NickD

The best track the Blockheads never wrote! 😎

Nope, you're not alone!

MT Powerdrums - Free if you don't mind having to restart the track every time you re-open it, or for a small donation you can make that go away, which I did after a few weeks messing about. I heard them on someone else's track a few months ago and I was impressed. I have no idea what parallel compression is, or what it does. It's going on my list, thanks! My guitar is a cheapy, but I like its sound. My stepfather gave it to me a few years ago after owning it since the 80's (and never once to my knowledge playing it). It does have something though. We did an album last year, and lacking a guitarist, I copped for doing it... lots of YouTube study in a short time. Faced with the rack of quality guitars at the studio, I still did 95% with the old Westbury, just a sprinkling of Strat here and there. I'm still not sure about the sound of the EUB. Got a bloody great mute on it, and I think it's closer to an upright than a fretless now. I think we both know the only way to get the sound I want... It's not going to be cheap, it's going to take a lot of space, be a pain to transport, and I don't think I can make it happen right now. I can't stop playing the damn thing though, and I'm seriously considering trying to do our usual rock stuff with it. If I can learn what I need, I don't mind buying a few plugins. I just need to dedicate some time to research.

There's no comparison for me, in terms of production.... and you've just demonstrated why that is.... I don't do anything like that. I don't understand how to look at it as an overall track, just individual parts, then try to pan and use the sliders as best I can. Those drums are pretty handy and they're pre-placed in the field, and they sound quite alright as they are... just a mess with velocities here and there. The EUB was straight into the interface, and then a touch of compression (Cubase's own). Guitar, I just got a sound I thought suited in the Helix, recorded one left and one right, one on both pickups and one bridge only, just for a bit of difference. Keys were just from Cubase, just as a bit of texture. Vocals were single track for the verse, and 4 tracks for the chorus, and I picked a couple of different presets from Waves CLA and fiddled with the sliders. After that I got up the mix console, played it through a few times while fiddling with relative volumes until it sounded ok to my ears... job done, export!!! I think half of it is my lack of understanding of what I need and why I need it. Currently ,I'm basically looking at it like a live recording. Sort the individual sounds, mix it all together, and spit it out. I've always been more into the writing bit, but as the stakes in here increase rapidly I could do with learning more. There's not a month goes by when I don't think 'How did they do that?, or 'why cant I get my parts to sit in the track like that?'.

Thanks... It's a bit of a departure for me, in that it's not wholly depressing🤣 I'm trying to get a little more sophisticated, as it still sounds pretty amateur when compared to your track for example. There's a tightness and a slickness to how yours sounds. I've made a conscious effort to improve how the vocals go down recently, and the next thing is mixing I think... groups and buses and sidechaining, etc, mean nothing to me. I need to fix that.

Gutted, I'm away on holiday. I would have loved to be there, it's always great!

My contribution to the May 2022 round of the Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by the picture agreed between last months winners, Doctor J and Me. I get a Mothership, beam me up, vibe from the picture, so kinda fancied the mid-paced, big chorus, funky thing. Obviously it's a picture of a projector, so the evils of TV gave me my subject matter. It all started with a bass riff, played on the EUB, as everything seems to be recently... this is going to become a habit I think... probably an expensive one!🤣 Drums from MT Powerdrums, Guitars are a Westbury Standard through the Helix, Keys are Cubase Elephants 10 standard VSTs. Vox chain is... An idiot--- An SM58--- An Interface--- Waves CLA Vocal plugin, with lots of the tracks for the chorus to big it up. I sincerely apologise for the mini upright bass solo, I just wanted to hear how it recorded... you know... up that end! By the time it came to discard it and replace it with something better, I'd kinda grown used to it.

I've read about a few, because they work the opposite way to normal. Not had a problem with mine though, although it once happened to a Warwick I had.

You don't have to be good with a camera anymore, with digital you can go until you get it right. This was shot with me hung upside down beneath the projector, camera in one hand while blowing vapour into the stream of light with the other. All while projecting the most colourful picture I could find, a flowerbed, onto the wall. 🤣 My old Voigtlander... That's a different story.

