BassTractor

[quote name='JellyKnees' timestamp='1452598596' post='2951417'] fave track is probably Always Crashing the Same Car [/quote] Bah! That's not because of the song itself, but just because it's connected to your fave pastime!

[quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1452559305' post='2951238'] This is the waldorf right? Does it coem with a keyboard? Looks nice! Ok thanks! I'm getting mixed reviewd eith the karp, some say yes, others slate it (i notice its vintage arp owners who slate it) [/quote] That desktop one's called just "Waldorf". The one with keyboard is called "Waldorf Keyboard". IMS, both can be had in black as well. The Keyboard not only has keys, but also comes with readily usable wavetables and samples. If one wants those on the desktop, one has to lock them up (they are pre-installed, but locked), and a license for that costs roughly 100 Euros or so. Mind you, I only mentioned it as a very deep and very flexible synth. Its few knobs belie its capacities as well as its ease of use. But it is unashamedly digital and is not the first synth I'd think of as a 1:1 Odyssey replacement. It can be used as a virtual analogue synth, but many more dedicated VAs exist, like the Akai Miniak that was discussed earlier. Yes, here on BC. Some like VA, others hate it. I like it, and I particularly like the Miniak for its sound and depth. Hate the tiny display though. Yeah, I've seen the slating in the "Korg announce Odyssey"-thread on GS. Also there it was immediately picked up that the slating came from people who saw the value of their own Odysseys drop. No serious review of the KARP has not lauded it. Tiny differences with the original exist, especially in filter details, but then each and every Odyssey built back then sounded differently at any rate, amongst other things because of component tolerances in those days (and ARP also made a mess in their factory). Also, an old Odyssey will sound different now than it did when it was new, and after an expensive service it will sound different again. The only serious criticism against the KARP that I have seen is against its form factor with slimline keys, and its mediocre keybed. Personally, I expect to use an external keyboard for it. Not sure yet.

[quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1452556758' post='2951226'] have any of you got an opinion on the ARP Axxe? Up for sale at £650 - can I save cash here? [/quote] Yup. That was their bread and butter machine. Very easy to learn on, but I personally didn't like it. Since the Teiscos/Kawais have been mentioned already, I liked their Synthesizer-100F a lot better than the Axxe, but then that one, also with one oscillator only, did have the routing switches that made it good for weird noises. Also its core sound to me was nicer, but that is taste. Personally, I'd rather have an Odyssey at £1,300 than an Axxe at £650. Then again, personally I'd rather have a KARP for that Axxe price than an old Odyssey for that same price. YMMV.

[quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1452545629' post='2951104'] what was yer favourite one? I'm thinking of purchasing a mk2, its on deal for me at £1,300 [/quote] I'm no expert, mind. Roughly speaking, whilst I liked the Moog-like filter in the Mk2, my fave was always the lively, fun filter in the Mk1 (without entering into details as to exactly which build number had which filter etc.). I never liked the Mk3 as much as the other two, but would've bought that synth at any rate. The last version is also said to be technically speaking the best one, but I forgot for which reason. A Mk2 at so much money must mean you're talking about a vintage one, yes? Fully serviced and ready to serve you many years to come or more like a risk you're willing to take? [quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1452545629' post='2951104'] essentially, I want to kinda make sounds similar to The Who on their 70s material in order to make demos (apologies if me bleating on about them is getting tiresome!) How did you find the odyssey in this regard? In terms of its versatility and ease of use? Thanks! [/quote] BRX has already answered this better than I could've done, and I concur. Even if Townshend had used an Odyssey, I still don't see the need to use an Odyssey if you're not aiming at millimeter correctness in a tribute band. I feel the Odyssey was versatile for its time, and because it had many switches like the Teisco, the alternative routings gave a lot of possibilities for other sounds than everyday bread and butter sounds. I felt it was easy to work with only after one had studied the routing possibilities very carefully. Many of the same sliders and many switches in a row, and not all of them immediately clear as to their consequences make this synth not the one that one masters on the first day. I've experienced much easier models there - even very knobby ones. Today however, synths like for example the Waldorf Blofeld are soooo much more flexible and sooo easy to use, that for general purpose synthing I'd take that one any day before an Odyssey, unless I had specific reasons to buy an Odyssey, that is. Also, the Blofeld Keyboard has a great little keyboard. I don't remember how the original Odyssey's was. The KARP's is amateuristic. Also, of it's for demo purposes only, and you must have the sound of the Odyssey as well as its routing possibilities, a softsynth exists that comes very close. You may know it. [quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1452545654' post='2951106'] did you happen to be on gearslutz by any chance? [/quote] Yes, but that's not the one I was thinking of. The discussion on GS is millions of pages long, and they're fighting-animals over there. I meant a friendlier one, but still can't remember where it was.

