Greg Edwards69

My Selmer clarinet. Nothing special and I haven't played it since I finished my A-levels 30 years ago. But it has sentimental value. My mum and dad didn't have much spare money when I was growing up but they made sure we had a good childhood. Like many other kids I learnt to play the recorder in junior school which sparked an interest in playing music. We had a couple of toy pianos and a Bontempi reed organ (bright orange I seem to remember), but it was learning the recorder and reading music that really got me interested in wanting to learn to play an instrument. I said I wanted to learn to play the clarinet - my mum and dad loved Acker Bilk at the time and so did what they could to source one for me. I can't remember the exact details but I believe they swapped a spare double bed they had acquired after my grandmother died with an extended family member, who needed a bed and had a clarinet she hadn't touched in years.

My parents took it to a music shop, got it overhauled and bought some reeds and an 'A Tune a Day for clarinet' book. I taught myself to play the first bit of 'Stranger on the Shore' on the first morning. My mum tells me I came up to her crying in the afternoon because I could play the high-register notes. I continued to teach myself and had several lessons at junior school until the teacher told my mum I should go to the local evening music school.

Honestly, I wish I hadn't. I hated the teacher. I probably frustrated her because I had developed some bad habits that I couldn't break. But she had no skills working with young children. It sucked the joy out of it. So I stopped going and later started having music lessons when I went to secondary school. These were much better and constructive and brought the joy back. I joined the school orchestra and the local youth orchestra as first clarinet. Then A-levels came round and once again I had a teacher who tore my technique to shreds. I sometimes wonder how I even passed the practical as I no longer had any confidence in my clarinet playing. The day of the practical exam was the last time it was taken out of the case and played. But by that time I had been tinkering with bass guitar for a couple of years and had several gig under my belt. I realised my passion lay. Bass guitar was 'me'.

I've considered selling it. But it's not worth much financially and I know my mum and dad would be upset if I did as they did everything they could to help start my musical journey.

11 hours ago, gafbass02 said:

I’m having an issue and could use some help. I just got an LT (updated and reset) and downloaded the royal blood preset from the tone store. Last night it worked great, with the stomp mode giving me a pedal for each action of the song, such as ‘bass’ ‘guitar amp 1’, ‘guitar amp 2’, ‘intro, etc. 

Today all but two of those blocks have just gone and are blank. I’ve tried re-downloading it and downloaded it to a different user preset, but the result is the same. How could it have changed overnight? It was fine yesterday. I’m so confused! 
 

Second question. I also downloaded hysteria. Which is ok, but I could use a better blend of clean and drive, is there a way to do this? I couldn’t find a way. 
thanks In advance for any help!

Maybe you've inadvertently changed "mode" without realising. Hit the mode footswitch and see if that brings them back.  The Helix has various modes, stompbox mode and snapshots, or stomp on one row and snapshot on the other etc. Or you can use the command centre you can create your own hybrid per preset.

I hate to be "that guy", but with the Helix, you really should take some time to read the manual cover to cover.

I'm no expert in recording, but a couple of thoughts come to mind to think about.

Are you listening to the clanky bass isolated or in the context of a full mix? You would be surprised how many iconic bass lines and tones are actually clankier than you realise. That high end content can help the instrument cut through.

Some people would say get it right at source and I'd largely agree, but recording methods have changed a lot over the years, and it may be preferable to record with the tone wide open and then surgically fix it. You can't put back what isn't there.

The rule of thumb with eq is cut to fix and boost to shape - this should hopefully avoid it getting overly bassy.

Use a parametric eq to hone in on the clank. Boost the gain and sweep the frequency selector until the clank is at its most annoying, then reduce the gain until the clank is tamed. Try using a narrow bandwidth (q) avoid cutting too much either side.

Alternatively, try a multiband compressor. You can set this up similarly to a parametric eq, so that it only triggers and clamps down on the clank when crosses a volume threshold.

