Skol303

Just a quick aside... but has anyone here been watching Treme? (the HBO TV show, from the writer of The Wire): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treme_%28TV_series%29 I'm only a couple of episodes in myself, but so far it's been brilliant. Great writing, acting and some superb music. I'm no big aficionado of New Orleans jazz, but this show may well get me into the swing of it...

Use 16 bit if you're burning to CD only. Otherwise, I'd opt for 24 - the more bits the better!

I've got an EDB600 and it's as light as a feather. Well, a bass-shaped feather made from synthetic composite material... but yeah, it's very light. Certainly much lighter than any wooden bass I've picked up. I personally love my 600

Stealing someone else's T-shirt slogan... "I am an atheist producer. I use Logic and Reason" ... well actually I just use Reason. But £140 is a bargain for picking up Logic! I've tinkered with it on friends' laptops and it certainly seems to be the dog's balearics. Have fun with it

Garage Band is a great iOS app, as Mornats has already mentioned - very quick and easy to use. I'd also recommend having a look at Amplitube: http://www.ikmultimedia.com/amplitubeipad/features/ ... I have it on my iPhone and it's proved to be a very handy 'sketchpad' for messing around with ideas before working on them properly in other software. Only downside is you need to use IK's proprietary connector device - the iRig - which costs around £20. So it works out around £30 all in for the software and connector.

Cheers Garry, very useful! I recently found a bunch of resources on the Philharmonia Orchestra website that might also prove handy: http://philharmonia.co.uk/thesoundexchange/make_music/

Don't know if you've already splashed the ca$h... but if not, then I'd also recommend checking out a company called AKG: http://www.dawsons.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=AKG I own a pair of AKG K240 MkII and can't recommend them enough. Tough, comfortable and very 'flat' and non-attenuated - in other words, they don't mess with the sound by boosting the bass and/or treble, meaning what you hear is very close to what's being produced (if that makes sense). I use them at home for mixing and find them to be excellent. Not as well known as other brands, but definitely worth a look if you're thinking of spending upwards of £100...

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1322520970' post='1452187'] Just been demoing Reason 6 rewired into Studio One V2. Pretty cool man, i see why you like Reason, some great stuff in there. Looks like i might have to bite the bullet with R6, some great sounds in there. Studio One is totally Gap-less, so you can jump between the two for editing, without stopping the sequencer,and with no glitching or Audio drop outs. [/quote] ^ Ha ha, once bitten and all that... Yeah I personally love Reason, as you know. R6 is well worth a look - it's now much better suited to working with audio, and I'd say it's worth it for the replica SSL mixer alone. And it's damn stable too; I've yet to have it crash on me. Anyway, let me know if you decide to take the plunge. The Propellerhead site is full of great tutorials and the community there is pretty helpful too. Have fun! And well done again on getting that track licensed.

[quote name='paul torch' timestamp='1322553713' post='1452368'] some of the turntablists I have worked with in my time both as a DJ and within bands would definitely be considered musicians IMO. Truly creative. [/quote] ^ I couldn't agree more. Turntablism often gets snubbed as being "not proper music", but it's always by people who confuse scratch DJs with turntablists (Google it). I've seen certain DJs create entirely new tracks by snatching a kick from here, a snare from there, or by 'playing' their own basslines and melodies using vinyl. Truly amazing stuff that takes years of solid practice to master... arguably far longer than it takes to gain a workable or gig-ready understanding of playing bass/guitar, in my opinion. Can I do it myself? I wish I used to DJ and have a pair of decks gathering dust in the spare room at home... Are they musicians? Depends on how you define 'musician'. If it means being able to sight read and play Mahler then no, they're not musicians. But by that same definition neither are most rock bands. If you define musician in terms of being able to play an instrument then I'd say yes. It just happens that the instrument is an unconventional one - but nonetheless it makes noises that people like to party to. If you want to hear the real deal, try YouTubing the likes of DJ Q-Bert, Prime Cuts the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, the Beat Junkies and more locally, Peter Parker/Fingathing.

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1322508746' post='1451858'] A few days ago, i just had this track licensed through a Library company i use, for a Sony PSP mini game.... [/quote] ^ Brilliant!! Well done Gary, that's great news mate Nice track too. Good work.

[quote name='Noah Deere' timestamp='1322493395' post='1451473'] Really enjoyed that, liked the use of the Dr Who bit in particular. [/quote] ^ Glad you like it! And bonus points for spotting the Doctor Who sample... I'm a huge fan of the original theme tune and it seemed to fit, so I slung it into the mix for good measure

Player-wise I have a lot of respect for the likes of Vince Clarke and Brian Eno. Composition-wise I immediately think of old stalwarts such as Vangelis and John Carpenter. In terms of synthesis I personally think that some of the most cutting-edge sounds can be found in genres like dubstep; artists like Feed Me (and even Skrillex) who manage to twist synth sounds in every which way your granny would disapprove of

New track just added to the Basschat group on SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/skollob/squeeze ... no 'real' bass involved, but a shedload of the synthetic variety! Some of you might like it; many will likely loathe it God only knows what I was thinking with this one. It's basically a bunch of half-baked ideas all mashed together with some odd YouTube samples thrown in. Mixed on headphones late at night, so "watch yer bass bins" as the saying goes - as the low frequencies may well be fierce. Or not. I have no real way of telling. Avoid if you're a fan of laid-back blues and folk. Give it a whirl if you like drum'n'bass, dubstep and odd electronic stuff.

