Reaping the Ebay harvest

[Chris Abbott]

And a friend had one of these, which I went round to his house to Midi together. Gorgeous string sounds when you mixed both keyboards together.

[Commie_User]

Ah the glorious earlier days of the kids' home studios. I remember seeing those Amstrad ads and being completely blown away as a boy. Your own four track, in a hifi? Surely that must be the pinnacle of the stereo draftman's powers. The most advanced ever.

Just a lump of plastic to look at it today. And the decks must have hissed like hell.


I'd be interested to hear what's on those old tapes if you're happy to post them. Just thinking back, it must have felt like pioneer times to the average person.


viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9709&p=93516


Plus a touch of MIDI, combining two keyboard sounds? What a liberation the 80s were.

And now look at what I'm doing - building a complete digital kit, then embellishing it with copious cheap video game accessories just for the thrill.

[Chris Abbott]

Much of the stuff I did on those tapes was actually released in MP3 form as bonus tracks on the first version of the BIT 1 CD-ROM extra. They'd probably digitise and compress a bit better now, but to do it from the original 4-track you'd have to sample the left and right from side and side 2, then reverse side 2 and slide around until it was synced again...

[Commie_User]

Oh yes, you released stuff.

I think it's always worth keeping your tapes. Though given the drift of capstan motors, I know it's rarely a good idea to dub tracks separately as it wastes a lot of time marking points and time-stretching on the computer. But look who I'm telling.

And I read how Giles Martin syncronised all those Beatle parts from a spread of tapes and was staggered by how time consuming it must have been. And staggered just how much drift even a J37 must have had.

[Commie_User]

And I think it's really exciting to see the world of gigging or studio work and gaming actually come together now. Composition and the gaming approach paid off with Instant Music, Band In A Box or Music Mouse, the kind of start inevitable when home computers were meant for gaming.



Now let's see what you can have taking Band Hero to the next level:


http://www.thomann.de/gb/ubisoft_rocksmith_ps3.htm

Ubisoft Rocksmith PS3 video game - motivating gameplay for beginners experienced players, every guitar with a pickup can be connected to your console (cable included), difficulty is adjusted dynamic to player's skill, with music from Rolling Stones, The Cure and Lynyrd Skynyrd with the latest Hits from The Strokes, Muse and Sigur Ros and more.

Rocksmith turns your console in a full-fledged Thomann amp complete with in-game amp models, cabinets and pedals, multiplayer mode enables you to play coop as rhythm- and lead-guitarist or duels against each other, mini-games help to improve your skills on the fretboard, software and cable included.

I thought I saw enough when World Tour gave you a sequencer and simple controller instrumentation, drum pad games at least helping you practice or when Music 3000 gave you a sampler and Melodyne-style sound-to-notation facility. Now we've software which isn't merely a PC tool for a console.

I honestly believe going down this road will bring us more really imaginative studio apps. And completely set the seal on video consoles being truly studio essential.




.....And lest I need just one more spare:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Band-Hero-Gam ... 3879197%26

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PS2-game-GUIT ... 8964329%26

[Commie_User]

..So as an appendix, I fancy ranking my PS2 music software in order of usability in the studio. Especially running from the digital out.

Enjoy your PS2 music: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3154903.stm

Own computer room.jpg (168.35 KiB) Viewed 13519 times

FREQUENCY and AMPLITUDE - An interesting electro forerunner of Guitar Hero, played with the gamepad. Follow the beats, improve co-ordination and maybe use those moves in session somehow. All the buttons you need are within arc of thumb and you're really pulled into the groove. Can't make your own music or solo sounds for sampling though.

POP IDOL - Similar to the above, catching the Sony symbols moving through the crosshair. Get it wrong and you sing a bum note, which doesn't help when some songs appear misprogrammed. Even in Easy with some songs, 'misses' are served when notes were clearly caught. But I suppose you can dodge certain songs when auditioned in advance. Fun enough. (Though in the future, I'd like to see ways to input your own lyrics for a console game to sing. Such decent enough tech' is available.)

DANCE: UK - Better with the dance mat but you do have a nice time hitting the D-pad the way the arrows tell you. Nice selection of tracks and well synchronised. Good for the fingers.



ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS - Just like Pop Idol, but you catch stars which aren't even sync'ed, so you miss out on playing with timing skills. Also crippled by mal-assigned buttons which can't be remapped. Some interesting renditions of classic rock songs but the game's only so-so.





Most GUITAR HERO titles - Lots of fun rockin' and can also mute the crowd and solo the backing tracks or guitar. The controllers actually help basic timing and fingering, which should be handy on a bass. Also, unlocking all the songs with a cheat to pick through the albums is a nice touch. I just like finding the tracks I want.

Playstation sequencers such as MUSIC, MTV MUSIC GENERATOR and others of the range with different names, plus MAGIX MUSIC MAKER - Nice onboard sounds and effects but too fiddly to even operate fluidly, at least I found. Best to sample the sounds and loops and make something with them on the PC. Though I did find EJAY so unusable that all I can do is just grab the samples.

Also, DJ DECKS AND FX is a sweet (yet limited) realtime mixing sequencer in the form of onscreen DJ equipment. Throw together music that doesn't go anywhere with the bundled loops, backing tracks, vocals, internal sampler and effects. A nice ten minute break for someone, as no piano roll saps any serious play with it.




MUSIC GENERATOR 2 and MUSIC 3000 - Still in the land of fiddly but I can do more in the piano roll, plus grab the sampler for retro quality in-between something for the Amiga and 15-year old standard soundcards. Another dongle Blu-Tacked to the machine, with the Band Hero Paul McCartney guitar and drumpad receivers. Kind-of looks the biz for it too.




http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/r_music3000_ps2



GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR - As above but also featuring the step sequencer, recording studio and compatibility with drum set and MIDI. If I'm using the console as a musical instrument, this is the way to go to squeeze quite a lot from the bottle. Especially when also porting solo axe samples to the PC, but that's probably not what they allow. Ssssh.

MAGIX MUSIC MAKER ROCKSTAR - Closest thing to a DAW you can get on the console, or perhaps a nearest equivalent to the MSSIAH. With sampling, piano roll, drumbox and visuals, all held together by a rompler timeline with mixer and effects, I have here an easy to use fun package which I eagerly anticipate using for overdubs and cuts.

It also takes the guitar controllers but sadly not for a Tour-style jam. Nothing's missed using just the standard controller, though it does take the ubiqitous USB mikes.




Though by 2020 I fully expect to see things like RICKENBACKER for the Sony PS5, with Burgertime or Pacman section operated by fretboard: http://www.native-instruments.com/en/pr ... cker-bass/

(Or DRUMLAB. Oh yeah, for playing Pheonix on the drums. Snare and toms to spread left and right, kick to fire and cymbals for shield: http://www.native-instruments.com/en/pr ... ms/drumlab )

After all, Rocksmith has a few gamelets using the axe for control.

[Commie_User]

And back to the mother ship....



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Commodore-64- ... 20d5de8b75

That looks SO pristine. Like the disk drive:




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Commodore-154 ... 19df22bc48




And if someone like Chris or Markus can tell me what the IEEE interface hooked up to, I'd be moderately interested.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Commodore-64- ... 46111ba296





Oooo, and a Power Cartridge:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KCS-POWER-CAR ... 20d5e0a3ec


JiffyDOS and Accelerator Plus, just as I often saw advertised in Commodore Format: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Commodore-64- ... 1c356a9061



Enough there over the years to give yourself a completely full-featured computer lab. Hopelessly out of date but still fully featured.








http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CURRAH-SPEECH ... 35c97bd10d

Stephen Hawking emulator.



This looks familiar:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REMIX-64-V-2- ... 564c1c00ba



Sealed copy of Beatles Playalong Songbook: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Commodore-64- ... 258032bd6f

[Chris Abbott]

Wouldn't the IEEE mostly connect to dot matrix printers (parallel)? Either that or it was for disk drives... without cheating and looking up in Wikipedia that's the best I can do...

[Commie_User]

I only thought the PET series needed all that, especially if you wanted to network I suppose.

I always did think IEEE was quite irrelevant on the 64 as the serial and user ports interfaced perfectly well.

