Hello folks,

I bought a holiday home today in Pembrokeshire, we don't want to be getting on planes for a while. Really looking forward to this new way of taking a holiday until things calm down, plus it will help to get the UK economy going again.

Anyway, I am looking to getting a recording setup, we won't be able to do it when we go down in a couple of weeks as it is a brand new holiday home so we have to take a lot of stuff to kit it out.

I'm looking to get a refurbed 12" laptop around the £250-£300 something like a Dell Latitude as they are nice and small, I know I won't be able to use TH-U because of lack of power so I thought about getting a Boss GT-001, I had one a few years ago, it was pretty good and I think it can be the audio interface too.

I don't want to use my tablet as it's an ageing Samsung Galaxy Tab S and I'd like a laptop anyway as there are some things that tablets aren't too good at so I can kill two birds with one stone.

I don't need monitors as it will be headphones only.

Any ideas, particularly about the fx/audio interface all in one solution will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

I have no recs as far as your technology is concerned but I think it's pretty cool that your getting a "country home".

Thanks Ken,

It's nothing grand, two bedrooms, living room with dining area, kitchen, shower room and ensuite toilet on the main bedroom. They used to call them static caravans, now they're called holiday homes. It's on a quiet site, they don't allow rentals, don't have a club house, only about 50 homes on 40 acres in a little valley, it's a 10 - 15 minute walk to the town of Narberth, a few pubs and eateries, a twenty minute drive to the medieval walled town of Tenby with three lovely Beaches and quite a few pubs and eateries, about the same time to Saundersfoot and the whole of South Wales to explore.

We're really looking forward to this new chapter

That all sounds GREAT to me!
Close to the beach, a medieval town and a bunch of bars - a small slice of heaven.

Hmm. that laptop might support thu. Worth a try Get a third gen solo they are only 100 bucks. And maybe get a pair of the monitors that ken has been using as they won't break the bank and sound great! I got a pair of eris 4.5 and they sound about like aurtatone/horrotone in short I hate them so I would say stay away. The best monitors I've tried in years are the Kali audio at 300 a pair. Then again you could just use some nice AKG headphones if its more of just a bit of fun at the manor house.

I can't really have any monitors, the second bedroom what I will be playing has two beds, a wardrobe and a wall mirror and no room to put monitors. I have Sennheiser HD600 headphones.

The reason I thought about the Boss is I just can't handle latency. I'm not sure the Dell Latitude that I'm looking at will run THU so I thought hardware effects are better than no effects.

We're going to the caravan this weekend but the car still be full as it is a brand new one so we have a lot to take and I won't fit a guitar in. We took a car load down on Saturday too. I guess could get the laptop and try it with THU first. I liked the GT001 as it can be powered by USB.

Cheers

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GCE...audio-interface

I have no experience with the unit but this seems like a good option. It is a really basic soundcard but also a guitar processor.

Keep in-mind the exterior is just conmetic. It has no buttons so its software controlled aside headphone level (has only headphone outs.

I did have a boss gt-1 about till a year ago. For what it is, was a decent soundcard as I didn't notice anything bad about the sound when connected my monitors to listen music etc.

It has less options than the gt-100 for tone shaping. I didn't love the tones out-of-the-box but if your expectations aren't high its ok.

Thanks Mertay,

I don't think I could handle looking at that Zoom knowing it's "fake" but thanks for the input buddy. It isn't the Boss GT1 it's the GT001, you can see it HERE there's one on ebay at the moment brand new for £213, I've set a budget of around £500 so that leaves around £300 for a refurbed laptop.


Going back to monitors if you click HERE then click on the little man icon in the bottom left and make your way to the small second bedroom opposite the entrance door, you'll see what I have to use, this is why the headphones are my best option. The HD600s are pretty good.

