so, i was working on that replacement process so long that i forgot what i was doing before.

i've spent most of what i won. so, i need to make sure i get the operation done first - that was the point, after all.

i need to finalize the plan with the shuttle service, first.

so, this is what i'm looking at, in total:

first basement:

- mid-sized keyboard amp (like the vox kb50)

- e609 mic to upgrade the altec, maybe.

second basement:

- if i find an affordable ry30 somewhere, i must get it. not a priority.

- akai mini-like controller for pads

- plastic recorder (or wind controller?)

- orchestral string midi controller hack ideas*

third basement:

- metal case dan electro fabtone, if found cheap enough

- $50 (max) mini modelling amp

- pignose amp

- mini tube guitar amp?

- mini trumpet

- mini sax

- piano (long term project that will probably never happen; i don't have the space, and i can't move it, even if i bite on one of those $100 pianos on kijiji)

- 21 fret classical with piezo*

- megatrancer vst effect

- update koan

- any basic ring mod box

- theremin

- ukelele*

- electric mandolin*

- bontempi b4 reed organ

fourth basement:

- 12-string acoustic

- a guitar with goldfoil pickups

* - check midi controller for these items, as well as things like sitar, banjo...tunings notwithstanding (that is, one four string guitar-like instrument may be sufficient for all)

extra guitar items:

- midi guitar <----polyphonic guitar parts

- i'm looking for a basic paul shape, to put p90s in it. must be a super cheap pawn shop purchase. <----amplified rhythm parts

- a jazzmaster or jaguar shaped guitar with jazzmaster pickups. idea probably put aside for now. <---effects work

- a couple of cheap electrics for weird tunings, etc.

i think this should be anything and everything.

so, one thing at a time. slowly...

just a few more...

first basement:

- mid-sized keyboard amp (like the vox kb50)

- e609 mic to upgrade the altec, maybe.

second basement:

- if i find an affordable ry30 somewhere, i must get it. not a priority.

- akai mini-like controller for pads

- plastic recorder (or wind controller?)

- orchestral string midi controller hack ideas

third basement:

- metal case dan electro fabtone, if found cheap enough

- $50 (max) mini modelling amp

- pignose amp

- mini trumpet

- mini sax

- piano (long term project that will probably never happen; i don't have the space, and i can't move it, even if i bite on one of those $100 pianos on kijiji)

- 21 fret classical with piezo

- megatrancer vst effect

- update koan

- any basic ring mod box

- theremin

- ukelele

- electric mandolin

- bontempi b4 reed organ

fourth basement:

- 12-string acoustic

- a guitar with goldfoil pickups

fifth basement:

- the altec 683b & harmonica are both still in my possession. so, nothing.

sixth basement:

- from previous post:

still hoping to get that demented foot pedal guitar sound, i swapped the morley for a digitech xp100 and still didn't really get what i wanted. the harmonizers are exceedingly synthetic sounding, probably because they're ultimately doubling the sound from a sampler, which is kind of lame. it was used in the next two basements, but was sold in 2003. the pod actually does what this did a lot better than it does.

so, nothing.

seventh basement:

- the digital piano was nice (the quality of font is noticeably upgraded in reflections and flying), but it doesn't require a replacement.

- a version of cakewalk was actually purchased, but it didn't run correctly and disappeared some time when i was gone in bc. i've used cubase sx 3.0 as my main daw for years, since i upgraded pcs in 2006, which is still my main recording pc. i will update this when i move to 64 bit, eventually. but, this was my first attempt at multitrack digital recording and i didn't try again for years.

- i don't have setup files for orion anymore, and don't really remember what it was. iirc, that sequence part was done in the only time i ever really looked at it. there's lots of ways to make sequencer parts...

- i still have files for drumstation, but i don't install it. it might not work well on xp; i don't recall. it's a roland style emulator, and i have lots of options, even if i'd rather score it, generally. but, it's still around.

so, nothing....

and still going...

first basement:

- mid-sized keyboard amp (like the vox kb50)

- e609 mic to upgrade the altec, maybe.

second basement:

- if i find an affordable ry30 somewhere, i must get it. not a priority.

- akai mini-like controller for pads

- plastic recorder (or wind controller?)