Lastly, think about how you would approach and fix this in a live environment. I'm assuming you would use an amp and cab? A DI signal is synonymous with an unprocessed raw image from a camera, whereas the sound coming out of your amp and cab is coloured and more like a processed jpeg. There's a plethora of great amp sims out there, many of which are free that you could try. 

45 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

 

I had a great in-ear sound a yesterday's gig with ZS10 pro's. The only problem was with the mids and uncomfortable cymbal noise which were highlighted now I've got the external noises down to a lower level. 

This is the one thing I don't like about KZ iems in general. Their signature sound is quite painful in the upper mid/treble region. I've seen a few articles here and there showing how people have been able to tame the top end with some carefully placed surgical tape over the nozzle. I was going to do that with mine until I got my Sennheisers. I still might try it anyway, as they're my backups.

Back at Shoeburyness Conservative Club on Saturday night for the first time since covid started. Decent venue for bands as the stage end of the room backs onto the carpark, so it's a nice and easy load-in. The stage it a little too small for us though, so the singers go in front on the dancefloor.

I don't know if it's like other Con Clubs, but it always seems to be a "challenging" audience to crack. They seem quite content to sit and watch for the first half of the night and then you'll get a handful of people up in the second set - and if you're lucky, they'll start line dancing as well - to anything.

All of us made brain-fart errors in the first set, but they weren't too obvious and we managed to cover our tracks okay. I put it down to being extraordinarily warm in there - as after persuading them to turn on the aircon before the second set, we played far better.

Bit of a break now until a wedding gig in July. My brother is depping on guitar for that one, so we'll need this time to get him up to speed on a few things.

Regarding value, I'm reminded of an article about the new eye-wateringly expensive iPad Pro's I read earlier today on Medium

"No matter how I put it, cost is about value for money and anyone finding the new iPad Pro too expensive perhaps isn’t getting enough value out of it, and therefore should opt for a cheaper model. Pro devices are intended for professionals who use them to deliver work and projects, things they can bill for and easily make that money back. Good, top-of-the-line tools cost serious money, regardless of what industry you work in."

16 hours ago, Piers_Williamson said:

Do you play any Dr Feelgood numbers?

We don't. Despite some of the band members hailing from Canvey, and playing there quite a bit, Dr Feelgood music would fall on deaf ears at the venues we play. Anyway, there's already a fantastic Dr Feelgood tribute doing the rounds in these parts.

22 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

The P1 has a very rigid effects chain. You can move blocks about a bit, but you can't add new ones. If I was looking for a new practice tool, the Boss Katana Go would be at the very top of my list. I don't have one of them, but based on feedback here and my own GX-100, I have a lot of confidence in it. The P1 is my biggest gear regret to date. I couldn't coax a sound I liked enough out of it (for bass or guitar), which meant I didn't practice and spent my time tweaking and getting frustrated. I wish I had returned it, instead of thinking I could make it work. 

I'm glad it wasn't just me. I couldn’t dial in a satisfactory sound at all from mine, despite the specs looking perfect.

I bought the Katana:Go on the release date. It's fantastic. Comparing it to the P1 is chalk and cheese.

Forgot to add. I laughed like I haven’t laughed for ages over some puerile, schoolboy “band humour”.

Whilst we were setting up, the DJ started playing “come on Eileen”. I innocently said, “Am I the only one who doesn’t dislike this song as think we could play it?” One of the guitarists, replied, “maybe, but I wouldn’t trust Liam (singer) not to change the words to make it filthy”. 

Long story short, we started putting the word “spaff” into song titles and lyrics (obvs not whilst actually playing them).

Childish. Yes. But we found it hilarious. 

We played at a charity football match at Concord Rangers, Canvey Island. We were kindly asked back after playing at the inaugural event last summer. As usual with these type of event, load in and setup was a bit chaotic with lots of people, and the schedule was rather loose, so we finished playing a lot later than expected.

Started playing at 6.30 with 2x 1 hour sets, but we didn’t finish until gone 10pm as they held the charity auction during our break (by what I overheard, signed football memorabilia was changing hands for a lot of money which was great for the charity!) Luckily, a lot of people stayed on after the raffle and auction so we still had a good sized (rather drunk) audience till the end of the night.