UPDATE:

Change of plan. I'm going to use my beast of a laptop and buy a Scarlett 3rd gen Solo and just shuttle the laptop to the caravan and back. I probably wouldn't leave the second laptop down there anyway so it should be good. Just got to decide which guitar to take when I do. I'm struggling with a neurological issue at the moment so probably won't take one down there this weekend but, if there's room in the car with everything else like the microwave, the 43" TV, an occasional table , suitcase, pots, pans etc I might just put one in, we're down there for two weeks so my neuro problem might ease up and I'll be able to play again.

Those headphones are perfect for a remote mixing station imho. Might as well try the THU as you already have a license, if its laggy, you can then buy the boss pedal Send us some pix of your new digs if you can!

Todd

Todd mate,

Did you read the update at the bottom of the last post? I'm going to use my main laptop also in the paragraph above the update is a link to view the digs, it looks like it's going to be a video but when you click "play" it opens a 3D model that is exactly like ours. You just have to click the little man icon in the bottom left to get out of the floor plan and move around the 3d environment. You have to "force" your way passed the open door to the second bedroom in order to get to the main bedroom and en suite. As I said to Ken, it's nothing grand but a great holiday home.

My bad. I think I'm up to speed now The 3D Model thing is pretty cool. Looks like a great vacation place. Your main laptop will probably be a bit better music machine as you know Good call.

Todd

Well the Solo 3rd Gen came today, It worked straight out of the box, incredible little unit, I didn't realise it is USB powered too, awesome.
It may be all I need now

https://youtu.be/OZr1zuoWV9o

Yup. I got the same one and it's freaking brilliant imho. I had the solo but sent it back to get two xlr inputs. For the price it just can't be beat imho.

Hello folks,

Well we're there now, been a long day, like moving into a new home really, four hour drive, unpacking and setting up 43"TV, microwave, kettle, toaster, coffee machine, plates, cups, mugs, pots, pans, towels, pillows, bedding, food, wine, beer etc etc. Unfortunately I couldn't safely get a guitar in the car, the boot (trunk) was so full I really struggled to close it, the back seat was full with cooler bags of food with the 43"tv sitting across behind the front seats on the transmission tunnel. The bags were held in place by the seatbelts but the guitar would have had to sit loose on top of everything, dangerous if I'd have had to do an emergency stop at 80mph it could have flown through to the front and took us out At least my neck /shoulder issue held up to it all.

I'm a bit gutted as I'd bought that new Focusrite Scarlett Solo as an interface but it is what it is, this holiday home is licensed on this site for 17 years so there's plenty of time, we're not getting on a plane for a while and maybe we'll like this so much we take most holidays here so the guitar can come now we've kitted it out.

I do still have a problem sliding towards the headstock and doing vibrato on chords so maybe it's not such a big deal. My luthier friend has my SRV guitar, I'm having Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky strings, five springs on the trem, set for a normal Strat float in D standard so should be okay in SRVs favoured tuning of a half step down.

I reckon my shoulder/neck problem will take at least another four weeks to completely clear but after this two week holiday I think I'll be able to steadily get back into serious practise.

Speak soon

Stay safe

Phil

Sounds like it's gonna be a blast buddy!!! You are gonna have more fun thn the law should alllow! Keep us posted! Once you get your porta studio going it's gonna be even better!!

Todd

It will be great buddy, shame I couldn't bring the geetar but my injury isn't fully healed anyway, hopefully two weeks giving it rest will be good for it, it's feeling better each day but it's like trying to cross the road by jumping half the distance that is remaining each time, smaller increments each day but that's how everything is, the devil is in the detail

Here is a view from our front window this morning, as you can see by looking at my car, we had some rain in the night



I'll pop some more up soon, there are some lovely lodges here on this sight but they run at around £142K for the cheapest, bit too much for me I think many older people downsize their main home and use the money to buy a lodge for the summer.

UPDATE: You can live in the lodges year round, the static caravans like mine close over the winter.

Nice ride! Looks like a wonderful day! Congrats on your holiday home Once you add a GEETAR it will officially be perfect!!

