Dad3353

As it's all we have from this past year, here's a medley of 'punter's' videos, taking at our rare outing, September. A bit long for the Challenge rules of 5 minutes; if that's an issue I could just post just one, but you'd be missing out on the others ...

... starring Steph, our singist, Our Youngest on bass, Our Eldest on guitar 1 (stage left...), the local lad Flo (previously our guitar 2, a couple of decades ago...), for some songs, stage right, and I play drums, of course. Note the broken string upsetting the very last number, stage left. Very cramped quarters which did nothing to hamper the ambiance, as can be seen, I think. Better as a video track than audio alone. Happy daze; enjoy.

Douglas

43 minutes ago, TimR said:

No they're not.

I agree with the above. Set your bass/amp volume levels using passive mode, then adjust the trim pot in active mode until the level is the same. Tiny adjustments would be best; about 1/10 of a turn at the time, as it may be quite sensitive. The ideal is to have the same perceived volume from the instrument whether in active or passive. Hope this helps. 

2 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

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. 

Yes indeed, symbiosis. Working in harmony together to mutual benefit. 

51 minutes ago, WinterMute said:

 

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.

3 minutes ago, WinterMute said:

...I completely recognise that many bands simply can't afford the time or money needed to do this kind of detailed work, but the results are undeniably better. Always speak with your engineer ahead of the session and make sure they're going to do what you need them to do, they certainly shouldn't be imposing techniques on you as musicians, they should be responding to the way you want to work.

I can't agree with much of the statement above ¨¨ (depending on the definition of 'better'...). To me, the studio crew should be responding to the way the musicians want you to work. Unless, of course, it's the studio doing the hiring of session folk, in which case I agree. Ideally, it's a symbiosis of like minds working towards a common goal, but if it's the group hiring the studio, it's the group that calls the shots, within the bounds of studio etiquette, naturally. Just my tuppence-worth. 

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..!)...

3 hours ago, Mykesbass said:

...Love the drums on Just a Little Loving from Dusty in Memphis...

That's Gene 'Bubba' Chrisman, one of the 'Memphis Boys', a session team that created many, many 'hits' for many, many huge artists. Good Stuff. 

3 hours ago, Paul S said:

I believe this is a great song.  I love the way it keeps bouncing between major and minor.  I love the slightly unusual rhythm pattern unlying it.  Hard to imagine a vocal performance better than this...

Really 'old school' drum production, played by Bobby Graham, and sounding as if recorded in a huge cavern..! Monstrous..! 

There was music (some of it 'great'...) before streaming, or charts, or even sales statistics. There is music (some of it 'great'...) in every language and culture the World over. Music is not restricted to being played on the radio. Music, by its very nature ephemeral, gone as soon as it's produced. If it's 'great' enough, it will be repeated, or at least remembered, for far longer than its original existence, and perhaps, nowadays, recorded for another day. Much of modern music, just like past music, had no further pretension that to be entertaining at the time produced, and thus disposable like a paper tissue. They may have their value, but would not be considered 'great'. More rare are pieces that are worth preserving, to maybe become 'great' in the fullness of time.

4 minutes ago, Bolo said:

Where would 'great' score? 

Is 'Most People' not vast enough..? 

'Great', to me means that it stands the test of time. Whatever it is that makes it so is very variable, with many factors mentioned above, but beyond the individual (I like it' or 'I hate it'...), it's still being played, performed, talked about and appreciated years, decades or centuries after the original creation. So many examples form the classical world, naturally, but all genres have their 'greats'. Traditional folk, ethnic music, brass bands, electro-pop; even jazz..! 

Edit : Crossed posts with that from @BigRedX above ^^; I'd be pretty certain that 'Hotel California' will still be considered 'great', a century later. Why..? Because it'll be listened to where other tunes have been forgotten, or become 'niche'. I might be wrong; rendez-vous set for 2123, maybe..? 

58 minutes ago, nekomatic said:

I’m sensing that this issue fundamentally divides people into two camps: those who can’t understand why someone wouldn’t just ask about the price, and those who can’t understand why the shop wouldn’t just  make up their mind about the price and put that on the label. You can probably infer a lot else about someone’s personality from which one they are. 

Yes, infer away. I just pay for stuff that I want, if I can. I do that at the butchers, the bakers, the candlestick makers etc. So..? 

3 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

But I'm sure you know that's there's a massive difference between the kinds of low band-width data that 60s "computers" used which was written and retrieved by devices designed specifically for the purpose, and trying to cram 8 tracks of 16bit 48kHz digital audio onto a video cassette.

I was simply reacting to the words 'And the words "Digital" and "Tape" should never go together. All the disadvantages of tape with few of the benefits of digital.' 

9 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

...And the words "Digital" and "Tape" should never go together. All the disadvantages of tape with few of the benefits of digital. 

At a certain period of History, there was not much alternative..! 

1 hour ago, Tim2291 said:

... online with very few overheads, and the same in store with staff, business rates, rent, energy bills, insurances etc... 

To be fair, 'online' stores have staff, premises, business rates, energy bills... too, plus the extra hassle (and cost...) of delivery transport, and handling of the inevitable 'returns'. Maybe not comparable to having a chain of shops nationally, but certainly similar, if not more, to a solo retail outlet, plus the cost of the web site itself. Just sayin'. 

2 hours ago, BabyBlueSound said:

I wanted to say Reaper, but I see people are already saing Reaper

 

However your bottleneck will be the storage drive's speed when recording all those tracks that need to be written on your drive. I would not expect a small older Dell laptop to have some crazy fast storage, so you might need some external (USB) drive to plug in and record to that can handle all that I/O. Definitely do some 15-track dry runs to see how it copes with writing multiple files on the fly.

An SSD was mentioned, hard drive speed may not be an issue. 

50 minutes ago, horrorshowbass said:

I was hoping I didn’t need to use any but my DAW is audacity.

In 'Preferences', is your interface recognised, and are you creating Stereo tracks..? That should do the trick; Audacity is minimalist but should do the job.

Here's my simple 'xls' file anyway, in case it helps someone...

Running Time Set List1.xls

1 minute ago, dave_bass5 said:

Thanks. Thats what i have at the moment, but i really don’t get on with Excel. I find it frustrating and get very annoyed with it (and myself). 

I can get on with the dragging up and down etc, but it’s when im creating new lists that i really struggle with, and the fact that printing to PDF as A4 seems like near impossible. Ive spent a few years doing this and still find it frustrating.

No dragging up or down with the simple list I'm doing right now. Just put a '1' in the 'To Be Included' column and it's all ready. I'll post it here in a few minutes, if you want..?

Excel will do what you describe easily enough, I'd say. Given a total list of all the songs, with a column to indicate that they be included or not in a filter, a total running time would be a simple 'Sum' of the individual time column. It sounds easy enough to me, at least. I can't think of any easier way to do it, nor specific 'set list' software. 

1 hour ago, horrorshowbass said:

Hi guys

Having issues with audio coming out as mono when I use my focusrite itrack solo.

Just ordered a scarlett 212 and mate suggested I use a webcam as opposed to laptop camera I currently use. Should a scarlett 212 and a decent camera allow me to record in glorius stereo?

Mostly using to do bass covers

Thanks

Michael

What software are you using for recording..?

8 minutes ago, nilorius said:

Regards to you snorkie! I am not howling, but trying. 😉

Fixed. 

Does it matter..? 

25 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

My Precision has scratchy pots so I'm hoping some contact cleaner should do the trick. 
 

Can anyone recommend one? Thanks. 

Amazon link to Kontact Cleaner ...