Frank Blank

5 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

Just listening to this at work now - what a tone Ray Brown gets out of that bass...

We are not worthy *bows*

25 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

Winning the internet so far. Thanks for the list Frank, I'll use this as the basis and keep adding.

My pleasure Sir, loads of good suggestions from the other folk here too, it’s all excellent stuff.

43 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

I think jazz can appear something of an enigma until you understand it (not that I'm saying you don't - merely I personally didn't appreciate it until I understood the theory).

I don’t think it has to be understood, in fact I think this is a thing that stops people from listening initially, that they are frightened that Jazz has to be engaged with on an intellectual level. If you dig it then great, if you don’t, no worries but I think the appreciation of Jazz purely on a dig it or don’t level is as important as understanding it. My Mum *spits* had no musical ability or theoretical understanding of Jazz but she turned me on to Brubeck, Ellington, Miles Davis loads of stuff.

2 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

I don't like jazz by and large but as they say there are always exceptions. Among the few jazz albums I have which I rate highly are

The Sidewinder by Lee Morgan  -  touches of groovy soul jazz with hard bop.

That’s a great album.

2 minutes ago, thebassist said:

And while Dave Holland's work on In a Silent Way isn't crazy/flashy, I think it's perfect.

What Goes Around by The Dave Holland Big Band is a big favourite for me atm.

1 hour ago, jrixn1 said:

Night Train - Oscar Peterson

How did I omit this! Duh.

Also the bass playing on Alternating Currents by Denys Baptiste is a particular fave at the moment.

Kind of Blue - Miles Davis

Birth of the Cool - Miles Davis

Time Out - The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Brilliant Corners - Thelonious Monk

Return to Forever - Chick Corea

The Shape of Jazz to Come - Ornette Coleman

Ellington at Newport - Duke Ellington

Getz/Gilberto - Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto

Mingus Ah Um - Charles Mingus

Saxophone Colossus - Sonny Rollins

Somethin' Else - Cannonball Adderley

Speak No Evil - Wayne Shorter

Maiden Voyage - Herbie Hancock

Out to Lunch - Eric

Go - Dexter Gordon

Sold my Ibanez SR500 to @clivem. Pleasure to deal with, excellent, friendly coms. A gentleman. Deal with confidence.

Unt...

Just reacquainting myself with Life Of Agony after twenty five years...

8 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

If you’d like yeah!

I’ll just wade through 64 pages... I play (mainly) in an acoustic duo, do you think IEMs are usable in that situation?

5 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

In which case, don’t bother with a pre... get a digital mixing desk... that’ll give you a very powerful EQ section and dynamics processor to use with your FRFR.... and gear you up ready for IEMs...

Should we continue this discussion on..?

16 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

That setup with the Alix, I would take that rig over 99.9% of other rigs that I see out there. Will be an astonishingly good setup - as you’ll no doubt hear. Do give them an A/B though because that Fishman is also a great pre - so let your ears rule you, not the price tag!

I will give them both a try, there’s a lot I could do with the money the Alix costs, like find a short scale fretted bass that I actually like!

16 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

And PS - I’ll get you on IEMs yet

...I think it’s the next thing on my list.

1 hour ago, EBS_freak said:

Before you get too overboard about it though, the audience won’t be able to tell/care the difference between the two.

If you are an IEM user however, that’s where you can really begin to appreciate the subtlety.

These wise words have made up my mind I think. One can go deeper and deeper into this world and although perfectly happy to pay out for good gear, there is little point if an audience doesn’t notice the quality of the sound and even less point if the subtle nuances are lost on me too! I think the Alix will be a discernible (to me) step up from the Fishman PP but I will do that comparison before I buy it. I don’t use IEMs and as much as I like pukka gear I have to be realistic about what I’m playing where and if it will make a discernible difference to me let alone the audience. I think bass > Alix > QSC is going to be top flight as far as I’m concerned.