Thanks, RhysP! Sadly there's not much info in that thread. I just realise the discussion I meant probably was not on BC at all, or the Odyssey was discussed in another thread about synths - though I couldn't find it. Over to The-Ox, I think.

There's a BassChat forum called Other Instruments in the Gear section. If I recall correctly we had a discussion about the Odyssey there, so you may want to have a look there. But to answer your question: Yes. I played all three originals a few times in the seventies and eighties, and own a Korg remake now. I've sadly not taken it into use yet. Is there something you want to know?

"Warszawa". It was the song that drew me to his work, and it has always done it for me. Other than that: "Subterraneans" as well as "Heroes", though there really are dozens.

Another sad loss. Very gentle indeed. I met him in '02, and was struck by how he had no star antics at all then, but cared about the well-being of everyone around him - including the cleaning lady. In my book, that is what class is! I loved how he integrated relatively simple pop music with relatively avant-garde artistism, and am amongst the many who believe his name will be remembered. RIP

It's been some years since I investigated MIDI keyboards, but from what I read on Gearslutz, the Arturia is very shoddily built also as to other aspects than the keys themselves. I think there's no reason to take the risk, seeing as there are so many alternatives. Nobody really raves about the Akai, but they do seem to be well satisfied with Akai's keyboards, both as to key response and as to build quality. As an Akai Miniak (a synth) owner, I concur that the Akai keys are quite adequate. The NI seems well regarded. I can't say anything about the others, but I personally went for a few M-Audio KeyStation models as their semi-weighted keys are not too bad. However, when I did, I was surprised by the following: some of the models (they come in many lengths, from 25 to 88 keys IMS) come with manuals that implicitly state you can use USB MIDI at the same time as a 9V wall wart, whilst other manuals state you'll ruin the keyboard if you use both. As I use several of them, and one can't expect the computer to deliver enough power, I use a powered USB hub for them. This seems to work well. Also the different KeyStation models come with different ports for pedals (like Volume and Hold) as well as MIDI. Be aware of this. In the end, whilst I wanted 49- or 61-key boards, I felt forced to buy the 88-key version as it was the only one that had it all and was flexible enough. That said, I think it's very much a case of how well adapted the key action is to your needs and your experience level. If you're only entering individual notes one by one, and use a DAW to edit the velocity data afterwards, then any action will do. If you need full piano control over velocity, then only a good piano action board will do. Personally, I never use the M-Audio for piano sounds, and instead use my trusty piano-action board for those (a Yamaha KX-88 from the mid 80s).

Cool and lovable. Thanks for posting. Can't remember ever having heard of this.

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1452241611' post='2947868'] Is your band any good at Metal? [/quote] Dunno really. We hope we are, but most of our songs are so short that we haven't heard enough of them to know whether they really are Metal. We call our style Decay, or sometimes Fragile Metal.

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1452206412' post='2947736'] failed to notice the protective film on the p/g [/quote] You're not the first, and you won't be the last. There must be a special switch in the human brain specifically for allowing or not allowing the needed "protective film" thought, as I've heard this story literally dozens of times - often from people with an actual brain. Don't know who or what controls this switch. Anyway, good luck with the rest of the proceedings.

At any rate, it's not gonna happen. There's rules for this, you know, and there's no way they're naming yet another element after a rock icon after my own band Ununoctium received this honour recently.

