Spacebadger

There are these kinds of places, people use them for a variety of things, I looked into it when I was going to live on a boat and needed a 'proper' address for registrations:

https://www.mbe.co.uk/sheffield

I personally think you have a much richer creative options picking up DAW etc by teaching yourself, but I understand not everyone is an autodidact, and some folks have a career path where they want bits of paper to show.

There are a lot of small studios in Sheffield and pro/semi-pro producers, it'd be worth your while asking around for someone who's primary creative (not necessarily by itself) tool is Ableton and try and negotiate a price for 1-to-1 tuition that reflects what you were prepared to pay for formal tuition. It's also be worth asking each one how they learned to use it - I'd be surprised if you found many who'd 'gone to school'.

I've just bought a new 2 man tent from Decathlon, one of their 'Fresh and black' range, idea being that it reflects heat so it doesn't get as stiflingly hot and is also a lot darker inside, so you don't get woken up by the light. Have to say, it does what it says on the tin, so long as I've got my anti dawn-chorus earplugs I can get an ok lie in. Worth considering, they've a few different tents that feature it.

I've also got their 2 man backpacking tent, the Forclaz II, it's a nice little tent.

Errr, "you people"....really?

Your intolerant self will be pleased to read this:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tractor-driver-fined-driving-25mph-8348287

As I drive what's basically a souped up agricultural vehicle with a top speed of 50mph on the flat, I'm no stranger to tailbacks, and I do always pull over when I see one forming, I'm the most considerate driver you'll ever meet - however, "you people" who regard being forced to slow down to the legal speed limit or (god forbid) below because someone is driving as fast as their wheels will go ("drive faster"....really? "Brian, there's a tailback forming, turn on the nitrous oxide!") it as an affront and infringement of your human rights can sit and stew for all I care, hope you miss the start of Corrie or whatever equally important engagement you have.

It's my understanding that for a property classed as A1 (in this case a shop with window display and access to the second floor internally only, so it's all one building), that it is permitted development with no planning permission needed to run a retail business below and use the upper floor for private accommodation for the owner of that business. Am I correct in thinking this?

Yes, the F2 does seem to still command a good price if it's still in GWO, though never been one I've hankered after. My GF has a Nikon F90x (another Ken Rockwell fave), looks like a VCR but takes a very good picture in her hands.

Btw, been in Harrisons lately? There's a second hand counter right at the back now.

Yes, people still use film, it's had quite a resurgence in recent years (similar to vinyl records), but if there's one thing the world is not short of it's old film cameras. Post details and I'll let you know my opinion, I buy and troll charity shops for them pretty much all the time.

The only thing on there that'd interest me is the Helios lens, and that would only be if I was looking for an M42 present for someone, £10 if it was in ok condx.

Everything else would be stuff I'd hold out for finding in a charity shop for peanuts, I think these days people are only prepared to pay for legends and prime lenses with character as far as film goes (my last SLR was a Spotmatic for instance).

This isn't to say someone with a specific yen wouldn't pay over the odds for something, and my own camera desires are not everyone elses, so good luck.

Have you considered trying an octave pedal, transposes what you play an octave down? Works well on lead lines, though modern pedals like the POG will happily have a go at chords with variable success. I'd have thought 'Apache' and a lot of Marvin's stuff would sound pretty rocking....

I think there are some cheaper generic digital octave pedals (old analogue ones are dirt cheap, though some are next to useless) out there these days too, my POG was eye wateringly expensive not many years back.

Sometimes hearing loss isn't just a case of the patient hearing certain frequencies quieter than others (with the assumption that if, say, they are 12db down from 1kHz+, then playing them something 12db up from 1kHz+ will 'cure' them). Sometimes a frequency range just isn't there for people, and no end of boosting will help. I myself have a particularly odd loss in one ear, I'm bass deaf from about 200Hz down and although it's gradual, beyond a certain point it just 'gone', no matter what I stuff in there. Feels very odd. Thankfully I can work around this pretty well and don't lose stereo imaging etc.

It's like the old mixing maxim, "you can't boost what isn't there".

Not being facetious at all John, but maybe play bass instead? Much more visceral and also has less upper harmonic overtones to lose...you're neighbour may not be happy though. In all seriousness, you can get body speakers to help you 'feel' low end, think gamers and home cinema geeks use them....

No, you can certainly go Guitar > EQ pedal > Amp, many people do. Some amps have an 'effect loop' in/out at the back that adds any effect pedals after the amps own preamp and EQ section in order to get the tone and drive this imparts, but in your case I don't see much of an advantage to doing that, though experimentation is always good.

Good luck with it helping your hearing loss. This would be taboo for most guitarists, but the average guitar speaker is quite limited in the frequencies it outputs - if you've got an old hi-fi speaker of the correct impedance (and a speaker output on your amp) you may get some joy out of adding this to your 'stack', as the tweeter will kick out the higher frequencies that a guitar speaker won't.

Dunno the ins and out of your idea, but maybe look at Kickstarter or other crowd funding site? If you've whipped up your current orders via online media then you've a headstart already.

It's worth the money, but there are lower cost alternatives that essentially do the same thing, such as REAPER. Also, ProTools is now free for its limited version.

All DAW's require a steep learning curve if you've never used one before, just pick something, go for it, and keep going for it.

