51m0n

A band needs:- Players who are proficient enough to pull off what they are attempting with ease (aplomb even) Players committed enough to put in the work to get up to scratch with the material Players with a good idea of interaction with an audience Players who understand how to make the band as a whole unit sound good in a live situation Players with enough sense of the team to let their sound be a part of the inevitable whole. If you are missing any of those then you will be less good than you could be. The punters may not be able to identify why you arent as good as the band with all the above, but they will know which band is better.

[quote name='chris_b' post='475802' date='Apr 30 2009, 10:54 AM']The guy's expressing a personal view and you lot just heap insults!![/quote] His personal views are unfounded, sensationalist and clearly an attempt to garner attention, and further more he isn't offering any positive response, he is just happy to spout that the end is nigh, and sit down and wait for it. That stinks of attention grabbing soundbite crud. I have absolutely no respect for that attitude. He therefore deserves insults in abundance IMHO. Shame, I really do wish he would shut up and play. He's not at all bad at that.....

I prefer to levitate....

[quote name='maxrossell' post='475900' date='Apr 30 2009, 12:27 PM']I also struggle to explain it with words. I guess you could draw a picture showing EQ curves and such, but I think that might be even more confusing. For me it's an advantage to be able to say "can I try" and just haul on their guitar and sort their amp out, and give it back, and let them realise that it does in fact work. I think the best way of explaining it would be to appeal to the guitard's sensibilities. Tell him that by backing off the gain he'll be able to get down to "his real tone", explain to him that by cutting bass and treble and adding mids he'll sound louder and clearer and everyone will hear what he's doing.[/quote] Or just it him over the back of the head with a guitar stand, sort his sound out and tell him he passed out at the end of the last solo - so overcome with emotion was he - chances are he'll not notice.....

[quote name='HeavyJay' post='475871' date='Apr 30 2009, 12:05 PM']Forgive me for getting you started on this but, please could you get started on this? The guitarist I play with is a big fan of digital delay.[/quote] Right you asked for it:- Reverb live:- Anytime you play live in a nice big room it has plenty of reverb unless its a thoroughly professionally treated room. Reverb has the effect of moving sources into the background. Thats what it is used for at mixdown, that and putting things 'in a sonic space'. Basically the higher the ratio of reverb to direct the further back you tend to drop that sound. The upshot is that to combat this the sound may then be made either extremely bright or extremely loud (out of all proportion to what is actually required) to bring it forward in the mix. Lead guitarists love to whack a load of reverb on their guitar, it gives an illusion of sustain when playing solo in the bedroom. Bring that sound into a band setting though and their guitar drops back in the mix, so they turn up even more and fill all the sonic space up with a wall of reverb crud. No one can hear anything at all for lead guitar reverb mud and ear splittingly treble orientated hi gain guitar. Awful! Delay live:- Caveat: I do understand that certain signature guitar sounds are very delay dependant, but those sounds all suffer to a certain extent from the same issues as the too much reverb situation. Reverb is effectively lots and lots and lots of delays all jumbled together after all. If your guitarist has so much delay on that you cant tell what he is playing now vs what is a repeat then he will tend to sit further and further back in the mix - his sound is now effectively more of a keyboard pad. Again he will tend to turn himself up (not being a keyboard player he wont think of his arpeggios plus delay as in fact just that a nice pad). Quite possibly until he fills all sonic space, and STILL complain that he cant hear himself - mainly cos all any of us can hear now is the god awful delay.... These modulation effects all tend to move things into the background, you can cause the same problems by overuse of chorus. I like Michael Manring's approach to chorus, he say he turns it up until he can _just_ hear it, then turns it down a smidge. When you turn it off you notice its gone, otherwise you'd be hard put to tell exactly whether or not something is there. I try and do the same thing with reverb whenever I get the chance. Acoustic space isnt something you really hear, but it affects you perception of what you are hearing, if you stray too far from that you can make life very difficult for yourself. In the studio go for your life, go nuts with fx, whatever floats your boat. Do it at mixdown though, not when tracking, But live you are fighting an alien and hostile acoustic environment 9 times out of 10, and if you want to hear yourselves, and be heard you need to cut the clutter right out. Both on stage and off. A hint of something in a band that sounds really well balanced is more often than not actually enough. Go over the top and the experience of the punters will be damaged due to the inevitable volume war that follows. You all may be very lucky and have guitarists who are trained sound engineers and understand this stuff, or just have incredible understanding of their gear and how fx can change thing, and therefore when to use how much of what. I am sooo pleased for you if you do. But I suspect it may not always be the case!

