Oscar South

La Bella Hard Rockin' Steels. Great strings too. I think all La Bella strings have a black winding actually, but the only ones I can confirm for sure are those.

I need to detune to C# and drop C# for a recording job I'm doing, going to get some strings for it later off the net. What would you think would be better, a heavy EADG set or a light BEAD set? Also if anyone could actually suggest what gauges they'd use that'd be really useful, but any thoughts are welcome. I can't really use a regular fiver tuning as its got a lot of fast work using open strings (could capo I guess ). Cheers, Oscar.

I used to run my SR-16 through the aux in of my podxt live, works fine.

I can't get into many of his songs other than Rylynn and Drifting, possibly one or two more I've heard but can't remember the names of. The songs of his that I do like I love though.

We don't play these anymore but the songs I had to cover last year with a band at uni include: Tom Sawyer - Rush Chameleon - Herbie Hancock Shut up and Drive -Rihanna Because of You - Kelly Clarkeson Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics Feeling Good - Muse Grace Kelly - Mika Get On The Boat - Prince Nothing Else Matters - Metallica Hit Me Baby - Britney Since You Been Gone - Rainbow Beautiful - Aguilera Makes Me Wonder - Maroon Five Boogie Down - Al Jerraeu Autumn Leaves Fly Me To The Moon Not a huge fan of a lot of it, hopefully we'll get some more challenging stuff to sink our teeth into next year.

I could try it, I'd not really sure what it'd do better than if they were in series though. I'm using the Xciter as more of an extension of my basses tone than an effect really, so I like to have it before everything else so they can work on the modified sound. Someone should make a series of envelope controlled pedals with 'envelope in', 'dry out', 'clean in' and 'wet out' jack sockets. The envelope in wouldn't contribute to the sound but would control the envelope so you could plug your bass (or anything else) into there, take the clean bass out of the dry out and into a compressor (or anything else), back into the clean in of the pedal and finally out of the wet out so that you can use an effected signal but have the envelope controlled by your clean dynamics (actually, doesn't the Q-Tron+ have pretty much this? Never really played with it much when I had one). Possibly pointless, but potentially interresting.

[quote name='cheddatom' post='258151' date='Aug 8 2008, 02:26 PM']If you put a compressor before a dynamic follower (bass balls) then you are restricting the effect that your playing dynamics will have on the follower. If you put a compressor before a distortion pedal that reacts nicely to your playing dynamics - again the same issue. It depends on what you're using it for, but I would always have my compression towards the end of the chain for these reasons.[/quote] I'm adding a light 'grit' overdrive to my chain this week which I'll probably put in front of the Punch Factory, so I'd have the Xciter first (well, after tuner), then OD, then comp, then usually a Big Muff type distortion, then any delay or loop effects or anything else like that. I'll play with the OD/Xciter/Punch factory order though as the Xciter also acts like a compressor to some degree, but I'd prefer to use the Xciter on a clean signal and the OD on a uncompressed signal, so that somewhat limits my options. I like the comp before the hi-gain distortion for the exact reason you specified, when I turn that on I want a thick even layer of sound that can sustain forever, and I get that a LOT better from a compressed signal. If I used a bassballs I'd run it in a seperate split and blend it at the end or at least after the compressor.

[quote name='cheddatom' post='258099' date='Aug 8 2008, 02:01 PM']Really? To me, 2 x as good = 2 x the price! Not that I have the money to be saying it, but if it was twice as good as the deep impact, it would be worth twice the value to me.[/quote] I'd still be as unapplicable in 98% of musical context .

I use the Aphex Punch Factory and Bass Xciter too on my pedal board, I'm not sure which the best way round to put them would be yet but personally I'd put both of them before everything else. I like to put the stuff that goes towards my basic 'tone' before any effects, which I think of as being seasoning that I'd add on top of the basic sound. I was also told that its much more difficult to compress a distorted sound effectively than a clean tone.

I love how the youtube kids claim hes using a midi cello sound.

I don't get the 'not rehearsing = cool' idealology. Granted you may not need the rehearsal but I'd much rather play music with friends than just practice alone or waste time doing 'nothing'.

At uni usually three 2 hour practices a week plus any time spent rehearsing in practical lectures and stuff and then probably another misc 2 hours or so, not including just jamming and hanging out playing music. At home its hard to gauge as most of my free time I spend playing music with friends, but its more 'hanging out jamming and writing stuff' than rehearsing really.

I'd probably get 3 different time based effects (modulation, trem, delay for example) with a unified tap tempo (and probably a double/half time toggle for each effect).