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1322237791' post='1448469'] Vinkhuyzen, AAE, van der Sluis, S, Posthuma, D and Boomsma, DI (2009) The Heritability of Aptitude and Exceptional Talent Across Different Domains in Adolescents and Young Adults. Behavior Genetics 39, 380-392. [/quote] ^ That's the wonderful thing about scientific research. For every "right" answer, there's an opposite. Like this one: http://geniusblog.davidshenk.com/

There's plenty of commercial software to choose from (my personal fave is Reason), but you can't beat Reaper in terms of bang for your buck$. £50 (or whatever it is nowadays) and you get a fully functional DAW that competes well with the best of 'em and punches way above its price tag. Plus, the demo is free to use for 30 days (or longer if you want to keep 'evaluating' it...).

All solos - no matter what instrument - are only worthwhile if they're interesting (not just technical) and well-played (not just played fast). A good solo is a very difficult thing to pull off. But good solos are possible - even on bass - and so it's not as simple as saying "bass solos = bad". I mean, a bad solo is a bad solo. And a brilliant solo is, well, brilliant. The difference between them is down to the musician, not the instrument. Surely? The bass doesn't lend itself to soloing as easily as guitar, perhaps. But that doesn't mean it can't be played as a solo instrument and capture people's attention, or 'wow' a crowd. And of course, personal taste has a huge influence on this. I can't imagine I'd like to sit through a 10-minute tambourine solo, but somebody, somewhere, would no doubt love it! And good luck to them

In a nutshell: no, talent isn't inherited. It's not genetic; it's about opportunity and environment. Or to put it another way: it's about nurture, not nature. For example: the 'gifted' young musician with musical parents is the product of growing up in a musical environment. Me? I can keep a tune, whereas neither of my parents have any inclination towards music. My father can fix just about anything, whereas I'm completely ham-fisted when it comes to electronics, mechanics and so on. Other people might have different experiences - but that doesn't mean genetics are a factor, it just means they most likely shared their parents' own interests from an early age.

Depends purely on context and genre in my opinion... If you take in account modern electronic music, there are plenty of styles in which bass is [u]the[/u] lead instrument - e.g. dubstep and drum'n'bass. If you're thinking about this from a more 'traditional' point of view, then there are still plenty of examples where bass plays a central role in shaping the overall sound. For example: I can't imagine Weather Report without Jaco; or early Metallica without Cliff Burton. Generally speaking, the issue of whether bass [i]should[/i] be used a lead instrument isn't something that has a definite right or wrong answer. In most cases the likely answer is perhaps "no" - the lead role is maybe better reserved for guitars, synths, brass, digeridoos, whatever - but there are plenty of examples where bass has been used as a lead instrument to great effect. So it's yes and no!

[quote name='brick' timestamp='1321298263' post='1437524'] Infectious Grooves (Robert Trujillo's funk/rock side project) and also TM Stevens might be worth a listen [/quote] ^ Maybe also check out Trujillo's playing with Suicidal Tendencies. Might be on the heavy side, but funky nonetheless.

^ No worries mate, you've been helpful already!

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1321293838' post='1437449'] If you are using a DAW that is known to have something outrageous like a 64bit internal audio system (Reaper for instance) and stick to its built in fx then whatever you do is irrelevant assuming the master is set low enough that the final output never peaks (and gives room for your cack handed mastering). [/quote] ^ Cheers 51m0n, that's useful to know. I use mainly Reason as my DAW (and increasingly Reaper too for collaborative projects), which as you know is a self-contained package that doesn't allow use of 3rd party VSTs - a limitation, for sure, but also I think a benefit in some ways... but that's another discussion Hence, from what you're saying, it seems fairly safe for me to push the levels a wee bit, providing the master isn't peaking, given that Reason is a closed environment. As a side-note, I've read on other forums that people suggest it doesn't matter if individual channels of a mix are peaking, providing the master isn't - but that doesn't make sense to me and I always make sure each channel/instrument is at a safe level (usually -4db or less for me) throughout the mix.

[quote name='Rimskidog' timestamp='1321003147' post='1434152'] You should be aiming so that your meters average at about -18dbfs maximum.[/quote] [quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1321008877' post='1434245'] As long as you keep your gain structure good - ie like Rimskidog suggests, although I am guilty of peaks that hit -12dB on the drums quite alot (irons hands) - then you are good. [/quote] ^ Useful advice from you guys, as always! Quick question: do these meter averages apply to mixing too? I'm asking because I normally aim for my meters to peak around -4 or -8db when mixing, to help leave some room for my cack-handed mastering (!). That's Peak level btw, not VU or PPM.

[quote name='Len_derby' timestamp='1320423202' post='1426755'] I've got my brothers and sisters to remind me what a t**t I was. Thank God there's no video evidence. [/quote] ^ That made me laugh... I agree wholeheartedly!

Nice tracks Bilbo. Sounds like a tight outfit; god knows how you keep pace with the various changes going on - I'd have no chance keeping up with this sort of stuff! Nice recording too - your bass sounds great.