Yes, you can plug a guitar straight into a computer with the right lead, but it'll sound pretty crap. There are lots of outboard interfaces with guitar-level inputs on the front these days.

Have you considered going self employed and cutting out the middle man?

There is a fair amount of help available, business advice, accounting workshops, government help:

https://www.gov.uk/new-enterprise-allowance

Depending on how much time and energy you've got, it doesn't stop you from taking a

normal paid job alongside if it crops up, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. I generally have a low hour, low stress PT job and also do my self employed work online, it works quite well for me. It's also something you can add to your CV, and I get the feeling employers like it - you're not just another long term unemployed person. Quite a lot of jobs are self employed roles too, if you're already set up and running you've got one up on the person who isn't.

Just my 2p, best of luck.

bx

I had an MRI at the Northern General a year or so ago, headphones and music (Beatles I think), while not being tea on the patio it wasn't the slightest bit unpleasant, and I specifically told them I wouldn't take a contrast injection. While it's confining it's not closed off, like being locked in a wardrobe or lift. Hard to tell that to a panic attack though. Just show me a dentists chair and I'm on the floor these days

If it's a real issue, your doctor could possibly prescribe you a sedative. My late partner had to have monthly MRI's with contrast injections and had become needle phobic with all the chemo she'd had etc, and a little sedation an hour before went a very long way to making them bearable. She'd done hypnotherapy and relaxation before, which helped a little, but the sedation was what really worked for her.

Best of luck.

I've never been a fan of 'get the best one you can afford' at all, and some of those £30-£40 3/4 and 1/2 size made in China nylon strung guitars you see around are absolutely fine in my opinion, action, intonation and general playability no worse than a £150 'proper' beginners guitar from a music shop. I bought one for £10 from a junk shop a few years back and played it much, much more than the £700 Martin I bought the same year, it was a perfect little blues guitar.

Those Stagg 1/2 size nylon things are probably fine for £50, that's as 'upmarket' as I'd recommend personally. They've got them in Rich Tone, but you should try Wavelength first, as they're lovely. Take him to try it out though, going to a guitar shop for a new plank is half the joy of it.

Does anyone have any experience or views on residential property funds? I've been looking at Hearthstone recently as an alternative to buying (outright) a small flat to rent out for a regular income.

Nope (and thanks for asking), but my GF is looking for one, what have you got?

Yes, think I did. Hey, a 100mb zip disk was too much to waste in those days!

Maybe you could get it off someone from here, not sure if you'd need to mount the drive in a PC to copy it over though:

http://www.vsplanet.com/

I've a VS840 that I still deploy occasionally, been meaning to mod it for solid state for years but probably won't bother now. It's useful as a mixer with effects and I prefer the vocoder to my Microkorg, I used it not long back actually:

https://soundcloud.com/heavenly-bodies-records/supersonic-original-mix-g-love

You should address any dust build up on the fan blades and heatsink vanes before dismantling or looking at paste problems. Personally I don't recommend compressed air or vacuum cleaners in case it spins the fan in a way it wasn't designed to cope with (in theory could act as a generator sending electric back along the bus). I find old toothbrushes are good, as are cheap kids paintbrushes, just spend 10 mins and get in all the nooks and crannies, a bendy straw is safe enough to blow some bits away. If it's no better, then look at the paste. You may also want to consider environmental issues of the unit, making sure it's got airflow around it, not near other sources of heat etc...

Ask Jeffrey how you can exchange quickly if you won't believe me. You'll get an education. No pre sale contract required.

While I *do* believe you Eric, Jeffrey, would you please educate us on us how you can you exchange quickly with no pre sales contract required?

I used to campaign against the waste incinerator a few years back and I seem to recall that Tinsley had one of the poorest air qualities in the UK, really high nitrogen dioxide and pm2.5's. You've not only got the M1 pollution but the prevailing winds blow all the city centre traffic and incinerator emissions your way. Oh, and it's a tactical target for Russian nuclear weapons apparently, no lingering death from radiation (or emphysema) for you, so look on the Brightside....

The **** wizards

Priapic artichoke convention

Dingleberry and the Kilingons

Chuff pigeons of Skrofulard

The Beatles ate my imagination

We are selling, and have had quotes so far from Blundells and Key2Go. The valuations were similar but fees for Blundells about £500 more. Choosing an estate agent seems a minefield, is it worth paying more for a big firm or are the small independents just as good? How many quotes to get?

 

Plus, Blundells makes you start paying the marketing fee upfront and use their own solicitors, I think, but the paperwork is complicated and harder to understand than Key2Go.

 

It may be worth paying more if they will get a better price or quicker sale, but how do I find out who is better? Is it worth haggling with the fees?

Definitely haggle - you don't even need to be hard-nosed about it, Blundells called to chase me up post valuation and I just mentioned that another EA was willing to put it on the market for £99 and they straight away knocked £300 off, I wasn't even trying!

I ended up paying out £49 to get my own EPC done and that's been it for up front costs so far.

I did really fancy going with Key2Go but I didn't get any timely feedback on what they were like, and lots of the earlier feedback seemed to come from the same people....

Bearing in mind that the internet has been a huge leveller in terms of advertising, and a small firm can have the same coverage as a huge one, it seemed to me that forums like this were the best way of judging who is 'better', or at least who really sucks....