I wouldn't class it as my hobby but in my spare time other than playing games, I like photography, Not really much to do that interests me to be honest.

Just the ordinary stuff like discussing the theory of relativity with a Man Bear Pig, I'm super sereal.

Quote from BAMBO :

Just the ordinary stuff like discussing the theory of relativity with a Man Bear Pig, I'm super sereal.

or creating pointless topics ...............no just kidding

Oh my god I just found out this exists.

MUST... HAVE...

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Oh my god I just found out this exists.

MUST... HAVE...

Story of my life...And also why I can't afford car insurance

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

Story of my life...And also why I can't afford car insurance

Hehehe.

I don't have a car at the moment so I'm a named driver on my girlfriend's insurance, and her insurance costs actually went down from adding me as a named driver. !!!!!!

(please don't tell them what a shit driver I am)

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Well, I play bass but it's not far off. I used to practice diligently but eventually got wise and realised I can just buy talent in a box instead.

Ultimately I'm hoping to have enough pedals so I can give my bass to someone else and pay them minimum wage to be me, while I spend the whole gig at the bar.

I thought thats what bass guitarists do anyway

Speaking of the guitar I tried to teach myself to play, got myself a shed load of beginner books, and then basically spend most of the time randomly hitting random strings. After 6 months I had managed to teach myself 'Suicide Is Painless" and then forgot about it, one of my regrets to be honest.

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

I thought thats what bass guitarists do anyway

Bassists (well, most bassists, let's forget that Adam Clayton from U2 exists for the sake of argument) usually work harder than anybody but the drummer. It's rare you get a break in a groove long enough to sort your hair out or take a girl's phone number or do a line off the percussionist's vibraphone or whatever.

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

Speaking of the guitar I tried to teach myself to play, got myself a shed load of beginner books, and then basically spend most of the time randomly hitting random strings. After 6 months I had managed to teach myself 'Suicide Is Painless" and then forgot about it, one of my regrets to be honest.

Pretty tune. Yeah I'd always wanted to be able to play keys properly but I still can't. I can play one-handed well enough and record a lot of stuff using keyboards for band demos and so on, and actually if I come up with a tune in my head I sit down at a keyboard to figure the chords out rather than pick up a guitar (I always get nicer, jazzier chords doing it that way), but I can't sight-read and I find the syncopation between the two hands difficult.

What's annoying is my girlfriend can play piano very well and she reads music better than I can, but she can only recite what's written, she doesn't know music theory at all. Whereas I taught myself everything I know and while my knowledge is still limited compared to, say, someone who studied composition or jazz, it does at least mean my ear can usually tell me everything I need to know and I can fake my way through pretty much anything on bass.

Everybody should learn to play something though, I think. This will sound really lame but I find music is immensely good for the soul, and opportunities in adult life for being creative are so limited it's a real blessing to be able to sit down with an instrument and just play whatever comes out.

Enough red wine-induced rambling...

As a hobby I occasionally do a bit of rally driving.
My main hobby is playing football, I would rather be rally driving more often but obviously it is a bit cheaper playing football

When I was 12 I was scouted for Gillingham Football Club but in the end nothing happened, they must have lost interest in the end because I didn't hear anymore of it after the manager of the club told me about it. Now 15, playing under 16 football and have played some mens football. Not a great difference except the men fall harder. This season I have scored 5 goals and made 6 assists in 6 games and I play left midfield.

Unfortunately last week after scoring another goal I had to be rushed to casualty as I tore the muscle attached to the bone at the top of my left leg and around my hip after trying to lace a shot towards goal. This has left me on crutches and probably out for the rest of the season. Bloody painful.

Edit: Forgot to mention I do engine sounds for LFS in my spare time as a bit of a hobby too. :P

When I get bored of video games I drive my car up the the mountains in my area and will drive for 6-7 hours on the tight, twisty roads there. I'm always surprised by what city I end up in when I come out

Also I am currently training for my private pilot's license. There is nothing quite like flying over the California coastal range on a clear day.

Quote from flymike91 :

I am currently training for my private pilot's license.

I take it your parents are quite well off?

If you recall from the US election thread, yes, they are quite well off.

I will someday fly the skies. It might be in a little lawnmower powered ultralight rather than a real plane, but I will be taking to the skies.

My hope/dream is to buy my neighbor's property some day, I have a HUGE field behind my house owned by the neighbor. I want to put a grass airstrip in and get an ultralight aircraft. No license needed.

Quote from mrodgers :

I will someday fly the skies. It might be in a little lawnmower powered ultralight rather than a real plane, but I will be taking to the skies.

My hope/dream is to buy my neighbor's property some day, I have a HUGE field behind my house owned by the neighbor. I want to put a grass airstrip in and get an ultralight aircraft. No license needed.

That's the way to go - full-on airborne freedom. I hope you do that one day, Mike.

There's a flying club around here somewhere with a bunch of guys who take up microlites, I'm always jealous when I'm stuck in traffic on the ring road watching them buzzing around above me.