It also marked the temporary return of one of our regular singers, Jenny, as it was local for her and she's heavily involved with the family running the event. She was on great form and was like she hadn't been away.

Shoebury Con Club next week.

I went down this rabbit hole of matching tone and volume (or thereabouts) as I was never happy with the perceived volume increase and low end loss when switching to pick. Marketing had led me to believe that bassists should use thick picks, until I researched my heroes (such as Duff and John Deacon and discovered they used light more flexible picks.

I bought a couple of Dunlop mixed bags and tried some of them out at a band rehearsal. I ended up settling with Tortex Flex 0.60mm. They have the snappy attack that for is the magic of pick playing, and is that happy medium of being flexible enough that it doesn't jump in volume or and thick enough to retain the low end.

Compression helps, but I like to have always on 'global compression'. If there's a volume mismatch between pick and finger it will change how the compressor reacts. I prefer to fix this issue 'at source' with the right pick.

The alternative is to use multiband compression to hone in and clamp down on the highly accentuated frequencies.

3 hours ago, Dood said:

I've asked for a technical contact at Boss, so I can probe further. The hardware hasn't arrived yet, so I haven't been able to try it myself. I'm intrigued as to how the calibration works. The calibration sounds heard aren't unlike those used to profile equipment in the likes of 'profiling processors'. 

2 hours ago, franzbassist said:

This will be useful.  The web page says it "analyzes numerous elements, including the lowest frequency that the cabinet can produce, high-end resonances, and many other factors. With this information, advanced processing dynamically enhances the output to provide superior feel and response, powerful lows, and high-definition overall sound."

BassTheWorld's video touched on it all too briefly. I heard the test tones that sounded familiar of other analysing equipment. What Boss hasn't disclosed is how it measures the response - there must be a microphone embedded in there somewhere.

16 hours ago, tayste_2000 said:

Significant step up, sound quality is much better, tuner on the device and there is an octaver (2 even)

 

Clean sound is great. Fx’s are good enough for when I practice and as above there are octavers.

 

I won’t have to break out any of my pedals for practice now.

Aside from this, the main bug bear I had with my previous Mighty Plug (non-pro) was Bluetooth. The latency when playing along with youtube videos, particularly ones with tab/score was unbearable. A good second out of sync. I also discovered that it added a significant bass boost to Bluetooth streamed audio.  The Katana:Go fixes both of these issue.

Oh, and there are octavers, and pitch-shifters. I wrote to Nux about this a couple of years ago, before the Plug Pro was announced and they said their hardware didn't have enough dsp for pitch-shifting. I was dismayed to see the Plug Pro didn't either.

14 minutes ago, Dood said:

 

I won't let ya down!! In a world full of 5 minute review videos where the youtuber doesn't know their D Class from their DSPs, I am a slave to the details 😁.  I'm really looking forward to this one, especially given the collection of onboard effects on paper seem really useable for the likes of the function / dep player.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I'd be very interested in a deep dive of the cab resonance calibration feature to find out what it does exactly. i.e. is it an optimiser/sweetener like Bergantino's B-amp cab profiles, or can it effectively flatten a typical bass cab with lumpy response and turn it into a passable frfr solution? It would be interesting to hear how the head performs with different cabs and compare the calibration.

3 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Well this is something I never thought I would discuss on BC. The Oxford Comma goes against everything I was taught at school. Incorrect use of commas was the precursor (or should that be pre-cursor?) of a wooden board rubber hurled, at close to the speed of light, towards the offending head.

 

However it doe add clarity to many sentences a is explained very well here https://www.rd.com/article/oxford-comma-proper-use/.

 

The purpose of writing or speaking is communication, (Oxford Comma) and as long as the meaning is clear, then who cares? Maybe a polite DM to the author of any offending piece would be a kinder way to point out his/her error. Of course discussions about the Oxford Comma, and its use, will not be tolerated.