But thanks Chris.

_____________________________



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Great-Gia ... 3298303%26

£200 for the Giana Sisters.



Or a tinier amount for the NES Miracle Keyboard thing:




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Miracle-P ... 27d628f561


What the damn hey.

[Commie_User]

And this is definitely music:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MOON8-NES-Car ... 1e74883c18








And I don't think SHREDZ 64 will go amiss either. Especially when playing games with the Playstation controller or guitar, or just having fun controlling other music programs with the axe.



http://www.toniwestbrook.com/shredz64

Check stock: http://www.synthdreams.com/store.php

[Commie_User]

£60 for an ordinary rock and roll 78?



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-ROY-BROW ... 58a1ecc9ff








Right, I'll eye up some ghetto blasters. Dunno why I never thought of that before.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEAR-MINT-SHA ... 19e0543f13

Icon.




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Retro ... 4ac738511a

Ubiquitous '90s one.


And another super-icon. But also super-expensive:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Serial-No-501 ... 41727d53f6

Oooh yeah: http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Serial-No-501637 ... ~60_57.JPG


I remember rescuing two compact ghetto blasters from a neighbourhood rubbish skip. An older boy tricked me into giving him one by saying I still needed permission from the householder to take them. He said he'd do it for me, that being the price of getting me out of 'trouble'. As soon as I walked off I knew I'd been had, but I liked him so didn't get it back.






Hmmm. And hi-fi packages were certainly coming along by the early 1980s, though separates could still be ahead in terms of build and quality.

http://www.80sactual.com/2008/09/on-sal ... -1981.html


And this late-80s hardware list is an impressive showing of just how close the 1988 range was to the variety we have today. Just with less able computers and fewer items then, though the ad also leaves off VCRs and such.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AzT5pruwnbg/S ... h+1988.jpg

And I can also say that so much came in the '80s that it's just as meaningful to compare this to a 1980 list of stuff we had.




....And I can't go without saying TAKE THE WRAPS OFF THE C64.......

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_AzT5pruwnbg/R ... istmas.jpg

Nothing like rose-tinted specs, though as a boy around then I'd've thought any computer would have been a gizzilion times as magical as anything I'd ever have felt ready to use.

But looking back, what could anyone do at home on one, outside games and the object of discovering a computer for itself? For most of the '80s there was little of affordable use, the online world was far from ubiquitous and nobody even did their home accounts in the real world, far as I know.

[Commie_User]

And given my MPS disappointment today ( viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9937 ), there's only one way to cure a missed printer frenzy.


...and that's to try another printer frenzy. Or at least just look at a bunch of printers.




http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Commodore-MPS ... 4857b39eca



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOT514-Commod ... 58a2deb645



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-Vintage- ... 460cfb2fa3


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GRAPPLER-CD-P ... 5ae56a9ec7

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-CardP ... 2325c10386



Ribbon: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6PK-COMMODORE ... 5642a6cf49

Also for: http://plus4world.powweb.com/hardware/390013


____________

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Epson-LQ400-2 ... 2a2fdb69fe

Got that Epson. And here's a good ribbon place: http://www.abcartridges.co.uk/




Oh YEAH:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COMPLETE-SYST ... 3cd45d14fb

[Chris Abbott]

Nice.

[Commie_User]

Oh yes Chris. And I know, too much to have a proper comment for.


So I've just found more Beatles.....



Christmas flexis. And this looks a genuine release:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BEATLES-From- ... 2a30085109




Cheap Mono and Stereo boxes, though they could be the counterfeits:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Beatles-I ... 5795416%26



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-beatles-s ... 5795416%26




Now these are the counterfeits, and the set which has somehow outlasted the others:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/THE-BEATLES-U ... 3a8396b5d8





Some from the ALTERNATE range: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw= ... d&_sacat=0

Signed HELP cd: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PAUL-McCARTNE ... 337410e8dc

[Chris Abbott]

I still don't buy the Paul McCartney "Dies, replaced by Billy Shears" thing. There were some intriguing photos which appeared to show his head had changed shape and his eyes had moved relative to each other, but there are others which don't show that.