Mornats

http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbz_2005_deko.htm Nice Ibanez-like 5 string up for £70 or so.

A couple of posts appeared as I was typing mine. I'm the same as Tonybassplayer - I'm paying £120 a year on music which was a lot more than I used to. It was always a gamble to buy and album that turned out to be a couple of good songs and 8-10 filler songs so I tended to restrict my music buying to "safe bets". With regards to artists royalties, my view is that the record labels negotiated the royalties with Spotify and said, yeah you can put the songs on there. Any beef with the amount of money coming from said royalties should be directed towards them. It's worth noting that I've seen a few bands live after having found them on Spotify and been notified of gigs in my area via Songkick and I've gone on to pay £10-15 for a ticket to see them.

I was in on the beta for it and have been paying for a premium account since I gave up smoking (which paid for it) around 2 years ago. I create a playlist based on a favourite or recommended song, album or artist and an hour later have added at least half a dozen new (new to me) acts to my "starred" playlist. I've found so many great artists and such a variety of music on there. The app can be a little buggy at times but most apps are to be fair. I love it. [quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1421963597' post='2667292'] Not to pi$$ on anyone's chips but Spotify doesn't line up with the way I 'consume' music. I like to buy a CD and listen to it. Somehow I don't get the same satisfaction from free or unfeasibly cheap music. I think it's a commitment thing! [/quote] I totally get that to be honest. I appreciate things a lot more if I've paid for them, but hey, I pay my £9.99 a month so I'm paying for it but it's not the same as investing all your pocket money* in one carefully selected album and listening to that over and over for weeks on end. So I've also got my old Rega Planar 2 plugged into my amp and speakers so I can still access that experience of sitting down and actively listening to an album instead of just having a constant stream of music in the background. * I'm talking about buying albums as a teenager back in my youth

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1421782629' post='2665005'] XP SP3, with no firewall nor anti-virus at all [/quote] Holy crap! That's like having unprotected sex in Africa! I'd recommend installing them right now. You may not notice any viruses or anything but your PC may be a remote host for a bot net that spams the internet or worse. I read an article a few years ago where a PC magazine hooked up a base install of XP with no firewall or anti-virus and monitored what happened. It was compromised within minutes and they hadn't even launched a web browser. Just tried to find that article but no joy yet. I'm sure they mentioned that spammers use software to sniff out PCs on the Internet that don't have firewalls on, or have un-patched security holes and can access them that way. I don't think any browser has anti-virus build in but most, if not all, anti-virus programs will install some sort of browser plugin. You're right that a lot of vigilance and sensibleness can go a long way towards keeping you safe but I'd always always go with a firewall and anti-virus. Windows has a firewall built in (that's the one I use) and anti-virus can be had for free (Avast and AVG for example). At work our Macs use Eset but that's a paid-for licence.

