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In the late 80s when I first started out on the musical dream* our keyboard player was on the music tech course run by a local college. He managed to get us a gig as the 'house band', which students learning about the recording studio had to record. It was fun as we got to pretend to be rock stars and to present the students with challenges over and above getting the sound on 8 track tape. We ended up with a three track demo for free. An additional bonus came as the keyboardist was given the keys (pardon the pun) to the studio for the half term break. We went in to record as much of our original material as we could over the three days we had managed to organise being available for. The keyboard player - the one with all the studio experience - spent most of the first day trying to set up SMPTE (I think) code on the Atari in the studio while we attempted to set up the mics on drums and amps as we remembered them from the previous sessions. On day two we started to record our long, proggy masterpiece but the Atari wasn't playing ball and it took all day just to get the rhythm tracks down. On day three we managed to complete the proggy number but with only a few hours left, the other 7 or 8 songs didn't have a hope. Until we hit on the idea of setting up as a band and playing the whole set live. Drums in one room, vox in the vocal booth, guitar amp isolated in the drum room and keys and bass Di'd. We managed two run throughs and those are the recordings I still occasionally listen to. *may have been a day dream

A freezing cold Thursday at the Falkirk Blues Club. A brilliantly run club well attended by Blues fans. Venue is the Wine Library on the last Thursday of each month. All seated audience in a small capacity room so 50 people makes it a sell out.

Isn't that what I said? It's what I meant... Studio engineers respond to the needs of the musicians, musicians shouldn't be compromised by engineers working practices. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

There's quantisation and quantisation. Dismissing it out of hand just shows your ignorance. After all the whole band are all trying to play on the same beats at the same time. It doesn't have to mean setting everything to an equally spaced grid. All decent modern DAWs will allow you to create a quantisation template from one of the recorded parts, usually the drums but anything rhythmic with the correct feel for the piece will do. When you do it this way because to are using an actual performance to set the quantisation points they are highly unlikely to fall exactly on the regular 1/8 or 1/16 note intervals. The rest of the instruments are then "quantised" to this template which will have the effect of just tightening up the whole performance without making the actual timing rigid. In conjunction with beat detection for tempo changes it just gives a tight performance with just enough "human" feel. I've also used this method with recordings that have been created entirely from sequenced/programmed sources except for the vocals by finding a drum pattern on a record that has the feel I want and using that to create my quantisation template.

Last night’s tryout rehearsal went pretty well. Turns out 4 of the band had recently baled from an existing party band run by an anus. WhatsApp group set up and more rehearsals to be booked for January, by which time we’ll all have had a chance to get stuck into the set list. It’s not what you know eh…

And the winner is... @AndyTravis..! Here, then, is your Winner's Certificate (download and save as pdf file, then proudly print and frame...) ... BC_Chal_Cert_2023_11.pdf ... which looks like this (but bigger, of course..!)...

Not a gig tonight but a 3hr rehearsal to polish up on our Xmas songs for our first Xmas show on Sat. night. All went well from the start. So we just had some of the cake we bought for our singers birthday today. Dave

I started doing a series of videos that covers topics that a lot of us working Top 40 bass players did back in da day. The Fake Fretless technique was a popular one but hardly gets discussed anymore so I thought Id post it here for you guys to ponder and/or scrutinize lol

Thanks for the tips @Andyjr1515, cocktail sticks worked a treat. Shame the rest of the process was such a faff! Perhaps not helped by my super glue possibly being a bit old... After a LOT of trial and error, I had to make the holes pretty deep, so that the carbon fibre maintained integrity. Glue that in, then cut the stainless steel to fit and glue that in. Let it dry and then file it down. Sounds simple written! Was not easy! Were I to do it again, I'd get carbon fibre with a thicker wall. This is just 0.5mm. 1mm would have made quite a difference I think. Despite the difficulty, I do think it looks good. There is still a fair amount of tidying up that needs to be done.

TC Spark Booster would be my choice

Here is my pedalboard as of today... All ins and outs are connected to the patchbay in the front of the pedalboard, so no pulling cables from units...

There’s a difference between an engineer led session and a producer led session. producers should set the style and tone of the project in consultation with the musicians, engineers interpreted that vision.

Tulips From Hamsterdam — Max Bygraves

It’s funny but when I go into the studio I prefer to work to how the producer wants (aside from radically changing my sound or wanting different instruments to be used). Given we’ve chosen them based upon their results it seems best to work to their preferences.

