consume

Crushing On: SingleCut Guitar Editor

November 12, 2011 by krisis

E and I just bought a new couch.

We spent just one day of shopping. We had dozens of styles to choose from, over a hundred fabrics, different kinds of legs! While we didn’t get the exact couch in my head, we wound up with one that fit our life perfectly.

Last summer I decided I wanted a blue bass.

Immediately, my choices were limited. Some basses I liked didn’t come in blue, so they were out. Even the ones in blue were the wrong shade, or had hideous pick-guards, or a pickup configuration I didn’t like. I wound up with a bass I like, but I mostly bought it because it was the only one that was the right blue within a thousand dollars of my price range.

It’s the same thing with acoustic guitars. I only like finished tops and cutaways. No Martins for me! And, if I want to stay away from bridge-pins, which I haven’t had to deal with for five years, my only choice is staying with Breedlove.

It begs the question: why? Our couch was only a fifth as much as the high end acoustics, and a hell of a lot bigger. Why can’t I get what I want in the form of a guitar?

Enter Frank Montag’s Single Cut Guitar Editor. Montag has loaded both the Gibson Les Paul (SC) and SG bodies into a Flash editor that can tweak every option. Colors, woods, pickups, cutaway and bridge style, and everything else.

When someone shared the link with me I immediately designed my perfect pink, semi-hollow, sharp cutaway Les Paul. Do you know the only pink Les Paul out there right now is a Twisted Sister Model? Seriously. Yet, here was my dream guitar on screen, exactly as I saw it in my head.

I assumed there would be a big “BUY” button at the end of the design process, followed by a dollar sign and several zeroes. I was ready to start saving!

There was no buy button. Montag’s tool is purely a dream engine.

Why? Why can’t a big-name guitar manufacturer or small luthier shop put together this tool for real? Why can’t I have my pink Les Paul and my pinless bridge Taylor, and you your polka dotted banana yellow SG or whatever it is that you want?

I suppose most guitarists care more about sound then style up until they’re rich rock stars, and then world is your SingleCut Guitar Editor.

Until then, have fun with the Flash version.

X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, Late September Edition

November 8, 2011 by krisis

Back after a while in mothballs, it’s my X-collections recap!

Marvel hardly lets a single comic book issue go uncollected in book form, which means every week brings new hardcovers and trade paperbacks packed with their most major heroes – including The X-Men.

Read on for capsule reviews of the X-books out in the second half of September, which were unusually focused on past stories. Plus, get the skinny on all of Marvel’s other new collected editions from the latter half of the month.

If you’re looking for more X-info, head over to my Definitive Guide to Collecting X-Men Graphic Novels. Or, for a more basic approach, my Intro to X-Men (on a budget). New to the X-Men? Try my Where to Start Reading X-Men to pick a place to jump in.

X-Men Collection of the (latter half of the) Month:
New Mutants: Fall of the New Mutants TPB

CK Says: Buy it! When I first picked up the hardcover version of this collection earlier this year it was out of habit, but I quickly discovered the book was impossible to put down. Writer Zeb Wells capitalizes on a dangling plot thread from 80s blockbuster Inferno anda year of slow-boil character development to deliver a complex saga worthy of the X-Men’s rich dramatic history.

It’s hard to imagine a story more harrowing or epic than what the team had just endured in Second Coming, but Well’s pulls it off with art from Leonard Kirk, an efficient, unflashy penciler I’ve grown to love. I don’t want to spoil the story – if you enjoy this team of characters you’ll love it, particularly developments for Cannonball, Moonstar, Karma, and Magik.

x-rated opinions (or, it’s offensive no matter how nicely you say it)

October 14, 2011 by krisis

An over-sized hard-cover collecting every single issue of X-Statix, including all of the same sex kissing, is out next month – and Amazon has it available to pre-order for 40% off!

I readily admit that I completely take for granted living within a gossamer soap bubble of acceptance floating in the midst of a hugely liberal city. In any given week I never once interact with a person who is any less than totally accepting of people of all races, beliefs, and sexual identities.

Unfortunately, the internet is a little less accepting, despite my attempts to maintain my bubble of open-mindedness.

For example: I regularly visit a number of X-Men and Marvel forums to answers questions and promote my Guide to Collecting X-Men. Last night, someone asked if a particular upcoming omnibus of X-Statix comics would be appropriate for his children.

Totally fair question, right?

Except, that’s not exactly the question he actually asked. What he asked was this:

I was trying to get some info on what it’s about and read there are some overtly homosexual characters and themes, is this true? I just want to make sure if the themes are adult in nature that my young children don’t pick up the book off my shelves expecting simple heroics and see two same sex individuals kissing.

My intention is not to offend anyone but to educate myself.

There are so many things wrong with that message board post that for about five minutes I simply could not compute. My brain locked up like a computer aimed at a website full of animated gifs of from Maury Povich.

I cannot possibly cosign this statement any more.

First, and most obvious – why does it matter? To play off a recent image doing the rounds on social networks, how is gay kissing any different than straight kissing? Or, since we’re talking about a comic book, the potentially confusing shapeshifter kissing or alien kissing, and the occasional robot kissing?

Answer: It’s not. It’s just kissing. Either kissing is appropriate for your kids, or it isn’t. Either it’s appropriate in public or it isn’t. Either it’s appropriate on a plane or it’s not. “Gay” shouldn’t enter into the equation.

Second, there is the careful defusal at the end of the question. You see, it’s not offensive because they are using very polite terms about their bigotry. They simply want to educate themselves on how to promote bigotry.

That’s totally inoffensive, right? And bullying doesn’t hurt anyone unless they choose to feel hurt, right?

What if he had said “two Mexicans kissing” or “two people of different races kissing”? Or “a woman in a leadership position over men”? Or “a person with a disability doing simple heroics next to a able-bodied superhero”?

