sammybee

46 minutes ago, SumOne said:

^^^

Isn't going onto a Drum Machine thread and saying why you don't use drum machines and why other shouldn't the equivilant of going onto the Effects forum and saying why Effects pedals aren't needed (a hangable trolling offence on Talkbass!) . 😉

 

I get where you're coming from, but there continues to be quite a big market from hardware drum machines. There are pros and cons to either method.  I guess all those people using hardware could be wrong, or perhaps they are in different situations and people like doing things in differernt ways.

I think we are all wrong, and the 50k members of the MPC forums on FB are too  Anybody want to buy an MPC Live & an MPC 2000xl - I'll consider myself schooled!

7 hours ago, TrevorG said:

Very jealous (but not of the weight). Great sound and clearly great construction. I have the Elf with the 2X8. Nice and light but not the same. 

Yes a touch on the heavy side! I think I may fit casters to the bottom

When I started out I was given one piece of advice, buy a bass that makes you want to play - and spend as much as you can on it. 

I know bass prices are crazy atm, but I think this advice still holds true. Learning any instrument is hard (particularly once past the teenage years), and if you have a really nice instrument you will be more inclined to continue the learning journey & not give up at the early hurdles (there are many)

Plus if you splash on a 2nd hand usa/mex Fender you will get all your money back if you decide to sell... A cheap Harley Benton, you'll struggle to sell for half what you pay

3 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Welcome to the TE Appreciation Club.

 

They're amazing,  aren't they...

Thank you... yes utterly amazing.. although I'm not sure my neighbours would agree with you

25 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

Mainly so I don't have to use a computer.  The setting up to record saps my creativity and I'm firmly opposed to designed obsolescence. 

One of the main reasons I love my MPC(s) (And hardware in general), is that the process doesn't hinder you from making music. I always find if I try to write music within Logic that I'm composing with my eyes rather rather than my ears. Yes it comes out perfectly sequenced, but at the expense of sounding robotic & plastic-y

You'll find (as @SumOne says) there is a 'lot' to it, but it is very intuitive, tactile way to make music. As a die hard lover of vintage (old, heavy and clunky) gear I was really sceptical about these new fangled MPC's but I'm really glad I took a punt on mine. Even if it didn't do drums, it would be worth it for the audio recording/loop pedal/fx functionality

There she is in all her glory! Super clean considering her age

I've never really been excited about amps/cabs before as I don't gig and my bass playing is limited to recording (DI into the desk). I picked up an old Trace Elliot combo today and WOW. The tone and power from this thing is just awesome. It's a bit weighty, but these things are utter bargains for what they sell for today. Excited to put it to use, and it might even inspire me to get out there and play live!

9 hours ago, bartelby said:

 

 

My Roland R-8 from the 80s wasn't a drum machine, it was a "Human Rhythm Composer". It had parameters for adding a degree of randomness to velocity, pitch decay, timing and a couple of others. 

I'd hope modern machines can do this.

 

I used to midi it to a sampler for triggering other sounds.

 

 

But (good) human drummers, don't really add randomness to their playing, which is why the R-8 (to my ears) sounds a bit weird when you turn on the humanising feature.

MPC's allow you to do all sorts of funky stuff with the timing (push/pull, swing, turn quantise off etc, etc). If you're looking for the ultimate control of your drums, I'd be shortlisting one

On 15/02/2023 at 11:56, Lozz196 said:

Fortunately for those local enough the Northampton branch still has the same area/amount of stock as ever.

I'm not so sure about that.. I was in there last weekend and it was looking a bit sparse. The basses they stock seem to be the same ones that were there 6 months ago (ie. crap ones no one wants to buy)

I bought a GHS fast fret & got charged a few quid more than PMT are selling them for on their website.

It will be a shame when (not if) they shut down the physical stores 

From my experience, I would go through eBay - for two reasons. If PayPal find in your favour, you will have to ship the bass at your expense back to the seller. If you do it through eBay, 99/100 the seller will pay. Also, if you file a claim through PayPal and it falls over for whatever reason, eBay wont entertain a claim for the same issue. Beware how you proceed if you claim through PayPal first.

Most definitely 100% satisfied, the thought of shopping for a 'new/different' bass fills me with dread!

I also bought one of these recently for playing bass https://www.andrewsofficefurniture.com/lugo-mesh-operator-chair . You can swivel the arms completely out of the way, which makes it a really comfortable seat for bass/guitar playing. Andrews has branches in Northampton, in and around North London too. They were super helpful with advice too.

11 hours ago, Yango said:

We ended up getting a Herman Miller. Not cheap, but incredibly comfortable. 

+100 for the Herman Miller. My ex-employer gave me one when I started WFH.

1 minute ago, BigRedX said:

But you still need a computer to download the files in the first place.

OP says he has a windows desktop

An Akai MPC will do this (play downloaded .mid midi files). But it's not a cheap option (expect to pay £400+ even for a used unit), might be a little OTT for what you need - but it does tick the boxes

I just took the plunge and invested in a more 'Modern' MPC, the MPC 'Live; gen 1.   Did quite a bit of research into the options before I pulled the trigger. Basically all modern MPC's( MPC one, LIve gen 1 and 2, MPC X)  are the same platform, the only difference is in the I/O - the core machine underneath runs the same software. 

Initial impressions. Very, very easy to get going with. I had a complete hook to a song going in about 10 mins (multitrack drums, bass and keys) just using some of the built in sounds. It is really intuitive software in a lovely hardware shell. Given the right samples, you could probably get away with this being your only piece of gear. Next I decided to see if I could easily record my bass into it (and drop the synth bassline I'd previously recorded)... plugged a stingray into input 1, and it was plenty hot enough to get a good clean signal.. took me about 5 mins to figure all this out, set the level and get my first take down.

I'm not going to sell off the rest of my synths/drum machines just yet - but for what these things go for used these days, it's a no-brainer for anyone producing electronic styles, or anything needing sequenced drums, synths and samples. It also has an internal battery (6hrs) so you can sling it in a bag, jam in the park or wherever the mood takes you.

Start really simply. Learn basic intervals. Use an app like Earpeggio. Dont worry about all the intervals - focus on root and iv first, then try and recognise the v .

That will take you a couple of weeks/month. Once you have that down, you can play 90% of all i,iv,v pop songs  with a basic root and fifth on Bass. Expand your knowledge of more intervals as the app guides you.

When ever you listen to music, just try and identify the intervals - after a few days thinking in terms of numbers it will become more natural... You dont need to try and play the bass at the same time - in fact trying to train your ears will probably be hindered if you're trying to play 

Dont try to think of Notes - c,d,e,f... think of the intervals. Once you have this down, when someone calls out a key - '..lets go for x in 'C'..' you can apply your interval knowledge, and the notes will flow naturally

+1 for the audient, works lovely with my Mac - for midi from my keyboard, I just use a cheap £10 usb converter from amazon

Nice playing! Although I think that the original (record) works a little better with the sparser bassline on this particular song.

39 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

May I add the usual comment... Have you tried to play a right-handed bass at all..? Being left-handed does not automatically oblige one to use a 'lefty' instrument. Many Lefties get on perfectly well playing 'righty' instruments (guitar, bass, accordion, piano...). Half of our family are 'lefty' Our father was a 'hard' lefty...); I have a lefty brother that took to my righty guitars, and was much better than I was, much faster. It's not the case for everyone, I know, but if you're starting from zero, it's worth at least trying a righty bass first.
Just my tuppence-worth. 

This is really sensible advice, if you can use a righty - you'll have a lot more choice of both new and used instruments to pick (and at much keener prices)

There are loads and loads of them up and coming (some very good) on YouTube... I definitely don't think there is a shortage of female Bass Players in 2022

Loving the 'B' Side - shoulda made it the 'A' side

3 minutes ago, TeresaFR said:

I'm looking to connect my drum machine to my DAW via midi, the drum machine (Behringer RD-6 is midi compatible, but it turns out my audio interface (Komplete Audio 2) isn't. Do I have any other midi options barring getting my hands on an audio interface with in-built midi connectivity? Thanks.

I think the RD-6 has Midi over USB.. Just connect the RD-6 to your computer via usb and it should show up as a midi interface

I used Steinberg software (started with Pro 16 - through to whatever the current version of Cubase was at the time) and made the switch from Cubase / PC to Logic X / Mac about 10 years ago. I sold my copy of Cubase (it was legit) and PC, then bought a 2nd hand Mac Mini & Logic.

I wouldn't advocate chopping and changing every couple of months, but, as a one time switch it was pretty much painless. You can get overlays for Mac keyboards with all the Logic shortcuts which help. Logic is remarkable value for money -> I think I paid £169.00 at the time for the licence, and haven't paid a penny in upgrades since (Contrasting with Steinberg who thought it was acceptable to charge hundreds each year for the latest version).

If you're wedded to a PC, then check out Reaper (although when you compare apples with apples -> will work out a lot more expensive than Logic)

My current method is, get drums programmed on the MPC -> Logic

I'll then string together guitar part. Then I play it to my daughter, who will take the guitar part & replay it/rearrange it herself and make it sound 100x better -> Logic

I'll add bass next DI'd into Logic

Keys/samples & anything else gets added after the meat of the song.

Minimal processing/fx in Logic, I'll spend the time recording (and re-recording) to get it sounding as good as possible avoiding the need to 'fix it in the mix'

I like to keep it as simple as possible