Mornats

I've got the tools from Crimson Guitars and they're lovely. And today I decided to spot level a few frets that I'd shoddedly missed on my first fret level. So I took the neck off, masking taped the frets I wasn't levelling and filed the others down. And now? It's one the best basses I've ever played. The action is medium low I'd say and it's just very very playable with no buzz. I can't believe I've got such a top class instrument for £246 new.

Yeah, I've got both Ampeg SVX and Guitar Rig 5 Pro. I use compression, EQ to try and get a nice sound but it always sounds rather dull. Even if I do a high pass filter at around 40hz and cut a bit of the mud between 300-500hz it's always the worst sounding instrument! I'd be interested to know where people are cutting and boosting to get a nice clear tone. Some example: https://soundcloud.com/mornats/when-things-come-out-at-night - a nice tone I think but has some dullness and a muffly sound to it. And of course one of the nicest sounding bass tones around is on here: (not asking much am I?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmsJqzEEfco But also, despite the lovely RedNet preamps in my Focusrite Forte, the bass - any bass I put into it - never sounds all that great when I'm just going straight through the interface and out into headphones. It obviously isn't a produced/mixed/engineered tone but the same bass will sound lovely when it's shifting air through my MarkBass. Another example is the sample tones when I compared my Entwistle pickups with the stock ones. The electronics on this bass are courtesy of our own KiOgon so they're definitely not the weak part! https://soundcloud.com/mornats/pickups-comparison - not too bad sounding but compare it to the tones from this bunch of jazzes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGyrGTuMhzo There's a lot of upper-mid jazz squelchy/growly stuff going on in the video that my recording lacks I tend to get the same results with my recorded tone no matter which bass I use - my upgraded Squier, Bass Collection, Overwater Classic jazz, Yamaha TRBX etc. All of them sound great through an amp but I'm sure I'm losing out on something when recording them.

Ironically, the instrument that I find the hardest to record and mix well is the bass. Or perhaps I'm just fussy about the sound and I'm never happy? I record straight into my Focusrite Forte interface (which has very nice preamps) into Reaper, using the instrument level input with my input flashing up well below the yellow or red and it just sounds "meh". But rather than trying to fix my crappy bass, I thought I'd start a thread where we can contribute any knowledge on how to record and mix bass. Over to you fine folk

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1422999025' post='2679462'] Hahaha! You reckon? They can possibly tell you what bass they played, maybe what amp they used, but after that the sound is all in the hands of the geezer mixing the album And I'm wondering if that information is of any use anyway. But I've an open mind on that. [/quote] It just seems to be an oft-asked question that's all If I were having a pro record my band I'd be well interested in the sound the geezer was getting and how they got it. Just to learn if nothing else although I'd like to think they'd like my input into how I want the end result to sound.

They can always answer, with absolute authority, any questions about how they got [i]that[/i] tone on [i]that [/i]song.

Let us know how you get on with it as I tried an Ashbury bass ukulele with flatwound strings and it was so much fun to play. I've tried the Kala u-bass too which sounded immense but I preferred the flatwound strings to the ultra sticky black ones that were on the Kala. The HB one is half the price of the Ashbury so I'd rather spend £100 than £200.

Yeah, I tried a natural when I got my CAR one and it was very noticeably heavier. I guess they use a different body wood so that they look good in natural.

I think these have been mentioned before for the link was an old one. I've just found this collection of free VSTs that are rather nice: http://antress.blogspot.co.uk/ A few stand out for me: Modern Apophis is a really nice compressor that is nice as a mix buss comp. I use an attack of 10ms, release of .6 anda ration of 2 and it gives a bit of life to a mix. (see a good tutorial about this here: http://therecordingrevolution.com/2015/01/22/a-simple-move-to-get-more-punch-out-of-your-mix-video/ Modern Spacer - puts everything in the same room. It gives a live-in-the-studio feel. Can be quite nice but I'd like to tame it a bit. Modern Compressor - I dropped it onto a drum master channel and those drums sounded right there in the room with you.

