cakes wrote: Wed Sep 10, 2025 4:42 pm I was setting up my guitar last night, and it had been awhile since using those card-sized measurement tools for doing this since my eyes went old-age. I'm having a hard time seeing the little lines, even with my prescriptions. Are there tools for old farts who have a hard time reading small print?

Optivisor.

Image makes it look like i'm joking but i'm not. I use one all the time.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Optivisor.

Would blast the shit out of this post Kraftwerk album.

Welp, neck pickup on the ASAT Special has gone dead. Presumably a contact on the switch has gone bad, but I might take the opportunity to swap the direction of the control plate. Tele owners, have you guys done this and stuck with it?

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Tue Sep 09, 2025 12:39 am goddamn tambourine

Thanks for yalls help! I did try a ribbon (coles bbc lip mic) and while it dulled the sound it also made it kind of unexciting. That mic is either a winner or a loser every time, no in between. Had a similar experience in the past with a big EV 665 type of mic in front of the tambourine - mics with a certain response just feel like they don’t record the tambourine very well. I should have grabbed the damn M160 and didn’t but I’ll just keep busting out the tambourines every time I setup a mic to see how it fares.

Trying it at the drums did help - I had a Beyer MC930 on OH and the same bbc lip mic on snare with a C38B in omni for the room where I was going for kind of a Holy Modal Rounders thing bussed to a mono group track. I just played the tambourine behind the set and it was still too bright, but I did like it much better with all three mics going and giving it some space. I ended up using a shaker instead.

I think I need to just keep trying different mics with the tambourines every time I’m setting up to record something else. I find that pulling out too many mics for one source is a time suck and that I’m better off just pulling out one at a time and playing with placement rather than dealing with 4 or 5 live mics on stands.

I can probably also just whack it with a compressor by default. Didn’t even ever keep a take long enough to play with eq.

Should also try in a bigger room as I did notice I got better sounds when I was blocking off as much as possible with the gobos.

Anyways, tambourines!

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Sep 15, 2025 12:31 amtambourines!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Eqhw5t1tM4

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Sep 15, 2025 12:31 am

Anyways, tambourines!

Try a different tambourine. We only had 7 or 8 at the studio I had, and there were shocking differences in how they sounded. You want one with a duller sound that decays rapidly for recording, especially if you're in a more confined space. And often tambourines with a smaller diameter have fewer jingles and those seem to record more reliably.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Sep 15, 2025 12:31 am I should have grabbed the damn M160

The m160 is a perfect mic for tamborine, all I've used for 20 years now. Hell, the 160's a perfect mic for most things actually.

Anyway, I consider myself pretty ok at playing the tambo, but you know what's humbling? Slow tamborine. Like 16ths at 55bpm slow. Shit is HARD.

Yeah, I have three tambourines so far and swore I would never buy another one that was in a package or online. There’s probably a reason you can’t give them a whack before buying.

I have one with a skin, one with a single row, and one with a double row of jangles.

Believe it or not, the Vaughncraft double jangle tombourine is less harsh than the single.

MoreSpaceEcho wrote: Mon Sep 15, 2025 10:57 am.
, but you know what's humbling? Slow tamborine. Like 16ths at 55bpm slow. Shit is HARD.

This seems like a really niche skill. Was that in a classical context or are you some jangle pop Sunn()))) cover band?

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Sep 15, 2025 11:02 am Yeah, I have three tambourines so far and swore I would never buy another one that was in a package or online. There’s probably a reason you can’t give them a whack before buying.

I have one with a skin, one with a single row, and one with a double row of jangles.

Believe it or not, the Vaughncraft double jangle tombourine is less harsh than the single.

I usually use a dynamic mic of some sort, and a little distance. RE-20 and SM-7, even a beyerdynamic TGX50 or M380. No need for the extreme transients and ultrasound to be caught.