dodge_bass

Might be personal preference that - I run my HPF BEFORE the compressor so I'm not pushing the comp more then it needs to be pushed. Works for me as I'm sure yours works for you. @bob_atherton try both ways and see what happens to your sound and which you prefer would be my advice.

It’s a really interesting topic. As a player / teacher / educator I’ve never known anyone who didn’t benefit from learning to read. Not just reading the actual dots on a gig but all the musical skills that come with it (understanding rhythms / time sigs / harmony / stylistic approaches etc). And I’ve never known anyone feel hard done by when working on their ability to play by ear. Developing both these skills to a high level is hard but really important and the division / dichotomy between them is false. They’re not in opposition but complimentary, it’s just that they’re not often taught (or developed) in conjunction with eachother. I read really well. It’s opened so many doors for me as a player. But I’ve also worked on developing my ear because that also really helps as well with transcription and with creating original music. I also make all my pupils learn to read whether they intend to do reading gigs or not because it strengthens their general musicianship no end....and you never know when it might come in handy! My work as a player has moved from original work (no reading) to lots of reading work (theatre / orchestral / function gigs) now back into lots of original music with little reading....careers change and develop and having both skills is never going to be an impediment o your playing. @ped makes a great point about big band charts where you might be expected to read notated figures, improvise bass lines on the spot and read / ignore written parts in favour of creating something yourself. Essentially using all these skills side by side.

What have they asked for in your audition? Have they told you what they’re going to cover? As an HE/FE lecturer with 15years experience when we interview potential students we would listen to their pieces, ask them some theory questions, give them some sight reading excerpts to read (incl rhythm clapping and notated pieces) and some aural tests. There would also be a general discussion about a learners future plans. Hopefully giving a good overview of the learners strengths and weaknesses before we make a decision. If they’ve not told you that would be the first question to ask of them.

I’d take the first 10 mins doing just rhythms on one note and then add the riff in.

You’ll need to do some regular daily practice with a metronome and a rhythm book (we used Bellson’s 4/4 book at music college but there are loads). Recording yourself is a bonus as well if you can manage that too. Improving your rhythmic accuracy and awareness is going to take time (months and years rather than days / weeks) so you’ll need to settle in for the long haul. I’d also suggest that you focus purely on rhythm initially (I.e playing rhythms just one one note) - by breaking it down into just focusing on the rhythms / timing you can add the notes in later and it will all come together much quicker. Good luck you’ll not regret it!

First bar of the first chorus of Soul Man Duck Dunn carries the verse riff over (works harmonically so he gets away with it). In Son of a Preacher Man second bar of the middle section (D7) Tommy Cogbill gets briefly ‘jazz’ with a D7/A, followed by D7/Eb before finally finding the D7 at the end of the bar. The bass is so buried in the mix it’s not that audible but it’s there.

Interesting never had this issue before in the last decade but super useful to know - will insist on WAVs from now on. Thanks for the heads up.

Yup. Or if its just tracks to play along too Mp3s is also fine. You just need to make sure you render out your take as a WAV or whatever format they want. Having a tempo marking / click is really useful for tracking and I've found it very helpful to include a bit of click at the start of the bass take to allow the producer to quickly and easily line it up. But you'll figure all these things out. Reaper is a brilliant DAW - I"ve been using it for professional remote work for years now. Good luck with it all.

Of course, agreed and thanks for pointing that out as of course compression does more than just tame spikes. I guess for me that's the main thing I use it for, gently taming any errant notes / variation across the finger board rather than massively altering the other aspects of the sound hence my focus on that.

Worth pointing out that p bass and flats and a good technique is likely to provide a fairly even signal anyway - kind of natural compression I guess. I’m always astonished when recording with that setup how even and with few spikes the audio file records. So compression really may not be necessary.

Plus one for the Tascams - I have one which is at least 10 years old but great to just plonk down in the middle of the rehearsal room and leave recording for the whole session. Seems to pick up bass really well too which is an added bonus!

Yup. Really common rhythm at the moment in dance tracks.

Looks great at a glance — all I can say is that adding the chord symbols in to show harmony makes a big difference to any transcription. Thanks for sharing.

Yes he keeps cropping up on my Instagram feed. He beats, hands down, both my bass playing and beard wearing!

Agreed - there's always something to learn isn't there. Nice to see a fellow Yorkie too, though I no longer reside there any more.

you can get them in the UK though: https://www.andertons.co.uk/acoustic-dept/acoustic-guitar-amps/audiosprockets-tonedexter-acoustic-guitar-preamp

Chromes are lovely. I've got them on all 3 of my P basses and they sound great new or really old. But if you want that sound you'll need rounds. No reason. you can't swap them out for a bit and keep the chromes - flats never really 'go off; so. you could put back on when ready.

Round wound strings it is then.

Agreed - the difference is all in the strings. For me it's all about the flats but both do sound really good and as always is massively context dependent as to what you might choose to use. Having them solo'd like this is cool for hearing the differences between them but it's where they sit in the mix that is really important I'd argue. Either way two great players, two great sounding basses and you've got to love funk with a pick

Yes that’s what I meant sorry for May confusion.

Highly recommend @Quatschmacher online tutorials! Plus the Squeezer is awesome but a total PITA to programme unfortunately. Still love it though.