- orchestral string midi controller hack ideas

third basement:

- metal case dan electro fabtone, if found cheap enough

- $50 (max) mini modelling amp

- pignose amp

- mini trumpet

- mini sax

- piano (long term project that will probably never happen; i don't have the space, and i can't move it, even if i bite on one of those $100 pianos on kijiji)

- 21 fret classical with piezo

- megatrancer vst effect

- update koan

- any basic ring mod box

- theremin

- ukelele

- electric mandolin

- bontempi b4 reed organ

fourth basement:

- that ancient 12-string was in my possession until 2011 and then disappeared, and i wish i knew what happened to it. it was either an ovation or a harmony, but i think it was a harmony. the guitar had been left beside a furnace for i don't know how long and was so locked it up (due to dryness) that it couldn't actually be played. when i recorded "strung out" the next fall, the concept was to play every guitar in the house, and that one did not get played, so it's a measure of just how bad it was. i also remember writing the guitar part for clarity on the epiphone, hoping to play it on the 12-string....but i didn't, in the end. see, when a guitar is dry like that, you have to slowly humidify it, and i was paranoid that i was going to moisten it up too fast and snap it in half. my best guess is that my sister stole it and sold it for some unknown amount, but you'll never get a straight answer from her regarding much of anything at all. i would like a 12-string to replace it, but i do not think i ever recorded anything with it, either. the lost symphony would probably sound very good on a 12-string...

- the 6-string saturn does appear on strung out, and i think that's the only place it appears. it was a cheap guitar that was nice to have around, but doesn't have any particular purpose; i don't need multiple acoustic guitars. i don't know when this one disappeared, but i don't remember seeing it after 2003. i guess the takeharu could potentially take it's place as a substantive upgrade in japanese made instruments.

- the age of the capo is a good hint as to the ago of these guitars - mid 60s. there was also a partridge family trading card that i had for years and have since lost. the guitar capo is still in my possession, even as the guitars it came with are not.

- the dx100 was a christmas present and garage sale pickup. i still have it.

- i found an old beat up tele with what i called "weird pickups" at a garage sale that summer. i think they were gold foil, in hindsight. i kept it for alternate tunings, and recorded a few tracks with it as a noise generating device, but i never fixed the broken pickups. it disappeared in 2011. i'd need to replace it with a functioning gold foil device.

- jon's guitar and amp were left in my basement for a few months and only used to record his own parts. it's a measure of how often he actually played the instrument that he felt comfortable leaving it at my place for months at a time (they were his only guitar and his only amp).

- my dad sold his bass with his drums, and i spent a while without a bass. the material that spring was done mostly with synth basses (or organs), when it wasn't just written out as a score.  but, i picked up that washburn that summer for the purposes of playing bass for jon & sean. i sold it in 2003, and replaced it with the ibanez a few years later. i found the neck far too big for me...

- a mini classical appears around this time, that eventually had to be replaced because the top fell off. i think it was a yamaha, purchased for $2 at a garage sale. i always called it "the $2 guitar". it would be replaced with the hohner, eventually. i actually used this little guitar more frequently than the aria, due to the small hands.

moving to the next basement...

first basement:

- mid-sized keyboard amp

- e609 mic to upgrade the altec, maybe.

second basement:

- if i find an affordable ry30 somewhere, i must get it. not a priority.

- but, in the short run, something like an akai mini would give me access to velocity sensitive pads, if i can find one for very cheap. not a clear priority, for now.

- plastic recorder (or wind controller?)

- i've added a picture for fake strings to sept 6, 1997 because that's the oldest attempt i have at creating a string section that's designed to sound like strings (rather than a synthesizer), probably actually due to an influence from a canadian band called the tea party, and which is something i've struggled with for years and years. i'm going to be seeking generally approaches towards creating different sounds as i try to plug in production holes that i know i can't do well with sampling. i have an electric violin with a bow that i got for $50, but i've never set it up because it hasn't really ever made sense to do so. it's kind of a toy. that would be the obvious answer for high strings, but it's actually the low strings i generally want to reach for. i've used e-bows in the past (something that shows up in the next basement) and still have one. but, i've recently purchased an audio-to-midi converter that will let me track guitar parts directly to midi. with the aid of a sample library, an ebow and an actual bow, i wonder how close that will get me to what i need. but, it's an open question, and something i approach on a track-by-track basis.

