BigRedX

It's not listed on any of the various DX7 presets and cartridge sounds including those from 3rd party vendors so it's probably something someone at your college created.

In my home studio putting the finishing touches to the drum programming for another new song.

We now have 5 new songs to work on for when we are next back in the rehearsal room.

For me programming patches is the best bit. It's the whole point of having a synth.

IME most pre-programmed synth patches have been designed o show off all the features of the synth and usually aren't actually much use in real world situations. And those that are any good tend to have been over-used by other owners of the same device. Whenever I get a new synth I'll spend an hour or so going through the pre-sets normally being totally underwhelmed, before diving in to program something that is actually useful to me.

However agreed with FM programming. Back in 1983 the other synth player in my band bought one of the first batch that arrived in the UK. He would spend hours tinkering with it and eventually come up with some fantastic sounds. I couldn't get anything I liked out of it and I wasn't massively impressed by the ones supplied. Nothing since then has changed my mind.

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Ah yes, this is true, the text you type in a normal reply box is saved by your browser and has nothing to do with the forum (specifically), other than the ID of the post you are replying to.

On my machine they are contained within a database in my user profile area, this is on a PC, but it is browser and OS dependant.

It must have something to do with the forum software, because Basschat is the only forum which enables this feature in my browser.

I suspect that what the OP is referring to, is the way the forum software should save any text that is typed into the reply field before it is posted. 

In the past I've clicked reply to a thread to discover that I started typing something several days ago but never finished it. Of course by then the discussion has moved on so my original unfinished reply is of little use any more.

From my own usage I would imagine that the retention of un-posted replies is linked to forum cookies. It is also dependant on the device it is typed on and not uploaded to the Basschat servers as an unfinished reply typed on one device will not appear on another.

21 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

You pointed that out to me a few months ago and I immediately passed it on to Andras who will send me the updated one. It’s a minor omission rather than a wholesale change which is why it got missed for so long.

 

Also, much of the base internal structure is the same as it was from 2015.

Great. Thank you.

I think that since the v4.5 update is going to include several new features that I will definitely need, My FI will be reserved for occasional home use until it is available.

I did wonder about the tuning. IIRC one of the competing electro-mechanical pianos from that era was tuned by adding or removing solder from the tines.

I also wonder if they added some internal bracing at the corners to hold the case together without changing the external appearance. It certainly looked as though it could do with some.

And agreed with the varnish. That glossy finish was nasty. Isn't there something less intrusive available? Even a matt varnish would have been better than shellac.

I could never get on with the change in tension on the E string. 

Standard E string dropped to D was far too floppy for my tastes. A heavier E string that felt OK in D was too stiff when tuned to E.

Since I switched to 5-strings for "normal" bass and don't need drop D on my Bass VIs I've been OK. I do have two guitars with different gauge E strings for standard tuning and drop D though.

YMMV.

7 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

I might be the bottleneck. Got a lot of heavy life stuff going on at the moment which means I’ve had neither time nor energy for manual writing. 

When you do have the time to do this can the Algorithm Block Diagram on page 99 be updated, as it is now over 10 years out of date and from what I see in the editor program, the architecture has completely changed since the version in the manual was drawn up.

Is that true? 4.5 isn't available for another month?

Do we have an exact date for the release yet?

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

One thing that, now I think back, you need to think about is fret markers.  I've personally never had mother of pearl or stone markers give problems - but plastic ones will, indeed, melt if the iron is placed directly over them.  The trick usually is to run the iron close to, but not over, the markers.

@Andyjr1515 unless I am mistaken it's the bass in this thread, so it looks as though there isn't any fake MoP.

1 hour ago, three said:

I had one with a 36" scale - an absolute monster that came with its own flightcase (virtually unliftable).  It might be worth trying a Hiscox Large Bass Case (you could check the dimensions at least)

Mine were both 36" scale too. AFAIK all the 5-string versions and the C-bass were.

I don't think the 34" scale versions are much shorter overall since most of the additional scale length of the 36" scale basses was achieved by moving the position of the bridge back as far as it would go on the body. 

You need an extra long case. I've owned two Originals, one came with it's own flight case which judging by the stickers on it had actually been on some flights, and for the other I was able to source a suitable hard case from my local musical instrument shop amongst their stock of spare used cases in the days when they used to have such things. Both cases were the same internal size (within a few mm) so it would appear that it is a standard, albeit one that isn't very common. Unfortunately I don't have either bass any more so I can't measure them for you.

Alternatively you could ask Overwater. IIRC they still make basses with the Original shape as a custom order so they should know of a source of suitable cases.

How easy was it to get the fingerboard back on properly aligned with the sides of the neck?

IME it depends on both the bass and your playing technique.

Tapered B-strings suit my 5-string basses and how I play (quite hard), to the point where I have been considering getting Newtone to make me a custom set with a tapered E string as well.