[quote name='Weststarx' timestamp='1422666690' post='2675549'] Was it just me or was anyone else scared shitless the way he handled them knowing how expensive they probably are? [/quote] I'm sure a small knock on a true roadworn instrument wouldn't be, erhm, noticed

4 basses (down from 6), an acoustic 6 string, an electric Ibanez 6 string, a uke, and a cigar box guitar

I tried a Kala bass uke up in Newcastle over Christmas and though it sounded immense and was fun to play. The £450 pricetag was a bit much for me to handle though. Wasn't too sure about the sticky rubber strings though. So, I popped into my local Hobgoblin and saw an Ashbury Bass Ukulele: http://www.hobgoblin.com/local/products/GR35060/ashbury-bass-ukulele/ - had a go unplugged and it was real nice. Had a nice double-bass ish sound. They're only £199 too and come with flatwound strings. Anyone got one and reckon they're worth it?

[quote name='thebrig' timestamp='1422373191' post='2671809'] [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIHhwsTeDs0"]https://www.youtube....h?v=ZIHhwsTeDs0[/url] [/quote] Ah that's better

It was the block inlays and the binding on the VM jazz that did it for me. The classic vibe I tried was really rather nice too.

I need to sell a bass first I reckon. Then I've got my eye on a nice bass ukulele I saw in my local Hobgoblin and I fancy an electric upright and... and...

[quote name='lemmywinks' timestamp='1422438603' post='2672529'] Does the 121 have the tweeter control knob? [/quote] Nope, but strangely, the NY121 cab does have one. I didn't like the hissing from my 121P so I replaced it with the one that was recommended in another thread on here and there's no hiss now

I sent them a pre-sales question about a MarkBass combo last March that they've yet to answer.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1422362265' post='2671567'] It could be desirable to anyone who lives in Mercia... [/quote] I got it

There's a book called Bass Fitness which has exercises just for this. I used it for a few months and noticed a vast improvement. Essentially, you start on once string fairly high up the neck (where the frets are closer together) and finger each fret in time to a slow metronome. Try 60bpm to start, slow it down if that's too fast. The exercises will then get you to finger just one note on the next string up etc. but you can simply do 4 frets on one string, then 4 on the next to start. Make sure you only move one finger at a time and keep your fingers resting on each fret if they're not the one moving. Once you're comfortable with the BPM you're practicing at increase it by 3 BPM. It doesn't sound a lot but jumping too far ahead in speed won't help. The key is to practice slowly so your fingers get used to moving in that way. I went from a two finger clunker around the fretboard to being able to play a full scale without moving my hand and just dancing my fingers around. It's a pain to get going at first as your fingers will ache so just take it easy, don't strain them and shake your hands out every now and then to loosen your fingers up a bit.

All those nice basses sat there not being played

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1422042365' post='2668212'] Amazing how much faith people seem to be putting into streaming services. I'll always be able to listen to the music I have on vinyl and CD as long as I have something to play them on. If my favourite artist decides to pull their music from Spotify then it's gone and you want to be able to listen to it again. If you haven't downloaded the tracks using one of the paid for accounts then you are totally dependent upon having a network connection to be able to listen. Also Spotify won't be around forever. Something better/different will come along and then you'll have to start all over again building up your playlists/collections. [/quote] That was my major concern about it really. It stopped me from going premium for years. I've since found that I've got a box of cds that I never play as my musical tastes have changed over the years. My favourite classic albums I can buy on vinyl and get back to that active listening experience that I used to enjoy. It will be a bugger to go find all the bands in my playlists again so I'd try to find a way to export them but any new service would try not to miss a trick and will make it easy to copy playlists over (if they want to nick spotify's customers then they need to).

I went to try one with the intent of comparing it to a USA Fender to sneakily try and convince myself to finally go for a really nice jazz. The Squier won and I've been modding it a bit since. A wiring loom from our good friend KiOgon, Entwistle JBXN pickups and a rather fetching custom scratchplate from Scratch-It! I'll show you mine if you show me yours

You all stole the good jokes

Sold out of that 5 string now. Anyone here get it?

Yep Howie, that's how I believe the premium/offline playlist thing works. I listen to my playlist on my Android phone on the way to work and whilst at work if I'm heads-down concentrating on stuff so it's invaluable to me.

If the music industry had created Spotify back in the day instead of doing nothing to innovate them maybe downloading music illegally wouldn't have become such a regular and accepted household activity and consumers would value music more.