tedmanzie

I was interested in these basses and just found this:

I'm quite surprised by the amount of vitriol directed at Yoko Ono and this version of Imagine It has a kind of delicate frailty, like it's just holding together. It's not technically great of course, but that's the whole point isn't it? - Human frailty, old age (she's 85), a world going down the tubes where the sentiment in the song seems further away than ever, a message to her dead husband on his birthday, the pop melody of a multi million selling song reduced to bare bones, etc. I thought it was quite strange and touching. I must be getting old

Bit of simple clarity, organisation and team work required all round I reckon. From how to present/agree new songs, to how many gigs you can cope with, to simple online diary/text organisation. Sit down as a group and talk it out, agree a procedure going forward. No need for Band Meltdown! EG clarity includes OP saying that texts/emails will be responded to daily at breakfast and lunch and not after 7pm (for example). 4 days for a reply would already drive me bananas if I’d sent the original text!

It falls off very easily 😬

If you get Gotoh GB640 res-o-lites they should be an exact fit for screws and they look exactly the same - and still much lighter than the originals. Cheapest place I found was here: https://tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk/guitar-parts/guitar-machine-heads/bass-machine-heads/gotoh-gb640-res-o-lite-bass-machine-heads-nickel-4l.html

https://hipshotproducts.com/collections/bass-bridges/products/4-string-vintage-bass-bridge I'm tempted to replace the bridge on my Japanese SQ series P with one of these, I currently have 19mm spacing and I'd like less. These come in 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 mm options. Works out about £70 all in from eBay. Anyone fitted one of these? Apart from the bent back plate, which I'm not really loving, it looks like the best solution to get tighter spacing

Thanks everyone, good info

I use light strings (045-090 DR round core), very low action, light-ish bass - but teaching myself two-finger picking for the past 6 months has flared up tendon issues in my inner elbow and wrist (normally I use a pick which seems to keep the aches down). Not really bad at the moment but annoying enough to take a week off practising - I like to play a couple of hours a day normally - sitting down. Does anyone have good tips for warm up routines, stretching techniques, good ideas/to be avoided ideas!?

I don’t think many people have so far suggested just having a simple conversation with the drummer - between gigs, sit down and have a heart to heart with him about what you think, he may have some thoughts about what he wants too. Maybe tape the latest gig and show him where it’s not working. Book a rehearsal for just you & him maybe? Ideally you want to both come out stronger and happier - a look or a few curt words are likely to achieve the opposite. i’m not in a band but as an audience member, unless it’s jazz I can’t stand drummers who fiddle around with tricksy bits, I particularly can’t bear that thing where they wreck a straight high hat pattern with triplet/3 bits (don’t know what it is to be honest but it’s pretty common and it’s rubbish!) 😆

another +1 for DR strings here, although I use Sunbeams and you won't probably like those (round core and nickel). The Hi-Beams are their zingy string - stainless steel so they stay bright for about 900 years.

Personally I’d recommend getting a decent one with a gain reduction meter, I’ve tried pedals without them and they are a pain (and easy to get very wrong). With a meter, compressors are pretty straightforward in my opinion as you can see what it’s doing - and you don’t want it doing very much. p.s. Which one have you borrowed to try out?

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1507283779' post='3384455'] Hello folks My daughter is just starting A Level Music Tech, with a view to going on to uni to study something similar - she has her eye on Music and Sound Recording at York at the moment. She's been told to think about getting a Macbook running Logic Pro, but new prices are crazy, so I was wondering which older models folk would recommend, and where decent used Macs might be found? Condition is less important than performance in this instance. Should add that I work in a Uni myself and qualify for the Apple discount, but even then a new basic Pro is coming in at £1124 and an Air at £854! Thanks Gareth [/quote] I would look for second hand macbook with [i]at least[/i] 1 year of Apple care left on it, which means it will be less than 2 years old (3yr Applecare). I wouldn't buy secondhand otherwise personally. Macs are annoyingly expensive to buy and fix and they do break. Unless it's a 100% requirement I would say hold off buying anything for the meantime and see what will be genuinely useful as the course progresses - eg. a large screened iMac is miles easier to use Logic on if you don't need portability, or alternatively there are some amazing music apps for iPads which might be as useful, although they are a bit of a different animal!

Another alternative is to use online mastering - I have had excellent results from here: https://ariamastering.com but as in standard mastering, the better the mix the better the master.

Demo Isotope Ozone for free, it's really good. You'll eventually have to buy it if you like it (about £200). For quick and easy mastering I find you can pick a preset and just adjust input gain to suit and generally not touch too much else. If you want a cheap and easy way just to get your tracks [i]louder[/i] then Waves L2 limiter/maximiser is about £60, also free to demo, and L1 is cheaper still.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1509031017' post='3396180'] Remember that something like Sonarworks should only be used after you have done as much as you can with traps and diffusers. Plus using an EQ curve to correct room problems only works for the position at which you measure your room (i.e. where the mic is) and any change to the room including having other people in it will change the effectiveness of that correction. [/quote] I totally agree re. doing treatment first. Re. Sonarworks the 'sweet spot' is quite wide - it measures from about 30 points in an area about 4 feet wide and three feet deep, and presumably averages those. Bear in mind that that you mix in one position anyway. I was quite sceptical, but I have to say I am very impressed.

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1505741541' post='3373909'] I can't recommend the Gearslutz forum enough for this kind of thing... [url="https://www.gearslutz.com/board/studio-building-acoustics/"]https://www.gearslut...ding-acoustics/[/url] ... lots of pro audio folk on there who are happy to help. Other than that, there are basically two ways of approaching this: 1) The easy way, which is to assume that your room will need bass traps in every corner, side panels next to where your desk is and a 'ceiling cloud' panel above it. Pretty much 99% of home studios will need that exact treatment. [/quote] Bit late to this thread, but I agree with this, and would also add 'difussion' which is anything from shelves full of books to specialist panels. I built my own bass traps using Knauf ECOSE , I think it was the 45 weight (i'd have to check) and put them in all coreners, 600mm depth. The side panels and cloud, from thinner panels, also make a difference - you can buy those in many places, although I also made mine. Once you have put some essential treatment in I would [i]definitely[/i] recommend Sonarworks - it's a software room correction. You get a calibrated mic, it walks you through the measurement, and it creates a custom EQ curve - essentially an inverse of your room, boosting the dropouts and cutting the peaks. For £250 ish quid it is amazing - I have a lot of room treatment and expensive monitors and Sonarworks makes the sound MUCH better. One of the things it does which you can't do any other way is send a different eq to left & right speakers (if it needs to) - in my room, which has a problem with being asymetrical, I now get a solid central image which just sounds hazy when Sonarworks is disabled. Highly recommended!

I got ER15s made ages ago and went to see a few gigs but I found the reduction too much so I kept intending to order the 10dB filters but never got round to it. . .

[quote name='Colonel36' timestamp='1498666539' post='3326232'] I thought it was a good performance from Liam. He's got what it takes. [/quote] +1 In early Oasis he was one of THE best rock singers EVER in terms of sound, looks and attitude! I thought he was pretty good at Glasto but all the decent songs are from his old band so it's a bit of a hopeless task. I've no doubt that he's a terrible twat in person!...