cybertect

The first time I was aware of him was after I bought a copy of The New Seekers' album 'Circles' (it had a fascinating folding circular cover) for a few pennies at a jumble when I was about ten or so, circa 1977. On it, there was a cover version of Todd's 'I Saw The Light', and I remember taking particular note of his name as the writer. It might have been the beginning of my being a bit obsessive about reading LP liner notes in later years... Anyhow, here's Todd's version; a cracking pop song. http://youtu.be/WxB4weCzqGE Listening to it 30+ years later, it sounds to me like it could almost have been written by Carole King, which is praise indeed (weirdly the vocal also sounds rather like her )

[quote name='Mickeyboro' timestamp='1374343289' post='2147888'] Hermit of Mink Hollow = genius. Much of the rest = overproduced dross. IMO of course! [/quote] Despite some differences with the band, he did a fine job producing XTC's 'Skylarking'. With the distance of time,I believe even Andy Partidge has come round to liking it.

I still prefer to listen to albums in their entirety, even on my iPhone/iPod. Rarely, if ever, skip tracks. Love Steely Dan - The band I'm in took 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number' out for a spin at a gig last week. It's been fun learning it.

I'm not a Logic Pro user, but here's my 2p on uprades and Apple's licensing model [quote name='MisterFingers' timestamp='1374140558' post='2145649']Absolutely...until you have to upgrade because you want some increased functionality or plug-in that you can't install on your set-up, or your files become incompatible with other systems. I had a recording session at a mate's at the weekend and he's still using Logic 5 on Win XP - absolutely no issues and of course I can seamlessly open the song on LP9 on the Mac to correct our er...'interesting' chops. (although my awful fretless intonation is a challenge to fix in the mix). To be honest I really detest the whole upgrade culture that we have - phones, cars, furniture etc. Basses are (natch) different though. [/quote] Absolutely my preference to skip a few versions of an application if I don't find a compelling reason to upgrade. As has been mentioned earlier in the thread, the price of Logic has dropped dramatically since Apple put it on the App Store - I'd hazard a guess that the entry cost is now roughly in line with the upgrade price for earlier versions. It also means that there's no penalty for skipping versions if you don't want them. There's been an increasing trend with software to allow you to get an upgrade price only if you have the previous version, or the one just before that - skip more than one or two versions and you pay full price to get up to date. Certainly it's better than the approach Adobe are taking with their Creative Suite - which has been to abandon milestone 'versions' entirely and switch to monthly and annual rental with (promised) incremental improvements. If you stop paying £17.99 a month for it, your copy of Photoshop stops working. I've had a licence for Photoshop since 1994 v upgrading every two or three versions. PS CS6 may be the last as I can't justify a monthly fee simply to maintain access to my files, when I'm not using it as a full time professional (clearly Adobe have made a business decision that they don't need or want users like me) One other change that came in with distribution through the App Store is perhaps a little less visible as it's buried deep in the App Store T&Cs - as an individual user, you can install Logic Pro (or any other purchased App) on as many computers as you own. [quote=Apple]MAC APP STORE PRODUCT USAGE RULES Except as otherwise set forth herein, (i) If you are an individual acting in your personal capacity, you may download and use an application from the Mac App Store (“Mac App Store Product”) for personal, non-commercial use on any Apple-branded products running Mac OS X (“Mac Computer”) that you own or control. (ii) If you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, you may download a Mac App Store Product for use by either (a) a single individual on each of the Mac Computer(s) used by that individual that you own or control or ( multiple individuals on a single shared Mac Computer that you own or control. For example, a single employee may use a Mac App Store Product on both the employee’s desktop Mac Computer and laptop Mac Computer, or multiple students may serially use a Mac App Store Product on a single Mac Computer located at a resource center or library. For the sake of clarity, each Mac Computer used serially by multiple users requires a separate license.[/quote] For those of us used to the 'one computer, one license' (and hardware dongles of old) it's a pleasantly relaxed approach.

As I'm new here, here's my '79 Sabre, which I've owned since 1994. I was after a 'Ray, but they were slightly out of my price range; I found this for sale at £800 in a shop on Denmark Street and fell in love. The salesman said they'd bought it from the bass playing brother of a fairly well known British jazz guitarist, but much to my embarrassment I've forgotten who it was. It's certainly not led a sheltered life, but it plays fine. I've not really felt the need to get a Stingray since

Yet another Verithin, which I've owned since the late 80s. It dates from 1967, so it's the same age as me [Img]http://www.cybertects.co.uk/music/images/hofner_sml.jpg" class="ipsImage" />

[quote name='tinyd' timestamp='1374135168' post='2145567']Another thing to remember is that the whole band (in particular the drummer) have to be playing with a similar feel.[/quote] Although Fleetwood Mac famously trash that particular rule and make it work, with Mick Fleetwood playing ahead of the beat on drums, and John McVie on bass, playing slightly behind it. Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman had a similar sort of arrangement.

Apols for the slight bumpage TBH, I suspect attempting to use a metronome against a Beatles track is probably going to be inaccurate - Ringo didn't use a click track and he's a human being. I love the Beatles, but strict accuracy of BPM timing was never their strong point. There's a fascinating article (plus follow up) on using computers to analyse the deviations from metronomic time in popular music [url="http://musicmachinery.com/2009/03/02/in-search-of-the-click-track/"]http://musicmachiner...he-click-track/[/url] [url="http://musicmachinery.com/2010/02/08/revisiting-the-click-track/"]http://musicmachiner...he-click-track/[/url] and you can try it out for yourself [url="http://labs.echonest.com/click/?songId=SOAAFWL13927072F2F&artist=The+Beatles&title=Lucy+In+The+Sky+With+Diamonds"]http://labs.echonest...y+With+Diamonds[/url] [url="http://labs.echonest.com/click/?songId=SOYPINJ12B0B808B33&artist=Nirvana&title=Heart-shaped+box"]http://labs.echonest...eart-shaped+box[/url]

You gotta love some Philip Webb.

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1374709356' post='2152391']Just learned the other strings are meant to be tuned differently, so now I've suddenly gotten the A, the D and the G to relate to as well, making a total of four (4) different notes![/quote] Oh. I wish someone had told me this before. I just tried it and those strange clicky-flappy noises on the Musicman went away. But the 5th string on my 5-string is still second 'E', right? Like a 12-string guitar doubles up on notes? Thanks for the welcome.

Hi all - thought I should introduce myself here. I've been playing bass for about 25 years (eek!) though sometimes I still feel like I'm a rhythm guitarist masquerading as a bass player. The peril of being a teenager in bands put together from friends where where everyone is a guitar player is that *somebody* has to play bass and and drums :-) With family commitments, I've scaled back my gigging to a few times a year in recent times rather than the sometimes several times a week that I used to do in my 20s. Amazingly I am still playing with a mate that I was at school with. Main duties are carried out on a 1979 Musicman Sabre that I've owned for about 20 years, which seems to do just about anything I ever ask of it with aplomb. The other two instruments that come out to play on on occasion are a 1967 Hofner Verithin (it does bass feedback wonderfully when I need it and its a darn sight lighter than the MM) and an OLP MM3 5-string. Modest amplification - I've had the same rig of a Marshall 3520 head and Gallien Krueger 210T cab for most of the last two decades. That said, the postman brought me a shiny and tiny GK MB500 this very morning! When I'm not playing bass, I'm either at my day job messing with computers or indulging in my other long-standing passion, photography. Pics of the kit and other stuff on my web site http://www.cybertects.co.uk/music See you all round. Rob