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1421447486' post='2661507'] More to do with back ground processes and conflicts then going on the net. More so on older machines, although even on newer machines you can grab extra juice. With huge project templates of 100 midi tracks and more, or loads of VSTI's & VST's those extra %'s help. Anti virus running in the background. Wifi and Bluetooth interfering with some Audio devices. A few reasons really. Pretty much all the DAW vendors recommend disabling these things when not in use, and just enabling when you need to update drivers or download software updates. If someone is only using a couple of VI's and minimal Audio tracks, proberly not much to gain or go wrong. Some really good tips for tip top use. [url="http://www.presonus.com/news/articles/Optimizing-Windows-Vista-and-Windows-7-for-Music-Production"]http://www.presonus....usic-Production[/url] [url="https://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Knowledge-Base/2007013376/Windows-Optimization-Guide"]https://www.cakewalk...imization-Guide[/url] [url="https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/steinberg_support_daw.html"]https://www.steinber...upport_daw.html[/url] [/quote] I'll have a good read through those, cheers! It all seemed a bit strange that it's mostly music peeps who keep their PCs off the Internet. I come from a PC gaming background where gamers spend thousands on components to get the most from their PCs yet still run wi-fi/network adapters and stay connected even if they're playing offline games. I'd have thought that if it made such a big difference then those type of gamers would recommend it all the time. Some anti-virus programs have a gamers option that pretty much puts them in an unobtrusive mode where they won't flag up alerts or take up as much processing power whilst in that mode. I tend to use this when doing any audio work. I'm sure NOD 32 from Eset is one of the recommended ones for that although my free Avast has that mode too. I just read those links above whilst writing this and perhaps it's the gamer in me, but if I found that my network card was using up CPU cycles to the point of it causing pops and clicks in my DAW (as suggested by PreSonus) then my CPU is not fit for purpose for running a DAW and would need upgrading. But the caveat there is that I tend to invest a lot in my PC (e.g. £250 for my CPU and an extra £40 for the heatsink and fan for quiet cooling) whereas others aren't running high-end i7 processors. Having just read Bilbo's original post again he asks if an audio PC can be hooked up to the internet safely and my answer would be yes, absolutely, but you'd need your operating system to be up to date and have a firewall and anti-virus installed. I don't think these are an option for Bilbo as there's a risk that updating them will bugger up his PC. Even Mac users should be wary of updates to OSX as it was an OSX update that buggered GarageBand for me and made me move over to my Windows machine for recording. But in general, I would always say yes, you can safely hook up an audio PC to the internet. You can choose not to of course, but if you're dealing with virtual instruments and loads of plugins you probably have to in order to authorise a lot of them.

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1421592599' post='2662993'] Your description of swing/jazz seems to be right on the money to me; it's slower than 30s swing from the likes of Benny Goodman but then that was for dancing to, not rapping over. Looking at a few YouTube videos of Benny Goodman pointed me to [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parov_Stelar"]Parov Stelar[/url] and the genre [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro_swing"]electro swing[/url]... [media]http://youtu.be/7fkOqXAHLKQ[/media] [/quote] Ah, that sounds like the thing, cheers!

How about a Zoom B1on? http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/b1on You can plug headphones into the output jack, your MP3 player into the aux in and it has rhythm patterns too. Plus it's a multi-effects stomp pedal. All for under £40. You know, I think I've just talked myself into buying one!

Haha he is a chap Well, anyway it's inspired me to try and record something in that style so I'm off to Chap Hop tally-ho.

Overwater flats are £21.20: http://overwaterbasses.com/shop-2/bass-strings/ I've used their nickels (which are nice and very similar to GHS Bass Boomers) but haven't used their flats but they're fairly cheap and are likely to be quite decent I reckon.

Don't laugh but my colleague sent me this (she loves silly songs) and whilst is it a bit of a laugh I actually really like the style of the backing track. The combination of the hip-hop beat with swing/jazz style brass instruments is really nice and I'd love to listen to more of that style. Any suggestions or recommendations? Ta! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iRTB-FTMdk

I'd love it if you keep posting links here as I keep missing them all!

It's just the one fret that's high and it seems to be the whole fret. Not really sure how I managed to level the whole fretboard and miss that one. So I'd guess it appeared under string tension as I had the neck perfectly straight when I levelled them (I've got a notched straight edge specifically made for the job). I may give it a little shaving with the file as my fret rocker only rocks a little bit. It's perfect on all other frets and this one bugs me

Makes sense Lowdown, I'll check out those resources. Might be worth setting up a secondary profile that loads only the drivers and programs you need and unplugging from the net. Saying that, my PC is specced for gaming as well as audio so I've managed to record bass on top of EZ drummer and a couple of other tracks lag free whilst having World of Warcraft playing in the background so maybe it's more of a low-spec PC thing.