third basement:

- the dan electro fab tone i used on liquify and the day inri messed the world up was not mine, it was borrowed from a friend. i have many distortion pedals, but i would grab one in the metal case (not one of those plastic ones...) if i saw it cheap enough. that said, i'm going to claim that the rocktron metal planet that i have is an effective substitute/upgrade for this (they're both based on boss metal pedals, but the rocktron has a less compressed sound than either of the other two, which is useful because it lets you control the amount of compression....), but you can never have too many distortion pedals:

i used that pedal as an extra gain boost on some of the parts for proverbs, along with a guyatone sd-2 and a marshall jackhammer.

i'm not a metal guitarist, though, and i don't generally use high gain tones like that, except as niche effects. i prefer a dirty overdriven sound to a high gain metal sound. 

but, like i say - you can never have too many distortion sounds. you never know what you'll need to get the sound you're imagining, and i've found that just having as many combinations as is possible is the best approach.

- i still install cool edit pro.

- by dad bought himself a nicer drum kit around this time, that was meant for communal use but ended up banished to my bedroom by my stepmother. this was the kit used for deny everything material. my solution for kit replacements is my dm pro kit:

that was the last of i think three kits that he bought, and i never saw him play any of them.

- there was a marshall amp in the living room for a while that was purportedly given to me as a gift, but it never functioned properly. i don't know where he got it from exactly, but he did a lot of garage sale shopping, and i'm guessing he picked it up from somebody's garage for almost nothing. i'm guessing he thought it was worth a lot more than it was actually worth. again - i'm not convinced i would have ever picked a marshall practice guitar amp over a fender bass amp, when the two are sitting side by side like they were; broken speaker or not, i don't think i ever recorded anything at all with it, and am not sure i plugged into it for more than a few minutes. yeah, i know - i've got a marshall amp on a table in my bedroom, and i don't even plug it in. i'm sorry. i had a di on the soundcard, and a bass amp for recording pedals...together, they were far more useful to me than this cheesy scooped marshall with a midrange speaker. my dad didn't get it, either.

i traded this marshall for a half broken vintage 50s electric mandolin that i fixed up and used on several recordings before it disappeared in 2011:

do i need to replace this, then? well, i never used it! and, i swapped it for a mandolin. i definitely need to replace the mandolin...

if i need to record guitar parts, the mini amps are more useful to me. i could never make any functional use of a 75 watt amp, in this space - or any space i'm likely to inhabit in the near future. and, really, the thing that replaces this is the pod:

so, i'm comfortable with leaving that as it is - although i've decided that i'll get a cheap modelling amp, if i find one, too.

the pod through a flat keyboard amp is a better idea than a cheap marshall, though, if it comes down to it.

- i've been saying this is 120 watts. it's actually 160 watts. it showed up around this time, and was meant as a bass amp. i still have it...and i may try to use it as a cab for the mini orange and/or vox...

i have used this periodically for recording heavily effected guitar parts through complex effects chains, specifically when i want a low frequency response. but, it's just so damned loud...

i mean, that was the point - it was parked beside a drum kit. it had be loud, and was purchased for the volume. but, that's not real life for me, and hasn't been since i was 20.

- i still have the creamy dreamer, and still use it

- from previous post dated to june 8th:

i picked up a morley pro series wah around this time for pretty cheap but i found the effect to be a little more subtle than what i wanted. i mean, i was hardly interested in doing 80s hair metal whammy dives, but, after playing with direct x filters in cool edit, i wanted a much more dynamic instrument that i could warp like a dj or sound engineer warps filters with their hands, but in real-time with my feet, and found this was really designed to be the opposite of that. there was no doubt a mental disconnect between the world this was made for (southern rock guitarists) and the kind of sounds i was imagining (warped sound effects from contemporary experimental techno, like download). i mean, i knew better, but i guess i didn't. that said, i made some sufficiently demented use of it in the climax to "entropy", as well as in the intro solo to  "ignorance is bliss" before i swapped it for a digitech xp-100 a few basements later. the pod has a couple of wah sounds in it; it wouldn't make sense to try to model this in a daw, unless you have the right kind of controller. so, you need hardware here, one way or another.

so, i'm happy with the pod as a replacement for this, and also for the digitech.

