GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome (Part 1)

[T_dub]

To take it in another direction, I have a GAS question.

I was looking at these. I know many have recording set ups, making this not necessary…
Or maybe because of the set up and use with a DAW, they are handy…
Idk,
But either way, I have equipment to be able to record, but am finding it a pain in the ass with only an IPad.
I know I will get there some day, but even so, this still looks like a handy and useful device for what I am wanting to be able to do.

I am finding myself, more and more playing riffs I come up with, that sound, well, IMO, pretty freaking bad ass. Sometimes unrefined, sometimes pretty perfect.
I am not really song writing, and am not really there yet where I am just sitting down to compose a full length bass part for a song…
But
When I am wanting to, I want to have these bass riffs available for me to go back to.
Idk about how easy that would even be, to be able to record and more importantly, organize them in a way that will be helpful for me to go back and work with easily in GB on an IPad. It might, but IDK
But because my recording stuff is not set up and left in place, because I use the iPad for everything else I do, it does not sound convenient to use for riff recording.

So, I was looking into this pedal. It is not a looper, and I have a couple loopers in my Zoom”s as it is, but it is a riff recorder. And you can use it with your DAW, or it’s own software or app (maybe) and name and organize however you like.
It’s as easy as power (9v when not by all your stuff) plugging bass into the input, and playing the riff (possibly need a pre amp or Zoom B1Four or similar before it, not 100% sure yet) and recording what and how you play it, rhythm, tempo, slap, pluck, pop, pick, etc…

Right now I am taking a lot of time writing it out in my notes on my iPad, just to have something.
It’s a pain. I could record the sound acoustically with my phone, or record video acoustically, but organizing that stuff is a pain in the ass without a computer to download it to.

Lons story (as usual) short…

Anybody have experience with or have a TC Electronics WireTap pedal, or a similar product?

[T_dub]

@juli0r

So I stumble out of my flat, go 3 minutes into the tram, drive 5 minutes, go 5 minutes to the practice room.

How crowded are the trams? When you say tram, I picture NY subways, and see you standing, people pushing, shoving, tripling into you, knocking you and your bass, in a soft backpack type case, all about.
But they may be much more civil near you.
Plus, I have been on a New York subway twice, and it was not terrible, but was not rush hour either.

@juli0r

with the band I’ll go to band practice in a month

Why a month? I must not be caught up with your other thread

[juli0r]

@T_dub

But they may be much more civil near you.

Avoiding rush hour they usually are.
Also Line 16 (the one driving here) doesn’t always end on the same stations. The crowded trains usually end in Bonn, while I have to get to Wesseling and some of the trains stop in wesseling. Those are usually empty because there are just three stations left.

@T_dub

Why a month? I must not be caught up with your other thread

3 weeks to be exact. They invited me on 14.07 for band practice and since I asked if they have any material for me to practice they sent me 3 recorded songs with notes.

[T_dub]

WTF is 1407, that’s like 600 years ago.

July 14th I presume. 7/14/2020. Or simply 7/14
Haha. Sorry, that just looks weird to me.

[howard]

I like the way it’s written here, going from big to small: 2020/07/14

Could also just say Bastille Day I guess

[juli0r]

Yes - that was the date I was talking about.
I like my units in either ascending or descending order. Month/Day/Year doesn’t make any sense at all. The explanation I got when discussing the topic was: “It’s how we say it - 4th of july. Day first, then month.”
@howard s way is the one I use everytime when coding. Well… To be exact the ISO 8601 date format. We already have established me being a nerd. We don’t need to talk about that

I’ll remember to use the date format without any ambiguity in it, namely the one howard uses, in the future to avoid possible confusion.

So it doesn’t go ignored/overlooked and get on route to thread topic again: WireTap Pedal Post
I myself have not any experience but it seems it requires a bluetooth connection and the app for that is less than stable: TC Electronic Customer Service

[T_dub]

@howard

going from big to small: 2020/07/14

That’s big to small to big if you are talking numeric value.

[howard]

I was talking about date units

YYYY/MM/DD

[T_dub]

@juli0r

I’ll remember to use the date format without any ambiguity in it,

Not necessary. I was just poking fun. I like the variance we have, coming from different cultures.

