dr.funk

[quote name='dlloyd' post='160153' date='Mar 19 2008, 10:54 AM']Initially, I would take just the bass and a half-decent DI.[/quote] Cheers will definitely bring the hartke. [quote name='s_u_y_*' post='160236' date='Mar 19 2008, 01:52 PM']Hey! Good job getting in UCL. 'Tis my last year there, and I'm in the middle of doing my dissertation. My public transport rig consists of a Mark Bass Little Mark II and a UL110 Epifani cab. It has a small footprint, and easy enough to take around London with a small trolley. But I think your Harkte combo and DI solution is ideal and definitely more value-for-money. Most venues around here have PA (though a lot are quite bad). At UCL there's a new guy in charge of the Live Music Society here, and he organised a Battle of the Bands to generate money for some new rehearsal rooms (My band won btw... ). So hopefully if you meet any new people in halls, there should be somewhere fairly inexpensive to rehearse next September. This new guy in charge seems to be much more band orientated than the last people, so maybe next year he'll put on a lot more band events. Good luck with it all mate.[/quote] Hey s_u_y! I remember you posting on the other thread I posted about this a while ago, very useful so thanks again! Best of luck with your dissertation. Your rig sounds lovely but I think I will be limited a bit financially, mind you the hartke sounds pretty good to me. Thats good news about the practice rooms, would definitely be better than having to rent somewhere. Do you do to the jazz jam on Tuesdays? If so any good? Cheers Chris [quote name='Sparky' post='160248' date='Mar 19 2008, 02:10 PM']off topic slightly, but what 2x10's do you use Dr.Funk?[/quote] I have two 'loud' 2x10s. I'm not sure how long you have been on here but a few years ago back on bassworld version 1 (pre FBI) there was a guy selling cabs made by a chap in Northern Ireland. The cabs were amazing value and sounded pretty good. But there was a bit of a communication problem. I think I was the last to get my cab and it took about 2 months of arguing and waiting. A lot of people never got theirs and the guy did a runner with quite a lot of money. Anyway they use emminence drivers rated 600w rms for the pair and are 8 ohm each. [quote name='Alfie' post='160441' date='Mar 19 2008, 07:43 PM']What halls will you be in? I was in Ramsay which had a practice room of sorts, so if you will be there then it will definitely be worth bringing a small rig. If you are going to be in one the Camden halls- Ifor Evans or Max Raine- then there are loads of good practice studios around where you can hire some useable kit. I had a Gallien Krueger Microbass combo, which was perfect for halls, small gigs and use in the crappy UCL practice rooms. Also having a bass amp is vital for winning noise wars against loud neigbours.[/quote] Hey Alfie, Yep I am hoping for Ramsay, put a little note on my accommodation form asking for them so fingers crossed. I didn't realise there is a practice room there thats very cool. Looks like the hartke kickback will be the way to go then

Thanks guys. Mark- I am sorted for practicing in my room as I use an M Audio soundcard and headphones. Works really well for me as I have plenty of effects on tap and drum machines etc. Ableton Live is a really useful practice tool. I am really looking for an intermediate solution, something that I can use for practices, small gigs etc. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. On a side note I am tempted by the Adrenalinn III for effects..

I'm off to UCL in September and ovbiously intend on joining a few bands and going to the jam nights. At the moment I have a Hartke HA3500 and 2 2x10s, a rig which has served me well in my previous band with a bloody loud drummer. I think it is utter overkill taking all this to uni particularly when I'm going to be in halls and given that my band at home has now split I don't see I will have much need for it during the holidays. My bass teacher reckons I should take the head and 1 cab but this still has quite a large footprint and isn't going to be that easy to move around london without a car. I also find the 1 2x10 by itself doesnt keep up very well with the band (although that may have just been down to the volume of the drummer) and is a little lacking in the low end, which is fair I think. At the moment I'm leaning towards selling the rig and buying a harkte kickback combo. I think this would be loud enough for small gigs/jams and then be a good monitor for bigger gigs. I will also be taking my harkte DI and planning to run through the PA for most gigs. To anyone who has been through uni, what did you take, did you regret not keeping/having a bigger rig? I was also wondering whether most venues will have a PA that can handle the bass.. Cheers Chris

Maybe try Drumkit From Hell either EZDrummer or Superior?

Welcome, quite a few more people from around here than I thought!

But that website is for schools etc., it is the educational divison of Digital Village, hence why the prices are low, they don't have VAT. Looks like it could be pretty powerful but I have to agree with kev the case looks so cheap!

