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37 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Fine & suspended sentence, anyone?

This is one of the charges, "pretending to act under the authority of a County Court". If proven, the fellow might not be so lucky this time...

Section 135, County Courts Act 1984: up to 7 years’ imprisonment for pretending to act under County Court authority.

Other possible offences might carry higher penalties (up to 10 years or even life) depending on intent and impact.

1 hour ago, Belka said:

 but you run the risk of becoming a 'busker' who learns the overall form of the songs but never learns anything properly. 

Yes, of course, one can run that risk if not serious about what they do or deliver. But if one wants to be called up again, one makes sure they know all/most of the relevant, popular Bass lines to certain well-known songs, rather than just busking lines over changes and structures. Any regularly called up, depping musician, will have a vocabulary of 'learned' tunes stored in their brain that they need to know (or should do). That's why they get called back again, and again. Just busking over a set of chords might be okay if you get called at the last minute. In fact, some bands/MD's/leaders may well be thankful you helped out without any major disasters.

However, you probably won't get the call again in favour of someone who knows the tunes/Bass lines. Or at least, you get asked to learn the tunes in advance. As 'Chris B' said further up thread, you want to do as good a job as the musician you are covering. Just busking the gig on its own, probably means you are just winging it. Successful, regular depping is an art. If you get called back regularly, it's probably because you are better than being 'just good enough'. You tend to do a lot of homework and become familiar with a lot of tunes.

The only gigs I remember doing where just busking away was okay, were usually Jewish functions. A lot of the music was just solid one and five playing. Or on certain pub gigs, playing Jazz standards, or covers of soft rock/country tunes etc, but certainly still not to be taken lightly. Well, that's from my personal playing experience, along with working with excellent, reliable deps... And just as importantly, have enjoyed regularly working with them on a musical level. YMMV.

I'm now 68, and although still in the music business, I retired from live playing a couple of years back. I was basically a freelance player all my working life since the age 17.

Although I did the regular show/cabaret tours and static theatre runs (cruises in the early days), the rest of the time was filled out with depping. Even on shows I would dep out my show to go and do other dep work.

Functions/sessions/pubs/weddings/corporate events and even other shows! It would break the boredom and often more/extra money.

I was probably part of a scene with a few other Bassists (other musicians as well) who would share the work around and get calls from the same fixers or bandleaders.

Most would be good sight readers, always good buskers/good listening ears and knew a lot of tunes.

Quite often, on West End function gigs, the Rhythm section would do dinner music anywhere between one and two hours, so a knowledge of busking Jazz standards/show book tunes would be common as well.

Although the fake book could be used if there were tunes you didn't know.

Sometimes I would know days or weeks in advance all the relevant details, other times, like others have said, it could be very last minute and I wouldn't have a clue who I would be working with.

All the same criteria were involved though. Good prompt timing, dress code, keep your mouth shut on gigs, keep up to date with popular tunes that most bands would do, including certain Basslines that tunes would be reliant on.

Watching and listening on the gig for cues for endings, key changes, what key the tune might be in. Not overplaying or showing off. Band leaders would often hold up or down a certain number of fingers for the keys. Two up/three down etc...

If reading was involved, always ask if there were any tricky parts that I should be aware of. It all became just second nature, with the occasional flying by the seat of your pants thrown in.

Depping for me, was an important part of filling in the gaps in my diary, so it became a parallel way of life. As it was with many musicians from my generation. It was the normal, really, and all part of being a working musician.

Some dep work/freelancing took me to all kinds of places in the World as well.

Lincoln Goines:

J-Rod & The 4 Korners....

I've just seen this video with Trevor talking about his session and gigging career from the early days.

It's just casual talking and very funny at times between two of the UK's top session players.

It around forty-five minutes long:

This chap shows how he uses AI to his advantage and in fact, how it can be useful.

The video is forty minutes long, and personally I don't like his musical examples, but that's not really the point.