I've done this to several bands I've been in. Its always difficult to explain why you need to do it, and that the players in question will gain from it. Usually I say if I dont make the band as a whjole sound/feel and work better they can all change back and I'll buy everyone a pint for their trouble. The caveat is we record before and after the sound in the room of the band. Put the two takes away for a week and then listen with some punters (ie significant others) and let them judge. I've never had to buy a pint yet..... Guitarists _always_ underestimate the need for midrange, and overestimate the need for gain. They never understand the concept of frequency mixing until it is actually drawn for them (ie little graphs). Worse still they always try and sneak back to their bedroom rock god sound unless you stay on their case. And dont get me started on over use of delay and reverb by guitarists in a live situation, what are they on???? I sometimes wonder how any of them get by at all......

[quote name='BigRedX' post='475246' date='Apr 29 2009, 04:50 PM']And you were doing so well... Unfortunately that statement is up there with "you only need a Fender Bass..." While there are still plenty of situations where your statement holds true, there are equally plenty of styles of music for which those kinds of studios are total overkill and completely inappropriate.[/quote] I didn't say there weren't, and I certainly didnt mean to imply that. What I said was you cant get a great big live room in a home recording situation. So there will always be a need for those situations. AJ is talking utter baloney here actually. Almost all serious cinema has need of orchestral recording and that requires huge live rooms. Of course it doesnt require a fat electric bassist so much, maybe thats his issue? And I dont believe for a moment that the Nashville studio scene is about to go away either, and the studios in Nashville are some of the nicest in the world, maybe they have enough fat bassists already? And I totally stand by the part about a pro engineer getting better results quicker than a bedroom fanatic, even one with serious cash.

[quote name='The Funk' post='474533' date='Apr 28 2009, 08:01 PM']Errrm... guilty.[/quote] oops +1

[quote name='Musicman20' post='473659' date='Apr 27 2009, 08:09 PM']Also, what in reality does Berg make that competes against a full weight normal 4x10?[/quote] Well the ae410 is a [b]tiny[/b] 410 that blows all the rest I've ever heard away IMO. Not heavy for a 410 either, and incredibly compact. A pair of ae112s will keep up with a 410 in reality I think (haven't actually a/b'ed at a gig myself) A pair of ae210s more than = an ae410 (slightly deeper sound apparently, I have a/b'ed them with an ae410 and its a tiny difference IMO) The HT112ER mini stack is pretty much equal to the ae112 ministack - if not a bit more depth and that non-neo thing going on Oh and the HT210 is spectacular for a 210, its not up to a high end 410, but its the best 210 I've ever heard. Really would love to get the HT115 to put underneath it!

[quote name='beardybass' post='474852' date='Apr 29 2009, 10:26 AM']Good to see everyone being so positive about this like! See that's the upside of places like this, there are people like 51mon who can say, "this guy talks cack, ignore him!"[/quote] Yeah and there are enough people who say that about me too There will always be a need for recording, if only as the advert to get people to come to the gig of course!

Oooooh scare mongery, classic FUD. AJ talks out of his butt! <shock horror> Sorry that kind of ranting tosh makes my blood boil, and AJ has done enough of it to make me no longer take any notice of anything he says. Remember his rants about slapping and not using an ERB etc etc - tw@t! Great player though. Needs to shut up and play! Live music at a grass roots level is thriving. I've seen it first hand. Staggering young players who really can play, can read on their instruments if they wish, can compose and play to an audience. Brilliant. He should get out more. There will always be people who prefer programmed/electronica. Excellent! Nothing says we cant play bass on that too (Doug Wimbish made a name for himself doing just that) There have been 'talent' shows for as long as there has been Saturday evening TV (Opportunity Knocks anyone), it will continue to be ignored by real music lovers. Home recording is getting cheaper and cheaper. But, and its a huuuuge but, you can not beat a great live room. Sorry thats where its at. Only a serious studio can get the sound of a fantastic live room, cos they are huge and tend to have really nice acoustic work done to them too. No one in a bedroom near you is going to have a Neve console, and they really do sound that good. Most home studios spend less on mics and outboard than a serious studio spends on wiring and yes that makes a massive difference too. Upshot is if you want to record live music really well you need a serious studio. If you want to record a really really great demo that is releasable you can do it at home (but it really will cost you a lot in both cash and time). Lastly, and this is what counts most, a serious studio should have seriously good technical staff, and I would trust a great engineer to get a great sound in his studio working his way over anyone in a bedroom. I'm not saying it cant be done, but I am saying in all probability even now, and looking forward 30 years from now, the professionals will still have the upper hand, and it will count. Right now mp3 is good enough. That will not last. As bandwidth and harddisk space and solid state RAM increase in size people will realise that better sound quality makes for a better experience again (witness the HQ button on youtube). Then the better recorded material will stand tall. My concern is actually how long we will have to wait for over compression at the mastering phase to peter out. Its very seductive, however I was listening to some old cds yesterday, and yes I had to crank them up a bit (what a pity), but the drums (particularly the kick) sounded amazing for it! I think this trend is actually doing more damage than the entire mp3 issue myself....

