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Users Power Guide and Tips?

I was reading another thread and some people were commenting that Digitech is just missing the boat on not coming up with the next generation of the GNX series. They also stated that some people here have more valuable information having worked with the GNX4 for years then even the GNX4 Power User's Guide by Anderton provides, which I think is an excellent book.

So, here is my idea/suggestion. Why don't we write our own User's Power Guide and Tips book here on the forum? Let's face it, those of us who do use the GNX4 as our main gigging/recording/practice tool have probably come up with some very interesting ways to use the GNX4 that are not covered in the Owner's Manual or Anderton's \"The GNX4 Power User's Guide.\" Even if covered, a good tip from the user might be more helpful than a technical listing in the manual. For example, I use the GNX4 to record my band at every gig. I setup the GNX4 to record in mono mode, jack the cables straight out of the mixer, hit the record button once and have worry free recording for 6.5 hours on a fresh 2 GB CF card. That might be a useful tip for someone else.

Point is, I am sure that there is alot of knowledge here in this forum that we could put together a really good User's Power Guide. So that's my idea/suggestion. I would envision it being a collaborative effort in that people could add to the work in progress. In a sense, it would be a wiki type effort where anyone would be able to contribute. It would not have to be a wiki page, however. If anyone else thinks this is a good idea, let me know.

Also, if anyone has an idea how to make this work on this forum, that would be great. At school, we just email a MS Word document to each other and add our input. Since this is the internet, maybe there is a better way to build a working document with access to all. It would be nice to be able to print it out too, like a book. This is not my area of expertise, so maybe someone out there has a good idea how to make this work and can help. Again, only if there is any interest in the user's writing their own \"User's Power Guide and Tips.\" Frankly, I have learned more on this forum than from the manuals anyway. It would be great to caputre some of that knowledge in an organized format, since it appears that Digitech and publishers have moved on to newer products (that, IMHO, are not as good or lack the full features that we have in the GNX4). Take care.

Comments

  • Do you reallllly want to give 'blooz a public audience??? :shock: It's bad enough the state of New Jersey has to spend taxpayer money to keep him under surveillance (for the public's safety, of course...) :lol:

    That said (sorry - a guyz gotta have fun somehowz...), I agree with 'taus. There are people here who know way more about the GNX than do DT's tech people, and probably some who know more than Anderton.
    I don't know exactly how it'd work either; but the fact is that players here have come up with some pretty great ideas on how to use the unit's features.
    Stupid questions aside (\"how do I move patch X from location Y to location Z?\" :roll: ), there's been some brilliant problem solving and feature utilization here.
    If there were some way - or if someone with endless amounts of discretionary time on their hands :roll: wanted to edit it into a cohesive text, I bet it'd blow CA's book away.

    Then again...wouldn't we all miss the fun and excitement of haunting the forum, infuriating iliace, and bearing up to my berating you slobs for not hooking me up with your wife's hott single friend?!? :lol:
  • I mean, we can just start a GNX4 wiki. Cobalt would not get an account :lol:

    How many people would actually want contribute?
    \gtaus\ wrote:
    Also, if anyone has an idea how to make this work on this forum, that would be great. At school, we just email a MS Word document to each other and add our input. Since this is the internet, maybe there is a better way to build a working document with access to all. It would be nice to be able to print it out too, like a book.

    We could start a wiki, which is an easy thing nowadays. I like this site: http://www.wetpaint.com

    Alternately, if enough people use Windows Live (which is free), we can maintain a document there - it has version control, which makes it much like a wiki. The alternative to that is something like Google Docs, although I don't know whether they have version control implemented.
  • We can do that or sticky some topics, paste topics from stickies etc. I agree on Craigs book which is well thought out, illustrated and one of the absolute best I have seen from Mr Anderton.

    Interesting enough, if you look at most posts in many regards they are almost always recording related. That's a tough one since it really requires a lot of (sometimes agonizing) trial and error. PC hardware among users differ so greatly its almost impossible to have a one-off solution to topics relative to hardware.

    Some of the essential parts have been discussed repeatedly ( drivers, Audio option and Midi setup). Other things like the \"basics\" among track panes, tools, midi, PRV edits. Some say learning recording is like learning Algebra. Understand the variables and just work on simple projects over and over again. Step up to additional tracks as you go until you get the system down. Just like learning guitar, practice, repeat, practice, add on, practice, repeat.. like that.

