Monday, September 22, 2014

Sony Vegas 13 sucks

I’m a long time Sony Vegas fan. My history with Sony goodies dates back to Acid Pro 3, when was still developed by Sonic Foundry, which had created a very intuitive interface and workflow. Sony bought Sonic Foundry and started migrating all the programs to .Net Framework crap, and quality began to suffer.

Sony Vegas was still usable up to version 12. Not exactly fast, but pretty usable. Testing out this version 13 – build 373 is the lastest at the moment I write this post –, I’m deeply disgusted to what they have done. Without any noticeable improvement, the interface has got a bit uglier, and everything, absolutely everything is slower. I dislike laptops, I have a desktop computer with quite powerful hardware components, and even though, the timeline elements became sluggish when reacting to the mouse, the video preview rendering is blurred and skipping frames, and any cross-fading is simply not viewable due to slowness. Among other oddities.

After some hours of headache, I simply removed this version and reinstalled the version 12 back. What a relief. No more Vegas 13 over here. I hope Vegas 14 can have more luck – although I doubt it.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Music Man JP comparison chart

After his solid Ibanez JPM, it seems that John Petrucci doesn’t know what he wants, so he changes the specs of his signature guitar each year. There are way too many versions so far, and no single place where you can find all the specs together, so I compiled a comprehensive chart of all John Petrucci models with Ernie Ball Music Man.

Note: this chart doesn’t include the dozens of limited series that have been released, just the standard specs.

Model Year Body Neck Fingerboard Bridge PU Neck PU F radius Frets
JP6 2000 Basswood Birdseye maple Rosewood Custom, based on
Steve’s Special
Custom, based on
Air Norton
15"
381mm
High wide
h .047", w .104"
h 1.19, w 2.64mm
2005 D-Sonic
JP6 BFR 2007 Alder,
maple top,
mahogany block
Mahogany Rosewood or ebony
JP6 2008 Basswood Birdseye maple Rosewood Crunch Lab LiquiFire
JP6 BFR Alder,
maple top,
mahogany block
Mahogany Rosewood or ebony
JP6 BFR Baritone
JPX 2010 Chambered alder,
maple top,
mahogany block
Ebony Jumbo
h .057", w .110"
h 1.45, w 2.79mm
JPXI 2011 Alder,
maple top,
mahogany block
20"
508mm
Medium jumbo
h .051", w .108"
h 1.30, w 2.74mm
JP12 2012 Basswood,
maple top,
mahogany block
JP13 2013 Rosewood Illuminator Illuminator 17"
432mm
Majesty 2014 Basswood,
maple top
Mahogany, neck-thru Ebony
JP15 2015 African mahogany,
maple top
Roasted maple
Majesty Artisan Honduran mahogany,
neck-thru
Ebony
JP16 2016 Basswood Roasted maple Smokey ebony Sonic Ecstasy Sonic Ecstasy
Majesty Monarchy 2017 African mahogany,
maple top
Honduran mahogany,
neck-thru
Ebony
2019 Dream Catcher Rainmaker
JP 20th 2021 Honduran mahogany,
maple top
Honduran mahogany Crunch Lab LiquiFire 15"
381mm
High wide
h .047", w .104"
h 1.19, w 2.64mm
Majesty 20th Honduran mahogany,
neck-thru
Dream Catcher Rainmaker 17"
432mm
Medium jumbo
h .051", w .108"
h 1.30, w 2.74mm
Majesty 8 Basswood Mahogany, neck-thru

Other changes:

  • On the first model, the following are optional: piezo, matching headstock, shield fretboard inlays. A “full loaded” specimen has all three.
  • Compensated nut was introduced in early 2006.
  • The BFR Baritone has a 27.5" scale length.
  • Stainless steel frets debuted with the JPXI in January 2011, and later became standard on all JP models ordered since January 2012.
  • The rectangular tremolo base plate was introduced in August 2011.
  • In 2011 the piezo saddles changed for ones with lower output; because of this, the preamp was changed for one with a higher output to compensate.
  • The BFR logos (on the 12th fret) were retired from all models with the release of the JP13, in early 2013.
  • The JP12 was the last model to feature a passive circuit for the magnetic pickups, which can work without a battery. The JP13 and all later models feature an active circuit for everything, including the magnetic pickups: without batteries guitar has no sound.
  • Around October 2016 the logo at the back of the headstock changed, from “Made in San Luis Obispo California, USA” to “Californa heritage, since 1974” with a bear picture.
  • The JP16 has a Korean-made Floyd Rose bridge, and no piezo system.
  • In 2019, the Majesty eletronics layout was redesigned, with less wiring in the back cavity. The layout of the back controls is different.
  • The Majesty 8 has a fixed bridge and it’s 25 to 27" multi-scale.

This chart was last updated in 2021-10-15.