Congrats! Luvverly machines, those. Personally, I haven't found a richer, deeper hardware synth than the Blofeld below the £1K mark. You probably already know this, but just in case, as well as for other readers: It's not hard to start with a Blofeld (mastering its depth is a different matter), but one has to be aware of its OS glitches. Personally I'd not use it live for parts that need to be perfect. That said, depending on who you ask, OS v1.22 or v1.23 is said to be quite stable. Also, reportedly Waldorf have retracted v1.23 from the market for some time, in order to iron out the last glitches, so it should be near perfect once it's re-released. Have fun!

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1452087902' post='2946235'] Do VHS players even exist anymore? [/quote] Of course they do. I just bought a used one from Cash Converters for no more than £3,000. Bargain!

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1452078411' post='2946094'] "Van der Graaf Generator" and "recognisable" don't sit together well [/quote] You know, I probably didn't understand the word "recognisable" really well. From the last pages of this thread, I get the impression it's about "many people recognising", whereas I took it to mean something like "so specific that you'd recognise it under any circumstance (given of course that you'd heard the song before)". You Brits are a strange lot, using your own language in a way that you yourselves understand perfectly!

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1452034677' post='2945858'] Scott, Virgil, Alan etc. [/quote] So what did you call the pink one?

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1452000296' post='2945329'] Anyone suffered this themselves? [/quote] Not me! My bass case with mould on the tolex was not in the attic, but had been kept in the middle of the house. (I just found it a few days ago, and concluded the walls of that built-in cupboard do not isolate well enough against an adjourning room with shower and washing machine - a room that's kept cold and with always open window. Time to rethink!) Lightly spray with a mix of vinegar and water (making it 3 to 4 percent of pure vinegar, I think, but check the web first), and clean water afterwards. I've used this method without adverse effects, and without smell afterwards (at least not after some days). If there's no mould in the seams, I'd tape those before spraying though. [quote name='ambient' timestamp='1452013064' post='2945543'] This is why I'd never leave instruments in the loft. There was a thread recently, I thought it odd that people did. I was in our loft last night and it was freezing, in the summer it's ridiculously hot. [/quote] Same here. In our present house, thousands of books were ruined in the loft due to conditions like you describe. Then again I guess many lofts are well insulated. In fact, now I think of it, in Holland I lived right under the roof without any problem.

One, or a very few, name(s) crept in when keeping the basses nameless meant I needed too many words. Kermit then was one of the green Bongos. However, it didn't last, and Kermit once again simply became: "that green Bongo over there no the other one yes that one".

Van der Graaf: "Pioneers over C" Tune in at slightly before 2:19 or 5:47 or 14:33 (or just listen to the whole thing of course - it's only 17 minutes long). For the uninitiated: yes, they are indeed Van der Graaf Generator. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juPZ-oJBd10[/media]

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1451828451' post='2943727'] Looks like a Carl Thompson..... [/quote]

In seriousness though, I think The-Ox possibly needed sleep instead of another drink at that late hour, and only wrote "similar" when he really meant "different". Reading the OP like that, it seems to make more sense to me. In case, I concur with what already has been written by others: it's not easy, but rewarding in several areas. In my mind, the first thing to do then is to forbid oneself to look at C-major as simple, and at anything with black keys as difficult. Black keys are your friends when finding your way around the keyboard, and as a mnemonic for playing many parts.

[quote name='taunton-hobbit' timestamp='1451825380' post='2943691'] Something like this? [/quote] A bit amateuristic for a bass player, don't you think? No, he rather needs a professional instrument. One like this: [URL=http://s1170.photobucket.com/user/basstractor1/media/Swiss%20army%20bass%20342_zps4hfgafoz.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r525/basstractor1/Swiss%20army%20bass%20342_zps4hfgafoz.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[quote name='neilp' timestamp='1451756803' post='2943163'] If BC is currently oftenly mostly correct, I musht be mostly lefty-handed in the mirror [/quote]

[quote name='neilp' timestamp='1451749295' post='2943084'] Normally if I'm drunk I rotate the other way... [/quote] Nope. BC is most oftenly mostly correct. Your mirror is most oftenly mostly wrong.