    Live techniques, guides, usage methods can all be great to add. Again, hardware rigs among users vary heavily so you have to have regard to that.
  • g makes a good point - the computer recording is surely the most confusing and difficult part to master. I'm definitely witness to that.
    I solved that problem by going to h/ware recording, hence my Tascam. And most of the other stuff the GNX does I've been able to figure out pretty well, although I continue to pick up good ideas from the postings here...
  • I was trying to think this thru before posting. And was thinking along the lines of g3456. Cuz frankly sometimes the search works and sometimes it doesn't. And it seems most spend to much time figiting and frustrated with their gnx set up than playing, that sitting there going thru post for an hour or two till you find one that pertains to your problem at hand, just isn't appealing to most. Probably why all the repeat basic questions!

    Unfortunately it will require the gurus here to get that done. Hence why I was apprehensive of suggesting it. They would have to be the ones who determine that the reply post is valid, and organize them into their appropriate catagories ( ie stickeys )

    What all us others can do is go thru post and nominate the ones that were or think would be a useful contribution to this endeaver. And when it is all done then we all can cocentrate on useless chater! :shock: :lol:

    What I was talking about as far as another manual is concerned. Was all the info that has been discussed that isn't in the manual. Such as sound systems pa's speakers etc. such as alot of that has helped gtuas and others, that isn't in the manuals but only experience and trial and error would know! I too, have no sympathy for those who don't want to read the manual!

    Most if not all of my problems are computer related, as I am not very puter savy. But most of the younger generation shouldn't have to much problem with that as they have grown up in this techie world we in live in now days!

    But I have to agree that a simpler form of finding info would be great . Other than reading a bunch of useless ' help!, need help ' etc topics.
  • OK, then, who would want to go through and highlight the question posts that should be stickeys? I've tried to highlight some of the most common questions this way, as have the past mods, but obviously there's more to be explained and discussed than what's already there.

    I am always for making any post stickey - with discretion and as advised. This, I suppose is the easiest approach.
  • Stickeys are good, but what I was really suggesting was an online book with Sections and Chapters of various issues we have talked about. That way, a person could \"turn\" to that Section/Chapter to have immediate access to that topic. I would hope that it could be printed like a book so I could either staple it together or bind it to form a hardcopy book. I could add it to my shelf with the owner's manual and Anderton's Power Users Guide. If it was online and we could edit it like a wikipage, it would continue to grow and improve over time. Again, I just don't see anyone else providing any additional support for the GNX4. Anderton's book was the last we will ever get from the publishers.

    I know that nobody has the time or energy to do all themselves, but if those of us who are interested each put a little effort into the work, it might not be so difficult. I mean, even I have edited wiki pages concerning medical topics I was doing research on for school.

    Also, I hoped that we could keep the document within this forum because I just don't believe that any weblink or attempt outside of this forum would be successful. And, I really like this forum's feature where I get notified of any changes to the threads I am watching or participating in. Yeah, that's alot to wish for, but I thought I would ask if anyone knew if this was possible. Currently I print out threads/messages that I want to keep and have the printouts laying all over the place. I just thought we might be able to organise all this great info into one document that everyone could have printing, input, and editing capabilities. Take care.
  • Just to add another note: I think the moderators do a great job here on the forum and I was not suggesting in any way that they have the responsibility for even more unpaid work. But lets face it, there is alot of friendly talk mixed in with the really good suggestions. I am looking at some way of extracting and organizing the user's tips, suggestions, and explanations without extra chatter. We could still keep the forum friendly, but also have a nice document in progress with solid info for the users. Best wishes.
  • Yeah I definately agree with Rawb that the search is very lacking. Ive done seaches on things that have 2 words and it splits the 2 words up and gives you every post with those 2 words seperately in. Ive tried putting quotes around it and stuff and it still does so that is an issue. I also agree with Gtaus that it should be printable. We should have it split into sub catagories like Recording, Live and so on kinda like we have it now to narrow it down and then under recording we could have Recording on the GNX4, on the computer to narrow it down even more. I think it would be an awesome thing to do. Good thinking Gtaus.
  • Phil's Power User guide:

    1. Get a GNX4
    2. Get some CF cards
    3. Find a computer running XP so you can load X-edit
    4. Load X-edit
    5. Buy mike's Supermodels
    6. Load Supermodels onto CF cards
    7. Insert CF card into GNX4
    8. Play
  • Phil's Power User guide:
    8) :lol: 8)
  • Try this. Sign up for wetpaint (link above). Then go:

    http://gnx4power.wetpaint.com

    I already started some sections and pages, and added some placeholders

    Once you \"join the wiki\" (I might have to approve you), you can edit any page. It works much like a text-based editor, with formatting and junk.