Quote from simscube :

My hobbies are flying and DJ'ing. By flying I do mean aircraft, my dad is a private pilot. For DJ'ing, I have Virtual DJ, but no physical mixer or anything, but that will be remedied soon...hopefully.

I'm a VDJer too

Timecoded CDs on CDJ1000s through a Vestax PCV275. Mmm!

Hoping to upgrade to MK3's (boo old breaky mk1s!) and a DJM800 soon, then I'll be a happy chappy.

Quote from simscube :

My hobbies are flying and DJ'ing. By flying I do mean aircraft, my dad is a private pilot. For DJ'ing, I have Virtual DJ, but no physical mixer or anything, but that will be remedied soon...hopefully.

Me too but i cant do anything besides just mix two tracks together :/ is quite a neat programme though.

ive been playing bass for about 3 years, and the last 18 months got together with 3 guys from work.

we played our 2nd gig a few weeks ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9RzOIOYxDM

Car modeling: http://www.automotiveforums.co ... in/forumdisplay.php?f=927

I'm Zachary Zoomy there aswell.

ok this is what I usto do when I was into LFS,

College
Home
Shower
Food
LFS
Food
Bed.

this is now what I do

College
in town with mates
home
shower
check lfs forums and team forum for like 30 mins to see what people are upto in the gaming world
listen to music
go out when it's dark (for someone reason I like riding round especially this time of the year because it gets dark weally weally early) meet mates
use some cheesy chat up lines
get told i'm going to get battered by her big brother
ermm sleep there abouts

Quote from simscube :

I'd love to get some nice stuff, but due to space limitations and money limitations (16 and no job, lol), what I'm looking at is the Numark Total Control. Its basic, but at least its better than a mouse and keyboard, and we all have to start somewhere.

Those "all-in-one" controllers are good for learning the basics on, but the plasticy feel and cheapo faders will annoy you quickly.

Try before you buy (If you haven't already), and may I suggest a pure DJ controller, like the EKS XP10, routed into a proper DJ mixer. This kind of setup will really prepare you for a modern club, with a CDJ-esque platter and proper mixer with hardy EQs and nice loose sliders. Even using your keyboard to control pitch/jog and a proper mixer to manipulate your sounds will help your ability grow. I've always said that your work on the mixer is far, FAR more important then matching the beat, although the latter is (of course) a vital skill. Don't abuse the auto-BPM!

16 is a great age to start learning the dark arts of DJing. Same age as me when I took it up (although I started on vinyl, bleugh!) What genre(s) are you playing at the mo?

I wish some of you bloody kids would learn to scratch instead of wasting your time mixing. Every kid in the land's got a pair of turntables and can I find a scratch DJ? Can I bollocks.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I wish some of you bloody kids would learn to scratch instead of wasting your time mixing. Every kid in the land's got a pair of turntables and can I find a scratch DJ? Can I bollocks.

You'll struggle to find a scratch DJ who can beatmatch, even roughly, in under 8 beats

Apples and pears.

Plus, back in 1997, scratching over \o/-style trance was a cardinal sin!

(And lol@"kid" )

Quote from simscube :

Currently most of what I play is House and Techno, sometimes a bit of hip hop, but I really don't like it for the most part, I only play hip hop when my friends ask for it.

Right now I've never done any DJ work outside of my house, but once in a while a few friends will come over and I'll do some mixing for them, but most the time I'm just sitting here playing around, finding new songs that go together properly, and when I want to work on my skills with beat matching, song mixing, and other stuff like that, I'll listen to another mix (right now I've been working off of Jus†icE's A Cross The Universe album, which is a live album from one of their shows) and my goal would be to replicate it without anything but that one time reference point. So far its worked rather well too.

Hopefully soonish, after I've gotten used to using a controller (once I get a controller), I'll move on to doing work for friends, that way I get some field experience, but I'm around friends when I'm doing it.

Don't dismiss mixing hip hop, it'll teach you to shortmix and deal with broken beats properly which could lead onto playing breaks, D&B etc. I've always thought it very wise to keep what you play pretty open, as different kinds of genres require different methods to pull off a smooth, fluid mix.

Once you learn a technique that works, you can use it on your main genre. Never keep yourself boxed in, be as open as you think you can be

Also, don't rush yourself. Play to people outside of your own space when you're ready. I didn't play my first DJ set out in a club for a very long time, due to self-confidence issues.

Although when I did start, they disappeared

Quote from Syfoon :

You'll struggle to find a scratch DJ who can beatmatch, even roughly, in under 8 beats

Apples and pears.

I suppose it depends what you're into. I would imagine a good scratch DJ can cope with playing a couple of records at the same time though.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I suppose it depends what you're into. I would imagine a good scratch DJ can cope with playing a couple of records at the same time though.

Indeed. It'd just take longer for them to lock the two together. They also seem to struggle with fluidity when it comes to merging the tracks instead of just banging them together.

I can scratch to a degree myself. I tend not to cos I'm really poo at it

mainly just hunting. soon will probaply be boxing too, been having a break from that and starting to miss it