Apples and Oranges and all that stuff, I suppose. I've used NI software for years and can't say I've had any notable problems with them.

They are just part of the furniture for me, which is just as well, because a lot of my 3rd party VI sample libraries require Kontakt.

32 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

This does look interesting, and I might just break my nothing outside Logic rule. However given that the developer is calling it a day and the Mac specs says it works on Intel Macs, does it also come with an installer for an Apple Silicon version? 

I'm a W11 user so can't really help. But all I had to do was just move the whole folder to one of my sample library drives and then just open the .nki file in Kontakt.

There was no installer.

47 minutes ago, 2pods said:

Purchased

Thanks

I've just loaded it up and started having a proper look and listen. These two walk through videos are a good start.

It looks like you can load in any other 3rd party samples you have and then create your own patterns in the sequencers:

Sadly, the small developer/company, 'Naroth Audio', are closing their Internet doors. 

There are few good bargains to have, and this particular one below is excellent. It's a collection of unusual Percussion instruments (and sequencers) called 'RHYTHMUS'.

Well worth the £19.00:

Rhythmus by Naroth Audio: Unique Found Percussion & Dynamic Sequencers

3 hours ago, Hellzero said:

 

I earned these almost the same day, 4 years ago, and then nothing, ... still don't know how the system really works and what's this for as there is also the ranking saying I'm in the top 1% of all members, but where is my envelope? 🤔🤪

 

Not something to brag about. It's just BC management acknowledging you are a veteran of a certain age.

A bit like reaching the pension age, but without having the financial package to go with it.

Personally, I would have preferred a set of strings rather than badges. But hey ho, that's just me.

 I know the thread is about the more creative/ interesting Bass lines of decades gone by, but other stuff stands out to me as well...

After just listening to all those tunes on the above list over on YouTube, apart from three of those tunes, the rest all have string arrangements (very good charts that are obviously arranged by experienced arrangers).

Of the three that don't, one has excellent Brass arranging and two have very good, creative, vocal harmony arranging.

So, to me, all the above, and including the very fine musicianship involved, elevates those tunes above 'dross'. It may well be music that you don't like, but to my ears, not dross. 

Just my musical opinion(s), of course.

I've just seen this over on 'VI Control' (Link below). There is an $99 free voucher code and also a 20% Off voucher code for use at 'SoundMorph'.

I have just tried the codes and the offer is still working. 

https://vi-control.net/community/threads/free-99-coupon-code-for-soundmorph-website.165846/

They have a lot of interesting stuff up on sale so it is worthwhile having a look around using the tabs/drop down menus at the top of the page.

I grabbed myself 'WaveWarp 2.1' for free using the $99 voucher and a couple of Sound Design packs using the 20% off voucher.

SoundMorph Website

10 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

Very nice! My current setup is mostly for work, have my mac mini for personal stuff.

 

Recently had to give up my office for the offsprings new bedroom so been struggling to downsize to about half the space. Finally gave up on dual screens and studio monitors and have had to make do with a more humble setup more fit for the new space:

 

 

Going to make a new desk top once ive got a few other house bits out of the way with some better cable management, some speaker stands and a shelf to house the kvm and interface etc. I really want a way to integrate my midi controller too, perhaps on a sliding tray. Until then it'll do!

Space is always the problem, but in the end with a bit of planning, we always find a way to make it work while still being comfortable.

Good luck with it all and enjoy the MOTU M4.

46 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

Just scored one on eBay at a decent price so hopefully should have it in a few days. Need to sort out the wiring on my desk and get everything set up properly ready for it.

 

It'll be nice not having to deal with USB-B cables and just being able to use my existing USB-C cables for pretty much everything 🙌

Yes, USB-C cables and the I/O meters on the units are a nice touch:

4 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

The latency is a big selling point. The latency with my 1st gen Scarlett is fine by itself but when you start piling on NDSP plugins etc any reduction is a big win.

The M4 (and probably the M2) certainly works well under strain. There are a couple of check boxes I would recommend ticking, though.