Stewart Lee guest hosting Radio 3’s Late Junction

1 minute ago, EBS_freak said:

A channel strip is a piece of hardware in its own right.

https://www.studiocare.com/ssl-xlogic-alpha-channel.html?___store=default&utm_source=GoogleShopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5t6k3fTW3wIVBJ7VCh2vRgnCEAQYBiABEgKpIfD_BwE

Oh good grief *sound of scales falling from eyes (whatever sound that makes)* now I get what people are talking about generally when they say a channel strip but appear to be discussing it away from a studio desk, another piece of the jigsaw clicks into place! This also explains your form factor comment. I suppose the only difference between a high end preamp and the channel strip is the form. I am trying to minimise the gear as much as possible and the strip you kindly linked to would involve a rack although it looks as if it has a lot more eq ability than the Alix?

2 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Wouldn’t suggest you go Kemper as that was to do guitar duties and everything. Just saying go along and try channel strips as opposed to looking at just an eq that is marketed towards bass. Of course, the form factor may also be a factor in your decisions.

Really, do excuse my lack of tech knowledge but how does one utilise a channel strip without the Kemper in a live situation?

Just now, Delberthot said:

I think I got away with it

A Prawn Goebbels please...

54 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

What happens is that the Kemper plays a load of its techy gobbledygook through the channel strip/amp/amp and can and measures what comes out the other end. It then works out what’s happened in the middle to create the profile.

When you then play through the Kemper, the Kemper recreates the bit that happens in the middle on the original setup to give you the same sound.

Got it, thanks for the explanation. I’m not really trying to emulate any amps and I don’t really use studios per se, at home I use logic and a Focusrite, all I’m trying to do live is get the least coloured sound possible when amplifying my bass and then to tweak that sound with some eq to suit any room/live situation. The Kemper is a significant jump in price from the Alix and I’m not sure I’d use it for a fraction (or any) of its capabilities. Do feel free to convince me otherwise.

6 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Channel strip - basically a load of and maybe some dynamics processing that would typically be found on every channel of a mixing desk. I find them a lot more musical and useful than a lot of bass centric EQ solutions.

Kemper - a box of wizardry that profiles (eg copies and emulates) the end to end sound of an amp with a speaker attached to it. But you can use it without the speaker but to clone channel strips.

I assumed ‘channel strips’ referred to the channel from a mixing desk, so you copy channel strips with the Kemper and then play through the Kemper?

14 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

The Grace stuff is well nice... but if you are starting to get into that calibre of gear, I would urge you to look at studio channel strips. You are kinda heading in the same direction as I went - I ended up favouring channel strips over dedicated bass pres and actually ended up buying a Kemper so I could start collecting profiles of channel strips as opposed to amps. Every time I go to a top end studio, I always take my Kemper in just in case they have anything particularly tasty I like the sound of. So yeah, Kemper with SSL, Neve, Chandler, Focusrite, Tubetech... I love it.

Oh no, here we go again. I have no idea what a ‘channel strip’ or a ‘Kemper’ is. I am open to mockery.

2 hours ago, roblpm said:

Great thread. Lots of conversation about the onstage monitor angle. Not so much discussion about what preamp/di setup people are using? 

I am thinking minimal.....! I have Behringer BDI21 which is I suppose as minimal as there is....! 

Anyone just using HX Stomp? 

I use a Fishman Platinum Pro pre at the moment but am considering a Grace Alix.

Thinking of selling my Fishman Platinum Pro and getting the Grace Design Alix, anyone have any experience with these or this brand?

Ok. Last bump before I withdraw this, if anyone is interested or wants to make an offer now is the time to do so.

1 minute ago, Teebs said:

Please don't stop using BC Basslife - there are many, many good people on here who are always willing to share their knowledge, there time, and offer their support. The cr*p is pretty rare & can be avoided.

Heh, I thought that said “The c*rp is pretty rare...”, wondered how I’d ended up on a fishing forum.