    This is something that anyone on the Internet can see, and anyone who has joined can modify.

    Let me know if this is what you had in mind. I'm sure more users will come along.
  • iliace looks good.

    Where to start? Is there a protcol? Or does somone ask a question, then get info put on?

    Or just add stuff when you feel like adding something. Just write it out knew or copy n paste replies from this forum/ both?

    I am sure it will begin to take its own form eventually.The first step is the hardest.

    How 'bout it taus, does this fit the vision?

    Maybe slow going at first with summer comming on, but I think it has potential. How about all you lurkers out there! Please sound off, like the idea?
  • What you gotta do, once you go to the link in my latest post, is click on the Join Wiki button (it's an orange thing on the right-hand side). That will walk you through getting user names and becoming an editor. I might get an e-mail out of you, but if I recognize your name (at least somewhat) I will sure as hell approve it. From there, you should be able to make edits as with any public wiki.
  • Iliace
    I tried to join and filled in the name and info but when I hit join it refreshes and Im on the same page where I enter the user and password and birthday like I didn't hit the join button. Theres nothing red so Im not missing any lines or anything so Im not sure if its following thru or not.
  • I see Rawb, but I don't see you. Can you sign in to WetPaint? There's a link in the top right portion of the screen, try that. If you can do that, then all you have to do is click Join Wiki - it doesn't look like I have to approve memberships.

    In other words, first you have to sign up for a WetPaint account. Then, using those credentials, you have to join the wiki. It's a two-step process, but once you have the main site account, you can join any public wiki on the site.
  • Just a suggestion from the newbie:

    Could you use Anderton's table of contents as the tabel of contents for the new guide? He seems to do a good job of covering everything, topic wise. Maybe just cut and paste posts into the table whereever it would logically fit??
  • I didn't like CA's organization structure. It's repetitive and does not do well to group related concepts. In fact, the whole book should have been titled \"Things that Power Users should already know\". He separates parameters and parameter editing - is that helpful? Why aren't those subsections in the same chapter? Just an example... the whole thing is a mess. It was sloppily thrown together and rushed to production.

    I think if we're going to put together our own Guide, it should focus on things that aren't covered in CA's book.
  • iliace

    Yeah that worked, Im in now.
  • I put up small to-do lists for each section, so everybody (anybody?) who wants to contribute can do so.

    Just a note: please do not post copyrighted materials, copy things out of Craig's book, manual, etc. We might get a slap on the wrist if we start doing that.

    I'll get to writing as soon as i plow through some of my other outstanding projects.
  • I couldn't join wetpaint either it wouldn't let me. Just came back with a page that said they were having problems and to try later. I just clicked join this wiki and it already had my screen name there! I thought iliace already put it in there! I just put in a password and that was it.
  • Hey gtaus.. Is the wiki what you were thinking of? You don't like? Are you going to join and contribute? Don't think it would work?

    Just curious .. you haven;t sounded off on it since it was created?
  • I've been reading the thread at home on my slow dial-up. I'm a full time student and we just started classes again yesterday. At the moment I am just running around tying to get my head into the school stuff. I will contribute to the wiki. Since it is not within the Digitech forum, I suggest that we at least have some way to notify each other of the updates on the wiki page. Something simple like \"Added midi drum recording info to wiki page\" on this or a dedicated GNX4 wiki page update thread here on the forum. That way we could be automatically notified by this forum when updates are made. I like the idea of shared contributions and I will of course add my \"limited\" knowledge to the page. I've got bits and pieces of paper laying around that I have printed out over the past year from this forum of information that I really find useful. I'll try to make time to start adding that to the wiki page. Thanks for asking. Take care.
  • The wiki sends out a weekly digest of updates to registered members, indicating pages that have been added. There is a \"view changes since last visit\" feature. You can also \"watch\" pages for changes and receive notifications that way. In other words, it's much like Wikipedia.
  • So I guess we just need to get registered and watch the page. Also need to encourage others to watch the wikipage and get notified for updates. Sounds like it could be something good. Take care.
  • Here's the page that lists all the updates:

    http://gnx4power.wetpaint.com/pageSearch/updated?mail=1205

    You can also view each individual page history. In other words, it's pretty much the same as Wikipedia, just laid out differently.
  • I signed up for the wikipage and added some content under recording tips. It is very easy to edit the page. I was not able to see any feature where I could print out the main wiki and following pages/topics. Did I miss that? I know that in Wikipedia you can print out the whole topic even if it spans 20+ pages. Take care.
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