cynicalwoodsman

Truth & Lies of 9/11 It's long but worth it.

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/Steven-Segal-bad-album-covers-Songs-from-the-Crystal-Cave.jpg This can't be for real.

I can't believe there's not a Yes album up yet.

Chris, I'm a native finger lakes kid m'self. Where'bouts you from?

Where in GA? Are you close to any crags? What do ya do? I've done some caves in pa. And yeah, the length of the nittany anticline from PA down thru w va is karst city! Carbonate valleys out the ying yang. Caves are super scary to me! Everytime I was squeezin thru somethin' tiny all I could think was, "fuck dude... I gotta crawl back thru all 3 of these again to get out! I sure as hell hope it doesn't start raining!" lol You're mocking me, aren't you?

Almost nobody's gettin' any anywhere this season.

I began ditchin the family at 18. Whether it was off to philly with my guitar and "silly" dreams, or years later off to leavenworth for a volunteer FS internship fresh out of college in my mid 30's with no more than enuf cash to get me there and my own inspiration to see me through, I've been solo for most of it. I always chose my goals over social constraints or yet another woman who wouldn't ditch with me. But damn it gets hard out there away from peeps 'n family when you're alone. So I met a girl who floats my boat and lives in Cleveland. With her, there's hope of a life in the mtns but not havin' to do it stag. She's into it. She's just got a lot more going on here than she can just ditch over night. She couldn't come out there to be with me, just yet anyway, so I came here to be with her. I also have aging parents and my pops has alzheimers. They live in 'cuse so having been closer to them the last few years has been huge! Eventually I'll move back. I'm here cultivating the strong possibility I can bring my girl with me. But it's not gonna happen this year. We get out camping not far away where there's a cool campground right on some sweet singletrack. We go backpacking every summer in N Central PA. THere's real good backcountry in those parts. I've gotten to the daks for some good ice a cpl winters ago and I'm planning to get back in a few weeks. IT's a brutal 10 hour drive though. The year b'fore last I made it back out to crag at smith with friends there and then up to l'worth for a few days. I'm planning another trip back to the enchantments this summer with a friend from 'snatchee. With that trip happening, I'm now planning at least two trips this summer to the Red and to the New for crags 'n trails. I'll probably get to the gym for some plastic pull-down at least once a week in prep for the wash. trip. I actually manage to will myself off the couch to put some miles on the roadbike durin' the winter on the rare occasion it's dry, over 20, and the wind's not too bad. The biggest bitch of it all is havin to commit so much time and cash just to get back to what used to be out my front door. A lot of it's perspective. I got laid off, hit by the times, was out of work for 2 years, and had to "re-invent" my own career path. When I think about how tuff times are for so many others, I'm pretty lucky to have a job doin' something I dig doin, and that I have the option to plan trips at all. Combine that with not being alone 'n I'm in pretty good shape. I'll get back.

I like the wide part toward the top. That's the part I like. I couldn't sink more'n a knuckle anywhere below that. I didn't like that part. I didn't like that part at all. I do think it should be part of the CRAK101 curriculum. Is it on the syllabus? The big dirty crack on Rope de dope block is 5.8 and gets tr'd all the time. There's a dope hangin' on a rope on that crack at least twice a week. Not sure why. I never climbed it.

I picked up an 8-track digi-studio about 4 years ago. It uses an sd card as opposed to an on-board cd. I really wish it had cd burner, but it was a gift, and it was probably ~400 clams as it was. The cd-version would'a been a couple-hundred more. It's ultra-portable and it's about the same size and twice as thick as a netbook. There's free software that'll help me dump a master onto cd and/or a wave file or something like that via my computer. I just haven't taken that step yet; mostly cuz I hate workin' with the 'puter. Far as I can tell the biggest factor in achieving pro sound quality is simply a matter of learning how to mix. Digital is so clean! Anyhthing that ya do nowadayz is gonna be digital anyway. "Demo" quality can easily be close to studio-quality if you're patient and have a good ear. I bought a GOOD studio-quality pair of cans with really flat response for mix-down. Mixing definitely takes time to learn as its an artform in its own right. It took me 2 full weeks of solid 10-hour days just getting familiar and comfortable with navigating my recorder! But the sound quality is pretty sick! I recorded one project and by the end I was fried so I haven't done anything else with it yet except playing with the mix for fun and practice. My chops were solid and had even expanded by the time I was done. I had played so much. More so than any other time I've ever recorded. I think cuz this time it was a lot cheaper, my virtual rhythm section played what I told 'em to play, they got it in one take, they didn't argue with me, and it was all about me all the time It's the first time recording was ever fun for me, so that was pretty cool. The amount of stuff this recorder can do is quite impressive. I got it thinkin' it'd be a good "sketch pad" if you will, but turns out I can take a project all the way to master with it. It's got a ton of rhythm presets and patterns with drums/drums+bass of all styles 1-4 measures long if you want you can literally piece-together, tell it what key and build your own tune. The one project I recorded was inspired by doing this, and I ended up with something I NEVER would'a written otherwise. It's pretty cool. You can obviously go from scratch with it as well. If ya wanna navigate a li'l easier or record more than 2 or 3 tracks simultaneously, or are serious and intend to ultimately by-pass having to pay for a real studio for a long time, which you're probably gonna wanna end up doin, cuz once ya get into it you're gonna be among the resident geeks at guitar center buyin' studio monitors and pre amps and ... then you should probably buy a 16 track unit. Yes, the 8-track is digital so yes it has literally endless tracks. You can put together quite a record if you have enough time and patience. It would just be easier and faster with 16 to start rather than 8. Anything mic'd needs to be pumped thru a mic pre-amp to get any kind of decent line-level. It's got a condenser mic that works pretty good if you take your time and experiment with placement, levels, etc. I originally had the intention of recording all the guitars mic'd up, but the lack of a pre-amp and the quality of the effects on board this thing are so good I did two of 3 gtr tracks (including the lead) direct. The one rhythm track that's mic'd will probably end up going direct thru a selection of presets cuz they sound so good and the mic'd track is so hard to compress and is all over the place in relation to how well-balanced all the direct tracks are. I have a pocket pod that I can utilize for all it offers as well. Anything can get plugged into a loop, but always remember as soon as the digital circuit gets gapped stuff starts gettin' noisy... and not in a good way. I like some of the gtr presets a lot, and I was always hard core about tubes. They've come a long way with digital! I'm been messin' with it lately and hope to maybe even post something (once I figure out all that) thanks to this thread. That's the key though... having time to take and spend learning to navigate it. I imagine all computer-based recording is probably pretty similar. I haven't tried recording any vox on it though so I can't say anything about that 'cept what I mentioned earlier about needing/wanting a decent-quality mic preamp to do it. I'll have to do it sooner or later cuz a lot of my stuff has vox. Hopefully I'll get some on here soon; at least the one thing I have done and mastered.