Can you control the synths with keys you mean? Nope, the midi control only works for patch and setting changes and stuff.

I'm interrested to find how this one sounds, has anyone posted soundclips anywhere yet?

Good samples, but... How do you download these to disc? Right click/save target doesn't work (just tries to download an 'index.php' file) and clicking them just opens it in my browser where it can't even be looped.

Get a midi pickup and a Roland XV2020. Ok, a bit more expencive but you'll get far better synth sounds out of that than you will from any bass synth pedal ever produced and ever to be produced. Of course, if you went down that route you'd be better of just getting a 25 key midi controller instead of the pickup, and sitting it on your amp, but the pickup is the best option if you just *HAVE* to use synth sounds from your bass.

My friend bought a Stentor II Cello recently, it sounds great even with the rubbish factory strings and even my parents friend who has 20+ years experiance repairing and building Violins/Cellos etc agreed that it sounded great. Apparently the quality of Chinese laminate instruments has skyrocketed over the last few years.

For rhythm you can't get a lot better than reading sheet music even if you just ignore the notes and just use the rhythms, use a metronome so that you can feel the rhythm in relation to beat/bar as you play it. Also I personally find as a bass player that arpeggio/chord tone studies are a LOT more important and useful than scalar practice. Scales are important too, but more as a 'fundamental' rather than a vital and conscious aspect of playing, for me.

[quote name='BassManKev' post='254135' date='Aug 4 2008, 09:35 AM']if its the latest black one then its not a great price, i certainly wouldnt pay any more for one, some places sold them for £35 new id also agree that you wont get a gritty tone from it unless you blend[/quote] Oh, I assumed all the basic models sold for around £50.

[quote name='BigBadBass' post='254119' date='Aug 4 2008, 09:17 AM']hello i done a quick search could really find the answers i was looking for. i have the chance to buy a russian big muff for £40 is that a good deal? I kinda thought for £40 i culdnt go wrong. Im looking for a gritty distortion for when im not using my own amp head in rehearsal rooms etc cheers Steve[/quote] Maybe if you blend it a lot, Mig Muff pedals aren't really gritty, they sound amazing but its 'blow your head off out of control fuzz' distortion for the most part. I'd definately buy for £40 though.

What about an EHX Steel Leather? It probably wouldn't make it sound like a pick, but the description of how it modifies your tone certainly seems to imply it sounds a bit more pick like.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='253393' date='Aug 2 2008, 05:01 PM']We were rehearsed well enough so that something like that wouldn't happen. Also we didn't really have a lot of instrumental breaks as we felt that the song was more important than showing off our musical prowess.[/quote] That can cover about 99.9% of the time, however there are no absolutes. And a solo or break can be as much a part of a song as anything else. [quote name='BigRedX' post='253393' date='Aug 2 2008, 05:01 PM']In the early days of the band we would get some members of the audience complaining about our use of sequencers and talking about feel and spontaneity. This completely stopped when we added a drummer with what looked like an acoustic kit. Actually all that had changed was that now about half the percussion sounds were being triggered by a human instead of a computer. We still used a load of pre-arranged sequences and the drummer played to a click which he monitored via in-ear phones. His drums were damped to the point that all they produced acoustically was a dull thud and they were actually triggering exactly the same sounds we had been using before. Strange how peoples perceptions are led more by what they see that by what they hear in a live setting...[/quote] Regardless of the sounds being used, its about being able to see everything they hear happening in front of them, which they could you added a drummer (or at least what they couldn't was less obvious). It doesn't matter at all where the actual sound is coming from, as long as they can see someone 'making' it.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='253370' date='Aug 2 2008, 04:29 PM']Actually I had more fun when the sequencer took care of all my effects changes for me, I could get on with playing bass or guitar, "throw some shapes" on stage and not have to worry about being in the right place at the right time to stomp on the right pedal. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one as we both seem to after completely different things from our effects. And if my old bass rack had fallen on someone it would have caused serious injury...[/quote] Eh, I could never get on with such a rigid structure when playing live, what if the singer misses a cue or the guitarist overruns on his solo? And I feel that seeing the musicians do everything themselves on stage is as much a part of the act as the act itself, I personally love watching what the musicians change their settings or instruments or amps, and I want to recreate that for people in my own performances. Its the spontaneity and in 'instant gratification' factor of stomp effects that I really love. In rehearsal as much as live too, just experimenting with different sounds is a really good inspiration boost. I do agree that we seem to have different outlooks.