I gave some links last week to videos of Marshall amps being demoed.

But have you watched the full videos available on the Marshall site itself?  http://www.marshallamps.com ... just click on the right hand side, where it says 'Marshall Theatre' ... you will be taken to a separate window where you can choose the intro by Victoria Marshal [Jim's lovely daughter, now managing director].

By SINGLE left mouseclicking you can choose the demos by my pal and astonishing guitar player Chris George ... quite the most frightening player I have ever seen ... just watch in amazement.  By the way, just marvel at the amp sounds and think: "why did I ever feel there was any other amp. other than Marshall?"

Then single click on the factory tour and be prepared to have your breath taken away ... the work that goes into each amp, the skill in the hand building, the testing, the components and the dedication ... finally the servicing promise "bring any amp that we have made in the past 45 years and we will service it while you wait and you can have a nice cup of coffee - and why not do the factory tour while you wait?"  Smile as you note the average age of the ladies assembling the wiring!  They have been with the company for donkey's years ... they love Jim.

Quite unbelievable.  I know I cr*p on about Jim's amplifiers ... now you will understand why.

NOTE:  Make sure to single left mouseclick to access the Marshall Theatre and videos ... if you inadvertently double you will think there is a fault ... just shut down the Theatre window and start again remembering to single c lick.

The Minidisc saga [most companies are discontinuing them]

I feel I must be a leading expert in Minidisc players?  You will remember that I was looking to purchase a player with auto-pause function [auto stop at the end of each track].  This was for the play back system in the Lodge of my charity The Grand Order of Water Rats.

 In asking many, getting good info. from music newsgroups, and doing a lot of research, I have finally got the whole deal figured out.

The manufacturers are indeed phasing out these useful industry standard machines.  However, in a last ditch to boost sales they are leaning their advertising toward the fact that the new players will interface with P.C.s and afford a lot of storage space.  The PC will also do a lot of the functions on the new style players [typing titles, stop start etc.]

 So, my research brought up the fact that there is only one player available new, the Sony MDS-JE480, but sadly this has not got the auto-pause function which stops the current track and cues up the next one ready for playing.  I say available, but stock is hard to find.  I have bought one and the expected delivery is 1-2 months!

The only machine with auto-pause is the Sony MDS-JE780, which will feature the PC interface and auto pause .. plus all the bells and whistles ... sadly, no stock will be available until end of May.  

I have bought two players on EBay:- Sony MDS-JE330 at £21 and £42.  There are many models available on EBay 330, 530, 640, 770.  The two machines in my band's concert rig are the 520s ... extremely reliable.  There is also a 510 model.  All, except the 480, have auto-pause.

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year." Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Proof of the pudding? [ the vocal performance is little to do with the mic.?] 

Hi Dec,
 
With regards to your recent competition I thought I'd let you know that a while back I went to a good recording studio to test all the 'famous' mics to find out 'which one of these sweet babies would be the one for me'.
I asked the studio set up all of these mics in a line, and I sang the same verse of one of my tracks into all of these. Amongst the mics I tested were the famous U47, U67, U87, SM58 and AKG C414.
 
Surprisingly, with my vocals, most mics produced a very similar result. The only obvious differences had more to do with my performance itself than with the mic. 
Therefore I would like to confirm from my recent experience that you have got it spot on in placing the choice of mic towards the bottom of your list. The performance is absolutely where it's at! 

 

Dean Adams