lowdown

He certainly plays well. I believe he studied at The Royal Northern College of Music in the early 70's.

A very cool version of his big 80's hit. Wonderful groove, good band, great vocals all round, and some nice Bass playing from Nashville Bassist, Jacob Lowery: An interview with Jacob:

A great find with an interesting story.

Freebie alert...Honeycomb Bass OD App. I haven't tried it yet but will give it a whirl a bit later: Honeycomb Bass OD | Free Bass Plugin | Canvas Audio

This just popped up on YouTube... Recorded last weekend, the Marcus Miller concert at TSF Jazz Chantilly Festival 2025 (ARTE Concert):

That sounds about right. The switching on the back is pretty much the same on both the Mk1 824s & 624s. I was concerned the 624s might not have enough bottom end, but because they were ex-demo, the chap in the shop said I could try them for a couple of days and if I didn't like them, he would give me a full refund. My studio room is also on the small side. They were fine and worked a treat (and still do):

The old Mackie's are great sounding nearfields. I have a pair of the smaller version, which I still use - Mackie HR624's (Mk1). I got mine the year they first came out in the UK, the end of 2002 sometime. I've got so used to them sound and reference wise, I don't want to change them. If I remember correctly, I paid £700 (ex-demo). They were about a grand brand new. Originally, I wanted a pair of 824's, but I couldn't find a pair anywhere and didn't want to wait for new stock to come into the country. The HR824's were released a couple of years earlier. About £1200/1300 (once again, If I remember correctly). Enjoy!!

I use Steinberg's 'SpectraLayers' for stem splitting (and a whole host of other things). The quality and results are very good, and it has just got even better with the recent update. Maybe a bit pricey, but if you hold out for the annual Steinberg sales, you can usually get most Steinberg products at 50% off, which is what I did about four years ago. Steinberg are good at giving good favourable discounts on all the new version updates. SpectraLayers 12

Freddie is a very fine musician and sounds great on whatever he plays. The two tracks below are played on his Ken Smith.

That's a very good watch... Scott asks some interesting things and gets right into Freddies playing, timing, groove, feel, technical aspects, little showbiz stories and the whole shebang!

No problem, all fine. Like I said, it's probably better here because more people might see it and it is worthy of its own thread. Defiantly a good watch (well, I think so).

I posted this a few days ago over in 'Off Topic'. But it's probably better off in this forum.

Once again, another very good 'u-he' VSTi Synth, previously only available from Computer Music magazine, but now a free download direct from 'u-he'. Although, the smaller brother of bad boy 'Bazille', it still offers plenty of tweaking along with plenty of well-crafted presets (265): BazilleCM: Little modular monster | u-he

Originally only available from the Computer Music magazine, 'ZebraCM: Baby Zebra', can now be downloaded for free at the 'u-he' website. Its a very light on resources VST'i Synth with 220 excellent sounding presets to get you going: ZebraCM: Baby zebra | u-he

The same concert. 'Uh, Oh!', with Marcus' solo at around 4:30.

Here is Marcus on a live concert with Dave Grusin and the GRP All Stars out in Japan in 1980. It says from a 'Broadcast'. Possibly from a TV airing. It's interesting, because Marcus at times, seems to be favouring more of the back pick up sound on his Jazz Bass like he is still experimenting sound wise. At 10:50, on the tune 'Shamballa', Marcus plays some really nice Fretless: 'Shamballa' on it's own:

'Deviant Drums', free edition...It will run in the free Kontakt 8 player: Deviant Drums FREE Edition – Chaos Tones

It's quite woody and hollow sounding...Pick and flats, of course. Sounds more like a Burns Bass, Jazz Bass type to my ears (or sim, Hagstom etc). A Bass with more than one pick up. Like 'chris_b' said, Dave Richmond, or even Russ Stableford had similar sounds. From a Chatgpt search: "Sven Wunder himself plays bass—specifically, the double bass—on his albums (including Eastern Flowers, Wabi Sabi, Natura Morta, and Late Again). He’s a trained jazz double-bassist who began playing at a young age, a fact he's mentioned in interviews and profiles open.spotify.com+15psychedelicbabymag.com+15steppinintotomorrow.com+15. Credits for Natura Morta list "electric bass" among the instruments used, which, given his involvement as the arranger, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, points to him handling the bass parts . So on any Sven Wunder album, the bass lines—double or electric—are performed by Sven Wunder himself." "I couldn’t find any reliable information detailing the brand or model of Sven Wunder’s electric bass guitar. Most available sources—including recording credits for Natura Morta—simply list “electric bass” without specifying manufacturer or model prestomusic.com+8svenwunder.bandcamp.com+8banbantonton.com+8. Given his background as a trained jazz double-bassist, it’s likely that electric bass serves more as a functional studio instrument for him rather than a signature piece of gear. He frequently records with vintage and analogue equipment, but no interviews or gear rundowns specify the brand of his bass guitar prestomusic.com. If you're trying to match his tone, you might focus more on his production/mixing approach—vintage analogue gear, tape recording, and a jazz-influenced playing style—rather than the exact bass model. Would you like help identifying gear similar in tone, or tracking down studio session credits where he might be more specific?"

Here is a 2025 list of some of the free Drum plugins knocking around: 🥁 FREE Drum VST Plugins (2025 Update) - Bedroom Producers Blog

Marvellous...It's been a while since I listened to that gem!! Not everyone's cup of tea, but for me, it has everything. A killer groove, surrounded by hooky melodies and tight harmonies. And of course, top playing with a super feel from all. I think that's Hailey Niswanger, who usually plays Tenor, Alto and Soprano, but plays some of the Kinga Glyk gig on a Roland Aerophone (I think that's what it is or was announced as). There are two Synths in the band (or there was) playing similar sounds, so yeah, it can sound a bit boring and does sound a bit pedestrian note wise. Maybe she hasn't been playing it long? Certainly not as exciting, moving, or a big wow moment like when Michael Brecker played 'In a Sentimental Mood' with his EWI, accompanied by Mike Mainieri, leading into 'Trains', live in Tokyo back in the day. But then again, those guys were another level of musicianship, so maybe I'm being a tad unfair comparing. Just my opinion, of course. But back on track with the OP... yeah, I think Kinga plays great and will be worth the admission fee at Ronnie Scott's.

I was at this gig ...The first time I saw Marcus (and his soloing chops) live: