back pickup on its own has such crisp, post-punk/new punk tones as to be dangerous 
This axe rocks. I think light guage Rotosounds are back on my biannual shopping list again, despite the cost. Worth every penny.
Candyapple red,
Deep rolling basso thunder,
Music is found here.
Warm your bones by my melodian. With reeds like a harmonica and keys like a Casio CZ-10, it’s just what our new song, “The Fireplace,” needs.
This is the latest test of a system to allow me to play a “hook” on the keys, then transition (hopefully) seamlessly to bass and back again. The melodian is held to the shelf by Velcro dots, the shelf is screwed to a pressed steel bracket, the bracket is heavily taped the the boom on the mic stand and the blowpipe runs up a coated wire (also heavily taped on) and is held to this with 2 Velcro cable ties.
Ladies and gentlemen, the MelodiStand 2000.
After Sunday’s rehearsal, I decided yesterday to try out a simple rig to see if I could play the melodian part and switch to the bass part in time, and back. It took 10 minutes to figure out playing the part (a simple inversion on the chords), another 10 to figure out how to attach the melodian to my Ashton acoustic bass and about 30 minutes to practice the switch until I could get it right. I’ve recorded it, too, but the vid’s a little large (and a bit rough, audio-wise) for uploading. So, it works a treat. Now to rig something more professional, with much better ergonomics
On The Collectables’ “scoreboard”, it’s 9 to Alex, 1 to me: The Fireplace. This is cool. Alex and I are very different songwriters, so I feel pretty chuffed to have written one which fits the format.
Even more “chuffing,” is that, after a bit of discussion about what is “that one more thing” the song needs for perfection, the fact that I have a Melodian (which has a sort of “harmonica-ry” sound) came to light, and we decided to give it a try. As I didn’t have it with me at rehearsal, I had to sing the part, but next week…
So, even though it was something cool to have just because I’ve always wanted one, now it’s a useful instrument, too. That made my day, I can tell you.
Now here’s a delicious toy to save for! Vocal effects, backing vocals, several patch locations to store different settings. Just what a solo act needs to add theatre to their singing. Allans Music have ‘em for $699. I see one in my future, and I’m not all that psychic
Now here was a pleasant surprise. I went into Moorabbin Music Emporium intending to buy a $70 squash box delay and came out with a $270 Korg Tonelab AX5G pedal, but for WHOLE lot less than that price!. Stupidly less! Stupidly, insanely less, with a bit more knocked off for cash, too! Daftly cheap. OK, I’m labouring the point, but the reason for my excitement is they’re a great pedal for list price. It’s a WHOLE bucket of win for even the usual 10% off, let alone the insane markdown mine was.
Through my Strauss’s clean channel, the amp sims sounded huge. I still wish somebody made an affordable pedal where the amp models could be bypassed to a real amp, but the Tonelab is flexible enough to go into Ludwig’s effects loop without affecting the signal levels. (It will need tweaking, but it’s doable.)
Of the 40 presets there are maybe half a dozen I like out of the box, one being the Gibby Ac, a sweet Gibson acoustic simulation. Warm, woody and not a hint of artefaction. I’m sure the guitar it’s modelled on would sound better than my Ibanez Blazer in juggernaut’s clothing, but only by a fraction, and only if hooked up properly. The clean, crunch and lead sound have a richness cheap multieffects shouldn’t have. The chorus, flange and phase sounds are versatile and the reverbs and delays are as close as you can get to having your own big, timber and carpet lined concert hall.
The downsides are it’s only a 32k sample rate and it looks a little placcy. The placcy is only a look as it’s actually quite sturdy and the expression pedal feels really nice under foot. The 32k sample rate means it can audibly whistle a bit on the higher gain settings when not being played, but only if you’re less than generous with the noise gate and only JUST audibly.
For the money, there is nothing to gripe about. For the pro on a budget, it will deliver the goods. For the beginner, you can hide behind these effects and actually get away with it to a degree, but if you don’t over do it, you’ll get a few years great work out of this machine before you’re hankering for a Line 6 board, for sure.
Still hoping I’ll get one of these soon. We had major money pain with the bathroom reno, so it got postponed. I’m jonesing, though, jonesing badly. Patience, patience, Moses had patience.
