Light Grenade

Mackie Onyx Blackjack 2x2 - £98 Great, no frills interface and built like a tank too. Stupidly quiet, high gain pres for an interface at this price point. All guitars and bass in this track were recorded through the Blackjack if you want to hear their quality. https://soundcloud.com/asbocmusic/let-go-or-be-dragged

You don't need to use apple products. I've been using a Lenovo PC and a Dell laptop 5 years with no problems at all - I just can't merit spending £1000 on a Macbook for average power. Either of these laptops will work just fine, and will only struggle with crazy sessions, and I'm talking 70 tracks with about 8 plugins on every track. http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-15-7567-laptop/pd

For a nice clean signal, Focusrite & Mackie interface pre amps are the best I've used. However, for injecting some colour into my bass recordings, I run my bass into an old school Joe Meek pre-amp, and then into my interface. I'm currently using a Joe Meek VC6, it's colourful and full sounding. You can pick these up on eBay second hand for around £120. Another option would be a Golden Age Project Pre-73, which retail for around £250, however I normally always opt with the Meek unit. Make sure to avoid the new Joe Meek Units (deep green colour), they seem to be lacking the character of the old units. The fresher the strings the better, and an amp simulation plugin like Guitar Rig or Amplitube can also work well The Mackie Onyx Blackjack 2x2 is a fantastic sounding interface, and I'm sure it only costs £90 now.

Apologies if anything similar has been covered but I'm looking for some advice. I went around my local guitar shops in Glasgow last week on the hunt for a Fender P-Bass, I've been wanting to get my hands on one for ages. I tried 5/6 basses, ranging from Mexican models to American Standards, I was rather disappointed. I tried an American standard, retailing at £1100 and it seemed like theft to me, horrendous action (Probably needed set up), frets hanging over the fret board, meaning I could feel the bumps while playing, it just genuinely didn't feel like a 1K+ bass. I tried to convince myself that a few of them were worth the cash, but this was blown out the water when I played a Lakland 44-64 PJ hybrid. Everything about that bass in terms of build quality and play ability crushed the Fenders. I'm not having a go at Fenders or Fender players, I really want one and I have played some beautiful Fender basses. I guess my question is, where can I find them? Am I better hunting out some old models? I do the love the P-Bass tone.

FL Studio is pretty good, but it's definitely aimed at the electronic production market. A lot of the features on it are tailored for beat-making and midi production, however for a project studio it might be what you are looking for. I reckon there are a better options out there, especially for 'band' recording and production. Reaper is very powerful free software, but personally I hate how it looks and I don't find it very user friendly. I've used Sonar by Cakewalk for the last 6 years and couldn't be happier. It's definitely as powerful as Pro Tools and the likes, comes with a ridiculous plugin bundle and is tailored for Windows systems. They have a few versions to choose from, Artist, Professional & Platinum, all of which are capable of producing high quality stuff. I'm pretty sure if you purchase before the end of August they are offering free lifetime updates. Cakewalk used to be owned by Roland, but it's recently shifted hands to Gibson & TASCAM. [url="http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions"]http://www.cakewalk..../SONAR/Versions[/url]

Thanks folks, I'll check these out.

I had a Fender Standard Jazz, it cost £700 and it was okay. I was happy for awhile until I switched to Lakland. From my experiences and personal tastes, there was no competition at the £700/£800 price point. The Lakland took the crown. I will never sell my Skyline.

Hi folks, My band are setting out on a short tour at the end of the month in support of our new release. Unfortunately two of our dates have fallen through. and we're looking to replace them. Can anyone recommend any decent promoters in England (Ideally the midlands, but open to all suggestions) that you could pass me on to? I play in a band called 'A Sudden Burst of Colour' and we play original music, which is classed as 'post-rock' (if that helps), fees aren't an issue here, we're just looking to fill two slots. I'm aware this is very short notice, but it's worth a try! Cheers Calum

Hi Guys, The band I play in released a new EP on the 1st of July. If you're interested, you can listen to it on bandcamp from the link below: https://asbocmusic.bandcamp.com/album/ambivalence-ep Feel free to let me know what you think. Cheers

For anyone that's interested, I ended up going with a pair of Eden EX-112s. Pretty blown away by these cabs to be honest, really loud, warm and punchy. I was skeptical about how they would handle the low notes and drop tunings, but everything stays tight and focused without losing any beef. Much better than the 1x15 Hartke I was using, and way more portable.

Positioning of cabs, and people in a room can also make a huge difference to what you hear. If you're getting blasted face on with drums and guitar cabs, it can really cloud the sound. I find this happens at most of our practices, and some re-arranging seems to fix this. Not to mention that loads of guitar players love ramping every EQ parameter (including bass) on their heads so they can only hear themselves. Guitarists, pfft.