It’s all bigotry, no matter how nicely you phrase it.

Crushing On: RedCo Audio

October 1, 2011 by krisis

RedCo Audio saved my studio, my sanity, and my bank account. If you are wiring a studio, a patch bay, a home theatre, or any other kind of DIY multimedia project you should buy your cables exclusively from RedCo.

Is that a ringing enough endorsement?

Let’s backtrack for a second. In every occupation, hobby, or pastime there are hidden costs that do not reveal themselves until you are in too deep to avoid them.

Well, maybe not entirely hidden, but at least not obvious. When you buy a new photo printer, you know it will need paper and ink, but you aren’t always thinking about how expensive those glossy papers and photo inks will be, and how you might need a new card reader for all your massive files.

The same goes for any musical hobby. You assume your big expenditures will be your instrument, amplification, and various tone devices – and wow that is already a lot to expend, let me tell you. Instead of equipping myself to play bass from scratch in the last 12 months I could have put a down payment on a brand new car or a timeshare.

Eventually you get there. I did, and I am historically terrified of electric rock signal chain technology. I’d prefer something lower-fi, like a stick tied to a washtub. But I persevered – I got my ideal instrument and signal chain set up in my custom home studio, only to realize I didn’t have enough cables, and when I looked them up online I found that a 2ft patch cable costs THIRTY DOLLARS.

WHY WOULD THAT BE?

This actually looks pretty elegant, as washtub basses go.

I have learned my lesson from cheap cables that crap out every six months. I now understand that the cheapest option will always cost you double in the long run. After nearly falling out of my chair from seeing how much the patch cable was I hesitantly searched for the 35ft XLR I needed from high-end brands like Mogami and Monster…

…all the blood rushed from my face. I almost fell out of my chair.

I was going to have to drain my entire savings account to cable my studio. Not only that, but the cables weren’t even what I needed! In one case I needed a 35ft, not 50ft, and right angle TS connector, not straight TRS – but that didn’t exist. I’d be spending a mint on the wrong options!

Enter RedCo Audio. They are a small company in Connecticut specializing in hand-made custom cables. And, not just custom lengths. You can pick everything from the gauge of the cable down to the angle of the connection. They can make audio cables, coax connections, and custom multi-channel snakes. They have every option you could every imagine, including the very same materials used by Mogami and other boutique brands.

A 50ft Mogami studio-quality XLR? $110 list price. A 50ft RedCo XLR with the same materials? $55. That doesn’t even account for the fact that you might only need 45ft, and wouldn’t mind a lighter cable gauge. (New price? $38)

A $300 spend at RedCo got me a dozen new cables totaling over 250 feet, which would have cost more than $1000 to buy retail. I’ll admit, it was super-confusing to pick all the right cables and connectors, but I left notes in each order about what I planned to use the cable for and RedCo gave me an unexpected personal call to recommend a few changes in my order, which they made for no additional cost.

Two weeks later, I had a box of brand new custom cables on my doorstep, each the perfect solution to a need in my home studio.

I love RedCo Audio. Love love love. I will never in my life buy studio cable anywhere else, and I’ll always get exactly what I need.

DC New 52 Review: Superman #1

September 30, 2011 by krisis

Superman has been dangled like a carrot over readers’ noses all through DC’s 52 debut month, from his hot-headed flashback appearances in Justice League and Action Comics to his benevolent present day cameos in Swamp Thing and Supergirl.

The promise was implicit: you’ll get your full dose of Superman in the title with his name on it. Not only that, but that his modern depiction would help to contextualize the superheroes that appeared throughout all 52 books.

Well, we’ve arrived. 51 books later and it’s time to unveil the boy in blue in the present tense – in the capable hands of comics veteran George Perez.

Superman #1

Script & breakdowns George Perez, pencils & inks by Jesus Merino

Rating: 2 of 5 – Uneven

In a Line: “Superman, however, was occupied with other matters.”

#140char Review: Superman #1 is all the reasons modern readers mock 80s comics. Perez way overdoes it on script in this tangled one-shot plot.

CK Says: Skip it

Superman #1 under-delivers, focusing on every possible detail except for Superman. Classic creator George Perez over-scripts this allegory about print media living past the digital wrecking ball. Despite keeping this plot confined to a one-shot and fitting in a super-brawl, this issue was a chore to read.

This issue is too obsessed with text. Do we really need to know all the ins and outs of the Daily Planet’s newfound home in a major media empire? Perez chooses to defray his heavy-handed narrative voice-over by assigning it to in-story speakers, but it just makes things worse.

From the mayor’s overbearing introductory speech to a nonsensical newspaper article that reads like a bad blog post fraught with grammatical errors, Perez presents an unfortunate example of why modern comic readers tend to mock the overly-narrated issues of the 70s and early 80s.

If there is one aspect of the issue safe from criticism, it’s the artwork. Perez’s breakdowns guide artist Jesus Merino to fine issue of art – where’s it’s not obscured by text balloons, that is. A Courtney Cox inspired Lois winds up the star of the issue, and like Cox she’s an ageless blend of leggy starlet and purring cougar.

A one page diversion that sets up Stormwatch makes no more sense here than it would in any other title, except this is the ostensible present-day super-flagship. It’s still awkward.

In a graphic design nitpick, center-aligned narration boxes that contain entire paragraphs are a bad move. Readers don’t want to drag their eyes down a ragged left margin of text in a box. It’s confusing.

Superman #1 is a disappointing delivery given the buildup we’ve seen all month. While I’d welcome a series of one-shot stories showing the Man of Steel in action, I don’t think Perez’s narrative style jibes with Metropolis – especially when the ultra-efficient Grant Morrison is the other scripter in town.