Fantastic - congrats on the country home mate!! Looking forward to more pics.

I'd like to think this is one of the positive side effects of covid-19. Decreasing the amount of trips abroad has been urgent necessity for quite a while, from a climate perspective. I can see it start to happen now.

Thanks buddy, check out my Insta philgmc

I've been watching your instagram feed and it looks like a very cool trip! That castle looks very cool on the gram.

Thanks buddy,

There are loads of castles in this county around 18 all in different states of decay. At the moment, due to Covid19 you can't enter the castles but one day we will.

Probably going here tomorrow, its only a 15 minute drive.

https://www.pictoncastle.co.uk/

Cheers

Phil

Looks very cool!! I hope one day I can visit and see all these spiff places Some great castles in Scotland as well from what I understand. It may be a while till that's possible though. Keep up the pix!

Todd

England too, in fact I live ten minutes from one which opened to the public in the 1930s the castle itself is 950 years old this year https://www.dudleyzoo.org.uk/dudley-castle/...ual-exhibition/ which is slightly older than the village I was born and bred in http://www.kingswinford.com/kingswinford/kfordhistory.htm

The whole of Europe has many castles

Take this episode in history as a lesson. Every American needs to go to Europe for a minimum of 3 weeks, preferably a month or more. I don't care if you think you "can't afford it". Just figure it out. Whatever it costs you, the experience is worth triple that.
After this pandemic BS is over with ... just do it!
*BS as in I can't believe we actually have to deal with a plague in the 21st century.

Great point Ken,
People I know take long haul flights and haven't even seen the beauty in the UK never mind the Mediterranean countries which are all stunning. We used to visit Menton in the south of France in July /August for two weeks and it is very unspoilt, it is a bit like a French equivalent of Tenby which is ten miles from where we are now. Menton is a town that the Rolling Stones used to visit on their boat for croissants when they stayed in Nice, I found that out whilst reading Keith Richards'rather flowery autobiography, he also said that it was in Italy until some treaty in the 1920s moved the border. The people there speak either French, Italian or some kind of hybrid of both. Its the only place I've heard the people have a conversation, one speaking French, one speaking Italian and the other speaking English, that was interesting listening to the English and working out what the conversation could possibly be about.

There are some stunning places in Europe,

Cheers

Phil

Well said. I've traveled on cruise ships but it's not the same. You don't get off the boat long enough to absorb very much. I've always wanted to go to Germany to see a bunch of Metal bands as there are just wads of them stuffed in every part of Germany and most of Europe. The play actual shows, or they used to before the plague. In Georgia we had one venue that had Metal acts and it's turning in to condos. Even now that I"m near Tampa Florida, the very home of Death Metal, it's just kinda dead due to plague and was a bit dead before that. The band I'm playing lead in right now ARKASA is a german band. I think I'm in the wrong place. Also want to visit Denmark. BEN has shared wads of killer bands that are from Denmark. Also would get to see BEN along the way

Here's some UK acts, I hope you like them, of course being a metal head you may already know about them.

https://youtu.be/RvWbcK3YQ_o


https://youtu.be/iMFnmYxJOZU


https://youtu.be/qM5Kr3uGdZ8


https://youtu.be/Ogjc5DzIRHE


https://youtu.be/fH3cwxxjfB8


https://youtu.be/VjXjpg4zj6U


https://youtu.be/H8q8wBWofqg


https://youtu.be/6PisDsQgviQ


https://youtu.be/get0cXOsSXg Prog metal, Ben might like these.


https://youtu.be/BFeHsMDKW9s


https://youtu.be/22CmxMJU2V0

Thanks for the share! About half of these were new to me and I liked em all. England has always had killer bands playing heavy music to be sure. I need to make a stop there as well. I've got a lot of traveling to do once they plague is over! Id love to see MAIDEN play some huge venue on Home Soil. That alone would be worth the trip.