- i can still install the aipl spin cycle plugin as a direct x effect, but i've mostly put it aside. there are leslie-like effects in guitar rig. likewise, the hyperprism and north pole effects are there, but i never reach for them anymore.

- i still have the 90s pc and pretty much every important piece of hardware in it still works flawlessly.

- pi warp is a weird effect and i absolutely still use it.

- sounder does not work right in xp, but i'm hoping to get it running on the 90s pc (in windows 98)

- i've dropped acid. the program, i mean. discarded it. i was actually hoping to use it for samples (listen to entropy to hear my intended use), but i just keep going back to basic midi. the old scorewriter is just the most useful way for me to write, always has been. so, my replacement for acid is noteworthy composer, but there's nothing you can do in an old version of acid that you can't do in a slightly less old version of cubase:

- i posted the imaginary trumpet and imaginary sax because i'm looking at getting pocket versions for use with the midi controller i just bought. you can get mini saxophones for cheap and i'm on the brink - as soon as i finalize the operation transactions.

- there was a baby grand outside my door, which....i can use a vst effect. that's fine. if i find a million dollars, yes, there will be a real piano. but, it's not even on the radar...

- i now have two mini classical guitars, and they're really both functional replacements for the aria, in any meaningful way for how i used it, which was never intended to be as a performing guitarist at a church or something.  i want to keep one of them. but, i need to get a 21-fret classical guitar with a pickup in it relatively soon.

- i still install audiomulch. 

- granulab doesn't work will in xp. it seems that there's a vst version. but, the granulator i used most often is in the hyperprism suite (see xenophanes for a good example)

- i still have the rubber ducky setup files, but i don't recall the last time i ever used it.

- i still install leaf drums, but i couldn't imagine myself writing that way anymore. it's actually a useful program, and i'd recommend it as a basic drum machine for noise music.

- i stil have the mxr flanger & distortion II boxes, as well as the ibanez eq.

- i cannot find a downloadable version of megatrancer

- koan does not work in xp. but i can try to update it and should.

- from june 8th:

i picked up a mooger fooger mf-102 ring modulator that spring, hoping to drive it with the morley and get that dramatic foot driven techno-oscillation filter, but it didn't actually work; it just didn't convert to an expression like i hoped. i never got another expression for it. guitarists kind of have their hands busy, so this became an expensive trick item. that said, it is used extensively as a bass (acidosis) and vocal (trepanation nation) processor over the next few years, before i cashed it in as having done it's purpose. it's also become very expensive ($600?), but isn't any more useful than a freeware vst plugin - it's expensive because it says "moog" on it, and likely of little actual functional value to you, unless you're doing very modular synth work. just about any old ring modulator with a carrier signal should be just as good.

i wish i could find a demo with the expression pedal plugged in like i wanted to set up, but what this demo (not posted) does is really demonstrate how kind of useless the thing really is.

the pod has a collection of synth and ring mod effects that are quite frankly more usable than the moogerfooger, which i really was quite disappointed in - but it had a lot to do with the fact that i just didn't have a foot controller for it. i'm going to pencil in a generic ring mod, but the pod is really probably more than good enough.

- i've long wanted to get or make a theremin and never have, so i'm going to pencil this in as a project.

- a ukelele would be a useful utility sound generator, but it's hardly at the top of the list of priorities.

- i don't know exactly what happened to my old electric mandolin, but i definitely need to replace it. the electrical was a little funny, but i would have hardly discarded it over that. it's in a small list of items that just kind of disappeared. i don't imagine the item was worth much, and i'd probably benefit from upgrading it to something newer. but, i got it for almost nothing and am sad it disappeared.

- likewise, i've decided to replace my bontempi with a bontempi. they do show up on ebay, but i don't really want to pay shipping. i was looking at melodicas as a replacement and it's probably going to be roughly the same price. but, i still may decided to go down that route. we'll see.

- i still have the e-bow.

ok, let's get to the next basement, then.