Sonar by Cakewalk, definitely. [url="http://www.cakewalk.com/"]http://www.cakewalk.com/[/url] It's always been made specifically for Windows and is extremely powerful and flexible. I've used Sonar in the studio for six years now and I can't see past it, especially for Windows. Reaper is good too, but personally, I really hate how it looks. The GUI isn't particularly user friendly and I really don't like the way FX application works.

That's surprising! I'm currently playing my Mark Bass Big Bang through one single 300W cab (meaning my head is running with a max of 250W), and I don't even need to push the gain or master past halfway, and our drummer is the loudest guy on the planet. As mentioned previously, boosting EQ parameters drastically can really push the overall level. I don't think an extra 300W would help all that much, it's definitely a better shout getting an extension cabinet.

I'm really liking the look of the TKS cabs, especially at their price point. I've got a chance of purchasing a pair condition Eden EX-112's for £250 which is pretty ridiculous, so I'm going to give these a test blast and see how they fair. All reviews I've found seem to pretty favourable.

My taste has changed over the years. I used to really detest bass players using a pick, but as you get older, you start to realise that this is a ridiculous point of view. Ben Kenney Marcus Miller Justin Meldal-Johnson Sam Rivers Nick Fyffe Kenney's punchy, flatwound tone takes the crown for me [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFhBlhGfGE4"]https://www.youtube....h?v=YFhBlhGfGE4[/url]

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1466679916' post='3077811'] A pair of TKS Engineering S112's is a beautiful thing. Lovely tidy lows, natural mids and highs. Check 'em out. [/quote] These look lovely, going to investigate a little further.

I'm looking to switch up my cab setup into something a bit more portable, and after doing some reading, I think i'm going to go for 12" speakers, a pair ideally. Basically, due to the amount of brands out there, and where I live, it's pretty tough to 'try before I buy' as every retailer round about where I live seems to purely sell Ashdown. I'm after some portable cabs that have great lows and a rich mid range, I'm not wanting something with that hi-fi, scooped mid sound. I've had my eye on a few different cabs such as the Eden EX-112, Fender Rumble V3 & GK Neo range, but I have no idea what they sound like, and I never trust YouTube demos. I've also had a look the the Orange Isobaric cabs, and played through an SP212 a year or so ago, I was sure I really liked it at the time, but nearly every forum I've read has dragged it's name through the mud (pardon the pun), so that's made me re-think my interest. Major volume isn't a huge issue, as I go through the PA at nearly every gig I play. My budget is approximately £600/£700 and I play a Lakland Skyline 44-01, Mark Bass Big Bang & D'Addario Chrome flats, any help or recommendations would be much appreciated.

I agree with ambient on this one. I never took to Cubase at all, and that was after months of tinkering about with it. I've used Sonar for about seven years now and I can't recommend it highly enough, the new 'Sonar Platinum' package is incredible, and is made better by the fact they are now offering lifetime upgrades and updates free of charge (upon purchasing the software). It's definitely worth a look. I've used Logic a lot as well, mainly in studios I have rented or traveled to, and i really like it. I found it incredibly user friendly and the midi interface on it is really nice, it would probably be my DAW of choice if I used Apple computers. I'd easily choose Logic over Cubase, and Pro Tools for that matter.

As mentioned before, an SM57 is a great all round mic, you can even stick one on a bass cab and blend it with a DI if you want to capture to mid-range and highs. However, the best value mic I have bought is a Rode M3, they are around £70 new, and can be powered by Phanton Power or batteries. I've used a pair of these to record acoustic guitar, guitar cabinets, vocals, snare drums, cymbals and literally everything else. It's totally neutral and doesn't have any harsh frequency peaks, I couldn't recommend it enough. I rarely mic a bass cab, but I use a Sennhesier e602 when I do. I've had no complaints so far, I much prefer it too the AKG D112 which I think lacks a bit of punch. If it's pure punch you're after, get an Audix D6, that thing is ridiculous.

For anyone that's interested, I ended up doing a complete u-turn and getting my hands on an Orange Terror Bass. It's a touch bigger than what I was after, but for the price of £200 - it was well worth a punt. It's a lot more coloured and instantly aggressive than the Mark Bass, but I like what I've heard so far. I'll be putting it through it's paces at rehearsal this week, but I reckon it will have no problem cutting through the mix.

I'll have a gander at the Tecamp stuff, I've not heard of them up until now. Does anyone know anything about the Mark Bass Big Bang? Is there any difference in tone, or is it essentially the same as the LM III with the additional features of the headphone & aux inputs? Smaller footprint is always a plus point.