I, like, 4th of July, or Cinco de Mayo, or I was born January 22nd, 1972 (1/22/72). It feels normal to me, therefore right TO ME.

I like and think it interesting the way others write it for whatever cultural, ISO, or nerdy reason it feels / IS correct to the writer.

And I was poking fun at @howard in a friendly way about the way he wrote it, or the reason why. It’s all in fun, so please keep writing it like that.

Thanks for your reply to the WireTap.
It can be connected with usb as well, to more stable applications from what I gather, but am interested to hear more about things like that.

Also, if this is simply a bad pedal / purchase…
Other then a loop station, what are alternatives, in pedal format, if there are others out there.

[T_dub]

@howard

I was talking about date units

I was just having fun with it.

[juli0r]

@T_dub

I was born January 1st, 1972

You are almost born at epoch time! (Thursday, 1. January 1970 00:00:00)

Loopers and Riff Pedals are something that might interest me too. I don’t want to touch effects yet as I feel like I have enough to experiment on just the basis with bass & amp without adding additonal things but looper/riff pedals might be fun.

[T_dub]

@juli0r

You are almost born at epoch time! (Thursday, 1. January 1970 00:00:00)

Stupid auto fill / correct and spell checker on this iPad in this forum.

Idk how it switched my January 22nd to January 1st. It couldn’t change it where I typed 1/22/1972, but wtf, the Jan 1st, I don’t get the auto correct logic.

I was not born Jan 1st, 1972, I corrected it in the post, but to be clear, I was born on the 22nd, not first. Everything else was correct.

[gcancella]

@T_dub

Anybody have experience with or have a TC Electronics WireTap pedal, or a similar product?

I do! And it’s my favorite pedal! It’s just so damn useful. Used right I can mimic a looper which is not an intended feature but for what I sometimes need gets very handy. Of course my main purpose for the pedal is to, well, record riffs. It’s also very nice to try different effects over the recorded riff and play around with the pedals.

I also used it for composing this song with Reaper. Not its main purpose also, but it gets by.

The only downside is the app. At least on android it’s very buggy.

[juli0r]

@gcancella

The only downside is the app. At least on android it’s very buggy.

I’m new to loop/riff pedals. What would you usually do with the app? Or put another way: is one dependend on the app to (effectively) use the pedal?

Usually buggy propriety software is something that throws me off but it may be that it doesn’t really matter for this as you seem very happy with it!?

[gcancella]

@juli0r

What would you usually do with the app?

Off the top of my head:

• Trim riffs for looping
• Transfer the riff to the phone
• Categorize and name the riffs (i love the auto generated names they have)

I don’t find myself using the app very often. It’s not a show stopper and the app should be seen as an useful addon and not a main feature

[gcancella]

@gcancella

Transfer the riff to the phone

This will be an mp3 and amped up. Using the usb you get the original wav file

[T_dub]

First, a loop pedal and a riff recorder are different, for different purposes, however, you can use one like the other with desired results in some cases is what I am getting from @gcancella post.

So @gcancella, like @juli0r asked, how do you get around the app. And my understanding is the app is primarily to be able to name and organize your riffs on the spot via Bluetooth. Is that right?
Is it supposed to do more then that.

How do you name and organize riffs if the app is shite?
If the app is supposed to do more, what is it supposed to do, and how do you get around it?

From your post, at least I believe it is exactly what I want. But I do want to know more about how to sidestep the app, if it sux on iOS as well

[juli0r]

@T_dub

if it sux on iOS as well

Would be good to get any input of someone who uses it with iOS because my first instinct is that it’s unlikely to be as bad as on android.

I don’t like apple but the QA for their app store is higher than for android. Not hard since Android doesn’t really have a QA process.

[gcancella]

I think I partially answered you already in an above post.

@T_dub

How do you name and organize riffs if the app is shite?

I have a Google Drive folder where I keep the riffs I absolutely don’t want to lose.

@juli0r

Would be good to get any input of someone who uses it with iOS because my first instinct is that it’s unlikely to be as bad as on android.

I have that feeling also. Would like to know more about iOS also

[T_dub]

@gcancella

I don’t find myself using the app very often. It’s not a show stopper and the app should be seen as an useful addon and not a main feature

That pretty much sold me on this pedal. Now I just need to decide if I will use Amazon Credit or GC credit. Lol. Kind of depends on availability.