Dankology

Thank you for all the suggestions thus far.

I mean, GAS is always part of the deal but I am conscious that stage room is likely to be at a premium and that the old Korg thing probably sounds not spectacular nowadays, especially in terms of amp sims. 

The bandleader has a spare little Positive Grid amp he's offered me the use of - a lunchbox shaped thing with tiny speakers that you control from a phone app but I have to say I'd be happier going ampless and not having to fiddle with a mobile phone to change sounds. I suspect it is comparable to the Katana amp mentioned above but I will check those out properly tonight.

I really like the idea of having the Vox onstage as a monitor and portal for feedback and it may be small enough to perch somewhere on stage. The NUX MG30 looks very interesting - will definitely check out some samples and see if I can demo one somewhere.

I've been demoted to guitar duties in one of my bands and there might be a handful of gigs before a proper tour in the new year so I want to get my house in order.

My only guitar amp is a little 4 watt Vox all-valve thing that sounds great but just has single volume and tone controls (plus a 4w, 1w, 1/4w selector!) and, aside from a handful of idle Ebay purchases, my fx is just a Korg multifx thing that I've had for 23 years.

I think I will be very much rhythm and the odd fill/FX. I am still a traditional amp person but the band seems to be increasing in size so an amp-less solution may well be the way forward. I don't really want to drop a significant amount of money on what I suspect is a very polite and gradual way of me exiting the group so was hoping to get some ideas as to what I might be looking at for about £200 that gives me distortion, chorus, delay & reverb and something approaching a useable amp sim. I'm a keen secondhand buyer and time isn't a particular issue so I can hold out for Ebay or Marketplace bargains.

Bit sad to be being bumped from bass but I've got a couple of nice six-strings so it'll be good to dust the cobwebs off them.

Such sad news. What a fantastic player - walking a fine line between being instantly recognizable while always serving the song. 

Was he not a member here?

I picked up a secondhand JC via the BC marketplace a couple of months ago and am very much in love with it.

One minor issue I'm having is that a couple of the pickup height adjustment screws keep coming loose. This causes an irritating rattle playing unplugged and will no doubt eventually lead to them falling out.

They only seem to achieve adequate grip when they are screwed far enough in that they cause the pickup to choke the strings.

I'm hoping to use it at a couple of festivals over the next few weeks so I'm hoping there's an easy fix that even I could perform.

14 hours ago, spacecowboy said:

he changes key by using a pitch shifter instead of playing the new chords in different positions

Surely this sounds horrible - or has technology advanced greatly?

Bit of a red flag in either case though.

3 minutes ago, linear said:

 

Ah, I see.  Same issue with two different interfaces would, with near certainty, rule out the particular driver issue I was talking about earlier.  Apologies for sending this in what was perhaps an unhelpful direction.

No apologies needed! I'm grateful for all the help and advice and certainly wasn't aware of the latency compensation settings before you pointed me that way.

Lots to clear up here...

1) I'm using Reaper to record these tracks (the earlier mention of Ableton was because I had noticed the same issue there - on a Mac, using a different interface)

2) the screenshot is of a test track recorded in my spare room. I played Reaper's internal metronome through the monitors and the sound it made was picked up by a mic that I had left approximately a foot above the floor in an untreated room containing three guitars, a mandolin, a bouzouki and a drum kit - I'm pretty sure the shape of the wave form reflects the resonances in the room. To be fair I was only doing this to look at the onset of the click sound, hence the less than perfect recording set up

3) I was definitely speeding up when I recorded that quick test track but when I've been playing more carefully the effect is more consistently just ahead of the beat

4) when recording the songs themselves I/we record to the drum tracks with the click/metronome muted. When I demo new songs on my own I tend to play to a simple drum loop rather than a bare click

I am grateful for the continuing input but I'm almost 100% certain that this is not due to the recording set up - I'm going to spend some time playing to a metronome and loops while trying to relax. As has been mentioned above, pushing the beat a little may well be appropriate for our music but I would like to have the ability to not do it from time to time too...