Another vote for Superlux. I use the 662F closed-back ones for mixing: http://www.thomann.de/gb/superlux_hd662_f.htm - they sound very similar to my M-Audio BX5a Deluxe monitor speakers which is very handy. I use the 668B ones for general music listening and to check my mixes: http://www.thomann.de/gb/superlux_hd668_b.htm - they're open backed and sound nice.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1421335881' post='2660055'] Part of my question is; can a 'music' computer be hooked up to the internet safely? My gut says no but there are so many downloadable software packages that I figure there must be some way of doing it. [/quote] Yep of course. My main (and only) PC runs Windows 7, all my music software, my games and photo stuff. You just need to keep your computer up to date and keep an updated anti-virus on there. Also, don't go downloading loads of "free" stuff off bit torrent (I'm not saying that you do of course) and the like as that's where most of the malware and viruses will come from. Stay off the porn sites too (again I'm not saying that you do... ) and just be sensible and it'll be fine. I've no idea why anyone thinks they should keep an audio PC off the internet really. If you're happy banking online and typing your credit card details online then you shouldn't be worried about your music software. In fact, the only reason it should be offline is to stop you from idling over to Basschat when you're meant to be working and buying more gear than you need Incidentally, in the last 5 years when I ran a Windows 7 PC at home alongside my Macbook Pro at work it was the Macbook that got a piece of malware on it and not the PC. Anti virus for either platform is recommended.

Hmm, turns out I didn't quite get one of the frets level. It's the 17th or 18th fret. So, my options are to strip it down and do the fret levelling all over again or try and spot-level one fret. Any recommendations on which way to go? It's a 3-4 hour job to do the whole thing and I don't want to file the frets down too many times but neither do I want to mess up by doing a half-arsed job and trying to do just one fret!

I'm thinking of buying a nice cheap Harley Benton Tele - this one in fact: http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbt30be_egitarre.htm I know a lot of us on here have been buying the Harley Benton basses and tend to like them so I was thinking it would be worth a punt. I've got all the tools and some know-how on how to level, dress and polish frets so I'm not too concerned about having to do that. So, any idea if they're any good? It's just for playing in the house and recording with. I can replace the pickups if needed. Some Entwistle ones would probably do the job quite well.

That was great. I've had the importance of acoustic treatment drummed into me from every source but it's hard to say to myself that it's worth the pain of doing it all. My living room is my studio and I live in a rented flat (I put a small tack in a wall to hang a picture on and was told I'd have to remove it, fill in the hole and repaint the wall when I leave or I'll get charged for it). So going ahead with acoustic treatment is a huge leap in terms of practicality. Anyway, it was good to hear the actual difference it makes as it's a fear that I won't be able to tell the difference. I'd love to hear each of the individual instrument tests one after the other so you hear the kick in the untreated room, the bass trap room and the treated room one after the other. That would give a great comparison.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1421136446' post='2657420'] BASS UKULELE DEKO WENT UP LESS THAN 30 SECONDS AGO!!!!! [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_kahuna_clu_bass_ukulel_deko.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...ukulel_deko.htm[/url] Be swift, my comrades. EDIT: Gone. I did think about buying it for myself, but thought 'not yet'. It was £39, which isn't the biggest bargain we've seen here, but IMHO worth a shot. At least I know that the 'inactive' list on my program works. If the bass had been added a few minutes later I would have been washing myself upstairs, and would have missed it entirely. [/quote] I would have bought one there and then if I hadn't have seen your post late afternoon! I tried a Kala bass uke over Christmas and it sounded immense and was so much fun to play. £450 was too much though but I'd take a pop at one for £39 any day of the week.

Another one here to say go out and try some. Quality varies and some basses will speak to you and others won't, whether they're USA, Mex or Squier. I've always had Squiers sounding and playing nice to me but USA Fenders have been hit (but what a hit) or miss (which can be a very disappointing miss).

ICS13 is the start of mine so it's a Cort factory one (the S stands for Squier apparently). So it's Indonesia Cort Squier. Cheers for the info

[quote name='VTypeV4' timestamp='1421011414' post='2656232'] Apparently its a Cort built one as opposed to the Samick factory ones. [/quote] Is there a way to tell?

iTunes account can only be associated with a limited number of machines if I remember rightly. So you won't be able to just log in and download it on a friend's machine. It's been a while since I was Mac-based but I'm sure it's a right pain to swap iTunes accounts around different machines.

That doesn't sound right to me. You're not breaking the terms of the licence by transferring it from your old laptop to a new one if you're licensed for one laptop and one desktop.

The darker tone may be a result of the filters I used on the photo. Here is a more honest representation of the colour: