A Geek Goes Flying

Yamaha bass, Fender amp, my audience Grabbed a “starter” bass, the Yamaha BB234 , and paired it with a Fender Rumble 40 [1]. Added on the usual assortment of accessories, like a cable , strap , tuner , heavy picks (’cause the first song I’ve been learning is Opiate , and, well, Paul D’Amour plays with a pick ). For the Fender I also picked up the  099-4049-000 foot switch to toggle between its modes, and for convenience this  C14 to C13+NEMA 5-15R Y Splitter Power Plug Cord so I can plug in the NUX MG-300 Mk. II (which has some bass heads and IRs and pedals, to augment the basic massaging the Rumble 40 has built in), without running another cable back to the wall. I’ve also been using it with headphone amps: Boss Katana:GO (had picked up a discounted used one to use with guitar, but it’s got a good bass mode) with a pair of AKG K92 headphones (which I already had) (cable hell, but it can also be used as an audio interface)] Positive Grid Spark NEO  (better interface...

So, I got RockSmith 2014 working on the Mac Mini (a late 2014 model with an Intel® Core™ i5-4278U CPU @ 2.60GHz, 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM, and 256GD solid state storage (Apple SM0256F)). That machine maxes out at macOS Monterey, and I have no reason to upgrade it past that point; it’s just running Yousician and now RockSmith. (And I understand RockSmith 2014 won’t run on the newest macOS versions.)  (The Mini was a cheap eBay purchase that was meant to be a music streamer, but I never really ended up using it for that.) Although I have the “ Real Tone Cable ,” I didn’t have it handy when I was setting things up. I’m trying to keep things more or less wireless, because of the puppy. I’m wirelessly connected to the NUX Mighty Air amp. That, in turn, is connected to the Mac Mini via a USB C to USB A cable. The Mac (and thus RockSmith, as a “Microphone”) see the NUX as an audio input source when so connected: One quirk of this method of connecting things is, I hear the guitar through th...

O ne of my NYRs is to practice guitar more diligently. Towards that end, I picked up a “used” 2019 serial number EC-256 in immaculate condition at a price no one could say no to (basically $150!), picked up a very lightly used NUX Mighty Air wireless modeling amplifier for less than half price from a guy who lives down the street, and, finally, splurged a bit on the 50% off sale (archived) for Yousician (currently using their desktop app on my MacBook Air, but there's also, of course, versions for the iPad / iPhone, Android, Windows...) This system is kind of a trip. All the nostalgia (and addictiveness ?) of Guitar Hero . But in this case you're actually developing fretting skills, getting more precise with timing, etc. Any time spent practicing guitar skills is time well spent, IME. Jamming along with a (so far, snippet of a) recognizable song connects for me a lot better than playing a song's guitar parts in isolation, or even with most of the backing tracks you fin...

After stripping everything down to minimalism to comfortably host Thanksgiving this year, I’ve decided to redo my reading/listening station . Getting rid of the IKEA side table, the clusterfuck of cables, etc., and getting down to basics. Moving the Schiit stack to the built-in bookshelves, which aren’t deep enough to comfortably host the Mac Mini, let alone the shelf I built . Also ditching the iPhone 12 setup, since I just never really used it. But I still do want streaming capability. (I tried, I really tried, to use / like the Logitech Media Server setup on the mini, but, alas.) Wiim Pro Enter the streamer After too much research, and considering the Arylic S10+ and LP10, and the Eve Play, and some other devices, I settled on the WiiM Pro , especially once Amazon dropped it from $150 to $125, a pretty good price . If I ever use Spotify, it integrates (though I probably won’t ), and apparently it works with the Pandora and SiriusXM I do  have ... But mostly I anticipate using it...