Happy Jack

1 hour ago, MacDaddy said:

Not email, but someone really wants me to see how heartbreaking Michelle Ryan looks in her 30's.

I've no idea what she looked like as a teenager, so that's not going to have much appeal to me I'm afraid.

I was so NOT impressed by what seven years on YouTube has done to the quality of that video that I have just re-edited it and re-uploaded it in HD.

Same original source, just rather better processed.

Try this instead:

Delving back over seven years, the original YT upload was a 480p AVI listed as SD. I still reckon that the on-screen quality used to be noticeably better but, given that I am now a video-editing GOD OF REAPER, it would be churlish not to re-edit and re-upload. 

I won't say 'watch this space' because I'll have to upload it to a different space!

Some excellent advice above, especially the bit about nailing the singing and the playing separately before you bring them together.

The two things that have worked best for me are (1) decent ear plugs, in my case the ER15s, and (2) a good vocal pedal, especially the TC Helicon range.

(1) makes a difference because you can hear your 'internal' voice very clearly, regardless of what the PA is chucking out.

(2) works because, depending on which pedal you choose, you can either make your voice better (for a given value of "better") or sound so distinct from your natural voice that you stop being offended by it. 

For BVs I make extensive use of the VoiceTone H1 harmony pedal. For lead work I've found the Duplicator a great way to beef up my voice but @Silvia Bluejay recently bought me the Critical Mass and that's just blown me away.

In the last 10 days I have received 12 (TWELVE) spam emails from Gear4Music ... can you do better?

That's a very attractive price. If I had the slightest excuse available to buy these, I'd be pressing the button right now.

9 hours ago, Clarky said:

Possibly up your street, as long as weight is not boat anchor level, @Happy Jack?

When a Kramer listing fails to mention the weight, it's usually a safe guess that it's a back-breaker!

I last saw Groundhogs at least 15 years ago (Tony McPhee was still leading the band), and Stray at least 40 years ago!

I always thought that Can't View A Topic was the 'difficult' second album from Steely Dan. 🤨

Before you buy the C1 you may want to have a look at the H1.

Apart from offering a great range of harmonies (very useful for BVs) the H1 is also 'hard-wired' for pitch. If you set it manually to produce harmonies in the key of E then it will produce exactly that, regardless of whether or not your pitching is accurate. I have even tuned my bass by setting the H1 to E A D G and singing through it.

You'll probably want to exercise caution when using these pedals with fretless bass or slide guitar (or similar). I mainly use my H1 when playing DB which means that the 'auto-key' function is a complete no-no. I keep the pedal easily in reach and manually set it to the correct key for each song for this reason.

One other thing worth noting about the these pedals is the very high current draw. Running the H1 off batteries (any sort, including large-capacity leisure batteries) can be a nightmare ... it's happiest running off the mains. Best look up whether the same is true of the C1.

These devices DO work with just bass - I use the VoiceTone H1 all the time, and I assume that the VoiceTone C1 does the same.

2 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

OK, that's obscure.

And probably deep.

But definitely obscure.

Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Lead Pipe.

As of now, I've been asked to play on NYE by eight different venues and with three different bands.

This might make sense if I was God's gift to bass playing, but as it happens ...

Best place for 'em ...

And while we're talking YouTube, I've just re-posted the video shot by @Silvia Bluejay of my talk at the 2014 SouthEast BassBash on another thread and found that the on-screen quality has deteriorated really, really sharply.

There were nowt wrong wi' t'video when uploaded in 2014. Now it looks like a piece of film salvaged from a skip after a couple of days in the rain.

Even more alarmingly the sound quality (from the camera that we used to use for all our band videos) is also now complete pants.

Any ideas WTF has happened here?

And They Stand There ...

1 hour ago, MacDaddy said:

@Happy Jack did a video a few years ago in which he demonstrated some hand exercises that are good for warming up.

Different sort of warming-up but yes, the two types work well together.

If you just want the finger-stretching bit, go to 8:40.

11 minutes ago, Oopsdabassist said:

subscribed!!

Excellent!

As a person who does NOT have Admin rights to that channel, I can confirm that YouTube currently shows 102 subscribers.

I'm beginning to wonder if there's any aspect of life that does not have a forum ...

23 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I just got a X-Control for my X18 ...

Link, please?

21 hours ago, Bigwan said:

Joyo Orange Juice has been a fav of mine.

Absolutely a +1 from me ... not just a tiny, tiny thing, but also very cool and remarkably effective pedal.

Best of all, when your guitarist's pedal board fails or blows up you can rescue him on the spot. 🙄