I thought there might be some folks on BC who might like to check out this free course on building VSTPlugins on any OS platform.

Link:

Bootcamp – Audio Dev School

Lifted from another forum:

Hello!
For the last few months, I've been building an eLearning platform called Audio Dev School. The purpose is to teach how to make audio software and all the stuff that goes along with that.
For the initial launch I'm starting with a single course, 'The HISE Bootcamp'.
The course is 100% free and is designed for beginners, although there's probably stuff in there that more experienced users will also find useful.
The videos walk through the process of building two simple plugins with HISE (a sample library and an effect). We then move on to building HISE from source and compiling our projects.
Along the way we'll cover a bunch of subjects from basic things like finding your way around the HISE UI to more advanced concepts like Ad-Hoc codesigning for testing your plugins on MacOS.

Feel free to share it with anyone you think would find it useful.
Please let me know if you run into any issues with the website or any of the course material - there's usually something that goes wrong on launch day!

On 21/06/2025 at 10:54, Beedster said:

 

Agree re first line 👍

 

I'm always amazed by just how many people, many of them fellow musicians, are completely mystified by slap, almost to the point as seeing it as a form or irony, the theme to Seinfeld seems to come in for particular flak! 

The composer, Jonathan Wolff played the bassline on each episode with slightly different fills and varied syncopation. It was to sync with the opening standup routines.

He explained and demonstrated the process in this short video.  It was a patch played on a Korg M1. There were also some other odd sampled patches thrown in/cobbled together here and there.

On 29/06/2025 at 14:22, ChrisDev said:

Toto's cover of 'Sunshine of Your Love,' originally by Cream. The odd time signature adds a unique twist—always fascinating to see how different artists interpret classics!
Bass: Mike Porcaro
https://basslessons.be/transcriptions.php?i=1032

 

 

Haha...I listened and played that Toto version so many times when it first was released, eventually the 7/4 bar started to sound natural, and it was the original Cream version that had a 4/4, unique twist!

I also like how they introduce the intro from 'White Room' into the Guitar solo over that 16th note Bass Osinato.

Thanks for posting up the chart.

👍

8 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

To be honest after doing a bunch of research and chatting to folks, I think I'm going to take a punt with the Motu M4. It ticks all the boxes for me, the side-by-side comparisons ive heard sounded marginally better to my ears and they can be found for a great price.

I've had my M4 for about five years now and it's great with zero problems. It runs at very low latency as well.

The last driver update was the end of last year. Also, the headphone out has plenty of volume.

15 hours ago, Hellzero said:

It started a bit like @Skinnyman with my first ever fiver, a brand new Hohner The Jack V.

 

I proudly came to the rehearsal with that one and only bass and started to tune it EADGD instead of BEADG with the factory fitted strings, even if I found the strings very hard on the fingers, I kept going on until the G string broke in a loud snap very slightly injuring my left hand that was on the neck.

 

No more rehearsal that evening, but beer drinking instead...

 

Blimey, if I had known it had been so simple back in my drinking days, I would have been breaking G strings left, right and centre (and most of the musos I was associated with at the time would have broken my G string on my behalf!).

This video popped up on my Facebook feed today.  Actually, Rick Beato originally posted it on YouTube last year sometime.

It's a little seven-minute story regarding a '52 Fender P Bass. For those that have not seen it, it's maybe worth a look.

1 hour ago, Bassman68 said:

The Bass Centre Wapping, coz that was just haloed ground in the 80/90’s

but also my two favourite local music stores that actually catered for bass players .. Monkey Business in both Southend & Romford,

 

 Same for me really...

Although, back in the 80's, for me, it was mainly the Bass Centre in Wapping.

Apart from buying nearly all my gear from there (lots of it - especially strings), I found it to be a good socialising place. Well, that and the pub around the corner that we all used to visit.

I lived just the other side of the river near Tower Bridge, so it was an easy walk for me.