[quote name='MrT-Bass' post='474082' date='Apr 28 2009, 11:41 AM']+1 for the Harvest gigbags. I ordered a full leather bass bag from Station Music 3 weeks ago. It arrived in the advised 5 days and is fabulous...In fact, I'd go as far as to say they are the best gigbag I've seen. Clearly for the price, you'd hope so but well worth the investment. It needs some breaking in and will no doubt age as all good leather products do but I can't see me needing to replace this for quite some time. [/quote] Never thought I'd have bass bag gas but this:- [url="http://www.harvest-guitar.com/double-bass-bags.php"]http://www.harvest-guitar.com/double-bass-bags.php[/url] Is 'kin gorgeous!

[quote name='Stylon Pilson' post='474034' date='Apr 28 2009, 10:36 AM']Oh, well if we're playing that game - mine's a Learjet. S.P.[/quote] For special gigs I use a TARDIS you can get so much stuff in 'em and you're never late!

My experience, perception and enjoyment of music can be split absolutely at the point I started playing bass. Songs I loved before bass:- I know the lyrics without any thought I know the form without any thought I dont really know the b-line/drum part ususally I listen to in a completely different 'top down' way (ie vocal performance, harmony/rhythm guitar, drums, bass) There's a bass line???? Oh! After I started bass:- I know the bass line well enough to sing from memory, from which I can usually figure out the groove from memory (albeit not always in the right key) I know the drum part well enough to program a fairly accurate representation of the groove from memory I know the harmony (not always) I may know the form What lyrics??? There's a singer? Noooooo...... When I listen its to the rhythm section interplay almost entirely. Obviously some songs fall into both categories, but that isn't a very long list. Its very weird!

1995 BMW 3 series Gets my whole rig in the boot (well until I put the rack in a bigger case - that goes in the passenger seat well now). No other 410 fits in the boot, not even close! Its not very fast, its quite noisy, but the handling is [b]really[/b] nice and its probably got the lowest mileage of any similar age 3 series on the road (39k for a 14 yr old 3 series ) I love it dearly though....

[quote name='alexclaber' post='473988' date='Apr 28 2009, 09:25 AM']I see your point. As an engineer I am looked down upon by real scientists as one of those people that gets their hands dirty yet still treated with suspicion by the tabloid press as one of those boffins. If my relatively shallow understanding of economics is comparable there's a whole load of silly language (bulls, bears, doves, hawks, etc) that seems to exist just to obfuscate the situation. Engineers prefer to call a spade a spade fortunately. I think the playing stuff just because you can rather than because it sounds good is often tied to immaturity, a bit like the way precocious children behave. And authentically Spinal Tap-esque guitarists act... Alex[/quote] I thought Engineer was a posh word for Mechanic though..... and Scientist a modern word for Witch.... :ph34r:

[quote name='redstriper' post='409175' date='Feb 14 2009, 01:16 AM'][url="http://myspace.com/redstriper"]You can check my band here.[/url] One Love.[/quote] Thats excellent! Yes there are very definitely parallels between funk and reggae feels imo. Only played a bit of reggae, but played a lot of funk, and the parallel is around the 16th note thing that seems to be central to both. They're really different at the same time though Couldnt verbalise that difference in any meaningful way though, other than often Reggae has a slower pulse, and the bass is often further behind the beat. But there are so many variations of both styles that even that is often demonstrably inaccurate. Do love a bit of it though

[quote name='Beedster' post='473371' date='Apr 27 2009, 01:56 PM']You've got to train your conscious brain to leave the unconscious alone, there's loads of techniques (imagery, self-talk, distraction, simulation training), but to be honest, the best way I know of doing it is by assuming an attitude of "[b]who cares if I f**k up[/b]".[/quote] That just about sums up my longer post above, its absolutely vital to get into your head, otherwise the stress you put upon yourself guarantees a hugely painful ordeal for yourself at ever gig. Wish I could have put it that succinctly though

Hadley does and always did sound like Richard Cheese to me.....

[quote name='maxrossell' post='473111' date='Apr 27 2009, 08:22 AM']I'd say work on improving your ear. Get a load of your favourite records, and using nothing but your bass and your ears figure out all the basslines. A great ear is one of the most valuable tools you can have as a musician.[/quote] +1 oh yes! Start with relatively easy stuff, then move to trickier and trickier....

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='452715' date='Apr 2 2009, 08:25 PM']I always recommend Mark Levine's 'Jazz Theory Book'. It has a nice clear lay out and is easy to follow and is not just for jazz players so don't let the title put you off. Where are you? There may be someone near you on here who can help.[/quote] Thats a very expensive book! Anywhere I can get it for less than £35???