A little update for those who are interested - I've gigged a Venture V12 and 4x10 cab. Full disclosure - I'm not a Yamaha artist, but the guitarist in my band is. Yamaha invited us over to Germany for a showcase event using their nice, shiny new gear and we asked (very politely) if we could use the same gear for a gig the night after, to save us bringing our own. I haven't been asked to give an account of the Venture series and I'm certainly not being paid to promote Yampeg. My current rig is Ampeg SVT CL and run it through a Fender Neo 8x10 (all paid for by myself - no amp deals yet), and this was a cool opportunity to road test a Venture head and cab in the wild. The first gig was in what looked like a Bond villain's lair, and was essentially Yamaha's Christmas party. Matteo Mancuso was the opening act (with Federico Malaman on bass who was, as you can imagine, a monster) and we had to follow them - no pressure. I had a box-fresh Venture V12 sat on top of an equally box fresh 4x10 cab with a shiny new Yamaha BB P34 on a stand next to it. The V12 head had plenty of oomph, though I think we can disregard the '1200 watts' on the front of the amp; the wattage arms race in the Class D world verges on ridiculous at times. Big numbers don't always mean a big sound, but in this case it did provide me with more than enough volume. Unfortunately on night 1 of our test, our stage volume was pretty quiet, though I did give the whole thing a quick blast on full volume. There was quite a bit of travel in the volume knob; the first half seemed relatively lifeless but quickly became deafening once past 12 o'clock, and the volume was there in spades all the way to max. The amp sounded great but it was used as more of a monitor whilst the FOH did the heavy lifting. The room was boxy and full of shiny concrete surfaces so turning down was our best bet to sound decent. And decent we sounded, according to the videos we saw afterwards. Not much to report, other than it all worked, sounded great and didn't need to be cranked to sound good. The next night, we played at a venue called HeadCrash in Hamburg, which was much more our home territory - a dirty rock bar. Tried as we might, we couldn't arrange for a van to take the equipment from Yamaha HQ to the venue (a paltry 1.5km away) and the weather had become very British, so we opted for 6 Ubers instead. It was as chaotic as you'd expect, getting a band plus all of their equipment and luggage across town, though carrying the cab in its washing machine-sized box was much easier than expected. It certainly didn't stand out like an anvil amongst the leagues of drum paraphernalia and cardboard. Chaos navigated and perplexed Uber drivers calmed, we were soon at the venue. A light and easy load-in up the stairs and I carefully plonked the head and cab onto the stage. Job done. Under stage lighting, the rig looked mean and purposeful. The cab looks like a proper SVT cab and the head is businesslike and focused. This time, I could open up the Venture V12 and give it the beans. At 1 o'clock on the volume knob, it was plenty loud enough to shrug off a drum kit played by a drummer possessed by the spirit of Taylor Hawkins. The gain was set around 12 o'clock and I added in a touch of the SGT circuit to give it some valve crunch. Our FOH engineer blended the clean DI signal with the dirty cab sound to give a really impressive bass sound - looking back through social media videos you could hear fantastic articulation of the bass frequencies and the SGT channel sounds wicked; a really good, slightly overdriven sound that didn't lack or overpower in any frequency band. The cab was punchy and articulate, giving a nice little sizzle to the top end with the tweeter engaged. Honestly, the whole rig punched well above its weight. The Venture V12 and 4x10 cab put on a pretty fearsome roar. My only slight criticism is that it didn't snarl in exactly the same way as my all valve SVT CL, and it compressed the overdrive just a tad compared to the real deal. It didn't quite have the bell-like chime that an SVT can give you when it's at full chat. However, I can safely say that no-one in the audience would notice the difference in the Venture V12 compared to an SVT. The Venture V12 sounded incredible. I've been fortunate enough to use a big SVT for a while now so my ears are naturally accustomed to that big rig. The Venture has its own flavour, but it's certainly an Ampeg and it's a very, very good sounding amplifier and cabinet. Overall, I'd give the rig a solid 9/10 rating. Light, loud, tonally interesting and flexible with its EQ and drive/modelling sections. I'll knock off 1 point for lacking that valvey top end punch, but this amp is a different beast entirely to my setup back home, so perhaps I'm being harsh in docking a point. One place I can dock a point is the price. This rig is just over £2k brand new. It’s very high quality and very light, but when you compare what £2k could buy you elsewhere in the bass amplifier market, it makes it harder to justify. Nonetheless, should my SVT and Fender 8X10 Neo ever going up in flames and I win the lottery, I'd happily replace it with a Venture V12 and a 4x10. Or possibly two 4x10 cabs if I win the Euromillions. IMG_6666.HEIC IMG_6688.heic IMG_6689 2.heic

Not safe for work. Lots of profanity. This guy is very funny, but think he hits the mark very well. Part 1 and 2.

