Donner wrote:There has always been a desire to make a 'final reference set' for all things BJFE - I've done it and tried it myself over the years and honestly thats not really what gets used --- you need some basic info to get people started and perhaps a Frequently Asked Questions - but as redundant as it seems discussion is a big part of a discussion board
Yeah, I 100% agree with that. A long time ago I looked at creating a clip reference section or thread or forum just for clips. I actually think about it every 3- months or so... However:
1. There are just so many combinations of guitars, settings, mics, rooms, cables, amps, fingers, fingernails, picks, strings etc, etc it is virtually impossible to get a "final reference set" as you say. Not only that but how do you cover stacking, what pedals, what order, there could be billions of combinations!!
2. By creating a "final set" you kind of cut out the experimentation. The thing about the forum is that you want people to look, experiment, find and make their own discoveries. Once you put it all in the open it kind of discourages new flows and new thoughts.
3. By creating a reference section people get lured into thinking that the audio defines "the" sound of the pedal. That is a trap that a lot of people could fall into and that is probably not a good idea..
4. One thing about any section is that it always gets "hijacked" because people always get off topic - that is the beauty of forums and that is the nature of humans, we like disorder and you never know what interesting stuff could pop up.
5. If we had a clip section we would have to monitor it strictly, cut off discussion etc etc just to try and keep it orderly and tidy. I am not too sure if that would work too well...it will also be a bit of work for the person keeping it ordered and of course it is never nice to be the person to stop people from talking in "reference" sections..
I don't mind reference sections for information covering dates, enclosures, versions etc etc because that is factual information. However, audio is very subjective and you can never really be precise and you kind of want people to talk about it and analyse it and give their opinions and comments - the more variety the better. The thing is, I think that when someone loads a clip there will then be a lot of discussion about it...which there should be...that being the case, what is the real difference between that and the "BJFE Discussion" section?? The good thing at the moment is that the forum is relatively simple so you really only have to look in one or two places. I mean, I already have the "BJFE Pedal Description" thread and it is amazing how many people ask questions in other threads about information that is already in that thread and that thread is very public (note: it gets updated every few days or so). So, I am not too sure if more sections, more reference threads etc would actually help the forum...or just make it too fractured...
One idea could be to keep posting clips to any section as you do now but have an index to that thread in an index file the "BJFE Library". That would keep the forum just as relaxed and simple as it is now but there would be an additional simple index (with no discussion content) if people also wanted to find things that way...
Oh well, lots of thoughts...keep up the clips because I love hearing them