Marvellous... Thanks folks! Congratulations to Doctor J, and to everyone who put an entry in, I enjoy listening more and more, there's some great stuff going in every month. I was surprised that this one did ok, as by the time I put it in I bloody hated it. Damn thing wouldn't do what I wanted it to, and blocked me at every turn. Just goes to show how much I know! 😅

Had a DB book from Lawrie recently. It couldn't have been easier, great, friendly communication throughout. Many thanks!

It's a camera, placed by Copeland, Vinnie and Hakim so they could observe how much better the gig would have been had one of them been there! It wasn't there on Saturday I don't think.... it should have been.😂

My contribution to the April 2022 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by the previous winner: Skank Del Var. God that was a painful birth, I started and abandoned 3 different songs, I honestly thought I would have to skip a month. Started with the idea of how in modern times a whisper can be heard around the world, then got into the idea that a dumb meme travels much faster than anything involving hard reality... and just developed from there. Drums and synths are the ones that come bundled with Cubase Elephants 10, which is what I recorded in. I used a bundled sub-bass sound, then EUB as the song develops. Guitar was a Westbury Standard, through the Helix, and vox were done with an SM58.

I like that a lot, it feels great to me.

To be fair, I have no real problem with the standard strings that came on my NS Wav 5, the tension is manageable, and using an Upright IR through the Helix, with a mute I get what I think is a passable tone in a mix... but the cost!!! (yeah I know.... real DB strings are even more). I'd be interested to know if anyone has tried a set of the Crossovers, especially in 5 string, and how they compare in terms of tension, tone, evenness, feel, etc, to the D'Addario Contemporary that the instrument is supplied with. It would be mostly for pizz, but I do dabble with a bow. I don't need to change, but it makes sense to have a spare set in case of disaster as I'm playing it more and more, and the Crossovers are half the price of the D'Addarios. TIA!

We loved them. Thanks for the tip-off!

They can lock me away now, I've experienced the Chat Bombs at Mowgli, life is complete! 🤣

You're in business, you're going to worry, but I don't think you've much to worry about. You've moved up a price point or 2. That will automatically exclude some folks, but as long as the quality is appropriate at that price point, you'll attract people shopping in that bracket. Taking the CHB, you're now a couple of hundred quid over the offshored version of the Starbass, and the Korean made Jack Cassidy, which I would assume are the closest competitors for someone wanting 'that' style of bass. On appearance, finish (that green burst though 🥰) and detailing alone, I know where my money would be going. Obviously I don't like it when something is beyond my budget, no one does, but at the end of the day the question is 'is it worth it'. If it is i'll wait until I can afford it, if it isn't I'll buy something else. Look after the quality and you'll be grand.

It's a beautiful thing! I'm a fan of passive basses anyway, and I've long been of the opinion that if it's done right, its plenty flexible. I have an East, a Glockenklang and a Bart pre-amp across different basses, but my passive Jake is always the first bass guitar I pick up, and I've yet to find it lacking Having played this one, the range of sounds available, and the quality of those sounds was ridiculous. I can't imagine needing more.

He's doing a clinic at Guitar Guitar in Epsom Tomorrow (7th) at 7pm, and apparently they're livestreaming it on their Facebook page. Should be worth a watch, he's got some great insights to share.

It was my first experience of fan frets, and it was much less of a difference than it imagined. Upper register chords would take some work though, I was in knots up there. Amazingly flexible in terms of sound though.

Ah, so it was you we were chatting to this afternoon. 🤣 That was an amazing bass, great choice. If I wasn't playing mostly upright at the moment, I'd have been sorely tempted We were there for the drum show, which was fairly busy, fairly well laid out, and pretty inspiring, from the point of view of the shows and masterclasses. The BD stand seemed to be the saving grace of the bass bit. Man, Mr Dingwall just makes you want his basses without even trying. I was a bit shocked at how sparse the whole thing was, and how many stands had just packed up and gone by early Sunday afternoon. I guess it's going to take a while for things to get back on track in the 'living with covid' world.

Maray looks cool, might have to have a look at that. Dinner bookings are already on a standby list though.

Tidy, that's between the show and the hotel!