Well done to @AndyTravis who won the November challenge, he will in due course be invited to post the picture for the January challenge, however, with another year about to disappear from the calendar, we need to celebrate whatever music floats our individual boats. It is thus time to let us hear that incredible cover version, whether it is a full-blown studio production, a garage band knock up, or a quick take from an inspirational night on the pop, we want to hear it. Any cover version that you or your band have/will have recorded at any point between 1st January and 23rd December will be welcome. All of the usual rules apply with a few additional caveats: It doesn't have to be a Christmas song. You're welcome to submit anything recorded this year (not just from December), so there's no excuse for those of you in cover bands not to enter. Don't go lifting any samples from whatever song you intend to cover, as that will breach the usual terms and conditions leading to extreme punitive measures. This time of year a bagpipe truce is allowed! But that still doesn't make them right! I think that covers everything , so go for it deadline is midnight on 23rd December , so dive in

If you are in to your guitar based blues (or any derivative thereof) then tip your hat or raise a glass today to the amazing John Mayall who is 90 today. A little clip to enjoy from 20 years ago at his 70th Birthday celebration concert:

They need servicing when they stop working until then leave the thing alone.

I have won the day 383 times, almost exclusively off-topic posts in the DOI, something I'm rather embarrassed about. I would personally prefer for off-topic posts not to garner statistics, after all, this is a site specifically for the discussion of bass. There should, of course, be an off-topic section but the fact that I have won the day so often for making funny posts on a obscure branch of off-topic when there are hundreds of expert bass players sharing priceless information seems faintly ridiculous to me.

Which is the same as the 'clean boost' patch on the Spectradrive, as it happens.

I practice at a pretty quiet volume , and most amps sound thin when you turn them right down. This little preamp/parametric eq does the trick and can fatten things up nicely. No longer made , but it’s a marvellous little box. The Yamaha Nathan East box , the NE-1. I have two practice rigs , and two of these little boxes.

Die Fledermaus - J.Strauss

I wouldn’t say design process as such , more the fumbling of a blind man with his eyes closed in a dark room searching for a black cat who may or may not be in the room

In true Basschat tradition I will recommend something entirely different. TC Spectradrive. It is an eq, DI, compressor and drive unit all in one. You can download different patches for the compressor and drive - I used 'clean boost' patch which gives a decent approximation of valve break up when balanced with the gain. I play in a blues/rock trio and it is my 'on all the time, take it anywhere' sound.

It’s a GivEnergy 5.1 KWH battery (I think). Our consumption is quite low so it wasn’t seen to be worth (in payback terms) going for anything bigger. Apart from a glitch at the start to do with an inverter firmware update, it’s all been working well.

I think I want a clear pickguard for my hybrid 5. Looks so much better than the white one imo

Quite so. A good tape op would write out the song structure with timings and if they were clever work the rough tempo (or find the time for 5 bars, to allow for take up) and add that to the preroll so when doing over dubs the tape would always start from the same place so the musicians always knew where it would start from. Taking pride in doing that right was a pleasure

Ah, the days of sessions with a Studer 827, a Mitsi 32 track and an Atari running some version of Notator with that SMPTE box on the side... I still occasionally run sessions involving a 24 track, but it's usually with the CLASP system as an input to protools. I have expectations of behaviour in studios, I expect the sessions to be pre-produced so that everyone knows what is to be achieved, how it's to be achieved and that everyone involved is capable of achieving it. Unless the session is a songwriting or experimental session, it'll run to an agreed plan. I also expect decent timekeeping and communication, and not to be surprised at 02:00 with "Can we just add..." type requests when the session is supposed to finish at 23:00. I don't do overnights anymore, tired musicians don't play well, tired engineers make mistakes. I also expect consideration and manners, regardless of how badly things might be going, and they do go badly wrong occasionally, I have thrown clients out of studios for being rude/violent/drunk/high, and shall continue to do so. It's baseline good behaviour. The best sessions are well planned, well prepared and well managed, that way whatever magic may happen can do so without technical constraints. That isn't to say there won't be a bassist standing on an 8x10 or a singer running in circles screaming, because those things happen, but I want the process nailed down before the chaos can start.

Actually it's me. I work for Spotify under the moniker of Genre and Subgenre Nomenclature Officer. The criteria used are me chucking darts at dictionary pages. Smooth Wotocheshede Tech Slam is next in line for a nanosecond of fame, blink and you'll miss it.

I was working with a metal band once, and the drummer insisted on tempo changes for every different riff. Basically he wanted the tempo for each beat to be as fast as he could possibly play it. I tried my best to get them (the whole band) to agree to a more consistent tempo but they wouldn't be told. This same drummer then went out of time with the metronome. When I stopped the take he asked why I'd stopped it, and I explained that he'd crossed the bar and was nowhere near the click. He said "the click must have gone out of time"