[quote name='BassBalls' post='127955' date='Jan 25 2008, 06:55 PM']DI'ed it mono post effects and eq into Ableton live and it sounds amazing. The best i have ever heard my bass sound!!! Got the case from daflewis on here, top bloke to deal with. Really protects my gear well.[/quote] That compressor looks like it's made out of lego! I mean that in a good way

You could run Ableton Live on a laptop and then pick up a cheap roland JV or XV sound module on ebay and a midi foot controller. That way you could use an average laptop as it wouldn't be processing audio (you may already have one). Infact if you had a friend who had Live you could get him to create the clips and simply play them using the demo version (free). The advantage of using live is you can change tempo easily by continuously tapping in the tempo and you can trigger the loops so allowing you to pull of live (pardon the pun) extended sections or jams etc. It is much less restricting than playing to a backing track.

Hmm there was some good info about this on talkbass, I will try and find it when I have a minute. The biggest challenge seemed to be to build the preamplifier for the piezo crystals.

Mmm Cubase can do snap to grid but that relies on the samples being in time with the set Cubase tempo. I'm not sure if it has a facility to warp samples to fit the tempo like Live does. Hopefully someone else will know

[quote name='tauzero' post='120090' date='Jan 14 2008, 01:53 PM']Knocking things over reminds me: Knocked the guitarist's 12-string acoustic Yamaha (which was in a guitar stand) flat on its face onto a concrete floor. Amazingly, there was absolutely no damage. When he did exactly the same thing a couple of weeks later, he decided that perhaps he ought to replace the incredibly precarious stand.[/quote] Heh that reminds me of our guitarist carrying his strat in a really worn and torn gig bag, walking along the pavement and crash it falls out straight into the road. Amazingly not a bit of damage.

Turned round and knocked the music stand and music off the stage with the headstock

I finally have something worth posting! [u]Basses[/u] [list] [*]OLP Musicman copy with Status Graphite neck - bought from ped a few years ago and is still the most comfortable bass I have ever played. Soon to be restrung EADGC as I'm not using the low B much and that high C would be useful for the tracking on some effects. [*]Fender Jap Jazz with J retro - bought from onehappybunny last year with my first pay check I was initially quite reluctant to get a Fender having always enjoyed having something unusual but after playing it it's clear there is a reason why they are popular! I'm still not a massive fan of the neck shape though.. Currently got the pickgaurd removed for some strange reason. [*]Westfield strat clone - my sisters but lives in my room after she ditched the electric for classical guitar. [/list] [u]Amplification![/u] Hartke HA3500 - Very loud and does the job, pretty heavy in the case though. Haven't got round to swapping the preamp valve but it's on my to do list. I bought this one from techmonkey 'Loud' 2x10s - Bought from crazykiwi to replace my loud 4x10 as I thought it would be more convenient and it is..Great stacking them vertically as it gets the drivers really near your ear. [u]Others[/u] Novation KS4 - only bought last sunday for £190, I have always fancied a synth and thought I should learn to play the keyboard. This is also going to double up as a controller for using Live, live. I don't know much about synths but it sounds good to my ears. Laptop - running Ableton Live and Cubase although I don't use Cubase much as Live is just so much more useful for getting ideas down quickly (I don't do any serious recording) M Audio FW410 - I got this cheap on ebay, probably wouldn't buy one again but it does the job and having several outputs is nice.. But the best bit is the stand for the keyboard and laptop which I made out of an old shelf, it makes it really quick to get down ideas as everything is in one place and all wired up. [attachment=4838:DSC01680.JPG] [attachment=4839:DSC01679.JPG] Here is an old one just two show the 2 cabs stacked together.. [attachment=4840:DSC01646.JPG] Cheers!

That SAE college one is very useful for micing techniques. This one is good for people starting out. [url="http://www.tweakheadz.com/choosing_a_mixer_for_your_studio.html"]http://www.tweakheadz.com/choosing_a_mixer...our_studio.html[/url]

Another really useful point about stacking them vertically is it puts the amp, and anything you put on top such as a laptop or synth, at the perfect height for tweaking.

I stack mine on end purely for space reasons, it gives a really compact footprint for a large amount of speaker area. Having a driver up near your head really helps you to hear yourself too. I personally think it looks good

I don't think that a scooped eq would work so well in a band context. Maybe look at boosting the low mids, that can add quite a lot of weight to your tone. I think the biggest factor is having new strings, something like elixirs although expensive last along time. With a jazz bass I think you get the classic slap sound with both pickups on full (to my ears) although the neck pickup can work quite well on it's own in a band as it cuts through well, if sounding a little clanky, so definately experiment with pickup balance. Just my opinions..

I enjoyed that, nice start to the day - thanks

I bought a ex demo M Audio FW410 from Absolute which was missing the power supply, 4-6 pin adaptor, Ableton Live Lite and firewire leads (not the fault of Absolute, they get them boxed from M Audio). Absolute were really helpful and put me in touch with ableton to get a download link and serial number for Live Lite and sent me the power supply and a 4-6 pin lead pretty quickly. Shame to hear about your problems.

Mmm they have the drive section from the VXL pedal, thats a really nasty grind sound