51m0n

[quote name='TimR' post='757439' date='Feb 25 2010, 07:05 PM']If you have your amp flat against a wall in a small room the bass frequencies from your speaker will reflect back off the opposite wall and the wall behind and cancel the ones coming directly from your speaker. Put your amp in the corner and try different angles. If you are still struggling then the guitarists need to cut their bass.[/quote] If you put your amp ANYWHERE in the room the bass frequencies (and all the rest) will reflect back and forth off all walls. Bass frequencies are omidirectional, ie they propogate evenly from the source in all directions. They are tricky blighters like that! Mids and above are directional. If you put your amp flat against a wall you will experience a +3db boost due to boundary effect If you put your amp flat against a wall and on the floor you will experience a +6db boost due to boundary effect If you put your amp in a corner you will experience a +6db boost due to boundary effect All from the wall directly behind the amp. Nothing to do with the far wall at all. If the other walls in the room reflect sound back into the room (which they will) and the room is of a certain size you will get an interference pattern causing areas of higher and lower volume within that space. Guitarists almost always need to cut a bit of bass, since thir bass is you low mid. You need to push a bit of upper mid and also cut some low mid (really) to gel in with the guitar as often as not. You often need to learn to hear yourself in this context as well. A bass sound that is frequency mixed with a guitar sound will more than likely sound plop on its own. A guitar sound that is frequency mixed with a bass sound will more than likely sound plop on its own.

Bass is not directional, mids and above are. Hence pointing a cab at your ears increases the ratio of mids to bass that you hear, and makes the cab seem to cut through- for you. In a small room the volume level will be much much greater, as that energy is all bouncing around in there, and you are all really close to each other (often you are facing each others amps rather than having your right behind you. The amount of direct interference sound (ie guitar spill) coming at you is massively increased. All this makes reheasal rooms very very difficult to work in more often than not! Bass signal - like all other sound drops in volume the further from the transducer you go. There is no 'throw' thats a complete load of codswallop unsupportable by the physics. See this [url="http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-distancelaw.htm"]page[/url].Something else must explain that phenomenon then.... The ratio of 'room' (ie the amount of bass coming back off the walls) signal to direct (straight from the transducer to your ear) increases the further you get from the enclosure. The overall volume still drops though, except when.... In certain rooms (typically of a certain size with parallel walls) you will experience phase issues at bass frequencies (from bass reflected from the walls interacting with more direct radiation into the room), these additive and subtractive nodes will massively affect how well you can or can not hear the bass. This is even obvious to me in my front room with my stereo, move a couple of foot closer or further from the speakers in various places down the room and the bass comes and goes by about 3dB. There is literally nothing you can do if this is the case, unless you can put in bass traps and generally play with the acoustics of the room. Hence many venues sound like garbage. So how do you get yourself heard at a reheasal then? 1) Get your cab up higher 2) Do not let the guitarist point that amp at your face, make him point it at his face instead! 3) Turn everyone down as much as possible 4) Rehearse in a larger room to help with the general noise (not always a goer this one) 5) Get a drummer who can restrain himself 6) Wear ear plugs - decent ones that attenuate reasonably evenly across the full frequency spectrum. A louder cab is not often the answer in a small room, it will just compound the issue.

Oh for crying out loud, over 18s only, Plux cant go

MWAAHHHHHHGGGGG! Sorry, just wet meself

[quote name='jakesbass' post='756295' date='Feb 24 2010, 06:02 PM']LOL I was considering refrigeration actually just to test my students at sub zero temps.... Thanks for all the info guys, all very interesting. I'm not concerned about total silence, more to give my neighbours a bit of protection. Being a muso I can record during the day and it's pretty quiet around my way... (apart from the occasional Chinook)[/quote] Are they going to be playing rock drums? Are they going to 'give it some' with bass? If either of th above is a yes, then you will really need at least the two layers (and preferably the three) of plasterboard IME. Comments about the roof of this inner space are all valid too, I worked in a few studios where they lined the roof of the live room with 4 tonnes of sand (and that was a smaller room than the one you are talking about). Largely as it was a basement next to a road and the bus noise was unreal through the vocal mics , but you get my drift! A couple of layers of plasterboard on the ceiling will deal with the worst of it though...

Oh yes one more point about the plasterboard. Start on a different wall each time so that the joints int the corners interlace too. Otherwise the corner becomes one big edge, and bang goes your sound proofing....

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='756197' date='Feb 24 2010, 04:00 PM']This might sound like a stupid question... hell, I'm pretty sure it is. Anyway, how do you go about figuring out how much to insure your instruments for? Especially when they're modded and thus pretty much unique. Do you take the RRP (or street price?) of the instrument and then add on the cost of the mods and how much it'd be (if anything) to have them fitted/routed/painted/whatever? Or would insurance only pay out to the value of the original, unmodded bass? Out of my 5 basses, only 1 is stock (the SUB), so this is a pretty important factor to me.[/quote] I took the opinion that I'd insure for the sum of the parts, since to replace something modded I'd have to get all the parts and at least do the work myself (never asked anyone else to work on my gear so I wouldnt add any cost for that). Also I want to be able, where possible, to go and get a new version of the instrument/device in question with the insurance money, so I always insure to new value - which has meant insuring for more than I paid for in several cases, since replacing the items in question would now be far more expensive than the initial purchase... It soon adds up!