I moved away from the cascades to the midwest 3 years ago and am far from the wilderness. Anybody else ever been in the same boat? Anyone?

I know! So how's that dude gonna get down?!?! Crazy.

Forget a new jacket. Buy good footwear.

Hey I wanna change my name to Ben climbing, or maybe Ben sending. But perhaps something more fitting is in order; such as: Ben lazy, Ben gettin' fat, maybe Ben pathetic would be best. Maybe I'll think on it a little more before I make my choice. --Ben E. Climbing.

I swear my Beckey guides appear to be wrapped in colored tolex. Just sayin'. You don't think he's a closet shredder, do ya?

The guitar is SO FUN!

You're right, and Chris Broderick isn't worthy of bein' a pimple on Stanley Jordan's ass, who owns two-handed tapping just as Malmsteen owns speed-picking. And they both do their thing with more feel and flow and phrasing and meaning than anything anyone's posted or mentioned on this thread. I think all this stuff sucks. 32nd... 64th notes; whatever. I agree. Knopfler was one of my first thoughts at the onset of this thread... and Eddy, of course. SRV was next. Vai gets props, which is good for what he's contributed. But like all the vids on here, even if we limit ourselves to the shred, and not to the 'shed... , all these vids have dudes doin' like... one thing. Complete? My favorite words, by the way. Nicely put. Also, not fer nuthin', but stayin' true do da' rule, (completeness), there's prolly a few cuntry strummers I'd wanna bring up. Those guys have chops ferreal. I'm gonna listen to Ed Shred. I'm gonna go check out your setlist 'n then come back; startin' with Jump. It is one fine piece. And it IS the phrasing and FEEL that sets it apart from most. Zappa's not my bag. And ya almost lost me with Richards. Cool Guitar work such as pure riff'dom and a lotta other aspects, no doubt, but.... you're the one who said somethin' about offerin' up somethin' for the shred-heads in here. Richards?!?!? C'mon MAN! We may as well mention RIk Emmet while we're at it.

Who is the ultimate "complete" guitarist?

Choad, I've been thinkin' about your "complete" guitarist post. I got nuthin'. To me, anyone striving for "completeness" is the same as an ability to sound like everyone except yourself. Lotsa cover bands have well-rounded players but none of them have their own sound. Is there an example of a guitarist we'd all know who's set this bar? Like.. if I could learn ___________ played and recorded by _____________, who would it be? What song?

That was funny. I don't know what that song has to do with guitars though. All I hear is overproduced crap.

boss someone else around, bitch. Forgive me. I was just in spray. It must'a got the better of me.

boss someone else around, bitch.

What's a tag? Scratching my head right now. Anyway.... Kevbone, thanks for the welcome! Sobo, howcome when I clicked the button more of your post showed up in the quote than what was in the post to begin with? Damn I'm just not made for the digital world. Anyway... yes... I'm over 5 hours to anything climbable at all.

can someone tell me how to do all the quotes? How do you quote/respond to more than one post in a single reply/post? I can do it once, but if I wanna quote a post from a different page I lose my original. Am I making sense?

Whereabouts in OhiO do you live, CW? When I used to climb at the NRG, we'd see folks coming in from OhiO all the time. Musta been an easy drive for them, or maybe they were just super-stoked to be climbing at such a great place as the New. Cleveland. NRG:5+hrs; RRG:6hrs; gunks: 8 hrs; daks: 10 hrs. I had every intention of taking more trips by now when I moved here to be with my gf 3 yrs ago, but work took 2 yrs to find, and the job is a 52 mile rt, and fuel is expensive, days go by, months go by, blah blah blah I have many excuses both relevant and couch-inspired. If life remains on the upswing as it has this last year, I'll be back in the cascades by summer, I'll be climbing without having to plan and save for 6 months to do it, and life will be good again.