10 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I don't understand though why not using the direct monitoring feature of the sound interface for the instrument recording and have the track played back regularly on top/beneath it?

 

Add whatever effects you need physically in form of pedals as you are recording, or in form of VST post production when mixing (normally I would want to have as a dry original recording as possible to work with for post production mixing).

 

How I do it.

I am using direct monitoring - as well as monitoring the bass through its amp which of course isn't subject to the minimal delay that even the direct monitoring route cannot avoid. I'm not running any effects while I record either.

11 hours ago, linear said:

 

 

What you need to do is a kind of loopback test, where you connect an output from the interface to an input and record sound from an existing track into a new track.  If all is well the tracks will line up perfectly.  Otherwise, you can measure how much it is out by, and Ableton has a special place in the settings where you can correct for this.  It's not Delay Compensation in Ableton btw - that's a per track setting for a different type of latency issue.

 

 

I've looked into Reaper's settings and it is currently using the driver's reported latency with no manual offset. The following screenshot shows two tracks (recorded completely separately) the top one is the click as recorded back through a room mic (only the sound on "one" was loud enough to show in the waveform) and the lower track is me hitting four notes to the bar, early every time.

I think that this shows that the error, such as it is, lies with me...

I'm pretty sure this isn't a latency issue. 

I'm currently recording in Reaper which seems to be rock solid in every other respect. I experienced the same issue in Ableton and also on another system running Reaper: I'm pretty sure this is me.

Much as I'm beginning to recognise that this is an ingrained aspect of my playing and one that likely has minimal impact on the overall performance,  I really would like to develop the ability to play on, before and after the beat at will...

Thanks for all the replies.

To clarify: these are actual drums, recorded to a click and when I play my parts I am monitoring the live bass sound (not though the DAW).

Interestingly, when I've zoomed in on some of the tracks, the kick drum is often similarly slightly ahead of the beat (and this was not recorded at the same time as my part, so I'm not to blame!). When I've tested myself playing to a click track on my own exactly the same thing happens though.

 I did wonder about whether this would have ever come to my notice if I hadn't had the option of zooming into the waveform but then I also wonder whether it would have just been one of those things that subtly compromise a track.

In terms of the recordings, it's not desperately important as we are essentially just routining things at the moment with a number of possible endpoints: some of these tracks may end up being the finished article, some may get re-recorded live, we may book some time in the studio and do some from scratch.

Having said that all that, I think it's something I would like to work on as I know when I use Ableton to record loops I really have to work at it to not have the initial attack of the first note cut off.

I'll grab some screenshots and try and get an audio sample to post later...

We're doing some recording at the moment and are tracking the instruments on top of drum tracks that were done to a click - my most hated form of recording (which may well be relevant to the problem I'm having).

When I look at my bass tracks in the DAW, I am consistently just ahead of the beat, regardless of song or tempo. And I can't seem to correct for this... It doesn't sound overtly wrong but I wonder if getting this right will tighten up the general feel of things - and even if it is working as-is, I think I'd like to develop the ability to actually play on the beat too.

What are the panel's thoughts? I can't decide if this is just how I play, if I'm just in need of practice or if I am somehow hard-wired with crap timing. Any pointers as to how to work on this would be very much appreciated.

2 hours ago, BreadBin said:

Quite excited to be doing this one with my band Aimless Arrows 

https://thepumptrowbridge.co.uk/franz-nicolay/

Amazing! Franz is absolutely fantastic and his audience seem like true music fans. I suppose they'd have to be, given his fondness for some of the most unloved musical instruments on earth.

We're in Rawtenstall at one of our favourite little venues a week on Saturday - do pop in if you're nearby.

https://www.youtube.com/@deadtenant5574

https://deadtenantmusic.bandcamp.com/

Not having any issues today - including on threads that had been basically unreadable. Odd.

Yep, I've noticed it on at least one other forum this week.

I've just logged here in using Firefox for the first time and all seems OK. Dreading exporting all my logins/passwords across though.

Massive Beatles fan here - without the slightest interest in seeing a tribute act.