Ooooh boy. Sound 'proofing' is one thing (and seriously, to make it truly sound proof is beyond your budget, but you can at least make it useable without the neighbours knowing its not a stereo). Room treatment is a lot more complex, I await Rimskidogs later posts with interest Oh and my point about the plasterboard layers being at right angles to each other means the joints should never overlap, but make sure they dont! If layer one has the long edge vertical, layer 2 should have the long edge horizontal and not have edges that line up with layer 1 edges. layer 3 would then have the long edge vertical again, and not have edges that line up with layer 2 (and if you can do it layer 1). All caulked and green gooped together. Luveerrly! And, as has been stated they should be attached to studs a good distance off the walls, ideally none of the inner walls should be parallel, even a couple of inches off through the length of the wall will do it. This will help with sorting the acoustics after the soundproofing has taken place. There are also rubbery products out there to rest your walls and studs on to help prevent transfer from the floor. Not sure how much real added benefit they will give you over a good caulking to be honest.

OK, this is all very much IMO, so go easy on me guys... 3 fingers is an easier way to play than 2 fingers There got it off my chest . If you are starting out or looking to improve (in a very serious way) your right hand ability, then I honestly think 3 finger technique has a lot going for it. And I'm not talking about fast stuff here. The additional digit can make string crossing easier (look into Gary Willis' varaition on this, its really complex, but it does make sense), RH muting easier, and means you pluck with each finger less, so your stamina is increased. The downside is you will have a significant job to get 3 finger picking up to speed without a triplet feel being evident in your playing at all times. For a lot of people this learning curve is so great that they find 3 finger technique to difficult to master to ever make it easier than 2 fingers. It took me a very very long time indeed to get close. The most useful change to my RH technique that I have made s switching to floating thub, your right hand is so much more relaxed that you can play for hour and hour and hours without it getting tired. Also its worth investigating how hard you strike the strings, softer is genuinely better in a lot of ways (fuller sound, less efort = more potential speed &less fatigue etc). Finally work on the Alain Caron 16th note exercise. This can be played on a single note, its all about RH dexterity and control. Basically you accent a different 16th note on each beat of the bar so:- [font="Courier New"] 1e&a 2e&a 3e&a 4e&a *--- -*-- --*- ---*[/font] Where * = accent and - = an unaccented note. Once you have this down up to 125bpm, move on to the same exercise, but alternate very staccato and legato notes with the same accent pattern. If you can do that at 125bpm your right hand is fine!

[quote name='Clarky72' post='756032' date='Feb 24 2010, 01:06 PM']If people assume my amp is communal I ask if their wife is. That usually stops them touching my gear! [/quote] Great until she is, and a syphalitic m*nger to boot....

[quote name='TheRev' post='755887' date='Feb 24 2010, 10:32 AM']It seems that most of us are OK with someone 'having a go' as long as they ask nicely. Others (like OTPJ) have a strict 'no chance' policy as their bass is their livelihood - I've used this excuse myself on more than a few occasions, even though I'm not a pro player. But - what are peoples' feelings about bass bashes? Would you be happy to let anyone at a bash play your bass? At the last south west bas I found myself in a weird place of being surrounded by an abundance of amazing gear but with no idea of who to ask for permission to play it. [/quote] Its a bit odd isnt it, I found myself happily letting people hav a crack on my bass through my amp, but its simply because they are bassists, they know what its all worth, and I'm watching them, and they dont know about the lead pipe up my sleeve in case they need reminding.... :ph34r: (in the immortal words of Ray Winston, "Where's your tool?" )

No one I dont know very well has a go on my basses and even then only if I hand the instrument to them, otherwise I would have to plead a brief moment of insanity for the result...

[quote name='Rimskidog' post='751942' date='Feb 20 2010, 05:11 PM']sod the artists. the pies are for me! [/quote] Quite right too, you're working, they're larking about, it's only fair!

Rule 1 Its all about mass - 2 or 3 layers of plasterboard on the inner wall each layer at rightangles to the last Rule 2 No Gaps. Absolutely none, sound will get out of any gaps you have, so each layer of plasterboard needs to be fully caulked and glued (green goop stuff is good) Rule 3 HEAVY doors, two of them, sealed Rule 4 Things like airflow, power etc require proper thought so buy the book above! Rule 5 You know its right when people are asphyxiated inside.... Rule 6 Talk to Rimskidog on here he knows a thing or two about building [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=49754&hl="]live rooms[/url]. [url="http://www.avforums.com/"]AV forums[/url] are an absolute gold mine of great info and clever people.

Yeah Mark is superb isnt he...

Edit to remove a post that I meant to go in another thread entirely - damnably fiendish tabbed browsing makes me look like a a###hat once again On another note - thats the nicest jazz I've seen for a very long time Nige

LOL - that maybe the ultimate 'producer switch'

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='749679' date='Feb 18 2010, 01:50 PM']I'd love to try the 112s....[/quote] I daren't

"...he squashed me frog!" BWAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!

[quote name='sk8' post='749340' date='Feb 18 2010, 09:52 AM']My rig and demonic cat![/quote] Nice rig sir!

How about this [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/gator_g_bus_8_multi_power_supply.htm"]Gator G-Bus 8 multi power supply[/url] at £57 from Thomann. Best price I've found a serious power supply (ie with 9v and 18v outputs)

I'd love to hear clips (hint hint!) Is it alright for arco as well as pizz? (Its probably a really dumb question, but humour me )

You'd do well to check out [url="http://www.delano.de/"]Delano[/url] too...

A very good friend of mine has synesthesia, she sees different phonetic groupings in words as different colors! My partner's name is a lovely green colour to her apparently, which made my partners day as that would be her favoutite color.