17 hours ago, goonerjoe said:

Just had a rush of blood to the head and ordered a Joe Dart SBMM. I play punk, not funk. What am I doing?

 

The most sudden urge of GAS in my life.

16 hours ago, Jonesy123 said:

I just closed my eyes and hit order when the shipping cost came up, I'm sure if there is a full production model it will be more expensive, plus it comes stock with £50 flats!

I'm still tempted. It isn't ludicrously expensive, even with shipping. I just don't need one.

But it's a clever sales tactic, with a limited pre-order time. FOMO and all that.

18 hours ago, fretmeister said:

+ shipping + vat + duty. About £520 total. 

17 hours ago, Killerfridge said:

Yeah not quite as much of a bargain as I first thought. Still, I think probably a fair price given the name attached 

That's what I thought too.  I'm not even looking for a new bass, well, not one like this.  But it does seem like a cracking bass for the money until you add shipping etc on to the price tag.

Still tempted though. It's not ludicrous.

9 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Thanks Mart,

 

We have a thriving local live band music scene here. However it's all free. It's not 1980, people are not going to pay to see local bands no matter how good they are or how much you promote and advertise. 

 

Daryl

In my neck of the woods, and I assume most the UK it depends on the gig. Covers bands in pubs are usually free, but tributes and originals in music venues are usually ticketed or on the door.

There was one pub we regularly played at years ago that refused to pay bands themselves and we had to charge on the door. I never like doing that. One of us always had to stand by the door collecting money and stamping hands and it was always tricky judging how much to price it.  I remember a few people turning away - they didn't want to pay £5 to go to the pub!

One thing that does irk me a little. Why the USB Type-B port?

I get that it stops people from accidentally plugging a power adaptor into the USB port. But it's arguably the most hated of all USB port designs and more prone to failure. I frequently see posts on Line 6 Helix forums/FB groups from people saying the little plastic tongue has fallen out of the port rendering it unusable, and I live in fear of the same thing happening to my Helix LT.

On 26/04/2024 at 21:21, franzbassist said:

The cab calibration is amazing. 

I'd love to know more about how this works. Information is scant and I haven't found a decent demonstration video... yet.

Does the amp have a microphone to "listen" to the test tone? Does it flatten or sweeten the cab's profile so every cab you use is neutral/consistent?

I bought a sub-shortscale Jackson Minion as a backup bass. I was expecting a substantial transition period to get used to it, but I felt at home instantly - even jumping up and down the fretboard with accuracy. Maybe due it's years of playing guitar as well as full size and mini key keyboards (not to mention sax and clarinet in my youth) that I'm able to transition fairly easily*. FWIW, I find it more comfortable to play when seated that my long scale basses - it actually feels more natural.

No neck dive problems. The lightweight sealed tuners probably help. But I think the body design with a strap button that is parallel with the 12th fret helps more.

*BEAD tuning on the fly from my Helix is a different matter entirely that challenges my brain.

1 hour ago, mike257 said:

I'd also advise moderation, and much like dialling in a multi-effects pedal, often what sounds great in your house/in the shop is probably overkill at gig volume through a proper rig. 

I once read a sage piece of advice regarding dialling in reverb. Once you've got it sounding great, dial it back by half. 

3 hours ago, glassmoon said:

Apparently BOSS were listeening!

Holy moly, that looks useful.

And the new Katana bass head looks incredible and totally unexpected. Boss have really started to raise their bass game lately.

Have a look at the TC Helicon Critical Mass pedal. It's a "crowd simulator". 

It has several algorithms, unison (i.e. double-tracked), octave up, octave down, and octave up+down together - each can be mixed with the "lead" vocal.  Then all of those in either melodic (tight - think "we will rock you") or gang (loose - think Lumineers "Ho Hey") styles.

Because it generates octave harmonies, you don't have to set it to any key or use a guitar for the pedal to detect the key, like you do with other harmony units.

There's also several  reverb algorithms that are independent of the harmony generator - so reverb works event when the harmony is switched off. And there's TC's "Adaptive Tone  - automatic and intelligent eq, compression and de-esser