But my nine year old daughter has developed a bit of a thing for them and has asked if there is somewhere you can go to see people playing their songs...

So I've got to do it. But if I'm going to go to a tribute show I want to be left awed - I know these songs inside out so I want to see the weird Hey Jude chord shapes, I want the dual guitars spot on in And Your Bird, I want every vocal doubletracking error slavishly recreated and I want every last second of Revolution 9 recreated in all its hideous glory.

Failing that, something that touches on all eras and is musically competent with a couple of era-specific costume changes will do.

So, what's the Basschat real-world experience - who should I book tickets for? Bear in mind that this poor child has only ever seen her dad's bands play so this could be a crucial formative experience...

I'm using Chrome too. I don't really want to change browser just for one site...

Apologies for any formatting errors - having to reply essentially blind 

Just bumping this as it is still happening and actually seems to be getting worse.

I'll be in your neck of the woods around the middle of the w/c 20th Feb - might you be around?

Fishman have just replied, offering to send some of the washers if I cover the postage 😀

I'm hoping they have a European service centre as USA>UK postage costs look insane nowadays... 

Plan B is the aforementioned O-ring held in place with some sticky stuff provided by my model-railway enthusiast father-in-law.

I recently picked up a Fishman Rare Earth Blend pickup for my acoustic guitar on Ebay at a particularly good price. Of course, it was too good to be true as I quickly found that the mic signal was significantly distorted.

The seller immediately agreed a refund (seems to be a non-musical bulk seller and the refund was approved automatically) but I did some further experimenting and found that the issue is due to the mic capsule being loose in its housing. Looking at photos online it seems that a retaining washer is missing (see photo below for an example of how it should look) and the housing itself has internal threads in which said washer should fit.

I'm now tempted to hang on to it and try to get it fixed. I'm waiting for a reply from Fishman but I know I can expect anything on the spectrum of no reply all the way through to a free replacement part being sent through the post. Which is not a comment on their customer service btw - I have no experience of them whatsoever.

So what does the Basschat hive mind think? I've still got a week or so to return the pickup: wait for a reply? Try and find a suitable replacement at the hardware shop? A blob of superglue and risk ruining it? Or does someone have a knackered one they'd like to part out?

...on my Android device. Just on basschat, just on my phone and not improved by resetting or even giving in to a much delayed Android update.

As I scroll through any forum (but not the main pages) the text sort of accumulates rather than scrolling off screen and starts to flicker and flash. Worse if there are photos or videos. It makes the site essentially inaccessible on my phone. 

Any thoughts?

I'm sort of glad someone else has brought this up as I've been wondering about this for a while and didn't want to be the one that got blamed for revisting an old chestnut...

I've got a Boss GT10B (in fact perhaps it is the one previously owned by uk_lefty - I certainly bought it through Basschat) and it is amazing - every effect I could want, configurable in every conceivable way, including what order the effects are run in and what parameters are controlled by the expression pedal. I suspect I haven't, and will never, scratch the surface of what it can actually do.

I sometimes listen to our guitarist and his mixture of boutique and mass-produced pedals and wonder if I could get more from individual FX but then I watch him doing the tap dance or hurriedly squatting down during gigs to change settings, sometimes mid-song, and think "no thanks". I get a similar feeling when I look at the huge number of potential points of failure on a pedal board.

I tend to use two basses at a gig: either an active Jazz or a 4003s alongside a Squire VI. Using a multiFX unit I can have all my favourite sounds set and ready for whichever guitar I'm using - and after soundcheck dont need to think again about whether a particular pedal's output will need adjusting again.

But then I hear a lovely soupy chorus or solid sounding octave effect and start flicking through the for sale listings here.

I suspect I'll ultimately end up running a octave pedal alongside the GT10B: a clumsy and decidedly uncool hybrid but possibly the best of both worlds for me.

Trouble Over Bridgewater is a satisfying one.

https://www.discogs.com/master/1338900-Half-Man-Half-Biscuit-Trouble-Over-Bridgwater