You get more choices with non-tapered strings, but if you can find a set with a tapered B that works for you and gives an improvement in the feel and sound of the string then go for it. Remember also that just because a particular type of string works on one bass, it does not immediately follow that it will as good on a different one.

6 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I posted a few (including a scary Wal!).  I'll try to find a couple but will need to convert all the photos due to Imgur UK restrictions.  It may take some time!

ImgBB is a decent replacement for Imgur.

8 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

This was more to do with recording a live performance, but the retrospective amp sim is just fine so maybe I'll just stick with that. 

If it's just for recording a gig and the mic feed isn't going to be sent to FoH then knock yourself out.

Your best choice will be whatever would be used on your rig in the studio, and trust me it's not a kick drum mic.

Record both the mic and the DI, and if you have enough tracks/processing power a safety DI direct from the bass too. Whoever is mixing the recording will be able to use the source(s) that sound best for the overall recorded sound

Calling @Andyjr1515

1 minute ago, Leonard Smalls said:

To be fair, not every Porky Prime Cut sounds good, I spose they did the best they could and scrawled their X on it!

Even though the recording wasn't up to much, apparently the lyrics did make him laugh!

39 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

It's the old "Garbage In, Garbage Out" ...

If it's a poor recording and/or a poor pressing it's never going to sound good!

Which is the point I was trying to make earlier in this thread. 

It was fine if you were a big selling artist signed to a major record label , but for those of us without record label backing, trying to make our recordings available to the public and maybe played by John Peel or Tommy Vance, meant having to use a budget studio, and then getting our record pressed at a some cheap pressing plant using recycled vinyl as this was the only way we could afford to release it. 

Compare and contrast with a digital file whether it is on a CD or a download there are a lot fewer obstacles to audio fidelity.

The music I've released on digital formats sounds loads better even though much of it was recorded at home rather than at a proper studio simply because the production process doesn't place limitations on the sound.

35 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

They, however, have the immortal words scratched into the end groove - "a Porky  Prime Cut". Always wanted to have a record of my own mastered by Porky!

My shitty vinyl effort is a Porky Prime Cut! 

Back in those days I think almost every UK pressing I owned had been cut by either Porky (George Peckham) or Bilbo (Dennis Blackham).

It might have been a problem with early flip paint finishes, but I think the Gus had just had a very hard life prior to me buying it. As I said the chrome work was in a similar state and several parts including the truss rod cover and the one on the back that gives access to the intonation and action adjustment were missing. The Hiscox case it came it was so battered I've never dared use it to take any of my basses out of the house. I've now had the bass for a lot longer than the previous owner and it's been my regular gigging instrument when I've needed a 5-string for the last 18 years, but apart form a couple of dings on the headstock it's pretty much still in the condition it came to me after being refinished.

The other thing to remember is that not every record was recorded at Abbey Road or similar "professional" recording studios.

My first venture into vinyl was recorded at a cheap 4-track studio situated in an outbuilding behind a musical instrument shop on the outskirts of Leicester. The equipment was basic, mostly repurposed PA gear and the only effect was reverb/delay from running a feed through a spare 2-track tape machine. Our instruments weren't much better being a mixture of very low budget and home-made. Our previous releases had been on cassettes that we had duplicated ourselves in real time and consequently we mixed the new recordings in the same way, forgetting that we didn't need to compensate for two generations of tape bounce before they reached our listeners, The end result is thin and weedy and very trebly and no amount of flash HiFi is going to make it sound better. In fact the worse the playback system is the better it sounds.

13 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

Look after your vinyl and pops/clicks should not be an issue.

Some pops and clicks are already there the first time the record is played. That's because it's a crap pressing from the late 70s or early 80s made on recycled vinyl.

Almost all the music I want to listen to that only exists on vinyl is in this format. It comes from indie bands putting out their own singles and albums where price is everything. There were plenty of bands back then for whom scraping together the £200-£300 required to record and press 500 copies of their single was the absolute limit of what they could afford and that was for hand-stamped white labels and a sleeve comprising a sheet of photocopied A4 paper folded around and stapled to the plain paper sleeve that the pressing had been shipped in. Most of these releases had defects before they'd even been played. If you were on good terms with your record shop you might be able to get them to play through all their copies trying to find one with less obvious problems.

Also IME it didn't matter how well I looked after my records they would eventually pick up additional damage simply from being taken out to be played, usually on my favourite track.

These days anything I buy on vinyl gets played twice only. Once to check the levels and peak signal and a second time to record it into my computer. If it is available on any digital format I would buy it on that format instead.

Really whatever you want, but you absolutely should not be using a kick drum mic as the frequency response is wrong and you'll be competing with the kick drum sound.

The reality is that unless you are playing huge stages with your own sound engineer, any mic on your bass rig will be mostly for show and the main proportion of your FoH sound will come from the DI.

Remember also that a single close mic on one driver in your rig is not picking up the same sound you hear from the whole rig when stood a few feet away from it. Save the mics for the recording studio and if you like the sound you are getting FoH from your DI signal path stick with that.